Lech Walesa interesting facts. Lech Walesa. Lech Walesa: Nobel Prize

Lech Walesa(Polish Lech Wałęsa,; September 29, 1943, Popovo, Tlukhovo) - Polish politician, activist and defender of human rights, the first head of the independent Solidarity trade union. Electrician by profession.

• 1 Biography
• 2 Opinions
• 3 art
• 4 Awards and prizes
  • 4.1 Polish
  • 4.2 Foreign countries
• 5 memory
• 6 See also
• 7 Notes

Biography

The son of a carpenter, born on September 29, 1943 on the territory of the Pomeranian Voivodeship annexed by Nazi Germany, Walesa worked as an electrician at the Gdansk shipyard. In 1980, he created the first free trade union in Eastern Europe, not controlled by the state - Solidarity.

Wałęsa's sacking for union activism, along with food shortages and rising prices, led to strikes in 1980 and 1981 that generated widespread support for Solidarity in various sectors of society and forced the government to make a number of concessions, including granting workers the right to organize freely. to trade unions.

On the night of December 13, 1981, the regime of General Wojciech Jaruzelski introduced martial law and outlawed Solidarity. In the very first days of martial law, more than 3,000 leading activists - including Walesa - were detained and sent to internment centers. Along with most of the internees, Walesa was released on November 14, 1982.

On September 30, 1986, under the chairmanship of Walesa, the Provisional Council of Solidarity was established. The reconstruction of regional trade union centers has begun. The authorities did not formally sanction the legalization of Solidarity, but in general they did not create insurmountable obstacles. On October 25, 1987, a group of activists formed the National Executive Committee of Solidarity. It was led by Walesa. This structure consolidated that part of the opposition that was ready for negotiations with the authorities. At the same time, many activists stood on the positions of the "Fighting Solidarity" and advocated an uncompromising struggle against the regime.

As a result of the mass strike movement in the spring and summer of 1988, the leadership of Poland was forced to take a course towards a compromise with Solidarity. On August 25, 1988, Minister of the Interior Czeslaw Kiszczak met with Walesa in the presence of the representative of the Polish episcopate, Abbot Aloysius Orshulik. Walesa played a major role in negotiations with the government in 1988 (conversations in Magdalenka) and 1989 ( Round table) years. Their result was the legalization of Solidarity and the holding of semi-free parliamentary elections in June 1989, in which Solidarity won 99 out of 100 seats in the Senate.

The elections were perceived by society as a crushing defeat for the regime. On August 7, Walesa announced the readiness of Solidarity to take over the leadership of the government. Walesa's negotiations with the leadership of the United Peasant and Democratic Parties (long-term satellites of the communist regime) led in the current situation to their support for Solidarity. On September 7, the first non-communist government of Poland came to power, headed by the representative of Solidarity, adviser to Walesa, Tadeusz Mazowiecki.

In the 1990 presidential election, Walesa, after an impressive victory, was elected President of Poland in the second round, gaining 74.25% of the vote. He faced the difficult problems of political instability and Poland's transition to a free market economy.

In 1995, Walesa lost the election to Aleksander Kwasniewski. In the first round, he took second place with 33.1%, in the second round he scored 48.3%.

In the 2000 presidential election, Walesa won 1.4%.

On September 29, 2006, Lech Walesa announced his intention to return to politics and create a new party. He stated: “People who once fought for the independence of Poland cannot accept what is happening now. We didn't fight for the likes of Kaczynski, Lepper or Gertych."

Married to his wife Danuta, he has 8 children.

Opinions

In an interview with TVN 24 on March 1, 2013, Lech Walesa said that homosexuals in parliament should be seated separately from other deputies and even behind a wall. For these words, he was criticized by some deputies of the Seimas.

If someone had told me that I would become a leader who would succeed in defeating communism, I would never have believed it. … That's why I'm the happiest person in the galaxy.

Original text (English)

If somebody had told me that I would be the leader to bring down communism... I never would have believed them. That is why I am the happiest man in the whole galaxy

- "Lech Walesa:"My work here is done""

In connection with the Crimean crisis, in an interview with the newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Walesa said the following: "Putin should be tried in The Hague."

In art

In 2013, the film “Valensa. Man of Hope" by Polish director Andrzej Wajda, which tells about a political career and personal life Lech Walesa. The role of Walesa was played by Robert Vintskevich.

