By Dominika Maslikowski Apr 6, 2010, 3:06 GMT
Warsaw - Polish and Russian leaders are this week due to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which Soviet troops murdered some 22,000 Polish officers in a Russian forest, an atrocity that continues to strain relations.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is scheduled to take part in a ceremony on April 7 in Katyn with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski will mark the anniversary in a separate ceremony on April 10.
Tusk's visit will include talks with Putin on current political matters, while the ceremony will include the laying of wreaths and speeches from both leaders.
In nearby Smolensk, a Polish-Russian group created in 2002 to deal with controversial matters in Polish-Russian history will present its latest findings to Tusk and Putin. The group has sought to open up archives in both nations.
Poland wants Russia to release the documents it holds on the Katyn massacre, one of the most controversial events of the war, which Warsaw says it needs as proof to bring the perpetrators of the killings to justice.
Some claim the ceremonies signal a positive shift in Polish- Russian relations.
Tensions grew in August 2008 when Poland agreed to host a United States missile defence system. Relations have remained chilly, despite President Barack Obama having recently opted for a simpler version of the system.
Tusk said his invitation from Putin was an important step in improving relations, and that their honouring of Katyn victims had a 'very important symbolic aspect.' Putin reportedly told Tusk he knew what an important place Katyn had in Polish memory.
'It's very important that Russia's premier is hosting the ceremony,' Polish Senate speaker Bogdan Borusewicz told a Russian daily in February. 'Up until now, Russian officials have distanced themselves from participating.'
However, Polish President Lech Kaczynski did not receive an invitation, which caused speculation that Putin was punishing the Polish leader for his outspoken critiques of the Kremlin.
Kaczynski is regarded by some as a Eurosceptic, and emerged as one of Moscow's most vocal critics during the Russia-Georgia conflict in August 2008.
Kaczynski could travel to Katyn, but nobody will meet him, an anonymous source from Russia's foreign ministry told the Russian edition of Newsweek. The source added that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was not intending to invite Kaczynski either.
Kaczynski said he would be going to Katyn anyway.
'I am happy that the premier will be (in Katyn),' Kaczynski said in February. 'But the highest representative of the Republic of Poland is the president and I will be (in Katyn) also.'
'I hope I get a visa,' he added.
Kaczynski later announced he would be leading a ceremony in the Katyn forest on April 10, along with veterans organizations and some 300 family members of Katyn victims.
Kaczynski said he was not going to Katyn to 'inflame relations with Russia,' but instead to pay tribute to the victims, reported the Polish Press Agency.
A special train has been set up to take some 400 people to the ceremony, including the families of victims, scouts, volunteers and Polish soldiers. The ceremony is to include a holy mass and a speech by Kaczynski.
The two separate dates do not mean the ceremonies have been split into two, said the head of Tusk's chancellery Tomasz Arabski, but that there will be one ceremony lead by Kaczynski and another bilateral visit between Tusk and Putin.
Ceremonies are also scheduled to take place in several Polish cities, and in the United States.
Events in Warsaw are set for April 13, officially recognised in Poland as a Day of Remembrance for the victims. It is also the anniversary of the day when German troops discovered a mass grave in the Katyn forest in 1943.
The ceremonies are a reminder that the victims were 'murdered twice,' said Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: 'The first time with a shot to the back of the head, and a second time when their memory was at first falsified and later for decades was tried to be wiped out.'
After World War II, when Poland was lead by a Kremlin-backed communist regime, Soviet authorities blamed the massacre on the Nazis and suppressed historical evidence. Russia only acknowledged responsibility for the mass killings in 1990.
An oak tree of remembrance will be planted in a central Warsaw park to honour the murdered officers, the mayor said. Other events will include a holy mass, a changing of the guards ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, laying of flowers at a monument to victims at Warsaw's military cemetery, and a multimedia concert at the Polish National Opera.
Educational materials will also be sent out to primary and high schools throughout Poland. In the capital, historical re-enactment groups dressed in Polish Army uniforms will lead a 'March of Shadows' down Warsaw's streets.
Officials will also reveal the names of more than 100 officers killed in Katyn whose identities had not yet been made public. The remains of those officers were found by the Red Cross before the German forces discovered the mass graves in 1943.
An international conference will be held at the United States Library of Congress on May 5, and is set to include a speech from former presidential national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.
