SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2010
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Poland grieves for leaders lost in plane crash
poland from A1
over the government, based on his party’s majority in Parliament. The president, although the titu- lar armed forces commander, plays a largely ceremonial role. Also listed among the dead were some revered figures in the Polish struggle to break free of communism: Anna Walentynow- icz, 80, the diminutive crane oper- ator whose firing in August 1980 from the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk helped spark the creation of Solidarity, the political move- ment that nine years later helped topple the communist govern- ment; and the last Polish presi- dent in exile, Ryszard Kaczorow- ski, 90, who stepped down when Lech Walesa, the leader of Soli- darity, became the first post-com- munist president of Poland. “This is a great tragedy, a great shock to us all,” Walesa said. The crash occurred Saturday morning near the city of Smo- lensk as the president’s plane, a 26-year-old Russian-made Tupo- lev TU-154, was carrying the offi- cials to a ceremony in Russia com- memorating the Soviet massacre of Poland’s officer corps in 1940 at the outset of World War II, one of the most traumat- ic events in 20th-century Polish history. The gover- nor of the Smolensk re- gion said the pilot decided to land de- spite advice from the con-
President Lech Kaczynski, 60, was a fervent nationalist.
trol tower that he divert to an- other airport because of poor vis- ibility. The three-engine aircraft clipped trees and broke apart about a mile short of the runway at a military airport, officials said. Television images showed small fires amid the fog and a broken tail fin with the red and white col- ors of the Polish flag.
Kaczynski, who became presi- dent in 2005, was the identical twin brother of former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. To- gether they had roiled domestic and international politics with their combative brand of Polish conservatism that was suspicious
The presidential plane crashed in heavy fog as it approached a military airport. All early reports indicated that the pilot erred.
who bravely met death here.” Putin’s words and the airing of
PHOTOS BY SERGEI KARPUKHIN/REUTERS
Emergency workers in the western Russian city of Smolensk carry a coffin with the remains of a victim.
of both the Kremlin and the Euro- pean Union bureaucracy in Brus- sels. Lech Kaczynski, 60, was fac- ing reelection this fall but was trailing in opinion polls. “In the face of this tragedy, we stand all united,” said Bronislaw Komorowski, speaker of the lower house of Parliament and now the acting president. “There is no left or right. There are no differences, no divisions. We are all together with our message of compassion to the families of those who died nearby the Smolensk airport.” Komorowski declared a week of
national mourning. President Obama, who also telephoned Tusk, said in a state- ment, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Kaczynski family, the loved ones of those killed in this tragic plane crash, and the Polish nation.” Obama said the tragedy was “devastating to Poland, to the United States, and to the world” and described Kaczynski as “a dis- tinguished statesman who played a key role in the Solidarity move- ment and . . . was widely admired in the United States as a leader dedicated to advancing freedom and human dignity.” The Polish delegation had been planning to mark the 70th anni-
versary of the summary execution of more than 20,000 Polish offi- cers by the Soviet Union’s secret police, the NKVD, in the forest of Katyn. The spring 1940 massacre followed the division of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II. The killings, which were or- dered by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, were coldly systematic: Each officer was shot in the back of the head, his hands tied behind his back. And by wiping out such a large part of the Polish officer corps, the Soviets created a lead- ership vacuum they were able to exploit when the Red Army drove the Nazis out of Poland. For decades, the Soviets at- tempted to cover up the crime, blaming it on the Nazis, and the authorities in Moscow did not ac- cept responsibility until 1990, when Mikhail Gorbachev said the Soviet Union carried out the kill- ings. The legacy of Katyn still fes- ters in Russian-Polish relations, and some in Russia still dismiss the crime as an anti-Russia con- spiracy whipped up by the Poles. “This is unbelievable — this
tragic, cursed Katyn,” Kaczynski’s predecessor, Aleksander Kwas-
niewski, said on Polish television. “You get chills down your spine.” Russian Prime Minister Vladi-
mir Putin took charge of an in- vestigation into the crash, flying
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Kaczynski family, the loved ones of those killed in this tragic plane crash, and the
Polish nation.”
— President Obama
to Smolensk, where he was sched- uled to meet Tusk, who flew in from Warsaw. Both men had at- tended a ceremony this week marking the Katyn massacre, and Putin — the first Russian leader to attend the commemoration — said, “We bow our heads to those
the film “Katyn” by the acclaimed Polish director Andrzej Wajda on Russian television this month were seen as significant efforts to improve often-strained relations between the two countries. Waj- da’s father, a Polish cavalry officer, was killed at Katyn. James Sherr, head of the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank, stressed the need for trans- parency. “The Russians will be un- der pressure to handle this in an extremely impressive way, and it is possible, if they can, that the re- lationship between the countries will benefit,” he said. “But if the crash and emotions provoked by it lead to recriminations and de- fensiveness, then we will see something else.” A nationalist with an abiding suspicion of Russia, Kaczynski did not attend the joint ceremony Wednesday and instead was arriv- ing for a largely Polish ceremony Saturday. Kaczynski had in the past infuriated Moscow with his embrace of Ukrainian and Geor- gian leaders hostile to Moscow and his support for the placement of a U.S. missile defense system on Polish soil. The deaths near Katyn of Kac- zynski and a delegation sprinkled with people who had felt the heavy hand of the Soviets seems extraordinary and will certainly fuel conspiracy theories about the crash. But all early reports point- ed to pilot error.
Polish and Russian officials said the plane was serviced and refurbished at a Russian plant in December, but the Polish govern- ment’s continued use of aging Russian jets has been the source of some controversy in the coun- try. The government said it could not afford a new fleet of Western planes.
“I once said that we will one day
meet in a funeral procession, and that is when we will take the deci- sion to replace the aircraft fleet,” said former prime minister Les- zek Miller, who was injured when a government helicopter crashed in 2003. In addition to Obama’s state- ment, condolences from other world leaders poured in. “I knew that his whole life had been dedicated to the fight for the freedom of Poland and the free- dom of Europe,” German Chancel- lor Angela Merkel said of Kac- zynski.
“On this difficult day, the peo-
ple of Russia stand with the Polish people,” Russian President Dmi- try Medvedev told Tusk in a phone call, according to the Kremlin press service.
codye@washpost.comfinnp@washpost.com
Finn reported from Washington. Special correspondent Karla Adam in London contributed to this report.
Polish president took strong pro-U.S. stance. Obituary, C6
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