Last week's tragic plane crash in Russia which killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria and scores of the country's dignitaries is a catastrophe for Poland and a very sad loss for Europe. Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the crash as the most tragic event of the country's post-World War II history.

Poland has suffered many tragedies over the past 100 years - the World War I, World War II, Nazi and Soviet occupations, the Jewish holocaust and four decades of Soviet-imposed communism.

The fact that the disaster occurred as the Polish delegation was on its way to Katyn to commemorate the 1940 massacre of some 20,000 Polish officers and intellectuals by Stalin's secret police made the whole tragedy even more dreadful. Some sections of the Polish media have even labelled the air crash 'Katyn 2'.

Although Poland's state institutions and government are functioning - the Prime Minister is the head of the government and the Constitution provides for the presidential powers to pass on to the Speaker of Parliament - the country has lost many of its leaders.

Among the dead are the head of the military, the national security chief, the Central Bank governor, deputy speaker, deputy foreign minister, deputy leader of the Law and Justice Party, chief of staff at the President's chancellery, deputy defence minister, MPs and senior journalists.

Important figures from the country's past also perished in the crash, including Ryszard Kaczorowski, Poland's last President of the London-based anti-Communist government in exile, who in 1990 symbolically passed on the insignia of the presidency to Lech Walesa, the first democratically-elected President, and Anna Walentynowicz, the trade union activist at the Gdansk shipyard, whose dismissal in 1980 sparked off industrial action that led to the creation of Solidarity.

President Kaczynski was a populist politician who never refrained from speaking his mind and fighting for what he believed in, his values and Poland's interests in Europe. He played a prominent role in the formation of the Solidarity movement, was a Catholic traditionalist and was elected President as the candidate of the Law and Justice Party in 2005. His twin brother Jaroslaw - who some people think might now run for President - was Prime Minister from July 2006 to November 2007.

As President, Kaczynski devoted a lot of energy to fighting Russian influence in Poland and in other former Communist countries such as Ukraine and Georgia which he believed was in his country's long-term interest. He was also keen on highlighting the suffering Poland endured during World War II and the fact that his parents had fought the Germans in the war.

The conservative Kaczynski had some foreign and economic policy differences with Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the ruling centrist Civic Platform government, and the relationship between the two was sometimes difficult. Towards the end of his presidency, Kaczynski, although still greatly respected, saw his popularity decline to about 20 per cent of the electorate and he looked certain to be defeated by Bronislaw Komorowski, the Speaker of Parliament and the candidate of the Civic Platform party - who is now Acting President - in the election due later this year.

The plane crash has implications for Poland's relations with Russia, which have often been difficult. Russia's dignified handling of the whole affair has been well received by many Poles, and this was made clear by the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, who is Polish.

Addressing Parliament last Wednesday he said: "We have been touched by the Russian reaction, full of dignity and understanding. We believe it will help us reconcile our continent in both historical truth and mutual trust."

Russia's full co-operation in investigating the crash, the declaration of last Monday as a national day of mourning in Russia, the images of Russian Prime Minister Valdimir Putin hugging Tusk amid the debris of the wreckage and then bowing his head as he bade farewell to Kaczynski's coffin at Smolensk airport before it was flown to Warsaw has been appreciated by many Poles. So was Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's televised address to the Polish people in which he said that all Russians shared their grief and mourning.

Three days before the crash, a joint commemoration of the Katyn massacre was held by Putin and Tusk, which was already a significant step in improving relations between the two countries. Russia only admitted responsibility for this terrible crime in 1990, previously having blamed the Nazis for the atrocity.

Kaczynski was apparently prepared to acknowledge Russia's attempts to heal the wounds caused by Katyn. In a speech he was to deliver at the anniversary ceremony he wrote: "Katyn has been a painful wound in Polish history and has poisoned relations between Poles and Russians for many decades. We Poles appreciate Russia's activities in recent years."

It would be indeed ironic if this latest Polish tragedy had to play a part in bridging the divide between these two countries.