Lech Wałęsa
Encyclopedia
Lech Wałęsa (ˈlɛx vaˈwɛ̃sa, ˌlɛk vəˈwɛnsə or wɔːˈlɛnsə; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish
politician, trade-union
organizer, and human-rights
activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity (Solidarność), the Soviet bloc's
first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.
Wałęsa was an electrician
by trade, with no higher education
. Soon after beginning work at the Gdańsk (then, "Lenin") Shipyards
, he became a trade-union activist. For this he was persecuted by the Polish communist government
, placed under surveillance, fired in 1976, and arrested several times. In August 1980 he was instrumental in negotiations that led to the ground-breaking Gdańsk Agreement
between striking workers and the government, and he became a co-founder of the Solidarity trade-union movement. Arrested again after martial law was imposed
and Solidarity was outlawed, upon release he continued his activism and was prominent in the establishment of the 1989 Round Table Agreement
that led to semi-free parliamentary elections in June 1989
and to a Solidarity-led government.
In 1990 he successfully ran
for the 1989-newly re-established office of President of Poland. He presided over Poland's transformation from a communist to a post-communist state
, but his popularity waned. After he narrowly lost the 1995 presidential election
, his role in Polish politics was diminished. His international fame remains, however, and he speaks and lectures in Poland and abroad on history and politics.
In 1961 Lech graduated from primary and vocational school
in nearby Chalin and Lipno as a qualified electrician, worked from 1961 to 1965 as a car mechanic, then embarked on his two year obligatory stint of military service, attaining the rank of corporal
, before beginning work at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk
(Stocznia Gdańska im. Lenina, now the Gdańsk Shipyard, Stocznia Gdańska) as an electrician on 12 July 1967.
On 8 December 1969 he married Danuta Gołoś. The couple have eight children: Bogdan, Sławomir, Przemysław, Jarosław, Magdalena, Anna, Maria-Wiktoria, Brygida.
at the Gdańsk Shipyard (the Polish 1970 protests
) when workers protested the government's decree raising food prices; he was considered for chairman of the strike committee. The strikes' outcome, involving over 30 worker deaths, galvanized his views on the need for change. In June 1976, Wałęsa lost his job at the Gdańsk Shipyards for his continued involvement in illegal unions, strikes and a campaign to commemorate the victims of the 1970 protests. Afterwards, he worked as an electrician for several other companies, but was continually laid off for his activism and was jobless for long periods. He and his family were under constant surveillance
by the Polish secret police
; his home and workplace were always bugged. Over the next few years, he was arrested several times for participating in dissident activities.
Wałęsa worked closely with the Workers' Defence Committee
(KOR), a group that emerged to lend aid to individuals arrested after 1976 labor strikes and to their families. In June 1978 he became an activist of the underground Free Trade Unions of the Coast
(Wolne Związki Zawodowe Wybrzeża). On 14 August 1980, after another food-price hike led to a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk—a strike of which he was one of the instigators—Wałęsa scaled the shipyard fence and, once inside, quickly became one of the strike leaders. The strike inspired similar strikes, first at Gdańsk, then across Poland
. Wałęsa headed the Inter-Plant Strike Committee, coordinating the workers at Gdańsk and at 20 other plants in the region. On 31 August, the communist government, represented by Mieczysław Jagielski, signed an accord (the Gdańsk Agreement
) with the Strike Coordinating Committee. The agreement, besides granting the Lenin Shipyard workers the right to strike, permitted them to form their own independent trade union. The Strike Coordinating Committee legalized itself as the National Coordinating Committee of the Solidarność (Solidarity)
Free Trade Union, and Wałęsa was chosen chairman of the Committee. The Solidarity trade union quickly grew, ultimately claiming over 10 million members—more than a quarter of Poland's population. Wałęsa's role in the strike, in the negotiations, and in the newly formed independent trade union gained him fame on the international stage.
Wałęsa held his position until 13 December 1981, when General Wojciech Jaruzelski
declared martial law
. Wałęsa, like many other Solidarity leaders and activists, was arrested; he would be incarcerated
for 11 months at several eastern towns (Chylice
, Otwock
, and Arłamów, near the Soviet border) until 14 November 1982. On 8 October 1982, Solidarity was outlawed. In 1983 Wałęsa applied to return to the Gdańsk Shipyard as a simple electrician. That same year, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
. He was unable to accept it himself, fearing that Poland's government would not let him back into the country. His wife Danuta accepted the prize on his behalf.
Through the mid-1980s, Wałęsa continued underground Solidarity-related activities. Every issue of the leading underground weekly, Tygodnik Mazowsze, bore his motto, "Solidarity will not be divided or destroyed." Following a 1986 amnesty for Solidarity activists, Wałęsa co-founded the first overt legal Solidarity entity since the declaration of martial law—the Provisional Council of NSZZ Solidarity (Tymczasowa Rada NSZZ Solidarność). From 1987 to 1990, he organized and led the "semi-illegal" Provisional Executive Committee of the Solidarity Trade Union. In late summer 1988, he instigated work-stoppage strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard.
After months of strikes and political deliberations, at the conclusion of the 10th plenary session
of the Polish United Workers Party, or PZPR (the Polish communist party), the government agreed to enter into Round Table Negotiations
that lasted from February to April 1989. Wałęsa was an informal leader of the "non-governmental" side in the negotiations. During the talks, he traveled the length and breadth of Poland, giving speeches in support of the negotiations. At the end of the talks, the government signed an agreement to re-establish the Solidarity Trade Union and to organize "semi-free" elections to the Polish parliament (semi-free since, in accordance with the Round Table Agreement, only members of the Communist Party and its allies could stand for 65% of the seats in the Sejm
).
In December 1988, Wałęsa co-founded the Solidarity Citizens' Committee
. Theoretically it was merely an advisory body, but in practice it was a kind of political party and won the parliamentary elections in June 1989
(Solidarity took all the seats in the Sejm
that were subject to free elections, and all but one seat in the newly re-established Senate). Wałęsa was one of Solidarity's most public figures; though he did not run for parliament himself, he was an active campaigner, appearing on many campaign poster
s. In fact, Solidarity winners in the Sejm elections were referred to as "Wałęsa's team" or "Lech's team," as all those who won had appeared on their election posters together with him.
