NKVD Katynės operacijos lietuvių ir buvusios Antrosios Lenkijos Respublikos Vilniaus vaivadijos gyventojų aukos

ENFrom the beginning of the Soviet Union’s existence, the military doctrine of this empire consisted in using every war that occurred, joining it in the last phase, in order to this tilt the scale of benefits to its side. Therefore, in 1939, the Soviet Union actively participated in secret talks with the III Reich, in accordance with its military doctrine, which led to signing the secret Ribbentrop-Molotov protocol. In September 1939, the Soviet Union carried out military aggression, after 17 days of waiting, for the Polish state to tip the scale of benefits in this war conflict on its side. In these activities, he utterly used propaganda, adopting the attitude of a “liberator” and “guarantor” of “order and peace”. The Soviet side aimed at eliminating people who did not fit into this Soviet model, as exemplified by mass deportations - on Soviet-occupied territories of eastern Poland and Lithuania after the annexation of that country to the USSR in June 1940 - and the Katyń Massacre. The fates of the soldiers of the Polish army who were taken prisoner by the Soviet Union were in accordance with the military doctrine of the Soviet empire. Prisoners of war in the three special camps of the NKVD Kozielsk, Ostaszków and Starobielsk were murdered (with few exceptions) in the number of21,857 in the spring o f1940 by the NKVD. In these three camps, as of March 16,1940, there were 8,425 officers, including 8,245 Poles, 35 Belarusians, 110 Jews, 2 Lithuanians, 14 Germans, 12 Ukrainians, 15 Russians and 2 Czechs. Both officers of the Polish Army, who declared their Lithuanian nationality, stayed in Kozielsk and both came from the Wilna province.In the camp Starobielsk were 218 officers from the Wilna province - 213 Poles, 1 Belarussian and 4 Jews. With the total number of officers in Starobielsk 3,899 people, from Wilna province (perhaps among Poles there may be polonised Lithuanians) constitute 5.6% of the camps population. In Kozielsk, with a total of 4,494 people (including two Lithuanian officers), we have 287 people from Wilna province - 271 Poles, 4 Jews, 8 Belarusians, 1 German, 2 Lithuanians and 1 Ukrainian, which is 6.4%t)f all prisoners of this camp. We still have 35 people from the Wilna province from the territory included in the USSR in the number of 35 people (34 Poles and 1 Belarus). This 322 residents lived in Kozielsk, which is 7.2% of all prisoners of this camp. There is no similar statement for the camp in Ostaszków - only we know that there were 6 people in it, defined as “residents of the territory incorporated into Lithuania”. In this camp, 5,529 police sergeants from the Wilna province came from 64 people. 73 members of the gendarmerie (all registered as Poles) were kept in the camp, including 13 from the Wilna province. Despite very difficult conditions and intimidation, none of the inhabitants of Wilna province and Lithuanians disgraced the officers’ ethos and cuts. However, in the NKVD special camps such things happened.