Lech Wałęsa
Polish shipyard electrician who led the Solidarity trade union against the communist government. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and was President of Poland from 1990 to 1995.
Biography
Lech Wałęsa was an electrician at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk who became a leader of workers' protests in the 1970s. In August 1980 he led the strike that ended in the Gdańsk Agreement and the founding of Solidarity, the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc.
When martial law was declared in December 1981, Solidarity was banned and Wałęsa was interned for almost a year. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. In 1989 he took part in the Round Table talks that led to partly free elections, which Solidarity won.
Wałęsa was elected President of Poland in 1990 and served until 1995, a period of rapid market reform and political conflict. He lost the 1995 election to Aleksander Kwaśniewski and won few votes when he ran again in 2000.
Offices held
Ryszard Kaczorowski Succeeded by
Aleksander Kwaśniewski
