THE GROWTH OF THE MODERN NATION 41off a highly successful mail-train raid. Unlike the Bolsheviks, however, he also
turned to soldiering, and to an unashamedly nationalist campaign, believing
that the loyalty of his Polish compatriots was a sounder basis for action than
calls for class warfare. From then on, his one aim was for an independent
Poland. He formed his Legions in Austria, first in the guise of 'Riflemen's Clubs',
and later in the open. He persuaded the Central Powers that he might be of use
in the event of war. He was given the rank of Brigadier-General, and allowed to
train in the Carpathians. Between 1914 and 1917 he fought under Austrian
Command on the Eastern Front. He briefly served as Minister of War in the
Regency government, but was imprisoned by the Germans for refusing the prof-
fered oath to the Kaiser. From July 1917 to November 1918, he remained in
Magdeburg Castle. After ten years of unremitting effort, there was little fore-
warning of the triumph which was soon to be his. (See Chapter 18.)
To understand the extraordinary turns of fortune which marked Pilsudski's
career, it is necessary to ponder three outstanding features of his complex
personality. Firstly, he was a conspirator, not a statesman. His habits of mind
were formed by the harsh realities of the Russian underground. He knew
little of compromise or patient accommodation, and had little in common with
politicians like Daszynski, the socialist, Witos, the peasant leader, or Dmowski,
with whom he was later expected to co-operate. Secondly, he was a fighter. His
natural instinct when faced with an impasse, was to shoot his way out. This was
to be the hallmark of his diplomacy, and in 1926, of his approach to constitu-
tional problems. Thirdly, he was a rogue elephant. He possessed all the political
vices in full measure: he was wayward, reckless, rude, vindictive, childish,
taciturn, and unpredictable. He was embarrassing to his colleagues, and offen-
sive to his opponents. He was incapable of observing Party discipline, or of
founding a coherent political movement. But in 1918—21, he played a part in
Polish History which no one can fairly deny. Like that of Churchill twenty years
later, his 'Finest Hour' stood in the midst of a lifetime strewn with blunders and
failures. Yet such was the force of his personality, the strength of his nerve, and
the obstinacy of his resolution that he imposed his will on the lesser and more
cautious men around him. There is no other figure in the recent history of
Poland to whom Jozef Pilsudski can be compared.^43
In the last decade before the First World War Polish political life was polar-
izing rapidly. The two main strands of the national movement, Dmowski's
Narodowcy or 'Nationalists' and Pilsudski's Niepodleglosciowcy or
'Independence-ites', were operating in all three Partitions, and were stealing the
limelight from all the other organizations. They shared the common insistence
on the absolute priority of the national question over all other issues; but in
philosophy, tactics, and temperament, they differed diametrically. The
Nationalists conceived of the nation as a distinct ethnic community which pos-
sessed an inalienable right to the exclusive enjoyment of its ancestral territory;
the Independence Camp, in contrast, favoured the concept of a spiritual com-
munity, united by bonds of culture and history, and looking to some form of