Historian specializing in medieval history, communist era dissident and opposition leader, political prisoner, recipient of the Order of the White Eagle, professor Karol Modzelewski died on Sunday (28 April) in Warsaw at the age of 81 - oko.press portal informed on Sunday evening.
In 1964 Modzelewski, together with Jacek Kuroń, wrote an open letter to the communist party in which they expressed criticism of the policy steering away from the ideals of socialism. He was one of the instigators of the students' protests at the University of Warsaw in March 1968. During his time in the opposition, he became the first spokesperson for the "Solidarity" trade union, between November 1980 and April 1981; he is considered the author of the name "Solidarity" that the free trade union adopted.
During the times of the Polish People's Republic he was being imprisoned and interned on numerous occasions. In total, Karol Modzelewski spent 8.5 years in prison.
He was also a senator between 1989 and 1991. At the time he ran as a candidate of the Civic Committee. In early 1990s he was a co-founder of the Solidarity Union and later of the Labour Union. In 2005 he was a member of Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz's presidential campaign.
After the fall of Communist Poland he worked as a professor at the University of Wrocław, between 1992 and 1994, and later at the University of Warsaw. He was a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and its vice president between 2007-2010. His academic work was mostly focused on the medieval history. Modzelewski wrote, among other things, a monograph "Barbarian Europe" about the roots of European identity influenced by pre-Christian traditions, for which he received the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science. He also received Nike Literary Award for his autobiography "We'll Ride the Mare of History to the Ground: Confessions of a Bruised Rider". It was Modzelewski's last book in which he wrote about his ideological and political activities, as well as criticized the way in which the systemic transformation in Poland was carried out.
Karol Modzelewski was a laureate of Order of Polonia Restituta, the Order of the White Eagle and the Order of Legion d'Honneur.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP, oko.press