Exploring Everyday Lived Experiences of Polish Deportees in Kazakhstan in 1940 and Policy of Soviet Authorities

Abstrakt

The paper examines the Soviet deportation of Polish citizens in 1940 from eastern Poland to the northern regions of the Kazakh SSR, their everyday lived experiences, hardship and deprivation in exile and policy of Soviet authorities towards the deported Polish population. The study draws upon relevant literature and archival data pertaining to the Soviet ethnic deportations and removal of Polish citizens in 1940. To respond to the research questions, the study employs a variety of research methods such as a critical analysis of historical data and archival documents. The concepts of ethnicization and racialization theoretically and conceptually guide the study and allow for understanding ethnic dimensions of the Soviet deportations in the 1930s-1940s. The results of the study show that deportation and punishment of ethnic Poles by the Soviet regime were shaped by historical animosity and hatred of Poland and the Polish nation deeply rooted in Russian history. In this regard, the study has established continuity between anti Polish sentiment of tsarist Russia and anti-Polonism of the Soviet state. The peculiarity of the Soviet animosity towards Poland and the Poles was that the regime targeted the whole nation and all categories of Poles. The paramount goal of the Soviet regime was to  erase and exterminate Poles as a distinct ethnic group through physical elimination and terror. Besides, extermination of Poles was carried out by the Soviet regime through erasing Polishness, ethnic and cultural identities of Poles and subjecting them to cultural assimilation and Russification. For that reason, the Soviet regime deliberately and systematically dismantled, fractured and marginalized ethnic Poles, reducing them to a small vulnerable minority. An analysis of archival data and documents has shown that deported Poles and their families in the regions of Kazakhstan were deliberately exposed to hardship, privation and destitution, being deprived of access to welfare and social protection by Soviet authorities. Moreover, the study has revealed that anti-Polish sentiment and prejudices permeated all segments of Soviet society, both Soviet authorities and ordinary people systematically exploited the vulnerability and helplessness of the deported Polish population.