One hundred years ago, a Polish revolutionary argued that Russia's hunger for territory would cause Europe to be destabilized if Ukraine gained independence from Moscow.
Jzef Pisudski wanted an independent Ukraine connected to Europe. He was able to wrest his own homeland from the control of czarism and two other powers.
After more than a century of being erased from the map of Europe, a Polish state was put back on it's rightful place at the end of World War I, thanks to Pisudski.
Pisudski's story is brought to life in a recent biography, "Jzef Pisudski Founding Father of Modern Poland." Pisudski's relationship to Ukraine is reexamined in the book.
Pisudski was a modest man who inspired his troops by leading them in battle. His memory outside of Poland has faded, even though he was celebrated at home and abroad.
After proclaiming a new Polish republic, Pisudski and his legionnaires fought a series of wars to define, secure and defend its borders, and finally turned back a Bolshevik army that was threatening to drive all the way to Berlin.
Before that battle, Pisudski's forces had occupied Kyiv in an alliance with a nationalist leader who was fighting the Bolsheviks.
Pisudski had a vision of a multilingual and multi ethnic Poland that respected the rights of minorities. He was hated by nationalists who wanted a Poland run for Poles.
The Polish-Lithuanian union that existed for centuries prior to 1795 was the inspiration for Pisudski. Pilsudski's vision of an anti-Russian alliance was never realized because Ukrainians andLithuanians were wary of Polish claims.
Pisudski thought of a Ukraine as an outpost of Western liberal democracy in order to prevent Russian aggression.
He said in 1919 that there can't be an independent Poland.
In 1920, Pisudski launched a military campaign to support Ukrainian nationalists against the rule of the Bolsheviks. When Poland,Lithuania and the Baltic countries felt that Russia should be contained under President Putin, he believed he had a reason.
The cavalry of Pisudski entered Kyiv on May 7, 1920. He ordered his commanders to leave as soon as possible in order to establish friendly relations with the new Ukrainian state.
I believe that he championed an independent Ukraine, one that would be a democratic outpost on Russia's border, a buffer between Russia and the West, but also a steadfast Polish ally that shared Pisudski's democratic values and the values of his followers.
The two countries that emerged from the Soviet Union are Poland and Lithuania.
Michael Fleming is the director of the Institute of European Culture at the Polish University Abroad in London.
Fleming said thatilsudski was aware of the challenges posed by Poland's geography and concluded that an independentUkraine would share Poland's interest in limiting Russia's expansionist tendencies. It's important to remember that there was a lot of fighting between Poles and Ukrainians.
There were ethnic animosities between Polish and Ukrainian nationalists in the early 1900s.
Pilsudski resisted pleas for Poland to help the Whites during the Russian civil war. Russia would befiercely imperialistic regardless of who won.
Pisudski said that there was nothing to gain from the negotiations.
Pisudski was born in 1867 and raised in present-dayLithuania. He and his brother were accused of being involved in a plot to assassinate the czar and imprisoned because of his hatred of the authority.
After his release, Pisudski became the leading activist of the banned Polish Socialist Party, publishing its newspaper for years, making a daring escape from a second Russian imprisonment, and then turning to creating a military force.
Although they fought under Austria and Germany, Pisudski's insistence on Polish independence ultimately led to his imprisonment by the Germans. Poland's independence day was celebrated on November 11, 1918, after he was released from prison.
After Poland's borders were secured, Pisudski took a break from the public eye. He followed with his own turn to be a strongman.
He led a military putsch to restore order because he was concerned that Poland was slipping away from its democratic ideals. After imposing a system of "managed" democracy and soft dictatorship, Pisudski's final years were burdened by declining health and concerns about how to position Poland between a rising Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany.
Poland's conflicts include pogroms against Jews by some of Pisudski's troops. He sees Pilsudski as a defender of pluralism.
The case was made that Pisudski had the skills to defend Poland's interests. Poland was unable to prevent the German and Soviet invasions of 1939 because of his death in 1935.
When World War II ended, Pisudski's creation of an independent Poland helped ensure that an independent Poland would come back to life.
That's right.
John was a Warsaw correspondent for The Associated Press.
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