The "Smoleńsk Widow" Exposes the "Smoleńsk Lie" - An interview with Mrs. Beata Gosiewska

“In the end, they finally eliminated the enemies they hated for so many years."

		It is difficult to even find an analog in history to these events. Deaths that befall much of a nation's leadership aren't usually accidents, either legitimate or designed to look like such. Of course, part of this is that any major accident wiping out a good measure of a nation's leadership is invariably assured of some investigation by disinterested parties - except in this case, where the Russian government had the "boots on the ground" and the Polish government soon to be under the administration of Donald Tusk and Bronisław Komorowski, had to choose between consolidation of power and some favorable trade agreements with Russia, or a "delicate" situation...
Above: Beata Gosiewska & her children. Photo source: se.pl

The television channel “TV Trwam” broadcasted how on the day the coffin with my husband's body was flown [to Poland from Russia], Mr. Marshall [of the Polish Sejm (Parliament) Bronislaw] Komorowski, stood along with Prime Minister [Donald] Tusk, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw ["Radek"] Sikorski, all jubilant, and in great moods. I noticed very quickly, that it was with great difficulty, that they were hiding their elation, and feelings of at last, being finally victorious.

Did you receive any information about what happened, aside from the [official] media reports?

No. No one told me anything. After two days, the then Marshall [of the Sejm - Polish Parlimanent] Bronisław Komorowski called me. With some cursory niceties, he expressed his condolences to Przemyk's mom [translator’s note: “Przemyk” is short for “Przemysław”, the first name of Beata’s husband, the late Deputy Chairman of the Law and Justice Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) Przemysław Edgar Gosiewski]. After that, there were no further official contacts. On Sunday, the family flew to Moscow..

You decided not to fly [to Russia] to identify the remains of your husband …

I decided not to do that. Przemyk's mom wanted to fly there. We all thought that it was a bad idea. Her brother, and his wife, traveled from Nysa [a town in southwestern Poland]. We decided together, that they should fly to Moscow. I believe that it was a right decision.

What were they saying about the process of identifying the remains [once they arrived in Russia]?

Truthfully - they [my family who traveled there] say as little about this tragedy as possible; and we, on the other hand, try to gather as much information from them as we can. They want to forget about this nightmare as quickly as they can.

We were shocked by what we’ve learned from the official media - that my husband’s remains were identified. When we called our uncle [who traveled to] Moscow, he told us that they didn't even make it to the coroner's office. These are exactly these two [peculiar] worlds of which I spoke earlier.

It became apparent that madam Minister Ewa Kopacz [translator’s note: Minister of Health in Donald Tusk’s government], who was in possession of, then obviously misleading information, didn’t call the families, didn’t relay any information, but instead, was busy with her press conferences. Even then, faced with this tragedy, all they [the Donald Tusk’s government] cared about was the image of the governing crew; they spoke of more, and more [phony] successes, how many bodies were identified, and so forth. Now, from the perspective of time, I think, it was both inhumane, and brutal [towards the families].

At least officially, as it was reported in the Polish press, that the [Polish] government extended much help to the families of the victims [of the Polish government’s TU-154M crash]. Did you, as a Polish citizen, feel, that such help was indeed extended to you?

Immediately after the crash, the majority of families, didn’t need much financial support - the type of support for which this government bombastically praises itself. In my opinion, they are doing this on purpose.

Unfortunately, Poland isn't doing well. Poverty is becoming increasingly widespread, and people, who hear that the families [of the crash victims] received large sums of money, reacted to this fact in various ways; often with negative feelings … Someone probably wants exactly that [to polarize us]. When I saw what is taking place, and what the official [Tusk’s government leaning] TV is reporting, I decided that I have to defend the truth. This cannot be swept under the rug. Since the Platforma Obywatelska [Eng. Civic Platform] is in cahoots with the media, it isn’t important [anymore] what the truth really is. All that is important is that they can con the population into believing [whatever they want].

