April 13th is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Katyn Massacre.

 "To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” - Elie Wiesel, Night

The Soviet Union claimed to enter Poland in September of 1939 to "take care" of the people and seven months later beginning in April 1940 they had executed 22,000 Polish officers and buried them in mass graves in what became known as the Katyn Massacre.

Today is the day of remembrance for the victims. Let us remember and place this crime into its historic context.

On September 17, 1939 with "between 600–650,000 soldiers and over 5,000 thousand Red Army tanks  [of the Soviet Union] invaded the Second Polish Republic, which had been fighting against German aggression since 1 September."

The Soviet Union "invaded Poland on the pretext that ‘the Polish country and its government ceased to exist’. Consequently, ‘the USSR had to take care of the people who lived in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus and their possessions’ as the Soviet propaganda referred to the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic." ... " About 230,000 [Polish] soldiers and officers and thousands of military service representatives were taken captive by the Bolsheviks."

Today, state commemoration of the victims of the 1940 #KatynMassacre took place in the Katyn Museum in Warsaw. Deputy President Krzysztof Szwagrzyk represented the IPN at the 85th anniversary event, jointly organized by the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression, Katyn… pic.twitter.com/kiQ2tK5zvo

— Institute of National Remembrance (@ipngovpl_eng) April 13, 2025

The reality was that the Soviets had entered into a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that included secret protocols dividing up Poland. Nazi and Soviet troops met in the middle of Poland and exchanged pleasantries in September of 1939. 

The Soviet precursor to the KGB was the NKVD. "From October 1939, the delegated NKVD officials from Moscow heard the prisoners, encouraged them to cooperate and collected data. Only a few of the prisoners agreed to collaborate. The commanding officers’ reports included opinions about hostile attitudes of the Poles and a minimal chance of them being useful to the USSR authorities."

The decision to shoot the prisoners was signed on March 5, 1940 by seven members of the All- Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) authorities: Joseph Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria (proposer), Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Anastas Mikoyan, Mikhail Kalinin and Lazar Kaganovich.

On #KatynMemorialDay, we remember victims of the #Katyn massacre.
20,000+ Polish army officers, police, border guard officers, intelligentsia were murdered by the Soviets 83 years ago, in line with Stalin's orders.
Among them were 100s of Polish Jews, incl. rabbi Baruch Steinberg pic.twitter.com/GmXRHTVnQx

— AJC Central Europe (@AJC_CE) April 13, 2023

The lists of those sent to death were to be prepared and signed by Piotr Soprunienko, commander-in-chief of the Prisoners of War Board of People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, which was created by the order of Beria in September 1939

In the Spring of 1940 the Soviet secret police began to shoot the prisoners in the back of the head or in the neck and burying them in mass graves.

Smolensk–Katyn
On 3 April, the first prisoners from Kozelsk were transported in cattle trucks through Smolensk to Gniezdovo, where smaller groups were transported by prison cars commonly called ‘czornyje worony’ (‘black ravens’) to the wilderness called Kozie Gory in Katyn Forest. The functionaries of the NKVD killed each person by shooting in the back of the head. By 11 May, 1940, 4,421 Polish citizens had been killed and buried in Katyn death pits. There is an assumption that some officers had been killed in Smolensk²⁸.

Kharkov–Piatykhatky
The first group of prisoners from Starobelsk camp was transported to the headquarters of the Board of Kharkov NKVD district on 5 April 1940. Every night in the basement of the building in Dscherschinski Street executioners killed prisoners by shooting in the neck. The trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Forest Park in Kharkov, a kilometer and a half to Piatykhatky village. By 12 May 3,820 Polish citizens had been killed in Kharkov²⁹.

Kalinin (Tver)–Miednoye
On 4 April, 1940, the NKVD started to send prisoners from Ostashkov to the headquarters of the Board of Kalinin NKVD district (today’s Tver) at 6 Soviet Street. The executions took place in the basements. The same method of killing was used: a shot to the neck. In the mornings trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Miednoye village, 30 kilometers further away. By 22 May, 1940, 6,311 Polish citizens had been killed in Kalinin. What is worth mentioning when it comes to the Katyn lie, is that the territory of Miednoye cemetery has never belonged to Germany³⁰.

Polish authorities built war cemeteries at the places where the officers’ bodies had been buried. The cemeteries were officially opened in the year 2000. (in Kharkov on 17 June, in Katyn on 28 July and on 2 September in Miednoye)³¹.

Survivors
Only 395 people from the three camps survived. Some of them owed their rescue to pure chance. Several people were willing to fight on the Soviet side in case of German invasion. There were also agents among them, the same ones as the NKVD had in the camps. The officers who were arrested in the camps and transported to NKVD Lubyanka prison in Moscow also managed to escape death in the summer of 1940³².

The Guardian summed up the crime as follows: "Joseph Stalin ordered his secret police to execute 22,000 Polish army officers and civilians in 1940, in one of the greatest mass murders of the 20th century."

Eighty years ago in the Spring of 1943 the crime of Katyn was first discovered, but the Soviets denied their role in the crime. 

13 April 1943 | The German radio broadcasted the news about the discovery in Katyn Forest of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war murdered by Soviet NKVD in 1940.

Today in Poland we observe the Day of Remembrance of Victims of the #Katyn Massacre. https://t.co/5xaU5Fnkxk pic.twitter.com/f1i4TxhcpA

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) April 13, 2025

Forty seven years later on April 13, 1990 the Soviet Union admitted its guilt in the 1940 Katyn Massacre.

