Wartime Exile in Memories of the Cold War Sovietologists from Poland

• In Event: Trauma of War, Trauma of Exile: Early Testimonies and Witness Accounts of Wartime Émigrés and Refugees from Poland

Abstract

World War II caused unprecedented destruction and deeply affected millions of refugees, including researchers of the Soviet Union. Some, like Wiktor Sukiennicki and Stanislaw Swianiewicz, had prior experience studying the Soviet Union and viewed it as responsible for major 20th-century disasters. Others, like Adam Ulam and Richard Pipes, became experts only while in exile in the West, unable to return to Poland due to its Soviet control. They documented their experiences through memoirs and diaries. This presentation explores how these writings depict pre-1939 Poland, the migration experience, and the influence of these memories on their Sovietology work.

Author

• Sławomir Lukasiewicz, John Paul II Catholic U of Lublin (Poland)