Lech Walesa and the Ghost of King Sigismund

The former President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Walesa, is in trouble.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner imagined himself as King Sigismund III, during whose reign in the early 17th century Poland managed to “strike Moscow.”

Heading "Reading the latest press".

Brief interview of the former head of the Polish state to the local newspaper Rzeczpospolita: “If Putin attacks Kiev, an immediate response should follow - a strike on Moscow.”

I immediately recall a popular counting rhyme during my childhood: “If yes, if only mushrooms grew in my mouth, there would be not a mouth, but a whole garden.”

In this case, I would even say a whole vegetable garden.

Just to call what the happy owner of the Nobel Prize has piled up a vegetable garden, the tongue does not turn.

And what are we going to do with this garden and with this gardener?

As for the garden, to be honest, I don’t know, but I have thoughts about the gardener.

We will sympathize with him.

Yes, yes, you read it right - it is to sympathize.

I don't have much sympathy for Lech Walesa as a politician.

But at the same time, I have (or at least had) a certain respect for him.

And I always considered him not quite a politician.

The first leader of post-communist Poland is a simple working guy, just a charismatic trade union leader, carried to the very top by the political whirlpool.

Is it possible to stay simple while being at the top?

The example of Lech Walesa proves that it is possible.

I will cite as evidence several famous statements of our today's "hero of the day" from the heyday of his political career.

"My quantity spoils my quality a little."

"You can't have claims against the Sun because it revolves around the Earth."

"Positives and Negatives".

"I will answer evasively directly."

“It was you who entered here on Sunday as if into a barn - and neither be, nor me, nor crow!”

Is Lech Walesa the Polish Chernomyrdin?

Not really.

I was lucky to personally know Viktor Stepanovich.

And I can testify: there was not an ounce of political naivety in him.

I did not have the "happiness" to personally meet Lech Walesa.

But everything I know about him clearly indicates that there is more than enough naivety in him.

The former Polish president is not one of those figures in the West who know very well that Russia is not going to attack Ukraine, but at the same time diligently assert the opposite every day.

Lech Walesa is a "sincere believer", a man who has been fooled.

Do you need proof again?

Please.

Here is a fragment of another interview with the former President of Poland, which he gave in May 2020: “Russia is necessary because it is a power.

If we do something without Russia, then she may be dissatisfied, and we can do it badly.

I stand for Russia to find itself in all structures that think about the future as soon as possible.

Because we must build the future with Russia.

And with China too.

For example, Russia may not be able to cope with this disease without us.

Or Poland without Russia.

And if we were together, we would have won.”

Question: “In the new National Security Strategy of Poland, the Russian Federation is called the main threat ...” Answer: “They do not think ahead.

They don't have ideas.

They want to build something on the old foundations.”

Question: "If you were president, what would you do?"

Answer:

“I would force with requests or pleas to sit down at the negotiating table.

We need to divide our deeds into the past, with which we need to settle, but this must be done by others.

And we have to think about the future.”

Do you like this Walesa better?

Me too, of course.

But the question is: where did that nice, sober and adequate “former Walesa” go?

And here is my version of the answer: they drowned him - drowned him in an ocean of lies and disinformation.

In his recent (fresh only in the sense of a new) interview, the former Polish president states that now "Moscow has gone too far."

But what exactly is this “too far” expressed in?

What political realities in the sense of the imaginary "aggression of Moscow" have changed compared to May of the year before last, when Lech Walesa advocated friendship with Russia?

Yes, none.

This "aggression" did not exist, and does not exist.

But the Nobel laureate does not see this.

He sees an artificially constructed "reality" that pushes him to such "reasonable ideas" as the need to "hit Moscow."

I wonder how the former president of Poland imagines the consequences of such a "strike" on the capital of one of the main nuclear powers in the world?

The Nobel Peace Prize winner needs to be rescued urgently, first of all from himself.

Even in the time of King Sigismund III, when no one could even think of nuclear weapons, the “strike on Moscow” ended very, very badly for the Polish interventionists.

And the “modern Sigismunds” are playing with fire at all.

I'm just not sure how best to get Lech Walesa out of the "state of Sigismund".

Maybe he should be sent to some medical institution to other "Napoleons and Viceroys of India"?

No, it won't.

It's kind of rude.

I recommend a digital detox instead, as well as developing critical thinking skills.

Perhaps then we will see the former Lech Walesa.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.