Sybirak

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Polish term sybirak (plural: sybiracy) is synonymous to the Russian counterpart sibiryak (a dweller of Siberia) and generally refers to all people resettled to Siberia, it is in most cases used to refer to Poles who have been imprisoned or exiled to Siberia. Many Poles were exiled to Siberia, starting with the 18th-century opponents of the Russian Empire''s increasing influence in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (most notably the members of the Bar Confederation). After the change in Russian penal law in 1847, exile and penal labor (katorga) became common penalties to the participants of national uprisings within the Russian Empire. This led to increasing number of Poles being sent to Siberia for katorga, they were known as Sybiraks. Some of them remained there, forming a Polish minority in Sibera. Most of them came from the participants and supporters of the 19th century November Uprising and January Uprising, the participants of the 1905-1907 unrest to the approximately 1.5 million people deported in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939.