Former Polish President Lech Kaczynski planned to speak about Russian-Polish reconciliation in Katyn. His death may make the reconciliation a reality.
On the third day after the death of Kaczynski's delegation near Smolensk, the Polish newspaper Tygodnik Powszechny published a Polish appeal to the Russians. It was titled with one word: "Spasibo!" (Thank you!)
The authors of the letter – political analysts, journalists and clergymen – expressed their admiration for the assistance and solidarity displayed by Russia in those tragic days. Appealing to the Russian people, they wrote: "Let this fresh blood spilled near Katyn unite us and help us reconcile with each other". More than 25,000 Poles signed the appeal by the end of the week.
Poles have not spoken about Russia with such warmth for a long time. The death of Kaczynski, a leader unfriendly to Russia, produced an effect that the two countries' prime ministers, Vladimir Putin and Donald Tusk, failed to achieve when meeting in Katyn three days before. What would seem a natural reaction from the Russian authorities and citizens evoked such enthusiastic feedback in Poland that it created prospects for a fundamental resetting of bilateral relations.
"As Katyn separated our nations by a big divide 70 years ago, the current tragedy has filled it", Senate Speaker Bogdan Borusevich said, expressing the opinion of the Poles. The Russian Foreign Ministry agreed, but placed the accent elsewhere. A high-ranking Russian diplomat told Newsweek under condition of anonymity that, "two tragedies at the same place show that it is necessary to stop using the Katyn executions for political ends or a new tragedy will occur. It is almost a mystical sign that we must reconcile ourselves once and for all on Katyn".
The duration of this unexpected harmony will largely depend on who is elected as the successor of the late president. The elections initially scheduled for October have been moved to June. The majority of experts polled by Newsweek think that the victory will be scored by Acting President Bronisław Komorowski, Tusk's fellow party member from the liberal Civic Platform. He may have to compete with only one person – Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of the late president, ex-prime minister and leader of the conservative Law and Justice Party.
"If he decides to run for the presidency, he will pledge to continue the cause of his brother", said Piotr Semka, an influential columnist from the conservative newspaper Rzeczpospolita. For Russia, this may be fraught with fierce criticism of the Kremlin, sympathy with Chechen separatists, support of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and the Orange forces in Ukraine, and lobbying for NATO's eastward expansion and the deployment of the missile defence system in Eastern Europe. The late Kaczynski pursued this policy.
Putin and repentance
This is why the former Polish president was not invited to attend the official commemorative event on April 7 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the execution of 22,000 Polish officers by the NKVD. But he still decided to go on April 10 on a private visit as the head of a representative delegation. On the eve of the visit, Kaczynski joked: "I hope I will get a visa". It would have been better if he had been denied a visa, Polish journalists said after the crash.
But April 7 did not spell any trouble. The members of the Polish delegation headed by Tusk were in a good mood. They were expecting Putin to arrive any minute. This was a breakthrough. Former President Mikhail Gorbachev was the first Soviet leader to acknowledge that the Polish prisoners had been shot by the NKVD rather than the Nazis as Soviet propaganda had claimed. First Russian President Boris Yeltsin stood on his knees, asking the Poles for forgiveness, but under Putin this repentance dwindled away. The Prosecutor's Office had started investigating the mass murder, but closed the case in 2004 on the grounds that the perpetrators of the massacre were already dead. It qualified their actions as "abuse of power".
Andrzej Wajda's Oscar-nominated movie "Katyń" was practically banned in Russia in 2007. Russian courts turned down the appeals of the families of the dead Polish officers for their posthumous rehabilitation and classified the major part of the investigation papers. In 2009, the relatives complained to the Strasbourg International Court of Human Rights. In late March, Russia gave an official reply to the judges' questions. The document that Newsweek has at its disposal shows that Moscow had not changed its position. Translated into the language of red tape, the tragedy of thousands of people turned into a minor mishap of the judicial system.
"Certain officials from among the higher executives of the Soviet NKVD abused their powers, as a result of which the so-called Troika passed extrajudicial verdicts on a number of Polish POWs", the document read.