“Katyń came to symbolize Polish war losses,” historian Adam Zamoyski told TVP World. Eighty-five years after its discovery, the massacre remains a defining wound in Poland’s national memory. pic.twitter.com/OtTv0b156t

— TVP World (@TVPWorld_com) April 13, 2025

April 13th is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Katyn Massacre.

 "To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” - Elie Wiesel, Night

The Soviet Union claimed to enter Poland in September of 1939 to "take care" of the people and seven months later beginning in April 1940 they had executed 22,000 Polish officers and buried them in mass graves in what became known as the Katyn Massacre.

Today is the day of remembrance for the victims. Let us remember and place this crime into its historic context.

On September 17, 1939 with "between 600–650,000 soldiers and over 5,000 thousand Red Army tanks  [of the Soviet Union] invaded the Second Polish Republic, which had been fighting against German aggression since 1 September."

The Soviet Union "invaded Poland on the pretext that ‘the Polish country and its government ceased to exist’. Consequently, ‘the USSR had to take care of the people who lived in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus and their possessions’ as the Soviet propaganda referred to the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic." ... " About 230,000 [Polish] soldiers and officers and thousands of military service representatives were taken captive by the Bolsheviks."

Today, 13 April, on the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Katyń Massacre, we pay tribute to the Polish prisoners of war who were brutally murdered by the NKVD in the spring of 1940.

Their graves are symbols of truth and suffering, reminding us of the cruelty of… pic.twitter.com/tNNgcf85Fm

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs 🇵🇱 (@PolandMFA) April 13, 2026

The reality was that the Soviets had entered into a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that included secret protocols dividing up Poland. Nazi and Soviet troops met in the middle of Poland and exchanged pleasantries in September of 1939. 

The Soviet precursor to the KGB was the NKVD. "From October 1939, the delegated NKVD officials from Moscow heard the prisoners, encouraged them to cooperate and collected data. Only a few of the prisoners agreed to collaborate. The commanding officers’ reports included opinions about hostile attitudes of the Poles and a minimal chance of them being useful to the USSR authorities."

The decision to shoot the prisoners was signed on March 5, 1940 by seven members of the All- Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) authorities: Joseph Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria (proposer), Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Anastas Mikoyan, Mikhail Kalinin and Lazar Kaganovich.

🇵🇱 Today we remember the victims of the Katyn Massacre.

In 1940, thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals were brutally executed by the Soviet secret police.

We will never let the truth be forgotten. pic.twitter.com/HxJy2NgNr0

— ECR Group (@ecrgroup) April 13, 2026

The lists of those sent to death were to be prepared and signed by Piotr Soprunienko, commander-in-chief of the Prisoners of War Board of People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, which was created by the order of Beria in September 1939

In the Spring of 1940 the Soviet secret police began to shoot the prisoners in the back of the head or in the neck and burying them in mass graves.

Smolensk–Katyn
On 3 April, the first prisoners from Kozelsk were transported in cattle trucks through Smolensk to Gniezdovo, where smaller groups were transported by prison cars commonly called ‘czornyje worony’ (‘black ravens’) to the wilderness called Kozie Gory in Katyn Forest. The functionaries of the NKVD killed each person by shooting in the back of the head. By 11 May, 1940, 4,421 Polish citizens had been killed and buried in Katyn death pits. There is an assumption that some officers had been killed in Smolensk²⁸.

Kharkov–Piatykhatky
The first group of prisoners from Starobelsk camp was transported to the headquarters of the Board of Kharkov NKVD district on 5 April 1940. Every night in the basement of the building in Dscherschinski Street executioners killed prisoners by shooting in the neck. The trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Forest Park in Kharkov, a kilometer and a half to Piatykhatky village. By 12 May 3,820 Polish citizens had been killed in Kharkov²⁹.

Kalinin (Tver)–Miednoye
On 4 April, 1940, the NKVD started to send prisoners from Ostashkov to the headquarters of the Board of Kalinin NKVD district (today’s Tver) at 6 Soviet Street. The executions took place in the basements. The same method of killing was used: a shot to the neck. In the mornings trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Miednoye village, 30 kilometers further away. By 22 May, 1940, 6,311 Polish citizens had been killed in Kalinin. What is worth mentioning when it comes to the Katyn lie, is that the territory of Miednoye cemetery has never belonged to Germany³⁰.

Polish authorities built war cemeteries at the places where the officers’ bodies had been buried. The cemeteries were officially opened in the year 2000. (in Kharkov on 17 June, in Katyn on 28 July and on 2 September in Miednoye)³¹.

Survivors
Only 395 people from the three camps survived. Some of them owed their rescue to pure chance. Several people were willing to fight on the Soviet side in case of German invasion. There were also agents among them, the same ones as the NKVD had in the camps. The officers who were arrested in the camps and transported to NKVD Lubyanka prison in Moscow also managed to escape death in the summer of 1940³².

The Guardian summed up the crime as follows: "Joseph Stalin ordered his secret police to execute 22,000 Polish army officers and civilians in 1940, in one of the greatest mass murders of the 20th century."

Eighty three years ago in the Spring of 1943 the crime of Katyn was first discovered, but the Soviets denied their role in the crime. 

13 April 1943 | The German radio broadcast the news about the discovery in Katyn Forest of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war murdered by Soviet NKVD in 1940.

