COMMUNISM'S NEGOTIATED COLLAPSE:
THE POLISH ROUND TABLE TALKS OF 1989,
TEN YEARS LATER
A Conference at the University of Michigan, April 7-10, 1999

A Round Table participant for the opposition, Lech Kaczynski (b. 1949) graduated from the University of Warsaw's Faculty of Law in 1971 and later completed doctoral studies in law at the University of Gdansk. In the early 1980s Kaczynski directed the Bureau for Intervention of the Workers' Defense Committee (KOR) and advised striking workers in the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk in 1980. From 1982 to 1989, he was a member of the Helsinki Committee in Poland. He was Secretary of Solidarity's Provisional Coordinating Commission (1986-87) and National Executive Committee (1987-89), and a member of the Citizens' Committee (1988-91). Kaczynski became a Senator representing the Civic Parliamentary Club (1989-91) and First Vice-President of the National Commission for Solidarity (1990-91). In 1991, he was elected to the Sejm for the Center Alliance and served as a presidential advisor on issues of national security. Kaczynski was President of the Chief Inspectorate from 1992 to 1995. A docent of law, he is currently Professor of Law at the Catholic Theological Academy in Warsaw.

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