Syberia in the Memories of the Polish exiles : case study of the Zhukovsky family

The story of the exiles of the Zhukovsky family is presented in the paper. Analyses were based on interviews with Dagmara, the daughter, two documentaries: On memory paths and Crust of Bread, and a manuscript written on the basis of Danuta and Bogusław recollections by Dagmara. Hypotheses of the paper were the following : a story of a family is the history of a nation. There is a parallel between historical events and an individual's fate. The ancestors, need to tell one's story and the descendants' need to hear it are reciprocal ones and can be interpreted as a cultural mechanism of incorporation new texts into a culture memory. On an individual level it gives rise to the feeling of dignity and power. Marianne Hirsch's theory of post-memory and Yury Lotman's concept of "remembering - forgetting" mechanism were utilized to present and interpret memories of Boguslav and Danuta Zhukovsky and their descendant - Dagmara. The reasons for reaching into the past and coming back to Syberia were also analysed.