22 December 1990: Lech Wałęsa is elected President of Poland, becoming the first democratically elected President of Poland since 1926 and the first-ever Polish President elected in popular vote.

17 comments

  1. Lech Wałęsa (born in 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident and labour activist who helped form and led (between 1980 and 1990) 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 – 1995). Lech Wałęsa presided over Poland’s successful transition from Communism into a free-market liberal democracy.

    He received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1983.

  3. How were the other “democratically elected” presidents have been “democratically elected” without the popular vote? Weren’t the second Commonwealth just a quasi-fascist dictatorship??

  4. From perspective of time, letting him to become a president was a mistake. It is hard not to admit that he was a charismatic leader, who succesfully mobilized masses to oppose the regime.
    On the other hand, his lack of political sense, narrow education and narcissism did not work well after 1990 and greatly contributed to instability on a political scene during 1990s – at this point it is worth to mention that he is an enormous asshole.

    In 1995 he lost elections to young post-communist candidate, who (ironically) lead Poland to NATO and the EU, and still remains widely respected.

  10. I sometimes try to imagine what the internet would look like if social media already existed back when the communist bloc was collapsing. The shitposting and memes on reddit alone would probably break the internet.

  12. Traitor of Solidarity, informant, secret collaborator of the communist services – pseudonym “Bolek”. He made it impossible to judge the communist criminals.

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