On this date, March
5, 1940, Six high-ranking members of Soviet politburo, including General
Secretary Joseph Stalin, sign an order for the execution of
25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POWs, in what will become
known as the Katyn massacre. I will post information about the letter from
Wikipedia and Wikisource.
The first page of Beria's
notice (oversigned by Stalin and other high-ranking Politburo members), to
kill approximately 25,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in the Katyn
Forest and other places in the Soviet Union.
English: The
accepted proposal of Lavrentiy Beria to execute former Polish army and
police officers in NKVD prisoner of war camps and prisons. March 1940.
TOP SECRET
From the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to comrade STALIN
In the NKVD
POW camps and in the prisons of the western oblasts of Ukraine and Belorussia
there is currently a large number of former officers of the Polish army, former
Polish police officers and employees of intelligence agencies, members of
Polish nationalist c-r (counterrevolutionary) parties, participants in
underground c-r rebel organizations, defectors and so on. All of them are implacable
enemies of Soviet power and full of hatred for the Soviet system.
POW officers
and policemen located in the camps are attempting to continue c-r work and are
leading anti-Soviet agitation. Each of them is simply waiting to be freed so
they can have the opportunity to actively join the fight against Soviet power.
NKVD agents
in the western oblasts of Ukraine and Belorussia have uncovered a number of c-r
rebel organizations. In each of these c-r organizations the former officers of
the former Polish army and former Polish police officers played an active
leadership role.
Among the
detained defectors and violators of the state-
(Signatures:
In favor - Stalin,
Voroshilov, Molotov, Mikoyan)
(In margin: Comrade Kalinin - In favor. Comrade Kaganovich - In favor.)
|
INTERNET
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre#Background
On 5 March 1940, pursuant to a note to Joseph Stalin from Beria, six members of
the Soviet Politburo—Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov,
Lazar Kaganovich, Kliment Voroshilov,
Anastas Mikoyan, and Mikhail Kalinin—signed an order to execute
25,700 Polish "nationalists and counterrevolutionaries" kept at camps
and prisons in occupied western Ukraine and Belarus. The reason for the
massacre, according to historian Gerhard Weinberg, was that Stalin wanted to
deprive a potential future Polish military of a large portion of its talent:
It has been suggested that the motive for this terrible step [the Katyn massacre] was to reassure the Germans as to the reality of Soviet anti-Polish policy. This explanation is completely unconvincing in view of the care with which the Soviet regime kept the massacre secret from the very German government it was supposed to impress. ... A more likely explanation is that ... [the massacre] should be seen as looking forward to a future in which there might again be a Poland on the Soviet Union's western border. Since he intended to keep the eastern portion of the country in any case, Stalin could be certain that any revived Poland would be unfriendly. Under those circumstances, depriving it of a large proportion of its military and technical elite would make it weaker.
In addition, the Soviets realized that the
prisoners constituted a large body of trained and motivated Poles who would not
accept a Fourth
Partition of Poland.
INTERNET
SOURCE: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/NKVD_Letter_%E2%84%96_00794/B
USSR
PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS
March 1940
№ 794/B
Moscow
PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS
March 1940
№ 794/B
Moscow
TOP SECRET
Central Committee, VKP(b)
TO COMRADE STALIN
A large quantity of former officials of the Polish
Army, employees of the Polish Police and intelligence services, members of the
Polish Nationalistic Party, counter-revolutionaries, discovered members
pertaining to insurgent groups of counter-revolutionaries, fugitive and others,
all of them sworn enemies of the Soviet régime, who hate the Soviet system, are
at the moment in prisoners of war field camps of the NKVD OF THE USSR and in
prisons of Ukraine and Byelorussia.
The prisoners of war and policemen in field camps
conduct anti-Soviet agitation. Each one of them is only hoping and awaits
release in order to have the capability actively to be included in activities
against the Soviet régime.
The organs of the NKVD in the western provinces of
Ukraine and Byelorussia have discovered a number of insurgent
counter-revolutionary organizations.
Former officials of the former Polish Army and
policemen, as well as of gendarmerie have shown that they are participating in
espionage and insurgent activities. Among the prisoners (without considering
the soldiers and officials composition) there are 14,736 former officials,
government civil employees, landowners, police, gendarmes, prison guards,
colonizers of border regions and intelligence officials – by nationality more
than 97% are Polish, among them:
295 generals, colonels and lieutenant colonels
2080 majors and captains
6049 lieutenants, second lieutenant and lieutenants
1030 Senior officers and low-order commanders of
the police
5138 Policemen, gendarmes, prison guards and
personnel to us of intelligence
144 officials, landowners, Roman Catholic priests
and colonizers of border regions
In the western region of Ukraine and Byelorussia,
there are 18,632 Prisoners (10,685 of them Poles), including:
1207 former officials
5141 former policemen, intelligence officials and
gendarmerie
347 spies and saboteurs
465 former landowners, factory owners and civil
employees of government
5345 Members of several insurgent organizations and
other counter-revolutionary elements.
6127 Fugitives
On the basis of the fact that they all are declared
enemy of the Soviet régime, the NKVD OF THE USSR considers it necessary:
I To authorize the NKVD OF THE USSR:
1) in the matters about the prisoners of war in
field camps of 14,700 people of former Polish officials, landowners, policemen,
civil employees of government, intelligence officials, gendarmes, colonizers of
the border regions and prison guards
2) and also the matter about those arrested and
located in prisons in the western regions of Ukraine and Byelorussia in a
quantity of 11,000 people, insurgents, spies and saboteurs, former landowners,
factory owners, former Polish police officials, fugitive civil employees of
government, the highest method of punishment due to apply to them - execution.
II The examination of the cases will have to be
carried out without instructing summary and without raising positions. The
manifestos with the final decision about the end consequence and accusatory
conclusion in following:
a) for the people located in field camps for
prisoners of war, the certificate form emitted by the NKVD OF THE USSR;
b) for the arrested persons in the certificate form
emitted by the NKVD OF THE RSS of Ukraine and the NKVD OF THE RSS of
Byelorussia.
III the cases will have to be examined and the
verdicts pronounced by a court of three consistent members of the comrades
Merkulov, Kobulov and Bashtakov (chief of the 1st special section NKVD OF THE
USSR)
PEOPLES COMMISSIONER OF THE INTERNAL AFFAIRS
Of the Union OF SSR
(signature) L. Beria
[On the 1st page in a bold hand across the entire text are the signatures (following the word "za", i.e. "for [the proposal]") of Stalin, Voroshilov, Molotov and Mikoyan made with colored pencils. A handwritten note says "com[rade] Kalinin - for [the proposal] / com[rade] Kaganovich for [the proposal]".
On the top of the first page,
above the "TOP SECRET" designation, there is supposed to be a form
stamp, which can be barely seen. Inside the stamp it is written by hand:
"13 144OP", which signifies protocol no. 13, item 144 OP, where
"OP" is "osobaya papka", "special file".
Below the "TOP SECRET"
designation there is a date "from 5.III.1940"; this is the date of
the Politburo decision according to this proposal.
On p. 3 in the enumeration of the
composition of "troika", Beria's surname is crossed-out and the
surname "Kobulov" is inscribed by hand.]
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