22 FT.COM/MAGAZINE APRIL 4/ 52020
◀askedthem:‘Doyouhaveevidence
thatthepresidentisdead?’Andthey
answered,‘Wedonothaveevidence,
butitisobvious.’AndIsaid,‘Itisnot
obvious.Aslong as thereisnoevi-
denceofthedeathofthepresident,
nothingisobviousatall.’”
Thatskirmishwasaharbingerof
thebattlesthatwouldengulfPolish
politicsformostofthenextdecade.
Evenbeforethecatastrophe,the
conservative-nationalistLawand
Justice(PiS)partyfoundedbyLech
Kaczynski and histwinJaroslaw,
and Civic Platform, the centre-
rightpartyledbyDonaldTusk(and
hometoSikorskiandKomorowski)
wereon opposite sidesofavisceral
dividethathademergedduringthe
earlyyears ofPoland’stransition
todemocracy.
WithLechKaczynski as presi-
dentandTuskasprimeminister,the
partieshadspentthepreviousthree
yearssparringovereverythingfrom
Poland’scomplicatedcommunist
legacytoforeignpolicy.
After Smolensk, the divide
becameall-consuming.PolishandRussian investigationsboth con-
cludedthat the crash was caused
byhuman error in bad flying con-
ditions.ButJaroslawKaczynski
and other PiSpoliticians never
acceptedthisexplanation. After
PiS defeatedCivicPlatform in elec-
tions in 2015, it commissionedits
ownreport into the tragedy,which
claimedthatthecauseofthedisaster
hadbeenanexplosion and incor-
rectinformation fromRussian air
trafficcontrollers.Thisinturngave
rise to numerous conspiracytheo-
ries.Kaczynskihimselfclaimedthat
Tuskwasresponsible“inapolitical
sense”.SmolenskbecamePoland’s
primarypoliticalfaultline.
“Polishpoliticsbecame deadly
serious,”says Lukasz Lipinski, a
political commentatorwithPol-
ityka,aliberalPolish magazine.
“BeforeSmolensk,politicians from
both sidesofthepolitical barri-
cadeswereopponents.Butnowthey
became enemies,and enemiesfor
life and death... It was something
that was notpossible toovercome
forthenextdecade.”Evenbeforethecrash,Smolensk
wasacityscarredbybloodshed.On
Russia’swesternfrontier,350km
fromMoscowonthehighwaytothe
capital, it has,with unnervingreg-
ularity,been the scene of some of
Europe’smostbrutalbattles.
InAugust1 81 2, 30,0 00 people
werekilledthereinacrucial clash
betweenNapoleon’sGrandeArmée
andRussiansoldiers,abloodyfight
for control of the city that was fea-
turedinLeoTolstoy’sWarandPeace.
Morethan 90percent of Smolensk
was destroyedduring the second
worldwar.Capturedin1941during
the Nazi advance into the Soviet
Union, it wasretaken in 1943amid
theRedArmy’scounter-offensive.
But inPoland, it has longbeen
associatedwith somethingeven
darker: in 1940,in theforests of
Katyn,20kmoutsidethecity,Soviet
secretpoliceshot22,000Polishoffic-
ers,clergy,lawyersanddoctorsina
systematic attempttodestroythe
occupiedcountry’sintelligentsia.
ForfivedecadesMoscowclaimed
themassacrewasperpetratedbythe
Nazis,onlyadmittingitwasbehind
thewarcrimein1990.
It was to finallycommemorate
that tragedy,inamemorialevent
withRussianpoliticians,that Kac-
zynski and dozens of the country’s
leaders made theirowndoomed
journeyinApril 2010–afactthat
magnifiedtheforceofwhathadhap-
penedformanyPoles.“Ithadavery
strongsymbolic impact,”saysIgor
Janke,aPolishpoliticalcommenta-
tor.“SeventyyearsafterKatyn,the
leadersofthecountrywenttoRussia
and diedunexpectedly.The shock
onboth sides[of thepolitical spec-
trum]forallPoleswasenormous.”
Today,a6m-tall treetrunk,
almostametrewide, with its top
shearedoff,is the onlyremaining
visibleevidenceoftheeventsofthat
morningadecadeago.Tuckedoffa
dirt track on theedge ofapatch of
unkempt,rubbish-strewn scrub-
land, itwould go unnoticedwereit
notforthesimplewoodenorthodoxAndrzejDuda,Poland’spresident,photographedinthe‘WhiteRoom’at
thePresidentialPalaceinWarsawinfrontofaportraitofLechKaczynski‘Inthispartofthe
world,weareused
toasituationwhere
Moscowtendstoput
theblameonthe
peoplewhenever
atragedyoccurs’AndrzejDudaFT.COM/MAGAZINE APRIL 4/ 52020 23MoscowRUSSIAPOLANDUKRAINESmolenskWarsaw500kmAbove:the wreckageof the
Tu-1 54 inthewoodland
Left:mourners queue outside
Warsaw’sRoyalCastlefour days
afterthe crashtopaytheir
respects toLech Kaczynski and
hiswifeMarialyinginstatecrossleantagainstit.Atatteredplas-
tic white ribbon knottedaround the
trunk flutters in the chillybreeze.
“Thetopsofallthesetreeswereall
broken offbythe plane too,”recalls
Vladimir,a43-year-old handy-
man and driverfromSmolensk
who arrivedatthe site about an
hour after the crash. “I could touch
the tops of all of them,”hecontin-
ues,gesturing across nowregrown
bushesand treeswith his hand to
imitate the swoopofthe plane.“Iam
still so surprised. The conditions
werecrazy...any sanepersonwould
not attempt toflythrough that fog,
wouldnotriskthelivesoftheleader-
shipofPoland or anystate.”
Forafewbriefdays,itseemedasif
the disaster might unite rather than
dividePoland.Komorowskiremem-
bers going to one ofWarsaw’smain
squareswith his wife, andagroup of
scouts spontaneouslybreaking into
song.Dudarecallshundredsofthou-
sands ofpeople waiting to paytheir
lastrespects to Kaczynski and his
wife Maria, the queuesnakinghalfa
kilometrefromWarsaw’sPresiden-
tialPalaceto theRoyalCastle.
“I sawthousands ofpeople in
the streets,all dressedinblack, all
crying,all absolutelydevastated.
Therewas silence,justpeople crying
and walking in the direction of the
Presidential Palace,becausethe
presidentwas themostrecognised
victim,”saysBarbaraNowacka,
aleftwingpolitician and activist
whosemother,Izabela,aformer
deputy prime minister,diedinthe
crash.“I think those days werethe
daysthateveryone felt liketheylost
someone close, orarelative.”
The tragedyalso initiallyseemed
to strengthenacautious detente
betweenPolandandRussia. The two
countrieshaveatorturedhistory.
ImperialRussia, together with Prus-
sia andAustria, wipedPoland off the
map for 123yearsafterpartitioning
it in 1795. TwodecadesafterPoland
regainedindependence in 1918,
NaziGermany and the SovietUnion
carvedit up again at the start of the
secondworld war.ThenMoscow
reducedit toaSovietsatellitefor
fourdecadesduring thecold war.
But in theyearsbeforethe Smol-
enskdisaster,Tusk’sgovernment
had attemptedareset of tieswith
Moscow.Traderestrictionswere
eased,acommission to deal with
contestedhistorical issueswas
revivedand Vladimir Putin, then
prime minister,eventookpart in
Poland’scommemoration of the
70th anniversary of the start of the
secondworld warin2009.
This milder atmospherecontin-
uedinthe daysafter the crash. Putin
quicklyflewtoSmolensk, and▶