Eleven years ago, an exceptional anniversary celebration was planned to commemorate the Katyn massacre. 70 years old – this was one of the most heinous crimes against the Polish nation. In 1940, the Russians, on the order of Joseph Stalin, killed more than 21,000 people. Poles are held in NKVD prisons and camps in Kozelsk, Starobilsk and Ustashkov.
The delegation, which went to the Katyn celebrations, was represented by Polish elites and representatives of different political groups and different social and ecclesiastical institutions. It consisted of deputy guards of the House and Senate, a group of parliamentarians, commanders of all kinds of the Polish armed forces, staff of the president’s chancellery, heads of state institutions, clergy, representatives of ministries, veterans and social organizations, and accompanying persons.
They all died in a plane crash that occurred while landing at the airport near Smolensk.
The late, unpublished speech of the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczynski
During the ceremony, it was planned to deliver a speech to the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, on the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre. The disaster meant no words from the speech were uttered at all.
– Let the president write at the time – that Katyn’s wound will heal in the end.
The 2010 disaster shocked millions of Poles at home and around the world.
The following is the text of the speech of the late President Lech Kaczynski (Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, “The President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczynski 2009-2010. List of offers, interviews. Selection”).
Celebrations April 10, 2021
Due to the epidemiological situation, this year the celebration of the anniversary of the Smolensk disaster will be held symbolically. On Saturday, April 10 this year. at. 8.00 striped block. For victims in the seminary church in Warsaw. The ceremony will be attended by Minister of Education and Science Przemislav Kosarnik.
After the Mass is over, delegations will lay flowers at the memorials at pl. Piłsudski, and then in the cemeteries where the victims of the Smolensk disaster are buried. The celebrations will conclude with a mass at Warsaw Cathedral.
