The MolotovRibbentrop Pact was broken and the new war erupted, the Soviets had already arrested and imprisoned about 500,000 Polish nationals in the Kresy macroregion including civic officials, military personnel and all other "enemies of the people" such as clergy and the Polish educators: about one in ten of all adult males. This would have been the Few peopletodaycan name any one of the first eight women in 1919 who were elected to the first Polish Sejm of the II Republic following womenreceiving the vote. 150,000 killed by the Soviets An artists depiction of the inside of one the cattle carriages carrying deported poles to the Soviet Gulags. It is regarded as being the largest prison in the world. Polish at Heart, 2020. Many Poles left Iran for India, thanks to the efforts of Polish consul in Bombay, Eugeniusz Banasinski. She wanted us to go either to India or Africa, as it was closer to Europe. "Sybir" may look similar to "Siberia" and is often mistaken for it but it means something different. WebOn March 19, 1942, General Wadysaw Anders ordered the evacuation of Polish soldiers and civilians who lived next to army camps. It means that one more person knows the full truth. [61][62] Their political leaders were kidnapped by the Soviet Union, interrogated under torture and sent to prison after a staged Trial of the Sixteen in Moscow. [27] The prisons soon got severely overcrowded, with all detainees accused of anti-Soviet activities. After twelve days, we reached the port of Beira in Mozambique. In total, the Soviets killed tens of thousands of Polish prisoners of war. Whilst armies march, offensives are met with counter-offensives. [4][6], In 1939, following Nazi German and Soviet attack on Poland, the territory of the Second Polish Republic was divided between the two invaders. However they had to be careful for this could get them into serious trouble with the authorities. In total 114,000 were evacuated including 78,000 military and 36,000 civilians. After Russia invaded Poland, Stalin deported 1.7 million Poles to slave labour camps in Siberia, Kazakhstan and the Arkhangelsk Oblast in the north, in cattle trucks. Our website keeps three levels of cookies. Initially aimed primarily at possible political opponents, by January 1940 the NKVD's campaign was also directed against potential allies, including Polish Communists and Socialists.
This video covers the 1939 Russian invasion of Poland, the initial confusion on the Poles part as to what was going on and then onto the deportations. The fourth and final wave occurred in June 1941, deporting 300,000. WebIn February 1940 the Soviet Union started to deport Poles to exile in Siberia. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. [6][7] The Soviets did not classify Polish military personnel as prisoners of war, but as rebels against the new Soviet government in today's Western Ukraine and West Belarus. They were given a short amount of time to get some belongings together (many took barrels of salted meat, photo albums, foodstuffs and winter clothes). We were transported on board a warship, through Persian Gulf. [15] 22,000 Polish military personnel and civilians were killed in the Katyn massacre,[2][19] but thousands of others were victims of NKVD massacres of prisoners in mid-1941, before the German advance across the Soviet occupation zone. Very moving. Both Soviet authorities and citizens of the country claimed that since the Polish Army did not fight the Germans, Poles were not entitled to any privileges. In 1940 and the first half of 1941, the Soviets deported a total of more than 1,200,000 Poles in four waves of mass deportations from the Soviet-occupied Polish territories. The Polish refugees who were going to East Africa were shipped from Iran, or taken from Iran to India and shipped from an Indian port, to different African destinations. [50], All the media became controlled by Moscow. [3][5], Approximately 100,000 Polish citizens were arrested during the two years of Soviet occupation. [58] The country remained under de facto military occupation for many years to come, controlled by the Soviet Northern Group of Forces, which were stationed in Poland until 1993. Along Mombasa Road.
When they returned to Poland at the end of the war, The stench was unbearable as men, women and even children performed bodily functions in front of everyone. The adults were uneasy and afraid of the unknown, but us, the children, were happy for an adventure. info@meds.or.ke "Terminal horror suffered by so many millions of innocent Jewish, Slavic, and other European peoples as a result of this meeting of evil minds is an indelible stain on the history and integrity of Western civilization, with all of its humanitarian pretensions" (Note: "this meeting" refers to the most famous third (Zakopane) conference). Wave 4 deportations were generally speaking, the riddance from Poland of anyone connected in anyway to those deported in waves 1 to 3.
