Thousands of mourners attended the state funeral of Poland's Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first freely elected Prime Minister of Poland after the fall of the Soviet Bloc.

Saint John's Archcathedral in central Warsaw could barely contain the family as well as past and present members of government, and was broadcast live on television throughout the country.  President Bronislaw Komorowski, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, European Commission head Manuel Barroso, as well as former Solidarity movement leader Lech Walesa were in attendance.

Mazowiecki was a pro-democracy activist and writer who served as an adviser to Lech Walesa when the Solidarity movement ousted communists from Poland in 1989.

Poland’s transition from Soviet-style communism was the inspiration for the region, and certainly went a lot smoother than in other former Warsaw Pact nations.  But Mazowiecki’s stringent economic reforms led to his bitter defeat in the first popular presidential vote in 1990.  He would later resign from government in 1995, complaining of the world’s seeming indifference to atrocities in the wars in the Balkans.

Mazowiecki was a heavy smoker and died last Monday in hospital at age 86.