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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 76.66.202.72 (talk) at 04:32, 1 December 2010 (→‎Move request). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Good articleLech Wałęsa has been listed as one of the Social sciences and society good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
February 3, 2010Good article nomineeListed

Template:0.7 set nom

Old talk

Lech Walesa es not Danziger

I have two related concerns about this page: (1) Most important, I am unable to authenticate what Walesa is claimed to have said to the United Nations Security Council about attacking Iraq. Mr Walensa has made a number of comments on this subject and we should try to present a balanced view. (2) The article uses the word "recently", without indicating a date. Perhaps we should include date information when we speak of something's having happened recently.

user:BillBell

Two other concers: This page is completely NPOV. The most important information seems to be he was a "double spy" which has never been proved or documented in any serious way. Except this alomost nothing is said about his real political and social activity - the things which, contrary to his "double spying", are well proved and documented. The statement "a anti-communist puppy" is NPOV by itself.

user:Polimerek

Well - I have decided to change this page quite seriously. I have added the list of basic facts about Lech Wałęsa and have changed the "spy" story making its much more NPOV (at least IMHO). Sorry for my bad English.

user:Polimerek

Yes, it's much improved. There still seems to be far too much of the "spy" stuff. All of the various theories are largely the same and seem to lack evidence. Perhaps we join these together and make the section a bit shorter? -- Finlay McWalter 00:41, 30 Sep 2003 (UTC)


I've done some fixups to the english spelling and grammar of this (otherwise excellent) article. I'll probably do some more, and perhaps some reformatting. In addition, I have some language questions which can hopefully be answered by Polish-speaking wikipedians: -- Finlay McWalter 23:52, 29 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Q1 The article is a bit inconsistent about whether "Gdanska Shipyard" is singular (i.e. there's one big shipyard) or plural (i.e. there are several shipyards). Which is correct? -- Finlay McWalter 23:52, 29 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Thank you for your help. Stocznia Gdańska is the polish name of a shipyard in Gdańsk. There are some other like Gdańska Stocznia Remontowa or Stocznia Północna, but Wałęsa worked only in that one. Gdańska is polish adjective from word Gdańsk, stocznia means shipyard.Gdarin 07:07, 30 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Q2 I changed "war state" and "war law" to "martial law", which is the common english idiom. Roughly, this means a state of military rule when normal governmental and judicial processes are suspended and citizen's rights severely constrained. I assume this is what happened in 1982? -- Finlay McWalter 00:12, 30 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Martial law is ok. But it happened in December 13 1981. Gdarin 07:07, 30 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Q3 was imprisioned in a "luxury jail" since October 1982. I assume this means that he went INTO the jail in October 1982, right? -- Finlay McWalter 00:32, 30 Sep 2003 (UTC)
He was internee (that word is the best one I think) from December 1981 to November 1982. Gdarin 07:07, 30 Sep 2003 (UTC)

This is awful - the only part that's actually an article is about ridiculous conspiracy theories. Someone should turn the timeline into paragraphs. john k 08:09, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I've rearranged the points form into paragraphs as suggested. No information has been added or removed. jp

Movie

What was the film about him? Iron Man, or something? I remember it was notable. Must go into the article.mikka (t) 16:45, 19 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Andrzej Wajda's Man of Iron, is what i think you're talking about. Wajda's earlier Man of Marble, about Communism in the 1950's and 1960's, is also excellent.

"Man of Iron" (a sequel to "Man of Marble") takes place during the strikes of 1980. It features some stock footage of Wałęsa, but I wouldn't say it's about him; he's mainly there to provide historical background. --24.58.13.127 21:50, 11 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I would. The central figure, i.e. the Man of Iron-whom the main character has been sent to slander-is Lech Walesa. mercruz (t) 16:45, 23 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Spoken Version

This article is on the Spoken Wikipedia request list, so I am going to make a recording. If any of you want to add any significant changes, notify me now.

Markkasan 20:50, 2 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I see no reason to include a mispronunciation of his name in English at the top of the article, and for this reason removed all but the correct pronunciation. I am not very nationalistic but find it mildly offensive. Many Americans butcher many world leader's names - are we to start including phonetic mispronunciations at the top of encyclopedia articles?

