Poles in the Arkhangelsk exile during the Second World War (a case study of the special settlements of Uima and Koskovo)

Abstract

After the outbreak of the Second World War, the eastern territories of Poland were occupied by the Soviet troops (and the new Soviet-Polish border was removed far to the West). Almost 320 thousand Polish citizens who resided in these territories were arrested and sent to the camps and special settlements in the remote regions of the USSR. Of them, almost 58 thousand people were deported to Arkhangelsk Oblast. Based on the materials of two special settlements of Primorsky Raion of Arkhangelsk Oblast, this article considers the process of deportation of Polish citizens, the conditions of their accommodation and labor, their legal status, and repatriation. The authors made an attempt to identify social groups, establish the sex and age composition of the deportees, describe the process of their adaptation to the new conditions and labor efficiency, and point out the peculiarities of the application of amnesty and repatriation. According to the results of the study, the authors came to the conclusion that the conditions in the special settlements under study were such that the death rate among Polish settlers there in the first winter was almost 10% despite the territorial proximity of these settlements to the regional center. Of the survivors, only 20% of working-age men could be involved in the work in the forest. The rest of the exiles consisted of women and children, more than half of whom (47%) were children under the age of 14. In violation of the law, another 15–20% of this number could be sent to work, but in any case, the labor efficiency of such workers was minimal. The situation was aggravated by the lack of normal working and living conditions, which entailed high disease incidence and, as a result, absence from work. Such a contingent became burdensome for logging enterprises. Even with the lowest wages, special settlers’ labor was unprofitable. Meanwhile, even after the 1941 amnesty, the authorities did everything they could to keep the special settlers in the USSR. The authors explain this fact by an attempt to make Polish citizens hostages in resolving the “Polish issue,” i.e. recognition of the new Soviet-Polish border by the West and the Polish Government-in-Exile in London. As soon as an agreement with the allies on the western border of the USSR was reached and the special settlers got an opportunity to leave the USSR, there was no single Polish citizen who wanted to stay in the Soviet Union, and all of them hastened to leave for their homeland.

Keywords

• second world war
• deportation of polish citizens
• arkhangelsk oblast
• social history of the special settlements of osadniks and foresters