• kot [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    No, the “people repeating this version of the story” are not just a handful of western propagandists and nationalists. This story is accepted by everyone except for a few MLs.

    It’s accepted by anyone with a bone to pick with the soviet union or AES states in general. If you look for information online on this it almost always comes from liberal sources. It’s also “generally accepted” that China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs, and it’s mostly MLs who believe otherwise. It doesn’t stop it from being bunk.

    On April 14, 1943 he wrote "We are now using the discovery of 12,000 Polish officers, murdered by the GPU, for anti-Bolshevik propaganda on a grand scale.

    And on 8 May 1943, he wrote:

    “Unfortunately, German ammunition has been found in the graves at Katyn It is essential that this incident remains top secret. If it were to come to the knowledge of the enemy the whole Katyn affair would have to be dropped.”

    Evidence of Soviet guilt was provided in the 90s - Beria’s letter to Stalin comes to mind.

    A letter which is of dubious authenticity. Why didn’t Khrushchev use such a letter in his smear campaign against Stalin, if it was genuine? Why keep it a secret for so long after the Soviet State became hostile to the figure of Stalin? Viktor Iliukhin also produced evidence for the drafts of the forgery in 2010, and the contents contradict what we do know about the site anyway. You could also argue that he made a forgery out of his own forgery documents, and we would be arguing over who forged which documents endlessly. But we know that Khrushchev lied about Stalin repeatedly, Gorbachev wouldn’t be beneath it either.

    Recent investigations into the mass graves done by polish archeologists showed that the victims didn’t have anything made after 1940 on them.

    “Recent investigations” until about 2012 also pointed towards a 1941 date:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20131219001802/http://www.kresykedzierzynkozle.home.pl/attachments/File/Rap.pdf

    It actually says that it couldn’t have been done earlier than 1941:

    Z pewnością stwierdzono, że zbrodnia została dokonana nie wcześniej niż w 1941 roku. (p.4)

    It is confirmed with certainty that the crime did not take place earlier than 1941.

    • robinn_IV@hexbear.net
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      10 months ago

      And on 8 May 1943, he wrote: “Unfortunately, German ammunition has been found in the graves at Katyn It is essential that this incident remains top secret. If it were to come to the knowledge of the enemy the whole Katyn affair would have to be dropped.”

      You forgot at least an ellipses in your quote, here is the full version (part you cut out in bold):

      “Unfortunately German munitions were found in the graves of Katyn. The question of how they got there needs clarification. It is either a case of munitions sold by us during the period of [the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (1939-1941)], or of the Soviets themselves throwing these munitions into the graves. In any case it is essential that this incident be kept top secret. If it were to come to the knowledge of the enemy the whole Katyn affair would have to be dropped.”

      Goebbels, Joseph. The Goebbels Diaries: 1942-1943, edited by Louis P. Lochner, Doubleday, 1948, p. 354.

      This confirms exactly what they said. The “throwing munitions” excuse is obviously untrue but I’m not sure about sold ammunitions.