-- Random Pole

Random pole is rights. It is utter madness to include the MISpronounciation - e.g. how it is read by an englishman with no idea about the Polish language 84.167.245.86 11:50, 2 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move

The reasons for move copied from the entry on the WP:RM page:

Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one sentence explanation, then sign your vote with ~~~~

Discussion

Add any additional comments
I have an impression that this move proposal is in fact a splinter of the Talk:Níðhöggr/archive1#Article should have English title voting, in which Lech Wałęsa was used by yours truly as an example that the lack of diacrytes does not make an English name. Halibutt 02:19, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
  • NOTE In North America, it is written "Lech Walesa", without diacritics. Arguments about it being not Polish should not be relevant, as this is not the polish wikipedia. The article title should be readable by anyone with *solely* English as their background. It should be written using solely English letters (which *should* mean ASCII only plus Æ and Œ ) All arguments about people being multilingual have no traction, as not everyone is multilingual, and this is the English Wikipedia, not the "every languange ever existing" version. The proper original language form should be noted in the article, and may even be used throughout the article following a "herein referred to as original name" clause, but it should not be an article title. 132.205.45.148 22:17, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Result

It was requested that this article be renamed but there was no consensus for it to be moved. WhiteNight T | @ | C 01:24, 28 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Recentism?

Following section was added to the Lech Walesa article:

==Recent controversy==

Lech Walesa has recently had to face up to accusations that he was a paid agent of the Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa (state security service) for more than 10 years during his rise to the top of the Solidarity movement the in Gdansk shipyards (during the 1970's). Walesa, under the codename "Bolek" (Lech Walesa's father's name), is said to have been recruited to pass information to the SB, and was bumped into the top leadership position within Solidarity by other embedded agents of the SB in an attempt to control the movement. His subsequent break from SB control is attributed to a new arrangement Walesa made with the CIA, then headed by George H. W. Bush.

Prior to the 2000 presidential election, Walesa was cleared to hold political office by a special "vetting court" (lustracja), which held that photocopies of documents pertaining to agent "Bolek", including signed receipts for payments from the SB, were inadmissible. The original documents, if they in fact existed, are said to have been pulled from SB files and destroyed during Walesa's term as the first president of a newly-democratic Poland, 1990-95.

Poland, unlike most other former soviet satellite states, never publicly opened the records of the state security apparatus following the disintegration of the Soviet block. While unproven and hotly contested, this version of Walesa's past is being increasingly discussed in Poland (as of December 2005). Walesa has been accused of this on numerous occasions on Polish television and radio shows, and responds in an increasingly angered way, threatening to take libel action if the accusations continue. Whether true or not, the allegations underscore the immense political savvy, however opportunistic, of a man who went from shipyard electrician without a high school degree to the president of his nation and international anti-communist mascot.

I moved this section to the talk page for following reasons:

  • Isn't this wikipedia:recentism?
  • Sources re. the introduced information seem to lack: could user:Jak lefataliste (who introduced the section) or anybody else give some references, preferably reliable sources, to back this story? I mean, I have no idea whether this is tabloid level, or better, or worse?
  • The section is hardly wikified, so if it would be OK to keep it in the article, at least some lay-out improvements would be recommended.

--Francis Schonken 13:20, 31 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Jak_lefataliste, 31st December 2005:

  • Sources? He's been on Polish TV countless times over the past year, facing up to the accusations. If you have no idea of the current situation in Polish politics then you have no right to be deleting things such as this. It is 'every tv channel, radio station and newspaper (broadsheet and tabloid)' level. The section on 'lustracja' is not mentioned anywhere else in the article - leaving it out makes the entry 5 years out of date.
  • How is putting something back (with substantial changes, i might add) that was there 2 years ago 'recentism'?
  • If it's not 'Wikified' then why don't you 'wikify' it, rather than deleting the whole thing?


Reasons, significance of his actions?