[Earlier,] I spoke about the confusion and the lack of goodwill. Later, after hearing what the government officials were saying, [I realized] that they treated me exactly the same way they treated my late husband - as a member of the opposition. I didn’t understand what was taking place as these events were unfolding. I blamed it all on the prevalent mess.

There was much being said, over the coffins of the deceased, about the reconciliation with Russia.

Today, we already know who spoke about this reconciliation. It was an [communist] operative!

Who do you have in mind?

I am talking about an employee of the Polish embassy in Moscow, a certain Tomasz Turowski, who was one of the first people at the crash site. It turned out, that during the period of the [Communist] PRL [Pol. abbr. Polish People’s Republic - subservient to the USSR], he was a notable SB [Pol. abbr. Służba Bezpieczeństwa - Polish secret police] operative, spying undercover on Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. It was he, who was the author of this reconciliation. [Read more about Tomasz Turowski here]

There was no one to help, or care for the families of the MP’s who had lost their loved ones. The Marshall [of the Sejm] Komorowski, already then, felt being the master of the Presidential Palace, and wasn’t interested in us. We were destined to find out what happened by [personally] contacting individuals who were at the crash site, by private phone calls, and the [independent] media. In hindsight, we know that many of these [official] media reports were outright misinformation.

With each passing day, we saw that the statements made by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and his ministers were - and I am not afraid to call a spade a spade - outright lies. Their stories changed everyday, or every couple of weeks. The Polish Prime Minister said that he has no reason not to trust the Russians. For us, it was yet another slap in the face. We wondered whose interests this man represents: the Polish government, or his buddies [in Russia]?

It was shocking. Our loved ones died, and [all he wants to] speak about is the reconciliation. At the same time, on May 9th [2010], public calls were made to light candles at the gravesites of Russian soldiers. A question of erecting a monument to the Bolshevik soldiers who died invading [the Polish capital] Warsaw, in 1920, and who were buried in Ossowo, surfaced as well. This decision has been contested. The Polish authorities’ incriminating statements accompanied it; some of them uttered by Mr. President Komorowski himself, who during the [initial stages of the] ongoing investigation publicly stated, that the reasons for the crash were mistakes made by the Polish pilots who wanted to land [at any cost] in bad weather. [See "Russian Image Management", et al., by the retired Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Senior Scientific Intelligence Officer, Eugene Poteat] The same reasons were given immediately after the crash. It appeared, as if this version of events was already carefully prepared at the top. [It was prepared] and then carried out by the masters of disinformation themselves - the Russian secret services. [Read more about Polish Government plane crash disinformation here ...]

Did you give much thought to the type [and credibility of the] information reaching us through the media?

From the beginning, to the very end, I didn’t really know what was going on. When we were invited to take part in the joint Parliamentary proceedings by the Marshall [of the Polish Parliament] Mr. Bronisław Komorowski, I believe it was April 13th [2010], he didn’t even make an effort to come and see us, let alone, greet us. They packed us into a room [and that was it]. They didn’t tell us why we were there. I thought then, that Marshall [Komorowski] was already amidst his ongoing electoral campaign. Other issues … this additional mass burial at the Powązki cemetery ... I was at the cemetery the day earlier, and I saw a hole they dug up, and truthfully, I didn’t know what this was all about.

During the days that followed, many families [of the victims] began to get together, to meet each other, and to comment on the behavior of the [Tusk’] government before these important events. The television station “TV Trwam” showed how on the day the coffin with my husband's body was flown [from Russia to Poland], Marshall [of Polish Sejm (Parliament) Bronislaw] Komorowski, stood along with Prime Minister [Donald] Tusk, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Radoslaw ["Radek"] Sikorski, all jubilant, and in great moods. I noticed very quickly, that they are hiding their content with great difficulty, and felt truly victorious. The enemies, whom they have hated for so many years, were at last eliminated. This is what it looked like.

