| Abstrakt: | This dissertation addresses the issue of collective memory of so-called “Sybirak-emigrants” in light of autobiographical narratives. The term “Sybirak-emigrant” used in this thesis refers to prisoners or people deported to the territory of the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1941, who after the end of World War II decided to emigrate permanently to the United States. The main sources used in this study were biographical interviews recorded in audio or audio-video technology that were found in Polish and American oral history archives.
The main theme of the whole research process undertaken in this thesis was an attempt to answer the question: "What forms did collective memory take in the examined group of 'Sybirak-emigrants'"? The author wanted to investigate which events from the years 1939-1942 they remembered were particularly important to them, and to find an answer to the question "why"? He also wanted to find out which of the issues and topics they mentioned belonged to the most frequent, and which characterized only individual accounts. The purpose of this analysis was not to hold the interviewees accountable for the consistency of their experience or consciousness with historical truth. The author of this study was primarily interested in examining how they remembered their past, how they wanted to portray it, and what factors influenced or could influence this or that image of the past. In the research undertaken, he also set out to look at what particular images of the past were characteristic of the identified generations and which events from their past were given most attention by each group of interlocutors. Finally, one of the important issues analysed in this study remained the question of the representation of social roles and emotions presented in the memories of the interviewees, related to their perception of the events of 1939-1941. |