Improved Polish-Russian Relations Will Have to Wait a Generation

By Yuri Vanetik

The 10th anniversary of the April 10, 2010 crash of the Polish aircraft which killed Lech Kaczyński, the country’s fourth president, and many other top officials of the Polish government came and went. The crash, mired in controversy, occurred while the plane was attempting to land in Smolensk, Russia, and it was recently mourned on a small scale in Warsaw due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emotions are still high in Poland over the cause of the crash, although the tide may be starting to ebb as time passes.

However, it will most likely take a new generation to improve Polish-Russian relations. Polish and Russian citizens will eventually discover a new friendship predicated less on common ethnic ties and geographic proximity, but more on global commerce and technology that will supersede painful history and old grudges. The current Polish leadership is adamant about recounting the nation’s troubled history with the Soviet Union.

“After 10 years, it’s difficult to say anything or predict whether the case can ever be resolved,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said in Krakow after visiting Lech Kaczynski’s grave in a crypt in Wawel cathedral, reported Reuters in April of this year. The pain Law and Justice (PiS) party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski feels…