POLAND’S LATE president Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria were given a state funeral in Krakow yesterday amid pleas from state and church leaders for their deaths to spur new solidarity with Russia.
Some 50 world leaders and dignitaries, including US president Barack Obama, German chancellor Angela Merkel, President Mary McAleese and the UK’s Prince Charles were unable to attend the ceremony because of European flight restrictions.
The presence of one man, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, raised hopes that the 96 lives lost in last week’s air crash can inspire a new era in Warsaw’s heretofore burdened relations with Moscow.
“This tragedy has released a lot of goodwill but the compassion and help we have experienced from our Russian brothers in these days awakens our hopes of closer ties between out two nations,” said chief celebrant Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow and former aide to John Paul II.
“These words I am directing at the President of Russia,” he added, turning to Mr Medvedev.
Despite travel difficulties, Poland’s neighbours were represented: German president Horst Köhler came by helicopter, while Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and Czech president Vaclav Klaus came by road.
Poles face a week of funerals to bury the other 94 casualties of the April 11th air crash in Smolensk, western Russia. They will choose a new president by the end of June and rebuild the administrative ranks decimated by the tragedy.
It remains unclear whether Jaroslaw Kaczynski will run for president, or whether his Law and Justice (PiS) party will decide not to try and wring political capital from the death of his twin brother.
Amid the mourning, hopes were raised that the tragedy might heal divisions among Solidarity veterans who brought down communism in Poland only to split into the liberal and conservative camps of the ruling, centrist Civic Platform (PO) and the Kaczynskis’ PiS.
“After the catastrophe we were united; may our grief and solidarity in compassion change Poland for the better,” said Janusz Sniadek, head of the Solidarity union, in a post-funeral address. “Lech, the sacrifice of your life is already bearing fruit.” Outside the church, hope mixed with doubt that the goodwill of recent days will be enough to bridge bitter Polish political divides – not to mention the even wider, blood-soaked divide with Russia.
“My family died in Siberia, so I’m dubious about this relationship,” said 70-year-old Ludwika Bogucka. “You just never know with those Russians.” No one here has missed the tragic irony of last week’s crash: the late president and his wife and dozens of top officials died on their way to honour 22,000 Poles murdered in the forest of Katyn on Stalin’s orders 70 years ago.
The tragedy came amid thawing relations, with Poles pleasantly surprised at Russian openness regarding a massacre they denied committing for half a century.
His critics pointed out that President Kaczynski had inhibited constructive ties with Moscow because of his anti-Russian views.
But the president bristled at such claims, describing himself as someone who was cautious about Russia’s ambitions in the region and doubtful about her democratic credentials. Moscow has yet to apologise for Katyn, but Mr Kaczynski went there ready to extend his hand in friendship.
“Katyn poisoned relations between Poles and Russians for decades; let’s make the Katyn wound finally heal,” he was scheduled to say. “We should follow the path which brings our nations closer, we should not stop or go back.” The president’s final speech has been read widely in Poland in recent days and his death may prove a catalyst for improving Polish-Russian relations.
For many Poles, those relations had turned sour long before Katyn: in 1514, to be precise, when the Russians defeated the Polish army in battle in nearby Smolensk.
For Poles, the Smolensk defeat was the symbolic beginning of half a millennium of calamitous partition, war and mass murder.
A sad but proud Poland showed yesterday that, with Russia’s help, it is ready to break the twin curse of Katyn and Smolensk. Acting Polish president Bronislaw Komoroski told mourners that the tragedy had left Poles with “an open heart and great hope” regarding Russia.
“President Lech Kaczynski’s testament must be fulfilled,” he said, “through rapprochement and reconciliation .”
Hundreds of Poles living in Ireland marked the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski with a march through O’Connell Street in Dublin yesterday.
They held candles and pictures of the late president. The mourners stopped at the steps of the GPO, where speakers thanked President Mary McAleese and the people of Ireland for the sympathy they have expressed to Polish nationals living in Ireland.
The names of all 94 crash victims were read out and the Last Post was sounded. The marchers then moved on to the Garden of Remembrance.