Conservative Polish president built close ties with U.S.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash in Russia on Saturday, was a fervent Roman Catholic who battled communism during the Cold War and matured into a staunchly conservative politician.

Mr. Kaczynski and his identical twin, Jaroslaw, rose to the top of Polish politics in 2005 when their Law and Justice Party swept to power. With Lech as president and his brother as prime minister, the snowy-haired siblings with boyish faces led their country to the right.

Despite Poland's membership in the European Union, Lech Kaczynski was adamant that Poland not become entangled in continental politics and bureaucracy. His close alliance with the United States agitated European leaders, especially during the Bush administration, which was deeply unpopular in much of "old Europe."

The Cold War left a deep imprint on Mr. Kaczynski, who until his death at age 60 remained suspicious of Russia's ambitions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He supported democracy movements in Ukraine and Georgia, and believed that expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to former Soviet satellites was a crucial deterrent to Russian aggression.

At home, he sought to expose former communists and cleanse what he and his brother regarded as pervasive liberalism. He took a hard line against homosexuality and often blamed the media for salacious magazines and TV shows.

His critics regarded him as a politically dangerous mix of Polish nationalism and religious conservatism. But for many Poles, remembering the courageous period when he and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa joined an underground movement and rallied against Poland's communist regime, Mr. Kaczynzki was a touchstone to a post-World War II era.

Supporters believed his policies were what a proud yet insecure Poland needed to emerge as a strong political voice between Western Europe and the former Soviet states. But Mr. Kaczynzki had been expected to have to fight hard for re-election in a presidential vote that had been scheduled for later this year.

Born June 18, 1949, in Warsaw, the Kaczynzki twins came to public attention as child actors in the 1960s, playing mischievous boys in the allegorical film "The Two Who Stole the Moon."

Their family history was replete with stories of Polish bravery. Their father was a fighter with the Polish resistance during World War II; their mother nursed wounded soldiers.

In the 1970s, the brothers joined the anti-communist underground and later Walesa's Solidarity movement. Mr. Kaczynzki was not a charismatic speaker, but his steely disdain for the communist era and populist sound bites won over much of the country.

"We must turn the state around to face its citizens," he said during his last campaign for the presidency. "The scale of the repair will be so great that Poland will become a new republic."

His brother stepped down as prime minister in 2007 but remains chairman of the Law and Justice Party.

Mr. Kaczynzki's wife, Maria, an economist, died with him in Saturday's crash. The couple is survived by their daughter.