Research – Discovering the Truth and Understanding History

One of the Sybir Memorial Museum’s core missions is to conduct scholarly research and promote knowledge of Russian and Soviet exile and deportation, as well as the subsequent fate of those subjected to repression and their families. Another important area of the Museum’s work is research into Soviet deportations within the broader context of the history of forced displacement worldwide. Recognising the importance of these activities, the Mayor of Białystok, Prof. Tadeusz Truskolaski, established the Research Department – the President Seweryn Nowakowski Research Institute.

Seweryn Nowakowski served as Mayor of Białystok until the autumn of 1939. After refusing to evacuate the city, he was arrested by the NKVD and subsequently disappeared without a trace. As a victim of Soviet repression, and most likely of the Katyn Massacre, he serves as the Institute’s patron. His legacy places a particular responsibility on the Institute’s staff to uncover and communicate the truth about the crimes committed by the Soviet occupiers and other totalitarian regimes.

The Institute coordinates the Museum’s research activities and disseminates their findings through an extensive publishing programme, the development and editorial management of its online portals, the collection of written and oral testimonies from Sybiraks and their families, and the development of a specialist library dedicated to the history of deportations and forced displacement.

Given the broad international scope of this field of research—which encompasses Soviet repression against numerous nations across Europe and other continents, as well as the fate of Poles who, via Siberia, eventually settled in countries around the world—the Institute’s work must be, and indeed is, open to international cooperation. “May the Institute become a place of open discussion and dialogue,” appealed the signatories of its founding charter, including members of President Nowakowski’s family.

After several years of intensive activity, this vision has become a reality. The Sybir Memorial Museum hosts international conferences, seminars and symposia, organises lectures and panel discussions, while its researchers conduct archival research, carry out research projects, and deliver lectures both in Poland and abroad, including in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Italy, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Museum has also become a place where new perspectives on the history of forced displacement worldwide are being developed.