VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
The Katyn Memorial is Russia's first monument to the victims of totalitarian repression.
The memorial is located on the site of the Katyn tragedy, where victims of Soviet political repression from 1918 to 1953 and the murder of Polish soldiers in 1940 are buried en masse in the Katyn forest. The memorial is 15 kilometers from Smolensk and seven kilometers from the Katyn station on the railroad to Vitebsk.
A memorial over the Polish military men's mass grave was arranged in 1978.
In 1983, 40 years after Soviet prisoners-of-war were massacred in the Katyn forest, a special memorial plaque was installed at the site at the initiative of the Smolensk city council.
A wooden Catholic cross was added to the western part of the memorial in 1990, during former Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski's visit to Katyn.
In 1994 the Russian and Polish governments signed an agreement in Krakow regarding the burial sites and memorials for the victims of war and totalitarian repressions. The Russian Ministry of Culture and the Polish Council for Protection of Memory of Combat and Martyrdom organised and financed the memorial's construction.
A coordinating committee was also set up in the same year to implement the agreement.
From 1994 to 1995, a group of Polish scholars led by Marian Glosek, professor at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography at the Polish Academy of Sciences, worked to uncover the exact location of the pits where the officers were shot and determined the borders of the mass graves. The team also uncovered a trove of documents.
While searching for the remains of Polish officers, the archaeologists found several Russian graves.
In 1995, a competition was announced to design an environmental arrangement for the future cemetery's territory by the Polish side. At the same time, a Russian non-governmental organisation called Memorial discovered and marked many of the Russian mass graves in the region. A foundation stone was installed, in the form of a concrete rectangular with dark grey marble slab bearing the inscription: "A memorial to the victims of political repression will be built here."
In 1996, then-Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin signed a Government resolution to erect memorials to Russian and Polish victims of totalitarian repression in Katyn, the Smolensk Region, and Mednoye, the Tver Region.
In 2000, major construction began on the Russian part of the memorial. The old memorial was demolished, the Polish Catholic cross and foundation stone were relocated, and the monument to Soviet prisoners-of-war was redesigned.
On July 28, 2000, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko and Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek attended the ceremonial opening of the memorial.
The Katyn Memorial Complex currently consists of:
1) Polish war cemetery;
2) Russian mass graves;
3) Ceremonial and commemoration areas;
4) Roads, walkways and foot bridges;
5) Support facilities.