While ostensibly only chairman of Solidarity, Wałęsa played a key role in practical politics. At the end of 1989 he persuaded leaders of former communist-allied parties to form a non-communist coalition government – the first non-Communist government in the Soviet Bloc. The parliament elected Tadeusz Mazowiecki
as prime minister – the first non-communist Polish prime minister in over four decades.
Following the June 1989 parliamentary elections, Wałęsa was disappointed that some of his former comrades-in-arms were satisfied to govern alongside former communists. He decided to run for the newly re-established office of president, using the slogan, "I don't want to, but I've got no choice" ("Nie chcem, ale muszem."). On 9 December 1990, Wałęsa won the presidential election
, defeating Prime Minister Mazowiecki and other candidates to become the first democratically elected president of Poland. In 1993 he founded his own political party, the Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms (BBWR – the initials echoed those of Józef Piłsudski's "Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government," of 1928–35, likewise an ostensibly non-political organization).
During his presidency, Wałęsa saw Poland through privatization
and transition to a free-market economy
(the Balcerowicz Plan), Poland's 1991 first completely free parliamentary elections
, and a period of redefinition of Poland's foreign relations
. He successfully negotiated the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Polish soil
and won a substantial reduction in Poland's foreign debts.
Wałęsa supported Poland's entry into NATO and into the European Union
(both these goals would be realized after his presidency, in 1999 and 2004
, respectively). In the early 1990s, Wałęsa proposed the creation of a "NATO bis" as a sub-regional security system. The concept, while supported by right-wing and populist
movements in Poland, garnered little support abroad; Poland's neighbors, some of whom (e.g., Lithuania
) had only recently regained independence, tended to see the proposal as Polish "neo-imperialism."
Wałęsa has been criticized for a confrontational style and for instigating "war at the top," whereby former Solidarity allies clashed with one another, causing annual changes of government. This increasingly isolated Wałęsa on the political scene. As he lost more and more political allies, he came to be surrounded by people who were viewed by the public as incompetent and disreputable. Mudslinging during election campaigns tarnished his reputation. The ex-electrician with no higher education was thought by some to be too plain-spoken and too undignified for the post of president. Others thought him too erratic in his views or complained that he was too authoritarian – that he sought to strengthen his own power at the expense of the Sejm
. Finally, Wałęsa's problems were compounded by the difficult transition to a market economy; while in the long run it was seen as highly successful, it lost Wałęsa's government much popular support.
Wałęsa's BBWR performed poorly in the 1993 parliamentary elections
; at times his popular support dwindled to some 10%, and he narrowly lost the 1995 presidential election
, gathering 48.72% of the vote in the run-off against Aleksander Kwaśniewski
, who represented the resurgent Polish post-communists
(the Democratic Left Alliance
, SLD). Wałęsa's fate was sealed by his poor handling of the media; in the televised debates, he came off as incoherent and rude; at the end of the first of the two debates, in response to Kwaśniewski's extended hand, he replied that the post-communist leader could "shake his leg." After the election, Wałęsa said he was going to go into "political retirement," and his role in politics became increasingly marginal.
whose mission is to support democracy and local governments in Poland and throughout the world. In 1997 he helped organize a new party, Christian Democracy of the 3rd Polish Republic; he also supported the coalition Solidarity Electoral Action
(Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność), which won the 1997 parliamentary elections
. However, the party's real leader and main organizer was a new Solidarity Trade Union leader, Marian Krzaklewski
. Wałęsa ran again in the 2000 presidential election
, but received only 1% of the vote. During Poland's 2005 presidential elections
, Wałęsa supported Donald Tusk
, saying that he was the best candidate.
In 2006 Wałęsa quit Solidarity, citing differences over the union's support of the Law and Justice
party, and the rise to power of Lech
and Jarosław Kaczyński. On 27 February 2008, at Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center
, in Houston, Texas, in the United States, Wałęsa underwent a coronary artery stent
placement and the implantation of a cardiac pacemaker
. In the run-up to the 2009 European Parliament elections
, he appeared at a rally in Rome to endorse the pan-European Eurosceptic
party Libertas, describing it and its founder Declan Ganley
as "a force for good in the world." Wałęsa admitted that he had been paid to give the speech but claimed to support Civic Platform
, while expressing the hope that Libertas candidates would be elected to the European Parliament.
He is member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
.
. On 11 August 2000, the Warsaw Appellate Court, V Wydział Lustracyjny, declared that Wałęsa's lustration
statement was true – that he had not collaborated with the communist regime. Nonetheless, periodically the question resurfaces.
A 2008 book by historians from the Institute of National Remembrance
(IPN), Sławomir Cenckiewicz
and Piotr Gontarczyk
, presenting new evidence, received substantial coverage in the media, provoked a hot nation-wide debate, and was noted by the international press. The book is seen by some as very controversial; however, it contains over 130 pages of documents from archives of the secret police (which were inherited by the IPN) to support its claims, and Cenckiewicz defended his discoveries on a factual basis. Janusz Kurtyka
, president of the Institute of National Remembrance
at the time, staunchly affirmed the thesis of the book while admitting that it does not contain a "hundred-percent" proof that Wałęsa was the agent Bolek, as some of the documents went missing during Wałęsa's presidency of Poland (1990–1995). He expressed hope the book would be subject to a wider debate.
Wałęsa himself denies having collaborated with the secret police, and others have noted that the Polish secret police commonly falsified documents. In November 2009 Wałęsa sued the then president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński
, over his having repeated the collaboration allegations.
On 15 April 2010, during a civil trial brought by Wałęsa against former fellow activist Krzysztof Wyszkowski over the collaboration allegations, a retired MO
and Służba Bezpieczeństwa officer appeared in court and confirmed the fact of Wałęsa's collaboration in a sworn testimony. The officer, Janusz Stachowiak, was in charge of keeping documentation on Wałęsa from December 1970 to 1974 (which shows these documents were not fabricated later), although never met him in person. He stated that Wałęsa was convinced to cooperate by SB Capt. Henryk Rapczyński and SB Capt. Edward Graczyk, after a two-hour interrogation, albeit without the use of threats, and signed an agreement to keep his cooperation with SB in secret. The officers asked him to "calm down" the atmosphere in the shipyard after protests were bloodily suppressed
. Wałęsa kept meeting regularly with the secret police, reportedly receiving substantial sums of money, but after about 4 months he started to "withdraw" (although it was not until June 1976 when he was unregistered, because of his "reluctance to cooperate").
