The issue isn't just one Soviet outrage. Russia's relations with just about all its neighbours, and through them with Europe and the world, are poisoned first by countless acts of Soviet oppression and atrocities against them which were primarily carried out by Russians, second by Stalin's gross lies about these events, and thirdly by post-Soviet Russia's spineless, cynical and utterly offensive continued embrace of those Stalinist lies. Until Russia firmly turns its back on Stalinism, starts acknowledging the truth about Stalinist crimes and of Russians' participation in them and seeks genuine reconciliation with its neighbours, Russia's shame will continue to handicap its international relations.So far Moscow has shown amazing resistance to making amends.

It's about more than just an apology. How about not trying to rehabilitate Stalin's image. Start with not putting it up on Victory Day.

The greatest historical mistake of the Russian people is that they permitted that Georgian monster Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili (Stalin) to ever grab power in Russia and perpetrate a three-decade reign of terror for the peoples of Russia and peoples of the surrounding countries. That a Georgian mafia of a few dozen can terrorize the Russians is something that will puzzle historians for generations. The Russian Federation is appropriately paying respect to the Polish officers who were killed in the Katyn forest. Perhaps, one day the Americans will visit the mass graves of the dead from Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki and also pay their respects. Revolutions and wars create monsters who perpetrate despicable deeds - that is why humanity must be on guard. Russia feels no "shame" for Stalin's crimes and it certainly had no affect on the latest nuclear arms treaty between USA and RF. "Russia's shame" is just an illusion in the minds of a few people who spend their lives whining about Russia.

if poland still hates russia why is it attending the ceremony in western russia?? for free cake and tea??

People, you just don`t get it. This is not an issue about who did what and how many people died. Soviet Union always did what it had to do, and if it was a crime it was either forgotten or overshadowed (like in this case the later German invasion of the part of Poland that Soviets occupied) by greater events and thus suppressed. The Red Terror, the massacres of CheKa, the torture, murder, and slave labor run by the USSR, the murder of any and all ethnic russians that were handed over by the Allies after WW2... absolutely everything that the Soviets did not admit or apologise for, or the Russian Federation today doing likewise, it is all done in order to whitewash or keep the past/current people in power from being defamed. And since Russia is cutting down on many things budget-wise, they chose one theme to "justify it all" - the "great patriotic war" and the victory over Germany. They have this one myth they are pushing in order to get everybody to feel good about themselves, and they are doing it aggressively without any regard to historical facts. In short: It`s political. In politics people don`t count - policies and ideas do. What for one to do would be a "hideous war crime", for another to do the same 10 times more with a different reason is perfectly "fine".

Kihnu is puzzled about Russians’ acquiescence to despotic rulers. That is nothing puzzling; it is a time-honoured part of the Russian national character. By a mixture of terror, sentimentality and mysticism, Russians have always been persuaded to acquiesce to despotic Tsars, despotic commissars and post-Soviet rulers who have lifted not one finger to bring even the appearance of justice to the Soviet era oppressors, enslavers and murders of the Russian people and of their neighbours. In Tsarist times the terror was provided by Okhrana, and the sentimentality and mysticism by the trappings of the tsarist court and by the Orthodox Church. In Soviet times the instrument of terror was the OGPU-NKVD-KGB continuum, the sentimentality was provided by the strong Soviet emphasis on the arts, and the mysticism by the tortuous gobbledegook of Soviet doctrine. In post-Soviet times, the KGB’s rebranding as the FSB and a basically out-of-control police force provide the teeth, the overwhelming Soviet-era nostalgia provides the sentimentality and the ever more gigantic parades celebrating the mythologies of Stalin provide the mysticism that Russians love so much. And the result is a people that are content to be ruled by cadre of functionaries from the security organisation which brought such tragedy to their country for generations, and are quite satisfied that not a one of their Soviet era oppressors have ever had to answer for crimes they committed against them.

