In a symbolic admission of guilt, Russia's parliament has declared that Joseph Stalin ordered his secret police to execute 22,000 Polish army officers and civilians in 1940, in one of the greatest mass murders of the 20th century. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/26/russian-parliament-guilt-katyn-massacre My grandfather was enlisted in the Polish military at the start of World War 2. When Poland was divided between Russia and Germany he was on the Russian side. The Russians executed the officers but my grandfather was spared because he was in the enlisted ranks. They sent him to a labor camp, I believe in Siberia. As it's been explained to me the Russians were literally working the Polish soldiers to death. Not wanting to be worked to death my grandfather and a small group of other prisoners chose to escape. I read this article and remembered the story about my grandfather. Seeing as this is a martial arts forum I thought I'd share.
oh that's no secret, i studied russian history for years and i always knew stalin had them killed and not the nazis.
Honestly, I was surprised to hear it was a "secret". I was always just told that was what happened, but apparently there has been Russian denial. I guess it's hard to keep things like mass murder under wraps. Honestly the sudden turn of events is more probably political than anything else.
Well, everyone has known for years, decades even, but the Russian government has just now apologized and admitted its acts.
Similarly I've had Uncles who died in China during Japanese invasion/occupation. I was only recently told this a few years ago, it was family (Brothers) that my Dad never met as they died prior to his birth in 1949. I never thought about it and how close family it was until my Mother mentioned it and I realised that Dad wasnt born too far from the end of WW2 and being the 5th child in the family. Its not confirmed how they passed away, some say it was starvation, other people said it was via other means. Records werent really kept (or kept well) back in those days.
Just came across this: http://www.gazeta.ru/news/lenta/2010/12/06/n_1604137.shtml Russian President awards "Order of Friendship" to the director of the film linked above.