Thousands of supporters of President Bashar al-Assad have staged demonstrations in support of the president, who announced earlier on Monday that he will run in the country's controversial presidential elections.
Following Assad's announcement, the supporters took to several streets and squares in the capital Damascus, the central city of Homs, the coastal city of Latakia and the southern province of Qunaitera, chanting and singing in support of Assad.
"We are here to stress our support to President Bashar al-Assad since he took to office and until (now)," said Raghad al-Khair, a pro-government demonstrator in Damascus.
Assad was nominated in 2000 by the Syrian parliament unanimously following the death of his father, former President Hafez Assad, and was re-elected in 2007 for a second term in a nationwide referendum in which he was the sole candidate.
The 2014 election is scheduled for June 3 despite the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in the country.
In the southern province of Qunaitera, Assad supporters, including soldiers of the National Defense Forces, flocked to the province's main square to show their support for the president.
Earlier in the day, Assad officially registered for the presidential race to run for a third seven-year term.
The announcement did not come as much of a surprise, as government officials had repeatedly said that Assad would run for the elections, and that he has high chance of winning another term in office because he maintains "popular support." They said he is the "real guarantee" for the future of Syria.
Aside from the president, several candidates are running in the race for the presidency in accordance with the new constitution. However, a new electoral law stipulates that all applicants must have lived in Syria for ten consecutive years prior to nomination, which severely limits exiled opposition members, many of whom have been living outside the country for years.
The timing of the presidential polls has riled many in the Syrian opposition, as well as their regional and international backers, who have labeled the upcoming poll a "parody of democracy. "
The Syrian government has repeatedly blasted countries that called on Assad to step down, saying such demands encroach upon Syria's sovereignty and the Syrian people's rights of self- determination.
Opposition groups inside and outside Syria have criticized the decision to hold the presidential elections amid the ongoing civil war. More than 150,000 people have been killed and one third of the population displaced in grinding clashes between government troops and armed militant groups.
They also stress that millions of Syrians fled to neighboring countries don't have access to basic necessities, let alone polling stations.
Loai Hussain, head of the opposition party Building the Syria State, said it is essential to focus on the will of all of the Syrians.
"Now more than half of the Syrians are absent from the electoral process ... We are unable to know their decision and will, but we do know that they have the right to be partners in the presidential elections, otherwise, such elections would be totally illegal," Hussain said.
He added that the real desires of Syrians could be fulfilled by postponing the elections, working to return displaced people safely to their homes, allowing freedom of speech and expression and preventing security from arbitrarily arresting citizens.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Committee for Presidential Elections said that those Syrians who have illegally left the country will not be allowed to vote in the elections.
Still political experts believe that the vast majority of those who have illegally fled the country are not expected to return, as some of them are believed to be families of opposition fighters battling to bring down the administration.
|
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Pro-gov't Syrians rally for Assad after his candidacy News | 29.04.2014 | 10:07
Monday, April 28, 2014
Offener Brief an Bundespräsident Didier Burkhalter "Aufnahme der Krim in die Russische Föderation sei illegal"
Eidgenössisches Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten (EDA), 3. April 2014
Ihr Statement, die Aufnahme der Krim in die Russische Föderation sei illegal
(Burkhalter ist gleichzeitig Bundespräsident und Aussenminister der Schweiz sowie Präsident der OSZE)
Sehr geehrter Herr Bundespräsident,
Der nachstehende Offene Brief wird hier eindrucksvoll vorgelesen.
Wir sind erstaunt, dass Sie im Namen der Schweiz öffentlich erklärt haben, dass die politische Anbindung der Krim an die Russische Föderation „illegal“ sei. Sie haben damit nicht nur die Regierung der Russischen Föderation und 90 % der Menschen auf der Krim verärgert und beleidigt, sondern auch erhebliche Teile des Schweizervolkes, die mit dieser Sichtweise gar nicht einverstanden sind.
Die Volksabstimmung in der Region Krim am 16. März 2014 verlief absolut friedlich und entspannt, wie der EU-Parlamentsabgeordnete und OSZE-Wahlbeobachter Ewald Stadler (1) aus Österreich in einem online-Interview detailliert geschildert hat. Die vielen Ordnungskräfte waren nötig, um den grossen Andrang zu den Stimmlokalen in geordnete Bahnen zu lenken, um eine geregelte Stimmabgabe überhaupt zu ermöglichen.
Von Bedrohung, Erpressung oder Wahlfälschung kann also gar keine Rede sein. Herr Stadler konnte dies bei seinem persönlichen Besuch vieler Wahllokale leicht feststellen. Er betonte zudem, dass die meisten Wahlbüros von Frauen geleitet wurden, die ihm bereitwillig und ausführlich all seine Fragen beantworteten. Die gesamte Abstimmung verlief vollkommen rechtmässig – das heisst legal. Es gehört zur Tradition der direkten Demokratie in unserem Land, dass wir Schweizerinnen und Schweizer das Selbstbestimmungsrecht ALLER Völker sehr hoch halten, so wie es in der UNO-Charta festgeschrieben steht.
Grund für diese Abstimmung lieferte die faktische Ausserkraftsetzung der ukrainischen Verfassung durch einen Putsch rechtsgerichteter Faschisten. Nach monatelangen Demonstrationen auf dem Maidan - von den USA mit fünf Milliarden Dollar finanziert und durch deren „NGOs“ organisiert - wurde die vom Volk gewählte Regierung gestürzt. Unter Einschüchterung und der Aufsicht durch Kalaschnikow-Bewaffnete setzte das ukrainische Parlament mit 72 %iger Mehrheit eine „Übergangsregierung“ ein, die in ihrer Zusammensetzung genau den Wünschen der US-Regierung entspricht. Dies entnehmen wir dem veröffentlichten Telefonat von Victoria Nuland mit dem amerikanischen Botschafter Jeffrey Payette in Kiew (2).
Wir betrachten diese Vorgänge mit vollem Recht als illegalen Staatsstreich, im Anschluss an eine jahrelange Destabilisierung der ukranischen Gesellschaft mit Geldern der amerikanischen NED (National Endowment for Democracy) und der deutschen Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (unter Aufsicht von Bundeskanzlerin Merkel) sowie Organisationen weiterer NATO-Staaten.
Fazit: Der Staatsstreich – d.h. die Absetzung Janukowitschs - war illegal, die Einsetzung der Übergangsregierung kam mit weniger als 75 % der Parlamentsstimmen zustande und ist deshalb ebenso illegal, wenn man sich auf die rechtsgültige Verfassung der Ukraine abstützt.
Die vorsätzliche, gezielte Destabilisierung eines Landes durch ausländische Kräfte ist gemäss UNO-Charta genauso illegal.
Offensichtlich besteht in der „westlichen Wertegemeinschaft“, angeblich „verteidigt“ durch die USA und die NATO, ein erhebliches Interesse daran, einen dritten Weltkrieg zu provozieren.
Während 20 Jahren wurden in Westeuropa Fakten geschaffen, die Russland zwingen, seine Grenzen mit grösserer Wachsamkeit zu schützen. Wir erinnern nur an den Aufbau des NATO-Raketenschilds in den osteuropäischen Nachbarstaaten, nachdem Russland 1990 bereitwillig sein Versprechen ein und den Warschau-Pakt aufgelöst hatte.
Die „westliche Wertegemeinschaft“ tat genau das Gegenteil: Sie hielt ihr Versprechen nicht. Statt die NATO aufzulösen, wurde sie nach Osten erweitert um genau jene Staaten, die man Russland versprach, neutral zu lassen. Das ist Vertragsbruch pur und nach westlichem Verständnis illegal.
Eine der ersten Amtshandlungen der ukrainischen „Übergangsregierung“ war das Verbot von Russisch als Amtssprache. Sofort begann eine Jagd der faschistischen Anhänger Banderas auf ukrainische Politiker und Persönlichkeiten, die aufgrund ihrer politischen Ausrichtung oder wegen ihrer russischen Muttersprache getötet werden sollten.
An einer Pressekonferenz am 1. März 2014 in Frankfurt am Main haben wir Videos gesehen mit Leichen von Menschen, deren Kopf abgeschlagen worden war, daneben Banner mit Hakenkreuzen. Solch grausame Videos waren aus ethischen Gründen in keinem westlichen TV-Sender zu sehen, noch wurde über diese Geschehnisse berichtet.
An der erwähnten Pressekonferenz konnten wir aus erster Hand von Frau Dr. Natalia Vitrenko, Vorsitzende der Progressiven Sozialistischen Partei der Ukraine und Präsidentschaftskandidatin 2004, Vladimir Marchenko, Mitglied des Ukrainischen Parlamentes (1990-2002) und Valeri Sergashov, ehemaliges Mitglied des Regionalparlamentes von Odessa (3) erfahren, wie sehr sich viele Menschen in der Ukraine bedroht fühlen – entweder weil sie jüdisch sind oder Russisch sprechen oder andere politische Überzeugungen vertreten als jene des „Rechten Sektors“.
Sehr geehrter Herr Bundespräsident, wir haben nicht vernommen, dass Sie all diese Handlungen für „illegal“ erklärt hätten. Haben wir vielleicht etwas verpasst oder überhört?? Uns ist wichtig, dass unsere Regierung die Dinge beim wahren Namen nennt und so ihre Glaubwürdigkeit unter Beweis stellt.
Am 18. März 2014 hielt der Präsident der Russischen Föderation, Vladimir Vladimirovitsch Putin, eine feierliche Rede vor der versammelten Staatsduma, die in voller Länge gefilmt wurde. Im Internet konnten wir sie in deutscher und englischer Übersetzung verfolgen. Im Anschluss an seine Rede unterzeichnete Präsident Putin die Dokumente, mit denen dem Wunsch der Halbinsel Krim entsprochen wurde, in die Russische Föderation aufgenommen zu werden.
Daher kann keinesfalls von einer „Aggression“ oder feindlichen „Annexion“ gesprochen werden. Ebenso wenig stellt die Unterzeichnung dieses Vertrages eine Parallele zum Einmarsch Hitlers ins Sudetenland dar, wie dies westliche Medien wiederholt suggerieren in der unwürdigen Absicht, Herrn Putin zu dämonisieren und als Diktator im Stile Adolf Hitlers darzustellen. Dies halten wir für eine inakzeptable Beleidigung des Präsidenten eines befreundeten Staates, mit dem die Schweiz als neutrales Land seit 200 Jahren gute Beziehungen pflegt. Dies nicht nur weil Russland ein wichtiger Energie-Lieferant ist für uns, sondern auch eine Nation mit europäischer Kultur.
Wir erinnern Sie daran, dass die Russische Föderation einen rechtsgültigen Vertrag mit der Ukraine geschlossen hatte, ihre Schwarzmeerflotte und bis zu 25'000 Marine-Soldaten in der Hafenstadt Sewastopol auf der Halbinsel Krim zu stationieren. Russland hat der Ukraine jedes Jahr dafür eine ansehnliche Summe bezahlt, die das Land gewiss gut gebrauchen konnte angesichts des Lebensstandards der Ukrainer, der 50 % desjenigen der Russischen Föderation entspricht. Die russischen Truppen waren also schon lange auf der Krim – sie sind nicht erst „einmarschiert“, wie die NATOMedien ständig wiederholen!
Dieses unsägliche Russland-Bashing in den Medien ist Kriegshetze pur! Wir erwarten von unserem Bundespräsidenten, dass er die Interessen unseres Landes und unserer Bevölkerung mit Nachdruck vertritt – nicht jene der NATO, der US-Regierung und ihren Kriegshetzern.
Da die Schweiz in diesem Jahr den Vorsitz hat in der OSZE, zu der auch die Russische Föderation gehört, erwarten wir von unserer Landesregierung eine besondere Sensibilität für Neutralität.
Wir fassen zusammen:
Nicht die vertragliche Aufnahme der Krim in die Russische Föderation auf Wunsch von 90% der Stimmberechtigten auf der Krim ist illegal, sondern die Destabilisierung der Ukraine durch die 2'200 so benannten „Nichtregierungs-Organisationen“ der NATO-Staaten, allen voran der USA, unter Aufwendung von mehr als 5 Milliarden Dollar, ebenso der anschliessende Staatsstreich in der Ukraine.
Nicht die Volksabstimmung in der Krim war illegal, sondern die Einsetzung der ukrainischen Übergangsregierung in Kiew unter der Kontrolle durch bewaffnete Kräfte und mit weniger als 75 % der erforderlichen Stimmen im Parlament.
Nicht der russische Präsident Vladimir V. Putin ist ein Kriegshetzer oder Diktator, sondern die NATO und deren Führung, gelenkt durch die Regierung der USA und deren Hintermänner in der Bankenwelt. Einmal mehr wird zur Zeit der Versuch gestartet, ein stolzes Land mit einer reichen Kultur in einen ungewollten Krieg zu drängen, um ihm nachher die gesamte Schuld in die Schuhe zu schieben. Das hatten wir bereits in den vergangenen zwei Weltkriegen, mit allen furchtbaren Folgen für Deutschland und ganz Europa. ES REICHT.
Sehr geehrter Herr Bundespräsident, wir bitten Sie mit Nachdruck und aus ganzem Herzen, die Weiterentwicklung dieses NATO-Schreckensszenarios – diesmal mit Russland als vorgeschobenem Schuldigen – mit allen Mitteln der Diplomatie, der Staatskunst und Weisheit zu stoppen. Als Vorsitzender der OSZE haben Sie besondere Mittel in der Hand, die versteckten Absichten der NATO-Staaten, die mehrheitlich pleite sind (USA, Frankreich, Italien, Spanien, England etc) offen zu legen. Da diese nur allzu durchsichtig versuchen, durch einen Krieg neue Verhältnisse zu schaffen, ist es notwendig, die Realisation dieser offensichtlichen Kriegspläne zu verhindern.
