THE TELEGRAPH: Lech Kaczynski, who was killed in an air crash on April 10 aged 60, had been president of Poland since 2005.
An unashamed nationalist who sought to give Poland a more powerful voice in international affairs, his populist, Right-wing beliefs commended him to many Poles, particularly the large Roman Catholic population.
It was an enthusiasm not universally shared on the world stage. Kaczynski and his twin brother Jaroslaw – who served for a time as his prime minister – urged President George W Bush to install anti-missile missiles in Poland and pursued what many saw as a vendetta against former communists.
They campaigned vociferously against homosexuality, prostitution and abortion, and capitalised on the Polish mistrust of the Russians and the Germans (who in turn referred to the Kaczynski twins as "the Polish potatoes"). According to one analyst: "[The Kaczynskis] see the Germans as untrustworthy pigs and the Russians as worse."
Lech Aleksander Kaczynski was born on June 18 1949, 45 minutes after his twin. Their father was an engineer by profession, their mother a philologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Both their parents had taken part in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, which left more than 150,000 Poles dead and their nation too weak to resist the subsequent predations of the Soviet Union. It was a disaster that proved formative for Lech. "At home I learned a conviction that Poland was under oppression, that the communist system had been forced upon us," he later declared.
The twins first became famous in Poland when they were 12, after being chosen to star in a fantasy film called Two Boys Who Stole The Moon (1962). Both then studied Law at Warsaw University, and after graduating Lech took up a teaching post at the University of Gdansk, where he completed a PhD.
By the end of the 1970s both twins were involved in trade union politics. Lech Walesa had been one of Lech Kaczynski's students, and his former teacher now began acting as his lawyer as the shipyard electrician took on the might of the communist state. >>> | Saturday, April 10, 2010
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Queen's sorrow at Polish air crash that killed president Lech Kaczynski: The Queen paid tribute last night to Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski, who died along with his wife Maria and 95 others when his plane crashed as it attempted to land at a Russian airport. >>> Nick Meo and Matthew Day | Sunday, April 11, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Poland declares week of mourning after president among 96 dead in plane crash: Poland has declared a week of national mourning as the nation struggles to come to terms with the catastrophic plane crash that claimed the lives of the Polish president, his wife and dozens of the country's political and military elite. >>> Matthew Day in Warsaw | Saturday, April 10, 2010
THE ADVOCATE: Poland Mourns Death of Antigay President >>> Advocate.com Editors | Saturday, April 10, 2010
PINK NEWS: Gay rights advocating former Polish Deputy PM among dead in plane crash: The plane crash that killed the homophobic Polish President Lech Kaczynski has also claimed the life of Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, one of the most outspoken advocates for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) rights in Poland. >>> Staff Write, Pink News | Saturday, April 10, 2010