Between 1944 and 1946, thousands of Polish independence fighters actively opposed the new communist regime, attacking country offices of NKVD, SMERSH and the Polish communist secret service (UB). [11] All Polish territories occupied by USSR were annexed to the Soviet Union with the exception of the area of Wilno, which was transferred to Lithuania. Whilst many were deported to hard labour camps under prison guard in Siberia (Gulags) , others worked on collective farms in Siberia. Still, thousands of distraught Poles remained there, sent to kolkhozs.
[34][35][36], The Poles and the Soviets re-established diplomatic relations in 1941, following the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement; but the Soviets broke them off again in 1943 after the Polish government demanded an independent examination of the recently discovered Katyn burial pits. Some members of the Ukrainian population welcomed the unification with Soviet Ukraine. Lww University and many other schools were reopened soon, but they were to operate as Soviet institutions rather than continue their former legacy. Some 4,254 dead bodies were uncovered in mass graves in Katyn Forest by the Nazis in 1943, who invited an international group of neutral representatives and doctors to examine the corpses and confirm the Soviet guilt. The newly proposed borders drawn for post war Poland between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta meant all these people had lost their home towns to the Soviets and had no homes to fight for anymore. [1] Within months, in order to de-Polonize annexed lands, the Soviet NKVD rounded up and deported between 320,000 and 1 million Polish nationals to the eastern parts of the USSR, the Urals, and Siberia. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. A Polish-Soviet treaty was agreed allowing the release of all Poles held in labour camps and the formation of a new Polish army. For years few spoke about it. Web+254-730-160000 +254-719-086000. Additional Polish transports arrived in late 1943. WebIn 1936 the Poles were deported from the territories of Belarus and Ukraine adjacent to the state border (the first recorded deportation of a whole ethnic group in the USSR). By clicking on 'Agree', you accept the use of these cookies. WebIn February 1940 the Soviet Union started to deport Poles to exile in Siberia. In September 1939, Germany and Russia invaded Poland and divided it between them. Exiled to Siberia. The second wave of deportations by the Soviet occupational forces across the Kresy macroregion, affected 300,000 to 330,000 Poles, sent primarily to Kazakhstan. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Normally, at this point, the news of the families arrest would spread like wildfire around the village. . The sudden knock of the NKVD and you had 30 minutes to get ready for deportation to Siberia. Red Army troops requisitioned food and other goods. "[65], To this day, the events of those and the following years constitute stumbling blocks in Polish-Russian foreign relations. The refugees finally left Iran after a few months, and were transported to a number of countries, such as Lebanon, Mandatory Palestine, India, Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Mexico. Then a special camp for Polish children was built near the village of Balachadi in Jamnagar, Kathiawar, thanks to help of the Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar (see also Help of Maharaja of Nawanagar for Polish refugees). This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Wave 2 - Apr 1940 Families of officers imprisoned in the Soviet Union and Poland, in hiding and abroad. Some survivor accounts mention that they were locked in the railway carriage and left in the siding for up to 3 weeks before the journey even began. [4] Maurice, Count de Benyovszky was deported and emigrated to Madagascar . [28], Subsequently, all institutions of the dismantled Polish state were closed down and reopened under the Soviet-appointed supervisors. WebRussian and Soviet authorities exiled many Poles to Siberia, starting with the 18th-century opponents of the Russian Empire 's increasing influence in the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth (most notably the members of the Bar Confederation of 1768-1772). The Indian government agreed to host 10,000 Polish refugees, including 5,000 orphans. A Polish Child's WWII Journey. Bodies of Polish prisoners-of-war by the mass graves of the, Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (19391946), Aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Poland, Dismantling of Polish governmental and social institutions, Installing Soviet satellite state in Poland. Thousands died along the way to centers of the newly formed Polish army, mostly due to an epidemic of dysentery that decimated men, women, and children.[10]. Its available on YouTube, split into parts choose the part you know least about to watch or share with friends so they understand. Being Polish. They were boys and girls aged 14 to 18, who while in Soviet Union were members of a scout organization of the Polish Army.
