Flags are flying at half mast across Poland today as the shock of President Kaczynski's death in a plane crash begins to sink in.
The plane carrying the 61 year-old president hit trees and crashed in Smolensk, 225km west of Moscow, at 10.56 local time (6.56 GMT), killing all 96 on board.
Accompanying Mr Kaczynski was his wife, Maria, and a prominent delegation including the head of Poland's armed forces and the central bank governor.
By noon, emotional Poles braved rain showers to lay flowers before the Presidential Palace in central Warsaw, mourning the tragedy's terrible irony.
Mr Kaczynski and his delegation were on their way to Katyn, near Smolensk, to honour nearly 22,000 Poles massacred there by the Soviet secret service exactly 70 years ago.
That atrocity robbed wartime Poland of many of its military and intellectual leaders. Now Katyn will be linked forever to a second tragedy, today's plane crash that has wiped out an entire echelon of Polish public life.
It's an absolute tragedy," said Marzena Wojtczak, a Warsaw student, "but it was a huge mistake to have so many important political and military people on one plane."
Polish journalist Magda Jelonkiewicz said it was a tragedy without precedent to lose the head of state, MPs, generals, even a bishop. "The Polish elite has died again in almost the same place, 70 years later," she said. "I am not one for conspiracy theories, but you cannot help but wonder at this strange coincidence."
"I am still in a deep shock but I'd like to hope the changes in the Polish government brought about by such a tragic event will help to build better and more politically united Poland in the long run."
