Short story of Lech Wałęsa

 Lech Wałęsa was born on September 29, 1943 in Popowo, in the Tłuchowo commune, in the present Kujawsko-Pomorskie Province. He grew up in a large, rural family. He graduated from the basic school of agricultural mechanization and in the years 1961–1967, with a break for military service, worked as car electromechanics at the State Machine Center in Łochocin. At that time, he belonged to the Union of Socialist Youth and the Union of Rural Youth.

In 1967, he started working as an electrician at the Gdańsk Shipyard. Two years later he married Danuta née Gołoś. In December 1970, he took an active part in the strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard and was elected to the five-person strike committee. It was also then that the security authorities noticed him for the first time. As an active participant in the protest, he was called to the militia and arrested for four days. 

On December 29, 1970, he signed a commitment to cooperate and was registered as TW "Bolek". In January of the following year, he took part in talks between the shipyard workers and Edward Gierek, the new First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party. After December 1970, Lech Wałęsa was active in the official Workers' Committee, dealing with occupational health and safety issues. In 1976, he was dismissed from work for criticizing the activity of trade unions and the shipyard authorities. In the years 1976–1979 he worked as an electrician at Zakład Remontowo-Budowlane "Zremb".

In 1978, he made contact with the organizers of the illegal Free Trade Unions of the Coast. In December this year, he took part in laying wreaths in honor of the victims of December '70 next to the gate of the Gdańsk Shipyard. He was sentenced to a fine for this and he also lost his job.

From January 1979, he was a member of the editorial board of Robotnik Wybrzeża - the WZZ magazine. He also collaborated with the "KOR" Social Self-Defense Committee. He distributed independent publishing houses and organized WZZ groups. The police stopped him many times. Even though he already had a large family, he did not cease his activity. He was one of several dozen independent activists who signed the Workers' Rights Charter in July 1979. In May 1979, he found employment at "Elektromontaż" Gdańsk. 

On December 18, 1979, during a rally organized on the anniversary of the bloody events of 1970, speaking to several thousand people in front of gate No. 2 of the Gdańsk Shipyard, where the shipyard workers were killed, he called for a monument to be built there. In January 1980, he joined the informal Workers' Commission, which tried to defend workers dismissed from Elektromontaż; incl. for this reason and taking part in the demonstrations in February 1980, he was expelled from Elektromontaż. For the next months, he was unemployed - only after the August strikes, in September 1980, he was re-employed in the Gdańsk Shipyard.

On August 14, 1980, after the strike broke out in the Gdańsk Shipyard, he joined the activists of the WZZ who initiated it and headed the strike committee. Two days later, he became the chairman of the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee, which developed 21 strike demands. Among them, the demand for the right to free trade unions was in the first place.

On August 31, 1980, in the BHP hall of the Gdańsk Shipyard, together with Deputy Prime Minister Mieczysław Jagielski, he signed the Gdańsk Agreements, guaranteeing, inter alia, creation of independent and self-governing trade unions.

In September 1980, he was against the creation of one nationwide trade union with a regional structure. Ultimately, after the establishment of NSZZ "Solidarność", he headed its first supreme body - the National Coordination Committee of NSZZ "Solidarność".

During the sixteen months of the existence of the legal "Solidarity", he was considered a representative of the conciliatory line towards the authorities of the Polish People's Republic. At the same time, his critics accused him of autocratic aspirations and disregard for union democracy. Despite the critical opinions, the 1st National Congress of Solidarity Delegates elected him in October 1981 as the chairman of the union. At the same time, he gained worldwide fame and was described as the most important symbol of the anti-communist opposition. In 1981, he was recognized by the weekly "Time" as a Man. Year.

On December 13, 1981, he was interned. Initially, he was kept in a government villa in Chylice near Warsaw, and then transferred to Otwock. The communist authorities, as part of the "Renaissance" operation, counted on his cooperation and participation in the construction of the new "Solidarity" which they controlled. However, Lech Wałęsa did not make any commitments. In May 1982, he was transferred to Arłamów in the Bieszczady Mountains. He regained freedom in mid-November 1982.

In April 1983, he met with members of the underground Temporary Coordination Committee of NSZZ "Solidarity". In May 1983 he returned to work in the shipyard as a laborer. He was treated by the authorities as a "private person". In June this year, during his pilgrimage to Poland, John Paul II met with him.

On October 5, 1983, Lech Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which significantly strengthened his position. Fearing his inability to return to Poland, he decided not to go to Oslo. The award was collected by his wife and one of his sons.

In September 1986, after the communist authorities announced an amnesty for political prisoners, he established the Transitional Council of NSZZ "Solidarity", which operated openly, though illegally. On October 25, 1987, he became the chairman of the National Executive Committee of NSZZ "Solidarność", which replaced the Temporary Coordination Committee and TR.

In May 1988, he joined the strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard. In the summer, when Poland was overwhelmed by another wave of strikes and protests, he agreed to start talks with representatives of the authorities.

On August 31, 1988 - on the eighth anniversary of signing the Gdańsk Accords - Wałęsa held a confidential meeting with the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Czesław Kiszczak. It was also attended by Bishop Jerzy Dąbrowski and Stanisław Ciosek, the secretary of the Central Committee. The condition for starting talks on the "round table", set by the government side, was the end of the strikes. This goal was achieved in the first days of September.

