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THE DISCOVERY
In 1943, German troops discovered a mass grave near Smolensk in Katyn Forest.  They realized that the Soviets were responsible for the graves as they had uncovered evidence that these bodies were those of thousands Polish officers that had been imprisoned by the Soviets and had been missing since 1940.  The Germans announced this discovery in hopes of severing alliances between the Soviet Union and the other Allied Powers, but Stalin, of course, denied this accusation, and the Allied powers turned a blind eye to it in favor of defeating Nazi Germany.  The Germans even had residents of Katyn come and see the mass grave so that they could provide a witness on the Germans behalf.  Check out this video taken as the grave was discovered.  Dmitry Khudykh, a resident of Katyn, provides insight on the discovery of the massacre.
Discovery at Katyn Forest

WHY?
As I read about the Katyn Forest Massacre, I had so many questions.  Why would Stalin need to murder 4,000 Poles?  Why would he hide the evidence if he believed his actions were justified?  How could the United States and Great Britain simply ignore this massacre?  And why had I never learned about this in school until now?  I may not have all of the answers, but I certainly have an idea.

BACKGROUND
In August of 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; a non-aggression agreement between the two nations which kept the Soviets out of a European war and kept Germany from forming an alliance with Japan.  In addition, this pact created ‘spheres of influence’.  Border countries, including Poland, were divided into German and Soviet Territory.

THE ORDER
In September of 1939, Poland was invaded by both of these nations to claim their territory.  The Soviet Union tried to justify their invasion by saying that they were liberating the Ukrainians and Belorussians of their Polish rulers (Seventeen Moments).  In return, thousands of Polish officials were arrested.  In a top secret order from March 5, 1940 (disclosed in 1990 with the fall of the Soviet Union) the NKVD and Stalin ordered that the prisoners, upwards of 20,000, be executed due to the danger they posed to the Soviet regime.

THE LIE
In 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union; a direct violation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.  This was when the Soviet Union joined forces with the Allies against the Nazis.  The Katyn Forest Massacre had already occurred, but had not yet been discovered.  When the Germans announced their discovery in 1943, they showcased the skeletons in the Soviet’s closet.  If this massacre was proven to be the work of the Soviet Union, it could significantly weaken Allied support and weaken the defense against Germany.  Cover-ups and tampering with evidence was not a foreign concept to Stalin and the Soviet regime and as expected, they denied accusations.  They even went so far as to send Soviet authorities to the grave at Katyn to falsify documents and evidence to turn blame on the Germans.  Residents of Katyn were threatened by Soviet’s to withdraw their previous testimonies they had given to the Germans.  Even after the war, Soviet officials were questioned about Katyn during the Nuremburg trials and the truth was not willing given.  For almost half a century, the Soviets said “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.” regardless of the evidence against them and the pure ridiculousness of false Soviet claims and evidence.

This attempt at deception did not fool anyone.  Churchill and Roosevelt certainly knew that Stalin was responsible for the massacre, but they could not afford to lose an ally at this point in the war.  They put their hands over their eyes and kept on fighting the Germans.  After reading a British report of investigation at the scene, Churchill stated “we should none of us ever speak a word about it.”

THE END
After World War II ended, the Soviet and the western allies went their separate ways, and the mystery of what really happened at Katyn remained a mystery.  Upon the fall of the Soviet Union, Soviet authorities finally confirmed that the NKVD were responsible for the murders and in 1992 evidence was released that tied Stalin directly to the massacre.

LEGACY
The Katyn Forest Massacre further exemplifies the seemingly compulsive actions of censorship and deception from Stalin.  Not only does it point out the Soviet Union’s character flaws, but it also paints a different picture of the Allies in World War II.  In all of my history books growing up, I never read about the villainy of the Soviet Union during WWII, only after the U.S. alliance with them had ended.  It is interesting to see the difference in perspective here, but also to realize how determined the U.S. and Britain had to be in defeating Nazi Germany for them to turn a blind eye to such blatant horror.

Visit the Katyn Memorial website for photographs of the site today and also a brief history of the massacre.
http://www.katyn-memorial.ru/

Sources:
PBS
http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/katyn-massacre.html

“Seventeen Moments”
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1943katyn&Year=1943

“Order For the Katyn Massacre”
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=article&ArticleID=1943katyn4&SubjectID=1943katyn&Year=1943

“Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact

A happy country is a healthy country, full of growth and solidarity of beliefs.  Stalin incessantly promoted this as a truth for the Soviet Union, but it had not yet been backed up with facts.

The First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union was taken in 1926 and the next one was to be taken in 1933.  However, it was delayed for 4 years, until January 6, 1937, most likely to avoid evidence of the famine caused by collectivization in 1932-1934.  Stalin anticipated staggering growth in population to be recorded in the 1937 census, but he did not receive the results he had hoped for.  The results of the 1937 census were destroyed.  Stalin and the Sovnarkom accused priests, kulaks, and other enemies of the Soviets of sneaking into the positions of census takers to sabotage the data and many of them were arrested.

The Soviets may have criminalized and destroyed the census, but the truth of the situation is still apparent.  The projected population for 1937 anticipated an increase of 37.6 million people.  The census data only recorded an increase of 7.2 million people.  This population gap showed the terrible amount of unnatural deaths, which did not align with the Soviet’s misconception of a happy nation.  The data showed how collectivization fueled the famine of the early 30’s, which could undermine the respected authority that the Soviets hoped to maintain.

Aside from the staggering population gap, there was a significant amount of people that were recorded as religious; over 50% in fact.  Again, this was not a favorable, or “correct”, answer for Stalin and the category was ejected from the publication of the 1937 census and was not featured on the 1939 version.of the questionnaire.

