During the Second World War, both sides committed many crimes against humanity.Killed millions of civilians and soldiers.One of the controversial pages of the story is considered execution of Polish officers at Katyn.The truth, which has long been concealed by accusing others of this crime, we will try to find out.
than half a century, these events at Katyn were hiding from the world community.Today, information on the case is not a secret, although opinions on this issue is ambiguous as the historians and politicians, and ordinary citizens involved in the conflict countries.
Katyn Massacre
for many has become a symbol of the brutal murders of Katyn.The shooting of Polish officers is impossible to justify or understand.It was here, in the Katyn forest Smolensk region, the spring of 1940 destroyed thousands of Polish officers.The massacre of Polish citizens is not confined only to this place.Were released the documents on which during April-May 1940 in different camps of the NKVD destroyed more than 20 thousand citizens of Poland.
Shooting at Katyn has long complicated the Polish-Russian relations.Since 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Duma admitted that the mass murder of Polish citizens in the Katyn Forest is an activity of the Stalinist regime.It was made public in a statement "On the Katyn tragedy and its victims."However, not all politicians and public figures in Russia agree with this statement.
Captivity Polish officers
World War II Poland 01.09.1939 started when Germany entered its territory.Britain and France did not come into conflict, waiting for further developments isolation.Already in Poland 09.10.1939 Soviet troops entered a formal order to protect the Ukrainian and Belarusian population of Poland.Modern historians call these actions of the aggressor countries "fourth partition of Poland."Red Army troops occupied the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.According to the decision of the Versailles Treaty, these lands became part of Poland.
Polish soldiers defending their land, were not able to withstand the two armies.They quickly defeated.On the ground, the NKVD was created eight camps for Polish prisoners of war.They are directly related to the tragic event, dubbed the "shot in Katyn."
Total captured by the Red Army got half a million citizens of Poland, most of which was released in time, and the camps were about 130 thousand people.After the time of the rank and file soldiers, natives of Poland, dismissed to their homes, more than 40 thousand smuggled to Germany, and the rest (about 40 thousand) divided into five camps:
- Starobelsk (Luhansk) - Officers in the amount of 4 thousand.
- Kozelskiy (Kaluga) - Officers in the amount of 5 thousand.
- Ostashkov (Tver) - gendarmes and police in the number of 4700 people.
- spent on construction of roads - the rank and file in the amount of 18 thousand.
- sent to work in Kryvyi Rih basin - series in the amount of 10 thousand.
By the spring of 1940 by prisoners of the three camps of families stopped receiving letters that have regularly passed through the Red Cross.The reason for the silence of war became Katyn tragedy of history that linked the fate of tens of thousands of Poles.
shooting of prisoners
In 1992 the document was made public, the offer from 03.08.1940 L. Beria to the Politburo, which addressed the issue of the execution of Polish prisoners of war.The decision on capital punishment adopted March 5, 1940.
In late March, the NKVD completed the development plan.Prisoners of Starobelsk and Kozelsk camps were taken to Kiev, Kherson, Kharkiv, Minsk.Former gendarmes and police officers from Ostashkov camp Kalinin moved to prison from which previously have taken ordinary prisoners.Not far from the prison they were dug huge pits (village Copper).
In April, the prisoners began to export to the execution of 350-400 people.Sentenced to death, suggested that their release to freedom.Many left in cars in high spirits, not even knowing about the imminent death.
As there was shooting at Katyn:
- prisoners linked;
- throws his coat on the head (not always, but especially in the strong and the young);
- led up to the excavated pit;
- being shot in the head or browning of Walter.
That last fact for a long time, testified that the crime of Polish citizens guilty of the German troops.
prisoners from the prison of Kalinin killed directly into the camera.
From April to May 1940 were shot:
- at Katyn - 4421 prisoner;
- in Starobelsk and Ostashkov camps - 10131;
- in other camps - 7305.
who were shot in Katyn?Executions were not only regular officers, and mobilized during the war, lawyers, teachers, engineers, doctors, professors and other intellectuals.
«Missing" officers
When Germany attacked the USSR, negotiations began between the Polish and Soviet Government on joining forces against the enemy.Then began the search for exported in the Soviet camp officers.But the truth about Katyn was still unknown.
None of the missing officers failed to find, and the suggestion that they escaped from the camps, were unfounded.Not a single trace or mention of those who fall into the above-mentioned camp was not.
