The Mystery of the Katyn Massacre: The Evidence, The Solution

268 Pages·2018·9.271 MB·English

by  Grover Furr

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Erythros Press and Media, LLC
2018
The Mystery ofthe Katyn Massacre: The Evidence, the Solution
First Edition: 2018
Published by Erythros Press and Media, 2018
PO Box 291994
Kettering, Ohio 291994
[email protected]
Text @ Grover Fun 2018
‘
Published &p rinted with permission ofthe author, who assumes
all responsibility for the content herein.
Badge and shell casing artwork by Shahin Shayegan
www.hostilecityrejects.com
Locally Assigned LC回type Call Number D804.R9 F872 2018
Furr, Grover C. (Grover Carr)
The Mystery of the Katyn Massacre: The Evidence, the Solution /
Grover C. Furr; translations by Grover C.Furr
‘
ISBN: 978-0-692-13425-2
268 pp. Includes index.
1. Katyn Massacre, Katyn', Russia, 1940. 2. World War, 1939回1945
甲 Poland. 3. Polish people - Crimes against - Russia (Federation) 白
Katyn' - History…20th century. 4. Prisoners ofwar - Crimes
against - Russia (Federation) - Katyn'一 History卢 20th century. 5.
Poland - Foreign relations - Soviet Union. 6. Soviet Union 卢 For­
eign relations - Poland.
直直在5
AcJmowledgements and Dedication.…...........,.........……...,,,.......................,…...........4
Preface ............................…..."..........".........................….......................................................5
Introduction.….........……………..………………………………………………………………………......…17
Chapter 1. The Evidence That Can't Be Impugned ................…….......…............25
Chapter 2. The German Report - Amtliches Mαteríal (AM).................….......35
Chapter 3. The Burdenko Report ................…,................‘................….....................56
Chapter 4. Closed Packet No. 1.......喃..........................................................................67
Chapter 5. The Excavations at Volodymyr-Volyns'kiy........……......................74
Chapter 6. What the Unimpeachable Evidence Shows山................................95
Chapter 7. The German Report ............……........….........川..................................107
Chapter 8. The German Report, continued. Sakharov's Article 'Secrets of
Katyn飞........................................，...................................................................…..................117
Chapter 9. The German Report, continued; Sakharov's Article 'German
Documents' ..................................................................................……....,..…....................128
Chapter 10. The Burdenko Commission Report........................……...............149
Chapter 11. N盯emberg， the Madden Com叭ission..................….................190
Chapter 12. The Excavations at Volodymyr-Volyns'kiy .................…..........218
Chapter 13. The 'Ukrainian Trail of Katyn' .........................….........…...............231
Chapter 14. Conclusion -The Katyn Forest Mystery Solved ..................... 246
Appendix 1. Testimony of Soprunenko, Syromiatnikov, Tokarev ........... 252
Appendix 2. Image Attribution.......................………........…."..，..川.......…................261
Bibliography, Photographs, Errata ........................................................................263
lndex..........................................…........................……".....…........................………........…..264
and Dedication
Ackno飞Nledgements
1 would like to exp1'ess my thanks to the dedicated staff of Ha1'1'Y S.
Sp1'ague Libr<;l1'Y, Montclai1' State Unive1'sity.
1 am especially g1'ateful fo1' the invaluable wo1'k of the Inte1'
Library Loan lib1'a1'ians Kevin Prendergast, Arthur Hudson, and
Siobhan McCarthy. Without thei1' hard work 1 simply could not ob
tain the many hard回to-find books and articles, in many languages,
that make my research possible.
My publishe1', cover designe1', cogent critic, and friend Mike
Bessler of Erythros Press and Media, LLC, has given me encour
agemer泣， inspiration, and help wheneve1' 1 needed it, often at late
night hours. 1 could not ask fo1' a better publisher.
P1'ofessor Susana M. Sotillo, Ph.D., my camarada and compañe1'a,
has helped me immeasu1'ably with he1' patience and affectionate
encouragement more than any wo1'ds of mine can exp1'ess.
Yet again my colleague and f1'iend Vladimi1' 1八!ovich Bob1'ov, of
Moscow, Russia, has given unstintingly of his time and help to
make this book a 1'eality. 1 cannot do justice to the cont1'ibution he
has made to this book, as to all my 1'esearch and our joint 1'esearch,
in the field of history of the Stalin period.
My deepest thanks to each one of you.
Dedication
1 dedicate this book to my friend Bill Sacks. Bill has proofread this
and several othe1' books of mine with g1'eat ca1'e, and made excel恒
lent suggestions that have improved my work immeasurably. No
one has been more encouraging, supportive, and helpful. Thank
you,Bill!
Preface
Many a reader will wonder: "Why another book on the Katyn Mas
sacre?" "And, particularly, why call it a "mystery"? For (they will
think) the mystery卢 ifthere ever really was one 呵 was solved long
ago, in the early 1990s when the Soviet, then the Russian govern
ments admitted guilt and produced the "smoking gun" documents
of "Closed Packet No. 1", the primary source evidence of Soviet
guilt in that atrocity.
