Changes

== Historical background ==  

== Historical background ==  

In 1942, after the [[Soviet Army]] had withdrawn from the region{{#tag:ref|The Soviets had occupied the Eastern part of Poland in agreement with the Secret Amendment of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact since the beginning of the Polish-German war in 1939. Article II of that agreement stated: ''"In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish state, the spheres of influence of Germany and the U.S.S.R. shall be bounded approximately by the line of the rivers Narev, Vistula and San. The question of whether the interests of both parties make desirable the maintenance of an independent Polish States and how such a state should be bounded can only be definitely determined in the course of further political developments. In any event both Governments will resolve this question by means of a friendly agreement."''<ref>{{cite web |title=The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, 1939 |publisher=Modern History Sourcebook, the History Department of  Fordham University, New York |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1939pact.html |accesssdate=September 17, 2013}}</ref> The Germans, who declared the war to Soviet Russia on June 21, 1941<ref>{{cite web |title=German Declaration of War on the Soviet Union |publisher=Public Broadcasting Service|url=http://www-tc.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/pdfs/NaziInvasionDeclaration.pdf |accessdate=November 24, 2013}}</ref>, had not arrived into this region until the Summer or Autumn of 1941, after the first successes of their offensive in the direction of Smolensk, which however together with Katyn are actually situated already in an area which lay inside the borders of the USSR before 1939.  

In 1942, after the [[Soviet Army]] had withdrawn from the region{{#tag:ref|The Soviets had occupied the Eastern part of Poland in agreement with the Secret Amendment of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact since the beginning of the Polish-German war in 1939. Article II of that agreement stated: ''"In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish state, the spheres of influence of Germany and the U.S.S.R. shall be bounded approximately by the line of the rivers Narev, Vistula and San. The question of whether the interests of both parties make desirable the maintenance of an independent Polish States and how such a state should be bounded can only be definitely determined in the course of further political developments. In any event both Governments will resolve this question by means of a friendly agreement."''<ref>{{cite web |title=The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, 1939 |publisher=Modern History Sourcebook, the History Department of  Fordham University, New York |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1939pact.html |accesssdate=September 17, 2013}}</ref> The Germans, who declared the war to Soviet Russia on June 21, 1941<ref>{{cite web |title=German Declaration of War on the Soviet Union |publisher=Public Broadcasting Service|url=http://www-tc.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/pdfs/NaziInvasionDeclaration.pdf |accessdate=November 24, 2013}}</ref>, had not arrived into this region until the Summer or Autumn of 1941, after the first successes of their offensive in the direction of Smolensk, which however together with Katyn are actually situated already in an area which lay inside the borders of the USSR before 1939.