Find officers, or rather, their bodies were only able to in 1943.The Katyn were discovered mass graves of executed Polish citizens.
Investigation German side
first mass graves in the Katyn forest discovered by German troops.They carried out the exhumation of bodies excavated and conducted its investigation.
exhumations conducted by Gerhard Butz.To work in the village of Katyn were attracted international commission, which included doctors from the German-controlled Europe, as well as the representatives of Switzerland and the Polish Red Cross (Polish).Not present at the same time representatives of the International Red Cross because of the ban by the government of the USSR.
German report along the following information about the Katyn (execution of Polish officers):
- The excavations was discovered eight mass graves of them got back and reburied 4143 man.Most of those killed could be identified.The graves №1-7 people were buried in winter clothes (fur jackets, overcoats, sweaters, scarves), and in the grave №8 - in the summer.Also №1-7 graves were found scraps of newspapers, dated April-March 1940, and on the bodies no traces of insects.This indicated that the shooting of Poles in Katyn took place during the cooler seasons, ie spring.
- have been found killed a lot of personal things, they showed that the victims were in the Kozelsk camp.For example, letters from home, addressed to Kozelsk.Also, many had snuff and other items with the words "Kozelsk."
- Sections trees showed that they were put on the graves of about three years ago from the time of detection.This indicated that the pit was filled in 1940.At this time, the area was controlled by the Soviet troops.
- All Polish officers at Katyn had been shot in the head by bullets of German manufacture.However, they were released in the 20-30-ies of XX century, and exported in large quantities to the Baltic States and the Soviet Union.
- hands were tied with a cord executed in such a way that when you try to separate them noose is tightening even more.The victims were from the grave №5 shook his head, so that when you try to make any movement of the loop choking future victim.In other graves heads have also been linked, but only for those who commit sufficient physical strength.The bodies of some of those killed were found traces of tetrahedral bayonet, like Soviet weapons.The Germans used the flat bayonets.
- Commission interviewed local residents and found that the spring of 1940 arrived at the station Gnezdovo a large number of Polish prisoners of war who were reloaded onto trucks and took them to the forest.Most residents of these people have not seen.
Polish Commission is the exhumation and an investigation confirmed the findings of all the German in this case, finding no obvious signs of fraud documents.The only thing that the Germans were trying to hide about Katyn (execution of Polish officers), - it is the origin of the bullets, which were carried out the murder.However, the Poles understood that such a weapon could be the representatives of the NKVD.
Soviet version
Since the autumn of 1943 for the investigation of the Katyn tragedy took representatives of the NKVD.According to their version, the Polish prisoners of war were engaged in road works, and with the arrival of the summer of 1941 in the Smolensk region of the Germans did not have time to evacuate.
By the NKVD, in August-September this year, the remaining prisoners were shot by the Germans.To cover up their crimes, the representatives of the Wehrmacht opened the grave in 1943 and took out all the documents dated after 1940.
Soviet authorities have prepared a large number of witnesses to his version of events, but in 1990, the remaining living witnesses retracted their statements for 1943.
Soviet Commission, a second site, falsified some documents and some graves completely destroyed.But Katyn, the story of the tragedy that haunted Polish citizens, yet revealed its secrets.
Katyn case at Nuremberg
After the war, from 1945 to 1946.It passed the so-called Nuremberg trials, the aim of which was to punish war criminals.Katyn issue was also raised at the trial.In the execution of Polish prisoners of war, the Soviet side has accused the German troops.
Many witnesses in the case changed their testimony, they refused to support the conclusions of the German Commission, although they participated in it.Despite the best efforts of the USSR, the Tribunal did not support the charge on the issue of Katyn, which actually gave grounds for thinking that in the Katyn massacre to blame the Soviet troops.
Recognition of responsibility for Katyn
Katyn (execution of Polish officers), and what happened there, seen many times in different countries.The United States conducted its investigation in 1951-1952 gg., In the late XX century, worked on the case of the Soviet-Polish commission in 1991 in Poland, opened the Institute of National Remembrance.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation to re-address this issue.Since 1990 began a criminal investigation of military prosecutor's office.It received №159.In 2004, criminal proceedings were discontinued due to the death of the accused persons in it.
