Janina Kwiatkowska, Through Kazakhstan and Stalinist Poland to London – an emigrant’s story

• Main Author: Ewelina Olaszek
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ośrodek "Pamięć i Przyszłość" - "Remembrance and Future" Centre 2014-10-01
• Series: Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej
• Subjects: oral history; second world war; communist poland; stalinism; polish emigrants in london
• Online Access: https://wrhm.pl/wrhm/article/view/75/60

The article is the result of field research carried out by the author in Great Britain in 2013. It is a study of one of 21 accounts recorded with the oldest living Polish emigrants in London. The article is dedicated to the history of Hanina Melania Kwiatkowska born in 1930 in Kożany. Mrs Kwiatkowska was arrested during the war together with her family and deported to Kazakhstan where she spent six years. After the war she returned to the family estate, which the new Communist authorities transformed into a state-owned farm (PGR). The time spent in Stalinist Poland was the second phase of social degradation experienced by Mrs Kwiatkowska. Soon after the so-called “October thaw” in 1956, she managed to leave Poland and join her father, who together with other soldiers of the Second Polish Corps had stayed in England after the war. In London Janina Kwiatkowska experienced just another stage of degradation – as most Poles she started her stay in emigration with physical work. However, she quickly started to work her way up the professional ladder and she also got involved in the emigration environment of Poles in London.