Wir wollen kein Afghanistan, keinen Irak und kein Lybien in Europa – denn überall wo die NATO aus angeblich humanitären Gründen eingegriffen hat, herrschen heute Chaos und Elend.
Sie wurden von unserem Parlament als Bundespräsident gewählt, um Gedanken der Wahrheit, Worten der Weisheit und Taten des Friedens zum Durchbruch zu verhelfen. Wir wünschen Ihnen dazu den notwendigen Mut, viel Kraft und die Unterstützung aller wahren Freunde des Friedens.
Mit vorzüglicher Hochachtung und freundlichen Grüssen
Vorstand des Vereins Impulswelle.chDoris Honegger-Z. Ruth Frei Werner Frey René Machu
________________
(1)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4tkHrGP0PY
(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk6SvNzRDL8
(3) http://gesichtspunkt.wordpress.com/2014/03/02/natalja-vitrenko-ukrainische-oppositionspolitiker-in-frankfrut/
(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk6SvNzRDL8
(3) http://gesichtspunkt.wordpress.com/2014/03/02/natalja-vitrenko-ukrainische-oppositionspolitiker-in-frankfrut/
Quelle: www.impulswelle.ch Verein Impulswelle.ch Postfach 3156 5430 Wettingen, team@impulswelle.ch
Die Impulswelle hat noch weitere Videos produziert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3RBe-9xaKE
Dies ist auch zur Ukraine - eine Fabel im Stil von Animal Farm: Die Mär vom Bär.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3RBe-9xaKE
Dies ist auch zur Ukraine - eine Fabel im Stil von Animal Farm: Die Mär vom Bär.
Detained OSCE observer released in Ukraine's Slavyansk 28.04.2014 | 01:18
|
OPEN LETTER On Nuclear Disarmament To PRESIDENT OBAMA FROM U.S. ORGANIZATIONS
Mr. President: It’s
time to move from talk to action on nuclear disarmament.
April 28, 2014
Dear President Obama,
During the closing session of the
Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague on March 25, 2014, you cited a
number of concrete measures to secure highly-enriched uranium and
plutonium and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime that
have been implemented as a result of the three Nuclear Security
Summits, concluding: “So what’s been valuable about this summit
is that it has not just been talk, it’s been action.”
Would that you would apply the same
standard to nuclear disarmament! On April 5, 2009 in Prague, you
gave millions of people around the world new hope when you declared:
“So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s
commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear
weapons.” Bolstered by that hope, over the past three years, there
has been a new round of nuclear disarmament initiatives by
governments not possessing nuclear weapons, both within and outside
the United Nations. Yet the United States has been notably “missing
in action” at best, and dismissive or obstructive at worst. This
conflict may come to a head at the 2015 Review of the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
We write now, on the eve of the
third Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting for the 2015 Review
Conference of the NPT, which will take place at UN headquarters in
New York April 28 – May 9, 2014, to underscore our plea that your
administration shed its negative attitude and participate
constructively in deliberations and negotiations regarding the
creation of a multilateral process to achieve a nuclear weapons free
world. This will require reversal of the dismal U.S. record.
- The 2010 NPT Review Conference unanimously agreed to hold a conference in 2012, to be attended by all states in the region, on a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear and other Weapons of Mass Destruction. The U.S. was a designated convener, and a date was set for December 2012 in Helsinki. The Finnish ambassador worked feverishly, meeting individually with all of the countries in the region to facilitate the conference. Suddenly, on November 23, 2012, the U.S. State Department announced that the Helsinki conference was postponed indefinitely.
- In March 2013, Norway hosted an intergovernmental conference in Oslo on the Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons, with 127 governments in attendance. Mexico hosted a follow-on conference in Nayarit, Mexico in February 2014, with 146 governments present. The U.S. boycotted Oslo and Nayarit. Austria has announced that it will host a third conference, in Vienna, late this year.
- In November 2012, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) established an “Open-Ended” working group open to all member states “to develop proposals to take forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations for the achievement and maintenance of a world without nuclear weapons,” and scheduled for September 26, 2013, the first-ever High-Level meeting of the UNGA devoted to nuclear disarmament. The U.S. voted against both resolutions and refused to participate in the Open-Ended working group, declaring in advance that it would disregard any outcomes.
- The U.S. did send a representative to the UN “High-Level” meeting, but it was the Deputy Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, rather than the President, Vice-President or Secretary of State. Worse, the U.S. joined with France and the U.K. in a profoundly negative statement, delivered by a junior British diplomat: “While we are encouraged by the increased energy and enthusiasm around the nuclear disarmament debate, we regret that this energy is being directed toward initiatives such as this High-Level Meeting, the humanitarian consequences campaign, the Open-Ended Working Group and the push for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.”
- In contrast, Dr. Hassan Rouhani, the new President of Iran, used the occasion of the High-Level Meeting to roll out a disarmament “roadmap” on behalf of the 120 member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The roadmap calls for: “early commencement of negotiations, in the Conference on Disarmament, on a comprehensive convention on nuclear weapons for the prohibition of their possession, development, production, acquisition, testing, stockpiling, transfer, use or threat of use, and for their destruction; designation of 26 September every year as an international day to renew our resolve to completely eliminate nuclear weapons;” and “convening a High-level International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament in five years to review progress in this regard.” The NAM roadmap was subsequently adopted by the UNGA with 129 votes in favor. The U.S voted no.
Meanwhile, your Administration’s FY
2015 budget request seeks a 7% increase for nuclear weapons research
and production programs under the Department of Energy’s
semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
NNSA’s “Total Weapons Activities” are slated to rise to $8.2
billion in FY 2015 and to $9.7 billion by 2019, 24% above fiscal year
2014. Your Administration is also proposing a $56 billion Opportunity
Growth and Security Initiative (OGSI) to be funded through tax
changes and spending reforms. OGSI is to be split evenly between
defense and non-defense spending, out of which $504 million will go
to NNSA nuclear weapons programs “to accelerate modernization and
maintenance of nuclear facilities.” With that, your FY 2015
budget request for maintenance and modernization of nuclear bombs and
warheads in constant dollars exceeds the amount spent in 1985 for
comparable work at the height of President Reagan’s surge in
nuclear weapons spending, which was also the highest point of Cold
War spending.
We are particularly alarmed that your
FY 2015 budget request includes $634 million (up 20%) for the B61
Life Extension Program, which, in contravention of your 2010 Nuclear
Posture Review, as
confirmed by former U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, General Norton
Schwartz, will have improved military capabilities to
attack targets with greater accuracy and less radioactive fallout.1
This enormous commitment to modernizing
nuclear bombs and warheads and the laboratories and factories to
support those activities does not include even larger amounts of
funding for planned replacements of delivery systems – the bombers,
missiles and submarines that form the strategic triad, which are
funded through the Department of Defense. In total, according
to the General Accounting Office, the U.S. will spend more than $700
billion over the next 30 years to maintain and modernize nuclear
weapons systems. The James Martin Center places the number at an
astounding one trillion dollars. This money is desperately needed to
address basic human needs – housing, food security, education,
healthcare, public safety, education and environmental protection –
here and abroad.
The Good Faith
Challenge
This our third
letter to you calling on the U.S. government to participate
constructively and in good faith in all international disarmament
forums. On
June 6, 2013, we wrote: “The
Nuclear Security Summit process you initiated has been a success.
However, securing nuclear materials, while significant, falls well
short of what civil society expected following your Prague speech.”2
In that letter, we urged you to you speak at the September 26, 2013
High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament at the United Nations; to
endorse UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Five-Point Proposal on
Nuclear Disarmament; to announce your convening of a series of
Nuclear Disarmament Summits; to support extending the General
Assembly’s Open-Ended Working Group to develop proposals to take
forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations for the
achievement and maintenance of a world without nuclear weapons; and
to announce that the U.S. would participate in the follow-on
conference on the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons in Mexico
in early 2014.
In
our second letter, dated January 29, 2014, we urged
that you direct the State Department to send a delegation to the
Mexico conference and to participate constructively; and that your
administration shed its negative attitude and participate
constructively in deliberations and negotiations regarding the
creation of a multilateral process to achieve a nuclear weapons free
world. And we called on the United States to engage in good faith in
efforts to make the Conference on Disarmament productive in pursuing
the objective for which it was established more than three decades
ago: complete nuclear disarmament; and to work hard to convene soon
the conference on a zone free of WMD in the Middle East promised by
the 2010 NPT Review Conference.3
Since our last letter, the U.S. -
Russian relationship has deteriorated precipitously, with the
standoff over the Crimea opening the real possibility of a new era of
confrontation between nuclear-armed powers. The current crisis will
further complicate prospects for future arms reduction negotiations
with Russia, already severely stressed by more than two decades of
post-Cold War NATO expansion, deployment of U.S. missile defenses,
U.S. nuclear weapons modernization and pursuit of prompt conventional
global strike capability.
Keeping Our Side of the NPT Bargain
Article VI of the NPT, which entered
into force in 1970, and is the supreme law of the land pursuant to
Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, states: “Each
of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in
good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear
arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a
treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective
international control.”
In 1996, the International Court of
Justice, the judicial branch of the United Nations and the highest
and most authoritative court in the world on questions of
international law, unanimously concluded: “There
exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a
conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its
aspects under strict and effective international control.”
Forty-four years after the NPT entered
into force, more than 17,000 nuclear weapons, most held by the U.S.
and Russia, pose an intolerable threat to humanity. The
International Red Cross has stated that “incalculable
human suffering” will result from any use of nuclear weapons, and
that there can be no adequate humanitarian response capacity.4
Declaring that “our nation’s deep economic crisis can
only be addressed by adopting new priorities to create a sustainable
economy for the 21st century,” the
bi-partisan U.S. Conference of Mayors has called on the President and
Congress to slash nuclear weapons spending and to
redirect those funds to meet the urgent needs of cities.5
We reiterate the thrust of the
demands set forth in our letters of June 13, 2013 and January 29,
2014, and urge you to look to them for guidance in U.S. conduct at
the 2014 NPT PrepCom. We stress the urgent need to press the “reset”
button with Russia again. Important measures in
this regard are an end to NATO expansion and a halt to anti-missile
system deployments in Europe.
- We urge you to work hard to fully implement all commitments you made in the Nuclear Disarmament action plan agreed by the 2010 NPT Review Conference and to convene the promised conference on a zone free of WMD in the Middle East at the earliest possible date.
- We urge you again to take this opportunity to endorse UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Five-Point Proposal on Nuclear Disarmament, to announce your convening of a series of Nuclear Disarmament Summits, and to engage in good faith in efforts to make the Conference on Disarmament productive in pursuing the objective for which it was established more than three decades ago: complete nuclear disarmament.
- We call on you to declare that the U.S. will participate constructively and in good faith in the third intergovernmental conference on humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons to be held in Vienna late this year.
- As an immediate signal of good faith, we call on your Administration to halt all programs to modernize nuclear weapons systems, and to reduce nuclear weapons spending to the minimum necessary to assure the safety and security of the existing weapons as they await disablement and dismantlement.
Mr. President: It’s time
to move from talk to action on nuclear disarmament. There
have never been more opportunities, and the need is as urgent as
ever.
We look forward to your positive
response.
