The story of the enigmatic Jozef Pilsudski, the founding father of modern Poland: a brilliant military leader and high-minded statesman who betrayed his own democratic vision by seizing power in a military coup.
In the story of modern Poland, no one stands taller than Jozef Pilsudski. From the age of sixteen he devoted his life to reestablishing the Polish state that had ceased to exist in 1795. Ahead of World War I, he created a clandestine military corps to fight Russia, which held most Polish territory. After the war, his dream of an independent Poland realized, he took the helm of its newly democratic political order. When he died in 1935, he was buried alongside Polish kings.
Yet Pilsudski was a complicated figure. Passionately devoted to the idea of democracy, he ceded power on constitutional terms, only to retake it a few years later in a coup when he believed his opponents aimed to dismantle the democratic system. Joshua Zimmerman's authoritative biography examines a national hero in the thick of a changing Europe, and the legacy that still divides supporters and detractors. The Poland that Pilsudski envisioned was modern, democratic, and pluralistic. Domestically, he championed equality for Jews. Internationally, he positioned Poland as a bulwark against Bolshevism. But in 1926 he seized power violently, then ruled as a strongman for nearly a decade, imprisoning opponents and eroding legislative power.
In Zimmerman's telling, Pilsudski's faith in the young democracy was shattered after its first elected president was assassinated. Unnerved by Poles brutally turning on one another, the father of the nation came to doubt his fellow citizens' democratic commitments and thereby betrayed his own. It is a legacy that dogs today's Poland, caught on the tortured edge between self-government and authoritarianism.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Zimmerman's study...is remarkable...an excellent guide in both narrating and discussing major points in Jozef Pilsudski's journey that transform him from conspirator to soldier, socialist to patriot, and arguably statesman to strongman. -- Martin J. Kozon * Polish Review * Compelling...Zimmerman narrates Pilsudski's life with authority, clarity and verve...The book is an important achievement in its introduction of the English-language reader to a key figure in the historical contest between Russian imperial ambition and the smaller nations that resist it. -- Stanley Bill * Times Literary Supplement * Excellent...a detailed, absorbing book that peels back the complexities of histories to reclaim the figure of Jozef Pilsudski for a new generation. -- Colin Shindler * Jewish Chronicle * A well-timed book...This well-researched and clearly written biography sheds light on the emergence of an independent Poland, which without Pilsudski might never have existed. It is also a meditation on the confluence of ethnic, religious, national, and imperial history that is Eastern Europe. -- Michael Kimmage * The National Interest * Zimmerman has made Pilsudski's mostly supportive dealings with the Jewish community, and its experience of antisemitism, a central theme of his book. This tends to crowd out his treatment of other topics or minorities, but it's good that Pilsudski's long alliance with Jewish and other non-Polish parties should be more widely known. Necessary, too, though shocking, is Zimmerman's detailed account of the pogroms that broke out as Poland regained independence, crimes Pilsudski condemned but was curiously slow to halt. -- Neal Ascherson * London Review of Books * Pilsudski's story, complete with flaws, accomplishments and echoes of today's war in Ukraine, is brought to life in [this] recent biography. -- John Daniszewski * Associated Press * Zimmerman's biography is long overdue. Balanced, meticulously researched and very well written, it provides a panoramic portrait of the man who towers over modern Poland, warts and all. * History Today * Joshua Zimmerman's masterful new biography, based on Polish and English sources, explores the controversy that surrounded this contradictory man in his own lifetime and thereafter...This deeply researched study brings to life a restless Polish soul. -- Mark Cornwall * Literary Review * Clearly written, detailed, and absorbing...Zimmerman presents Pilsudski as a classical hero, masterfully balancing the description of events that showcase his hubris and tragedy. -- Magdalena Bogacz * H-Net Reviews * This well-researched and balanced biography of Jozef Pilsudski seems destined to become the standard English-language work on the 'father of modern Poland.' It is a significant achievement and deserves a wide readership. -- Michael Fleming * Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs * Likely to be the definitive biography of the Polish political conspirator, military commander, and statesman Jozef Pilsudski...Zimmerman's book is sure to find a wide and admiring readership. -- Jesse Kauffman * Austrian History Yearbook * I much enjoyed Joshua Zimmerman's biography Jozef Pilsudski: Founding Father of Modern Poland...Will be heartily welcomed by the history buff in your life. -- Roger Moorhouse * Aspects of History * Perfectly timed...[Zimmerman's] even-handedness gives Pilsudski's history a nuance that was not allowed by Poland's post-WWII communist authorities, who portrayed him as a proto-fascist and cracked down on his legacy...Impressively documented...Ultimately, Pilsudski's life was that of a classical hero, replete with both hubris and tragedy. -- James Jackson * Notes from Poland * Magisterial...Zimmerman, in his splendid book, paints a balanced and thoughtful portrait of an eminent Polish leader who devoted body and soul to reestablishing a state that had been swept away by the tides of fate. -- Sheldon Kirschner * Times of Israel * A masterful biography...This book should be ready widely by historians of modern Europe, and not just historians of Poland. Zimmerman's account of Pilsudski's life and legacy helps make sense of modern Poland, to be sure, but it also makes a case for his relevance far beyond Poland's borders. -- Eva Plach * Slavic Review * A work on the life and motivations of Jozef Pilsudski in the English language has been long overdue. ... Zimmerman has not taken the easy route of either producing a hagiography or a diatribe. Instead, he produced a well-written and thoughtful account of Pilsudski and how he shaped the Second Polish Republic. ...