Lech Walesa - Poland's Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa Lech Walesa Poland's Solidarity Leader Who Fought for Workers' Rights Polish politician Lech Walesa during his presidential election campaign, 15th October 1990. (Photo by Georges De Keerle/Getty Images) By Patricia Daniels, Contributing Writer Updated August 19, 2015. Who Was Lech Walesa? Lech Walesa, a Polish labor leader and social activist, became the first democratically elected president of Poland, serving from 1990 to 1995. Prior to his presidency, Walesa, an electrician at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk, helped to form Solidarity, Poland's first independent trade union. Under the leadership of the charismatic Walesa, Solidarity successfully used civil resistance and strike tactics to secure rights for workers living under the communist Soviet regime. Lech Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and the U.S. Medal of Freedom in 1989.

Dates: September 29, 1943 -- Famous Quote: "He who puts out his hand to stop the wheel of history will have his fingers crushed." Born in Occupied Poland Lech Walesa was born in the small farming village of Popowo in north-central Poland on September 29, 1943 during the German occupation of Poland in the Second World War . He was the fourth child born to carpenter Boleslaw Walesa and his wife Felicja. continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge Boleslaw Walesa had been taken into custody by the Nazis prior to his son's birth. He was placed in a concentration camp and later relocated to a labor camp at Mlyniec in western Poland. The hard labor, freezing temperatures, and frequent beatings would eventually take their toll upon Lech's father. Returning to Popowo in 1945 after the war, Boleslaw was unable to regain his strength. He died at the age of 33, only two months after coming home. Lech was not yet two years old when his father died. Felicja later married Boleslaw's brother, Stanislaw, and they had three sons together.

The family moved to Kujawy, a village in central Poland. Learning a Trade and Serving in the Military The family of nine lived in a small cottage in the countryside. Lech began his education at the small local schoolhouse when he was seven years old. Enrolled in a boarding trade school at the age of 15, he studied agricultural mechanics. Walesa, who enjoyed working with his hands, learned to repair and operate farm equipment. Walesa was known more for his unruly behavior at school than for his academic success. He earned less than mediocre grades and got himself in trouble more than once for smoking in his dormitory room. Yet he was also known for his ability to defuse difficult situations with a humorous comment. In 1961, at the age of 18, Walesa graduated from trade school and found a job as a garage mechanic in Lochocin in north-central Poland. Two years later, Walesa joined an artillery unit in Koszalin as fulfillment of his mandatory two-year military service. As his leadership qualities became apparent, he was soon promoted to corporal and placed in charge of a squad of men.

Walesa was popular with his soldiers, using humor rather than strict discipline to gain their loyalty. During his military service, Walesa grew his trademark bushy mustache. Although he was recommended for officer's training school, Walesa declined and returned to his old job in Lochocin after completing his military service in 1965. Move to Gdansk and Marriage Before long, Walesa grew restless with his job at the garage. Anxious for new opportunities, 24-year-old Lech Walesa set out by train for the northern coastal city of Gdynia in 1967. During a stop in Gdansk , Walesa went to have a beer; when he returned to the platform, his train had already left. He decided that he might as well start his new life in Gdansk. Walesa quickly found a job as an electrician at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk. Good-natured and energetic, he was well-liked by his co-workers. In November 1969, 26-year-old Walesa married 20-year-old Miroslawa Danuta Golos, a woman he had met at a flower shop in Gdansk.

They moved into a small apartment, and became parents the following year when their son Bogdan was born. The Walesas eventually welcomed three more sons and four daughters into their family. Poland's Struggle for Sovereignty The Poland that the Walesa children were born into was under the control of the Soviet Union . Poland had already endured centuries of interference by neighboring countries (Russia to the east, Germany to the west, and Austria-Hungary to the south), resulting in an all-too-frequent shifting of Polish borders. At various times in Poland's history, its people had been forbidden to speak their own language or to own property; some Poles had even been imprisoned or exiled for failing to cooperate. Following World War I , Poland had been granted independence under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, finally achieving the status of an independent nation. After rebuilding from the damages of war, the country enjoyed a relatively peaceful time. It would not last long. In early September 1939, Poland was invaded by the Nazis . During the German occupation, millions of Poles (both Jews and Catholics) died in the many concentration camps built throughout Poland by the Nazis.

After the war, Poland again lost its independence when the nation fell under Soviet control in accordance with provisions of the 1945 Yalta Conference . Over decades, growing dissatisfaction of the Poles living under communist rule set the stage for the turmoil and rebellion that were to come. Rebellion in Gdansk On December 12, 1970, the Soviet-run Polish government announced that prices would be sharply increased on food and other consumer goods, sparking outrage among Polish citizens. More than 1,000 shipyard workers in Gdansk gathered to protest the price hikes outside the shipyard offices on Monday, December 14, 1970. Five representatives of the workers entered the building, carrying a written protest of the price increases. The men were arrested and taken into police custody. In protest, frustrated workers marched in the streets, looting shops and clashing with police officers. Even greater numbers of shipyard workers—joined by longshoremen—assembled the next morning. Among the nearly 10,000 protestors was 27-year-old Lech Walesa, one of the strike leaders. Chaos ensued as the protestors marched to the police station to demand the release of their five comrades.

