Lech Wałęsa

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Lech Wałęsa

president of Poland

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Nov 8, 2024 • Article History

Quick Facts

Born:: September 29, 1943, Popowo, near Włocławek, Poland (age 81)

Awards And Honors:: Nobel Prize (1983)

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Lech Wałęsa (born September 29, 1943, Popowo, near Włocławek, Poland) is a labour activist who helped form and led (1980–90) communist Poland’s first independent trade union, Solidarity. The charismatic leader of millions of Polish workers, he went on to become the president of Poland (1990–95). He received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1983. Wałęsa, the son of a carpenter, received only primary and vocational education and in 1967 began work as an electrician at the huge Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk. He witnessed the 1970 food riots in Gdańsk in which police killed a number of demonstrators. When new protests ...(100 of 957 words)

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