General Heinz Guderian with NKVD Colonel Semyon Moiseyevich Krivoshein (right), a jew responsible for the final solution against Poles in the territory of Poland occupied by the soviets. Col. Krivoshein salutes cringingly his comrade at arms and war crimes - Nazi Gen. Guderian, at the military parade crowning the Nazi-Soviet slaughter of Poland.

Lazar Mojsiejewicz KAGANOVICH, a jew responsible for the crime of genocide, the crimes against peace, the war crimes, and the crimes against humanity.

Vyacheslav MOLOTOV, responsible for the crime of genocide, the crimes against peace, the war crimes, and the crimes against humanity.

Lawrientij Pawlowicz Beria, the head of NKVD, a jew responsible for the crime of genocide, the crimes against peace, the war crimes, and the crimes against humanity.

Kombrig NKVD Ivan Serov, the responsible for making selections in soviet camps for Polish prisoners of war.

Piotr Karpowicz Soprunienko. As a head of the Directorate of Prisoner-of-War Affairs NKVD USSR, he signed daily "execution lists" and supervised executions of 25 700 Polish POWs between March and April 1940.

Exhuming bodies of Polish POWs killed by soviets in Katin Woods, Russia.

Aerial photo of execution site in Katin Woods, Russia.

One of the open mass graves in Katin Woods, Russia.

NKVD prison yard filled with cadavers of Polish prisoners killed by soviets before retreating from Lwow. July 1, 1941.

On 1 September, 1939 German Army invaded Poland from the west, then on 17 September, 1939 Red Army invaded Poland from the east, a stab in the back, occupying 52% of Polish territory. As the German Army front units were closely followed by special SS Einsatzgruppen units charged to massacre prominent and influential Polish citizens, so the Red Army units were followed by NKVD units charged to execute Polish leadership and to deport into labor camps the remaining Polish citizens living in occupied territories. A jew, NKVD colonel Semyon Moiseyevich Krivoshein, was appointed by NKVD general Ivan Serov to lead elimination of Polish opposition to soviet authority in occupied territory.

Marshal Rydz-Śmigły of Polish Army's High Command ordered all units not to fight the invading Soviets. They were, despite occasional fierce resistance, virtually unopposed, and could focus almost entirely on robbing and murdering at will. Also, never before having an opportunity to see the civilized World, they could now take full advantage of its "decadence". And so they did - it was not that uncommon to see the Soviets wearing several wrist watches at the same time, enjoying a drink from a bidet, or washing themselves in a toilet bowl.

In few days, 250,000 Polish soldiers, including 10 to 18 thousands of officers, are taken prisoners. They are force marched, under soviet NKVD cavalry guard, into the soviet interior.

In the six weeks of the Polish Campaign of 1939, Poland lost close to 200,000 of her citizens, killed or murdered by the Nazi-Soviet aggressors - military personnel, paramilitary, government administrators and civilians. Although there are known, sporadic cases of Polish POWs being murdered by the Nazis (Dabrowa near Ciepielow, Zwierzyniec), the Soviets were notorious. They murdered thousands in just the first three weeks of the Soviet invasion of Poland. Augustów... Augustowka... Bijary... Brzostowice... Chodorów... Dąbrowica... Gaje... Grabowiec... Grodno... Komarów... Kosów Poleski... Lwów... Mokrany... Mołodeczno... Oszmiana... Rohatyń... Sarny... Szack... Świsłocz... Wołkowysk... Złoczów... and hundreds other places, still unknown... Makeshift cemeteries became an overwhelmingly common feature of Poland's landscape under Soviet occupation.

Soviet occupation created for anti-Polish elements within ethnic minorities an excellent opportunity to settle their imaginary grievances against Poland and Poles. Units of Workers Guards in Polish towns and Peasants Guards in the country were formed - mostly from eager zionist collaborationists. They provided the NKVD with information on Polish resistance, denounced members of the Polish military, police and other "enemies" in hiding, and were instrumental in preparation of proscription and deportation lists. The Poles, in general, kept a united front against the Soviet regime. Some, however - communists and opportunists - joined the ranks of renegades and volunteered to the Guards.

