Abstract
Katyn Massacre Discourse as a Foreign Policy Tool of Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin/Medvedev Administrations
There is a large literature dealing with the Katyn Massacre of the Second World War in different dimensions. However, the reasons behind the Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin/Medvedev administrations’ acceptance of the Soviet responsibility in the Katyn Massacre have not been systematically analyzed in the literature. This article focuses on the political, economic and strategic reasons behind the acceptance of Soviet responsibility by the Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin/Medvedev administrations in the massacre. It is argued that, Katyn initiatives were designed as a foreign policy tool by those administrations. There were also periods under Gorbachev’s, Yeltsin’s and Putin/Medvedev’s leadership in which the Katyn initiatives were abandoned. This article also aims to reveal the reasons for the abandonment of the Katyn initiatives.
Keywords
Poland, USSR, the Russian Federation, Katyn, massacre.