Funerals of more of the victims of the TU-154 plane crash in Smolensk will take place today: those being laid to rest include prominent Law and Justice MP Przemysław Gosiewski and one of the instigators of the August 1980 Solidarity strikes in Gdansk Anna Walentynowicz.

Funerals of Sebastian Karpiniuk, Maciej Płażyński and Aleksandra Szczygło are also scheduled for today. Ninety six people died in the disaster on April 10, including President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, who were both buried in Krakow on Sunday.

Anna Walentynowicz, one of the often forgotten heroes, outside of Poland, of the Solidarity movement, will be buried in her home town of Gdansk. The sacking of Walentynowicz and Lech Walesa from the then Lenin shipyard was one of the major causes of the strikes which set in motion the setting up of the Solidarity trade union.

Maciej Płażyński was a governor of the former Gdańsk province in the years 1990-1996 and was appointed speaker of the Lower House of Parliament in 1997.

He co-founded the center-right Civic Platform, along with current Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Andrzej Olechowski in 2001, and became the head of the party’s parliamentary club. He withdrew from the Platform two years later.

Maciej Płażyński was nominated president of the Polish Community Association in Warsaw, succeeding Andrzej Stelmachowski.

Journalist Adam Socha reminisces about his friend from school:

"He was a man of character. He was a very independent person; self-reliant and firm. As I remember, back in the 1970s in the summer following the final year of high school, completely penniless, he got a passport and hitchhiked across Europe.”

Maciej Płażyński has been posthumously recognized with the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of the highest distinctions in Poland. He left behind his wife, Elżbieta Płażyńska, and three children. (pg/ab)