Polish presidential plane crash a tragic postscript to Katyn massacre Commentary
Polish presidential plane crash a tragic postscript to Katyn massacre
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Bob Donnorummo [Former Associate Director, Center for Russian & East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh]: "On April 10, JURIST reported the crash of the Polish presidential jet killing President Lech Kaczynski, two deputy speakers and 12 members of parliament, two senators, three deputy ministers, National Bank President, all the chiefs of the various branches of the military, high level advisors, and other dignitaries. In the week that has followed, three thoughts have come to mind. (1) Why has not a personal and political tragedy of this magnitude created at least a discernable ripple in the stabilization of the country? (2) The response of the Russian leadership has been warm, effective and welcomed. Finally, (3) my most vivid thought, can there be something one might call the "ghost of Katyn?"

The speaker of the Parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, will be the interim President. He will set a date for elections, and political life goes on in Warsaw. This is true despite the fact that Mr. Komorowki was to run against President Kaczynski and his nationalistic, anti-Russian Law and Justice Party in the approaching presidential elections. I have been a frequent traveler to Poland since the 1970s, and I firmly believe that the former communist government of Poland would not have been nearly so stable under similar circumstances. The reason rests with the legitimacy of the present government. Simply put, communist rule never had legitimacy in Poland, but numerous open elections since 1989, as well as personal freedoms securely embedded in democratically passed legislation and interpreted by an accountable judiciary, have given the populace a feeling that the government is legitimate and they are stakeholders.

Poland and Russia have had a contentious, even hateful, relationship for centuries. In 1795, Warsaw and large sections of Poland most reluctantly became part of the Tsarist Russian Empire, against which it chaffed and rebelled in 1830, 1863, and 1905. In 1920, the Soviet Union and the newly independent state of Poland fought a war that the fledging USSR lost. After World War II, Poland became part of the Soviet orbit, but again reluctantly as the testimony of the Polish "Solidarity" movement strongly attests. To say that history presents a case of Polish-Russian distrust is an understatement. Yet in the wake of this tragedy, Russia has gone out of its way to express its sympathy. Prime Minister Putin laid a wreath at the crash site with his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, and the Russian media has given the event extensive coverage. Moreover, April 12 was designated a national day of mourning in Russia, visa restrictions for relatives were eased, and the Polish film "Katyn" was aired on TV in prime time. Is this just a bit of real politik theatre, or can historically negative attitudes be refashioned into something more positive? I do not know, but again I think these seemingly ahistorical responses speak to the changed political nature of both countries. They must now pay attention to the domestic and international impact of their actions. These more scrutinized actions may not always be sympathetic (see Russia's heavy handed response to Georgia in August 2008), but there is at least a layer of protection against the more volatile, less accountable actions of non-democratic leaders. Whether heartfelt or not, I much prefer the Russian response to the alternative.

As noted, I have been a long time visitor to Poland. In the 1970s and 1980s, when the killings of 20,000 Polish soldiers at Katyn Forest were never mentioned in public, in school text books or the media, I never met a parent who did not tell his children that Poles were killed by the Soviets in 1940 at Katyn and then they shamelessly tried to blame it on the Nazis. I could feel the depth of their pain, untouched by the semi-healing powers of cathartic outpourings. It was as if the Poles were living with one their worst nightmares (of which World War II provided a plethora), yet they could not openly talk about it. The subject was also taboo in the Soviet Union, but after 1985 and Mikhail Gorbachev, things began to change. By the 1990s discussions, even documents showing the order from the Kremlin, were made public. And on the 70th anniversary of Katyn, Prime Minister Tusk along with Vladimir Putin, were laying wreaths to honor the murdered soldiers. President Kaczynski's hard line anti-Russian positions caused him to avoid this ceremony, but he was coming on 10 April abroad the ill-fated jet.

Western news media covering the event all make note of the Katyn anniversary, but then quickly pass onto to possible pilot decisions, the black box, or the political implications. As an historian who spends his life measuring aggregate human action, I know that the crash and the anniversary of Katyn are not related. Yet the memories of Katyn are more than footnotes to a tragic plane crash. Katyn, like the Holocaust or slavery in the US, can never be forgotten, and while it may not produce ghosts, it does leave behind a powerful collective memory."

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