Józef Piłsudski

Biography

Piłsudski was born in 1867 at Zułów near Vilnius, then in the Russian Empire. He began medical studies at Kharkov University in 1885 but was suspended for joining student protests. In 1887 he was arrested over a plot against Tsar Alexander III in which his brother was involved, and he spent five years in exile in Siberia.

He became a leader of the Polish Socialist Party and, believing independence would be won by force, formed the Polish Legions, which fought beside Austria-Hungary against Russia from 1914. In July 1917 he forbade his soldiers to swear loyalty to the German emperor and was interned at Magdeburg until the Germans released him on 8 November 1918.

He was Chief of State of the restored Polish republic from November 1918 to 1922 and became the first Marshal of Poland in 1920. From 1919 to 1921 he led Polish forces in the wars over the new state's borders, including the defeat of the Soviet offensive at Warsaw in August 1920. He withdrew from politics in 1923.

In May 1926 he returned to power by a coup and, as minister of military affairs and twice prime minister, dominated the Sanation government until his death in 1935. His rule included the arrest and trial of opposition leaders around the 1930 election and a detention camp for political opponents at Bereza Kartuska, but he is widely regarded as a founder of modern Poland.