However, the Poles who were waiting for Putin in Katyn preferred not to speak about this. Five days before Putin's meeting with Tusk, Waida's movie was still shown on the Culture network and everyone was guessing how Putin would behave. Having approached the memorial, Putin bent down on one knee. Polish journalists did not quite understand whether this was a gesture of repentance or whether it was more convenient to put up a candle this way.
Local residents were also waiting for Putin by the Katyn Memorial that is 18 kilometres from Smolensk. As Poles, they pronounce Katyn with the stress on the first syllable.
"They should not have shown this movie", said Nina Posokhova from the village of Kardymovo, shaking her head. "They should not have made the people face this cruel truth so many years after. This is a nightmare".
Galina Lopukhova from Katyn said the local residents knew from the very start who shot the Polish officers in 1940.
"People from nearby villages were brought in to dig graves and then they were thrown into these holes themselves along with the bodies", she said.
Lopukhova, who is retired, has a rather personal relationship with the memorial. Her father, a military officer from Latvia, was arrested here during the Stalinist purges in 1937.
"He spent a month in prison", she recalled. "My mother came to give him a coat, but she was told: 'There is no need any more'". Lopukhova does not known where exactly her father is buried in Katyn. There is a list of the Polish officers who were killed, but not of Soviet citizens. Even the experts accompanying Putin could not name the exact figure. However, Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin said with confidence: "Ours outnumber the Poles here".
The idea that Russians and Poles are both victims "of the atrocities of one and the same regime" was the leitmotif of Putin's speech. He was hinting strongly that it is time to turn over this page in order to move on. To the contrary, Tusk said it is necessary to open this page, otherwise it will be impossible to get anywhere.
However, when asked whether their meeting in Katyn was a turning point in bilateral relations, both Putin and Tusk said "yes", albeit not without reservations.
Tusk admitted that the majority of Poles had expected more, while Putin started speaking about "anti-Katyn", a sensitive issue for the Poles. In his words, the execution of Polish officers in 1940 could have been Stalin's revenge for the death of 32,000 Red Army POWs in Poland 20 years before. The prime ministers agreed to meet at a session of an intergovernmental commission eight days later, but instead met in two days.
The tragic day
My train was approaching Smolensk when I was called from the editorial office.
"The Polish president's plane has crashed", I was told. The news quickly spread throughout the carriage.
"They do not like Russia and now they will accuse our country of this crash as well", an upset train attendant remarked. At the time, Newsweek photographer Maxin Novikov had already been by the memorial.
"At one moment, they switched on the loudspeaker transmitting a broadcast of the Polish radio", he recalled. "All Poles stood up. They looked scared out of their wits. Then they started praying".
We arrived at the Severny Airport an hour and a half after the tragedy. By that time, the territory had been cordoned off and the crash site surrounded by a red-white marking band.
"The same colour as our flag", a Polish journalist remarked gloomily. Initially there was no information on the number of casualties and three passengers were rumoured to have survived. Someone said the plane lost its wing, but the frame was not damaged. I asked a fireman whether this was true. He said: "what ...wing are you talking about? There is a heap of scrap metal there".
Igor Balayev, the head of the Department of the Investigation Committee of the Prosecutor's Office in the Smolensk Region, was the first to come out to see the journalists.
"We have opened a criminal case", he said, and hardly anything more, only adding that they were expecting experts from Moscow to arrive.
"Will Putin come?" a Polish journalist asked. Balayev shrugged his shoulders.
The Polish journalists arrived at the Severny Airport two hours before the expected arrival of their president. Their travel was not uneventful. In Warsaw they had to change planes because the first plane had technical problems. When they landed in Smolensk the weather was normal. However, the following plane – an Il-76 of the Federal Guard Service – had to land at a different airport.
Eduard Chernoknizhnik, the head of Kia-Motors Smolensk, watched the crash of the Polish Tu-154M from his office several hundred metres away from the airport's runway.
"I heard a loud whistle and saw the plane bend to the right side and fly into the forest", he said, showing with his arms how the plane was falling. "Then I saw fire and smoke and, a minute later, heard fire sirens and ambulances".
It turned out soon that there was nobody to save. All 96 passengers on board the plane were dead.
Andrei Yevseyenkov, the press secretary of the Smolensk Region governor, was the first to voice a tentative version of the crash.
