Polish Refugees in Iran During the Second World War: The Creation and Reshaping of Literary Stereotypes

Abstract As knowledge of the historical context of the mass movement of Poles through Iran during the Second World War grows after many years of absence, the motif of the Siberian exile has entered the Persian literary repertoire as a symbol of the fate of the wartime Polish migrants. The stereotypical image of Polish women is also undergoing a transformation. Using the example of the novel Tō ba Esfahān bāz khāhi gasht (You Will Return to Isfahan, 2016) by Mostafa Ensafi (b. 1987), the present article explores new themes related to the presence of Polish refugees in Iran, as well as their sources. Ensafi’s book covers three main, interrelated topics, which can be defined as: “a pseudo-Polish child,” “an assassinated journalist,” and “the Siberian exile.” This study emphasizes the role of the memoirs of Helena Stelmach (1931–2017) as the principal source of both conceptual inspiration and factual material for the novel, an influence that Ensafi himself confirms. The present article traces the ways in which the writer used and processed Stelmach’s account.