Repatriation of Poles (1955–1959)

Repatriation of Polish population in the years of 1955–1959 (also known as the second repatriation, to distinguish it from the first repatriation in the years 1944-1946) was the second wave of forced repatriation (in fact, deportation) of the Poles living in the territories annexed by the Soviet Union (see Kresy Wschodnie). It should be stressed that the widely used term repatriation, promoted by decades of Polish communist propaganda, is a kind of manipulation and refers to an act of illegal expatriation.

In the aftermath of the death of Joseph Stalin and the start of destalinization, about 250,000 people were repatriated, including about 25,000 political prisoners from the Gulags. Notable Poles repatriated during that time include Czesław Niemen, Władysław Kozakiewicz, Lew Rywin and Anna Seniuk.

By the late 1940s, up to one million ethnic Poles remained in the Soviet Union. Deprived of all educated leaders, who had already left for Poland, the Poles found themselves in the middle of several local conflicts, which took place in the Lithuanian SSR and Ukrainian SSR (see Lithuanian partisans, Ukrainian Insurgent Army). In the western part of Soviet Belarus, which still had a substantial Polish minority, several Polish guerrilla units operated until the early 1950s, especially in the area of Lida. Furthermore, the campaign of collectivization affected Polish villages from a wide belt, ranging from Vilnius to Ukraine’s Ternopil. Those farmers who resisted it were sent to Siberia, and the terror continued until the mid-1950s.

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