Moscow:
Russia's Lower House of Parliament has passed a statement saying the World War II Katyn massacres were committed on the direct order of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
The 1940 massacre of some 20,000 Polish officers and other prominent citizens in western Russia by Soviet secret police has long soured relations between the two countries.
Soviet propaganda for decades blamed the killings on the Nazis, but post-Soviet Russia previously acknowledged they were carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or NKVD -- Stalin's much feared secret police.
The statement passed Friday by the State Duma appears aimed as a step toward Russia definitively breaking with its Soviet legacy.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is set to visit Poland in early December.
The 1940 massacre of some 20,000 Polish officers and other prominent citizens in western Russia by Soviet secret police has long soured relations between the two countries.
Soviet propaganda for decades blamed the killings on the Nazis, but post-Soviet Russia previously acknowledged they were carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or NKVD -- Stalin's much feared secret police.
The statement passed Friday by the State Duma appears aimed as a step toward Russia definitively breaking with its Soviet legacy.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is set to visit Poland in early December.
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