Krakow resident, Jan Motyka, an art historian at the Polish Academy of Talent, joined the funeral Mass in Krakow for late President Lech Kaczynski and first lady, Maria. He shares his feelings of the deeper meaning behind attending the funeral.
“In the crowd, one could feel an atmosphere of silent solemnity, an aura of a grand event unfolding. Sadness was, if present, not obvious, not externalized. It was as if a weighty emotion, beyond sorrow, that had been welling within us all for some time finally spilled over to the outside on this day, the day of the funeral.
“An atmosphere of mutual understanding was evident, but at a deeper level, beyond words. Just being there was fraught with meaning, almost like a duty fulfilled.
“One’s presence at the ceremony was a validation of a certain standpoint, a declaration of support for values expounded by the president and his entourage. It was also about taking a stand on the side of certain fundamental principles, which are not necessarily endorsed by the majority of the media and part of the elites.”
A central platform of the late president’s Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been to settle accounts with Poland’s post-communists, many of whom are seen as reaping handsome economic benefits when state-held companies were privatized at the end of communist rule in 1989. Some segments of Poland’s business elite and media have not been supportive of PiS policies.
“On Friday in Warsaw, I took part in the vigil outside the Presidential Palace and I heard someone say it. Now in Krakow, I overheard someone say it again, that it is “they,” the media and part of the elite, who are responsible for this tragedy,” said Motyka.
Three days before the fatal crash on April 7 an official ceremony for the Katyn massacre was held, to commemorate 22,000 Polish military elite that were murdered by the Soviets at the start of World War II. Russia’s lack of acknowledgment of the massacre has been a deep, long-standing fissure between the two countries with Russia still keeping most related documents classified. This was the first time the two nations honored the dead together.
The ceremony took place in the Katyn forest, near Smolensk, in western Russia, where the president’s plane went down. Kaczynski had been traveling there with his largely PiS-supporting entourage to hold his own ceremony because he had not been invited to the official one by the prime minister days earlier.
As a result, some Poles are blaming the discord between Poland’s late president and Prime Minister Donald Tusk for the tragedy that killed all 96 passengers aboard the plane.
“The point of participating wasn’t merely to pay respects to a fallen head of state, but, in my opinion, it was also about passing judgment on the context of this tragedy, and, perhaps, expressing hope for change in the political climate and the state of morality,” said Motyka.
“In the crowd, one could feel an atmosphere of silent solemnity, an aura of a grand event unfolding. Sadness was, if present, not obvious, not externalized. It was as if a weighty emotion, beyond sorrow, that had been welling within us all for some time finally spilled over to the outside on this day, the day of the funeral.
“An atmosphere of mutual understanding was evident, but at a deeper level, beyond words. Just being there was fraught with meaning, almost like a duty fulfilled.
“One’s presence at the ceremony was a validation of a certain standpoint, a declaration of support for values expounded by the president and his entourage. It was also about taking a stand on the side of certain fundamental principles, which are not necessarily endorsed by the majority of the media and part of the elites.”
A central platform of the late president’s Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been to settle accounts with Poland’s post-communists, many of whom are seen as reaping handsome economic benefits when state-held companies were privatized at the end of communist rule in 1989. Some segments of Poland’s business elite and media have not been supportive of PiS policies.
“On Friday in Warsaw, I took part in the vigil outside the Presidential Palace and I heard someone say it. Now in Krakow, I overheard someone say it again, that it is “they,” the media and part of the elite, who are responsible for this tragedy,” said Motyka.
Three days before the fatal crash on April 7 an official ceremony for the Katyn massacre was held, to commemorate 22,000 Polish military elite that were murdered by the Soviets at the start of World War II. Russia’s lack of acknowledgment of the massacre has been a deep, long-standing fissure between the two countries with Russia still keeping most related documents classified. This was the first time the two nations honored the dead together.
The ceremony took place in the Katyn forest, near Smolensk, in western Russia, where the president’s plane went down. Kaczynski had been traveling there with his largely PiS-supporting entourage to hold his own ceremony because he had not been invited to the official one by the prime minister days earlier.
As a result, some Poles are blaming the discord between Poland’s late president and Prime Minister Donald Tusk for the tragedy that killed all 96 passengers aboard the plane.
“The point of participating wasn’t merely to pay respects to a fallen head of state, but, in my opinion, it was also about passing judgment on the context of this tragedy, and, perhaps, expressing hope for change in the political climate and the state of morality,” said Motyka.
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