(photo:Artur Klose, license of CCA SA 2.0 G)

Tadeusz Mazowiecki

The last prime minister of the People's Republic of Poland and the first prime minister of the Third Republic in the history of Poland, politician and journalist. Tadeusz Mazowiecki was born in 1927 in Płock. He graduated from law studies at the University of Warsaw. He became the chairman of the Academic Publishing Cooperative. In the years 1949–1955 he was active in the "PAX" Association, raising doubts as to the question of supporting socialism in ranisation. He was also an active Catholic activist.

After leaving Pax, he became involved with the circles of Tygodnik Powszechny. In 1957 he became one of the founders of the Catholic Intelligentsia Club in Warsaw. In 1961–1972 he was a member of the Seym (he was a member of the Znak parliamentary circle). In the years 1972–1981 he held the position of vice-president of the National Chamber of Control in Warsaw; he called for democratization and protested against the changes in the constitution of the People's Republic of Poland and the detention of workers from Radom and Ursus in prisons. In 1980 he supported the striking shipyard workers, in 1981 he became the editor-in-chief of Tygodnik Solidarność.

After the imposition of martial law, he was interned, Tadeusz Mazowiecko was released as one of the last. He was one of Lech Wałęsa's closest advisers. One of the architects of the "round table". As prime minister, since 1989, he introduced a number of reforms, including broadening the scope of civil liberties and introducing a multi-party system. When he took office as prime minister, in a speech before the contract parliament on August 24, 1989, Mazowiecki said:“The government that I am going to form is not responsible for the mortgage it inherits. It does, however, influence the circumstances in which we act. We outline the past with a thick line. We will be responsible only for what we have done to get Poland out of its current state of collapse.

He ruled until 1991. Later he acted as a Christian Democrat politician. In 1992, he became a UN special envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from where he reported on war crimes. From 2010, he was an adviser to President Bronisław Komorowski. He died in 2013.