Center for Liberal Strategies

In the week of the Icelandic ash I found myself stuck in St. Petersburg. Being a volcano exile in Russia proved to be an enlightening experience—my local Russian contacts were friendly, but little capable of dealing with the extraordinary situation. And no wonder—their transportation system was pure hell. When I figured out that I could fly from St. Petersburg to Sofia via Moscow, I was shocked to learn that in the era of electronic air-ticketing it was impossible to get my Moscow-Sofia ticket at the airport in St. Petersburg—I had to purchase it at the Sheremetjevo airport in Moscow, with the risk of missing the only connection that could bring me home.

What was even more surprising was that Russians themselves were not scandalized by the unfriendliness and inefficiency of their transportation system.

Today, both Russia and Poland are colored by tragedy. At the end of March, a terrorist bombing in the Moscow metro killed 39 innocent people and injured many more. At the beginning of April—the first Sunday after Easter—a plane crash killed the cream of the Polish political elite: President Lech Kaczynski, the chief of the general staff, senior members of the government, members of Parliament, generals, intellectuals. The president’s delegation was travelling to Katyn, where, 70 years ago, Stalin massacred more than 20,000 of Poland’s best and brightest officers, professors, and doctors in an attempt to break the Polish nation. The plane crash in Smolensk is one of those events that is best reported by poets, not by journalists.