Wałęsa: I want to solve alleged ‘spy claims’

[pieter]

Wałęsa: I want to solve alleged ‘spy claims’

11.01.2016 16:33

Former Polish president Lech Wałęsa has said that he wants to meet with the people who have accused him of having been a collaborator for the Soviet secret police.


Lech Wałęsa. Photo: Flickr.com/polandmfa

Wałęsa would like the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) to organise a meeting with those who have accused him of being a spy.

For years, various voices have hinted that Lech Wałęsa – a former electrician who went on to become the leader of the Solidarity trade union – was a Soviet collaborator codenamed “Bolek”.

His alleged collaboration supposedly ended several years before the famed August 1980 shipyard strike in Gdańsk, where Solidarity was born.

“I propose a public final chapter to this ‘Bolek’ issue,” former president Wałęsa said.

A letter was sent to the Gdańsk branch of the IPN Mirosław Golon and published on Wałęsa’s blog.

A noted journalist and former dissident in 2011 declared that he would not follow a court order and apologise to Lech Wałęsa for accusing the Solidarity leader of being a one-time communist agent.

In 2012 Wałęsa has expressed his “pain and disgust” at being accused of having collaborated with the communist-era secret service. (rg/nh)

Source: PAP

[Jaga]

I wish Walesa was used to the fact that he would not be considered a hero by everybody just because of the politics and hate for prominent figures. Still, he is a symbol of Polish Solidarity, he is respected..... and he should be.

[pieter]

I agree with you Jaga!

[karl]

It would so appear to be a rhetorical question as rather Mr. Walesa was contacted by representatives of a foreign government by members of which ever soviet agency.

The above would be quite common event for contact or attempted contact of a rising government official born out of a conflict as was Mr. Walesa. For it is usually a manner of contact to test the waters of a new power official that sooner or later must be dealt with for various reasons of both political and economics relationships. This would be an expected procedure for most any Eastern State.

Rather Mr. Walesa was to work for in a manner of self survival or simply a contact of no prominence is only to what length Mr. Walesa wishes to divulge or keep to him self. What ever his actions and/or results of such actions, would be to the health and welfare of the country he loves.

What ever the action{s} his agreement or opposite, could always be viewed by what ever reasons to be a collaboration with a foreign power representative. This would be in the eyes only of the beholder to believe.

Karl

[pieter]

Debate over Wałęsa spy claims given green light

15.01.2016 13:10

Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) has accepted former president Lech Wałęsa's proposal to host a debate over claims he was an informer for the secret police in the early 1970s.


Lech Wałęsa (L). Photo: wikimedia commons/R. Lotys

Allegations that Wałęsa collaborated with the communist security services (SB) under the pseudonym of 'Bolek' have plagued the erstwhile leader of the Solidarity trade union for many years.

He has repeatedly denied the accusations.

Wałęsa approached IPN's Gdańsk branch on 8 January, proposing that he would take part in a recorded debate. He stressed that his most vehement critics from the worlds of journalism and academia would be welcome.

IPN has announced on its official website that it is “willing to organise such a debate” and that details of the initiative will be revealed over the coming days.

Wałęsa's alleged cooperation with the SB followed the repression of strikes in Gdańsk and its environs in 1970, which he had taken part in. He supposedly broke off ties with the SB several years before the landmark 1980 strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard, a protest that led to the birth of the Solidarity trade union and his meteoric rise to international fame.

Although he has strenuously denied the accuations in Poland, in 2011 he told the UK's Guardian newspaper that he had played “a game” with the secret services.

“It was all a clever game,” he told the daily.

“It was important to play it to give the impression I was weak, so as not to be eliminated."

“Not for a moment was I on the other side,” he insisted.

(nh/pk)

[Jaga]

I think that Lech Walesa will be happy If he would receive more exposure and his enemies would have a hard time to try to persecute him.