KATYN FOREST MASSACRE
Caroline Miller
Luzerne County Community College
HIS 102: Western Civilization II
Word Count: 1,024

Katyn Forest Massacre On April 13, 1943, as families were sitting home listening to their radios to hear more news about the war that was occurring around them, a tragic announcement was made. A grave had been discovered in Katyn Forest in a small wooded area near Gneizdovo village, a short distance from Smolensk, Russia. The grave contained thousands of Polish corpses, and the deaths were at the hands of the Soviets. In August of 1939, German forces formed a nonaggression pact known as the German-Soviet Pact with the Soviet Union. This pact stated that Poland would be split between Germany and the Soviet Union. By doing so, Germany could invade Poland without the fear of the Soviet army intervening. On September 1, Germany began their attack on Poland. They defeated Poland troops within a matter of weeks. Once they had defeated the front line, they took their invasion farther into Poland. They broke through more Polish defenses and started their attack on Warsaw. Warsaw surrendered on September 27, 1939. During their invasion, France and Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939 in an effort to protect Poland. Despite their pact, the Soviet Union then invaded eastern Poland on September 27, 1939, the same day Warsaw surrendered to the Germans. “The demarcation line for the partition of German- and Soviet-occupied Poland was along the Bug River.” That line was crossed, but the Germans remained in control of the cities of Warsaw, Krakow, Radom, and Lublin. Once they had occupied much of Poland, Soviet Union troops began setting up camps and taking Polish prisoners of war. These prisoners included policemen, army officials, and many professors, doctors, lawyers, and writers. A group known as the NKVD were in charge of the prisoners. The NKVD, also known as the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, was put into place by Joseph Stalin. This group was given great amounts of power by Stalin. They had the power of arrest, trial, and execution of anyone that spoke against Stalin. Often, the citizens arrested by the NKVD were not given a fair trial and were quickly executed by means of a mandate known as “speedy trial.” The NKVD also had many other responsibilities.
“The NKVD was given enormous power and at the same time was expected to coordinate the task of manning and operating every aspect of foreign or state security… together with the more mundane duties of running local police and fire departments. Moreover, they were expected to administer the state border guard and the gulag system.” (Valcourt, P. d.)
Stalin placed extreme amounts of power in the NKVD and used the group as a tool to murder thousands of Poles. In April of 1943, an announcement was made over German radio. The announcement stated that there had been a “discovery of a mass grave in Katyn forest near Smolensk, where, it was alleged, Soviet security forces had carried out executions of thousands of Polish officers.” (Records Relating to the Katyn Forest Massacre at the National Archives.) Stalin had ordered the NKVD to lead thousands of prisoners of war into a private room individually. Once they were in the room, a member of the NKVD would shoot the victim in the back of the head, immediately killing them. After all of the prisoners of war were killed, a mass grave was dug to hold all of the bodies. It was later discovered that this occurred in multiple locations, not just at Katyn Forest. After discovering all of the burial sites of those who were murdered in the Katyn Massacre, a total of about 20,000 Poles had been killed. Although the blame was immediately put on the Soviets, Stalin denied the initial charge. At the time that the accusation was made, Germans had occupied and taken over Poland. When the Germans came upon these graves, a medical commission composed of experts from many different countries came to evaluate and estimate when the killings had occurred. These experts determined the massacre had occurred in 1940, when the Soviet Union was in control of the land. This determination was then used to cause a disturbance in the alliance of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. This plan was successful in that in the immediate accusation of the Soviet Union, Poland and the Soviet Union suffered a diplomatic break. In autumn of 1943, the Soviets captured the land on which the Katyn Massacre had taken place from the Germans. In this time, the Soviet Union decided to organize their own excavation. This second excavation determined that the massacre had occurred in August of 1941, when Germany had occupied the land. Many looked to the United States for a response, but at this time, the Americans had taken a stand of non-involvement. Theodore Roosevelt was president at the time. He believed that “The winning of the war is the paramount objective for all of us. For this unity is necessary." (Records Relating to the Katyn Forest Massacre at the National Archives.) In September, 1951, the United States House of Representatives formed the Madden Committee. This committee was an elite group of carefully selected individuals. These individuals came together to investigate evidence, facts, and records from the Katyn Massacre. Their job was to ultimately decide which nation was responsible for the murders and whether or not any American officials had a part in covering up any evidence. The result of this investigation determined the NKVD to be responsible for the massacre. The decision was unanimous, and the Madden Committee suggested a trial before the International Court of Justice. It was also determined that although it was difficult to conclude if any Americans had any part in covering up the killings, it was stated that Americans did not properly evaluate and act upon warning signs from Russia. The Katyn Forest Massacre devastated and angered Poland. Tension was created in the alliance between Poland and the Soviet Union that ultimately led to the termination of the alliance. Although the Katyn Forest Massacre is not a well-known incident that occurred during World War II, it had a huge impact on the outcome of the war.

WORKS’ CITED
Geldren, J. v. (n.d.). Katyn Forest Massacre. . Retrieved July 10, 2014, from http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1943katyn&Year=1943
German Invasion of Poland: Jewish Refugees, 1939. (n.d.). . Retrieved July 10, 2014, from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005593
Records Relating to the Katyn Forest Massacre at the National Archives. (n.d.). National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 14, 2014, from http://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/katyn-massacre/
The Purges in the USSR. (n.d.). The Purges in the USSR. Retrieved July 11, 2014, from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/purges_ussr.htm
Valcourt, P. d. (n.d.). Collecting Soviet History. : NKVD and the Great Terror Part I. Retrieved July 14, 2014, from http://www.collectingsoviethistory.com/2011/02/nkvd-and-great-terror-part-i.html