The article seems to be missing the reasons he opposed the Soviet Union, why he supported the strike in the first place, and what was so bad about living under the Soviet Bloc (and no, it isn't enough to assume his actions speak for themselves). Why did he support Margaret Thatcher? Why did he go to Reagan's funeral (and why did he support him)? I know why, and plenty of others know why, so why isn't any of this in the article? Kamikaze Highlander 20:54, 11 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • This man is the greatest Pole since Piłsudski; he ended communism without a shot. I only hope he runs for President again as he has hinted.

are you joking - he was terrible president.

Pictures

The main picture is extremely pixelated and the other pictures are missing captions, can anyone who knows more about this guy work on that ?Mbisanz 23:58, 23 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Medical

From New York Times, Sept. 5, 2007:

Poland: Walesa to Get a Pacemaker
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Lech Wałesa, the Solidarity leader and Poland’s first president after Communism, said he would be having surgery to have a defibrillator fitted for an irregular heart beat. "I am nearly 65 years old and I have to be careful," he said. "The only thing that remains of my virility is my need to shave."

Too much information, Lech!  :-)

Sca 16:28, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]


You have to admit, it IS funny. He was just discharged after having a couple of procedures [1] for his heart and feels better. Even had the good humor to taunt dictators. As he gets older, perhaps this might be relevant on his article? --Hourick (talk) 14:15, 5 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Much wittier and respectable than current American television's endless stream of aphrodisiac commercials. Lech deserves praise! Richard David Ramsey 21:47, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Honorary Doctorates

The honors section says that Lech Walesa has received 32 doctorates and is supported by a reference from Walesas official website. This information is faulty. His 33rd doctoral reception was in Trois Rivieres in Quebec, Canada. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stanleymilgram (talk • contribs) 18:49, 26 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What institution is meant by "Connecticut State University"? Is that supposed to be Central Connecticut State University? Richard David Ramsey 21:42, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

WTF!!! Wałęsa has coat of arms? since when, who said so?

any proves for that, I've never seen before such a coat of arms, he isn't nobile - it's enough to take a loo at his name... besides let someone xpand article with section 'falandyzacja prawa'...

Iznogud —Preceding unsigned comment added by Iznogud (talk • contribs) 14:26, 3 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Cooperation with communist secret services

This is a hot topic now in Poland, I think it should also be included in the article. I do not have the book published by the IPN and I am not interested in Walesa as such, however, perhaps some editor would add information on his cooperation with the communist secret services in the 1970s as well as destruction of compromising documents, ordered by him in early 1990s, when he was president. Tymek (talk) 17:20, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

To jest wszystko kłamstwo i pomówienia, Pan Prezydent Lech Wałęsa nigdy nie współpracował z SB - to jest polityczny atak na wielkiego polskiego wodza.

--- Member of Civillian Platform ---

_______Facts_______

It is not true that Lech Wałęsa cooperate with communist secret services. There is no evidence that he cooperate. There are only some fake materials made by communist secret services to discredit him. book published by Institute of National Remembrance about cooperation contains substantive errors and can't be reliable scientific publication. Without Mr Wałęsa we wouldn't be here now.

One of the young generation (Poland).


Letter from Lech Wałęsa to President Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki

Golitsyn comment

Because Golitsyn comment has nothing to do with Walesa's alleged cooperation with communist Secret Service and the book published by Centkiewicz. Many people said many things about Walesa, you just can't list them all here.--Jacurek (talk) 16:23, 13 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Why not? Golitsyn was a notable figure, although a bit crazy. The section is about conspiracy theories surrounding Walesa, not about one book. --84.71.43.224 (talk) 17:22, 13 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, but this page is about Walesa and not Golitsyn. If we start quoting here everybody's opinion about Walesa we will run out of room, right? Why don't we add this info into Golitsyn page if there is one?--Jacurek (talk) 18:08, 13 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
How can one sentence mentioning Golitsyn's claims mean that the whole article is about him? This section is about conspiracy theories surrounding Walesa. Golitsyn is the only notable person outside of Poland who promotes such theories. --84.71.43.224 (talk) 18:40, 13 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Cristicism section

I've removed that convoluted section that looked more like a blatant copy and paste than an encyclopedic entry.

