The biography of Pilsudsky briefly

Juzef Pilsudski. Source: National Museum in Kelz. Collage: New Poland is copied why the heart of Marshal rests in Vilnius, or about Polish-Lithuanian intricacies of identity. Yuzef Pilsudski - - undoubtedly, one of the most important figures in the history of Poland. The legendary, for all its ambiguity, the leader of the second Commonwealth of the Polish -Lithuania is called the interwar Polish state buried in the National Pantheon - the crypt of the Vavel Cathedral in Krakow.

However, the heart of Pilsudsky rests along with the remains of his mother in the military part of the Ross cemetery in Vilnius. Today, Vilnius is the capital of the Republic of Lithuania, but before the Second World War, the city was called Vilna in the future in the text we use the name “Vilna” as historically correct for the period up to a year; In Polish, Wilno is also the modern name of the city of approx.

A strange, at first glance, the history of the burial will become more understandable if you turn not only to the biography of the marshal itself, but also a more long past Vilna, Lithuania and Poland. The life and death of Pilsudski Pilsudsky was born in a gentry family in Zulov Lit. Zalavas-a village lying northeast of Vilna. Already in his youth, he participated in the activities of underground organizations - socialist and fighting for independence.

Returning to Vilna, he became an active member of the newly created Polish Socialist Party; He participated in the revolution of the year. In the year, Pilsudski created a Polish military organization and headed the Polish legions that fought on the side of Austria-Hungary against Russia, in the hope of restoring-with the support of the central powers-the Polish state.

However, Germany and Austria-Hungary did not strive to provide Poland independence-over time, this led to a break in cooperation, and Pilsudsky was arrested in Germany. In the year, when Russia was bogged down in the civil war, and the central powers were defeated on the Western Front, a chance appeared among the peoples of Central Europe. Then Pilsudski became the head of the state, who was subordinate to the numerous created Ad Hoc Ad Hoc Lat.

In the same year, he led the Polish army to victory over the Red Army in the Warsaw battle, thereby preserving the country's independence. Pilsudski participated in the formation of the democratic system of the new state, but due to party conflicts, he was disappointed, as he called it, "Seimocracy." As a result, in the year he made an armed May coup. The legally elected government was forced to resign, and power in the country under the slogan of the rehabilitation of Lat.

Marshal himself did not become the president, he only held the posts of a military minister and several times - the premiere, but everyone knew that it was he who determined the Polish policy. The elements of the personality cult appeared in state propaganda during his lifetime, and after death they became especially odious. But the regardless of the authoritarian nature of the authorities, Pilsudsky enjoyed genuine popularity and respect in society.

Marshal died on May 12 of the year, exactly on the ninth anniversary of the May coup. Immediately after his death, the brain and heart were removed from the body. The first became the object of the brain -fashionable scientific research of outstanding figures. The heart, according to the will of the deceased, was decided to bury in Vilna, and the body itself was on Vavela, next to the tombs of the kings.

It should be clarified here that the separation of the remains was not exceptional phenomenon. Let us recall, for example, the burials of the Austrian Habsburgs, whose bodies, hearts and other internal organs rest in three Viennese churches, thereby increasing the number of places where you can pray for the deceased. In the same way, the remains of the kings of France were shared.

From Polish examples, you can mention the Frederick of Chopin: his heart is buried in Warsaw, while the body rests in Paris. The funeral of Marshal in Krakow, and then in Vilna became the largest events in which thousands of people took part. The ceremony in Vilna took place only a year after death and was combined with the reburial of the mother of Juzef, Mary, who had previously been in the village of Suginta Lit.

Suginchi in the territory of the Republic of Lithuania. The general sarcophagus with the lapidar inscription “Mother and Heart of the Son” stands in a special place: in a small military cemetery - years, before entering the main necropolis - the Ross cemetery. On the stove from Volyn granite, quotes were carved from the works of the great poet of the era of romanticism - Julius Slovak, whose poetry, full of patriotic symbols, had a strong influence on the worldview of the Pilsudsky generation.

The grave on Ross immediately became one of the main centers of the Marshal cult. But why did all this happen in the historical and modern capital of Lithuania? From the history of the city in the interwar period, Vilna and Vilenchin were an apple of discord between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Lithuania, which is why both countries did not maintain diplomatic relations for a long time.

The issue of state affiliation of the city, like many other places in Europe, has become an urgent problem with the emergence of new national states.In the old eras, the state united the identity of the ruler or dynasty, general political elites and historical traditions; In what language the population speaks, it did not matter. The situation changed in the 19th century, when national movements began to develop, which required the creation of their own states for individual peoples.

At the same time, the people were determined on the basis of language, customs and traditions, as well as the alleged general ethnic origin and often religion. In the 19th century, the confrontation between the multinational empires of the “old way” such as Austria or Russia, on the one hand, and new “national” states in Germany or Italy and peoples that do not have their own statehood, on the other, intensified.

The last category also included that the idea of ​​national states became the basis of a new order in Europe, imposed by the United States after the First World War. But ethnic criteria are not suitable for distinction in regions where there were never borders, and representatives of different peoples lived side by side for centuries. As a result, almost all ethnically mixed territories became a conflict zone.

