Twenty years ago, Allen Paul wrote the first post-communist
account of one of the greatest but least-known tragedies of the
20th century: Stalin's annihilation of Poland's officer corps and
massive deportation of so-called "bourgeoisie elements" to Siberia.
Today, these brutal events are symbolized by one word, Katyn--a
crime that still bitterly divides Poles and Russians. Paul's richly
updated account covers Russian attempts to recant their admission
of guilt for the murders in Katyn Forest and includes recently
translated documents from Russian military archives, eyewitness
accounts of two perpetrators, and secret official minutes published
here for the first time that confirm that U.S. government cover-up
of the crime continued long after the war ended.Paul's masterful
narrative recreates what daily life was like for three Polish
families amid momentous events of World War II--from the
treacherous Nazi-Soviet invasion in 1939 to a rigged election in
1947 that sealed Poland's doom. The patriarch of each family was
among the Polish officers personally ordered by Stalin to be shot.
One of the families suffered daily repression under the German
General Government. Like thousands of other Poles, two of the
families were deported to Siberia, where they nearly died from
forced labor, starvation, and neglect. Through painstaking
research, the author reconstructs the lives of these families
including such stories as a miraculous escape on the last transport
of Poles leaving Russia and a mother's daring ski trek over the
Carpathian Mountains to rescue a daughter she had not seen in six
years. At the heart of the drama is the Poles' uncommon belief in
"victory in defeat"--that their struggles made them strong and that
freedom and independence, inevitably, would be regained.
General
Imprint: |
Northern Illinois University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
March 2010 |
First published: |
March 2010 |
Authors: |
Allen Paul
|
Dimensions: |
228 x 152 x 29mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
422 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-87580-634-1 |
Categories: |
Books >
Humanities >
History >
General
Books >
History >
General
|
LSN: |
0-87580-634-1 |
Barcode: |
9780875806341 |
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