The “lost” census of 1937 is a testament to the censorship of Stalin in order to preserve his happy, healthy nation image.  The results had to be destroyed in order to further put off the truths of famine and oppression in the Soviet Union.  The population was not thriving, religion had not been squelched, and Stalin’s vision for the perfect communist nation was shattered by the 1937 census.  After destroying the data, the 1939 was highly manipulated to construe the “correct” vision of the Soviet Union back to the people.

For more information on the Lost Census:

“The Lost Census”: http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1939census&Year=1939&navi=byYear

“Soviet Census”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Census_%281937%29

Photograph taken from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/1937CensusPropaganda.jpg

Stalin’s Five Year Plan, introduced in 1928, was essentially Russia playing a game of catch-up with the Western world.  It was designed to strengthen Russia’s economy and to encourage the nation’s self-sufficiency.  Rather than let nature take its’ own course, Stalin wanted to speed up the process.  This rapid transition is reflected in the development of Magnitogorsk.

Magnitogorsk was a planned city; it’s city and steelworks center was designed after Gary, Indiana.  A Soviet delegate traveled to Indiana in 1928 to meet with an American consultant.  The contract for Gary, IN was increased by 4 times.  Stalin and his regime meant business when it came to industrialization.  They were going to not only catch up to the industry and technology of the Western world, but they were going to out do it.

How does Magnitogorsk show the dynamics of the Five Year Plan?

It demonstrates 3 important aspects of Stalin’s plan.

1. Stress on the importance of industrialization above all else
2. Rapid transition into a new phase of society
3. Population shift

The stress on industrialization is demonstrated in the development of Magnitogorsk as a city and as a steel working center.  The facilities were 4 times larger than the greatest ones in America, had the capability of producing 4 million tons annually, and gave Russia an opportunity to be industrially self-sufficient.  Stalin idealized industry and paid less favor to agriculture as he was in search of catching up with the rest of the world in technology.  What he didn’t realize (or care about) was the fact that BOTH areas of work are vital to a society that it trying to be self sufficient.  Not everyone can be a farmer, and not everyone can be an industrial worker.  The Soviet’s stress on industry left agriculture to struggle to feed the nation and themselves.  Often times, the food they did produce went to the cities, leaving the rural areas to experience widespread famine.  This alone shows the glorification and emphasis on industry with the Five Year Plan.

Workers in Magnitogorsk

Secondly, Magnitogorsk is a perfect example of the rapid changes in the Soviet Union during this time.  As stated earlier, the nation was playing a huge game of catch up with the rest of the world.  Magnitogorsk was only planned in 1928 and was granted township in 1931.  Construction of the factories and housing had begun before city planner, Ernst May, had even finished planning for the city.  In order to accomplish the Five Year Plan (which according to Stalin’s regime should ACTUALLY be accomplished in four years) there was no time to waste.  Construction and production needed to happen as soon as possible.  This immediate rush to construct a city resulted in many problems for Magnitogorsk as it developed.  Workers and eventually families lives in tents, mud huts, and poorly put together dormitories where sleeping happened in shifts.  The feel of Magnitogorsk was very much a feeling of competition with other industrial sites.  Whether those other sites knew they were engaged in a competition can be debated, but the attitude of the Soviets in building Magnitogorsk and during the Five Year Plan in general was definitely a competitive spirit.  This spirit was captured in Time Forward!, a book published in 1932 about the technical backwardness of the regime.  To read more about the novel, click here.

Lastly, the rapid development of Magnitogorsk was partly a result of the population shift.  Due to the problems with collective farming and widespread famine among rural populations, many peasants fled to the cities for their livelihood.  As stated by Freeze in the text, the city went from 25 inhabitants in March 1929 to 250,000 by the fall of 1932.  That is an incredible increase in population and demonstrates how ‘ruralization’ took place.  ‘Ruralization’, as coined by Moshe Lewin in the Freeze text, meaning “the squeezing of the village into the city and the subjection of urban spaces to rural ways”.  Public places became temporary shelters and bazaars because of the influx of so many peasants.  Life in the industrial world was not luxurious, so the rapid growth of the city goes to show how bad collectivization was and the effect it had on peasants.

Magnitogorsk is such an interesting city, between it’s rapid growth and it’s overly ambitious expectations.  It was known as Russia’s model city at the time as it demonstrated so many points of the Five Year Plan in its very being.  However, the last passage about the city in the Seventeen Moments in Soviet History blog speaks a lot about its symbolic alignment with the Soviet Union.

Magnitogorsk today

“…its significance as a symbol of revolutionary transformation declined, so too did capital investments and the efficiency of its mills. Officially closed to foreigners during the Second World War, Magnitogorsk was not opened again until the early 1980s by which time its steel plant had become badly outdated and its air badly polluted.”
***Magnitogorsk ‘thrived’ and had ambitious goals of becoming the best there ever was in the world, but it quickly fell and vanished as a symbol of greatness because it was rushed and was not built on stable plans.  We watch this same rapid growth with Russia, as well as the catastrophic repercussions that come from snap judgements, unrealistic expectations, and poor planning on the part of Soviet leadership.

Read more about Stalin’s model town:Seventeen Moments in Soviet History: Magnetic Mountain
Magnitogorsk: Once Stalin’s Model Town, Now a Polluted Hell-Hole
Magnitogorsk: Wikipedia
Freeze, Gregory L. “Building Stalinism.” Russia: A History. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997. Print.

Pictures found here:http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/magnitogorsk-once-stalin-model-town-polluted/16708
http://pcgladiator.blogspot.com/2008/12/crowds.html