“The history of
our country has gained acceleration. It happened because of a society that
refuses to go on living as before. We need to restore the normal mechanisms of
Poland's political life. The transition is difficult, but it does not have to
cause a shock. On the contrary - it will be the way to normalcy. The principle
of the fight, which sooner or later leads to the elimination of the enemy, ?
must be replaced by the principle of partnership. There is no other way of
transition from a totalitarian to a democratic system. The current mindset behind the state must be changed”.
– said Tadeusz Mazowiecki (1927-2013) on the day of
his inaugural speech/expose in 1989, when he became the first non-communist Prime
Minister in Central and Eastern Europe since World War II.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki was a politician, dissident, journalist,
philanthropist, and one of the key leaders of the Solidarity movement. He
became a symbol of the struggle against communism - a system which did not
respect basic human rights and dignity. The life of Tadeusz Mazowiecki (born
1927) to much extent reflects the turbulent history of XX century Europe and
the history of a nation that for decades longed and struggled for freedom.
Mazowiecki was raised in the times, where his
generation directly experienced the war and occupation: “The end of the war was also a difficult time for our family. It was a
time of anxiety, of waiting for my brother Wojciech, who got arrested towards
the very end of the occupation, to return from the Stutthof concentration camp.
Regrettably, he never came back”. However, the end of World War II did not
bring any relief to the tormented nation as the Nazi occupation, which
physically destroyed most of Polish intellectual elite and annihilated the
entire Polish Jewry, was replaced by the occupation of another sort. The
freshly born state of new Poland was politically ‘incorporated’ into the
communist sphere of the Soviet Union. To surprise of many, following his
consistent Christian beliefs, Mazowiecki was one those intellectual mavericks
who dared to push for the Polish-German reconciliation. After the war such
actions were unthinkable to the communist regime which exploited the hatred
towards ex-occupiers to legitimize its power and justify the subjection to the
Soviets.
For many years Mazowiecki was a Catholic activist in
the anti-communist opposition, including the Club of Catholic Intellectuals –
the only legal opposition that was established after a political thawing of
1956. He was also a member of the Polish parliament serving as a member of a
political group "Znak". He played a major role in the Polish peaceful
transition from communism to democracy. He was one of the signatories of the
"Appeal" of 64 intellectuals supporting the strikers at the Gdansk shipyard,
which was a spark that united previously distant to each other social groups in
a fight for human rights. Mazowiecki gradually became one of the closest
advisors to Lech Walesa. After the imposition of martial law in 1981 he was
interned by the communist authorities for more than a year.
Mazowiecki is known to be as one of the architects of
the "Round Table" talks, which brought together the Soviet-controlled
communist regime leaders and the Solidarity
opposition to pave the way for Poland's bloodless transition to democracy in
1989. On August 24, 1989 he became the first non-communist Polish Prime Minister
since World War II. His government was able in a short time to carry out a
series of fundamental reforms in Poland introducing democracy and free market
economy.
The change in Poland ignited or accelerated the chain
of events, the so-called Fall of the
Nations, in neighboring countries of Central and Eastern Europe as for
example the Fall of Berlin Wall and demise of the Soviet Union. He strongly
believed that democracy needs to protect minorities. In his expose he said that
“Poland is a country – a homeland - not
only of the Poles. We live on this soil with representatives of other nations.
We want them to feel here at home, to cultivate their language and their
culture to enrich our community.” His life proved that he was unyielding in
his beliefs. After the massacre in Srebrenica in 1995, while serving as the UN
special envoy he demonstratively resigned his office and issued a report documenting
human rights abuses by all parties of the conflict. He never abandoned his
commitment to serve the country and dedication to support the ongoing
transformation process. From October 2010 until his death he worked as an advisor
on national and international policy to President of Poland, Bronisław
Komorowski.
Notwithstanding his commitment as the member of the
Humanity in Action Poland Programming Board, Tadeusz Mazowiecki and its lasting
legacy as a peaceful change and human rights leader was and still is a source
of inspiration for the work of our organization.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a man of freedom and peaceful
revolution passed away on October 28, 2013 in Warsaw.
Sources:
1. Tadeusz
Mazowiecki in memoriam by Natalia Jackowska. Institute for Western Affairs,
Poznań, 2013.
2. Tadeusz
Mazowiecki’s expose of August 24, 1989 and of September 12, 1989.
3. Tadeusz
Mazowiecki, Report on the Fall of Srebrenica, General Assembly Security
Council, September 18, 1995, http://bosniangenocide.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/mazowiecki-report-on-the-fall-of-srebrenica-sept-1995/
