Sybir Routes – Memory, History, People

The history presented at the Sybir Memorial Museum is above all a collection of stories about people who, at different moments of their lives, found themselves in the vast expanses of the East. They arrived in places where the beauty of nature stood in stark contrast to the suffering they experienced there.

What do these places look like today? Who lives there? How do local communities function? Have traces of former exiles, deportees and Gulag prisoners survived in Siberia? Has the memory of them faded away, or is it still preserved by others? We seek answers to these questions during travel and author meetings organised at the Museum.

Every month, we welcome people who have visited both Asian countries and places where Sybiraks found themselves later in life, including Italy, Mexico, India and New Zealand. Our speakers include travellers, writers, and residents of the regions they present. Their stories, photographs, films and memories help audiences discover the contemporary reality of places known from the Museum’s narrative and the pages of history.

Together with our guests, we have travelled across Siberia on foot, by car, by kayak and even by bicycle – including in winter. We have learned what life is like in Yakutia, one of the coldest inhabited places in the world. We have reached Sakhalin, where Bronisław Piłsudski once lived.

We have also visited Mexico and New Zealand, where hundreds of deported Polish children found refuge. We have followed the route of the Battle of Monte Cassino, visiting places connected with the role of the 2nd Polish Corps in the fighting. Each meeting is a unique treasure trove of knowledge about the world.

Once a year, one of the events takes on a special character. The Siberian Ambient Salon tells difficult stories through music. The aim of this event, unusual for a museum space, is to present topics explored by the Museum in a modern format, using contemporary means of artistic expression.

“Sybir Routes” are, on the one hand, stories about the natural beauty of different corners of the world, and on the other – accounts of suffering and terror experienced over the centuries by millions of victims of exile and deportation.