A photojournalist and reporter, Wojciech Łaski has documented major political and social events in Central and Eastern Europe for many years. During the event, he spoke about his travels to Siberia, where he visited, among other places, the areas around Lake Baikal and Irkutsk, as well as the village of Wierszyna, where he had the opportunity to meet the descendants of Poles who have lived there for more than a century.

“These people always said they were not deportees. They went there to earn a living,” he emphasised. “They spoke Polish quite well, had Polish names, and Polish surnames could be found in the local cemetery,” he recalled.

Sharing behind-the-scenes stories from his work, he spoke about the challenges and difficulties he faced as a foreign correspondent, but also about the friendships he formed during his many years of travel.

“I travelled to Siberia to show life as it is. I photographed what I saw so that these images could be preserved for others,” he said, stressing the importance of photography as a tool for documenting reality.

The meeting was accompanied by the opening of the exhibition Siberian World. Life – History – Survival, presenting 25 photographs from Wojciech Łaski’s Siberian expeditions between 1988 and 2008. Each photograph is accompanied by a description of the place, time, and circumstances in which it was taken, telling the story of Siberia’s people and landscapes — from the harsh scenery of Lake Baikal to the everyday life of the residents of Wierszyna. The exhibition is curated by Henryka Milczanowska, who selected the photographs from nearly half a million images taken by Wojciech Łaski. It will be on display at the Sybir Memorial Museum until 3 October.

The next meeting will take place on 23 October at 6:00 p.m., when the Sybir Memorial Museum will host Martyna Wojtkowska, who will speak about the dramatic fate of Polish children evacuated to New Zealand during World War II.