Despite this, the strategic alignment returned to its previous state just two weeks later. The Katyn Lie was born and lived on for decades. It was only in the 1990s, that the Soviet Union admitted its responsibility for the massacre. Yet, despite the passage of 80 years since its reveal, Katyn remains an open chapter. To this day, we still do not know the identities of all the victims and their burial places.

For years, the official memory of the events upheld by the Polish and Soviet communist governments differed from the one nurtured by the victims’ families, political emigrants and the anti-communist opposition…How does this memory look today? There are many ways to describe the tragic events of 1940. Some see it as an unprecedented atrocity, one which went against binding conventions and trampled basic values – “the sacred conviction that you don’t murder prisoners of war”, as stated by Józef Czapski. For others, it was not only a perfidious crime, but also a textbook example of cynicism, where truth was manipulated to secure short and long-term goals. The Katyn Families talk about their loved ones who did not come back from the war, and whose funerals took place 60 years later. Each one of these interpretations generates strong emotions and raises additional questions.

How was it possible that the Katyn Lie was maintained for so many years? Who were the guardians of the truth? Will ongoing Russian manipulations affect awareness about the nature of the atrocity and the identity of those responsible?  Early in the 21st century, as the Katyn cemeteries were being established, it seemed that the period of mourning had passed – replaced by an era of ritual annual commemorations. It was inconceivable that it would be impossible to freely visit these cemeteries just 20 years later. Or that in March 2022, the Katyn cemetery in Kharkiv would be struck by a bomb used in the assault on the city.

Since February 2022, the ongoing full-scale Russian war against Ukraine has created brutal new contexts for the events of 80 years ago. The question of what sort of remembrance of the Katyn massacre is necessary today and in the future has become even more relevant.