Born: 18 June, 1949 in Warsaw, Poland
Died: 10 April, 2010 in Smolensk, Russia.
Early days Kaczynski's father was Rajmund, an engineer; his mother was Jadwiga a philologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences. As a child, he starred in a 1962 Polish film, The Two Who Stole the Moon (Polish title: O dwoch takich, co ukradli ksiezyc) with his twin brother Jaroslaw. Lech Kaczynski was a graduate of law and administration of Warsaw University. In 1980 he was awarded a PhD by Gdansk University. In 1990 he had his habilitation in labor and employment law. He later assumed professorial positions at Gdansk University and at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw.
Opposition to Communism In the 1970s Kaczynski was an activist in the pro-democratic anti-Communist movement in Poland. In August 1980, he became an adviser to the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee in the Gdansk Shipyard and the Solidarity movement. During the martial law introduced in December, 1981, he was interned as an anti-social element. After his release, he became a member of the underground Solidarity. When Solidarity was legalized again in the late 1980s, Kaczynski became an active adviser of Lech Walesa and his Komitet Obywatelski Solidarnosc in 1988. From February to April, 1989, he participated in Polish Round Table talks.
After 1989 political activity Kaczynski was elected a senator and became the vice-chairman of the Solidarity trade union. In 1991 he was elected to the parliament as an independent. He was, however, supported by the electoral committee Center Civic Alliance. He was also the main adviser and supporter of Lech Walesa when the latter was elected President of Poland in December 1990. Walesa nominated Kaczynski to be the Security Minister in the Presidential Chancellery but fired him in 1992 due to a conflict concerning Jan Olszewski's government. Kaczynski was the President of the Supreme Chamber of Control (Najwyzsza Izba Kontroli, NIK) from February 1992 to May 1995 and later Minister of Justice and Attorney General in Jerzy Buzek's government from June 2000 until his dismissal in July 2001. During this time he was very popular because of his strong stance against corruption.
Law and Justice From 2000 to 2001 he was the Minister of Justice. In 2001 he founded the conservative political party Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc "PiS") party with his brother Jaroslaw. Lech Kaczynski was the president of the party between 2001 and 2003.
Mayor of Warsaw In 2002, Kaczynski was elected the mayor of Warsaw in a landslide victory. He started his term in office by declaring a war on corruption. He strongly supported the construction of the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising and in 2004 appointed a historical panel to estimate material losses that were inflicted upon the city by the Germans in WW2 . The panel estimated the losses to be at least 45.3 billion euros ($54 billion) in current value. He also promoted construction of the museum of Polish Jews in Warsaw by donating city land to the project. Kaczynski twice banned the Warsaw gay pride parade in 2004 and again in 2005 stating "I respect your right to demonstrate as citizens. But not as homosexuals."Additionally, he complained that police did not use enough force in breaking the parade up by stating "Why was force not used to break up an illegal demonstration?". In 2004 his opponents called his actions unconstitutional and he was repeatedly criticized by the Mazowieckie Voivodeship administration, which officially supervises the Mayor of Warsaw. In 2005, he allowed a counter-demonstration, the "Parade of Normality." In 2007, Poland, represented by Kaczynski, was found guilty by the European Court of Human Rights of violation the freedom of assembly under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Presidential election In March 2005, he formally declared his intention to run for president in the October 2005 election. He was elected President of the Republic of Poland in defeating the runner up Donald Tusk, by polling 54.04 percent of the vote.
