Revision 7841620 of "Katyn massacre" on simplewiki

{{Infobox civilian attack
| partof      = the aftermath of the [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] (during [[World War II]]) and [[Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946)]]
| map         = {{Location map
 |            USSR
 | caption  =
 | width    = 250
 | label    =
 | position = right
 | border   = infobox
 | float    = center
}}
|image        = Trzy krzyze.jpg
|image_size   =
|caption      = Katyn-Kharkov-Mednoye memorial in [[Świętokrzyskie Mountains]], [[Poland]]
|date         = April–May 1940
|type         = Mass murder
|fatalities   = 22,000
|injuries     =
|victims      = [[Poles]]
|perpetrators = [[Soviet Union]] ([[NKVD]])
|location     = [[Katyn (rural locality)|Katyn]] Forest, [[Tver|Kalinin]] and [[Kharkiv]] prisons in Soviet Union
|coordinates  =
}}
The '''Katyn massacre''' is the name of a series of [[Massacre|killings]] 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 [[Officer|officers]]. The Katyn massacre happened in April and May 1940. [[Stalin]] ordered it on [[Lavrenty Beria|Beria]]'s advice. In 1990, the Soviet Union/Russia [[wikt:admit|admitted]] 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. People used their stories to change Soviet history books after the apology. 

In the 1980s, Michail Gorbachev said that Beria and [[Vsevolod Merkulov]] were responsible. He said that the Katyn massacre was one of Stalin's [[wikt:atrocity|atrocities]]. 

Beria was accused of [[treason]]. He was [[Execution|executed]] in 1953. Merkulov was also executed in 1953 for being close to Beria. Beria and Merkulov were never [[Trial|tried]] for what they did at Katyn.

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[[Category:Massacres during Word War II]]
[[Category:1940s in the Soviet Union]]


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