Katyn massacre

The Soviet NKVD’s 1940 execution of about 22,000 Polish prisoners and detainees, including thousands of officers, at Katyn and other sites.

NKVD: The Soviet Union’s internal security and political-police agency from 1934 to 1946. Its officers carried out the executions on orders from the Soviet leadership.
Soviet invasion of Poland: The Soviet Union’s invasion of eastern Poland, launched on 17 September 1939. It brought thousands of Polish officers and officials into Soviet custody.
Władysław Anders: A Polish general who commanded the Polish Army formed in the Soviet Union during World War II. He pressed Soviet authorities for information about officers who had disappeared from Soviet custody.
Polish government-in-exile: The Polish government that operated abroad after Germany and the Soviet Union occupied Poland in 1939. Its demand for an investigation led the Soviet Union to break relations with it in 1943.
Katyn Forest: A wooded area near Smolensk, Russia, where Polish prisoners were executed and buried in 1940. Its graves gave the massacre its name and first came to international attention.
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact: The 1939 German–Soviet agreement that included a secret division of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. Its secret protocol enabled the partition that preceded Soviet detention of Polish citizens.
Józef Czapski: A Polish officer, writer, and painter who searched for missing Polish prisoners in the Soviet Union. His search exposed the unexplained absence of thousands of fellow prisoners.
Katyn lie: The Soviet campaign that blamed Nazi Germany for the 1940 Katyn executions and concealed Soviet responsibility. The cover-up shaped official accounts of the massacre for decades.
Tver massacres: The NKVD killings of Polish prisoners in Kalinin, now Tver, in 1940. They were among the executions at sites beyond Katyn Forest.
Polish prisoners of war in the Soviet Union: Polish military personnel captured by Soviet forces after the invasion of Poland in 1939. A large share of the victims came from this prisoner population.

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