Pilsudski, General

Józef Pilsudski (1867-1935), Polish soldier and politician. He spent the first part of his life in two overlapping causes, revolutionary socialism and freeing what was then Russian Poland from czarist rule. He fought for Austria against Russia in World War I after which he was made head of state (1919) and played a prominent part in the battles, political as well as military, by which Poland's frontiers were determined. Having refused the presidency (1922), he lived in retirement until 1926 when he carried out a coup ditat to put his friend in as president. As a result, he exercised almost dictatorial power through the president for the rest of his life.