Lech Wałęsa — SPARQNOW

At-a-Glance

Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1983)
Served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995
Co-founded the Solidarity trade union, which grew to more than ten million members
Led the pro-democratic effort that ended Communist rule in Poland in 1989
Established the Lech Wałęsa Institute in 1995
Named Time Man of the Year (1981)

Biography

Lech Wałęsa is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, born on September 29, 1943. He served as the president of Poland from 1990 to 1995, becoming the first democratically elected president of Poland since 1922 and the first-ever Polish president elected by popular vote. An electrician by trade, Wałęsa rose to prominence as a trade-union activist at the Lenin Shipyard, where he was persecuted by the government, fired in 1976, and arrested multiple times for his activism.