Katyn- the Soviet massacre of over 21,000 Polish prisoners in 1940 - has come to be remembered as Stalin's emblematic mass murder, an event obscured by one of the most extensive cover-ups in history. Yet paradoxically, a majority of its victims perished far from the forest in western Russia that gives the tragedy its name. Their remains lie buried in killing fields throughout Russia, Ukraine and, most likely, Belarus. Today their ghosts haunt the cultural landscape of Eastern Europe.

This book traces the legacy of Katyn through the interconnected memory cultures of seven countries:...