Sybirak

{{Short description|Polish people exiled to Siberia}} [[File:Farewell Europe!.jpg|400px|thumb|''Farewell to Europe'', by Aleksander Sochaczewski.]] A '''sybirak''' ({{IPA|pl|sɨˈbirak|lang}}, plural: ''sybiracy'') is a person resettled to Siberia.<ref name="PWN1">{{cite encyclopedia | editor = Stanisław Dubisz | encyclopedia = Uniwersalny słownik języka polskiego | title = Sybirak | url = http://sjp.pwn.pl/haslo.php?id=2576697 | edition = web | year = 2006 | publisher = PWN | volume = | location = Warsaw | isbn = 83-01-12837-2 | pages = 5426 |language=pl}}</ref> Like its Russian counterpart ''sibiryák'', the word can refer to any dweller of Siberia, but it more specifically refers to Poles imprisoned or exiled to Siberia<ref> [http://www.emazury.com/sybiracy/index.htm Siberia and sybirak] </ref>{{request quotation|date=March 2018}} or even to those sent to the Russian Arctic or to Kazakhstan<ref> {{cite web |url= http://www.emazury.com/sybiracy/index.htm#baza |title= Sybir i Sybiracy |website= www.emazury.com |publisher= Związek Sybiraków - Oddział w Elblągu |language= Polish |trans-title= Siberia and the Sybiracy |access-date= 2018-03-08 |quote= Nazwa Sybiracy ma swój inny wymiar także dlatego, iż spora część zesłańców trafiła w inne rejony Rosji, które w żaden sposób Syberią nazwać nie można, np. do Kazachstanu. [...] The name "Sybiracy" has also it's different dimension because a considerable number of deportees landed in different parts of Russia, which in no way can be named "Siberia", for example in Kazakhstan. }} </ref> in the 1940s (post World War II).

==History== [[File:Zesłanie Studentów - Malczewski.jpg|thumb|250px|Black and white reproduction of ''Zesłanie Studentów'' (Students Exile) by Jacek Malczewski from 1891]] [[File:Malczewski wigilia na syberii.jpg|thumb|250px|''Christmas Eve in Siberia'', by Jacek Malczewski, 1892.]] [[File:Malczewski Prisoners.jpg|thumb|250px|''The Prisoners'', Jacek Malczewski, 1883]] Russian and Soviet authorities exiled many Poles to Siberia, starting with the 18th-century opponents of the Russian Empire's increasing influence in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (most notably the members of the Bar Confederation of 1768–1772).<ref name="DaviesE">{{cite book |first=Norman |last=Davies |title=Europe: A History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=0-19-820171-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/europehistory00davi_0/page/664 |page=664 }}</ref> Maurice, Count de Benyovszky was deported and emigrated to Madagascar.

After the Russian Empire's penal law changed in 1847, exile and penal labor (''katorga'') became common punishment for participants in national uprisings within the empire. This led to sending an increasing number of Poles to Siberia for ''katorga'', when they then became known as ''Sybiraks''. Some of them remained there, forming a Polish minority in Siberia. Most of them came from the participants and supporters of the November Uprising of 1830-1831 and of the January Uprising of 1863–1864,<ref name="Dunn">{{cite book | author =Dennis J. Dunn | title =The Catholic Church and Russia: Popes, Patriarchs, Tsars, and Commissars | year =2004 | publisher = Ashgate Publishing | location =London | isbn= 0-7546-3610-0 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lmFEjKYlQfcC&q=exiled+Siberia+december+revolt+thousands&pg=RA1-PA57| page =57 }}</ref><ref name="HDoP">{{cite book |first=Jerzy Jan |last=Lerski |first2=Piotr |last2=Wróbel |first3=Richard J. |last3=Kozicki |title=Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1996 |isbn=0-313-26007-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FPxhOu_n1VYC&pg=PA538 |via=Google Books |page=538 }}</ref> from the participants of the 1905-1907 unrest<ref name="HDoP"/> and from the hundreds of thousands of people deported after the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939.<ref name="HDoP"/>

