From Eastern to Europe: President Aleksander Kwaśniewski in Conversation with Aleksander Kaczorowski

EXCLUSIVE book-length interview with THE PRESIDENT WHO CHARTED POLAND’S COURSE through the biggest CHALLENGES and BREAKTHROUGHS of the last 40 years.

A fascinating insight into the decisions that shaped Poland’s path from communism to democracy, from the Warsaw Pact to the European Union.

His election in 1995 took the nation completely by surprise. By the end of his second term, however, Aleksander Kwaśniewski had become one of the most respected and popular politicians in the country – and his standing remains undiminished: he consistently ranks among the most popular and trusted figures in public life.

Co-architect of a new Constitution for the new Poland, he went on to lead Poland into NATO and the European Union.

Today more diplomat than politician, he looks back over his own path with detachment and depth, and evaluates perceptively the changes that Poland and the world have undergone in his lifetime.

In conversation with biographer Aleksander Kaczorowski, Kwaśniewski talks openly for the first time about his presidency, his family, and his own journey. He recalls conversations with Putin on Ukraine, reminisces about his friendships with some of the world’s greatest statesmen and women, from Clinton to Havel, and reveals fascinating inside information about the emergence of the current balance of power in Poland and on the global political scene. He also touches on more private matters, such as student escapades in the US and the USSR, the dogs he has loved and lost, and reconciling the roles of president, husband, and father to a teenage daughter.

His story mirrors the recent history of Poland and Central and Eastern Europe.

Aleksander Kaczorowski (b. 1969) – highly acclaimed essayist and journalist, author of books including biographies of Ota Pavel, Izaak Babel, Bohumil Hrabal, and Václav Havel. He has worked for the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza and the current affairs weekly Newsweek Polska, and has been granted fellowships at The Remarque Institute of New York University and the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna. In 2015 he was awarded the title of Ambassador of the New Europe, and nominated for the Teresa Torańska Newsweek prize for his book Havel. Zemsta bezsilnych [Havel: the revenge of the powerless]. In 2016 he won the Václav Burian prize for his contribution to Central European dialogue. His book Ota Pavel. Pod powierzchnią [Ota Pavel: under the surface] won the Juliusz Upper Silesian Literary Prize for best Polish biography of 2018, and was shortlisted for the Nike Literature Prize.

ALEKSANDER KWAŚNIEWSKI (b. 1954) – politician, architect of transformation, the youngest president of post-communist Poland (1995–2005). In 1995 he ran for president against Solidarity hero Lech Wałęsa, and won. In 2000 he was re-elected in the first round of voting. By his own estimation, his presidency was marked by three key successes: the creation of a new constitution for the democratic Poland in 1997, and the country’s accession first to NATO, in 1999, and subsequently to the European Union in 2004. An advocate of dialogue and reconciliation, since his presidency he has taken on diplomatic and advisory roles all over the world. He has consistently been an active advocate of Polish-German and Polish-Jewish reconciliation, and, since the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, a staunch ally of Poland’s eastern neighbour.