{"id":32424,"date":"2024-10-14T15:53:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T13:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/?p=32424"},"modified":"2025-05-23T15:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T13:04:08","slug":"history-of-polish-teachers-in-institutions-established-on-the-territory-of-the-ussr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/history-of-polish-teachers-in-institutions-established-on-the-territory-of-the-ussr\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Polish teachers in institutions established on the territory of the USSR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many Polish pre-war pedagogues were exiled to Siberia. More than 130,000 Polish children were also sent to the inhuman land during the four mass deportations of 1940-1941. According to the Soviet conception, they were supposed to be covered by compulsory schooling and sent to schools with Russian as the language of instruction, but in practice, for a variety of reasons, children often did not take up education. The fear of denationalization, the necessity for children to work, or long distances between their place of residence and schools often left Polish children without any educational support. The situation somewhat improved after 1941, when Polish schools began to be established in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the series \u201cTreasures from the Storage\u201d, we present the photographs of pre-war teachers who supported scholarship of Polish children in exile. Among them were: Franciszek Karpinski \u2013 professor of chemistry at Vilnius University, later Director of the Polish Orphanage in Bolshaya Yerba; Kazimiera Wr\u00f3bel \u2013 teacher, living in Vilnius before the war, Head of the school in Semipalatinsk; Helena B\u0142a\u017cewicz \u2014 who taught before the war at the school in Vishnevo, and in exile at the Polish Orphanage in Bolshaya Yerba; Eustachy Ciuman \u2014 pedagogue of the Second Polish Republic, organizer of an orphanage for Polish orphans in Aldan; Stanislava Onichowska \u2013 teacher in Budziatycze, educator at a kindergarten in the village of Glubokoye in the Arkhangelsk Oblast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to qualified teachers, there were also those who, having no teaching training or background, tried to help educate Polish children in Siberia. They were guided by one purpose \u2014 to save the Polish language from oblivion, teach patriotism and Polish history. As Sybiraks recalled years later \u2013 it is them who often risked their lives to pass on the highest values to the youngest and protect them from losing their identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katarzyna \u017bdanowicz, a teacher at the Polish Orphanage in Bolshoy Yerba, recalled her work and school conditions as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 The children were taught in a Polish school \u2013 there were two teachers[JN1] , Zosia \u0141y\u017cnik\u00f3wna and me. We had no textbooks, of course, and lacked notebooks, paper and necessary teaching aids, so we improvised as much as we could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the orphanage’s former residents, Stanis\u0142awa Urbanowicz (n\u00e9e Mroziewska), wrote about the teachers from this orphanage:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Poles working at the Polish Orphanage [the Polish Orphanage in Bolshaya Yerba \u2013 editor\u2019s note] were mostly educated people: foresters, teachers, state officials, skilled farmers. In short, the Polish intelligentsia, whom the Soviets wanted to freeze and starve in Siberia or the steppes of Kazakhstan. These people worked selflessly from morning till night, trying to instill in Polish orphans their native language, Polish traditions, and love for God and the Fatherland. They organized a four-grade Polish school, which I also attended. They taught the children to write and read in Polish, as well as Polish and world geography and history, the prayers \u2018Our Father\u2019 and \u2018Hail Mary,\u2019 and they also taught respectful behavior towards one another and adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After the establishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and the USSR, there was hope of improving the fate of the youngest Polish citizens deported deep into the USSR. In 1942, an educational instruction was drafted at the embassy, according to which, where possible, school teams were to be formed at the level of grades II-VI. By July 1942, the Polish embassy had managed to organize 139 orphanages, 175 kindergartens and 43 schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The frayed relationship between Poland and the USSR, which escalated in the spring of 1943, led to the closure of Polish institutions or the replacement of their staff. In some places, the teaching of the Polish language was discontinued, and all signs of Polish identity were eliminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The situation improved in the second half of 1943, when the Union of Polish Patriots and the Polish-Soviet Committee for Polish Children (the so-called Kompoldiet) began to organize education for Polish children. Despite the Soviet action patterns of these institutions, if it hadn\u2019t been for their help these children would have had no chance to survive and return to Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the National Education Day, as part of our \u201cTreasures from the Storage\u201d series, we would like to present you the photographs of teachers from Polish schools and orphanages established in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":32231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHistory of Polish teachers in institutions established on the territory of the USSR - Muzeum Pami\u0119ci Sybiru<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/history-of-polish-teachers-in-institutions-established-on-the-territory-of-the-ussr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"History of Polish teachers in institutions established on the territory of the USSR - Muzeum Pami\u0119ci Sybiru\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the National Education Day, as part of our \u201cTreasures from the Storage\u201d series, we would like to present you the photographs of teachers from Polish schools and orphanages established in the Soviet Union.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/history-of-polish-teachers-in-institutions-established-on-the-territory-of-the-ussr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Muzeum Pami\u0119ci Sybiru\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-14T13:53:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-23T13:04:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/mps_f_1371-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"patrycja\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"patrycja\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/history-of-polish-teachers-in-institutions-established-on-the-territory-of-the-ussr\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/history-of-polish-teachers-in-institutions-established-on-the-territory-of-the-ussr\/\",\"name\":\"History of Polish teachers in institutions established on the territory of the USSR - Muzeum Pami\u0119ci Sybiru\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/history-of-polish-teachers-in-institutions-established-on-the-territory-of-the-ussr\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/history-of-polish-teachers-in-institutions-established-on-the-territory-of-the-ussr\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/mps_f_1371-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-14T13:53:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-23T13:04:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/85b0358246e62a03dc3e65a0b9853539\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/history-of-polish-teachers-in-institutions-established-on-the-territory-of-the-ussr\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/history-of-polish-teachers-in-institutions-established-on-the-territory-of-the-ussr\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/history-of-polish-teachers-in-institutions-established-on-the-territory-of-the-ussr\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/mps_f_1371-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/mps_f_1371-2.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":520,\"caption\":\"Czarno-bia\u0142e zdj\u0119cie du\u017cej grupy os\u00f3b. 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