Statue unveiled of late President Kaczynski and wife

The Radom statue of Lech Kaczynski and Maria Kaczynska, designed by Andrzej Renes. Photo: PAP/Michal Walczak

The monument is the first in Poland to represent the presidential couple, who died along with 94 others during the 2010 Smolensk air disaster in western Russia.

Kaczynski, heading a delegation including the last president of the communist-era government-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski, was flying to Russia to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the WWII Katyn Crime when his plane crashed in thick fog as it approached Smolensk's military airport.

The late president's twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski, currently head of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) opposition party, was among those to attend Tuesday's unveiling ceremony.

Funds for the monument, costing 200,000 zloty (47,000 euro), were collected through public donations.

A major biography of the former leader has also been published. Lech Kaczynski: A Political Biography (Lech Kaczynski: Biografia Polityczna) was written by a team of four authors, under the supervision of historian Dr Slawomir Cenckiewicz.

Cenckiewicz's most noted previous work was the controversial 2008 Lech Walesa and the Secret Services: A Contribution to the Biography (SB i Lech Walesa: Przyczynek do Biografii) which claimed that Walesa had been an informant for the communist secret police in the 1970s, prior to the creation of the Solidarity trade union.

Publishing house Zysk i Ska say that "gossip and speculation about various aspects of the life of Lech Kaczynski should be replaced by proven academic learning, based on extensive archival research, eyewitness accounts and family material.” (nh/pg)

Source: IAR

Jaroslaw Kaczynski (C) takes at an open-air exhibition, accompanying the unveiling of a statue of his late brother, former president Lech and Kaczynski and First Lady Maria Kaczynska Photo: PAP/Michal Walczak