Smolensk air disaster in the context of "Smolensk"

Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (Polish: [ˈlɛx alɛkˈsandɛr kaˈt͡ʂɨj̃skʲi] ; 18 June 1949 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010 in a plane crash in the vicinity of the Russian city of Smolensk. The aircraft carrying him and senior Polish officials had crashed while they were travelling to attend ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre. Prior to his tenure as president, Kaczyński served as President of the Supreme Audit Office from 1992 to 1995 and later Minister of Justice and Public Prosecutor General in Jerzy Buzek's cabinet from 2000 until his dismissal in July 2001.

Born in Warsaw, he starred in a 1962 Polish film, The Two Who Stole the Moon, with his identical twin brother Jarosław. Kaczyński was a graduate of law and administration of Warsaw University. In 1980, he was awarded his Ph.D. by Gdańsk University. In 1990, he completed his habilitation in labour and employment law. He later assumed professorial positions at Gdańsk University and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.

Law and Justice (Polish: Prawo i Sprawiedliwość [ˈpravɔ i ˌspravjɛˈdlivɔɕt͡ɕ] , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. The party is a member of European Conservatives and Reformists Group. Its chairman has been Jarosław Kaczyński since 18 January 2003.

It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct successor of the Centre Agreement after it split from the Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS). Despite a poor showing in the 2001 parliamentary election, where it came 4th, it would later win the 2005 presidential and parliamentary elections. Following this victory, PiS formed the Marcinkiewicz and Kaczyński governments. For a brief period, the governments included coalition ministers from the League of Polish Families and Self-Defence before collapsing in 2007. In the 2007 snap election, the rival Civic Platform (PO) emerged victorious and formed a coalition with the Polish People's Party. The coalition served two terms, retaining a majority in the 2011 parliamentary election. Law and Justice also lost the presidency following the death of president Lech Kaczński and many government officials in the Smolensk air disaster — acting president Bronisław Komorowski of PO would be officially elected to the presidency in 2010, winning against Jarosław Kaczyński in the second round. Law and Justice concluded its period in the opposition in 2015, where it won an upset victory in the 2015 presidential election and an outright majority of seats in the 2015 parliamentary election, retaining its majority in 2019 and the presidency in 2020. It governed the country for 8 years, forming the Szydło and Morawiecki cabinets, until losing its parliamentary majority in 2023 and returning to an opposition despite winning the largest amount of seats. The party's candidate, Karol Nawrocki, scored another upset victory in the 2025 presidential election.

The Two Who Stole the Moon (Polish: O dwóch takich, co ukradli księżyc) is a 1962 Polish children's film based on Kornel Makuszyński's 1928 story of the same name.

Despite having been known to Polish children for multiple generations, the film gained renewed fame in the 2000s for starring two of the country's future leaders: Lech Kaczyński, who served as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in a 2010 plane crash, and his identical twin brother Jarosław Kaczyński, the Prime Minister of Poland from 2006 to 2007, Chief of Office of the President of Poland from 1990 to 1991, and current chairman of the Law and Justice party. The twins were thirteen at the time.

The Smolensk air disaster, included Polish Air Force Flight 101 in 2010 killing all 96 people on board. The Polish delegation was heading to Katyn to attend a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which the Soviet NKVD killed about 22,000 Polish military officers.

Among those killed in the crash of Flight 101 were Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife Maria Kaczyńska, former President-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski, Poland's highest-ranking military officers, lawmakers, heads of the Polish National Bank and other central institutions, presidential aides, bishops and priests of various denominations, relatives of those killed in the Katyn massacre, as well as officers of the presidential security detail and crew members.

Maria Helena Kaczyńska (Polish pronunciation: [ˈmarja kaˈt͡ʂɨj̃ska]; née Mackiewicz [mat͡sˈkʲɛvit͡ʂ]; 21 August 1942 – 10 April 2010) was the First Lady of Poland from 2005 to 2010 as the wife of President Lech Kaczyński. She and her husband died in a plane crash in the Russian city of Smolensk.

Ryszard Kaczorowski, GCMG ([ˈrɨʂart kat͡ʂɔˈrɔfskʲi] ; 26 November 1919 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish statesman. From 1989 to 1990, he served as the last president of Poland-in-exile. He succeeded Kazimierz Sabbat, and resigned his post following Poland's regaining independence from the Soviet sphere of influence and the election of Lech Wałęsa as the first democratically elected president of Poland since before the Second World War. He died on 10 April 2010 in the plane crash near Smolensk, Russia, along with the president of Poland Lech Kaczyński and other senior government officials.

Bronisław Maria Komorowski (born 4 June 1952) is a Polish politician and historian who served as the 5th president of Poland from 2010 to 2015. Komorowski previously served as Marshal of the Sejm from 2007 to 2010 and in this position Komorowski exercised the powers and duties of acting president following the death of President Lech Kaczyński in a plane crash on 10 April 2010. Earlier, from 2000 to 2001, he served as Minister of National Defence.

Komorowski was then the governing Civic Platform party's candidate in the resulting presidential election, which he won in the second round of voting on 4 July 2010. He was sworn in as president on 6 August 2010. Komorowski thus became the second person to serve on two occasions as Polish head of state since 1918, after Maciej Rataj. On 24 May 2015, Komorowski was defeated in the second round by Andrzej Duda in the 2015 presidential election. As a result, Komorowski was succeeded by Duda on 6 August 2015.