Katyn execution - mass execution of Poles (mostly captured Polish officers) on the territory of the Soviet Union during World War II (1940)
First official version
For several decades, Soviet propaganda carefully cultivated the delusion that the mass execution of the Polish army in the Katyn forest, near Smolensk, was the work of the Nazis. This opinion was supported by the results of the work of the Special Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Execution of Polish Officers of War by the Nazis in the Katyn Forest, created in 1944 at the initiative of the Soviet side.
According to the conclusions of this commission, which were confirmed as the official point of view on this incident, not only in the Soviet Union, but also beyond its borders, all Polish citizens killed there were considered liquidated by the German fascist invaders. The perpetrators of the Katyn massacre were quickly found, and the case was thus hushed up. However, as it turned out later, the German occupiers had nothing to do with it, and the execution of the Poles was the work of the NKVD.
What is known about the tragedy
It is a well-known fact that after the annexation of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus by the Soviet Union in 1939, tens of thousands of Polish servicemen ended up on the territory of Soviet Ukraine, who were later interned and sent to camps. In addition to soldiers and officers, thousands of Polish landowners, manufacturers, policemen, priests, whom the Bolsheviks regarded as the main driving force of the counter-revolution, ended up in Soviet prisons.
Promotional video:
Realizing the inevitability of a military clash with the Germans, Stalin, apparently, decided to play it safe and not expect how the Polish anti-communists would react to the war, especially since the Soviets already had a precedent when in 1918 captured Czechoslovak captives revolted and strongly "annoyed" the Bolsheviks. Therefore, in 1940, the “father of all nations” was not sure how the prisoners of the Poles could behave if a war with Germany began. This, most likely, was the reason for the destruction of the latter.
German investigation
1943, February - a German investigation was launched, based on the testimony of local residents who witnessed how in March-April 1940 the NKVD officers brought Polish prisoners of war to the Katyn Forest, whom no one else saw alive.
The Germans assembled an international commission, which included doctors from the states under their control, as well as Switzerland, after which the corpses were exhumed in places of mass graves. In total, the remains of more than 4,000 Poles were recovered from 8 mass graves, which, according to the conclusions of the German commission, were killed not later than May 1940. The reason for this was the lack of items that could indicate a later date of death. The German commission also considered it proven that the executions were carried out according to the scheme adopted by the NKVD.
Investigation by the Soviet Commission
1944, January - an official investigation was launched by the "Special Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the circumstances of the execution by the Nazi invaders in the Katyn forest (near Smolensk) of Polish officers of war", headed by the chief surgeon of the Red Army Nikolai Burdenko.
The conclusions of the commission: Polish officers who were in special camps on the territory of the Smolensk region were not evacuated in the summer of 1941 due to the rapid advance of the Nazis. The captured Poles ended up in the hands of the Germans, who carried out the massacre in the Katyn forest. In support of this version, the "Burdenko commission" presented the results of an examination, according to which the Poles were shot from German weapons. In addition, Soviet investigators found things and objects from the dead that testified that the Poles were alive at least until the summer of 1941.
Nuremberg trials
After the war, from 1945 to 1946, the Nuremberg Trials took place, the purpose of which was to punish war criminals. The Katyn case was also brought up in court. The Soviet Union blamed Germany for the execution of Polish prisoners of war.
Many of the witnesses changed their testimony on this issue, they refused to support the conclusions of the German commission, although they themselves took part in it. Despite all the attempts of the Soviet side, the Tribunal did not support the charge on the Katyn issue, which in fact gave rise to the idea that the NKVD was to blame for the Katyn massacre.
Declassified documents
The declassified package of documents that were kept in the KGB of the USSR for a long time makes it possible to assert the involvement of the NKVD in the execution of Polish citizens. The key place is occupied by two documents - the Note of Lavrenty Beria to Joseph Stalin and the Decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) of March 5, 1940. Below is the text of the Note, which indicates the "hand of the NKVD" in the destruction of captured and arrested Poles.
Beria's note to Stalin.
Document content
A large number of former officers of the Polish army, former employees of the Polish police and intelligence agencies, members of Polish nationalist counterrevolutionary parties, members of uncovered counterrevolutionary insurgent organizations, defectors, etc. All they are sworn enemies of the Soviet Union, filled with hatred of the Soviet regime.
