Józef Klemens Piłsudski was a Polish statesman, leader of Poland.
Background
Józef Klemens Piłsudski was born on December 5, 1867 to the medieval noble family Piłsudski, at their manor named Zułów near the Zułowo village (now Zalavas, Švenčionys district municipality, Lithuania), in the Russian Empire since 1795 on the territory of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The estate was part of the dowry brought by his mother, Maria, a member of the wealthy Billewicz family. The Piłsudski family, although pauperized, cherished Polish patriotic traditions and has been characterized either as Polish or as Polonized-Lithuanian. Józef was the second son born to the family.
Education
Józef, when he attended the Russian gymnasium in Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania), was not an especially diligent student. In 1885 Piłsudski started medical studies at Kharkov University (now Kharkiv, Ukraine), where he became involved with Narodnaya Volya, part of the Russian Narodniki revolutionary movement.
His youthful environment, coupled with the indignities suffered by his countrymen under tsarist Russian rule imbued him with a keen sense of patriotism. His years of formal education, during which he evinced revolutionary traits, were cut short by his arrest and banishment to Siberia (1887 - 1892).
After his exile Pilsudski became editor of Robotnik ("The Worker"), the underground Polish Socialist Party newspaper, an activity for which he was imprisoned by Russian authorities in 1900-1901. Later, he devoted his main efforts to the training of guerrilla fighters, believing that Poles could achieve freedom only by the use of force at the opportune time. While the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 provided no opportunity for a test of his ideas, the revolutionary disturbances in Russia in 1905 enabled him to organize a more effective underground force.
The opening of World War I in 1914 placed his legion in an equivocal position, both because of the nature of the great-power alignments and because the manpower demands of Russia, Austria, and Germany cut deeply into its personnel. Pilsudski spent the latter part of the war in a German prison. This circumstance, as much as his wartime exploits, brought him fame as a patriot among the majority of his countrymen.
Back in Warsaw in the autumn of 1918, he was appointed chief of state and commander-in-chief of the Polish armed forces. With this authority, he was able to rid Poland of the remaining Germans and to turn to the task of erecting an independent Polish state. The early stages of this undertaking were complicated by the necessity of dealing with another provisional government, set up under the auspices of the Western powers and led by another Polish patriot, Ignace Jan Paderewski. In 1919, the first constituent parliament confirmed Pilsudski as chief of state, with Paderewski as prime minister. Attempts by the Bolsheviks to overrun the new Polish state in 1920 were thwarted by Pilsudski, assisted by General Maxime Weygand.
After the adoption of the constitution of March 1921, which sharply limited the power of the executive branch, Pilsudski declined to run for president, preferring appointment as chief of the army general staff. In 1926 he returned from a three-year retirement to restore order to a government in near-chaos as the result of a coup d'état. Once again summoned by popular mandate to head the state, he chose to serve - in 1926 and again in 1930 - as prime minister, while remaining minister of war and first marshal of Poland.
Until his death on May 12, 1935, he retained the balance of power in the Polish state.
Józef Piłsudski was a distinguished figure on the international scene, de facto leader of the Second Polish Republic as the Minister of Military Affairs. Together with his opponent Roman Dmowski he is regarded as a father of the modern Polish nation. He initiated adoption of the Polish constitution in April 1935. Although some of his political moves remain controversial - particularly the May 1926 Coup d'état, the Brest trials (1931–32), the 1934 establishment of the Bereza Kartuska detention camp, and successive Polish governments' failure to formulate consistent, constructive policies toward the national minorities - Piłsudski continues to be viewed by most Poles as a providential figure in the country's 20th-century history.
Piłsudski's religious views are matter of a debate. He periodically changed his religious affiliation from Catholicism to Lutheranism and vice versa. After the May coup, Piłsudski considered himself a Roman Catholic, but he did not appear to be religious and often used religion as public tool. Piłsudski was quoted saying:“Religion is for brainless people. ”
After the coup and Piłsudski's reign as dictator, he often clashed with Catholic leaders but nevertheless, enjoyed good working relationship with Cardinal Aleksander Kakowski, who subsequently led his funeral mass.
Politics
Early in his political career, Piłsudski became a leader of the Polish Socialist Party. He sought to maintain his country's independence in the international arena. Under Piłsudski, Poland maintained good relations with neighboring Romania, Hungary and Latvia. Relations were strained with Czechoslovakia, however, and were still worse with Lithuania. Relations with Weimar Germany and the Soviet Union varied over time, but during Piłsudski's tenure could for the most part be described as neutral.
Views
Quotations:
"Poland can have nothing to do with the restoration of the old Russia. Anything rather than that – even Bolshevism. "
"Bolshevism is a disease which is peculiar to Russia. It will never grow deep roots in any countries which are not entirely Russian. "
"I am not going to dictate to you what you write about my life and work. I only ask that you not make me out to be a 'whiner and sentimentalist. "
Who doesn’t respect and value his past, is not worth the honour of the present, and has no right to a future
"To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on one's laurels, is defeat. "
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
According to Joseph Conrad, "Józef Piłsudski was the only great man to emerge on the scene during the (First World) war. "
Wandycz characterizes him as "an ardent Polish patriot who on occasion would castigate the Poles for their stupidity, cowardice, or servility."
Connections
On 15 July 1899, while an underground organizer, Piłsudski married a fellow socialist organizer, Maria Juszkiewiczowa, née Koplewska. According to his chief biographer, Wacław Jędrzejewicz, the marriage was less romantic than pragmatic in nature. Both were very involved in the socialist and independence movements.
The marriage deteriorated when, several years later, Piłsudski began an affair with a younger socialist, Aleksandra Szczerbińska. Maria died in 1921, and in October that year Piłsudski married Aleksandra. By then the couple had two daughters, Wanda and Jadwiga.
Father:
Józef Piłsudski
He had fought in the January 1863 Uprising against Russian rule of Poland.
Mother:
Maria Piłsudski
She introduced to her sons to Polish history and literature, which were suppressed by the Russian authorities.
Spouse:
Aleksandra Szczerbińska
Spouse:
Maria Koplewska
arch-enemy:
Felix Dzerzhinsky
Daughter:
Wanda Piłsudska
Daughter:
Jadwiga Piłsudska
She was a Polish pilot, who served in the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War.
Brother:
Jan Piłsudski
Brother:
Bronisław Piotr Piłsudski
He was a Polish cultural anthropologist who conducted outstanding research on the Ainu ethnic group on Sakhalin Island.
Brother:
Adam Piłsudski
He was a member of the Senate of Poland, vice president of Wilno.