"Bad weather", he said. He reported that air traffic controllers offered the Poles to land in Minsk, Vitebsk or Moscow.
"But the crew made an independent decision to land in Smolensk in a thick fog", he continued. The journalists looked around. Only two hours had passed since the tragedy and there was not a single cloud in the sky. A helicopter was hovering over the airport.
"Is this Vladimir Putin?" the Poles asked again.
The journalists were not allowed beyond the cordon and were crowding at the iron gates at the entrance to a semi-deserted military airport. All live transmissions were conducted from there against the backdrop of a gloomy concrete fence, refuse dump and broken road. The gates were often opened and closed – first, someone brought in a printer, then a field kitchen and a little later bio toilets. Finally, the coffins arrived. Six lorries were filled with coffins up to the brim. Crimson velvet with black fringe was seen from under the dusty canvas tilt.
A Polish journalist took a white booklet out of his bag with the programme of events and a list of the members of the delegation accompanying the president. It included the first lady, the heads of the General Staff, the Presidential Secretariat, and the National Security Bureau, 17 MPs, high-ranking officials and diplomats, clergymen and representatives of the Federation of Katyn Families.
Residents of nearby homes brought red and white carnations to the gates. Lorries with sand arrived.
"They will cover the blood", an employee from the Smolensk Administration assumed. A policeman near him grinned scornfully: "This is how rumours start. They will unload sand to pave the road to the plane".
At that time clergymen were serving a mass to lay the Poles to rest at the Katyn Memorial – for both the officers and the government delegation. Nobody could recall how a handwritten cardboard sign reading "Katyn-2" had appeared and Polish journalists argued for a long time about its meaning. Some said it simply symbolized a big loss whereas others thought it was a reproach to Russia.
Brother for brother
On the following day, the square by the Presidential Palace in Warsaw was crowded. It seemed like the whole city had gathered on the square, but people continued pouring in. Commemoration candles in multi-coloured glass flasks were beaming brighter than lanterns. There was no room for them on the lawn before the palace. They were put up by churches, entrances to coffee places, bus stops and flower beds. It almost looked like a folk festival if it had not been for the serious faces and silence. All we could hear were how volunteer scouts were collecting flasks with burnt candles into plastic bags. They did not touch the cardboard signs reading "Katyn-2" or "Katyn 1940-2010".
"Lech Kaczynski's heart stopped beating in Katyn, a tragic place for the Poles", Mark Krachkovsky, a deputy representing the late president's Law and Justice Party, said. "In the past, we lost the cream of our nation and the same happened now. This is why a symbolic parallel was drawn".
Leszek Miller, ex-premier and his political opponent from the Democratic Left Alliance, considers this comparison inappropriate.
"Seventy years ago, the Polish officers had no choice, and this time there was a choice", he explained. "They were advised to land in a different airport. The massacre was a crime and this is a tragic accident".
Michal Kupidura, a 22 year-old student from Warsaw, said the media largely painted a negative image of Kaczynski before the tragedy – he was criticised and ridiculed.
"Had he died a natural death he would have never become a national hero", he said with confidence. We talked near the church on the square adjacent to the Presidential Palace. So many people came to attend a mournful liturgy that speakers had to be installed. Many people bowed to their knees under the rain to pray.
Kupidura doubts that he would have voted for Kaczynski in the next elections. In March, sociologists estimated his rating at 20%, half the figure for Bronislaw Komorowski who was simply the speaker of the Sejm at the time. Komorowski, who became acting president as a result of the tragedy, had to announce the date of elections last Wednesday, but took a time out until April 21. Unofficial sources report that the elections will be held on June 20.
Analysts in Warsaw say Komorowski was reluctant to announce the date out of solidarity with his rivals – if he does, by law they will have only five days to choose a new candidate instead of the late president.
After the crash, Komorowski remained the only candidate from one of the three leading parties. The crash near Smolensk deprived the Democratic Left Alliance not only of the main candidate Jerzy Szmajdzinski, but also two other potential backups. Kaczynski was going to run for a second term from the Law and Justice Party. Now the intrigue boils down to Jaroslaw's ability to replace his twin brother.
Political analyst Piotr Semka spoke about three possible scenarios. First, Jaroslaw Kaczynski sinks into depression and stays away from political life.
