Seven choices of Lech Walesa
July 29, 2008 by grzegorz.piechota
Despite of harsh relations between Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza and Lech Walesa, the newspaper defended Mr. Walesa against recent accusations of his collaboration with the Communist secret service.
In June 2008 two historians claimed in a new book that Mr. Walesa, a legendary leader of Solidarity, informed to the SB, the communist secret service, in the 70s, and after becoming president destroyed the evidence.
Mr. Walesa (now 65-years-old) co-founded and led Solidarity in 1980, the Soviet bloc’s first independent trade union, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. After the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989 he served as the President of Poland (1990-1995).
The book has been published by the state-financed custodian of Poland’s surviving communist-era archives – the National Remembrance Institute - and is based on the Communist secret service’s file.
The Institute’s director and the two historians are allied with Poland’s conservative President Lech Kaczynski and his identical twin Jaroslaw Kaczynski, an ex-prime minister, both of whom fell out with Mr. Walesa in the 90s.
Mr. Walesa replied to historians’ claims: ”That’s a lie. The documents suggesting my collaboration are all fakes!”.
Polish intellectuals and former Solidarity activists have launched vocal protests over the book’s “smear campaign” against Mr. Walesa.
Jan Litynski, opposition activist in 70-80s, said:
[Historians] have set out to destroy the Lech Walesa legend. They want to prove that independent Poland couldn’t be an authentic creation. But they won’t succeed in proving to millions of Poles and billions of people in the world that the Polish independence movement wasn’t authentic and that the III Republic was created by the SB [the Communist secret service].
Andrzej Milczanowski, who as an interior minister in 90s read the Communist secret service’s file on Walesa, added:
The file contained no originals. Nor did it contain any document handwritten or signed by Mr Walesa. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr Walesa was an SB agent at any time in his life.
Gazeta Wyborcza’s editors felt that it was their mission to tell their story about Walesa. Gazeta was founded in 1989 by a group of journalists and activists of the underground press as the platform for the first democratic parliamentary elections. The first issue of Gazeta held Solidarity logo on the front page and featured Walesa’s greetings to readers.
1. Commentary: We defend Lech Walesa
”We defend Lech Walesa,” was a headline of the front page commentary written by the first deputy editor-in-chief Jaroslaw Kurski. “So, we learn that Walesa talked to the SB. But does this mean he crossed the red line?
That’s far from certain,” wrote Kurski. “Walesa is like one of Shakespeare’s characters. He’s a tragic character but also a great one. That’s how he’s always been, a combination of pettiness and greatness. That’s the Walesa we know and love.”
Mr. Kurski was Lech Walesa’s spokesman during Poland’s transition from communism to democracy in 1989/90. He wrote the first critical biography of Walesa ”Wodz” (”The leader”).
Additionaly, Mr. Kurski and Adam Michnik, Gazeta’s editor-in-chief, both wrote long opinion articles about Walesa in Gazeta’s weekly literary supplement Gazeta Swiateczna.
Mr. Michnik was a prominent member of democratic opposition in the 60-80s and an advisor to Walesa during 80s. So he wrote very emotionally: “Hands off Lech Walesa!”
Although he, too, has criticised Walesa for his presidency, he cannot accept that the Polish Transformation should be dragged through the mud:
I cannot write about this from a purely political point of view. I am simply appalled, I feel bitterness and resentment. I would never have thought that Poland would do such a thing on the 25th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize for its national hero. Don’t say that you are uncovering things and want to reveal the truth that others (the establishment?) want to hide. You are lying.
2. Series: Seven choices of Lech Walesa
Gazeta decided to tell the full story of Mr. Walesa’s life in a series of features about his seven most dramatic choices from 1970 to today.
These stories were accompanied by archive photos, excerpts from Mr. Wales’s speeches, interviews and writings, articles of the official and underground press, and a historical column telling younger readers the background about living in the Communist Poland.
Gazeta published their work for seven consecutive days (one choice per day) in a special 4-page section in the newspaper. Look at the first section and the collection of all seven section’s front pages:
This editorial project involved a team of 26 people from editorial and marketing departments of Gazeta.
There were 9 reporters working on stories and backgrounds, 1 video reporter, 6 editors (1 responsible only for letters from readers), 3 photo editors, 4 designers and graphicians, 1 webmaster, 2 promoters.
They all produced a new biography about Mr. Walesa in less than five days! We made a ”go” decision on Wednesday evening, the first ads appeared in the newspaper on Friday and the first part of the series run in the Monday issue.
3. Letters: My Lech Walesa
Gazeta invited readers to collect their memories on Mr. Walesa and write essays for Gazeta: about their meetings, his role in their lives, their opinion on him and how these opinions changed over time.
We got hundreds of such letters and we managed to publish only small selection in print. We could put much more letters online.
4. Online features
Gazeta’s online edition – Wyborcza.pl – created a special section on the net with all the stories about Walesa and readers’ letters.
It was used as a promotional tool for the printed newspaper: the website’s layout familiarised readers with an idea of the series and introduced the next parts before they were published.
A video reporter added interviews with Mr. Walesa who commented on all the choices that Gazeta’s editors were describing in their features.
Tagged: campaign, feature, Gazeta, letters, newspaper, opinion, series, young readers
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