Katyn- forgiven and forgotten?

Wrong.The Russians were never allies with Poles.Russians were allies only with British and Americans on the western front and with noone on the asian,pacific front.

As Owen O'Malley reported to Anthony Eden 11-2-1944, "To speak of them never is the advice which I have been giving to the Polish Government, but it has been unnecessary.They have received the Russian report in silence.

The Poles conducted themselves with dignity- much more importantly according to you, showing themselves to be devoid of emotion.

Explain what justice occurred.

i didnt say it justice happened did i anielka? I said that we must rememeber yes, but that we learn from it. that we should not foster hatred as nothing is achieved and the cycle of hatred remains unbroken.

Poles fought with the Western Allies from the beginning of WW2. Stalin joined Churchill and Roosevelt, heading the Western Allies after being attacked by Hitler 22-6-1941- officially then becoming a Western ally, in turn becoming Poland's ally. The Russians declared amnesty for the Poles in Russia .
Amittedly the Russo-Polish alliance was hostile and created angst in the Western Alliance.

Russians were allies to whom?To the exiled polish government in London and the army of Bor Komarovski or to the communist groups of Poland?
Soviets supported in every case the communist parties and not the national,righteous governments(see Yugoslavia,etc).

This has nothing to do with RUSSIA. Look for resposibles in IZRAEL!

Katyn - 1940

Birth of the Jewish state- 1947

You are a fool.

Katyn must never be forgotten. My family who trusted Russia went to meet and fight with them only to have Polands "unarmed" men's hands tied behind their backs and shot in the head. Never has this world had to face such a barbaric situation. Polands front line from WWl woken in the night (Feb. 1940) as they slept with their family. Again "unarmed" farmers on reserve in eastern Poland. Taken to box cars and used in concentration camps as forced labor. Forgive means Russia needs to take full responsability and restitution to the families they destroyed. Poland was silenced to speak of this for far to long. Russia must understand the victims and their families remember and now cannot be forced into silence.

Note: I do not blame the present Russians for the sins of their fathers. At the same time it is them that have to clean up their fathers messes. They will be the better people for this and show the world they care. To not do so will leave many feeling they accept past actions. And healing, trust and respect will fail to grow.
Carol USA

Who would apologise? Some decrepit pensioner who probably didnt even take part,or some slimey toad like putin? Would an apology actually solve anything,did the apologies given in countless 1970s westerns for the slaughter of the plains indians bring them back?Did any apoligy by a country ever bring any solace for the families of those lost to brutality? Just be thankfull no Poles served in the far east,you certainly wouldnt be buying jappanese goods if your ancestors had been starved to death or beheaded in long rows and held for the entire war in those hell holes, Tokyos apologies mean nothing to the far east veterns I know,meetings with former foes and reconciliation direct with the people who were there on both sides is the only soloution,as this is not possible in the case of katyn Im afraid,from an outsiders point of veiw you have two simple choises; Ball yourselfs up in hate for long dead murderers and never move on, or remember it as the tragedy it was and move on a little from there,all this hate will only serve one purpose and that is to give you a righteous ulcer because it certainly wont bring back the stolen lives.

isthatu, Yes it is I. No we do not "Ball yourself up in hate" and yes "Putin" should stand up like a man for his country and take responsibility (once and for all) and verbally let the history book show that Russians are sorry that their forefathers committed these atrocious actions. After this they could ask how they can seek a resolve that may defer this behavior from ever taking place again. Without Putin taking these actions can they be trusted or for that matter start a positive relationship. They not only killed "unarmed" men in "Katlyn", what about the killing and deportation to Siberia of the Polish. We also await the same. Guess that sucks for Putin.

This is my take on the issue of apologies:

The thing of (possible) Russian apologies is actually pretty important for the future relations between Russia and Poland. As of now, the official line in Russia is (give or take) that Poland was the aggressor (cultural, military and political)against Russia, and an ungrateful one at that. After all, all Russians "know" that Poland has so much to be grateful for all the Russian "help" during communist times. They honestly think we owe them. While an average person off the street doesn't really have much say in politics between two countries (and certainly not a Russian person), the status quo does create a situation where any constructive co-operation and mutual tolerance is not really possible, except if Poland starts kissing the Russian butt. The amount of hatred towards Poland in Russia can be rivaled only by the hatred Chavez has towards the US.

Btw. I saw the movie. A piece of sad history but certainly ot a piece of art.

from papurec.org
URL

Hi Poles,

I've seen Katyn film recently, this is masterpiece.

We have different history, in Soviet books there's different presentation of the fact. As well as that of horrible genocide, we call it ethnocide, that took lives of 10 millions (!!!!) of my people and not all the countries have recognised it as the crime of Soviets against Ukrainians! That was Stalin's reaction to our resistance to give our lands, abandon farming. They made people eat each other...
And GULAG. We haven't found the graves of our relatives, Soviets always sent them somewhere to Far East where they disappeared forever. Tortures weren't only physical, psychological were more monstruous. It horrifies, how human being, social one, could do it for another.
We studied one history at school, at homes we had another, forbidden to discuss with friends (our grandparents were still scared). The Socialist Revolution was created by the worst bastards, uneducated, criminals. The other leaders who saw communism as their real dream, commited suicide when they saw in what bloody reality has turned their "distant star of commune" (Mykola Khvylovy). Such authors as Bagrany, Barka appeared in our literature 10 years ago; their works created half a century ago are that bare truth, we're so eager to know.
We have different history with our parents. They were relatively happy with Soviet Union - free education, appartment, work. Our grandparents are full of hatred to communism, not all of them, though. Those ones, who were parasites, were always happy, the real faces of Soviet power.

We're grieving with you, all our respect, pain and light memory to millions and millions victims of that unhuman criminal Soviet machine.
Never and never forget...