I agree with Kihnu – of course Russia feels no shame for “Stalin’s” crimes. That’s part of the problem, because shame attaches to Russia on account of those crimes nonetheless, and all the more so because of post-Soviet Russia’s irresponsibility concerning these. One would be entirely disingenuous to claim that Stalin’s crimes were his alone. The policies were his, but the criminal actions were committed by thousands upon thousands upon thousands of other people – mostly Russian people. Even the smallest individuals who committed crimes against humanity were just as guilty as those who designed the policies that mandated and required the crimes in the first place. The Nuremberg trials clearly established this principle and Russians wholeheartedly agree with it, except when it comes to crimes that Russians themselves committed. When considering these, most Russians, from Putin all the way to Kihnu and beyond, amazingly switch moral and political gears to a setting that has Nazi era Germans being guilty of nothing at all because Hitler was an Austrian! Some attempt to justify their logical absurdities by comparing some 70 years of Soviet crimes against humanity that were not committed in war and in the heat of battle but in the cold-blooded and calculated service to the paranoia of their Soviet rulers to casualties which other nations exerted on enemy countries in time of war. I’m not quite sure I can think of a word to appropriately describe that particular sleight of hand.

Marzipan6: "Kihnu is puzzled about Russians’ acquiescence to despotic rulers. That is nothing puzzling; it is a time-honoured part of the Russian national character. " I suppose the same can be said of the cultured Germans who followed Hitler into oblivion. When people are desperate they look to "hope" to sustain their belief that future will be better. Both Stalin and Hitler mesmerized the respective people with hope of a glorious future if only they would give them their blind obedience. I doubt that either the Germans or the Russians would be so foolish again. I am currently reading the memoirs of Nikolai I. Obrynba, a Red Army soldier who was captured by the Germans in 1941. He recounts the horror he endured in the Nazi POW camps where he saw his compatriots dying around him. What saved him was that he looked for little things that might give him hope that he would survive to see the next day. "Hope" is what the charlatans offer the people who have nothing to look forward to - Such as the Russians after the Tzar was killed and the Germans during the turmoil of the Weimar Republic. What is interesting about Nikolai's memoirs of his time in the German POW camps is the depth of inhumanity people can sink to when they have absolute power over defenseless human beings. Some of the cruelest guards weren't the Germans at all - they were Nazi collaborators of other nationalities who enjoyed tormenting the Russian prisoners. Katyn forest massacre is a tragedy that is indelibly burned into the conscience of the Polish people; however, it is just one of thousands of tragedies committed by the Allies and the Germans during WW II. There have been more tragedies since and will continue to be more until human beings lose their lust for power over the defenseless. How many Iraqis have died as a result of American invasion of their country?

Kihnu likens Germans following Hitler to oblivion, to Russians following Stalin. Yet sixty years later, pictures of Hitler don’t decorate Berlin, Hitler’s quotations are not carved into Berlin railway stations, Germany has acknowledged and atoned for Nazi era crimes, and is a trusted by its neighbours and a respected member of the world community. Important differences between Germany and Russia, these. Kihnu doubts whether Germans or Russians would be foolish enough to again follow a despot into oblivion.. I doubt that Germans would, either. They have cleansed themselves of the past, and have genuinely changed. But Russians have done neither. Whenever someone suggests they should, most Russians react as if someone poked a finger in their eyes.. Indeed war is full of tragedies. But the Katyn massacres were cold-blooded, deliberate mass murder, long lied about and covered up by Soviet Russia and post-Soviet Russia alike.. Unlike Allied tragedies of WW2. And unlike American misdeeds in Vietnam and Iraq, where criminals have been prosecuted and punished by the state, and others yet will be. How many Soviet-era state criminals have even been investigated, let alone tried and convicted in Russia, Kihnu?

