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Lech Walesa says it was a major factor in bringing down communism since they were on the verge of giving up, but when they got the price they got renewed energy to fight.

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My bad folks, apparently the Nobel committee ended communism. The inflated self-importance of left-leaning intellectuals knows no bounds.

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Yes, the Nobel Peace Prize and the resulting political and P.R. pressure upon the Soviets helped end communism in Poland. It was not an immediate result, of course (only foolish persons think like that) but it nudged things towards that direction. The Soviets' policy on the West was based on promoting peace - and, in that context, the Soviets could not dismiss the Nobel Peace Prize as irrelevant or "an imperialist tool".

By itself alone, the Solidarity movement did not bring down communism in Poland but it contributed tremendously. As did the other democratic movements in Eastern Europe, along with the stance of lone and courageous individuals. (Such as physicist Andrei Zakharov, who was also awarded the Price.)

To ridicule those episodes in History only shows closed-mindedness and profound ignorance of History's workings.