On 24 March 2012 in the Polish Social & Cultural Centre in London the opening of the exhibition "In Big Brother's Arms - The Soviets in Poland 1944 - 1993" was held. It was attended by representatives of the IPN Branch Office in Warsaw - Prof. Jerzy Eisler, Dr. Tomasz Łabuszewski, Jacek Pawłowicz and Sławomir Stępień.

On the following day (Sunday, 25 March) the second IPN’s Historic Education Day was held, organised by the Warsaw Branch of the Public Education Office. There were screenings of documentaries related to the theme of the exhibition. Among them the films from "Chełmska" Film Archive, National Film Archive and Polish Television were shown such us “The visit of Deputy Prime Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and Marshal Georgy Zhukov in Warsaw”, “The visit of Soviet writers (such as Ilya Ehrenburg) in the destroyed Warsaw”, “The match between Poland and the Soviet Union in Chorzow (2:1)”, “Bulat Okudzhava - the concert at the After 6 youth club”, “Farewell to the Soviet troops in front of the Belvedere Palace”.

The screenings were preceded by a lecture by Prof. Jerzy Eisler entitled "The Soviets in Poland".  The events were accompanied by an all-day fair of IPN’s publications and board games.

***

The exhibition "In Big Brother's Arms - The Soviets in Poland 1944 - 1993" has been prepared by the Branch Public Education Office in Warsaw. 150 photographs shown on 56 exhibit panel depict various forms of Poland’s dependence from the Soviet Union. The main part of the exhibition covers the years 1944-1993. However, the authors also present the broader context of Polish-Soviet relations - the Polish-Soviet War, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Katyń crime, the Yalta conference and departing of the last troops of the Northern Group of the Soviet Army Forces from the Polish territory in 1993. The exhibition includes not only political, economic and cultural issues, but also relations of the people and mutual perception.

The exhibition is the next stage in the series of events organised by the Warsaw Branch of the Public Education Office on the methods, scale and forms of Poland’s dependence from the Soviet Union, which began with the scientific conference "In Big Brother's Arms - The Soviets in Poland 1939 - 1993".