Marzipan6: " And unlike American misdeeds in Vietnam and Iraq, where criminals have been prosecuted and punished by the state, and others yet will be." Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz have been brought to the Hague to stand trial for their crimes in Iraq????? Which American leaders, or generals, have been prosecuted for killing over 2.2 million Vietnamese??? Let me remind you that the troops of USA, UK and France will be marching in the Red Square where large posters of Stalin will hang. Unlike Hitler, Stalin was a hero to the Allies and still is. American stores even sell Stalin Vodka with a picture on the label. Some Americans still admire Stalin. Can't say the same for Hitler who the Estonians hoped would win the war against USSR.

The Russian ruling group is fearing the admitment of Soviet-era crimes for a certain reason. In their logic admitting to crimes commited by Stalin (repressions, starvation by collectivisation, executions etc.) the international community will soon go on asking apology for post-Stalin Soviet crimes such as the occupation (and there is now denying that it really became an occupation after the liberation from the Nazis) of Eastern Europe and the Baltics, and after admitting to those crimes the international community (headed by the US of course) will mark off the USSR as a whole as an evil empire. The Russian logic goes on to argue that the international community go on to stress the historical continuity between the evil imperialist Soviet Union and modern Russia, thus saying that an overthrough of the "anti-democratic" Putin government is legitimate, and so on... The Russians have the Serbian question in mind, i.e. the legitimisation of the invasion of Serbia by NATO due to the posterior acknolegment of the Serbian government of so-called "war crimes" and "genocide". Do you see? The Russian elite see the acknolegment of its own historical mischiefs as a road to foreign intervention into domestic matters such as the state of their democracy and the legitimsation of the current Russian government. Thats why they fear it so much, thats why Medvedev set up the "Commity for the Fight against the Falsification of History AGAINST the interests of Russia"... Interisting, does that mean that falsification of history IN FAVOR of Russian interests is ok? )))

Kihnu asks how many American generals and policymakers have been brought to trial for war crimes? None. Perhaps some should have been to test the accusations that Kihnu buys into, and to either validate or disprove them in a court of law. But we live in an imperfect world and this won’t happen. However, many individual US soldiers from both Vietnam and subsequent wars, including the Iraqi one, have been tried, found guilty and sentenced for individual crimes they committed. Kihnu, how many individual Russians who committed even the smallest of the monstrous mountains of Soviet state crimes has post-Soviet Russia ever investigated, tried or sentenced? To save you a lot of effort and research time, let me give you the answer: none, zero, zilch. American troops marching in Moscow under Stalin’s portrait in June are not a problem: the fact that the US was complicit with Stalin in the selling of Eastern Europe into 50 years of Soviet slavery was the problem, but America has apologised for this, including to Estonia. Russia, meanwhile, has apologised for nothing. Also, it is not the Americans or British whom Stalin oppressed – he actually made it easier for them to win the war. It’s Russia’s neighbours whom Stalin savaged, and they who have a problem with his legacy. Lastly, your claim that Estonians hoped Hitler would win the war is a wicked defamation of the country that has given you most of what you have in life, Kihnu, and you know it. Every Estonian was well aware that if Germany won the war, Estonia had no national future. Just as it had none if the war ended with a restored Soviet occupation of their land. Estonians knew that Germany would lose anyway, and when that defeat started to draw near, they did what they could to delay the Russian advance to Estonia, hoping the war would end before the Soviet nightmare would again fall upon them. I will look forward to your retraction of your slur, Kihnu. Though I will not hold my breath waiting for it.

Marzipan6:"Though I will not hold my breath waiting for it." Good idea. RT will soon run a program on the children of Vietnam who have been horribly deformed by American spraying of agent orange throughout Vietnam. I am anxiously waiting to see if any Americans have been brought to trial for this crime. President Bush razed the city of Falluja, Iraq killing over 4,000 men, women and children to avenge the deaths of 4 Blackwater mercenaries. Have any American officers, or soldiers, been brought to justice for this crime? Invaders, be they US, Japan, Germany or Russia, do not condemn their troops for the slaughter they cause.