Around the late 19th century, a number of Polish voluntary settlers moved to Siberia, attracted by the economic development of the region.<ref name="HDoP"/> Polish migrants and exiles, many of whom were forbidden to move away from the region even after having finished serving their sentence, formed a Polish minority there.<ref name="HDoP"/> Hundreds of Poles took part in the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.<ref name="HDoP"/> Notable Polish scholars studied Siberia, such as Aleksander Czekanowski, Jan Czerski, Benedykt Dybowski, Wiktor Godlewski, Sergiusz Jastrzębski, Edward Piekarski (1858–1934), Bronisław Piłsudski, Wacław Sieroszewski, Mikołaj Witkowski and others.<ref name="HDoP"/>

The term ''Sybiracy'' might also refer to former exiles, such as those who were allowed to return to Russian controlled parts of Poland following the amnesty of 1857 {{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}. The group, popular among the youth in the period preceding the outbreak of the January Uprising, supported the idea of organic work. However, during the January Uprising it ceased to exist as some of its members supported the Reds, while others supported the Whites. Among the most notable members of the group were Agaton Giller, Henryk Krajewski, Karol Ruprecht and Szymon Tokarzewski.<ref name="PWN2">{{cite encyclopedia | editor = | encyclopedia =Internetowa encyklopedia PWN | title = sybiracy | url = https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo.php?id=3981811 | year = | publisher = PWN | location = Warsaw | id = |language=pl}}</ref>

About 20,000 Poles lived in Siberia around the 1860s.<ref name="HDoP"/> An unsuccessful uprising of Polish political exiles in Siberia broke out in 1866.<ref name="HDoP"/>

=== Soviet era === {{Further|Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–46)}}

[[File:Replika baraku sybirakow.jpg|thumb|left|A replica of a barrack of a GULAG prison camp in Poland]] At the start of World War II the Soviets deported hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens, most of them in four mass waves. Some sources claim as many as 1.5 million deportees.<ref>{{cite book |last=Davies |first=N. |year=1986 |title=God's Playground A History of Poland |volume={{Roman|2}} |publisher=Clarendon |isbn=0-19-821944-X |page=451 }}</ref><ref name=polian119>{{cite book |last=Polian |first=P. |year=2004 |title=Against their Will |publisher=CEU Press |isbn=963-9241-73-3 |page=119 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Hope |first=M. |year=2005 |title=Polish Deportees in the Soviet Union |publisher=Veritas |isbn=0-948202-76-9 |page=29 }}</ref><ref name="5MillionForgotten0">{{cite web|url=https://remember.org/forgotten |title=Holocaust: Five Million Forgotten: Non Jewish Victims of the Shoah|work=remember.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Malcher |first=G. C. |year=1993 |title=Blank Pages |publisher=Pyrford |isbn=1-897984-00-6 |pages=8–9 }}</ref><ref name=piesakowski>{{cite book |last=Piesakowski |first=T. |year=1990 |title=The Fate of Poles in the USSR 1939~1989 |publisher=Gryf |isbn=0-901342-24-6 |pages=50–51 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mikolajczyk |first=S. |year=1948 |title=The Pattern of Soviet Domination |publisher=Sampsons, low, Marston & Co. }}</ref> The most conservative figures<ref name="minelink">{{cite web |url=http://www.minelinks.com/war/vangance.html |title=Magdeburg Sting 1936 |work=minelinks.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813180334/http://www.minelinks.com/war/vengeance.html |archive-date=August 13, 2018 }}</ref><ref name=piotrowski>{{cite book |last=Piotrowski |first=T. |year=2004 |title=The Polish Deportees of World War II |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-3258-5 }}</ref> use recently found NKVD documents showing 309,000<ref>{{cite book |last=Gross |first=J. T. |year=2002 |title=Revolution from Abroad |publisher=Princeton |isbn=0-691-09603-1 |page={{Roman|14}} }}</ref><ref name=cienciala>{{cite book |last=Cienciala |first=M. |year=2007 |title=Katyn A Crime Without Punishment |publisher=Yale University |isbn=978-0-300-10851-4 |page=139 }}</ref><ref name=polian118>{{cite book |last=Polian |first=P. |year=2004 |title=Against their Will |publisher=CEU Press |isbn=963-9241-73-3 |page=118 }}</ref> to 381,220.<ref name=polian118/><ref name="brandeis0">{{cite web |url=https://people.brandeis.edu/~nika/schoolwork/Poland%20Lectures/Lecture%252017.pdf |title=Lecture 17: Poland Under Occupation |website=people.brandeis.edu/~nika}}</ref>

