Nobel for Lech Wałęsa

It was two o'clock in the morning of October 5, 1983 when Lech and Danuta Wałęsa were awakened from a deep sleep by the telephone ringing. It was Krzysztof Wyszkowski on the line; he sounded overjoyed: "Lech! You've won the Nobel Prize!" "Yeah, yeah..." Lech growled, still half asleep, and then put the receiver back.

Later that day, journalists swarmed around Lech. Only the German correspondent stayed behind by his car to listen to the radio. A few minutes later, he cried out: "The Nobel Prize, the Nobel Prize!" Lech still refused to believe it. At eleven o'clock on the dot, everyone stopped and listened bent over the radio. And suddenly, the news came. A German station announced that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded this year to Lech Wałęsa. It was not until four o'clock in the afternoon that Radio Warsaw broadcast the first Polish Press Agency announcement of the prize.

People had been arriving since noon and already there was a large crowd standing outside Lech Wałęsa's apartment.

Lech Wałęsa appeared at his window and gave a short speech:

"I see this as a prize for us all, as a reward to each of us who wished to attain the truth by following the course of nonviolence and common understanding. I believe that if foreigners can understand us - people who may be even more intelligent than we are, certainly the state of their economics is and their standard of living would indicate this is so [laughter, applause] - then sooner or later we will be recognized by authorities in our own country. I still believe the day will come when we will sit down together at the same table and come to an understanding about what is best for Poland, because whether we like it or not, we have no choice but to come to an understanding; there is no other solution. I hope that the Nobel Prize will help us to achieve this goal.

He also said: "I see this prize as intended above all for the Polish workers, whom I simply represent. It's a prize for the determination they've shown and the efforts they've made to bring about change in the name of truth and justice. It's also intended for the entire Polish people, because this country's workers don't operate in a vacuum, isolated from the rest of the nation. There were no social groups that weren't involved in drawing up our demands and our program - in Solidarity.

A couple days later, when he was asked if he will receive the prize personally, Lech Wałęsa responded: "Could my friends who are imprisoned or paid for the defense of Solidarity with the loss of their jobs accompany me on this day? If not, then it means that the day has not come for me yet to celebrate the awards, even such splendid ones. Lech's wife Danuta and his eldest son Bogdan represented him in Oslo to receive the Prize.

(on the basis of A Way of Hope, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1987; and "Mała encyklopedia stanu wojennego," Gazeta Wyborcza 2006)