ABSTRACT
The renewed public interest in Katyn in Britain in the early to mid-1970s, especially the proposed erection of a memorial to its victims in London, provoked a strong Soviet and PRL diplomatic reaction to its various aspects. The CPSU politburo discussed the question on 15 April 1971. It confirmed instructions for the Soviet ambassadors to London and (when appropriate) to Warsaw to express Soviet ‘surprise and indignation’ to the British FCO against the forthcoming BBC broadcast and the ‘slanderous’ publications appearing on the issue. The politburo reiterated the standard Burdenko line on German guilt claiming that this had been recognised at Nuremberg. The FCO was to be asked to take appropriate steps to prevent the circulation of material designed by its authors to worsen relations between Britain and the USSR.1 The Central Committee was informed that the Polish ‘friends’ would be seconding the above actions.2
