In 1951 and 1952 , with the Korean War as a background , a congressional investigation chaired by Rep. Ray Madden and known as the Madden Committee investigated the Katyn massacre . It concluded the Poles had been killed by the Soviet NKVD and recommended the Soviets be tried before the International Court of Justice . However , the question of responsibility remained controversial in the West as well as behind the Iron Curtain . In the United Kingdom in the late 1970s plans for a memorial to the victims bearing the date 1940 ( rather than 1941 ) were condemned as provocative in the political climate of the Cold War . It has also been alleged the choice made in 1969 for the location of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic war memorial at the former Belarusian village named Khatyn , the site of the 1943 Khatyn massacre , was made to cause confusion with Katyn . The two names are similar or identical in many languages , and were often confused
Khatyn massacre
Khatyn massacre
Katyn massacre