[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 86 (Thursday, May 7, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2327-S2328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 566--COMMEMORATING THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KATYN 
                                MASSACRE

  Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. Risch, and Mr. Durbin) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations:

                              S. Res. 566

       Whereas, on August 23, 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet 
     Union secretly pledged nonaggression toward one another 
     through the

[[Page S2328]]

     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 Senate--
       (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.

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