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The Katyn massacre is actually a series of massacres carried out by the Soviet Union against Polish military and police officers. The massacre was named after the Katyn forest, where German soldiers discovered mass graves after executions as early as 1943. The series of massacres also included mass executions in Soviet prisons. The executions were ordered by Stalin. In a letter from the KGB to then-President Nikita Khrushchev, the KGB put the number of executed Poles at 21857. The figures are probably even higher. It was not until 1990, after prolonged pressure from Poland, that the Soviets admitted to the massacre.

The Hitler-Stalin pacts

The background to the Katyn massacre is the agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany. The agreement is best known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Agreement. Named after the two countries’ foreign ministers who formally signed the agreement. This is a non-aggression pact between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union. In an addendum to the agreement, it was also agreed to divide Poland between the Soviet Union and Germany, and that Finland would belong to Russia. Read my blog about the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement.

The pact between Hitler and Stalin is important in what happened to the many thousands of Poles who were executed. Stalin wanted to inflict such a devastating loss on Poland that its reconstruction would be impossible. Removing Polish officers and policemen was important in this context.

Stalin lied to Poland’s government in exile

After Germany took control of all of Poland and started the campaign into the Soviet Union, Stalin and the Polish government in exile began talks. Stalin and Poland’s government-in-exile wanted to work together in the fight against Hitler. A Polish army was to be assembled in the Soviet Union to help fight Germany. Poland’s government in exile then wanted to use the Polish officers. The government in exile did not know the fate of the many thousands at the time. The Soviets claimed that all the prisoners had been released, but that they had lost control of some of the prisoners and did not know where they were now.

Poland was thus unable to build up an army of already well-trained officers. This obviously made Poland’s efforts against Germany worse for that reason.

The area around Katyn was eventually controlled by the Germans. This is where some of the executions took place. The Germans found a mass grave in 1942. At the time, this information was not seen in connection with the missing Polish soldiers.

The Soviets admit to the massacre

After World War II, Poland belonged to the Soviet sphere. Questions about the missing soldiers were rarely raised. Not until the trade union Solidarity demanded reforms in Poland did anything happen. Voices in Poland demanded access to Soviet and Polish documents on the matter. The trade union Solidarity was an important reason for the fall of communism in Poland and in several Eastern European countries. Poland broke with communism, free elections were organized and the demand to know the truth was strong.

In 1989, Soviet scientists revealed that Stalin had ordered the massacre. In 1990, then-President Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that soldiers had been executed in Katyn and two other mass graves.

Some claim that Stalin tried to buy time by signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement. I find that unlikely. Stalin clearly wanted an agreement with Hitler in which Europe was divided between the two great states. If Stalin actually believed that Hitler would attack the Soviet Union at some point, it was exceptionally stupid to kill several thousand soldiers who could have contributed to the defense of both Poland and the Soviet Union.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre

https://www.britannica.com/event/Katyn-Massacre

https://katynpromemoria.pl/the-history-of-katyn-massacre/?lang=en

The Katyn Massacre – Mechanisms of Genocide