In my opinion, the accusations of anti-Semitism by that Israeli institute should not be included, as they seem to be Fact picking, and even if they were true as such, the proportional volume of the hand-picked facts drowns other information, giving a false impression to the reader.

We must also be very careful with articles about living people. Likeminas (talk) 01:50, 26 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

GA Review

User:Piotrus submitted this to me by email. The fixes he made can be seen at the edit history of this page.

This article is verifiable, well written, neutral, etc. I'm passing it as a GA. - Peregrine Fisher (talk) (contribs) 16:46, 3 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Here are the comments from the email. I don't know if you kneed OTRS or something from the Piotrus or not. Piotrus said it was OK. He and Durova also added a couple more giving a heads up about the thread at Wikipedia_talk:Good_articles#Lech_Wa.C5.82.C4.99sa, and I'm not including Durova's because she didn't say either way.


Wikipedia e-mail Inbox X

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Piotrus to me show details Jan 23 Hi,

First, I want to thank you once again for your help with the teaching GA. This term, due to reasons below, I am doing my wiki teaching on Wikibooks, but I expect to return with the activity to Wikipedia in a few months :)

However, I would like to make another irregular request of you :)

As you may know, I am currently blocked - but some recommended I appeal my remedies soon, and that I also work on content to show I can be a constructive editor (as I guess my past 20+ FAs and such are not convincing enough :>). Anyway, at this point I have three draft articles that I think are close to a GA status, and if I could, I would nominate them on en wiki as many others in the past. Of course, I cannot do this. Nonetheless, I've posted them publicly here:

http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedysta:Piotrus/brudnopis/en/Lech_Wa%C5%82%C4%99sa http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedysta:Piotrus/brudnopis/en/Stanis%C5%82aw_Koniecpolski http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedysta:Piotrus/brudnopis/en/sociology_of_leisure

The first two are major improvements of existing articles; the last one is a new article.

I was wondering if you could consider reviewing them - you can post comments about them to my pl wiki talk page, on their talk or email them to me. I would of course do my best to address them. Your help would allow me to do two things:

  • in my appeal to ArbCom that I plan to file within the next 2-3 weeks, show I can still create GA-level content
  • I have also entered the WikiCup, and if my appeal is granted, I will be able to participate in it. However, the first round ends scoring on Feb 26, and it is likely my appeal will not be granted till a few days before that. If I waited with asking for a GA review till then, I am afraid that due to our usual delays the GA status might not be granted for the first scoring round. While I am quite confident I can handle the Cup well into its last rounds, the current situation makes it possible for me to be eliminated early because I will not have enough things "scored" before round 1 end. As such, if we had the GA reviewed before then and ready to be posted once my remedies are appealed, it would be a good insurance against me being taken out of the Cup on those technical grounds.

All I am asking you here is of course 100% wiki-legal, just in case you are wondering.

Anyway, I want to thank you again for your help in the past, and I hope we can work together again!

Piotr

-- This e-mail was sent by user "Piotrus" on the English Wikipedia to user "Peregrine Fisher". It has been automatically delivered and the Wikimedia Foundation cannot be held responsible for its contents.

The sender has not been given the recipient's email address, or any information about his/her e-mail account; and the recipient has no obligation to reply to this e-mail or take any other action that might disclose his/her identity. For further information on privacy, security, and replying, as well as abuse and removal from emailing, see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Email>. 

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Peregrine Fisher to Piotrus show details Jan 24 I can reveiew Lech Wałęsa. Let's do it by email. We can copy the comments over to wiki at some point.

To get it ready for a thorough review: expand lead, merge/remove single sentence paras, add and format all refs, explain why thecityreview.com and other odd refs are reliable, think of a better format (prose) for "List of honours and awards" and "Honorary doctorates" (may not need to list every one. Try to make a story out of them). - Show quoted text - -- Peregrine Fisher 

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Piotr to me show details Jan 24 Peregrine Fisher wrote: I can reveiew Lech Wałęsa. Let's do it by email. We can copy the comments over to wiki at some point.

