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Lech Wałęsa

Historical Figure

Lech Wałęsa

b. 1943

President of Poland from 1990 to 1995

Interwar & WWII

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Key Dates

Biography

Lech Wałęsa is a Polish statesman, dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democratically elected president of Poland since 1926 and the first-ever Polish president elected by popular vote. An electrician by trade, Wałęsa became the leader of the opposition Solidarity movement and led a successful pro-democratic effort, which in 1989 ended Communist rule in Poland and ushered in the end of the Cold War.

Source: Wikipedia · Compiled March 2026 · AI-summarized

Timeline

1943
Birth

Polish electrician and politician, 2nd President of Poland, Nobel Prize laureate

September 29 →
1980
Event

à l'issue de 14 jours de grève au chantier naval Lénine de Gdańsk, le vice-Premier ministre Mieczysław Jagielski signe, avec Lech Wałęsa, devant l'assemblée générale des délégués des entreprises en grève dans la région, l'accord de Gdańsk, qui reconnaît le droit de grève et le droit de créer des syndicats libres.

August 31 →
1980
Event

Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.

August 14 →
1982
Event

Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity leader, is released from a Polish prison after eleven months.

November 12 →
1982
Event

Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.

November 14 →
1989
Event

el sindicalista polaco Lech Wałęsa recibe la medalla de oro de los Derechos del Hombre que otorga el Consejo de Europa.

May 10 →
1990
Event

Lech Wałęsa becomes the first directly elected president of Poland.

December 9 →
1990
Event

Lech Wałęsa is elected President of Poland.

December 22 →
1990
Event

Im ersten Wahlgang der ersten freien Präsidentenwahl in Polen erreicht der polnisch-kanadische Geschäftsmann Stanisław Tymiński überraschend den zweiten Platz hinter Lech Wałęsa und damit die Stichwahl.

November 25 →
1990
Event

en Polonia, Lech Wałęsa se convierte en presidente.

December 9 →
1995
Event

Bei der polnischen Präsidentschaftswahl gewinnt Aleksander Kwaśniewski die nötige Stichwahl gegen Amtsinhaber Lech Wałęsa.

November 19 →

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