1 used to think the same thing. When 1 read in the New York Times
that President Gorbachev ofthe USSR had admitted the guilt ofthe
Stalin government at Katyn, 1 had no cause to doubt it. The revela
tion in the same newspaper a couple of years later that Pr嘈esident
Yeltsin of Russia had given these "smoking gun" documents to
Lech Walesa, President of Poland, confirmed what 1 already
thought.
1 did not care very much. To me, the Katyn Massacre seemed long
ago and far away. Meanwhile the number of mass murders com
mitted by the Germans and Japanese, and the scale of mortality in
the Second World War; were so great that Katyn hardly added to it.
Nor were my sympathies engaged by the fates of the Polish POWs
said to have been murdered at the places which, collectively, came
to be known as the Katyn Massacre, or "Katyn." Why sympathize
with them rather than with the tens of millions of others murdered
in that war? It is simply impossible, overwhelming, even crippling,
to try to truly feel for all those long-dead people.
But since the mid-1990s there has appeared research claiming
that this is all wrong. That "Katyn" is a frame-up, anti-Soviet, anti
Russian and anticommunist. 1 was not convinced …but thinkin.g
back, 1 realize today that 1 still did not care enough to be either
truly convinced 01' truly unconvinced.
1 did become intrigued, however. "Katyn" 甲 a term 1 will use in this
book without scare quotes from now on as shorthand for "the Ka-
The Mystery of the Katyn Massacre
6
tyn massacre" 卢 was now a mystery. And 1 like mysteries! Espe
cially historical ones.
There was more to my attraction to Katyn' than just liking a good
myste y. Since my student days, when 1 became involved in the
1'
p otest movement against the Ame ican wa in Vietnam, 1 have
1' 1' 1'
been att acted to Ma xism. 1 sympathized with the Vietnamese
1' 1'
st uggle fo independence. 1 learned that anticommunism was not
1' 1'
exactly a fraud - the United States government was genuinely
anticommunist 卢 but that anticommunism also se1'ved as camou
flage for imperialism and for ordinary capitalist exploitation.
France, then }apan, and then the United States, wanted to domi
nate Vietnam. In the cases of France and the United States an
ticommunism became the rationale for a war to preserve empire.
In Vietnam and around the world it was the communists who were
the major force organizing opposition to this impe ialist war by
1'
the Un ited States.
At a huge antiwar demonstration in Manhattan in 1967 an older
pe1'son - an onlooker, not a participant 甲 told me in a friendly
manner that 1 should not be supporting the National Libe ation
1'
Front of South Vietnam. Why not7 1 asked. Because the NLF was
eally led by the Vietnamese Communist Pa ty, which was led by
1' 1'
Ho Chi Minh. Ho had been trained by }oseph Stalin. And Stalin, he
said, had murdered 40 million people.
1 did not just "believe" what he said. But 1 did not disbelieve it ei
ther. 1 determîned that 1 would look into thîs matte serîously once
1'
1 had the time to do so, once 1 had my feet on the ground in teach
îng and my doctoral dissertation was well on the way to comple
tîon.
1 was confident that 1 possessed the tools to do thîs. 1 could read
the Russian language well; ît was one of my languages fo my de
1'
g1'ee in Comparative Literature (Medieval English, German, Ru企
sian) at P inceton University.
1'
1 also knew that to do valid historical research the student must
identi布， locate, obtain, study, and d1'aw the logical conclusions
Preface. 7
from, primary sources. 1 had learned this from a master teacher, D.
W. Robertson; Jr. In the early 1960s his insistence on primary
source research had shaken the staid field of medievalliterary re
search to its foundations. Robertson - his students called him
"Robby" - had been attacked as an enemy of scholarship, even of
the Enlightenment itself, because he dared to question "received
knowledge."
Robby's publications had changed the field in a defìnitive way.
And, as he informed us, he had done it by insisting on the primacy
of primary sources. He told us what that meant: to never be afraid
to question, and in fact to challenge, the prevailing orthodoxy
within the field, no matter how monolithic, how indestructible it
appeared to be - ifthe prima1'Y sou1'ce evidence demands it.
I also embarked on the study of Soviet histo1'Y as a project in self回
cla1'ification. I had questions about the Stalin period in the Soviet
Union that challenged my opposition to the Vietnam Wa1', to
American imperialism, and to the conventionally accepted Cold
Wa1' paradigm of understanding history and politics. 1 had the
tools. 1 had a little courage, learned f1'om my pa1'ticipation in the
antiwar movement. So I began to resea1'ch the Stalin years in the
USSR.
By 2006 I had read enough on Katyn to lmow that the1'e was a
c
itical mass of research that rejected what 1 call the "official" ver
l'
sion of Katyn - that the Soviets were guilty. So 1 created a web
page to which 1 gave the title "The Katyn Fo1'est Whodunnit." At
that time it was the only 1'esource in the English language where
one could learn about the 1'esea1'ch that challenged the "official"
version. 1 did not endo1'se either ve1'sion: the "official", Soviets副did­
it, 01' the 飞ppositional"， Germans-did-it-Soviets-we1'e-f1'amed. 1
was agnostic.