Previously, in 2008, Capt. Edward Graczyk (long thought to be deceased and as such not summoned to testify in the 2000 trial) was interrogated by the IPN about his contacts with Wałęsa and subsequently interviewed by Gazeta Wyborcza
. In the interview, which somewhat contradicts his earlier testimony, Graczyk recounted Wałęsa's cooperation, but denied his own actions had been "recruitment" of an agent. He also denied giving money to Wałęsa. The other of the two officers, Capt. Henryk Rapczyński, was never interrogated.
In February 2011, in an interview with Monika Olejnik
about the Smolensk disaster
, Wałęsa finally admitted that he had signed a "commitment to cooperation" with the secret police Służba Bezpieczeństwa in 1970, simultaneously downplaying the importance of the fact. Although marking a significant change of tone compared to Wałęsa's previous statements, the declaration went relatively unnoticed, and did not receive international media coverage.
He has also said that he is interested in information technology and likes to use new developments in that field. He has claimed to have personally assembled several computers to find out how they work, and has said that he takes a smartphone
, a palmtop, and a laptop with him when traveling. Early in 2006 he revealed that he is a registered user of the Polish instant-messaging service
Gadu-Gadu
, and was granted a new special user number – 1980. Later that year, he also said that he used Skype
, his "handle" being lwprezydent2006. It is rumored that around 1980 Gillette
offered him $1,000,000 to shave off his trademark moustache
in a commercial, but that he refused. A couple of years later, though, he surprised the public by shaving off the mustache for personal reasons.
, Wałęsa has received many other international distinctions and awards. He has been named "Man of the Year
" by Time Magazine (1981), The Financial Times (1980) and The Observer
(1980). He was the first recipient of the Liberty Medal, on 4 July 1989 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and that same year received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
. He is the only Pole to have addressed a joint meeting of the United States Congress
(15 November 1989).
On 8 February 2002, Wałęsa represented Europe, carrying the Olympic flag at the opening ceremonies of the XIX Olympic Winter Games
in Salt Lake City, in company with Archbishop Desmond Tutu
(Africa), John Glenn
(the Americas), Kazuyoshi Funaki
(Asia), Cathy Freeman
(Oceania), Jean-Michel Cousteau
(Environment), Jean-Claude Killy
(Sport), and Steven Spielberg
(Culture). Two years later, on 10 May 2004, Gdańsk
International Airport was officially renamed Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport to commemorate a famous Gdańsk citizen, and his signature was incorporated into the airport's logo.
A month later, in June 2004, Wałęsa represented Poland at the state funeral of Ronald Reagan. On 11 October 2006, Wałęsa was keynote speaker at the launch of "International Human Solidarity Day," proclaimed in 2005 by the United Nations General Assembly
. In January 2007 Wałęsa spoke at a Taiwan
event, "Towards a Global Forum on New Democracies," in support of peace and democracy, along with other prominent world leaders and Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian
.
On 25 April 2007, Wałęsa represented the Polish government at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin
, former President of the Russian Federation
. On 23 October 2009, he spoke at a conference in Gdańsk of presidents of all European senates, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the first free parliamentary elections in a former communist country – the 1989 elections to the Polish Senate.
On 6 September 2011, Wałęsa rejected Lithuania
's Order of Vytautas the Great
as a result of constant discrimination on the part of the Lithuanian government towards its Polish minority.
. In Volker Schlöndorff
's film Strike
, a character based on Wałęsa was played by Polish actor Andrzej Chyra
. Wałęsa played himself in Andrzej Wajda
's 1981 Golden Palm-winning film about Solidarity, Man of Iron
. While this was perhaps his best-known movie appearance, he has played himself in some 20 other productions.
In the 1990s two satirical Polish songs, "Nie wierzcie elektrykom" ("Don't Trust Electricians") by Big Cyc
, and "Wałęsa, gdzie moje 100 000 000" ("Wałęsa, Where's My 100,000,000[ złotych] ?") by Kazik Staszewski
, were major hit
s in Poland, and another song about Wałęsa was composed in 2009 by Holy Smoke. He also inspired U2
's song "New Year's Day
" on their War album. Coincidentally the Polish authorities lifted martial law
on 1 January 1983, the very day that this single came out. Patrick Dailly's Solidarity, starring Kristen Brown as Wałęsa, was premiered by the San Francisco Cabaret Opera in Berkeley
and Oakland, California, in September and October 2009.
Wałęsa has been the subject of dozens of books and articles. He himself has authored three books: Droga nadziei (The Road of Hope, 1987), Droga do wolności (The Road to Freedom, 1991), and Wszystko, co robię, robię dla Polski (All That I Do, I Do for Poland, 1995).
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
politician, trade-union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
organizer, and human-rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity (Solidarność), the Soviet bloc's
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.
Wałęsa was an electrician
Electrician
An electrician is a tradesman specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, stationary machines and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance and repair of existing electrical infrastructure. Electricians may also...
by trade, with no higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
. Soon after beginning work at the Gdańsk (then, "Lenin") Shipyards
Gdansk Shipyard
Gdańsk Shipyard is a large Polish shipyard, located in the city of Gdańsk. The yard gained international fame when Solidarity was founded there in September 1980...
, he became a trade-union activist. For this he was persecuted by the Polish communist government
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
, placed under surveillance, fired in 1976, and arrested several times. In August 1980 he was instrumental in negotiations that led to the ground-breaking Gdańsk Agreement
Gdansk Agreement
The Gdańsk Agreement was an accord reached as a direct result of the strikes that took place in Gdańsk, Poland...
between striking workers and the government, and he became a co-founder of the Solidarity trade-union movement. Arrested again after martial law was imposed
Martial law in Poland
Martial law in Poland refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition to it. Thousands of opposition...
and Solidarity was outlawed, upon release he continued his activism and was prominent in the establishment of the 1989 Round Table Agreement
Polish Round Table Agreement
The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, Poland from February 6 to April 4, 1989. The government initiated the discussion with the banned trade union Solidarność and other opposition groups in an attempt to defuse growing social unrest.-History:...
that led to semi-free parliamentary elections in June 1989
Polish legislative election, 1989
The Polish legislative election of 1989 was the tenth election to the Sejm, the parliament of the People's Republic of Poland, and eleventh in Communist Poland...
and to a Solidarity-led government.
