Ex-Polish President Who Led Overthrow of Communism Urges US to Support Peaceful Russia

The United States must lead the international order to help reform and reintegrate Russia into the global community, according to a former president of Poland.

If the United States fails to lead at this moment, the international order it helped to create could crumble, Lech Walesa said during a Feb. 8 talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

“Many of the civilizations of the past crumbled because, somewhere along the way, they forgot about leadership, and we’re heading in the same direction,” said Mr. Walesa, speaking through a translator.

“But fate has given America the role of leader in these changes, and the U.S. cannot retreat now.”

Mr. Walesa said that the United States must support Ukraine’s quest for democratic government, but that lasting peace would only be possible when it engaged the people of Russia to reform their own government.

“Let’s finish this cycle,” Mr. Walesa said. “The world is beautiful. Russia is beautiful too, but when it is peaceful.”

“Help Russia be peaceful. But not with tanks. Convince them. Let them internalize what needs to be done.”

US Must ‘Demolish’ Legacy of Communism

Mr. Walesa was the first Polish president to be elected by popular vote after he led the peaceful Solidarity trade union to end communist rule at the end of the Cold War.

Referring to the communist powers of the 20th century, he said that he had sought to “demolish the old system of the world,” but that communism’s “structures” persisted in Russia under leader Vladimir Putin, as well as in China and elsewhere.

“Well, we didn’t demolish it all the way, because Russia and China were left,” said Mr. Walesa, who served as president from 1990 to 1995.

“But that demolition job was in order to build something new.”

To that end, Mr. Walesa said that Russian aggression over the last two decades owed in part to the fact that the Russian people had never been given the opportunity to truly reform their system of government and free themselves from tyranny.

“In theory, communism may seem better. That’s why many people in the West are foolish enough to believe in communism.”

“It only looks good. What people don’t know is it is not implementable. That is why I say reject it.”

As such, he suggested, the U.S.-led effort to counter Russia’s “Soviet” aggression would fail, unless it focused on peacefully helping the Russian people reform their own government and achieve a better way of life.

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