Katyń Crime

22 June 1941

Nazi Germany’s invasion of the USSR, beginning of the German- Soviet war.

1 July 1941

Beginning of the USSR’s cooperation with Western Allies.

30 July 1941

London. Singing of the Sikorski – Mayski Pact. Poland and the USSR resume diplomatic relations.

4 August 1941

General Władysław Anders is released from the Lubyanka prison.

10 August 1941

Władysław Sikorski appoints General Władysław Anders Commander of the Polish Army in the USSR.

12 August 1941

The USSR authorities announce amnesty for the Polish citizens arrested, interned or exiled after 17 September 1939.

14 August 1941

The Polish-Soviet Military Convention, under which General Anders begins to form the Polish Army in the USSR, is signed.

1 September 1941

The first recruitment points of the Polish Army in the USSR are opened. Only few Polish officers reach the recruitment points.

1 May 1942 - 1 July 1942

The Polish Government in London addresses a memorandum and successive notes to the Soviet authorities about the Polish officers missing in the USSR.

19 March 1942

Beginning of the evacuation of the Polish Army from the USSR to the Middle East.

1 July 1942

Summer 1942 — Polish forced labourers working near Smolensk for Germany’s Todt organization learn from the local population about the burial site of Polish prisoners of war executed by the NKVD at the Katyń forest.

1 September 1942

The end of evacuation of the Polish Army from the USSR to the Middle East.