Jan Goreglad, born on 17 August 1918 in the poleskie voivodeship, an army driver by occupation, unmarried.
When the Bolsheviks entered our Polish lands, they took me to work in a plywood factory in Horodyszcze, district of Pińsk. I worked there for a month and a half, after which time I resigned, for I was unable to make ends meet.
Six days later [illegible] I was put before a court charged with sabotage, and sentenced to two months of imprisonment. I did time in Pińsk. After I was released from prison, I lived in my flat for 14 days, whereafter, on 27 November 1940, I was called up into the Soviet army.
I served in Moscow, in the 193rd Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment.
This unit was made up of Poles only, and these men were intended to become secret agents – every one of the soldiers was Polish.
After the war broke out on 22 June 1941, they sent us all to a Construction Battalion in Gorky. There we worked in an ammunition factory for two months, and then for four months in the forests – the work was very difficult, digging anti-tank trenches.
We received 800 grams of bread – those who carried out the norm, while those who didn’t were given only 400 grams.
I had many friends there, one of whom happened to die: Staszek Ribicki. I then fell ill with pneumonia and was taken to the hospital in Gorky. There I learned that a Polish Army was being formed. When they discharged me from hospital, I reported to my superiors and requested that I be released so that I could go and enlist in the Polish Army. The political indoctrinator replied that he would sooner put me in prison than allow me to join the Polish Army. And so I made arrangements with the Polish representation and fled to Kuibyshev under an assumed surname. When I arrived there, I was directed to the Polish Army.