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Politburo Protocol no. 3 on Measures to Counteract Western Propaganda on the Katyn Question (Excerpt)

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By Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), Bolshevik Party, Bolshevik Center, Central Committee, RKP(b), Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Executive Commission of the Bolshevik Party, Executive Committee of Bolsheviks, Provincial and Regional Party Committees of the RKP(b), Communist Party of the Soviet Union, CPSU, All-Union Communist Party, VKP(b), CC and CCC of the VKP(b), Central Control Commission of the VKP(b), Republic and Territorial (Regional) Control Commissions, Conference of the Russian Communist Party, Plenium of the Central Committee VKP(b) (Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party), RK VKP(b), Congress of the Communist Party, Central Committee of the VKP(b) (All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment

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Document 112

Politburo Protocol no. 3 on Measures to Counteract Western Propaganda on the Katyn Question (Excerpt)

This document was first published in Materski, KDL, no. 22; a Polish translation also appears in Snopkiewicz and Zakrzewski, Dokumenty Katynia: Decyzja, pp. 66–68.

5 April 1976, Moscow

No. P3/75

Top Secret

To: The Smolensk Oblast Committee, CPSU

To Coms. Brezhnev, Kosygin, Andropov, Gromyko,

Kirilenko, Ponomarev, Katushev, Smirtiukov

Excerpt from Protocol no. 3 of the Politburo CC CPSU Session

of 5 April 1976

On Countermeasures against Western Propaganda

on the So-Called Katyn Question 1. Agree to [the request of] Polish friends for consultations with the goal of discussing possible common measures to counteract Western propaganda on the so-called Katyn Question after instructing the Department of the CC CPSU USSR and the MID USSR to conduct the consultations.

The Central Committee department involved was the Department of Contacts with Fraternal Communist Parties.

Assume in this case the necessity of closely coordinating the steps [to be taken] by the USSR and the Polish People's Republic in order to counteract and neutralize antisocialist and anti-Soviet actions and campaigns in the West in connection with the “Katyn Question.” Consider as inexpedient any official declarations from our side so as to avoid giving hostile elements cause to use [them] in polemics on this question for anti-Soviet objectives. 2. Instruct the Department of the CC CPSU USSR and MID USSR to learn the opinions of the Polish friends, expressed in the course of consultations and, in case of necessity, submit appropriate proposals to the CC CPSU. 3. The MID USSR, in close contact with the diplomatic representatives of the Polish People's Republic, should firmly resist provocative attempts to use the so-called Katyn Question to harm Polish-Soviet friendship, being directed in this [resistance] by the decisions of the CC CPSU of 2 March 1973 (No. P80/12].

See doc. 111.

4. The KGB USSR should, through unofficial channels, make it clear to persons in government circles of appropriate Western countries that the renewed use of various anti-Soviet forgeries is seen by the Soviet government as especially intentional provocation aimed at worsening the international situation.

Page 337

5. Instruct the Smolensk Oblast CPSU Committee and the Oblast Executive Committee to undertake supplementary measures to ensure the proper maintenance of the monument to the Polish officers and the surrounding area.

This was the monument erected at Katyn in memory of the Polish officers after the Burdenko Commission investigation in January 1944 and renovated in 1969. The inscription, in Russian and Polish, stated that the officers were murdered by the German-Fascist occupiers in the fall of 1941; for photographs, see Zawodny, Katyń, facing p. 144.

Secretary CC

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Document TitlePolitburo Protocol no. 3 on Measures to Counteract Western Propaganda on the Katyn Question (Excerpt)

AuthorRussian Communist Party (Bolshevik), Bolshevik Party, Bolshevik Center, Central Committee, RKP(b), Members of the Central Committee of the; Communist Party, Executive Commission of the Bolshevik; Party, Executive Committee of Bolsheviks, Provincial and Regional Party Committees of; the RKP(b), Communist Party of the Soviet Union,; CPSU, All-Union Communist Party, VKP(b), CC and CCC of the VKP(b), Central Control Commission of the; VKP(b), Republic and Territorial (Regional) Control; Commissions, Conference of the Russian Communist; Party, Plenium of the Central Committee VKP(b); (Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party), RK VKP(b), Congress of the Communist Party, Central Committee of the VKP(b) (All-Union; Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

RecipientN/A

RepositoryAPRF

ID #f.3, op.78, d.1618, ll.63-68

DescriptionN/A

Date1976 Apr 5

AOC VolumeKatyn: A Crime Without Punishment

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