Sincerely,
Initiating organizations:
Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director,
Western States Legal Foundation
[contact for this
letter: wslf@earthlink.net;
(510) 839-5877
655 – 13th
Street, Suite 201, Oakland, CA 94612]
John Burroughs, Executive Director,
Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy
Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace
Action
David Krieger, President, Nuclear Age
Peace Foundation
Joseph Gerson, Director, Peace and
Economic Security Program, American Friends Service Committee
(for identification only)
Alicia Godsberg, Executive Director,
Peace Action New York
Endorsing organizations
(national):
Robert Gould, MD, President, Physicians
for Social Responsibility
Tim Judson, Executive Director, Nuclear
Information and Resource Service
Michael Eisenscher, National
Coordinator, U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW)
Michael McPhearson, Interim Executive
Director, Veterans for Peace
David Swanson, WarIsACrime.org
Jill Stein, President, Green Shadow
Cabinet
Terry K. Rockefeller, National
Co-Convener, United for Peace and Justice
Hendrik
Voss, National
Organizer,
School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch)
Alfred L. Marder, President, US Peace
Council
Robert Hanson, Treasurer, Democratic
World Federalists
Alli McCracken, National Coordinator,
CODEPINK
Margaret Flowers, MD and Kevin Zeese,
JD, Popular Resistance
Bruce K. Gagnon, Coordinator, Global
Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
David Culp, Legislative Representative,
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Rev. Kristin Stoneking, Executive
Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Kimber
J. Heinz, Organizing Coordinator, War Resisters League
Lois Barber, Executive Director, Earth
Action
Mary Hanson Harrison, President, Womens
International League for Peace and Freedom, US Section
Sister Patricia Chappell, Executive
Director, Pax Christi USA
Raphael Sperry, President,
Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility
Lois Barber, Co-founder, 2020 Action
Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa,
Coordinators, The Nuclear Resister
Mary Beth Brangan, James Heddle,
Co-Directors, EON, The Ecological Options Network
Lynne Elizabeth, Director, New Village
Press
Bruce Stedman, Development Director,
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (for identification only)
Endorsing
organizations (by state):
Liz
Hourican, CODEPINK Peace Ladies, Arizona
Marylia Kelley, Executive Director,
Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
Livermore, California
Blase Bonpane, Ph.D., Director, Office
of the Americas, California
Linda
Seeley, Spokesperson, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, California
Susan Lamont, Center Coordinator, Peace
and Justice Center of Sonoma County, California
Chizu Hamada, No
Nukes Action, California
Lois Salo,
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Peninsula
Branch, California
Rev. Marilyn Chilcote, Beacon
Presbyterian Fellowship, Oakland, California
Margli Auclair, Executive Director,
Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center. California
Roger Eaton, Communications Chair,
United Nations Association-USA, San Francisco Chapter, California
Dr. Susan Zipp, Vice President,
Association of World Citizens, San Francisco, California
Phoebe Sorgen, Fukushima Response Bay
Area, California
David Hartshough, Executive Director,
Peace Workers, California
Carolyn S. Scarr, Program Coordinator,
Ecumenical Peace Institute/Clergy and Laity Concerned, California
Lee Siu Hin,
National Coordinator, National Immigrant Solidarity Network,
California
Lee Siu Hin,
Action LA Network, California
Sherry
Larsen-Beville, Livermore Conversion Project, California
Mary Harper, Director, Center for
Changing Systems, California
Marjorie Lasky, Grandmothers Against
War, SF/Bay Area, California
Roberta Medford, Vigil Coordinator,
Montrose Peace Vigil, California
Ellen Rosser, President, World Peace
Now, California
Bart Ziegler, PhD, President, The
Samuel Lawrence Foundation, California
Michael Nagler, President, Metta Center
for Nonviolence, California (for identification only)
Rev. Marilyn Chilcote McKenzie, Parish
Associate, St. John's Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, California
(for identification only)
James E. Vann, Oakland Tenants Union,
California (for identification only)
Vic and Barby Ulmer, Our Developing
World, California (for identification only)
Judith Mohling, Rocky Mountain Peace
and Justice Center, Colorado
Bob Kinsey, Colorado Coalition for the
Prevention of Nuclear War, Colorado
Medard Gabel,
Executive Director, Pacem in Terris,
Delaware
Susan Berkowitz-Schwartz,
Founder/President, All People's Day, Inc., Florida
Roger Mills, Coordinator, Georgia Peace
& Justice Coalition, Henry County Chapter, Georgia
David Borris, President of the Board,
Chicago Area Peace Action, Illinois
Lisa Savage, CODEPINK, Maine
Natasha Mayers, Whitefield, Maine Union
of Maine Visual Artists
Shirley “Lee”
Davis, GlobalSolutions.org, Maine Chapter
Lynn Harwood, the Greens of Anson,
Maine
Dagmar Fabian, Crabshell Alliance,
Maryland
Judi Poulson, Chair, Fairmont
Peace Group, Minnesota
Darlene Coffman, SE MN Alliance of
Peacemakers, Minnesota
S. Gladys Schmitz, Mankato Peace Vigil,
Minnesota
Ann
Suellentrop MSRN, Physicians for Social Responsibility,Kansas City,
Missouri
Marcus
Page-Collonge, Nevada Desert Experience, Nevada
Gregor Gable, Shundahai Network, Nevada
Jay Coghlan, Executive Director,
Nuclear Watch New Mexico
Joni Arends, Executive Director,
Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, New Mexico
Lucy Law Webster, Executive Director,
The CENTER FOR WAR/PEACE STUDIES, New York
Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace
Foundation, New York
Sheila Croke, Pax Christi Long Island,
chapter of the international Catholic peace movement, New York
Richard Greve, Co Chair, Staten Island
Peace Action, New York
Rosemarie Pace,
Director, Pax Christi Metro New York
Barbara Harris, Granny Peace Brigade,
New York
Margaret Melkonian, Executive Director.
Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, New York
Charlotte Koons, Co-founder, CODEPINK
Long Island, Women for Peace, New York
Jim McCabe, NY Metro Progessives, New
York
Charlotte Phillips, M.D., Chairperson,
Brooklyn For Peace, New York
Carol De Angelo, Director of Peace,
Justice and Integrity of Creation, Sisters of Charity of New York
(for identification only)
Gerson Lesser, M.D., Clinical
Professor, New York University School of Medicine (for identification
only)
Elizabeth Hegeman, John Jay College of
Criminal Justice – CUNY, New York (for identification only)
Ellen Thomas, Proposition One Campaign,
North Carolina
John Heuer,
Eisenhower Chapter 157, Veterans For Peace, North Carolina
John Heuer, Peace
Action, North Carolina
Terry Clark, Chairperson,Physicians for
Social Responsibility, Western North Carolina Chapter, North Carolina
Vina Colley, Portsmouth/Piketon
Residents for Environmental Safety and Security, Ohio
Harvey Wasserman, Solartopia, Ohio
Nina McLellan, Co-president Cleveland
Peace Action, Ohio
Ray
Jubitz, Jubitz Family Foundation, Oregon
Patrick Hiller, Executive Director, War
Prevention Initiative, Oregon
Peter Bergel, Board of Directors,
Oregon PeaceWorks
Nancy Tate,
Lehigh-Pocono Committee of Concern (LEPOCO Peace Center),
Pennsylvania
Edith
Bell, Remembering Hiroshima/Imagining Peace, Pennsylvania
Ralph Hutchison, Coordinator, Oak
Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Tennesse
Cletus Stein, convenor, The Peace
Farm, Texas
Rusty Tomlinson, High Plains Circle of
Non-violence, Texas
Steven G.
Gilbert, PhD, DABT, INND (Institute of Neurotoxicology &
Neurological Disorders), Washington
Allen Johnson, Coordinator, Christians
For The Mountains, West Virginia
John LaForge, Co-director, Nukewatch,
Wisconsin
cc:
John Kerry,
Secretary of State
Rose
Gottemoeller, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security
Thomas M.
Countryman, Assistant Secretary of State for International Security
and
Nonproliferation
Susan Rice,
National Security Advisor
Ben Rhodes,
Deputy National Security Advisor
Samantha Power,
Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Christopher Buck,
Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., Conference on Disarmament
Walter S. Reid,
Deputy Permanent Representative to the Conference on
Disarmament
Sunday, April 27, 2014
"The Katyn Forest Whodunnit" by Grover Furr.
This is a preprint of an article whose final and definitive form has been published in Socialism and Democracy, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 96-129. [copyright Taylor & Francis]; Socialism and Democracy is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08854300.2013.795268This preprint version includes illustrations which do not appear in the print version for copyright reasons.
The “Official” Version of the
Katyn Massacre Disproven?
Discoveries at a German
Mass Murder Site in Ukraine
It was not possible to include pictures here (blogger) see for all website above
Author’s Note: The officially accepted version of the Katyn Massacre can be read on its Wikipedia page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre This page is relentlessly anticommunist and anti-Stalinist. It makes no attempt to be objective or neutral, in that it has no serious discussion of the scholarly controversy about this question. It’s useful only as a short and accurate summary of the “official” version. I would like to acknowledge that I was guided to the new sources by an excellent article by Sergei Strygin on the Russian “Pravda o Katyni” (Truth About Katyn) Internet page.1 I strongly recommend it to all those who read Russian.
Author’s Note: The officially accepted version of the Katyn Massacre can be read on its Wikipedia page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre This page is relentlessly anticommunist and anti-Stalinist. It makes no attempt to be objective or neutral, in that it has no serious discussion of the scholarly controversy about this question. It’s useful only as a short and accurate summary of the “official” version. I would like to acknowledge that I was guided to the new sources by an excellent article by Sergei Strygin on the Russian “Pravda o Katyni” (Truth About Katyn) Internet page.1 I strongly recommend it to all those who read Russian.
In 2011 and 2012 a joint Polish-Ukrainian archeological team partially excavated a mass execution site at the town of Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy, Ukraine. Shell cases found in the burial pit prove that the executions there took place no earlier than 1941. In the burial pit were found the badges of two Polish policemen previously thought to have been murdered hundreds of miles away by the Soviets in April-May 1940. These discoveries cast serious doubt on the canonical, or ―official,‖ version of the events known to history as the Katyn Massacre.
In April 1943 Nazi German authorities claimed that they had discovered thousands of
bodies of Polish officers shot by Soviet officials in 1940. These bodies were said to have been
discovered near the Katyn forest near Smolensk (in Western Russia), which is why the whole
affair -- including executions and alleged executions of Polish / 97 /POWs elsewhere in the
USSR – came to be called ―the Katyn Massacre.‖
The Nazi propaganda machine, headed by Josef Goebbels, organized a huge campaign
around this alleged discovery. After the Soviet victory at Stalingrad in February 1943, it was
obvious to everyone that, unless something happened to split the Allies, Germany would
inevitably lose the war. The Nazis‘ obvious aim was to drive a wedge between the western Allies
and the USSR.
The Soviet government, headed by Joseph Stalin, vigorously denied the German charge.
When the Polish government-in-exile, always ferociously anticommunist and anti-Russian,
collaborated with the Nazi propaganda effort, the Soviet government broke diplomatic relations
with it, eventually setting up a pro-Soviet Polish authority and Polish army. In September 1943
1 ― ̳Волынская Катынь‘ оказалась делом рук гитлеровцев.‖ [―The ̳Volhynian Katyn‘ turns out to be a deed of the
Hitlerites.‖] At http://katyn.ru/index.php?go=News&in=view&id=253
Grover Furr
the Red Army drove the Germans from the area. In 1944 the Soviet Burdenko Commission carried out a study and issued a report that blamed the Germans for the mass shootings.
During the Cold War the Western capitalist countries supported the Nazi version which
had become the version promoted by the anticommunist Polish government-in-exile. The Soviet
Union and its allies continued to blame the Germans for the murders.
In 1990 and 1991 Mikhail
Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and, after 1988,
President of the USSR, stated that the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin had indeed shot the
Poles.
According to this ―official‖ version the Polish prisoners had been confined in three camps:
at Kozel‘sk, Starobelsk, and Ostashkov and from there transferred to Smolensk, Kharkiv, and
Kalinin (now Tver‘), where they were shot and buried at Katyn, Piatykhatky, and Mednoe
respectively.2
In 1990, 1991, and 1992 three aged former NKVD men were identified and interviewed.
They discussed what they knew of executions of Poles in April and May of 1940. None of these
executions had taken place at the Katyn Forest, site of the German exhumations.
By 1992 the Soviet, and then the Russian, governments had officially declared the Stalin-
era Soviet leadership guilty of shooting somewhere between 14,800 and 22,000 Polish prisoners
to death in April and May 1940. This was agreeable to anticommunists and a bone in the throat
for some pro-Soviet people. For a few years it did appear that the matter was basically settled.
The evidence seemed clear: the Soviets had shot the Poles.
I too thought the matter was settled. I admit that I continued to harbor some lingering
doubts, mainly because accepting Soviet guilt also meant asserting that the Nazi propaganda
campaign and official report of 1943 was 100% honest. Goebbels and Hitler were famous for
their concept of ―the Big Lie‖ which states, in part, that one should never tell the truth.3 But this
was, at most, in the back of my mind in 1997 when I went to the Slavic Room of the New York
Public Library, a place I had visited a great many times over the years, to make photocopies of
the ―smoking gun documents‖ as published in the leading Russian historical journal Voprosy
Istorii in January 19934 so I could put them on my new web page. I did not post them, because I
soon discovered that somebody else had already done it and I could just link to those images,
which were of higher quality than my own.
In 1995 Iurii Mukhin, at the time an unknown metallurgical engineer, published a short
book titled ―The Katyn Murder Mystery‖ (Katynskii Detektiv). In it he claimed to prove that the
―smoking gun documents‖ were forgeries and the story of the Katyn Massacre a fabrication
intended to facilitate the destruction of the Soviet Union. During the following years this position
has attracted much support among what we might call Left Russian nationalists, people
2 According to the ―official‖ account, small numbers of Polish prisoners were confined at or shipped to other camps
and were not executed.
3 Hitler outlined this ―Big Lie‖ in Mein Kampf: Chapter 6, ―War Propaganda,‖ and Chapter 10, ―Why the Second
Reich Collapsed.‖
4 «Секретные документы из особых папок» Вопросы Истории 1993 No 1, сс. 3-22.
2
supportive of the USSR during the Stalin period for its achievements at industrialization and
defeating the Nazis. Since that time Mukhin and others have published more books of research in
which they continue their campaign to disprove the ―official‖ version that asserts Soviet guilt.
Meanwhile Russian defenders of the USSR and of Stalin continue their assault on the
―official‖ account by marshaling evidence to show that the Nazis, not the Soviets, shot the Polish
officers. Some of these researchers have concluded that the Soviets did shoot some Polish
prisoners (officers and others), and then the Nazis invaded the USSR, captured the remaining
Polish prisoners, and shot them. I myself think that some such scenario is the most likely one and
I will briefly explain why at the end of this essay.
During the past several years there have been some dramatic developments in the
investigation of the Katyn question. I have attempted to summarize them and the academic
dispute generally on a special web page that I call ―The Katyn Forest Whodunnit.‖5 I believe it is
the only source in English where one can find this dispute outlined in what I intend to be an
objective manner.6
In October 2010 a credible case was made that the ―smoking gun‖ documents are
forgeries. This had been the position of many Russian communists and Left Russian nationalists
since the publication of Mukhin‘s 1995 book. The materials adduced by Duma member Victor
Iliukhin in October 2010 constitute the strongest evidence so far that these documents may well
be forgeries. (For more information about these documents see my ―Katyn Forest Whodunnit‖
page.)
Therefore, let‘s set aside the ―smoking gun documents‖ from ―Closed Packet No. 1.‖
What other evidence is there that the Soviets shot the 14,800-22,000 Poles as alleged in the
―official‖ version of the Katyn Massacre?
