The gathering of the Section for the Study of the History of Siberia marked the beginning of this year’s observances of the Day of Remembrance for Victims of the Katyn Massacre, as well as the 85th anniversary of the second mass deportation.

“The Sybir Memorial Museum places strong emphasis on academic engagement and continues to expand its network of collaborators both in Poland and internationally. That’s why I’m pleased we could once again host members of the Siberian Commission of the Polish Academy of Sciences. It is no coincidence that our museum initiated the creation of Polish-Kazakh and Polish-Uzbek historical commissions. In the near future, we aim to extend this cooperation to other countries, including Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. One of our key ambitions is to establish the Sybir Memorial Museum as a modern research center that integrates scholarship, documentation, and education. That’s why meetings with experts are so important to us,” said Professor Wojciech Śleszyński, Director of the Sybir Memorial Museum.

During the meeting, two presentations were delivered:

Karina Gaibulina, PhD (University of St. Gallen) presented her recent book, Ethnographers by Compulsion: Polish Deportees in the Colonial Service of the Russian Empire. She explored the complex and often ambivalent status of Polish deportees entangled in the colonial structures of the Russian Empire, raising questions about the nature of “compulsion” and the blurred lines between personal observation and imperial descriptive frameworks.

Commentary on her book was provided by Professor Zbigniew Wójcik, longtime chair of the Commission, who discussed the historical context of this interdisciplinary work. Professor Magdalena Dąbrowska offered a literary analysis, drawing on theories of orality, literacy, and postcolonial critique.

Martyna Rusiniak-Karwat, PhD (Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences) gave a presentation titled Siberia through the Eyes of Trans-Siberian Railway Travelers (1940–1941). Her lecture highlighted the personal accounts of Jewish wartime refugees from Poland who—during their forced migration across Siberia—documented their experiences, including travel conditions, landscape observations, and encounters with local populations.

The meeting was chaired by Piotr Głuszkowski, PhD, Head of the Section for the Study of the History of Siberia. Held in a hybrid format, it welcomed both in-person and remote participants and provided a valuable forum for exploring the continued relevance of research into the history of deportations.