This resolution honors the Polish soldiers and civilians whose lives were lost at the hands of the Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (also known as the NKVD) during the Katyn Massacre. The resolution condemns Russia's efforts to spread disinformation about the Katyn Massacre and World War II.
[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 986 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 986
Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 28, 2020
Mr. Lipinski (for himself, Mrs. Walorski, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Smith of New
Jersey, and Mr. Tonko) submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre.
Whereas, on August 23, 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union secretly pledged
nonaggression toward one another through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in
which they divided Poland between themselves;
Whereas Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west on September 1, 1939, and the
Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east on September 17, 1939;
Whereas over 60,000 Polish soldiers died in combat defending Poland from these
invasions;
Whereas, after the Red Army invaded Poland, it captured thousands of Polish
military personnel and civilians, many of whom had fled east from the
Nazi invasion;
Whereas the Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or NKVD, took
charge of the Polish prisoners from the Red Army and transferred them to
the Kozelsk, Starobilsk, and Ostashkov internment camps in the western
Soviet Union, where many were subject to lengthy interrogations;
Whereas, on March 5, 1940, Soviet General Secretary Josef Stalin and three
Soviet Politburo members signed an NKVD order to execute nearly 22,000
prisoners by shooting that also identified more than 10,000 additional
Polish prisoners for possible execution;
Whereas, in April and May 1940, the NKVD summarily executed the condemned Polish
prisoners at several sites in the Soviet Union, including at the Katyn
Forest west of Smolensk in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist
Republic, and buried them in mass graves;
Whereas, in April 1943, occupying Nazi troops discovered eight mass graves in
the Katyn Forest with the remains of many of those Polish prisoners;
Whereas, following this discovery in the Katyn Forest, the mass executions by
the Soviets of the Polish prisoners from all three camps became known as
the Katyn Massacre;
Whereas the 21,892 victims of the Katyn Massacre included military officers,
chaplains, professors, doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers,
journalists, and refugees, many of whom were military reservists who had
been mobilized as a result of the Nazi invasion;
Whereas between 700 and 900 Polish Jews were killed in the Katyn Massacre;
Whereas the Soviet Union falsely blamed Nazi Germany for the massacre and broke
off diplomatic relations with the Polish government-in-exile following a
request by the government-in-exile that the International Committee of
the Red Cross examine the Katyn mass graves;
Whereas an international medical commission excavated the area in Spring 1943
and determined that the massacre occurred in 1940, when the area was
under Soviet control;
Whereas the Soviet Union continued to deny responsibility for the Katyn
Massacre, blaming the Nazis and concealing evidence of its guilt, for
nearly 50 years;
Whereas, on September 18, 1951, the United States House of Representatives
established the Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation and Study
of the Facts, Evidence, and Circumstances of the Katyn Forest Massacre,
which is referred to as the Madden Committee;
Whereas, after reviewing witness testimony and relevant documents, the Madden
Committee unanimously found that the NKVD, and thus the Soviet Union,
was responsible for the executions and recommended a trial before the
International World Court of Justice;
Whereas scholars in the United States and United Kingdom published books and
articles demonstrating the truth of the Katyn Massacre during the
decades of Soviet denial;
Whereas, in Poland in 1981, the Solidarity movement erected a memorial with the
inscription ``Katyn, 1940'' that the Communist government removed and
replaced with a memorial falsely blaming the Nazis for the massacre;
Whereas, in 1988, demonstrators marched in Warsaw to demand an official inquiry
into the Katyn Massacre;
Whereas, on April 13, 1990, 50 years after the executions of the Polish
prisoners and 47 years since the day the discovery of the mass graves
was announced, the Soviet government issued a statement accepting
responsibility for the Katyn Massacre and calling it ``one of the most
heinous crimes of Stalinism'';
Whereas on that day Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev gave the Government of
Poland copies of Soviet archival materials pertaining to the executed
prisoners that confirmed Soviet responsibility for the massacre;
Whereas, in recent months, President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials
have attempted to propagate a false narrative that Poland was
responsible for the outbreak of World War II, ignoring the facts of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the coordinated Nazi and Soviet invasions of
Poland;
Whereas, in October 2019, Russian officials ordered the removal of a plaque at a
former regional NKVD headquarters in Tver commemorating the estimated
6,000 Poles murdered in the building as part of the Katyn Massacre;
Whereas President Putin and the Government of the Russian Federation use these
historical revisionist narratives, including false accusations about
Polish responsibility for World War II, as a tool in their attempt to
whitewash Soviet history, elevate Russia's international position, and
sow political discord among its neighbors and adversaries;
Whereas the Katyn Massacre fits into a larger pattern of Communist governments
around the world persecuting their citizens and denying their people
freedom, which has resulted in the deaths of up to 100,000,000 people
since the Russian Revolution of 1917; and
Whereas the year 2020 marks the 80th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) honors the lives and legacies of the approximately
22,000 Polish soldiers and civilians who were murdered by the
Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or NKVD,
during the Katyn Massacre 80 years ago;
(2) recognizes the witnesses, scholars, activists, and
demonstrators who fought to bring the truth of the Katyn
Massacre to light in the face of the cover-up campaign
orchestrated by the Soviet Union;
(3) condemns both past and present attempts to cover up
truth of the Katyn Massacre;
(4) condemns broader efforts by the Government of the
Russian Federation to spread disinformation about the history
of World War II; and
(5) encourages education about the facts of the Katyn
Massacre, including the horrors of the massacre itself and
subsequent attempts to deny it or cover it up.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy and the Environment.
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