74th Anniversary of the Katyn Massacre

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, left, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin commemorate the 22,000 Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet troops in the 1940 Katyn massacre. Photo:Nilosky/Pool

Seven decades ago, Soviet secret police executed thousands of Polish military officers in a forest in western Russia. On April 7, Russian and Polish leaders will meet to officially commemorate the massacre's anniversary together for the first time.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, are due to attend a memorial ceremony in the village of Katyn honoring the more than 20,000 officers, policemen, and intellectuals who were killed on Soviet leader Josef Stalin's orders during World War II.

The two men will also pay tribute to Soviet victims of the Stalinist terror.

Marek Lasota, a Polish historian with the Institute of National Remembrance in Krakow, says Putin's attendance at the ceremony, and the Kremlin’s decision to extend an official invitation to Tusk, are signs that Russia's attitudes toward what has become known as the "Katyn Forest massacre" are changing.

"I would like to believe that if Prime Minister Putin is really going to take part in the...ceremonies, then it means that the Russian side is not avoiding responsibility for the historical heritage that it's taken, that in this way it wants to emphasize and articulate its emotions and feelings about this crime," Lasota said.

In what was seen as a political watershed, Putin extended an official invitation to Tusk in February to attend the 70th anniversary commemorations of the massacre. In the past, visits by Polish leaders to Katyn to honor the dead were unofficial, semi-private affairs.

According to media reports, Tusk saw the invitation as an important step in improving relations between Poland and Russia, and said Putin's decision to honor the Katyn victims was symbolically "very important."

Suppression And Denial

The Katyn massacre has long been one of the key sore points in the troubled Russian-Polish relationship. For nearly 50 years, the Soviet Union claimed that it was Nazi troops who had committed the murders and suppressed historical evidence to the contrary. The pro-Kremlin communist regime in Poland at the time dutifully toed the Moscow line.

Andrzej Skapski, who lost a parent in the massacre, says the families of the victims were treated like outcasts by Poland's communist-era rulers. "The mothers, a generation of mothers, were denied the right of existence," Skapski says. "They couldn't find a job, and if they found one and somebody found out that they were the widows of officers or Katyn victims, they were fired. Young people, the sons and daughters, were in fact cut off from higher education."

Soldiers exhume the bodies of victims of the Katyn massacre in 1943.

In 1989, when communism fell in Poland and across Eastern Europe, Moscow came under pressure to acknowledge the truth. In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that it was in fact the NKVD, the precursor to the Soviet KGB, which carried out the killings.

Russian historian Natalia Lebedeva says resolving the Katyn issue will go a long way toward improving relations between Moscow and Warsaw.

"It is one of the obstacles to improving relations not only between the governments but the people as well," Lebedeva says. The Poles "are deeply hurt that we don't share their pain, that we are hiding the truth. As soon as they feel that their pain is close to us too, that we share their pain, and we want to know the truth about it, people in Poland will welcome it very much."

In the 1990s, Russian President Boris Yeltsin released previously classified documents to the Polish authorities, including an order dated March 5, 1940, from NKVD chief Lavrenty Beria, signed by Stalin, to execute the Polish POWs.

During former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski's visit to Russia in September 2004, the Kremlin said they would to turn over all their information on the Katyn massacre to Warsaw as soon as it was declassified.

Months later, in March 2005, the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office concluded a decade-long investigation of the massacre. Prosecutors announced that they had been able to confirm the deaths of fewer than 2,000 Polish citizens; that the killings did not constitute genocide; and that since the perpetrators were dead, there was no reason to pursue the matter further.

The vast majority of the files gathered during the investigation were deemed to contain state secrets and were thus classified. Russian courts have refused to declassify them, making it impossible for relatives to access information that would help them find the remains of those still missing.

On March 5, the Russian human rights group Memorial called on President Dmitry Medvedev to reopen the investigation into what it called a "war crime and a crime against humanity."

Changing Attitudes

Despite the continuing state secrecy, the April 7 commemorations are also taking place as society seems to be embracing a new willingness to talk about the tragedy.

On April 2, the Oscar-nominated 2007 film "Katyn," by Polish director Andrzej Wajda -- whose father was a Katyn massacre victim -- premiered on Russia's "Kultura" television channel.

The official Russian government newspaper "Rossiiskaya gazeta," which in the past had published articles casting doubt on Soviet responsibility for the Katyn massacre, opined that the screening "shows our society's serious progress on the path toward restoring historic truth about the tragedy of World War II."

Historian Lebedeva says it's in Russia's interest for the truth about Katyn to be fully aired. "When people tell me that I work in the interests of another country, I say that we are the ones interested in the truth about Katyn before anyone else, because this crime was committed in our land," she says. "Unless we uncover the whole truth about the actions of Stalinism, then sooner or later we will end up in the same situation."