Basically, there are two types of further evidence:
1. Confession-interviews of three aged and long-retired NKVD men: Petr K. Soprunenko,
Dmitri S. Tokarev, and Mitrofan V. Syromiatnikov. These confessions are very contradictory in
ways / 100 / that do not always reinforce the ―official‖ version. None of these men was at the
Katyn Forest, the place where 4000+ bodies of Polish POWs were unearthed by the Germans in
1943, and none of them has anything to say about this, the most famous of the execution/burial
sites subsumed under the rubric ―the Katyn Massacre.‖ Perhaps this is the reason that these
confession-interviews are so hard to find. What‘s more, though they were all conducted in
Russian they are available only in Polish translation. The Russian originals have never been
made public. So, we do not have the former NKVD men‘s exact words.
All three men were threatened with criminal prosecution if they failed to ―tell the truth‖
and were told that Soviet guilt had already been established. It is therefore possible that out of
5 At http://www.tinyurl.com/katyn-the-truth
6 I picked the title ―The Katyn Forest Whodunnit‖ for my page because it expresses my own uncertainty, and
thereby my own dedication to objectivity. I don't know ―who did it,‖ the Nazis or the Soviets, the Soviets or the
Nazis, and I would like to know. Moreover, I don't care ―who did it.‖ If the Germans did it, it is just what they did
all over Eastern Europe and on a much larger scale. If the Soviets did it, we should try to discover why they did. It
would not be ―endemic to communism,‖ as the anticommunists claim. In fact, though, it appears more and more
likely that the Soviets did not ―do it.‖
3
fear of prosecution they gave answers they felt their interrogators wanted. Many of the
interrogators‘ questions were ―leading‖ questions. Of course this is common in criminal
investigations. But it does appear that the confessions of these three old men were not entirely
voluntary.
I have obtained the texts of these confession-interrogations in the published Polish-
language versions, scanned them, and made them available on the Internet.7 It is interesting that
no one else has ever bothered to do this. I will not examine these very interesting and
problematic confession-interrogations here, however.
The Transit Documents
2. The remaining category of evidence are the many ―transit‖ or ―shipment‖ documents concerning the emptying out of the three POW camps at Kozel‘sk, Starobelsk, and Ostashkov in April 1940 and the transfer of the prisoners to the NKVD in other areas. These transit records are the subject of this article.
4
Figure 1. 1939 map showing places mentioned in the "official" Katyn narrative. Arrows from the POW camps
(Ostashkov, Starobelsk, Kozelsk) to cities (Kalinin/Tver', Kharkiv, Smolensk) show destinations on NKVD transit
documents. Burial sites in the nearby countryside (Mednoe, Piatykhatky, Katyn) are also shown, as is Volodymyr-
Volyns'kiy (Włodzimierz), which is about 800 miles from Kalinin/Tver' - Mednoe. [map drawn by Victor Wallis
based on information supplied by the author]
These shipments of prisoners are routinely stated to be ―death transports.‖ The book
Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment by Anna M. Cienciala, Natalia S. Lebedeva, and Wojciech
Materski (Yale University Press 2007) is the definitive academic account in the English language
of the ―official‖ version. It refers to the shipments of prisoners this way (emphasis added): / 101 /
The final death transport left Kozielsk....
The last death transport left Ostashkov for Kalinin (Tver) on 19 May...
...lists of those to be sent out of the camps to be shot (doc. 62)...
...and reporting on the number sent to their death (doc. 65).
Cienciala, who did the writing in this volume, added all the language about execution. Likewise
in her discussion of the documents, none of which mentions executions, shootings, killing, death,
etc., at all, Cienciala continuously adds language to remind the readers that, in her interpretation,
these prisoners were being transported to places / 102 / where they would be executed. Here are a
few examples (again, I have added the emphasis):
They were transferred to NKVD prisons... to be shot there. (154)
... the same as the order in the death transports. (156)
The first lists of victims to be dispatched to their death... (157)
The delivery of lists for dispatching prisoners to their deaths... (159)
Beria‘s directive of 4 April 1940 indicates the goal of exterminating not only the officers and police... (160)
This is the first of many reports by the UNKVD head of Kalinin Oblast, Dmitry Tokarev, on the
―implementation,‖ that is, the murder... (162)
Soprunenko‘s instruction to Korolev of 6 April 1940 was, in fact, a death list,... (163)
The dispatch of the prisoners of war to their deaths...(175)
... the moods of the prisoners as they were being dispatched unwittingly to their deaths. (176-177)
Most prisoners sent to Yukhnov camp... were exempted from the death lists for various
reasons... (183)
By 3 May, the UPV together with the 1st Special Department NKVD and with the personal help
of Merkulov, had processed the cases of 14,908 prisoners and sent out dispatch lists – death
sentences – for 13,682. (187)
...it is likely that they simply signed or stamped the ―Kobulov Forms‖ (doc. 51) with the death
warrant already filled in. (187)
This report gives the number of lists of names received in the camp and the number of prisoners
sent out from Kozelsk camp to their deaths for each date between 3 April and 11 May...(190)
A report to Soprunenko shows the number of people destined for execution according to the lists received... (193)
One of the last executions of POWs from the Ostashkov camp took place on 22 May 1940. (200)
Ostashkov prisoners were still being executed that day... (200)
5
6) USSR Deputy People‘s Commissar of Internal Affairs, Divisional Commander Com.
Chernyshov, shall within ten days‘ time remove from their NKVD places of imprisonment in the
Ukrainian SSR and send to USSR NKVD correctional labor camps 8,000 convicted prisoners,
including 3,000 from the Kiev, Kharkov, and Kherson prisons. (Doc. 53, page 155; emphasis
added)
All of the documents referred to or reproduced in Part II of the Cienciala volume concern
the transportation of prisoners from one camp to somewhere else. Not a single one of them refers
to ―executions,‖ ―shooting,‖ ―killing,‖ etc. All this language is added by / 103 / Cienciala. In this
she has followed the practice of the Polish and Russian scholars who promote the ―official‖
version.
It is true, of course, that the absence of a reference to the killings does not in itself prove
anything about the fates of the people who were transported. What is important in terms of the
Katyn controversy, however, is the dates of the transports and their destinations.
Cienciala assumes that, except for a few shipments that she specifically mentions, all the
prisoners who were moved in April and May 1940 out of the three camps in which the Polish
prisoners were being kept were in fact being shipped to their executions. Those executions are
assumed to have taken place in April and May 1940. The ―official‖ version of the Katyn
Massacre simply assumes that all these documents about clearing the Polish prisoners out of the
camps in April 1940 in reality meant sending them away for execution. It is this assumption that
has been challenged by a recent discovery.
Jósef Kuligowski
In May 2011 Polish news media reported that a numbered metal badge had been
unearthed which had been identified by the Ukrainian archaeological team as that of a Polish
policeman, Jósef Kuligowski, heretofore assumed to have been executed by the Soviet NKVD at
Kalinin (now Tver‘), Russia, and buried with other such victims at Mednoe, outside of the town.8
Czy osoby z Listy Katyńskiej mordowano również na Grodzisku we Włodzimierzu Wołyńskim?!
Odnaleziona przez ukraińskich archeologów odznaka Policji Państwowej o numerze 1441 / II na
to wskazuje. Jak nas poinformował pan Piotr Zawilski, dyrektor Archiwum Państwowego w
Łodzi odznaka o tym numerze należała do posterunkowego Józefa Kuligowskiego z IV
komisariatu w Łodzi. Informacja o przydziale i numerze służbowym pochodzi z maja 1939 roku.
Nazwisko posterunkowego figuruje na jednej z list dyspozycyjnych dla obozu w Ostaszkowie.
Dotychczas uważano, że został zamordowany w Kalininie i spoczywa w Miednoje. Jak
wytłumaczyć fakt, że odznaka Józefa Kuligowskiego znaleziona we Włodzimierzu Wołyńskim?
Czy zginął w Kalininie, czy we Włodzimierzu?9
8 A photograph of Kuligowski‘s badge may be viewed at http://katyn.ru/images/news/2012-12-29-zheton-1441.jpg
and a somewhat lighter, more legible copy at
http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/kuligowski_badge_1441.jpg
9 ―Osoby z Listy Katyńskiej mordowano we Włodzimierzu Wołyńskim?!‖ (Persons from the Katyn List murdered at
Włodzimierz Wołyński?!), ITVL May 25, 2011. At http://www.itvl.pl/news/osoby-z-listy-katynskiej-mordowano-
we-wlodzimierzu-wolynskim--
6
/ 104 /
My translation:10
Were persons from the Katyn List also murdered at Grodzisk in Włodzimierz Wołyński?! This is
indicated by the National Police badge number 1441 / II found by Ukrainian archaeologists. As
Mr Piotr Zawilski, director of the National Archive in Łodz has informed us, the badge with this
number belonged to constable Jósef Kuligowski of the IV commissariat in Łodz. Information
concerning the issuance and service number is from May 1939. The surname of the constable
figures on one of the dispositional lists for the camp at Ostashkov. Up to now it was believed that
he had been murdered in Kalinin and lies in Mednoe. How to explain the fact that Jósef
Kuligowski‘s badge has been found at Włodzimierz Wołyński? Was he killed at Kalinin or at
Włodzimierz?
This account continues by identifying Kuligowski as one of the men previously believed killed as a part of the Katyn Massacres. The discovery occasioned considerable discussion in the Polish press about the relationship between the Katyn Massacre and this site near the Ukrainian town of Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy (Polish Włodzimierz Wołyński; Russian: Vladimir-Volynskii).11 At this time no one doubted that this was a site of Soviet NKVD killings.12 The Ukrainian media also reported the excavations under the assumption that the Soviet NKVD was responsible for the killings, as in the following account in the Ukraine-wide online newspaper Tyzhden‘.ua of October 4 2011.13 / 105 /
І хоча офіційної версії щодо того, хто ці люди й чому були розстріляні, ще немає, науковці
схиляються до думки, що замордовані – жертви НКВС 1941 року. Польські піддані,
військові й цивільні, заможний клас. Про це свідчать знайдені на місці страти артефакти.
Ось два жетони офіцерів польської поліції, і оскільки на них є номери, то ми вже
знаємо, кому вони належали: Йозефу Куліговському та Людвігу Маловєйському. Обидва з
Лодзя. За документами НКВС, одного з них розстріляно в Калініні (Твер), другого – в
Осташкові біля Харкова.
And although there is as yet no official version of who these people were and why they were shot,
scientists are inclined to think that the murdered people were victims of the NKVD in 1941.
10 All translations in this article are mine.
11 The surrounding region of Volhynia was part of Austria-Hungary until the end of World War I; then part of Poland; then part of the Soviet Ukraine; then occupied by the Germans; then again part of Soviet Ukraine, and is now part of Ukraine. Until 1939 the language of the urban elite was mainly Polish, that of the peasantry mainly Ukrainian and Yiddish.
12 See ―Tropem zbrodni NKWD pod Włodzimierzem Wołyńskim‖ (Trail of NKVD crime near Włodzimierz Wołyński) at http://wolyn.btx.pl/index.php/component/content/article/1-historia/168-tropem-zbrodni-nkwd-pod- wodzimierzem-woyskim.html ; Włodzimierz Wołyński - groby polskich ofiar NKWD‖ (graves of Polish victims of the NKVD) at http://www.nawolyniu.pl/artykuly/ofiarynkwd.htm ; ―Czyje mogiły odnaleziono we Włodzimierzu Wołyńskim?‖ (Whose graves found at Włodzimierz Wołyński?) http://wpolityce.pl/depesze/10407-czyje-mogily- odnaleziono-we-wlodzimierzu-wolynskim This last article speaks of „ofiar pomordowanych przez NKWD w latach 1940-1941 w sowieckiej katowni na zamku we Włodzimierzu Wołyńskim‖ (victims murdered by the NKVD in 1940-1941 in the Soviet execution chamber in the castle at Włodzimierz Wołyński). Many more similar articles could be cited.
13 ―Волинська Катинь. У Володимирі-Волинському знайдено масове поховання жертв НКВС 1939–1941
років.‖ Tyzhden‘.ua October 4, 2011. At http://tyzhden.ua/Society/31329
7
Polish citizens, military and civilians, the wealthy class. This is what the artifacts found at the
execution site suggest.
The official being interviewed, Oleksei Zlatohorskyy, director of the government enterprise
―Volhynian antiquities,‖ goes on to theorize that the Soviets shot all these people, whole families
included, when they could not evacuate them in time as the German armies advanced in 1941.
He said that many of the artifacts found in the pit are Polish:
Більшість речей мають чітке польське або інше західноєвропейське ідентифікування: фотографія маршала Едварда Ридз-Смігли, жіночі гребінці, пляшечка з-під ліків із написом «Warszawa» на денці, консервна бляшанка з польським текстом, флакон від парфумів, срібні виделки, ложки... А ще відзначаємо дуже якісну стоматологію, яку могли собі дозволити тільки багаті люди. Гадаю, що то була еліта польської держави».
Most of the objects have purely Polish or other Western European identifying marks: a
photograph of Marshall Edvard Rydz-Smigly, women‘s combs, a medicine bottle with the
inscription ―Warszawa‖ on the bottom, a tin can with a Polish inscription, a perfume bottle, silver
forks and spoons ... And we note very expensive dental work, that only a few rich people could
afford. I think this was the elite of the Polish state.
The Tyzhden.ua story quotes Andrzhei (Jędrzej) Kola, professor of archaeology at
Nicolai Copernicus University in Torun (Poland). He expresses uncertainty as to who the killers
were.
