Russia, Poland Honor Soviet Massacre Victims

THE GIST:

• Russia's Vladimir Putin and Poland's Donald Tusk honored 22,000 Poles murdered by Soviet forces.
• Soviet propaganda had blamed Nazi Germany for the massacre.
• Tensions remain between the Poles and the Russians, but both sides urge reconciliation.

In an unprecedented diplomatic show, the Russian and Polish prime ministers on Wednesday honored 22,000 Poles murdered 70 years ago by Soviet forces in the Katyn Forest.

Russia's Vladimir Putin and Poland's Donald Tusk are the first leaders of their countries to attend a joint ceremony honoring victims of the notorious World War II massacre ordered by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The event has cast a long cloud over their bilateral relations.

"This crime cannot be justified in any way," Putin told reporters at the site but stopped short of apologizing for the massacre, a gesture Poles have long urged.

For years, Soviet propaganda blamed the massacre on Nazi Germany.

WATCH VIDEO: Stalin prepares the Russian troops for battle. Scenes of Russian military and people are shown here.

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"A lie was told for decades, but we cannot blame the Russian people for it," Putin added, insisting "inhuman totalitarianism" was responsible for the "martyred death of both Soviet citizens and Polish officers."

He also urged reconciliation between Russia and Poland, which have also had tense relations since Poland cast off Soviet communist domination.

"In the 21st century Europe, there is no alternative but for Poland and Russia to be good neighbors," Putin insisted.

"We still have a way to go on the road to reconciliation," Poland's Tusk said. "A word of truth can mobilize two peoples looking for the road to reconciliation. Are we capable of transforming a lie into reconciliation? We must believe we can."

The two leaders laid the cornerstone of a new Russian Orthodox church at the site of the massacre, near Smolensk in western Russia, and paid respect to Soviet victims of Stalinist-era terror campaigns buried next to the Polish officers.

In spring sunshine, Poles and Russians including relatives of the dead gathered for solemn prayers at the memorial site in the Katyn Forest.

In April-May 1940, Soviet NKVD secret police massacred Polish military elites, including landowners, teachers, lawyers or doctors mobilized after Nazi Germany's September 1, 1939 invasion of Poland. They were captured by the Red Army following its September 17 invasion from the east.

Although the slaughter was committed in several places, Katyn has become its chief symbol.

It represents what was perhaps the most flagrant lie proffered for half a century by Soviet propaganda, which long claimed Nazi Germany was to blame.

Although in 1990 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that Moscow was responsible, even today few Russians -- long fed on Soviet propaganda -- know the truth about Katyn.

Katyn remains a painful issue in Polish-Russian relations, which have often been tense since Poland shrugged off Soviet-style communism in 1989, joining NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.

Russian courts have classified the vast majority of files in the Katyn massacre case, making it impossible to access information that could help find some 7,000 Polish officers still missing.

On March 5, the Russian group "Memorial" called on President Dmitry Medvedev to reopen the investigation into this "war crime and crime against humanity".

As a sign of the new openness on this question earlier this month, Russia's public Kultura television channel aired "Katyn", a film by Polish director Andrzej Wajda about the massacre.

After the ceremonies at the Katyn cemetery, Putin and Tusk were to hold talks in nearby Smolensk during a meeting of a joint task-force on "difficult issues" in bilateral relations.

Among the most contentious issues, is Poland's decision to host U.S. Patriot missiles on its soil and the possible involvement of Warsaw in the new version of a planned U.S. missile shield.

Both are the source of considerable concern for the Kremlin.

Poland has opposed the joint Russian-German NordStream project to build a natural gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea floor, thus bypassing Polish territory.

Warsaw sees this as a threat to its energy security, not to mention lost gas transit earnings.