Pentlands Book Festival: 6 Nov – 3 Dec 2025

From the Soviet Gulag to Arnhem

Caught between Nazis and Soviets, Stan Kulik was a man who dodged death. After the Russian invasion of Poland, Stan was 15 when his family were forced to leave their home and were put on a train to a Gulag in Siberia.

He had to do manual labour 12 hours a day, six days a week. If you didn’t work you didn’t eat, but Stan managed to survive. At 17, he embarked on a solo journey through Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, to join the Polish Army being formed in the Soviet Union.

Stan then travelled to Iraq and India, from where he was taken by ship to Scotland.

He joined the Polish Parachute Brigade and was dropped at the Battle of Arnhem, in Operation Market Garden. He found himself trapped behind enemy lines, and narrowly evaded capture thanks to the Dutch resistance.

Stan’s grandson, Nicholas, relates an early life that plays out like an epic wartime film.

In From The Soviet Gulag To Arnhem: A Polish Paratrooper’s Epic Wartime Journey Stan recounts six years that took him halfway across the world before he finally settled with his Scottish wife near St Andrews, where they lived for 70 years.