1927- . Polish politician, founder member of
Solidarity, and Poland's first postwar
noncommunist prime minister from 1989. A
former member of the Polish parliament
1961-70, he was debarred from re-election by
the authorities after investigating the
police massacre of Gdansk strikers. He became
legal adviser to Lech Walesa and, after a
period of internment, edited the Solidarity
newspaper Tygodnik Solidarnosc. In 1989 he
became prime minister after the elections
denied the communists their customary
majority. A devout Catholic, he is a close
friend of Pope John Paul II.