Ślady krajin istniejących już tylko w pamięci cudownie ocalałych. Kolekcja sybirska Archiwum Naukowego Polskiego Towarzystwa Ludoznawczego we Wrocławiu i projekty edycyjne z nią związane
Traces of lands existing only in the memory of those who miraculously survived. The Siberian collection of the Scientific Archive of the Polish Folklore Society in Wroclaw and the editing projects associated with it

Summary/Abstract: Various types of repression and forced, and in parts genocidal, transformation of ethnic and social structures reshaped Central and Eastern Europe. Until the late 1980s and early 1990s, the experience of Soviet communism was created and secured in a very limited way. In Poland, since the late 1980s, attempts have been made to make up for this by, among other things, creating collections of autobiographical materials and developing such testimonies through competitions. This article deals with the collection created as part of one of the aforementioned memoir contests. The result of an initiative of this kind in January 1988 was the creation of an archival collection in Breslau of almost a thousand units, containing memoirs, accounts, diaries and letters relating to life under Soviet rule in the eastern lands of pre-war Poland, as well as experiences of repression, especially deportation and imprisonment in camps. Until 2025, the collection, referred to as the Siberian collection, was part of the Scientific Archives of the Polish Ethnological Society in Wroclaw (now housed at the National Library in Warsaw). In order to make the most valuable testimonies from the collection available in print, the publishing series "Library of the Siberian" was established in 1991, which was continued in 2019-2024 as part of the subseries "Testimonies of the 20th century" (a project of the National Program for the Development of the Humanities). The article presents the history of the collection, characterizes its contents and introduces the results of the publishing project of the subseries, which, in addition to the bibliography of the collection, includes 16 source volumes, containing texts authored by 35 people. The chronological framework of the testimonies is the first half of the 20th century, with an emphasis on World War II. The text also outlines the difficulties the project team encountered during its work, as well as the specifics of the testimonies that were selected as valuable for publication within the subseries.

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