21.04.2022
The Russians are threatening to destroy the Katyn cemetery
The More than Poland Foundation is committed to helping to save works of art and monuments in Ukraine.
We cordially invite you to cooperate – even the smallest amount matters …
Account number 45 1160 2202 0000 0002 7051 1460
BIC / SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
The Russians are threatening to destroy the Katyn cemetery
The Russian barbarians were not satisfied with the shelling of the Kharkiv-Pyatichatki cemetery, where Polish officers who were killed in 1940 by the NKVD are burried. (I wrote about it on March 24, 2022). Now they are threatening to destroy the Katyn cemetery – a symbol of the Soviet genocide of World War II. 4,421 officers and cadets of the Polish Army, prisoners of war from the Kozelsk camp, murdered in 1940 by the NKVD, were buried in Katyn. They were transported by trains to the Gniezdowo railway station, and then killed in the Katyn forest and buried in mass graves. The Polish war cemetery in Katyn was established in the years 1999 – 2000. The Russians admitted to the Katyn massacre in 1990, and only 9 years later allowed the construction of the cemetery.
On the wave of retaliation for Polish aid for the fighting Ukraine, they now want to take revenge on the graves of the executed Polish officers. The Belarusian opposition activist Tadeusz Giczan posted a video on the social network showing Russian trucks and large excavators heading in a compact column to the Katyn Cemetery. Heavy equipment, decorated with Russian flags, was placed at the entrance to the cemetery, ready to start the destruction at any moment.
Communist activists question Russian crimes in Katyn
Three activists from Smolensk have prepared a petition to the Russian authorities, demanding the liquidation of the monument at the site of the execution of Polish officers. In the petition they write: “We, the Russian society, tolerated the legal status of the so-called Katyn monuments in the Smolensk and Tver regions. These monuments exist despite the lack of evidence of mass executions of Polish prisoners of war by the NKVD in 1940. Due to the current attitude of contemporary, puppet Poland, its policy of supporting Nazi Ukraine, supplied with weapons from Poland, and the approval of anti-Russian actions by the Polish government, we consider it necessary to announce the immediate closure of the memorials in Katyn and Mednoye “- the authors of the petition write. They also write: “the Katyn massacre is a forgery by the head of Nazi propaganda, Josef Goebbels.” It is hard to believe that such a document could have been written 82 years after the murder of Polish officers.
But we must get used to the fact that the Russians commit crimes and acts of barbarism that are hard to imagine being part of the civilized Western world. These include the deliberate destruction of cultural goods, considered a war crime and harming the heritage of not only one nation, but the whole world. During our missions in Ukraine, we saw burned works of art, plundered churches and devastated monuments.
Since the outbreak of the war beyond our eastern border, UNESCO has confirmed the destruction of 53 objects of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. According to reports by the Ukrainian minister of culture, this number has already exceeded 135 cases and is growing day by day.