Awards and prizes

Polish

As the President of Poland is a Chevalier:

• Order of the White Eagle
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland

foreign countries

• 1983 - Nobel Peace Prize for work in support of workers' rights.
• 1989 - Order of Francisco Miranda 1st class
• 1991 - Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (UK)
• 1991 - Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor - (France)
• 1991 - Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic - (Italy)
• 1993 - Order of the Seraphim - (Sweden)
• 1993 - Order of the Elephant - (Denmark)
• 1993 - Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose - (Finland)
• 1994 - Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (Hungary)
• 1994 - Grand Chain of the Order of the Infante don Enrique - (Portugal)
• 1995 - Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olaf - (Norway)
• 1999 - Medal Wolności National Endowment for Democracy - (Washington, USA)
• 1999 - Międzynarodowa Nagroda Wolności - (Memphis, USA)
• 1999 - Order of the White Lion - (Czech Republic)
• 2001 - Grand Cross with Gold Star of the Order of Christopher Columbus - (Dominican Republic)
• 2005 - Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise II class. (Ukraine, 31 August 2005)
• 2006 - Grand Cross of the Order of the Cross of the Land of Mary - (Estonia)
• 2011 - Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great (Lithuania, June 10, 2011)
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion - (Netherlands)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold I - (Belgium)
• Order of Pius IX - (Vatican)
• Special degree of the Order of Merit for the Federal Republic of Germany
• Order of Merit - (Chile)
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross - (Brazil)
• Independence Medal (Turkey)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Santiago and the Sword - (Portugal)
• UNESCO Medal - (UN)
• Medal of the Republic of Uruguay
• Knight Grand Cordon of the Hashemite and Royal Order of the Pearl (Sultanate of Sulu, Philippines)

Memory

Gdansk Airport named after L. Walesa

see also

Notes

1. The author of the coat of arms A. Kheimovsky
2. News. En: Ex-President of Poland Lech Walesa decided to fence himself off from gays with a wall
3. Lenta.ru: World: Society: Walesa decided to sue for homophobia
4. Lech Walesa: Putin should be tried in The Hague
5. 1 2 3 4 5 Odznaczenia Lecha Walęsy
6. Cidadãos Estrangeiros Agraciados com Ordens Portuguesas. presidencia.pt. Retrieved June 7, 2011. Archived from the original on February 9, 2012. (port.)
7. Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 1218/2005 dated 31 September 2005 “On awarding L. Valensi with the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise” (Ukrainian)
8. Vabariigi President (Est.)
9. Decree of the President of Lithuania No. 1K-734 of June 10, 2011 (Information on the official website of the President of Lithuania) (lit.)

The proletariat, as you know, had to act as the hegemon of the socialist revolution. In reality, however, it was mainly the intellectuals and the petty bourgeois who overthrew the power of the big bourgeoisie. One of the paradoxes of the 20th century is that the transition from socialism to capitalism was led by the worker. After Lech Walesa managed to shake the communist regime in Poland, the revolutionary wave swept the entire Eastern European region. Thus, the last nail was driven into the coffin of the social experiment launched at the very beginning of the century by Vladimir Lenin.

The role of beer in the transition from socialism to capitalism

Walesa was born in September 1943 in a remote Polish village. He was the fourth child in a large peasant family. Lech never recognized his father, he died in a German concentration camp. The mother had to pull the babies out.

As befits a Polish family, she was very religious. Every Sunday, the mother and children went four kilometers to the church, where Mass was served. It is not known whether Lech was imbued with religious consciousness in his youth. Many of his actions of mature years were clearly not distinguished by Christian humility, but demonstrative Catholicism nevertheless always occupied an important place in Walesa's life.

Youth clearly did not portend a great future. Walesa did not read the works of the liberal ideologist Hayek at night, did not throw bombs at party secretaries, and did not go through prison universities. He received his first experience of political activity only at the age of 27. Prior to this, Lekh was distinguished only by his bad behavior and very moderate abilities in a school that trained machine operators for the village.

After graduating from college, Walesa worked as an electrician in an office like our MTS, then served in the army, and then returned to the village again, where he continued to work in the field of electricity. He did not receive a higher education, and did not try to get it. When, at the age of 40, Walesa was awarded the Nobel Prize, the laureate remained by his qualifications a simple electrician.

