Comments on: Katyn Forest – Lot of the Poles http://uncoy.com/2005/12/katyn_forest_lo.html a winter in vienna. theatre, dance, poetry. and some politics. Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:41:11 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Alan C. Lawhon http://uncoy.com/2005/12/katyn_forest_lo.html/comment-page-1#comment-671 Alan C. Lawhon Sun, 18 Apr 2010 08:07:02 +0000 http://uncoy.org/2005/12/katyn_forest_lo.html#comment-671 Thanks for writing this interesting article. I would like to pose a question which basically boils down to a matter of motivation. Specifically, might revenge and a desire to settle "old scores" with Poland have led, in part, to the decision to order the Katyn forest massacre? With the tragic news involving the plane crash last week that took the life of Poland's president and many of Poland's top leaders, I was made aware of the Katyn massacre and events that occurred long before I was born. In reading about the mass murder that occured in April and May of 1940, I stumbled across Beria's infamous "execution memorandum" dated March 5, 1940 and signed by Stalin. I have read a little about the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and the civil war that followed. There was a concerted (but ultimately ineffective) effort that went on for several years after the 1917 revolution to overthrow Lenin and the Bolsheviks and return Russia to czarist (non-communist) rule. The United States and Britain (with possibly a few other nations) participated in and/or encouraged these efforts. (The allied landing at Archangel was one example of attempts by Britain and the United States to encourage the overthrow of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. There may well have been other attempts of which I am not aware.) At any rate, it is no great secret that leaders of major industrial nations viewed the Bolshevik revolution with great alarm and very much desired to see Lenin overthrown. I recall reading a quote - possibly attributed to Winston Churchill or Lloyd George - that they feared the Bolshevik revolution might spread to workers in their own countries, so they wanted this "disease" eradicated immediately. It was certainly not lost on Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin that Britain and the United States did not wish them well. I'm curious if there is any evidence in the historical record to indicate that Poland might have aided the West immediately following the October 1917 revolution in their efforts to overthrow Lenin and the Bolsheviks? If Poland did intervene militarily on the side of the "White" Russian army during the period from 1919-1921, then the "counter-revolutionary" charges and allegations in the Beria memorandum start to make sense. The massacre was a gruesome case of "getting even" and settling a 20-year-old score. Am I way off base with this supposition, or is there some evidence to support the contention that Stalin, Beria, Mikoyan, et al ordered the massacre at least in part as an act of revenge? Please understand that I am not in any way trying to defend or justify Stalin and Beria's decision. A crime of that magnitude is certainly one of history's greatest tragedies - and there is no doubt that Stalin and Beria (along with Adolph Hitler) are among the most evil men who have ever walked the earth. All three of them richly deserve their place in hell. At the same time, it takes very little in the way of provocation for a paranoid dictator (like Stalin) to perceive someone as a threat. If officers and soldiers of the Polish military intervened in the Russian civil war (against the Bolsheviks) during the period from 1919-1921, that would go a long way in explaining why Stalin and Beria decided to treat them so harshly. I apologize for taking so long to pose my question, but I'm just trying to make sense out of this. Sincerely, Alan C. Lawhon Huntsville, Alabama USA Thanks for writing this interesting article. I would like to pose a question which basically boils down to a matter of motivation. Specifically, might revenge and a desire to settle “old scores” with Poland have led, in part, to the decision to order the Katyn forest massacre?

With the tragic news involving the plane crash last week that took the life of Poland’s president and many of Poland’s top leaders, I was made aware of the Katyn massacre and events that occurred long before I was born. In reading about the mass murder that occured in April and May of 1940, I stumbled across Beria’s infamous “execution memorandum” dated March 5, 1940 and signed by Stalin. I have read a little about the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and the civil war that followed. There was a concerted (but ultimately ineffective) effort that went on for several years after the 1917 revolution to overthrow Lenin and the Bolsheviks and return Russia to czarist (non-communist) rule. The United States and Britain (with possibly a few other nations) participated in and/or encouraged these efforts. (The allied landing at Archangel was one example of attempts by Britain and the United States to encourage the overthrow of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. There may well have been other attempts of which I am not aware.) At any rate, it is no great secret that leaders of major industrial nations viewed the Bolshevik revolution with great alarm and very much desired to see Lenin overthrown. I recall reading a quote – possibly attributed to Winston Churchill or Lloyd George – that they feared the Bolshevik revolution might spread to workers in their own countries, so they wanted this “disease” eradicated immediately. It was certainly not lost on Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin that Britain and the United States did not wish them well.

I’m curious if there is any evidence in the historical record to indicate that Poland might have aided the West immediately following the October 1917 revolution in their efforts to overthrow Lenin and the Bolsheviks? If Poland did intervene militarily on the side of the “White” Russian army during the period from 1919-1921, then the “counter-revolutionary” charges and allegations in the Beria memorandum start to make sense. The massacre was a gruesome case of “getting even” and settling a 20-year-old score. Am I way off base with this supposition, or is there some evidence to support the contention that Stalin, Beria, Mikoyan, et al ordered the massacre at least in part as an act of revenge?

Please understand that I am not in any way trying to defend or justify Stalin and Beria’s decision. A crime of that magnitude is certainly one of history’s greatest tragedies – and there is no doubt that Stalin and Beria (along with Adolph Hitler) are among the most evil men who have ever walked the earth. All three of them richly deserve their place in hell. At the same time, it takes very little in the way of provocation for a paranoid dictator (like Stalin) to perceive someone as a threat. If officers and soldiers of the Polish military intervened in the Russian civil war (against the Bolsheviks) during the period from 1919-1921, that would go a long way in explaining why Stalin and Beria decided to treat them so harshly.

I apologize for taking so long to pose my question, but I’m just trying to make sense out of this.

Sincerely,

Alan C. Lawhon
Huntsville, Alabama USA

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