Katyn (village)

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

Katyn (Russian: Каты́нь; Polish: Katyń ['katɨnʲ]) 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 was initially blamed by Nazi Germany and in 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that the NKVD had executed the Poles and confirmed two other burial sites similar to the site at Katyn: Mednoje and Pyatikhatki.

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.