Walesa appealed to the crowd several times, asking them to peacefully disperse, and begged the police commander to avoid using guns. After heated discussions between Walesa and protestors, the large crowd turned away, only to regroup at the district Party headquarters nearby. The protest quickly turned into a riot, as participants lobbed Molotov cocktails at the building, setting it afire. As the fire spread, so, too, did the rioting. By day's end, six people had been killed and hundreds injured. Soldiers and armored vehicles were ordered into Gdansk to protect government buildings. Inside the shipyard, tempers flared. As large groups of protesters exited through the gates, soldiers, unprovoked, fired upon them, killing four men. Horrified, strikers lifted their comrades' bodies and marched through the streets with them. Outrage spread throughout the city as news of the killings became known. That evening, government officials declared martial law and warned the strikers that they would storm the shipyards with the full force of soldiers and tanks. Faced with the threat of further bloodshed, the strikers gave up. In neighboring Gdynia, however, protests raged on and dozens more were killed.

Walesa's Involvement Deepens Walesa agonized over the deaths of the workers, feeling partially responsible as one of the leaders of the strike. He, along with other strike leaders, came under the scrutiny of the secret police, who followed him and often called him in for interrogation. Walesa was invited to become an informant for the police, but angrily refused. Most of the leaders of the 1970 strike were eventually fired, but Walesa was defended by the trade union and allowed to keep his job. He was ordered by the management to keep quiet if he wanted to stay employed. But Walesa's open criticism of the communist leadership soon led to his firing and banishment from the shipyards. After months of looking for a job, he was finally hired as a mechanic for a construction equipment supplier. Walesa became active in the underground Free Trade Unions movement, which had been organized in April 1978 in Gdansk. He also became involved in an underground dissident publication, Robotnik Wybrzeza (Coastal Worker). Walesa was fired from his job again in late 1978 for having lashed out at government economic policies.

Walesa and his family struggled to stay afloat financially. They were forced to sell the family car. After five difficult months, Walesa found a job at an electrical firm. Paying the Price As a prominent figure in the protest movement, Walesa was chosen to speak at a memorial rally on December 16, 1979 at the Gdansk Shipyard gates in honor of those who had lost their lives in the 1970 uprising. Walesa gave a stirring and inspiring speech, but he paid a high price for doing so. Only days later, he learned that he had been dismissed from yet another job because he had taken part in the rally. Virtually blacklisted by employers, he was forced to go from one temporary job to the next. The secret police continued to pursue Walesa, harassing him at every opportunity. He gave them ample opportunities, as he frequently distributed and posted anti-government leaflets out in the open. Walesa was taken in by the police and arrested on a number of occasions; each time he was kept for the standard detention period of 48 hours. In August 1980, events would conspire to place Walesa at the forefront of the protest movement.

Lech Walesa's name was about to become a household word. 1980 Strikes Dissatisfaction and unrest intensified across Poland as the government announced another hike in food prices on July 2, 1980. Strikes erupted in several cities, as workers refused to do their jobs unless they were given higher wages to offset steep food prices. Tensions escalated at the Lenin Shipyard between workers and management on Thursday, August 14, 1980, when the underground newspaper Robotnik reported that 51-year-old shipyard crane operator Anna Walentynowicz had been fired. Walentynowicz, a co-founder of the Free Trade Unions movement and later known as the "grandmother of Solidarity," had been fired while she was out due to illness—only five months prior to her planned retirement. Fellow workers were outraged that an employee of 30 years could be treated this way. Shipyard workers demanded the rehiring of Walentynowicz, as well as a raise in wages across the board. Armed with protest banners, nearly 2,000 workers marched to the offices of management.

The group of workers quickly grew to over 6,000—among them, Lech Walesa. The director came out and agreed that he would discuss their demands, but pleaded with them to get back to work for the time being. At just that moment, 36-year-old Lech Walesa, who had climbed over the shipyard wall, came up to the director and asked, "Do you remember me?" Walesa admitted that he no longer worked at the shipyard, but still felt as though he belonged there. He turned to the crowd and shouted "I declare a strike!" The crowd roared its approval. Negotiations soon began, but the workers could not convince the management to grant all of their demands, which included wage increases and a family bonus, as well as reinstating Lech Walesa and Anna Walentynowicz. The strikers stood firm. They were joined by bus and tram drivers. Shipyard workers in nearby Gdynia also went on strike. The Movement Gains Momentum Lech Walesa was elected chairman of the Gdansk shipyard strike committee and kept workers informed of details of the negotiations.

