Abstract
The paper focuses on the role of Catholicism in the preserving of ethnic identity of deported Poles. The author uses the following types of sources: oral stories — recollections, the memory book written by deported Pole, family stories of deported Poles descendants, and the discourses around the place of memories. In Soviet time conditions of the weakening and destruction of religious institutes the religion Catholicism to a large extent was kept in family, on the level of religious practices and individual religiosity that confirm the relevancy of above-mentioned sources. The author concludes that according to the sources the Catholicism was an important strategy of survival and preserving ethnic identity.