Для мене тут більше питань, ніж відповідей. Хто вбивці? Якщо це зробили гітлерівці, то
чому так невпорядковано? Чому все це видається хаотичним, недбалим? Чому воно не
збігається з культурою смерті, яку сповідували / 106 / німці? Чому не було знято золоті
коронки й мости, не відібрані коштовності? По-німецьки це мало б зовсім інший вигляд:
Ordnung, порядок. Розстрільний взвод, розстріл обличчя в обличчя... Тож усе свідчить про
те, що вбивства чинили, найімовірніше, співробітники НКВС. Але остаточну крапку
поставимо тільки тоді, коли буде досліджено весь периметр городища.
For me there are more questions here than answers. Who were the killers? If the Hitlerites did this,
then why is the site so disorderly? Why does all this look chaotic, careless? Why does it not
conform to the culture of death that the Germans professed? Why were the gold crowns and
bridges not extracted, the valuables not taken? According to the German manner this would have
a completely different appearance: Ordnung, order. A firing squad, shooting face to face... So
everything suggests that the murders were most likely done by NKVD officials. But we will be
able to draw a final conclusion only when the whole perimeter of the settlement has been
investigated.14
14 In reality there was plenty of ―order‖ in the burials. We shall see below that both the Polish and Ukrainian reports
attest to this fact. There is also a great deal of evidence, including photographs, that German troops executed people
from behind rather than in ―firing-squad‖ formation.
8
In November 2012 the Polish members of a joint Polish-Ukrainian archaeological group
issued a written report on the excavation of this mass murder site. In mass grave No. 1, 367 sets
of human remains were exhumed and examined during 2011, and 232 bodies in 2012. The
locations of many more mass graves were also determined. Concerning the finding of
Kuligowski‘s badge this report reads as follows:
Była to odznaka Polskiej Policji Państwowej z numerem 1441, która należała do: Post. PP Józef
KULIGOWSKI s. Szczepana i Józefy z Sadurskich, ur. 12 III l898 w m. Strych. WWP od 20 VI
l919. 10 pap. Uczestnik wojny 1920, sczególnie odznaczył się w bitwie pod Mariampolem 24 V
1920. W policji od l921. Początkowo służbę pelnił w woj. tarnopolskim. Następnie od 1924 przez
wiele lat w Łodzi – w 1939 w V Komis. W sierpniu 1939 zmobilizowany do l0 pal. Odzn. VM V
kl. nr679.L. 026/l ( 15), 35[.]6.; za: red. Z. Gajowniczek, B. Gronek ,,Księga cmentarna
Miednoje,‖ t. l, Warszawa 2005, s. 465. Odznaka została przekazana do miejscowego muzeum.15
/ 107 /
It was a Polish National Police badge number 1441, which belonged to: Constable of the National Police Jósef Kuligowski son of Stephen and of Josepha née Sadurska, b. 12 March l898 in the village of Strych. In the Polish army on 20 June l919. 10 pap. Participant in the 1920 war, particularly distinguished himself at the Battle of Mariampol 24 May 1920. In the police from l921. Initially served in the Tarnopol region. Then from 1924 for many years in Lodz – in 1939 in the V Komis. In August 1939 mobilized to l0 pal. as Nr679.L class V VM. [NKVD transfer list] 026 / l ([position]15), 35 [.] 6, according to: ed Z. Gajowniczek, B. Gronek,, ―Mednoye Cemetery Book,‖ Vol. l, Warsaw 2005, p. 465. Badge has been transferred to the local museum.
Badge of Police Constable Jósef Kuligowski unearthed at Volodymyr-Volynsky
9
Here is the entry for Kuligowski from Volume One of the ―Mednoe Cemetery Book‖:16
15 Sprawozdanie z Nadzoru Nad Badaniami Archeologiczno-Ekshumacyjnymi na Terenie Rezerwatu Historyczno-
Kulturowego Miasta Włodzimierza Wołyńskiego (Ukraina). Opracowanie zespołowe pod kierunkiem dr Dominiki
Siemińskiej. Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa. (Report of the Supervision on the Archaeological-
Exhumation Investigation in the Area of the Reservation of the Historical-Cultural Town of Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy
(Ukraine). A Team Description under the Direction of Dr. Dominika Siemińska. Council for the Commemoration of
Struggle and Martzrdom). Toruń, 2012, Note, pp. 1-2. At
http://www.kresykedzierzynkozle.home.pl/attachments/File/Rap.pdf
16 Miednoje. Księga Cmentarna Polskiego Cmentarza Wojennego. Warsaw: Rada Ochrony Pamiêci Walk i Mêczeñstwa 2005. Tom 1, 465.
10
Kuligowski was taken prisoner by the Red Army sometime after September 17, 1939,
when Soviet troops entered Eastern Poland to prevent the German Army from establishing itself
hundreds of miles further east at the USSR‘s pre-1939 border. He was held in the Ostashkov
prisoner-of-war camp in Kalinin oblast‘ (province), now renamed Tver‘ oblast‘. In April 1940
along with other prisoners he was transferred from Ostashkov to the town of Kalinin (now Tver‘).
After that there is no further information about him.
Kuligowski is counted as one of the victims of the ―Katyn Massacre.‖ What purports to
be a record of his transfer, with the word ―Mord‖ (Murder) added, is on one of the official Polish
websites about Katyn.17 / 108 /
As stated in the Polish media account of May 25 2011, Kuligowski‘s name is on the transfer lists
of Ostashkov prisoners reproduced in the official account by Jędrzej Tucholski published in
1991.18 Kuligowski is also listed in other recent Polish lists of Katyn victims.19 Naturally the
17 http://www.indeks.karta.org.pl/pl/szczegoly.jsp?id=11036 According to the Home Page „Indeks Represjonowanych‖ (http://www.indeks.karta.org.pl/pl/index.html ) this online record is a digital version of the contents of the official volume: Maria Skrzyńska-Pławińska, ed. Rozstrzelani w Twerze : alfabetyczny spis
jeńc w polskich z Ostaszkowa rozstrzelanych w kwietniu-maju i pogrzebanych w Miednoje według r deł
sowieckich i polskich. Warszawa : O rodek KARTA, 1997.
18 Jędrzej Tucholski. Mord w Katyniu: Kozielsk, Ostaszków, Starobielsk. Lista ofiar. Warszawa: Instztut
Wydawniczy Pax, 1991, p. 810. No. 15: NKVD list No. 026/1 of 13 April 1940, position 15. In spite of the presence
of Kuligowski‘s name on this NKVD list, for some reason the alphabetical section of Tucholski (p. 314 col. 2) lists
Kuligowski on its ―victims list‖ (lista ofiar) as ―probably Ostashkov‖ (Prawdop. Ostaszków).
original Russian record of prisoner transfer reprinted in Tucholski‘s Mord w Katyniu does not
contain the word ―Mord‖ (=murder).
The Polish archaeologist in charge of the excavations and author of the report, Dr.
Dominika Siemińska, has determined that the victims buried in the mass grave in which this
badge was found were killed no earlier than 1941:20
Z pewno cią stwierdzono, że zbrodnia została dokonana nie wcze niej niż w 1941 roku. (p. 4)
It can be confirmed with certainty that the crime did not take place earlier than 1941.
They were able to determine the time period by dating the shell casings found in the graves. All
but a very few were of German manufacture. Almost all of them are datable to 1941. / 109 /
Some of the bodies were arranged in the ―sardine-packing‖ (Sardinenpackung)
formation21 favored by Obergruppenführer22 Friedrich Jeckeln, commander of one of the
Einsatzgruppen, extermination teams whose task it was to carry out mass executions. A
photograph of the bodies in grave no. 1 shows this arrangement of bodies.23
Jeckeln during the war (L.); in Soviet captivity (R.) He was tried and executed for war crimes in Riga,
Latvian SSR, in 1946.
19 See ―INDEKS NAZWISK - Katyń - zamordowani przez NKWD w 1940 r.‖
http://www.ornatowski.com/index/katyn.htm
20 See above, note 14.
21 A description of this method of execution may be found on the English-language Wikipedia page on Jeckeln at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Jeckeln#World_War_II_mass_murderer
22 Equivalent to full or four-star General, the highest SS rank aside from that of Heinrich Himmler, whose rank was
Reichsführer-SS.
23 Photograph at http://katyn.ru/images/news/2012-12-29-gruppa4.jpg (as of May 6 2013). It is taken from page 8 of
the Polish archeological report cited above.A description of this method of execution may be found on the English-
languageWikipedia page on Jeckeln at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Jeckeln#World_War_II_mass_murderer
11
The “sardine packing” formation – photo of Grave No. 1 at the Vladymyr-Volynsky excavation
Also, a large percentage of the bodies in the mass graves are of children. The Soviets did
not execute children. So the evidence is strong that this is a site of German, not Soviet, mass
executions. This conclusion is confirmed by the recent research of other Ukrainian scholars
concerning this very burial site. Relying on evidence from German war crimes trials, eyewitness
testimony of Jewish survivors, and research by Polish historiansonthe large-scalemassacres
ofPoles byUkrainianNationalists, Professor Ivan Katchanovski and Volodymyr Musychenko
have established that the victims buried at this site were mainly Jews but also Poles and ―Soviet
activists.‖ Katchanovski concludes that Ukrainian authorities have tried to push the blame onto
the Soviet NKVD in order to conceal the guilt of the Ukrainian Nationalist forceswho are
celebrated as ―heroes‖ in today‘s Ukraine, including in Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy
itself.24
However, regardless of which party is guilty of the mass executions, the fact remains that
Kuligowski was indeed transported from Ostashkov POW camp to Kalinin in April 1940 but was
not shot until 1941 at the earliest. And this means that the transportation lists, which are assumed
to be lists of victims being shipped off to be shot, were not that at all. Kuligowski was
transported in April 1940 by the Soviets not in order to be shot but for some other reason. He
remained alive, probably to be captured and executed by the / 110 / Germans, most likely in the
second half of 1941 but possibly somewhat later. Moreover, Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy is 800 miles
from Kalinin (Tver‘).
24 Volodymyr Musychenko. ―Ialatpcaojnj Hfrtcanj Bumj ]crf¿?‖ Slovo Pravdy (Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy) March 29,
2011. At http://spr.net.ua/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=919:2011-09-29-07-41-
57&catid=1:newsukraine ; Ivan Katchanovski, ―Katyn in Reverse in Ukraine: Nazi-led Massacres turned into Soviet
Massacres.‖ OpEd News, December 13, 2012, at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Katyn-in-Reverse-in-Ukrain-
by-Ivan-Katchanovski-121212-435.html ; I. Katchanovski, ―Suyasoa qpm{tjla qan‘>t{ oa Cpmjo{ 7pep PUO(b) ta
oaxjsts:ljw naspcjw cbjcstc,‖ Ukraina Moderna No. 19 (April 30 2013). At
http://www.uamoderna.com/md/199
12
This is the major deduction from this discovery that is relevant to our understanding of
the Katyn Massacre case: The fact that a Polish POW’s name is on one of the Soviet
transportation lists can no longer be assumed to be evidence that he was on his way to execution,
and therefore that he was executed by the Soviets.
Ludwik Małowiejski
There is evidence that more Polish POWs are buried in these same mass graves, and
therefore were executed at the same time, by the Germans in 1941 or 1942. The epaulette of a
Polish policeman‘s uniform and Polish military buttons were found in grave No. 2.25
In September 2011 Polish media reported that police badge number 1099/II belonging to
Senior Police Constable (starszy posterunkowy) Ludwik Małowiejski had been found in the
Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy mass graves.26 It had been assumed that, like Kuligowski, Małowiejski
was a ―Katyn Massacre‖ victim whose body was buried in a mass grave at Mednoe near Kalinin,
where – it has been assumed – other ―Katyn‖ victims shot by the NKVD in 1940 are buried.
Małowiejski‘s name is also on the recent Polish lists of Katyn victims.27 Like Kuligowski he is
memorialized in the ―Mednoe Cemetery Book‖ – in this case, Volume 2, page 541:
His transfer record with the word ―Mord‖ (Murder) added, like Kuligowski‘s, is also on the same
official Polish Katyn website:28 / 111 /
13
25 Photos available at http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/polskie_guziki_pagon_VV2012.jpg ,from the
Polish archaeological report.
26 ―Kolejny policjant z Listy Katyńskiej odnaleziony we Włodzimierzu Wołyńskim..‖ [Another policeman on the
Katyn List is found in Volodymyr-Volynsky]. At http://www.itvl.pl/news/kolejny-policjant-z-listy-katynskiej-
odnaleziony-we-wlodzimierzu-wolynskim
27 ―INDEKS NAZWISK - Katyń - zamordowani przez NKWD w 1940 r.‖ At
http://www.ornatowski.com/index/katyn.htm
28 The following text is ffrom http://www.indeks.karta.org.pl/pl/szczegoly.jsp?id=11445
Like Kuligowski‘s, Małowiejski‘s name is also on the Russian lists of prisoners shipped out of
the Ostashkov camp.29
In 2011 it was still assumed that the mass graves at Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy were those of
victims of the Soviet NKVD. Therefore this apparent discrepancy about the place of burial of
one victim received little attention. Since then the Polish archaeological team has definitively
dated the site as 1941 at the earliest and argues that it is an SS Einsatzgruppe mass murder site,
meaning late 1941 or 1942. This in turn means that Kuligowski, Małowiejski, and perhaps others
– perhaps many others – were killed by the Germans in 1941, not by the Soviets in 1940.