On Saturday, August 16, 1980, two days after the strike had begun, officials for the shipyard agreed to most of the strikers' demands. They would reinstate Walesa and Walentynowicz and provide a monthly wage increase. Yet the struggle was not over. Fellow strikers from the Gdynia shipyards, railway employees, and bus drivers could not stand up to authorities without the might of the massive Gdansk shipyard labor force. These smaller groups begged for the backing of Lenin Shipyard unions—and, at the urging of Walesa, they received it. The solidarity movement had begun with a "sympathy" strike. Lech Walesa was elected chairman of the newly-formed Independent Solidarity Union (Solidarnosc). The movement—whose membership would eventually reach ten million—gained momentum as delegations arrived from neighboring cities to join the protest. Solidarity also enjoyed the support of the Catholic Church. A local priest came to say mass for the workers at the shipyard and Polish-born Pope John Paul II also spoke out in support of his countrymen.

Gdansk Agreement Is Signed Led by Walesa, representatives from dozens of factories and facilities worked together to come up with a comprehensive list of demands. The large group, called the Inter-enterprise Strike Committee (ISC) was also chaired by Walesa. The final list contained 21 demands, including a raise in wages, improved working conditions, a guarantee that workers would have the right to organize and strike, and the building of a monument to workers killed in 1970. The strikers also demanded a rehiring of those fired during previous protests. After weeks of a generalized work stoppage, government officials found themselves with little bargaining power in the face of so massive a strike. On August 31, 1980, the government capitulated to the ISC. Walesa, who by then had become familiar to all Poles, spoke to his people on live television. He declared the strike over. The historic Gdansk Agreement was signed by Walesa and Deputy Prime Minister Mieczysław Jagielski. The first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc had been created. Over the next few months, the government procrastinated over putting in place some of the agreed-upon reforms.

New leaders had been installed in the Polish Communist Party who were not sympathetic to the workers' cause. Walesa again made use of the strike mechanism to counteract the government's failure to honor the agreement, but such protests were not tolerated. The government sent police in to break up any attempt to demonstrate or strike. In January 1981, Walesa, a devout Catholic , was allowed to journey to Rome to meet with Pope John Paul II, a native of Poland. The pope reiterated his support of the Polish protest movement. Martial Law and Imprisonment Communist Party leaders remained determined to stem the tide of pro-democratic reforms in Poland. In December 1981, Party leader and armed forces commander General Wojciech Jarulzelski imposed martial law upon Poland. The Solidarity Trade Union was disbanded and declared illegal, and its leaders jailed. Strikes and street protests were forbidden. Many of Solidarity's members, however, continued their protest work clandestinely. Lech Walesa was held in solitary confinement for eleven months. During his imprisonment, he refused to cooperate with authorities. Walesa was able to smuggle messages out to Solidarity members advising non-violent protest only.

He was released on November 11, 1982. Martial law was eventually lifted in July 1983, but many political prisoners remained imprisoned until 1986, and restrictions against free speech and free association also remained in place. Nobel Peace Prize Walesa returned to his job in the shipyard in April 1983. By now, he had become internationally known as the leader in Poland's quest for human rights. Lech Walesa was awarded the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Fearing that he would not be allowed to return to Poland, Walesa sent his wife Danuta to accept the award on his behalf . He dedicated the prize to the ten million members of the disbanded Solidarity Union, and donated the money to a church-run agricultural foundation. Despite Walesa's international reputation, Polish authorities continued their harassment of him. Nonetheless, he remained committed to the goal of achieving human rights for the Polish people. In the summer of 1988, civil unrest broke out again across Poland. Walesa and his cohorts demanded that the authorities reinstate Solidarity and begin negotiations to bring about political and economic reforms.

Fearing widespread rebellion and economic disaster, government authorities agreed to negotiations. President of Poland By June 1989, reformers had achieved a long-cherished goal—free elections in Poland. Several Solidarity Party candidates were elected to the Sjem (the lower house of the Polish Parliament) in 1989. In December 1990, Lech Walesa won the presidential election in the second round of voting, becoming the first popularly-elected president of Poland. As president, Walesa oversaw a difficult period of transition from communism to democracy. Many faulted him for not preparing the Polish economy for that transition, citing the high rate of unemployment during his term. Walesa did, however, achieve several important objectives. He continued to push for reforms and worked to assure Poland's acceptance into the European Union. Walesa also made it a priority to sever ties with Russia, securing a statement from Russian president Boris Yeltsin that Russia would not interfere with Poland's entry into the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) . But for many Poles, the improvements that they had long hoped for did not happen quickly enough.

When Walesa ran again in 1995, he was beaten by a former Communist, Aleksander Kwasniewski. Post Presidency After his presidency, Walesa became the vice president of the Lech Walesa Institute Foundation, an organization that promotes democracy and ethics in politics. He is the author of two autobiographies: A Way of Hope and The Struggle and the Triumph. Walesa was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom in 1989 for his role in bringing about peaceful reforms in Poland. Walesa has been awarded many honorary degrees from various universities, including Harvard University and the University of Paris, among dozens of others. He has travelled extensively to give speeches and lectures. Walesa and his wife Danuta continue to live in Gdansk. Walesa often weighs in during interviews with his opinion on world events and has become an outspoken critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Each year, Poland celebrates the day of Solidarity and Freedom on August 31, the anniversary of the signing of the Gdansk Agreement. Lech Walesa - Lech Walesa Poems - Poem Hunter Lech Walesa - Lech Walesa Poems - Poem Hunter Biography Do you like this poet?

