Katyn anniversary tragedy appears to be uniting Russia and Poland

Katyn has symbolised bitter division between Poland and Russia for 70 years. Now the new tragedy associated with its name appears to have united them to an extent unprecedented since the Second World War massacre.

The outpouring of Russian sympathy for grieving Poles, at official and street levels, may have done more in 48 hours to erode mutual suspicion than any amount of diplomacy since Poland emerged from Moscow’s shadow after the collapse of the Soviet Eastern Bloc.

Russians traditionally celebrate April 12 as Cosmonauts’ Day, in honour of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. But yesterday was a day of mourning, with flags at half mast in Moscow. Hundreds of people, many close to tears, laid flowers and lit candles outside the Polish Embassy and at the site in Smolensk where the presidential jet crashed on Saturday, killing all 96 on board.

The government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta called the catastrophe “our common sorrow” and the opposition Novaya Gazeta declared in Polish: “We are with you.” President Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, have been visibly moved by the enormity of the latest loss of Polish life on Russian soil.

Poland and other states long used to regarding Russia as an aggressive bear have suddenly witnessed a more humane face of their former bête noire. After placing roses before a portrait of President Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, at the Polish Embassy, Mr Medvedev wrote in the book of condolences that the “dreadful tragedy . . . has shocked the Russian people”. He added: “The loss left an unfillable void. We are grieving together with you.”

Mr Putin’s embrace of Donald Tusk, his Polish counterpart, at the crash site has become a symbol of the new entente. He told the Russian Cabinet that the country was “grieving together with the Poles”.

Mr Putin has promised a full investigation by Russian and Polish experts working together in a clear attempt to dispel even a shadow of suspicion over the causes of the crash. Any unanswered questions would provide fertile grounds for conspiracy theories that each side knows could wreck hopes for lasting rapprochement.

History is not easily overcome and everyday politics has a habit of corroding goodwill once the initial shock of a tragedy has worn off. It remains too early to say whether Russia and Poland are entering a new era of improved understanding or merely expressing common emotions at an accident whose impact will fade with time.

For now, shared grief over the “second Katyn tragedy” has created more space for Russians to consider the first. State television broadcast Andrzej Wajda’s film about the 1940 massacre of 22,000 officers for the second time in ten days on Sunday, presenting viewers with a Polish history lesson that the Soviet Union had lied about for half a century. The state news agency Ria-Novosti also published the speech that Mr Kaczynski, a vehement critic of the Kremlin, was to have given in Katyn to mark the 70th anniversary. It contained a poignant appeal for reconciliation days after Mr Putin and Mr Tusk held the first joint memorial service at the site of the slaughter.

“Katyn became a painful wound of Polish history, which poisoned relations between Poles and Russians for decades. Let’s make the Katyn wound finally heal and cicatrise,” Mr Kaczynski had planned to say. “We are on the way to do it. We, Poles, appreciate what Russians have done in the past years. We should follow the path which brings our nations closer.”

Source:timesonline.co.uk/