Polish President Lech Kaczynski did not receive an invitation to the April 7 ceremonies, leading to speculation that Russia was punishing him for his outspoken criticism of Moscow. Kaczynski says he plans to lead a separate ceremony in Katyn forest on April 10, joining Polish veterans organizations and victims' relatives.

Text:Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre (Polish: zbrodnia katyńska, 'Katyń crime'), was a mass murder of thousands of Polish prisoners of war (primarily military officers), intellectuals, policemen, and other public servants by the Soviet NKVD, based on a proposal from Lavrentiy Beria to execute all members of the Polish Officer Corps. Dated March 5, 1940, this official document was then approved (signed) by the entire Soviet Politburo including Joseph Stalin and Beria. The number of victims is estimated at about 22,000, the most commonly cited number being 21,768. The victims were murdered in the Katyn Forest in Russia, the Kalinin and Kharkov prisons and elsewhere. About 8,000 were officers taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, the rest being Poles arrested for allegedly being "intelligence agents, gendarmes, saboteurs, landowners, factory owners, lawyers, priests, and officials." Since Poland's conscription system required every unexempted university graduate to become a reserve officer, the Soviets were able to round up much of the Polish intelligentsia, and the Jewish, Ukrainian, Georgian and Belarusian intelligentsia of Polish citizenship.

The "Katyn massacre" refers to the massacre at Katyn Forest, near the villages of Katyn and Gnezdovo (ca. 19 km west of Smolensk, Russia), of Polish military officers in the Kozelsk prisoner-of-war camp. This was the largest of the simultaneous executions of prisoners of war from geographically distant Starobelsk and Ostashkov camps, and the executions of political prisoners from West Belarus and West Ukraine, shot on Stalin's orders at Katyn Forest, at the NKVD headquarters in Smolensk, at a Smolensk slaughterhouse, and at prisons in Kalinin (Tver), Kharkov, Moscow, and other Soviet cities. The Belorussian and Ukrainian Katyn Lists are NKVD lists of names of Polish prisoners to be murdered at various locations in Belarus and Western Ukraine. The modern Polish investigation of the Katyn Massacre covered not only the massacre at Katyn forest, but also the other mass murders mentioned above. There are Polish organisations such as the Katyn Committee and the Federation of Katyn Families, which again are inclusive of victims of the various mass murders at various locations.

Nazi Germany announced the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest in 1943. The revelation led to the end of diplomatic relations between Moscow and the London-based Polish government-in-exile. The Soviet Union continued to deny the massacres until 1990, when it finally acknowledged the perpetration of the massacre by the NKVD, as well as the subsequent cover-up. An investigation by the Prosecutor's General Office of the Russian Federation has confirmed Soviet responsibility for the massacres, yet does not classify this action as a war crime or an act of genocide. This acknowledgement would have made necessary the prosecution of surviving perpetrators, which is what the Polish government had requested. The Russian government also does not classify the dead as victims of Stalinist repression, which bars formal posthumous rehabilitation.

Text:wikipedia.com

Three days after this commemoration would occur a most unimaginable tragedy.

First Performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony in E Flat Major (Opus 55) "EROICA"

Scratched out dedication originally made to Napoleon Bonaparte

Image:wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Eroica_Beethoven_title.jpg

IGOR STRAVINSKY ~ June 17, 1882 ~ April 6, 1971

Photo:wikimedia/wikipedia.com

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Russian: Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский, tr. Igor' Fëdorovič Stravinskij) (17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music. He was a quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the century. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1946. In addition to the recognition he received for his compositions, he also achieved fame as a pianist and a conductor, often at the premieres of his works.

Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Russian Ballets): The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911/1947), and The Rite of Spring (1913). The Rite, whose premiere provoked a riot, transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure, and was largely responsible for Stravinsky's enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary, pushing the boundaries of musical design.

After this first Russian phase Stravinsky turned to neoclassicism in the 1920s. The works from this period tended to make use of traditional musical forms (concerto grosso, fugue, symphony), frequently concealed a vein of intense emotion beneath a surface appearance of detachment or austerity, and often paid tribute to the music of earlier masters, for example J. S. Bach and Tchaikovsky.

In the 1950s he adopted serial procedures, using the new techniques over his last twenty years. Stravinsky's compositions of this period share traits with all of his earlier output: rhythmic energy, the construction of extended melodic ideas out of a few two- or three-note cells, and clarity of form, of instrumentation, and of utterance.

He also published a number of books throughout his career, almost always with the aid of a collaborator, sometimes uncredited. In his 1936 autobiography, Chronicles of My Life, written with the help of Walter Nouvel, Stravinsky included his infamous statement that "music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all." With Alexis Roland-Manuel and Pierre Souvtchinsky he wrote his 1939–40 Harvard University Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, which were delivered in French and later collected under the title Poétique musicale in 1942 (translated in 1947 as Poetics of Music). Several interviews in which the composer spoke to Robert Craft were published as Conversations with Igor Stravinsky. They collaborated on five further volumes over the following decade.

