Events with tag - Soviet Crimes

March 5, 1940

The Katyn Massacre

The Katyn massacre was a mass execution of approximately 22,000 Polish prisoners of war, mainly officers and members of intelligentsia, carried out by the Soviet NKVD in spring 1940. The decision to conduct the executions was made on March 5, 1940, by order of the Political Bureau of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), signed by Stalin. The executions were carried out in Katyn, Kharkiv, and Kalinin between April and May 1940.

April 13, 1943

Discovery of Katyn graves

On April 13, 1943, German radio announced the discovery of mass graves of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. This event revealed the NKVD crimes against Polish prisoners of war and state officials who were murdered by decision of the highest Soviet authorities in 1940. The discovery led to the severance of diplomatic relations between the Polish government-in-exile and the USSR.