There is no such thing as a good death. Every tragic death is senseless and aimless. But today Poles can bring some sense to this unprecedented tragedy in their country's history.
For the last 70 years, the name Katyn had little resonance for most people in the west. It was also seen as a symbol of Russophobia on the part of Poles. Paradoxically, what happened on Saturday in Smolensk makes this notion obsolete.
Due to last weekend's tragedy, the killing of 22,000 Polish officers by Russians in 1940 will become common knowledge. We Poles do remember that, but because they wanted to keep Russia happy, its western allies chose not to challenge Russian propaganda blaming Germans for the Katyn massacre. Now, the truth will become widely known – and truth is the very first criterion of any reconciliation.
A second paradox is that the Russian reaction to the deaths – a crash that claimed the life not only of the Polish president, but of many senior government officials and the entire top brass of the military on their way to Katyn – is creating a unique situation. Authentic reconciliation between Poles and Russians, just like that of French and Germans under Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, has now become possible.
Across Russia people are crying together with us today. And there are stunning, from our perspective, things happening in Russia as we speak. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin talks about Soviet crime in Katyn. He bows his head for the victims alongside the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk. After the tragedy in Smolensk, Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, talks to the Polish people and declares Monday a day of national mourning in Russia.
Last but not least, Vladimir Putin travels to Smolensk, takes over an investigation into the causes of the plane crash, and hugs Tusk in a moment of spontaneous solidarity. Russian state television airs Andrzej Wajda's movie Katyn, that wounds the Russian conscience, in prime time.
There is a sea of flowers at the Polish embassy in Moscow. Russia has opened its heart to Poland, but has also opened its heart to itself: to its own history and to the history of Russian Stalinism, which killed millions of Russians and other Soviet citizens. Two Slavic nations should be able to reconcile at a moment like this.
The young Polish democracy – and young independent Poland – will be shaken by the tragedy, but it will survive. Poles are proving today that as a nation they are ready for freedom, the same freedom that they were so desperately short of in the last 200 years of their history.
I hope that the governing party, Civic Platform, will put national interest above the interests of the party when nominating people for vacant posts, in the spirit of national reconciliation.
It is very difficult to foresee all the political consequences of the crash in Smolensk. But I am sure of this: Poles will pass this difficult exam with flying colours.
Jarosław Kurski, first deputy editor in chief of Gazeta Wyborcza.