Kazakhstan is a space where Polish history is written in the landscape of the steppe and in the memory of the people. It creates a network of memorials that are not just stone and bronze, but a story of coercion and hospitality, of suffering and solidarity, of community persistence despite the hardest experiences of the 20th century.

Akmol, the former women's camp of ALZIR , is a chapter about the violence inflicted on women. The camp operated from the end of 1937 until 1953 as a separate branch of Karlag . Thousands of women prisoners passed through its gates , among them were Polish women . Today there is a museum here, opened in 2007 , recognisable from afar thanks to the Arch of Mourning and displays based on victims' testimonies. In the surroundings, one can see a deportation wagon, replicas of the guards and plaques commemorating the victims of different nations. It is worth remembering that the modern museum complex is adjacent to the historical camp site, which has remained outside the exhibition area and is gradually becoming overgrown.

From Akmol , a road leads to the Valley below Karaganda. It was here that the administration of one of the largest links in the Soviet Union's gulag system was located. The former headquarters of the camp authorities now houses a museum, and on the outskirts stretch the cemeteries of the prisoners , including a poignant burial site for children called Mamoczkino kładbiszcze. The valley is not just an exhibition, but an archive of the land that makes one realise the scale of the repression suffered by people of many nationalities, including Poles.

Karaganda has a particularly personal dimension due to the life and cult of the blessed priest Władysław Bukowiński, called the apostle of Kazakhstan. His tomb is located by the Saint Joseph Church in Fyodorovka , a former district of underground religious life. Bukovinsky's beatification took place in 2016, and in 2020 the first monument in Kazakhstan dedicated to him was unveiled there and moved to the parish courtyard. Karaganda' s Cathedral of Our Lady of Fatima became one of the most important centres for Catholics in the country and a symbol of spiritual survival. In the same 2020, the shrine of Saint Joseph was elevated to the status of a minor basilica, highlighting the importance of the local community and its history.

Near Karaganda, in Spassk , there is an extensive camp cemetery. Victims of various nationalities from the time of the POW camp rest here. The central monument and the stones of the different countries form a multinational memorial complex . This is the site of annual ceremonies on the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression and Famine, when representatives of the authorities, diplomatic corps and religious communities meet.

In northern Kazakhstan , Oziornoye, a village founded by Polish deportees in 1936 , holds a special place. In March 1941, the lake, which had dried up, unexpectedly filled with fish and saved the inhabitants from starvation. Today, there is a Sanctuary of Our Lady Queen of Peace with the rank of a national shrine, and in the decoration of the adoration altar, the motifs of nets and fish recur as a sign of local memory and gratitude. Oziornoye has become a centre that attracts young people from all over the country and where the history of deportation is intertwined with a living religious tradition.

A line of cemeteries associated with the Anders Army evacuation stretches across southern Kazakhstan. These are the four official Polish necropolises in Lugovai, Mankent, Merke and Shokpak. Soldiers and civilians who did not make it to Iran rest there. In Merke and Shokpak there are monuments with name plaques. In Lugovaya, the cemetery is surrounded by a fence with an inscription about remembering together. The remembrance of these sites is present in the activities of both Polish diplomacy and local communities, which tidy the graves and organise ceremonies. In nearby Talgar, the graves of Poles deported in 1936 are preserved, along with a memorial plaque.

Not all traces of the Polish presence take the form of impressive monuments. Ekibastuz remembers the times of forced labour and specisosols , although today's landscape is dominated by industrial infrastructure. In Maykaina Zoloto, dozens of deportees' graves have been preserved , which in recent years have been cleaned up and marked with new crosses and plaques. In the settlements of Chkalovo and Yasnaya Polyana, local cleaning efforts are underway at the cemeteries of the deportees. In Lozovoye, a symbolic mound with a plaque and spire has been erected to commemorate the thirty-five victims of the 1936 deportation. In Pervomajka, the sites of former Polish burials are indicated , although they require further research and systematic care.

In Pavlodar, the Pochom cemetery holds graves of many nationalities, including Poles and Polish activists. It is a space of constant negotiation between the need for commemoration and development plans, which in itself is a testimony that memory is alive and still seeking its shape.

Memory also has a dimension of gratitude. In Petrovka , near Astana, there is a monument with inscriptions in three languages, expressing the gratitude of the Poles to the Kazakhs for the help shown to the exiles . Next to it, a memorial area with plantings has been created to serve as a place for meetings and celebrations for the Polish community. This kind of grassroots gesture, perhaps more modest than monumental museums, strengthens the sense of community and shared history.

Individual traces of the Polish presence can also be seen in the landscape of contemporary cities. Astana has a mural dedicated to Adolf Januszkiewicz , a 19th-century exile and researcher of Kazakh culture. The art transfers the story from cemeteries to facades, from solemn places to the everyday life of passers-by, reminding us that history also works in public space.

Polonics in Kazakhstan are not exclusively Polish or exclusively Kazakh. In Spassek, stones of many nations stand in one line. In Oziorny, the memory of the miracle of the fish tells of the survival of a community on the brink of starvation. In Karaganda, descendants of exiles and their neighbours pray at the tomb of the apostle of this land. In Petrovka, a monument speaks of gratitude that has survived ideologies and borders. In Pavlodar, there is a conversation about how to remember and how to protect places that are both a necropolis and a park. It is in these signs, in the combination of the temporal and the metaphysical dimensions, that the meaning of Polonics in Kazakhstan is revealed. It is a story of remembrance understood as a communal effort, a gesture of hospitality and an obligation towards those who have been left on the distant steppe forever.

Read also our articles about war cemeteries:

• In Chklov, Yana Polyana and Oziornoye;
• in Lugovaya;
• in Mankent;
• in Merke;
• in Narpaj;
• in Shokpak

and the commemoration of Polish women imprisoned in the ALZIR labour camp in Akmol .