Though an opinion poll shows that though most Poles don’t believe Lech Walesa collaborated with communist era secret services they are not sure he his telling the whole truth about his past.
Following the release of a book claiming former president Lech Walesa collaborated with secret services in the 1970s, under the code name ‘Bolek’, as many as 43 percent reject the allegations, a poll by SMG/KRC pollster reveals.
The poll for the Forum programme on public television’s TVP Info channel shows that 26 percent of respondents are convinced that he did collaborate with SB, however, and some 31 percent have no opinion on this matter.
At the same time, 38 percent of those questioned said that Lech Walesa participated in covering up his past in the 1990s, when he was the President of Poland.
Fifty five percent are convinced that the former president is hiding something and is not telling the entire truth.
A book on Walesa’s past, written by two historians from the National Institute of Remembrance, was published yesterday.
Secret services and Lech Walesa. A Contribution to the Biography by Slawomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk caused much controversy even before its publication, as it suggests that Walesa was co-operating with the Communist Secret Services (SB) under the nickname "Bolek" and informed on his colleagues from the Gdansk Shipyard in 1970s, before he led the nation to topple communism.
According to the poll, 50 percent of the Poles are not interested in reading the book at all but 46 percent are willing to read it.
The entire first edition of 4,000 copies of the book sold out on the first day of release, Monday. (jm)