Katyn. in the Footsteps of the Crime

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KATYN

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE CRIME

Kozelsk — Smolensk — Gnezdovo — Katyn Forest

Jadwiga Rogoża Maciej Wyrwa Introduction 4

The Katyn 1 Massacre: Historical 9 Background

Following 2 in the Footsteps 27 of the Crime

Kozelsk 27

Gnezdovo 36

Katyn Forest and Polish War Cemetery 40 Russian Cemetery 3 52 and Museum

4 Smolensk 58

Smolensk Severny 5 65 The Site of the Polish Airplane Crash

Russia and the Katyn 6 68 Question

Practical Information 80

Selected Works 83 on the Topic INTRODUCTION

Only buttons, unyielding survived death, witnesses of the crime surfacing from the depths the single monument on their grave (…)

a bird has flown, a cloud has passed a leaf has fallen, the mallow germinates and there is silence up high above and the mist rises above the Smolensk forest

Zbigniew Herbert, Guziki [Buttons], 1992

The Katyn Forest has a special place in year 1989, which brought about the Polish history. The Soviet crime against end of communism in Poland, marked Polish officers and members of the the beginning of the official investi- elite can also be viewed as a symbol of gation to find out the truth about the fate of post-war Poland as a whole: the Katyn Massacre. The crash of the enslaved, annihilated, covered with airplane with the Polish delegation, lies. The post-war period was a time of headed by President Lech Kaczynski lies and silence, when the truth about on its way to the commemoration cer- Katyn lived in family stories, in Poles’ emony in April 2010 added a new di- private conversations, in publications mension to the tragic history of Katyn published by the emigre communi- and focused the world’s attention on ty or in illegally erected memorials. this place, which was a witness to the Changes started to emerge with the Polish tragedy. birth of the “Solidarity” movement, when the truth, which had previously Today, the history of this crime is also been hidden and suppressed, began to presented at the Katyn Museum, painstakingly emerge, like the voice of which opened at its new site in the the underground bell ringing today at Warsaw Citadel in September 2015. the Polish War Cemetery in Katyn. The It documents the circumstances of

4 The Katyn Museum in Warsaw

the Massacre and the history of the human souls, which are embodied in investigation, but has much more to its walls and speak from them with offer. Visitors can descend to the un- everlasting words”. derground part, which is reminiscent of an open grave and presents the col- The human and personal dimension of lection of personal belongings of the these historical events also serves as victims discovered during the exhu- the leitmotif of this publication. While mations in Katyn, Mednoe (Mednoye), knowledge of the Katyn Massacre Kharkiv and Bykovnia (Bykivnia). The seems to be widespread in Poland, few collection serves as evidence of the people have actually managed to trav- Massacre, and also includes memo- el to Katyn, Mednoe, Kharkiv or Byk- rabilia donated by the families of the ovnia, all of which are perceived to be victims. This gives visitors the chance located somewhere far away in Russia to identify with real people, still living or Ukraine. Each year, these places are in these small objects, to better un- visited by the families and relatives derstand their values, experiences and of the murdered victims, by govern- personal stories. Quoting the eminent ment officials and delegations of the Polish photographer, Jan Bulhak, this uniformed services, by participants of

Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw the collection of Katyn From Photo: place represents “a cross-section of the Katyn Rally or the Polish-Russian

5 Introduction 6 to encourage readers to travel to the The missionofthis Guideistherefore they have notexperienced before. its paths, visitors are moved inaway onearth.Whenwalking alongplace bols, isat thesametime,aconcrete Katyn, oneofthegreat Polish sym will befound at thesite.Meanwhile, towhatbut alsointheuncertaintyas der crossings andvisarequirements, tance ofthousandskilometres, bor foreign visitors liesnotonlyinthedis the insurmountable barrier for most at thePolish War Cemetery. However, red scarves (Polish national colours) Katyn in order to lay their white-and- many Polish football fans travelled to 2018 FIFA World Cuphostedby Russia, Youth MemorialMarches. Duringthe Altar ensemble.Polish War inKatyn Cemetery - - - tragic ofhistory, pages tolookbeyond the events known andplaces from the site, to gainapersonal experience of ish officers imprisoned in Kozelsk, geography ofthemurder ofPol and This Guidedescribesthehistory 1940, toanother. disruptedinthespringof man history nameplate toanother, from onehu the Katyn from Cemetery onebronze ly—for example, by wandering around ofKatynrience thehistory personal to give toexpe readers somespace or satisfy theseexperiences, we want people. As reading willnever exhaust just afew—of thosePoles, heroes, real to know ofthethousands—ormaybe the “bronze myth”ofKatyn andcome - - - -

Photo: From the collection of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (MCNH) in Katyn. Thispartguidesthe reader the site of the Polish War Cemetery and eternal restingtoday place, being Forest—the siteoftheirexecution Gnezdovo, Smolensk,totheKatyn POW camp, via the railway station of (Optina Pustyn)inKozelsk, thePolish from monastery theOptinaHermitage of thePolish officers in1939–1940, ter 2,readers follow inthefootsteps in freeas Poland after 1989.In Chap post-war communist Poland well as discovery ofthetruthaboutKatyn in who have greatly contributedtothe but certainlynotall—ofthepeople etery. Thischapteralsorecalls some— establishment ofthePolish War Cem conducted by thePolish sideandthe mans in1943,uptotheexhumations discovery oftheirgraves by theGer and elitesinthespringof1940, es ofthemurder ofthePolish officers scribing theoriginsandcircumstanc oftheKatynthe history de Massacre, The Guide opens with a chapter on publicise thetruth. ofeffortsthe history todiscover and Katyn and its victims, and Massacre i.e. thekey scholarlystudiesonthe to refer totheliterature onthesubject, ties. We encourage interested readers the territory, well thelocalreali as as ontravellingadvice andmoving around scientific publications, withpractical discussed more broadlyinnumerous bines essentialhistoricalinformation, the readers withastudythat com located today. Our goalistoprovide where thePolish War is Cemetery andburiedintheKatyndead Forest, transported toGnezdovo andshot ------part of the history ofPoland beforepart ofthehistory the it nearby Smolensk,a citywhichwas Chapter 4 encourages readers tovis specifics ofRussianhistoricalmemory. policy, but can also learn about the Polish graves and Poland’s memory who visitsKatyn willnotonlyseethe minds usthat aPolish orforeign visitor on thesameevents. Thischapterre contradicts Polish andWestern views historical perspective, whichoften um, presenting theRussianimperial pressive exhibition in the new muse including the controversial yet ex the reconstruction ofthecemetery, buried there; of italsotellsthestory Soviet system ofrepression andwere Smolensk region who fell victim tothe reader about the inhabitants of the tothePolish one.Ittellsthejacent ad Russian partofthecemetery Polish links. Chapter 3presents the ing theirsometimesquitesurprising and outlinestheirhistory, discover es, describestheirpresent condition step by stepthrough subsequentplac able symbol inPoland, thememory While Katyn is a solid and unchange cance oftheKatyn inRussia. Massacre iarise foreign readers withthesignifi Finally, Chapter6ismeanttofamil of theKatyn Massacre. memoration ofthe70thanniversary were on theirway toattend thecom members ofthePolish delegation, who the lives ofPresident and Kaczynski Polish aircraft crashed in2010,taking skirts ofthecity—the where place the Severny airport,located ontheout ter 5 directs toSmolensk thereader partitions inthe18thcentury. Chap ------7

Introduction Introduction 8 ellers. TheGuideendswithalistof tips that may prove useful for trav detailsandaccessful ofcontact practical information withahand The final part of the Guide contains obvious results straight away. memory, even ifit does not bring about them aninvaluable lessononhistorical ten surprisesRussians,butalsooffers ofthemindividually,about each of the tens of thousands of victims, and ness in demanding the truth about murdered victims.Poland’s steadfast of anonymous witha myriad country scatteredic burialplaces allover the countless, butoftenmerely symbol opposed to their ownsingle victim, as to identifyandcommemorate every in thequestfor truth,andtheefforts Russians seethePolish determination and perhapsalsointhefuture. Many of Katyn for theRussians,inpast readers withthesymbolic significance to Russiaalsoattempts tofamiliarise tions. The part of the Guide devoted both theirown peopleandotherna ofcrimes against and aboutthehistory about theirfamilies andlocalhistories, citizens seeking to discover the truth and numerous researchers orordinary Russia—between thestate apparatus asymbolas ofthetensionswithin of Polish-Russian relations, well as come alive issueandadeterminant “The Katyn we be know” again has ideological gamesinrecent years. become thesubjectofpoliticaland andmuseumcomplexcemetery have of thisevent well the inRussiaas as ------our readers, it shows as not only the hope that it will still be of interest to Nevertheless, theauthors ofthiswork ofSoviethistory politicalrepressions. ers whoare well familiarised withthe sume that thebookwillreachread In thefootsteps ofthecrime”. We as Polish translation oftheguide“Katyn. The bookthat we present here isthe “with theirhearts”. to understand the well-known story souls”, whichwillhelpmanyreaders intended to create “a guide to human tradition ofpre-war guidebooks, we tragedy 70years later. Following the on their way to the site of this Polish crashish elite,whodiedintheplace members of the contemporary Pol the wellofficers as in1939–1940,as follow thefinaljourney ofthePolish The publication invites readers to Massacre. useful websites devoted totheKatyn recommended and furtherreading of mankind. truth, whichisoneofthefoundations to fightforandhistorical thememory crimes oftotalitarianismandthe need lated to boththemonstrosity ofthe Katyn carries auniversal re message, authors are therefore convincedthat victim tothisoppressive system. The andeveryeach humanbeingwhofell of to identifyandhonourthememory closely linked tothemoral obligation and thePolish policy, memory which importance of Katyn for the Poles ofthecrime,but alsothehistory - - - - Chapter 1 THE KATYN MASSACRE: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

In the 1930s, Poland’s foreign policy was based on the idea of maintaining a balance in relations with its two large neighbours. Peace with the Soviet Union was to be guaranteed by the Soviet-Polish Non-Aggression Pact signed on 25 July 1932, which was supposed to remain in force until the end of 1945. In turn, a declaration of non-violence was signed with the German Reich on 26 January 1934. However, these international agreements did not protect Poland against the attacks by its two neighbours with imperial ambitions.

The Treaty of Non-Aggression, signed And then came the war... on 23 August 1939 in Moscow by the German Foreign Minister Joachim von On 1 September 1939, German troops Ribbentrop and his Soviet counterpart attacked Poland. When Britain and Vyacheslav Molotov, together with its France declared war on the Third Re- secret protocol, divided Europe into ich, the Polish-German conflict turned spheres of influence and decided on into the Second World War. During the the independence of sovereign states. first two weeks of fighting, the Soviet For Poland, it was in fact the beginning Union maintained the appearance of of its fourth partition. On 31 August neutrality. However, on the morning 1939, a general mobilisation was an- of 17 September 1939, the Red Army nounced in Poland in the event of war invaded the territory of Poland along with Germany. its entire eastern border, thus fulfilling the aforementioned Treaty concluded between Hitler and Stalin.

9 The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background 10 gly-Rydz to avoid fighting with the er-in-chief, Marshal Edward Smi and theorder from thecommand impossible. The surprise of the attack war ontwo fronts turnedouttobe the Germans collapsed, and waging The Polish conceptofdefence against The signingoftheMolotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Moscow, 23August1939 - - was at war withtheUSSR. authorities recognised that Poland Soviets. At the sametime,thePolish and officers were taken prisonerby the why large numbers ofPolish soldiers and Romania, were amongthereasons Bolsheviks andtoevacuate toHungary

Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw Poland underoccupation 1939–1941 paradeJoint military oftheWehrmacht andRed Army. Brest, 22September1939 Polishoccupiedby territory theUSSR Polishoccupiedby territory theThird R Warsaw eich 11

The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background 12 crowded, inOctoberandNovember Since thecampswere stillhugelyover ternal Affairs (NKVD). by the People’s Commissariat for In for thispurpose,andwere supervised beenespeciallyestablished which had were transferred totenPOW camps, after beingdisarmed.Thoseremaining sian andUkrainian originwere released non-commissioned officers ofBelaru a large numberofPOWs, privates and impossibletodetainsuch Since itwas the Soviets. guards etc.)were taken prisonerby es (border guards, policemen,prison members ofotheruniformed servic diers (including8,600officers) and tal of240,000–250,000Polish sol By theendofSeptember1939,ato Captivity Polish Prisoners ofWar inSoviet ------camps: Kozelsk in the Smolensk in total, were concentrated in two numbered approximately 8,600 Other POWs, mainlyofficers, who Zaporozhsky detentioncamps. orozhsky, Yeleno-Karakubsky and They were senttotheRovensky, Kriv missioned officers remained incamps. about 26,000privates andnon-com their captivity. Intheautumnof1939, Belarusian nationality, whowere in by the USSR, mainly of Ukrainian and soldiers from theterritoriesannexed Germany handed over those Polish ed over totheThird Reich. Inreturn, occupied by the Germans were hand people originating from theterritories agreement ontheexchange ofPOWs, cupied by the USSR. Then, under an origin who came from oc the areas non-commissioned officers ofPolish mostofthe to privatesrelease and 1939 theSoviet authoritiesdecided Polish POWs beingescortedby theRed Army. After the Soviet invasion1939 - - - -

Photo: Wikipedia, public domain the heartofUSSR. 320,000 Poles beingexiled deepinto out intheoccupiedareas, withapprox. deportation campaigns were carried Western Belarus). Additionally, four in the prisons of Western Ukraine and tims oftheKatyn detained Massacre reached around 25,600 (including vic or were murdered isthoughttohave while thenumberofthosewhodied is estimated tobe108,000–112,000, ities”. Thenumberofthosearrested other “enemies of the Soviet author arrested whilecrossing theborder and andartists,foresters,activists people trialists, landowners, traders, cultural parties andsocialorganisations, indus the intelligentsia,members ofpolitical ficers whowere nottaken prisoner), (including armyofficers andpoliceof mainly affected Polish publicofficials Republic of Poland. Political arrests gan intheseizedterritoriesof In parallel, extensive repressions be region inRussia). Kalinin region (currently intheTver the camplocated inOstashkov inthe telligence officers were grouped in and counterin intelligence agents settlers,officials, military identified Corps andBorder Guard, government guards, soldiers ofthe Border Guard 6,500 policemen,gendarmes,prison Luhansk region inUkraine). About roshilovgrad region (currently in the in Russia)andStarobelsk intheVo region (currently intheKaluga region ------nist Party, Joseph Stalin,inwhichhe the General Secretary oftheCommu fairs of the USSR, Lavrentyi Beria, to ple’s Commissionerfor InternalAf on a note fromwas based the Peo The decision ofthe Political Bureau squad. all ofthem: executionagainst by firing with thehighestpenaltybeingapplied investigation andtheindictment”, or presenting the decision to close the arrested andwithoutpressing charges, procedure, “without summoning those should be processed under a special ern regions of Ukraine and Belarus” ees held in the prisons in the “west wellthoseofthe11,000detain as in Kozelsk, Starobelsk andOstashkov, 14,700 peopleheldinthePOW camps (Bolsheviks) decidedthat of thecases Communist Party oftheSoviet Union reau oftheCentral Committeeofthe On 5March 1940,thePolitical Bu The Crime adopt aresolution. composedof Itwas adopt missioned toexamine and thecases The NKVD USSR “troika” was com Kaganovich. “for”cast by MikhailKalinin andLazar an, andannotations aboutthevotes Mikoyacheslav Molotov andAnastas Joseph Stalin,KlimentVoroshilov, Vy members ofthePolitburo voting “for”: four handwrittensignatures ofthe for improvement”. Thenotebears thorities, not showing any prospects declared enemiesoftheSoviet au and prisoners because“allofthemare proposed executing thePolish POWs ------13

