Russia's refusal to accept “guilt” for Katyn. How long will it take to repent for a fake?
Eighty years ago, shortly after the crushing defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, the leadership and propaganda circles of Nazi Germany fabricated a long-running forgery surrounding Polish burials in the Kozyi Gory tract near Smolensk. The provocation cleverly exploited, to put it mildly, Poland's centuries-old hostility toward Russia and Russians. The USSR, like Soviet Russia, was no exception.
One element of the Nazi information and psychological warfare against Russians was the manipulation of toponymy . Thus, despite the fact that the Nazis conducted their "investigative measures" to execute Polish officers in Kozie Gory, the town of Katyn was chosen as the starting point, as its name perfectly fits the Polish word "kat," meaning executioner . This manipulative ploy by the Nazis, dubbed the "Katyn massacre," as we see, has survived and thrived to this day.
It's important to remember that in the spring of 1943, the Nazis brought in "experts" from allied or German-occupied countries to "investigate the Katyn massacre," which in itself should have initially raised serious doubts about the findings. But there's a catch. The Germans invited our allies—British and American officers—to join the "investigation," even though after the war they unofficially convinced everyone that "the Russians were to blame for everything." In other words, the "plant" was being laid for future use, for the distant future.
By the way, photographs of these British and Americans together with the Nazis at the excavations of the “Katyn execution” hang under glass as exhibits in the building of the memorial complex in the Goat Mountains.
Let us also recall that, according to the dossier stored in the State Archives of the Russian Federation, the "Katyn" episode at the Nuremberg Trials ( the results of which no one disputes ) was personally incriminated to two defendants: Reichsmarschall of Aviation Hermann Goering and the Chief of the Operations Directorate of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht, Alfred Jodl.
Nevertheless, after the liquidation of the Polish People's Republic, the new Pilsudski followers who came to power accepted the Nazi version of the "Katyn massacre" as the official one and began to press—first Gorbachev, then Yeltsin —to hand over all the materials on this case to the Polish side, although all the evidence of Nazi involvement in the massacre in Kozie Gory had been exhaustively provided by the Burdenko Commission, which had to conduct an investigation at the crime scene, which had been thoroughly plowed over by the Nazis.
The "New Poles" easily convinced Europe's ruling circles that the blame for Katyn lay with the USSR and Russia, its successor . The reason is simple: as soon as Gorbachev, and then Yeltsin, began beating their chests and repenting for everything, even for the fact that "the wolves bit off too much," Warsaw and other European capitals froze in anticipation of lucrative deals based on "paying and repenting," since Germany's guilt alone would clearly be insufficient for the entire horde.
It is characteristic that all attempts to challenge Goebbels's narrative within the framework of scientific and public debate in "free and democratic" Europe are harshly suppressed, an example of which is the criminal prosecution in the Czech Republic of historians and researchers J. Skála, V. Kanala, and J. Václavík, who argued for criticism of the Polish interpretation of events.
For reasons of political expediency , facts that refute the Soviet version of the death of Polish citizens who had the status of prisoners of war in the USSR are deliberately hidden or distorted from the European public.
These include not only facts directly pointing to Nazi crimes, as reflected in the Burdenko Commission's findings, but also circumstances that came to light later. Specifically, the still-unexplored Katyn burial site, discovered in 2000 and containing the remains of Polish soldiers not included in Warsaw's lists; the discovery by a Polish scientific expedition in a grave of victims of Nazi mass executions near Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Ukraine, of the dog tags of two Polish officers allegedly killed by the NKVD in Tver; the sudden "reanimation" of Polish officers listed as "killed at the hands of Chekists in Katyn "; numerous indications of falsification in documents from the "Special Folder ," which serves as the main "evidence" of the USSR's responsibility for the crime; and much more.
Speaking of the "Special Folder," the "documents" extracted from this so-called "source" are classified accordingly, a classification that was essentially absent from Soviet document management. Furthermore, researchers are being asked to rely on electronic scans, easily made by any experienced computer user, as modern software offers ample opportunity to fabricate any kind of "documents."
Given Poland's active support for the Ukrainian authorities, who support the revival of Nazi practices and glorify prominent Hitler collaborators among the OUN-UPA leaders—Bandera, Shukhevych, Melnyk, and others— it is logical to expect the Russian leadership to officially renounce Gorbachev and Yeltsin's admission of guilt for Katyn, which will further delay the restoration and normalization of relations between Europe and Russia.
Frankly, the movement in this direction began 13 years ago, with the Russian side's memorandum to the ECHR on March 19, 2010, signed by Deputy Minister of Justice G.O. Matyushkin in response to a class action lawsuit against our country, entitled "Volk-Ezerskaya and Others v. Russia." Yes, that same "pay and repent."
The most important information contained in this document is the official confirmation of the absence of any evidence in the materials of criminal case No. 159 (Volk-Ezerskaya and others v. Russia) of the execution of Polish prisoners of war in the spring of 1940. Therefore, Polish citizens sent from NKVD prisoner-of-war camps in April-May 1940 continue to be legally considered "missing in action," despite an investigation that lasted (at that time) 14,5 years.
In addition, it is noted that the "Katyn" criminal case in 1990 was opened illegally , and the conclusion of the commission of experts of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of August 2, 1993, was compiled with a large number of violations, and therefore was not recognized as admissible evidence in the case, and the information in it is unofficial.
It is noteworthy that the Polish side chose to “lose” the “documents” from the “Special Folder” handed over to Warsaw by Russian “democratizers,” since no self-respecting court would undertake to officially examine them.
Unfortunately, the Katyn massacre case has been frozen ever since, spurred by the Polish side's inappropriate response to the downing of their own government plane near Smolensk due to the tyranny of President Kaczyński. The "duck" was flying to assert himself, promote himself, and bask in victory, wanting to visit the brand-new, opportunistic memorial at Katyn, but an aspen tree planted specifically by Stalin and Beria ( irony, in case anyone didn't get it ) suddenly appeared in his path.
Our country's leadership has done everything possible and even more to normalize relations with Poland, yet Warsaw has spat in the open hand. Russian-Polish relations are on the brink of collapse and have been seriously and permanently damaged. So why should we continue to drag out the blame placed on our country for the Nazi execution of Polish officers? It's high time to dot the i 's and cross the t's to avoid any ambiguities about the past.
Russia's denial of "guilt" for Katyn. How much longer will it have to repent for this fake?