A new report based on handwriting analysis has suggested that Walesa worked for Poland's secret police in the 1970s. The former president and hero of the bloodless revolution has denied the allegations.
Officials revealed they are certain that papers they received from the widow of a Communist-era interior minister prove that Walesa was a spy for the SB and worked under the code name "Bolek" from 1970 to 1976.
The IPN, which prosecutes crimes from the Nazi occupation and the communist era, stated Walesa had signed a collaboration agreement and receipts for payment from the secret police.
There was "no longer any doubt" that the 73-year-old collaborated, IPN official Andrzej Pozorski told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday.
Hero or spy?
Walesa has always vehemently denied the allegations, which first surfaced several years ago. Now he has claimed the analysts of the new report must have been "coerced to confirm what is obviously untrue."
The document that Walesa allegedly signed with his name and the code name BolekImage: Reuters/K. Pempel
"I have proven that the secret police forged documents about me," the former president and Nobel Peace laureate recently said during a discussion at the IPN. "I'm asking the historians to please finally stop this nonsense."
The allegations are especially explosive because Walesa was a hero of the anti-Communist resistance in Poland in the 1980s. He co-founded the legendary Solidarity union and negotiated a more or less peaceful end to Communism in 1989.
Feud with Poland's most powerful man
"Lech Walesa is a legend in Poland and the most well-known living Polish person in the world," Bartosz Dudek, head of DW's Polish department, explained.
Among those who profit from the deconstruction of this legend are political opponents like Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The chair of Poland's governing Law and Justice Party and his late twin brother, Lech, were friends with Walesa originally. The three of them worked together in the anti-Communism movement. In 1990, Walesa even gave Lech Kaczynski a ministerial position in his government, but fired him two years later.
Ever since then, there has been hostility between the Kaczynskis and Walesa. That's why Walesa and his supporters believe that Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is considered the most powerful figure in Poland, is pushing the investigation against Walesa.
Walesa (l.) and Jaroslaw Kaczynski are political opponentsImage: picture alliance/dpa/Yonhap/AP/A
"They believe that the accusations have a political background," Dudek said. "And even if he signed some paper, his supporters don't believe he ever betrayed anyone, but would have only passed on information that was basically public knowledge."
Walesa's opponents strongly disagree with this interpretation. Slawomir Cenckiewicz, a historian who wrote a book about Walesa and his connection to the SB, is convinced that the former president truly collaborated with the Communist regime.
"The documents are shocking," Cenckiewicz told German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. "They show that Lech Walesa passed on extensive information about many people. His relationship with the SB lasted from December 1970 until spring 1976."
A forced collaboration?
December, 1970, also saw a massive workers' protest in Poland that ended with a massacre. More than 40 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured. DW's Dudek points out that Walesa was a workers leader back then, so his contact with the SB that month was likely less than friendly.
Walesa was also the head of a striking workers delegation in August 1980Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/B. Elg
He also believes that Walesa could have signed a paper then, but that he was forced to do.
"It's easy to condemn him from today's point of view, but not if you consider his situation back then," Dudek said. "That's not fair. It was a different world."
He also believes that the animosity between Walesa and the Kaczynski brothers is a factor in the allegations. Lech Kaczynski was a leader in the Solidarity union just like Walesa, just not as important, Dudek says.
Now, the journalist says, Jaroslaw Kaczynski is probably trying to "destroy the legend of Walesa and put his twin brother in Walesa's place" in Poland's collective memory.
'No intention to erase Walesa from history'
Jaroslaw Szarek, head of the IPN, said on Tuesday that his institute "had no intention of erasing Walesa from Polish history."
IPN experts had first started looking into Walesa's case in February, 2016. To compare the signature on the papers they had found with the former president's handwriting, they looked at Walesa's passport application, identity card and driver's license. Walesa himself refused to provide any writing samples.
Lech Walesa turns 70
He conquered communism in Poland. Now, the 70-year-old can look back at a life as a labor union leader that helped to change the world.
