Thread by @akoz33

Pretty good account of the Treaty of Riga signed on thus day 100 years ago, which ended the Polish-Bolshevik war. The account of the seizure of Vilnius is a bit sketchy though, and what actually happened was a little mote interesting.
Piłsudski was, of course, a native of

https://twitter.com/rferl/status/1372276880846508046

Lithuania. His father’s family is known from the XV th century, his mother’s family (Billewicz) was one of the most ancient and distinguished families in Samogitia (part of Lithuania). One of the main female characters of Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy Aleksandra Billewiczówna, was

from this family. But Piłsudski’s family was, like most of Lithuanian nobility, thoroughly polonized. I don’t know much about the family of general Żeligowski, but it resided near Vilnius in the days before the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. General Żeligowski

served in the Russian Army in the war against Japan and in WWI (as lieutenant colonel). After the February Revolution Żeligowski became one of the Polish Army in Russia, which was originally formed to fight the Germans on the side of the Provisional Government but ended up

fighting the Bolsheviks along Denikin. Grzegorz Milonas, to whom my father owed his survival during the Holocaust fought under general Żeligowski both in Russia and later in the war of 1920 (see

https://twitter.com/akoz33/status/1220416303762149377

)
During the war of 1920 Żeligowski commanded the

Lithuanian-Belarusian Front, and later the 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Division, which consisted of troops from Lithuania and Belarus.
Piłsudski started the war against the Bolsheviks in order to create a Ukrainian buffer state, which he hoped would eventually join the Federation

of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. But the Bolsheviks counter-attacked and their offensive took the to the outskirts of Warsaw. During their offensive they occupied Vilnius, with its mostly Polish-Jewish population and handed it over to Lithuanian nationalists. After the

battle of Warsaw, the Polish counteroffensive regained almost all the territory held by the Poles before the Kyiv expedition, but Vilnius was still in Lithuanian hands when the Polish government (which was on bad terms with Piłsudski) signed the Riga treaty (which Piłsudski

denounced). The loss of Vilnius was unacceptable both to Piłsudski & Żeligowski equally. The two met and decided that Żeligiwski’s Division would “rebel” and occupy Vilnius without any official order. “This kind of thing I cannot order to you, in fact I will have to condemn your

action” said Piłsudski Żeligowski. Żeligowski’s Division “rebelled” and occupied Vilnius. The Entente protested, the Polish government condemned the rebels, but Żeligowski created the Republic of Central Lithuania, whose Parliament asked for it to be admitted to Poland, as

described in the article.
Żeligowski was a close personal friend of Piłsudski and one of his most trusted supporters. This was important in the political struggles during the period 1920-26, which ended in the coup (actually a brief but bloody civil war) of May 1926. In that

period the Polish army was split, Piłsudski could rely on those who served under him in the Legions, but most of the senior officers who served in the Austrian Army were hostile, as were the troops that fought in the German Army (there were no senior officers of Polish origin

in the German Army). Those who had served in the Russian imperial army were divided, but the authority of Żeligowski (who was Minister of Military Affairs at the time of the coup), assured support for Piłsudski of a crucial sector of the military.