Katyn May 2026

The Polish "intelligentsia"—military officers, police, professors, lawyers, and doctors—intended to decapitate the Polish nation's leadership.

In 1992, Boris Yeltsin released the "Package No. 1," which contained the original 1940 execution order signed by Stalin and the Politburo. While Russia has provided many documents, it has

While Russia has provided many documents, it has resisted labeling the event as "genocide," and recent political tensions have led to renewed questioning of the official narrative within Russia. A Persistent Wound 📍 Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in

For Poland, Katyn is more than a historical event; it is a symbol of national martyrdom. This trauma was tragically compounded on April 10, 2010, when a plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczyński and 95 others crashed in Smolensk while they were en route to a 70th-anniversary commemoration of the massacre. 📍 While Russia has provided many documents

Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, thousands of Polish prisoners of war were held in camps in the USSR. On March 5, 1940, Joseph Stalin and other Soviet leaders signed an order to execute "nationalists and counter-revolutionaries" held in these camps.

In April 1943, Nazi German forces occupying the region discovered mass graves in the Katyn forest near Smolensk. They publicized the find to drive a wedge between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.