IV 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 18 
Honoring the memory of Poland’s President, national leaders, and cultural 
leaders who were killed in the tragic plane crash at Smolensk, Russia 
on April 10, 2010. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 4, 2013 
Ms. KAPTUR submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Honoring the memory of Poland’s President, national lead-
ers, and cultural leaders who were killed in the tragic 
plane crash at Smolensk, Russia on April 10, 2010. 
Whereas Poland’s President Lech Kaczyn´ski and 95 other 
people, including Poland’s First Lady, deputy foreign 
minister, deputy defense minister, dozens of members of 
Parliament, the chiefs of the army and navy, other chiefs 
of the Polish armed forces, and the president of the na-
tional bank, were killed when the President’s airliner, a 
Tupelov TU–154M, crashed near Smolensk, Russia on 
April 10, 2010; 
Whereas Anna Walentynowicz, the former dock worker whose 
firing in 1980 sparked the Solidarity strike that ulti-
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•HRES 18 IH 
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; 
Whereas this tragedy occurred as the Polish delegation was 
on its final approach to land in order to attend an his-
toric ceremony to publically commemorate the 70th anni-
versary of the Katyn Massacre of 1940; 
Whereas, in 1940, the Soviet secret police, the People’s Com-
missariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), was directed by 
Joseph Stalin to systematically murder approximately 
22,000 Polish military officers, prisoners, and intellec-
tuals; 
Whereas, on September 18, 1951, the House of Representa-
tives established the Select Committee to Conduct an In-
vestigation and Study of the Facts, Evidence, and Cir-
cumstances of the Katyn Forest Massacre; 
Whereas, on December 22, 1952, the Select Committee 
unanimously concluded in its final report that the Soviet 
NKVD committed the mass murders of the Polish offi-
cers and intellectual leaders in the Katyn Forest, stating, 
‘‘there has not been a scintilla of proof or even any re-
mote circumstantial evidence presented that could indict 
any other nation in this international crime’’; 
Whereas the Soviet Union did not admit responsibility for 
this atrocity until President Mikhail Gorbachev’s state-
ment on April 13, 1990; 
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Whereas the attendance of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin 
was to be the first time ever that a Russian leader at-
tended the Katyn commemoration; 
Whereas more than 9,000,000 Americans of Polish descent 
now reside in the United States and Polish-Americans 
have been leaders in all walks of American life; 
Whereas the American people stood in support of the Soli-
darity movement as it fought against the oppression 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; and 
Whereas the United States and Poland are close allies, with 
a shared bond of history, friendship, and international co-
operation: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) honors the memory of Poland’s President, 
national leaders, and cultural leaders who were killed 
in the tragic plane crash at Smolensk, Russia on 
April 10, 2010; 
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(2) expresses its deepest sympathies to the peo-
ple of Poland and the families of those who perished 
in the April 10, 2010, plane crash; 
(3) expresses strong and continued solidarity 
with the people of Poland and all persons of Polish 
descent; and 
(4) expresses unwavering support for the Gov-
ernment of Poland as it works to overcome the loss 
of many key public officials and as it continues to 
seek information regarding the plane crash on April 
10, 2010. 
Æ 
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