Soviet authorities did not recognize ethnic Poles as Polish citizens.<ref name=cienciala/><ref>{{cite book |last=Applebaum |first=A. |year=2004 |title=Gulag : A History |publisher=Penguin |isbn=0-14-028310-2 |page=407 }}</ref> In addition, some of the figures are based on those given an amnesty rather than those deported,<ref name=polian119/><ref name=cienciala/> and not everyone was eligible for amnesty.<ref>{{cite book |last=Krupa |first=M. |year=2004 |title=Shallow Graves in Siberia |publisher=Birlinn |isbn=1-84341-012-5 }}</ref> Therefore, figures based on official evidence might be an underestimation.<ref name=piotrowski/><ref name=cienciala/><ref>{{cite book |last=Rees |first=L. |year=2008 |title=World War Two Behind Closed Doors |series=BBC Books |isbn=978-0-563-49335-8 |page=64 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Jolluck |first=K. |year=2002 |title=Exile & Identity |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |isbn=0-8229-4185-6 |pages=10–11 }}</ref>

'''General:''' * Katorga, Russian Empire exile * Forced labor in the Soviet Union

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== *{{cite book |last=Ferguson |first=N. |year=2006 |title=The War of the World |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=0-7139-9708-7 }} *{{cite book |first=M. |last=Janik |title=Dzieje Polaków na Syberii |year=1928 |language=pl }} *{{cite book |first=W. |last=Jewsiewicki |title=Na Syberyjskim Zesłaniu |year=1959 |language=pl }} *{{cite book |first=Zygmunt |last=Librowicz |title=Polacy w Syberji |year=1884 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZWdBimHzCAC |language=pl }} *{{cite book |first=R. |last=Lysakowski |title=Siberian Odyssey: A Song of the Cornucopia |publisher=Vantage Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-533-08386-9 }}

==External links== * [http://www.kresyfamily.com Kresyfamily.com ] to honour and preserve for posterity the history and experiences of Polish citizens, of all religions and of all ethnic backgrounds from the Eastern Borderlands of Poland known as Kresy Wschodnie * [http://www.kresy-siberia.org Kresy-Siberia.org Kresy-Siberia Foundation and Virtual Museum] dedicated to research, remembrance and recognition of Polish citizens exiled to the Soviet Union during World War II *{{in lang|pl}} [http://www.emazury.com/sybiracy/historia.htm Zsyłki - rys historyczny] *{{in lang|pl}} [http://www.sybiracy.pl/index.php Website dedicated to the Sybiraks] * [http://tadeuszromer.com Polish deportees in the USSR] List compiled in 1941 by Tadeusz Romer, the Polish ambassador to Japan

Category:Deportation Category:History of Siberia Category:Polish exiles in the Russian Empire Category:Poland–Soviet Union relations Category:Soviet war crimes in Poland in World War II Category:Polish prisoners and detainees Category:Polish deportees to the Soviet Union Category:Polish diaspora in Siberia Category:Forced migration in the Soviet Union