In 1990 he successfully ran
Polish presidential election, 1990
The 1990 Presidential elections were held in Poland on Sunday, November 25 , and Sunday, December 9 . These were the first direct presidential elections in the history of Poland. Before World War II, presidents were elected by the Sejm, but the Sejm was abolished in 1952. The leader of the...
for the 1989-newly re-established office of President of Poland. He presided over Poland's transformation from a communist to a post-communist state
Post-Communism
Post-communism is a name sometimes given to the period of political and economic transformation or "transition" in former Communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, in which new governments aimed to create free market-oriented capitalist economies with some form of parliamentary...
, but his popularity waned. After he narrowly lost the 1995 presidential election
Polish presidential election, 1995
1995 Presidential elections were held in Poland on Sunday November 5 , and Sunday November 19 . Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Lech Wałęsa passed to the second round...
, his role in Polish politics was diminished. His international fame remains, however, and he speaks and lectures in Poland and abroad on history and politics.
Life
Wałęsa was born in Popowo, Poland, on 29 September 1943. His father Bolesław was a carpenter who was arrested by the Nazis before Lech was born and thrown into the concentration camp at Mlyniec. Boleslaw returned home after the war but lived only two months before succumbing to exhaustion and illness - he was not yet 34 years old.In 1961 Lech graduated from primary and vocational school
Vocational school
A vocational school , providing vocational education, is a school in which students are taught the skills needed to perform a particular job...
in nearby Chalin and Lipno as a qualified electrician, worked from 1961 to 1965 as a car mechanic, then embarked on his two year obligatory stint of military service, attaining the rank of corporal
Corporal
Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....
, before beginning work at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
(Stocznia Gdańska im. Lenina, now the Gdańsk Shipyard, Stocznia Gdańska) as an electrician on 12 July 1967.
On 8 December 1969 he married Danuta Gołoś. The couple have eight children: Bogdan, Sławomir, Przemysław, Jarosław, Magdalena, Anna, Maria-Wiktoria, Brygida.
Solidarity
From early on, Wałęsa was interested in workers' concerns; in 1968 he encouraged shipyard colleagues to boycott official rallies that condemned recent student strikes. A charismatic leader, he was an organizer of the illegal 1970 strikesStrike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
at the Gdańsk Shipyard (the Polish 1970 protests
Polish 1970 protests
The Polish 1970 protests were protests that occurred in northern Poland in December 1970. The protests were sparked by a sudden increase of prices of food and other everyday items...
) when workers protested the government's decree raising food prices; he was considered for chairman of the strike committee. The strikes' outcome, involving over 30 worker deaths, galvanized his views on the need for change. In June 1976, Wałęsa lost his job at the Gdańsk Shipyards for his continued involvement in illegal unions, strikes and a campaign to commemorate the victims of the 1970 protests. Afterwards, he worked as an electrician for several other companies, but was continually laid off for his activism and was jobless for long periods. He and his family were under constant surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
by the Polish secret police
Ministry of Public Security of Poland
The Ministry of Public Security of Poland was a Polish communist secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage service operating from 1945 to 1954 under Jakub Berman of the Politburo...
; his home and workplace were always bugged. Over the next few years, he was arrested several times for participating in dissident activities.
Wałęsa worked closely with the Workers' Defence Committee
Workers' Defence Committee
The Workers’ Defense Committee was a Polish civil society group that emerged under communist rule to give aid to prisoners & their families after the June 1976 protests & government crackdown...
(KOR), a group that emerged to lend aid to individuals arrested after 1976 labor strikes and to their families. In June 1978 he became an activist of the underground Free Trade Unions of the Coast
Free Trade Unions of the Coast
Free Trade Unions of the Coast were a government-independent trade union in the People's Republic of Poland.This trade union was founded in Gdańsk on 29 April 1978 by Andrzej Gwiazda, Krzysztof Wyszkowski and Antoni Sokołowski...
(Wolne Związki Zawodowe Wybrzeża). On 14 August 1980, after another food-price hike led to a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk—a strike of which he was one of the instigators—Wałęsa scaled the shipyard fence and, once inside, quickly became one of the strike leaders. The strike inspired similar strikes, first at Gdańsk, then across Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Wałęsa headed the Inter-Plant Strike Committee, coordinating the workers at Gdańsk and at 20 other plants in the region. On 31 August, the communist government, represented by Mieczysław Jagielski, signed an accord (the Gdańsk Agreement
Gdansk Agreement
The Gdańsk Agreement was an accord reached as a direct result of the strikes that took place in Gdańsk, Poland...
) with the Strike Coordinating Committee. The agreement, besides granting the Lenin Shipyard workers the right to strike, permitted them to form their own independent trade union. The Strike Coordinating Committee legalized itself as the National Coordinating Committee of the Solidarność (Solidarity)
History of Solidarity
The history of Solidarity , a Polish non-governmental trade union, begins in August 1980, at the Lenin Shipyards at its founding by Lech Wałęsa and others. In the early 1980s, it became the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country...
Free Trade Union, and Wałęsa was chosen chairman of the Committee. The Solidarity trade union quickly grew, ultimately claiming over 10 million members—more than a quarter of Poland's population. Wałęsa's role in the strike, in the negotiations, and in the newly formed independent trade union gained him fame on the international stage.
Wałęsa held his position until 13 December 1981, when General Wojciech Jaruzelski
Wojciech Jaruzelski
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski is a retired Polish military officer and Communist politician. He was the last Communist leader of Poland from 1981 to 1989, Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985 and the country's head of state from 1985 to 1990. He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's...
declared martial law
Martial law in Poland
Martial law in Poland refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition to it. Thousands of opposition...
. Wałęsa, like many other Solidarity leaders and activists, was arrested; he would be incarcerated
Incarceration
Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of...
for 11 months at several eastern towns (Chylice
Chylice, Piaseczno County
Chylice is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Piaseczno, within Piaseczno County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately east of Piaseczno and south of Warsaw.-References:...
, Otwock
Otwock
Otwock is a town in central Poland, some southeast of Warsaw, with 42,765 inhabitants . It is situated on the right bank of Vistula River below the mouth of Swider River. Otwock is home to a unique architectural style called Swidermajer....
, and Arłamów, near the Soviet border) until 14 November 1982. On 8 October 1982, Solidarity was outlawed. In 1983 Wałęsa applied to return to the Gdańsk Shipyard as a simple electrician. That same year, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
. He was unable to accept it himself, fearing that Poland's government would not let him back into the country. His wife Danuta accepted the prize on his behalf.