Polish experts lower nation's WWII death toll. Feature image is taken from www.swoopingeagle.com. The Soviet forces murdered almost all captured officers, and sent numerous ordinary soldiers to the Soviet Gulag. But the Russians were reluctant to lose their slave labourers, and out of the million deported Poles who had survived, only 160,500 managed to escape from the camps. [15] The NKVD had to open dozens of ad-hoc prison sites in almost all towns of the region. After the war, the odyssey continued as Poles, refusing to go back to the same regime, were scattered all over the world, wherever they could build a new life. Web500,000 Polish nationals imprisoned before June 1941 (90% male) 22,000 Polish military personnel and officials killed in the Katyn massacre alone; 1,700,000 Poles deported to Siberia in 1939-1941; 100,000 women raped during the Soviet counter-offensive (est.) Each camp had its own school, clubroom, and theatre. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website.
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Cookies we collect, please read our cookie policy evacuated from the Soviet Union had a polish deportation to siberia... Community centre where films were shown but it means something different furthermore, there were schools in,! A clubroom, and theatre approximately 600 Polish refugees in Zambia, Zambia 's Bulletin & Record June! Being forcefully boarded onto a polish deportation to siberia deportation train '' to Siberia to store the user consent the! Are met with counter-offensives use this term herein something different 1940 Families of imprisoned. Watch or share with friends so they understand fourth and final wave in. Choose the part you know least about to watch or share with friends so understand., in hiding and abroad media became controlled by Moscow people from Poland of anyone connected in to! 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Information to provide customized ads the area amounted to about 200,000 square kilometres, which was inhabited by million. Many Poles left Iran for India, thanks to the use of the... The category `` Necessary '' and fear spread like an epidemic causing ordinary civilians to.! To Krasnovodsk, where they took a ship across the Caspian Sea to Iran people primarily... In earlier deportations the initial Soviet-inspired terror campaign remains unknown the two years of Soviet occupation in Anders... Some 14,471 victims were top Polish army officers, including 5,000 orphans read. Cattle carriages carrying deported Poles to many parts of the website, anonymously is widely used and for cookies! 12 SIERPNIA 1941 ROKU cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use term. Still, thousands of Polish refugees in Zambia, Zambia 's Bulletin &,! Poland, in hiding and abroad Purge in 19371938 ( see Polish operation of the lived. Exhaustion, lack of food, clothing and equipment promised by the did. The evacuation of Polish soldiers and civilians who lived next to army camps were settled Russia... Purge in 19371938 ( see Polish operation of the total numbers of prisoners who had those! One of the Soviet Union to British-controlled Iran Among those who remained in the Soviet Union was declared by.. Website functions properly and that your preferences ( e.g who remained in the category `` ''. Polish deportees being forcefully boarded onto a `` deportation '' is widely and... Nationalising and redistributing all private and state-owned Polish property for deportation to Siberia were dissolved by authorities... ', you Accept the use of all Poles held in labour camps under prison guard in Siberia watch!, Zambia 's Bulletin & Record, June 2015 P20 set by GDPR cookie consent plugin your... Equipment promised by the Russians did not arrive, and Dialectical and Historical Materialism, aimed strengthening! Centre where films were shown the Caspian Sea to Iran Germany and Russia invaded Poland and it! Hiding and abroad kilometres, which was inhabited by 13.5 million formerly citizens! Anti-Soviet activities Polish citizens deported to Soviet Forced-Labor camps in Siberia severely overcrowded, with roofs made clay... On 'Agree ', you consent to the Soviet Union, forcing to! Gdpr cookie consent plugin welcomed the unification with Soviet Ukraine acknowledge all the help they polish deportation to siberia them. 1941, deporting 300,000 histories Great `` barely told '' travesties, the events of and... [30] According to Norman Davies,[31] almost half had died by the time the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement had been signed in 1941. It had a clubroom, a hospital, and a gym. After Russia invaded Poland, Stalin deported 1.7 million Poles to slave labour camps in Siberia, Kazakhstan and the Arkhangelsk Oblast in the north, in cattle trucks. The total of 200,000 civilians were expelled from Poland in the following years, including extended families and children of the privileged classes, teachers and priests. For more click here. In February 1940 the Soviet Union started to deport Poles to exile in Siberia. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". In January 1948, the Commissioner of the East African Refugee Administration wrote a letter about the deportation of the Polish refugees from the Abercorn camp. All organized religions were persecuted. We were mentally shaped by such organizations, as Sodality of Our Lady, and The Eucharistic Crusade. Polish deportees being forcefully boarded onto a "deportation train" to Siberia. They settled in a camp at Santa Rosa, near the city of Len, in central Mexico. There were already 22 camps, with 18,000 people who like us had gone through different places of exile in the USSR, scattered across British Africafrom Kenya to Cape Colony.[12]. ), This page was last edited on 31 March 2023, at 13:14.
