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April 22, 1989

A. Sukharev et al to the CPSU Central Committee, 'On the Question of Katyn'

[handwritten in the upper left-hand

corner: “In favor. A. Yakovlev”]

 

        Secret

[CPSU stamp:

22 April 89 09287]

 

[to the] CPSU CC

 

on the question of Katyn

 

 

We report in accordance with an instruction (P 162/15 of 31 March 1989).

 

Familiarization with the available materials about the deaths of about 12,000 Polish officers interned in the Soviet Union in 1939 gives reason to think that only part of them died at Katyn. The fate of the rest is not yet known. Information is cited in Polish and Western publications that the Polish officers died in the regions of Bologoye (Kalinin Oblast’) and Dergachey (Khar’kov Oblast’).

 

It seems necessary to charge the Procuracy of the USSR together with the USSR KGB with conducting a careful verification to clarify all the circumstances of what happened.

 

Inasmuch as this question has acquired extraordinary intensity in Poland and is being used to the detriment of Soviet-Polish relations it is advisable to make a publication about the careful verification being done by the competent Soviet bodies before the arrival of W. Jaruzelski in the USSR.

 

A draft CPSU CC decree is attached.

 

 

[signature] A. Sukharev

[signature] V. Kryuchkov

[signature] I. Aboimov

[signature] A. Pavlov

[signature] V. Falin

[signature] A. Kapto

 

22 April 1989

 

Nº 17-305

 

A group of Soviet officials propose that the KGB, among other institutions, investigate the circumstances and locations of the deaths of Polish officers interned in the Soviet Union during World War II.


Document Information

Source

Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Dmitriĭ Antonovich Volkogonov papers, 1887-1995, mm97083838. Translated by Gary Goldberg.

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2020-02-18

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209809