The Katyn Massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest Massacre, was a mass execution of Polish officers in 1940 by Soviet Security Officers. This mass killing led to tension between the Polish and Soviet Union governments and severed their diplomatic relationship.
In 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union ended their Nonaggression Pact, which led to Germany and Soviet forces occupying different parts of Poland. Because of this, tens of thousands of Polish military personnel were captured and brought into Soviet prison camps. But after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Polish and the Soviets agreed to join forces to fight the Germans. When Polish general Władysław Anders formed his army, he requested 15,000 Polish prisoners of war from the Soviet internment camps. The Soviet government told him that the prisoners had escaped and therefore could not be provided.
Before 1943, nobody knew what exactly happened with the missing prisoners. Then on April 13, 1943, the Germans revealed that they discovered over 4,000 Polish corpses who had apparently been shot from behind and buried in the Katyn Forest. Investigators later identified the corpses as the same Polish officers held in the Soviet prison camps. When Poland first accused the Soviet Union of this mass execution, they initially denied it, claiming that there was Polish construction in that area and the Germans just so happened to be in that area and killed them.
After Red Cross and German investigations found evidence of a massacre, the Polish government demanded official Soviet reports regarding the fate of the prisoners of war in the Soviet prison camps. After the Soviets failed to meet these demands, on April 25, 1943, they broke diplomatic ties with the Polish government. After the massacre was confirmed, Germany used this determination to create propaganda in order to disrupt the alliance between the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union. This was somewhat successful, with the diplomatic ties between Poland and the Soviet Union being cut.
Initial American involvement surrounding the event was nonexistent. It wasn’t until 1951 that the United States House of Representatives established a committee to conduct an investigation surrounding the events of the Katyn Massacre. The committee took records related to the massacre and listened to witness testimony to find out which nation was responsible for the massacre and whether the U.S. official engaged in covering up the event. The committee eventually established that it was the NKVD, Soviet secret police, that was responsible for the mass killings and the cover-up. The question of whether Americans were involved in the cover-up was a more difficult question to answer. It was eventually determined that the American officers had failed to evaluate and act upon Soviet danger signals.
In April of 2010, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin joined Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the commemoration ceremony for the Katyn Massacre. It marked the first time that a Russian leader took part in such a commemoration. Undermined by the scale in which the Holocaust affected the Jews, people often overlook events like the Katyn Massacre, which is why remembering these tragedies is so important; this way it makes us all witnesses.
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The lack of punishment and coverage for the massacre is tragic. I remember reading about how the British and American failed to punish the Soviets or even bring up the massacre to Stalin. Apparently at the time, Churchill and FDR were certain the Soviets were the one to kill the officers, but "neither was prepared to make an issue of the matter." This decision was likely influenced by both the British and American's constant attempts to gain Stalin's favor. While it is agreed that FDR and Churchill had a closer relationship with each other than either had with Stalin, both men tried courting Stalin to gain an advantage in wartime negotiations. If they had tried to accuse Stalin of the massacre, it would definitely have been a point of contention.
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- The Second World War and Its Consequences
https://e.edim.co/7836556/the_second_world_war_and_its_consequences.pdf?&Expires=1578858817&Signature=k4H3oAMbTaHqQyanEKscQ6yOnpT0Clh2KUQTJKerAiy9oWekv8aR-FTzy1IklgYODnFPncTF6bHg4nXW1awJMvBfhHEVnF7Yg3eFtUSGV8V5RcHB3pbYW5lGDVpOPANOJqZ1DL3Qtzi6GXEcIGIrjtREVzJVrekQxgyUngeVYlfvtz~Hg5GWoW8rapIZ~SEy0NKRrZY6mQtkihECELPQZdhUNoz0OLMlBL2vQMn1w~3EjZ8yXzj5eV9ct6WtB298KdZFjYrtFe3HNwsMYtjVX7OTKaHJ1XcDKTIYIu9HOLkuA~vJqbMCSIYuP3eGjEp~ghr1SIC8nTJP914ADLRIRg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJMSU6JYPN6FG5PBQ
I strongly agree to Ella’s comment above on how it was tragic that Stalin completely denied such a large massacre and both Churchill and Roosevelt didn’t take action against the Soviet Union. In 2012, the US released thousands of declassified documents that confirmed that the Roosevelt administration knew it was Stalin’s fault and continued to help cover up the massacre. I’m not sure if Britain has released anything with regard to the massacre, but recently, Russian leaders have been taking steps to make up for their prior dismissals on events such as the Katyn Massacre. On April 13th, 1990, after around 5 decades of denial, the Soviet government officially accepted the blame for the Katyn Massacre under Mikhail Gorbachev’s promise to be more forthcoming about Soviet history. Then in 1992, Russia released archival documents that clearly showed that Stalin’s Politburo ordered the massacre in March 1940. In 2010, Vladimir Putin became the first Russian leader to join Donald Tusk (PM of Poland) and Polish officials in commemorating the Katyn Massacre. Both leaders hoped that the ceremonies would be a first step toward reconciling the conflict over the massacre.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-admit-to-katyn-massacre
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/europe/08putin.html
I really enjoyed the amount of detail in this article. I agree with both of the comments above regarding the sadly lacking amount of knowledge about this massacre. It's interesting that Putin would actually go against his predecessor's stance in 2010, hopefully this shows hope for more cooperation between countries in the future. I also definitely agree that even though this event is smaller in scale than other, more well-known war crimes, it is just as important to remember. Well written!
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