Slaughter of 20,000 Poles at Katyn was Josef Stalin's order

The Katyn massacres were carried out on the direct order of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Russia's lower house of parliament said yesterday.

The 1940 massacre of around 20,000 Polish officers and other prominent citizens in western Russia by Soviet secret police has long soured relations with Poland, though there has been a recent thaw.

For decades, Russia blamed the killings on the Nazis, but after the fall of Communism, the Kremlin admitted the killings were carried out by the precursor of the KGB, the NKVD.

The new statement passed by the State Duma appears aimed as a step toward Russia definitively breaking with its Soviet legacy.

Some observers have expressed alarm in recent years that Russia may be quietly rehabilitating Stalin. Last year, a quote praising the despot was restored to the decoration of one of Moscow's busiest subway stations. This year, Moscow's mayor proposed allowing posters depicting Stalin as part of the annual celebrations of the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

"This historic document is important not only for Russian-Polish relations - much more it is important for us ourselves," said Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Duma's foreign relations committee.

Russia has turned over classified documents this year about Katyn to the Polish government.

"Published materials, held in secret archives for many years, not only reveal the scale of this awful tragedy but show that the Katyn crime was committed on the direct order of Stalin and other Soviet leaders," said the statement, which also expresses "deep sympathy for the victims of this unjustified repression".

Communist MPs unsuccessfully tried to have the reference to Stalin's role deleted.

"The falsification of history that we are fighting against in other countries is also taking place in our country, and today we could see it with our own eyes," Mr Kosachev said of the amendment attempt.

Russian officials frequently use the term "falsification of history" to attack perceived attempts to underplay the importance of the Red Army in defeating the Nazis.

The head of the Polish parliament's foreign affairs committee, Andrzej Halicki, said he considered the Duma's statement to be a breakthrough. "I am happy such a process of reconciliation and truth is taking place," he said. But Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the Law and Justice party, said he wanted an apology and compensation.

President Dmitry Medvedev is due to visit Poland next month.