Exactly 35 years ago, on October 5, 1983, the Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Lech Wałęsa.

Nobel Prize for a Pole

"Efforts to provide workers with the right to establish their own organizations are an important contribution to the campaign for universal human rights," was one of the sentences we can read in the justification for granting this award to our citizen, Lech Wałęsa. An important issue for the Committee was the fact that the president did not resort to violence in times of problem solving. It was explained that "... Wałęsa's effort is both an inspiration and an example."

Read also: Today Lech Wałęsa is celebrating his 75th birthday!

Good news for the President

Krzysztof Wyszkowski, a close friend of Lech Wałęsa, it was he who on the night of October 5-6, gave this great news about awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize. At the very beginning, the chairman of "Solidarity" did not take this news seriously, he suspected that his colleague was just joking. In fact, the next day he believed when a crowd of Western journalists fled outside his house to talk to him.

Speech

As soon as the president found out about the award, a crowd gathered in front of his house. The group of a very large number of people was not only journalists. Lech Wałęsa felt then to give a short speech in front of these people, where he said "This is our common reward, recognition for all of us who want to go to the truth in a peaceful way, through understanding."

Inconvenient Nobel

There was no reward good news for the authorities of the Polish People's Republic. Many people reacted very negatively to this information. A wave of criticism where one could hear such sentences as "a small episode in the anti-Polish and anti-communist crusade", spoken by Jerzy Urban himself. What's worse, the Polish authorities, six days after the announcement of the award of the Nobel Prize, sent an official objection to Oslo in which they opposed the decision of the Nobel Committee.

Receipt of the prize

Lech Wałęsa himself did not make the decision to collect the award himself. He was aware that he might not be allowed into the country on his way back. On December 10, the husband's award was received by his wife Danuta and her 13-year-old son Bogdan.