Image: Getty Images/Jasper Juinen
Rebel, Nobel Prize winner, retired president
He brought Poland's communism to its knees and changed the world. Former Polish labor union leader and later President Lech Walesa has received countless awards for his political achievements. September 29 marks his 70th birthday.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Instigator
A spike in meat prices triggered strikes across Poland in summer 1980. Walesa, who had been working as an electrician at a Gdansk shipyard since 1967 and had already spent time in prison due to his activities in the illegal free labor movement, was under observation. Still, on August 14, he became leader of the Solidarity movement at what was then called the Lenin Shipyards.
Image: picture-alliance /dpa
Solidarity
After the occupation of the Gdansk shipyards, workers across Poland tried the same tactic. Walesa was the one to negotiate with the government for the newly founded "Solidarnosc" union. The unparalleled anti-communist labor movement quickly evolved into an independent organization of 10 million members.
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
Blessings from the church
Even after decades of communist rule, a majority of Poles still kept their faith in the Catholic Church, and resisted atheism as propagated by the state. Poland's influential church also supported the dock workers from the start. Bishop Henryk Jankowski often stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Walesa, who was also raised Catholic.
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
A long struggle
An agreement between the labor committee and a government commission ended the mass strikes on August 31, 1980 - with the assurance of the legal right to strike, the founding of an independent union, improvements in the social system, and the release of political prisoners. In November, a Warsaw court decision ultimately legalized the Solidarnosc movement.
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
From leader to prisoner
Walesa remained chairperson of the National Coordinating Committee of Solidarnosc until December 1981. When the communist party leader, general and Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law that month, Walesa was incarcerated in a prison near the Soviet Union for nearly a year.
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
1983: The Nobel Peace Prize
"Time" magazine declared Walesa "Man of the Year" in 1982. A number of honors followed. When Walesa was announced winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, he feared the communist government would not permit him back into the country if he were to attend the award ceremony. His wife, Danuta, and his 13-year-old son, Bogdan, thus accepted the certificate and medal on his behalf in Oslo.
Image: Getty Images/Afp
Donated prize money
Hundreds of believers looked on as Walesa dedicated his Nobel Prize to the Black Madonna in the southern Polish city of Czestochowska, one of the Catholic Church's most significant pilgrimage sites. Walesa would later donate the prize money to a fund to help economically strapped Poles.
Image: Getty Images/Afp
Restricted movement
As early as 1983, Walesa requested permission to return to the shipyards in Gdansk, but the labor leader remained under house arrest until 1987. Solidarnosc continued to organize strikes among mine, shipyard and transportation workers from 1981 to 1988.
Image: Getty Images/Afp/Marek Druszcz
Sworn in
The mass strikes forced a roundtable discussion between Walesa and representatives of the communist government. In semi-democratic parliamentary elections, the opposition celebrated a huge victory. Lech Walesa took his oath as president before the Polish National Assembly on December 22, 1990.
Image: Getty Images/Afp/Janek Skarzynski
The pope and constitution
Walesa met Polish Pope John Paul II for the first time in June 1983 during a papal visit to his home country. Eight years later, Walesa could kiss the pope's hand as Poland's first post-communist president - while holding the first edition of Poland's 200-year-old constitution in his left hand.
Image: Getty Images/Afp/Mike Persson
Retreating in dignity
At the end of 1995, Walesa had lost the support of the Polish people and was not reelected as president. But he still enjoyed appreciation from around the world - including from the Dalai Lama, who bowed to the man who brought about such significant change in Poland.
Image: Getty Images/Afp/Janek Skarzynski
German-Polish friendship
In Germany, Walesa is considered as having paved the way for reunification - even if he was not always a supporter of German reunification. But he stood as a living symbol of German-Polish reconciliation at the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall on November 9, 2009.
Image: Getty Images/Afp/Berthold Stadler
Ailing icon
Nowadays, Lech Walesa is viewed critically - including for having made discriminatory remarks regarding homosexuals. A film by director Andrzej Wajda, screened this year at the Venice Film Festival, does not depict his former associate as flawless. Robert Wieckiewicz starred in "Walesa: Man of Hope" - a film that did not appeal to the real-life figure.
Image: Labiennale
Looking back
Lech Walesa has come a long, long way - from a small-time electrician to Nobel Prize winner and president. Now, with a slew of honorary doctorates and awards under his belt, he can look back at over three decades in which he helped lead people fighting for political change in Poland.