Prisoners of war officers, while in the camps, continue their counter-revolutionary work and carry on anti-Soviet agitation. Each of them is just waiting for release in order to be able to actively join the struggle against the USSR.
The organs of the NKVD in the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus have identified a number of counter-revolutionary insurgent organizations. Former officers of the former Polish army, former policemen and gendarmes played an active leading role in these counter-revolutionary organizations.
Among the detained defectors of the state border, a significant number of persons were also identified who were members of counter-revolutionary, spy and rebel organizations.
There are only 14,736 former officers, officials, landowners, policemen, gendarmes, jailers, security guards and scouts in the prisoner-of-war camps (excluding soldiers and non-commissioned officers). More than 97% are Poles by nationality.
Of them:
- generals, colonels and lieutenant colonels - 295;
- majors and captains - 2080;
- lieutenants, lieutenants and servants - 6049;
- officers and junior commanders of the police, border guards and gendarmerie - 1030;
- ordinary policemen, gendarmes, jailers and scouts - 5138;
- officials, landowners, priests and sieges - 144.
In the prisons of the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, there are a total of 18,632 arrested persons (of whom 10685 are Poles), including:
- former officers - 1207;
- former police officers, intelligence officers and gendarmes - 5141;
- spies and saboteurs - 347;
- former landowners, manufacturers and officials - 465;
- members of various counter-revolutionary and insurgent organizations and various counter-revolutionary elements - 5345;
- defectors - 6127.
Proceeding from the fact that they are all inveterate, incorrigible enemies of the Soviet Union, the NKVD of the USSR considers it necessary:
I. Propose to the NKVD of the USSR:
1) Cases of 14,700 people in prison camps, former Polish officers, officials, landowners, police officers, intelligence officers, gendarmes, siege officers and jailers;
2) Cases of 11,000 people arrested and imprisoned in the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, members of various counter-revolutionary espionage and sabotage organizations, former landowners, factory owners, former Polish officers, officials and defectors, should be considered in a special order, with application to them the capital punishment is execution.
II. The consideration of cases shall be carried out without summoning the arrested persons and without presenting charges, a decision to end the investigation and an indictment in the following order:
a) For persons in prisoner-of-war camps - according to certificates issued by the Directorate for Prisoners of War Affairs of the NKVD of the USSR;
b) On persons arrested - according to certificates from the cases provided by the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR and the NKVD of the USSR.
III. Consideration of cases and making a decision shall be entrusted to the "troika" in the composition of Comrades. Merkulova, Kabulova, Bashtakova (head of the 1st Special Department of the NKVD of the USSR).
The note is dated March 5, 1940 and signed by L. P. Beria. On the same day, the proposal of the NKVD of the USSR was approved by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b).
Unresolved issue
All the first secretaries of the Central Committee and the chairmen of the KGB of the USSR knew that such documents exist and their content in subsequent years. So, for example, a note by the chairman of the KGB A. Shelepin to NS Khrushchev of March 3, 1959 was declassified, in which the first secretary, in order to avoid "undesirable consequences", was asked to destroy all the cases of the executed Poles. In it, in particular, it was said:
“For the Soviet authorities, all these matters have neither operational interest nor historical value. They are unlikely to be of real interest to our Polish friends. On the contrary, any unforeseen accident can lead to the disclosure of the operation carried out with all the undesirable consequences for our state, especially since there is an official version with regard to those shot in the Katyn Forest, which is confirmed by the commission's investigation carried out on the initiative of the Soviet authorities in 1944 … Conclusions the commissions have become firmly entrenched in international public opinion … Based on the foregoing, it seems expedient to destroy all the registration files on the persons who were shot in 1940 in the above operation."
On a note
In total, according to the decisions of a special "troika" of the NKVD of the USSR, in 1940 in various camps of the USSR, 21,857 Poles were shot, of which 4,421 people were in the Katyn forest. Only with the end of the communist era in the Soviet Union did it become possible to learn the truth about the events in the Smolensk region. Although, even during the Second World War, the Polish émigré government in London, relying on German sources, accused the NKVD of the Katyn execution. What was the reason for the severance of diplomatic relations between the Commonwealth, represented by the London government, and the USSR. So, Comrade Shelepin was somewhat cunning about the "strength" of the official version in international public opinion.