During the Second World War, both sides of the conflict committed many crimes against humanity. Killed millions of civilians and military personnel. One of the controversial pages of that story is the shooting of Polish officers near Katyn. We will try to find out the truth that has been hidden for a long time, blaming others for this crime.
For more than half a century, real events in Katyn have been hiding from the world community. Today, information on the case is not secret, although the opinion on this matter is ambiguous both among historians and politicians, and among ordinary citizens who participated in the conflict of countries.
Katyn execution
For many, Katyn has become a symbol of brutal killings. The execution of Polish officers cannot be justified or understood. It was here, in the Katyn Forest of the Smolensk Region, in the spring of 1940 that thousands of Polish officers were destroyed. The massacre of Polish citizens was not limited to this place. Documents were published, according to which during April-May 1940, more than 20 thousand Polish citizens were destroyed in various NKVD camps.
The shooting in Katyn for a long time complicated the Polish-Russian relations. Since 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the State Duma have recognized that the massacre of Polish citizens in the Katyn Forest was an activity of the Stalin regime. This was made public in a statement on the Katyn tragedy and its victims. However, not all public and political figures in the Russian Federation agree with this statement.
Captivity of Polish officers
The Second World War for Poland began on September 1, 1939, when Germany entered its territory. England and France did not enter into conflict, waiting for the outcome of further events. On September 10, 1939, troops of the USSR entered Poland with the official goal of protecting the Ukrainian and Belarusian populations of Poland. Modern historiography calls such actions of the aggressor countries "the fourth division of Poland." The troops of the Red Army occupied the territory of Western Ukraine, Western Belarus. By the decision of the Treaty of Versailles, these lands became part of Poland.
The Polish military, defending their lands, could not resist the two armies. They were quickly defeated. On the ground under the NKVD eight camps were created for Polish prisoners of war. They are directly related to the tragic event, called the "shooting in Katyn."
In total, up to half a million Polish citizens were captured by the Red Army, most of whom were released over time, and about 130 thousand people ended up in the camps. After a while, part of the ordinary soldiers, natives of Poland, were sent home, more than 40 thousand were transported to Germany, the rest (about 40 thousand) were distributed in five camps:
- Starobelsky (Lugansk) - officers in the amount of 4 thousand.
- Kozelsky (Kaluga) - officers in the amount of 5 thousand.
- Ostashkovsky (Tver) - gendarmes and police in the amount of 4700 people.
- aimed at the construction of roads - ordinary in the amount of 18 thousand.
- sent to work in the Krivoy Rog basin - ordinary in the amount of 10 thousand.
By the spring of 1940 letters from prisoners of war from three camps ceased to receive letters to relatives, which before that were regularly transmitted through the Red Cross. The reason for the silence of prisoners of war was Katyn, the history of the tragedy of which connected the fate of tens of thousands of Poles.
The shooting of prisoners
In 1992, a document proposal dated 03.08.1940 by L. Beria to the Politburo was published, which addressed the question of the execution of Polish prisoners of war. The decision on capital punishment was adopted on March 5, 1940.
At the end of March, the NKVD completed the development of the plan. Prisoners of war from Starobelsky and Kozelsky camps were taken to Kiev, Kherson, Kharkov, Minsk. Former gendarmes and police from the Ostashkovsky camp were transferred to Kalinin prison, from which ordinary prisoners were taken out in advance. Huge pits were dug near the prison (Mednoye village).
In April, 350-400 people began to be taken out for execution. Sentenced to death assumed that they were released. Many drove off in cars in high spirits, not even realizing that they would die soon.
How was the shooting near Katyn:
- prisoners tied;
- threw a greatcoat over their heads (not always, only on especially strong and young ones);
- led to a dug ditch;
- killed by a shot in the back of the head from Walter or Browning.
It was the latter fact that for a long time testified that the German troops were guilty of a crime against Polish citizens.
Prisoners from the Kalinin prison were killed right in the cells.
From April to May 1940 was shot:
- in Katyn - 4421 prisoners;
- in Starobelsky and Ostashkovsky camps - 10131;
- in other camps - 7305.
Who was shot in Katyn? Not only staff officers were executed, but also lawyers, teachers, engineers, doctors, professors and other intellectuals mobilized during the war.
Missing Officers
When Germany attacked the USSR, negotiations began between the Polish and Soviet governments regarding the unification of forces against the enemy. Then they began to search for officers taken to Soviet camps. But the truth about Katyn was still unknown.
None of the missing officers could be found, and the assumption that they had escaped from the camps was unfounded. There was not a single message or mention of those who ended up in the camps mentioned above.
