Piotr Soprunenko

Piotr Karpovich Soprunenko (17 March 1908 – 23 June 1992) was a Soviet Major-General in the Red Army who carried out the Katyn Massacre in World War 2. Soprunenko had 22,000 prisoners of war under his jurisdiction as head of a branch of the Soviet NKVD called the "Department for POW Affairs" that was created by Lavrenty Beria.[1][2] He was of Ukrainian ancestry.

A mass grave at Katyn, 1943

Biography

Sporunenko was born near Kyiv in Ukraine, under the Russian Empire.[1]

Soprunenko achieved the rank of captain of State Security in March 1940, major in 1942, colonel and then commissar in 1943, and Major General in 1945.[2]

War Crimes

Soprunenko was reportedly responsible for the executions of nearly 22,000 Polish intelligentsia, military officers, and other prisoners of war during the Katyn Massacre in April and May 1940.[3] This is considered by many to be a genocide.[4]

In 1990, Nicholas Bethell, 4th Baron Bethell raised a question with the UK Government regarding Soprunenko's role in Katyn with a view to his possible prosecution as a war criminal.[5]

In 1991, the Soviet Union declined to prosecute Soprunenko due to infirmity and old age and he never faced justice.[3]

References
  1. Understanding the Ukrainians in WWII. Part 2. Stories of Ukrainians in the Red Army URL https://euromaidanpress.com/2015/06/11/understanding-the-ukrainians-in-wwii-part-2-stories-of-ukrainians-in-the-red-army/ Website title: Euromaidan Press, Date accessed: August 27, 2023, Date published: May 08, 2021.
  2. "Biography of Major-General Petr Karpovich Soprunenko – (Петр Карпович Сопруненко) (1908–1992), Soviet Union". Generals.dk. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  3. "Katyn Files, 1940". Allworldwars.com. Archived from the original on 17 January 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  4. The Katyn Massacre – Mechanisms of Genocide, The Warsaw Institute Review, May 18, 2020
  5. Katyn Massacre: General Soprunenko's Role, HL Deb 17 July 1990 vol 521 cc753-4
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