Paweł Zalewski, a Euro deputy from the Civil Platform and a former member of the Kaczynski party, said on this score: "Jaroslaw is the most obvious candidate for his party, but he and Lech were very close and this is a terrible loss for Jaroslaw. It is hard to predict how he will behave. He is not made of stone, after all".
This is Semka's second scenario: "The Law and Justice Party may nominate someone from the second echelon, for instance, former Finance Minister Zyta Gilowska or Senator Zbigniew Romaszewski". However, Semka believes that, unlike Jaroslaw Kaczynski, they do not have many chances to win.
"As for Bronislaw Komorowski, he has the charisma of a chair", he said spitefully. "The sympathies of the people are on the side of the late president's brother".
Incidentally, last week's events have made his prediction less convincing. On Wednesday, the liberal Poles resented the decision of Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his relatives to bury the late president and his wife in the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow, a sepulcher of Polish kings and Józef Piłsudski, the founder of the Polish Republic. People in Krakow went to the main square with the posters: "Kaczynski was not a king".
Under a third scenario, Jaroslaw Kaczynski could take part in the election campaign and lose. Officials of the Russian Foreign Ministry believe this is exactly what will happen if he runs for the presidency.
A high-ranking Russian diplomat said: "He is not a newcomer in politics and he seriously undermined his rating as the prime minister". The diplomat listed the failures of Kaczynski. He said many Poles were afraid to live in their country – what if they were charged with collaborating with the KGB because of their Soviet education? "Under Kaczynski, Poland ruined its ties with Germany and became an outcast in NATO. Everyone, including the Americans, were hissing at it", he said.
"I don't think that Poles have such a short memory as to forget what a weak politician he was", the source said. "Russian diplomats hope that the victory of a candidate from what they call 'Donald Tusk's moderate-nationalist democratic camp' will help promote a new Russian-Polish friendship".
Piotr Semka from Rzeczpospolita urged Russia not to look at the Polish elections as a referendum – for or against Russia. Max Kraczkowski, a member of the Kaczynski party, said the late president was by no means a Russophobe and appreciated the Slavic brotherhood. He had problems with the Soviet government rather than Russians.
"Don't forget that Lech and Jaroslaw started their career in the Solidarity movement that was essentially anti-Communist", he emphasised.
Expert on international relations Krzysztof Mularczyk from the UN mission in Warsaw recalled that the late president was going to deliver a unifying and conciliatory speech in Katyn. On the one hand, he intended to insist on the declassification of the documents on Katyn executions and the legal rehabilitation of the Katyn victims. At the same time, he planned to say that Katyn has become a "painful wound of Polish history and has poisoned Polish-Russian relations for decades", but the time has come to let the Katyn wound heal once and for all.
(Natalia Portyakova took part in preparing this article.)
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Interview
"Russia is Europe, but a little different"
Henryk Samsonowicz, an 80 year-old veteran of Polish science and politics, historian and former education minister, shared his thoughts about the meaning of the Katyn tragedy for Russian-Polish relations in a conversation with Dariusz Wilczak from Newsweek Polska.
Question: Which is the real Putin – the one who embraced Donald Tusk after the plane crash in Katyn or the one who made the day of the Poles' expulsion from the Kremlin a national holiday?
Answer: Putin's gesture was absolutely natural and devoid of any diplomatic politeness. The reaction of Russian citizens is even more impressive. The Polish tragedy has caused among Russians a surprising wave of compassion for our country. This is an unprecedented case in our relations in the past thousand years that were generally bad and sometimes even worse.
Question: Do you believe in Russian-Polish reconciliation?
Answer: This is not a question of beliefs, but of historical experience. The French came to terms with the Germans after several centuries of conflicts that shook both nations. Why should two other European nations not be able to do the same?
Question: Is Russia a European country?