Today in Poland we observe the Day of Remembrance of Victims of the #Katyn Massacre. https://t.co/5xaU5Fnkxk pic.twitter.com/TD7dXvB7pT

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) April 13, 2026

Forty seven years later on April 13, 1990 the Soviet Union admitted its guilt in the 1940 Katyn Massacre.

“Katyń came to symbolize Polish war losses,” historian Adam Zamoyski told TVP World. Eighty-five years after its discovery, the massacre remains a defining wound in Poland’s national memory. pic.twitter.com/OtTv0b156t

— TVP World (@TVPWorld_com) April 13, 2025

We Remember: 85 years ago today Josef Stalin, and several others of the Soviet Politboro, signed the order that led to the Katyn Massacre.

To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” - Elie Wiesel, Night

Josef Stalin in the foreground, Lavrentiy Beria seated behind him.

On March 5, 1940 the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union passed a resolution to shoot Polish prisoners of war held in the camps in Kozelsk, Starobielsk and Ostashkov and those detained by the NKVD in prisons in Western Belarus and Ukraine. 

Eighty five years ago today Josef Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Kliment Voroshilov, Anastas Mikoyan, and Mikhail Kalinin signed Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria's order, condemning over  22,000 Polish POWs and civilians to death. Beria was Stalin's  head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) from 1938 until 1945. He was the head of the secret police in the Soviet Union.

Beria's March 5, 1940 note requested that the cases of the Polish POWs and those arrested in a special manner should be dealt the highest penalty - by shooting them and without a formal trial.

 

This crime would forever be linked to the Katyn Forest, where some of the mass graves were first discovered. This dark anniversary was observed five years ago in a conference titled "Generations of Memory - Testimonies."

First panel @CPRDiP Katyń conference on "Generations of Memory - Testimonies" underlining how important it is for families to keep visiting the Katyń cemeteries to keep the memory alive and to promote to Russians how to remember own victims of Stalinism. pic.twitter.com/CaYqaISuKx

— Katyń 1940 (@katyn1940) March 5, 2020

This mass execution was carried out while Communist Russia and Nazi Germany were allies that divided Poland and the rest of Central Europe between the two totalitarian powers in the August 24, 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

During this one year 10 month "honeymoon" between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Stalin's regime also handed over Jewish refugees to the Nazi Gestapo. 

Mass grave in the Katyn forest.

The crimes of Katyn and the Soviet Union's aiding of Nazi Germany's crimes against the Polish and Jewish peoples between September 1939 and June 22, 1941 must not be forgotten at a time that Russia's Vladimir Putin is trying to rewrite history in an Orwellian fashion, while he continues to write new chapters of infamy in Ukraine.

On March 5, 1940, a decision was made in Moscow to murder over 22 thousand Polish war prisoners. May the memory of the Russian lie and Katyń crime be a warning for the world. Let us always call it as it is: a crime is a crime, a victim - a victim, an aggressor - an aggressor.

— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) March 5, 2025

We Remember: 84 years ago today the order that led to the Katyn Massacre was signed by Josef Stalin

 To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” - Elie Wiesel, Night

 

Josef Stalin in the foreground, and Lavrentiy Beria seated behind him.

On March 5, 1940 the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union passed a resolution to shoot Polish prisoners of war held in the camps in Kozelsk, Starobielsk and Ostashkov and those detained by the NKVD in prisons in Western Belarus and Ukraine. 

Eighty four years ago today Josef Stalin signed Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria's order, condemning 22,000 Polish POWs and civilians to death. Beria was Stalin's  head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) from 1938 until 1945. He was the head of the secret police in the Soviet Union.

Beria's March 5, 1940 note requested that the cases of the Polish POWs and those arrested in a special manner should be dealt the highest penalty - by shooting and without a formal trial.

This crime would forever be linked to the Katyn Forest, where some of the mass graves were first discovered. This dark anniversary was observed four years ago in a conference titled "Generations of Memory - Testimonies."

First panel @CPRDiP Katyń conference on "Generations of Memory - Testimonies" underlining how important it is for families to keep visiting the Katyń cemeteries to keep the memory alive and to promote to Russians how to remember own victims of Stalinism. pic.twitter.com/CaYqaISuKx

— Katyń 1940 (@katyn1940) March 5, 2020

This mass execution was carried out while Communist Russia and Nazi Germany were allies that divided Poland and the rest of Central Europe between the two totalitarian powers in the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

During this one year 10 month "honeymoon" between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Stalin's regime also handed over Jewish refugees to the Nazi Gestapo. 

The crimes of Katyn and the Soviet Union's aiding of Nazi Germany's crimes against the Polish and Jewish peoples between September 1939 and June 1941 must not be forgotten at a time that Russia's Vladimir Putin is trying to rewrite history in an Orwellian fashion, while he writes new chapters of infamy in Ukraine.

April 13th is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Katyn Massacre.

 "To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” - Elie Wiesel, Night

The Soviet Union claimed to enter Poland in September of 1939 to "take care" of the people and seven months later beginning in April 1940 they had executed 22,000 Polish officers and buried them in mass graves in what became known as the Katyn Massacre.

Today is the day of remembrance for the victims. Let us remember and place this crime into its historic context.

On September 17, 1939 with "between 600–650,000 soldiers and over 5,000 thousand Red Army tanks  [of the Soviet Union] invaded the Second Polish Republic, which had been fighting against German aggression since 1 September."