The article by Sergei Strygin cited in note 1 above contains photographs of the memorial
tablets of both Kuligowski and Małowiejski at the special memorial cemetery at Mednoe. These,
and the thousands of other memorial tablets at this site, reflect the assumption that the ―transit
lists‖ were really ―execution lists‖ – an assumption that the discovery at Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy
proves to be false. It is clear today that neither man‘s body is buried at Mednoe. The question
now is: Are any of the Polish POWs whose memorial tablets are there alongside those of
Kuligowski and Małowiejski really buried there? At present there is no reason to think so. / 112 /
Kuligowski’s and Małowiejski’s memorial plaques at Mednoe Cemetery. They are not buried there
(from Strygin article cited in note 1)
29 Tucholski p. 887 No. 76. Małowiejski was in a transport of 100 Polish prisoners sent to the Kalinin NKVD on
April 27, 1940. Of course his name is also on Tucholski‘s alphabetical list (p. 322, col. 2) as is Kuligowski‘s, and on
other official lists of Katyn victims.
Where Does This Leave Us?
So where does this leave us? By ―us‖ I mean those researchers who are fascinated by the
uncertainty and the political contentiousness, the challenge of all the contradictory evidence and
the mysteriousness, of what I have come to call ―the Katyn Forest Whodunnit.‖ What does this
mean for people who want to know the truth no matter what it may be, ―no matter whose ox is
gored‖?
Briefly, here‘s the status of this question at present, as I understand it:
* There is no evidence that the 14,000+ Polish POWs who were transferred out of Soviet POW
camps in April and May 1940 were in reality being sent to be shot. This assumption has been one
of the main supports of the ―official‖ version of the Katyn Massacre. It must now be rejected.
Since Kuligowski and Małowiejski were on those transportation lists and survived to be killed in
1941 by the Nazis, then others could have as well. There is no basis to think that only a few of
the Polish prisoners were not shot by the Soviets in April-May 1940 and that, just by chance, two
of this group have been identified. Rather it is likely that most of the Polish POWs were not
killed by the Soviets but remained in Soviet captivity to be captured and shot by the Nazis
sometime after the middle of 1941.
* The ―smoking gun‖ documents from ―Closed Packet No. 1‖ are linked to the assumption that
all the POWs shipped out of the camps were being shipped to execution. The fact that they were
not shipped to execution in April-May 1940 is an additional reason to suspect that these
documents may indeed be forgeries, as some have long argued.
* The confession-interviews of the three NKVD witnesses, Soprunenko, Tokarev, and
Syromiatnikov, strongly suggest that the NKVD did execute some Poles. Their testimony is
inconsistent – as is to be expected from 50 year-old remembrances of men in their 80s. What‘s
more, they testified under threat of criminal prosecution and so may have elaborated their
confessions in order to please their interrogators. But even researchers who contend that the
Germans shot the Poles whose bodies were disinterred by the Germans at Katyn in April-June
1943 do not claim that the Soviets shot no Poles at all.
* In 2004 the Russian Prosecutor‘s office announced that it had closed the criminal investigation
on the grounds that there was no evidence that a crime had been committed. This announcement
is contained / 113 / in the following statement on the Prosecutor‘s web page dated April 7, 2011:
21 сентября 2004 г. уголовное дело по обвинению должностных лиц НКВД СССР в
совершении преступления, предусмотренного п. «б» ст. 193-17 УК РСФСР (1926 г.), т.е.
превышения власти, выразившегося в принятии незаконных решений о применении в
отношении 14 542 польских граждан расстрела, прекращено на основании п. 4 ч. 1 ст. 24
УПК РФ – за отсутствием события преступления.
- http://genproc.gov.ru/ms/ms_news/news-71620
On September 21, 2004 the criminal case against officials of the NKVD in the commission of an
offense under subsection "b" of Art. 193-17 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (1926), ie abuse
of power, manifesting itself as the taking of an illegal decision on the application of shooting to
15
14,542 Polish citizens, was closed on the basis of paragraph 1 of paragraph 4, part 1, Article 24 of
the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation -- for lack of a crime.
This appears to say that the investigation found that no crime had been committed. This is
different from Cienciala‘s interpretation, which is ―that no one would be charged with the crime.‖
(259) The Prosecutor‘s text plainly states that there was no crime in the first place. Nevertheless
Russian officials, including President Putin and Prime Minister Medvedev, have continued to
state that the Soviets are guilty of killing all the Poles.
The Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy discovery proves that the ―transit lists‖ are not ―execution
lists.‖ Instead, they are merely what they seem to be -- lists of Polish POWs being transferred
somewhere else for some purpose. Some of the Polish POWs transferred may have been tried
and shot by the Soviets. But others such as Jósef Kuligowski and Ludwik Małowiejski were not
transferred to execution. They were transferred for some other purpose – most likely to a
correctional labor camp as stated in Document 53, p. 155 in Cienciala et al. (quoted above).
The Burdenko Commission
The fact is: A Polish POW‘s name on a ―transit list‖ does not mean that he was executed
by the Soviets in April-May 1940 or indeed at any time. This forces us to take a closer look at
the Soviet Burdenko Commission Report of January 1944. The Burdenko Commission report
contains the following information about materials it allegedly found on a body unearthed from
grave No. 8 at Katyn:
4. На трупе No 46: Квитанция (No неразборчив), выданная 16 дек. 1939 г. Старобельским
лагерем о приеме от Арашкевича Владимира Рудольфо / 114 / вича золотых часов. На
обороте квитанции имеется отметка от 25 марта 1941 г. о том, что часы проданы
Ювелирторгу.
...
6. На трупе No 46: Квитанция от 6 апреля 1941 г., выданная лагерем No 1-ОН о приеме от
Арашкевича денег в сумме 225 рублей.
7. На том же трупе No 46: Квитанция от 5 мая 1941 г., выданная лагерем No 1-ОН о приеме
от Арашкевича денег в сумме 102 рубля.
4. On body No. 46: A receipt (number illegible) issued 16 Dec. 1939, by the Starobelsk camp
testifying receipt of a gold watch from Vladimir Rudolfovich Araszkewicz. On the back of the
receipt is a note dated 25 March 1941, stating that the watch was sold to the Jewelry trading trust.
6. On body No. 46: A receipt dated 6 April 1941, issued by camp No. 1-ON, showing receipt of
225 rubles from Araszkewicz.
7. On the same body. No. 46: A receipt dated 5 May 1941, issued by Camp No. l-ON, showing
receipt of 102 rubles from Araszkewicz.30
30 ―Report of Special Commission for Ascertaining and Investigating the Circumstances of the Shooting of Polish
Officer Prisoners by the German-Fascist Invaders in the Katyn Forest.‖ (Burdenko Report). In The Katyn Forest
Massacre. Hearings Before the Select Committee To Conduct an Investigation of the Facts, Evidence, and
Circumstances of the Katyn Forest Massacre. Eighty-Second Congress, Second Session. ...Part 3 (Chicago). March
13 and 14, 1952. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1952
(http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/burdenko_comm.pdf), p. 246.
16
Włodzimierz Araszkiewicz is on the Polish lists of victims of Katyn, and also on the earlier list
of Adam Mosziński, Lista Katyńska (GRYF, London 1989).31 His father‘s name, Rudolf, is on
his transfer record:32
As often with these Polish lists there are contradictions. Mosziński, Lista Katyńska, has
Araszkiewicz in the Starobelsk camp, while the „Indeks‖ / 115 / record (above) puts him at the
Ostashkov camp, while Tucholski has him at both Kozel‘sk and Ostashkov!33 Here is
Araszkiewicz‘s memorial from Volume 1 of the ―Mednoe Cemetery Book,‖ page 11:
According to the Burdenko Commission report Camp No. 1-ON, origin of the receipt found on
body No. 46 and bearing Araszkiewicz‘s name, was one of three labor camps named No. 1-ON,
2-ON, and 3-ON, where ―ON‖ stands for ―osobogo naznacheniia‖ (special purpose or
assignment). These camps were near Smolensk. The ―special purpose‖ was road construction.
The Special Commission established that, before the capture of Smolensk by the Germans, Polish
war prisoners, officers and men, worked in the western district of the region, building and
repairing roads. These war prisoners were quartered in three special camps named: Camp No. 1
31 ―Czę ć Pierwsza. Obóz w Kozielsku. Groby w Lesie Katyńskim,‖ p. 3 (pages unnumbered).
32 The following text is from http://www.indeks.karta.org.pl/pl/szczegoly.jsp?id=8437
33 Araszkiewica at Kozel‘sk: Tucholski p. 68 col. 2 (the alphabetical list). In the Russian-language ―transit lists‖ that
take up almost 400 pages of Tucholski‘s book, Araszkiewicz‘s transfer from Ostashkov to Kalinin is recorded on
list No.062/2 of May 19, 1940, the last shipment of prisoners out of Ostashkov: p. 907, No. 7.
17
O.N., Camp No. 2 O.N., and Camp No. 3 O.N. These camps were located 25 to 45 kilometers
west of Smolensk.
The testimony of witnesses and documentary evidence establish that after the outbreak of
hostilities, in view of the situation that arose, the camps could not be evacuated in time and all the
Polish war prisoners, as well as some members of the guard and staffs of the camps, fell prisoner
to the Germans. (Burdenko Comm. 229)
According to the ―official‖ version this story must be false, part of a putative Soviet coverup.
The Nazis had begun their Katyn propaganda campaign on April 15, 1943.34 By January 1944
the Katyn issue had been public for nine months, plenty of time for the Soviets to manufacture a
false version.
However, in their very first response of April 16, 1943 the Soviets had already claimed
that Polish officers were involved in construction in the Smolensk area.
Немецко-фашистские сообщения по этому поводу не оставляют никакого сомнения в
трагической судьбе бывших польских военнопленных, на / 116 / ходившихся в 1941 году в
районах западнее Смоленска на строительных работах и попавших вместе со многими
советскими людьми, жителями Смоленской области, в руки немецко-фашистских палачей
летом 1941 года после отхода советских войск из района Смоленска.35
The German-fascist communiqué on this matter leaves no doubt about the tragic fate of the
former Polish POWs who in 1941 were engaged in construction works in the area to the west of
Smolensk and who, together with many Soviet citizens, residents of Smolensk oblast‘, fell into
the hands of the German-fascist killers during the summer of 1941 after the withdrawal of Soviet
forces from the Smolensk region.
This is essentially the same claim the Burdenko Commission made nine months later. But on
April 16, 1943 no one knew exactly what the Germans would do or exactly what they would say.
No one knew that Katyn would become a huge German propaganda campaign. The consistency
between the Sovinformburo statement of April 16, 1943 and the Burdenko Commission report
nine months later is therefore worthy of note, just as an inconsistency would have been. It might
well be true.
The Burdenko Commission report also mentions finding similar documents on another
body unearthed at Katyn: that of Edward Levandowski.
3. На трупе No 101: Квитанция No 10293 от 19 дек. — 1939 г., выданная Козельским лагерем
о приеме от Левандовского Эдуарда Адамовича золотых часов. На обороте квитанции
имеется запись от 14 марта 1941 г. о продаже этих часов Ювелирторгу....
8. На трупе No 101: Квитанция от 18 мая 1941 г., выданная лагерем No 1-ОН о приеме от
Левандовского Э. денег в сумме 175 рублей.
3. On body No. 101: A receipt No. 10293 dated 19 Dec. 1939, issued by the Kozelsk camp
testifying receipt of a gold watch from Eduard Adamovich Lewandowski. On the back of the
receipt is a note dated 14 March 1941, on the sale of this watch to the Jewelry trading trust....
34 The New York Times published a very brief notice of the German claim on April 16, 1943; see ―Nazis Accuse
Russians,‖ p. 4.
35 ―Совинформбюро. Гнусные измышления немецко-фашистских палачей‖ (Sovinformburo: Vile Fabrications
of the German-Fascist Executioners), April 16, 1943. At http://tinyurl.com/sovinformburo041643
18
8. On body No. 101: A receipt dated 18 May 1941, issued by Camp No. 1-ON, showing receipt of
175 rubles from Lewandowski.
Edward Lewandowski, son of Adam, is also on Mosziński, Lista Katyńska 36 and in Tucholski (p.
317 col. 2; p. 891 No. 35). This time there are no contradictions – all these sources have him at
Ostashkov, nowhere near the Smolensk area and Katyn. He is also stated to have been ―murdered‖
at Kalinin, the destination of most of the transports from Ostashkov. Here is his memorial in the
―Mednoe Cemetery Book‖ Volume One, p. 498: / 117 /
Meanwhile the Burdenko Commission claimed to have found his body at Katyn, along with
documents dated December 1939 from Kozel‘sk and May 1941 from the same Camp 1-ON, near
Smolensk, as Araszkiewicz‘s.37
19
36 ―Czę ć Druga. Obóz w Ostaszkowie,‖ p. 13 (pages unnumbered).
37 The following text is from
http://www.indeks.karta.org.pl/pl/szczegoly.jsp?id=1119
1
20
The Burdenko Commission report also mentions the following find:
9. На трупе No 53: Неотправленная почтовая открытка на польском языке в адрес: Варшава,
Багателя 15 кв. 47 Ирене Кучинской. Датирована 20 июня 1941 г. Отправитель Станислав
Кучинский.
9. On body No. 53: An unmailed postcard in the Polish language addressed Warsaw, Bagatelia 15,
apartment 47, to Irene Kuczinska, and dated 20 June 1941. The sender is Stanislaw Kuczinski.
(Burdenko Comm. pp. 246-247).
A Stanisław Kucziński is named in the Katyn victims list. The name is a common one.
