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94-553: The design of the building, by Polish firm FORT Architects, was the winner of an international competition held in 2007. The walls evoke the hulls of ships built at the Gdańsk Shipyard . Construction started in 2010. It was completed at a cost of 229 million złoty , of which 113 million złoty (38.4 million euro ) was provided by the European Union , and the rest locally. The opening ceremony took place on 31 August 2014, on

188-665: A free-market capitalist liberal democracy , but his active role in Polish politics diminished after he narrowly lost the 1995 Polish presidential election . In 1995, he established the Lech Wałęsa Institute . Since 1980, Wałęsa has received hundreds of prizes, honors and awards from multiple countries and organizations worldwide. He was named the Time Person of the Year (1981) and one of Time's 100 most important people of

282-509: A handwriting examination . Eventually, the requested examination concluded that the documents were authentic, which suggest he was a paid informant. Wałęsa previously said that he had signed a commitment to inform document, but that he had never acted on it. The dossier consists of two folders. The first is a "personal file" containing 90 pages of documents, including a handwritten commitment to cooperate with Polish Security Service dated 21 December 1970, and signed Lech Wałęsa – Bolek with

376-480: A Communist agent in 1970s. The most comprehensive analysis of Wałęsa's possible collaboration with secret police was provided in a 2008 book SB a Lech Wałęsa. Przyczynek do biografii  [ pl ] ( SB and Lech Wałęsa. Contribution to biography ). The book was written by two historians from the Institute of National Remembrance, Sławomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk , and included documents from

470-533: A campaign to commemorate the victims of the 1970 protests. Afterwards, he worked as an electrician for several other companies but his activism led to him continually being laid off and he was jobless for long periods. Wałęsa and his family were under constant surveillance by the Polish secret police ; his home and workplace were always bugged. Over the next few years, he was arrested several times for participating in dissident activities. Wałęsa worked closely with

564-646: A concert at the shipyard in 2006 to celebrate the anniversary of the Polish revolution as part of the Solidarity movement. The concert, which attracted 50,000 spectators, closed his 2006 world tour in support of On an Island (2006) and is documented on the Live in Gdańsk (2008) album. On 24 November 1994, during a concert by the band Golden Life in the Gdansk Shipyard Hall, a fire occurred which led to

658-439: A corporation, under the name Northern Shipyard S.A. In the late 1990s the shipyard produced ferries , fishing vessels , tugboats and ships for the offshore industry. Since June 2003, the main shareholder has been Gdańsk "Repair" Shipyard. Industrial Union of Donbas obtained 75% shares of the shipyard through privatisation in 2007, with the remaining share held by the Polish government. The Polish government regained shares of

752-451: A pledge he would never admit his collaboration with secret police "not even to family"; the file also contains the confirmations of having received funds. The second is a "work file" which contains 279 pages of documents, including numerous reports by Bolek on his co-workers at Gdańsk Shipyard, and notes by Security Service officers from meetings with him. According to one note, Wałęsa agreed to collaborate out of fear of persecution after

846-496: A requirement for those seeking high public office. According to the law, it is not a crime to have collaborated, but those who deny it and are found to have lied are banned from political life for ten years. The 2000 presidential election was the first use of this law. Despite helping Wałęsa in 2005 to receive the official status of a "victim of communist regime" from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), this court ruling did not convince many Poles. In November 2009, Wałęsa sued

940-464: A source of scholarly debate among historians. On 12 August 2000, Wałęsa, who was running a presidential campaign at the time, was cleared by the special Lustration Court of charges that he collaborated with the Communist-era secret services and reported on the activities of his fellow shipyard workers, due to the lack of evidence. Anti-Communists Piotr Naimski , one of the first members of

1034-561: A substantial reduction in foreign debts. Wałęsa supported Poland's entry into NATO and the European Union , both of which occurred after his presidency, in 1999 and 2004 , respectively. In the early 1990s, he proposed the creation of a sub-regional security system called NATO bis . The concept was supported by right-wing and populist movements in Poland but garnered little support abroad; Poland's neighbors, some of which (e.g. Lithuania ), had recently regained independence and tended to see

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1128-516: Is a large Polish shipyard , located in the city of Gdańsk , northern Poland . The yard gained international fame when Polish trade union Solidarity ( Solidarność ) was founded there in September 1980. It is situated on the western side of Martwa Wisła and on Ostrów Island . Gdańsk Shipyard was founded in 1946 as a state-owned company, on sites of the former German shipyards, Schichau-Werft and Danziger Werft , both considerably damaged in