To get it ready for a thorough review: expand lead, merge/remove single sentence paras, add and format all refs, explain why thecityreview.com and other odd refs are reliable, think of a better format (prose) for "List of honours and awards" and "Honorary doctorates" (may not need to list every one. Try to make a story out of them).

Thanks. I'll work on lead and single sentences (already done some work, but want to expand the lead a little further). All refs should be formatted, although some templates are not supported on pl wiki and break the references (like all cite templates).

By all means, please list the potentially unreliable references here. Regarding http://www.thecityreview.com/olympics.html - yeah, I had a feeling it will not last long. But I found a better one:

http://tars.rollins.edu/wpi/cousteau.shtml -> Jean-Michel Cousteau (biography), Winter Park Institute, Rollins College

This should make it relatively reliable.

PS. Nihil novi will over the next few days work on improving the prose.


-- Piotr

"To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on one's laurels, is defeat." --Józef Piłsudski 

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Peregrine Fisher to Piotr show details Jan 24 Sounds good. Just email me when you're ready for a more thorough review. If the cite template doesn't work, maybe you can copy/paste the result into the ref tags for now. - Show quoted text - -- Peregrine Fisher 

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Piotr to me show details Jan 25 Peregrine Fisher wrote: Sounds good. Just email me when you're ready for a more thorough review. If the cite template doesn't work, maybe you can copy/paste the result into the ref tags for now.

They will work when the article is moved to en wiki; I am not sure how to nicely deal with it now. I think cite books and news will not be problematic, so I looked at cite webs:

http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/pl/229/7615/SB_a_Lech_Walesa_Przyczynek_do_biografii.html -> reliable Polish historical institute

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1983/press.html -> self-explanatory, I hope

http://www.constitutioncenter.org/libertymedal/recipient_1989.html -> website of another award he got, used as a source that he got it...

http://www.mofa.gov.tw/webapp/content.asp?cuItem=25174&mp=6 -> Taiwanese gov' press release, used to source his visit there

Those are all cite webs hidden by the template malfunction.

I looked over all the other refs, and I think they are reliable (many news sources, but uncontroversial).

The one controversy related to accusations of being an agent, I tried to source reliably, and tone down to NPOV (the current article, btw, due to very bad treatment of this issue (and also rants against his presidency) should be tagged as a BLP violation - could you do this?).


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Peregrine Fisher to Piotr show details Jan 26 Looks good.

"Coincidentally (perhaps), Polish authorities lifted martial law on 1 January 1983, when this single came out." is a bit informal.

"Patrick Dailly's "Solidarity", starring Kristen Brown as Lech Walesa, was premiered by San Francisco Cabaret Opera in Berkeley and Oakland in September and October 2009." needs to be integrated.

"Wałęsa was the subject of several books and articles" should say a little more about this.

What ref supports "A charismatic leader"?

"Arrested again after martial law was imposed and Solidarity was outlawed, upon release..." sounds a little funny, or maybe it's OK. Not sure.

"he speaks and lectures" - Maybe just one?

This thing is really close, but explain why you feel the lists of awards and doctorates is the best way to include that info, if that's how you feel. - Show quoted text - -- Peregrine Fisher 

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Piotr to me show details Jan 26 Peregrine Fisher wrote: Looks good.

"Coincidentally (perhaps), Polish authorities lifted martial law on 1 January 1983, when this single came out." is a bit informal.

I removed "(perhaps)". I am not the best to address style/tone issues, but Nihil novi has yet to get to that part of the article.


"Patrick Dailly's "Solidarity", starring Kristen Brown as Lech Walesa, was premiered by San Francisco Cabaret Opera in Berkeley and Oakland in September and October 2009." needs to be integrated.

Done; must have missed it when I was converting this section into prose from original bullet points.


"Wałęsa was the subject of several books and articles" should say a little more about this.

Well, I am unable to find any work that discusses books and articles on Wałęsa, or even lists them (LIW lists articles, but not books). I added some refs, but I don't really see how this can be expanded.


What ref supports "A charismatic leader"?

