Stalin's Secret Operation: The Katyn Massacre
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the reality of atrocities in Ukraine continues to be uncovered, we look back at a massacre of Polish officers in the Second World War, the truth of which is still being exposed to this day. Under the orders of Stalin, in 1940 the NKVD carried out a secret operational order. However, for almost fifty years, the Soviet regime's fiction of Katyn being a Nazi atrocity was unchallenged. In this episode, writer and filmmaker Jane Rogoyska joins James once again on Warfare. As the author of Surviving Katyn: Stalin's Polish Massacre and the Search for Truth, Jane takes us through the results of decades-long efforts to unearth answers; as we focus on the experience of the few survivors and newly-opened archives.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Kattin Massacre of 22,000 Polish prisoners of war is a war crime that stands out in history, |
| 0:11.0 | committed in utmost secrecy between April and May 1940, it was undertaken on the direct |
| 0:17.5 | orders of Joseph Stalin. |
| 0:20.1 | For nearly 50 years, the Soviet regime succeeded in maintaining the fiction that Katin was a Nazi atrocity. |
| 0:27.0 | Their story left unchallenged by consecutive Western governments, fearful of upsetting a powerful wartime ally and then |
| 0:36.2 | a potent Cold War adversary. |
| 0:39.3 | I'm your host James Rogers. |
| 0:40.9 | This is the warfare podcast and as the shocking evidence of atrocities continues |
| 0:45.2 | to mount from the current war in Ukraine, I wanted to revisit Katin to explore the decades-long |
| 0:51.0 | search for answers. To do this I'm joined by Jane |
| 0:54.4 | Ragoiska the author of a new book Surviving Katin. By focusing on the |
| 0:59.1 | experience of the few survivors of the massacre and the forensic Polish wartime investigation, Jane reveals a |
| 1:06.4 | relentless quest for the truth in the face of a ruthless regime determined to suppress that very truth. |
| 1:15.0 | So here is Jane Ruggoyska on the Katin Massacre. |
| 1:19.0 | Hi Jane, welcome back to warfare how you doing today? |
| 1:26.0 | Very well thank you how are you. |
| 1:28.0 | Yes I'm good and it is great to have you back on the podcast. |
| 1:32.8 | I just wish it was under happier circumstances, |
| 1:35.2 | because as we are recording, |
| 1:36.8 | the world is still trying to understand |
| 1:38.6 | the extent of the alleged atrocities |
| 1:40.9 | by Russian troops against Ukrainian civilians and |
... |
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