Monument to The Katyn Massacre, Castle Square

The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre (Polish: zbrodnia katynska, literally 'Katyn crime'), was a mass execution of Polish citizens ordered by Soviet authorities in 1940. Estimates of the number executed range from 1,803 (Russian government) to 21,768 (Polish government). Polish POWs and prisoners were murdered in Katyn forest, Kalinin (Tver) and Kharkiv prisons and elsewhere. About 8,000 of the victims were officers taken prisoner during the 1939 invasion of Poland, the rest being Polish citizens who had been arrested for allegedly being "intelligence agents, gendarmes, spies, saboteurs, landowners, factory owners and officials."

Photo 186, May 2007