Good catch. It's Britannica; I added that as a referenced claim to the body.


"Arrested again after martial law was imposed and Solidarity was outlawed, upon release..." sounds a little funny, or maybe it's OK. Not sure.

Uh-oh, sounds like any English sentence to me :) Don't you just love working with non-native English speakers? :D


"he speaks and lectures" - Maybe just one?

Well, they are somewhat different. Lectures gives it the air of authority (anybody can speak), but he does deliver a lot of non-lecture speeches (in media, for example).


This thing is really close, but explain why you feel the lists of awards and doctorates is the best way to include that info, if that's how you feel.

Well, I don't see how they can be converted into any kind of a story. We could have a long list-like paragraph - he was awarded doctorates by (long list). Frankly, I find lists more readable in such situations - prose is good, but lists, well, sometimes should be just lists.

Btw, the org article still needs the BLP issues template. Sigh: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lech_Wa%C5%82%C4%99sa&action=historysubmit&diff=340144613&oldid=339342839

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Peregrine Fisher to Piotr show details Jan 26 Which template is it? I can't find it.

2010/1/26 Piotr - Show quoted text - -- Peregrine Fisher 

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Piotr to me show details Jan 26 Peregrine Fisher wrote: Which template is it? I can't find it.

I was thinking about the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:BLP_dispute



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Piotr to me show details Jan 27 Btw, the ArbCom amendment that clearly states others are allowed to proxy for me on LW is about to pass.

If it's ok with you I'd like to cc you in discussion I am having with the three editors whom ArbCom authorized to be my proxies.

I'd suggest that they wait till we are done with addressing the article issues you may yet raise; then they would transwiki it to en wiki. I am not sure who should nominate the article; but once it is done I presume you'll be able to insta-pass it (perhaps you could nominate it yourself?).


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Peregrine Fisher to Piotr show details Jan 27 You can cc this if you want. I'll try and give you detailed comments tomorrow morning.

2010/1/27 Piotr - Show quoted text - -- Peregrine Fisher 

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Peregrine Fisher to Piotr show details Jan 28 (13 days ago) "his role in Polish politics diminished." - was diminished

There is some overreffing. " His father Bolesław was a carpenter who died shortly after World War II.[1][2][3]" probably doesn't need three refs, for example. There's lots of places that one ref is probably enough.

"On 8 December 1969 he married Danuta Gołoś. The couple have eight children: Bogdan, Sławomir, Przemysław, Jarosław, Magdalena, Anna, Maria-Wiktoria, Brygida.[3][2]" - Single sentence para.

"he was even considered for chairman of the strike committee." - "even" is informal.

"After that he worked as an electrician" - "after that" is too informal.

"Wałęsa famously scaled the the shipyard fence" - two "the"s

"Wałęsa famously scaled the the shipyard fence and became one of the leader of this strike." - Not clear how scaling a fence leads to being a leader.

"The Solidarity quicky grew, claiming over 10 million members - more than a quarter of Poland's population.[7] Wałęsa's role in the strike, negotiations and the newly formed independent Solidarity gained him fame on the international stage.[1][2]" - Sounds funny. Maybe use "Solidarity trade union" each time. Can also use just "trade union" sometimes for variety.

"Wałęsa kept this position until 13 December 1981, when he was arrested. General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared a state of martial law on 13 December." - Try and do date just once.

" In late summer of 1988, Wałęsa organized an occupational strike in Gdańsk Shipyard, demanding only the re-legalisation of Solidarity." - Does the article say it was outlawed? I missed it if it did.

"organize "half-free" elections to the Polish parliament." - What does "half free" mean?

"the Opposition took all seats in the Sejm that were subject of free elections and all but one seats in the newly re-established senate" - should be "all but one seat"

"Wałęsa was one of the most public figures of the Solidarity" - Is this the Solidarity Trade Union, or something else?

"appeaing on many dissident posters" - sp

I'll do more comments soon.

