Poland has launched a contest for school students to commemorate the Katyn massacre – in which over 20,000 Poles were shot in the back of the head by the Soviet secret police – through art, songs, and short stories.

The contest entitled The Polish heart broke: Katyn 1940 is organised by the ministries of culture, defence, the interior, and education, as well as the President of the Republic, TV, and radio public broadcaster, the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), and the Polish Parliament.

Entry is open to secondary school students aged 15 to 21 in three categories: art, literature, and song lyrics. University students aged up to 26 can also submit lesson plans relating to Katyn. Winners receive a laptop, with tablets and e-book readers for second and third place.

The first edition of the contest, in 2020, saw 700 submissions, while last year that rose to almost 4,000.

In 1940, around 22,000 Polish military officers and members of the intelligentsia, who had been taken prisoner following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, were murdered in mass executions in the USSR. The plan had been proposed by Lavrentiy Beria, head of the secret police, and approved by Joseph Stalin himself.

When the mass graves were discovered in 1943 by Nazi Germany, the Soviets rejected demands for an international investigation and blamed the Germans for the crime. The latter remained the USSR’s official position until 1990 when Moscow finally acknowledged responsibility for the massacres.

However, revisionism about Katyn – like other Soviet crimes – has remained strong in Russia, and has often received endorsement from the authorities.

Cover photo: IPN

Author: Sebastien Meuwissen