III 111th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 476 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES April 12, 2010 Mr. Lugar submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations RESOLUTION Honoring the lives of President of Poland Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and 94 others who perished on April 10, 2010, in a plane crash while en route to memorialize those Polish officers, officials, and civilians who were massacred by the Soviet Union 70 years ago.

Whereas, on April 10, 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, and a cadre of current and former Polish statesmen, family members, and others departed Warsaw by plane to the Russian region of Smolensk; Whereas the purpose of the delegation’s visit was to hold a ceremony in solemn remembrance of the more than 22,000 Polish military officers, police officers, judges, other government officials, and civilians who were executed by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, 70 years ago, between April 3 and the end of May 1940; Whereas more than 14,500 Polish victims have been documented at 3 sites in Katyn (in present day Belarus), in Miednoye (in present day Russia), and in Kharkiv (in present day Ukraine), while the remains of an estimated 7,000 Polish victims have yet to be precisely located; Whereas the Soviet Union failed to acknowledge responsibility for the massacres until President Mikhail Gorbachev’s statement on April 13, 1990; Whereas, on April 7, 2010, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin became the first Russian or Soviet leader to join Polish officials in commemorating the anniversary of the murders; Whereas the plane carrying the Polish delegation on April 10, 2010, crashed in Smolensk, tragically killing all 96 persons on board, including President Kaczynski, his wife, and other current and former Polish statesmen; Whereas President Kaczynski was a steadfast proponent of consolidating freedom and prosperity in Poland and advancing them throughout Central and Eastern Europe and was a close friend of the United States of America; and Whereas the deep friendship between the Governments and people of Poland and the United States is grounded in our mutual respect, shared values, and common priorities on nuclear nonproliferation, counterterrorism, human rights, regional cooperation in Eastern Europe, democratization, and international development: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate— (1)recognizes the terrible tragedy that took place on April 10, 2010, when an aircraft carrying a delegation of current and former Polish officials, family members, and others crashed en route from Warsaw to Smolensk to memorialize the 1940 massacres, killing all 96 passengers; (2)honors the life and legacy of the late President of Poland Lech Kaczynski and the lives and legacies of all Poles who perished in the plane crash on April 10, 2010; (3)honors the lives and legacies of the more than 22,000 Polish government officials, military officers, and civilians who were executed by the NKVD 70 years ago, between April and May 1940; (4)expresses deep sympathy for the surviving family members of those who perished at the hands of the NKVD in 1940 and for the surviving family members of those who perished in the tragic plane crash of April 10, 2010; (5)supports the people of Poland as they restore leadership in the institutions of the Government of Poland that were impacted by the crash of April 10, 2010; and (6)requests that the Secretary of the Senate transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to the Ambassador of Poland to the United States.