The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background 14 The first three documents with the cow, which,infact, were death lists. oftransportbasis listssentby Mos The prisoners were dispatched onthe of theNKVDUSSR,Leonid Bashtakov. of the 1st Special Department head Bakhcho (Bogdan) Kobulov and the for Internal Affairs of the NKVD USSR, deputy ofthePeople’s Commissioner NKVD USSR, Vsevolod Merkulov, the missioner for InternalAffairs ofthe the first deputyofthePeople’s Com (Bolsheviks) ontheexecution ofPolish POWs andprisoners. Moscow, 5March 1940 Decision ofthePolitical Bureau oftheCommunistParty oftheSoviet Union - - a monthly salary or800roubles.a monthlysalary tasks” andreceived anequivalent of ria “for successful execution of special ficers were rewarded by Lavrentyi Be by secret order No.001365,theof On 26 October1940, the Massacre. appointed to prepare out and carry A totalof125NKVDofficers were Ostashkov campon1April1940. names of343people reached the - -

Photo: Wikipedia, public domain Pyatikhatki). of thetown, 1.5km from of thevillage in Kharkiv and buried on the outskirts oftheNKVDheadquarters basement camp inStarobelsk (executed inthe in Mednoe)and3,820POWs from the headquarters andburiedinthe forest Kalinin oftheNKVD inthebasement 6,295 POWs kept inOstashkov (shotin about 2 km from Gnezdovo station), ied intheKatyn Forest nearSmolensk, of 4,415 POWs heldinKozelsk (bur genocidal decisionledtothemurder searchers have established that the victims are still not known today. Re ultimate numberandnamesofallthe still stored inRussia,meansthat the whicharements ontheMassacre, tothedocu offullaccess The lack Katyn Massacre T Third R T USSR T T Presumed where place thebodieswere hidden Presumed execution site where Place thebodieswere hidden Execution site by theThird R ransports ofPO ransports ofPO erritories occupied erritories occupiedby theUSSR eich Warsaw eich Ws from theNKVDprisons Ws from thecamps

- - - Kuropaty Minsk from Kozelsk are known today. Ithas thePolishagainst prisoners ofwar Not allthedetailsofcrime in Russia’s archives. documentsstoredin theinaccessible picture isstill hidden oftheMassacre nal NKVDprisoninSmolensk.The full POWs were probably shot in the inter villa located on the site. Some of the the forest and how many in the NKVD them were murdered by the pits in tohowopen questionas manyof Swianiewicz’s Itremains an account. ski’s journalquotedhere orStanislaw the death pits, including Adam Sol evidencedas by thediariesfound in were murdered intheKatyn Forest, been established that some of them Ostashkov Bykovnia Kyiv Katyn Smolensk Kherson Kharkiv Kozelsk Mednoe Kalinin Pyatikhatki Moscow Starobelsk - - 15

The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background 16 Ukrainian includes SecurityService, ian list”,handed over in1994by the by the USSR.Theso-called“Ukrain Second Republic ofPoland annexed territoriesofthe prisons intheeastern 7,305 people were also murdered in As partoftheKatyn at Massacre, least to survive. in Moscow’s Lubyanka alsomanaged and transported totheNKVDprison arrested duringtheirstay inthecamps 394 survivors, someoftheofficers ful. Apartfrom theaforementioned knowledge wasconsidered tobeuse to fightalongsidetheUSSR,orwhose expressedcret had agents, areadiness se beenrecruitedthe survivors as had families inoccupiedPoland. Someof cow aresult as oftheefforts oftheir sy andtheLithuanianmissioninMos was requested by theGermanembas them were amongthosewhosereturn uidation ofthethree camps.Manyof theliq A totalof394peoplesurvived Military exercisesMilitary at thePolish campinTotskoye. Russia,1941/1942 ------were murdered inMinsk,having been the so-called“Belarusianlist”who the namesof3,870prisoners from Polish authorities,we stilldonotknow there. Despitetheefforts by made the Kharkiv andKherson, andmurdered pil, Stanislavov andDrohobych toKyiv, ported from Lviv, Rivne,Lutsk,Terno the namesof3,435prisoners trans Starobelsk and Ostashkov stopped prisoners of war detained in Kozelsk, atives andloved onesofthePolish From theendofMarch 1940,therel Gone Missing for aperiodof10years. occupied by theUSSRtoKazakhstan families territories from theeastern alongside adecisiontodeporttheir prisoners in1940was carried out The execution ofPolish POWs and Baranavichy andVileyka. transferred there from Brest, Pinsk, - - -

Photo: Wikipedia, public domain Photo: Wikipedia, public domain tion with Stalin on 3 December 1941, this issueinaface-to-face conversa ter Sikorski andGeneral Anders raised with theSoviets. WhenPrimeMinis USSR and intervened in their cases formation about Poles staying in the and a cavalry captain. He collectedin vivor from theStarobelsk POW camp painter JozefCzapski,whowas asur for missingpersons thewriterand was raised concerns.Theplenipotentiary among theincomingPolish volunteers commander. Theabsenceofofficers byanka the role prison, assumed of Anders, released from Moscow’s Lu of exile.and places General Wladyslaw from remote camps prisons,Gulag Tatishchevo, Buzuluk and Totskoye Forces intheUSSRbegantoarrive in People tojointhePolish eager Armed army intheUSSR. nounced theformation ofaPolish imprisoned anddeported,an of thosePolish been citizenswhohad ed for, amongotherthings,therelease Sikorski-Mayski Agreement), provid normalise relations (known the as July 1941 by bothgovernments to at war. signedon30 Theagreement, the position that bothcountries were USSR, andeffectively withdrew from resumed diplomatic relations withthe Union, the Polish government in exile After the German attack on the Soviet somewhere intheEast. gonemissingand thoughtthey had POWs awaited eagerly theirreturn, For manyyears, thefamilies ofthe receiving correspondence from them. ------of theInstitute Forensic Medicine of Prof. Gerhard Buhtz, the Director was conductedunderthedirection mation ofthegraves ofPolish POWs theSoviet Union.Theexhuagainst the international communitytofight anti-German coalitionandwinover andbreakda purposestotry upthe cided tousethiscrimefor propagan front, Germanyde on theeastern the Katyn Forest. Faced withdefeat graves ofmass ery ofPolish officers in announcement regarding thediscov On 13April1943,Radio Berlinaired an Discovery oftheGraves to Manchuria”. they heard that the officers fled “had Katyn—a Germanpropaganda poster - - - - 17

The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background 18 Soviets. At the same time, with the beencarriedoutbykillings had the confirmed beyond doubt that the crime in the Katyn Forest. The experts investigate thecircumstances of the sic experts from allover Europe to The Germansinvitedeminent foren undertaken by theIRC. refused toparticipate in the activities government”.Moscow Furthermore, “terminate relations with thePolish with theThird Reich andtodecide the Polish authoritiesofcooperation used byanexcuse Stalinas toaccuse Polish government in exile, which was quest totheIRC wasalsosentby the es ofthekillings.Anindependentre tions and investigate the circumstanc Cross (IRC) out the exhuma to carry Germans invitedtheInternational Red der ofthePolish prisoners ofwar, the In order to internationalise the mur Polish Workers’ Party followed suit. and afew days later theleadersof Third Reich ofperpetrating thecrime paper, Wanda Wasilewska the accused 28 April1943,inthe“Izvestia” news aprovocation.communiqué was On lin immediately announced that the who were subordinated tohim,Sta Much like the Polish communists of citiesoccupiedby theThird Reich. posters soon appeared in the streets of identifiedvictims,andpropaganda ries begantoprintlistswiththenames the Germansinoccupiedterrito newspapersish-language published by of Breslau (now Wroclaw). Soon, Pol and Forensic Scienceat theUniversity ------ated inKatyn underthedirection of of the Polish Red Cross (PRC) oper government, theTechnical Committee knowledge andconsentofthePolish not interested ingiving thematter States andtheUnited Kingdom were Katyn, thegovernments ofthe United Soviet murders of the Polish officers in Despite having knowledge aboutthe Lies andthe Fight for theTruth inski were buriedinindividualgraves. hatyrewicz) and Mieczyslaw Smoraw Generals Bronislaw Bohaterewicz (Bo six collective graves established. was first makeshift consistingof cemetery more than4,243exhumed bodies.The sion wasabletoidentify2,733outof Kazimierz Skarzynski. TheCommis by theGermans.Katyn, 1943 Exhumation ofbodiesPolish POWs - - - -

Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw tive site. On 30 January 1944,withtive site.On30January of the previousplace commemora Two symbolic graves were erected in ko, andforeign journalists. by Nikolaicommittee headed Burden were brought before hocSoviet anad 1944,the witnesses crime. InJanuary Soviet version of the alleged German withthefalsewitnesses inaccordance ing material evidence and“preparing” operated intheKatyn Forest, fabricat Smolensk region, anNKGB-NKVD team After the Soviet annexation of the from analliedarmy. the fates ofsomeprisoners-of-war turned outtobemore importantthan liance withStalininthewar withHitler and political al nence of the military publicity.widespread Theperma Katyn, 1944 30January Polish CorpsintheUSSR withsoldiersHoly Mass from the1st - - - - - a POW at the Starobelsk camp,who General Zygmunt Berling (previously in theUSSRundercommandof 1st CorpsofthePolish Armed Forces the participation ofsoldiers from the rifically murdered by theGerman-Nazi ficers ofthePolish Army, who were hor ed memory. Here lie the enslaved of bearingatext: “Bless of theMassacre, sian andPolish erected was at thesite A smallobeliskwithinscriptions in Rus separated withatallwooden fence. This sectionoftheKatyn Forest was souls ofthedeceased. Kubsz celebrated for a holy mass the chaplain, The military Father Wilhelm allegedly murdered by theGermans. to commemorate the Polish officers ceremonies were heldat thegraves agreed tocooperate withtheSoviets), - - - - 19

The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background 20 turned duringthe ColdWar. In1951, The topicofthe Katyn re Massacre for the execution of thePolish officers. ted the charge the Germans against TribunalMilitary inNuremberg omit the finalrulingofInternational accuracies intheSoviet prosecution, testimonies, numerous errors and in berg. Given theunconvincingwitness main Germanwar criminalsinNurem 1941 the in the indictment against Polish officers in Katyn in September clude thecharge ofthemurder ofthe In 1946, the Soviet Union triedto in ficers, executed by theNazisin 1941”. the victimsoffascism—the Polish of “To reading: by replaced was aplaque some errors). Inthe1970s,obelisk 1941” (thePolish inscriptioncontained occupying forces in the autumn of 18 September1976 Monument inLondon. The unveiling oftheKatyn ------President, Richard Nixon. Thisma to lay flowers there, including the U.S. state comingtotheUSSRwere invited and foreign delegations of andheads was builtwhere oncestood, thevillage commemorating thecrimeinKhatyn A complex of massive monuments on itssound-alike nametoKatyn. based throughout was made history locations affected by tragic events of Khatyn from amongmanysimilar by theGermansin1943.Thechoice ofKhatyn,lage whichwas burntdown civiliansintheBelarusianvil against to publicisethecrimecommitted In the 1970s, the Soviet Union began viets were responsible. drawn upin1952,heldthat theSo Committee).Thefinalreport, Madden by Ray the (known as JohnMadden of theKatyn Forest chaired Massacre, facts, evidence, andcircumstances mittee toinvestigate andstudythe sentatives established a select com the UnitedStates HouseofRepre bourne andJohannesburg. in London, Paris, Toronto, Rome, Mel wereuments andplaques alsoerected community intheUnitedStates. Mon thanks totheefforts ofthePolish Adalbert’s Church inDetroit, Michigan ment intheworld erected was at St. 1950s, the first ever Katyn monu ish government inexile. Intheearly Polish politicalémigrés andthePol Katyn preserved was by Massacre ofthevictims oftheThe memory cre totheGermans. ofKatynmemory andlinktheMassa nipulation wassupposedtoerase the ------

Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw Massacre. ing thetruthaboutKatyn highly instrumentalinreveal Peszkowski, bothofwhomwere Swianiewicz andProf. Zdzislaw cluding thoseofProf. Stanislaw of war whosurvived Kozelsk, in the memories of the prisoners Soviets. Equallyvaluable are killings were carriedoutby the of evidence that confirmsthe May 1940,whichisonepiece abruptly in late April and early in Kozelsk. Alltheentriesend life ofPolish prisoners ofwar are invaluable sources onthe humations intheKatyn Forest found during the German ex particular, diariesandmemoirs POWs anddemandthetruth.In of thefate ofthemurdered released toremind the world Stahl andJozefCzapskiwere ny, JozefMackiewicz, Zdzislaw JanuszK.Zawodthors suchas In theWest, publications by au Katyn. Solidarity‘RSS POST’ - - - - - and officers internedby theRed Armyin eliminated inrelation toPolish soldiers 3. Theterm“prisoners ofwar” shouldbe permitted. is given, onlydates after July1941are in Katyn” are usedandthedate ofdeath in Katyn”. Whenphrases “died suchas Nazis inKatyn”, “died inKatyn”, “killed thesemayas beallowed: “shot by the 2. Inscientificpublications, phrases such Polish officers intheKatyn Forest. Soviet Unionresponsible for thedeath of 1. Noattempts may beallowed toholdthe criteria shouldbeapplied: the Polish officers inKatyn, thefollowing materialsWhen assessing onthedeath of and Performance Control, 1975: Of theGeneral OfficeofPress, Publication Censorship Instructions Prawda. Pamięć, Warsaw 2010,p.417 A. Przewoźnik, J.Adamska, Katyń. Zbrodnia. the General Office. of with theconsentofmanagement commemoration may onlybereleased and information aboutotherforms of religious for services Katyn victims 4. Obituaries,announcementsof forests. and later shotby theNazisinKatyn where Polish officers were interned allowed: Kozelsk, Starobelsk, Ostashkov, interned”. The names of the camps may be September 1939.Theproper termis“the 21

The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background 22 orating thetragic event. stamps andpostcards commem dars, leaflets, brochures, posters, distributed unofficialbooks, calen opposition members printedand sions by(SB), theSecurityService Despite harassment and repres opposition in communist Poland. undertaken by thedemocratic portant elementoftheactivities of KatynThe memory was an im engraved onfamily tombs. names ofthosemurdered were were in churches, placed and the the victimsofKatyn Massacre also existed.dedicated Plaques to the years the“unofficial” version Besides the “official” memory, over five years. with terms ranging from three to were sentencedtoimprisonment, Leon Musielak(aKozelsk prisoner) Father Tadeusz Rusekand Father fought for the truth. Among others, repressions those who against thorities alsoresorted tocriminal at university. The communist au faced difficultieswhenenrolling redundant from work, andchildren to harassment, widows were made lies ofthevictimswere subjected the Second World War. The fami false dates, e.g.thedate ofend ontothefamiliescates passed had ple’s Republic. Thedeath certifi authorities ofthePolish Peo by the USSR and the subordinate theofficialinterpretationused as alleged Germanperpetration was For many years, the lie about the ------the Katyn Families, Vatican 1996 John Paul II’s address topilgrimsfrom generations. be preserved awarning as tofuture forgotten. should Thislivingmemory martyrdom that mustnotbe and MednoeisachapterinPolish that inKatyn, tookplace Kharkiv be forgotten. Thetragic events deaths—deaths that shouldnot (...) Itisatragedy ofinnocent that wasundertaken at that time. a specialtestimonytothestruggle remains, andtothisday been ithas theKatynIn theEast, tragedy Cemetery inWarsawCemetery The Katyn Cross. Powązki Military

Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw sacre: 1940. Repeatedly destroyed Warsaw, bearingthedate oftheMas at the Powazki in Cemetery Military Cross—was erected on31July1981 Jerzy Lojek, amonument—theKatyn cialising intheKatyn affair, Professor well theoutstandinghistorian spe as as Szomanski and Marian Jeznach, Niedzielak, Stefan Melak,Andrzej On the initiative of Father Stefan about theKatyn Massacre. communist authoritiesofthefacts to protest thesilencingby against the ofself-immolationcommitted anact dier andretired baker, Walenty Badylak 1980, whenformer HomeArmy sol Krakow market square on21March A tragic event on the took place erature ontheKatyn Massacre. published the“Katyn Bulletin” andlit Institute inKrakow, whichunofficially Tor, establishedanunderground Katyn ski, AndrzejKostrzewski andStanislaw searchers, includingAdam Macedon In 1978, a group of independent re Handover oftheKatyn documents.Moscow, 13April1990 ------Andrzej Chmielarz, Stanis Jerzy Jackl, researchers ontheKatyn Massacre— In October1989,agroup ofeminent killers have stillnotbeenidentified. 1989.Toof 19–20January thisday his Families, murdered was onthenight Niedzielak, thechaplainofKatyn bol of the fight for the truth. Father themonumentbecameasymagain, anderectedby theSecurityService material ontheKatyn Massacre. taining scholarly articles and source ty Katynskie” (Katyn Notebooks) con Foundation, publishedthe“Zeszy has mittee, together with the Polish Katyn into theKatyn TheCom Massacre. ical Committeefor theInvestigation theIndependentHistor renamed as inPoland, later whichwas Massacre mittee for theInvestigation ofKatyn binski establishedtheHistoricalCom Jedrzej Tucholski andWojciech Ziem Marek Tarczynski, Trznadel, Jacek Bozena Lojek, Adam Macedonski, law Maria Jankowski, AndrzejKunert, ------23

The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background 24 of thePolitical Bureau of theCentral containedthedecision The package to President Lech Walesa inWarsaw. the so-called“closed no.1” package handed photocopied documents from Russian Archives, Prof. RudolfPikhoya President BorisYeltsin ofthe andhead 14 October1992,thespecialenvoy of Katyn and disclosed. On declassified ours tohave alldocumentsconcerning The Polish sidecontinueditsendeav murdered by theNKVDin1940. of the Polish officers and policemen those sites,uncovering theremains humation works were carriedoutat In 1991, preliminary Polish-Soviet ex and theOstashkov POWs inMednoe. obelsk POWs inKharkiv(Pyatikhatki) revealing the burial ground of the Star of theUSSRinitiated aninvestigation, Supreme Prosecutor’s Military Office the grave crimes of Stalinism.” The Katyn tragedy, declares ittobeoneof viet side,expressing itsregret over the and theirhelpers” andthat “theSo cre lieddirectly with“Beria,Merkulov responsibility for theKatyn Massa agency issuedastatement that the On thesameday, theTASS press ident, Wojciech Jaruzelski. the Katyn tothePolish Massacre Pres over selecteddocumentsconcerning President, MikhailGorbachev handed in Moscow on 13 April 1990, the USSR the Katyn Duringameeting Massacre. opportunity toreveal thetruthabout lapse oftheSoviet Unionopenedupan Political transformations andthecol The Truth isRevealed ------the Belarusian SSR remain unknown names of the prisoners murdered in cre—the so-called “Ukrainian list”. The part ofthe Katynlic (SSR) as Massa the Ukrainian Soviet SocialistRepub oners murdered of ontheterritory the Polish authoritiesthelistofpris eral AndriyKhomich,handedover to ofUkraine,the SecurityService Gen On 5May of 1994,theDeputyHead Powazki inWarsaw. Cemetery laid flowers at the Katyn Cross at the during hisvisittoPoland, BorisYeltsin of Polish POWs. Thefollowing year, lating tothedeliberate murder mass ofthedecisionreto theenactment subsequent documentation relating the NKVD, well selected L. Beria,as implementation of issuedby thehead with the request formally initiating its Ukraine andWestern Belarus,together POWs andprisoners from Western 5 March 1940toexecute thePolish of theSoviet Union(Bolsheviks) dated Committee of the Communist Party locate all the graves constructed in in theKatyn Forest, itwas possible to As aresult ofdrillingandexcavation gist (inKharkiv). and Prof. AndrzejKola, anarchaeolo jowski, ananthropologist (inMednoe); (in Katyn); Prof. Bronislaw Mlodzie Prof. MarianGlosek,anarchaeologist (1994–1996). Theteamswere ledby Mednoe (1994–1995),andKharkiv further exhumations inKatyn and ities ofRussiaandUkraine enabled Agreements signedwiththeauthor to thisday. ------Photo: From the collection of the MCNH to build military necropolisesto build military with was impossible, adecisionwas made graves in Katyn, Mednoe and Kharkiv Since thearrangement ofindividual burials ofthevictims’ bodies. andorganiseof themassacre proper the Polish war cemeteriesat thesites determined Poland’s efforts tobuild was the will of the Katyn families that morial tothevictimswas initiated. It vealed, the concept of a dignified me about theKatyn was re Massacre Almost immediately after thetruth seen intheKatyn MuseuminWarsaw. ing to Polish prisoners of war can be Some oftheexcavated itemsbelong generals on7September. tookplace Sites (ROPWiM), asecondfuneral ofthe Protection ofStruggleandMartyrdom Katyn Families andtheCouncilfor the law Peszkowski, adelegation from the of General Smorawinski, Father Zdzis In the presence of the family members a Franciscan inSmolensk. friarserving by Father Kuczmik), Ptolemy (Jacek 1995. Theceremony was attended ish Red Cross on 31 August cemetery the death pitswere buriedinthePol reburied, whilethebonyremains from the remains taken from the graves were spring of1940.After beingexamined, Army murdered by theNKVDin of thosePolish officers ofthePolish the Katyn Memorial were the remains that the bodies buried in the area of ered. Theworks proved beyond doubt the death pitswere found anduncov the Polish Red all Cross. Inaddition, 1943 by the Technical Committee of ------Solyga was selected tobeconstructed. sculptors Zdzislaw Pidek andAndrzej a proposal submittedby ateamledby cemeteries announcedby ROPWiM, petition for the spatial design of the the Katyn Massacre. Following acom of teries andpreserving the memory role in establishing the Katyn ceme drzej Przewoznik played an invaluable ROPWiM andits Secretary General, An (Bohatyrewicz). inski and Bronislaw Bohaterewicz from Katyn: Mieczyslaw Smoraw are the two graves of the generals collective graves. Theonlyexceptions Forest. Russia,10/11September1994 Archaeological works intheKatyn - - - - 25

The Katyn Massacre: Historical Background Kuropaty Forest. 2019

In 2000, sixty years after the Massacre, Second Republic of Poland who were three Katyn cemeteries were opened most probably murdered on the basis and consecrated at the burial sites in of the “Katyn decision” in Minsk, and Kharkiv, Katyn and Mednoe. then buried in the Kuropaty nature reserve. The Fourth Polish War Cemetery was opened in Kyiv-Bykovnia on 21 Sep- Since 30 November 2004, the inves- tember 2012, when archaeological tigation into the Katyn Massacre has works and exhumations proved that been conducted by the Institute of

this was the burial place for the bodies National Remembrance, which treats of some Katyn Massacre victims from it as a war crime and a crime against the so-called “Ukrainian list”, who had humanity, not subject to statutory lim- been murdered in prisons. itations. Lastly on 14 November 2007, the Polish Parliament passed a resolu- Despite numerous endeavours under- tion, establishing 13 April as the Day of taken by the Polish authorities, it has Remembrance for the Victims of the not been possible to commemorate Katyn Massacre, with the aim to pay the victims from the so-called “Be- tribute and to commemorate all the

larusian list”, i.e. the citizens of the victims of the Massacre. the collection of C entre From Photo: C P RDU ) ( R ussian D ialogue and U nderstanding Polish- for

26 Chapter 2 FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE CRIME Moscow

E101 A-130 E30

A-108 RUSSIA Katyn Smolensk Gnezdovo

E101

A-130 P-120 B ELARUS Kozelsk

KOZELSK

It is worth starting one’s journey, at the monastery exerted considerable least symbolically, from the prison- influence on spiritual and cultural life er-of-war camp in Kozelsk, located in Russia, which is reflected in the 400 km southeast of Katyn, in the literature of the period and in the area of the Kaluga region, adjacent to correspondence and memoirs of em- the Smolensk region. The POW camp inent writers, thinkers and officials. was located in the famous Optina Her- Towards the end of the 19th century, mitage monastery (Optina Pustyn), Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in anguish after founded in the 14th century. For the death of his son, secluded himself centuries, the monastery was known in one of the monastery’s hermitages. as the seat of hermits, attracting pil- His stay at the Optina Hermitage mon- grims from the surrounding villages astery inspired the writer to include and more remote areas, and was also the figure of father Zosima the Elder famous for its excellent library com- in his novel “The Brothers Karama- prising of 60,000 volumes and man- zov”. The character was based on the uscripts. Since the mid-19th century, author’s encounters with the real-life

27 Following in the Footsteps of the Crime 28 there journey ontheirlast 150years later. fate ofPolish officers whosetofffrom a tragic as could serve mementotothe the Homeland”(Pożegnanie Ojczyzny) famous polonaise entitled “Farewell to being amemberofthelatter family. His with composerMichalKleofas Oginski Oginski, withtheOginieccoats ofarms, anian Commonwealth: thePuzynaand the noble families of the Polish–Lithu Kozelsk isalsoknown thecradle as of just before herdeath. there and tookreligious vows anun as stoy’s sister, Maria spent many years entitled “Father Sergei”), whileTol stoy’s stay resulted intheshortstory for sometime(Tolin themonastery Nikolai Gogol and Lev Tolstoy also lived who was canonisedin1988.Writers monk Amvrosy (Ambrose ofOptina), of thePOW campinKozelsk Orthodox church ontheterritory - - - percent ofthePOWs were reserve ficers and7armychaplains.Seventy majors, 654captains,3,420other of colonels, 79lieutenant-colonels,258 and survivor JerzyWolkowicki, 24 Minkiewicz, Mieczyslaw Smorawinski Bohaterewicz (Bohatyrewicz), Henryk Czernicki,four generals:ery Bronislaw Kozelsk, includingRear Admiral Ksaw buildingsin half-ruined monastery 4,594 peoplewere detainedinthe As of1December1939,atotal army captainVasily Korolov. 1939. The camp governor was Soviet were senttoKozelsk on20September Poland. The first prisoner transports territoriesofcaptured theeastern ers ofwar arrived there after theUSSR an NKVDholiday home.Polish prison six) andconvertedinto thehermitage a sawmill in the main church (oneof down. They arrangedthe monastery In 1923,theSoviet authoritiesclosed Poles POWs as inKozelsk insufficient supply ofwater andhygiene rooms were overcrowded. Due to an number ofpeople.Thepoorlyheated prepared to accommodate such a large ers of war, the Kozelsk camp not was Like the other campsfor Polish prison Jozef Dowbor-Musnicki. wandowska, thedaughter ofGeneral ant inthereserve forces, Janina Le Kozelsk: thepilotandsecondlieuten in theKatyn Forest was alsoheldin others. Theonlywoman murdered neers, teachers,journalistsandmany professors, physicians, lawyers, engi officers from thePolish intelligentsia: ------

Photo: From the collection of the MCNH Drawing by Z. Peszkowski, Wspomnienia jeńca z Kozielska, Warsaw 1989 Once aweek, officers received aration vegetables were distributedirregularly. fast andsoupfor dinner. Meat, fishand of sugar, aportion ofgroats for break er-of-war included800gofbread, 30g The dailyfood ration perprison “Shanghai”, and“Monkey Grove”. Square”, “Circus”, “Philharmonic Hall”, there also“LiceHotel”on“Misery was thodox church became“IndianTomb”, in “Old Folks’ Home”. The former Or generals lived in“Bristol”,themajors give humorous unit. The namestoeach or pillows. Over time,they startedto bunk beds,oftenwithoutmattresses prisoners sleptincrowded units,on were notcleaned ordisinfected. The insufficientand,worsewas still,they mon. facilities The number of sanitary products, bedbugsandlicewere com - - - - rheumatism, andvitamindeficiencies. ofthelungsanddigestiveeases tract, the camp,prisoners developed dis soap. Duetopoorlivingconditionsin matchesof tea, cheap tobacco, and lected from among the prisoners to be or play cards. Persons ondutywere se patriotic feelings, organise meetings, bidden toexpress anyreligious or alsostrictlyforout thenight.Itwas tobelitthroughdark, andlampshad prohibited toleave thebarracks after in aunitotherthantheirown. Itwas camp withoutpermissionorstaying them, for instance, from leaving the toobey rulesthathad prohibited Polish officers detained in thecamp amongst thePOWs themselves. vided by educated physicians from The healthcare inthecampwaspro Polish POWs. 1939–1941 Map oftheKozelsk campfor - - - - - 29

Following in the Footsteps of the Crime Following in the Footsteps of the Crime 30 home. Theclub screened Soviet films the library oftheformer NKVDholiday the Soviet press andcouldalsouse organised. ThePOWs to access had speakers andtalks andlectures were Moscow were through broadcast loud the camps. Radio programmes from Soviet alsocarriedoutin Union,was glorifying theachievements ofthe spirit ofcommunistpropaganda, Political andeducational work inthe Kozelsk, Ostashkov andStarobelsk. to execute thePoles heldincamps that helpedBeriamake thedecision in Kozelsk. It was probably his report from among theseveral thousand held recruit only several dozen prisoners from hissmalllibrary, to hemanaged efforts, tobooks e.g.offering access staff salutedby thePOWs. Despitehis was the only member of the camp officers working inthecamp.Zarubin the uneducated andprimitive NKVD ofing abroad, hedefiedtheimage with manyyears’ experience ofwork and fluentinvariousread languages was senttothecamp.Cultured, well- Major of State Security, Vasily Zarubin and informers amongthePOWs. The tional records and a network of agents taskedcamp was withkeeping opera The specialNKVDunitoperating inthe to censorship. ters, but they were, however, subject were allowed to sendandreceive let ing from November 1939,thePOWs by ColonelRyszard Malinowski. Start pointed; thisfunctionwasperformed A senior camp officer was also ap responsible for cleanlinessandorder. ------there are brickandwooden stop by awall. Behindthewalls, thick pinesorothertrees. We forest; Ihave never seensuch it andgothrough amagnificent an olddefensive We castle. pass looksarrived. like Themonastery a barbed-wired area, we have on amakeshift bridge,we enter Wemonasteries. cross theriver because allcampsare located in monastery. Thismustbeacamp make outtheoutlineof the town, andwe canalready We walk furtheralongthrough It stretches for manykilometres. Kozelsk. AtypicalRussiantown. It turnsoutthat itisthetown of electrically illuminated buildings. our destination. Onecansee of walking, we are nearing 2 Nov. (…)After two hours Paris‑Warsaw 1990,p.90 znalezione wKatyniu, Tomasz Siwicki,(in:)Pamiętniki been beautiful once. must haveand houses.Thisplace numerous buildings,various villas is already6am,we are among count usandletin,intens.It buildings. We they stopagain,

Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw their loved ones Kozelsk POWs to Letters ofthe 31

