Shock turns to suspicion in aftermath of Polish plane crash - (April 2010)
After the week of mourning in Poland is officially over, Poland continues to bury its dead.
The mood of shock and sorrow turns to one of suspicion while a lot of questions remain unanswered around the circumstances of the plane crash; Rachel Harris reports from Gdansk.
A banner at Anna Walentynowicz’s funeral at the Gdansk Municipal Cemetery last Wednesday proclaimed: “He who benefited from the crime, committed it”. Michal Bank, Doctor of Law at Gdansk Higher School of Humanities, remarked that “Russian air traffic control may have told the Polish pilots the wrong altitudes. People are saying it could have been planned by the Russians. We may never know the truth about what happened. This is history in the making. These things take years, decades for the truth to come out”. His wife, who had just attended Smajdzinski’s funeral added: “I don’t like to believe in conspiracy theories but you can’t help being suspicious in these circumstances”. Russian investigators have deemed the cause of the plane crash, which killed 96 of Poland’s leading figures, as pilot error. The plane crashed after attempting to land in thick fog, against the advice of Russian Air traffic controllers.
On Wednesday April 21st, I attended the funeral of Anna Walentynowicz, the ‘Mother of Solidarity’ in the Municipal Cemetery in Gdansk, alongside thousands of other mourners. The same day, in the same city, Jerzy Smajdzinski, who had been Presidential Candidate for the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) for forthcoming elections, was also buried. Around 10,000 mourners attended his funeral in St. Mary’s Basilica. These were two of many funerals which have taken place this week as a result of the tragic plane crash of April 10th which also killed the President Lech Kaczynski and the First Lady, Maria.
Anna Walentynowicz was an important historical figure. A crane operator, she became a key activist in the Gdansk shipyard strikes and the Free Trade Union movement in the 1980’s. It was her sacking, for selling radical newspapers, which sparked the strikes. When Lech Walesa tried to call a stop to the strikes because the initial demands of the Gdansk Shipyard workers had been met, she called this a betrayal of other shipyard workers across Poland who had come out on strike in support. As a result, the strikes continued throughout August 1980 ending in victory and, although a period of martial law followed, these events led to the building of Solidarity into a 10 million member Free Trade Union which in turn led to the collapse of the Communist State in Poland.
Also killed was the leading historian who was investigating the events of the Katyn Massacre in 1940 when around 22,000 members of the Polish elite were killed by the Soviet Secret Police. Since that time, the massacre had been blamed on the Nazis. Russia had admitted responsibility for it in 1990. The Polish delegation had been on their way to a ceremony to mark the 70th Anniversary of these events when the plane crashed.
On the same day as Walentynowicz’s funeral, students at Gdansk Higher School of Humanities had told me that the Russians had not handed over the Russian aircraft’s black box to the Polish police yet. Many Poles are disappointed at the lack of attendance by Western leaders at the Kaczynskis’ funeral the previous Sunday. Few attempted the journey due to the ban on air traffic caused by the volcanic ash. Tomasz Naspinski, a PhD student, told me: “People are asking why Obama couldn’t attend when Georgian President Saak’ashvili managed to fly from the USA (by taking several flights and avoiding the ash). Also (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel didn’t come”. President Köhler came instead, making the journey overland.
Dr. Bank predicts that “we may see a change in the political mood, towards more patriotism and a cherishing of national values”. He refers to the loud applause received by the Chairman of Solidarity who spoke at the Presidential couple’s funeral linking the idea of solidarity to that of Poles sticking together in this sad time.
Certainly, many prominent Poles of all political persuasions have been lost in what Poles are referring to as the catastrophe at Smolensk. If the sea of candles and flowers by the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970, the mass attendance of funerals and the hundreds of Polish flags with black ribbons flying in streets, churches, shops and pubs throughout Gdansk are anything to go by, all Poles are feeling this loss.
The mood of shock and sorrow turns to one of suspicion while a lot of questions remain unanswered around the circumstances of the plane crash; Rachel Harris reports from Gdansk.
A banner at Anna Walentynowicz’s funeral at the Gdansk Municipal Cemetery last Wednesday proclaimed: “He who benefited from the crime, committed it”. Michal Bank, Doctor of Law at Gdansk Higher School of Humanities, remarked that “Russian air traffic control may have told the Polish pilots the wrong altitudes. People are saying it could have been planned by the Russians. We may never know the truth about what happened. This is history in the making. These things take years, decades for the truth to come out”. His wife, who had just attended Smajdzinski’s funeral added: “I don’t like to believe in conspiracy theories but you can’t help being suspicious in these circumstances”. Russian investigators have deemed the cause of the plane crash, which killed 96 of Poland’s leading figures, as pilot error. The plane crashed after attempting to land in thick fog, against the advice of Russian Air traffic controllers.
On Wednesday April 21st, I attended the funeral of Anna Walentynowicz, the ‘Mother of Solidarity’ in the Municipal Cemetery in Gdansk, alongside thousands of other mourners. The same day, in the same city, Jerzy Smajdzinski, who had been Presidential Candidate for the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) for forthcoming elections, was also buried. Around 10,000 mourners attended his funeral in St. Mary’s Basilica. These were two of many funerals which have taken place this week as a result of the tragic plane crash of April 10th which also killed the President Lech Kaczynski and the First Lady, Maria.
Anna Walentynowicz was an important historical figure. A crane operator, she became a key activist in the Gdansk shipyard strikes and the Free Trade Union movement in the 1980’s. It was her sacking, for selling radical newspapers, which sparked the strikes. When Lech Walesa tried to call a stop to the strikes because the initial demands of the Gdansk Shipyard workers had been met, she called this a betrayal of other shipyard workers across Poland who had come out on strike in support. As a result, the strikes continued throughout August 1980 ending in victory and, although a period of martial law followed, these events led to the building of Solidarity into a 10 million member Free Trade Union which in turn led to the collapse of the Communist State in Poland.
Also killed was the leading historian who was investigating the events of the Katyn Massacre in 1940 when around 22,000 members of the Polish elite were killed by the Soviet Secret Police. Since that time, the massacre had been blamed on the Nazis. Russia had admitted responsibility for it in 1990. The Polish delegation had been on their way to a ceremony to mark the 70th Anniversary of these events when the plane crashed.
On the same day as Walentynowicz’s funeral, students at Gdansk Higher School of Humanities had told me that the Russians had not handed over the Russian aircraft’s black box to the Polish police yet. Many Poles are disappointed at the lack of attendance by Western leaders at the Kaczynskis’ funeral the previous Sunday. Few attempted the journey due to the ban on air traffic caused by the volcanic ash. Tomasz Naspinski, a PhD student, told me: “People are asking why Obama couldn’t attend when Georgian President Saak’ashvili managed to fly from the USA (by taking several flights and avoiding the ash). Also (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel didn’t come”. President Köhler came instead, making the journey overland.
Dr. Bank predicts that “we may see a change in the political mood, towards more patriotism and a cherishing of national values”. He refers to the loud applause received by the Chairman of Solidarity who spoke at the Presidential couple’s funeral linking the idea of solidarity to that of Poles sticking together in this sad time.
Certainly, many prominent Poles of all political persuasions have been lost in what Poles are referring to as the catastrophe at Smolensk. If the sea of candles and flowers by the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970, the mass attendance of funerals and the hundreds of Polish flags with black ribbons flying in streets, churches, shops and pubs throughout Gdansk are anything to go by, all Poles are feeling this loss.