A breakthrough in recognizing Wałęsa as a political partner in the talks was also his participation in the television debate with Alfred Miodowicz, the head of the official OPZZ, in November 1988. Contrary to the expectations of the authorities, it ended with Wałęsa's overwhelming victory.

On December 18, 1988, he headed the Civic Committee established by the Chairman of NSZZ "Solidarność". In the round table talks held from February to April 1989, he headed the opposition delegation. As a result of the talks, "S" was legalized again, and elections to the Sejm and Senate were called. Almost all the candidates of the Solidarity Citizens' Committee got to parliament in the elections on June 4 - before that, each of them had taken an election photo with Wałęsa. The candidates supported by "S" also took 99 seats in the Senate.

When General Wojciech Jaruzelski was elected president after the election, and General Czesław Kiszczak received the mission to form a government from the Seym, Lech Wałęsa called on the existing allies of the PZPR - United People's Party and Democratic Party - to form a coalition with "Solidarity". This enabled the formation of the government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first non-communist government in the so-called Soviet bloc. In 1989, Lech Wałęsa paid a visit to the USA, during which, as a third foreigner with no official function, he spoke at the American Congress. During his visit, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In April 1990, at the Second Congress of Solidarity, he was re-elected president of the Union. In the summer of 1990, he aimed to shorten the term of office of President Jaruzelski. On September 18, 1990, after a meeting with the participation of Jaruzelski, Wałęsa, and Mazowiecki, organized at the House of the Archbishops of Warsaw, the general announced that he would resign. In 1990, the conflict between the chairman of "Solidarity" and the Prime Minister of Mazovia intensified. The dispute and the subsequent election campaign led to the collapse of camp "S".

Starting in the fall of 1990 in the early presidential elections, he won 40 percent of the vote in the first round. votes, second place was taken by Stanisław Tymiński. In the second round, Wałęsa decisively defeated Tymiński, becoming the first president of the Republic of Poland to be elected in general and democratic elections. During his term of office, he was particularly active in the international arena. In 1992, he proposed the establishment of EWG-Bis and NATO-bis - organizations to bring together Central European countries. In May 1992, during a visit to Moscow, he signed an agreement to withdraw all units of the Russian army from Poland. In the original text of the agreement, there was a provision on the establishment of Polish-Russian enterprises on the premises of the former Soviet military bases. This point was annulled after the intervention of Prime Minister Jan Olszewski.

At the beginning of June 1992, after the publication of the so-called Macierewicz's list containing the names of collaborators of the communist security services, including the name of Wałęsa, contributed to the collapse of the Olszewski government. On June 4, in a special statement sent to PAP, Wałęsa admitted to collaborating with the SB. After several dozen minutes, the cable was withdrawn.

In October 1992, he signed the so-called small constitution regulating relations between the main organs of power in the Republic of Poland. Before the parliamentary elections in 1993, he initiated the creation of the Non-Party Reform Support Bloc, which did not achieve significant political success. In the following years of the presidency, he supported Poland's accession to the European Union and NATO.

In the next presidential election in 1995, he lost to the leader of the Democratic Left Alliance, Aleksander Kwasniewski. Pre-election television debates, which were decisive for the victory of the SLD candidate, have gone down in history.

In 1997, he founded the party - Christian Democracy of the Third Republic of Poland - which, however, did not gain any significant political position. Shortly after the end of the presidency, he also founded the Lech Wałęsa Institute. He was giving lectures.

While running in the presidential elections in 2000, he obtained only 1 percent. endorsement. In the following years, he did not engage in direct political activity. He mainly supported the Civic Platform and was a sharp critic of the actions of Law and Justice and the leadership of NSZZ "Solidarność".

In 2000, the Lustration Court, on the basis of archival documents available at that time, recognized Wałęsa's lustration declaration (as a presidential candidate) that he did not cooperate with the special services of the People's Republic of Poland. Five years later, Wałęsa was granted the status of an aggrieved party by the Institute of National Remembrance. In 2008, a monograph by Sławomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk was published: SB and Lech Wałęsa. A contribution to a biography ”, which summarized the current state of knowledge about the politician's cooperation with the SB. Wałęsa denied cooperation with the communist secret police and the acceptance of financial gratuities from secret police officers described in the book.

In 2016, IPN prosecutors, having obtained information from the widow of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Gen. Czesław Kiszczak, secured six packages of documents in her house, including the personal and work files of "Bolek". The Institute revealed then that there is, inter alia, a handwritten commitment to cooperate with the SB, signed: "Lech Wałęsa + Bolek +". The former president, however, undermined the credibility of the documents and started a long dispute with the Institute of National Remembrance.

In 2017, the Institute presented expert opinions on the personal file and the work file of the TW "Bolek" and the documents from 1970–1976 contained therein. They show that Wałęsa signed a commitment to cooperate with the SB and confirm receipt of money. The opinion "in the field of handwriting research" was prepared by the Instytut Ekspertyz Sądowych im. prof. Jan Sehn in Krakow. In a statement of April 11, 2019, the Institute of National Remembrance stated that the authentic documents found in 2016 leave no doubt as to the issue of Lech Wałęsa's cooperation with the Security Service in the first half of the 1970s. At the same time, it was emphasized that the SB used this fact to try to discredit Wałęsa as the chairman of "Solidarity" and a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Lech Wałęsa is, among others the author of the memoirs "Road of Hope" (1987) and "Road to Freedom" (1991) and "Road to Truth. Autobiography ”(2008).