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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 [[crime]] was basically a [[decapitation strategy]] to prevent formation of a future non-[[communist]] government. 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 leadership of one Allied country fighting the Nazis had essentially liquidated the political and military leadership of another Allied country.  

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 [[crime]] was basically a [[decapitation strategy]] to prevent formation of a future non-[[communist]] government. The killings were directly ordered by [[Stalin]] and the [[Politburo]], on the suggestion of his secret police chief [[Lavrenty Beria]], following the Soviet annexation of eastern Poland in 1939 as a result of the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]]. 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 leadership of one Allied country fighting the Nazis had essentially liquidated the political and military leadership of another Allied country.  

While a wartime International Red Cross investigation established the murders occurred in Soviet-occupied Poland before the German advance into those territories where they discovered the mass graves, the Supreme Allied prosecutors and judges at the [[Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal]] assented to Soviet demands that this war crime be included in the indictment against top Nazis, for which the defendants were convicted, along with all the other charges of [[genocide]].  

While a wartime International Red Cross investigation established the murders occurred in Soviet-occupied Poland before the German advance into those territories where they discovered the mass graves, the Supreme Allied prosecutors and judges at the [[Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal]] assented to Soviet demands that this war crime be included in the indictment against top Nazis, for which the defendants were convicted, along with all the other charges of [[genocide]].