Stalin had himself invaded Poland and treated it as roughly as the
Germans did, so any Pole with a rifle would probably have emptied it
into the nearest Russian.
Getting rid of a Polish irritation in exchange for a rifle and good PR
makes sense.

It's not as though the Pole was wandering around at will, causing
trouble. He was in Siberia, in a slave labor camp.

You may recall that, at war's end, thousands of Russians in German
prison camps and in German uniform were pleading with the Americans
and British to let them remain in the west. Stalin insisted on having
them back, so he could kill them or send them to the camps. Some
killed themselves rather than board the trains to the east.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com