Wilson Center Digital Archive

Katyn Massacre

Documents about the Katyn Massacre include investigations made by the U.S. government, protests the Soviet government made about memorialization plans in the U.K., Soviet rejections of responsibility, and later moves for internal investigations and memorialization. (Photo: “Aerial view of the exhumation site with rows of Polish officers’ bodies laid on the ground by the mass graves,” April 30, 1943, Imperial War Museum, © IWM (HU 106211))

February 23, 1944

U.S. Embassy Moscow Despatch No. 207, 'Investigation by Soviet Authorities of the Massacre of Polish Soldiers in the Katyn Forest, near Smolensk'

Averell Harriman sends the accounts of his daughter and the Third Secretary of the Embassy who accompanied foreign correspondents to Smolensk to witness the Soviet Katyn investigations.
May 17, 1945

Documents Section, Captured Personnel and Material Branch, Report No. 127, enclosing a Translation of a Polish Report Made by Lt. Col. Stefan Mossor on April 21, 1943 on the Katyn Woods Atrocities

This translated document is an eye witness account and summary of a visit Stefan Mossor made to the mass graves in Katyn while he was a German POW.
June 21, 1948

Counter Intelligence Corps Reports on the 'Katyn Forest Murders

The U.S. Army investigates what happened in the Katyn Forest in 1940 using the accounts of locals, newspapers, intelligence, and diplomatic correspondence.
October 30, 1954

U.S. Department of State Intelligence Report No. 5678 Titled 'The Katyn Mass Graves'

This intelligence report is a summary and timeline of the events concerning the Katyn Forest Massacre from 1939-1946.
April 12, 1971

Note, A. Gromyko to the CPSU Central Committee

Gromyko describes "anti-Soviet propaganda" in the United Kingdom related to the Katyn massacre. He proposes that the Soviet Embassy in London make representations to the British Foreign Office.
April 15, 1971

Excerpt from Minutes Nº 1 of the CPSU CC Politburo meeting of 15 April 1971, 'Concerning the Representation to the British MFA in connection with the Anti-Soviet CCampaign around the So-called “Katyn Affair”'

The CPSU Central Committee calls on the Soviet Embassy in London to lodge a protest over a new BBC film about the Katyn massacre. The CPSU insists the massacre was perpetrated by the Nazis.
March 02, 1973

Excerpt from Minutes Nº 80 of the CPSU CC Politburo Meeting of 2 March 1973, 'A Representation to the British Government in connection with the Anti-Soviet Campaign around the Construction in London of a so-called “Memorial to the Victims of Katyn”'

The CPSU Central Committee directs the Soviet Embassy in London to lodge further protests concerning the discussion and memorialization of the Katyn massacre in the UK.
1976

The Katyn Affair (A Brief Memo)

A Soviet record, probably dated from 1976, that offers an official CPSU stance on the Katyn massacre. The memo also describes various post-war "provocations" by the United States and other Western nations to bring attention to the Katyn massacre and inflame Soviet-Polish relations.
March 30, 1976

Note, Yu. Andropov, V. Kuznetsov, and K. Katushev to the CPSU Central Committee

Yu. Andropov and other Soviet officials propose that, due to the "anti-Soviet campaign" concerning the Katyn massacre in the West, Poland and the Soviet Union should coordinate countermeasures.
April 05, 1976

Excerpt from Minutes Nº 3 of the CPSU CC Politburo Meeting of 5 April 1976, 'Measures to Counteract Western Propaganda about the so-called “Katyn Affair”'

The CPSU Central Committee issues five directives to combat the "anti-Soviet" campaign concerning the Katyn massacre.
April 26, 1988

Eh. Shevardnadze et al to the CPSU CC, 'Measures to Build the Site of the Burial of Polish officers in Katyn (Smolensk Oblast’) and the Expansion of the Access to it of the Citizens of the PNR and of Other Countries'

Shevardnadze and other Soviet officials propose to create a memorial to Polish officers murdered during the Katyn massacre as well as "Soviet POWs who took part in the exhumation work," and to allow Polish citizens to visit the memorial in Smolensk Oblast’.
April 22, 1989

A. Sukharev et al to the CPSU Central Committee, 'On the Question of Katyn'

A group of Soviet officials propose that the KGB, among other institutions, investigate the circumstances and locations of the deaths of Polish officers interned in the Soviet Union during World War II.
December 01, 1991

Folder No. 105 [List of Documents about the Katyn Massacre]

A list of Soviet era documents about the Katyn massacre produced from November 1939 through November 1991.