Katyn: the 1940 killings of Polish prisoners
Verified: Documented in primary records or confirmed by reputable inquiry/reporting.
In early March 1940 NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria submitted a proposal to Stalin concerning Polish prisoners held in camps at Kozelsk, Ostashkov and Starobelsk. The killings followed in spring 1940, and Soviet propaganda later blamed Nazi Germany. On 26 November 2010 the Russian State Duma adopted a statement saying the crime was carried out on the direct orders of Stalin and other Soviet leaders.
Documented
The Grand Chamber judgment in Janowiec and Others v Russia (21 October 2013) sets out Beria’s proposal, the camps, and the Duma statement. The NKVD is described there as a predecessor of the KGB.
Claimed, disputed or not established
The sources opened document the killings as a Soviet state crime and record Russia’s own 2010 Duma statement. This page does not summarise the Court’s rulings on jurisdiction or on Russia’s handling of the later investigation.
Sources (opened in a new tab)
- ECtHR Grand Chamber: Janowiec and Others v Russia (PDF) ↗https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf/?filename=001-127684.pdf&id=001-127684&library=ECHR
Connected
- Section: Russia and the USSR
- Agencies: KGB
- Vault documents: Janowiec and Others v Russia (Katyn), Grand Chamber judgment ↗
- Case board · Timeline (1940) · Document vault