TM72024 POLISH LEGIONS 1914–1918 - COMMANDANT PIŁSUDSKI AND OFFICERS

Józef Piłsudski was born in December 1867 and died in May 1935. One of the key and most important figures in the history of 20th-century Poland, who is considered the "father" of independent Poland. Before the outbreak of World War I, Józef Piłsudski was an active independence activist and a member of the PPS party. Shortly before 1914, he, together with his companions and the Russian gold plundered in Bezdany, broke from the Russian partition to the Austrian one, where he began creating Polish patriotic organizations, the so-called shooting organizations. Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, he tried to provoke a national uprising in Poland (Kielce region), which, however, ended in a complete defeat. Soon after, along with his troops, he joined the forming Polish Legions. He quickly gained enormous prestige and almost total devotion from his subordinates. He also led to the so-called the oath crisis that resulted in him being imprisoned in the fortress in Magdeburg. After being released from the fortress in November 1918, he reached Warsaw, where he was given the authority over the already formed and emerging Polish army from the local authorities. Józef Piłsudski entered the most important period of his life, becoming after 1918 the Head of State, the Temporary Head of State, but also a person who created the so-called federation concept. It was then that he also won the Battle of Warsaw in August 1920, making it a part of the history of the Polish army as one of the best Polish commanders of the 20th century. In 1922, he resigned and settled in Sulejówek - in a villa purchased for his use by his former subordinates. In 1926, he returned to active politics, co-organizing a military coup, which went down in history as the May coup and which handed over power to a political camp closely related to Józef Piłsudski. This camp, also known as the Sanacja, remained in power until 1939. During this period, democracy in Poland was significantly limited or - as others want - its destruction, which may be indicated by, for example, the rigged Brzeg elections of 1930, preceded by the arrests of political opposition leaders or the unlawful adoption of the April constitution in 1935. Józef Piłsudski died on May 12, 1935 (the anniversary of the May coup!) After a long illness, which was hidden from the public opinion. Despite the controversy he raises, he is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the history of Poland in the 20th century.