2010/1/27 Peregrine Fisher - Show quoted text - -- Peregrine Fisher 

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Piotr to me show details Jan 28 (13 days ago) I am not replying with "done" comments for small things - they are all done. Also, you didn't ask for it, but I translated the titles of all the (relatively few) Polish sources for the convenience of the English readers. For the few bigger/other comments:


There is some overreffing. " His father Bolesław was a carpenter who died shortly after World War II.[1][2][3]" probably doesn't need three refs, for example. There's lots of places that one ref is probably enough.

True, but I like redundancy (what if a site goes 404, etc.).


"Wałęsa famously scaled the the shipyard fence and became one of the leader of this strike." - Not clear how scaling a fence leads to being a leader.

I hope the rewritten sentence sounds better; those are two related but separated events.


" In late summer of 1988, Wałęsa organized an occupational strike in Gdańsk Shipyard, demanding only the re-legalisation of Solidarity." - Does the article say it was outlawed? I missed it if it did.

Good catch, added the info on this.


"organize "half-free" elections to the Polish parliament." - What does "half free" mean?

It was explained in the next para which you cited; I rewrote this to be more clear and added some expansion.


"Wałęsa was one of the most public figures of the Solidarity" - Is this the Solidarity Trade Union, or something else?

In 99% Solidarity means the Solidarity Trade Union. Often, sources don't specify that and one has to assume that's what they mean (there were a lot of various suborganizations and spin-offs with Solidarity in their names, but we can also speak of them all forming the "Solidarity movement").


"appeaing on many dissident posters" - sp

Fixed that and some other spelling mistakes that my check spotted.


I'll do more comments soon.

Great.

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Peregrine Fisher to Piotr show details Jan 29 (12 days ago) The way "solidarity" is used for multiple things is confusing. It would be great if you could add an explanation early on, so readers have a better idea of the possible meanings they will encounter later. 

Also, maybe be explicit in all the cases that the refs allow you to

be. Whatever you think is best, but I'm finding the word confusing. It's probably a Polish to English problem, or something.

"that some of his former colleagues are satisfied running the government together with former communists." - "were satisfied"?

"On 9 December 1990..." - Extra italics?

"to become the first democratically elected president of Poland for the next five years." - Sounds like another first democratically elected president will be coming along.

The para that begins "In 1993 he founded his own political party" would do well with an intro sentence that describes what's coming.

"Wałęsa supported Poland's entry into NATO and the EU." - Maybe put what years those things happened in parenthesis or something.

What's a Nato-bis?

"The concept, though supported by Polish right-wing..." - Probably should be two sentences. It's pretty long, and the para only has two right now.

"He has however been criticized for his confrontational style..." - Makes you think the previous para would be praise, but it's also something bad.

"tarnished his own reputation" - "own" not needed.

"about him being to authoritarian" - "too"

"(Sejm).[7]/>[20]/>[15][18]"

"Finally, Wałęsa's problems were compounded by the difficult transition into the market economy, that while seen as highly successful in the long run, has resulted in Wałęsa's government loosing much of its popular support." - "Poland's difficult transition"? I think "has" should be removed, unless it's still going on.

"Wałęsa's BBWR party performed poorly in the 1993 parliamentary elections, at times the popular support for him has" - same problem with "has"

"and he himself narrowly lost" - "himself" not needed.

"Wałęsa claimed to go to "political retirement"" - "go into"?

"on the political scene became increasingly marginal" - Maybe "in politics became increasingly marginal"

I'll do more soon.

2010/1/28 Piotr - Show quoted text - -- Peregrine Fisher 

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Piotr to me show details Jan 30 (11 days ago) Peregrine Fisher wrote: The way "solidarity" is used for multiple things is confusing. It would be great if you could add an explanation early on, so readers have a better idea of the possible meanings they will encounter later. 

Also, maybe be explicit in all the cases that the refs allow you to

be. Whatever you think is best, but I'm finding the word confusing. It's probably a Polish to English problem, or something.

Fixed all of those; but with regards to Solidarity, I am not sure what you find confusing. It is linked and explained on the first uses, both in lead and text. If refers to the Solidarity Trade Union; in few cases where it doesn't, a full name of the other entity is used.