The turn of the 50s-60s, when the formation of Walesa's personality took place, was a difficult period for Poland. The era of frank Stalinism is already a thing of the past. Party leader Władysław Gomulka either experimented with workers' self-management or relied on strengthening nationalism. He released priests from prisons, but at the same time he came into sharp conflict with the primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Vyshinsky. There was some competition in the elections to the Sejm, but in terms of economic reforms, Warsaw clearly lagged behind Prague, Belgrade and Budapest. In a word, something new was gradually breaking through the thickness of the totalitarian system, but the change of eras was not even visible yet.

There was no external force in the country that could pull an ordinary rural electrician into politics. Even forced industrialization, which sharply expanded the number of the Polish proletariat at the expense of the peasantry, occurred only in the 70s. during the reign of Edward Terek.

Therefore, the decision of Walesa to move in 1966 from the village to the city was of great importance for his future political career. Subsequently, despite his still relatively young age, he was among the veterans of the labor movement and the holders of indisputable authority, which was worshiped by those who did not go through the Gdansk battles of 1970.

at the famous shipyard. Lenin, which later became the center of class struggles, Walesa turned out to be by accident. He was on his way to Gdynia, where he was going to get a job. The train passed through Gdansk, it was hot, thirsty, and Wa-lensa jumped out of the car in order to find himself a beer.

With beer under socialism, as you know, there were difficulties. While the young electrician tried to quench his thirst, the train left. Walesa decided that Gdansk, since it happened, was no worse than Gdynia. Good job was not immediately found, but in May 1967 he finally settled in the shipyards.

Two years later, Walesa married a young flower girl, Miroslava, whom for some reason he preferred to call Da Nuta. Then in this exemplary Catholic family there were children. And they went so well that in total there were eight of them. When they all went to bed at night on the floor in Walesa's tiny Gdansk apartment, it was already impossible to open the door to the room.

Outwardly, it was a normal socialist life with Catholic specifics. Naturally, a large family did not get out of poverty, which became especially difficult after Walesa joined the political struggle.

Through the Rubicon

On December 12, 1970, just two weeks before Catholic Christmas, the communist authorities managed to drastically raise food prices. In another country, this would probably be tolerated, but Poland, as you know, is strong in its strife. Another discord was not long in coming.

Already on December 14, a strike began in Gdansk. The people gathered for a rally in front of the walls of the regional committee of the party. All over the city there were clashes between the workers and the police. The people, shocked by the victims, responded to the repression by the authorities with arson. Then the rebellion spread to Gdynia, where on "Bloody Thursday" on December 17, it took on especially cruel forms.

Walesa joined the strike committee from the very beginning. The legend tells that when the people rushed to free the prisoners, a young electrician, climbing onto a telephone booth, urged people to calm down. God knows whether this booth in Walesa's life played the role that the tank at the White House played in Yeltsin's life, but the events of 1970 undoubtedly became a milestone in his life. Having remained to work in the post-strike committee and received the position of inspector for monitoring working conditions, the electrician began to do political career.

The era of the Terek was for Poland a time of hope and disappointment at the same time. The new party leader, who came on the wave of a popular revolt, promised to make Poland the Japan of Eastern Europe. Many believed him, and Walesa was among them. However, with the departure of Gomulka, the old communist ideology finally disintegrated, in its place Gierek did not bring anything but the desire to increase material well-being.

With the welfare of the case, however, did not go well. This caused apathy and a desire to move from the failed “Eastern European Japan”, if not to real Japan, then at least to the USA. In 1972, Walesa's mother went there. The son refused to accompany her in the hope of a better future at home. Three years later, Mrs. Walesa, who did not really take root across the ocean, died after falling under a car. And in Poland, at that time, events of great importance were brewing.

The turning point was not 1970 or 1980, but, as Walesa himself noted in his autobiography, 1976. Political organizations began to appear in the country, absolutely independent of the communists. Walesa singled out the Movement for the Protection of Human Rights, generated by the famous Helsinki Accords. But perhaps even more important was the Committee for the Protection of Workers created by Adam Michnik and Jacek Kuron.

If during the events of 1970 the Polish intelligentsia was silent, then after the next wave of strikes that swept in the summer of 1976, Kuron, a former romantic communist who gradually switched to dissident positions, declared that she no longer had the moral right to remain in side.

