Polish tragedy in Smolensk
Have you ever heard of a country that lost a president, most of secretaries of state, all the army marshall officers, some parliament members, head of a central bank, the primary opposition party establishment and representatives of churches and families of people murdered in a genocide, all of them in one disaster? Until today, the only comparable example I saw was Battlestar Galactica series, but today it happened to my home country, Poland.
A couple of minutes before 9 A.M. of Central European time, a government airplane Tu-154 with important part of Polish establishment was attempting to land at the Smolensk North military airport in Western Russia. The delegation was going to mark the 70th anniversary of a genocide of 20,000 Polish officers by NKVD, later KGB (USSR) during the World War II in forests near Katyń village. Due to a dense fog, the crew had problems with safe landing. It was their fourth trial, but the plane missed the ground again. During the rising, one of the wings touched a tree and the plane crashed next to the airstrip. The deputatives of Russian government confirmed that there were no survivors among 96 people on board.
When I turned on the computer today, it was approximately 30 minutes after the disaster. I knew that the Polish government airfleet is rather unreliable, but still the first news was a shock for me. For the first time, nobody knew nothing. The agencies said that a plane fell down and that the president Lech Kaczyński was on board. Minutes after minutes, the scale of the tragedy become known to everyone. Soon, the news site changed their colors to grey, symbols of a mourning. Everyone were rather sure that nobody survived.
Some notable people who were on board:
- Lech Kaczyński - President of Poland since 2005. He was elected for five years, and the new election was planned to autumn 2010.
- Maria Kaczyńska - First Lady of Poland.
- Ryszard Kaczorowski - the last Polish president in exile.
- Krzysztof Putra, Jerzy Szmajdziński - Vice-Marshals of Sejm (lower parliament)
- Krystyna Bochenek - Vice-Marshal of Senat (upper parliament)
- General Franciszek Gągor - Chief of the Polish Army General Staff
- Vice Admiral Andrzej Karweta - Commander-in-chief of the Polish Navy
- General Bronisław Kwiatkowski - Operational Commander of Armed Forces
- General Tadeusz Buk - Commander of Armed Forces
- General Andrzej Błasik - Commander of Air Force
- General Wojciech Potasiński - Commander of Special Forces
- General Kazimierz Gilarski - Commander of Warsaw Garrison
- Przemysław Gosiewski - member of Sejm, former Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Poland
- Zbigniew Wasserman - member of Sejm, former Minister of Special Forces
- Grażyna Gęsicka - member of Sejm, former Minister of Regional Development
- Ryszard Rumianek - Rector of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University
- Sławomir Skrzypek - President of the National Bank of Poland
- Aleksander Szczygło - head of the National Security Bureau
- Janusz Kurtyka - Historian and president of the Institute of National Remembrance
- Tadeusz Płoski - bishop of the Military Ordinariate of the Polish Army
On board, there were also representatives of famillies of Polish officers murdered in Katyń, members of security and members of the dignitaries' families. According to the words of Polish Prime Minister, 'The contemporary world has not seen a tragedy of such proportions' (pl. Takiego dramatu współczesny świat nie widział).
The new president of Poland became automatically Bronisław Komorowski, former Marshal of Sejm from Platforma Obywatelska party. He was chosen as a candidate for presidential elections in autumn, but now it is he who must call the new election within the next 14 days. A huge loss happened to the Polish Army which lost all of its head officers, currently being replaced by their deputatives. Many of the victims were primary members of Law and Justice, the main opposition party.
It is hard to say what the next months will bring. The disaster changed everything. One could ask many questions, i.e. why the old Russian airplanes which were known for their little reliability were not replaced, or why such a big group of Polish establishment was found in only one machine. However, these are questions for investigators who will examine the crash. Because we must not forget about one thing: despite everything, all the victims were humans and no matter what they believed in, it is our duty to pray for their souls and give the honours.