Answer: When in my childhood I asked difficult questions during lunch, my granny always said: "Eat your soup". Seriously, the answer is "yes". Russia is a European country, but a bit different from the rest. In my opinion, European civilization started from the empire of Charles the Great. However, on the other hand, would Europe be the same as it is today without Byzantine culture, which became the foundation of the Moscow state? Certainly not. Furthermore, would Europe be the same without Russian culture, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoi, without Russian science, without the music of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky or Prokofiev? Definitely not. It goes without saying that next-door neighbours – Poles and Russians – will always be separated by memories. We hold sacred the memory of the Tadeusz Kosciuszko uprising that, among other things, resulted in the expulsion of Russians from Warsaw. But is it worth recalling how our troops besieged one of Russia's ancient holy places – a monastery in Sergiyev Posad two centuries before?
The Swedes also besieged our Częstochowa, but we have good relations with them, even despite the fact that they destroyed more of our antique traces than the Russians. We claim many material items that Russians has not yet returned to us.
Question: But the Swedes have not returned anything to us, either. So what? We are friends with the Swedes and this is good.
Answer: It is important to remember that Russians are Slavs and tremendous suffering befell them just as us. It is hard to imagine what the Mongols did with Rus. This was a true holocaust, a monstrous destruction of the Russian people. Does this mean that they had the right to do the same, that they had the right to stage Katyn? Certainly not. But we should not forget that big misfortunes also befell them during Stalin's rule. Millions were killed or died of hunger. This tragedy is kept in the collective memory of the Russians and Poles.
Question: Should we tell the Russians what Polish bishops once told the German clergymen – "We forgive you and ask for forgiveness"?
Answer: Christianity is one of the foundations of European civilization. You remember the words about "a stone in the hand instead of bread". The ability to come to terms even despite differing views is inherent in the human race. Excuse my idealism, but I would not be surprised if this tragedy compels us to make our policy more European, without hatred, insults and intrigues. People are sick and tired of all that.
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Andrzej Waida: "Katyn has nothing to do with this"
When film director Andrzej Waida arrived at the Katyn Memorial with the Russian and Polish prime ministers, it was clear that he was in high spirits. Several days earlier, his film "Katyn" about the executions of thousands of Polish officers in a forest near Smolensk had been screened by the Culture television channel. The film was shot more than two years ago, but the broad Russian audience had no access to it. Nobody could have predicted that the film would be also broadcast by the Rossiya channel three days later. It was shown because of the plane crash. In a conversation with Yelena Chernenko, Waida urged her not to compare the recent tragedy with the executions of 1940.
Question: The president, his wife and top Polish officials who were on the plane together with the president perished in the place featured in your film. How do you feel about this – in context?
Answer: I do not link these two tragedies. This could happen in any other place and on any other day. Katyn has nothing to do with that. I am interested more in whether the Russians will learn more and more facts about the Katyn tragedy and whether the Russian side will continue acting in this direction. They kept silence about this tragedy or lied about it for so long. The time has come to learn the whole truth. The first steps have been made, but it is important to move further.
I was really rejoicing on April 7. It was important that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived. I was glad that Russian television showed my film for the first time. I had been waiting for this for so long. To be honest, I did not even hope to live to see this moment. Later on, another major Russian television channel showed my film again during prime time. I know that millions of Russians had a chance to see it. Now they know the truth.
For late President Lech Kaczynski, Katyn was almost the cause of his entire life. And suddenly he died there on the anniversary of the tragedy. Even the most daring script writer would not think of such a turn. The place and time are merely a coincidence. We know that the pilots were advised to fly to a reserve airport in Minsk or Moscow, but they made the decision to land in Smolensk. It was their decision. They took the risk.
Question: People in Poland are talking about "a second Katyn"...
Answer: What if the plane crashed at the cemetery in Monte-Cassino (the Italian monastery where the Polish Anders Army sustained the heaviest losses during World War II – Newsweek)? No, it is not worth comparing what happened in the Katyn forest with what happened now. I do not see any point in this.
I can assume that the man who decided to land in Smolensk despite the bad weather was primarily guided by the importance and symbolism of this place for the Poles. It was important for him to land in this place.
Question: Acting President Bronislaw Komorowski called Katyn a "cursed place."".
Answer: I could agree with him if only because this place is the burial ground not only for thousands of Polish officers, but also for many Soviet citizens shot during Stalinist purges. A ground where so much innocent blood was spilled is bound to have special energy. When I think of it, I first recall the thousands of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians who perished there even before the executions of the Poles. But, regrettably, little is said about this.
