Aleksander Kwasniewski was born on Nov. 15, 1954, in Bialogard, in the northwestern province of Koszalin. His mother was a nurse and his father, a surgeon. At Gda¨½sk University in the 1970s he became active in Communist youth activities. He helped organize the Socialist Union of Polish Students in Gda¨½sk in the late 1970s and chaired the Polish Socialist Students' Union (SZSP) council. He married Jolanta Konty in 1979. They had one daughter.

Without completing his economics degree, Kwasniewski moved to Warsaw to pursue Communist youth activities in the capital. He headed the culture department of the SZSP general board in 1979–80 and was a member of the executive committee of the SZSP chief council in 1980–81.

Kwasniewski was appointed editor-in-chief of a weekly student newspaper in Warsaw in 1981. A few weeks later the government imposed martial law. The newspaper was suspended along with many others but resumed publication in May 1982.

In 1984 Kwasniewski was promoted to editor-in-chief of the daily Sztandar Mlodych (Banner of Youth). The Polish prime minister, impressed by Kwasniewski's work on the paper, appointed him minister of youth and sports in 1985, and the 30-year-old Kwasniewski left journalism for a junior ministry in what would turn out to be Poland's last Communist government.

While the international spotlight was on Wa??sa's Solidarity protest movement, part of the Polish government was working toward establishing free trade and free elections. Kwasniewski participated in the “round table” debates aimed at opening the political system. He was a member of the Communist delegation in the 1989 talks between representatives of Solidarity and the Communist party that led to the downfall of the Communists. When the new Solidarity-led government did not offer him a role, Kwasniewski's political career seemed to be at an end. An avid swimmer, cyclist, and tennis player, he retained only the chairmanship of the Polish Olympic Committee, which he led from 1988 to 1991.

He soon formed a new Social Democratic party at the head of a Left Democratic Alliance, a coalition of farmers, socialists, and former Communists. Elected to the Sejm (parliament) in 1991, Kwasniewski led his alliance to victory in the 1993 parliamentary elections. He introduced pragmatic reforms to strengthen the economy and chaired a committee to review the Polish constitution. Between 1989 and 1995 he also improved his English, and visited New York and London.

The strains of divided government became apparent when President Wa??sa threatened to dissolve the Sejm and assume its powers. Kwasniewski challenged Wa??sa in the 1995 presidential election. The smooth, cosmopolitan Kwasniewski in well-cut suits and year-round tan contrasted sharply with the older, less educated Wa??sa, a former shipyard worker.

During the campaign, Kwasniewski promised to respect recent reforms and cooperate with the Sejm and the church. Although both he and his mother were Roman Catholics, a Polish bishop called Kwasniewski a neopagan, and anti-Semitic radio broadcasts alleged his mother was buried in a Jewish cemetery. Kwasniewski's wife was found to have profited from questionable stock investments. Wa??sa too was accused of financial impropriety. Kwasniewski won the election with 52 percent of the vote. He was installed as president on December 23.

President Kwasniewski succeeded in lowering unemployment and inflation, and attracting foreign investment. By 1997 he had made strides toward qualifying Poland for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union.