Poland and Russia on Saturday mourned thousands of people massacred by the Soviet NKVD secret police during World War Two.
Published:
4 September 2000 y., Monday
Poland and Russia on Saturday mourned thousands of people massacred by the Soviet NKVD secret police during World War Two and vowed to strengthen the often strained relations between the two neighbors.
Polish Premier Jerzy Buzek and Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo dedicated a cemetery marking the mass grave of some 6,000 Poles shot in pine forests outside the Russian town of Mednoye, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Moscow.
It is one of several mass graves in Russia and Ukraine that hold the bodies of some 22,000 well-educated Poles, including reserve officers, border guards, policemen and civil servants who the Soviets feared would oppose their control of Poland.
Soviet troops invaded Poland in September 1939 under a secret pact with Nazi Germany to divide Eastern Europe. The Germans broke the pact in 1941 when they invaded the Soviet Union and the territories it had occupied.
In 1943, German troops advancing eastward found the bodies of some 4,000 Polish army officers in a mass grave in Katyn and accused Soviet troops of killing them.
The Soviet Union maintained for decades that the Nazis had killed the men during their occupation of the area, admitting responsibility only in the final days of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika period. During World War Two, Poland's underground government also searched for officers who disappeared from prisoner of war camps near other towns, including Tver in Russia, from where prisoners were taken to the forest outside Mednoye. The bodies of about 7,000 Poles have never been found.
Šaltinis:
Central Europe Online
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Civil unrest in Kyrgyzstan last week left over 70 people dead, more than 1500 injured and over 500 hospitalized.
more »
After lots were drawn, ten winners of Danske Bankas scholarships and one winner of an iPod shuffle player were established.
more »
The health of Chinese civil rights activist Hu Jia is causing real fears after reports that the winner of the Parliament's 2008 Sakharov human rights prize is ailing with liver disease.
more »
Nestled in the northeast plains of India, Bihar is one of the poorest states in the country. Its per capita income is just a fraction of that in other Indian states.
more »
One day after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake rattled the Mexico-California border area, Mexico‘s President visits one of the affected areas.
more »
Roma communities, the European Union’s largest ethnic minority, continue to face persistent discrimination and segregation.
more »
This the sound of spring for many in Latvia. With a little guidance from their parents, children at the Riga Zoo made bird boxes in anticipation of the returning migrating birds.
more »
Economic shocks are taking a toll on a population already facing high risks in low-income countries: children.
more »
As celebrations for Easter week get under way millions of the faithful will be heading to Churches across Europe to mark the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
more »
More than 200, 000 riders and their horses are in Uruguay’s capital for South America’s largest rodeo.
more »