The signatures on the document ordering the killing of Polish officers were those of Stalin and Beria - both Georgians, not Russians. I suspect that many of the NKVD officers and the commissars involved in the murders were not Russians because Stalin and Beria would not have trusted Russian soldiers to commit this terrible crime. The horrors of Katyn forest were precipitated by Stalin and his Georgian thugs and in no way reflect the Russian people who also suffered under these Georgian monsters. The fault of the Russian people is that they allowed these Georgian monsters to ever gain power in their country.

Since Kihnu is not interested in retracting his slur about hoping Hitler would win the war against the Soviet Union, and therefore by default also allegedly hoping that Hitler would win the WW2 since one would follow automatically from the other, perhaps he might be good enough to at least explain why his slur was not slur after all? Please explain why Estonians supposedly wished Hitler would win the WW2 while Hitler himself promised the permanent destruction of Estonian sovereignty? Somehow the logic of that escapes not only me, but also every Estonian I have ever known. Yet Kihnu apparently knows differently, and we would appreciate him sharing his secret knowledge with us. Kihnu, RT running an article about the terrible effects of Agent Orange on the Vietamese people is good. I personally believe that Americans should have to answer for the terrible human and environmental damage they caused there. But whether the promised article represents genuine concern for Vietnam or is merely another Russian political ploy to defend its own Soviet era crimes will become apparent by whether or not it runs an accompanying article exposing the illegality of the Soviet occupation of the Baltics. So far Moscow has been faithfully repeating only Stalin’s lies on that particular crime.

Marzipan6, you know my views on the Estonian Waffen SS units who supported the German war effort against the Red Army. Repeating them here would only serve your purpose of having a platform from which to constantly moan about Russia. Poland had taken the right decision to reconcile with Russia over Stalin's crimes, and their delegation was on their way to unit with Russia in memorializing the tragedy of Katyn forest massacre. I really don't care whether the whining and moaning Estonians reconcile with Russians or not.

To Kihnu: yes, I know your views, but I do not understand them, and I suspect that you, yourself, don’t, either. You acknowledge the horrors of Stalin’s occupation of Estonia in 1940, yet you blame Estonians (including your own father, presumably) for fighting against those monsters in 1944 when they were on their way back to continue their atrocities. You also blame Estonians for seeking appropriate closure for those crimes from Russia, even though you know that the overwhelming majority of those who committed the crimes were Russian. You know that Estonians have no Nazi sympathies, neither in the past nor now, yet you loudly accuse them to the world of precisely that. You scornfully call Estonia a “potato chip country”, yet it gives you a higher standard of living than you would have in Russia, and you choose to live there rather than in Russia. Your views have all the clarity and transparency of the average bowl of borsch.

Another little detail that you’ve got upside-down, Kihnu – you say that “Poland has taken the right decision to reconcile with Russia.” Actually it was Russia that took the decision to stop lying about Soviet crimes against Poland, and moved to reconcile with Poland. The crimes and lies came from Russia, and so must the reconciliation. In regard to the Baltics, Russia shows not the slightest inclination for similar reconciliation, and as you well know, it still loudly and proudly proclaims Stalin’s lies in regard to those “fraternal republics.” Reconciliation cannot come until Russia ceases to embrace Stalin's Baltic lies, and actually seeks reconciliation. You may not care whether, in your ever-sensitive and diplomatic wording, “the whining and moaning Estonians reconcile with Russia or not (actually, the other way around).” Unlike you, Estonians do care very much that Russia should reconcile both with their country and with its own history, because Estonians have no interest at all to see similar ghastly oppression roll over them again from their unregenerate, strange eastern neighbour.

To Portland The saturday April 10th ceremony in Katyn forest was organized by Poles for the 20th time since it was only allowed by USSR. So was the monument built there to commemorate the 1940 massacre of our elite. There was not a rubel spent by your government for coffee , cake or whatever else. Putin -Tusk meeting over the graves was a different story. Hope for real warming of relations between Russians and Poles. Regards.