Józef Piłsudski w murach warszawskiej Alma Mater

The article deals with the connections of Marshal Joseph Piłsudski to the University of Warsaw. Piłsudski played a leading role in the regaining of Polish independence after a victory against Bolshevik Russia. Many students from the University of Warsaw fought in the Polish-Bolshevik war and formed the 36th regiment. On the 2nd of May 1921 Piłsudski re-introduced the academic insignia to the University restoring its original nineteenth-century symbols and traditions. The university did not remain in debt to Piłsudski and awarded him, for the first time in the institution’s history, the title of doctor honoris causa. In the subsequent years Marshal Piłsudski’s connections to the university weakened, because of political divisions within Warsaw academic community and unfavorable Polish government policies towards the university’s autonomy. However, immediately after the Marshal’s death in 1935, the institution gained a new name – the University of Joseph Piłsudski in Warsaw. Achievements of this famous Polish hero were also commemorated at the University by many busts created by acknowledged Polish artists: Edward Wittig and Zofia Trzcińska-Kamińska. In the late thirties of the 20th century several university buildings and ventures were named after him and the cult of the Marshal at the University (propagated by the authorities) was highly noticeable. The present year marks the 80th anniversary of the death of Marshal Joseph Piłsudski and at the same time, eight decades have passed since the University of Warsaw received its patron in the person of Piłsudski. It is worth therefore to remember this extraordinary figure of Warsaw’s higher education.