To: lizol
If that was Stalin’s idea - he could easily send them to Vorkuta, or to some other equally nice place.==
Maybe.
But he ordered to shoot them - as he wanted to destroy the elite of the Polish nation - to melt the rest into Soviet crowd.==
Those officers were only elite Poland had? I did never think over that.
In Russia we always think that the military officers or generals sometime are quite limited in thier views. The civilians: the writers, the painters, the musicians, the scientists are the elite.
Military officers are quite educated but in very narrow terms. Just to most effectively kill other military with weaponry to command thir soldiers.
So Stalin-Beria just wanted to get rid of the possible insurgents. No wonder they let go home polish soldiers. Thought that without thier command they are not dangerous.
I wonder what Germans did with thier polish POWs. They took them in much bigger numbers then Soviet Union? Why you do not request the genocide accpectance in case of those POWs?
33 posted on
11/01/2007 3:07:05 AM PDT by
RusIvan
(ABM can be used to fend off the weakered by first strike reciprocal answer.)
To: RusIvan
Stalin spent a lot more time during the war thinking about after the war than the other Allies.
At Katyn, the Soviets killed the cream of the crop — the military officers who would be candidates for future leaders. And then, in the final push to Warsaw, the Red Army waited on the opposite side of the Vistula while the Polish resistance rose up against the Nazis; they decided to let their enemies kill each other off.
That way, the only Poles who were left with the skills and ambition to lead post-war Poland were the communist cadres Moscow had in its pocket.
To: RusIvan
Those officers were only elite Poland had? I did never think over that.
In Russia we always think that the military officers or generals sometime are quite limited in thier views. The civilians: the writers, the painters, the musicians, the scientists are the elite.
And again you prove, that you'll not spoil any chance to show your ignorance in relation to Poland.
Since Poland's conscription system required every unexempted university graduate to become a reserve officer,[6] the Soviets were thus able to round up much of the Polish intelligentsiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre
Majority of the thousands of officers murdered in Katyn (and other places) were reserve officers - drafted to the Polish Army just before the war.
In their civilian lives they had been writers, painters, musicians, scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers etc. etc.)
Another thing:
In the wake of the Red Army's quick advance that met little resistance, between 250,000 and 454,700 Polish soldiers had become prisoners and were interned by the Soviets. About 250,000 were set free by the army almost on the spot, while 125,000 were delivered to the internal security services (the NKVD). The NKVD in turn quickly released 42,400 soldiers. The approximately 170,000 released were mostly soldiers of Ukrainian and Belarusian ethnicity serving in the Polish army. The 43,000 soldiers born in West Poland, now under German control, were transferred to the Germans. By November 19, 1939, NKVD had about 40,000 Polish POWs: about 8,500 officers and warrant officers, 6,500 police officers and 25,000 soldiers and NCOs who were still being held as POWs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre#Prelude
Hmmmm, I really wonder why they set free those of Ukrainian and Belarusian ethnicity, but kept the Polish ones. (sarcasm)
36 posted on
11/01/2007 5:04:35 AM PDT by
lizol
(Liberal - a man with his mind open ... at both ends)
To: RusIvan
I wonder what Germans did with thier polish POWs. They took them in much bigger numbers then Soviet Union? Why you do not request the genocide accpectance in case of those POWs?
They kept them in POW camps (oflags and stalags) together with Western POWs.
That's hardly a genocide.
Sure they also murdered many Polish soldiers and civilians, but they have never denied that was a genocide.
37 posted on
11/01/2007 5:10:48 AM PDT by
lizol
(Liberal - a man with his mind open ... at both ends)
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