In reality, they were largely military officers and intellectuals killed by the NKVD.
The novelist Ferdynand Goetel was forced into exile because he had been part of the first commission put together to investigate this event. This event was later investigated by the Burdenko Commission, which correctly noted that German equipment had been used. Rudolf von Gersdorff first discovered evidence of this event three years after it happened while serving as a German intelligence officer, leading to this event's first public mention in a propaganda speech of Joseph Goebbels. The Soviet Union claimed that this event involved workers from Smolensk who had been killed by the Nazis. In reality, they were largely military officers and intellectuals killed by the NKVD. For 10 points, name this 1940 massacre of 22,000 Polish civilians by the Soviet Union.
The novelist Ferdynand Goetel was forced into exile because he had been part of the first commission put together to investigate this event.
Katyn Massacre