It is said that Stalin gave Beria the order to prepare the document sentencing the captive Poles for execution. Regardless, Beria prepared the order and presented this formal request to Stalin. The decision to proceed rested first with Stalin. The others in Stalin’s inner circle dutifully signed in turn. Needless to say, nothing was going ahead without Stalin’s approval.
The count varies depending on who was included and what time span is considered. In the months of April and May 1940 about 22,000 were murdered as the order was implemented. In a 1959 memo from KGB chief Alexander Shelepin to Khrushchev (a copy of which was given by Boris Yeltsin’s envoy to Lech Wałęsa in 1992) it states that:
“21,857 people were shot, including 4,421 in the Katyn forest (Smolensk district), 3,820 in the Starobielsk camp near Kharkov, 6,311 in the Ostashkovo camp (Kalinin district), and 7,305 in other camps and prisons in Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia”
Regards,
Tony
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