In the spring of 1940 a man named Lavrenity Beria , head of the NKVD the Soviet Secret Police, sent a proposal to the Soviet Politburo. His plan was approved and signed by the members including Stalin. His plan was put into action with slight modification. Originally intended by Beria to execute the entire Polish Officer Corps it came to include as many other members of the Polis elite that the Soviet murderers could get their hands on. At the end of the day about 8,000 Polish officers and another 14,000 doctors, lawyers, policemen, factory owners, priests and land owners were killed. The most commonly used weapon was a German made Walther PPK pistol. The prisoners were brought into a small cell where they were immediately shot in the back of the head. The bodies were then dragged out of the cell through a door opposite the entrance and tossed onto one of many trucks that ran all night every night for about a month. Beria's chief executioner is said to have personally killed seven thousand. He would eventually die a disgraced and insane alcoholic about fifteen years later. When tragedies rising to the level of war crimes and mass human rights violations come to mind this event has a special place. The absence of entitlements provided by tax payers does not.