Polish side put forward the version about the genocide of the Polish people, but the Russian side has not confirmed it.The criminal case on the fact of the genocide has been stopped.
To date, the process of declassification of many volumes of Katyn case.Copies of these volumes are transferred to the Polish side.The first important documents on Soviet prisoners of war were transferred to camps in 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev.The Russian side has recognized that for the crime in Katyn was a Soviet regime in the face of Beria, Merkulov and others.
in 1992 were promulgated documents on the Katyn massacre, which have been stored in the so-called presidential archive.Modern scientific literature recognizes their authenticity.
Polish-Russian relations
Katyn massacre question occasionally appears in the Polish and Russian media.For the Poles, it has a weighty significance in the national historical memory.
In 2008, a Moscow court rejected the appeal of the Polish officers were shot by their relatives.As a result of the refusal of the Russian Federation, they filed a complaint at the European Court.Russia accused of inefficiency of investigations, as well as in the scornful attitude to the next of kin of the victims.In April 2012 the European Court of Human Rights has described the shooting of the prisoners as a war crime, and ordered Russia to pay 10 of 15 complainants (12 relatives of those killed in Katyn officers) to 5 thousand euros each.It was the payment of court costs of the plaintiffs.Do have your Poles, Katyn, which became a symbol of national tragedy and the family is uncertain.
official position of the Russian authorities
current leaders of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, adhere to one point of view on the Katyn massacre.They repeatedly made statements condemning the crimes of the Stalinist regime.Putin even expressed his assumption that explain the role of Stalin in the murder of Polish officers.According to him, the Russian dictator, thus avenged the defeat in 1920 in the Polish-Soviet war.
In 2010, Dmitry Medvedev initiated the publication of classified documents to the Soviet era of "package №1» Online Rosarkhiv.The shooting at Katyn, official documents are available for discussion, yet not revealed until the end.Some volumes of this case still remain classified, but Polish media Dmitry Medvedev said that he condemns those who doubt the authenticity of the documents submitted.
26.11.2010 The Russian State Duma adopted the document "On the Katyn tragedy ...".This was opposed by representatives of the Communist Party faction.On acceptance of the application Katyn Massacre acknowledged crime that was committed on the direct orders of Stalin.The document also expressed sympathy to the Polish people.
In 2011, Russian officials began to declare their readiness to address the issue of rehabilitation of victims of the Katyn massacre.
memory of Katyn
among the Polish population the memory of Katyn massacre was always a part of history.In 1972 in London, the Poles in exile, a committee was formed, which started collecting funds for the construction of a monument to the victims of the massacre of Polish officers in 1940.These efforts did not support the British government because they fear the reaction of the Soviet government.
By September 1976 opened a monument to Gunnersbergskom cemetery, which is available to the west of London.The monument is a low obelisk with the inscription on the pedestal.Inscriptions are made in two languages - Polish and English.They say that the monument erected in memory of the more than 10 thousand Polish prisoners in Kozelsk, Starobelsk, Ostashkov.They disappeared without a trace in 1940, and part of them (4,500) were exhumed in 1943 at Katyn.
These monuments erected to the victims of Katyn and elsewhere in the world:
- in Toronto (Canada);
- in Johannesburg (South Africa);
- in New Britan (USA);
- Military Cemetery in Warsaw (Poland).
fate of the monument in 1981 at the Military Cemetery was tragic.After installation, the night he was taken by unknown people using construction cranes and machines.The monument was in the form of a cross with the date "1940" and the inscription "Katyn".To cross adjoined two pillars with inscriptions "Starobilsk", "Ostashkovo."At the foot of the monument were the letter "B.P. "means" Eternal Memory "and the emblem of the Commonwealth in the form of an eagle with a crown.
memory about the tragedy of the Polish people is well exemplified in his film "Katyn" by Andrzej Wajda (2007).The director is the son of Jakub Wajda, a career officer, was shot in 1940.
film was shown in different countries, including Russia, and in 2008 he was in the top five of the international award "Oscar" in the category of best foreign film.
The plot is based on a story written by Andrzej Mulyarchik.It describes the period from September 1939 to the autumn of 1945.The film tells about the fate of the four officers who were in the Soviet camp, as well as their close relatives, who do not know the truth about them, though aware of the worst.Through the fate of several people informed to the author of all, what was the real story.
«Katyn" can not remain indifferent to the viewer, regardless of nationality.
