Komorowski salutes 'father of Polish independence' Piłsudski
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
12.05.2015 11:49
President Bronislaw Komorowski has laid flowers at the monument to Marshal Józef Piłsudski on the 80th anniversary of his death, which falls today.
President Bronislaw Komorowski lays flowers at the monument to Marshal Józef Piłsudski, Warsaw. Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk
He later talked to a group of schoolchildren on a sightseeing tour of the capital and invited them to the nearby Belvedere Palace, to see the rooms which were used by Piłsudski.
The Belvedere served as Piłsudski’s residence and it was there that he died in 1935.
The Piłsudski Museum in the palace, which is now the residence of the president, is open to the public on special occasions, such as today’s anniversary.
Meanwhile, Komorowski’s opponent in the presidential race Andrzej Duda has placed wreaths at the tomb of Marshal Piłsudski at the historic Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.
A ceremonial changing-of-the-guard was held at noon at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw to mark the anniversary of the death of one of the key figures in Poland’s modern history.
Interviewed by the Polish Press Agency, historian Grzegorz Nowik described him as an icon of the national tradition, a magnetic personality whose name will be forever inseparably linked to the regaining of independence in 1918, after over 120 years of foreign rule.
Last week the Polish Senate paid tribute to Piłsudski in a special resolution which described him as the main architect of the rebirth of independent Poland and its armed forces, an outstanding politician and military commander, thanks to whom Poland defeated Soviet Russia in 1920, thus saving the country from communism. (mk/nh)