When my husband was still alive, I asked him many times about the teamwork between the PO [Pol. abbr. Platforma Obywatelska – Donald Tusk’s party] and PiS [Pol. abbr. Prawo i Sprawiedliwość – the Law and Justice party lead by the late President Lech Kaczyński], and what could be done to create a coalition of both [of these parties, that my husband and others] so much desired. “Why aren’t you able to work together?” - I asked. My husband said: “They smile only in front of the cameras. Truthfully, they hate us. If they could, they would kill us all.” In this respect, unfortunately, he foretold what would happen.

What were the reasons for this hatred?

In my opinion, this hatred was caused by their fear. The government of Jarosław Kaczyński, of which my husband was part, opposed and vocalized its disapproval for the [prevalent] corruption. Many people, who built their fortunes, have done so through dishonesty, and they were scared. As my husband said - "The biggest of these [crooks] fled abroad when the PiS party was in charge."

I think that they are united through a solidarity of fear; and you have to add to this the liquidation of the [Soviet trained and controlled, Polish] Military Information Services [abbr. WSI – Wojskowe Służby Informacyjne - a Soviet-trained, Polish Communist military intelligence services]. In the end, it was this mixture [of unsavory characters] that got together, and decided to change the existing reality. They rose up against the Polish government. I think that this crew supports the present government, and had united with them above any politics. But, this isn’t about their convictions at all, but rather, their common interests. Their power is accompanied with a preponderant fear - a fear that someone honest would enter the political arena, and would undermine their influence and fortunes.

At the time when the Civic Platform took over power, or earlier, when it lost the elections, the media, with an unprecedented perfidy, began to turn Polish society against the Law and Justice party. It [the PiS party] was depicted in despicable ways. But, truthfully, the people who along with the Kaczyński brothers wanted to transform Poland were driven by ideals. They didn’t smile to the cameras [for show and tell]. They wanted normalcy to return to Poland. And to this end, they declared a war against dishonesty [and prevalent corruption].

Did your husband feel that he was indeed, in the trenches, fighting to reshape Poland?

I think so. This occurred when he was an MP and earlier, as a member of the [anti-communist] opposition, and later as a politician, when he was unjustly and brutally attacked by the media. He knew that these weren’t isolated and incidental attacks against him. The more he forged ahead, the more he was attacked. In the end, he became a workaholic [singularly devoted to Poland’s future].

He loved what he was doing. Public service became his passion. He understood politics as being service for the common public good. And for these reasons, the [Donald Tusk leaning] media painted his false image. They made him look like a tyrant who is unapproachable, who is difficult to like, or dangerous, and who is uncompromising. He knew that this false image could be changed only through his personal contact with people, his electorate. There wasn’t a week that he wouldn’t travel to the Swiętokrzyskie District, where he was elected. In fact, he spent every weekend there, every Monday, that is, at least three days of each week. He attended numerous gatherings there. He joked that at some point in the future, he would publish a travel guide to all the Fire Stations in the Świętokrzyskie District. He was able and willing to take part in several, or a dozen of events a day - by travelling from city to city, from dawn to dusk. Public service brought immense satisfaction to him. He would be so happy, as if he was a child who received a new toy, when he was able to help another human being, to help his constituents, or to help his district. He cared more about the interests of his nation, than his own. Now, many people with whom I meet, say how singularly my husband was devoted [to Poland and its citizens].

Translated by Jola D.

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[1] Robert Jacek Sasin (born November 6, 1969 in Warsaw) - Polish government official, former deputy head in Lech Kaczynski’s Chancellery, former Governor of Mazovia, Member of the Polish Parliament.

[2] Maciej Jan Łopiński (born 19 August 1947 in Gdańsk, Poland), Polish journalist, minister in the President's Office from 2005 until 2010, since 2011 member of the Polish Parliament.

[3] Bronisław Komorowski assumed the duties of Poland's president following the death of president Lech Aleksander Kaczynski.

[4] Radosiaw "Radek" Sikorski, is Poland's Minister of Foreign Affairs.