The Katyn Forest , in the vicinity of the village , was the site of the Katyn massacre during World War II , in which thousands of captured Polish officers and other citizens were killed . Despite claims by the Poles , the Soviet Union blamed Nazi Germany for the mass murders and attempted to hide its involvement , going as far as to ban all mention of the Katyn massacre in the USSR . In 1990 , Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that the NKVD had executed the Poles and confirmed two other burial sites similar to the site at Katyn : Mednoye and Piatykhatky . A number of earlier mass graves of victims of the Soviet system have also been found there , because Katyn Forest had long been used as an execution site for Soviet citizens
Katyn massacre
Katyn massacre
Katyn (rural locality)