Tragedy in Russia - shouldn`t Poland declare national mourning?

Heart-breaking images from Russia after a cruise ship sank on the Volga River.

Most survivors are adults - about 30-50 children were trapped under the deck and had no chance to get out.

Dear Russian brothers, my deepest sympathy is with you. My heart is so saddened by your loss.

Poland should declare at least one day mourning for the victims. It would be a wonderful gesture of compassion for our Slavic brothers, after they sympathised with Poles when the president`s plane crashed in Smoleńsk.

But no. Our leaders are not able to make such gesture of friendship. Pity.

No, let them mourn their own.

Sincere condolences to the people of Russia, a horrific accident for sure.

I disagree with your analogy Pawian, in the Smolensk accident there were Polish citizens who died on Russian territory. Not a similar scenario in this case. However, it's a tragedy for sure and I sincerely sympathize with the Russian people.

It doesn`t matter whose citizens died on whose terrritory. I say: common Russians are our Slavic brothers, showing sympathy would be a brotherly thing to do.

Why not let a nation grieve in peace. Maybe Im being very English here..but I dont think they really care what outsiders think at this moment in time.

Ok, fair enough but how about our Czech, Slovak, and Croatian brothers and sisters? What about Slovenians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Belorussians, and other Slavic brothers and sisters? Before you know it Poland will be in morning year around.

This sounds very cold of me and that's not my intention but I think shows of sympathy are most effective and are appreciated the most when they come from regular citizens and not the respective governments. I say send a letter, an email or send a bouquet of flowers to the Russian embassy or maybe drive out there and sign the book of condolences. That'll mean more than what the Polish government does. I sent an email to the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC.

A terrible tragedy , but sadly one that was bound to happen...

These boats are old and in poor condition , they dont carry out regular safety inspections , and they are often carrying far more people than they were designed for...

No doubt there will be an inquiry , somebody will go to jail , the laws will be tightened , but not much will really change...

This is Russia , and sadly it won,t be the last time that people die due to poor management , greed and slack operation...

As always the innocent suffer...

My condolences to all the families that lost their loved ones. Horrible tragedy.

Heard about it heart breaking story. Poor people.

Seems the boat had not been inspected for years it did not have a licence to carry passengers , it was overloaded , a boat designed for 120 passengers had almost 200 on board , one engine was not working properly , and it set off despite a storm forcast...

Thats not a tragic accident...its manslaughter....!

I saw pictures of this ship, are you sure it was designed for 120 people? Looked pretty small to me. Either way, I feel so sorry for those scuba divers, years ago I helped in recovering the body of a 10 year old girl who'd drowned in a lake in Sweden, I can still see her reddish skin and the scratches on her body, she and several other kids were inside a cabin of a small boat that'd capsized, the kids were trying to fight their way to the door (it was pitch black) and many had scratch marks on their bodies, she was the only one who didn't make it. It's a horrible tragedy.

Don't forget our Slavic Serbian brothers. ;)

If its a major tragedy like this happening in a Slavic country, I think Poles should mourn it. But it doesn't have to be in a high profile way.


I agree.

Any kind gesture from average Polish people I think would be nice.

Not to get into the Smolensk tragedy, but many Poles and much of the Polish diaspora appreciated the kind sympathetic gestures of average Russians towards Poland at that time.

When Russia had its uncontrolled fires last year, Poland sent about 55 firetrucks and a small army of firefighters to help put out those fires.

Here in the US, like you say, it would be nice for Polish Americans to reach out to the Russian embassy on on this.

Don't forget the sisters :)

Indeed the Tragedy, that mimics the worst horrors, Itar -Tass says, with only 3 minutes that passed until it was fully under water, drowned kids in the dancing area, concert for them, fight for the place on the rescue boats, and all that followed by the music that wasn't stopping while old ship was rapidly sinking down to the bottom.

The only thing our present leaders are expected to achieve, in the name of new openness, reconciliation, and improved relations(sic), is for Gazprom to take over our energy industry or perhaps consolidating the Slavic brotherhood by declaring Poland a Russian Republic.

I would not consider the Russians an especially brotherly people. Interestingly though they did have a period of one week mourning for the death of pilsudski.

Well, one of the last threads he started was about being grateful to the Soviet brothers. I think he just misses them.

No,but the gesture wil be long remembered.
saying that though,maybe we are just to British because I always find these "days of mourning" rather ,well,its hard to say......well,

" On the command "show grief" company will cry, right you 'orrible lot, "By the right,SHOW GRIEF"...........Ok,at ease ladies,company,Dismissed......see you in the bar lads...."

Right. Agree. Nice.

But not much more can be done at the official level, since there are too many such terrible tragedies happening around the clock all over the world. For example, acording to Polish Prime Minister Office, yesterday alone they sent three condolences, premier.gov.pl/centrum_prasowe/wydarzenia/ :

2011-07-11: To the President of Republic of Cyprus, Dimitris Christofias and the families of victims of the explosion and fire at a military base

2011-07-11: To the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov and families of fire victims in the Rowne Region

2011-07-11: To the Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin and families and relatives of victims who sank with the cruise ship "Bulgaria."

Not sure how you're using the quote function but the highlighted words above were mine, NOT WildRover's. Don't want WR to get blamed for the perceived coldness of the quote when he never said those words. Just FYI.

Sorry, my mistake, my finger must have slipped somehow. So the credit goes to you. Nothing cold about it. I thought it was a really nice touch to send an email to the Russian Embassy in NY.

It's all good, have done it myself in the past. Didn't want him to be getting hate mail meant for me. ;)

Exactly...being told to show grief isnt the same as being genuine about it....having said that 11hr of 11th month I genuinely feel pride and sorrow..But mourning over another countries dead (apart from 9/11) I wouldnt even bother...

In reality, it was initially designed for 253 passengers. Later, during renovation, number of passengers onboard was decreased (it was made more spacious and comfortable for a smaller number of passengers). So, 200 persons was not overload for this ship.

Are you for real ?

The dead are the dead. Have you ever stood in tyne cot cemetry when the last post plays? In the center of the British cemetry are some graves of german boys,every one in that place was someones (tragically young,like 15 in some cases) son,not the psychotic generals or old pervert criminals in charge,just dead.

Russian news RIA NOVOSTI says this....

The ship, built in 1955 and renovated 30 years ago, had no license for carrying passengers and had a number of safety faults, including a broken engine and a list to starboard as well as being grossly overloaded.

The most important is to invade Georgia, send crap into the space, interfere in the well-being of other states. Who cares of those mothers, kids, upgrading a ship built in 1955 or a rusted submarine "Kursk"? At least the tanks don't sink - that's the most important. Indeed, a "mighty" state.

Nathan - this is not the place, very inappropriate in my view, you're talking about duzzins of children who drowned in this tragedy. Leaves the politics out of this thread please.

I brought my condolences to all the families and I feel their pain and loss. But someone has to say something at least trying to change this BS. More kids will drown if we will just mourn and keep silent. How can a country be so ruthless to its own citizens by spending billions on the wars, both military, economical and informational, when its people are dying like flies on a peaceful river? It produces up-to-date rockets, but let others travel by 56 years old ships. My say will be more helpful to these people than when I be trying to be "polite".

What do you say we ask the mod to move your post and my reply to any new/old thread of your choice? Plenty of threads about Russia here. I see your point, I truly do, however many Russians read online forums nowadays and I think it's very inhumane to be throwing politics in here. It's your call but that's how I think.

Hopes fade for survivors from Russian boat tragedy.

Sorry about my creative spelling, meant to say dozens of kids (not duzzins).