The Soviet Union "invaded Poland on the pretext that ‘the Polish country and its government ceased to exist’. Consequently, ‘the USSR had to take care of the people who lived in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus and their possessions’ as the Soviet propaganda referred to the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic." ... " About 230,000 [Polish] soldiers and officers and thousands of military service representatives were taken captive by the Bolsheviks."

On #KatynMemorialDay, we remember victims of the #Katyn massacre.
20,000+ Polish army officers, police, border guard officers, intelligentsia were murdered by the Soviets 83 years ago, in line with Stalin's orders.
Among them were 100s of Polish Jews, incl. rabbi Baruch Steinberg pic.twitter.com/GmXRHTVnQx

— AJC Central Europe (@AJC_CE) April 13, 2023

The reality was that the Soviets had entered into a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that included secret protocols dividing up Poland. Nazi and Soviet troops met in the middle of Poland and exchanged pleasantries in September of 1939. 

The Soviet precursor to the KGB was the NKVD. "From October 1939, the delegated NKVD officials from Moscow heard the prisoners, encouraged them to cooperate and collected data. Only a few of the prisoners agreed to collaborate. The commanding officers’ reports included opinions about hostile attitudes of the Poles and a minimal chance of them being useful to the USSR authorities."

The decision to shoot the prisoners was signed on March 5, 1940 by seven members of the All- Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) authorities: Joseph Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria (proposer), Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Anastas Mikoyan, Mikhail Kalinin and Lazar Kaganovich.

April 13 marks the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Katyń Massacre.

We pay tribute to the nearly 22,000 🇵🇱 prisoners of war, who were brutally murdered in the spring of 1940 by the NKVD.

Katyń remains a symbol of falsification of history by the Soviets.#WeRemember 🕯️ pic.twitter.com/qu4OOqXSgU

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs 🇵🇱 (@PolandMFA) April 13, 2023

The lists of those sent to death were to be prepared and signed by Piotr Soprunienko, commander-in-chief of the Prisoners of War Board of People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, which was created by the order of Beria in September 1939

In the Spring of 1940 the Soviet secret police began to shoot the prisoners in the back of the head or in the neck and burying them in mass graves.

Smolensk–Katyn
On 3 April, the first prisoners from Kozelsk were transported in cattle trucks through Smolensk to Gniezdovo, where smaller groups were transported by prison cars commonly called ‘czornyje worony’ (‘black ravens’) to the wilderness called Kozie Gory in Katyn Forest. The functionaries of the NKVD killed each person by shooting in the back of the head. By 11 May, 1940, 4,421 Polish citizens had been killed and buried in Katyn death pits. There is an assumption that some officers had been killed in Smolensk²⁸.

Kharkov–Piatykhatky
The first group of prisoners from Starobelsk camp was transported to the headquarters of the Board of Kharkov NKVD district on 5 April 1940. Every night in the basement of the building in Dscherschinski Street executioners killed prisoners by shooting in the neck. The trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Forest Park in Kharkov, a kilometer and a half to Piatykhatky village. By 12 May 3,820 Polish citizens had been killed in Kharkov²⁹.

Kalinin (Tver)–Miednoye
On 4 April, 1940, the NKVD started to send prisoners from Ostashkov to the headquarters of the Board of Kalinin NKVD district (today’s Tver) at 6 Soviet Street. The executions took place in the basements. The same method of killing was used: a shot to the neck. In the mornings trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Miednoye village, 30 kilometers further away. By 22 May, 1940, 6,311 Polish citizens had been killed in Kalinin. What is worth mentioning when it comes to the Katyn lie, is that the territory of Miednoye cemetery has never belonged to Germany³⁰.

Polish authorities built war cemeteries at the places where the officers’ bodies had been buried. The cemeteries were officially opened in the year 2000. (in Kharkov on 17 June, in Katyn on 28 July and on 2 September in Miednoye)³¹.

Survivors
Only 395 people from the three camps survived. Some of them owed their rescue to pure chance. Several people were willing to fight on the Soviet side in case of German invasion. There were also agents among them, the same ones as the NKVD had in the camps. The officers who were arrested in the camps and transported to NKVD Lubyanka prison in Moscow also managed to escape death in the summer of 1940³².

The Guardian summed up the crime as follows: "Joseph Stalin ordered his secret police to execute 22,000 Polish army officers and civilians in 1940, in one of the greatest mass murders of the 20th century."

Eighty years ago in the Spring of 1943 the crime of Katyn was first discovered, but the Soviets denied their role in the crime.  

Forty seven years later on April 13, 1990 the Soviet Union admitted its guilt in the 1940 Katyn Massacre.

#TVPWorld, Poland's first English-language channel, reported on the Katyn anniversary observed today.

April 13th is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Katyn Massacre.

"To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” - Elie Wiesel, Night 

The Soviet Union claimed to enter Poland in September of 1939 to "take care" of the people and seven months later beginning in April 1940 they had executed 22,000 Polish officers and buried them in mass graves in what became known as the Katyn Massacre.

Today is the day of remembrance for the victims. Let us remember and place this crime into its historic context.

On September 17, 1939 with "between 600–650,000 soldiers and over 5,000 thousand Red Army tanks  [of the Soviet Union] invaded the Second Polish Republic, which had been fighting against German aggression since 1 September."

