Photo Gallery Remembering Katyn
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (left) and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended a memorial ceremony Wednesday in Katyn, Russia to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.
In April and May 1940, the Soviet secret police executed more than 20,000 Poles at various sites within the Soviet Union, including Katyn forest, Tver and Kharkov.
Former Polish President Lech Walesa (second from right) attends the ceremony at the Katyn memorial, which opened in 2000.
Polish soldiers stand in front of the memorial wall in Katyn that is inscribed with the names of Polish officers murdered in the massacre. Many relatives of the Polish victims, who had traveled with Tusk's delegation to Katyn, were probably hoping for a clear apology from Putin. But the Russian prime minister also needs to take Russian sensitivities into account. A majority of Russians are opposed to an apology for the massacre.
Putin writes in the Distinguished Visitors' Book at the Polish Military Cemetery in Katyn. He is the first sitting Russian prime minister to pay tribute to the Poles murdered at Katyn.
The Soviet government blamed the massacre on the Nazis -- and Polish authorities took the same stance during the Communist era.
Observers view Putin's gesture as marking a possible thaw in relations between Russia and Poland.
A Polish soldier attends the memorial ceremony. The Soviet Union did not admit responsibility for the massacre until 1990 and has avoided an official apology.
"Counterrevolutionary elements," which included Polish officers, priests, officials and intellectuals were the targets of the massacre. Josef Stalin signed the execution order.
Putin and Tusk lay wreaths at the Katyn memorial.
