London Calling
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Katyn massacre
This is about the 1940 massacre of Polish officers. For more details on this topic, see Polish prisoners of war in Soviet Union (after 1939).
I never knew about this until picking it up during the Stalin- Churchill prog on Monday evening, the hyprocrisy of our and the US Government was totally amazing.
Polish prisoners of war captured by the Red Army during the Soviet invasion of Poland
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre was a mass execution of Polish military officers, policemen, intellectuals and civilian prisoners of war, based on a proposal from Beria (Soviet head of Military Police and NKVD) to murder all members the Polish Officer Corps date March 5, 1940.
This official document was then approved (signed) by the entire Soviet Politburo including Stalin and Beria. The number of victims is estimated at about 22,000, with the most commonly cited number of 21,768.
The victims were murdered in the Katyn forest in Russia, the Kalinin (Tver) and Kharkiv prisons and elsewhere.
About 8,000 were officers taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, the rest being Poles arrested for allegedly being "intelligence agents, gendarmes, saboteurs, landowners, factory owners, lawyers, priests, and officials." .
Since Poland's conscription system required every unexempted university graduate to become a reserve officer, the Soviets were able to round up much of the Polish intelligentsia, and the Jewish, Ukrainian, Georgian and Belarusian intelligentsia of Polish citizenship.
Originally, "Katyn massacre" referred to the massacre at Katyn Forest, near the villages of Katyn and Gnezdovo (ca. 19 km west of Smolensk, Russia), of Polish military officers in the Kozelsk prisoner-of-war camp. It now is applied to the simultaneous executions of POWs from geographically distant Starobelsk and Ostashkov camps, and the executions of political prisoners from West Belarus and West Ukraine,shot on Stalin's orders at Katyn Forest, at the NKVD (Narodny Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del, the Soviet secret police) headquarters in Smolensk, at a Smolensk slaughterhouse, and at prisons in Kalinin (Tver), Kharkiv, Moscow, and other Soviet cities.
Nazi Germany announced the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest in 1943. The revelation led to the break up of diplomatic relations between Moscow and the London-based Polish government-in-exile. The Soviet Union continued to deny the massacres until 1990, when it finally acknowledged the massacre by the NKVD, as well as the subsequent cover-up.
The Russian government admitted Soviet responsibility for the massacres, yet does not classify this action as a war crime or as an act of genocide.
This is about the 1940 massacre of Polish officers. For more details on this topic, see Polish prisoners of war in Soviet Union (after 1939).
I never knew about this until picking it up during the Stalin- Churchill prog on Monday evening, the hyprocrisy of our and the US Government was totally amazing.
Polish prisoners of war captured by the Red Army during the Soviet invasion of Poland
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre was a mass execution of Polish military officers, policemen, intellectuals and civilian prisoners of war, based on a proposal from Beria (Soviet head of Military Police and NKVD) to murder all members the Polish Officer Corps date March 5, 1940.
This official document was then approved (signed) by the entire Soviet Politburo including Stalin and Beria. The number of victims is estimated at about 22,000, with the most commonly cited number of 21,768.
The victims were murdered in the Katyn forest in Russia, the Kalinin (Tver) and Kharkiv prisons and elsewhere.
About 8,000 were officers taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, the rest being Poles arrested for allegedly being "intelligence agents, gendarmes, saboteurs, landowners, factory owners, lawyers, priests, and officials." .
Since Poland's conscription system required every unexempted university graduate to become a reserve officer, the Soviets were able to round up much of the Polish intelligentsia, and the Jewish, Ukrainian, Georgian and Belarusian intelligentsia of Polish citizenship.
Originally, "Katyn massacre" referred to the massacre at Katyn Forest, near the villages of Katyn and Gnezdovo (ca. 19 km west of Smolensk, Russia), of Polish military officers in the Kozelsk prisoner-of-war camp. It now is applied to the simultaneous executions of POWs from geographically distant Starobelsk and Ostashkov camps, and the executions of political prisoners from West Belarus and West Ukraine,shot on Stalin's orders at Katyn Forest, at the NKVD (Narodny Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del, the Soviet secret police) headquarters in Smolensk, at a Smolensk slaughterhouse, and at prisons in Kalinin (Tver), Kharkiv, Moscow, and other Soviet cities.
Nazi Germany announced the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest in 1943. The revelation led to the break up of diplomatic relations between Moscow and the London-based Polish government-in-exile. The Soviet Union continued to deny the massacres until 1990, when it finally acknowledged the massacre by the NKVD, as well as the subsequent cover-up.
The Russian government admitted Soviet responsibility for the massacres, yet does not classify this action as a war crime or as an act of genocide.
I'll try and find some other "alternative" sources a bit later.