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Maria Pilsudska
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Maria Pilsudska née Koplewska (1865-1921) was the first wife of Poland's Marshal Józef Pilsudski and ostensibly the first lady of Poland during most of his service as Poland's Chief of State.
Life
She was born in 1865 in Vilna (Wilno, modern Vilnius), at that time part of the Russian Empire, to Konstanty Koplewski, a prominent physician. After graduating from gimnazjum, she moved to St. Petersburg, Russia. There she studied in the "Bestuzhev Courses," a university for women, while cultivating friendships within certain revolutionary circles.
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Encyclopedia
Maria Pilsudska née Koplewska (1865-1921) was the first wife of Poland's Marshal Józef Pilsudski and ostensibly the first lady of Poland during most of his service as Poland's Chief of State.
Life
She was born in 1865 in Vilna (Wilno, modern Vilnius), at that time part of the Russian Empire, to Konstanty Koplewski, a prominent physician. After graduating from gimnazjum, she moved to St. Petersburg, Russia. There she studied in the "Bestuzhev Courses," a university for women, while cultivating friendships within certain revolutionary circles. It was there she met Marian Juszkiewicz, a young railway engineer whom she married in 1883. Their marriage was not a happy one, however, and fell apart soon after the birth of their daughter, Wanda, in 1887.
In 1892, the beautiful, intelligent and socially poised Maria met Józef Pilsudski. After seven years of friendship, they married on July 15, 1899, at the village of Paproc Duza near Lomza. Since Maria was a divorcee and the Catholic Church did not recognize divorce, she and Pilsudski converted to Protestantism. Soon afterward they settled in Lódz, where Józef continued his revolutionary activities. In February 1900, they were arrested when a clandestine printing press was discovered in their apartment. After eleven months Maria was released, while Pilsudski remained imprisoned in the infamous Tenth Pavilion at the Warsaw Citadel in the Russian-occupied part of Poland. Upon his subsequent escape from a mental hospital in St. Petersburg to which he had been transferred, the couple moved to Lwów, in eastern Galicia in Austria-Hungary.
In mid-November 1901, they moved to London, the seat of the Polish Socialist Party's leadership. In April 1902, however, pursuant to the needs of the PPS, they returned to Lwów, and in 1904 moved to Kraków.
In May 1906 Pilsudski met Aleksandra Szczerbinska, who was working with the PPS paramilitary organization. After a time, the two began an affair. In 1908 Maria Pilsudska's daughter by her first marriage, Wanda, died. By 1909, Maria was aware of Jozef's affair but refused to divorce him, and they continued to share a home until the outbreak of the First World War. Maria was popular among the PPS and its paramilitary faction, and had helped Józef gain adherents amongst them. Their marriage continued to deteriorate, however, and after his release from Magdeburg Prison in November 1918, Pilsudski did not return to her. Aleksandra Szczerbinska became his de facto wife, although for propriety's sake they had to maintain separate homes. Maria Pilsudska withdrew from public life and continued to reside in Kraków.
Maria Pilsudska died in Kraków on August 17, 1921. She was buried at the Rossa Cemetery in Vilnius. Pilsudski 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.
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