Poland revived in the year escaped territorial disputes only on a short section of the border with Romania: more or less large border conflicts flared up with Germany, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania and Latvia, and in the east, in addition to the Soviet-Polish war, the Polish-Ukrainian confrontation continued. Vilna for centuries was a multinational and multi -confessional city, the historical capital of the extremely heterogeneous Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

It arose as a result of the conquests of the Lithuanians, who in the XIV century took possession of the vast territories of the Old Russian principalities, including the current Belarus, most of Ukraine and the western regions of Russia. The result was the creation of a state where the Baltors ruled, but the Eastern Slavs dominated numerically, behind which the outstanding traditions of more old states and developed culture stood.

The Lithuanian princes married the Slavic princesses, and the state language of the principality was not Lithuanian, but Slavic. It is worth noting that at present this language is called differently, depending on which state of the national state! Since the year, the Lithuanian princes were simultaneously Polish kings. A close political union could not but affect social and cultural realities.

Settlers from Poland flocked to the Grand Duchy, and in addition, the polonization of the population of the former Lithuania progressed. First of all, this influenced the elites: the Lithuanian boyars received equal rights with the Polish gentry and, together with her, decided the fate of the Commonwealth. Evidence of the changes was the gradual crowding out of the Rusinsky language of the Polish language in Lithuanian public acts in the 17th century.

Polonization also largely affected the lower social layers in the Vilenshchina, in the center of the principality, between the areas of compact resettlement of the Lithuanian and Russian-language residents. It should be noted that the “polonization” concerned language and culture, but not necessarily identical. The inhabitants of the Grand Duchy were in the then understanding by the “Lithuanians” “Litvin”, regardless of whether they spoke Polish, in-Lithuanian or in Russian.

After the sections of the Commonwealth, almost the entire Grand Duchy was under the rule of Russia, but the memory of the old order was preserved. The Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania served as a reference point for subsequent anti -Russian uprisings. It is no coincidence that Adam Mitskevich began his most famous poem “Pan Tadeusz” with the words “Lithuania, my Fatherland,” he wrote in Polish and implied the surroundings of Novogrudok, located on the territory of modern Belarus.

Separate political movements saw the form and structure of the revived state differently, but no one doubted that the Commonwealth should be reborn, consisting of two parts or of three, subject to the release of Rus'-Ukrainian. Whose villenshchina? Yuzef Pilsudski, although he was a socialist, remained faithful to this tradition. He represented that generation of the Lithuanian gentry, which still identified himself with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Placed to the need to choose, he connected himself with the Polish version. In the same way, the majority of members of the social group, which the Lithuanian historian Alfredas Bumblauskas called the "Starolitvin", was the same. Lithuanian nationalists of Mladolitvin, in turn, appealed to national traditions: to pagan, independent of Poland, Lithuania. In this concept there was no place for people who considered themselves Lithuanians, but did not know the Lithuanian language and folk customs and related to Polish culture.

They had to make a very difficult - and by no means obvious - a choice. Here I will allow myself to give an eloquent example from the history of my own family. My great -great -grandmother was a few years older than Pilsudskoye near Kovno Lithuanian Kaunas, and later lived in Vilna. She considered herself a Lithuanian Oldolitvinka, although she did not know the Lithuanian language.Her son - my great -grandfather - chose Poland and became a military in the second Commonwealth.

However, his cousin accepted the other side and served in the Lithuanian army. Their choice determined the place of residence and the identity of subsequent generations. There are many similar stories. The most outstanding Lithuanian artist and composer Mikaloyus Konstantinas Cheurlenis learned Lithuanian, already being an adult. On the other hand, it was difficult for the Poles to accept the existence of a separate Lithuanian nation, requiring their own state, and even with the capital in Vilna.

For the Lithuanians, Vilnius was a historical capital, and it did not matter that among its inhabitants the Poles and Jews prevailed, and there were more Belarusians there than Lithuanians of the Mladolitvins. For the Poles, this was one of the most important centers of Polish culture with an unusually powerful tradition of romanticism. However, it should be noted that the interwar period is the only one in the history of the city, when it belonged to the state that has the word “Poland” in the name.

The dream of restoring the former Commonwealth influenced the political activity of Pilsudski. After the First World War, he sought to create between Germany and Russia the federation of countries-servants of the state, which existed one and a half centuries earlier. So, along with Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine should have arisen. In the year, he even made a failed attempt to revive the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and subsequently said that he was very disappointed with the reaction of the townspeople.

A little later, in accordance with the same concept, Pilsudski made an alliance with the Ukrainian People's Republic of Simon Petliura and supported the Belarusian detachments of General Stanislav Bulak Balakhovich, who fought on the side of Poland against the Bolsheviks. The political defeat of Pilsudski was also the lack of an agreement with Lithuania and, as a result, forcible capture of Villennaya, General Lucian Zheligovsky, who actually acted on Pilsudski's goals, he decided on such a radical version, since he could not achieve his goals in another way.

In the Vilenshchina, the ephemeral republic was then created, Middle Lithuania, which was officially included in Poland in the year. Thus, although this was not part of his intentions, Pilsudski created the Polish national state. Thus, the concept of his chief political opponent-Dmovsky’s novel-Dmovsky, who headed the National Democrats, during the First World War was the chairman of the Polish National Committee in Lausanne, and then the negotiator at the Versailles Conference, playing an important role in the revival of Poland during the First World War.

He saw the chances of independence of the country first in cooperation with Russia, and then with the Western powers. Dmovsky believed that Poland should abandon the eastern lands of the former Commonwealth, where ethnic Poles made up a clear minority, and engage in the accession of territories inhabited by the Poles and not belonging to the Commonwealth to the sections - such as the upper Silesia and Mazura.

When the borders of the second Commonwealth were finally established, part of the upper Silesia really entered its territory, and the border did not advance to the east.