“Authorized Staff of the Polish Army in Kustanay Region...”: To the History of the Formation of General Anders’ Army in Kazakhstan During the Second World War

Abstract

Introduction. While the history of the deportation of Poles to the territory of the Kazakh SSR is a well-known fact, the fate of the “administratively exiled families of the repressed from the Western regions of Ukraine and Belarus” in the Kustanay region, the male population of which was included in the Polish military units (including the formation of the General Anders’ Polish Army in late 1941 – early 1942 in Kustanay with a focus on the Polish emigrant government in London), remained out of the field of view of researchers. This article will address this gap. Methods and materials. The work was prepared on the basis of declassified materials from the funds of the state archives of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, the memories of Polish citizens, and direct witnesses of the war. Analysis. The article proves that many deported Polish citizens (including former servicemen) were drafted in the winter of 1941–1942 into the army of General W. Anders. The activities of the representative office of the “headquarters of the Polish Army in the USSR” on the territory of the Kazakh SSR were carried out under the strict control of the republican and local bodies of Soviet power. Results. The materials of the article reveal unknown pages in the history of the formation of the army of General W. Anders in Kazakhstan at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and will clarify the results of Soviet-Polish cooperation during the Great Patriotic War. Authors’ contribution. D. Legkiy studied the corpus of declassified documents in the state archives of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, corresponded with Polish citizens, direct witnesses of the wartime, showed changes in Soviet-Polish relations at the beginning of Second World War and then the Great Patriotic War, showed the inconsistency of the policy of the Soviet authorities in relation to the representation of the Polish army in the USSR, and appreciated the result of the formation of Polish military formations in the territory of the Kustanay region of the Kazakh SSR. A. Logvinchuk analyzed the historiography of the issue, highlighted the course of mobilization of persons of Polish nationality into the ranks of the General Anders’s army, studied the personal files of representatives of the Polish army in the city of Kustanay and reconstructed their biographical data, and compiled a scientific reference apparatus for the work.