The office of Lech Kaczyński stood empty. Candles burned outside the doors of those who had perished. The Presidential Palace, usually teeming with life, suddenly fell silent. It was filled with darkness, silence, and despair – recalled President Andrzej Duda in his address.
“Fifteen years have passed, and I still see that Warsaw before my eyes – the coffins of the presidential couple and my deceased friends standing in the Palace. They formed a mourning avenue of Poles walking to pay their respects,”
the president began.
“The office of Lech Kaczyński was empty. Candles burned outside the doors of those who had gone. The Presidential Palace, typically vibrant, came to a sudden halt. It was overtaken by darkness, silence, and grief,”
he reiterated.
“I also remember the large building of the morgue in Moscow and its grim rooms where the bodies of the Smolensk disaster victims were held,”
he added.
Duda emphasized that “the Smolensk disaster remains a great, unhealed wound in the hearts of the families, loved ones, and friends of the deceased.”
“The entire Republic suffered an immense loss – all of us, the Polish people. A distinguished statesman perished – President Professor Lech Kaczyński, along with his wife, Maria Kaczyńska, and the President of the Republic of Poland in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski. Among the dead were members of the Presidential Chancellery, the Council of Ministers, and representatives of all political factions. Civil servants, social activists, and statesmen wholly devoted to public service. Generals, military commanders, eminent scholars, clergy, and cultural figures. Officers of the Government Protection Bureau and the entire aircraft crew. Russian soil once again absorbed Polish blood,”
Duda stressed.
President Duda pointed out that for President Lech Kaczyński, who died in the Smolensk disaster, a crucial aspect of his public mission was the restoration of truth in Polish history. “He gave his life seeking to honour those whom the Soviets and communists had tried to erase from national memory. He travelled to the very places where Poland’s enemies and traitors had intended falsehood to triumph eternally over truth,” the president emphasized.
He also recalled an excerpt from the speech Lech Kaczyński was meant to deliver at the 2010 Katyn commemorations: “On the path to reconciliation, there must be partnership, a dialogue of equals, not imperial longing,” Duda quoted.
“The Katyn crime will forever serve as a reminder of the threat of human and national subjugation and destruction, of the power of lies,” the president added.
Duda underlined that Lech Kaczyński was a president who looked to the future—one rooted in truth and a concern for the fate of future generations of Poles. “A visionary who could discern geopolitical challenges and threats. Already in 2008, at a rally in besieged Tbilisi, in prophetic words, he warned the world against resurgent Russian imperialism. He said then: ‘Today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after the Baltic States, and later perhaps the time will come for my country, for Poland,’” Duda recalled.
“Sadly, the dangers he warned against were ignored by many politicians in Poland and by those governing in Western Europe. A policy of naive reset with Russia prevailed. Today, everyone knows that Lech Kaczyński was right,”
Duda noted.
The president acknowledged that it was a great honor and responsibility for him to have worked closely with Lech Kaczyński, and in 2015 to sit in the same office and continue his mission.
“To realize the vision of a strong Poland, firmly asserting its interests. I do not doubt that especially in these turbulent times, we must continue to do so,”
he emphasized.
“The leaders we elect must unite around the priorities of the Polish raison d’état, which President Lech Kaczyński left us in his political testament,”
Duda declared.
President Duda underscored that fifteen years ago, in the glow of thousands of candles outside the Presidential Palace, as the nation mourned the victims of the greatest tragedy in post-war Polish history, “we once again recognized in the Republic our most precious common good.” “Far more important than the differences and immediate disputes that divide us. We could and wanted to stand together,” he said.
“The chronicles of that time will preserve the memory of the awakening of a tremendous force—solidarity. But also, unfortunately, the memory of those who sought to break it. Yet I believe that the attempts to destroy that unity by the so-called industry of contempt will ultimately be shrouded in disgrace,”
he noted.
“Today we know: the legacy of those who died in Smolensk was not erased. The memory of Poles—strong, dignified, and faithful—proved more powerful than any attempt to combat it,” President Duda emphasized.
In his address on the 15th anniversary of the Smolensk catastrophe, President Duda observed that for many, that time remains an open wound, but for the youngest generation, it is already history. “Those who were just learning to walk in 2010 are now entering adulthood. Therefore, it is our responsibility, as witnesses of those days, to safeguard this memory and pass it on to future generations,” he pointed out.
Duda highlighted that during his presidency, on the 10th of every month, the Smolensk disaster is commemorated in the chapel of the Presidential Palace. “I trust that my successors will continue this tradition as a sign of respect for those who perished,” he said.
He also thanked all those who over the past 15 years have fought to ensure that this tragedy would not be silenced but appropriately commemorated. “Respect for its victims is—and will remain—a measure of our respect for Poland and for ourselves,”
he stated.
“That is why it is unacceptable that to this day the authorities of Warsaw have not managed to name a single street in the city after the late Professor Lech Kaczyński—President of Poland and President of the capital,”
Duda remarked.
“I vividly remember the moment when the signs reading ‘Lech Kaczyński Avenue’ were taken down and replaced with ‘People’s Army Avenue’. A communist tradition was preserved, while the legacy of a democratically elected president was ignored. The very founder of the Warsaw Uprising Museum—one of the most important institutions for the capital’s identity. In this context, one might use the word disgrace, but it suffices to say that on a human level, it is simply unjust,”
Duda concluded.