Following in the Footsteps of the Crime Following in the Footsteps of the Crime 32 (Dokumenty zbrodni, vol. 1,doc.155,pp.352–353) From reports onthesituationincampsdated[notearlierthan31]Dec.1939 detected theorganisers. well anti-religious as propaganda. Thes[pecial]d[epartment]has The polit[ical]apparatus carriesoutawareness-raising work as and salutes. While beinginthecamp,theytomaintaintheirinsignia,orders try have beenattempts toholdreligious services. officers are religious, andjustlike intheStarobelsk camp,there example: “Poland itwas”. will exist as again Themajorityofthe express patriotic feelings towards thefor[mer] Polish state. For In conversations, theofficers ofthefor[mer] Polish armyopenly IN THEKOZELSK CAMP like anyother. Theyearning during thistime.Every day is happened important has From 21Jan.to19 Feb. Nothing w Katyniu, Paris- Maksymilian Trzepałka, (in:)Pamiętniki znalezione the Caucasus. going totheUrals, Germany, are rumours inthecamp about Poland, family, friends.There like toflylike abird tosee grows day, each one would Warsaw 1990,p.31 Drawing: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw cations and petitions, demandingto ed the camp headquarters with appli hands ofbothaggressors. They flood and liberate theirhomelandfrom the and declared their willingnesstofight feelings towards theSoviet Union the Polish POWs harboured hostile results. According to NKVD reports, failed to bring abouttheexpected undertaken by theNKVDincamp The operational and political work 1939 thanks toitsalliancewithHitler.” Soviet tocapture Unionmanaged in different typesofpeople,whomthe the mentalityandcharacteristics of a kind ofinstitutionfor studyingas “Kozelsk cantherefore bedescribed economics and law in his civilian life: inent Sovietologist and a professor of Swianiewicz, aKozelsk survivor, prom As noted by Lieutenant Stanislaw Volga”, “Mother”and“Chapaev”. “Alexandersuch as Nevsky”, “Volga, Stanisław Westwalewicz, queuingfor water, asketch paint.Kozelsk withadded 1940 - - - celebrated contrary to the ban. Cler ish holidays and religious feasts were of Soviet indoctrination. Official Pol rules, treating anelement themas The prisoners boycotted the camp cooperate withtheSoviet authorities. state. Few declared theirreadinessto toPolandbe sentback ortoaneutral They organised illegal lectures and The POWs inself-education. engaged confinement at thetime. Ziolkowski, who was kept in solitary mained in Kozelsk, namelyMajorJan spread indignation. Onlyonepriestre 23 December1939,thiscausedwide men were deportedfrom thecamp on and Catholic priestsandotherclergy celebrationsChristmas were banned by otherfaiths was practiced. When and participation in ceremonies held Jews andProtestants inthecamp, There were also Orthodox Christians, gymen held secret religious services. - - - - - 33

Following in the Footsteps of the Crime talks, given by eminent specialists war. The “Monitor” and “Merkuriusz” being held in the camp. They cov- newspapers were illegally published. ered a wide spectrum of topics, from The daily “spoken news reports”, pre- Greek theogony to Stefan Zerom- pared based on news and articles, be- ski’s literary works to the embalming came a specific social phenomenon in of corpses. Foreign language courses the camp. were taught. Kozelsk also had a library, which the soldiers created with the The POWs set up choirs, musical en- books they had taken with them to sembles and theatrical groups, with the performances of the famous Poznan satirist, second lieutenant Tadeusz Hernes enjoying great popularity. In their free time, POWs played 9 April. Tuesday. (…) It is 2:30 chess and cards or even organised p.m. We arrive in Smolensk. spiritual séances. For the time being, we are standing at the freight railway The liquidation of the Kozelsk POW

station. Like in most young camp began on 3 April 1940. On that Photo: Michał S iemiński Russian towns, this is a giant day, the first transport of 74 Polish of- station, the track of the freight ficers set off for Gnezdovo, and from station stretches over several there to the Katyn Forest. Through- kilometres. However, we are out April, transports departed almost in Smolensk. It is evening, we every day. The last POW was sent from have passed Smolensk, we have the camp on 20 May. POWs were es- reached Gnezdovo station. It corted to Smolensk and Gnezdovo by looks as though we have to get the 136th Independent Battalion of out here because there are many the NKVD Transport Troops stationed military men around. Anyway, in Smolensk. so far, they have not given us anything to eat at all. Since Kozelsk Today yesterday’s breakfast we have been living on a portion of bread Nowadays, the Kozelsk monastery has and a modest dose of water. regained its status as a shrine and an important centre of religious wor- Wacław Kruk, (in:) Pamiętniki ship. It was returned to the Orthodox znalezione w Katyniu, Paris- Church in 1987, just before the 1000th Warsaw 1990, p. 61 anniversary of the Christianisation of [According to researchers’ findings, the Rus’. The building has been reno- W. Kruk is not the author of these vated and attracts crowds of believers notes found in the death pit. The real and pilgrims, as well as the highest of- author has not yet been identified.] ficials—in 2010, it was visited by the then president, Dmitry Medvedev.

34 Photo: Michał Siemiński thodox Church”. of persecutionthe history of the Or offered to visitors—“New martyrs and found inthetopicofonetours remembrance oftheTerror canbe monks themselves. The only trace of sions, ortotherepressions the against Soviet victims of theStalinist repres not have amuseumdedicated tothe monks. Moreover, does themonastery decision wasopposedby theKozelsk monastery,the OptinaHermitage his memorative in tobeplaced plaque Alexey IIagreed inwritingfor acom of Moscow andAllRus’ at thetime, war. Althoughin1992 thePatriarch were imprisonedthere during the the officers ofthePolish Army, which not beenpossibletocommemorate is the only former camp where it has dertaken by thePolish side,Kozelsk Unfortunately, despitetheefforts un “Redas Easter”. astery, andtheevent becameknown monks mon oftheOptinaHermitage A mentallyillreoffender killedthree shocking thefaithful allover Russia. inthe monastery,incident tookplace of1993,atragicDuring theEaster The Kozelsk monastery - - - - - within thenecropolis. ically by lightingacandlesomewhere sible tocommemorate themsymbol of the Polish graves, so it is only pos plies toRussiangraves). No trace isleft old unattended graves (thisalsoap burials take in areas occupied place by Chkalova St., is overcrowded and new cated in thecentre ofKozelsk, at 22 lo buried. The old municipal cemetery weretheir detention in the monastery the Polish officers whodiedduring locatedcemetery inKozelsk, where There are nomemorials eitherinthe made inthetown.made are also available, andinquiriescanbe hour. Other local means of transport minibuses (marshrutki) that run every canbereached fromtery thetown by there by bus to Kozelsk. Themonas train toKaluga (3.5hours), andfrom journey takes about5hours) orby approximately onceevery hour(the part from Tyoply Stan metro station by long-distance which de coaches, Kozelsk canbereached from Moscow Cemetery inKozelskCemetery ------35

Following in the Footsteps of the Crime Following in the Footsteps of the Crime 36 [chronologically, this isthelastrecord madebefore themassacre] w Katyniu, Paris- Adam Solski,(in:)Pamiętniki znalezione roubles, main belt,pen knife (sic!). which (…). They took away my They tookaway my wedding ring were carefully searched here. a summerretreat. We forest; somethinglike brought ustosome (terrible!). They truck incompartments Departure by aprison began inapeculiarway. 9 April. Five a.m.Theday The vehicles, ravens” known“black as vehicles totheexecution heading site. were transferred tobusesorprison by adensecordon ofNKVDofficers, In Gnezdovo, the Poles, surrounded the USSRwas alsoconsidered. possibility ofbeingtaken deeperinto Poland. In the worst-case scenario, the the neutral countries, France ormaybe to whether they were going to one of tination and could only speculate as rail cars. They didnotknow theirdes transported tothisrailway station by ish officers imprisoned in Kozelsk were Gne The next stop on this tragic map is GNEZDOVO zdovo. InAprilandMay 1940, Pol Warsaw 1990,p.105 - - ney ofexecution. totheirplace tions. Thiswastheofficers’ jour last withnight-timedeporta associated throughout theSoviet Union,andwere (chernyi voron), evoked images ghastly Gnezdovo Station. 1943 - -

Photo: From the collection of the MCNH Warsaw 1990,pp.112–113 Stanisław Swianiewicz, WcieniuKatynia, where theprisoners were beingtaken wasnot far away. totakeback thenext batch. Thismeantthat theplace on theground. (...)After halfanhourthebuswould come directly from thestepsofrail carwithoutstepping neighbouring rail carsothat theprisoners couldenterit people. (...)Thebusdrove backwards towards the with lime.Thebuscouldaccommodate aboutthirty the square from theroad(...),windows were covered bayonets busentered upright.(...)Anordinary passenger surrounded by acordon ofNKVDtroops withtheir items (...).Infront ofus,there wasasquare (...)densely So, Itriedtoclimbontothetopshelfdesignated for through whichIcouldseewhat washappeningoutside. behind thewall. (...)Undertheroof, Inoticedahole I heard amotorcycle whirringandsomecommotion P-120

Dnieper River Katyn Memorial Katyn Gory Kozie E30

Gnezdovo

Vitebsk Highway P-120 66K-20 66K-22 Smolensk 37 A Following in the Footsteps of the Crime -132 Katyn-Borek

Another dramatic reference to Katyn ondon 1963

is the fact that in 1899 Lednicki hid . L a Polish man in his home. The Pole, who had escaped from exile, was most Pamiętniki likely to be Felix Dzerzhinsky, later the founder of Cheka (Soviet secret po- ednicki lice). Waclaw, the son of Aleksander Lednicki, claims that his father did not know the identity of the fugitive, who was just one of the many compatriots Photo: Wacław L Photo: Wacław helped by Aleksander Lednicki.

Gnezdovo and its links with Poland After the revolution of 1917, the Koz- linski and Lednicki families fled Russia Gnezdovo became part of the re- to escape the Bolsheviks and settled in gion’s history in the Middle Ages. This Poland. Although Lednicki’s activity in settlement is older than Smolensk, Poland was highly appreciated by Mar- serving as an important defence and shal Jozef Pilsudski, he did not man- trade centre of the Varangians in the age to get involved in politics since he 9th and 10th centuries. Before the was labelled “pro-Russian”. His son, First World War, it was part of the Waclaw, also maintained connections Ivishche estate, which was owned by with Russian culture until the end of the Pole, Edward Kozlinski. The nearby his life. He ran the Department of Rus- areas, which were part of the Katyn- sian Studies at the Jagiellonian Univer- Borek estate (located 3 km away from sity, was a professor of Slavic Studies the current Polish War Cemetery) were in Brussels and then at the universities owned by another Pole, Aleksander of Harvard and Berkeley. Towards the Lednicki. end of his life, he published his memoirs in London, describing the history Lednicki was a lawyer living in Moscow. of the Lednicki family, including the He was head of the Moscow Polish Katyn-Borek estate. Club and other Polish organisations, a member of the Russian Duma rep- Gnezdovo is taken over resenting the Minsk region, a philan- by the Cheka thropist and a freemason. He used to spend the summer months with his Following the Bolshevik Revolution family in his manor house on the Dnie- and the escape of the Polish owners, per River. The Katyn Forest, including the land and buildings belonging to the Kozie Gory nature reserve (where them were seized by the Cheka (the the Polish officers were subsequently security services). The Lednicki manor murdered), served as a place for lei- house was surrounded by additional surely walks, horse riding and hunting. dwellings and was later converted into

38 Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU chas (cottages) erected inrecent (cottages) yearschas war buildings, and contemporary da well several1946), as as small post- of theInterior, builtafter thewar (in a sanatorium for theRussianMinistry the year 2000.Today, thearea houses demolishedbeforemanor housewas gravesmass ofthePoles in1943.The discoveredafter theGermanshad the manor house during their stay in Katyn Cross stayed in the former Lednicki year. ThecommitteeofthePolish Red reached 180 per day in the following and thenumberofexecuted victims intheSmolensk region,firing squad over 7,000 people were executed by peaked in1937–1938. In1937alone, the Katyn Forest. The Stalinist purges ied inhabitantsofSmolenskregion in gan, Cheka officers executed andbur from 1918,whenthe“Red Terror” be from the forest. accessing Starting barbed wire, preventing local residents vicinity. Thearea was surrounded with a sanatorium built in the immediate a holiday resort for theNKVD, with Gnezdovo Station. 2019 - - - an almostunchangedconditionfrom The onlyelementthatsurvivedin has tion with a renovated station building. arailway350 inhabitantsandhas sta Today, Gnezdovo with is a small village Gnezdovo Today the contemporary securityagencies. and presumably owned by officers of Marches. who participate inthe Youth Memorial on foot by Polish andRussianyouth way. Every year, thisroute iscovered by car or bus along the Vitebsk High about 5kmaway) takes afew minutes to theKatyn War (located Cemetery Getting from theGnezdovo station recent renovation. building was removed during its most ofthestation onthefaçade the village unknown reasons, even the name of ings located thetracks. across For ed to Katyn are the industrial build the period when Poles were transport - - - - 39

Following in the Footsteps of the Crime Following in the Footsteps of the Crime 40 including the Polish War Cemetery, is of remembrance. Theentire complex, murdered victims, alongside the titled “Execution”, commemorating the Pages andamonumenten ofhistory”, “Russia and Poland. The 20th century. in 2018,withanexhibition entitled memorial complex), amuseum,opened of repressions (at the entrance to the icated tobothPolish andSoviet victims of repressions, amuseumpavilion ded of Sovietand sites: a cemetery victims is alsocomprisedofRussianfacilities ment ofthemuseumcomplex, which The Polish War isoneele Cemetery when approaching theKatyn Forest. комплекс “Kатынь”) canonlybeseen Memorial Complex” (Мемориальный inRussianreading“Katynthe plaque indicating how togetKatyn, and thereas are nosignpostsinSmolensk mostly onmapsandnavigation devices lensk withBelarus.Visitors shouldrely the citiesofOrel, andSmo Bryansk to theP-120 trunkroad connecting The Polish War is adjacent Cemetery Smolensk, and411kmfrom Moscow. ofKatyn,and thevillage 16kmwest of lies between Gnezdovo railway station murdered Polish officers were buried, tothelatestaccording findings,4,415 intheKatynThe place Forest, where, Location andHistory CEMETERY AND POLISHWAR KATYN FOREST wall - - - - The construction of the museum com of Culture oftheRussian Federation. Moscow, by theMinistry supervised of Contemporary ofRussiain History a branch oftheState Central Museum the remaining memorial sites of the tyrdom Sites, which also took care of the Protection ofStruggleandMar was coordinated by theCouncilfor struction ofthePolish War Cemetery sacre. Theconceptualwork andcon commemorations oftheKatyn Mas partofthe60thanniversary2000 as opened andconsecrated on28July Katyn and Mednoe”. It officiallywas fell victimtototalitarianrepressions in sites ofSoviet andPolish citizenswho ation ofmemorialsitesat theburial the Russian Federation, “Onthecre decree issuedby theGovernment of plex wasinitiated following the1996 - - - - -

Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU cemetery). details see Chapter 3 on the Russian section was still unfinished (for more area while thememorialinRussian fully completedmemorialsite inthe Polish War remained Cemetery the only For manyyears, untilApril2018,the other donors. lies, thePolish Katyn Foundation and Polish government, the Katyn Fami financed withfundsdonated by the was The constructionofthecemetery ing theconclusionofcompetition. selected for implementation follow Wieslaw Synakiewicz andJacek was and AndrzejSolyga andarchitects team ledby sculptors Zdzislaw Pidek Bykovnia. Theproject submitted by the Katyn inKharkiv, Massacre Mednoeand 1