They could only find officers, or rather, their bodies, in 1943. In Katyn, mass graves of executed Polish citizens were discovered.
German side investigation
The first mass graves in the Katyn Forest were discovered by German troops. They performed the exhumation of the excavated bodies and conducted their investigation.
The exhumation of the bodies was carried out by Gerhard Butz. To work in the village of Katyn, international commissions were involved, which included doctors from Germany-controlled countries of Europe, as well as representatives of Switzerland and Poles from the Red Cross (Polish). Representatives of the International Red Cross were not present at the same time because of a ban on the part of the USSR government.
The German report contained the following information about Katyn (execution of Polish officers):
- As a result of excavations, eight mass graves were discovered, of which 4,143 people were taken out and reburied. Most of the dead were identified. In graves No. 1-7, people were buried in winter clothes (fur jackets, overcoats, sweaters, scarves), and in grave No. 8, in summer. Also in graves No. 1-7 were found scraps of newspapers dated April-March 1940, and there were no traces of insects on the corpses. This testified to the fact that the shooting of the Poles in Katyn took place in the cool season, that is, in the spring.
- A lot of personal items were found among the dead, they testified that the victims were in the Kozelsky camp. For example, letters from home addressed to Kozelsk. Also, many had snuff boxes and other items with the inscription "Kozelsk."
- Slices of trees showed that they were planted on graves about three years ago from the time of discovery. This testified to the fact that the pits fell asleep in 1940. At this time, the territory was controlled by Soviet troops.
- All Polish officers in Katyn were shot in the back of the head with German-made bullets. However, they were released in the 20-30s of the XX century and were exported in large quantities to the Baltic countries and the Soviet Union.
- The hands of the executed were tied with a cord in such a way that when they tried to separate them, the loop was tightened even more. The victims had their heads shook from the grave No. 5, so that when trying to make any movement, the loop strangled the future victim. In other graves, heads were also tied, but only to those who stood out with sufficient physical strength. On the bodies of some of the dead were found traces of a tetrahedral bayonet, like Soviet weapons. The Germans used flat bayonets.
- The commission interviewed local residents and revealed that in the spring of 1940 a large number of Polish prisoners of war arrived at the Gnezdovo station, who were loaded onto trucks and taken away to the forest. The locals did not see these people anymore.
The Polish commission, which was at the time of the exhumation and conducting the investigation, confirmed all the German conclusions in this case, not finding any obvious signs of fraud. The only thing the Germans tried to hide about Katyn (the shooting of Polish officers) was the origin of the bullets that carried out the killings. However, the Poles understood that representatives of the NKVD could have similar weapons.
Soviet version
Since the fall of 1943, representatives of the NKVD took up the investigation of the Katyn tragedy. According to their version, Polish prisoners of war were engaged in road works, and with the arrival of the Germans in the Smolensk region in the summer of 1941, they did not have time to evacuate them.
According to the NKVD, in August-September of the same year, the remaining prisoners were shot by the Germans. To hide the traces of their crimes, representatives of the Wehrmacht opened the graves in 1943 and extracted from there all documents dated after 1940.
The Soviet authorities prepared a large number of witnesses for their version of the events, but in 1990 the surviving witnesses abandoned their testimonies in 1943.
The Soviet commission, conducting repeated excavations, falsified some documents, and partially destroyed the graves. But Katyn, whose history of tragedy haunted Polish citizens, nevertheless revealed its secrets.
Katyn case at the Nuremberg trials
After the war from 1945 to 1946 held the so-called Nuremberg trials, the purpose of which was to punish war criminals. The Katyn issue was also raised in court. The Soviet side accused the German troops of executing Polish prisoners of war.
Many witnesses in this case changed their testimonies, they refused to support the conclusions of the German commission, although they themselves took part in it. Despite all the attempts of the USSR, the Tribunal did not support the prosecution on the Katyn issue, which in fact gave rise to thoughts that the Soviet troops were guilty of the Katyn execution.
Official recognition of responsibility for Katyn
Katyn (the shooting of Polish officers) and what happened there was examined by different countries many times. The United States conducted its investigation in 1951-1952, at the end of the 20th century the Soviet-Polish commission worked on this case, and in 1991 the Institute of National Remembrance was opened in Poland.
After the collapse of the USSR, the Russian Federation also re-engaged in this issue. Since 1990, an investigation of the criminal case by the military prosecutor’s office began. It received No. 159. In 2004, the criminal case was dismissed due to the death of those accused of it.
