Your assumptions are not correct. I left Poland at 33. My independent thinking got me in trouble first at 16. I was fortunate to have wise teachers who protected me. At 20, I was a revelation at then the best Polish political publication. I experienced socialism first hand and studied it as well. I had a “friend” who advised me that my activities earned me life term free vacation among polar bears. But I knew that at that time, they were not doing this anymore. Nevertheless, I met several people who went through that experience. One of them, https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_W%C4%99gierski, is mentioned by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago. More at https://henrykkowalczyk.com/about-me/.

In contrast to many who write about politics, I know what I am writing about.