- - scription “Katyn” (Катынь), well as as come board withalarge Russianin the museumcomplex, there isawel Russian facilities. At theentrance to tery, visitors willfirst walk several past On theirway tothePolish War Ceme icon of Our Lady ofCzestochowaicon ofOurLady to Patriarch Kirill donated acopy ofthe company connectedtotheKremlin. church was financedby Rosneft, anoil crated it. grad regions, who personally conse archbishop ofSmolenskandKalinin Russian Orthodox Church andformer tive ofPatriarch Kirill, ofthe thehead The church wasfounded ontheinitia the victimsofStalinistrepressions. September 2012andcommemorates of theLord, whichwasconsecrated in church complex oftheResurrection sia. ofPoland andRus withtheflags masts

On the right, visitors can see the

Theconstructionofthe ------2

Following in the Footsteps of the Crime Following in the Footsteps of the Crime 42 3

a well withholywater nearby. dation for pilgrims, social buildings and front of the church, with accommo There isastatue ofSt.Seraphim in is located intheso-calledlower church. Orthodox Church inthe20thcentury documenting the persecution of the the Katyn Forest in1937. Amuseum archbishop ofSmolensk,executed in Another icondepictsSt.Serafim, the area around Katyn inthebackground. ish Army. Theiconispaintedwiththe the chief Orthodox chaplain of the Pol executed Polish POW whousedtobe ant-Colonel Szymon Fedoronko, an and laypeople, amongthemLieuten the Katyn martyrs: clergymen, monks church also houses anicondevoted to The seen totherightoficonostasis. ciliation of our nations”. The icon can be a patron for prayers for “the full recon the hope that the icon wouldas act visit toPoland in2012.Heexpressed a gift fromas Polish bishops during his the church, whichhehimselfreceived - - - - navigate thearea. in these three help visitors languages Russian, EnglishandPolish. Signposts tailed mapofthesiteandalegendin rial complex, there isaboard withade In front oftheentrance tothememo Complex inKatyn The MuseumandCemetery visitors embarkonthe socalled“death totheotherworld, ising thepassage gate ofacross, withanimage symbol izens are buried here”. Through a glass Soviet citizens and over 4,000 Polish cit following inscription:“More than8,000 by whole section is accompanied the ten alternately in Polish and Russian. The names ofPolish andSoviet victimswrit were onthecorridorwalls placed with In 2018,plates imitating rustymetal ridor, thusforming asymbolic gate. ground andcutacrossby anarrow cor plex stands a pavilion, rising from the At theentrance tothememorialcom 3

------

Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU Photo: Viktor Volkov and loved ones. the museumby the victims’ relatives ings oftherepressed, handedover to is dedicated to the personal belong the SmolenskRegion”. Aspecialplace and isentitled“TheTotalitarian Past of the political repressions ofthe1930s, the Smolensk region whofell victim to voted tothefates ofpeople livingin The core partoftheexhibition isde all thearchitectural objectswithin it. entire Katyn memorialcomplex and to give visitors abird’s eye view ofthe al site.Multimediatechnologyisused Forest ofthememori andthehistory fate ofthevictimsburiedinKatyn exhibition ofthetragic tellsthestory entrance ontheright,museum Located in the pavilion of the main the pitsinKozie nature Gory reserve. were transported andburiedin back, taken to be executed or their bodies road”: alongthisroadtheconvictswere - - - names andphotographs ofSoviet and the Remembrance Gallery, adisplay of The core elementoftheexhibition is carried outinthe1990s. death pitsduringtheexhumations oners ofwar andwere excavated from which used to belong to Polish pris The exhibition alsopresents items stops, so prisoners had to spend many stops, so prisonersto spend many had taken outoftherail cars onlyduring werewise, thebodiesofdeceased emptied onlyduringlongerstops. Like bunks and used a bucket a toilet, as 30–40 people. They sleptonwooden heated by astove, couldaccommodate through tothe1950s.Sucharail car, victims ofrepression duringthe1920s of onethoseusedfor transporting a reconstructed railway car, anexample right side of the square, visitors can see After through thegate, passing onthe complex ofKatyn. Polish citizens buriedin the memorial 4

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Following in the Footsteps of the Crime Following in the Footsteps of the Crime 44 5

the exhibition byreplaced was plaques camps.In2017,ing heldintheGulag proximately 2.8millionprisoners be region among thetotalnumberofap 16,000 inhabitantsoftheSmolensk in March 1953,there were at least mation, at thetimeofStalin’s death repressions. According to such infor about thefate ofthevictims boards nearby, presenting information “GULAG onwheels” shown was on For many years, an exhibition entitled pied by theSoviets. territoriesoccu land from theeastern citizens of the Second Republic of Po used todeportapproximately 320,000 In 1940–1941, the similar rail cars were bodies oftheircompanionsinmisery. hours inthesamerail carwiththedead 5

- - - - - of war were held,andthenumberof ditions underwhichSoviet prisoners They describeindetailthesevere con dedicated to the Polish-Bolshevik War. highest Soviet authorities. Polish officers directly ordered by the malnutrition, withthemurder ofthe Soviet POWs, and whodiedofdiseases rectly attempts toequate thefate of repression apparatus, andthusindi many crimescommittedby theSoviet the Red Armysoldiers at thesceneof information regarding the tragic fate of side isthat theexhibition highlightsthe greatest manipulation by the Russian sian researchers (18,000–20,000).The the previous estimatesby made Rus estimates (16,000–18,000)andalso which significantlyexceeds thePolish fatalities, i.e.25,000–28,000people, - - -

Photo: Viktor Volkov Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU 6 From the collection of the CPRDU A boulder symbolisingof thememory Russian sectionsofthecemetery. visitors respectively to the Polish and the Polish guide and Russian flags square, and the red metal gates with The death road splitsintwo at the historical sources. POWs still not beenconfirmedby has ganda effect. Theexecution ofSoviet Soviet POWs toreinforce itspropa thekillingof Germans andadded murder ofthePolish officers tothe ko Committee,whichattributed the false report by theso-calledBurden 1943. Thememorialisaresult ofthe Germans intheKatyn Forest inMay viet POWs allegedlyexecuted by the commemoratingite plaque 500So Nearby, ontheright,there isagran 6

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45 7

Following in the Footsteps of the Crime Following in the Footsteps of the Crime Where thegrave isnotrevered even withlaughter, Where somethingthatdoesn’t exist stillcallsfor vengeance. There isonlyonesuchsideoftheworld, The world ofGodwithoutaname,namefate. A world ofvoice withoutflesh, andfleshwithoutGod, A world ofmurder without command,acommandwithoutvoice. Here isaworld withoutdeath.Aworld ofdeathwithoutmurder, Before theshotswere fired, stillechoingdown. Heaven knows thelanguageinwhichcommandswere given The earthstillremembers theshapeofboots,tasteblood The trees thatsawitstillgrow there 46 from theLitaniaalbum,1986 Jacek Kaczmarski, BalladaKatyńska, The pitisnotpassed,for aneagleorafalcon... tion aboutthe constructionofthe inscription and contains informa Russian andEnglishliesnext tothe A cast-iron plate with text in Polish, inscription “Polish War Cemetery”. ing stonesare besetwiththemetal and thepavof Polish eagles military framed by two pylons withimages The entrance is tothecemetery a 470metre longmetalfence. an area of1.4haandissurrounded by section of the cemetery, which covers tothePolishThe right-handpath leads Polish War Cemetery in front oftheentrance. the murdered beenplaced victimshas - - Going further we can see plates depict 28 July2000. anditsofficialopeningon cemetery es are located infront ofthe cross. sacre totheThird Reich. Somebench monument, which attributed the mas erected in this area next to a Soviet erected inthisplace”. death of thePolish officers willbe It reads:“A cross commemorating the mate ofPoland, Cardinal JozefGlemp. handed over in1988by thethenPri walk thewooden past Primate’s Cross, To theleftalongpath, visitors 1939 SeptemberCampaignCross. tion- theVirtutiMilitariCross andthe decoraing thehighestPolish military 9

Initially it was Initiallyitwas 8

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Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU Fot. Ze zbiorów CPRDiP 9

soul can’t remember anymore, An officerinhishataliving asleep, around Warsaw atnight,1989 Bułat Okudżawa, Aroad trip words that stickinourthroats today. Take outtheirnotebooks towrite a year before boys andgirls It won’t itwon’t beacentury; be to him. a foreign leaf intheforest hums For aforeign river washeshimnow, 8

Following in the Footsteps of the Crime Following in the Footsteps of the Crime 48 10 12 11

Photo: Viktor Volkov Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU date of birth, occupation, and place rank,contain the military full name, on thewalls of thetrench, the plaques ofthemurderedeach victims.Placed on the cast-iron epitaphs honouring The rust colour can also be found its surroundings. inthesame wayment shouldage as Zdzislaw Pidek’s ideathat themonu a specialcorrosion accelerant. Itwas covered was of thecemetery with iron usedtomake several elements ering theexhumed bodies.The cast on thebuttonsofuniforms cov the colourofclottedbloodorrust the cemetery, potentiallyresembling a rustyred colouronmanyelements in al complex may besurprisedtosee Those whocometothememori tween life anddeath. symbolically be crossing theboundary descend below the ground level, thus Walking furtheralong thealley, visitors turned intoawall ofremembrance. by atrench, withitssideshaving been shape of a burial mound surrounded closer, visitors the canseethat ithas seems tobeflat. However, uponcoming grave. Seen from adistance, the area signed thewholearea tobeasymbolic zislaw Pidek and Andrzej Solyga, de team ofarchitects ledby sculptors Zd The creators ofthecemetery, i.e.the ism andIslam. tianity (Catholic andOrthodox), Juda Chris those buriedinthecemetery: symbols ofthefaiths professed by there are four vertical plates withthe In ashortdistancefrom thecross, 10

------with apowerful Pilgrims message. commemorationcombining ascetic seum, makingastrong impression by derground chapelandmemorialmu trench wall could form akindofun pits. Thecreators’ idea was that the layerplaced uponlayer inthedeath areferenceas tothebodiesbeing they are arranged insixvertical rows important elementsofthecemetery: ual epitaphsare amongthemost 1940 of thevictims. rankservice anddate ofdeath—year 13th–14th centuries). and patriotic song(dating tothe back the oldestpreserved Polish religious “The Mother of God” (Bogurodzica), the inscription“Katyn” andthetext of in the trench below ground level with tableandabellhanging a sacrificial was opened),across intheclearance, timated death toll when the cemetery in alphabeticalorder (thiswasthees gate with4,412namesimprintedonit red colour. Itconsists ofacast-iron and small souvenirs by the plaques. leave miniature Polish flowers flags, 12

13 The altar ensemble also has arusty The altar ensemble also has

11 13

Theindivid

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Following in the Footsteps of the Crime Following in the Footsteps of the Crime 50 The slabsare supposed tosymbolise remains of the victims were exhumed. the seven death pitsfrom whichthe the trees were arranged of intheplace The irregular cast-iron slabs between Mieczyslaw Smorawinski. terewicz (Bohatyrewicz) andGeneral those ofGeneral Bronislaw Boha individual tombsare located here— iron plates withcrosses. collective graves covered withcast- In front ofthealtar, there are alsosix 1940 andburiedintheKatyn Forest”. murdered by theNKVDinspringof Army officers from theKozelsk camp the Polish nation to“over 4,400Polish paidonbehalfof bolises thehomage symAlmighty”. Thesecondplaque intheface ofGodto thedeceased, tion: “Truth tothe suffering, prayer bearsplaque thefollowing inscrip consecrated by Pope JohnPaul II.The foundation stonefor thecemetery, 1995, President Lech Walesa laidthe tar. where, One signifies the place in are in frontplaques placed of the al Two commemorative cast-iron Katyn victims. commemorative events to honour the in thischurch withoutwalls during areservices held at the altar table below theearth.Ecumenicalreligious truth, which can even be heard from derground bellrefers tothevoice of the Resurrected Christ,whiletheun Sepulchre and the stoneremoved by gate andthecross invoke theHoly invokes theResurrection ofChrist:the The symbolism ofthealtarensemble 14 15

Onlytwo

- - - - - silent witness to the crime committed silent witnesstothecrimecommitted The site is surrounded by a forest—the were buriedinnearby grave no.6. Burdenko Committee,andthebodies was emptiedduringthework ofthe According to one hypothesis, the pit clear what happenedtothebodies. officers were nolongerthere. Itisnot turned outthat thebodiesofPolish cemetery,pit no. 8 to the military it and transfer the bodiesofPoles from to Katyn in1994order toexhume led by Professor Marian Glosek went by theNKVD. Whenanexpedition the bodies of the POWs murdered exhumation in1943,itcontained Dnieper River. Discovered duringthe of theotherdeath pits,towards the is located about 100 meters south Outside thePolish cemetery, pitno. 8 face despiteattempts tohidethem. the Katyn cometothesur Massacre, rusty spots which, like the truth about here several ago. decades 16

Photo: Viktor Volkov -

Photo: Viktor Volkov 15

Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU 14 16

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE CRIME Chapter 3 RUSSIAN CEMETERY AND MUSEUM

The Russian cemetery is adjacent to the Polish War Cemetery, with a red gate and a Russian flag at the entrance. Foreign pilgrims are advised to visit this place as well. They may want to bow their heads at the graves of the residents of Smolensk region murdered by the Soviet repressive apparatus and find out how volatile and “arrhythmic” Russian politics of memory can be. The Russian cemetery was officially The situation changed dramatically in opened in 2000, together with the 2017. The Russian side began the pro- Polish one. It is the burial site of at least cess of thoroughly reconstructing and 8,000 victims of repressions: inhabit- expanding its section of the cemetery, ants of the Smolensk region, including as well as carrying out exhumations. at least a few hundred of Poles, most- These measures were initiated by the ly the victims of the NKVD’s “Polish proponents of the imperialist vision operation” carried out in 1937–1938. of Russian history strongly associated For many years, however, the Russian with the Kremlin. The work was coor- section of the cemetery remained dinated by the State Central Museum underdeveloped—it was only marked of Contemporary History of Russia in with a tenmetre high Orthodox cross Moscow and the Russian Military His- placed behind the red gate (where Pol- tory Society under the supervision of ish delegations also lay flowers every the former Minister of Culture of the year), as well as small wooden crosses Russian Federation, Vladimir Medin- placed by the families of the victims. sky. The comprehensive concept of the For many years, the Polish War Ceme- new memorial complex was developed tery was the only fully completed sec- by Andrei Kovalchuk, the chairman of tion of the memorial complex. On the the Union of Russian Artists, who, in- Russian side, there were paths leading cidentally, was Vladimir Putin’s return- deep into the forest, cutting across the ing officer in the presidential elections, mass graves, which bore no markings a signatory of the letter to support Pu- whatsoever. tin’s policy towards Ukraine in 2014 and