Lech Wałęsa (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 1995. Wałęsa was an electrician by trade. Soon after beginning work at the Gdańsk... more » Click here to add this poet to your My Favorite Poets. Quotations ''The supply of words in the world market is plentiful but the demand is falling. Let deeds follow words now.'' Lech Walesa (b. 1943), Polish trade union leader, politician. Newsweek (New York, Nov. 27, 1989). ''You have riches and freedom here but I feel no sense of faith or direction. You have so many computers, why don't you use them in the search for love?'' Lech Walesa (b. 1943), Polish trade union leader, politician. quoted in Daily Telegraph (London, Dec. 14, 1988).

Said in Paris on his first visit ... Lech Walesa - Memidex dictionary/thesaurus Lech Walesa Polish labor leader and statesman (born: 1943) Class: Lech Wałęsa (Born: 29 September 1943, Popowo, Poland) a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity, the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990... (36 of 8269 words, pronunciation, 4 images ) Wałęsa, Lech | Lech Wałęsa | Walesa, Lech | Lech Walesa (Born: 1943) Polish labor and political leader. He worked as an electrician at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk but was dismissed in 1976 for his antigovernment ...

(24 of 217 words, pronunciation) Oxford Dictionary: Lech Wałęsa | Lech Walesa | Wałęsa, Lech | Walesa, Lech (born 1943) , Polish trade unionist and statesman, President 1990-1995. The founder of Solidarity (1980), he was imprisoned 1981-1982 after the ... (21 of 57 words, pronunciation) Walesa | Lech Walesa (Born: 1943) Polish labor leader who was president of Poland from 1990-1995. He won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership of the independent trade union ... (25 of 32 words, pronunciation) Wałęsa | Walesa | Lech Wałęsa | Walesa, Lech | Wałęsa, Lech | Lech Walesa (Born: 1943) Polish labor leader: a leader of Solidarity 1980; president since 1990; Nobel peace prize 1983.

(15 of 26 words, pronunciations) [Greek statesman and poet] (Born: about 630 BC – Died: about 560) Athenian statesman, known as one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. He ended exclusive aristocratic control of the government, substituted a system of ... | statesmanly [adjective, derived] a political leader whose wisdom, integrity, etc, win great respect | a person active and influential in the formulation of high government policy, ... (22 of 444 words, 3 definitions, 9 usage examples, pronunciation) | statesmanship [noun, related] one versed in the principles or art of government ; especially, one ... | a wise, skillful, and respected political leader (20 of 74 words, 2 definitions, pronunciations) statesman | statesmen [plural] A man who is a leader in national or international affairs. | A male political leader who promotes the public good or who is recognized for probity, leadership, or the qualities necessary to govern a state. | In the dialect of the English Lake District...

(43 of 55 words, 3 definitions, pronunciation) Lech Walesa | Learn Polish Lech Walesa (29 September 1943 - Briefly about Lech Wałęsa: Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. Wałęsa had been a compelling leader with a great influence on people, determined to improve a state Poland was in in the 1980`s and 1990`s. He initiated Solidarity (Solidarność), the Soviet bloc’s first independent trade union; he served as President of Poland 1990–95. Lech Wałęsa is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. How it all started for Lech Wałęsa: His occupation was an electrician, with no higher education. He used his skills in his first job at “Lenin” Shipyards (current name: Gdańsk Shipyards) where he became a trade-union activist. His involvement in Polish issues caused him a lot of trouble, including persecution by the Polish communist government, custody, dismissal (1976) etc.

Due to his proactivity in August 1980 the animosities between striking employees and the government reached its end. Lech Wałęsa became an initiator of the Solidarity trade-union movement but it was not the end of his concerns. Wałęsa was again arrested and Solidarność (Solidarity) had no right to exist under a new martial law but all that had not stopped him from introducing his idea of an independent Poland. Wałęsa`s doings helped launch Round Table and reach an agreement of almost free parliamentary elections (June 1989) after which Solidarity led the government. Lech Wałęsa had been keen to introduce even more changes in Poland and transform his country from a communist one to a post-communist, for that reason he ran for the office of President of Poland with a great success. Unfortunately for him his popularity had faded as the society had looked for something different after 5 years of his presidency. Wałęsa had been beaten in the presidential election in 1995 and his part in Polish politics has not been so significant any more, his influence on people and events has weakened.

Nevertheless he has still kept his international recognition, travelling to places in Poland and abroad (especially the USA) to take part in conferences as an active speaker on Central European history and politics at a number of universities and organizations.

