The story of this album began with a chance meeting between old friends…

Soviet gulags, often located in hard-to-reach, remote places of the Soviet Union, were places of hard labor, suffering, and the death of thousands of Poles. Living in such extreme conditions prevented the appreciation of the beauty of the undiscovered wild, nature there. One of the few who had the opportunity to do so was Piotr Adaś, who served his 25-years sentence in the gulags of Vorkuta.

In 1954, Professor Konstantin Polikarpovich arrived to Vorkuta with a group of scientists searching for coal bed. Working teams were formed from among the prisoners to work under the supervision of the researchers. Piotr Adaś worked in one of these groups; he had known the professor since his time of schooling at the Domestic School of Polish Language and History founded by ethnographer Professor Wacław Łastowski.

Upon his return from Vorkuta to Moscow, Professor Polikarpovich obtained a permit to expand the collections of flora from the Subpolar Urals. He gave the task to Piotr Adaś. Creating the herbarium did not cause great difficulties for the gulag prisoner, as his passion for drying and preserving plants was inherited from his grandfather, Teodor.

Initially, Piotr Adaś left the camp under escort, later independently. He collected plants and mushrooms until 1956. Some were sent to Moscow, while others (despite prohibitions and border controls) were brought to Poland by Adaś’s fellow inmates – Józef Krypajtis and Stanisław Kiałka.

The collection of the Sybir Memorial Museum contains a herbarium brought to Poland by Józef Krypajtis. The cover contains the following dedication: ‘To Dear Józek, a heartfelt comrade from the hard days of fate and misfortune on the soil of Vorkuta, I gathered these plants of the distant north abundantly dewy with the blood of the best sons of our Homeland. September 1956. Piotr Adaś.’

The herbarium consisting of 102 sheets, contains specimens of about 130 plant species found in the area of Vorkuta, starting with algae, mushrooms, and mosses ending with seed plants. Each specimen was attached to the sheets using narrow strips of paper. A label was placed beside each one, indicating the plant’s name in Russian and Latin. Almost everywhere, the date of collection was also written.

Although over time the delicate plants lost their lively colors, they still bear witness to the life of Piotr Adaś, a labor camp prisoner who loved nature…