MOSCOW(AP) – Russia's state archives posted documents Wednesday for the first time on the Internet about the Soviet Union's World War II massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers and other prominent citizens.

The step was a gesture to Poland in a case that looms large in Polish history and has soured relations between the two countries for decades.
President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the documents posted on the archives' website, reflecting a new willingness in Russia to accept responsibility for the killings at Katyn and elsewhere in 1940.
Relations between Russia and Poland have warmed following the tragic April 10 plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 94 others on a flight to visit the Katyn forest in western Russia for a memorial ceremony on the 70th anniversary of the massacre.
For 50 years, the Soviet Union blamed the massacres on the Nazi German forces who invaded in 1941. Russia also has refused Polish requests to recognize the executed Poles as victims of political repression.
Many Russians still do not know the truth about Katyn, and the release of the documents may play a positive role in helping Russians come terms with their own painful history under Stalin.