Polish photographer Michal Iwanowski tells The Calvert Journal about following in the footsteps of a treacherous jailbreak during world war two

My grandfather and his brother survived one harsh winter in a Soviet prisoner camp during the second world war before they made a daring escape to the relative safety of Poland.

It was a treacherous 2,200km journey which saw them separated from their friends during a military ambush, shot at and chased, and took more than three months to complete as they hitched rides on freight trains and dodged Russian troops.

My great uncle kept a record of their journey, taking notes on scraps of paper and drawing out landmarks as they travelled through Russia, Belarus and on to Lithuania and Poland.



The makeshift maps made it to Wrocław in Poland with him and now form part of a rich family archive, as did the metal tobacco tins he made in the gulag to trade for food.



The maps became the backbone of a book he wrote and self-published in 1994, which I used to retrace their footsteps from the labour camp in Kaluga – where they were being punished for partisan activity – to Wrocław where the rest of their family had fled.

It was haunting to discover that elements of the landscape have not changed for 70 years. My uncle described a railway bridge leading into Kozielsk in Russia where they were ambushed and my grandfather was shot. As I stood on that bridge, I could see exactly where that scene had taken place.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Michal Iwanowski spent 9 weeks retracing his grandfather’s footsteps.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘I felt safe in the landscape’

I covered 30km a day and the pace of walking was perfect for photographing the surroundings. I planned the route by comparing my uncle’s map with Google’s and remembering the landmarks – a lake, a river, railway tracks, anything that I would be able to recognise.

The police in Belarus, the second country I walked through, were particularly difficult. There was some misunderstanding about my registration on arrival so I had explain my itinerary and reasons for travelling. I wasn’t a typical tourist.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘It was haunting to see how little of the landscape had changed since 1945’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘I kept myself in check by remembering how difficult it had been for the real fugitive’

There were days when I struggled physically, especially in bad weather. Walking uphill against the wind for eight hours in wet clothes. Or when the temperature dropped below -15C and the battery in my camera didn’t not hold up for long.

I kept myself in check by remembering how difficult it had been for the real fugitive, my grandfather. I was not in danger. I was not hungry. I had a smartphone to call for help if I needed to.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Iwanowski’s grandfather had used freight trains for parts of his escape

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘As I walked, it was almost like being in a time capsule’

The landscape was very repetitive and after a few days, I found myself in a strange hypnotic state. Did the trees, the roads and the rocks look the same to me as they had to my grandfather?

All images include above appear in Iwanowski’s book Clear of People, a document of his trip. A version of this article first appeared on The Calvert Journal, a guide to the new east