After months of strikes and political deliberations, at the conclusion of the 10th plenary session
Plenary session
Plenary session is a term often used in conferences to define the part of the conference when all members of all parties are to attend.These sessions may contain a broad range of content from keynotes to panel discussions and are not necessarily related to a specific style of delivery.The term has...
of the Polish United Workers Party, or PZPR (the Polish communist party), the government agreed to enter into Round Table Negotiations
Polish Round Table Agreement
The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, Poland from February 6 to April 4, 1989. The government initiated the discussion with the banned trade union Solidarność and other opposition groups in an attempt to defuse growing social unrest.-History:...
that lasted from February to April 1989. Wałęsa was an informal leader of the "non-governmental" side in the negotiations. During the talks, he traveled the length and breadth of Poland, giving speeches in support of the negotiations. At the end of the talks, the government signed an agreement to re-establish the Solidarity Trade Union and to organize "semi-free" elections to the Polish parliament (semi-free since, in accordance with the Round Table Agreement, only members of the Communist Party and its allies could stand for 65% of the seats in the Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
).
In December 1988, Wałęsa co-founded the Solidarity Citizens' Committee
Solidarity Citizens' Committee
The Solidarity Citizens' Committee , also known as "Citizens' Electoral Committee" , previously named "Citizens' Committee with Lech Wałęsa" was an legal political organisation of the democratic opposition in communist Poland...
. Theoretically it was merely an advisory body, but in practice it was a kind of political party and won the parliamentary elections in June 1989
Polish legislative election, 1989
The Polish legislative election of 1989 was the tenth election to the Sejm, the parliament of the People's Republic of Poland, and eleventh in Communist Poland...
(Solidarity took all the seats in the Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
that were subject to free elections, and all but one seat in the newly re-established Senate). Wałęsa was one of Solidarity's most public figures; though he did not run for parliament himself, he was an active campaigner, appearing on many campaign poster
Poster
A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...
s. In fact, Solidarity winners in the Sejm elections were referred to as "Wałęsa's team" or "Lech's team," as all those who won had appeared on their election posters together with him.
While ostensibly only chairman of Solidarity, Wałęsa played a key role in practical politics. At the end of 1989 he persuaded leaders of former communist-allied parties to form a non-communist coalition government – the first non-Communist government in the Soviet Bloc. The parliament elected Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.-Biography:Mazowiecki comes from a Polish...
as prime minister – the first non-communist Polish prime minister in over four decades.
Presidency
Polish presidential election, 1990
The 1990 Presidential elections were held in Poland on Sunday, November 25 , and Sunday, December 9 . These were the first direct presidential elections in the history of Poland. Before World War II, presidents were elected by the Sejm, but the Sejm was abolished in 1952. The leader of the...
, defeating Prime Minister Mazowiecki and other candidates to become the first democratically elected president of Poland. In 1993 he founded his own political party, the Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms (BBWR – the initials echoed those of Józef Piłsudski's "Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government," of 1928–35, likewise an ostensibly non-political organization).
During his presidency, Wałęsa saw Poland through privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
and transition to a free-market economy
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
(the Balcerowicz Plan), Poland's 1991 first completely free parliamentary elections
Polish parliamentary election, 1991
The Polish parliamentary election in 1991 to the Sejm and the Senate of Poland was held on October 27. In the Sejm elections, 27,517,280 citizens were eligible to vote, 11,887,949 of them cast their votes, 11,218,602 of those were counted as valid. In the Senate elections, 43.2% of citizens cast...
, and a period of redefinition of Poland's foreign relations
Foreign relations of Poland
The Republic of Poland is a Central European country and member of the European Union and NATO, among others. In recent years, Poland has extended its responsibilities and position in European and Western affairs, supporting and establishing friendly foreign relations with both the West and with...
. He successfully negotiated the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Polish soil
Northern Group of Forces
The Northern Group of Forces was the military formation of the Soviet Army stationed in Poland from the end of Second World War in 1945 until 1993 when they were withdrawn in the aftermath of the fall of Soviet Union...
and won a substantial reduction in Poland's foreign debts.
Wałęsa supported Poland's entry into NATO and into the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
(both these goals would be realized after his presidency, in 1999 and 2004
2004 enlargement of the European Union
The 2004 enlargement of the European Union was the largest single expansion of the European Union , both in terms of territory, number of states and population, however not in terms of gross domestic product...
, respectively). In the early 1990s, Wałęsa proposed the creation of a "NATO bis" as a sub-regional security system. The concept, while supported by right-wing and populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
movements in Poland, garnered little support abroad; Poland's neighbors, some of whom (e.g., Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
) had only recently regained independence, tended to see the proposal as Polish "neo-imperialism."
Wałęsa has been criticized for a confrontational style and for instigating "war at the top," whereby former Solidarity allies clashed with one another, causing annual changes of government. This increasingly isolated Wałęsa on the political scene. As he lost more and more political allies, he came to be surrounded by people who were viewed by the public as incompetent and disreputable. Mudslinging during election campaigns tarnished his reputation. The ex-electrician with no higher education was thought by some to be too plain-spoken and too undignified for the post of president. Others thought him too erratic in his views or complained that he was too authoritarian – that he sought to strengthen his own power at the expense of the Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
. Finally, Wałęsa's problems were compounded by the difficult transition to a market economy; while in the long run it was seen as highly successful, it lost Wałęsa's government much popular support.
Wałęsa's BBWR performed poorly in the 1993 parliamentary elections
Polish parliamentary election, 1993
Polish parliamentary election in 1993 to Sejm and Senate of Poland was held on the 19 September. In Sejm elections, 52.13% of citizens cast their votes, and 95.7% of those were counted as valid. In Senate elections, 52.1% of citizens cast their votes, and 97.07% were valid...
; at times his popular support dwindled to some 10%, and he narrowly lost the 1995 presidential election
Polish presidential election, 1995
1995 Presidential elections were held in Poland on Sunday November 5 , and Sunday November 19 . Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Lech Wałęsa passed to the second round...
, gathering 48.72% of the vote in the run-off against Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Aleksander Kwasniewski
Aleksander Kwaśniewski is a Polish politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the communist government in the 1980s...
, who represented the resurgent Polish post-communists
Post-Communism
Post-communism is a name sometimes given to the period of political and economic transformation or "transition" in former Communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, in which new governments aimed to create free market-oriented capitalist economies with some form of parliamentary...