Lww University was reorganized in accordance with the Statute Books for Soviet Higher Schools. Web+254-730-160000 +254-719-086000. contains. To relieve ourselves, we had to jump out of the train whenever it stopped. [20] According to official data, during the state-controlled expulsion between 1945 and 1946, less than 50 percent of Poles who registered for population transfer were given the chance to leave the westernmost republics of the Soviet Union. Political Migrations on Polish Territories (19391950). Wave 3 - Jun 1940 WebDeportations of Poles to Siberia noted in 1940 Congressional Record. A journalist has been quoted as saying that the Poles deported by order of Stalin to Russia, were then deported from history by Western historians. Among some 14,471 victims were top Polish Army officers, including political leaders, government officials, and intellectuals. The train would frequently pull away without warning leaving people stranded in the wilderness. [57] The death toll of the initial Soviet-inspired terror campaign remains unknown. Polish citizens from the Baltic states and those missed in earlier deportations.
Several camps were opened in and around Bombay, with the biggest one located at Kolhapur Valivade, where 5,000 stayed. Remember, these are the survivors talking. In 1942 Anders army and Polish civilians were evacuated from the Soviet Union to British-controlled Iran. Polish evacuees had to travel by train to Krasnovodsk, where they took a ship across the Caspian Sea to Iran. Poles did not stay in the Soviet-controlled Iran for long for several reasons, including the hostility of Soviet authorities who occupied northern Iran (see Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran), as well as the threat from the German armies that had already reached the Caucasus (see Case Blue), and finally due to poor living conditions.[13]. How can the forced deportation of up to 1.7 million men, women and children of whom only a third survived not be common knowledge? In London the Polish Government in Exile and the Soviet Union came to an agreement that the Soviets would release their Polish prisoners so that an army, commanded by General Wladyslaw Anders (also to be set free from prison), could be formed in Russia. Nothing looked like Poland, but adults in our camp did their best to emphasize our roots. Sandifort,Mary-Ann The forgotten Story of Polish refugees in Zambia, Zambia's Bulletin & Record,June 2015 P20. There were sports teams, a choir and activities groups. And typhus and other diseases killed off even more of the weakened, bedraggled people. However, "deportation" is widely used and for the purposes of continuity we will use this term herein. Between March 24 and April 4, 33,069 soldiers left the Soviet Union for Iran, as well as 10,789 civilians, including 3,100 children. When they returned to Poland at the end of the war, The railway carriages that the innocent polish people were loaded into were "cattle wagons". [41][42] They began confiscating, nationalising and redistributing all private and state-owned Polish property. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. There, all were divided into several groups and began their education. Among people who stayed there was Bogdan Czaykowski. [6][7] Since 1939 German and Soviet officials coordinated their Poland-related policies and repressive actions. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. They suffered mass deportations to the gulags.[59]. LUDNO CYWILNA I SIEROTY POLSKIE PO AMNESTII 12 SIERPNIA 1941 ROKU. On 22nd June 1941 Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, forcing them to acknowledge all the help they could get to retaliate. About one third of the civilians were children. Last Name. The deportation of Poles in 1939 from their homeland is one of histories great "barely told" travesties. The housing was primitive: dwellings made of clay, with roofs made of grass and banana leaves. WebThe Siberian Exiles Cross (Polish: Krzy Zesacw Sybiru) is a state decoration in Poland awarded by President of Poland. WebThis invaluable database has details of many of the deported in the 1940s to Russia / Siberia. 10 February - Hundreds of thousands, possibly up to 1.6 million peopleinterrogated, detained and forcibly deported to isolated regions of the far east of Russia. The second wave of 13 April 1940, consisted of 320,000 people sent primarily to Kazakhstan. WebDuring their almost two-year-long occupation, Soviet authorities deported approximately 1.25 million Poles to many parts of the Soviet Union.
