Katyn, memory of the mass murder

On April 7, Poland issued this stamp in memory of the Katyn massacre. In 1940, Katyn was one of the locations where the Soviet Union's secret service executed nearly 26.000 Polish civilians, clergy, and military personnel. These Poles were imprisoned in Polish concentration camps. Stalin hoped to nip resistance to communism in the bud by arresting and imprisoning the intellectual elite of the Polish population. However, the concentration camps had to be cleared for the arrival of some 50.000 to 70.000 inhabitants of the Baltic states. Therefore, on March 5, 1940, the order for the mass murder was given by the Central Committee. Stalin signed the order.

On April 13, 1943, the Germans discovered the Katyn mass graves. Until that time, nothing was known about the fate of the prisoners of war. It was convincingly proven that the murders had been committed by the Soviets. When the Polish government demanded clarification on this matter, the Soviet Union severed relations. The Soviet Union (aided by the communist press abroad) launched a campaign to pin the blame for the mass murder on the Nazis. Because the situation threatened to weaken the Allies, Western Allies also made attempts during the war to conceal the truth about Katyn. They did not want to disrupt their relationship with Stalin. Both British Prime Minister Churchill and US President Roosevelt concealed the truth. In 1946, however, the British and the United States refused to have the Katyn case tried as a German war crime by the Nuremberg Tribunal. Even after the war, the Soviet version of the story remained the official version in Poland. Over time, Katyn was not even allowed to be mentioned at all. It was not until April 1990 that the government of the Soviet Union confirmed the responsibility of the NKVD (secret service) for a mass murder. Nevertheless, some communists remain convinced of the Nazis' guilt. And in neo-Nazi circles, the Katyn issue is used as an argument to deny the Nazis' guilt in the Holocaust.

This year, seventy years after the massacre, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended the commemoration of the Katyn massacre. Putin also invited Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. This was on April 7, the same day Poland issued the commemorative stamp. Three days later, on April 10, 2010, Polish President Lech Kaczyński flew to Smolensk. From there, he was to travel on to Katyn to attend the commemoration ceremony for the Katyn massacre. The government plane crashed near the airport in Smolensk, Russia. Kaczyński and all other occupants perished. Stamp features Issue date: 07 April 2010 Stamp value: 3 ZL Dimensions: 43 mm x 31,25 mm (70 mm x 90 mm) Minute: 300.000 Design: Marzanna Dabrowska Printing technique: offset