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Witness History: Marooned in Stalin's Russia

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Marooned in Stalin's Russia

11/08/2014 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, Marooned in Stalin's Russia

How thousands of Polish citizens tried to flee the USSR after being freed in August 1941

How thousands of Polish prisoners tried to flee the USSR after being freed in August 1941. Some found themselves stranded in Soviet Central Asia for the rest of World War Two.

At the start of the Second World War hundreds of thousands of Polish civilians were imprisoned in the Soviet Union following the occupation of their country by the USSR.  But in August 1941, after Nazi Germany invaded Russia, many of the Poles were suddenly set free. We hear from one former prisoner who found himself stranded in Soviet Central Asia for the rest of the Second World War.

Photo: Nazi troops order Soviet women to leave their homes, summer 1941 (Keystone/Getty Images)

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