Domestic policy In his first public speech as president-elect, Kaczynski said that his presidency would have the fundamental task of the amelioration of the Republic, which he said would consist of "purging various pathologies from our life, most prominently including crime (...), particularly criminal corruption" that entire, great rush to obtain unjust enrichment, a rush that is poisoning society, [and preventing the state from ensuring] elementary social security, health security, basic conditions for the development of the family [and] the security of commerce and the basic conditions for economic development.. During his inauguration he stated several goals he would pursue during his presidency. Among those concerning internal affairs were: increasing social solidarity in Poland, bringing justice to those who were responsible for, or were affected by communist crimes in the People's Republic of Poland, fighting corruption, providing security in economy, and safety for development of family. In his speech he also emphasized combining modernization with tradition and remembering the teachings of Pope John Paul II. In December 2008, Kaczynski became the first Polish head of state to visit a Polish synagogue and to attend religious services held there. His attendance coincided with the first night of Hanukkah. Kaczynski made great personal effort to memorialize many of Poland's national heroes known as cursed soldiers who perished at the hands of Polish secret police, Soviet NKVD, SMERSH, and other repressive organs of communist terror. Such national heroes as Witold Pilecki, August Fieldorf, and many others, were posthumously rehabilitated and were bestowed with Poland's highest decorations for valor as a result of Kaczynski's efforts.
Foreign affairs In foreign affairs, Kaczynski noted that many of Poland's problems were related to the lack of energy security. Strengthening ties with the United States while continuing to develop relations within the European Union are two main goals of Polish foreign affairs. Aside from those issues, his immediate goals were to develop strategic partnership with Ukraine and greater cooperation with the Baltic states and Georgia. He was greatly admired in Israel, because he promoted educating Polish youth about the Holocaust. There was widespread grief in Israel over his death. Defense Minister Radoslaw Sikorski compared the planned Russia to Germany gas pipeline to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and Foreign minister Anna Fotyga stated that the pipeline was a threat to Poland's energy security. In November 2006 in Helsinki, at a European Union-Russia meeting, Poland vetoed the launch of EU-Russia partnership talks due to a Russian ban on Polish meat and plant products imports. As a reaction to claims by a German exile group Preussische Treuhand, which represents post-1945 German expellees from Eastern Europe, the Polish Foreign Minister Fotyga (a protege of Kaczynski) mistakenly threatened to reopen a 1990 Treaty fixing the Odra (Oder) and Nysa (Neisse) rivers as the border between the two countries instead of the Neighborhood Treaty signed in the same year. Following the military conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008, Kaczynski provided the website of the President of Poland for dissemination of information for blocked by the Russian Federation Georgian internet portals. During the state visit to Serbia in 2009, Kaczynski said that the Polish government, on the basis of its constitutional competences, decided to recognize Kosovo and emphasized, that he, as the President of the state, did not agree with that. Kaczynski had steadfastly supported international efforts to curb international terrorism. Polish Armed Forces took active part in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq alongside United States, Great Britain, and other NATO countries.
Marriage and family Kaczynski married economist Maria Mackiewicz in 1978. They had one daughter. His brother is Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the former Prime Minister of Poland.
Death On 10 April 2010, a Tupolev Tu-154M plane was carrying Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria Kaczynska, and other members of a Polish delegation (top public and military figures of Polish state) from Warsaw to commemorate the Katyn massacre. The plane crashed while approaching Smolensk Air Base in Russia at 08:56 Eastern European Time (06:56 GMT). The plane hit trees in foggy conditions about 1 kilometer (0.6 mi) from the airport. The governor of Smolensk Oblast confirmed to Russia 24 news channel that there were no survivors of the crash. 96 people were killed in the crash, including many of Poland's highest military and civilian leaders. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a government commission to investigate the crash. Russia's Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, was placed in charge of the investigation.
State funeral On 11 April 2010 President Kaczynski's body was returned to Poland, where he and his wife laid in state at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. The state funeral was held in Cracow on 18 April 2010. After a Roman Catholic mass at St. Mary's Basilica, the presidential couple were laid to rest in a sarcophagus, placed in the antechamber to Jozef Pilsudski's crypt beneath the Wawel Cathedral, the resting place of several Polish kings and national heroes. A significant number of foreign dignitaries were unable to attend the funeral, after initially planning to come, as a result of the widespread cancellation of air travel in Europe following the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajkull in Iceland.
Sources:
Wikipedia
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Other sources:
Davies on Kaczynski
BBC obituary
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