PRESIDENT LECH WALESA (POLAND) - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 288524

LECH WALESA
4x6 color image in suit and tie
Photograph signed: "Lech Walesa". Color, 4x6. Lech Walesa (b. 1943), an electrician at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk, Poland, was a union activist and human rights campaigner. He became head of Solidarity in 1980, a national union that won concessions from the Polish government, unprecedented in the Soviet bloc. Solidarity was suspended, and Walesa imprisoned, when martial law was imposed in 1981. He continued underground work for Solidarity throughout the 1980s, and was awarded the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution "to insure the workers' right to establish their own organizations." In the 1988 labor unrest, he negotiated with the government, resulting in an April 1989 accord which offered a broad range of political and economic reforms including free elections. In the June 1989 parliamentary elections, Walesa was elected President of Poland. He served from December 22, 1990 to December 23, 1995, overseeing the transition from authoritarian to democratic government. The difficult transition from a command to a market economy, though ultimately successful, was one of several factors diminishing Walesa's popularity in Poland, and he narrowly lost the 1995 Presidential election. Walesa continues to receive international honors though, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. He represented Poland at the state funerals of Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin. Fine condition.