IPN received 11 volumes of Russian files on Katyń Massacre - Warsaw, 7 July 2011

Photograph: Prezydent.pl

On 7 July 2011, the head of the Chancellery of the President of Poland, Minister Jacek Michałowski handed over to the President of the Institute of National Remebrance, Dr. Łukasz Kamiński a next batch of copies of the files of the investigation No. 159 carried out by Supreme Military Prosecutor Office of the Russian Federation. These records will be included into the investigation on Katyn Massacre carried out by the prosecutors of the Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation.

Until now, the Russian partners have sent, for the purposes of the investigation, 137 volumes of files, including:

• • copies of 67 volumes of files, which the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev handed to the President of the Republic of Poland Bronisław Komorowski on 8 May 2010 (the prosecutors conducting the proceedings got acquainted with these materials in Moscow on 9-21 October 2005. It was not, however, possible to make copies of documents)
• • copies of 20 volumes of files, which the Russian partners sent on 23 September 2010, via the Polish Embassy in Moscow
• • copies of the following 50 volumes of files, provided by the Russian partners via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 3 December 2010 (IPN received the files in March 2011).

Prosecutors of the Investigation Team carrying out the Polish investigation into the Katyn Massacre became acquainted with all materials provided so far by the Russian partners. Visual examination was carried out with the participation of a translation expertin order to select the documents relevant to the proceedings. No documents which could significantly change the existing findings of the investigation were identified as a result of the examination, in particular, the so-called the Belorussian Katyn List has not been found. Nevertheless, the documents selected by the prosecutors will allow for expansion and refinement of knowledge about the perpetrators of the crime and the crime mechanisms.

Currently, the first batch of documents considered by prosecutors to be crucial to the investigation is being translated.
 

Andrzej Arseniuk

IPN's Spokeperson