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YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, ARMENPRESS. A condolence book was opened in the Embassy of Poland to the Republic of Armenia on the death of first non-communist prime minister of Poland Tadeusz Mazowiecki. The Press Service of the Embassy of Poland to the Republic of Armenia informed “Armenpress” that the President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski stated: “A man, who dared to be wise at the crucial moments for Poland, has left us. We are grateful to You.”
Tadeusz Mazowiecki was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki was born in Płock, Poland on 18 April 1927 to a Polish noble family, which uses the Dołęga coat of arms. Both his parents worked at the local Holy Trinity Hospital: his father was a doctor there while his mother ran a charity for the poor. His education was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. During the war he worked as a runner in the hospital his parents worked for. After the German forces had been expelled from Płock, Tadeusz Mazowiecki resumed his education and in 1946 he graduated from "Marshal Stanisław Małachowski" Lyceum, the oldest high school in Poland and one of the oldest schools still running in Europe. He then moved to Łódź and then to Warsaw, where he joined the Law Faculty of the Warsaw University. However, he never graduated and instead devoted himself to activity in various Catholic associations, journals and publishing houses.
Already during his brief stay at the Warsaw University Mazowiecki joined the Caritas Academica charity organisation, he also briefly headed the University Printing Cooperative between 1947 and 1948. In 1946 he also joined Karol Popiel's Labour Party. However, later that year the party was de-legalised by the new Stalinist authorities of Soviet-controlled Poland. Almost all other non-communist organisations soon also became a target of state-sponsored repressions. One of the exceptions was the PAX Association, the only large Catholic organisation supported by the Communist authorities - and supporting the authorities in their conflict with the Catholic clergy. Mazowiecki joined PAX in 1948, initially as one of the leaders of the youth circles. He openly criticisedBolesław Piasecki's vision of the association and his allegiance to the Communists. He nevertheless rose through the ranks of various journals published by the association. Initially a journalist in the Dziś i Jutro weekly, in 1950 he became the deputy editor-in-chief of Słowo Powszechne daily newspaper. In 1952 the conflict between Piasecki and the opposition within the PAX (the so-called Fronda, composed mostly of young intellectuals) led to Mazowiecki being expelled from the daily and relegated to a less prominent role of an editor of newly created Wrocławski Tygodnik Katolicki (Wrocław Catholic Weekly, WTK).
Solidarity then persuaded the Communists' two satellite parties to break their alliance with the Communists. This would all but force President Wojciech Jaruzelski to appoint a Solidarity member as prime minister, heading the first government in 45 years that was not dominated by Communists. At a meeting on 17 August 1989, Jaruzelski finally agreed to Lech Wałęsa's demand that the next Prime Minister of Poland should be a member of Solidarity. Walesa chose Mazowiecki as Solidarity candidate to lead the coming administration. On 21 August 1989 General Jaruzelski designated Mazowiecki as candidate for Prime Minister. On 24 August 1989 the Sejm gave him a vote of confidence, making Mazowiecki became the first non-communist Prime Minister of an Eastern European country in over 40 years.
On 13 September 1989 during his parliamentary speech introducing his new cabinet and government program for parliamentary approval, Mazowiecki had a dizzy spell which necessitated a one hour break in proceedings. However the government was approved by a vote 402–0, with 13 abstentions. Mazowiecki's government managed to carry out many fundamental reforms in a short period. The political system was thoroughly changed; a full range of civil freedoms as well as a multi-party system were introduced and the country's emblem and name were changed (from the People's Republic of Poland to the Republic of Poland). On 29 December 1989, the fundamental changes in the Polish Constitution were made. By virtue of these changes, the preamble was deleted, the chapters concerning political and economic forms of government were changed, the chapters concerning trade unions were rewritten and a uniform notion of possession was introduced.
Mazowiecki used enormous popularity and credibility of the Solidarity movement to transform Polish economy by a set of deep political and economic reforms. Better known under the name of Balcerowicz Plan after Mazowiecki's minister of finance, Leszek Balcerowicz, the reforms enabled the transformation of Polish economy from centrally-planned shortage economy to modern, free market. The reforms have prepared ground for measures stopping the hyperinflation, introducing free market mechanisms and privatisation of state-owned companies, houses and land.
In 1989, in his first parliamentary speech in Sejm, Mazowiecki talked about a "thick line" (gruba linia): "We draw a thick line on what has happened in the past. We will answer for only what we have done to help Poland to rescue her from this crisis from now on". Originally, as Mazowiecki explains, it meant non-liability of his government for damages done to the national economy by previous governments.
A conflict with Lech Wałęsa resulted in disintegration of Citizens' Parliamentary Club that represented solidarity camp. The Citizens' Parliamentary Club was divided into Centre Agreement, which supported Wałęsa, and ROAD, which took sides with Mazowiecki. That conflict lead both politicians to compete in presidential election at the end of 1990. Mazowiecki, who during Solidarity times was an advisor to Lech Wałęsa and strike committee in Gdańsk's shipyard, stood against Wałęsa in election and lost to him.
In 1991, Mazowiecki became a chairman of Democratic Union (later Freedom Union), and from 1995 he was its honorary president. Together with Jan Maria Rokita, Aleksander Hall and Hanna Suchocka he represented the Christian Democratic wing of the party. Between 1989 and 2001 Mazowiecki was a representative to the Polish Parliament (first from Poznań, later from Kracow).
Mazowiecki was a member of parliament in first, second and third term (member of Democratic Union), later the Freedom Union. During the National Assembly (1997) he introduced compromise preamble of Polish constitution.
Mazowiecki received numerous awards including an honorary degree from the universities in: Leuven, Genoa, Giessen, Poitiers, Exeter, Warsaw and the Katowice University of Economics. He also received the Order of White Eagle (1995), Golden Order of Bosnia (1996), Légion d'honneur (1997), Srebrnica Award (2005), the Giant award (1995) awarded byGazeta Wyborcza (Election Gazette) in Poznań and Jan Nowak-Jezioranski Award (2004). In 2003, he was elected to the board of directors of the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims. Mazowiecki was a member of the Club of Madrid. He was a supporter of a more united Europe.
Mazowiecki died in Warsaw on 28 October 2013, having been taken to hospital the previous week with a fever. Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski stated that he was "one of the fathers of Polish liberty and independence".