Terrible poignancy

Wow,

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders died on Saturday when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia, killing 96, officials said.

Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the Soviet-era Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.

On board were the army chief of staff, national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.

The Katyn Massacre, the deliberate execution of thousands of Polish Army Officers, was one of the great Stalinist crimes the West turned a blind-eye upon in the battle to defeat the even worse Nazis (I know there's a lot of romanticism about the the 40s, but what a decade of monsters). Now that the Russians have finally admitted responsibility and engaged in reconciliation with the Poles, to have such a huge swath of the Polish government die tragically on their way to a memorial service (and so close to its foci) ...just wow.