The World - News from April 19, 1989

Poland’s Communist authorities changed the wording on a monument to 4,000 army officers murdered in the Soviet Union during World War II but stopped short of accusing the Kremlin of the crime. Thousands flocked to Warsaw’s largest cemetery for the unveiling of the new inscription on the Katyn monument: “To the Polish officers murdered at Katyn,” with no attribution for blame. The previous legend accused “Hitlerian fascism” of the massacre. The slain officers were among 15,000 captured by Soviet troops in 1939. Most Poles and Western historians believe the Soviet secret police committed the crime, but Moscow and Warsaw for decades blamed the Nazis.