The Polish side put forward a version of the genocide of the Polish people, but the Russian side did not confirm it. The genocide criminal case was dismissed.
Today, the process of declassifying many volumes of the Katyn case continues. Copies of these volumes are handed over to the Polish side. The first important documents on prisoners of war in Soviet camps were transferred in 1990 by M. Gorbachev. The Russian side acknowledged that the Soviet government in the person of Beria, Merkulov and others stood behind the crime in Katyn.
In 1992, documents on the Katyn execution were published, which were stored in the so-called Presidential Archive. Modern scientific literature recognizes their authenticity.
Polish-Russian relations
The question of the Katyn execution occasionally appears in the Polish and Russian media. For Poles, it is of great importance in the national historical memory.
In 2008, a Moscow court dismissed a complaint about executed Polish officers by their relatives. As a result of the refusal, they filed a complaint against the Russian Federation with the European Court. Russia was accused of ineffective investigations, as well as neglect of the close relatives of the victims. In April 2012, the European Court of Human Rights qualified the shooting of prisoners as a war crime, and ordered Russia to pay 10 out of 15 plaintiffs (relatives of 12 officers killed in Katyn), 5,000 euros each. It was a compensation for the plaintiffs' legal costs. It is difficult to say whether the Poles, for whom Katyn has become a symbol of family and national tragedy, have achieved their goal.
The official position of the authorities of the Russian Federation
Modern leaders of the Russian Federation, V.V. Putin and D.A. Medvedev, adhere to one point of view on the Katyn execution. They made statements several times in which they condemned the crimes of the Stalinist regime. Vladimir Putin even made his assumption, which explained the role of Stalin in the murder of Polish officers. In his opinion, the Russian dictator thus avenged his defeat in 1920 in the Soviet-Polish war.
In 2010, D. A. Medvedev initiated the publication of documents classified in Soviet times from the "package No. 1" on the website of the Federal Archives. The execution in Katyn, whose official documents are available for discussion, is still not fully disclosed. Some volumes of this case are still classified, but the Polish media D. A. Medvedev said that he condemns those who doubt the authenticity of the documents submitted.
11/26/2010 The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted the document "On the Katyn Tragedy ...". Representatives of the Communist Party faction opposed this. According to the adopted statement, the Katyn execution was recognized as a crime that was committed at the direct direction of Stalin. The document also expressed sympathy for the Polish people.
In 2011, official representatives of the Russian Federation began to declare their readiness to consider the issue of rehabilitation of victims of the Katyn execution.
Memory of Katyn
Among the Polish population, the memory of the Katyn execution has always remained a part of history. In 1972, a committee in exile was created in London by Poles in exile, which began raising funds for the construction of a monument to the victims of the massacre of Polish officers in 1940. The British government did not support these efforts, as it feared the reaction of the Soviet government.
By September 1976, a monument was opened at the Gunnersberg Cemetery, which is located in the west of London. The monument is a low obelisk with inscriptions on a pedestal. The inscriptions are made in two languages - Polish and English. They say that the monument was built in memory of more than 10 thousand Polish prisoners in Kozelsk, Starobelsk, Ostashkov. They disappeared in 1940, and their part (4,500 people) were exhumed in 1943 near Katyn.
Similar monuments to the victims of Katyn were erected in other countries of the world:
- in Toronto (Canada);
- in Johannesburg (South Africa);
- to New Britan (USA);
- at the War Cemetery in Warsaw (Poland).
The fate of the 1981 monument at the War Cemetery was tragic. After installation at night it was taken out by unknown people, using a construction crane and machines. The monument was in the form of a cross with the date “1940” and the inscription “Katyn”. Two columns with inscriptions "Starobelsk", "Ostashkovo" adjoined the cross. At the foot of the monument were the letters "V. P. ”, meaning“ Eternal memory ”, as well as the coat of arms of the Commonwealth in the form of an eagle with a crown.
The memory of the tragedy of the Polish people was well illuminated in his film Katyn by Andrzej Wajda (2007). The director himself is the son of Yakub Weida, a career officer who was shot in 1940.
The film was shown in different countries, including Russia, and in 2008 it was in the top five of the international Academy Award in the category of Best Foreign Film.
The plot of the picture is based on the story of Andrzej Mulyarchik. The period from September 1939 to autumn 1945 is described. The film tells about the fate of four officers who ended up in the Soviet camp, as well as their close relatives who do not know the truth about them, although they guess the worst. Through the fate of several people, the author conveyed to everyone what the real story was.
"Katyn" can not leave the spectator indifferent, regardless of nationality.