52 Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU territories beyond theOlza River) by nation), theoccupation (the ofZaolzie for outapurposive carrying extermi number ofvictimsandblaming Poland shevik War (significantly overstating the of Soviet POWs duringthePolish-Bol others, the museumpresents thefate time, glorifyMoscow’s policies.Among towards itsneighbours and,at thesame takinganaggressive a country stance ent theSecondRepublic ofPoland as the authors oftheexhibition pres materials, oftenopenlymanipulated, of assortment By selectingabiased of history”. and Poland. The20thcentury. Pages The core exhibition is entitled “Russia the reconstructed Russiancemetery. tions, isanimportantnew building in perialist visionofPolish-Russian rela The museum,whichpresents theim Wlodzimierz Marciniak. by toRussia, thePolish Ambassador vsky. The ceremony was also attended of theSmolenskregion, Alexei Ostro MedinskyandtheGovernorVladimir country, thethenMinisterofCulture, the third most important person in the ment), Valentina Matviyenko, formally per chamber of the Russian parlia an ofthe Federation Council(theup and the region, notably the Chairwom of high-ranking officialsfrom Moscow were officiallyopenedinthepresence On 20April2018,thenew buildings ident unveiled togetherin2017. Crimea, which he and the Russian pres nearYaltader IIIinLivadia inoccupied the authorofmonumenttoAlexan 1

------early 1990s, which investigated the Prosecutor’ssian Military Officeinthe a group of investigators from the Rus eral Alexandr Tretetsky, whoheaded on theKatyn Gen suchas Massacre, who greatly contributedtotheresearch mention the names of those Russians been omitted.Theexhibition fails to and thedemocratic opposition have Polish against underground fighters repressions ofthecommunistregime given toPoland,assistance whilethe brotherhood andtheSoviet financial on idyllic, with an emphasis sented as the People’s Republic of Poland are pre The relations between theUSSRand post-war Polish-Soviet “cooperation”. Army duringtheSecondWorld War and the liberation ofPoland by the Red Poland after the Munich Agreement, 1

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Russian Cemetery and Museum Russian Cemetery and Museum 2

2010 is mentioned in a single sentence, 2010 ismentionedin a single sentence, the Polish presidential plane on10 April a costtothePolish budget.Thecrash of the cemeteriesofRed Armysoldiers, at land’s efforts tomaintainandrenovate provide any information aboutPo in Poland inrecent years, butfails to to theSoviet Armybeingdismantled of“monumentsgratitude”cases poses. Finally, themuseumhighlights in by theGermansfor propaganda pur and Western representatives brought various committees and groups of Poles ertsev, who testified a before peasant NKVD’s inKatyn dacha orIvan Krivozi Parfiyonsuch as Kiselov, aguard at the the witnesses of the Katyn Massacre Nor doesitmentionthetragic fate of mation process inKatyn andMednoe. andcoordinatedMassacre theexhu - - - - Russian sectionofthecemetery. the mainsignofremembrance inthe dox cross which,untilrecently, was reaches aten-metre tallred Ortho Walking deeperinto theforest, one in Russiafor manyyears. figure amongthescholarlycommunity Medinsky, beenacontroversial whohas of former MinisterofCulture, Vladimir Historical Societyundertheleadership developedwas by theRussianMilitary entire Russian section of the cemetery theconceptof wellexhibition as as sation ofthemourningceremonies. The stances ofthecrash andtheco-organi the jointinvestigation intothecircum wards thePolish side,by participating in consistentlyshownhas goodwillto followed by an assurance that Russia 2

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Photo: Viktor Volkov Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU 3

Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU guages: Russian, EnglishandPolish.guages: following thesignposts inthree lan newly arranged wooden footbridges, viaThe monumentcanbereached thick concrete pylons. just before hefalls, surrounded by shows the figure ofanexecuted man and Sofia Shlenkina. The monument and young architects Vadim Frolov Andrei Kovalchuk, hisfather Nikolai, ated by theaforementioned sculptor composition entitled“Execution”, cre isthe sculpturalRussian cemetery One ofthecentral elementsofthe 1920s and1930s. Soviet citizensexecuted there inthe found of that theburialplace thiswas in the forest on the left. Scholars have discovered in1998are located deeper victims ofSoviet politicalrepressions tovo nearMoscow. Thegraves ofthe trainingand themilitary ground inBu discovered inRussia:Katyn, Mednoe, murder ofmass most importantplaces repressions, showing, amongothers, the voted of Soviet to the history political Located nearby isasmallexhibition de 3

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Russian Cemetery and Museum Russian Cemetery and Museum 56 6

mourning. asymboles as ofremembrance and been plantedby oneofthefootbridg footbridges. Aweeping willow has bythe territory walking onwooden repressions. Visitors canmove around gravesmass ofvictims oftheSoviet called “death valley”, containing the The siteissurrounded by theso- surname engraved on a toothbrush. ontheircould beidentified,based the exhumations, only one person ontheNKVDarchives.based During repressions from theSmolensk region. of RussianvictimsSoviet political of remembrance with8,000names Near themonument,there isawall 6

The names were reconstructed 7

- Katyn Forest were people ofmany NKVDandburiedinthe lensk-based Among thevictimskilledby theSmo persecutors. tyr’s death at thehandsofhisatheist tyr, i.e. a person who suffered a mar anew declaredIn 2001,hewas mar as was executed by in1937. firingsquad ing acounter-revolutionary group, he Diocese of Chelm. Accused of lead priestinthe Chelm andanassistant viously, in asuperioroftheseminary of theDioceseSmolenskandpre an Orthodox bishopandanordinary victims was St. Serafin (Ostroumov), even Chinese.Oneofthemurdered vians, Lithuanians,Jews, Croats and Russians, there were also Poles, Lat nationalities and religions. Apart from ------

Photo: Viktor Volkov From the collection of the CPRDU orphanage, andheryounger sisters diedofstarvation. year-old was taken away from hermotherandplacedinan members intotal)were killedintheKatyn Forest. Thethree- Kazakov aswell asherunclesandcousins(seven family In 1938,whenshewas three years old,herfather Alfred head oftheSmolenskbranch ofthe ‘Memorial’Association. People withDisabilities—Victims ofPolitical Repressions, the Lilia Turchenkova, President oftheSmolenskAssociation of No relatives at all. Totallymy adolescence. alone. of fear, sinceIwasachild,through say anythingtoanyone. Thisstate questions. We were notallowed to We were notallowed any toask 7

Russian Cemetery and Museum Chapter 4 SMOLENSK

Smolensk plays a special role in the history of Russia. For many centuries, the city on the Dnieper River, nestled among seven hills, served as a strategic defence at the borders of the Tsardom of Russia as well as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, later on, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The city is part of the history of Poland and Lithuania—until the from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and served as an important centre of early 16th century and trade, crafts and defence. It was one of for over 40 years in the the most important cities in Ruthenia 17th century, it was after Kyiv and Veliky Novgorod. the easternmost major Over the following centuries, Smolensk fortress of the Grand was the subject of rivalry between the Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Republic guarding its borders. of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Mos- cow, and then the Tsardom of Russia. It remained under Lithuanian rule in The first mention of Smolensk in his- 1404–1514, serving as the capital of the torical chronicles dates back to the 9th province from 1508 onwards. century, presenting it as the centre of authority of the Krivich tribe. The town Smolensk was recaptured in 1514 by on the Dnieper River began to flour- the Muscovites and its painful loss ish in the 12th century: it was locat- was depicted in the famous painting ed along the transport route leading entitled “Stanczyk” where renowned

58 Photo: Wikipedia, public domain for bothcountries. Inthelate 16th a strategicserved as defence bastion monwealth and Moscow, the town between thePolish-Lithuanian Com Situated on the border of influences Tsardom ofRussiain1667. in 1611–1654, finally losing itto the Commonwealth regained Smolensk in history. ThePolish-Lithuanian later,a century at another moment of the Republic of Poland more than portance ofSmolenskfor thesecurity being theonlymanaware oftheim Kaczmarski also sang aboutthe jester ish singer, songwriterandpoet,Jacek about the loss of the town. The Pol the royal jesterinsorrow uponlearning Polish painter, JanMatejko portrayed Juliusz Kossak—Smolensk Relief 1

- - - the demolitionofoldramparts so ruled Smolenskat thetime,ordered century, Tsar Fyodor Romanov, who years. On his initiative, Smolensk by laying seige to the town for two to do so (Smuta), but only managed wealth duringtheTime of Troubles for the Polish-Lithuanian Common Sigismund III Vasa regained the town army andresidents. the fortress to raise the morale ofthe abovewas placed the Dnieper Gate of was paintedby St.Luke theEvangelist, thelegend goes, Smolensk, which,as of themiraculous of iconofOurLady the DnieperRiver inthenorth.Acopy erected, protected by the waters of a defensive fortress instonecouldbe - 1

Smolensk Smolensk 60 Muscovites attacked Vilnius,causing Ayeartegic bridgehead. later, the manov himself, thusgaininga stra commanded by Tsar Aleksey Ro the town was recaptured by thearmy break ofthewar withPoland in1654, the lossofSmolensk.After theout Moscow did not come to terms with great prestige in Smolensk. ophy, ethicsandrhetoric,enjoyed which taughtmathematics, philos of present-day Russia.TheCollege, the first university on the territory in the town, which formally became siewski founded theJesuitCollege Smolensk, Aleksander Korwin Go In 1623, the Palatine-Governor of received Magdeburg rightsin1611. Jan Kunowski, Smoleńska zacnośćR[oku]P[ańskiego]1628 Right alongtheDnieper. With foundations onoakstilts, seemssobold, This iswhythecastle Water canalsinpitsaround thewalls, And anembankmentoutside. The wall islinedwithhewn stone, Tower isseparated from tower, quarter,In each for goodshooting In thesequarters. Thirty-eight heftytowers around Two lanceshigh, A wall widerthanthree fathoms, Built inbricks. He usedallhismighttobuildacastle. But thoughtofhow todefend it. The Muscovite saw itwashard todefend theforeign property - - - - - Smolensk by theRepublic ofPoland town at thetime.Thefinallossof the biggest fire of the in the history the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic the First World War, 1919, on1January rise outoftheruinsfor centuries.After at thetimeandstruggledto damaged his nametoday. Thetown severely was street surrounding thefortress bears eral Mikhail Barclay deTolly, andthe commandedbyof Smolenskwas Gen French and Polish troops. Thedefence in 1812,thetown occupiedby was During Napoleon’s Russian campaign the province. designated by Peterthecapitalof Ias Treaty of 1686. In 1708, Smolensk was confirmedbywas the Eternal Peace - Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU named Bolshaya Sovietskaya (Great on itstoponyms—the mainstreet is with grey blocks well offlats, as as the citylandscape,whichis filled The Soviet periodleftitsmarkon Federation. prosperous regions oftheRussian the Smolenskregion, oneoftheless thousand people.Itisthecapitalof ly picturesque city, inhabitedby 330 Today’s Smolensk fair is a peaceful, the SecondWorld War. completely destroyed during onceagain cialist Republic. almost Smolenskwas of theRussianSoviet Federative So weeks later the town was declared part was proclaimed inSmolensk,buttwo

4 2

Photo: Viktor Volkov - - well having as streets namedafter city centre isnamedafter Lenin, as Soviet Street), and thesquare inthe Blessed Virgin Mary, is an important of theImmaculate Conceptionofthe Kuczmik, oftheCatholic head parish in Katyn.etery Father Ptolemy (Jacek) in takingcare ofthePolish War Cem beenhighlyinvolvedcommunity has ski). Sincethe1990s,local Polish the so-calledPolish House(DomPol aware of their background meet at of thePolish communitywhoare longer speak Polish. The members of Polish origin, but most of them no twoSmolensk has thousandresidents olution. Dzerzhinsky andtheOctoberRev

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Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU Smolensk Smolensk 62 5

azev and Sobolev Streets. Tolly, Dzerzhinsky, Isakovsky, Timiry defensive walls neartoBarclay de day, together withfragments ofthe city centre have untilthis survived dozen towers scattered around the offices, surrounded by thewall. Afew the localruleranditsmostimportant ditionally usedtorefer totheseat of strictly form a“kremlin”, aterm tra tacks at thetime,butthey didnot walls to repel Polish-Lithuanian at entire town surrounded was by stone times are called“thekremlin”. andsome turn ofthe17thcentury fensive walls, whichdate to the back fensive monuments, notably the de can findmultiplechurches and de On the left bank oftheriver, visitors ecution site. care of pilgrims visiting the Katyn ex figure for the community and he takes

The ------ments ontheright bank of theriver One ofthemostimportantmonu the collapseofUSSR. turned to the faithful only following Soviet authorities in 1929 and re the church closeddown was by the Like many other religious buildings, German occupation of 1941–1943). original icon disappeared during the (theByzantium in the 11th century Smolensk, brought toRutheniafrom aforementioned of icon,OurLady The church housesacopy ofthe from manylocations. on ahill,thechurch isperfectly visible the cathedral of thediocese.Located 5 Sobornaya Gora Street and as serves 17th and18thcenturies,islocated at tothepensky Sobor)dating back roque Assumption Cathedral (Ous of Moscow andAllRus’, Kirill. Theba until 2009 by the present Patriarch lensk andVyazma Diocese,headed Smolensk is the capital oftheSmo to canvases, butregainedto canvases, itsstatus decorated withRubens and Tintoret was turned into aUniate temple and monwealth (1611–1654),thechurch times ofthePolish-Lithuanian Com the white-stone church). During the of St. Barbara (also referred to as posed brickwork) and the Church Paul ofex (withafacade made cludes theChurch ofSt.Peter and Byzantine designs.Thecomplex in Ruthenian architecture modelled on it isoneofthefew examples ofOld the railway station). (at Street, 20Kashena [Cachin] near is theChurch ofSt.Peter andPaul

Built in1146,

------

Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU the NKVD archive was moved to the dispersed. Inthetragic year of1940, The Catholic congregation was then inKazakhstan,Gulag where hedied. was arrested andimprisonedinthe its parish priest, Ignacy Soldierowicz was closeddown inthe1930sand the Polish community. Thechurch funded by contributionsdonated by building, consecrated in1898,was Urickogo Street. and the Franciscan at 10 monastery Conception oftheBlessedVirgin Mary Catholic Church oftheImmaculate ists will include the aforementioned Sites of importance for foreign tour the collapse of theUSSR in1991. returnedand was tothefaithful after closed throughout the Soviet period the SecondWorld War. Itremained during the Napoleonic Campaign and The buildingwasseverely damaged anOrthodoxas church after 1654.

Theneo-Gothic - efforts to regain the building, it has made local Catholic communityhas ferred to another location and the ever, althougharchive beentrans has be handedover tothefaithful. How the USSR, the church supposed was to state archives. After thecollapseof church, whichlater alsohousedthe and eminentresidents oftheregion, for alongside thefounders of thechurch where priests from theparishare buried Next to thechurch isasmallcemetery, where they died. sent toprisoncampsinKazakhstan, region. They were eitherexecuted or political repressions intheSmolensk elders a result who perished as of the orating clergymen, nuns and church trance, there are commem plaques stone working workshop. At the en held inachapel,located intheformer ruin. Religious are services currently remained closed,gradually falling into 6

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Smolensk example, members from the Giedroyc Association, and the Jewish Cultural and Komorowski families. 8 Centre located in a former synagogue

(9 Isakovskogo Street). Photo: Viktor Volkov The city’s multicultural history is reflected in the preserved buildings of While walking along the streets of the former Lutheran church (12 Lenina Smolensk, visitors may want to stop Street), currently housing the Chess in front of the building located at 13 Dzerzhinskogo Street. 9 The building served as the seat of the security services since the October Revolution. Some of the victims of the Katyn Mas- sacre were presumably murdered in the cellars of this building, in the so- called internal prison of the District Board of the NKVD, and their bodies were later transported and buried in the Katyn Forest.

8 Photo: Viktor Volkov

64 Chapter 5 SMOLENSK SEVERNY

THE SITE OF THE POLISH AIRPLANE CRASH

For Poland, the military airport of Smolensk Severny marks another tragic site on the map of the Smolensk region. On 10 April 2010, the Polish airplane with an official delegation crashed during a landing attempt at this airport. The delegates were on their way to attend the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre. The crash took the lives of the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczynski and the First Lady, as well as all the members of the Polish delegation and the flight crew—96 people in total.

