Deportation and exile

About this book

This book attempts to chart the ebb-and-flow of population movement that resulted from two periods of Soviet occupation of Polish territory during the Second World War: between 1939 and 1941 and again in 1944-45. Much of this migration was involuntary. Polish citizens were uprooted and driven, buffeted by forces seemingly beyond their control. In reality, they were at the mercy of decisions taken by politicians and officials hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Between 1939 and 1941 Stalin removed an estimated 1.5 million people from the areas of eastern Poland, annexed as a result of the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact. Chapters in the book deal with the process of mass deportation, the unique 'amnesty' extended to captive Poles following the German attack of June 1941, and the circumstances surrounding the controversial evacuation of General Anders' forces to Persia in 1942. Less well-known to a non-Polish readership is the role played by the Polish communists in Moscow following the 1943 break in Polish-Soviet relations, the renewed deportations of the Polish underground army which took place in 1944-45, and the repatriation scheme under which 1.25 million Poles moved west during the 1944-48 period.