- Title: RUSSIA: Human rights group welcomes opening of Katyn documents
- Date: 29th April 2010
- Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (APRIL 28, 2010) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR BUILDING HOUSING HUMAN RIGHT SOCIETY MEMORIAL ARSENY ROGINSKIY, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS SOCIETY MEMORIAL, ENTERING HIS OFFICE ROGINSKIY TAKING SEAT HISTORY BOOK AN KATYN MASSACRE ON BOOK SHELF (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) ARSENY ROGINSKIY, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS SOCIETY MEMORIAL, SAYING: "In our country we have a big amount of people who until now believe that the Katyn crime was committed by the Nazis, and not by us. And this publication on a state-owned web-site by a state authority, it means the documents in this case have been confirmed to be genuine by the state and there is not any kind of falsification." COPY OF DOCUMENT SIGNED BY STALIN ORDERING THE EXECUTION OF POLISH "NATIONALISTS AND COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES' DETAIL OF COPY OF DOCUMENT SHOWING DATE MARCH 5, 1940 (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) ARSENY ROGINSKIY, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS SOCIETY MEMORIAL, SAYING: "The benefits for the Russian Polish relations are huge, what has been done by now is already a big improvement. Although nothing special has been done, just some humane words were said, but it proves one gets much more benefits from civilised, normal humane behaviour than from wild denials, as we did for years denying this crime. I think we have to continue this way." COVER OF DVD WITH MOVIE ON KATYN MASSACRE BY POLISH FILM MAKER ANDRZEJ WAJDA
- Embargoed: 14th May 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations,History
- Reuters ID: LVAE7CMN75OORWI0YCKZR5LW1MI1
- Story Text: Russia made public for the first time on Wednesday (April 28) documents relating to the 1940 execution of 22,000 Polish officers by the Soviet NKVD secret police, including an order signed by dictator Josef Stalin.
President Dmitry Medvedev released the material in the latest of a flurry of gestures of solidarity with Warsaw since Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 94 officials were killed on April 10 in a plane crash en route to a ceremony commemorating the Katyn massacre in western Russia.
Russia's Federal Archive Service, or Rosarkhiv, published on its website (www.rusarchives.ru) scanned photos of several documents, including a March 5, 1940 note from NKVD head Lavrenty Beria -- signed by Stalin and three other members of the Soviet Politburo -- ordering the execution of Polish "nationalists and counter-revolutionaries".
Human rights organistion Memorial hailed the publication as an important step.
"In our country we have a big amount of people who until now believe that the Katyn crime was committed by the Nazis, and not by us. And this publication on a state-owned web-site by a state authority, it means the documents in this case have been confirmed to be genuine by the state and there is not any kind of falsification," said Arseny Roginskiy in his Moscow office.
He said the publications are also a further sign that long-running tensions between Russia and Poland are easing.
"The benefits for the Russian Polish relations are huge, what has been done by now is already a big improvement. Although nothing special has been done, just some humane words were said, but it proves one gets much more benefits from civilised, normal humane behaviour than from wild denials, as we did for years denying this crime. I think we have to continue this way."
Last week, Russia's Supreme Court ordered the Moscow City Court to consider Memorial's appeal seeking declassification of a 2004 decision by military prosecutors to drop an investigation into the Katyn massacre There are 183 volumes of documents relating to the 1990-2004 investigation, and 116 of them are still closed.
Medvedev described the publication as a "duty". Medvedev also said he had ordered a number of Katyn documents still in Russia's hands to be passed to Warsaw.
Katyn is an enduring symbol for Poles of their suffering at Soviet hands in the 20th century. For decades, Moscow blamed the Nazis for the massacre and only acknowledged its responsibility in 1990, a year after the fall of communism in Poland.
The Kremlin has resisted Polish calls to brand the Katyn massacre "genocide."
The published documents and their contents have been known to historians, politicians and families of those killed since the early 1990s but this is the first time most Russians have been able to see the scanned originals. Rosarkhiv says no serious historian doubted the authenticity of the published documents.
Russia's opposition Communist Party still rejects them as false and insists the murder was committed by the Nazis. Last week, the party issued a letter to Medvedev asking for a new investigation.
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