Jo?ef Pi?sudski, Marshal of the Polish armies who defeated the Soviets in 1920 before the gates of Warsaw, occupies a special niche in the hearts of his countrymen. This biography by one of the great Marshal's contemporaries is the first in more than forty years. Pi?sudski is one of the major figures of Polish history and certainly one of its most important leaders in the 20th century. As a founder of the Polish Socialist party, solider, commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and victor of the 1919-1920 Polish-Bolshevik War, and premier, he exercised paramount influenct over the policies of Poland during the last decade of his life which ended in 1935. This biography is in no sense "official" but a balanced account addressed to the general reader with an interest in history and political science. -- from dust jacket.