I take this from the on-line article published by the respected Polish daily (if with an unpronouncable name) Rzeczpospolita. (UPDATE: RP modified that article! It no longer contains the list of victims, for that you click here to open/download a .doc file with the list – for as long as they keep that there and unchanged, anyway.)

Please note that I will use “RP” (i.e. the Polish abbreviation) to denote the Polish Republic. The “Sejm” is the lower house of the Polish parliament (upper house = Senate).

Victims that seem to be of particular importance (in my estimation) I have put in bold. Of further note is the sheer number of dead from among Sejm deputies – imagine how many special elections need to be called now to fill those places!

OFFICIAL DELEGATION
(Namely to the ceremonies that were to take place at the Katyn forest, site of the gigantic massacre of Polish Army officers and other intelligentsia by the Soviet NKVD in 1940.)

• Lech Kaczyński, President of the Polish Republic
  
• Maria Kaczyńska, First Lady RP
  
• Ryszard Kaczorowski, last President of the RP in exile (surrendered his position in 1990 when Lech Wałęsa elected as proper Polish president)
  
• Krzysztof Putra, Vice-Marshall of the Sejm
  
• Jerzy Szmajdziński, Vice-Marshall of the Sejm
  
• Krystyna Bochenek, Vice-Marshall of the Sejm
  
• Jerzy Bahr, RP Ambassador to the Russian Federation
  
• Władysław Stasiak, Chief of Staff to the President of the RP
  
• Aleksander Szczygło, Head of the Office of National Security (equivalent to the US National Security Council)
  
• Jacek Sasin, Vice-Chief of Staff to the President
  
• Paweł Wypych, state-secretary in the Office of the President
  
• Mariusz Handzlik, under-state-secretarz in the Office of the President
  
• Andrzej Kremer, under-state-secratry at the RP Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  
• Stanisław Komorowski, under-state-secretarz at the RP Defense Ministry
  
• Tomasz Merta, under-state-secretary at the RP Ministry of Culture and National Patrimony
  
• Gen. Franciszek Gągor, Chief of the Polish General Staff
  
• Andrzej Przewoźnik, Secretary of the the RP Institute of Military History
  
• Maciej Płażyński, President of “Wspólnota Polska,” the Polish cultural organization much like the German Goethe Institute or the British Council
  
• Mariusz Kazana, Director of Protocol for the RP Ministry of Foreign Affairs

PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATIVES

• Leszek Deptuła, Sejm deputy
  
• Grzegorz Dolniak, Sejm deputy
  
• Grażyna Gęsicka, Sejm deputy
  
• Przemysław Gosiewski, Sejm deputy
  
• Sebastian Karpiniuk, Sejm deputy
  
• Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, Sejm deputy
  
• Zbigniew Wassermann, Sejm deputy
  
• Aleksandra Natalli-Swiat, Sejm deputy
  
• Arkadiusz Rybicki, Sejm deputy
  
• Jolanta Szymanek-Deresz, Sejm deputy
  
• Wiesław Woda, Sejm deputy
  
• Edward Wojtas, Sejm deputy
  
• Janina Fetlińska, Senator
  
• Stanisław Zając, Senator
  

ACCOMPANYING PERSONS

• Janusz Kochanowski, human rights advocate
  
• Sławomir Skrzypek, President National Bank of Poland
  
• Janusz Kurtyka, President of the Institute of National Memory
  
• Janusz Krupski, Head of the Office for the Rights of Combatants and Repressed Persons

RELIGIOUS REPRESENTATIVES

• Bishop Gen. Tadeusz Płoski, field chaplain of the Polish Army
  
• Archbishop Gen. Miron Chodakowski, Orthodox Church chaplain of the Polish Army
  
• Pastor (Colonel) Adam Pilch, Evangelical (= Protestant) field chaplain
  
• Father (Lieutenant-Colonel) Jan Osiński, field chaplain of the Polish Army

I’m putting this much up now in the interests of speed. Then I’ll complete it with the remainder of the names, which constitute a number of would-be ceremony-attendees with some personal connection to the Katyn Massacre, together with some rather significant military personnel.

UPDATE: Here’s the rest of the names on the RP list – go ahead and scroll down, there are still some important ones to report.

REPRESENTATIVES OF FAMILIES INVOLVED WITH THE KATYN MASSACRE AND OTHERS ACCOMPANYING THEM

• Edward Duchnowski, Secretary-General of the Siberian Association
• Father Bronisław Gostomski
• Father Jósef Joniec, President of the parish association
• Father Zdzisław Król, Chaplain to the Warsaw chapter of the association of Katyn families, 1987-2007
• Father Andrzej Kwaśnik, Chaplain of the Federation of Katyn Families
• Tadeusz Lutoborski
• Boźena Łojek, President of the Polish Katyn Foundation
• Stefan Melak, President of the Katyn Committee
• Stanisław Mikke, vice-chairman of RP Institute of Military History
• Bronisława Orawiec-Loffler
• Katarzyna Piskorska
• Andrzej Sariusz-Skąpski, President of the Federation of Katyn Families
• Wojciech Seweryn
• Leszek Solski
• Teresa Walewska-Przyjałkowska, Foundation “Golgotha of the East”
• Gabriela Zych
• Ewa Bąkowska, granddaughter of Brig. Gen. Mieczyslaw Smarowiński (Polish general killed at Katyn)
• Maria Borowska
• Bartosz Borowski
• Dariusz Malinowski
  

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ARMED FORCES

• LT Gen. Bronisław Kwatkowski, Operational Head of the Polish Armed Forces
• LT Gen. Andrzej Błasik, Head of Polish Internal [i.e. police] Forces
• Major Gen. Tadeusz Buk, Head of Polish Land Forces
• Major Gen. Włodzimierz Potasiński, Head of Polish Special Forces
• Vice-Admiral Andrzej Karweta, Head of Polish NavyBrig. Gen. Kazimierz Gilarski, Head of the Warsaw Garrison
  

Will you look at how virtually all Polish military leadership was decapitated in this one crash! (Remember that Chief of Staff Gągor – Poland’s #1 military guy – and the head of the Polish National Security Council were also killed, they are in the section with President Kaczyński at the very top of this list.) The exception: the Head of the Polish Air Force – perhaps because he would know how dangerous it is to put all of your national military & civilian leadership together in one (Russian-made) airplane?

Posted on Saturday, April 10th, 2010. Trackback

Tags: air-crash, Katyn Massacre, Lech Kaczynski, Rzeczpospolita, Smolensk