E30

66H-1807 A-132

Severny Lavochkina St.

Frunze St. Yeremenko St. Kutuzova St.

Dnieper River Vitebsk Highway Smolensk

65 Smolensk Severny 66 1

the plaque mounted on the stone read mountedonthestoneread the plaque fiev in2011.Initially, theinscriptionon governor oftheregion, Sergei Antu to the site on the order of the then brought10 April2010”.Thestonewas the airplane crash near Smolensk on land, Lech Kaczynski, whoperishedin the President oftheRepublic ofPo of the 96 Poles, by“In memory headed inscriptions inPolish andRussian read: atplaced the site of the crash, and the A commemorative been stonehas road (about5minutes). reached by walking along a concrete through thecity).Thecrash sitecanbe by theVitebskHighway andfurther War inKatyn Cemetery (accessible Street, about20kmfrom thePolish ern outskirtsofthecityat Kutuzova The airportislocated onthenorth - - - Forest, prisoners committed against intheKatynof theSoviet massacre memoration ofthe70thanniversary gation died“on theirway tothecom that themembers ofthePolish dele the tree knocked down by the Polish a cross. branches arranged intotheshapeof the foot of the nearby birch tree, its ilies. members ofsomethevictims’ fam Association, whichwassetupby the en cross erected by theKatyn 2010 Next totheboulder, there isawood agreement by theRussianside. Polish andwasmountedwithoutany argued that itonlycontainedatext in by placed theRussianauthorities,who wasrein 1940”.In2011,theplaque of war andofficers ofthePolish Army

Visitors alsolightcandlesat 3

For thesake ofprecision,

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Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU Photo: Viktor Volkov prosecutors). the birch tree secured was by Polish dustrial facility anddugover (partof nated for the construction of an in until 2013, when the area was desig laid wreaths andcandlesat that tree ters further away. Polish delegations airplane was located about 500 me 3

- - - tion for thearchitectural conceptwas a monumentonthesite.Thecompeti Polish authorities planned to erect was intendedtobetemporary, the as The present modestcommemoration access tothe sitetoallvisitors.access and declared toenable hisreadiness puthisphonenumberonthegate has the gate islocked. However, the owner Currently, the area is fenced off and with asmallpower planttofollow later. pipeline woulda gas be built there, entrepreneur, whoannouncedthat crash site wastaken over by aprivate In 2017, totheplane thearea adjacent in animpasse. of themonument,andtalks ended sian side insisted on reducing the scale theRus plan was notimplementedas adjudicated in2012.Nevertheless, the 2

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Photo: Viktor Volkov 67

Smolensk Severny Chapter 6 RUSSIA AND THE KATYN QUESTION

In this Guide, we have presented key information about the Katyn denial, but visitors to the Katyn Forest may be surprised today by the intensity of changes and reinterpretations of the stance adopted by the Soviet and Russian authorities towards the Katyn Massacre.

The stance changed from denial of Polish officers in the spring of 1940. the NKVD as the perpetrator, through On that day in Moscow, the Pres- to the acknowledgement of this fact, ident of the Soviet Union, Mikhail and finally attempts to relativise its Gorbachev met with the President responsibility and balance it out of the Republic of Poland, Wojciech with alleged offenses committed by Jaruzelski and handed over copies Poland during the interwar period. of selected documents concerning These changes tell us a great deal Katyn, including a list of the Polish about Russia itself, about its struggle officers transported from Kozelsk to with the country’s own history and Smolensk and from Ostashkov to Ka- its difficulty in shedding the burden linin in the spring of 1940. Gorbachev of a totalitarian past that infects the also ordered the Chief Military Prose- minds of people in power as well as cutor to commence an investigation ordinary citizens. into the Katyn Massacre, which was launched in September 1990. The first step towards the truth, after 50 years of denying Soviet per- However, although the Katyn Massa- petration, was taken in 1990, when cre was declared to be an NKVD crime, the government news agency, TASS the authorities of the USSR and Rus- published a telegram on 13 April, sia tried to control the “boundaries of confirming that NKVD had executed repentance”. Just a few months later,

68 Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw ish Marshal withStalin. Russian without trial, whichlikened the Pol where 60,000peoplewere murdered centration campsfor Soviet POWs, in 1994 that built con Pilsudski had consul inKrakow infamously stated volved intheseefforts. TheRussian sian government also became in Official representatives oftheRus scholarly journals inthe early 1990s. to appearintheRussianpress and Articles promoting this claim began Polish-Bolshevik War of 1919–1921. murder ofSoviet POWs duringthe carriedoutthedeliberatehad mass the Russiansidewas that Poland of theaccusationsputforward by the “anti-Katyn”as campaign. One infamous became known actions thePoles.committed against These an attempt tobalance outthe crime supposedly inflictedontheUSSR,as andlossthat Polandthe damage had archives tofindmaterials illustrating Gorbachev commissionedasearch of The handover ofcopiestheKatyn documents.Warsaw, 14October1992 - - - - prisoners ofwar. of deliberately murdering the Soviet times allowed Poland voices accusing ly, the mainstream media also some Katyn but more Massacre significant denying Soviet responsibility for the portals regularly publishedopinions communist periodicalsandonline dent oftheKGB Alexander Shelepin POWs) andanotefrom thePresi ordering theexecution ofPolish (Bolsheviks) dated 5 March 1940, munist Party oftheSoviet Union the Central Committee of the Com resolution of the Political Bureau of the so-called“Katyn decision” (the “closed no. 1,comprising of package ies of documents from theso-called Lech Walesa andhanded over cop Boris Yeltsin. Hemet withPresident Poland at the request of President eration RudolfPikhoya came to State Archive oftheRussian Fed of theIn October 1992, the head ------69

Russia and the Katyn Question Russia and the Katyn Question 70 ally handedover no.1 closedpackage maintains thatGorbachev he person theKatynde-classifying materials. of sluggishness inwas also accused However, like otherleaders, Yeltsin present there and said: “Forgive us”. to the members of the Katyn Families turned according tosome accounts, monument intheKatyn Valley and, Powazki, where helaidflowers at the in Cemetery and visited theMilitary self travelled toPoland ayear later the Republic of Poland). Yeltsin him awardedwas theOrder ofMerit destroyed (20years later, Pikhoya files oftheKatyn victimsshouldbe tion to Khrushchev that the personal dated 1959,withhisrecommenda

Photo: From the collection of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw - - - president’s attention to the“devil (December 1991),drawing thenew to Yeltsin uponthetransfer ofpower TASS agency wire of13April1990 of Stalinism. this isoneofthegrave crimes tragedy anddeclares that connection withtheKatyn expresses itsdeepregret in their helpers. TheSoviet side lies withBeria,Merkulov and the crimesinKatyn Forest the direct responsibility for totheconclusionthatleads archivaldeclassified materials The completesetof enable the victims’ families toapply alllegalstepsthatMassacre, would oftheKatyner in2000.Inthecase a former KGB officer, cametopow ed even further after Putin, Vladimir the Soviet securityforces were limit The efforts toexpose thecrimes of were rather ostensible. from 1994,theongoing proceedings tigation effectively came to ahaltas sin’s term of office, the Katyn inves 24 September1992.DuringYelt notopeneduntil was the package ever, toofficialreports, according ish document”itcontained.How Cemetery. Warsaw 25August1993 at theKatyn Cross inthePowązki President BorisYeltsin lays flowers ------the investigation “due tothe death cutor’s OfficeofRussiadiscontinued 2004, the Supreme Prose Military cific people. Finally, on21September were ever brought anyspe against foran impasse years, and nocharges the investigation itselfremained at which should be treated genocide”, as murder onaparticularlylarge scale, responsible for “causing adeliberate that the perpetrators should be held andhumanity”,recognisingpeace “thegravestsacre as crimeagainst tor’s theKatyn Officeclassified Mas ProsecuRussian Supreme Military Although in1993experts from the Russian government were blocked. killed andmake the claimsagainst for therehabilitation ofthethose From Księga snów Jan Górec-Rosiński, Katyń with onlyanepitaph we are left innocent murderers inthesunshine was covered withlime Whose memory were gaggedtobesilent Whose mouths do thesegraves burden Whose conscience - - - - initiating its own investigation into responded on30November 2004by of theperpetrators”. The Polish side dence that themurdered Poles were sions, arguing that there was no evi Katyn victimsofpoliticalrepres as refused to recognise those killed in tor’s OfficeofRussiarepeatedly The Supreme Prosecu Military its perpetrators”. sessment of the Katyn and Massacre outalegal and criminal as and carry the Polish state toestablishthefacts becometheresponsibility of“It has runningtheinvestigation,was wrote: tor Malgorzata Kuzniar-Plota, who of National Remembrance. Prosecu the Katyn at theInstitute Massacre - - - - - 71

Russia and the Katyn Question Russia and the Katyn Question 72 countries remained silenced at an war enslavement of someEuropean Reich before June 1941 or the post- Soviet cooperation with theThird order. Soviet crimes, Issuessuchas World War andshaping the post-war played aglorious role in the Second the belief that theSoviet Uniononly historical narrative, which promoted intensified itsimperialandheroic experts andofficials,theKremlin ry. Supported by some historians, ofthecountry’spages own histo the officialstanceoninfamous evolved, especiallywithregard to Russia’s historical policy also has Putin’sDuring Vladimir presidency, of its perpetrators. itselfandtheresponsibilityMassacre but nottheessenceofKatyn tigation carriedoutin1990–2004, the unreliability of the Russian inves from the victims’ relatives concerning only considered individualcomplaints man Rights inStrasbourg. The ECHR before the European Court of Hu Nuremberg, orintheproceedings TribunalInternational Military in subject of the final verdict at the international arena. notthe Itwas never beenformally judgedinthe Moreover, theKatyn has Massacre ing the exhumations. NKVD documents and identified dur fact that they were mentioned inthe the death ofthePOWs, despitethe cated that there was noevidence of the Prosecutor’s Office even indi Code. Moreover, startingin2007, charged undertheSoviet Criminal - - - - - and didsoalmost alone, at ahigh colonisation oreven extermination saved Europe, includingPoland, from the threat from theThird Reich and presented aforce as that overcame official level. TheSoviet Unionwas to counter divergent interpretations even victims onthe way. Russia tried or sues globalgoalsdespitesacrifices idea ofastrong authoritythat pur the Russian citizens’ support for the vision was intendedtostrengthen Nazism. against For internal use, this his leadership inthevictorious fight uous one), mainly by emphasising Stalin (albeit an indirect andambig narrative even includedanapologyof of European and global security. This Russian aspirations tobecomeapillar intended tosupportcontemporary of victims. These arguments were cost andwithanenormousnumber - -

Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU Photo: Wikipedia, public domain tator’s policy andthelarge-scale condemnedthedic in thecountry partially de-Stalinised. Key officials dev was (2008–2012),themessage the presidency Medve ofDmitry tions andreinterpretations. Under rative been subject to fluctua has However, theKremlin’s historicalnar even “the rehabilitation of Nazism”. a sign of ingratitude, andsometimes the BalticStates orUkraine tobe the criticism oftheUSSR by Poland, tries ofCentral Europe, considering Army brought freedom to the coun dermined thebeliefthat the Red of history, especiallythosethat un of thePolish prisoners of proposing theexecution Beria toJosephStalin of theNKVD, Lavrentiy A memofrom thehead Moscow 2019 Society.History Russian Military the seat ofthe of Leaders near so-called Avenue Stalin’s bustinthe Molotov andMikoyan of Stalin,Voroshilov, with thesignatures war, dated March 1940, ------political repressions carriedoutby Medvedev, published facsimiles of sarchiv), on the order of President sian Federal Archives Agency (Ro In April of the same year, the Rus rector Andrzej Wajda, at prime time. aired “Katyn”, amovie by Polish di Smolensk, Russian public television Soon after theairplanecrash near defeat in the Polish-Bolshevik War. Stalin carried it outin revenge for his cre aStalinistcrime,stating as that Putin condemned theKatyn Massa the then Prime Minister Vladimir Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, Katyn on7April 2010together with the Soviet authorities. When visiting - - - - 73

Russia and the Katyn Question Russia and the Katyn Question human rights Poland, we, Soviet painful days for memorable and In these 74 Kronid Lyubarsky. Emigration journal“Kontinent”, No.24, April1980. Vladimir Bukovsky, NataliaGorbanevskaya, Pavel Litvinov, USSR humanrightsdefenders, including LudmilaAlexeyeva, Statement entitled“Look backwithrepentance”, signedby their martyrdom. their crime,thelatter inproportion to victims: theformer inproportion to tragedy, boththeexecutioners and the those involved andaffected by this when ournation willdojustice toall We are convincedthat theday isnear representatives inKatyn. for thecrimecommittedby itsofficial responsibility thatbears ourcountry and willnever forget the have notforgotten Polish nation, that we them—the entire friends, and—through to assureourPolish defenders, want

Photo: From the collection of the CPRDU orchestrated inatop-down manner may indicate that was the message at that timewas consistent,which columnists andOrthodox clergymen used by manypoliticians,mainstream the two nations. Notably, therhetoric pealing for areconciliation between of Czestochowaof Our Lady and ap Katyn, donating a copy of the icon consecrated theOrthodox church in sify history. In 2012, Patriarch Kirill by the USSRwas anattempt tofal crime, andthat thedenialofthisfact the Katyn was aStalinist Massacre “closed package”, which proved that the publisheddocumentsfrom the that tochallenge itwas unacceptable ber 2010, President Medvedev stated Prior to hisvisit to Poland in Decem Duma voted thedeclaration). against (the Communist factionades inthe for thiscrimetotheNazisfor dec attributed had responsibilityaganda subordinates, andthat Soviet prop a direct order issued by Stalin and his carriedouton was that theMassacre adeclarationDuma adopted stating on 26November 2010,theState decisions about the killings. Further, who may have beeninvolved inthe the personal data ofthoseofficers rest remained toprotect classified beenhandedoverals had whilethe dinsky—that virtuallyallthemateri Prosecutor,Chief Military Sergei Fri officers, alsostating—through the concerning themurder ofPolish of 183)volumes ofthecriminal case Russia handedover atotal148(out website. In subsequent months, so-called “closed package” onits Katyn-related documentsfrom the ------were targeted. Dmitriev, Yury one of blocked. Moreover, even researchers to commemorate their victims were pressions was silencedandactions ed, official criticism oftheSoviet re the president’s opponentsescalat ed andrepressive measures against civil liberties became more restrict tin’s return totheKremlin in2012.As clearly subduedafter Pu Vladimir The anti-Stalinistrhetoricbecame but also by highly popular press titles. were published notonlyby marginal Soviet responsibility for themassacre “Katyn thaw”, texts directly negating Evencase. duringtheperiodof sification of all thefiles in theKatyn Federation didnotpermitthedeclas The Supreme CourtoftheRussian families from making legal claims. habilitated posthumouslyandtheir venting thevictimsfrom beingre cess was clearly delineated, pre However, already stated, as the pro a prescriptiveand had character. panied by attempts todenySoviet in Russia and beyond, were accom rians and human rights defenders whichshockedaccusations, histo allegations were fabricated. These unanimouslyclaimedthathas the morality. The research community cused of serious offences against been incustody since2016, ac has identified many people buried there, relia andtheSolovetsky Islandsand graves ofvictims ofStalinism inKa lic ofPoland), whodiscovered mass Golden Cross ofMerit oftheRepub local historians(alaureate ofthe and the most distinguished activists ------75