1 also determined that 1. myself would never w1'ite anything about
Katyn. For almost seven years 1 concluded my Katyn web page
with these words:
So he1'e is my last thought, fo1' now: SO WHAT?
8 The Mystery of the Katyn Massacre
I'm serious. I do not think it matters to very many
people, and maybe to nobody.
"The Katyn Massacre" is not an historical question - it
is a WEAPON, a CUDGEL. You use it to make war on
"the other side", and that's it.
Those who say "the Soviets did it" are NEVER going to
accept that they did not, no matter what the evidence.
Those who say and / or hope: "The Soviets did NOT do
it" are NEVER going to shed their respect and admira国
tion for the USSR, EVEN IF you managed to convince
them that the Soviets did it. And I do not think that's
going to happen either!
It's like convincing a Christian that Jesus never ex
isted. That is, it's no longer history, it's religion.
Good luck!
*****
So it is interesting. But at this point 1 confine myself to
(a) reading about it; and (b) reminding those who
"know" (= are sure they know, and do not want to
hear otherwise) oftheir bad faith.
You can imagine how popular THAT makes me! But
being unpopular in this way is something I'm very
content to be.
1 hope this has been interesting, maybe even helpful.
Believe me, there is so much more to say that you do
not even want to know!
("The Katyn Forest Whodunnit" April 3, 2007)
Preface. 9
In 2006 and 2007 my conclusions were sharply challenged by Ser
gei Romanov. Mr. Romanov proved to me that 1 had made some
errors in my page. 1 corrected them, and thanked him explicitly on
1
that page. He also put our exchange online on hìs own websìte.
Mr. Romanov also made a sìgnìfìcant error ìn hìstorical method. At
the tìme 1 had not studìed Katyn enough, 01' thought deeply enough
about ìt, to be able to recognize hìs error. So 1 thanked hìm, but 1
refused to do what he demanded: acknowledge that the Sovìets
were ìndeed guilty.
1 remaìned agnostìc about Katyn. As ìt turns out, 1 was correct to
do so. But 1 did not fully understand that then.
In January 2013 1 learned about excavatìons by a joìnt Polish阀
Ukrainìan archeological team of a mass murder sìte at Volodymyr
Volyns'kìy, Ukraìne. 1 found the Polish archeologist's report on ìt
online and studìed it. 1 recognìzed the importance of the discover
ies made there for any objectìve understandìng of Katyn. Vìolating
my own promise to myself never to write anythìng on Katyn
(other than my web page) 1 set about doìng some ìntensìve study.
1 found a journal willing to accept an article, whìch was published
ìn August 2013. 1 also realized that, unless 1 did somethìng to pub
licìze ìt, this discovery and its ìmportance for our understanding of
Katyn would remain almost entirely unknown刷 So during the next
eighteen months 1 prìnted up several hundred offprìnts of this ar
ticle and mailed them around the world. After 18 months 1 put a
link to that article on my Home Page.
The title of my article is:
1 Whel'e it I'emains as of this writing (January 2017) -
h忧p://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.com/2007 /03/and-now-fol'-something-not
completely.html
The Mystery of the Katyn Massacre
10
"The 'Officìal' Version ofthe Katyn Massacre Dis
proven? Discoveries at a German Mass Murder Site in
Ukraine.,,2
During the pre-publication process my very helpful editor asked
me: Why the question mark?" Once the article had been published
It
a few other people asked me the. same question. 1 did not have a
good answer. In truth, 1 did not know why, except that it felt
It
right." Once the article was published 1 concentrated on mailing
offprints and on researching and writing another book. When that
book was published, 1 went on to research and write two more. It
was a very busy time.
But that question mark nagged at me! Why had 1 put it there? At
length 1 understood: 1 was still not fully convinced that the 飞ffi­
cial" version of Katyn had indeed been disproven. As much as 1
knew about Katyn - and 1 already knew more than most specialists
in Soviet history 一 1 realized that 1 still did not know enough.
When confronted with a mystery a detective sets out to solve it. If
a crime is involved - Katyn is surely a massive crime - he, 01' she,
doesn't care who is guilty. The detective approaches the task of
solving the crime objectively, for the sake of the thing itself中 that
is, for him- 01' herself. In ItThe Adventure ofthe Red Circle" we find
the following exchange between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson:
lt is art for art's sake. Watson, 1 suppose when you
It
doctored you found yourself studying cases without a
thought of a fee?"
For my education, Holmes."
It
飞出lcation never ends, Watson. It is a series oflessons
with the greatest for the last. This is an instructive
case. There is neither money nor credit in it, and yet
one would wish to tidy it up."
2 Socialism and Democracy 27(2) (Augllst 2013): 96-129.