On 26 November 2010 the State Duma plans to adopt a statement on the Katyn tragedy, a draft of which states that the shooting of thousands of Polish citizens, detained in NKVD prisoner of war camps and prisons in the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, is a tragedy “for both Poland and Russia,” RIA Novosti news agency reports. As stated in the draft statement, official Soviet propaganda laid responsibility for the atrocity, that has received the general name of "Katyn tragedy," on Nazi criminals. This version has for many years been a subject of latent, but nonetheless fierce, debate in Soviet society and invariably has given rise to anger, resentment and mistrust on the part of the Polish people,” the draft document states.

The statement says that at the beginning of the 1990s Russia took “important steps towards establishing the truth about the Katyn tragedy.” “Published materials that were for many years kept in secret archives not only reveal the extent of this terrible tragedy, but also bear witness to the fact that the Katyn crime was committed on the direct orders of Stalin and other Soviet leaders,” the draft states. The Duma deputies believe: “It is necessary to further study the archives, verify the lists of those killed and restore the good names of those who were killed at Katyn and other places, and to find out all the circumstances of the tragedy.”

“Sharing in grief with the Polish people, the State Duma deputies recall that Katyn is a tragic place for our country also. In the ditches of Katyn thousands of Soviet citizens destroyed by the Stalin regime in the years 1936-1938 lie buried,” the draft statement says.

“Decisvely condemning the regime that neglected the rights and lives of people, the State Duma deputies, in the name of the Russian people, stretch a hand of friendship to the Polish people and express the hope that a new phase in relations between our countries is beginning, and one that will develop on the basis of democratic values," the draft statement says. Achieving such a result will be “the best monument to the victims of the Katyn tragedy,” according to the State Duma.

 

On 2 November Moscow City Court rejected the suit of the Memorial human rights organization that the materials of the Katyn case be declassified. Aleksandr Guryanov, a representative of Memorial, said that in the course of the case the identity of the person at whose initiative the historical texts were classified was established.  “This turned out to be the Chief Military Prosecutor," Guryanov said. "But at the same time the representative of this organization claimed that no alternative had been possible, since the secret information had originated in another department,” Guryanov said.