Katyn (village)

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For other uses of "Katyn", see Katyn (disambiguation).

Katyn (Russian: Каты́нь; Polish: Katyń) is a village (selo) in Smolensky District of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located approximately twelve miles to the west of Smolensk.

The Katyn Forest in the vicinity of the village was the site of the Katyn massacre in the time of World War II, in which captured Polish officers and other citizens were killed. The Soviet Union initially blamed Nazi Germany, but in 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that Soviet leadership was responsible.

A number of earlier mass graves of victims of the Soviet system have also been found there, as Katyn Forest had long been used as an execution site for Soviet citizens.

Coincidentally, in the Polish language the word "kat" is translated as "an executioner" or "one that torments", which adds to unpleasant perception of the village name in Poland.[citation needed]

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