Zachowanie pamięci o zesłaniach Polaków na Sybir od XIX w. do 1939 r.
Preserving the memory of Polish exiles in Siberia from XIX to 1939

Author(s): Maria Kostromitskaia
Subject(s): Ethnohistory, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Siberia as a place of memory; cultural memory; Związek Sybiraków; historical heritage
Summary/Abstract: This article is dedicated to the image of Siberia as a place of Polish memory. As late as the first half of the nineteenth century, a mythologised image of this land was formed, mainly thanks to Romantic writers. I investigated how and in what forms the image of Siberia functioned in the social and cultural space during the Partitions of Poland and in the Second Polish Republic. I examined who were the actors involved in spreading knowledge about the history of Poles in exile and in commemorating these tragic events. The theoretical and methodological justification for this work is provided by the studies of Jan and Aleida Assmann, Pierre Nora, Alexander Etkind, Marcin Kula and Florian Zieliński. For a long time, cultivating the memory of Siberia in the public space was practically forbidden, at least in the Russian partition. However, former deportees, including writers and painters, considered it their duty to preserve the memory of their difficult experience in exile. Thanks to them, memoirs about Siberia were published and collected, museum collections were established, above all in Lvov, exhibitions were held and commemorative rituals were held, for example in honour of the Siberian Agathon Giller. In the interwar years, the first memorial boards were erected in Poland, as well as a memorial at the Warsaw Citadel. It is this fortress that is today the key place of memory of the exiles during the Russian Empire. The history of the memory of deportation to Siberia certainly requires more extensive research. This article merely sketches the main stages of this phenomenon

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