A Path of Hope

Fülszöveg

I regard everything I have achieved in life as merely a sort of loan. After all, from a religious point of view, nothing we receive - be it beauty, happiness or money - is ever worth more than that. If we accept that we are only the temporary guardians of life's various gifts, it's easier not to lose our heads or give way to despair For 500 days Lech Walesa was the leader of Solidarity, the revolutionary movement of Polish workers which threatened the stability of Eastern Europe. Walesa, an electrician from a poor Catholic family, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his attempts to found a people's Poland. It was an heroic quest which began when he scaled the railings at the Gdansk shipyard on 14 August 1980 and took charge of the strike committee. The free trade union was cut short in 1981 by the imposition of martial law. Walesa was imprisoned and vilified. Yet his intense and enduring courage have enabled him to continue the struggle. A Path of Hope, smuggled to the West chapter by... Tovább

Fülszöveg

I regard everything I have achieved in life as merely a sort of loan. After all, from a religious point of view, nothing we receive - be it beauty, happiness or money - is ever worth more than that. If we accept that we are only the temporary guardians of life's various gifts, it's easier not to lose our heads or give way to despair For 500 days Lech Walesa was the leader of Solidarity, the revolutionary movement of Polish workers which threatened the stability of Eastern Europe. Walesa, an electrician from a poor Catholic family, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his attempts to found a people's Poland. It was an heroic quest which began when he scaled the railings at the Gdansk shipyard on 14 August 1980 and took charge of the strike committee. The free trade union was cut short in 1981 by the imposition of martial law. Walesa was imprisoned and vilified. Yet his intense and enduring courage have enabled him to continue the struggle. A Path of Hope, smuggled to the West chapter by chapter, illuminates the driving force of a man whose hopes are part of the fabric of Poland and whose dreams transcend the continuing crisis of the Eastern bloc. 'Reading this book convinced me, once again, that Solidarity wasn't a failed "insurrection". Poland was incomparably lucky to have found Lech Walesa at that moment' NEAL ASCHERSON, THE OBSERVER 'A concise, powerful, and above all sincere account of Walesa's motives and ambitions' RADEK SIKORSKY, THE GUARDIAN Vissza