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Beria's Memorandum to Molotov on Sending Home Polish Soldier POWs, Residents of Western Belorussia and Western Ukraine, and Delivering to the German Authorities POWs Who Are Residents of German Pol...

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By Beria, Lavrenty Pavlovich

Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment

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Document 18

Extracts were sent to Beria and Molotov. “Protocol 8/61,” handwritten on the document, refers to the minutes of the Politburo meeting of 13 October 1939, which ratified Beria's proposals as a Politburo decision. The protocol is also mentioned in the footnote; see notes to KD1/52, p. 144.

11 October 1939, Moscow

Handwritten across the top part of the first page: “Za [For] Molotov, K. Voroshilov, Stalin.”

Above the words “To Com. Molotov” are the following names written one beneath the other, probably in the hand of Stalin's secretary: “Com. Mikoyan, Com. [Andrei] Andreev, Com. Kaganovich, Com. Zhdanov, Com. Kalinin.”

In the margin of the first page: “O. P. [Special file]. NKVD matter.”

On the lower portion of the second page: “Extracts to Beria, Molotov, and L. M. Kaganovich.” Below that: “Protocol 8/61 of 13 October 1939.”

Stamp of the VKP(b) TsK Secretariat in the upper left-hand corner of the first page; under it: “11 October 1939 No. 4584/5.”

No. 4584/B

Top Secret SNK USSR To Comrade Molotov.

In accordance with the decision of the VKP(b) TsK and the SNK USSR on POWs,

See doc. 14.

the USSR NKVD has completed the work of selecting POWs who are residents of Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia, and their dispatch to their homeland began on 10 October. Their departure will be finalized on 18 October.

After the dispatch of these POWs, out of the rank-and-file contingent in the camps about 33,000 soldier prisoners of war will remain who are residents of territories of former Poland now part of Germany, primarily Poles.

The USSR NKVD considers it expedient to ratify the following proposals of Com. Beria: that all soldier POWs who are residents of the German portion of the former Poland, numbering about 33,000 people, be handed over in the near future to German authorities, for which purpose negotiations should begin with the government of Germany.

The italicized phrases were underlined in red pencil by Stalin.

The transfer of POWs shall be carried out directly on the border at these points: a) Terespol—sending echelons via Zhitkovichi [Żytkowice], Luninets [Luniniec], and Pinsk [Pińsk], and b) Dorogusk [Dorohusk]—sending echelons via Olevsk [Olewsk], Sarny, and Kovel [Kowel].

Page 71

Both these routes have been chosen in consultation with the NKPS in order to avoid the overburdened Bobruisk and Lvov railway junctions. c) Coordinated with the NKPS dispatch the echelons in the period between 23 October and 3 November.

Crossed out by Stalin in red pencil. The first struck-out sentence refers to point 2b (originally c) of the minutes of the Politburo meeting that ratified Beria's proposals as a Politburo decision on 13 October. Stalin's secretary probably drew up the decision of the Politburo based on the text of Beria's memorandum; see KDI/52. For other changes in the original text, see KD1/52, notes on p. 144; KDZ1/52, notes on pp. 160, 162.

The USSR NKVD requests your recommendations.

Beria's proposal was approved by the Politburo on 13 October 1939; see KD1/53; KDZ1/53; it was first published in Materski, Polscy Jeńcy Wojenni, no. 2. On 16 October the armed forces of the Kiev and Belorussian military districts received the People's State Defense Commissar's Directive no. 34280, signed by Kliment Voroshilov, which read: “You are allowed to receive POWs that the German Command is offering to us as natives of Western Belorussia and Western Ukraine.” However, “intelligence and counterintelligence officers, gendarmes, prison guards, and policemen identified in the reception process are to be handed over to the NKVD organs for placement in the camps”; see KD1/52, note, p. 409; KDZ1/52, n. 2.

USSR People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L. Beria

Transcription

Document Details

Document TitleBeria's Memorandum to Molotov on Sending Home Polish Soldier POWs, Residents of Western Belorussia and Western Ukraine, and Delivering to the German Authorities POWs Who Are Residents of German Poland

AuthorBeria, Lavrenty Pavlovich

RecipientSkriabin, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich (Molotov)

RepositoryAPRF

ID #f.3, op.5, d.615, ll.47-48

DescriptionN/A

Date1939 Oct 11

AOC VolumeKatyn: A Crime Without Punishment

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