Moscow - An official publication of documents from the archives of the Soviet Communist Party's Politburo on the mass execution of Polish officers in Katyn seventy years ago, demonstrates Russia's absolute openness on the tragedy that occurred in 1940, said chief of the Russian state archives agency Rosarkhiv, Andrei Artizov.
"The Russian side is demonstrating absolute openness as it is telling the story of what happened to Polish POWs in Katyn and in other places across Russia. Access has been opened to the key documents highlighting this tragedy," Artizov said in an interview, posted on Rosarkhiv’s website.
"The public has been given access to the original copies of the Katyn documents, kept at the State Socio-Political History Archives," he said.
"The Katyn documents have never been accessible online on government websites. We have posted them for the first time ever," he said.
"These are the controversial documents from File No.1, which had been kept in the secret archives of the Soviet Communist Party’s Politburo and were only accessible to the Communist Party’s general secretary, and to the heads of the Communist Party’s Office and Administrative Department in the presence of the general secretary," he said.
File No.1 was last handed to Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin by the Communist Party’s last general secretary. The envelope was opened by a special commission for the presidential archives in September 1992.
"It contained a letter, written by chief of the Soviet secret police Lavrenty Beria in March 1940, recommending that the Polish POWs be executed and their remains concealed. The letter carries Stalin and other Politburo members’ original resolutions. Among those who signed it were Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov and Anastas Mikoyan. The file also carries Politburo’s Resolution of March 5, 1940, which gives the go-ahead to Beria’s proposal to execute the Polish officers," Artizov said.
The archives also contain a hand-written note by the then KGB head Alexander Shelepin, dated 1959, which informs the Communist Party leadership that the executed Polish officers’ files had been destroyed.
Copies of the Katyn documents were handed to Polish President Lech Walesa in October 1990 and they were published in Poland, according to Artizov.
