Russia deserves commendation and praise for finally coming clean on a ghastly Soviet crime. There are millions of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians who are waiting for similar candour from Moscow over the circumstances of the occupation of their countries. To date, alas, Russia still repeats Stalin's lie that there was no occupation, and that these countries' incorporation into the Soviet Union was free and legal.The continued embrace of such highly offensive and deeply hurtful lies, and Moscow's constant criticism of the Baltics as they go about the difficult task of dealing with the damage that Soviet captivity brought to their countries, ensures that Russian-Baltic relations remain bad, and that through this, Russia's reputation in Europe and the wider world remains impaired. Mr Medvedev, please now show the same honesty in regarding the Baltics as you have done in regard to Katyn.

Any links for the documents?

RT: "...includes the letter from the Head of Russian Secret Police Lavrentiy Beria to then-head of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin suggesting the execution of Polish war prisoners without any further explanation or investigation." How could the Russian people ever have permitted these two Georgian monsters to impose such a yoke of terror on their nation? Stalin and Beria showed how thin the veneer of civilization really is when the State controls of the minds of the masses. Medvedev walked a fine line in admitting that Stalin's regime is responsible, without ascribing the shame and responsibility of the Katyn murders to the Russian people, or to the Russian Federation. It will take a generation to wash the communist mindset from the Russian society. These people, for 70 years, believed the propaganda that the Baltics voluntarily joined to USSR to bask in the glory of the communist paradise. Huge parades were held in Moscow with smiling Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians waving flowers, banners, and thanking Stalin for allowing them to join the USSR. Now, you are asking the government of the RF to admit to its people that even the incorporation of the Baltic nations was a staged fraud. Perhaps one day the RF will admit that Stalin used armed force to incorporate Estonia (Latvia and Lithuania as well) into the USSR. Perhaps the RF will admit to the travesty of arrest and deportation of Estonia's president Konstantin Päts and general Johan Laidoner. Päts was imprisoned in a Soviet psychiatric hospital where he died, and Laidoner died in a Soviet prison. Perhaps one day the RF will open the archives on the thousands of Estonians executed or exiled to Siberian gulags. Perhaps this admission will be forthcoming from the RF, when the RF considers it to be in its interest. However, the more time that passes, the less likely is the possibility for such an admission.

To Marzipan6 Just a few days after the Georgian attack on South Ossetia I came across a remarkable article in The Independent newspaper here in the UK. A very respectable British journalist provided some answers on the topic related to your comments, mainly on the division of the EU towards modern Russia. The main problem is that the Baltic countries together with other post-soviets states have brought their own personal anti-Russian agenda combined with much overblown nationalistic pride into the Union. So much so, that what was played very well in the beginning for some Western politicians, now it became some sort of Eastern European burden (economical migrants) or even a great embarrassment (glorification of ex-Nazis, re-writing or deforming the history of WWII). It is not difficult to imagine what would have happened to all those deluded citizens of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine who had welcomed the Nazis as liberators of their soil. Didn't they know what plans did Hitler have for them in store? Only survivors of slavery and humiliation can distinguish "liberation" from "occupation". Mr Medvedev is not a magician; his honesty is not enough to change certain inherently anti-Russian mentality,hence, your quest into the past should be a challenge to your own honesty.

Svetlana I think you are giving the Baltic nations's anti-Russian views more credit than necessary for these former Soviet bloc countries were used as convenient conduit to express the ugliest forms of Russaphia by British and the U.S ruling elites- the very people you seem to hold in high esteem! Anglo American Russahobia is matched only its dehumanisation of the German people. Ironically, I do not see similar dehumanisation of Germans among my Russian friends and nor do I sense anti-Russian feelings among my German friends. If you doubt my assertion of British xenophobia, just look at what the British media is staying today against the German Chancellor Angela Merkel because she refused to pour hard earned German people’s cash into Goldman Sachs created U.S economic fraud which caused the current Greek debt crisis. Svetlana, British and U.S Russophbia is more real and powerful than small Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia can ever be! We can already see some of these eastern block countries, such as Ukraine and Poland already warming relations. However, Russia needs to do a better PR job of representing itself in the world. I think the process has already started; setting this very network, putting these already declassified documents online for wider viewing, downloading and circulations are all things Russian can do to counter Russiaphobia in the West.

I am a bit confused about this "new" openness. What new documents? The memo from Beria with Stalin's signature at the bottom is now in history textbooks here in USA. The book I am looking at right now was printed in 2007 and used translations from 1997. Didn't Gorbachev, while the Soviet Union still existed, admit the executions happened per Stalin's orders? So, what is new, now?