The four major deportations of Polish citizens from the Soviet occupation zone took place on February 10, April 13 and June in 1940, and from mid-June 1941 until the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany. How many people were deported? No one really knows, and chances are that no one will ever know the full scale of that Soviet ethnic cleansing campaign.
The most conservative Polish count, based on Soviet documents, is as follows: 140,000 during the first, 60,000 during the second, 80,000 during the third and 40,000 Polish citizens, mainly from the Wilno area, during the fourth deportation for a grand total of 320,000 persons. These Soviet figures, even if accurate (and some scholars question their veracity), do not give a complete picture of that horrendous Soviet ethnic cleansing campaign aimed against Polish citizens. If to add to them the various other deportations, smaller in scale, resulting in the displacement of civilians, prisoners of war, and people arrested for political reasons and detained in the prisons of Eastern Poland, about half of whom were eventually deported to Soviet forced-labor camps, one will arrive at 400,000 to 500,000 as the grand total of those deported using the Soviet documents as our point of departure.

By including voluntary workers, those who fled in June/July 1941, Red Army draftees, and other such categories one arrives at approximately 750,000 to 780,000 as the total number of Polish citizens who found themselves in the Soviet Union during the Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland. Earlier estimates of well-known historians provide figures ranging from 1.2 to 1.7 million (including 385,000 children).

Lawrientij Pawlowicz Beria, the head of NKVD, recommends to All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) CENTRAL COMMITTEE to execute 25,700 Polish considered as "incorrigible enemies of the soviet authority". These included: Polish Army officers, government officials, policemen, intelligence agents, military policemen, jail guards, members of various counter-revolutionary spy and sabotage organizations, former landowners, factory owners, settlers and fugitives from German occupied zone.

March, 5 1940

Central Committee (politburo) of Soviet Union composed of:

Josef STALIN (married to a jewesse: the sister of Kaganowich)
Lazar Mojsiejewicz KAGANOVICH (a jew)
Mikhail KALININ (a jew)
Anastas MIKOYAN
Vyacheslav MOLOTOV (married to a jewesse)
Kliment VOROSHILOV (married to a jewesse)

unanimously approves the recommendation and issues
The order No. P13/144
Com. Beria
March 5, 1940

Excerpt from the minutes No. 13 of the Politburo of the Central Committee meeting

Resolution 144 - March 5, 1940 regarding the matter submitted by the NKVD USSR
I. To instruct the NKVD USSR that:
1) the cases of 14,700 people remaining in the prisoner-of-war camps - former Polish Army officers, government officials, landowners, policemen, intelligence agents, military policemen, settlers and jailers,
2) and also the cases of arrested and remaining in prisons in the western districts of Ukraine and Byelorussia people in the number of 11,000 - members of various counter-revolutionary spy and sabotage organizations, former landowners, factory owners, former Polish Army officers, government officials and fugitives - be considered in a special manner with the obligatory sentence of capital punishment - execution by shooting.
II. The consideration of the cases to be carried out without the convicts being summoned and without revealing the charges; with no statements concerning the conclusion of the investigation and the bills of indictment given to them. To be carried out in the following manner:
a) people remaining in the prisoner-of-war camps - on the basis of information provided by the Directorate of Prisoner-of-War Affairs NKVD USSR,
b) people arrested - on the basis of case information provided by the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR and NKVD of the Byelorussian SSR.
III. The responsibility for consideration of the cases and passing of the resolution to be laid on three comrades: Merkulov, Kobulov and Bashtakov (Head, 1st Special Division of the NKVD USSR).

The Secretary of the C.C.

Piotr Karpowicz SOPRUNIENKO, the head of the Directorate of Prisoner-of-War Affairs NKVD USSR, commanded organization of executions.

April 5, 1940. Executions commenced when the first 343 Poles from the Ostashkov concentration camp were murdered in Kalinin (Tver). From that day, up to 600 people were murdered daily at various locations.

In Katin woods, near 4,143 Polish POWs were shot by drunken NKVD guards. Coat thrown over the head was tied, with a running loop, tightly to the hands in the back. To add to the suffering, a handful of sawdust was thrown inside to obstruct breath if victime was strugling. Two men were holding the victim, while the third was shooting it in the back of the head; clean, efficient work.
Next...

In an open field near Kharkov, 3,900 more Polish officers were shot, behind a high wood fence so the "happy workers and farmers" were not demoralized by the event. The excess earth from pits was loaded on trucks and carried away. The fence went down, an open flat field remained.

