Poland’s former Prime Minister, Jan Olszewski, is dead

Jan Olszewski, former Prime Minister in 1991-1992, defender of anti-communist dissidents in political trials during the People’s Republic of Poland, advisor to President Lech Kaczyński, has died. In 2009 he was awarded the Order of the White Eagle. He was 88 years old.

When on May 3, 2009, President Lech Kaczyński decorated Olszewski with the Order of the White Eagle, he described him as Prime Minister of the first government of the Third Republic of Poland; the government which „tried to introduce in Poland those changes which would allow it to speak of a new scountry in the full sense of the word” - said President Kaczyński.

Olszewski was born on 20 August 1930 in Warsaw and originated from a railwayman’s family associated with the PPS (Polish Socialist Party). Jan Olszewski’s mother was a cousin of Stefan Okrzeja, an independence and socialist activist hanged in 1905 on the slopes of the Warsaw Citadel, who became a symbol of revolutionary and independence fights. During the occupation Jan Olszewski was active in the Grey Ranks. During the Warsaw Uprising he was a liaison officer. After the war he studied law at the University of Warsaw, and he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Warsaw in 1953.

In the 1960s Olszewski defended in political trials, among others: Jacek Kuroń, Karol Modzelewski, Melchior Wańkowicz, Janusz Szpotański, and Wojciech Ziembiński. In 1975 he signed „Letter 59”. – a protest against the amendments introducing into the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Poland the leading role of the PZPR (Polish United Workers’ Party) and the alliance with the USSR. In 1976 he defended Radom and Ursus workers in courts. He cooperated with KOR (Workers’ Defence Committee) and the Movement for the Defence of Human and Citizen’s Rights.

In 1980 he advised Solidarność (Solidarity) and Lech Wałęsa. In August 1980, attorney Olszewski cooperated in organizing strikes in Warsaw. When martial law was declared, he stayed in Gdańsk and probably therefore avoided arrest. He returned to Warsaw, where he immediately went to the seat of the Polish Episcopate. On behalf of the secretary of the Episcopate, Archbishop Bronisław Dąbrowski, he negotiated with the authorities regarding the release of sick people from prisons and internment camps. He constantly cooperated with the underground Solidarity movement. He defended in courts, among others: Lech Wałęsa, Zbigniew Romaszewski, and Zbigniew Bujak.

As a member of the Citizen’s Committee of Lech Wałęsa, he participated in the Round Table talks. He was a plenipotentiary of Priest Jerzy Popiełuszko’s family during the trial of his assassins from the Security Service (SB). In 1989 he became a member of the Independent Historical Committee for the Investigation of the Katyń Massacre (Niezależny Komitet Historycznego Badania Zbrodni Katyńskiej), and in 1990 he was a co-founder and incorporator of the Polish Katyń Foundation (Polska Fundacja Katyńska).

Olszewski’s political career was crowned by the post of head of government. In 1991 Wałęsa appointed him as the Prime Minister, and on 23 December 1991 his government received a vote of confidence from the Parliament – the first one after the war to be elected in fully free elections. The disclosure of the Security Service’s (SB) archives by the then head of the Ministry of the Interior, Antoni Macierewicz, preceded the collapse of Jan Olszewski’s government on the night of June 4-5, 1992. On June 4, in the morning, the Parliament received envelopes with the so-called Macierewicz’s list, which contained the names of politicians listed in the archives of the Ministry of the Interior as secret collaborators of the communist secret services.

He remained an active commentator until the end of his life. Considered to be a great moral authority, he supported the currently ruling camp with advice and sometimes admonition. He dreamt of making the current changes sustainable.

Tłum. K.J.