Marzipan6, Remind me again to whom the Kremlin offered the job of heading the project of "History of Russia. XX Century." Better yet, I do that for you: Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Is there anyone who spoke out louder, and wrote more, against the USSR than this Russian man? He declined due to his age, and asked that Andrey Zubov do so in his place, another noted anti-communist. It has been praised by scholars all around, let them Americans, Poles, or others. Russia's not hiding from its role in anything, and you should stop claiming otherwise.

To Svetlana: (1) Estonia doesn’t have an “anti-Russian agenda”. It’s not inherently anti-Russian today, nor has been throughout the thousand years that Russia has been a neighbour. It has no wish to punish Russia, seek any kind of vengeance against Russia, or discriminate against Russia. It simply wants Russia to cease lying about its Baltic history, stop its unfriendly anti-Baltic rhetoric and actions, and act as a normal neighbour. (2) Estonia has no “overblown national pride”. It simply refuses to be dominated or abused by other countries. This is nothing more than normal self-respect which any country should have, and normal prudence in regard to its own safety and future. (3) Estonia never has, does not now, and most likely never will “glorify” either Nazis or ex-Nazis. There has never been an Estonian Nazi Party, and next to no Estonians were ever members of the German Nazi Party. Many of those who fought against the Soviet occupation of their country fought within the context of the German military because, thanks to the prior Soviet occupation, there no longer was an Estonian army. They were no more Nazis than a Russian was necessarily a Communist because he fought in the Red Army. (4) Almost anything was better than the brutal Soviet occupation of 1940-41. When Germans first arrived, they were understandably viewed as some kind of saviours. It very quickly became apparent that they were just another foreign oppressor, though not as savage to Estonia as the Soviet had been, and would be again. (5) Estonia neither “re-writes” nor lies about history. It simply insists on the reality of history being accepted. Recently Russia has accepted such a point of reality, and revoked its former lies about Katyn. It has yet to embrace reality and stop lying about the Soviet occupation of the Baltics. (6) Indeed Medvedev isn’t a magician. A couple of years ago he was not particularly honest about Katyn, either. He still isn’t about the Baltics.

I'm glad Russian Federation decided to publish these documents over Internet. I hope it will help improve realtions in the region. In my opinion way too long there have been so big conflicts between e.g. Russia & Poland...

Goran, I’m not aware to whom the Kremlin offered the job of heading the project of “History of Russia. XX Century,” who declined it or why, nor who accepted it and why. I just know two thing in relation to this matter: (1) Up until today, there are important aspects of Soviet history that are accepted without disagreement by mainstream historians the world over but on which Russia takes the opposite position. And (2), that in normal countries, the seat of government power does not sponsor national history projects, much less propose laws to criminalize opinions that dissent from the accepted government version.

MEJanssen Also think that there is something about this story that does not add up. This new doc contains no new evidence. Perhaps putting it online is the new revelation!

Svetlana: "The main problem is that the Baltic countries together with other post-soviets states have brought their own personal anti-Russian agenda combined with much overblown nationalistic pride into the Union." Your claimed "anti-Russian agenda" of the Baltic nations in the EU is not as simple as you seem to image, or hope to impress upon the RT readers. What is "anti-Russian" in the positions taken by the Baltic nations? I suppose if you consider ALL positions and opinions of the Baltic nations with which Russia does not agree, as "anti-Russian", then your claim is at least understandable, though flawed. The actions of the Estonian representatives in the EU (and those of Latvia and Lithuania as well) are not predicated on "anti-Russian" or "much overblown nationalistic pride" emotions . Estonia does not have an "anti-Russian agenda". The country's relations with the Russian Federation is impacted by the memories of the Stalinist horror they suffered and the denial of Estonian national aspiration during Soviet rule. These painful memories naturally affect the Estonian people and their representatives at the EU. The Estonians, as far as I understand, have no innate dislike of Russia and Russians. Whatever dislike there is, is a residue resulting from the memories when the country was part of the USSR. Naturally, the Baltic representatives at the EU express their suspicions of Russia because they want to ensure that Russia can never again gain control their country, nor destabilize their society or economy. This should be understandable to you.

Some people have asked me whether Estonia's fears during their membership in USSR are exaggerated. The answer lies in the signatures of Stalin and Beria on the execution orders just made public. Stalin, Beria and their NKVD thugs had no moral or legal restraints, and executed people by the millions. The order was simply given to execute that Estonian, or ship that Estonian family to the Siberian gulags, and the order was carried out swiftly without a second thought by the people in authority. No one who has not lived through such terror can really comprehend it, and it's easy for them to dismiss or mitigate what happened to the Estonian people during Stalin's reign. The Russians lived under similar terror where each wrong step or statement meant a bullet in the back of the head or a trip to the gulag camps of Siberia. Stalin and Beria liquidated the best of Russian society, because he despised Russians. The people who were anti-Russians were the Georgians who controlled the Kremlin until Stalin's death in 1953. Stalin was even jealous of general Zhukov and was preparing to eliminate him and other Russians as well, but his death saved Russia from that agony. Any one who wants to search for anti-Russian need not look at the Baltic nations.