Was it just an emotional gesture from an honest man or a smart political move? Perhaps both. But be that as it may, since 1976 a bloc began to form in Poland, the equal of which in strength has not appeared in any of the Eastern European countries. The best representatives of the Warsaw elite began to join the workers of Gdansk, who were increasingly aware of the need for fundamental changes, as well as the Cracow Catholic intelligentsia, behind which the powerful figure of the Polish church was visible.

If in the USSR the dissident movement had only moral, but not political significance, then in Poland the intelligentsia found in the working class movement a lever, by pressing on which it soon managed to turn the country around. But before the coup still had to live. And so far, the difficulties have only grown.

In February 1976 Walesa lost his job. In addition, he was repeatedly arrested, including on the night when Danuta's sixth child, daughter Anna, was born. Nevertheless, political activity continued to grow. In 1978, when work began on the creation of free trade unions in Gdansk, Walesa was only one of the members of the initiative group, led by engineer Andrzej Gwiazda. By 1980, when political events again became extremely aggravated, the electrician himself had already taken a leading position.

great electrician

It all started again with an increase in food prices. In July-August, Poland, which never became Japan, was engulfed in strikes. Leading representatives of the government went to settle relations with the workers. In Gdansk, Walesa negotiated with Deputy Prime Minister Mieczysław Jagielski.

The 37-year-old electrician took control of the working-class movement, preventing the rampage of the elements, and at the same time placing himself extremely rigidly in relation to Yagelsky. It turned out that nature endowed Walesa with the abilities of an organizer and the talent of a negotiator to a greater extent than many intellectuals.

In addition to the purely unionist demands for higher wages, improved food supplies, and reduced waiting lists for apartments, there were political demands. On August 22, influential representatives of intellectual circles came to Walesa - the editor of the Catholic magazine Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Professor Bronisław Geremek. Contact improved, and among the demands of the strike committee there appeared a clause on the release of Kuron and Michnik from arrest.

The authorities went to meet the workers halfway and thereby signed their own death warrant. On the part of the Gdansk strikers, the "verdict" was signed by Walesa, who for this purpose took out a huge souvenir pen - a gift from John Paul II. Now the electrician has become known throughout Poland.

Over the next year, Walesa not only strengthened his fame, but officially headed the independent Solidarity trade union and, in fact, became the informal leader of the country, a person whose opinion you had to reckon with both in the party and government, and in the workers, and in intellectual circles. At the writers' congress, one enthusiastic "ruler of thoughts" even exclaimed: "We had Poniatowski, then Pilsudski, now we have Walesa." The family of the “heir of Poniatowski and Pilsudski” finally moved into a six-room apartment and got out of their habitual poverty.

Today it seems to us that Poland, led by Solidarity, was moving rapidly towards democracy and the market, until this movement was artificially interrupted by the military coup of December 1981. But in reality the situation was much more complicated.

Independent trade union of the early 80s. was a purely populist structure, intended for bargaining with the authorities, but not for creation. No shock therapy was included in his plans. The interaction of weak communist authorities with a strong labor movement led to economic paralysis, but not to reforms.

In addition, in an atmosphere of anarchy, as many believed, the danger of an invasion by Soviet troops along the lines of Czechoslovakia-68 increased. And yet, the Poles, prone to subtle irony, found an opportunity to joke. One tour company sold vouchers to Moscow under the slogan: "Visit the USSR before the USSR visits you!"

In this situation, General Wojciech Jaruzelski moved along the simplest and most understandable path for him - the concentration of all power in the hands of the army. In November 1981, a final attempt was made to reach some kind of compromise. Negotiations went on high level: Party leader General Jaruzelski - Primate of Poland Cardinal Glemp - Head of Solidarity Walesa. It was a real triumph for the Great Electrician, who found himself in such an elite company. However, the negotiations did not yield any results.

At this moment, at the height of his fame, Walesa for the first time was subjected to the most severe criticism from yesterday's associates. Gvyazda called him a vain blockhead, who has nothing but a magnificent mustache. Probably, this attack was largely determined by the fact that Gvyazda lost

Walesa struggle for leadership in the labor movement. But at the same time, one cannot help but admit that a month after the negotiations, Walesa was indeed left with only a mustache. Martial law was introduced in the country, and the opposition, which did not know the restraint in its demands, settled in prisons and camps.

peasant king

Here is one of the anecdotes of that time. Walesa is asked by the competent authorities:

Where do you want to be sent: to the West or to the East?

“Of course, to the West,” he replies.

