Historical Figure
Lech Wałęsa
b. 1943
President of Poland from 1990 to 1995
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Biography
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish statesman, dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democratically elected president of Poland since 1926 and the first-ever Polish president elected by popular vote. An electrician by trade, Wałęsa became the leader of the opposition Solidarity movement and led a successful pro-democratic effort, which in 1989 ended Communist rule in Poland and ushered in the end of the Cold War.
In Their Own Words (5)
It is hardly possible to build anything if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevail.
Walesa, Lech. Speech. "Nobel Lecture". 1983 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance (11 December 1983) , 1983
Freedom must be gained step by step, slowly. Freedom is a food which must be carefully administered when people are too hungry for it.
Interview with Oriana Fallaci (22 & 23 February 1981) , 1981
If once again Germany destabilizes Europe, then Germany will be not be divided again, but wiped off the map. East and West have the necessary technology in order to enforce this verdict. If Germany begins again, there is no other solution.
Wenn Deutschland noch einmal Europa destabilisiert dann wird Deutschland nicht mehr geteilt, sondern von der Landkarte gefegt werden. Ost und West haben die notwendige Technik, um dieses Verdikt auch vollstrecken zu können. Wenn Deutschland wieder anfängt, bleibt keine andere Lösung. - From the report of the German magazine DER SPIEGEL 15/1990 about an interview of Wałęsa by Dutch weekly Elsevier of 7 April 1990, which was partially reprinted, with an additional Pancho caricature, by French Le Monde , 1990
I am convinced that Germany has drawn conclusions [from World War II] and Europe has drawn conclusions as well. And I can say an unpopular thing. If once again Germany should risk destabilizing Europe, then there would be no division of Germany — it would simply be blown off the map of Europe. With the kind of technology that exists, with the kind of experiences we have had, there can be no other way — and the Germans know it.
Jarosław Kurski: Lech Wałęsa: democrat or dictator?, Westview Press, 1993, p. 59 and p. 166: , 1993
I was arrested many times. The first time, in December 1970, I signed 3 or 4 documents. Most probably I'd sign anything then, except consent for the betrayal of God and Fatherland, to get out and be able to fight. I have never been broken and I have never betrayed the ideals or my comrades.
A note to the Polish Press Agency issued on 4th June 1992 after the publication of a list of Communist collaborators compiled by Antoni Macierewicz. , 1970
Timeline
The story of Lech Wałęsa, told in moments.
Climbed over the shipyard fence to lead a strike at Gdansk. 17,000 workers followed. The strike spread nationwide. Within weeks, the government signed the Gdansk Agreement. Solidarity was born.
Martial law was declared. Solidarity was banned. Walesa was arrested and held for eleven months near the Soviet border. He smuggled messages out through his wife Danuta.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Didn't travel to Oslo to collect it. He feared the government wouldn't let him back into Poland. His wife accepted on his behalf.
Solidarity won Poland's first partially free elections in a landslide. It triggered the fall of communism across Eastern Europe. Walesa was elected president in December 1990.
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