I've went over and made sure that after the other entity name is used, the next Solidarity reference specifies we are talking about the trade union again.


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Piotr to me show details Feb 1 (9 days ago) I am wondering if it would be possible to expedite the review? I would like to send an appeal to ArbCom regarding my site ban soon; and I'd love to have LW as a GA by then.


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Peregrine Fisher to Piotr show details Feb 1 (9 days ago) I'll try to move quickly.

"Since his 1995 presidency" - Why don't we use his name since it's the beginning of a section.

"That year he has also founded" - No "has"

"In 1997 Wałęsa supported and helped" - is "supported" needed? It also gets repetitive with the supported later in the sentence.

"However, his the real leader of the party" - No "his"

"Wałęsa again stood for the" - Maybe "Wałęsa again ran in the"

"Simultaneously, he expressed support for Poland's newly-formed Democratic Party - demokraci.pl in the parliamentary elections of the same year" - ref?

"citing differences with the party's support of the Law and Justice party" - Maybe "citing their support of the Law and Justice party"

"secret informer of the Polish communist secret police - Służba Bezpieczeństwa" - dash is weired. Maybe commas around "Służba Bezpieczeństwa"?

"by international press.'[35]" - Extra single quote.

"to a big public surprise" - Maybe "to the public's surprise"

"Wałęsa received many other international prizes" - "has received"

"He was also the first recipient of the Liberty Medal on 4 July 1989 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[48] and the Presidential Medal of Freedom." - Makes it sound like he was the first to get a PMF.

".[3]A History of Foreign Leaders and Dignitaries Who Have Addressed the U.S. Congress, The Office of the Clerk </ref>" - Fix ref tag.

The para that begins "In 2002, Wałęsa represented Europe" is choppy. Most of the sentences are "On date, Wałęsa did this", "In date, Wałęsa did that". Mix it up to remove choppiness.

"were big hits in Poland in the 1990" - 1990s?

"Wałęsa was the subject of dozens of books" - Maybe "has been" instead of "was"

OK, fix that stuff, and I'll pass it. Tell me what you want me to do on wiki.

2010/2/1 Piotr - Show quoted text - -- Peregrine Fisher 

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Piotr to me show details Feb 1 (9 days ago) Peregrine Fisher wrote: I'll try to move quickly.

Thanks!


"Simultaneously, he expressed support for Poland's newly-formed Democratic Party - demokraci.pl in the parliamentary elections of the same year" - ref?

Couldn't find one - removed claim.


The para that begins "In 2002, Wałęsa represented Europe" is choppy. Most of the sentences are "On date, Wałęsa did this", "In date, Wałęsa did that". Mix it up to remove choppiness.

Tried to, but it's really difficult to do something with this para :( Any suggestions what else can be done with it would be appreciated.


OK, fix that stuff, and I'll pass it. Tell me what you want me to do on wiki.

Done. Once you tell me the article is 100% ready I'll email the editors who agreed to transwiki it. They should also nominate it to GAN after moving it; I'll ask them to notify you when this has happened so you can pass it.

Thank you for your help!


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Peregrine Fisher to Piotr show details Feb 2 (8 days ago) OK, we'll call that good. Email me when it's ready to be reviewed. Do you want me to copy our emails over to the GA1 page, or just make a not of what we did?

Is anyone going to object to plopping the article in over what's currently there?

2010/2/1 Piotr - Show quoted text - -- Peregrine Fisher 

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Peregrine Fisher to Piotr show details Feb 3 (7 days ago) I added it.

2010/2/2 Peregrine Fisher - Show quoted text - -- Peregrine Fisher - Peregrine Fisher (talk) 23:55, 10 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Communism's polish defeat

Lech walesa is well known for recieving the nobel peace prize for bringing down communism in russia and organizing workers against the oppression. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.166.92.110 (talk) 21:40, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

MEP

Move request

Lech Wałęsa → Lech Walesa — Not because either one is better, more correct or more accurate, but because "Lech Walesa" is more common in reliable English-language sources. See WP:UE for choosing between anglicized and local spellings. Dohn joe (talk) 01:13, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

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