“Excellent,” the officer says to the secretary, “write Western Siberia.”

In fact, the leader of Solidarity was interned at home - in a hunting lodge near the Soviet border. In November 1982 he was already released. Meanwhile, the popularity of Walesa was growing. The following year, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, although with all his activities he carried "not peace, but a sword." In 1986, his biography was published in London, which the enthusiastic Englishwoman called "Crystal Spirit". No less characteristic was the name of the film, shot by the great Andrzej Wajda - "Man of Iron".

Now Walesa did not control the state of affairs, but nevertheless, the process he had launched could no longer be stopped. Time began to work for him.

The half-hearted reforms begun by Jaruzelski did not produce results, and therefore the authoritative Polish army failed to raise the popularity of the communist regime as a whole. By 1988, it became clear that in order to get out of the crisis, the authorities needed to rely on forces that had really popular support. So Solidarity and personally Walesa again came to the fore.

From February to April 1989, meetings of the "round table" were held, at which the authorities and the opposition determined the layout of the future political structure Poland. Then there were partially free parliamentary elections, which brought phenomenal success to Solidarity. The Communists tried to keep power in their hands by sharing it with Solidarity, but General Czesław Kiszczak never managed to form a government.

At that moment, Walesa, showing a brilliant political instinct, seized the initiative, split the bloc of communists with the peasants and proposed his own candidates for the post of prime minister - Mazowiecki, Kuron, Geremek. Jaruzelski, who managed to temporarily retain the post of president, had no choice but to choose from the proposed candidates. Mazowiecki became the head of the government, but the godfather of the new government, no doubt, was Walesa. It was this power that happened to create a new Poland and carry out radical economic reforms.

Naturally, Walesa believed that he would control the government to one degree or another. But they thought differently. The intellectuals did not need the poorly educated and eccentric Walesa, who had real political power. Before Poland had even taken the first steps towards stabilization, a conflict broke out between yesterday's comrades-in-arms.

It is difficult to single out the extreme in this whole story. On the one hand, Walesa publicly and rudely accused Mazowiecki of monopolizing power, and from a populist position attacked Balcerowicz's economic reforms. On the other hand, it is impossible not to admit that the government in that situation could generally work quietly only under the guise of the authority of Solidarity.

Be that as it may, the clash was won by Walesa, who was a people's leader, in contrast to Mazowiecki, who had authority only in intellectual circles. At the end of 1990, the leader of Solidarity became the president of the country and replaced the prime minister. But the ascent to the pinnacle of power was at the same time the beginning of the fall.

The morals of the new government appeared already during the inauguration, when Walesa received regalia from the hands of the exiled President Kacharovsky. Jaruzelski was not even invited to the ceremony. Subsequently, Walesa experienced the cruelty of the twists of fate in his own skin, but in 1990 it was still far from that.

The new president was characterized by an authoritarian style of government. This style was successfully used by Pilsudski in his time, and therefore the electrician from Gdansk sought to be associated with the legendary politician of the 20-30s. However, Walesa did not resemble Piłsudski either in his origin or in his demeanor. Rather, he personified the political type of a kind of “peasant king”, who, out of his kindness, gives the people a good government.

In a Catholic country, the “peasant king” must be a deeply religious person, so Walesa demonstrated his Catholicism to the people in every possible way. His personal confessor, Father Tsybul, almost always accompanied the president.

However, demonstrative Catholicism was not fully successful for Walesa. It is hardly possible to say that his family was distinguished by a truly Christian way of life. After Walesa moved to Warsaw, his wife remained in Gdansk, where her husband, leading a bachelor life all week, visited her on weekends. As for the sons, they were involved in the story of a drunken car accident, from which Walesa pulled them out, using his personal influence in order to keep them prestigious and highly paid places in the state apparatus.

In addition to the confessor, there were two other people in Walesa's inner circle. One of them, Mieczysław Wakhovsky, his former driver, later became a minister. It was this man who conducted all the personal affairs of Walesa. He determined his daily routine and collected a special "black box office" needed to solve different kind private problems of the head of state, primarily to expand the sphere of his influence. Another, bodybuilder Andrzej Kozakiewicz, was in charge of contacts with private business. In a word, Walesa's circle of personal contacts, just like Yeltsin's, was completely determined by his origin and cultural level.

Short circuit

Political scandals have become an additional touch to this gloomy picture.

