Revision 7015859 of "Katyn massacre" on simplewiki

[[File:The Katyn Massacre, 1940 HU106212.jpg|thumb|In 1943, the Germans discovered what happened in  Katyn. This is an original picture of 1943: It shows exhumated bodis wating to be examined]]
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The '''Katyn massacre''' is the name of a series of killings, done by the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] army, during [[World War II]]. Members of the [[NKVD]] killed about 22,000 [[Poland|Polish]] [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]], in a [[forest]] near [[Katyn]], about {{convert|20|km}} from [[Smolensk]]. Most of the prisoners killed were officers. The Katyn massacre happened in May 1940, and was ordered by [[Stalin]] himself on [[Lavrenty Beria|Beria]]'s recommendations. Between 4.000 and 5.000 people were killed in Katyn. It took until 1990 for the Soviet Union/Russia to say it was responsible. In 1990, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] officially apologised. The Katyn massacre is one in a series of [[NKVD prisoner massacres|similar massacres]], where up to 100,000 people were killed. Between 400 and 450 prisoners survived. Using their stories, Soviet history books were rewritten after the apology.

In the 1980s, Michail Gorbachev declared that Beria and [[Vsevolod Merkulov]] had been responsible, and that the Karyn massacre was one Stalin's atrocities. . Beria was accused of [[treason]] (he did in the 1920s, with the British), and [[Execution|execued]], in 1953.  Merkulov was also executed in 1953, for being close to Beria.

Neither Beria, nor Merklulov were ever tried for what they had done at Katyn.



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[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:1940s in the Soviet Union]]