JÓZEF PIŁSUDSKI

Chief of State of the Second Polish Republic

“Józef Klemens Piłsudski  (5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (1918–22) and First Marshal of Poland (from 1920). He was considered the de facto leader (1926–35) of the Second Polish Republic as the Minister of Military Affairs. After World War I he held great power in Polish politics and was a distinguished figure on the international scene. He is viewed as a father of the Second Polish Republic re-established in 1918, 123 years after the final Partition of Poland by Austria, Prussia and Russia in 1795

Early in his political career, Piłsudski became a leader of the Polish Socialist Party. Concluding that Poland’s independence would have to be won militarily, he formed the Polish Legions. In 1914 he correctly predicted that a new major war would defeat the Russian Empire and the Central Powers. When World War I began in 1914, Piłsudski’s Legions fought alongside Austria-Hungary against Russia. In 1917, with Imperialist Russia faring poorly in the war, he withdrew his support for the Central Powers and was imprisoned in Magdeburg by the Germans.

From November 1918, when Poland regained its independence, until 1922, Piłsudski was Poland’s Chief of State. In 1919–21 he commanded Polish forces in six border wars that re-defined the country’s borders. On the verge of defeat in the Polish–Soviet War his forces, in the August 1920 Battle of Warsaw, threw back the invading Soviet Russians. In 1923, with the government dominated by his opponents, in particular the National Democrats, Piłsudski retired from active politics. Three years later he returned to power in the May 1926 coup d’état and became Poland’s strongman. From then on until his death in 1935, he concerned himself primarily with military and foreign affairs. It was during this period that he developed a cult of personality that has survived into the 21st century.”