848 bytes added
, 13:54, August 24, 2008
The Katyn 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 [[Levrenty 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.
[[Category:Crime]]
[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:History]]
[[Category:World War II]]