Excerpt from Minutes Nº 80 of the CPSU CC Politburo Meeting of 2 March 1973, 'A Representation to the British Government in connection with the Anti-Soviet Campaign around the Construction in London of a so-called “Memorial to the Victims of Katyn”'

[CPSU CC letterhead]

TOP SECRET

Nº P80/12

to Cdes. Brezhnev, Kosygin, Kirilenko, Andropov, Ponomarev, Katushev, and Gromyko

Excerpt from Minutes Nº 80 of the CPSU CC Politburo meeting of 2 March 1973

A representation to the British government in connection with the anti-Soviet campaign around the construction in London of a so-called “memorial to the victims of Katyn”

1. Approve the draft instructions to the Soviet Ambassador in London on this question (attached).

2. Charge the USSR MFA with informing the Polish friends about our representation to the British government.

CC SECRETARY

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Ref point 12 of Minutes Nº 80

Secret

LONDON

TO THE SOVIET AMBASSADOR

Visit the Foreign Secretary and, referring to instructions, declare the following.

The attention of the government of Great Britain has already been directed to the fact that attempts are being made in Britain to foment a campaign around the long-exposed inventions of Goebbels propaganda about the so-called “Katyn Affairs” for purposes hostile to the Soviet Union. In the representation made by the USSR MFA to the Embassy of Great Britain in Moscow on 13 September 1972 to be passed to the British government it was stressed that the idea inspired by certain circles about the construction in London of a “memorial” to the victims of Katyn cannot fail to arouse the legitimate indignation in the Soviet Union.

However, judging from the materials published in the British press this provocation with the “memorial” is far from over. It is reported in particular that the authorities of the London region of Kensington-Chelsea have supposedly given agreement to install such a “memorial” on the territory of their region at the Church of St. Luke and have already approved its design. The nature of the inscriptions which, according to reports, were sanctioned on this “memorial” are especially outrageous. The historical facts about the true culprits of the Katyn tragedy are distorted in them in the crudest manner and essentially the vile inventions put in circulation by the Nazis back during the Second World War are reproduced in order to conceal the bloody crimes of the Gestapo butchers known to the entire world.

The position taken by the British government on this question is in clear contradiction to its assurances about the desire to improve relations with the Soviet Union. In Moscow they expect that proper measures will be taken from the British government to put an end to the campaign hostile to the Soviet Union fomented around the construction in London of a so-called “memorial” to the victims of Katyn.

Telegraph when this is done.

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