Jacek Kuron

Jacek Kuron led the struggle against Poland's communist leaders as a dissident in the 1970s and later became a popular government minister. He is believed to have played an important role in the founding of Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement, which went on to play a central role on post-communist Polish governments, and was the unquestionable leader of anti-communist struggle in the 1970s and '80s. Kuron was originally a strong supporter of the communist regime imposed by the Soviet Union following World War II, but became disenchanted by 1964, and wrote a letter to the party accusing its members of betraying communist ideals and infringing on people's freedoms. The party reacted by expelling Kuron and jailing him for more than three years. Many other incarcerations followed between 1966 and 1984, as Kuron took on a leading role in organizing student and worker demonstrations and other pro-democracy agitation. While Lech Walesa was the popular leader of the Solidarity movement, Kuron was widely seen as the intellectual driving force behind its founding in 1980. He was jailed in 1981 in a nationwide nighttime sweep that netted hundreds of Solidarity leaders after the country's communist leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, imposed martial law. Kuron went on to became labor minister in the first democratic government, between 1989 and 1990 under Solidarity Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, gaining wide popularity in his fight to help the country's poor. He introduced welfare programs for the unemployed and opened outdoor soup kitchens to feed people -- starting the program by himself taking to the streets to serve the food. Kuron served again as labor minister under Solidarity's third government, under Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka, between 1992-93. Kuron made an unsuccessful bid for president in 1995, after which his health deteriorated significantly and he retreated from public life.