May 1940
The NKVD detachment took a convoy of sea going barges with 6,500 Polish prisoners of war. They were to be escorted to work in coal mines on one of the snow covered Arctic islands. At sea, the barges were sunk, a more efficient method than shooting.

October 26, 1940
Beria issued order No. 01 365 to pay every executioner a premium "for the accomplishing successfully special tasks" an extra monthly salary or 800 rubles.

June 22, 1941
The outbreak of hostilities between the Nazis and Soviets was followed by the Soviets' panicky retreat during which the NKVD was unable to "evacuate" Polish citizens from overcrowded prisons in the Soviet occupation zone. After dislodging the Soviets, the Nazis allowed free access to the prisons, where many hoped to find members of their families and friends. And they found - bloodied corpses filling prison yards, corridors, cells and torture chambers... dumped in a sea of blood.
Augustow... Berezwecz... Białystok... Boryslaw... Bobrka... Brzezany... Busk... Bystrzyca Nadwornianska... Ciechanowiec... Czortkow... Dobromil... Drohobycz... Dubno... Grodno... Grodek Jagiellonski... Horodenka... Jaworow... Kalusz... Kamionka Strumilowa... Kolomyja... Komarno... Krzemieniec... Lwow... Lopatyn... Luck... Mikolajow... Nadworna... Oleszyce... Oszmiana... Ottynia... Pasieczna... Pinsk... Przemyslany... Rowne... Rudki... Sambor... Sarny... Sadowa Wisznia... Slonim... Stanisławow... Stryj... Szczerzec... Tarnopol... Wilejka... Wilno... Wlodzimierz Wolynski... Wolkowysk... Wolozyn... Zalesiany... Zaleszczyki... Zloczow... Zolkiew... Zydaczow... Prison after prison, within few days, the Soviets murdered in cold blood over ten thousand of innocent people.

More than ten thousand, when including prisoners-of-war, which were also murdered in "evacuation" convoys.

It was not until the spring of 1943 that one of the victims' mass-burial sites - Katyn, was unearthed by German Army. Polish, British, and Red Cross representatives were present during exhumation. Some others - Kharkov and Mednoye became known more than half a century later. Some are still unknown. The atrocity became known under a collective, symbolic name - KATYN MASSACRE.

In 1995, Russia's Chief Military Prosecutor's Office began an official investigation into the Katyn killings. Things looked hopeful indeed.
The Russian criminal case was closed in September 2004. On March 11, 2005, Chief Military Prosecutor Aleksandr Savenkov announced that after reviewing numerous documents, questioning over 900 witnesses, and conducting eighteen examinations, including exhumations, the investigators found no evidence of genocide. Moreover, those perpetrators, who are still alive, would not be prosecuted because of the statute of limitation. The case generated 183 volumes, 116 of which were said to contain state secrets. And that was that… a sinister farce. Perhaps Russia's handling of the Katyn killings provides the world with a definitive answer to the question whether there is any difference, after all, between the Russian and the Soviet mentality and conscience.

The Russian commission no doubt drew its conclusion - that it was not genocide - on the basis that the prisoners were not killed because they were Poles, but rather because of their social status, because they were the enemies of the Soviet Union, as Beria's document plainly states. But the same could be said of Hitler's intention to exterminate the jews - he did it not because they were jews, but because most were communist or communist sympathizers; the enemies of Germany and indeed of the whole world.