The Soviet Union "invaded Poland on the pretext that ‘the Polish country and its government ceased to exist’. Consequently, ‘the USSR had to take care of the people who lived in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus and their possessions’ as the Soviet propaganda referred to the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic." ... " About 230,000 [Polish] soldiers and officers and thousands of military service representatives were taken captive by the Bolsheviks."

The reality was that the Soviets had entered into a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that included secret protocols dividing up Poland. Nazi and Soviet troops met in the middle of Poland and exchanged pleasantries in September of 1939. 

Nazi and Soviet soldiers salute Nazi flag ceremony on September 22, 1939 in Poland

The Soviet precursor to the KGB was the NKVD. "From October 1939, the delegated NKVD officials from Moscow heard the prisoners, encouraged them to cooperate and collected data. Only a few of the prisoners agreed to collaborate. The commanding officers’ reports included opinions about hostile attitudes of the Poles and a minimal chance of them being useful to the USSR authorities."

This is Katyn Memorial Day. We would like this day to be more widely known - the day on which the cold-blooded murder of over 22,000 officers and members of the Polish elite is remembered.
The images below are of the order signed by Stalin and one of the mass graves. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/3yTnp43QF4

— Communist Terror (@CommunistTerror) April 13, 2021

The decision to shoot the prisoners was signed on March 5, 1940 by seven members of the All- Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) authorities: Joseph Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria (proposer), Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Anastas Mikoyan, Mikhail Kalinin and Lazar Kaganovich.

The lists of those sent to death were to be prepared and signed by Piotr Soprunienko, commander-in-chief of the Prisoners of War Board of People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, which was created by the order of Beria in September 1939

In the Spring of 1940 the Soviet secret police began to shoot the prisoners in the back of the head or in the neck and burying them in mass graves.

Smolensk–Katyn
On 3 April, the first prisoners from Kozelsk were transported in cattle trucks through Smolensk to Gniezdovo, where smaller groups were transported by prison cars commonly called ‘czornyje worony’ (‘black ravens’) to the wilderness called Kozie Gory in Katyn Forest. The functionaries of the NKVD killed each person by shooting in the back of the head. By 11 May, 1940, 4,421 Polish citizens had been killed and buried in Katyn death pits. There is an assumption that some officers had been killed in Smolensk²⁸.

Kharkov–Piatykhatky
The first group of prisoners from Starobelsk camp was transported to the headquarters of the Board of Kharkov NKVD district on 5 April 1940. Every night in the basement of the building in Dscherschinski Street executioners killed prisoners by shooting in the neck. The trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Forest Park in Kharkov, a kilometer and a half to Piatykhatky village. By 12 May 3,820 Polish citizens had been killed in Kharkov²⁹.

Kalinin (Tver)–Miednoye
On 4 April, 1940, the NKVD started to send prisoners from Ostashkov to the headquarters of the Board of Kalinin NKVD district (today’s Tver) at 6 Soviet Street. The executions took place in the basements. The same method of killing was used: a shot to the neck. In the mornings trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Miednoye village, 30 kilometers further away. By 22 May, 1940, 6,311 Polish citizens had been killed in Kalinin. What is worth mentioning when it comes to the Katyn lie, is that the territory of Miednoye cemetery has never belonged to Germany³⁰.

Polish authorities built war cemeteries at the places where the officers’ bodies had been buried. The cemeteries were officially opened in the year 2000. (in Kharkov on 17 June, in Katyn on 28 July and on 2 September in Miednoye)³¹.

Survivors
Only 395 people from the three camps survived. Some of them owed their rescue to pure chance. Several people were willing to fight on the Soviet side in case of German invasion. There were also agents among them, the same ones as the NKVD had in the camps. The officers who were arrested in the camps and transported to NKVD Lubyanka prison in Moscow also managed to escape death in the summer of 1940³².

The Guardian summed up the crime as follows: "Joseph Stalin ordered his secret police to execute 22,000 Polish army officers and civilians in 1940, in one of the greatest mass murders of the 20th century."

On April 13, 1990 the Soviet Union admitted its guilt in the 1940 Katyn Massacre.

 

WW2 ended 75 years ago today: Let us not forget those responsible for this terrible chapter in history

We remember. History matters.

The Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany in August 1939 signing a so-called "non-aggression pact" that had secret protocols that divided Central Europe, and partitioned Poland between the two totalitarian powers. Day later, beginning with Nazi, Germany and followed a few days later by the Soviet Union they invaded Poland and met in the middle to celebrate their victory together.

Eighty years ago on March 5, 1940, Josef Stalin and other high ranking Soviet Communists signed the orders to murder thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals that had resisted the Nazi invasion of Poland and between April and May of 1940 had them executed and buried in mass graves in the forest of Katyn.

Soviet and Nazi soldiers fraternize after conquering Poland in 1939

The Nazis and the Soviets remained allied until Sunday, June 22, 1941 when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union. Prior to that they were sharing intelligence, logistics, and the Soviets were turning over Jewish refugees to be sent to the death camps.
 The end of  World War Two was a historic victory ending suffering for victims of the Nazi regime. But we must remember that for victims of the Soviet regime in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania the suffering continued for another 46 years under one of the aggressors that started this terrible war.

History matters and we must remember both how the war started and how it ended. We must also remember that although some Nazi war criminals were brought to justice at Nuremberg none of the Soviet war criminals ever were.

