Messianic complex laying of the Poland at rest - The Guardian

A monument in Poland after the accident to aircraft of Smolensk in April 2010. Photography: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Have you heard that on the Russia, the Germany of the East and the pole? At the gates of heaven, St Peter tells them that they can each question.

The Russia goes first. "What is the future for the Russia." St Peter reflecting a moment, then whispers the response. "" Oh no! "."cries the Russia and begins to cry. The same thing with the Germany of the East, which ends in tears. Finally, it is the turn of the pole. He asks to "What will happen to the Poland?". St Peter mulls it over, looks at the pole, then starts weeping himself.

It is an old joke and the other no longer has much currency, for finally, it appears that the Poland shaking off the coast of its image fed long as the martyr of Europe. But it is a change that is tested by the Smolensk aircraft accident and will be under the spotlight again reached the first anniversary of the Sunday.

Opinions on the accident are divided. The old generation and many living outside of major cities, are convinced that the accident was a Russian plot or an "Act of God", thus renewing the idea of old centuries that the country was suffering. After all, the delegation was on a flight to visit to Katyn, site of the massacre of 22,000 Polish officers in 1940 at the hands of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, a law admitted only recently by the Russian Government. Rarely an evening passes on Polish television without a documentary on year last crash, the katastrofa, disaster.

Messianic complex of Poland was first expressed by the poet activist Adam Mickiewicz, and romantic in his play Dziady (1832), written following the uprising of 1830 (unsuccessful) of the country against the Russian empire and in the national classic, Pan Tadeusz (1834), an epic poem which recalls with nostalgia for the Polish customs, folk songs and the beauty of his lands during the partitions of the banned Poland of the card a total of 123 years. In both cases, the champions Mickiewicz for the country as the "Christ of Nations", while asserting that the suffering of the Poland would save Europe as a whole.

Although the country was back on the map after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire, perilous location of the Poland between the Germany and the Russia has rapidly more terror and despair. Despite their immense contribution to the effort of the allies in World War II (not least the Polish in the battle of Britain pilots), the Poles have been betrayed by Churchill that denies the Anglo-polonais military alliance (who has promised to "mutual assistance"), which means that Poland was not assisted in the home or released at the end of the war it.

In addition, their leader, the highly respected General Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish Government in exile in London and Commander in Chief of the Polish armed forces, was killed in a plane crash in Malta in 1943. Mysterious circumstances? You are betting. The jet fell into the sea, and the pilot survived. Earlier this year, Sikorski had called for the International Red Cross to investigate the Katyn massacre. Even more song, with Sikorski disappeared, the Western allies could define on a pact with Stalin, signing away the Russians at the Treaty of Yalta, a country and its people as a mere tool of negotiation of the Poland.

And it did not better for the Poland. Communism followed, when many returning from the war, or camps, was immediately sent to gulags, then, in 1981, came the statement and the brutality and martial law violations. It's not surprising, therefore, that Poles felt betrayed and fearful. May they never trust anyone again? Whenever they are committed to a cause, they had been betrayed. How they could see themselves chosen by suffering God of State?

But attitudes are changing. At a dinner, I went to Krakow, a Polish woman in her 30s said she thought the Smolensk crash to be that a tragic accident caused by human error, intervention divine step - a lack of judgment not Russian subterfuge. "In fact," she said: "I am proud." We have lost many important people, but the country has collapsed not only planned skeptics. If it has given us more belief in the works of our Government, and in how our country, and that things can continue quietly here now despite such a tragedy. ?

Last Saturday was the sixth anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II. I was surprised how quietly the day was marked in Krakow (where he was Archbishop before becoming Pope): of course, there were thousands of candles and many services, some of them in the street, but there is no mass pilgrimagesemotional anniversaries of three or four first. By supporting the candidacy of solidarity to influence the Poland towards democracy, the Pope did much to facilitate the country of its concept of suffering and self-pity and to convince them of the value of the commitment in apathy. This is an extraordinary achievement of the highest seat in the Catholic Church.

Since 1989, accession to NATO and the European Union in 2004 (and the Poland will be taken during the Presidency of the European Union on July 1 this year) feels the country, perhaps for the first time, a solid part of Europeeven a player more in greater force.

It is no longer a such desire to be the scapegoat, the Christ of Nations, the nail between the claws of the Russia and the Germany. Yes, it will take time for recovery to embrace the nation - and such mentality does not the day after - but considered response to the disaster of Smolensk and his anniversary, would mark the continuous progress. Perhaps then, finally and with other nations taking account of the history that created, messianic complex of the Poland can be set aside, once and for all.

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