Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Poland\'s first non-communist Prime Minister passes away

“A man who had the courage to act wisely during Poland’s crucial moments has died. We say thank you,” said Polish President Bronisław Komorowski, who appointed Tadeusz Mazowiecki his advisor in October 2010. “Mazowiecki was one of the founding fathers of our freedom and independence,” added Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski speaking to the Polish media. 

Born in 1927 in Płock, Mazowiecki was an active participant and one of the architects of Poland’s most important historical events. 

In 1957, he co-founded the Club of Catholic Intellectuals (KIK) and the Catholic social and political monthly Więź, becoming its editor-in-chief. In 1961-72, he was deputy to the Polish People’s Republic’s Sejm from the Catholic group “Znak”. In 1968 he lodged an interpellation criticising brutal Militia actions against striking students. The Polish communist authorities regarded Mazowiecki as inconvenient and opposed his standing for re-election to the Sejm in 1972. 

In 1975-81, Mazowiecki supported workers’ strikes against communist authorities.  On 20 August 1980, he signed the Appeal of 64 intellectuals in support of the strike in the Gdańsk Shipyard and, together with Bronisław Geremek, went to Gdańsk to deliver the appeal to the striking shipyard workers. At the invitation of Lech Wałęsa, he became the head of the Commission of Experts of the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee that supported negotiations with the Polish People’s Republic’s authorities. Appointed editor-in-chief of Tygodnik Solidarność, Mazowiecki was detained on 13 December 1981 – the day martial law was imposed in Poland. He was one of the last detainees to be freed in December 1982. 

In the 1980s, he was one of Lech Wałęsa’s closest advisors. In 1988, he joined the official Group of Advisors of the National Executive Committee of NSZZ “Solidarność” and negotiated between the striking Gdańsk Shipyard workers and the Polish People’s Republic’s authorities. After the negotiations broke down, he stayed on until the strike was called off. Mazowiecki took part in the Round Table plenary talks that started Poland’s political transformation and was one of the main architects of the agreement that led to Poland’s first partially free elections on 4 June 1989. 

On 19 August 1989, he was appointed prime minister of the Polish People’s Republic.  Within a few months, his cabinet changed the political system, enacted civil and political rights, a multi-party system, changed the national emblem and the name of the state.

 In 1991, one month before the end of his term of office, Mazowiecki became head of a new political party – the Democratic Union, which won a majority of seats in first democratic elections to the Sejm. 

In 1992, appointed Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights for the Former Yugoslavia, Mazowiecki resigned in protest against inactivity of the great powers and published a report on human rights violations by all sides of the conflict. In the 1997 Sejm elections, he won his third parliamentary mandate. 

In 2005, he co-founded the Democratic Party - demokraci.pl. In October 2010, he was appointed advisor to the President of the Republic of Poland Bronisław Komorowski. 

Awarded the highest state honours: Order of the White Eagle and the Gold Medal of Merit for Culture Gloria Artis, among others.