1222-447: Is known for his conservative stance on LGBT rights . In 2013, he said on Polish television: "I do not wish for this minority, which I tolerate and understand, to impose itself on the majority". Referring to Robert Biedroń , he argued that, considering they represent less than one percent of Polish society, homosexual MPs should sit "in the last row of the parliament, or even behind its walls". After sharp international criticism, including

1316-436: Is okay. I told Mr. Kania before that I would take everything from the enemy. The more the better, until the enemy was weakened no more". Wałęsa held his position until 13 December 1981, when General Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland . Wałęsa and many other Solidarity leaders and activists were arrested; he was incarcerated for 11 months until 14 November 1982 at Chylice , Otwock , and Arłamów ; eastern towns near

1410-614: Is running her father's office in Gdańsk and Jarosław is a European MP. In 2008, Wałęsa underwent a coronary artery stent placement and the implantation of a cardiac pacemaker at the Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston , Texas . He underwent a heart operation in 2021. In January 2022, Wałęsa tested positive for COVID-19 . He said he had received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine . In 1983, Wałęsa

1504-404: The 1995 presidential election , winning 33.11 percent of the vote in the first round and 48.28 percent in the run-off against Aleksander Kwaśniewski , who represented the resurgent Polish post-Communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). Wałęsa's fate was sealed by his poor handling of the media; in televised debates he appeared incoherent and rude; in response to Kwaśniewski's extended hand at

1598-599: The Institute of National Remembrance seized materials from the widow of Czesław Kiszczak , former minister of the Minister of Interior , that were said to document Wałęsa's role as a spy for the security services. In 2017, a handwriting study ordered by the government-controlled Institute of National Remembrance (INR), stated that signatures on several documents from the 1970s belonged to Wałęsa. The exact nature of Wałęsa's relationship with Security Service continues to be

1692-598: The Lech Wałęsa Award.  [ pl ] In 2004, Gdańsk International Airport was officially renamed Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport and Wałęsa's signature was incorporated into the airport's logo. A college hall in Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago), six streets, and five schools in Canada, France, Sweden and Poland also were named after Lech Wałęsa Wałęsa was named Man of

1786-515: The San Francisco Board of Supervisors 's decision to rename Walesa Street as a result of these remarks, Wałęsa apologized for his comments, stressing that "being a man of old date, in my view one's sexual orientation should lie in one's intimate sphere". He said that his intentions were "distorted by the media" and that homosexuality should be respected. Over the following years, Wałęsa's views shifted, and he has voiced his support for

1880-656: The Second World War . On 1 July 1952 a state-owned enterprise called Baza Remontowa-Ostrow was established on Ostrów Island . The name changed to Gdańska Stocznia Remontowa later in the year. During the time of the People's Republic of Poland , the complex was known as the Gdańsk Shipyard and Vladimir Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk (1967–89). The Northern Shipyard (Stocznia Północna) was also formed in June 1945, when it

1974-552: The Soviet Bloc . The parliament elected Tadeusz Mazowiecki as the first non-Communist Prime Minister of Poland in over forty years. Following the June 1989 parliamentary elections, Wałęsa was disappointed that some of his former fellow campaigners were satisfied to govern alongside former Communists. He decided to run for the newly re-established office of president , using the slogan, "I don't want to, but I have to" ( "Nie chcę, ale muszę." ). On 9 December 1990, Wałęsa won

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2068-602: The Workers' Defence Committee ( KOR ), a group that emerged to lend aid to people arrested after the 1976 labor strikes and to their families. In June 1978, he became an activist of the underground Free Trade Unions of the Coast ( Wolne Związki Zawodowe Wybrzeża ). On 14 August 1980, another rise in food prices led to a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, of which Wałęsa was one of the instigators. Wałęsa climbed over

2162-488: The migrant crisis in Europe , said: "watching the refugees on television, I noticed that ... they are well fed, well dressed and maybe even are richer than we are ... If Europe opens its gates, soon millions will come through and while living among us will start exercising their own customs, including beheading". In August 2017, ten Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Wałęsa, urged Saudi Arabia to stop

2256-419: The president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election , Wałęsa became the first democratically elected president of Poland since 1926 and the first-ever Polish president elected by popular vote . A shipyard electrician by trade, Wałęsa became the leader of the Solidarity movement and led a successful pro-democratic effort, which in 1989 ended Communist rule in Poland and ushered in

2350-489: The presidential election , defeating Prime Minister Mazowiecki and other candidates to become Poland's first freely elected head of state in 63 years, and the first non-Communist head of state in 45 years. In 1993, he founded his own political party, the Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms ( BBWR ); the grouping's Polish-language acronym echoed that of Józef Piłsudski's " Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with

2444-482: The 1970s. In 2008, a book written by historians Sławomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk titled SB a Lech Wałęsa. Przyczynek do biografii ( SB and Lech Wałęsa. Contribution to biography ) purported to show that Wałęsa, codenamed Bolek , had been an operative for the security services from 1970 to 1976. The issue of Wałęsa's alleged collaboration with the communist regime resurfaced again in February 2016, when

2538-787: The 20th century (1999). He has received over forty honorary degrees, including from Harvard University and Columbia University , as well as dozens of the highest state orders, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath , and the French Grand Cross of Legion of Honour . In 1989, Wałęsa was the first foreign non-head of state to address the Joint Meeting of

2632-405: The 21st century. Gdańsk shipyards have fallen on hard times. Once a place of work for over 20,000 people, the Gdańsk shipyards employ 2,200 workers today. The European Union has backed a restructuring plan for the shipyard. About 77 companies operate on the grounds of the shipyards, including GSG Towers, which builds steel towers for wind turbines. The shipyard's Gate Number Two, for decades

2726-625: The Communist-era Polish Navy were delivered in the early 1990s. Difficulties on the world market forced radical changes and the yard began to specialize in cargo containers , mainly for Germany and Nigeria. In 1990, the state-owned Stocznia Gdańska became a joint stock company with 61% in National Treasury shares and 31% owned by employees. Since then, Gdańsk Shipyard has operated as Stocznia Gdańsk S.A. On 1 April 1993 Northern Shipyard of "Westerplatte Heroes" became

2820-720: The Director of the Polish Central Archives of Modern Records ( Archiwum Akt Nowych ) about the accompanying files documenting the collaboration of Wałęsa with the Polish Security Service and asks him not to publish this information until five years after Wałęsa's death. In his letter, Kiszczak said he kept the documents out of reach: before the 1989 revolution , trying to protect Wałęsa's reputation; and afterwards to make sure they did not disappear or were used for political reasons. This letter and

2914-554: The Government ," of 1928–35, likewise an ostensibly non-political organization. During his presidency, Wałęsa saw Poland through privatization and transition to a free-market economy (the Balcerowicz Plan ), Poland's 1991 first completely free parliamentary elections , and a period of redefinition of the country's foreign relations . He successfully negotiated the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Poland and won

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3008-589: The Lenin Shipyard workers the right to strike and permitted them to form an independent trade union. The Strike Coordinating Committee legalized itself as the National Coordinating Committee of the Solidarność (Solidarity) Free Trade Union, and Wałęsa was chosen as chairman of the committee. The Solidarity trade union quickly grew, ultimately claiming over 10 million members—more than a quarter of Poland's population. Wałęsa's role in

3102-553: The Polish opposition to Communism. The centre's permanent exhibition has around 2,000 exhibits, and the library contains around 100,000 books and documents. The centre also contains a research and academic centre and conducts educational activities, as well as providing space for conferences and temporary exhibitions. 54°21′40″N 18°38′57″E  /  54.36111°N 18.64917°E  / 54.36111; 18.64917 Gda%C5%84sk Shipyard The Gdańsk Shipyard ( Polish : Stocznia Gdańska , formerly Lenin Shipyard )

3196-542: The Security Service, while the monthly salary at the time was about 3,500 zlotys. The authors said oppositionist activity in Poland in the first half of 1970s was minimal and Wałęsa's role in it was quite marginal. However, according to the book, despite formally renouncing his ties with Security Service in 1976, Wałęsa went on to have contacts with Communist officials. The authors also claim that during his 1990–1995 presidency, Wałęsa used his office to destroy

3290-518: The Sejm elections were referred to as "Wałęsa's team" or "Lech's team" because they had all appeared on their election posters with Wałęsa. While ostensibly only chairman of Solidarity, Wałęsa played a key role in practical politics. In August 1989, he persuaded leaders of parties formerly allied with the Communist party to form a non-Communist coalition government—the first non-Communist government in

3384-638: The Solidarity Trade Union. In mid-1988, he instigated work-stoppage strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard. He was frequently hauled in for interrogations by the Polish secret police, the Security Service , during the 1980s. On many of these occasions, Danuta—who was even more anti-Communist than her husband—was known to openly taunt Security Service agents when they picked Lech up. After months of strikes and political deliberations, at

3478-578: The Soviet border. On 8 October 1982, Solidarity was outlawed. In 1983, Wałęsa applied to return to the Gdańsk Shipyard as an electrician. The same year, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize . He was unable to accept it himself, fearing Poland's government would not let him back into the country. His wife Danuta accepted the prize on his behalf. Through the mid-1980s, Wałęsa continued underground Solidarity-related activities. Every issue of

3572-529: The U.S. Congress . The Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport has borne his name since 2004. Wałęsa was born in Popowo , Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia , Germany ( German-occupied Poland ). His father, Bolesław Wałęsa (1909–1945), was a carpenter who was rounded up and interned in a forced labour camp at Młyniec (outpost of KL Stutthof ) by the German occupying forces before Lech was born. Bolesław returned home after

3666-464: The UK, USA, and Poland. Over 60 years, Stocznia Gdańsk has delivered more than 1000 seagoing ships to owners all over the world. In recent years, the top deliveries have been container ships, reefers, bulk carriers and passenger ro-ro ferries. Most ships are designed in their own design office. Design and construction of ships has remained the main activity of the yard. Work for the offshore industry began in

3760-549: The US for economic reasons. They lived in Jersey City, New Jersey , where Feliksa died in a car accident in 1976 and Stanisław died of a heart attack in 1981. Both of them were buried in Poland. In 1961, Lech graduated from primary and vocational school in nearby Chalin and Lipno as a qualified electrician. He worked as a car mechanic from 1962 to 1964, and then embarked on his two-year, obligatory military service, attaining

3854-799: The United States, Wałęsa was the first recipient of the Liberty Medal , in 1989. That year, he also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and became the first non-head-of-state to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress . In 2000, Wałęsa received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement . Wałęsa symbolically represented Europe by carrying the Olympic flag at

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3948-634: The Workers' Defense Committee that led to the Solidarity trade union, and Antoni Macierewicz , Wałęsa's former Interior Minister , testified against him in the closed vetting trial. Naimski, who said he testified with a "heavy heart", expressed his disappointment that Wałęsa "made a mistake by not going openly to the public, and he has missed an important chance". According to Naimski, the court cleared Wałęsa on "technical grounds" because it did not find certain original documents—many of which had been destroyed since 1989—that offered sufficient proof that Wałęsa

4042-473: The Year by Time magazine (1981), Financial Times (1980), Saudi Gazette (1989) and 12 other newspapers and magazines. He was awarded with over 45 honorary doctorates by universities around the world, including Harvard University and Sorbonne . He was named an honorary karate black belt by International Traditional Karate Federation . Wałęsa is also an honorary citizen of more than 30 cities, including London , Buffalo and Turin . In

4136-409: The accompanying documents had never been sent. On 16 February 2016, about three months after Kiszczak's death, his widow Maria approached the Institute of National Remembrance and offered to sell the documents to the archives for 90,000 zlotys ($ 23,000). However, according to Polish law, all documents of the political police must be handed in to the state. The administration of the institute notified

4230-485: The achievements of Polish Solidarity, educate young generations, promote democracy, and build civil society in Poland and around the world". In 1997, he founded a new party, Christian Democracy of the Third Polish Republic , hoping it would help him to successfully run in future elections. Wałęsa's contention for the 2000 presidential election ended with a crushing defeat when he polled 1.01 percent of

4324-697: The anniversary of the signing of the Gdańsk Agreement , the 1980 victory for striking shipyard workers which led to Solidarity's foundation. The ceremony was attended by Lech Wałęsa , the co-founder of Solidarity and later President of Poland , the President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski and the Chairman of Solidarity Piotr Duda. The preceding day was celebrated as a Citizens' Day in which over 12,000 former Solidarity members and others took part. The centre awards Medals of Gratitude to foreigners who assisted

4418-405: The archives of the secret police that were inherited by the institute. Among the documents were registration cards, memos, notes from the secret police, and reports from the informant. The book's authors argue that Wałęsa, working under the code name Bolek , was a secret police informant from 1970 (after being released from jail) until 1976 (before he was fired from the shipyard). According to

4512-437: The archives. Until 2008, he denied having ever seen his Security Service file. After the publication of the book SB a Lech Wałęsa in 2008, he said that while he was president "I did borrow the file, but didn't remove anything from it. I saw there were some documents there about me and that they were clearly forgeries. I told my secretaries to tape up and seal the file. I wrote 'don't open' on it. But someone didn't obey, removed

4606-477: The authors, "he wrote reports and informed on more than 20 people and some of them were persecuted by the Communist police. He identified people and eavesdropped on his colleagues at work while they were listening to Radio Free Europe for example". The book describes the fate of seven of his alleged victims; information regarding others was destroyed or stolen from the files. According to them, Wałęsa received over 13,000 zlotys as remuneration for his services from

4700-543: The conclusion of the 10th plenary session of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR, the Polish Communist party), the government agreed to enter into Round Table Negotiations that lasted from February to April 1989. Wałęsa was an informal leader of the non-governmental side in the negotiations. During the talks, he traveled throughout Poland giving speeches in support of the negotiations. At

4794-480: The country's president and prime minister, respectively. The main point of disagreement was the Kaczyńskis' focus on rooting out those who had been involved in Communist rule and their party's attempt to make public all the files of the former Communist secret police. Until then only members of the government and parliament had to declare any connection with the former security services. Wałęsa and his supporters argued

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4888-435: The death of 7 people. The cause of the fire was arson, but the perpetrator was never identified. 54°22′34″N 18°38′56″E  /  54.37623°N 18.64877°E  / 54.37623; 18.64877 Lech Wa%C5%82%C4%99sa Lech Wałęsa ( Polish pronunciation: [ˈlɛɣ vaˈwɛ̃sa] ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident , and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as

4982-523: The end of the Cold War . While working at the Lenin Shipyard (now Gdańsk Shipyard), Wałęsa, an electrician, became a trade-union activist, for which he was persecuted by the government , placed under surveillance, fired in 1976, and arrested several times. In August 1980, he was instrumental in political negotiations that led to the ground-breaking Gdańsk Agreement between striking workers and

5076-419: The end of the first of the two debates, he replied that the post-Communist leader could "shake his leg". After the election, Wałęsa said he was going into "political retirement" and his role in politics became increasingly marginal. After losing the 1995 election, Wałęsa announced he would return to work as an electrician at the Gdańsk Shipyard. Soon afterwards, he changed his mind and chose to travel around

5170-609: The end of the talks, the government signed an agreement to re-establish the Solidarity Trade Union and to organize semi-free elections to the Polish parliament; in accordance with the Round Table Agreement, only members of the Communist party and its allies could stand for 65 percent of the seats in the lower house, the Sejm . In December 1988, Wałęsa co-founded the Solidarity Citizens' Committee ; this

5264-442: The evidence of his collaboration with the secret police by removing incriminating documents from the archives. According to the book, historians discovered that with the help of the state intelligence agency, Wałęsa, Interior Minister Andrzej Milczanowski, and other members of Wałęsa's administration had borrowed from the archives the secret police files that had connections to Wałęsa, and returned them with key pages removed. When it

5358-434: The executions of 14 young people for participating in the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests . In October 2024, Wałęsa described a victory by Donald Trump in the 2024 US presidential election as a "misfortune" both for the United States and the world, without providing further explanation. Despite the 2000 ruling of a special lustration court affirming his innocence, for many years there have been allegations that Wałęsa

5452-416: The files "lies, slander and forgeries", and said he "never took money and never made any spoken or written report on anyone". He said of the Polish public, which was about to believe in the allegations, "you have betrayed me, not me you", and "it was I who safely led Poland to a complete victory over communism". On 20 February 2016, Wałęsa wrote in his blog that a secret police officer had begged him to sign

5546-679: The financial documents in the 1970s because the officer had lost money entrusted to him to purchase a vehicle. Wałęsa appealed to the officer to step forward and clear him of the accusations. On 8 November 1969, Wałęsa married Mirosława Danuta Gołoś , who worked at a flower shop near the Lenin Shipyard where Wałęsa worked. Soon after they married, she began using her middle name more often than her first name, as per Lech's request. The couple had eight children; Bogdan (born 1970), Sławomir (born 1972), Przemysław (1974–2017), Jarosław (born 1976), Magdalena (born 1979), Anna (born 1980), Maria-Wiktoria (born 1982), and Brygida (born 1985). As of 2016 , Anna

5640-507: The first non-Communist trade union in the then Soviet Bloc. The move was one of the first successful steps in a campaign of civil resistance that contributed to the eventual collapse of Communism across eastern Europe. Through the 1980s, Northern Shipyard continued to produce super- trawlers , super- seiners , hydrographic units and troop landing craft for the Soviet Union – the last four were delivered in 1991. Contracts signed with

5734-481: The focus of strikes and celebrations, has become a pilgrimage destination. In 2005, French electronic music composer Jean Michel Jarre performed a multimedia concert at the shipyard to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity movement. The concert was a one-off event, attracting 170,000 spectators on site, over 6 million television viewers and resulted in the release of the Live from Gdańsk (2005) album. David Gilmour , guitarist for Pink Floyd played

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5828-470: The government-affiliated INR in Warsaw announced it had seized a package of original documents that allegedly proved Wałęsa was a paid Security Service informant. The documents dated from the period 1970–1976; they were seized from the home of a recently deceased former interior minister, General Czesław Kiszczak. The documents' authenticity was confirmed by an archival expert, but the prosecutors demanded

5922-628: The government. He co-founded the Solidarity trade-union, whose membership rose to over ten million. After martial law in Poland was imposed and Solidarity was outlawed, Wałęsa was again arrested. Released from custody, he continued his activism and was prominent in the establishment of the Round Table Agreement that led to the semi-free 1989 Polish legislative election and a Solidarity-led government. He presided over Poland's transition from Marxist–Leninist state socialism into

6016-445: The illegal 1970 protests at the Gdańsk Shipyard when workers protested at the government's decree raising food prices and he was considered for the position of chairman of the strike committee. The strikes' outcome, which involved the deaths of over 30 workers, galvanized Wałęsa's views on the need for change. In June 1976, Wałęsa lost his job at the Gdańsk Shipyard because of his continued involvement in illegal unions, strikes, and

6110-399: The introduction of same-sex marriage in Poland and has repeatedly met with Biedroń, whom he called "a talent" and "a future president of Poland". In 2013, Wałęsa suggested the creation of a political union between Poland and Germany. In 2014, in a widely publicized interview, Wałęsa expressed his disappointment in another Nobel laureate, US president Barack Obama : he told CNN, "When he

6204-519: The leading underground weekly publication Tygodnik Mazowsze bore his motto, "Solidarity will not be divided or destroyed". Following a 1986 amnesty for Solidarity activists, Wałęsa co-founded the Provisional Council of NSZZ Solidarity ( Tymczasowa Rada NSZZ Solidarność ), the first overt legal Solidarity entity since the declaration of martial law. From 1987 to 1990, he organized and led the semi-illegal Provisional Executive Committee of

6298-417: The list after a wrenching internal debate about the virtues of honesty versus political discretion. In response to the publication of this list, President Wałęsa immediately engineered the fall of prime minister Jan Olszewski and the dismissal of Interior Minister Macierewicz. A parliamentary committee later concluded Wałęsa had not signed an agreement with the secret police. A 1997 Polish law made vetting

6392-582: The papers, now casting suspicion on me." Wałęsa's interior minister Andrzej Milczanowski denied the cover-up and said he "had full legal rights to make those documents available to President Wałęsa" and that "no original documents were removed from the file", which contained only photocopies. Wałęsa has offered conflicting statements regarding the authenticity of the documents. Initially he appeared to come close to an admission, saying in 1992, "in December 1970, I signed three or four documents" to escape from

6486-429: The president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, over his repeated collaboration allegations. Five months later, Kaczyński failed to invite Wałęsa to the commemoration service at Katyn , which almost certainly saved Wałęsa's life because the presidential plane crashed , killing all on board. In August 2010, Wałęsa lost a libel case against Krzysztof Wyszkowski, his former fellow activist, who also publicly accused Wałęsa of being

6580-602: The problems of Poland were to be solved. Wałęsa said "It's not the case that the name of socialism is bad. Only some people spoiled the name of socialism". He also complained about and criticized the government. Jaruzelski informed Wałęsa of the coming war games of the Warsaw Pact from 16 to 25 March, hoping he could help maintain the social order and avoid anti-Soviet remarks. Jaruzelski also reminded Wałęsa that Solidarity had used foreign funds. Wałęsa joked "We don't have to take only dollars. We can take corn, fertilizer, anything

6674-559: The proposal as Polish neo-imperialism . Wałęsa has been criticized for a confrontational style and for instigating "war at the top", whereby former Solidarity allies clashed with one another, causing annual changes of government. This increasingly isolated Wałęsa on the political scene. As he lost political allies, he came to be surrounded by people who were viewed by the public as incompetent and disreputable. Mudslinging during election campaigns tarnished his reputation. Some thought Wałęsa, an ex-electrician with no higher education,