The Soviet Union should not be given a pass for their role in this terrible chapter in history.
 

April 13th is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Katyn Massacre.

On April 13, 1990 the Soviet Union admitted its guilt in the 1940 Katyn Massacre.

Markers over the mass graves of Katyn

The Soviet Union claimed to enter Poland in September of 1939 to "take care" of the people and seven months later beginning in April 1940 they had executed 22,000 Polish officers and buried them in mass graves in what became known as the Katyn Massacre.

Today is the day of remembrance for the victims. Let us remember and place this crime into its historic context.

#OnThisDay April 13, 1990: The Soviet Union admitted guilt for the Katyn Massacre, accepting responsibility for the murders of nearly 22,000 Polish officers https://t.co/zCZ13RNVGl

— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) April 13, 2019

On September 17, 1939 with "between 600–650,000 soldiers and over 5,000 thousand Red Army tanks  [of the Soviet Union] invaded the Second Polish Republic, which had been fighting against German aggression since 1 September."

The Soviet Union "invaded Poland on the pretext that ‘the Polish country and its government ceased to exist’. Consequently, ‘the USSR had to take care of the people who lived in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus and their possessions’ as the Soviet propaganda referred to the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic." ... " About 230,000 [Polish] soldiers and officers and thousands of military service representatives were taken captive by the Bolsheviks."

The reality was that the Soviets had entered into a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that included secret protocols dividing up Poland. Nazi and Soviet troops met in the middle of Poland and exchanged pleasantries in September of 1939.

Nazi and Soviet soldiers greet one another in Poland (1939)

The Soviet precursor to the KGB was the NKVD. "From October 1939, the delegated NKVD officials from Moscow heard the prisoners, encouraged them to cooperate and collected data. Only a few of the prisoners agreed to collaborate. The commanding officers’ reports included opinions about hostile attitudes of the Poles and a minimal chance of them being useful to the USSR authorities."

The decision to shoot the prisoners was signed on March 5, 1940 by seven members of the All- Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) authorities: Joseph Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria (proposer), Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Anastas Mikoyan, Mikhail Kalinin and Lazar Kaganovich.

The lists of those sent to death were to be prepared and signed by Piotr Soprunienko, commander-in-chief of the Prisoners of War Board of People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, which was created by the order of Beria in September 1939

In the Spring of 1940 the Soviet secret police began to shoot the prisoners in the back of the head or in the neck and burying them in mass graves.

Smolensk–Katyn
On 3 April, the first prisoners from Kozelsk were transported in cattle trucks through Smolensk to Gniezdovo, where smaller groups were transported by prison cars commonly called ‘czornyje worony’ (‘black ravens’) to the wilderness called Kozie Gory in Katyn Forest. The functionaries of the NKVD killed each person by shooting in the back of the head. By 11 May, 1940, 4,421 Polish citizens had been killed and buried in Katyn death pits. There is an assumption that some officers had been killed in Smolensk²⁸.

Kharkov–Piatykhatky
The first group of prisoners from Starobelsk camp was transported to the headquarters of the Board of Kharkov NKVD district on 5 April 1940. Every night in the basement of the building in Dscherschinski Street executioners killed prisoners by shooting in the neck. The trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Forest Park in Kharkov, a kilometer and a half to Piatykhatky village. By 12 May 3,820 Polish citizens had been killed in Kharkov²⁹.

Kalinin (Tver)–Miednoye
On 4 April, 1940, the NKVD started to send prisoners from Ostashkov to the headquarters of the Board of Kalinin NKVD district (today’s Tver) at 6 Soviet Street. The executions took place in the basements. The same method of killing was used: a shot to the neck. In the mornings trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Miednoye village, 30 kilometers further away. By 22 May, 1940, 6,311 Polish citizens had been killed in Kalinin. What is worth mentioning when it comes to the Katyn lie, is that the territory of Miednoye cemetery has never belonged to Germany³⁰.

Polish authorities built war cemeteries at the places where the officers’ bodies had been buried. The cemeteries were officially opened in the year 2000. (in Kharkov on 17 June, in Katyn on 28 July and on 2 September in Miednoye)³¹.

Survivors
Only 395 people from the three camps survived. Some of them owed their rescue to pure chance. Several people were willing to fight on the Soviet side in case of German invasion. There were also agents among them, the same ones as the NKVD had in the camps. The officers who were arrested in the camps and transported to NKVD Lubyanka prison in Moscow also managed to escape death in the summer of 1940³².

The Guardian summed up the crime as follows: "Joseph Stalin ordered his secret police to execute 22,000 Polish army officers and civilians in 1940, in one of the greatest mass murders of the 20th century."

Katyn Crime has shaped our history for decades.

🕯️We remember the prisoners of war, innocent victims of the Soviet murder.

➡️Discover their story at https://t.co/xs46w0VsCX#KatynProMemoria #Katyn80 @CPRDiP pic.twitter.com/cYIsNrzyg5

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs 🇵🇱 (@PolandMFA) April 13, 2020

After decades of blaming the crime, on the Nazis, their allies at the time, the Russian parliament, the State Duma, on November 26, 2010 took another important step forward in finally acknowledging something the entire world already knew: “the Katyn crime was committed on direct orders from Stalin and other Soviet leaders.”

The first book in English on the Katyn Massacre was published in 1951. In the U.S. Congress  the Madden Committee conducted an exhaustive investigation in 1952 that concluded that the Soviet Union had committed the atrocity.

