Having retaken the Katyn area almost immediately after the Red Army had recaptured Smolensk, around September-October 1943, NKVD forces began a cover-up.[2][58] A cemetery the Germans had permitted the Polish Red Cross to build was destroyed and other evidence removed.[2] Witnesses were "interviewed", and threatened with being arrested as German collaborators if their testimonies disagreed with the official line.[58] A preeliminary report was issued by NKVD operatives Vsevolod Merkulov and Sergei Kruglov, dated 10-11 January 1944, concluding that the Polish officers were shot by the Germans.[58]


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