Andrej Zakrzewski; Lech Walesa Political Advisor

Andrej Zakrzewski, 58, the culture minister of Poland, who served as a key aide in former President Lech Walesa’s first post-communist government. The Warsaw-born Zakrzewski earned a law degree and a doctorate in history. He was a leading expert on Poland’s history between the two world wars and wrote several books about the nation’s politics before 1939. An active participant in the democratic opposition that created the Solidarity trade union movement in 1980, Zakrzewski became Walesa’s top political advisor when he joined the first post-communist government in 1991. He was widely credited with writing some of Walesa’s best speeches, including the address on the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising calling for Germany, Russia and Poland to overcome their bitter past. On Thursday, Walesa called Zakrzewski’s death, “A great loss for me, for my family and for Poland.” On Thursday in Warsaw of lung cancer.