Lech Walesa (Poland)

Winner of 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, the prize was awarded for his struggle for human rights.

«Lech Walesa’s contribution is more than a domestic Polish concern; the solidarity for which he is spokesman is an expression of precisely the concept of being at one with humanity; therefore he belongs to us all. The world has heard his voice and understood his message; the Nobel Peace Prize is merely a confirmation of this.»

(Egil Aarvik, on behalf of the Nobel Committee)

Polish labour leader Lech Walesa (Leszek Michael Walesa) was born on September 29, 1943, in the village of Popovo, north of Warsaw during the Nazi occupation of Poland. He was one of eight children of a carpenter Boleslaw Walesa and his wife Feliksa. His father died in 1946 from the wounds he sustained in a German forced labor camp.

After receiving his primary education at a parishional school, Walesa enrolled in a vocational school in Lipno, where he became a qualified electrician. Although he did not show extraordinary results in his studies, Walesa even then demonstrated his striking organizational skills. “I always was a leader in our class, – he later confessed in an interview. – I always took the lead.” After serving for two years in the military, in 1967, Walesa took a job of an electrician at the shipyard named after V. I. Lenin at the Baltic port of Gdansk.

In 1970, in response to rising food prices Gdansk became the ground of social protests. Striking shipyard workers took to the streets during the four-day riots, and some of them were killed. Lech Walesa, who was a member of the Action Committee, led the strike. Looking back on those days later, he admitted that he misjudged the situation, when he expected the workers to win. In the wake of labor protests, Wladyslaw Gomulka was removed from his office of the First Secretary of the Polish Workers’ Party and the Government had to yield to some of the protesters’ demands.

During the term of Edward Gierek (Gomulka’s successor), the Polish economy has experienced a serious recession, and in 1976, the prices were raised again. Walesa joined labor protests again, and for that he was fired. Taking odd jobs to make his living, he joined the Committee of public self-defense, a dissident group, and began to establish links with the growing Polish labor movement. Despite persecution from the secret police, and periodic arrests, Walesa published a clandestine newspaper ‘Coastal Workers’ (‘Robotnik wybrzeza’), and in 1979, founded an underground Free Trade Unions of the Coast. Later, together with other labor leaders Walesa signed a charter of workers’ rights, which among other things, demanded the right to form independent trade unions and the right to strike.

Rising prices for meat in July 1980 caused new anxiety among workers. A month later, the strikers took over the Lenin Shipyard and demanded the trade union leaders to be reinstated in their jobs. Walesa joined his colleagues and headed up the strike committee. The government, concerned with the scale of unrest, entered into negotiations with the strikers. Although Walesa had the reputation of a stubborn man, he was wary of provoking the government to any adverse action; to reduce the risk of violence, Walesa banned the sale of alcohol, and workers engaged in decoration of the shipyard with the Polish flags, portraits of Pope John Paul II, and flowers that served as a symbol of nationalism, commitment to religion, and hopes for the successful conclusion of the strike.

The talks ended on August 31, when Walesa and the Deputy Prime Minister Mieczyslaw Jagielski signed the Gdansk agreement. According to its terms, the workers gained the right to associate in unions and to strike for a raise; trade unions and the church received access to the media; it was agreed to release political prisoners. In return, the trade unions recognized the supremacy of the Communist Party, and the legitimacy of its relations with other countries in Eastern Europe.

In ten weeks, the Polish Supreme Court affirmed the unions’ right to register as the all-national union ‘Solidarity’. As chairman of the National Commission of Solidarity, Lech Walesa followed a moderate policy, and the radicals accused him of excessive willingness to compromise. Meanwhile, the government implemented some points of the Gdansk Agreement: strikes, boycotts and violent actions became commonplace. On the 27 of March, 1981, 13 million of Polish industrial workers staged a four-hour strike. At the first national congress of Solidarity, the delegates called for free elections in Poland. Despite the strong opposition from radicals, Walesa was elected the president with 55% of the votes.

In December of 1981, radicals in Gdansk demanded a referendum on the future of the Communist government and a revision of political relations between Poland and the Soviet Union. ‘You have what you asked for’ – Walesa said angrily to the union leaders. On December 13, 1981, the government imposed martial law: General Jaruzelski – the defense minister, prime minister and the newly elected party leader – arrested all the leaders of the union. Solidarity was banned, the army took the cities in Poland under their control. Interned for almost a year, Walesa witnessed a defeat of the trade union movement he established.

Walesa was awarded the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize – primarily, for political reasons, as some believed. On behalf of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Egil Aarvik said, “Lech Walesa’s contribution is more than a domestic Polish concern; the Solidarity for which he is spokesman is an expression of precisely the concept of being at one with humanity; therefore he belongs to us all. The world has heard his voice and understood his message”. To this Aarvik added, “The Nobel Peace Prize is merely a confirmation of this. It is the Committee’s opinion that he stands as an inspiration and a shining example to all those who, under different conditions, fight for freedom and humanity.”

Fearing that he would not be allowed to return to Poland, Walesa asked his wife Danuta to attend the ceremonies in Oslo instead of him. She read Walesa’s message, which expressed “the deepest gratitude for the recognition of the vitality and strength of our ideas (human solidarity), which has resulted in the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the chairman of Solidarity.”

Bogdan Tsivinski, one of the leaders of Solidarity, who took refuge in Brussels, read Walesa’s Nobel prize speech. In it Walesa stated that “the primary need in Poland is understanding and dialogue. I think that this applies to the whole world: we can not avoid negotiations, we must not close the door and block the road to understanding. It should be remembered that peace will be lasting when it is based on justice and moral order.”

In January of 1986, Walesa was charged with defamation of the organizers of the elections in 1985, who allegedly falsified the results. If he were convicted, he could be sentenced to two years of imprisonment, but in February the charges against him were dropped, and Walesa returned to his wife and children – he has eight of them. Walesa is a devout Roman Catholic and attends the church every day. The Catholic Church in Poland had a significant influence on the formation of his non-violent ethics in politics and always supported him. Nearly always he wears a badge with the image of the Holy Virgin. Walesa’s speeches are composed in vernacular style, they are not always grammatically proper, which has a special appeal to the listeners; quite often Walesa demonstrates a fine sense of humor. Despite some concessions made by the government – his six-room apartment, permanent job and a solid earnings – Walesa believed that he was under constant surveillance, and traveled only when accompanied by bodyguards. According to Walesa, Gdansk Agreement, “is the Great Charter of the workers’ rights that cannot be made void.”

The underground activities of the Workers’ Union ‘Solidarity’, however, continued. In 1989, the opposition was not only legalized, but it also won the parliamentary elections. The coalition government was headed up by Walesa’s former adviser Tadeusz Mazowiecki. On December 9, 1990, Walesa won the presidential election, gaining 75% of the votes. As president, Walesa had to deal with serious problems of political instability and Poland’s transfer to free market economy. Walesa received his presidential insignia from the hands of the former President of Poland, who lived in exile since the beginning of the Second World War.

As for his religious beliefs, Walesa is a devout Roman Catholic and he attends the church every day. The church always backed him up and to some extent he owes his success to the church’s support. He attracted the church’s attention by his non-violent policy and willingness to compromise, although not all his followers approved this kind of policy. Walesa almost on every occasion wears a badge with an image of the Holy Virgin.

Lech Walesa is a wonderful speaker, he has a good sense of humor and he knows how to entertain his listeners. In his speeches, Walesa does not abstain from using colloquial expressions.

«…He is an enthusiastic angler, but he does not like the places where the fish bites well: he prefers to sit at dawn for a long time watching the cork float. He takes interest in movies, and classical music. His way of reading the detective stories is quite peculiar: he reads two or three pages, and then thinks what would happen next. After that he looks at the end of the book to check himself, if the writer proves to be more inventive than he was, he reads the entire novel…” (from the stories told by V. Kulistikov).

In 1995, Walesa ran for the presidency in Poland again, but this time the Polish preferred to chose his rival. Walesa returned to his hometown Gdansk and in 1996 announced his desire to work as an electrician on the same job he had before.

Lech Walesa is married. He and his wife Danuta Walesa have eight children – four boys and four girls.

As a father, Walesa is proud because he was able to secure for his children the level of life above average. He likes to mention as a matter of fact that his family has their own mansion, car, and the opportunity to see the world. This weakness is natural for the one who was born to a poor family of a village carpenter in a difficult year for his country and who achieved everything because of his outstanding gift and courage.

Gdansk airport bears the name of Lech Walesa. In 2013, Polish film director Andrzej Wajda made a film called “Walesa. Man of Hope,” which narrates the story of the political career and personal life of Lech Walesa. Walesa’s role was performed by Robert Wieckievicz.

Based on the materials from the following sites: http://www.nobeliat.ru; http://biopeoples.ru