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Title: Archiwum Wschodnie collection
Date (inclusive): 1939-1989
Collection Number: 90034
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
Polish
Physical Description:
15 manuscript boxes, 4 envelopes
(6.4 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Transcripts of interviews with Polish survivors of Soviet concentration camps, written reminiscences of survivors, and photographs,
relating to the deportation of Poles to the Soviet Union and their internment during and after World War II. Interviews conducted
by the staff of the Archiwum Wschodnie, Warsaw, from 1980 to 1989. Photocopy.
Creator:
Archiwum Wschodnie
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired.
[Identification of item], Archiwum Wschodnie collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Originals in: Archiwum Wschodnie, Warsaw.
The Archiwum Wschodnie (Eastern Archives) in Warsaw was officially founded in Poland in 1987 as an entity independent from
the communist regime, a first of its kind. Its mission is to collect memoirs, documents, photographs, and memorabilia describing
the fate of Poles deported, imprisoned, or who participated in the armed resistance on the Polish territory incorporated into
the Soviet Union in 1939-1940, as well as materials illustrating the Stalinist repression in the 1940s and 1950s.
The interviews that constitute most of this collection were conducted from 1980 to 1989. In most cases they refer to much
larger problems related to the deportations, and go beyond the standard questions that were asked during the war. At the same
time researchers studying these documents should be aware that they were collected in politically sensitive times when people
still didn't feel comfortable enough to reveal all aspects of their detention or deportation. That may also explain why some
of them wanted to remain anonymous.
The topics covered in these materials are the fate of Poles in the Soviet Union before the outbreak of World War II; social
and political conditions in Eastern Poland before and after the Soviet invasion; the fate of state employees, farmers, landowners,
clergy, children, youth, orphans, and ethnic minorities such as Jews; and conditions in labor camps in the Kola Peninsula
and in the regions of Vorkuta, Arkhangel'sk, Narym, Pavlodar, and Akmolinsk. There is also a group of testimonies by people
from the Lomza district. This area would be of special interest to researchers because of the inter-ethnic conflicts that
broke out shortly after the German invasion of the Soviet Union Union in 1941.
The Archiwum Wschodnie collection was received in two parts in 1990 and 1993 as a result of an agreement signed between the
Archiwum Wschodnie and the Hoover Institution. These testimonies and questionnaires supplement those (circa 30,000) found
in other collections at the Hoover Archives, such as Poland. Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji; Poland. Ambasada (Soviet
Union); and especially Wladyslaw Anders. General Anders was the first to initiate a project of this kind in 1941 by founding
the Documentation Office of the Polish Army in the USSR.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons
World War, 1939-1945 -- Deportations from Poland
World War, 1939-1945 -- Soviet Union
World War, 1939-1945 -- Poland
Internment camps -- Soviet Union