His first meeting with Piłsudski on 24 July started on the wrong foot, as he had no answer to Piłsudski's opening question, " How many divisions do you bring?

The frontiers between Poland, which had established an unstable independent government following World War I, and the former Tsarist empire, were rendered chaotic by the repercussions of the Russian revolutions, the civil war and the winding down World War I. Poland's Józef Piłsudski envisioned a new federation ( Międzymorze ), forming a Polish-led East European bloc to form a bulwark against Russia and Germany, while the RSFSR considered carrying the revolution westward by force.

In particular, Piłsudski and Dmowski had initiated what would be long careers as the paramount figures in the civic affairs of Poland.

In the meantime, Piłsudski had correctly predicted that the war would ruin all three of the partitioners, a conclusion most people thought highly unlikely before 1918.

Piłsudski retained the French connection but had progressively less faith in its usefulness.

The Treaty of Versailles had only vaguely defined the frontiers between Poland and Bolshevik Russia, and post-war events created further turmoil and Poland's Chief of State, Józef Piłsudski, felt the time was right to expand Polish borders as far east as feasible, to be followed by a Polish-led Intermarum federation of East-Central-European states as a bulwark against the re-emergence of German and Russian imperialisms.

By the end of 1919 a clear front had formed as Petliura decided to ally with Piłsudski.

By his refusal to join the attack on Lenin's struggling government, ignoring the strong pressure from the Entente, Piłsudski had possibly saved the Bolshevik government in summer – fall 1919, although a full scale attack by the Poles in support of Denikin was practically not possible.

By the time of the Soviet counter-offensive in mid 1920 the situation had been reversed: the Soviets numbered about 790, 000 – at least 50, 000 more than the Poles ; Tukhachevsky estimated that he had 160, 000 " combat ready " soldiers ; Piłsudski estimated his enemy's forces at 200, 000 – 220, 000.

However, Polish military intelligence had decrypted the Red Army's radio messages, and Tukhachevsky was actually falling into a trap set by Piłsudski and his Chief of Staff, Tadeusz Rozwadowski.

The National Democrats in charge of the state also had few concerns about the fate of their Ukrainian ally, Petliura, and cared little that their political opponent, Piłsudski, felt honor-bound by his treaty obligations ; his opponents did not hesitate to scrap the treaty.

The treaty, which Piłsudski called an " act of cowardice ", and for which he apologized to the Ukrainians, actually violated the terms of Poland's military alliance with the Directorate of Ukraine, which had explicitly prohibited a separate peace.

By 1921, General Jozef Piłsudski was no longer the head of state and had participated in the Riga negotiations only as an observer, which he called an act of cowardice.

Thus Polish political and military leader Józef Piłsudski ( 1867 – 1935 ) was unable to marry his second wife, Aleksandra, until his first wife, Maria, died in 1921 ; by which time Piłsudski and Aleksandra had two out-of-wedlock daughters.

This allowed them to share power with Piłsudski, who had much more support in the military than they did.

Since 1930 Legia had been playing at the Polish Army Stadium, the construction of which was a gift to the club from Józef Piłsudski.

Since Maria was a divorcee and the Catholic Church did not recognize divorce, she and Piłsudski had converted to Protestantism.

Piłsudski did not attend the funeral ; two months later he married Aleksandra, by whom he had had a daughter, Wanda, in 1918, and a second daughter, Jadwiga, in 1920.

In 1965 Bertel Thorvaldsen's classicist equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski, which previously had stood before the now destroyed Polish General Staff building ( the " Saxon Palace ") on nearby Piłsudski Square ( once known as " Saxon Square "), was relocated to the courtyard before the " Viceroy's Palace.

After electoral losses in 1994, Wałęsa issued a statement that invoked comparisons with Piłsudski, who had become dictator of Poland: " When the time comes to introduce a dictatorship, the people will force me to accept this role, and I shall not refuse.

However, the new government had even less popular support than the previous ones, and pronouncements from Józef Piłsudski, who viewed the constant power shifts in the Sejm ( Polish parliament ) as chaotic and damaging, set the stage for a coup d ' état.

