Urszula Muskus was born in Poland in 1903. She witnessed the German invasion of her country and handover to the Soviet Union. Separated from her husband she was sent with her children (Grazyna and Zbigniew) into the Gulag Archipelago. They were locked in a cattle wagon and spent 13 days travelling to Kazakhstan. She was eventually separated from her children. She survived and they were eventually reunited in England. Urszula Muskus died in 1972 leaving her story in fragments scattered at her feet.

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Urszula survived 2 years forced labour on the collective farms, 10 years hard labour in the gulags and 4 years eternal exile in Siberia. She came home from this without a shred of bitterness and a love of the many nationalities with whom she had been locked up. She wrote her story over the next 15 years, the rest of her life, keeping alive the memory of all her friends, many of whom had died, or as they said in the camps – ‘released themselves’.

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Reading her memoir “The Long Bridge”, most readers are amazed by her strength of character during 16 years of imprisonment and are inspired and uplifted as “She writes of her own privations and sufferings with dispassion; of the sufferings of others with compassion.”

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The memoir describes her deportation journey and the collective farms in Kazakhstan, concentrates on the stories of those she met during her 10 years in the gulags and concludes with 4 years ‘eternal exile’ in Siberia and a joyous train journey back to Poland arriving on 1st Jan 1956.

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I concentrate on her time as an embassy Delegate to give a personal addition to the diplomatic relations that I have described separately. It was because of this work distributing aid that Urszula was charged with espionage and sent to the gulags. Last year I was lucky enough to receive to some of the reports that Urszula wrote in Aktyubinsk as Delegate and are now held in the Sikorski Museum in London.

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Following the German attack on the USSR all the Poles were moved out of the cities to the collective farms, but were allowed to return a few weeks later. She writes in her memoir, “Shortly after my return to Aktyubinsk, groups of Poles released from Soviet prisons and concentration camps, began to arrive. They were half starved, in rags and without means of existence. They needed immediate help. … One day I learnt that a rallying point for former POWs had been organised in Totskoye. … I sold one of my dresses and with the permission of the authorities bought a ticket. [After a 3-day journey she arrived at General Anders hotel at 23.45hrs the evening before he was due to fly to Moscow for a meeting with Stalin.] When asked who was to be reported I answered: ‘A woman from Kazakhstan’ and was welcomed immediately. … 

 

I was named relief officer for Polish citizens in the Aktyubinsk region. I also received the first money grant and the joyful news that we would shortly receive help in kind from England and America. … We would often extract nothing but corpses from the wagons. The Polish Ambassador Kot and General Anders did all they could to help these Poles, but encountered hindrance after hindrance set up by the Soviet authorities. … I remember how, time after time, they [the Polish prisoners] found notes written by British or American students who collected and packed these gift parcels. Letters sending them fraternal greetings, encouragement and hope for the future. … I would like all those who donated clothing and other gifts for these poor people to know that not only did they warm us up, but that these kind words expressed in the short messages found in the pockets of the clothes gave encouragement and hope.”

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Urszula’s reports written as a Delegate are more formal and factual, but exude frustration. This sample is from 29th October 1941. “The civilian transports for Polish citizens are still just as chaotic, exposing people to great distress and suffering, and causing many problems for the Polish Missions to sort out. The transports are not provided with food, the Soviet authorities do not provide the people with any money for the journey or their daily expenses. The result is that people get off at major rail stations and go into town in search for food. Transports then depart and those who are foraging the town are left without their papers and belongings. The Polish Missions have no financial means and are unable to provide these people with any food or a place to sleep. The Soviet Authorities do not want to take care of them and refer them back to the Polish Missions. This causes complaints for our Mission. Th the military transports; and are provided with food, or with food vouchers, by the Soviet authorities.”

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While walking home from a meeting on 10th May 1942 Urszula was arrested and charged with espionage. She must have been one of the first Delegates arrested. After an interrogation lasting several months in Alma Ata, she spent the next 10 years doing hard labour in the Karaganda gulags. As Robert Lambolle writes in his editorial report, “Urszula never boasts, but from her refusal to buckle under or to indulge in self-pity, her concern for the welfare of her fellow-prisoners, her love of nature (there are wonderful descriptions of sunrises and landscapes), and a spirituality that is entirely without grating piety, one gains an impression of a woman of exemplary humanity and fortitude, at once sensitive, caring, resourceful and tough.”

 

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Copyright: her grandson Peter Muskus

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