Jerry Kubica

The Gulag Trail: Footprints into Exile Jerry Kubica

Publisher Marketing: In "The GULAG Trail," the author follows the footprints of his father and the many thousands of Polish soldiers on the road from their homes to GULAG camps in the remotest parts of Stalin's empire, and on their trek to the Anders Army forming in Siberia after the "amnesty" in 1941, and then onwards to their bitter trail into exile. Travelling extensively in Poland, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the author was fortunate to find the remnants of a GULAG lagier on the Kola Peninsula, to touch a living lagier in Uhta, to see the dreaded Workuta coalmines beyond the Arctic Circle, to dwell in silence in the cemetery in Abez on the river Usa, and to see places in remote parts of this vast land where Polish deportees subsisted and so many died leaving no trace - only fading memories. The emotional impact of this journey will remain forever imprinted on the author's soul. For the reader also, this story will be unforgettable. It presents a tangible insight into how incarceration in the GULAG system, surviving seven years of War, and having to choose a life in exile might have affected the mind of a soldier, and shaped the relationship of a father and son. This book is the 2nd Edition of "Where's Daddy - Footprints in Stalin's Evil Empire" published in June 2014. Its contents have been significantly expanded, maps updated, 10 grey-scale photographs from the time of the GULAG included, plus 22 photographs from the author's travels along the trail. It is published in support of "Our Roots Trust" Charity of which the author is the founding Trustee Contributor Bio:  Kubica, Jerry Jerry Kubica was born in 1939 in what was then Poland, and is now Belarus. In April 1940, he, his mother and two sisters were deported by the Soviets to Siberia; his father was sent to GULAG camps near Murmansk. The German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 reprieved many Poles; his father joined the Anders Army, fought at Monte Cassino, and the family eventually reunited in the UK in 1947. Poland for his family was closed at the time, so he grew up in the UK, graduated there, worked in the oil & chemicals industry, and as business consultant. He has also lived and worked in the USA and France for a number of years yet, each time, returned to the UK where he now lives with his wife, two daughters and grandchildren. Over the past ten years he has travelled with a backpack "In the Footsteps of Our Fathers" in Western Europe, Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and searched for the footprints of the GULAG camps across Russia and Kazakhstan. "Footprints on Monte Cassino" is his first story published in support of the Charity "Our Roots Trust" of which he is the founding member. His second book "Footprints in Stalin's Garden of Eden" will be released shortly.