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 East-Central Europe.