Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Katyn victims in Kharkov were ‘limed’
TheNews.pl ^ | 10.08.2009

Posted on 08/10/2009 1:59:44 PM PDT by lizol

Katyn victims in Kharkov were ‘limed’

10.08.2009 12:10

Secret NKVD documents reveal that thousands of Katyn massacre victims executed in Kharkov were later covered with lime to conceal traces of mass murder.

A letter, branded ‘top secret,’ has recently been found by the Ukrainian Security Service in post-Soviet archives. It reads: “In a forest about 100 metres from Kharkov-Bilgorod road, within a 50-metre radius, are many spots of collapsed earth. The holes are rectangular, 3x6 metres. One of the holes has been dug out and human bones and skulls can be seen. Some of the bones are scattered on the ground. There are also the remains of foreign-made military boots.”

The letter was written by General Vitaliy Nikitchenko to KGB head Yuri Andropov and to Petro Shelest, leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine, on 7 June 1969.

General Nikitchenko, head of the Committee of State Security of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, further reports that the grave has been dug out by three pupils of fifth and sixth grade from Pyatikhatki. They robbed a gold ring engraved with the initials AK and the date 29 June 1924, gold tooth crowns and military buttons with the image of the Polish eagle.

“It has been established that here in 1940 the NKVD from Kharkov region buried several thousands executed officers and generals of bourgeois Poland, whose remnants have been accidentally discovered by children,” writes Nikitchenko.

Pyatikhatki, along with Katyn and Miednoye, is the burial place of over 3,700 Polish war prisoners executed by the NKVD in 1940 as ordered by Stalin and other Soviet leaders.

In order to conceal the discovery and truth about the mass murder, Nikitchenko proposed announcing that it was Germans who executed deserters from their own army and the allied armies. The General suggested that people be warned that victims who were buried here died of cholera, typhus, syphilis and other infectious diseases. Andropov decided that that kind of disinformation campaign will not be enough, and, in a letter to General Petro Feshchenko from the Kharkov branch of the NKVD, ordered the site destroyed. The burial place in Pyatikhatki was to be surrounded by barbed-wire fence and guarded by 21 men. The remnants of Polish officers were to be destroyed by being covered with lime and the graves were to be filled in. Andropov gave his subordinates four years and 10,000 rubles (220 euro) to do that.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: katyn; poland; sovietunion; ww2
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021 last
To: Monterrosa-24

Ack!! I said SKELETONS!! Not just dead people. Definitely cool in the “Stand by me” kind of way, but not in the stumble up on it kind of way.


21 posted on 08/10/2009 5:56:31 PM PDT by autumnraine (You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson