•HRES 1243 IH 
major metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Detroit, and 
New York City; 
Whereas Polish-Americans have been leaders in all walks of 
life in the United States; 
Whereas the people of the United States stood in support of 
the Solidarity movement as it fought against the oppres-
sion of the Communist government of Poland through 
peaceful means, eventually leading to Solidarity members 
being elected to office in open democratic elections held 
on June 4, 1989, events that helped spark the movement 
to democracy throughout Eastern Europe; 
Whereas Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-
tion (NATO) in 1999, joined the European Union in 
2004, and has contributed to United States and NATO 
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; 
Whereas Poland has enjoyed a thriving and prosperous free 
market democracy since the end of the Cold War; 
Whereas the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski and 95 
other people, including Maria Kaczynski, First Lady of 
Poland, Aleksander Szczyglo, National Security Chief 
Slawomir Skrzypek, Governor of the National Bank of 
Poland, Jerzy Szmajdinski, Deputy Speaker of the Lower 
House, and Franciszek Gagor, Chief of the General Staff, 
were tragically killed in a plane crash in western Russia 
on April 10, 2010; 
Whereas President Kaczynski and his colleagues were trav-
eling to Katyn, Russia, for a memorial service to mark 
the 70th anniversary of the Soviet secret police killing of 
more than 20,000 Polish officers, prisoners, and intellec-
tuals who were captured after the Soviet Union invaded 
Poland in 1939; 
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•HRES 1243 IH 
Whereas Anna Walentynowicz, the former dock worker whose 
firing in 1980 sparked the Solidarity strike that ulti-
mately overthrew the Communist government of Poland, 
was also killed in the crash; 
Whereas Ryszard Kaczorowski, who served as Poland’s final 
president in exile before the country’s return to democ-
racy, also perished in the crash; 
Whereas Chicago suffered the loss of a respected artist when 
Wojciech Seweryn, whose father was killed in Katyn, died 
in the crash as well; 
Whereas Mr. Seweryn recently completed a memorial to the 
victims of Katyn at St. Adalbert Cemetery in Niles, Illi-
nois, which President Kaczynski planned to visit in May; 
Whereas President Barack Obama said, the ‘‘loss is dev-
astating to Poland, to the United States, and to the 
world. President Kaczynski was a distinguished states-
man who played a key role in the Solidarity movement, 
and he was widely admired in the United States as a 
leader dedicated to advancing freedom and human dig-
nity.’’; 
Whereas Former Solidarity leader and ex-president Lech 
Walesa said, ‘‘Today, we lost part of our intellectual elite 
in a plane crash. It will take a long time until the wounds 
of our democracy are healed.’’; and 
Whereas thousands of Poles gathered in the center of War-
saw and elsewhere around the world on Saturday to 
mourn those killed in the crash and affirm their contin-
ued solidarity with the people of Poland: Now, therefore, 
be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
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•HRES 1243 IH 
(1) expresses its deepest sympathies to the peo-
ple of the Republic of Poland and the families of 
those who perished for their profound loss; 
(2) expresses strong and continued solidarity 
with the people of Poland and Polish-American com-
munities in the United States; and 
(3) expresses unwavering support for the Gov-
ernment of Poland as it works to address the loss 
of many key public officials. 
Æ 
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