Lech Walesa Nobel Laureate and first Polish president Lech Walesa offers words of encouragement to those who might feel downtrodden with the current state of the world. If sometimes it feels as though the challenges we face are impossible to overcome, Walesa urges us to remember that through solidarity, our generation has succeeded in solving many problems that at one time were considered hopeless. We are a special generation that has succeeded in eliminating many dangerous divisions from the world, minimizing the boundaries that once divided nations and peoples, and embracing global cultural interaction.

About

is the former president of Poland, a Nobel laureate, and a former prisoner of conscience. President from 1990 to 1995, Walesa successfully led Poland through its transition from dictatorship to freedom. Having spent the 1970s fighting for Polish workers’ rights and the right to organize, he was routinely subjected to state surveillance and repression. In 1981, he cofounded Solidarity, the first independent trade union in the Soviet Bloc, for which TIME magazine named him “Man of the Year." Later in 1981, when the Polish regime declared martial law as part of its crackdown on critics, Walesa was among the first to be imprisoned. His steadfast commitment to workers’ rights and democracy made him a global symbol of freedom; in 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. After his release from prison, Walesa spent the 1980s negotiating with the Polish regime to earn recognition for Solidarity. His efforts paid off in 1989, when a coalition led by Solidarity won elections and became the first non-communist government in the Soviet bloc.

In 1990, Walesa became the first democratically-elected president of Poland. He has written three books: The Road of Hope, My 3rd Republic of Poland, and The Road to Truth. Walesa holds more than 25 honorary doctorates from universities across the world and is the recipient of more than 50 international awards. He currently runs the Lech Walesa Institute, an organization he established in 1995 to support democracy and local governance in Poland.