Only recently, I learned that a Russian Orthodox Church is being built on the territory of the Katyn Memorial. Soviet citizens who perished in Katyn will be remembered there. I think that Poles could set an example for Russians about how to pay tribute to their compatriots and cherish their memory. The connection of today's Poles with the officers shot 70 years ago has not become weaker over these years.
Question: Did any of your friends die in the crash of the Tu-154 plane?
Answer: Yes... The death of historian Andrzej Pshevoznik, the secretary general of the Council for the Protection of the Memory of Struggle and Martyrdom, was a tremendous personal loss for me. This Katyn Memorial... It was the cause of his entire life. He spoke about this even in Soviet years. (Waida closed his face with his hands and remained silent for several minutes.)
Leader of the Federation of Katyn Families Andrzej Sariusz Skapski was also on board this plane. He played a key role in establishing this organization that united the relatives of the shot Poles. He was an amazing man... I knew many of them.
Question: I was stunned by the reaction of Poles to the tragedy, by the patience and victimhood that they displayed after the tragic death of their leader. I would even call it submission to fate...
Answer: Do not forget that Poland was absent from the map of Europe for more than a hundred years. Only patience and victimhood, and also a love of the homeland, its culture and history helped the Poles to preserve their nation and its spirit. Without this, our country would not have existed today. Therefore, we cherish everything that is linked with our historic memory.
Question: What could you say about the reaction and actions of the Russian government after the tragedy?
Answer: The Russians behaved in the only right way. They did their very best and I hope they will continue acting in the same spirit. I hope they will conduct an honest investigation together with Poles and will make its results public.
Question: In Poland the reaction of the Russian government and common people has been called "stunning" and "surprising.". They speak about a turning point in bilateral relations.
Answer: I think that the turning point took place before, when Tusk and Putin met on April 7. After the Saturday plane crash, Russia remained true to the spirit of new relations and behaved in the best possible way. This was of course a terrible tragedy and we are taking it heavily, but the Polish-Russian rapprochement that followed it shows that we are on the right track. However, the direction was set at the meeting of our prime ministers three days before the crash.
On May 9, Russia will celebrate the 65th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War and a parade will take place on Red Square on this occasion. For the first time, not only Russian officers, but also their wartime allies, will march on that paving stone. Polish servicemen – those who are serving now and war veterans – will also take part in the parade. This is the next step towards better relations between our countries.
Question: The relatives of the officers shot in Katyn complain that Moscow is refusing to rehabilitate them and does not declassify the documents of the investigation. This is why they have to sue Russia in the Strasbourg Court.
Answer: The demand of the relatives of Katyn officers must be met by all means. My father was one of the 22,000 shot Poles and this issue is very important for me. Some time ago, I also addressed the Russian General Prosecutor's Office with a request to tell me why the NKVD butchers killed my father. Under what article was he sentenced to death? What right did they have to kill him? I simply wanted to know why he was killed. But all they said in the Prosecutor's Office was that they do not have an answer, ostensibly because the documents of the investigation completed in 2004 were a state secret.
But in 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev turned over to Poland a folder with documents, from which it was clear that it was Stalin and the Politburo members that made this decision. Their signatures were there. However, their actions have never been qualified legally – regardless of the fact that such massive shootings of POWs have not taken place in recent history. It was an unprecedented war crime, but we still do not know the whole truth about it.
I think this is because Russians still like Stalin. Until the Russians display the will and ability to give a legal qualification to his actions, that is, to admit officially that this was a war crime and that the dead Polish officers are totally innocent victims of reprisals, the Katyn issue will remain in limbo. Nothing will change until Stalin is seem as a national hero.
Question: Putin admitted at a news conference in Smolensk that the Poles were shot on Stalin's orders, but said that this could have been his revenge for the death of Red Army POWs in Polish captivity in the 1920s...
Answer: Putin is going uphill and this is difficult, but I hope that he will make sure there are no Stalin portraits in the Moscow streets on May 9.
Question: If the Polish government or people ask you to make a film "Katyn-2" about the air crash near Smolensk, what will you say?
Answer: I will not consider such proposals. All I wanted to say about Katyn, I said in my film. I have nothing to say about the current tragedy.
Yelena Chernenko