Awards and honors received by Lech Wałęsa: • ”Man of the Year” by Time Magazine (1981), The Financial Times (1980) and The Observer (1980), • Nobel Peace Prize (1983), • the Liberty Medal (1989) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; he was the first person to receive it, • the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1989), • he has addressed a joint session of the United States Congress (1989) as the 3rd foreigner and non-head-of-state politic, • Wałęsa carried the Olympic flag at the opening ceremonies of the XIX Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City as a representative of Europe (2002), • Gdańsk International Airport was officially renamed Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (2004) to dignify a prominent Gdańsk citizen, • Wałęsa represented Poland at the funeral of Ronald Reagan (2004), • he represented the Polish government at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin, former President of the Russian Federation (2007), • he had an honor to speak at a conference of presidents of all European senates, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the first

 parliamentary elections in Poland – a former communist country (2009).

Poland and Germany should unite, says Lech Walesa - Telegraph Poland Poland and Germany should unite, says Lech Walesa Lech Walesa has called for Poland to unite with Germany to form one European state, despite the bloody history between the two countries. Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Polish president Lech Walesa Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES By Matthew Day, Warsaw 2:24PM BST 24 Sep 2013 The Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Polish president, whose Solidarity trade union played a key role in bringing an end to the Cold War, said the world had changed and needed new ways of organising itself. “We need to expand economic and defence co-operation and other structures to create one state from Poland and Germany in Europe,” he said. Speaking to Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency, Mr Walesa, 69, said national boundaries were not as relevant as they once were. “We have travelled so far in our technical advancements that we are no longer located in our own countries,” he said, adding that this required changes to geographical structures, the economy and democracy.

Although few Poles have forgotten Germany’s invasion and brutal occupation of Poland in 1939, history should not be an obstacle to unity, Mr Walesa said. “After the war, Germany fully confessed to all its dirty tricks,” he said. “It’s necessary to is draw a line under the past, even if people did something evil. Until we do, wounds won’t heal.” Related Articles Germany still divided, first census since reunification shows 31 May 2013 Mr Walesa’s calls for Polish-German unity exceed his previous support for closer European solidarity. At the forefront of his country’s campaign to wrest itself from the Soviet communist bloc, the former dockyard electrician later supported Poland’s membership of the EU in 2004. He has since advocated ever-closer ties between European states, even saying that he would one day, perhaps, be “president of a United States of Europe”. “At the moment different ways of doing things and different systems hold us back but gradually everything will align and states will become like Lego blocks,” he said in the Itar-Tass interview.

He suggested that current international systems were now defunct, saying the United Nations and Nato were the “ideas of an old era” and “badly organised”. The comments on German-Polish unification will further enhance the former Polish president’s reputation for making frank and sometimes unorthodox remarks. Long retired from active politics but still sporting his trademark moustache, Mr Walesa makes regular appearances on the news and never shies away from giving his opinion. But not all take his words seriously. “This is one of Lech Walesa’s exotic ideas,” said Jozef Oleksy, a former Polish prime minister. “He has the role of someone who stimulates ideas, sometimes annoying ideas, but I don’t attach much importance to this one. “You need a strategy of close co-operation between two countries because this is necessary and beneficial, but two states becoming one country is something else.” While Mr Walesa said Poland could bury the hatchet with Germany, the situation was different with Russia, the other great historical foe of the Poles. He urged Moscow to follow the German example and atone for its sins committed against Poland in order to lay the foundations of a good relationship. “We are too slow in solving our problems and reaching an understanding,” he said.

“We must aim to make our relations as smooth as possible, since we are fated to be neighbours.” Lech Walesa historical biography : Solidarity An outline historical biography The Solidarity trades union ï¿½ Lech Walesa (pronounced Vah-wen-sah) was born as the son of a carpenter in a clay hut located in the village of Popow, between Warsaw and Gdansk, Poland, on September 29, 1943. The Second World War was in operation with Nazi Germany being an occupying power. Lech Walesa's father, Boleslaw, was conscripted to dig ditches and died in 1946 from the exposure and beatings he suffered. His mother, Feliksa, seemed to have the most effect on Walesa. The parish priest remembers her as "the wisest woman in the parish." Walesa was only an average student at his parish school and after graduating from the state vocational school in Lipno, where he learned the electrician's trade, worked as a car mechanic at a machine center from 1961 to 1965.

He served in the army for two years, rose to the rank of corporal, and in 1967 was employed in the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk as an electrician. Poland has had a rather turbulent and unfortunate history in its position amongst powerful neighbours. Once an extensive country, but one which was apt to suffer serious domestic turbulences, by 1800 Poland had been partitioned out of existence with its former provinces being allocated to the Russian and Austrian empires and to Prussia. At several stages in Poland's history the Roman Catholic Church there has served as a focus through which efforts were made to preserve a Polish, and Catholic, nationality. Although Poland had been reconstituted as an independent state between 1921 and 1939 the aftermath of the Second World War saw a Poland with revised frontiers and under the ideological control of Soviet Russia. Most Poles regarded the Polish Communist Party in Warsaw as little more than an outpost of Soviet Imperialism.

