List of Senators

Born on 11th January 1949 in Lidzbark Warmiński.
1975 – graduated in history from the Faculty of Humanities at Lublin Catholic University.
A democratic opposition activist. Arrested and sentenced to 3 years in prison on charges of printing and distributing fliers in support of student protests in May 1968. Co-organizer of democratic opposition in Lublin and along the Baltic Coast during the 1970s. 1976 – participated in the campaign to assist protesting workers in Radom and became a member of Workers’ Defence  Committee. Co-organizer of the Free Trade Unions of the Baltic Coast in 1977–1978. Was a co-editor of “Robotnik” and “Robotnik Wybrzeża” opposition newspapers.
August 1980 – organized strike in Gdańsk Shipyards and was a co-author of the list of striking workers’ demands. After the imposition of martial law, headed the second strike at Gdańsk Shipyards in December 1981. Spent more than four years in hiding from the authorities and headed the underground Solidarity. Between 1984 and 1986 – a member of the Provisional Solidarity Coordination Committee and then Provisional Solidarity Trade Union Council. Arrested and imprisoned. Participated in strikes held at Gdańsk Shipyards in May and August 1988. Since 1989 – a member of the Presidium of the Solidarity Trade Union National Committee, and its deputy chairman in 1990–1991.
Between 1997 and 2000 – the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration (in charge of the police force). Between 2001 and 2005 – the deputy marshal and a member of the Board of Management of Pomeranian Province.
Presided the Solidarity Trade Union Parliamentary Club in the First Term Sejm. Deputy chairman and then the chairman of the Special Services Committee in the Second Term. During his three terms in office at the Sejm, was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the National and Ethnic Minorities Committee, the Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly, the Administration and Internal Affairs Committee and the Constitutional Responsibility Committee.
Headed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Sejm and the Senate of the Republic of Poland, Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as well as the Parliamentary Team on Co-operation with Non-governmental Organizations in the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Term Senate.
Member of the Civic Platform Party of Poland.
Widower – his spouse Alina Pieńkowska (1952–2002) was an opposition and Solidarity activist, later a member of the Second Term Senate.