The record below is that of the only person by that name who is said in those lists to have been
killed in the Katyn Massacres: / 118 /
This Stanisław Kucziński, son of Antoni, is also memorialized in the ―Mednoe Cemetery Book‖
I, p. 459:38
38 The following text is from http://www.indeks.karta.org.pl/pl/szczegoly.jsp?id=11001
Once again this victim is stated to have been transferred from the camp at Ostashkov to Kalinin
and ―murdered‖ there, though the Burdenko Commission stated that they found his body at
Katyn.39
How can the Polish Katyn lists assert that Araszkiewicz, Lewandowski, and Kucziński
were killed (―Mord‖) at Kalinin and buried nearby at Mednoe when their bodies were unearthed
by the Burdenko Commission at Katyn? Only by assuming that the Burdenko Commission was
lying when it claimed to have found these corpses at Katyn with papers from March, May, and
June 1941 on them. But then the Soviets would have had to go to Kalinin, unearth these bodies
and bring them to Katyn. Or they could have chosen the names of three victims they knew were
buried at Kalinin and claim they had discovered their bodies at Katyn.
But why go to all that trouble when they could have just planted false documents on the
bodies of persons they knew to have been / 119 / shot at Katyn? After all, if the Soviets had shot
all these men they knew not only who was buried at Kalinin but also who was buried at Katyn.
So why not use the bodies, or at least the identities, of three men who really were buried at Katyn?
Why use the names of three men buried hundreds of miles away?
No objective historian would make such an assumption. One only has to assume that the
Burdenko Commission was lying if one has already made the prior assumption that the
transportation lists are really ―death lists.‖ That is, the second assumption entails the first: it is
―an assumption based upon an assumption.‖ If it were definitely the case that the ―transfer lists‖
really were lists of Poles being shipped to execution, then we could confidently state that these
assertions by the Burdenko Commission were fabrications – lies intended to blame on the
Germans murders that the Soviets had in fact carried out. But the discoveries at Volodymyr-
Volyn‘skiy have proven that the ―transfer lists‖ were not lists of persons being shipped to
execution. Moreover, there is no evidence that the Soviets did any of this.
It is simpler to assume that the Burdenko Commission really did unearth the bodies of
Araszkiewicz, Lewandowski, and Kucziński at Katyn.40 That means that Araszkiewicz,
Lewandowski, and Kucziński could have been shipped to a labor camp, a ―camp of special
purpose‖ as, according to the Burdenko Commission, they were called; captured by the Germans
during the summer of 1941; shot either at the Katyn Forest site or, if shot at their camps – 25 to
39 Mosziński, Lista Katyńska, lists the only Stanisław Kucziński in the Katyn victims lists as at the Starobelsk camp;
see ―Czę ć Trzecia. Obóz w Starobielsku,‖ page 34 (unnumbered pages). Tucholski (p.314 col. 1; lists p. 851 No. 87)
puts a Stanisław Kucziński at Ostashkov, thus agreeing with the ―Indeks‖ list. The ―Indeks‖ list and Tucholski agree
that this Kucziński‘s father‘s name was Adam; Mosziński does not give any father‘s name. Mosziński‘s Stanisław
Kucziński was a ―rtm,‖ a Rotmistrz, or Captain of Cavalry, while Tucholski‘s was a constable of police (―Funkcj.
PP, posterunek Pruszków‖). It appears that Mosziński and the other two sources are indicating different men.
40 The names of these three men are not on the list of 4143 bodies, some of them nameless, in the German report
Amtliches Material.
21
45 Km from Smolensk – their corpses brought to Katyn as part of the Nazi propaganda campaign
to split the Allies. A number of witnesses testified to the Burdenko Commission that they saw
German trucks loaded with corpses being driven in the direction of Katyn.41
This is the only scenario that accounts for the facts as we now know them. Moreover, it is
strengthened by a discovery the Germans themselves made. The 1943 German report on Katyn
states that the following item was found in one of the mass graves:
eine ovale Blechmarke unter den Asservaten vor, die folgende Angaben enthält
T. K. UNKWD K. O. / 120 /
9 4 24
Stadt Ostaschkow42
The text of the original badge would have been, in Russian, like this:
Т. К. УНКВД К. О.
9 4 24
г. Осташков
A probable English translation would be:
Prison Kitchen, NKVD Directorate, Kalinin Oblast‘
[prisoner, or cell, or badge number] 9 4 2 4
town of Ostashkov43
None of the ―transport lists‖ from the camp at Ostashkov were for transport to Katyn or
anywhere near Smolensk. All these lists state that the Polish prisoners were sent to Kalinin.
Therefore the person buried at Katyn who had this badge in his possession had been shipped to
Kalinin. But, obviously, he was not shot there. The badge was unearthed at Katyn. Therefore, the
owner of this badge was also shot at Katyn, or nearby.
There seems to be just one way these men, and doubtless many more, could have ended
up shot and buried at Katyn. They must have been transferred from Kalinin to a labor camp near
Katyn, where the Germans captured and shot them. This hypothesis fits the scenario as outlined
by the Sovinformburo statement of April 16, 1943, and by the Burdenko Commission. It also
offers independent confirmation of the main conclusion of this article: that the prisoners
transferred out of the POW camps in April-May 1940 were not being shipped to execution.
What really did happen?
The discoveries in the mass graves at Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy constitute a lethal blow to
the ―official‖ version of the Katyn / 121 / Massacre. This is something that should interest all of
41 Testimony of P.F. Sukhachev, after October 8, 1942, and of Vladimir Afanasievich Yegorov, undated, to
Burdenko Commission, Burdenko Comm (note 26), 241-2.
42 Amtliches Material zum Massenmord von KATYN. Berlin: Zentralverlag der NSDAP. Franz Eher Nachf. GmbH.,
1943, p. 46. The German sentence reads: ―... an oval tin badge among the exhibits, which contains the following
information.‖
43 The abbreviation ―T.K.‖ may mean ―prison kitchen‖ (тюремная кухня) or ―pantry,‖ or it may mean something
else. What matters is that the badge or marker comes from Ostashkov.
22
All the post-Soviet states today employ ―Soviet atrocities‖ narratives to justify the pro-
fascist, anti-semitic, and pro-Nazi actions of the forces that sided with the Germans against the
Soviet Union before, during, and after World War 2. Katyn is the keystone of contemporary
right-wing Polish nationalism. Katyn is also a key component of anti-Stalin, anti-Soviet, and
anticommunist propaganda generally. Until now, it has been the best known such alleged atrocity
and by far the best documented one. Katyn has been the best proven ―crime of Stalinism.‖ That
is no longer the case.
So what really did happen? In my view – and here I am following a number of the very
competent Russian researchers who have likewise concluded that the ―official‖ version is wrong
– the Soviets did execute some Poles.
We know that after occupying Western Belorussia and Western Ukraine, formerly
Eastern Poland, in September 1939 the Soviet NKVD searched for Poles who had been involved
in the 1920-21 war in which Poland had taken these territories from the Russian Socialist
Republic, which had been exhausted by four years of civil war and Allied / 122 / intervention,
typhus epidemic, and famine.45 Imperialist Poland had deprived the majority populations –
Belorussians, Ukrainians, and Jews – of many of their national and civil rights.46 The Polish
government had sent ―settlers‖ (osadnicy), mainly former military officers, to ―polonize‖ (―make
more Polish‖) the lands, giving them estates and making them government officials and teachers.
Poland had violently repressed the communist movement and the Ukrainian, Belorussian, and
Jewish minorities in these lands, as well as in Poland proper. Moreover: during the Russo-Polish
war of 1920-21 somewhere between 18,000 and 60,000 Red Army POWs had died in Polish
44 For a brief overview of this question see Mark Tauger, ―Famine in Russian History,‖ Modern Encyclopedia of
Russian and Soviet History, Volume 10: Supplement. (Gulf Breeze, FL: Academic International Press, 2011), 79-92.
Tauger‘s own works on the famine are cited at page 92. I consider Tauger to be the world‘s authority on this famine,
to the study of which he has devoted decades. See also R.W. Davies and Stephen G. Wheatcroft, The Years of
Hunger. Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933 (London: Palgrave Macmillan 2009 [2004]), 440-1. Concerning the
―Yezhovshchina‖ (also called ―the Great Terror‖) see the Yezhov confession of August 4, 1939 printed in Никита
Петров, ―Сталинский питомец‖ -- Николай Ежов (Nikita Petrov, ―Stalin‘s Pet‖ – Nikolai Yezhov), Moscow 2008,
367–79 (English translation at http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/ezhov080439eng.html ). Stalin told
aircraft designer Alexander Yakovlev that Yezhov had been executed because he had killed many innocent people;
see А. Яковлев, Цель жизни. Записки авиаконструктора (М.: 1973), 267 (глава: ―Москва в обороне‖). For the
present author‘s views see Grover Furr, ―The Moscow Trials and the ̳Great Terror‘ of 1937-1938: What the
Evidence Shows‖ (written July 2010).
http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/trials_ezhovshchina_update0710.html
45 See, for example, Piotr Kołakowski, NKWD i GRU na ziemiach polskich 1939-1945 (Warsaw: Bellona, 2002), 74,
which discusses NKVD searches and arrests: ―nazwiska osób walczących o granice II Rzeczypospolitej
w latach 1918-1921‖ (names of persons who fought for the boundaries of the Second Republic in 1918-1921),
―nazwiska wszystkich ochotników, którzy wojowali z bolszewikami w 1920 r.‖ (names of all volunteers who had
fought the Bolsheviks in 1920), i.e. in the war which forced Soviet Russia to cede all of Western Ukraine and
Western Belorussia to Poland in the Treaty of Riga (March 1921).
46 See the hair-raising anti-Ukrainian terror of November 1938 described by Jeffrey Burds, ―Comment on Timothy
Snyder‘s article...‖ At http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment13.htm
23
captivity. There is good documentation that they were treated brutally, starved, frozen, and many
of them murdered outright.47
Therefore it is probable that the Soviets would have arrested and prosecuted any Polish
POWs and civilians they could find who had been involved in these crimes. Many of these
people were deported to places of exile deep within the USSR (where many of them survived
World War 2, far away from their former homes where the fighting and Nazi and Ukrainian48
mass murders were the most ferocious). Others must have been tried, convicted, and either
executed or sent to labor camps.
It is likely that a substantial number of the Polish POWs – military officers, policemen,
and guards of various kinds -- had been involved either in repression of or atrocities against
Soviet troops, communists, trade unionists, or workers, peasants, or Belorussian, Ukrainian, and
Jewish schools or institutions. The Soviet Union would have prosecuted them. It is also likely
that some Polish POWs were sentenced / 123 / to labor in areas that were captured by the
Germans when they invaded the USSR in 1941, and subsequently executed, as Kuligowski and
Małowiejski were.
Former NKVD men Soprunenko, Tokarev, and Syromiatnikov testified that they knew of
some executions of Polish prisoners. So there‘s no reason to doubt that the Soviets did shoot
some Poles. But the discoveries at Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy prove that the ―transit‖ or ―shipment‖
documents do not record the shipping of the prisoners to execution. This is the basis of the
―official‖ version of the Katyn Massacre: it has now been proven false. The Polish POWs were
not being shipped to execution when the camps they were in were closed in April-May 1940.
I predict that in ―mainstream‖ – i.e., anticommunist – academia the discourse about the
Katyn Massacre will change very little. Mainstream anticommunism is motivated far more by
―political correctness‖ – by political motives – than by any desire to discover the truth. When
mainstream anticommunist scholarship does mention the Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy discoveries it
will be only to try to dismiss them. One way of attempting to do so is demonstrated in the
Ukrainian archaeological report cited below – to claim that the NKVD carried out these
executions. Other similar subterfuges can be invented. The central importance of these
discoveries for an objective understanding of this infamous historical event will be denied at all
costs.
Perhaps the Polish archaeologist‘s report anticipated this by relegating the finding of
Kuligowski‘s badge to a footnote. It could be considered a principled and even courageous act by
this archaeologist, Dr. Dominika Siemińska, to reveal the discovery of the badge and to give the
important details about it in the report, no matter how minimized and downplayed. No one
compelled her to insert this information, which directs the attentive reader to the contradiction
between the discovery at Volodymyr-Volyns‘skiy and the ―official‖ version of Katyn.
Questioning of the ―official‖ version is not tolerated in the public sphere in Poland. One hopes
that Dr. Siemińska‘s career will not suffer because of her adherence to scientific objectivity.
The report of the Ukrainian part of the same team does not mention the discovery of
either badge. Moreover, the Ukrainian report goes out of its way to suggest that the Soviets
might still somehow be responsible for the mass executions. It protests the finding of the Polish
47 For an introduction to this heated question see the section ―Polish Massacres of Russian POWs 1919-1920‖ on my
―Katyn Forest Whodunnit‖ page (note 5).
48 Ukrainian nationalist forces allied with the Germans massacred roughly 100,000 Polish civilians in German-
occupied Western Ukraine in 1943 and 1944. This is known in Poland as ―Rzeź wołyńska,‖ the ―Volhynian
massacres,‖ in Ukraine as ―Волинська трагедія,‖ the ―Volhynian tragedy.‖
24
report that the graves used the ―Jeckeln system‖ ―since it only began to be used by the Nazis at
the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942.‖ No evidence is included in support of this claim.
/ 124 /
Додатково хочеться відмітити, що даний метод розстрілів не можна називати «системою
Єкельна», на який посилаються наші польські колеги. Цей нацистській метод не
передбачав страти у поховальній ямі. До того ж його почали застосовувати лише
наприкінці 1941 – на початку 1942 р. у Ризі, що хронологічно не відповідає
володимирській страті.
In addition we wish to note that this method of execution should not be called the "Jeckeln
system,‖ to which our Polish colleagues refer. This Nazi method was not used for executions in a
funeral pit. In addition, it began to be used only in late 1941 - early 1942 in Riga, which does not
correspond chronologically to the Volodymyr executions.