In 1956 there were riots in protest at food shortages, in 1968 Polish intellectuals joined those of Czecheslovakia, another reluctant satellite in the Soviet orbit of control, in protesting the lack of intellectual freedoms. In 1970 there were serious turmoils all along the Baltic coast after the government raised food prices. Lech Walesa was prominent in a leadership role amongst the workers in Gdansk at this time. Gdansk, and the immense Lenin shipyards, featured as the focus of protest against the government in these turmoils. Lech Walesa championed reform but he also urged restraint in the methods used to achieve that reform. In one notably instance he persuaded a crowd of some 20,000 not to attack a nearby prison. It happened that the leader of the Polish Communist Party, Wladslaw Gomulka, authorised the police and army to use force causing tens, and perhaps hundreds, of fatalities - the actual figure has not been established. Lech Walesa was one of the many hundreds who were now arrested by the authorities and subjected to periods of detention.

Following on from the riots of 1970 Edward Gierek replaced Gomulka and promised to transform the standard of living of the Polish people through the deployment of foreign capital. In all, Gierek imported about $10 billion worth of modern capital goods. Then he wasted all of it in textbook cases of how not to run an economy. For example the Ursus tractor factory intended to produce tractors of western design proved to not have the required licencing to allow it to sell its output in the West. The tractors produced were too expensive to be sold in the East, besides this most Polish farm equipment did not fit the tractor. In efforts to inhibit domestic protest that might be caused by economic deprivations, Gierek allowed wages to rise 40% from 1970 to 1975, compared with an increase of only 17% over the previous decade. To give Poles enough meat, Gierek quadrupled imports of grain and fodder; the per capita consumption of meat jumped from 132 lbs. per year in 1970 to 154 lbs. in 1980.

The state's pricing system meanwhile, was primarily designed to hold down food costs to consumers, and was a very effective blueprint for fiscal disaster. The state was paying farmers 10 zlotys for a liter of milk that sold it stores for 4 zlotys. Live hogs were bought from farmers at 130 zlotys per kilogram and sold as butchered pork at 70 zlotys per kilogram. Farmers bought bread and fed it to their livestock because it was cheaper than the wheat it was made from. Price subsidies began absorbing a staggering one-third of the national budget. In Cracow, meanwhile, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla emerged as a strong advocate of human rights and promoted an independent intellectual life. In 1974 Communist Party ideologue Andrej Werbian called the Cardinal "the only real ideological threat in Poland." The astuteness of Werbian's judgment became dramatically apparent four years later when Wojtyla became John Paul II. The naming of the first Polish Pope caused an explosion of national pride in Poland. As had occurred so often in the past, a religious act had become a patriotic cause for the Poles.

Fearing a national outcry, Gierek was reluctant to ease the strain on the budget by raising prices. He was right. When he finally increased prices in 1976, there were major riots in Radom and at the Ursus tractor factory. The brutal repression of these riots led to the formation of the committee for Social self-Defense (KOR), a precursor of Solidarity. The organization was the first significant link between the dissident intellectuals like Jacek Kuron and the workers who later founded the Soldarity trades union. Inspired by KOR activists, small independent--and illegal--labor unions cautiously began to form in various parts of the country. Lech Walesa joined such a unit and was arrested and briefly jailed scores of times. In 1976, as a result of his activities as a shop steward, Walesa was fired and had to earn his living by taking temporary jobs. In 1978 with other activists he began to organise free non-communist trade unions and took part in many actions on the sea coast. He was kept under surveillance by the state security service and frequently detained. The spark that ignited the Solidarity revolution was a government decree that raised meat prices in July 1980.

As they had done many times before, Polish workers reacted with angry protests. But this time something was different. This time the workers occupied the factories. Still, the movement had no focus. In Gdansk's Lenin shipyard, protest seemed to be on the verge of dying out when a stocky man with a shock of reddish-brown hair and a handle-bar mustache clambered over the iron-bar fence and joined the strikers inside. They all knew Lech Walesa. He was an unemployed electrician, fired eight months earlier for trying to organize an independent trade union. With a double chin, a bit of a paunch, and of middle height, Lech Walesa, then 36, did not have an imposing physical presence. His working-class Polish was rough and often ungrammatical: his voice, perhaps from years of heavy smoking, was hoarse and rasping. His speeches were frequently riddled with mixed metaphors and skewed analogies. His real strength as a speaker was an ability to reduce complex issues to simple words and images that everyone could understand. Said one Solidarity official: "He knows his audience.

He can sense what they want, and almost always he is right." In August 1980 he led the Gdansk shipyard strike which gave rise to a wave of strikes over much of the country with Walesa seen as the leader. The primary demands were for workers' rights. The authorities were forced to capitulate and to negotiate with Walesa the Gdansk Agreement of August 31, 1980, which gave the workers the right to strike and to organise their own independent union. If any one event had helped to create the psychological climate in which Solidarity trades union emerged, it was the visit of Pope John Paul II to his homeland in June 1979. From the moment that the Pope knelt in Warsaw's airport to kiss the ground, he was cheered wildly by millions of Poles. John Paul never criticized the Communist regime directly, nor did he have to: his meaning was plain enough. "The exclusion of Christ from the history of man is an act against man," he told an enormous outdoor congregation in Warsaw. With that hardly veiled allusion to Communism, a deafening roar of approval filled the great city square.