(the Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance is a social-democratic political party in Poland. Formed in 1991 as a coalition of centre-left parties, it was formally established as a single party on 15 April 1999. It is currently the third largest opposition party in Poland....
, SLD). Wałęsa's fate was sealed by his poor handling of the media; in the televised debates, he came off as incoherent and rude; at the end of the first of the two debates, in response to Kwaśniewski's extended hand, he replied that the post-communist leader could "shake his leg." After the election, Wałęsa said he was going to go into "political retirement," and his role in politics became increasingly marginal.
Later years
Since the end of his presidency, Wałęsa has lectured on Central European history and politics at various universities and organizations. In 1996 he founded the Lech Wałęsa Institute, a think tankThink tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
whose mission is to support democracy and local governments in Poland and throughout the world. In 1997 he helped organize a new party, Christian Democracy of the 3rd Polish Republic; he also supported the coalition Solidarity Electoral Action
Solidarity Electoral Action
Solidarity Electoral Action was a political party coalition in Poland. Since 1997 its official name has been Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność Prawicy or Solidarity Electoral Action of the Right...
(Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność), which won the 1997 parliamentary elections
Polish parliamentary election, 1997
The Polish parliamentary election in 1997 to the Sejm and Senate of Poland was held on the 21 September. In the Sejm elections, 47.93% of citizens cast their votes, 96.12% of which were counted as valid...
. However, the party's real leader and main organizer was a new Solidarity Trade Union leader, Marian Krzaklewski
Marian Krzaklewski
Marian Krzaklewski is a Polish politician. A member of Solidarity since the 1980s, he was one of the most known and influential Polish politicians in the late 1990s, when he created the Solidarity Electoral Action...
. Wałęsa ran again in the 2000 presidential election
Polish presidential election, 2000
The 2000 Polish presidential election took place in Poland on 8 October 2000. Incumbent President Aleksander Kwaśniewski was easily re-elected in the first round after winning more than 50% of the votes.-Background:...
, but received only 1% of the vote. During Poland's 2005 presidential elections
Polish presidential election, 2005
-External links:**] ]**...
, Wałęsa supported Donald Tusk
Donald Tusk
Donald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician who has been Prime Minister of Poland since 2007. He was a co-founder and is chairman of the Civic Platform party....
, saying that he was the best candidate.
In 2006 Wałęsa quit Solidarity, citing differences over the union's support of the Law and Justice
Law and Justice
Law and Justice , abbreviated to PiS, is a right-wing, conservative political party in Poland. With 147 seats in the Sejm and 38 in the Senate, it is the second-largest party in the Polish parliament....
party, and the rise to power of Lech
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
and Jarosław Kaczyński. On 27 February 2008, at Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center
The Methodist Hospital
The Methodist Hospital is a hospital located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Established in 1919 as an outreach ministry of The United Methodist Church, Methodist is one of the most comprehensive teaching hospitals in the United States, with leading specialists in every field of...
, in Houston, Texas, in the United States, Wałęsa underwent a coronary artery stent
Stent
In the technical vocabulary of medicine, a stent is an artificial 'tube' inserted into a natural passage/conduit in the body to prevent, or counteract, a disease-induced, localized flow constriction. The term may also refer to a tube used to temporarily hold such a natural conduit open to allow...
placement and the implantation of a cardiac pacemaker
Pacemaker
An artificial pacemaker is a medical device that uses electrical impulses to regulate the beating of the heart.Pacemaker may also refer to:-Medicine:...
. In the run-up to the 2009 European Parliament elections
European Parliament election, 2009
Elections to the European Parliament were held in the 27 member states of the European Union between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history...
, he appeared at a rally in Rome to endorse the pan-European Eurosceptic
EuroSceptic
EuroSceptic is the second album of British singer Jack Lucien. It was released in October 2009.Due to being an album influenced by Europop, it features songs with parts in different languages...
party Libertas, describing it and its founder Declan Ganley
Declan Ganley
Declan James Ganley is a British-born Irish citizen, entrepreneur, businessman and political activist. He is founder and chairman of a political party, Libertas with pan-European ambitions...
as "a force for good in the world." Wałęsa admitted that he had been paid to give the speech but claimed to support Civic Platform
Civic Platform
Civic Platform , abbreviated to PO, is a centre-right, liberal conservative political party in Poland. It has been the major coalition partner in Poland's government since the 2007 general election, with party leader Donald Tusk as Prime Minister of Poland and Bronisław Komorowski as President...
, while expressing the hope that Libertas candidates would be elected to the European Parliament.
He is member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is a non-profit educational organization in the United States, established as a result of an Act of Congress in 1993 with the purpose to commemorate "the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims in an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust"...
.
Controversy
Over the years, Wałesa has been accused of having been an informer for the Polish secret police Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB) in the early 1970s, codenamed "Bolek". Although this was long before Wałęsa emerged as a hero of the Solidarity, questions remain whether it had an effect on his later decisions; for example, making him a probable target of blackmailBlackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
. On 11 August 2000, the Warsaw Appellate Court, V Wydział Lustracyjny, declared that Wałęsa's lustration
Lustration in Poland
Lustration in Poland refers to the policy of limiting the participation of former communists, and especially informants of the communist secret police , in the successor governments or even in civil service positions.-1992–1997:...
statement was true – that he had not collaborated with the communist regime. Nonetheless, periodically the question resurfaces.
A 2008 book by historians from the Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
(IPN), Sławomir Cenckiewicz
Sławomir Cenckiewicz
Sławomir Cenckiewicz is a Polish historian and journalist. A former employee of the Institute of National Remembrance, he is currently the main historical consultant of the Wprost weekly. He gained much media attention following the 2008 publication of a book "SB a Lech Wałęsa", suggesting Lech...
and Piotr Gontarczyk
Piotr Gontarczyk
Piotr Gontarczyk is a Polish historian with a doctorate in history and political science.Gontarczyk is employed by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance and specializes in history of the Polish communist movement during the World War II and in contemporary history...
, presenting new evidence, received substantial coverage in the media, provoked a hot nation-wide debate, and was noted by the international press. The book is seen by some as very controversial; however, it contains over 130 pages of documents from archives of the secret police (which were inherited by the IPN) to support its claims, and Cenckiewicz defended his discoveries on a factual basis. Janusz Kurtyka
Janusz Kurtyka
Janusz Marek Kurtyka was a Polish historian, and from December 2005 until his death in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash, the second president of the Instytut Pamięci Narodowej ....
