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Lech Walesa

Origin: Popowo, Poland
(January 23, 1921)

Heroic Values: Achievement, Courage, Integrity, Perseverance, Selflessness, Vision

Background

Lech Wałęsa was born to a carpenter and became a car mechanic after spending some time in school. He left to join the army for two years and then went to work as an electrician at the Gdańsk shipyards.

Once he became part of the Communist workforce he was dissatisfied with conditions and began communicating with various oppositional groups. Starting in 1970 he got into trouble for anti-establishment behaviour and was imprisoned for a year. In 1980 Wałęsa famously scaled the wall of the Lenin Shipyard to join a strike and became its leader. This strike was repeated around Poland and a month later, the government agreed to allow the formation of trade unions. This was short-lived as the government declared martial law after only a few months.

The following year he was imprisoned again and was only able to return after a year as an electrician in the dockyards. He spent the following four years under house arrest and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. In 1988 Wałęsa organized another occupational strike which led to the reformation of the Solidarity union. The communist rule of Poland started falling apart and in 1990 Wałęsa was elected as President of Poland. With the collapse of Communism in Poland, numerous countries followed suit in a wave.

Sources

Wikipedia
The online encyclopedia

Nobel.org
Wałęsa's profile

The Time 100
Wałęsa the leader