6768-623: The prosecutor's office, which conducted a police search of the Kiszczaks' house and seized all the historic documents. Maria Kiszczak later said she had not read her husband's letter and had "made a mistake". For years, Wałęsa vehemently denied collaborating with the Polish Security Service and dismissed the incriminating files as forgeries created by the Security Service to compromise him. Wałęsa also denies that during his presidency he removed documents incriminating him from

6862-487: The publication of another biography connecting him with the secret police ( Lech Wałęsa: Idea and History by Pawel Zyzak), Wałęsa threatened to leave Poland if historians continue to question his past. He said that before revealing such information "a historian must decide whether this serves Poland". After the accusations against him resurfaced with the discovery of the Kiszczak dossier on 16 February 2016, Wałęsa called

6956-481: The rank of corporal before beginning work on 12 July 1967 as an electrician at Lenin Shipyard ( Stocznia Gdańska im. Lenina ), now called Gdańsk Shipyard ( Stocznia Gdańska ) in Gdańsk . From early in his career, Wałęsa was interested in workers' concerns; in 1968 he encouraged shipyard colleagues to boycott official rallies that condemned recent student strikes . He was a charismatic leader, who helped organize

7050-496: The secret police. In his 1987 autobiography A Way of Hope , Wałęsa said, "It is also the truth that I had not left that clash completely pure. They gave me a condition: sign! And then I signed." He denied he acted upon the collaboration agreement. However, in his later years Wałęsa said all the documents are forgeries and told the BBC in 2008, "you will not find any signature of mine agreeing to collaborate anywhere". In 2009, after

7144-555: The shipyard delivered 14 vessels. After 1955, the shipyard built vessels for the navies of Poland , USSR , Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and East Germany – mainly for troop landing craft , hydrographic, rescue, training and torpedo boats. In 1975 the shipyard was named " Westerplatte Heroes ". In 1980, Gdańsk was the arena for events that marked the beginning of organized resistance to Communist dictatorship in eastern Europe. A strike by 17,000 ship builders saw Solidarity (Solidarność), led by shipyard electrician Lech Wałęsa , recognised as

7238-627: The shipyard fence and quickly became one of the strike leaders. The strike inspired other similar strikes in Gdańsk, which then spread across Poland. Wałęsa headed the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee , coordinating the workers at Gdańsk and at 20 other plants in the region. On 31 August, the government, represented by Mieczysław Jagielski , signed an accord (the Gdańsk Agreement ) with the Strike Coordinating Committee. The agreement granted

7332-495: The shipyard from IDS in 2018 reaching 50%. As part of the Repair Group, Northern Shipyard can offer highly technical specialized products – from design to a fully-equipped ship. The shipyard now produces specialist ships, including LNG/LPG transport ships , passenger-car ferries, container vessels , offshore boats, hydrographic, and scientific ships. These vessels sail under the flags of Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway,

7426-520: The so-called transparency legislation advocated by the government might turn into a witch hunt and the more than 500,000 Poles who had possibly collaborated with the Communist secret police could face exposure. In 2011, Wałęsa rejected Lithuania 's Order of Vytautas the Great due to his concerns over the treatment of the Polish minority and Polish culture by the Lithuanian government. Wałęsa

7520-468: The strike, in the negotiations, and in the newly formed independent trade union gained him fame on the international stage. On 10 March 1981, through the introduction of his former superior in the army, Wałęsa met Wojciech Jaruzelski for the first time in the office building of the Council of Ministers for three hours. During the meeting, Jaruzelski and Wałęsa agreed that mutual trust was necessary if

7614-505: The vote. His humiliation was increased because Aleksander Kwaśniewski , who was re-elected in the first round with 54 percent of the vote, is a former Communist apparatchik . Wałęsa polled in seventh place, after which he announced his withdrawal from Polish politics. In 2006, Wałęsa quit Solidarity in protest of the union's support of the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party, and Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński —twin brothers who had been prominent in Solidarity and were now serving as

7708-547: The war but died two months later from exhaustion and illness. Lech's mother, Feliksa Wałęsa (née Kamieńska; 1915–1976), has been credited with shaping her son's beliefs and tenacity. After Bolesław's death, Feliksa remarried her brother-in-law, Stanisław Wałęsa (1917–1981), a farmer. Lech had three elder full siblings; Izabela (1935–2012), Edward (born 1937) and Stanisław (born 1940); and three younger half-brothers; Tadeusz (born 1945), Zygmunt (born 1948) and Wojciech (1950–1988). In 1973, Lech's mother and stepfather emigrated to

