Andrzej Gwiazda

Andrzej Gwiazda (born on 14 April 1935 in Pińczów) is an engineer and prominent opposition leader, who participated in Polish March 1968 Events and December 1970 Events; one of the founders of Free Trade Unions, Member of the Presiding Committee of the Strike at Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk in August 1980, Vice President of the Founding Committee of Solidarity, then Vice President of Solidarity in 1980 and 1981; in December 1981 interned and next imprisoned with six other Solidarność leaders (see Martial Law in Poland). His wife, Joanna Duda-Gwiazda (they married in 1961) also was a prominent member of the anticommunist opposition in the 1970s and 1980s.

Gwiazda's father was a sailor of the Riverine Flotilla of the Polish Navy, stationed in Pińsk (now Belarus), where the family moved in 1939, a few months before the outbreak of World War II. His father Stanisław fought in the Polish September Campaign, as a soldier of Independent Operational Group Polesie. After capitulation of Poland he was caught by the Germans, and spent the war in Oflag II-C in Woldenberg. Young Andrzej, together with mother Zofia (née Zamojska) and grandmother, was in 1940 deported by the Soviets (see Soviet invasion of Poland, Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946)) to Kazakhstan, where they stayed until 1946. After the return and reuniting with Stanisław Gwiazda, the family first settled in Upper Silesia, then they moved to Gdańsk, where Andrzej studied electronics at Gdańsk University of Technology, graduating in 1966. After graduation, he worked at Cybernetics Institute of the University, and in 1973 took a job at Power Supplies Factory Elmor in Gdańsk.

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