Leszek Kolakowski | Polish philosopher, 81

Leszek Kolakowski, 81, a Polish philosopher and historian whose decision to disavow Marxism pushed him into exile and made him an inspiration for his nation's struggle against communism, died Friday in Oxford, England, after a short illness.

In exile - first at the University of California, Berkeley, and then Oxford University - Mr. Kolakowski wrote books on the history of ideas, culminating in his most influential work, Main Currents of Marxism, which said that the ideology "began in a Promethean humanism and culminated in the monstrous tyranny of Stalin."

That work and others circulated in underground editions and helped to shape the views of Poland's anticommunist intellectuals and Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement in the 1980s, which helped trigger the collapse of communism in Poland.

- AP