Józef Piłsudski

Józef Klemens Piłsudski (December 5, 1867 – May 12, 1935) was an important leader of Poland. He is seen in as the father of the Polish state since he declared the country's independence at the end of the First World War.

From 1795 to 1918, Poland was not an independent country. The partitions of Poland divided it into three parts between Russia, Prussia (later Germany) and Austria-Hungary.

Later, Piłsudski became a soldier and wanted to make Poland independent again. At the beginning of the First World War, people who agreed with Pilsudski helped Austria-Hungary because they preferred it to Russia. Piłsudski created a Polish army in Austria called the Polish Legions. Piłsudski is famous for leading the First Brigade of the Polish Legions.

When the legions stopped helping Austria-Hungary and Germany, Piłsudski was arrested. After the war, he was freed.

He came to Warsaw in November 1918 and helped to organize Poland, which existed again after 123 years of partition. Then, for a short time, he became the country's leader (not president but head of state). Gabriel Narutowicz became Poland's first president, but he was assassinated a few days later and was replaced by Stanisław Wojciechowski. Piłsudski was shocked and left politics for a few years.

The situation in Poland was not good, and the politicians were greatly divided. Many people, especially the soldiers, wanted Piłsudski back and so he told Wojciechowski to resign. When he refused, Piłsudki took over with the help of the army. The Poliish Parliament elected his close friend Ignacy Mościcki as the new president. Together, they changed the Polish Constitution and made other changes that made the country stronger in the 1920s and the 1930s.

Today, Piłsudski is remembered as a hero and has many statues and streets named after him.

 Childhood and youth 
Józef Piłsudski was born on 5 December 1867 in Zułowo, which is now in Lithuania but then was in the Russian part of Poland. The government tried to make Poles become Russian, but Piłsudski was born in a noble family of patriots that wanted Poland to be an independent country.  His father, Joseph Wincenty (1833-1902), had fought in the January 1863 Uprising against the Russian rule. His mother, Maria (1842-1884), came from the famous Billewicz family. He had a daughter, Jadwiga Piłsudska (1920-2014).

Piłsudski was a patriot since he was very young and often had problems with the Russian teachers in his school.

In his youth. he got involved with Polish and Russian revolutionaries, who planned to kill the Tsar and overthrow the Russian government. He was sent to Siberia for helping them. There, he met many Polish Soldiers that fought for independence in the 1863 uprising against Russia.

When he came back, he got more and more involved in politics.

 Early political life 
In 1892, Piłsudski returned from Siberia and created the Polish Socialist Party, which opposed Rusian rule in Poland and also wanted workers to be treated fairly. He wrote newspapers for the party and reminded Polish workers of their old homeland.

Piłsudski personally took part in the famous Bezdanny Raid, where Piłsudski and his friends took a lot of money from a train that belonged to the tsar.

With the money, Piłsudski bought weapons and started preparing for the coming world war. Piłsudski hoped that during the war, Russia and Germany would fight against each other, whicjh would give Poland a chance to be independent.

 First World War 
When the First World War broke out, Piłsudski lead his armies on the side of Austria-Hungary.

Piłsudski's Polish Legions won many battles for Austria-Hungary and Germany against Russia, Both now respected him and allowed the existence of a Polish State in 1916, but they had the main control.

Piłsudski's First Brigade is also the subject of the famous Polish military song My pierwsza brygada ("We Are the First Brigade"), which is the current anthem of the Polish military and very popular in Poland.

When Piłsudski decided that Poland must be fully indepenent, he was arrested and brought to a fortress in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1917. He was released at the end of the war in November 1918.

When Piłsudski returned to Poland, he was celebrated by many happy people. He has been ever since loved as a hero in Poland.

On 11 November 1918, Piłsudski declared that Poland was an independent country again after 123 years of it havijng been occupied.

 Politics in independent Poland 
After Poland started to exist again, Piłsudski was its leader.

In Russia, the Russian Revolutions had broken out in 1917 and overthrown the tsar and later the government.

The new Soviet Russia was communist and wanted to conquer Poland and the rest of Europe.

In 1920 the Red Army was at the gates of Warsaw, Poland's capital, Piłsudski sent his soldiers to battle and defeat it. The Polish victory in the battle is celebrated in the country every year.

After the war agaijnst Russia, Piłsudski gave his power to the new democratic government of Poland in 1922.

Unfortunately, the first president,Gabriel Narutowic, was killed only two days days after he became president. Piłsudski was very disappointed and sad and so he left politics and spent time with his family in his house in Sulejówek, atown near Warsaw.

The new governments of Poland were very weak, and the country became poorer and poorer. Many people missed Piłsudski and wanted him to become the leader of Poland again.

When Piłsudski organized a demonstration in 1926 asking the president, Stanisław Wojciechowski, to resign, fights broke out between supporters of Piłsudski and those of Wojciechowski.

Finally, Piłsudski won the fighting and unofficially became the leader of Poland again. His close friend Ignacy Mościcki was elected president by the Polish Parliament.

Piłsudski's government was called Sanacja ("Sanitation") because it wanted to clean Poland of its problems.

Under Piłsudski, the bad situation of life became better in Poland. After some years, Poland was a strong country in Europe again.

Unfortunately, Piłsudski died in 1935 because of cancer. He was succeeded by General Edward Rydz-Śmigły, a soldier who had fought for Piłsudski during the First World War.

Category:1867 births
Category:1935 deaths
Category:Presidents of Poland
Category:Former dictators