Aleksandra Piłsudska
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Aleksandra Piłsudska (1882-1963), née Zahorska or Szczypiorska, was the second wife of the Dictator of Poland, Józef Piłsudski.
Aleksandra was born on December 12, 1882, in Suwałki, in the Russian partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and was the seventh child of Piotr Paweł and Julia Jadwiga Zahorscy.
Her father was a city dweller, and her mother came from an aristocratic background (szlachcianka), but both of their families were relatively poor. Her parents died when she was ten years old, and the orphan was raised by her gandmother, Karolina z Truskolaskich Zahorska, and her aunt, Wiktoria Maria Zahorska.
She attended the Gymnasium, the equivalent of High school, in Suwałki, graduating in 1901, and soon started her studies at the Flying University (Uniwersytet Latający). In 1903, she began working in the office of the leather factory, Homa which was located in Wola, a neighborhood of Warsaw.
In 1904, she joined the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), which was one of the two main revolutionary and political factions in partitioned Poland, the other being Endecja. She was soon acting as a PPS agitator in the Varsovian suburb of Praga, taking part in the demonstration held on Plac Grzybowski, on November 13, 1904. She also joined the military arm of the PPS, Organizacja Bojowa, where she became a courier, and stockpiler of weapons. It became necessary for her to resign from her job at the factory, and she became a tutor, to supplement her income.
In May 1906, she met Józef Piłsudski. In that year the PPS divided itself into two factions, supporters and opponents of Piłsudski. She remained with the Piłsudski faction. Aleskandra was arrested in 1907, and imprisoned in Daniłłowicze prison for three weeks, and then transferred to the Pawiak prison, where she was eventually released due to insufficient evidence. She moved to Radzymin and later to Kiev, and at that time she fell in love with Piłsudski. (He was at that time unhappily married to Maria Juszkiewiczowa z Koplewskich).
In 1908, she took part in the Bezdany raid, where Piłsudski and several fellow revolutionaries robbed a Russian mail train. She was crucial in helping to organize the raid, acting as a look-out, and preparing maps and plans, for weeks before the robbery. Afterwards, she moved to Lwów, and once again became an office worker in a factory. Soon she became involved with the new organization formed by Piłsudski, The Union of Riflemen, Związek Strzelecki, and from 1912, she was an important activist in the women's section of the ZS. She was a librarian in yet another one of Piłsudski's organizations, the Union of Active Fighters, Związek Walki Czynnej, and a cofounder of the Society for the Welfare of Political Prisoners (Towarzystwo Opieki nad Więzniami Politycznymi).
During the First World War, she worked in the intelligence and communication section of the First Brigade of the Polish Legions, and soon she became involved with the Polish Military Organisation (Polska Organizacja Wojskowa). As a result of these activities, she was arrested in 1915, by the Germans in Warsaw, and again imprisoned in Pawiak in November of that year. Found guilty, she was imprisoned in Szczypiorno and Lauban, in Silesia. She was released after the Act of November 5th, 1916, which proclaimed the creation of the Kingdom of Poland, a puppet state, allied and expected to work with, and controlled by, the Central Powers. She then returned to Warsaw, and resumed her work in the organization called the Women's League (Liga Kobiet).
In February 1918, Aleskadara had a daughter, Wanda, and in February 1920, a second daughter, Jadwiga. Their father was Józef Piłsudski. Pilsudski and Aleksandra could not get married as Piłsudski's wife, Maria, refused to divorce him. It was only after Maria's death in 1921, that they were married, on October 25th of the same year.
After Piłsudski's May Coup in 1926, Aleksandra became a patron and a leader of the Women's League. She was also a chairwoman of the Military Family's Association (Rodzina Wojskowa), "Osiedle" Association, and the Union of Polish Defenders of the Fatherland (Unia Polskich Związków Obrończyń Ojczyzny). She was also active in the affairs of the Association for the Care of Homeless Children (Towarzystwo Opieki nad Bezdomnymi Dziećmi).
Her marriage to Piłsudski became stormy in later years, with Piłsudski living apart from her, for long periods of time, in various governmental residences.
Josef Pilsudski, died in May, of 1935.
After the German invasion of Poland, on September 1, 1939, she fled with her daughters via Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden to London. There she wrote her memoirs, and lived until her death on March 31, 1963. She is buried at the North Sheen Cemetery.
[edit] References
- (Polish) Aleksandra Piłsudska, last accessed on 16 June 2006
[edit] Further reading
- Aleksandra Piłsudska, Pilsudski: A Biography by His Wife, Dodd, Mead and Co. NY., 1941
