CIS

Home page

CIS

Russian Parliament: Stalin ordered Katyn Massacre

26 November 2010 13:51 (UTC +04:00)

The 1940 massacre of around 20,000 Polish officers and other prominent citizens in western Russia by Soviet secret police has long soured relations between the two countries. President Dmitry Medvedev will visit Poland in early December. Soviet propaganda for decades blamed the killings on the Nazis, but post-Soviet Russia previously acknowledged they were carried out by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or NKVD â€” Stalin’s much feared secret police.

The statement passed by the State Duma appears aimed as a step toward Russia definitively breaking with its Soviet legacy.

Some observers have expressed alarm in recent years that Russia may be quietly rehabilitating Stalin. Last year, a quote praising Stalin was restored to the decoration of one of Moscow’s busiest subway stations; this year, Moscow’s mayor proposed allowing posters depicting Stalin as part of the annual celebrations of the defeat of Nazi Germany. Russia has turned over scores of volumes of documents this year about Katyn to the Polish government.
However, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the conservative opposition Law and Justice party, said he still wants Russia to offer a full apology and compensation.