Says a Polish bishop of that day: "The Polish people broke the barrier of fear. They were hurling a challenge at their Marxist rulers." During the August 1980 defiance of the communist authorities, the Lenin shipyard functioned as the emotional center of an extraordinary national movement. Festooned with flowers, white and red Polish flags and portraits of Pope John Paul II, the plant's iron gates came to symbolize that heady mixture of hope, faith and patriotism that sustained the workers through their vigil. In September 1981 Walesa was elected Solidarity Chairman at the First National Solidarity Congress in Gdansk. As the world watched and wondered if Soviet tanks would put an end to it all. Walesa and his fellow strikers stood their ground. Like soldiers before battle, they confessed to priests and received Communion in the open shipyard. To reduce the risk of violence, Walesa called for a ban on alcohol and insisted on strict discipline. Through it all, his plucky courage and infectious good humor helped keep up the workers' spirits. Firmness and patience paid off; the government team finally gave in on almost all of the workers' demands.

In addition to the right to strike and form unions, the Warsaw regime granted concessions extraordinary in a Communist country, including reduced censorship and access to the state broadcasting networks for the unions and the church. At a nationally televised ceremony, where strikers and government representatives stood side by side and sang the Polish national anthem. Walesa signed what became known as the Gdansk agreement with a giant souvenir pen bearing the likeness of John Paul II. The Catholic Church had supported the Solidarity movement, and in January 1981 Walesa was cordially received by Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. Walesa himself has always regarded his Catholicism as a source of strength and inspiration. Falling to his knees, Walesa kissed the papal ring and then briefly resisted the Pope's efforts to pull him to his feet. The union leader then had a rare private meeting with the Pope, which lasted for half an hour. Later, in his public remarks, John Paul II warmly supported Solidarity.

"I wish to assure you," he told Walesa, "that during your difficulties I have been with you in a special way, above all through prayer." He declared that the right to form free associations was "one of the fundamental human rights." But the Polish Pope also cautioned Walesa to follow a moderate course. As workers rushed to join up at hastily improvised union locals across the country, Walesa and the other ex-strike leaders quickly found themselves at the head of a labor federation that soon grew to 10 million members--fully a quarter of the Polish population. One of the key organizational problems for Walesa and Solidarity was the question of defining policy and strategy. In the beginning, Walesa insisted that Solidarity should be a pure and simple labor movement, not a political opposition. On the day he showed up at a Gdansk apartment building to open Solidarity's first makeshift headquarters, a wooden crucifix under his arm and a bouquet of flowers in his right hand. Walesa told a crowd of reporters, "I am not interested in politics, I am a union man.

My job now is to organize the union." Some 900,000 Poles quit the Communist party after August 1980, reducing its strength to a mere 2.5 million, only 7% of the population. The resignations increased in October when the Central Committee urged party members, about 1 million of whom belonged to Solidarity, to quit the union. In a strikingly candid statement, Central Committee Member Marian Arendt recently told a Polish weekly: "Mostly it is workers who are leaving (the party). Once I was so naive as to think that a few evil men were responsible for the errors of the party. Now I no longer have such illusions. There is something wrong in our whole apparatus, in our entire structure. "The party was on the verge of total collapse. What was more, Solidarity's surge had started another surprising movement in Poland: a grass-roots crusade for reform that sought to democratize the party from within. Adopting the workers' slogan of ODNOWA (renewal), party reformers tried to make the leadership more responsive to the rank and file.

Party Boss Stanislaw Kania, a pragmatic politician who had replaced Gierik in September 1980, shrewdly adopted the cause of renewal in the hope of controlling it from the top and limiting its scope. At the same time, he cooperated with Solidarity to avoid a possibly disastrous confrontation. A five-day work week was granted on Jan 31 1981 after decades of six-day work weeks in Poland. But that only aggravated the economic crisis by further reducing production--especially in the coal-mining industry, whose output fell by nearly 10% in 1981. In addition, the country was soon swept by a spate of wildcat strikes over local issues. In some cases, Solidarity chapters were taking on the Communist Party bureaucracy by demanding the ouster of corrupt local officials or the conversion of party buildings to public hospitals. For the first time, rank-and-file militants threatened to spin out of Walesa's control. "We must concentrate on basic issues. "Walesa pleaded as the protests spread. "There's a fire in the country." All the while, the Kremlin watched with rising anxiety. Solidarity's very existence was incompatible with the Communist Party's monopoly of power.

