The Katyn Forest Massacre

[Scout]

I almost hesitate posting the link to the climactic ending scenes as the movie is well worth watching in its entirety. Of course, it’s an ending everyone knows, but as one gets to know the characters it magnifies and makes the horror of what happened more real.

Katyn Forest Massacre by NKVD Communist Zionists (english subtitles) - YouTube

Regards,
Tony

Horrific.

I have read about Katyn, but continue to be astounded about the sheer horror of it all.

Sometime ago, I learned of Vasili Blokhin's role in the Katyn Massacre. It is almost unfathomable:

Blokhin's most infamous act was the April 1940 massacre by shooting of 7,000 Polish officers, captured following the Soviet invasion of Poland, from the Ostashkov POW camp, which came to be known as the Katyn massacre. (The event's infamy also stems from the Stalin regime's orchestration of the murders and subsequent propaganda campaign in order to blame Nazi Germany for the massacre. In 1990 as part of Glasnost, Gorbachev gave the Polish government "a huge packet of files on the massacres at Katyn, Starobelsk, and Kalinin", revealing Stalin's involvement).

Based on the 4 April secret order from Stalin to NKVD Chief Lavrenti Beria (as well as NKVD Order № 00485, which still applied), the executions were carried out in 28 consecutive nights at the specially-constructed basement execution chamber at the NKVD headquarters in Kalinin (now Tver), and were assigned, by name, directly to Blokhin, making him the official executioner of the NKVD.

Blokhin initially decided on an ambitious quota of 300 executions per night, and engineered an efficient system in which the prisoners were individually led to a small antechamber—which had been painted red and was known as the "Leninist room"—for a brief and cursory positive identification, before being handcuffed and led into the execution room next door. The room was specially designed with padded walls for soundproofing, a sloping concrete floor with a drain and hose, and a log wall for the prisoners to stand against. Blokhin would stand waiting behind the door in his executioner garb: a leather butcher's apron, leather hat, and shoulder-length leather gloves. Then, without a hearing, the reading of a sentence or any other formalities, each officer was brought in and restrained by guards while Blokhin shot them once in the base of the skull with a German Walther Model 2 .25 ACP pistol. He had brought a briefcase full of his own Walther pistols, since he did not trust the reliability of the standard-issue Soviet TT-30 for the frequent, heavy use he intended. The use of a German pocket pistol, which was commonly carried by Nazi intelligence agents, also provided plausible deniability of the executions if the bodies were discovered later.

An estimated 30 local NKVD agents, guards and drivers were pressed into service to escort prisoners to the basement, confirm identification, then remove the bodies and hose down the blood after each execution. Although some of the executions were carried out by Senior Lieutenant of State Security Andrei M. Rubanov, Blokhin was the primary executioner and, true to his reputation, liked to work continuously and rapidly without interruption. In keeping with NKVD policy and the overall "black" nature of the operation, the executions were conducted at night, starting at dark and continuing until just prior to dawn. The bodies were continuously loaded onto covered flat-bed trucks through a back door in the execution chamber and trucked, twice a night, to Mednoye, where Blokhin had arranged for a bulldozer and two NKVD drivers to dispose of bodies at an unfenced site. Each night, 24 to 25 trenches, measuring eight to ten meters total, were dug to hold the night's corpses, and each trench was covered up before dawn. Blokhin and his team worked without pause for ten hours each night, with Blokhin executing an average of one prisoner every three minutes. At the end of the night, Blokhin provided vodka to all his men.

On 27 April 1940, Blokhin secretly received the Order of the Red Banner and a modest monthly pay premium as a reward from Joseph Stalin for his "skill and organization in the effective carrying out of special tasks". His count of 7,000 shot in 28 days remains one of the most organized and protracted mass murders by a single individual on record,and earned him the Guinness World Record for 'Most Prolific Executioner' in 2010.

Its difficult to wrap ones mind around, what these human monsters did let alone the mentality of a regime like the USSR operating with a disdain for human lives like that.

I guess every totalitarian regime gave rise to monsters like that no matter the label or political colour - be it brown or red.

[StefanM]

It’s a German wartime propaganda poster. There were several versions that were distributed in occupied countries. Posted below is a version from my collection, printed in B&W. It’s supposedly an original period print, although I have not been able to verify this. You’ll note the typical racist overtones.

