By Piotr Dutkiewicz, Professor, Director...

By Leszek Miller, Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland (2001-2004) , Warsaw, Poland

Big human tragedies are moments of change but can also provide the spark of unity. Political differences, competing interpretations of history, and differences in values all – even for a short moment - disappear in the face of death. They simply lose their importance and their very sense. There shall be a respectful silence over the tombs of those who died in the plane accident. It is a silence that will permit us to think about the dark symbolism of what has happened: A Russian-built plane carrying the Polish President and tens of prominent Poles crashed in Russia near the final resting place of thousands of Poles who were massacred in Katyn 70 years ago whose graves they were going to visit to commemorate this tragic anniversary.

Tragedies of such magnitude have significant social consequences. The spontaneous outpouring of solidarity from the Russian people with those

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