Date: April 13, 2026
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Venue: The Sybir Memorial Museum
Admission: Free

We invite you to a talk with Prof. Anna Zapalec, author of the book In the Footsteps of Exiles in the USSR. During the event, Prof. Zapalec will discuss her research and present photographs from her travels through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Yakutia.

“I have been researching Soviet repressions since 2011, working in Moscow and in various regions deep within Russia. Traveling along the routes of Polish exiles allowed me to access new and important documents for the study of the history of Poles in the East. I also became familiar with the places where Polish citizens ended up as prisoners of war, labor camp inmates, deportees, or conscripts in construction battalions.

I met local people of diverse nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. They shared with me the history of the areas where they lived, showing previously unknown or forgotten memorial sites related to Polish exiles from the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as sites connected to Soviet repressions in the 20th century. I also heard their family stories. These expeditions not only broadened my historical knowledge but also gave me a deeper understanding of contemporary Russia at local and regional levels.”

Prof. Zapalec explores the difficult fates of Poles subjected to Soviet repression during World War II. Drawing on extensive archival and memoir sources, she analyzes Soviet propaganda and portrays the everyday lives of those who were deported.

Prof. Anna Zapalec, PhD, Associate Professor at the University of the National Education Commission (UKEN) in Kraków, works at the Institute of History and Archival Studies. She researches the history of World War II, particularly the Holocaust, war crimes, forced migrations, the resistance movement, and the experiences of Polish citizens in the USSR during the 20th century.