[He] should be commended for his diligence in executing this excellent biography of a great, if neglected, European leader. -- Evan McGilvray * Journal of Slavic Military Studies * Zimmerman's book can be read not only as a historical monograph, but also as a fascinating account of how Western ideas found their way to Europe's peripheries and what their implementation in political activism and state-building looked like in that part of the world...A must-read for scholars interested in Eastern Europe. -- Tadeusz Koczanowicz * Studies in East European Thought * Zimmerman's goal is to restore the figure of Pilsudski to the Anglo-Saxon world, where he is completely unknown, and the present biography is certainly a milestone toward achieving this goal. -- Lukasz Mieszkowski * H-Net Reviews * An in-depth biography of the man who has been described as the father of the Polish nation. -- A.J. Prazmowska * English Historical Review * An absorbing and nuanced biography of a compulsive man of action and relentless state builder, which draws on a range of Polish and English primary and secondary sources. This book is a remarkable achievement and deserves a wide readership. -- J.-Guy Lalande * International Journal * Successfully intertwines Pilsudski's history with that of Poland, providing excellent contextualization for this enigmatic statesman who is rendered less so thanks to Zimmerman. -- Joshua Leung * Diplomatica * The ultimate Pilsudski biography for our era. Deeply researched, authoritative, and very well written, it fearlessly faces the great mystery of the man. For how can the Father of Modern Poland, a soldier and statesman of genius and the savior of his country in 1920, be the same man who ruthlessly discarded democracy in a military coup only six years later? Zimmerman's portrayal of Pilsudski in the courageous Polish Legions days will come alive for readers, but the complexity of the authoritarian period under the 'Napoleon of Poland' will give them pause for thought. -- Andrew Roberts, author of <i>Churchill: Walking with Destiny</i> Pilsudski had a profound influence on the politics of twentieth-century Europe, and his legacy is discernible to this day. Yet this extraordinary man-an idealistic political activist turned terrorist, military commander, statesman and finally virtual dictator-has been sorely neglected by historians outside Poland. This well-researched, balanced, and highly readable account of the truly Napoleonic trajectory of his life and complex political evolution is timely and very welcome. -- Adam Zamoyski, author of <i>Napoleon: A Life</i> Here is the 'founder of modern Poland' for twenty-first-century eyes. This fascinating portrait of Pilsudski, one of the most important political figures of twentieth-century Europe, is full of vivid details and incisive observations. Zimmerman has drawn from a huge body of material, much from newly available sources, and turned it into a critical yet brilliantly balanced analysis of a man and statesman. -- Andrzej Nowak, Jagiellonian University A thorough, nuanced biography of Pilsudski, whose extraordinary life sheds so much light on his era and the Poland of his dreams and of his making. Zimmerman highlights Pilsudski's pluralist and federalist inclinations without downplaying his later authoritarianism. Pilsudski's attitude toward Polish Jews in particular serves as a bellwether of his cultural pluralism and respect for minority rights. A much-needed, comprehensive account essential for readers seeking to understand this complex, important figure. -- Patrice M. Dabrowski, author of <i>Poland: The First Thousand Years</i> The personality and policies of Jozef Pilsudski have long been obscured by both ideological attacks and mindless adulation. This welcome new portrait places the marshal in his rightful position, not just as a military leader whose plans worked out and a would-be democrat whose plans went awry, but as a statesman with a broad, tolerant vision. Zimmerman's emphasis on Pilsudski's hopes for a multinational Poland, where all could live in harmony-including the country's huge Jewish community-is spot on. -- Norman Davies, author of <i>God's Playground: A History of Poland</i> Pilsudski was a central figure not only in the emergence and development of an independent Polish state but also in the larger history of interwar Europe. Zimmerman clearly portrays the complex, multifaceted nature of the man and his political legacy. While Pilsudski sought to create a multiethnic Poland in which all citizens would feel at home, his understanding of how a constitutional system should function was flawed, and he used brutal, extra-legal methods to suppress the opposition after he seized power in a coup. This welcome book will become the definitive treatment in English of Pilsudski, and I enthusiastically recommend it. -- Antony Polonsky, author of <i>The Jews in Poland and Russia</i>
Joshua D. Zimmerman is the author of several books, including The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939-1945, and has written for the Washington Post, Politico, the Kyiv Post, Engelsberg Ideas, and the Times of Israel. He is Eli and Diana Zborowski Chair in Holocaust Studies and East European Jewish History and Professor of History at Yeshiva University.
