TPP CAT NO: TPP1982-1984(205/444B). SOLID0127(4)/0619
YEAR: 1983
ISSUER: SOLIDARNOSC GDANSK
Lech Wałęsa (born on the 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace prize winner (laureate), who served as the first democratically elected President Of Poland from 1990 to 1995. A shipyard electrician by trade, he became the leader of the Solidarity (Solidarność) movement, and led a successful pro-democratic effort which in 1989 ended the communist rule in Poland and ushered in the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism in many European countries.
While working at the Lenin Shipyard (now Gdańsk Shipyard), Wałęsa, an electrician, became a trade-union activist, for which he was persecuted by the Polish Communist authorities, placed under surveillance, fired in 1976, and arrested several times. In August 1980, he was instrumental in political negotiations that led to the ground-breaking Gdańsk Agreement between striking workers and the government. He co-founded the Solidarity trade-union movement whose membership rose to over ten million people.
After Martial Law was imposed in Poland and Solidarity was outlawed, Wałęsa was again arrested. Released from custody, he continued his activism and was prominent in the establishment of the 1989 Round Table Agreement that led to semi-free parliamentary elections in June 1989 and to a Solidarity-led government.
After winning the Polish presidential elections of 1990, Wałęsa became the first President of Poland ever elected in a popular vote. He presided over Poland's successful transition from Communism into a free-market democracy, but his active role in Polish politics diminished after he narrowly lost the 1995 presidential elections.
Since 1980, Wałęsa has received hundreds of world-wide prizes, honours and awards. He was named the Time Person of the Year (1981), one of Time's 100 most important people of the 20th century (1999), received over forty honorary degrees, including from Harvard University, Columbia University as well as dozens of highest state orders: Presidentail Medal of Freedom, Knight Grand Cross of the British Order of the Bath or the French Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour. In 1989, Wałęsa was the first foreign non-head of state to ever address the Joint Meeting of the U.s. Congress. In 2004 in Poland the Gdansk Lech Wałesa Airport was named after him.
SOLIDARITY STAMPS WERE PRINTED ON WHATEVER PAPER WAS AVAILABLE AS BETWEEN 1982 AND 1990 EVERYTHING WAS SCARCE IN POLAND. THIS GIVES RISE TO VARIETIES WHICH ARE DISTINGUISHED BETWEEN BY THE DISCERNING SPECIALIST.
AS FAR AS I AM AWARE, BASED ON THE MATERIAL I HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN, THESE WERE ONLY ISSUED ON ONE TYPE OF PAPER.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE SCAN IS A STOCK SCAN. YOU WILL RECEIVE STAMPS OF A SIMILAR QUALITY
THIS PROPAGANDA STAMP SET WAS ISSUED BY THE POLISH UNDERGROUND SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT AS A DIVERSIFICATION STATEMENT AGAINST MARTIAL LAW WHICH HAD BEEN DECLARED BY THE COMMUNIST AUTHORITIES IN POLAND. IT IS A VERY RARE AND COLLECTABLE ITEM . THE UNDERGROUND MEMBERS WHO ISSUED THIS STAMP RISKED A LOT, BECAUSE IF CAUGHT THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPRISONED WITHOUT TRIAL.
THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO OWN A UNIQUE PIECE OF HISTORY. IT IS A MUST FOR EVERY SERIOUS HISTORIAN AND COLLECTOR OF THIS PERIOD AND WILL MAKE AN INTERESTING ADDITION TO YOUR COLLECTION.
General Wojciech Jaruzelski announced the introduction of martial law in a speech first broadcast on radio and television at 6:00 am on December 13, 1981. In order to isolate members of the opposition (from the Solidarity movement), 52 internment centers were created. A total of 10,132 internment orders were issued against 9,736 people during the period of martial law.
