Polish massacre by Russians commemorated

April 7th, 2010/1940

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin joined his Polish counterpart on Wednesday in the first joint commemoration marking the anniversary of the murder of thousands of Polish officers by the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II.

Mr. Putin met with Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, in Russia at a site in the Katyn forest close to the city of Smolensk, where 70 years ago members of the Soviet secret police executed over 20,000 Polish officers captured after the Soviet Red Army invaded Poland in 1939.

The circumstances surrounding the massacre have long been a major source of tension between Poland and Russia, and Wednesday’s tribute appears to be the latest step in an effort by both countries to patch up relations.

Only in the waning days of the Soviet Union did Moscow officially acknowledge the country’s role in the massacre, nearly half a century after the murders occurred. The Soviet government suppressed all information about the killings, blaming Nazi soldiers for the crime.

Many Russians view the war and the Soviet victory over the Nazis as a defining moment in their history. As many as 25 million Soviet citizens died in the war, according to some estimates, fighting, many here believe, for the liberation of Eastern Europe from Fascism.

For the first time this year, Russia has invited delegations from the Soviet Union’s principal World War II allies—Britain, France and the United States—to take part in the Victory Day parade on Red Square this year, marking the 65th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat. Poland has also been invited.

(article condensed from New York Times)