Russia and the Katyn Question Russia and the Katyn Question 76 groups ofStalin apologists.Some nil. Events have beenpicketed by their presence shrunk to almost has the Katyn butover Massacre, time commemorative events devoted to bers ofRussianofficialsattended ofKatyn.case Initially, highnum viet crimes is also reflected in the The officialattitude towards So ance inRussian history. aninevitable elementofgovernas even ofsuch crimes theacceptance ciety, indifference or tomassacres, historical events amongRussian so the widespread ignorance regarding goeshandinwithSoviet history who study theshameful chapters of funding. The clampdown on those organisations whichreceive foreign authorities tonon-governmental “foreign given by agent”, theRussian thestatus had ofa “Memorial” has officers from the 1930s. Since 2013, the names of nearly 40,000 NKVD so-called “list of executioners”, with In 2016, “Memorial” published the surised andsubjectedtorestrictions. Katyn also been pres has Massacre, tribution to the investigation of the aninvaluable con and whichmade information onSoviet repressions, sion istoinvestigate andpublicise The “Memorial” Society, whosemis during theWinterWar of1939–1940. POWs murdered by the Finnish army victims ofStalinism,butSoviet triev inSandarmokhare notofthe that the graves discovered by Dmi ars inKarelia have promoted theidea several years, progovernment schol responsibility for thesecrimes. For ------this and othercrimes committed by and which calls for repentance for to publicisethetruthaboutKatyn, research and supports Polish efforts covered, which tirelessly conducts tobeun ofitsown history pages one which calls for even the darkest USSR, there is alsoanother Russia— Russia, re-living the myth of the side the imperialist, anti-Western It mustbementionedthat along the interwar period. crimes committedby Poland during the Stalinist crimes withthealleged cidivism”: itattempts tobalance out anexampleseen as of“anti-Katyn re inApril2018canbealsocemetery the RussiansectionofKatyn one”. Thenew museumopenedin apologising for everything to every Yeltsin’s years inpower, Russiawas bled time,whentowards theendof cemeteries was issuedduringa“trou the permissiontoestablishKatyn Russian journalistshave stated that Guryanov, describing of the history buried inMednoe” editedby Alexandr in Katyn” and“Murdered inKalinin, books ofremembrance “Murdered “Memorial” publishedmonumental Katyn inthe Soviet Massacre press. lished thefirst ever article aboutthe nykh, amember of“Memorial”, pub Katyn files. In1989, Alexey Pamyat the the victimsandfullydeclassify sacre, making efforts torehabilitate unknown details of the Katyn Mas an invaluable role indiscovering the playedThe “Memorial”Societyhas slaved countries anditsown people. Poland, otheren the USSRagainst ------

Photo: Nadezhda Kiseleva Promotion of the book of memory by the “Memorial” Society, “Murdered in Katyn”. From the left: Alexandr Guryanov, Albin Głowacki, Larisa Yeremina, Arseniy Roginsky. St. Petersburg 25 November 2015

Yury Dmitriev. Sandarmokh, 5 August 2016

the massacre, the efforts to discover Russian chapter on the Katyn Mas- the truth and a list of victims with sacre in the monumental publication names, photographs and biographies “Białe plamy, czarne plamy” [White (notably, although Katyn research is Spots, Black Spots], which was the financed by Polish and foreign foun- fruit of the work undertaken by the dations, the publication of the book Polish-Russian Group for Difficult was financed by donations collect- Matters in 2010. The Polish chapter ed from among the ordinary Russian on Katyn was prepared by Andrzej citizens). In turn, Nikita Petrov from Przewoznik, then the Secretary “Memorial” studied Soviet docu- General of the Council for the Pro- ments to compile and publish a list of tection of Struggle and Martyrdom names and the biographies of NKVD Sites. Other names worth mentioning officers who received awards for the in this context include prosecutor Al- preparation of, and participation in, exandr Tretetsky and his successor, the Katyn executions. Anatoly Yablokov, who headed the Supreme Military Prosecutor’s Office Two eminent Russian researchers investigation into the Katyn Massa- should be mentioned here, name- cre in 1990–1994, including the ex- ly Prof. Inessa Jazhborovskaia and humation process and other studies Prof. Natalia Lebedeva. Their inval- conducive to discovering the whole uable contribution to the research truth about the Massacre. In an act and popularisation of knowledge of fate, Tretetsky was awarded the about the Katyn Massacre cannot Commander’s Cross of the Order be overestimated: among others, of Merit of the Republic of Poland

Photo: N adezhda Kiseleva Lebedeva was the author of the in 2010, which was one of the last

77 Russia and the Katyn Question 78 the Military Prosecutor’sthe Military Officeto years. In2008, itseditors requested about the Katyn for Massacre many Gazeta” advocated has for the truth The opposition newspaper “Novaya forced toflee toPoland. a result. Intheface ofthreats, hewas and was removed from the KGB as executioners ofthe Katyn Massacre was involved in tracking down the During theperestroika period,he to the Katynservices investigation. Smolensk, rendered considerable Oleg Zakirov, amajoroftheKGB in the Smolensk airplane crash. Kaczynski on the eve of his death in bydecisions made President Lech The “Last Address”The “Last campaigninSt.Petersburg the Poles: “Forgive usfor thetragedy published thefollowing address to reveal thefulltruth about Katyn and forgive usif you can”. disgrace vis-à-vis the Poles. Please of 1939andKatyn are bothaterrible va said withemotion:“Theaggression brance “Murdered in Katyn”, Alexeye presentation of thebook of remem to show repentance. In 2015,at the andappealedto Russianscasions the Katyn onmultiple oc Massacre She publicly invoked of the memory 2018, should also be mentioned here. human rightsdefender whodiedin dy”. Finally, LudmilaAlexeyeva, the were theperpetrators ofthistrage citizens. Forgive usthat ourancestors of Katyn, thekilling of22,000 Polish - - - -

Photo: Nadezhda Kiseleva where victimsandexecutioners were flooded withstoriesThe Internetwas who fell victim tothe Soviet system. about thefates oftheirancestors other Russianstoseekinformation ness. Thisexample encouraged many executioners, whoasked for forgive by the granddaughter ofonethe lication, Karagodin contacted was anese intelligence”. After hispub a “resident as ofJap and shotdead who was arresteda peasant in 1937 the killings) ofhis great-grandfather, decisions andcarried out who made fully identifytheexecutioners (those collected documentsenablinghimto ty. After several years of searching, he Tomsk received considerable publici of DenisKaragodin from thecityof living in Moscow). In 2016, the case in thefootsteps ofrepressed Poles alsodevelopedhas aroute following (under thesameproject, “Memorial” have gainedconsiderable popularity relatedto places tothe repressions ror” walks organised by “Memorial” In Moscow, the“Topography ofTer forces andsubsequentlymurdered. ed from by theseplaces the security about thepeoplewhowere deport in Russiancitieswithinformation onvarious buildingsbeen placed campaign, information have plaques Address”years, partofthe“Last as expose theperpetrators. For many victims ofSoviet repressions and initiatives tocommemorate the day’s manygrass-roots Russiahas of Russian history,mous pages to isations from studyingtheinfa discourage individuals and organ Despite thevarious stepstaken to ------However, whenlookingat Russian criminal character isbeingrelativised. of repressions is silenced, andtheir pression. As aresult, thememory heirs totheSoviet apparatus ofre Russia’s secret whoare services, the ly dealingwiththeomnipotenceof terests. At present, we are current there are changestotheKremlin’s in instrumental andismodifiedwhen cluding theKatyn ispurely Massacre, attitude towards Soviet crimes, in el of governmental institutions, the of thesetwo memories.At thelev have agreat in the clash advantage Admittedly, the Russian authorities of dark chapters. which isheroicmemory”, and devoid to the heavily promoted official “first “secondas inopposition memory”, by independentRussianhistorians fates of their relatives was labelled searching for thetruthabout This process of ordinary citizens often members ofthesamefamily. to apologise. speak outabout itandare notafraid othernations.against These people their families andthenation, butalso atrocities committednotonlyagainst oftheSovietpreserve the memory there are manypeople in Russia who crime, it is worth remembering that out the responsibilitythe carrying Poles may Russiawith onlyassociate Katyn victimsandmanyconcerned lived there. While thefamilies ofthe sake of the few righteous people who begged Jehovah tosave acityfor the the OldTestament, where Abraham history, onemay from recall thestory - - - - - 79

Russia and the Katyn Question PRACTICAL INFORMATION

(as of January 2020)

Before going to Russia, it is important shortest route as indicated on maps, to check whether you require a visa. via Belarus. All necessary information about trav elling and staying in Russia can be When travelling by car through Lith found on the website of The Feder uania and Latvia, travelers will pass al Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm) through Kaunas, Daugavpils, and at www.russiatourism.ru/en. When Rezekne to the Terehova/Burachki planning a trip, it is also advisable to crossing. The route from the border read the information available on the to Smolensk runs through the towns website of the consular office of the of Nevel and Velizh, which used to be Russian Federation in your country of within the borders of the Republic residence. of Poland until the First Partition in 1772. When travelling from Moscow – the capital of Russia, one can reach the Polish War Cemetery in Katyn by TRAVEL TIPS taking the bus or train to Smolensk, which run regularly from the Belaru sian Railway Station in Moscow. The When travelling to Katyn by car, one journey takes 5-6 hours. must take into account the fact that Russia must be entered through one The most convenient way to get from of the border crossings with interna Smolensk to the Polish War Ceme tional status – in the case of travel tery in Katyn is by car. If you do not from European countries, the most have your own car, you can order convenient one is the Terehova-Bu a taxi and make an appointment with rachki crossing on the Latvian-Rus the taxi driver for the return journey. sian border. Due to current tensions The cost of the journey will probably between Belarus and Russia, it is no be the result of some negotiation, longer possible to enter Russia via the but depending on the waiting time,

80 fers onthewebsite ofthe Tourist also worth checking outtheof options accommodation a wide rangeSmolensk has of stop here. complex, you thedriver canask to byand museum passes thecemetery ofKatynstops inthevillage andonly / ул. Кашена 13).Althoughthebus tion islocated at 13KashenaStreet bus from Smolensk (the bus sta It isalsopossibletotake asuburban from adistance. Resurrection complex, whichisvisible ed next totheOrthodox Church ofthe The entrance tothecarparkislocat route P-120 justoutsideGnezdovo. Memorial Complex Katyn, located on Мемориальный КомплексКатынь / the museummarked onthemapsas Katyn (whichis7.5 kmaway), butto not totake the route of tothe village the road toVitebsk.Itisimportant about 22kmwest ofSmolensk, on is located30 EUR).Thecemetery er amaximumof2000rubles(about it isrecommended tooffer thedriv . It is es ofthepilgrimhouseandacanteen, (Архиерейское подворье) compris The so-calledbishop’s courtyard the Resurrection. ings belongtotheOrthodox Church of next totheKatyn cemetery. Thelodg You canalsostay inthepilgrim’s house bookingservices. line accommodation in Russian – or you can use popular on tunately, information isavailable only em” ( Information Centre, “SmolenskiTer version only). palomnicheskaya-gostinitsa +7 910 782 64 32, grim house: +7 (4812) 48 89 35, day. Telephone numberfor thepil cakes that can be enjoyed on a cold teaandtraditionalserving Russian www.visitsmolensk.ru podvoryekatyn.ru/ ) –unfor (Russian 81

Practical Information Practical Information 82 E-MAIL WEBSITE 30 56 42 INFORMATION +7 (4812)305641,380213 MUSEUM MANAGEMENT OPEN 100 roubles PHOTOGRAPHYFEE FOR AND FILMING Russian only. 25 people)– guidedtours are provided in to 15people),2200roubles (group upto GUIDED TOURS (pavilion at theentrance) Polish-Russian relations), 200roubles ADMISSION T MUSEUM OPENINGHOURS 8:00–18:00 (October–March). Free entry. 8:00–21:00 (April–September), CEMETERY OPENINGHOURS Katyn, Kozie ofthevillage east Gory. Smolensk region, rural settlementof POSTAL ADDRESS (KATYN CEMETERY) CEMETERY-MUSEUM COMPLEX“KATYN” USEFUL CONTACTS uesday–Sunday 9:00–17:00 : Monday–Friday 9:00–17:30 : [email protected] : memorial-katyn.ru/en.html : 150roubles (museumof : +7(4812)488967, : 1600roubles (group up : Russia,214522, : : : : USEFUL TELEPHONE lensk.ru/putevoditel/visit-center WEBSITE INRUSSIAN E-MAIL 8 9517073003 TEL. L Сад)—near theso-calledDevil’s Mill,2a ADDRESS ”SMOLENSKY TEREM“ TOURIST INFORMATION CENTRE EMERGENCY POLICE OVER RUSSIA EMERGENCY TELEPHONEALL NUMBERS enina Street (ул. Ленина2а),Smolensk : +79(4812)384783; : : [email protected] 102 : L opatinski (Лопатинский Sad : : 103 112 , alsoinEnglish. : www.visitsmo ON THE TOPIC SELECTED WORKS L ofKatynThe Story Forest Massacre J. K.Zawodny, L uments The CrimeofKatyn: Facts and Doc and Documents J. Mackiewicz, Md., Naval InstitutePress, 1996. seeds ofPolish Resurrection P. Stalin’s terror S Haven, CT S Edited by AnnaM.Cienciala,Natalia Katyn: ACrimeWithoutPunishment na A Who SawtheKatyń Sitein1943 Wartime andPostwar ofPoles Story T . Wolsza, ondon 1971. ondon 1989. . Swianiewicz, . L Allen, ebedeva, andWojciech Materski. New cademic Press,cademic 2019. , Polish Cultural Foundation, Katyń: Stalin’s massacre and the : Y Encounter withKatyń. The ale University Press, 2007. , Borealis Publishing,2002. Death inthe Forest. The CrimeofKatyn: Facts In theShadow ofKatyn: , L ondon 1989. , Annapolis, , Caroli , , History Press,The History 2010. EvidenceoftheWest’stary Betrayal E. Maresch, Katyn A. Etkind,R Finnin etal., R cre of1940.Truth, justiceandmemory G outledge Publishing,2005. . Sanford, , Polity Press, 2012. Katyn andtheSoviet Massa Katyn 1940:TheDocumen Remembering , , 83

Selected Works on the Topic 84 85

Selected Works on the Topic Selected Works on the Topic

Reviewers Izabella Sariusz-Skąpska, PhD Alexandr Guryanov, PhD

Authors Jadwiga Rogoża—concept of the Guide, Introduction, Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and “Practical information” Maciej Wyrwa, PhD—project coordination, Chapter 1, additions to Chapters 2 and 3, list of selected publications and websites devoted to the Katyn Massacre, iconography

Graphic Design and Typography Emilka Bojańczyk / Podpunkt

English Translation Danuta Przepiórkowska Róża Kochanowska (“Practical information”)

Editor Olivia Bailey

Publisher Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding ul. Jasna 14/16a, 00-041 Warszawa tel. + 48 22 295 00 30, fax + 48 22 295 00 31 e-mail: [email protected], www.cprdip.pl

The Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding is a state-operated institution based in Warsaw, established in 2011 and supporting dialogue between Poland and Russia. The Centre initiates projects and undertakings to support dialogue through scientific research, publications, educational initiatives, public debates, conferences and lectures on Polish-Russian relations, history and the culture of both countries etc.

The guide is part of the Centre’s project related to the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre in 2020. The project will also involve a launch of a dedicated website at: www.katynpromemoria.pl

ISBN 978-83-64486-77-7

Printing and Binding Chromapress