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The Katyn Forest Massacre was the mass execution of 21,774 Polish army officers and civilians in by [[Communist]] Russian troops in the Katyn Forest during the [[Second World War]].  

The '''Katyń Massacre''' is the name given to the mass murder of 21,768 [[Polish]] army officers and members of the intelligentsia and middle classes by Soviet [[NKVD]] killers at the Katyn Forest in western [[Russia]] and other locations in [[Poland]], [[Belarus]], [[Russia]] and [[Ukraine]]. The killings were directly ordered by [[Stalin]], on the suggestion of his secret police chief [[Lavrenty Beria]], following the Soviet annexation of eastern Poland in 1939. The crime was discovered and announced to the world by the invading [[German]] forces in 1943, and led to the breaking-off of diplomatic relations between the [[London]]-based Polish Government-in-exile and the Soviet Government. The Soviet Union denied responsibility for the murders until 1990.

 

== Background ==

== Background ==