Józef Piłsudski

Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935), Polish revolutionary, independence fighter, and national hero.

Born at Zułow (near present-day Vilnius, Lithuania) on December 5, 1867, Piłsudski was educated at the University of Kraków. During his student years he became sympathetic to the Socialist movement, which advocated the independence of Poland from Russian rule. In 1887 he was arrested on a charge of conspiring to assassinate Emperor Alexander III of Russia and, although innocent, was sentenced to five years of penal servitude in Siberia.

Following his release in 1892, he became a leader of the Polish Socialist party, and in 1894 he began to publish an underground party newspaper, The Worker. Piłsudski later organized an underground private army of about 10,000 Poles to fight for the freedom of Poland; when World War I broke out, he offered his force to the Austrians to fight the Russians. Late in 1916, the Central Powers proclaimed an independent Polish kingdom and formed a council of state, with Piłsudski as a member. When he refused, however, to order his troops to support the Central Powers against the Allies, Piłsudski was imprisoned by the Germans.

Released in November 1918, Piłsudski returned to Warsaw a national hero and proclaimed an independent Polish republic. He was immediately accepted as head of state and commander in chief of the Polish army; as such, he supervised the disarming of the remaining occupation armies of the Central Powers, and all Polish military commanders placed themselves under his command. As his aim was the restoration of the territories belonging to Poland at the time of the partition in 1772, Piłsudski came into conflict with the new Czechoslovak and Lithuanian states and with the Bolshevik regime in the newly established Soviet Union. During the Russo-Polish War of 1920, Piłsudski, who was made marshal of Poland, successfully defended Warsaw against invading Soviet armies. He resigned as chief of state in December 1922. On May 12, 1926, however, disappointed in the performance of the parliamentary system, he led a military revolt that overthrew the government and installed a regime controlled by him. Thereafter, until his death, he was the virtual dictator of Poland; he was uninterruptedly the minister of war and commander in chief of the army, and twice during this time, from 1926 to 1928 and again in 1930, he was premier of Poland. He died in Warsaw on May 12, 1935.