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Article: Polish poetry in Siberian exile: a survivor's daughter's commentary.(Lives Remembered)
- Article from:
- Sarmatian Review
- Article date:
- January 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Polish Institute of Houston, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the mind of many Poles the word "Siberia" does not refer to a mere geographical area which extends eastward from the Urals across North Asia, and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the steppes of central Asia and Mongolia. It symbolizes the oppression of Poles and other nationalities in Russian-occupied Poland by tsars and later by commissars. It was under Josef Stalin's leadership that hundreds of thousands of Poles were arrested and sent to the Siberian concentration camps without any legal process or trial. Siberia is known among the survivors as Gehenna or "inhuman land" where millions of Poles and other Central and Eastern Europeans died from hunger, cold, ...