FT_Weekend_Magazine_-_April_4-5_2020

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.Polishand

Russian 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

notforthesimplewoodenorthodox

AndrzejDuda,Poland’spresident,photographedinthe‘WhiteRoom’at

thePresidentialPalaceinWarsawinfrontofaportraitofLechKaczynski

‘Inthispartofthe

world,weareused

toasituationwhere

Moscowtendstoput

theblameonthe

peoplewhenever

atragedyoccurs’

AndrzejDuda

FT.COM/MAGAZINE APRIL 4/ 52020 23

Moscow

RUSSIA

POLAND

UKRAINE

Smolensk

Warsaw

500km

Above:the wreckageof the

Tu-1 54 inthewoodland

Left:mourners queue outside

Warsaw’sRoyalCastlefour days

afterthe crashtopaytheir

respects toLech Kaczynski and

hiswifeMarialyinginstate

crossleantagainstit.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▶