75 Years ago today, on February 10, 1940, Stalin and his NDVD (Secret Police) began the mass deportation of Polish Citizens to Siberia. Beginning in 1940 and continuing into 1941, somewhere between 300,000 and 1,500,000 Poles were evicted from their homes and forcibly relocated to Siberia. This action took place in about four waves of action. Many never returned.
You can more about the Soviet deportations of Polish citizens at the Kresy-Siberia Foundation, but caution, it is a sad story: http://kresy-siberia.org/
A number of books have been written about these dark and sad days in history. You can find a few of them here:
– Maps and Shadows, by Krysia Jopek, available here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/
– The Ice Road, by Stefan Waydenfeld, available here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/
It is not a pretty story, and a story that has been mostly buried in history. You see, once the Germans turned on the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin became an Ally of the western powers. Unwilling to anger Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt quietly buried, hid, and ignored the terrible crimes committed against the citizens of their ally, Poland. To this day, this sad story remains basically unknown outside of Poland.
