define the following term:
-Lech Wa ³ê sa and Solidarity

Question

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The Answer is Lech Wałęsa is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who played a pivotal role in the fall of communism in Poland. Born on September 29, 1943, in Popowo, Poland, Wałęsa worked as an electrician at the Gdańsk Shipyard. He became a charismatic leader and co-founded the Solidarity movement (Solidarność), the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country.

Solidarity, or Solidarność in Polish, was a trade union movement that originated in the Gdańsk Shipyard on August 14, 1980. It was founded as a response to the increasing dissatisfaction with the communist government's policies, particularly regarding workers' rights. Under Wałęsa's leadership, Solidarity quickly grew into a broader social movement advocating for political change and human rights, gaining massive support from the Polish population.

The movement was initially focused on labor issues, such as the right to strike, better working conditions, and higher wages, but it soon encompassed a wider range of social and political reforms. Solidarity's peaceful resistance and negotiation tactics, as well as its use of civil disobedience, were instrumental in bringing about negotiations with the communist government.

These negotiations led to the Round Table Talks in 1989, which eventually resulted in semi-free elections in Poland. Solidarity's victory in these elections marked the beginning of the end of communist rule in Poland and set the stage for the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.

Lech Wałęsa became the first democratically elected President of Poland in 1990, serving until 1995. His leadership and the Solidarity movement's efforts were crucial in the peaceful transition of Poland from a communist state to a democratic republic, and they remain symbols of the struggle for freedom and democracy in the post-war era.

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