The fact that the mourning following the death of former Prime Minister Jan Olszewski would last longer than one day was announced on Sunday’s “Breakfast on Polsat News” program by Andrzej Dera of the Chancellery of the President.
– In the coming week, the President will announce his decision on declaring national mourning. The exact dates during which it will be in force will be announced then. The national mourning will last longer than one day because Jan Olszewski was an outstanding figure – A. Dera explained.
As we read on the website of President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda:
Jan Olszewski spent his entire life serving an independent Poland. He was everywhere the fate of Polish freedom was being decided and wherever even the faintest hope of expanding civil liberties—and, in the longer term, regaining sovereign statehood—flickered. Raised in patriotic traditions, as a young man he was a member of the Grey Ranks and worked in Stanisław Mikołajczyk’s Polish Peasant Party. His articles in the weekly “Po prostu”, especially the famous text Meeting the People from the Home Army, became symbols of the thaw so eagerly awaited.
He took part in the work of the Club of the Crooked Circle, defended defendants in political trials, and co-initiated and signed protests against persecution. He helped create the Polish Independence Agreement and the Workers’ Defence Committee. Finally, he was one of the most important advisers to the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” and defended its activists in court—from its leaders to rank-and-file workers. He acted as an auxiliary prosecutor in the trial of the murderers of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko. He was a member of the Independent Historical Committee for the Investigation of the Katyń Massacre and later co-founded and endowed the Polish Katyń Foundation.
He took part in the Round Table talks. He served as a member of parliament during the first, third and fourth terms of the Sejm. In 2009, he was awarded by President Professor Lech Kaczyński Poland’s highest state decoration, the Order of the White Eagle, “in recognition of his distinguished services to the Republic of Poland, in particular for democratic change and a free Poland, and for his state and public activities”.
Until his final years, he remained actively involved in the affairs of the Republic of Poland. To the end, he served his homeland with his knowledge, experience and wisdom. I consider it an honour that he also wished to share his reflections and insightful advice with me. He will remain in the memory of future generations as an exceptionally modest and warm-hearted man, devoted with all his heart to the sovereign Polish state and his fellow citizens.