It is hard to think of a blow to a modern nation quite like that which fate delivered Saturday to Poland. The death of President Kaczynski and the First Lady, Maria, as well as the top military commanders, the head of the central bank, and many of the other key figures in the government is a tragedy of a scale that no doubt brought a certain hush across the globe, even among those who know little of Poland or have little emotional engagement with it. For death to find the Polish leadership, as it did, in the ghastly forest near Katyn, as the Polish leaders were en route to mark the 70^th anniversary of one of the most heinous crimes committed by Josef Stalin and the Soviet Union, this has lent the tragedy a profound and eerie air, one that throws into sharp relief the heroism of the new Europe as it struggles to gain its balance in a perilous time.

This point was well enough marked, we thought, in the statement President Obama issued after his call to Prime Minister Tusk. Mr. Obama described Kaczynski as a “distinguished statesman” and noted that he’d “played a key role in the Solidarity movement, and he was widely admired in the United States as a leader dedicated to advancing freedom and human dignity.” He also noted the loss of many leaders who’d “helped to shape Poland’s inspiring democratic transformation.” He alluded to America’s own bonds with the people of Poland, which, as it happens, go back to the American Revolution and the role of General Kosciuszko. “It is a testament,” Mr. Obama said, “to the strength of the Polish people that those who were lost were travelling to commemorate a devastating massacre of World War II as the leaders of a strong, vibrant, and free Poland.”

Yet it remains to be seen whether Mr. Obama and the rest of the world’s leaders now praising Lech Kaczynski will, in pursuit of our common struggle, live up to the example he set. We remember when our Alexander Storozynski took us in to interview him, during the United Nations General Assembly of 2006. Kaczynski was defending Pope Benedict XVI during the brouhaha that erupted after the pope spoke, on the eve of a visit to Turkey, about religion and violence. It was Kaczynski’s view that the Islamic world was “a little too easily offended.” The Polish president had just finished telling the world body that Poland’s own experiences with totalitarianism and foreign occupation, as Mr. Storozynski put it in his dispatch, caused many Polish citizens to view the world through a prism of solidarity with those who struggle for human rights and freedom and strive for material prosperity and spiritual growth.

Kaczynski had just returned from a visit to Israel, for which he’d voiced “unwavering” support. He also endorsed independence for the Palestinian Arabs, but the way he framed it was: “We must fight terrorism everywhere that it exists in the world, but we must also deal with poverty and inequality, which are the roots of terrorism.” He promptly chastised President Chirac for temporizing over Iran, saying he was “surprised” that the French leader had opposed sanctions against Iran as a way to pressure the Islamic nation to end its nuclear weapons program. Kaczynski make it clear that unless France could offer a better approach, Poland would stand with other world leaders who are suspicious of Iran’s motives and support sanctions as the solution.

Ours was, to be sure, only the briefest of personal glimpses of the president, but it was one that reminded us of one of the ironies of our time. The emerging — or recently emerged — leaders of what has come to be called New Europe have been usually well to the right of the leaders of America, even of, say, President Bush. They came into the world in the wake of the Nazi onslaught and the years of communist occupation, and in Poland’s case twice mounted a heroic resistance. They knew first hand of the treachery, even the evil, of the communist camarilla in the Kremlin. When Solidarity rose up and cracked Soviet rule in the East Bloc, the Western leader the union members carried on their shoulders through Gdansk was a Tory named Margaret Thatcher.

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Poland’s acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski, has announced that elections for president will be held within the constitutionally mandated 60 days. All the signs are that Poland will elevate a new president and install a new government in the constitutional way. Its transition had been dramatic even before Saturday’s catastrophe. Its economy has showed strength in weathering the economic crisis that devastated so much of Europe and the rest of the world during the past two years; it has the fastest growth in Europe, and is now the world’s 18^th largest economy. The latest tragedy will be a reminder of what a remarkable country Poland is, of the drama of its struggle, and the hope it represents to other countries still stuck in the grip of cruel tyrannies. It is a history that resonates with our own, which Kaczynski well understood. On his last visit to New York, in September, he presented President Obama with an autographed copy of Alex Storozynski’s biography of Kosciuszko — a heartfelt gesture, now an epitaph, from a pro-American scion of the New Europe.