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Katyn- forgiven and forgotten? [111]
The Poles lost their opportunity at August 1944 with the Warsaw revolution.If they managed to throw Germans out,they would maybe join the western world.It was still an open issue til Jalta conference in 1945 where Poland should belong.However Poles heavily depended on soviet interventinon,they waited til the soviets were too close so the german forces would have weakened out and started to retreat,to liberate Warsaw.
When the germans gathered a lot of forces and begann extinguishing revolution,the Poles asked for soviet help which the Russians of course refused.Both Hitler and Stalin knew what was played in Warsaw and had taken their decisions(to press the West).
Katyn was dicovered accidentally be Germans and Goebels organized a well orchestrated campaign for its exploitence.He gathered specialists from all over the world to analyze the findings and testify the identity of corpses.Germans hoped to bring Soviets into a difficult position and cause conflicts between the allies which may drive them to breakdown of their relations and maybe an end of the war in the west.
Soviets understood all this and simply forbid the english and americans any reference to Katyn threatening to stop pressure and let the germans gather forces on the western front where english and americans were under heavy pressure.Allies complied and accepted the official soviet explanation that the polish officers in Katyn were murdered by Germans.
When Krutsev begann accusing Stalin atrocities after the 20th congress of the communist party,Katyn came to surface again.In this case as in many of Stalin's murders there are few remnants and the calculations of victims are always open to upper limits.
I think most russians still regard Katyn a crime commited by germans.
Why did the Soviets proceed to this mass execution?It had to do with SU defense plans in view of an imminent german attack.The same reason why soviets occupied baltic states and attacked Finland in 1939.They wanted a good balance of forces,a way to delay german attacks.They feared that in case germans invaded Soviet Union the righteous officers of the polish army would join them and be very influencial in provinces like Belarus,who knows?Or they wanted to smooth the ground for a future communist Poland with no army resistance possible?We will never know the archives,what were the motives and the goals of the soviet officers who decided the massacre