Krakow, Poland:
About 150,000 mourners bade farewell to President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, on Sunday in an emotional funeral service here marked by solemnity and a determination never to forget.
Cannons fired the traditional 21-gun salute for a head of state as the two were interred at the crypt in the Wawel Cathedral, the resting place of Polish kings, saints and national heroes. The couple was among the 96 people, including dozens of members of the country's military and political elite, killed in a plane crash in western Russia on April 10.
As the period of mourning and reflection came to a close, the political repercussions began to move to the foreground. Still unclear was whether Kaczynski's twin brother and former Prime Minister, Jaroslaw, would declare his candidacy in the coming elections.
Early opinion surveys showed a daunting challenge for Kaczynski, should he decide to run. But the extraordinary outpouring of feeling since the plane crash has made for an unpredictable environment.
Some observers called the wellspring of sympathy, not seen here since the death of Pope John Paul II five years ago, Eastern Europe's "JFK moment."
"On an emotional level, this catastrophe is for Poles a similar trauma to the JFK assassination in the U.S.," said Jaroslaw Flis, a leading political scientist in Krakow. "All those emotions, both positive and negative, accumulated from those five turbulent years of Mr. Kaczynski's presidency, erupted at the moment that plane crashed to the ground."
Mourners gathered outside St. Mary's Basilica, the Gothic church where the services were held, and in squares around the city, wearing stickers with Kaczynski's image and the words "Our President." His supporters, like Malgorzata Jalocho, a philosopher who traveled early Sunday from Kielce, said she believed that Kaczynski, often considered divisive in life, was finally receiving the appreciation that had sometimes eluded him.
"The truth today has finally been heard about President Kaczynski. When he was alive, there was a festival of aggression against him," Jalocho said. "He was a great patriot. He was defending Poland."
While political divisions began to emerge after a period of exceptional unity, a notable improvement in Russian-Polish relations brought on by the tragedy was still very much in evidence. The plane crash happened as Kaczynski and the others were on their way to Katyn forest, where more than 20,000 Polish officers were massacred by Stalin's secret police during World War II, a deep wound in the Polish psyche and source of tension and disagreement more than half a century later between Russia and Poland.
"The sympathy and aid we witnessed on the part of our Russian brothers give hope for the coming together of our two Slavic nations," said Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, in his introductory remarks at the basilica, before family, friends and Polish and foreign dignitaries. "I direct these words to the president of Russia."
Although the cloud of volcanic ash that has disrupted travel throughout Europe forced President Barack Obama and other foreign leaders to cancel their plans to attend, Russia's president, Dmitri Medvedev, flew to Krakow for the service. Germany's president, Horst Kohler, arrived by helicopter.
Some Poles held signs bemoaning the no-shows. "Poland is once again alone: Where are you Mr. Obama and Mr. Sarzoky?" one said.
The crowd outside the basilica alternated between solemn hymns and defiant clapping every time the massacre at Katyn was invoked. People burst into uproarious applause when Janusz Sniadek, the chairman of the Solidarity trade union, who spoke at the funeral, said, "Tell the world how Mr. Kaczynski died, because his death is a statement to the world."
Bronislaw Komorowski, speaker of the lower house of parliament and the acting president since Kaczynski's death, called for "Polish unity and unity with the Russian nation, in the name of overcoming the Katyn tragedy."
Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former president of Poland and a longtime political rival of Kaczynski, said in an interview before the service: "The main contribution of Lech Kaczynski to Russian-Polish relations was in death. The very human response by Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev to the tragedy - and the symbolism of Katyn - creates a new chance for Polish-Russian relations. The problem is almost solved."
During their joint time in power, the conservative duo of Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski challenged the post-1989 order, vowing to purge the residue of communism from Polish public life. They railed against homosexuality, prostitution and abortion. They played upon historical grievances toward Russians and Germans.
Kwasniewski said the decision to bury Kaczynski at Wawel, which revealed cracks in the national unity during the period of mourning as thousands protested against it, was part of an attempt by his party to glorify him.
"This decision has political sense, to use this catastrophe to create, in an artificial way, a new myth or hero," he said. "But the Polish people are too clever not to see this intention. Putting him at Wawel is a step too far."
Looking ahead toward elections, expected to be in June, Jolanta Szczypinska, a senior member of Kaczynski's Law and Justice Party, said its members were pinning their hopes on Jaroslaw Kaczynski to help revive the party. "The signals we have been getting from the Polish people are that they want Jaroslaw to run for president, that this is what is expected. I know him well, and I believe he will want to carry on his brother's legacy."
Jaroslaw, a domineering figure, is seen as more controversial than his brother. But polls after the crash show that almost half of potential voters were undecided on who should become president. Analysts were taking that figure and the surge of sympathy for Kaczynski as signs that the vote could still swing toward him.
But politics were nowhere in evidence at the poignant ceremony on Sunday.
Komorowski, the acting president, who would have been Kaczynski's rival in elections had he lived, ended his remarks simply by saying, "Farewell, Mr. President."