, president of the Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
at the time, staunchly affirmed the thesis of the book while admitting that it does not contain a "hundred-percent" proof that Wałęsa was the agent Bolek, as some of the documents went missing during Wałęsa's presidency of Poland (1990–1995). He expressed hope the book would be subject to a wider debate.
Wałęsa himself denies having collaborated with the secret police, and others have noted that the Polish secret police commonly falsified documents. In November 2009 Wałęsa sued the then president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
, over his having repeated the collaboration allegations.
On 15 April 2010, during a civil trial brought by Wałęsa against former fellow activist Krzysztof Wyszkowski over the collaboration allegations, a retired MO
Milicja Obywatelska
Milicja Obywatelska was a state police institution in the People's Republic of Poland. It was created in 1944 by Soviet-sponsored PKWN, effectively replacing the pre-war police force. In 1990 it was transformed back into Policja....
and Służba Bezpieczeństwa officer appeared in court and confirmed the fact of Wałęsa's collaboration in a sworn testimony. The officer, Janusz Stachowiak, was in charge of keeping documentation on Wałęsa from December 1970 to 1974 (which shows these documents were not fabricated later), although never met him in person. He stated that Wałęsa was convinced to cooperate by SB Capt. Henryk Rapczyński and SB Capt. Edward Graczyk, after a two-hour interrogation, albeit without the use of threats, and signed an agreement to keep his cooperation with SB in secret. The officers asked him to "calm down" the atmosphere in the shipyard after protests were bloodily suppressed
Polish 1970 protests
The Polish 1970 protests were protests that occurred in northern Poland in December 1970. The protests were sparked by a sudden increase of prices of food and other everyday items...
. Wałęsa kept meeting regularly with the secret police, reportedly receiving substantial sums of money, but after about 4 months he started to "withdraw" (although it was not until June 1976 when he was unregistered, because of his "reluctance to cooperate").
Previously, in 2008, Capt. Edward Graczyk (long thought to be deceased and as such not summoned to testify in the 2000 trial) was interrogated by the IPN about his contacts with Wałęsa and subsequently interviewed by Gazeta Wyborcza
Gazeta Wyborcza
Gazeta Wyborcza is a leading Polish newspaper. It covers the gamut of political, international and general news. Like all the Polish newspapers, it is printed on compact-sized paper, and is published by the multimedia corporation Agora SA...
. In the interview, which somewhat contradicts his earlier testimony, Graczyk recounted Wałęsa's cooperation, but denied his own actions had been "recruitment" of an agent. He also denied giving money to Wałęsa. The other of the two officers, Capt. Henryk Rapczyński, was never interrogated.
In February 2011, in an interview with Monika Olejnik
Monika Olejnik
Monika Olejnik is a Polish radio, newspaper and TV journalist.She studied zoology at Warsaw University of Life Sciences. First she worked in Polish Radio I in a programme for farmers....
about the Smolensk disaster
2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash
The 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash occurred on 10 April 2010, when a Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft of the Polish Air Force crashed near the city of Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 people on board...
, Wałęsa finally admitted that he had signed a "commitment to cooperation" with the secret police Służba Bezpieczeństwa in 1970, simultaneously downplaying the importance of the fact. Although marking a significant change of tone compared to Wałęsa's previous statements, the declaration went relatively unnoticed, and did not receive international media coverage.
Views
Wałęsa is a devout Roman Catholic and a staunch opponent of abortion, and has said that he would rather have resigned the presidency twenty times than sign into law a bill permitting abortion in Poland.He has also said that he is interested in information technology and likes to use new developments in that field. He has claimed to have personally assembled several computers to find out how they work, and has said that he takes a smartphone
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
, a palmtop, and a laptop with him when traveling. Early in 2006 he revealed that he is a registered user of the Polish instant-messaging service
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
Gadu-Gadu
Gadu-Gadu
Gadu-Gadu is a Polish instant messaging client using a proprietary protocol. Gadu-Gadu is the most popular IM service in Poland, with over 15 million registered accounts and approximately 6.5 million users online daily. Gadu-Gadu’s casual gaming portal had some 500,000 active users at the end of...
, and was granted a new special user number – 1980. Later that year, he also said that he used Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
, his "handle" being lwprezydent2006. It is rumored that around 1980 Gillette
Global Gillette
Gillette is a brand of Procter & Gamble currently used for safety razors, among other personal care products. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, it was one of several brands originally owned by The Gillette Company, a leading global supplier of products under various brands, which was...
offered him $1,000,000 to shave off his trademark moustache
Moustache
A moustache is facial hair grown on the outer surface of the upper lip. It may or may not be accompanied by a type of beard, a facial hair style grown and cropped to cover most of the lower half of the face.-Etymology:...
in a commercial, but that he refused. A couple of years later, though, he surprised the public by shaving off the mustache for personal reasons.
Honours
Apart from his 1983 Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
, Wałęsa has received many other international distinctions and awards. He has been named "Man of the Year
Man of the Year
A Man of the Year award usually refers to a person nominated as the most influential or meritous in a business, organisation, a specific form of human endeavour, or amongst humanity at large...
" by Time Magazine (1981), The Financial Times (1980) and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
(1980). He was the first recipient of the Liberty Medal, on 4 July 1989 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and that same year received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
. He is the only Pole to have addressed a joint meeting of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
(15 November 1989).
On 8 February 2002, Wałęsa represented Europe, carrying the Olympic flag at the opening ceremonies of the XIX Olympic Winter Games
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout...
in Salt Lake City, in company with Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
(Africa), John Glenn
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...
(the Americas), Kazuyoshi Funaki
Kazuyoshi Funaki
, born April 27, 1975 in Yoichi, Hokkaido) is a Japanese ski jumper.He ranked among the most successful sportsmen of its discipline, particularly in the 1990s. Funaki is known for his special variant of the V-style technique, where the body lies flat....
(Asia), Cathy Freeman
Cathy Freeman
Catherine Astrid Salome "Cathy" Freeman, OAM is former Australian sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. She became the Olympic champion for the women's 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she lit the Olympic Flame.Freeman was the first ever Aboriginal...
(Oceania), Jean-Michel Cousteau
Jean-Michel Cousteau
Jean-Michel Cousteau is a French explorer, environmentalist, educator, and film producer. The first son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, he is the father of Fabien Cousteau and Celine Cousteau.-Biography:...
