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Katyn massacre

This article is about the 1940 massacre of Polish officers. For the 1943 massacre of Belarusians, see Khatyn massacre.

Katyn massacre
Part of the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Poland (during World War II) and Soviet repressions of Poles
Mass grave of Polish officers in Katyn Forest, exhumed by Germany in 1943
Katyn massacre is located in the Soviet Union
Katyn massacre
LocationKatyn Forest, Kalinin and Kharkiv prisons in Soviet Union
Coordinates54°46′20″N 31°47′24″E / 54.77222°N 31.79000°E / 54.77222; 31.79000
DateApril–May 1940
TargetPoles (military officers, intelligentsia, and prisoners of war)
Attack type
War crime, decapitation, massacre
Deaths21,857[1]
PerpetratorNKVD
Motive
Map of the sites related to the Katyn massacre
Map of the sites related to the Katyn massacre

The Katyn massacre[a] was a series of mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by the Soviet Union, specifically the NKVD (the Soviet secret police), at Stalin's order in April and May 1940. Though the killings also occurred in the Kalinin and Kharkiv NKVD prisons and elsewhere, the massacre is named after the Katyn forest, where some of the mass graves were first discovered by German Nazi forces in 1943.[2]

The massacre is qualified as a crime against humanity,[3] crime against peace,[3] war crime[3][4] and Communist crime[5] and according to a resolution of the Polish parliament or Sejm, it bears the hallmarks of a genocide.[6]

The order to execute captive members of the Polish officer corps was secretly issued by the Soviet Politburo led by Joseph Stalin.[7] Of the total killed, about 8,000 were officers imprisoned during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, another 6,000 were police officers, and the remaining 8,000 were Polish intelligentsia the Soviets deemed to be "intelligence agents and gendarmes, spies and saboteurs, former landowners, factory owners and officials".[8] The Polish Army officer class was representative of the multi-ethnic Polish state; the murdered included ethnic Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and 700–900 Polish Jews.[9]

The government of Nazi Germany announced the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest in April 1943.[10] Stalin severed diplomatic relations with the London-based Polish government-in-exile when it asked for an investigation by the International Committee of the Red Cross.[11] After the Vistula–Oder offensive where the mass graves fell into Soviet control, the Soviet Union claimed the Nazis had killed the victims, and it continued to deny responsibility for the massacres until 1990, when it officially acknowledged and condemned the killings by the NKVD, as well as the subsequent cover-up by the Soviet government.

An investigation conducted by the office of the prosecutors general of the Soviet Union (1990–1991) and the Russian Federation (1991–2004) confirmed Soviet responsibility for the massacres, but refused to classify this action as a war crime or as an act of mass murder. The investigation was closed on the grounds that the perpetrators were dead, and since the Russian government would not classify the dead as victims of the Great Purge, formal posthumous rehabilitation was deemed inapplicable. In November 2010, hoping to improve relations with Poland, the Russian State Duma approved a declaration condemning Stalin and other Soviet officials for ordering the massacre. In 2021, the Russian Ministry of Culture downgraded the memorial complex at Katyn on its Register of Sites of Cultural Heritage from a place of federal to one of only regional importance.[12]

  1. ^ Gurianov, Aleksander, ed. (2015). Убиты в Катыни. Книга памяти польских военнопленных – узников Козельского лагеря НКВД, расстрелянных по решению Политбюро ЦК ВКП(б) от 5 марта 1940 года [Those Killed in Katyn. The Memorial Book of Polish Prisoners of War – Prisoners of the Kozelsk NKVD Camp, Shot Dead at the Order of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Communist Party from 5 March 1940 Onwards] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Memorial. p. 68. ISBN 978-5-78700-123-5.
  2. ^ "The Katyn Massacre – Mechanisms of Genocide". Warsaw Institute. 18 May 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Janowiec and Others v. Russia, Applications nos. 55508/07 and 29520/09 (Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights 21 October 2013).
  4. ^ "Katyń można traktować jako zbrodnię wojenną – Europejski Trybunał Praw Człowieka" [Katyn Can be Regarded as a War Crime – European Court of Human Rights]. TVN24 (in Polish). 16 April 2012. Archived from the original on 17 July 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  5. ^ Sejm of the Republic of Poland (13 January 2023). "Obwieszczenie marszałka Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 24 listopada 2022 r. w sprawie ogłoszenia jednolitego tekstu ustawy o Instytucie Pamięci Narodowej – Komisji Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu" [Announcement of the Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland of 24 November 2022 on the announcement of the uniform text of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation] (PDF). Dziennik Ustaw Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej [Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland] (102). Warsaw. Retrieved 20 June 2024. Art. 2. 1. Zbrodniami komunistycznymi, w rozumieniu ustawy, są czyny popełnione przez funkcjonariuszy państwa komunistycznego w okresie od dnia 8 listopada 1917 r. do dnia 31 lipca 1990 r. polegające na stosowaniu represji lub innych form naruszania praw człowieka wobec jednostek lub grup ludności bądź w związku z ich stosowaniem, stanowiące przestępstwa według polskiej ustawy karnej obowiązującej w czasie ich popełnienia. [Art. 2. 1. Communist crimes, as understood by the Law, are acts committed by officers of a Communist state from 8 November 1917 to 31 July 1990, involving repressions or other forms of the violation of human rights used against individuals or population groups or in connection with their use, constituting crimes under the Polish penal law in force at the time they were committed.]
  6. ^ Sejm of the Republic of Poland (23 September 2009). "Uchwała Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 23 września 2009 r. upamiętniająca agresję Związku Radzieckiego na Polskę 17 września 1939 r." [Resolution of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland of 23 September 2009 Commemorating the Aggression of the Soviet Union against Poland on 17 September 1939] (PDF). Monitor Polski (63): 3134. Retrieved 20 June 2024. Długa jest lista zbrodni i nieszczęść, które dotknęły wtedy wschodnie tereny II Rzeczypospolitej i obywateli polskich, którzy się tam znaleźli. Składa się na nią zbrodnia wojenna rozstrzelania przez NKWD ponad 20 tysięcy bezbronnych jeńców, polskich oficerów, wysiedlenie setek tysięcy obywateli Rzeczypospolitej, osadzenie ich w nieludzkich warunkach w obozach i więzieniach oraz przymuszanie do niewolniczej pracy. ... Organizacja systemu, długotrwałość i skala zjawiska nadały tym zbrodniom, w tym zbrodni katyńskiej, znamiona ludobójstwa. [Long is the list of the crimes and misfortunes which befell the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic and the Polish citizens who happened to be there. It comprises the war crime of shooting more than 20,000 defenseless prisoners of war, Polish officers, by the NKVD; the displacement of hundreds of thousands of citizens of the Republic of Poland; placing them in inhumane conditions in camps and prisons and forcing them to do slave labour. ... The organization of the system, the persistence and scale of the phenomenon give these crimes, including the Katyn Massacre, the hallmarks of genocide.]
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Brown2009-140 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference ipn_eng_news_high_katyn_decision was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference controversy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Engel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference LeslieLeslie1983 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ "Katyn Memorial Complex {C}** Execution & Burial site". Russia's Necropolis of Terror and the Gulag. Iofe Foundation. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 20 September 2024.


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