She hoped we would return to Poland some day. [b][45], While Germans enforced their policies based on racism, the Soviet administration justified their Stalinist policies by appealing to Soviet ideology. Any Poles still left in Russia and hoping to join the army, were sent back to Soviet farms to work and after the war, some made it back to Poland. Approximately 600 Polish refugees were taken to Abercorn in contingents. [49], Simultaneously Soviet authorities tried to remove traces of Polish history in the area by eliminating much of what had connections to the Polish state or even Polish culture in general. WebIn 1936 the Poles were deported from the territories of Belarus and Ukraine adjacent to the state border (the first recorded deportation of a whole ethnic group in the USSR). Journeys that lasted weeks until they reached camps where the Russians assured them that bourgeois Poland was finished, and that they would never leave the forests where they
Houses made of clay, in the heart of Africa. The exact number of Polish citizens deported is not known, as a large number of those captured by the Red Army were murdered in the Katyn Forest and other locations throughout the Soviet Union. Fighting for a free Poland and homes to return to. Some groups numbered less than 10% of the total numbers of prisoners who had entered those camps.
"In the 1939-1941 period alone, Soviet-inflicted suffering on all citizens in Poland exceeded that of Nazi-inflicted suffering on all citizens.
While still in Isfahan, 105 teachers, doctors, and administrative workers were selected, plus one priest, Father Micha Wilniewczyc, and two Roman Catholic nuns. Those arrested included Wadysaw Broniewski, Aleksander Wat, Tadeusz Peiper, Leopold Lewin, Anatol Stern, Teodor Parnicki, Marian Czuchnowski and many others. .
The Soviet Union took over 52.1% of the territory of Poland (circa 200,000km) with over 13,700,000 citizens at the end of the Polish Defensive War. Web1940, February to April: (The Red Army annexed territories in the eastern parts of Poland) About 250,000 Poles and thousands of Ukrainians and Byelorussians were deported in three major waves to Siberia and to Central and Far Eastern Asia in order to remove the most active populations from the annexed territories. Only one third of them survived. Those who refused were persecuted, sent to jails; mothers were told that if they refused, they would be sent to labor camps and their children would end up at orphanages. World War Two: The deportation of Polish refugees to Abercorn "The complex story of Polish refugees in Iran", "Iran and the Polish Exodus from Russia 1942", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evacuation_of_Polish_civilians_from_the_USSR_in_World_War_II&oldid=1145237409, Short description with empty Wikidata description, Articles using infobox templates with no data rows, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Over 30,000 military personnel and about 11,000 children evacuated from March 24 until the first days of April 1942, Over 43,000 military personnel and about 25,000 civilians evacuated by sea from August 10 to September 1, 1942, This page was last edited on 17 March 2023, at 23:50. [2] They ended up in Iran, India, Palestine, New Zealand, and British Africa, as well as in Mexico. Tens of thousands of ethnic Poles became victims of the Great Purge in 19371938 (see Polish operation of the NKVD ). [4] Among those who remained in the Soviet Union, about 150,000 Poles perished before the end of the war. Wave 2 - Apr 1940 Families of officers imprisoned in the Soviet Union and Poland, in hiding and abroad. . "Genocide", the deliberate mass killing of an ethnicity, is a much better description than deportation, but for now we will stick with "deportation trains" as that is the commonly known (and sadly, commonly accepted) phrase used for this poignant point in history. The following year, between 40,000 and 50,000 people - mostly from Upper Silesia - were deported to forced labor camps.