ABSTRACT
The concept of Lech Walesa as communist ‘agent Bolek’ would have been funny had it not been so tragically serious for Poland’s burgeoning economy and political landscape. There is bitter disagreement among Walesa’s friends and former friends about how he exploited this phenomenon, but there is no doubt about one thing: the ‘War at the Top’ signalled the end of Solidarity as a cohesive movement. ‘Acceleration’ was the catchword of Lech Walesa’s presidential campaign which began almost General Jaruzelski entered the Belweder Palace after his election as president by the National Assembly. Professor Wnuk-Lipinski credits Lech Walesa with a deeper understanding of the dynamic of what would have happened had Solidarity remained at full strength after the communist collapse: ‘From the very beginning, Solidarity was in a paradoxical situation. If Lech Walesa was trying to achieve a degree of pluralism, as he claims, the reality is that while there were dozens of political parties.