Nazi Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop, Joseph Stalin, & Soviet foreign minister, Molotov

We Remember: 80 years ago today the order that led to the Katyn Massacre was signed by Josef Stalin

"To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” - Elie Wiesel, Night

Josef Stalin in the foreground, and Lavrentiy Beria seated behind him.

On March 5, 1940 the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union passed a resolution to shoot Polish prisoners of war held in the camps in Kozelsk, Starobielsk and Ostashkov and those detained by the NKVD in prisons in Western Belarus and Ukraine. 

Eighty years ago today Josef Stalin signed Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria's order, condemning 22,000 Polish POWs and civilians to death. Beria was Stalin's  head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) from 1938 until 1945. He was the head of the secret police in the Soviet Union.

Beria's March 5, 1940 note requested that the cases of the Polish POWs and those arrested in a special manner should be dealt the highest penalty - by shooting and without a formal trial.

This crime would forever be linked to the Katyn Forest, where some of the mass graves were first discovered. This dark anniversary was observed today in a conference titled
"Generations of Memory - Testimonies."

First panel @CPRDiP Katyń conference on "Generations of Memory - Testimonies" underlining how important it is for families to keep visiting the Katyń cemeteries to keep the memory alive and to promote to Russians how to remember own victims of Stalinism. pic.twitter.com/CaYqaISuKx

— Katyń 1940 (@katyn1940) March 5, 2020

This mass execution was carried out while Communist Russia and Nazi Germany were allies that had divided Poland and the rest of Central Europe between the two totalitarian powers in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.  

During this "honeymoon" between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Stalin's regime also handed over Jewish refugees to the Nazi Gestapo. 

The crimes of Katyn and the Soviet Union's aiding of Nazi Germany's crimes against the Polish and Jewish peoples between September 1939 and June 1941 must not be forgotten at a time that Russia's Vladimir Putin is trying to rewrite history in an Orwellian fashion.

80 years ago today the Soviet Union invaded Poland in alliance with the Nazis

"The ruling circles of Poland boasted quite a lot about the ‘stability’ of their state and the ‘might’ of their army. However, one swift blow to Poland, first by the German Army and then by the Red Army, and nothing was left of this ugly offspring of the Versailles Treaty which had existed by oppressing non-Polish nationalities." - Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet Foreign Minister in October 31, 1939  speech

On September 17, 2019 the Soviet Union invaded Poland.

80 years ago today in the early morning hours of September 17, 1939 the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the East. According to the History Channel, "the 'reason' given was that Russia had to come to the aid of its “blood brothers,” the Ukrainians and Byelorussians, who were trapped in territory that had been illegally annexed by Poland."

On September 17, 1939 with "between 600–650,000 soldiers and over 5,000 thousand Red Army tanks  [of the Soviet Union] invaded the Second Polish Republic, which had been fighting against German aggression since 1 September."



This invasion was in accordance with the secret protocols of the Hitler-Stalin Pact also known as the  Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that divided up Central Europe between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Nazi and Soviet troops met in the middle of Poland and exchanged pleasantries on September 22, 1939 and held a joint military parade in Brest-Litovsk. Soviet troops paid their respects as the Swastika flag was lowered, and Germans moved west to their agreed upon line of partition.



About 230,000 [Polish] soldiers and officers and thousands of military service representatives were taken captive by the Bolsheviks."

The Soviet precursor to the KGB intelligence service was the NKVD. "From October 1939, the delegated NKVD officials from Moscow heard the prisoners, encouraged them to cooperate and collected data. Only a few of the prisoners agreed to collaborate. The commanding officers’ reports included opinions about hostile attitudes of the Poles and a minimal chance of them being useful to the USSR authorities."

Nazi and Soviet soldiers salute raising of the Nazi flag on September 22, 1939 in Poland

The decision to shoot the prisoners was signed on March 5, 1940 by seven members of the All- Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) authorities: Joseph Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria (proposer), Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Anastas Mikoyan, Mikhail Kalinin and Lazar Kaganovich.

The lists of those sent to death were to be prepared and signed by Piotr Soprunienko, commander-in-chief of the Prisoners of War Board of People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, which was created by the order of Beria in September 1939

In the Spring of 1940 the Soviet secret police began to shoot the prisoners in the back of the head or in the neck and burying them in mass graves. This war crime became known as the Katyn massacre.

 

The secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact not only partitioned Poland but also divided up Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Romania into Nazi and Soviet "spheres of influence." The Soviet Union was an ally of the Third Reich during the first 18 months of World War Two.

17 September 1939 | The Soviet Union invaded Poland, assisting the Germans, as agreed in the #Ribbentrop-#Molotov Pact & its secret protocol that divided Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland & Romania into German and Soviet "spheres of influence." https://t.co/yxr87GBN03 pic.twitter.com/syabhoa5AL

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) September 17, 2019

April 13th is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Katyn Massacre.

Memory is the mother of all wisdom. - Samuel Johnson 

The Soviet Union claimed to enter Poland in September of 1939 to "take care" of the people and seven months later beginning in April 1940 they had executed 22,000 Polish officers and buried them in mass graves in what became known as the Katyn Massacre.

Today is the day of remembrance for the victims. Let us remember and place this crime into its historic context.

On September 17, 1939 with "between 600–650,000 soldiers and over 5,000 thousand Red Army tanks  [of the Soviet Union] invaded the Second Polish Republic, which had been fighting against German aggression since 1 September."