(Environment), Jean-Claude Killy
Jean-Claude Killy
Jean-Claude Killy was an alpine ski racer, who dominated the sport in the late 1960s. He was a triple Olympic champion, winning the three alpine events at the 1968 Winter Olympics, becoming the most successful athlete there...
(Sport), and Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
(Culture). Two years later, on 10 May 2004, Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
International Airport was officially renamed Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport to commemorate a famous Gdańsk citizen, and his signature was incorporated into the airport's logo.
A month later, in June 2004, Wałęsa represented Poland at the state funeral of Ronald Reagan. On 11 October 2006, Wałęsa was keynote speaker at the launch of "International Human Solidarity Day," proclaimed in 2005 by the United Nations General Assembly
United Nations General Assembly
For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
. In January 2007 Wałęsa spoke at a Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
event, "Towards a Global Forum on New Democracies," in support of peace and democracy, along with other prominent world leaders and Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian
Chen Shui-bian
Chen Shui-bian is a former Taiwanese politician who was the 10th and 11th-term President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence, ended more than fifty years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan...
.
On 25 April 2007, Wałęsa represented the Polish government at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
, former President of the Russian Federation
President of the Russian Federation
The President of the Russian Federation is the head of state, supreme commander-in-chief and holder of the highest office within the Russian Federation...
. On 23 October 2009, he spoke at a conference in Gdańsk of presidents of all European senates, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the first free parliamentary elections in a former communist country – the 1989 elections to the Polish Senate.
On 6 September 2011, Wałęsa rejected Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
's Order of Vytautas the Great
Order of Vytautas the Great
The Order of Vytautas the Great is the Lithuanian Presidential Award. It may be conferred on the heads of Lithuania and foreign states, as well as their citizens, for distinguished services to the State of Lithuania.-History:...
as a result of constant discrimination on the part of the Lithuanian government towards its Polish minority.
Popular culture
Wałęsa has been portrayed in numerous works of popular culturePopular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. In Volker Schlöndorff
Volker Schlöndorff
Volker Schlöndorff is a Berlin-based German filmmaker who has worked in Germany, France and the United States...
's film Strike
Strike (2006 film)
Strike is a Polish language film produced by a mainly German group, released in 2006 and directed by Volker Schlöndorff. The film is broadly a docudrama...
, a character based on Wałęsa was played by Polish actor Andrzej Chyra
Andrzej Chyra
Andrzej Chyra is a Polish actor.He graduated from High School and in 1987 he graduated from the Acting Theater School in Warsaw. In 1994, he majored at the same university in Directing....
. Wałęsa played himself in Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...
's 1981 Golden Palm-winning film about Solidarity, Man of Iron
Man of Iron
Man of Iron is a 1981 film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It depicts the Solidarity labour movement and its first success in persuading the Polish government to recognize the workers' right to an independent union....
. While this was perhaps his best-known movie appearance, he has played himself in some 20 other productions.
In the 1990s two satirical Polish songs, "Nie wierzcie elektrykom" ("Don't Trust Electricians") by Big Cyc
Big Cyc
Big Cyc is a Polish rock band formed in 1988.The band is well known in Poland for their controversial behaviour. The cover of their first album, Z partyjnym pozdrowieniem , was an image of Vladimir Lenin with a Mohawk hairstyle...
, and "Wałęsa, gdzie moje 100 000 000" ("Wałęsa, Where's My 100,000,000
Kazik Staszewski
Kazik Staszewski is a Polish lead singer, songwriter, and leader of the band Kult.Kazik founded Kult in 1982. Their latest album, Hurra, was released in September 2009....
, were major hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
s in Poland, and another song about Wałęsa was composed in 2009 by Holy Smoke. He also inspired U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
's song "New Year's Day
New Year's Day (song)
"New Year's Day" is a song by rock band U2. It is on their 1983 album War and it was released as the album's lead single in January 1983. Written about the Polish Solidarity movement, "New Year's Day" is driven by Adam Clayton's distinctive bassline and The Edge's keyboard playing...
" on their War album. Coincidentally the Polish authorities lifted martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
on 1 January 1983, the very day that this single came out. Patrick Dailly's Solidarity, starring Kristen Brown as Wałęsa, was premiered by the San Francisco Cabaret Opera in Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
and Oakland, California, in September and October 2009.
Wałęsa has been the subject of dozens of books and articles. He himself has authored three books: Droga nadziei (The Road of Hope, 1987), Droga do wolności (The Road to Freedom, 1991), and Wszystko, co robię, robię dla Polski (All That I Do, I Do for Poland, 1995).
See also
- History of PolandHistory of PolandThe History of Poland is rooted in the arrival of the Slavs, who gave rise to permanent settlement and historic development on Polish lands. During the Piast dynasty Christianity was adopted in 966 and medieval monarchy established...
- Bezpartyjny Blok Wspierania Reform (BBWR)
- Cold WarCold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
Further reading
- Walesa, Lech. "A Path of Hope: An Autobiography". Collins Harvill. London. 1987. ISBN 0-00-272120-1
- Walesa, Lech. The Struggle and the Triumph: An Autobiography, with the collaboration of Arkadius Rybicki, translated by Franklin Philip, in collaboration with Helen Mahut, New York, Arcade Publishers, 1992. ISBN 1-55970-221-4
Films
- Signing of the Gdańsk Agreement
- Presidential Inauguration
- Speech at the National Press Club on Nov.16 1989, from C-SPAN video archive
Other
- Official blog
- Lech Wałęsa Institute
- Stephen Engelberg, Man in the News; The Grandmaster of Polish Politics: Lech Walesa, New York Times, 11 December 1990
- Stefan Chwin, God must have parachuted him to Earth originally published in Tygodnik Powszechny, December 2008
- New Statesman interview with Lech Walesa by Mark SeddonMark Seddon-Education:Seddon was educated at Dauntsey's School, an independent school , in the village of West Lavingdon in Wiltshire.-Life and career:...
- Wałęsa speech (mp3)
- Lech Walesa – Nobel Lecture
- BBC interview with Lech Walesa on the 25th anniversary of the founding of Solidarity
- Interview on WTTW
- The Shaming of Lech Walesa: Why the defeater of communism finds himself defeated by ex-communists—and why he and the American public haven't noticed Agnieszka Tennant, Books & Culture magazine, 2002
- Lech Walesa, NNDB.com