> was "Une Hacker Originale" by forming a worker's union in a (nominally) Communist state

nah he was just a puppet/poster boy for a good story. The real reason why communism fail in Poland were:

- coup d'etat by deep state. General Kiszczak did an excellent job. System has changed without a bloody revolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82aw_Kiszczak - communism was inefficient. Trading barier made it worse. As a result Soviet Union was weak and didn't have enough influence to keep the system stable. - Kissinger managed to convince China to counter Soviet Union. In 1969 they had to throw and enormous resources at the border.