The Devil himself could not have better orchestrated Sunday's air tragedy at Smolensk Airport, in Western Russia.
According to reports, a Polish Air Force Tupolev-154 government VIP aircraft crashed in heavy fog on its fourth landing attempt, after being advised by Russian ground traffic controllers not to try to land, killing all 96 persons on board.
Those killed include Polish President Lech Kaczynski, senior Polish armed forces general staff, Polish politicians representing major parties, leading Polish media intellectuals, and select family members representing the estimated 22,000 Polish army officers who were murdered by the Soviet secret police at nearby Katyn Forest under Stalin's orders in 1940.
The symbolism of this disaster could not be worse. This was a national delegation on its way to a solemn 70th anniversary remembrance ceremony at Katyn, hosted by the Russian government. It was to be a symbolic moment of reconciliation between two neighbouring countries that have been separated by war, religion, language and conflicted senses of national identity and historical destiny. The Polish-Russian relationship has for centuries been deeply troubled, almost as if cursed.
The Katyn massacre had been a culminating horror. After the bloody Nazi-Soviet military occupation and partition of Poland, and the subsequent Nazi invasion of Russia, what was left of the invasion-decimated Polish officer corps was encamped under Soviet guard at Katyn Forest, now close to the front line as Wehrmacht armies, already deep inside Russia, rapidly advanced towards Moscow. Stalin ordered that the Polish officers be killed, and that the murders be blamed on the invading Nazis.
After World War Two, this lie came into increasing doubt, but it was not until Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev released hitherto secret Soviet records that Soviet responsibility for the Katyn massacre was finally acknowledged.
Now, this — a horrible event, overshadowing a moment that was to have conveyed a positive symbolic message of the deepest historical significance for all Poles.
Regardless of politics, all Poles are now mourning the loss of lives here. We will have to wait for what the black box flight recorder (already recovered) says. Former Polish President and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa has hinted at the possibility that the presidential party might have had a hand in overruling pilot advice that it was unsafe to try to land in the thick fog.
The pilots were highly experienced Polish air force