Józef Klemens Piłsudski ( ['juzɛf piw'sutski] (help·info), December 5, 1867 – May 12, 1935) was Chief of State (1918–22), "First Marshal" (from 1920) and (1926–35) the authoritarian leader of the Second Polish Republic. From mid-World War I he was a major influence in Poland's politics, and an important figure on the European political scene. He is considered largely responsible for Poland regaining independence in 1918, after a hundred twenty-th...
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Józef Klemens Piłsudski ( ['juzɛf piw'sutski] (help·info), December 5, 1867 – May 12, 1935) was Chief of State (1918–22), "First Marshal" (from 1920) and (1926–35) the authoritarian leader of the Second Polish Republic. From mid-World War I he was a major influence in Poland's politics, and an important figure on the European political scene. He is considered largely responsible for Poland regaining independence in 1918, after a hundred twenty-three years of partitions. Piłsudski was unable to incorporate much of his Lithuanian homeland to the newly resurrected Polish State.
Early in his political career, Piłsudski became a leader of the Polish Socialist Party. Concluding, however, that Poland's independence would have to be won by force of arms, he created the Polish Legions. In 1914 he anticipated the outbreak of a European war, the Russian Empire's defeat by the Central Powers, and the Central Powers' defeat by the western powers. When World War I broke out, he and his Legions...
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