Due to the insistence of the National Democrats, worried about the potential power of Piłsudski if elected, it introduced limited prerogatives for the presidency.

Piłsudski was supported by several leftist factions, who ensured the success of his coup by blocking during the fighting the railway transportation of government forces, but the authoritarian " Sanation " regime that he was to lead for the rest of his life and that stayed in power until World War II, was neither leftist, nor overtly fascist.

A few of the notable visitors to the region: Elisabeth of Bavaria, empress of Austria-Hungary, 1837-1898 ( who travelled to the island for leisure and health ), Charles I of Austria, Emperor Austria and King of Hungary, 1867 – 1918, Polish Field Marshal Józef Piłsudski in order to recuperate his health, Winston Churchill ( who travelled here on holidays and was known to have painted a few paintings during his visits ) and Fulgencio Batista ( who stopped-over en-route to his exile in Spain ).

Piłsudski therefore formed the Polish Legions to assist the Central Powers in defeating Russia as the first step toward full independence for Poland.

Józef Piłsudski became a popular hero when Berlin jailed him for insubordination.

Although many observers at the time marked Poland for extinction and Bolshevization, Piłsudski halted the Soviet advance and resumed the offensive, pushing Soviet forces east.

For the next decade, Piłsudski dominated Polish affairs as strongman of a generally popular centrist regime, although he never held a formal title except for minister of defense.

For Piłsudski, this alliance gave his campaign for the Międzymorze federation the legitimacy of joint international effort, secured part of the Polish eastward border, and laid a foundation for a Polish-dominated Ukrainian state between Russia and Poland.

Initially the Polish government denied that it was responsible for the false flag action that created the entity, but Polish leader, Józef Piłsudski, subsequently acknowledged that he personally ordered Żeligowski to pretend that he was acting as a mutinous Polish officer.

The term was again picked up in 1925 by Sanacja, Piłsudski's political party in Poland, and was used by leader Józef Piłsudski as the official title for the leader of the party.

The city was a seat of the Military Department of National Committee, and headquarters for the Polish Legions, which were voluntary troops organized by Józef Piłsudski, Władysław Sikorski, and others to fight against Russia.

Even Józef Piłsudski dissuaded him from standing for election.

* Bezpartyjny Blok Współpracy z Rządem ( Polish for " Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government ") was an ostensibly non-political organization that existed from 1928 to 1935, closely affiliated with Józef Piłsudski and his Sanation movement.

To gather enough forces for the offensive, Gen. Józef Piłsudski, Polish Commander in Chief, ordered all available units to move to the Wieprz area and withdrew a number of formations from the Polish Southern Front, leaving only two-and-a-half infantry divisions to oppose the 12th Red Army and Budyonny ’ s cavalry.

The Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (, ; abbreviated BBWR ) was a " non-political " organization that existed in 1928 – 35, closely affiliated with Józef Piłsudski and his Sanation movement.

After the Bolsheviks lost the struggle for the capital of Poland and started their retreat eastwards, the forces of Budyonny started their march northwards to attack the right flank of forces of Józef Piłsudski.

Międzymorze (; also known in English as Intermarium or Intermarum ) was a plan, pursued after World War I by Polish leader Józef Piłsudski, for a federation, under Poland's aegis, of Central and Eastern European countries.

However, as the Polish Legions were already enraged with the German and Austro-Hungarian plans of limiting the plans for Polish independence and Józef Piłsudski, the Legions ' leader, was dismissed by his Austro-Hungarian superiors.

Meanwhile, Polish military intelligence was aware of Russian preparations for a counteroffensive, and Polish commander-in-chief Józef Piłsudski ordered the commander of Polish forces on the Ukrainian Front, General Antoni Listowski, to prepare for a strategic withdrawal.

On April 21, 1920, Józef Piłsudski and Symon Petliura signed an alliance, in which Poland promised the Ukrainian People's Republic the military help in the Kiev Offensive against the Red Army in exchange for the acceptance of Polish-Ukrainian border on the river Zbruch.