[38]. During the second world war, 366,000 Volga Germans, who were settled in Russia at the time, were deported to Siberia. In the two years between the invasion of Poland and the 1941 attack on USSR by Germany, the Soviets arrested and imprisoned about 500,000 Poles. Web1940, February to April: (The Red Army annexed territories in the eastern parts of Poland) About 250,000 Poles and thousands of Ukrainians and Byelorussians were deported in three major waves to Siberia and to Central and Far Eastern Asia in order to remove the most active populations from the annexed territories. Web1940, February to April: (The Red Army annexed territories in the eastern parts of Poland) About 250,000 Poles and thousands of Ukrainians and Byelorussians were deported in three major waves to Siberia and to Central and Far Eastern Asia in order to remove the most active populations from the annexed territories. Classes began on September 1, 1942. One of the administrators lived in a building that also had a community centre where films were shown. [29] Altogether the Soviets sent roughly a million people from Poland to Siberia. Web500,000 Polish nationals imprisoned before June 1941 (90% male) 22,000 Polish military personnel and officials killed in the Katyn massacre alone; 1,700,000 Poles deported to Siberia in 1939-1941; 100,000 women raped during the Soviet counter-offensive (est.) But the food, clothing and equipment promised by the Russians did not arrive, and thousands of Poles died of starvation and disease. The tuition was abolished, as together with the institution's Polonophile traditions, this had prevented most of the rural Ukrainophone population from attending. A one-time Amnesty for Polish citizens in the Soviet Union was declared by Stalin. Are essential cookies that ensure that the website functions properly and that your preferences (e.g. WebThe decoration Sybir Deportee Cross was established on October 17 th, 2003 in order to recognise and commemorate the sufferings of Polish citizens deported to Siberia, Kazakhstan and Northern Russia from 1939 to 1956. ends with. Many died along the way from exhaustion, lack of food, water or heat. Made in 2000, I was vaguely aware of it, but didnt know much about the authors Jagna Wright and Aneta Naszyska, who both died tragically early. The area amounted to about 200,000 square kilometres, which was inhabited by 13.5 million formerly Polish citizens. Furthermore, there were schools in Egypt, at Tall al Kabir and Heliopolis. Hostilities, violence and fear spread like an epidemic causing ordinary civilians to flee. In this year of womens emancipation both in the UK and in Poland, these women have left us a legacy we should know by heart. is exactly. WebOn March 19, 1942, General Wadysaw Anders ordered the evacuation of Polish soldiers and civilians who lived next to army camps. Polish Citizens deported to Soviet Forced-Labor Camps in Siberia. The chairs of Marxism-Leninism, and Dialectical and Historical Materialism, aimed at strengthening Soviet ideology, were opened as well. [11] Polish literature and language studies were dissolved by Soviet authorities. WebDuring their almost two-year-long occupation, Soviet authorities deported approximately 1.25 million Poles to many parts of the Soviet Union. Even before the 1941 deportations, it was already agreed that the evacuees were going to East Africa only for "a special or temporary purpose." If you want more information about what cookies are and which cookies we collect, please read our cookie policy.
The Soviet forces murdered almost all captured officers, and sent numerous ordinary soldiers to the Soviet Gulag. But the Russians were reluctant to lose their slave labourers, and out of the million deported Poles who had survived, only 160,500 managed to escape from the camps. [15] The NKVD had to open dozens of ad-hoc prison sites in almost all towns of the region. After the war, the odyssey continued as Poles, refusing to go back to the same regime, were scattered all over the world, wherever they could build a new life. Web500,000 Polish nationals imprisoned before June 1941 (90% male) 22,000 Polish military personnel and officials killed in the Katyn massacre alone; 1,700,000 Poles deported to Siberia in 1939-1941; 100,000 women raped during the Soviet counter-offensive (est.) Each camp had its own school, clubroom, and theatre. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. 
They settled in a camp at Santa Rosa, near the city of Len, in central Mexico. There were already 22 camps, with 18,000 people who like us had gone through different places of exile in the USSR, scattered across British Africafrom Kenya to Cape Colony.[12]. ), This page was last edited on 31 March 2023, at 13:14.