But perhaps even more important, the drive for democracy within the Polish party challenged the Leninist doctrine of centralized party discipline. Poland's festering economic crisis also put a drain on the whole Soviet bloc, whose member nations' economies were interlocked within the COMECON trade organization. And in Moscow's worst-case scenario, the "Polish disease" might infect other East bloc countries and the Ukraine, posing a threat to the future of the Soviet empire. On October 18 1981 the Communist Party's Central Committee accepted the resignation of the ineffectual Kania and elevated General Jaruzelski to the party leadership, the real source of power in the country. Jaruzelski was thus the head of the party, the government and the army. The very fact that the Soviets allowed the Poles to violate the Communist dogma that party civilians must always control the military was a sign of their dismay over the Polish party's disarray, and of their faith in the Soviet-schooled general. Jaruzelski appealed for national unity. He asked Solidarity and the church to join with the party in a "front of national accord" that would cooperate on economic recovery.

The overture raised hopes that Poles might at last find a way out of the impasse by forging the vital element that had been missing from their body politic for more than three decades; a true social compact. Then on December 12, Solidarity radicals gave Jaruzelski the excuse to do what he probably had been planning all along. From the start, the government and the Kremlin had made it clear that they could not tolerate a challenge to the existence of Poland as a Communist state, or any loosening of ties with the Soviet Union. That is precisely what the radicals voted to do at their last meeting in Gdansk. While Walesa looked on in frustrated silence, they called for a national referendum on the future of the Communist government and a re-examination of Poland's military alliance with the soviet Union. That was the perfect pretext for the government to impose martial law. Near the end of the session, when communications with the outside world had already been cut, Walesa stood up, raised both arms in a gesture of despair, and angrily told his fellow leaders: "Now you've got what you've been looking for." The end had begun. Within in hours, most of the union leaders had been arrested.

Walesa had been flown to Warsaw, and army vehicles were clanking across the country. By the time Jaruzelski appeared on television, Solidarity's tumultuous revolution had been gagged and shackled. No one could know if Warsaw's leaders would honor their pledge to restore the people's freedoms once "order" returned. But one thing was certain; the flame that was lighted in August 1980 had brightened all Poland, and Poles do not give up easily. In the words that emblazon the tomb of the venerated Marshal Pilsudski: "To be defeated and not to surrender, that's victory." If the government of General Jaruzelski had not imposed the crackdown, the Soviets certainly would have. The presence in Warsaw of high-ranking soviet officers, including Marshal Viktor Kulikov, even suggested a direct soviet role in planning what amounted to an invasion by proxy. For more than a year, the Kremlin had made it clear that it would not indefinitely tolerate the development of a union movement that could challenge a Communist government as directly as Solidarity had--a movement that was calling, in effect, for government by consent of the governed.

In November 1982 Walesa was released and reinstated at the Gdansk shipyards. Although kept under surveillance, he managed to maintain lively contact with Solidarity leaders in the underground. While martial law was lifted in July 1983, many of the restrictions were continued in civil code. In October 1983 the announcement of Walesa's Nobel Peace Prize raised the spirits of the underground movement, but the award was attacked by the government press. Over the following years the Jaruzelski regime became even more unpopular as economic conditions worsened. Under Mikhail Gorbachev the Soviet Union was no longer prepared to use military force to keep communist parties in satellite states in power. The Polish Communist party was finally forced to again negotiate with Walesa and his colleagues in a revived Solidarity movement. The result was the holding of parliamentary elections in September 1989 which led to the establishment of a Solidarity led government. Walesa, now head of the revived Solidarity labour union, began a series of meetings with world leaders. In November 1989 he became the third person in history, after the Marquis de Lafayette and Winston Churchill, to address a joint session of the United States Congress.

In April 1990 at Solidarity's second national congress, Walesa was elected chairman with 77.5% of the votes. In December 1990 in a general ballot he was elected President of the Republic of Poland. He served until defeated in the election of November 1995. Walesa has been granted many honorary degrees from universities, including Harvard University and the University of Paris. Other honors include the Medal of Freedom (Philadelphia, U.S.A.); the Award of Free World (Norway); and the European Award of Human Rights. In 1969 he married Danuta Golos and they have eight children. Popular European History pages at Age-of-the-Sage The preparation of these pages was influenced to some degree by a particular "Philosophy of History" as suggested by this quote from the famous Essay "History" by Ralph Waldo Emerson:- There is one mind common to all individual men... Of the works of this mind history is the record. Its genius is illustrated by the entire series of days. Man is explicable by nothing less than all his history.

Without hurry, without rest, the human spirit goes forth from the beginning to embody every faculty, every thought, every emotion, which belongs to it in appropriate events. But the thought is always prior to the fact; all the facts of history preexist in the mind as laws. Each law in turn is made by circumstances predominant, and the limits of nature give power to but one at a time. A man is the whole encyclopaedia of facts. The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn, and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie folded already in the first man. Epoch after epoch, camp, kingdom, empire, republic, democracy, are merely the application of his manifold spirit to the manifold world.

Question: What was the occupation of Polish trade unionist and politician Lech Walesa?
Answer: Electrician