page_title: Józef Piłsudski
hierarchical_section_title: Józef Piłsudski
context_page_description: Józef Klemens Piłsudski was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State and First Marshal of Poland. He was considered the de facto leader 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.
  Seeing himself as a descendant of the culture and traditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Piłsudski believed in a multi-ethnic Poland—"a home of nations" including indigenous ethnic and religious minorities he hoped would establish a robust union with the independent states of Lithuania and Ukraine. His principal political opponent, Roman Dmowski, leader of the National Democrat party, by contrast, called for a Poland limited to the pre-Partitions Polish Crown and based mainly on a homogeneous ethnically Polish population and Roman Catholic identity.
  Early in his political career, Piłsudski became a leader of the Polish Socialist Party.
context_section_description: Józef Klemens Piłsudski (Polish: [ˈjuzɛf ˈklɛmɛns pʲiwˈsutskʲi] (listen); 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (1918–1922) 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.
  Seeing himself as a descendant of the culture and traditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Piłsudski believed in a multi-ethnic Poland—"a home of nations" including indigenous ethnic and religious minorities he hoped would establish a robust union with the independent states of Lithuania and Ukraine. His principal political opponent, Roman Dmowski, leader of the National Democrat party, by contrast, called for a Poland limited to the pre-Partitions Polish Crown and based mainly on a homogeneous ethnically Polish population and Roman Catholic identity.
  Early in his political career, Piłsudski became a leader of the Polish Socialist Party.  Believing Poland's independence would be won militarily, he formed the Polish Legions.  In 1914, he predicted a new major war would defeat the Russian Empire and the Central Powers.  After World War I began in 1914, Piłsudski's Legions fought alongside Austria-Hungary against Russia.  In 1917, with 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.
  In international affairs, Piłsudski pursued two complementary strategies meant to secure Poland's independence and enhance national security: "Prometheism", aimed at achieving the disintegration of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union into their constituent nations; and the creation of an Intermarium federation of Central and Eastern Europe and states between the Baltic and Black Seas, to secure its peoples against Western and Eastern European designs.
  Historian Piotr Wandycz characterizes Piłsudski as "an ardent Polish patriot who on occasion would castigate the Poles for their stupidity, cowardice, or servility. He described himself as a Polish-Lithuanian, and was stubborn and reserved, loath to show his emotions." Some aspects of Piłsudski's administration, such as establishing Bereza Kartuska prison, remain controversial. Yet, he is highly-esteemed in Polish memory and is regarded, together with his chief rival Roman Dmowski, as a founder of the modern independent Poland.
caption: 1928 reproduction of an 1887 Russian wanted poster for Piłsudski, distributed (presumably by his political enemies) "on the 10th anniversary of Poland's independence":
   Translation "State criminal
   JÓZEF PIŁSUDSKI, nobleman
   DESCRIPTION:
   Age 19 (1887)
   Height 1.75 m (5.74 ft).
   Face clear
   Eyes grey
   Hair dark-blond
   Sideburns light-blond, sparse
   Eyebrows dark-blond, fused
   Beard dark-blond
   Mustache light-blond
   Nose normal
   Mouth normal
   Teeth missing some
   Chin round
   Distinctive marks:
   1) clear face, with eyebrows fused over nose,
   2) wart at the end of right ear"
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