Józef Piłsudski deserves credit for the adroitness with which he managed Polish affairs during and immediately after the First World War.
This book is aimed at presenting his unique role in the breakthrough months between November 1918 and February 1919. His adeptness at preventing the Bolshevik revolution from spreading, at uniting rivaling political factions, and gaining international recognition for Poland within the victorious Entente, reached its culmination in the first parliamentary elections held in late January 1919 and when the elected Constituent Sejm convened in February 1919.
Piłsudski had to choose constantly between the lesser of two evils – the revolutionary left and the Nationalists, the Central Powers and the Entente – but he led the Polish nation to a haven of relative peace and stability which ultimately came with the termination of the Polish-Soviet War in 1921 and the end of inflation in 1924.