I first came to know about Katyn massacre from Leon Uris book Armageddon. It was shocking to know cream of Polish officer corps was liquidated by NKVD thugs. Katyn is a black mark is the face of Russia. Belatedly Moscow acknowledged its guilt. What led to this sudden u turn? Haunted by guilty conscience perhaps. Moscow is trying to redeem Russia's image by acknowledging the crimes committed by Bolsheviks.If so , it has long way to go. For I feel Russian archives has not yielded all its secrets.

Marzipan6, You are very cleverly parsing words, and again trying to convince the unsuspecting. We have had this debate, and then some. You are not at all honest when you say that there was no participation of Estonian population in helping Hitler's efforts. Estonia had formed SS military units, and had a large "volunteer" formations. You are leaving the impression that Estonia was left without military capabilities when Soviets left. This is not true. In short, let me summarize what is undeniable. Estonian population and government undermined Soviet Forces during the period preceding 1940-1941 occupation. Most people do not know that Soviet Union and Estonia had basing agreement, and that Soviets used the base during war with Finland. And most people do not know that Finland was as that time an undeclared Hitler ally, and later became an official ally. Soviet Navy was trying to keep Finland from being another Hitler's front. Most people do not know that during that period, Soviet forces behaved according to agreement, did not interfere in Estonia's domestic affairs. However, Estonians during same period have helped Hitler by volunteering in Finland, and providing intelligence on Soviet navy. Estonians fought with Hitler on Russian territory, during the siege of Leningrad. When Hitler was withdrawing, Estonians were rear guard. All in all, over 500,000 Russians were killed in Estonia, before they could pursue Hitler to his defeat. Most of them by Estonians. By comparison, 50,000 Estonians perished, those killed or deported by Stalin, as well as those killed while fighting with Germans . Poles did not do anything to Stalin. There were no Polish-Soviet battles. There is no comparison. I do not think that Estonian people hate Russians. Russians do not hate Germans, and Germans do not hate Russians. With a little bit more of understanding (on both sides), Russia and Estonia can be good neighbors.

Will someone help please! What is new about the information on Katyn massacre that was not known, acknowledged and published long time ago? The information is in all history books, even in US, and published a while ago, cannot tell when. This information came out with Gorbachev, and is at least twenty years old. Is it that it has been put on internet that is new?

Bianca, no one denies that some Estonians served in German forces military during the latter part of the War. But it is dishonest of you to characterise this as indicative of Estonian commitment to Nazi ideology or to German war aims. If Germany had won the war, Estonian sovereignty would have remained destroyed, so why should Estonians be enthusiastic for that? Their aim was rather to forestall the re-occupation of their country by Soviet Russians for as long as possible, in the hope – forlorn, as it turned out – that the war would end before the Red terror was re-established over their land. And yes, Estonia WAS left with no military capacity when the first Soviet occupation ended in 1941. Its military had been dismantled by the Soviets, and tens of thousands of its former soldiers transported to labour camps deep in Russia, where many of them died from cold, disease, starvation and overwork. Estonia absolutely observed its pre-war bases agreement with Russia. This is why some men travelled to Finland to join the Finnish army – in accordance with its bases treaty, Estonia refused to fight against Russia. Estonia did not break that treaty. Russia broke it in many aspects before finally abandoning all pretense and destroying the country in 1941. When Russians re-invaded Estonia in 1944 they were resisted fiercely, just as you would resist known murderers who are invading your home for the second time to continue killing those of your family who escaped their clutches in their first invasion of your home. But as most of the defensive line along Estonia’s eastern border was manned by German troops with Estonians forming just a minority, it is ridiculous to claim that most invading Russians were killed by Estonians. Just as it would be ridiculous to claim that, given their 1940-41 experience, Estonians should have welcomed those characters back with flowers.

@ Biance, I think that what is "new" about the release from the archives is that it is in digital format. Otherwise, I have not read anything that was not already published years ago. It is hard for me to see what the big hullaballoo over the records is all about - there cannot be much more about Katyn that is still "classified". Unless the critics want more records than just for Katyn? The real damage to history was done by Khrushchev who ordered the destruction of records related to Katyn. Whatever survived that purge should be published, but I don't know how much survived.

Estonians came bottom of 30 nations in a European League Table of Happiness,2007. Anti-Soviet/Russian sentiments haven't been judged, just the main environmental and social issues such as carbon footprint, fear of crime and life expectancy. Anything at all to cheer you up?