On April 13, 1943, news spread around the world about the discovery of mass graves of Polish officers in Katyn. Although responsibility was pointed toward the Soviet Union from the very beginning, Joseph Stalin consistently denied it, and the international community remained largely inactive for a long time. Today, 86 years after this shocking crime, the memory of its victims remains very much alive.
April 13 is observed in Poland as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Katyn Massacre. The holiday was established by the Polish Parliament in 2007 to honor approximately 22,000 officers of the Polish Army and other representatives of the state apparatus, including police officers, officials, and foresters. Many of those imprisoned were reserve officers mobilized after the outbreak of war. A significant portion were members of the social elite: doctors, lawyers, teachers, academics, engineers, writers, journalists, political activists, officials, and landowners. Clergy of various denominations—Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Jewish—were also among the prisoners. They were murdered in executions organized by the NKVD, and their bodies were buried, among other places, in Katyn.
Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, the Red Army captured approximately 250,000 Polish soldiers and officers. As early as September 19, while hostilities were still ongoing, NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria established the Administration for Prisoners of War and Internees and ordered the creation of a network of camps.
Most rank-and-file soldiers were released, but Polish Army officers were placed in camps in Starobelsk and Kozelsk, while police officers, members of the Border Protection Corps, and other services were sent to Ostashkov. Starobelsk, located near Luhansk, has been under Russian occupation since 2022. Kozelsk lies about 250 km southwest of Moscow, east of Smolensk, while Ostashkov was the northernmost of these sites.
The Truth Comes to Light…
Information about the crime—mass executions of Polish prisoners and detainees—was revealed by chance. After the outbreak of the German-Soviet war, the burial sites of the victims (including Katyn near Smolensk, Pyatykhatky near Kharkiv, and Mednoye near Tver) came under Wehrmacht control. Poles forced to work in the area learned about the mass graves in 1942. The Germans likely discovered the information only in February 1943 through reports from local residents. They began exhumations, and on April 13, 1943, Radio Berlin announced the discovery. Four days later, the news appeared in the press published in occupied Warsaw with German approval. Although suspicions had existed earlier—there had been no information about the prisoners since the spring of 1940—the German announcement caused a major stir.
Aware of the propaganda value of the discovery, the Germans invited representatives of the International Red Cross and the Polish Red Cross to Katyn to confirm Soviet responsibility. On April 28, an international commission of forensic and criminology experts arrived in the Katyn forest, led by Hungarian pathologist Ferenc Orsós. Polish observers, delegated with the consent of the Polish Underground State, also participated, including Dr. Marian Wodziński and other representatives of academic and public circles.
Based on the examinations, it was determined that the executions had taken place in 1940, when the area was under Soviet control. This was confirmed by both the analysis of the remains and the examination of tree rings planted to conceal the crime. The victims bore signs of close-range gunshots to the back of the head.
Soviet authorities denied these findings. A request by the government of General Władysław Sikorski for an international investigation was used by Joseph Stalin as a pretext to break off diplomatic relations. Stalin himself, who along with other Soviet leaders had signed the decision in March 1940 to execute Polish prisoners, consistently denied responsibility. In 1941, following the Sikorski–Mayski agreement, he assured General Władysław Anders that he had ordered their release and did not know what had happened to them.
After the graves were discovered, the USSR undertook efforts to blame Germany. Once the Red Army regained control of the area, the so-called Burdenko Commission was established to confirm this version of events. Its chairman, surgeon Nikolai Burdenko, declared in 1944 that the Germans had committed the crime in September 1941. Publications even named alleged perpetrators. An attempt to include the Katyn case in the Nuremberg Trials failed due to numerous inconsistencies in the presented materials.
During the war, Western countries avoided publicizing the issue. Winston Churchill suggested restraint to Władysław Sikorski, citing the need to maintain the anti-Hitler coalition. Only after the war could the subject be addressed more freely.
During the communist era in Poland, information about the Katyn massacre was censored, and the official version blamed Germany.
The Soviet authorities admitted responsibility only in 1990, recognizing the Katyn massacre as one of the gravest crimes of Stalinism. At the initiative of Mikhail Gorbachev, an investigation was launched, and in 1992 key documents related to the case were handed over to Poland, received by President Lech Wałęsa.
Anniversary of the Katyn Massacre: Commemoration Program
Nationwide commemorations of the 86th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre will begin on Sunday with a field mass at the Katyn Museum in Warsaw.
The Sunday ceremonies are organized, among others, by the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression. The events will begin at 10:00 a.m. with a field mass at the Katyn Museum.
At 11:00 a.m., a ceremonial Roll Call of Remembrance will take place, accompanied by speeches and the laying of wreaths at the Katyn Epitaph at the Katyn Museum (Warsaw Citadel, 4 Jana Jeziorańskiego Street).
On Monday, April 13, at 11:00 a.m., a ceremony commemorating the victims of the Katyn Massacre will be held at the Katyn Museum in Warsaw, attended by President Karol Nawrocki, who will deliver a speech.
At 12:00 p.m., funeral ceremonies for the remains of one of the victims of the Katyn Massacre are scheduled at St. Charles Borromeo Church at the Old Powązki Cemetery. The liturgy will be presided over by Archbishop Adrian Galbas, and the leadership of the Institute of National Remembrance has announced its participation.
In Białystok, at 10:30 a.m., flowers will be laid at the Monument-Grave of the Unknown Siberian at the Church of the Holy Spirit. This will be followed at 11:00 a.m. by ceremonies at the Katyn Monument in Constitution of May 3 Park.