On November 26, 2010, the Russian parliament passed a resolution acknowledging that 70 years ago in 1940 Soviet leader Josef Stalin and others personally ordered the massacre of as many as 22,000 Polish officers, soldiers, and civilians.
The majority were killed in the Katyn forest in Russia sixteen kilometers northwest of Smolensk, Russia.
In 1939, in alliance with Nazi Germany the Soviets had seized half of Poland. The Soviets imprisoned then murdered these Polish leaders and intellectuals to cripple Polish resistance to Soviet domination.
In a classic example of their Orwellian behaviors, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary the Soviets denied they had committed the massacre and instead blamed their former ally, Nazi Germany.
As part of its ongoing effort to reconcile with former foes and fully join the family of nations, Russia, the successor state to the Soviet Union, is taking responsibility for its past actions.
This is what Germany did regarding its Nazi past and what the world now expects of Turkey recgarding the genocide of the Armenians.
For more information:
Russia: Stalin Called Responsible for Katyn Killings by Ellen Barry, New York Times, November 26, 2010.
The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Fieldby Benjamin B. Fischer CIA’s Center for Study of Intelligence, April 14, 2007, last ipdated June 27, 2008.
Poles throng Warsaw's presidential palace to grieve over fallen president by Reuters in Haaretz Daily Newspaper, April 11, 2010.
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