The first was related to the witch hunt launched in 1992 by the government of Jan Olszewski. It suddenly turned out that in one of the lists of agents of the communist state security, under the nickname "Bolek", the Great Electrician himself appears. Olshevsky put the brakes on the scandal, noting that the state security in this way deliberately discredited its political opponents. True, despite this reservation, the overly inquisitive Olshevsky did not stay too long in the premieres.

The second scandal arose immediately after the first. In the conditions of the complete fragmentation of the heirs of Solidarity, Walesa, who thought quite realistically and cared about the consolidation of the country, proposed to form a new government to the leader of the peasant party, Waldemar Pawlak, one of the prominent representatives of the left forces. In this way, the president clearly put himself at risk, and ill-wishers immediately took advantage of his difficult position.

Previously, he was considered the father of post-communist Poland. These laurels were not so easy to take away from him. But now Walesa himself decided to give power to the left government, i.e. in fact the same people against whom he made his political career. The President began to be accused that he only craves power, and therefore commits absolutely unprincipled actions. The myth with which Walesa came to power finally collapsed around the beginning of 1994.

Since that time, both the left and the right have completely ceased to reckon with the president. The first by leaps and bounds went to power, the second could not contain their anger because the president did not keep this power in their hands. Nobody needs yesterday's idol. He had only to wait for new presidential elections and lose them. It happened in 1995.

True, at that moment many of those who feared the return of the Communists still voted for him. They voted out of desperation. But after Alexander Kwasniewski showed himself to be a sober-minded person, almost everyone turned away from Walesa.

The last time he publicly flashed in public during the Olympics in Salt Lake City, when he was entrusted with hoisting the flag of the winter games. The West remembered him, but this was only weak consolation.

Walesa came from nowhere and again vanished into obscurity as soon as he did his job. But that bright moment of national unity remained behind, which in the life of every country happens, probably, no more than once a century. Behind was a moment that, despite its romantic loftiness, set a sober and rational direction for the development of all of Eastern Europe.

Each country in the region had its own leaders who paved the way for reforms—reformed apparatchiks, enthusiastic artists, pragmatic economists. But the first among them will forever remain Lech Walesa - a hard worker from the Gdansk shipyard, the only electrician in the world who was called the Great.

Dmitry Travin, Otar Margania

From the book "Modernization: from Elizabeth Tudor to Yegor Gaidar"

Lech Walesa (September 29, 1943, Popovo, Tlukhovo) - Polish politician, activist and defender of human rights, the first head of the Solidarity trade union. Electrician by profession.

The son of a carpenter, born on September 29, 1943 on the territory of the Pomeranian Voivodeship annexed by Nazi Germany, Walesa worked as an electrician at the Gdansk shipyard. In 1980, he created the first free trade union in Eastern Europe, not controlled by the state - Solidarity.

Wałęsa's sacking for union activism, along with food shortages and rising prices, led to strikes in 1980 and 1981 that generated widespread support for Solidarity in various sectors of society and forced the government to make a number of concessions, including granting workers the right to organize freely. to trade unions.

On the night of December 13, 1981, the regime of General Wojciech Jaruzelski introduced martial law and outlawed Solidarity. In the very first days of martial law, more than 3,000 leading activists - including Walesa - were detained and sent to internment centers. Along with most of the internees, Walesa was released on November 14, 1982.

On September 30, 1986, under the chairmanship of Walesa, the Provisional Council of Solidarity was established. The reconstruction of regional trade union centers has begun. The authorities did not formally sanction the legalization of Solidarity, but in general they did not create insurmountable obstacles. On October 25, 1987, a group of activists formed the National Executive Committee of Solidarity. It was led by Walesa. This structure consolidated that part of the opposition that was ready for negotiations with the authorities. At the same time, many activists stood for the positions of Fighting Solidarity and advocated an uncompromising struggle against the regime.

As a result of the mass strike movement in the spring and summer of 1988, the leadership of Poland was forced to take a course towards a compromise with Solidarity. On August 25, 1988, Minister of the Interior Czeslaw Kiszczak met with Walesa in the presence of the representative of the Polish episcopate, Abbot Aloysius Orshulik. Walesa played a major role in negotiations with the government in 1988 (conversations in Magdalenka) and 1989 (Round Table). Their result was the legalization of Solidarity and the holding of semi-free parliamentary elections in June 1989, in which Solidarity won 99 out of 100 seats in the Senate.