Text:Wikipedia.com

I was a Junior at Yale when Stravinsky died in 1971. I recall the articles in the papers. Both he and his wife share some of the few permanent burial plots on the cemetery island inVenice.

NAPOLEON's First Abdication ~ April 6, 1814

Image: redicecreations.com/ul_img/3579napoleondefeat.jpg

After the Retreat from Moscow, there was a lull in fighting over the winter of 1812–13 while both the Russians and the French rebuilt their forces; Napoleon was then able to field 350,000 troops. Heartened by France's loss in Russia, Prussia joined with Austria, Sweden, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal in a new coalition. Napoleon assumed command in Germany and inflicted a series of defeats on the Coalition culminating in the Battle of Dresden in August 1813. Despite these successes, the numbers continued to mount against Napoleon and the French army was pinned down by a force twice its size and lost at the Battle of Leipzig. This was by far the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars and cost more than 90,000 casualties in total.

Napoleon withdrew back into France, his army reduced to 70,000 soldiers and 40,000 stragglers, against more than three times as many Allied troops. The French were surrounded: British armies pressed from the south, and other Coalition forces positioned to attack from the German states. Napoleon won a series of victories in the Six Days Campaign, though these were not significant enough to turn the tide and Paris was captured by the Coalition in March 1814.

When Napoleon proposed the army march on the capital, his marshals decided to mutiny. On 4 April, led by Ney, they confronted Napoleon. Napoleon asserted the army would follow him and Ney replied the army would follow its generals. Napoleon had no choice but to abdicate. He did so in favour of his son; however, the Allies refused to accept this and Napoleon was forced to abdicate unconditionally on 6 April.

The Allied Powers having declared that Emperor Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the restoration of peace in Europe, Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces, for himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy, and that there is no personal sacrifice, even that of his life, which he is not ready to do in the interests of France. Done in the palace of Fontainebleau, 6 April 1814.

In the Treaty of Fontainebleau the victors exiled him to Elba, an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean, 20 km off the Tuscan coast. They gave him sovereignty over the island and allowed him to retain his title of Emperor. Napoleon attempted suicide with a pill he had carried since a near-capture by Russians on the retreat from Moscow. Its potency had weakened with age and he survived to be exiled, while his wife and son took refuge in Vienna.

Text:wikipedia.com

ELIHU YALE ~ April 5, 1649 ~ July 8, 1721

Image:neveryetmelted.com/wp-images/ElihuYale.jpg

Elihu Yale (April 5, 1649 – July 8, 1721) was a British merchant, philanthropist, governor of the British East India Company, and a benefactor of Collegiate School of Connecticut, which in 1718 was named Yale College in his honor.

Yale died on July 8, 1721 in London, England, but was buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St. Giles in Wrexham, Wales. His tomb is inscribed with these lines:

Born in America, in Europe bred

In Africa travell'd and in Asia wed

Where long he liv'd and thriv'd; In London dead

Much good, some ill, he did; so hope all's even

And that his soul thro' mercy's gone to Heaven

You that survive and read this tale, take care

For this most certain exit to prepare

Where blest in peace, the actions of the just

Smell sweet and blossom in silent dust.

Wrexham Tower, part of Saybrook College, Yale, is a replica of that of St. Giles' Church, Wrexham. [Saybrook was my residential college, and Wrexham, my favorite tower at Yale; more so, than the better known carillon Harkness Tower.]

In her article for Atlantic Monthly about Skull and Bones, Alexandra Robbins alleges that the gravestone of Elihu Yale was stolen years ago from its proper setting in Wrexham, and is displayed in a glass case, in a room with purple walls, which belongs to a building called the Tomb of the Skull and Bones at Yale University. [I would hesitate to believe any published articles about Skull and Bones. My good friend Stan was a member.]

In 1999, American Heritage magazine rated Elihu Yale the "most overrated philanthropist" in American history, arguing that the college that would later bear his name (Yale University) was successful largely because of the generosity of a man named Jeremiah Dummer, but that the trustees of the school did not want it known by the name "Dummer College".

On April 5, 1999, Yale University recognized the 350th anniversary of Elihu Yale's birthday.

Text:wikipedia.com

Today I'm back in New Haven for the Centennial of the Yale Spizzwinks(?). We're singing tonight!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ~ January 15, 1929 ~ April 4, 1968

Photo: World Telegram & Sun photo by Dick DeMarsico

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized as a martyr by two Christian churches. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.

In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.

Text:wikipedia.com

I was a Freshman at Yale when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968. I remember how shocked, yet how moved I was, when Bobby Kenndy spoke at a political rally. Who would have thought that he, Kennedy, would join Martin and his own brother John but two months later.

Grace Cathedral in San Francisco has a beautiful icon of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the old bapistry porch near the Spanish crucifix.

Sergei Rachmaninoff ~ April 1, 1873 ~ March 28, 1943

Photo:wikipedia.com