Bronisław Piłsudski's Vilnius diary from his secondary school years of 1882-1885 is an extremely engaging read. We learn about the young man's family life in the light of his relationships with closer and distant family members. The daily, colourful diary entries are very personal. There is a great deal of self-reflection on puberty and emotional and sexual development, inner struggles with one's own "self", national-patriotic self-education, and the mapping out of life's signposts ("Duty, Mother and God" and "Forward Work").

The pages of the diary of a junior high school student are full of the realities of school life - the relationship of Russian teachers to Polish students, questioning in lessons, tests, grades, compulsory and forbidden reading or homework. The confrontation of first political views, historical curiosity, as well as attitudes to the Church and religious practices shaped the young man's strong character.

The diary is also a picture of everyday life for Poles in multinational and multiconfessional Vilnius. It shows the greyness of a city broken by Russian repression, exposes the russification system of the time - the total pacification of Polish society and the fight against the Catholic Church.

Tasting and experiencing the real, often difficult life under the Partitions of Poland... that is how the contents of the youthful diary of Bronek Piłsudski, the older brother of Józef, the future Marshal, can be summed up.

Published as part of the Institute's Polonica series 'Studies and Materials', the book is a valuable autobiographical source and perfectly supplements our existing knowledge of the young Bronisław Piłsudski, later a Siberian exile, ethnographer and expert on the Far East. At the same time, it is excellent material for reconstructing the educational system of the Vilnius region 140 years ago.

Written in the northern borderland dialect, this manuscript of a youthful diary is a literary monument that is our national heritage abroad - a Polish legacy in the East held in the collection of the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius. The scientific study and critical edition was undertaken by Jolanta Żyndul, Ph.

Additional information

The simultaneous publication of Bronisław Piłsudski's youthful diary by two publishing houses, in two different editions, should be regarded as a great coincidence, although it should be stressed that such things do happen.

The authors of the editions - or at least the Polonica Institute and Jolanta Żyndul - had no knowledge of the work in progress. The editions differ considerably, even in title.

The edition published by the Polonika Institute was based on the full manuscript of the diary stored in the Wróblewski Library in Vilnius, while Arcana published a version from a much later typescript held at the Józef Piłsudski Institute in America. The typescript contained not only many misreadings, but also numerous omissions. Moreover, in the process of creating the typescript copy, linguistic corrections were made, which also distorted the text. By reaching the original, these typewritten deficiencies were removed.

The nature of the two editions is also different. While the study by historian Jolanta Żyndul, PhD, fulfils the standards of a scientific edition, was reviewed by two specialists (Prof. Leszek Zasztowt and Prof. Monika Rudas-Grodzka) and has a full scientific apparatus with a bibliography, footnotes and factual notes, the edition of the Arcana publishing house - as its author Witold Kowalski himself writes - "does not make the slightest claim to scientificness" (p. 15).

The authors of the editions differ on a number of detailed but extremely important issues concerning the understanding of this source account. One of the most important is undoubtedly the thesis promoted by Witold Kowalski about the suicidal death of Bronisław and Józef Piłsudski's mother Maria, which is rejected by Jolanta Żyndul.

We do hope, however, that the unintentional and unfortunate publication of two versions of the diary, though it may be regarded as a peculiar waste of time and resources, will serve to stimulate interest in this exceptional text and discussion of the Piłsudski family and Bronisław himself.

We look forward to readers' reviews.

We would also like to invite you to watch the conference dedicated to the publication of the Polonica Institute and the book by the Józef Piłsudski Museum , The Story of Bronisław Piłsudski. A Pole Called the King of the Ajns , by Professor Kazuhiko Sawada.

Author: Jolanta Żyndul (editing and critical editing)

Language editing: Tomasz P. Bocheński, Emilia Kolinko

Translation: Małgorzata Matysik (English).

Year of publication: 2021

Number of pages: 592

Binding: softbound

ISBN: 978-83-66172-25-8