Thread by @polishodyssey

#OTD in 1940, the #USSR began the second #WWII mass deportation of #Polish citizens from eastern Polish borderlands occupied by the Soviets on Sept.17, 1939. Polish civilians were deported by the USSR in four waves that occurred from Feb. 10, 1940 through mid-June 1941.

Each deportation had a distinctive character & targeted specific populations of Polish people in occupied eastern Poland.The deportation of April 13 targeted small farmers, tradesmen, civil servants, and the families of those who had been arrested or taken as POWs by the Soviets.

Many of those deported on April 13 were family members of the #Polish officers, policemen, and intelligentsia who were executed by the #USSR during the #Katyń massacre; roughly 80 percent of those included in this deportation were women and children. #WWII

The April deportees were designated by the Soviets as being “administratively exiled” and were deported mainly to #Kazakhstan for a period of 10 years. The conditions of exile for the April 1940 deportees differed in several ways from those who were deported on February 10, 1940.

The February 10, 1940 deportees were sentenced to slave labor in segregated special settlements supervised by the #NKVD in #Arkhangelsk, #Siberia, and the #Urals. #WWII

The April 13, 1940 deportees – not technically sentenced to slave labor – were forcibly resettled among the local population in #Kazakhstan where they worked alongside Soviet citizens on collective and state farms. #WWII

Their work included fieldwork as well as taking care of livestock such as pigs, sheep, and cattle. Some #Polish deportees were also assigned to work on #Soviet infrastructure projects and constructed roads, barracks, sewage systems, and railroads. #WWII

Also unlike the February deportees, the exile of those deported in April had a term limit. The #USSR later tried to use the separate administrative status of the April 1940 deportees as a reason to obstruct their "amnesty" following the Sikorski-Mayski agreement.

Deported by the #USSR on April 13, 1940 from #Poland to #Kazakhstan, Maria Chojecka’s testimony describes her experiences: bit.ly/2ql93Pl

Polish citizens deported from occupied eastern #Poland by the #USSR during #WWII were sent primarily to these settlement areas in the Soviet Union.

“Zesłańcy Sybiru”: This group of #Polish citizens was deported by the #USSR in April 1940 from #Drohobycz, Poland to Kustanai oblast, #Kazakhstan. #WWII

#Polish citizens deported by the #USSR to #Kazakhstan form a work brigade (along with the camel “Jaszka”) on a sovkhoz during the summer of 1941. #WWII

A #Polish exile’s diary entry from Aug. 27, 1942 lists the death dates of family members – including his mother and grandmother – who also were deported by the #USSR to Jesil, #Kazakhstan. The diary entry also notes that Tadzio, who died 10 days earlier, “always kept his word….”