Katyn

NKVD officers shot victims individually in the back of the head, often using German-made Walther pistols to potentially deflect future blame. Discovery and the "Big Lie"

Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, thousands of Polish prisoners of war were held in camps in the USSR. On March 5, 1940, Joseph Stalin and other Soviet leaders signed an order to execute "nationalists and counter-revolutionaries" held in these camps. NKVD officers shot victims individually in the back

Locations of other mass burial sites discovered later. Locations of other mass burial sites discovered later

Home to the Katyń Museum , which preserves the memory of those lost. The "Katyn Lie" finally began to crumble during

The Polish "intelligentsia"—military officers, police, professors, lawyers, and doctors—intended to decapitate the Polish nation's leadership.

The "Katyn Lie" finally began to crumble during the era of glasnost under Mikhail Gorbachev.

In April 1943, Nazi German forces occupying the region discovered mass graves in the Katyn forest near Smolensk. They publicized the find to drive a wedge between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.