No one could have predicted that on a foggy Saturday morning a tragedy would take place near Smolensk in Russia. No one could have imagined that the forests of Katyn would take even more victims. Poland, together with the rest of the world, never could have foreseen that they would lose a president on April 10, 2010.

In 1940 Russia’s Joseph Stalin ordered a mass murder of Polish intellectuals and military officers, which was carried out by the Soviet secret police NKVD. It is estimated that roughly 22,000 Poles were executed in the forests of Katyn. The Soviet Union denied responsibility until 1990. This year, Vladimir Putin was the first Russian leader to join a Polish official in commemorating the anniversary of the hideous crime. Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister accompanied Mr. Putin on April 7.

Several days later Polish president Lech Kaczyński, together with the country’s political elite, historians and public figures, was on his way to commemorate the Katyn massacre. Apart from a dozen members of Parliament, there were many more prominent passengers on board of the Tupolev Tu-154M. The unfortunate list of passengers included Aleksander Szczygło – Head of the National Security Bureau, Andrzej Kremer – Deputy foreign minister, Ryszard Kaczorowski – former president in exile, Jerzy Szmajdziński – Deputy speaker of the Parliament, Gen. Franciszek Gągor – Army chief of staff, Sławomir Skrzypek – President of National Bank of Poland, as well as senior members of clergy and relatives of the victims of the Katyn massacre.

Sources claim that the pilot had three failed attempts to approach the airport runway, and that despite the warnings from the Russian air traffic control, the political elite was eager to land. Preliminary investigation points out that, due to the dense fog, the plane hit the trees approximately 1km away from the runway. More than 90 passengers and crew members were killed in the crash.

That Saturday morning all of Poland was in shock and disbelief. According to Marysia Narecka, an exchange student from Lublin, the sound of busy phone lines spread all across the country: “My parents received a call from our cousin telling them what happened. It was really strange because everybody was trying to call one another. Nobody believed what had happened.”

Narecka continued to explain the atmosphere in Poland: “There were two types of reactions. On one hand, there were people who supported the president. They honestly mourned the president, saw no future, and believed that everything disappeared in a second,” while she contrasted the change of mood of his critics: “The other side, which has in the past mocked president Kaczyński, now felt sorry. They were publicly trying to make up for things they said about him before.”

Polish media houses were cancelling the usual programs, weather forecasts and shows. A student at Leuven, who wants to stay anonymous, was appalled by certain media in Belgium: “In ‘Gazet Van Antwerpen’ I saw a picture of the eagle [Poland’s Coat of arms] stuck in the ground on a red and white background with the headline ‘Eagle has landed’. That’s just awful.”

Dominika Knaś, originally from Częstochowa, was deeply struck by the death of the president’s wife, Maria Kaczyńska: “I thought that it wasn’t true. I am really sorry for his wife. She was a very good woman, really nice.”

After a proper burial ceremony, with the president and his wife being buried in the historic Wawel cathedral in Krakow, officials in Poland scheduled elections for June 20. In less than three months, citizens of Poland are going to try to forget about the tragedy by circling another name on the voting ballot. |