I wonder who this version of the poster was aimed at? The fact that "JUDE-NKVD" is not also or only in Polish suggests not Poles in Poland. But it must have been designed for a Polish audience somewhere for who else would understand "JUDE-NKVD" and Katyn headline? That heading presents a puzzle. Could it be a modern(ish) interpretation of the original propaganda poster?

[StefanM]

The use of a German pocket pistol, which was commonly carried by Nazi intelligence agents, also provided plausible deniability of the executions if the bodies were discovered later.

This is pure supposition by the original author of the quoted article! If Germany hadn't launched a surprise attack on their erstwhile ally, the USSR, the Katyn graves would have remained unreported just like all the other vast numbers of graves and victims of Stalin's regime in previous years of terror. So why did the author feel the need to embellish the fact that the German pistol was more reliable for mass shootings than a Soviet made pistol. He had a job to do and he did it with the most effect and productive tool for the job. Simple.

[Gary J]

The Purpose of the Katyn massacre was pure and simple.
Stalin wanted to "clear" the area of Poland taken by the Soviets in 1939 of all the "intelligencia" ..
(People or persons capable of organising anything against the Soviets !)

[Cenowski]

I don't know where this thread is heading but the facts are the facts, and there is no downplaying of the nazi's crimes and the soviets crimes possible. Many of the organizers of such murders from both of those sides are burning in hell and are here no more. stalins soviet regieme had a extreme dislike of Poles as did hitlers nazi germany, so how would any one murderous regime be appalled by each others muders. I think Katyń is a subject that there is much academic information from persons to documents and forensic evidence. Any out there theories or denials like from the zionist dovid kotz or anyother of lifes losers, is nothing but rubbish.

Unfortunately much of WW2 goings on are still unknown to most of Western Europe, the schools in the uk alone teach history as if it was 1947 still, no mention of the Polish, or Polish history, Polish victories and impact on Europe, nothing. Katyń is just one of many events in WW2 that seems to be still seems to be unknown to even people with a huge grade list education in History these days. Proof that what you can get on paper to say know History well, can mean the opposite in reality depending on the curriculum you were taught.

[Thanatos]

Gday Gary,
I believe Stalin once said,
Idea's are as destructive as guns.
I do not allow my people to have guns so why should they have idea's.
A man of his word with regards to Poland was our Joseph.
All the best
Dave

[StefanM]

The Purpose of the Katyn massacre was pure and simple.
Stalin wanted to "clear" the area of Poland taken by the Soviets in 1939 of all the "intelligencia" ..
(People or persons capable of organising anything against the Soviets !)

Exactly, this is what Beria writes in his March Memoradum to Stalin:

At the present time a great number of former officers of the Polish Army, former employees of the Polish police and intelligence services, members of Polish nationalist (counter-revolutionary) parties, members of declared (counterrevolutionary) insurgent organisations, fugitives and others are being held in NKVD POW camps in the USSR and in prisons in the western districts of the Ukraine and Belorussia. They are all fervent enemies of Soviet power and filled with hatred for the Soviet system.

The POWs, the officers and the policemen in the camps are trying to continue counter-revolutionary activities. Every one of them is only waiting to be freed in order to take an active role in the struggle against Soviet power.

In the Western districts of the Ukraine and Belorussia operatives of the NKVD have uncovered a number of insurrectionary organisations. Former officers of the former Polish Army, former policemen and gendarmes have been playing a leading role in these organisations.

Amongst the detained deserters and other persons who have violated state borders a considerable number of people have been discovered who are members of counter- revolutionary espionage and insurrectionary organisations.

[Scout]

This is pure supposition by the original author of the quoted article! If Germany hadn't launched a surprise attack on their erstwhile ally, the USSR, the Katyn graves would have remained unreported just like all the other vast numbers of graves and victims of Stalin's regime in previous years of terror. So why did the author feel the need to embellish the fact that the German pistol was more reliable for mass shootings than a Soviet made pistol. He had a job to do and he did it with the most effect and productive tool for the job. Simple.

Affirmative.
Standard wiki BS, which managed to fly under my BS radar and which I failed to detect.

That how ever does not change, what a Soviet excutioner did in Katyn.

[StefanM]

Another anti-Soviet Katyn related propaganda poster for a Polish audience:

[dastier]

This is OT and I apologize, but I'd like you all to think about how in 2010 the then President of Poland Lech Kaczynski's plane, with a sizeable representation of Poland's present day "intelligencia", crashed while flying to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Katyn Massacre.