The elections were perceived by society as a crushing defeat for the regime. On August 7, Walesa announced the readiness of Solidarity to take over the leadership of the government. Walesa's negotiations with the leadership of the United Peasant and Democratic Parties (long-term satellites of the communist regime) led in the current situation to their support for Solidarity. On September 7, the first non-communist government of Poland came to power, headed by the representative of Solidarity, adviser to Walesa, Tadeusz Mazowiecki.

In the 1990 presidential election, Walesa, after an impressive victory, was elected President of Poland in the second round, gaining 74.25% of the vote. He faced the difficult problems of political instability and Poland's transition to a free market economy.

In 1995, Walesa lost the election to Aleksander Kwasniewski. In the first round, he took second place with 33.1%, in the second round he scored 48.3%.

In the 2000 presidential election, Walesa won 1.4%.

On September 29, 2006, Lech Walesa announced his intention to return to politics and create a new party. He stated: “People who once fought for the independence of Poland cannot accept what is happening now. We didn't fight for the likes of Kaczynski, Lepper or Gertych."

Married to his wife Danuta, he has 8 children.

Lech Walesa received the Nobel Peace Prize even before he became president of Poland; at that time he was, in fact, a dissident and oppositionist. How did the opponent of the existing regime, who had a number of prison terms on his account, managed to become the president of the country and what did he do when he came to power?

Lech Walesa - Polish political, civil and trade union activist; outstanding leader and politician. Nobel Peace Prize winner, President of Poland from 1990 to 1995.

Born Lech Walesa in Popowo, Poland (Popowo, Poland); his father, the carpenter Bolesław, was arrested by the Nazis and exiled to a concentration camp before Lech himself was born. After the war, Boleslav returned home, but he did not live at liberty even for three months, dying at the age of 34 from exhaustion and illness. The boy was raised by his mother, Felix.

In 1961, Lech graduated from high school and college, becoming an electrician. For some time (from 1961 to 1965) he worked as an auto mechanic; later he had to go to the army for 2 years. Having risen to the rank of corporal,

Walesa was demobilized; in civilian life, he got a job at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk (Gdańsk).

On December 8, 1969, Lech Walesa married Danuta Gołoś; they later had 8 children.

Walesa was always interested in workers' organizations; in 1968, he even persuaded shipyard comrades to boycott official rallies over student strikes. Proven to be highly successful and charismatic leader, Lech himself began to organize strikes; these strikes ended, among other things, with the death of 30 workers. This outcome only convinced Walesa more strongly of the need to radically change the existing way of life. In June 1976, active trade union (and mostly underground) activity cost Valya

none of the work; several times he found new applications for his talents as an electrician, but almost always his rebellious-activist inclinations quickly led to another dismissal. Walesa was out of work for a long time and was closely monitored by the police; according to rumors, his housing was literally studded with bugs. The dissident activist was arrested several times.

One of Walesa's most famous creations was Solidarity, a large-scale national-level trade union. This trade union grew very, very quickly; the authorities understood that it was impossible to ignore such a force and decided to deliver a "preventive" blow to it. Walesa, along with other Solidarity leaders and activists, was arrested. In 1983, Lech returned to his familiar

shipyard by a simple electrician; in the same year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Walesa himself could not accept it - he was afraid that they would not let him into the country later; went for his wife's prize.

Walesa did not want to forget about "Solidarity"; The organization grew and grew. Ultimately, the authorities decided to sit down at the negotiating table; the right to life was recognized for the trade union, and it was decided to hold elections to the Polish parliament in a new, semi-free format. Walesa has new opportunities to influence the country's politics; he continued to rapidly gain prestige.

December 9, 1990 Lech Walesa won the presidential election; in 1993 he created a new political party. Under Walesa, the country went through privatization and

one to a market economy; under Valens, the first completely free parliamentary elections and international politics changed radically (thus, all Soviet troops, and the external debt of countries was strongly skewed). Lech achieved the admission of the country to NATO and the European Union. Of course, he also had opponents; however, even in "Solidarity" there were enough conflicts. Little by little, Walesa's popularity began to wane, and he lost the 1995 elections, although not by a huge margin.

Since stepping down as president, Walesa has lectured on history and politics, run his own political think tank, and participated in other ways political life countries. Lekh left Solidarity in 2006 due to internal disagreements.