The Ukrainian report mentions the fact that the German shell casings found were from 1941, but
then states ―It is known that Soviet organs of the NKVD used German weapons in mass
executions of Polish citizens.‖49
У поховальних ямах виявлено ідентичні гільзи , головним чином калібру 9 мм. Більшість з
них мають позначки dnh (виробництво заводу Верк Дурлах в Карлсрує, Німеччина) та kam
(виробництво фабрики Hasag у Скаржиці Кам‘яній, Польща) 1941 р. Проте виявлені і
декілька гільз радянського зразка. Все це потребує додаткових досліджень, оскільки
стверджувати про те, що розстріли проводилися гітлерівцями при наявності в поховальних
ямах гільз радянського зразка– не є об‘єктивним. Відомі факти (зокрема дані розстрілів
польських військових у Катині), що радянські органи НКВС використовували при
розстрілах німецьку зброю.
In the burial pits were found identical shells, mainly of 9 mm caliber. Most of them have the mark
―dnh‖ (production of the factory Werk Drulach50 in Karlsruhe, Germany) and ―kam‖ (production
of the Hasag factory in Skarżysko-Kamienna,51 Poland) of 1941. However a few shells of Soviet
type were also / 125 / found. All this requires further research, inasmuch as it is not objective to
affirm that the shootings were carried out by the Hitlerites when shells of Soviet type were found
in the pits. Facts are known (including the facts of the shooting of Polish military men at Katyn)
that the Soviet organs of the NKVD used German weapons in shootings.
Details of the shells, 150 in all, found in grave No. 1 are given in footnote 3, page 8 of the Polish
report but are absent from the Ukrainian report:
49 ―ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ ВИЯВЛЕНИХ РЕШТОК ЛЮДЕЙ , РОЗСТРІЛЯНИХ В 1941 РОЦІ НА ГОРОДИЩІ
― ВАЛИ‖ У ВОЛОДИМИРІ- ВОЛИНСЬКОМУ .ЕКСГУМАЦІЙНІ ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ 2012 РОКУ‖.
(Investigation of discovered remains of persons shot in 1941 at the ̳Shafts‘ site at Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy.
Investigation of exhumations of 2012.) (Doslizhdennia) At http://volodymyrmuseum.com/publications/32-
publications/naukovi-statti/170-doslidzhennya-vyyavlenykh-reshtok-lyudey-rozstrilyanykh-v-1941-rotsi-na-
horodyshchi-valy-u-volodymyri-volynskomu-ekshumatsiyni-doslidzhennya-2012-roku
50 The correct name for this German munitions factory was Rheinisch-Westfalische Sprengstoff AG Dürlach Werk.
A specialized Internet database on German ordnance states that the Dürlach factory was actually in Baden: see
German WWII Alphabetic Ordnance Codes: c-e, at http://www.radix.net/~bbrown/codes_full_alpha_c-e.html
51 A town south of Warsaw about halfway between Radom and Kielce. The German munitions factory was HASAG
Eisen und Metallwerke G.m.b.H. According to the database cited in the previous note this was the Hugo Schneider
AG, Werk Skarżysko Kamienna, Poland.
25
1. "kam, 67, 19, 41"- 137 szt; 2. "dnh, *, l , 41" - 7 szt; 3. Geco, 9 mm - l szt; 4. łuski bez
oznaczeń, 7,62 x 25, wz. 30, produkcja ZSRR - 5 szt.
1. ―kam, 67, 19, 41‖ – 137 units; 2. ―dnh, *, 1, 41‖ – 7 units; 3. Geco, 9 mm. – 1 unit; 4. Shells
without markings, 7.62 x 25 caliber, USSR production of 1930s type – 5 units.
These identifying marks on shell casings are known as ―headstamps‖. According to the analysis
by Sergei Strygin ―kam, 67, 19, 41‖ signifies the Hasag factory in Skarżysko-Kamienna, ―67‖
the percentage of copper in the bullet, ―19‖ the lot number, and ―41‖ the year of production. ―dnh
*, 1, 41‖ signifies the Dürlach factory, ―*‖ means the shell was jacketed in brass; ―1‖ is the lot
number, and ―41‖ the year of production. One hundred forty-four, or 96% of the 150 shells found,
were of German make and can be dated to 1941.52
Shells of the type found in graves No. 1 and 2 (From Strygin‘s article cited in note 1.)
The Polish, but not the Ukrainian, report also specifies the shells found in grave No. 2:
l. "kam, 67. 19, 41"- 205 szt; 2. „dnh, .*, l, 41" - 17 szt; 3. łuski bez oznaczeń. 7.62 x 25. wz. 30,
produkcja ZSRR -- 2 szt; 4. łuska „B , 1906"
1. ―Kam, 67, 19, 41‖ – 205 units; 2. ―dny, *, 1, 41‖ – 17 units; 3. Shells without markings,
7.62x25 caliber – USSR production of 1930s – 2 units; (one) shell ―B , 1906.‖
Of 225 shells found in this grave, 205 are the German 1941 ―Hasag‖ type, 17 are the German
1941 ―Dürlach‖ type, 2 are of the unmarked 1930s Soviet type; and one is marked ―B 1906.‖53
Hence 98.67% of the shells are of 1941 German manufacture. / 126 /
By contrast neither of the Ukrainian reports cites the numbers of each type of shell or the
fact that German shells made in 1941 constitute the overwhelming majority of those found. The
following paragraph appears word-for-word in each:
52 Photographs of headstamped shells similar to those found in graves no. 1 and 2 may be viewed in the Strygin
article cited in note 1 above.
53 ―B 1906‖ appears to be Austrian rifle ordnance made for the Tsarist Army during the Russo-Japanese War. See
the drawing at http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinAmmoID02.htm#Austria and the photograph obtained by Sergei
Strygin at http://katyn.ru/images/news/2012-12-29-gilza_B_1906.jpg
26
У поховальних ямах виявлено ідентичні гільзи , головним чином калібру 9 мм. Більшість з
них мають позначки dnh (виробництво заводу Верк Дурлах в Карлсрує, Німеччина) та kam
(виробництво фабрики Hasag у Скаржиці Кам‘яній, Польща) 1941 р. Проте виявлені і
декілька гільз радянського зразка. Все це потребує додаткових досліджень, оскільки
стверджувати про те, що розстріли проводилися гітлерівцями при наявності в поховальних
ямах гільз радянського зразка– не є об‘єктивним. Відомі факти (зокрема дані розстрілів
польських військових у Катині), що радянські органи НКВС використовували при
розстрілах німецьку зброю.54
In the burial pits were found identical shells, mainly of caliber 9 mm. Most of them have the mark
―dnh‖ (Werk Dürlach production plant in Karlsruhe, Germany), and ―kam‖ (production factory in
Hasag Skarżysko Kamienna, Poland) in 1941. However, several shell casings of Soviet model
were also found. All this requires more research inasmuch that it is not objective to assert that the
shootings were carried out by the Hitlerites even though shells of Soviet model were found in the
burial pits. Examples are known (including data of shootings of Polish soldiers in Katyn) that the
Soviet organs of the NKVD used German weapons in executions.
There are some problems with the conclusion in the Ukrainian report. First, it is an
example of circular reasoning. It assumes that the mass killings at Katyn, which even the
Germans admitted were carried out with German ammunition, was a Soviet crime. But that is the
very assumption that the discoveries at Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy call into question.
Second, it assumes that even the overwhelming preponderance of German ordnance is
not enough to establish that the killings were done by the Germans, since the Soviets could also
use German ammunition. No doubt this is the reason the Ukrainian report does not give the
numbers of shells or the percentage of them that are German and of 1941 manufacture. (The
Ukrainian reports should have added that / 127 / Germans could also use Soviet ammunition. The
Germans captured immense amounts of Soviet arms and ammunition in 1941.)
The Ukrainian report does note that women clutching children to their breasts were also
found in the mass graves.
Відмічено також, що вбиті часто прикривали обличчя руками, або обіймали іншу жертву
(жінки тулили до себе і прикривали дітей). (Doslizhdennia; Zvit 15)
It is also noted that those killed often covered their faces with their hands, or embraced another
victim (women hugged to themselves and covered children).
There are no examples anywhere of the Soviet NKVD shooting children.
Ukrainian archaeologist Oleksei Zlatohorskyy (Russian: Aleksei Zlatogorskii) has
pointed out the political problems raised by the Polish archaeologist‘s identification of the
Germans as the murderers:
54 Doslizhdennia (online); Звіт про результати археологічно-ексгумаційних рятівних досліджень на городищі
―вали‖ у м. володимирі-волинському 2012 р. (Report on the results of the archaeological exhumation recovery
investigations at the ―Vali‖ [―shafts‖] site in the town of Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy in 2012.). Luts‘k, 2012. ( Zvit)
Available at http://www.formuseum.info/uploads/files/Звіт 2012_Володимир-Волинський.pdf These are two
versions of the same report. The much fuller PDF version contains many pages of photographs, graphs, tables, and
drawings, but no clear accounting of the cartridge shells as the Polish report has.
27
Неосторожные высказывания польских археологов о принадлежности останков,
найденных на территории замка Казимира Великого во Владимире-Волынском, могут
поставить под сомнение уже известные преступления НКВД по отношению к польским
офицерам, сообщил директор ГП "Волынские древности" Алексей Златогорский в
комментарии Gazeta.ua.
Incautious statements by Polish archaeologists about the belongings of the remains found on the
land of the castle of Kazimir Velikii in Vladimir-Volynskii could cast doubt upon the already
known crimes of the NKVD in relation to Polish officers, said the direction of the state enterprise
―Volyn antiquities‖ Aleksei Zlatogorskii in a commentary to Gazeta.ua.55
The only ―already known crimes of the NKVD in relation to Polish officers‖ is the Katyn
Massacre – to be more precise, the ―official‖ version of the Katyn Massacre. Prof. Zlatohorskyy
does not explain how the Polish report ―casts doubt‖ upon the ―official‖ version of Katyn.
The Ukrainian report cited above appears to be a shorter, perhaps Internet version of a
longer report written by Zlatohorskyy and two other Ukrainian archaeologists, S.D. Panishko and
M.P. Vasheta. This report (Zvit) omits any mention of Kuligowski, Małowiejski, or their badges.
Its appendix does include photographs also found in the Polish report. Among them are a photo
of the Polish policeman‘s / 128 / epaulette and of the ―sardine-packing‖ arrangement of bodies in
Grave No. 2. (Zvit 91,92,97). The very ―orderly‖ arrangement of bodies contradicts the
description by Prof. Kola.
The opening of an exhibition concerning this site at the Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy Historical
Museum on March 5 2013 has been announced. The accompanying article states only that in
1997 researchers assumed that the victims buried there were Poles shot by the NKVD in 1939-
1940, and suggests that this is still their conclusion.
Виставка розповідає про результати ексгумаційних робіт протягом 2010-2012 рр.,
розкриває перед відвідувачами основні віхи історії ще одного великого замку на Волині та
страхітливого злочину, прихованих від людського ока.
The exhibit tells of the results of the works of exhumation during the years 2010-2012, reveals to
visitors the basic milestones of yet another great castle of Volhynia and of a horrifying crime
hidden from human eyes.56
Even if we set aside all the evidence that the Germans killed the victims at Volodymyr-
Volyns‘kiy, there remains the fact that most of the ammunition used was manufactured in 1941.
The ―transit‖ or ―shipment‖ documents are of April-May 1940. Kuligowski and Małowiejski
could not have been killed earlier than 1941. No one has suggested that they were killed in
Kalinin and Kharkiv in April-May 1940 and then their badges brought to a mass grave in
Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy, hundreds of miles away, and there thrown into the burial pit.
55 Скороход, Ольга. ―Польские археологи нагнетают ситуацию вокруг жертв, расстрелянных в 1941-м.‖
(Ol‘ga Skorokhkod. Polish archeologists stir up the situation around the victims shot in 1941). Gazeta.ru February
20, 2013, http://gazeta.ua/ru/articles/history/_polskie-arheologi-nagnetayut-situaciyu-vokrug-zhertv-rasstrelyannyh-
v-1941-m/483525 Gazeta.ru is a Russian-language Ukrainian newspaper. Roughly half the population of today‘s
Ukraine use Russian as their first language.
56 Виставка: ―Прихована історія: археологічні дослідження на городищі Володимира-Волинського 2010-2012
років‖ (Exhibition: ―Hidden history: archaeological investigations at a site in Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy in the years
2010-2012‖), http://www.formuseum.info/2013/02/27/vistavka.html
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Kuligowski and Małowiejski were indeed shipped out of their POW camps in April 1940,
as recorded in the Soviet transit lists published by Tucholski in 1991. But neither of them was
being sent to execution. They were killed in 1941 in Volodymyr-Volyns‘kiy, Ukrainian SSR.
According to the evidence now available they were killed by the Germans. But this is not
important for our present purposes. What is important is this: it is invalid to conclude that any of
the prisoners shipped out of the Polish POW camps in April-May 1940 were being sent to their
deaths. This in itself disproves the ―official‖ version of the Katyn massacre. / 129 /
Conclusion
The opinions of persons who are motivated by a desire to learn the truth about Katyn as
about historical questions generally can be altered by the evidence discovered at Volodymyr-
Volyns‘kiy. This can happen only if the news of the discovery, and of its implications for the
understanding of the Katyn issue, becomes widely known and understood.
This is no easy matter. Aside from a small number of researchers, what most people learn
about the Katyn issue reflects the ―official‖ version. Discussion of Katyn is actively discouraged
in mainstream academic and political circles under the pretext that the matter has been so firmly
established by evidence that only cranks and communists could question it.
However, the very act of discouraging free discussion and doubts about the ―official‖
viewpoint has the potential to stimulate curiosity and questioning.
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