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"There are few virtues that the Poles do not possess," Winston Churchill once remarked, "and there are few mistakes they have ever avoided." To an extraordinary degree, Lech Walesa embodies the Polish virtues of courage, faith, patriotism, spontaneity. But neither he, nor his lieutenants, nor the men who ruled the country were able to avoid the errors that finally led to tragedy. They were unable to reach a compromise to save the "renewal" that they all claimed to have wanted.
Perhaps the root of that failure lay in the fundamental incompatibility of Marxism-Leninism with freedom. A Leninist party must assume that it is infallible; it can brook no opposition. That system, as imposed on Poland by the Soviet Union, almost seemed capable of making significant changes during the past 16 months. But the survival instincts of the party and the geopolitical realities facing Poland doomed Walesa's mission.
Lech Walesa had the overwhelming majority of the Polish people behind him, and to them he conveyed a compelling message of hope. The Poles will not forget—they never have. During Poland's 16-month awakening, the priests and parishioners of a church in central Warsaw used to sing together joyfully: "O Lord, please bless our free fatherland." On the first Sunday after martial law was declared, the words of that hymn were changed back to those traditionally sung when the country was under foreign domination. "O Lord," the congregation sang, "please return us our free fatherland." —By Thomas A. Sancton. Reported by Richard Hornik and Gregory H. Wierzynski/Warsaw, with other bureaus