The Soviet Union "invaded Poland on the pretext that ‘the Polish country and its government ceased to exist’. Consequently, ‘the USSR had to take care of the people who lived in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus and their possessions’ as the Soviet propaganda referred to the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic." ... " About 230,000 [Polish] soldiers and officers and thousands of military service representatives were taken captive by the Bolsheviks."

The reality was that the Soviets had entered into a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that included secret protocols dividing up Poland. Nazi and Soviet troops met in the middle of Poland and exchanged pleasantries in September of 1939.

Nazi and Soviet soldiers greet one another in Poland (1939)

The Soviet precursor to the KGB was the NKVD. "From October 1939, the delegated NKVD officials from Moscow heard the prisoners, encouraged them to cooperate and collected data. Only a few of the prisoners agreed to collaborate. The commanding officers’ reports included opinions about hostile attitudes of the Poles and a minimal chance of them being useful to the USSR authorities."

The decision to shoot the prisoners was signed on March 5, 1940 by seven members of the All- Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) authorities: Joseph Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria (proposer), Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Anastas Mikoyan, Mikhail Kalinin and Lazar Kaganovich.

The lists of those sent to death were to be prepared and signed by Piotr Soprunienko, commander-in-chief of the Prisoners of War Board of People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, which was created by the order of Beria in September 1939

In the Spring of 1940 the Soviet secret police began to shoot the prisoners in the back of the head or in the neck and burying them in mass graves.

Smolensk–Katyn
On 3 April, the first prisoners from Kozelsk were transported in cattle trucks through Smolensk to Gniezdovo, where smaller groups were transported by prison cars commonly called ‘czornyje worony’ (‘black ravens’) to the wilderness called Kozie Gory in Katyn Forest. The functionaries of the NKVD killed each person by shooting in the back of the head. By 11 May, 1940, 4,421 Polish citizens had been killed and buried in Katyn death pits. There is an assumption that some officers had been killed in Smolensk²⁸.

Kharkov–Piatykhatky
The first group of prisoners from Starobelsk camp was transported to the headquarters of the Board of Kharkov NKVD district on 5 April 1940. Every night in the basement of the building in Dscherschinski Street executioners killed prisoners by shooting in the neck. The trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Forest Park in Kharkov, a kilometer and a half to Piatykhatky village. By 12 May 3,820 Polish citizens had been killed in Kharkov²⁹.

Kalinin (Tver)–Miednoye
On 4 April, 1940, the NKVD started to send prisoners from Ostashkov to the headquarters of the Board of Kalinin NKVD district (today’s Tver) at 6 Soviet Street. The executions took place in the basements. The same method of killing was used: a shot to the neck. In the mornings trucks carried the bodies to the pits in Miednoye village, 30 kilometers further away. By 22 May, 1940, 6,311 Polish citizens had been killed in Kalinin. What is worth mentioning when it comes to the Katyn lie, is that the territory of Miednoye cemetery has never belonged to Germany³⁰.

Polish authorities built war cemeteries at the places where the officers’ bodies had been buried. The cemeteries were officially opened in the year 2000. (in Kharkov on 17 June, in Katyn on 28 July and on 2 September in Miednoye)³¹.

Survivors
Only 395 people from the three camps survived. Some of them owed their rescue to pure chance. Several people were willing to fight on the Soviet side in case of German invasion. There were also agents among them, the same ones as the NKVD had in the camps. The officers who were arrested in the camps and transported to NKVD Lubyanka prison in Moscow also managed to escape death in the summer of 1940³².

The Guardian summed up the crime as follows: "Joseph Stalin ordered his secret police to execute 22,000 Polish army officers and civilians in 1940, in one of the greatest mass murders of the 20th century."

After decades of blaming the crime, on the Nazis, their allies at the time, the Russian parliament, the State Duma, on November 26, 2010 took another important step forward in finally acknowledging something the entire world already knew: “the Katyn crime was committed on direct orders from Stalin and other Soviet leaders.”

With all due respect to @ipngovpl_eng and @ipngovpl - the truth about #Soviet guilt was known decades earlier. All that happened 29 years ago was the release of #USSR documentation of its actions and thereby public admission of guilt. Significant, of course. https://t.co/3tSQGR78HX

— Krystyna Piórkowska (@KJPiorkowska) April 13, 2019

The first book in English on the Katyn Massacre was published in 1951. In the U.S. Congress  the Madden Committee conducted an exhaustive investigation in 1952 that concluded that the Soviet Union had committed the atrocity.

German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop, Joseph Stalin, & his foreign minister, Molotov

Providing context
Eighty years ago on August 23, 1939 the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact was made public. It was a Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact with secret protocols setting out how the two regimes would divide Poland and the Baltic States.

World War 2 would begin with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany less than a month later on September 1, 1939. The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the East on September 17, 1939. The double invasion is dramatized in Andrzej Wajda's 2007 film Katyn.

On March 5, 2019 the Russian human rights group Memorial launched a crowdfunding campaign to to have the victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre published in a Russian Book of Memory.

Enclosed are the #MaddenCommittee letter, the British @DefenceHQ of May 27th and the May 30th letter of the Military Attache of the @SAHC_UK (then South Africa House) to Stevenson pic.twitter.com/IMow6djOMJ

— Krystyna Piórkowska (@KJPiorkowska) April 13, 2019