THE LIST OF VICTIMS OF KATYN MASSACRE

The incomplete list of NKVD executioners

ALEKSANDROW A. S.,  ANTONOW Iwan Iljicz, BABAJAN T. Ch.,  BARANOW M. A. *,  BARANOW P. M. *,  BARINOW Iwan S.,  BIELOGORLOW W. A.,  BIELOW I. I.,  BIEZRUKOW Iwan Dmitryjewicz,  BLANK K. Je. *,  BLOCHIN Wasylij Michajlowicz,  BOGDANOW N. F.,  BOGDANOW P. A.,  BURDA Tymofiej Dmitryjewicz *,  CUKANOW A. I.,  CYKULIN M. W.,  CZEKULAJEW W. K.,  CZUZAJKIN I. M.,  DAWYDOW M. Je. *,  DIEWIATILOW A. G.,  DMITRYJEW Aleksandr Dmitryjewicz,  DOROGININ F. M.,  DORONIN F. I.,  FADIEJEW A. M. *,  FIEDORYSZKO S. M.,  FIELDMAN Iwan Iwanowicz,  FROLENKOW I. L.,  GAWRYLENKOW T. K. *,  GIECELEWICZ R. S.,  GOLICYN Nikolaj A.,  GOLOWINKIN N. I.,  GORJACZEW M. D.,  GRIBOW Josif Iwanowicz *,  GRYGORJEW Michajl Porfirjewicz,  GUMOTUDINOW I. A.,  GWOZDOWSKI Nikolaj Afanasjewicz *,  IGNATJEW M. F.,  ILJIN F. K.,  IWANOW I. M.,  IWANOW W. G.,  JAKOWLEW A. M. *,  JAKOWLEW P. A. *,  JAKUSZEW T. P.,  JEGOROW A. W.,  JEMIELJANOW A. M.,  KACZYN Tymofiej Fiodorowicz *,  KALININ Anatolij Maksymowicz,  KARAWAJEW W. M.,  KARCEW Piotr M.,  KARMANOW A. A.,  KARPOW G. F. *,  KISIELOW N. A. *,  KOMAROWSKI I. I.,  KOSTIUCZENKO N. K.,  KOSTIUCZENKO W. K.,  KOWALEW A. S. *,  KOZOCHOCKI M. A.,  KRASNOWIDOW I. I.,  KRYWIENKO Michajl Spirydonowicz,  KUPRIJ Tymofiej Fiodorowicz *,  KUZNIECOW S. S.,  LEBIEDJEW M. D.,  LEWANCZUKOW G. K.,  LAZARIENKOW S. M.,  LOGINOW N. W. *,  LUGININ M. I.,  MAKARENKOW G. I.,  MARUSJEW A. Je.,  MIEDWIEDJEW I. B.,  MIELNIK A. T. *,  MIELNIK Nikita Wasyliewicz,  MISZCZENKOW N. A.,  MOISIEJENKOW A. A. *,  MOISIEJENKOW W. P. *,  MOKRIDIN I. P.,  NOWOSIOLOW I. I.,  OFICEROW A. N.,  OKUNIEW A. W.,  ORLOW D. I.,  OSIPOW Wladymir A. *,  PAWLOW Wasylij Pawlowicz,  PRUDNIKOW P. G.,  RAZORIENOW A. I.,  RUBANOW Andriej Maksymowicz *,  RYBAKOW Aleksiej Aleksandrowicz,  SIEMIENICHIN D. Je.,  SIENIUSZKIN N. M.,  SILCZENKOW Iwan M. *,  SINIEGUBOW Nikolaj I.,  SJURIN A. B.,  SKORODUMOW W. Je.,  SMYKALOW I. P.,  SOLOWJOW M. M. *,  SOLOWJOW W. A. *,  SOROKIN W. K.,  STIEKOLSZCZYKOW I. A.,  STIELMACH Iwan Iwanowicz -,  STIEPANOW Iwan Aleksiejewicz,  SUCHARJEW Nikolaj I.,  SYROMIATNIKOW Mitrofan Wasyljewicz,  SYTIN W. M. *,  SZCZEPKO T. S.,  SZEWJELEW A. M.,  SZYGALEW Iwan Iwanowicz,  SZYGALEW Wasylij I.,  TARASOW G. N. *,  TICHONOW D. F.,  TICHONOW P. P.,  TIKUNOW I. Je.,  TIMOSZENKO G. I.,  TIWONIENKO L. A. *,  TOCZENOW A. M.,  TROJAN Konstantin Grygorjewicz,  WIGOWSKI Je. A.,  ZACHAROW A. Je. *,  ZAJCEW Aleksandr Grygorjewicz,  ZILBERMAN Konstantin Sergiejewicz -,  ZINOWJEW N. P.,  ZIUSKIN G. P. ,  ZORIN P. M. *,  ZUBCOW W. P.,  ZUBOW N. A.,  ZURAWLOW M. M.,  ZURAWLOW N. T.,  ZYLCOW W. I.,  ZYLA M. A. *

Prolog   Cavalry   Players   Trip   Meeting   Airport   Boat ride   Castle   Visiting   Bad Harzburg   Epilog   Executions   Photos   The End