7802-511: The workers' protest in 1970. The documents also show that at first Bolek eagerly provided information on the opinions and actions of his co-workers and took money for the information, but his enthusiasm diminished and the quality of his information decreased until he was deemed no longer valuable and collaboration with him was terminated in 1976. The sealed dossier also contained a letter, hand-written by Kiszczak in April 1996, in which he informs

7896-478: The world on a lecture circuit . Wałęsa developed a portfolio of three lectures ("The Impact of an Expanded NATO on Global Security", "Democracy: The Never-Ending Battle" and "Solidarity: The New Millennium"), and reads them at universities and public events with an appearance fee of around £50,000 ($ 70,000). In 1995, he founded the Lech Wałęsa Institute , a think tank with a mission "to popularize

7990-411: Was already so popular that most Poles did not believe the official media and dismissed the allegations as a manipulation by the Communist authorities. The book's first print run sold out in Poland within hours. The book received substantial coverage in the media, provoked nationwide debate, and was noted by the international press. Wałęsa vowed to sue the authors but never did. On 18 February 2016,

8084-490: Was an effective union leader capable of articulating what the workers felt but as president he had difficulty delegating power or navigating bureaucracy. Wałęsa's problems were compounded by the difficult transition to a market economy; in the long run it was seen as highly successful but it lost Wałęsa's government much popular support. Wałęsa's BBWR performed poorly in the 1993 parliamentary elections ; at times his popular support dwindled to 10 percent and he narrowly lost

8178-470: Was an informant of the Security Service of the Polish People's Republic (Służba Bezpieczeństwa or SB), the Communist security services, in his twenties. In his 2002 book titled The Polish Revolution: Solidarity , British historian Timothy Garton Ash writes that Wałęsa, while vehemently denying being a regular Security Service informer, admitted that he had "signed something" under interrogation in

8272-567: Was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, he has received more than 30 state decorations and more than 50 awards from 30 countries, including Order of the Bath (UK), Order of Merit (Germany), Legion of Honour (France) and European Human Rights Prize ( EU 1989). In 2011, he declined to accept the Lithuanian highest order , citing his displeasure at Lithuania's policy towards the Polish diaspora . In 2008, he established

8366-417: Was discovered at the turn of 1995/96, the following prosecutorial inquiry was discontinued for political reasons despite the case attracting much public attention. Sławomir Cenckiewicz also said that in 1983, when Wałęsa was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, the secret police tried to embarrass him and leaked information about Wałęsa's previous collaboration with the government. By this time though, Wałęsa

8460-415: Was elected there was great hope in the world. We were hoping that Obama would reclaim moral leadership for America, but that failed ...  in terms of politics and morality America no longer leads the world". Wałęsa also accused Obama of not deserving his Nobel Peace Prize ; during the 2012 US presidential campaign he endorsed Obama's opponent Mitt Romney . In September 2015, Wałęsa, referring to

8554-666: Was known as Shipyard No. 3. Its activities were mainly production and repairs of trains, trams and small floating units. In December 1945 Shipyard No. 3 had a workforce of 694, including 8 engineers and 28 technicians. Launches began in 1948 – smacks for the Gdańsk Institute of Sea Fishing were delivered and 53 rescue boats were built. In 1949 the shipyard started to produce fishing lugo-trawlers. In February 1950, Shipyard No3 changed its name to Northern Shipyard. In 1951, it ended production of trains, specializing instead in small cargo ships, fishing vessels and scientific ships. In 1952,

8648-483: Was lying. In 1992, Naimski, as a head of the State Protection Office , started the process of screening people suspected of being Communist collaborators in Poland. In June that year, he helped Antoni Macierewicz prepare a list of 64 members of the government and parliament who were named as spies in the police records; these included Wałęsa, then the Polish president. Wałęsa's name was included on

8742-437: Was ostensibly an advisory body but in practice a political party that won the parliamentary elections in June 1989 . Solidarity took all the seats in the Sejm that were subject to free elections, and all but one seat in the newly re-established Senate . Wałęsa was one of Solidarity's most public figures; he was an active campaigner, appearing on many campaign posters, but did not run for parliament himself. Solidarity winners in

8836-413: Was too plain-spoken and too undignified for the post of president. Others thought him too erratic in his views or complained he was too authoritarian and that he sought to strengthen his own power at the expense of the Sejm. Wałęsa's national security advisor Jacek Merkel credited the shortcomings of Wałęsa's presidency to his inability to comprehend the office of the president as an institution. He

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