Difference between revisions of "Katyn Massacre"
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(New page: 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 Fores...) |
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Revision as of 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.