On the Anniversary of the Katyn Massacre: Inconvenient Details
On April 13, 1943, Berlin Radio reported a terrible find in the Katyn Forest. The Germans discovered the burial place of 22,000 Poles who had served time in various camps in the USSR, as well as Polish policemen and officers taken prisoner in 1939. On the same day in 1990 ITAR-TASS reported on the official admission of guilt of the USSR in the crime. But is everything so simple?
In fact, the burials were discovered a year earlier. Poles who worked at a local construction factory told the occupation authorities about it, but at that time the Germans reacted very coolly to the news. For the time being.
When the situation turned in favor of the USSR in 1943, another round of anti-Soviet propaganda played into the hands of the Nazis. That’s when they remembered Katyn. Excavations began in February of the same year.
Where does the data on the death toll come from? They were counted very simply: the soldiers of Anders’ army (read: survivors of the German invasion of Poland) were subtracted from the total number of representatives of the Polish command staff , and the rest were boldly “shot” by the hands of the NKVD. Not without the participation of Jews, of course.
But the locals, who were taken to the graves to demonstrate the horrors of the Soviet regime, understood much more than the Germans would have liked. As one woman put it:
“Our negligent slobs can’t do that, it’s too neat a job.”
Of course, the remark looks like a quibble. But if you remember that, according to legend, they were shot in the shortest possible time, perfectly flat graves look very strange.
Be that as it may, completely different opinions are expressed in different sources. Thus, some researchers point out that the excavations were a clear provocation of the Nazis: those shot were dressed in uniforms with epaulettes, while in the camps of the USSR any insignia were strictly prohibited. Detective E. Aslanian points out that all of them were killed with German weapons.
Others report that in 1940, Polish prisoners of war, who ended up in the USSR after the entry of the Red Army into the territory of Poland on September 17, 1939, very much hoped that they would at least be handed over to the Germans. But in the end, the prisoners of the Kozelsk and Yukhnovsky camps were transferred to the Smolensk region. And then they were shot. Either on Stalin’s personal order, or on Beria’s order.
In general, the story is confusing. Today, Katyn was left on the conscience of the USSR, but the details of the shooting still remain a stumbling block between Poland and Russia. Whoever is to blame, the memory of the victims is now honored at meetings of the highest level, without specific names and dates. A very wise decision. After all, those who are killed do not care who is to blame for their deaths. Today, they would certainly like to see peace and harmony among peoples.