The Katyn massacre was the mass execution of Polish prisoners of war and other captives by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, carried out in the spring of 1940 on the orders of Stalin and the Soviet leadership. The victims were mostly army and police officers, officials and members of the intelligentsia captured after the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, and in total more than twenty thousand people were shot at several sites. The forest at Katyn near Smolensk gave the crime its name when German forces uncovered graves there in 1943. The Soviet Union blamed Germany for decades, and only in 1990 did it acknowledge responsibility, a recognition that Russia has since confirmed.
Before and after
- from 30 November 1939 to 13 March 1940Winter War
- from 7 December 1939 to 17 July 1941Palmiry massacre
- 1940Discovery of neptunium
- 1940Establishment of Serengeti National Park
- 1940Katyn massacre
- c. 1940sRise of abstract expressionism
- from c. 1940s to 1960sGreen Revolution
- c. 1940sNuclear warfare
- from 1 January 1940 to 7 January 1940Battle of Raate Road
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The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.