Katyn as a Propaganda Tool: Moscow Returns Old Lies to the Site of the Massacre

Three days before Poland's Day of Remembrance — and, at the same time, on the sixteenth anniversary of the Smolensk air disaster — the Russian Military Historical Society installed, on April 10, 2026, an exhibition titled "Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia" in front of the entrance to the Polish war cemetery in Katyn. At the site where the remains of thousands of Polish officers shot on Stalin's orders lie at rest, Moscow set up propaganda panels accusing Poland of an aggressive anti-Russian policy. Notes from Poland ↗

An exhibition Poland called "disgusting malice"

The exhibition premiered in central Moscow in October 2025. Its move to Katyn in April 2026 was a deliberate step — the timing is itself the message. The Polish side described it as "disgusting malice." The exhibition will remain by the cemetery until mid-May 2026. Euronews ↗

Medinsky: the man writing history for the Kremlin

Behind the exhibition stands the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO), established by Putin in 2012. It is headed by Vladimir Medinsky — Putin's personal adviser, a former minister of culture, and the chief architect of Russia's "memory policy." Since 2021, Medinsky has led the Interdepartmental Commission for the "Protection of Historical Truth" — a body set up directly by Putin that coordinates the official state interpretation of history. Medinsky also headed the Russian team at the 2022 peace talks with Ukraine. Under his leadership, RVIO has influenced the content of school textbooks, including claims that "Ukraine is a neo-Nazi state." Novaya Gazeta Europe ↗

What the exhibition claims — and what of it is a lie

The exhibition accuses Poland of an "aggressive anti-Russian policy," pointing to the removal of Soviet monuments and military support for Ukraine. In its historical section, it suggests there may have been a "German trace" behind the Katyn massacre — even though Poles "blame only the Russians." This is a return to the Soviet version of events that held from 1943 to 1989, when the USSR officially abandoned it. Notes from Poland ↗

Katyn: what you need to know

In April and May 1940, the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, executed 21,857 Polish prisoners — officers, police officers, intellectuals, and professionals — on Stalin's orders. Most were shot in the back of the head; the bodies ended up in mass graves in Katyn, Mednoye, and Kharkiv. When Nazi Germany discovered the graves in 1943, the Soviets blamed the Germans — a lie the Soviet leadership maintained for 46 years. The truth was not admitted until Gorbachev did so in 1990; two years later, Russia released documents proving the Politburo's direct responsibility. In 2010, the State Duma confirmed this with a resolution.

Reactions: even the Russian opposition calls for its removal

Criticism is coming from across the political spectrum — from Polish institutions to the Russian opposition. Rafał Kościński, spokesman for the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, called the exhibition "a return to Soviet propaganda." According to the Polish side, the exhibition violates the spirit of the 1994 Russian-Polish agreement on maintaining memorial sites in dignified condition. The Russian opposition party Yabloko has also publicly called for the exhibition's removal. YABLOKO ↗

Why now — and what Russia is pursuing

Poland is today a key supporter of Ukraine — weapons, funding, refuge for millions of refugees. Delegitimizing Poland as a moral authority is part of Russia's broader information war. The exhibition in Katyn pursues several goals at once: inside Russia, it reinforces the narrative of a besieged nation with thousand-year-old enemies; externally, it tests reactions and normalizes historical revisionism as a tool of state policy. In modern European history, this is an extraordinarily unusual step: opening a propaganda installation directly at a foreign war grave site. Both CNN and Novaya Gazeta Europe have described this move as part of Putin's systematic campaign to rewrite history. CNN ↗

What this says about Europe

For Europe, Katyn is more than a Polish trauma. It is a case study in what happens when a historical lie is allowed to take root. In 2010, Russia condemned Stalin through a parliamentary resolution. In 2026, its chief ideologue is mounting an exhibition that calls that same responsibility into question — 86 years after the executions, 36 years after Gorbachev's admission. At a moment when Europe is considering how it will one day come to terms with the war in Ukraine, Katyn shows what must be reckoned with.