History of Europe

Two Piłsudski rubles. How the future marshal paralyzed the tsarist bureaucracy

Józef Piłsudski. Bolshevik vanquisher of 1920, conspirator escaping the years of Tsarist Ochran, commander of the legions who beat Muscovites in the battles of the First World War. One more merit should be ascribed to him:as a 19-year-old in love, he completely unknowingly plunged the tsarist apparatus of power into chaos!

No empire can function without bureaucracy. The clerical apparatus of the tsars was, according to popular opinion, not only particularly extensive, but also corrupt and inefficient. Counting on "additional encouragement," Russian officials took too long in dealing with the simplest of matters. On the other hand, an honest but overzealous and fearing all responsibility and lawyer (a Russian official) was able to steer the process in such a way that there was no end in sight. This kind of opponent stood in the way of young Ziuk.

Love above pride

Piłsudski came to Siberia in 1887, as a result of being exiled for taking part in the preparations for the assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander III. The attack itself did not materialize and its executors were arrested. Among the accused was his older brother, next to Józef.

After the trial, Bronisław received 15 years of hard labor. In turn, 19-year-old Ziuk was sentenced under administrative procedure, without the speeches of prosecutors and defense lawyers, but only by order of the minister of justice, to 5 years of exile. After eight months of travel and covering more than seven thousand kilometers, Piłsudski reached the place where he was serving his sentence, Kirensk nad Lena.

Months passed and Ziuk would probably have shared the fate of many of his comrades in misery, falling into utter apathy and bitterness, had it not been for the appearance of Miss Leonarda Lewandowska. A feeling flared up between the young exile and Piłsudski and the couple moved in together. The idyll did not last long, however. Soon Leosi's sentence ended and she left Kirensk. Abandoned Piłsudski misses, he writes in one of his letters to his beloved: The week that has passed seemed to me to be an eternity, every day I counted how many moments I had left without you, I presented myself with various pictures of our meeting.

Kirensk on the Lena. It was there that Piłsudski was sent, where he met Leonarda Lewandowska.

Wanting to join his beloved as soon as possible five days after her departure, on March 12, 1890, he bowed and wrote an application for transfer to the authorities. The justification was the poor economic conditions of the family, and therefore he asked for permission to change the sentence into police supervision in Vilnius. In fact - as noted by Wacław Jędrzejewicz in "The Chronicle of Józef Piłsudski's Life 1867-1935" - the need to help my father to raise assets excessively burdened with debts it was just an excuse.

Piłsudski had known about the situation at home for some time and it was then that it did not deteriorate significantly. It only came two months after the petition was sent.

This step, for proud Ziuk, was a difficult one, but he believed the only one in these circumstances to reconnect with his beloved . He hoped that this way they would return to the country together. Lowering himself to plead to the partitioner was especially humiliating for the political exiles. So Piłsudski, in the name of love, was even ready to humble himself before the hated apparatus of the tsarist administration, but here he collided with the wall of the bureaucratic machine.

Mr. deputy minister and two rubles

In order to get to know the decision as soon as possible, Piłsudski also joined the administration of two rubles . According to his request, this amount was to be allocated to a telegraphic reply. The letter reached the addressee quickly and a decision was issued at an equal pace. Naturally negative. A telegram with the same response was sent to Piłsudski. And here came the problem that outgrown the tsarist administrative system.

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The law did not provide for the possibility for the applicant to attach money for the answer. For this reason, it was decided to send the message at its own expense, without touching the two rubles. However, a dilemma remained what to do with such a "considerable" amount. Some zealous and lawyer of the general department, he sent an official inquiry to the police department in which he wrote that:

2 rubles were deposited in the Ministry of Internal Affairs' deposit, sent to a telegraphic response by an administrative exile, a nobleman Piłsudski, with an application for a residence permit in Vilnius. In communicating the above, the general department has the honor of humbly requesting notification of where the exchanged money is to be directed , confirmed by the Main Order with a receipt No. 5222 dated May 5, 1890, which receipt is in the files of the department (quoted after:M. Lepecki, "Józef Piłsudski in Siberia", Warsaw 1936, p. 86).

Leonarda Lewandowska. It was for her that Piłsudski was ready to ask for the grace of tsarist officials.

Apparently, this department did not have the power to make such an important decision and sent the letter to the next level. And yes, that unfortunate bumaga (official letter) circulated from hand to hand, including subsequent annotations in the margins. And this Director ordered to be presented to Mr. Deputy Minister, and this the minister ordered that the application be rejected.

Elsewhere, we read money should be included in § 5 p.2 . And it would seem that the matter was finally settled, when after a few weeks, an official from the fifth paragraph, point two, sent a long letter asking for additional explanations:and on what basis it was adopted .

Piłsudski paralyzes the tsarist authorities

Meanwhile, the police had already forgotten about it, putting the case away ad acta , however, there are stamps, annotations, paragraphs, the signature of the deputy minister…. The issue was serious, so another official was delegated to investigate . The one with absolute reliability had to describe the whole issue anew. It barely fit on two pages written with a small ink, dwelling on the details about the provenance of the two rubles sent from Kirensk.

Even the tsarist deputy minister spoke about the two rubles sent by Piłsudski.

The letter, in turn, served as the basis for the police to issue another boom to the general department. It was explained that the money should come to the police department's account as "request". And at this point it could all end, but once set in motion, a bureaucratic machine cannot be stopped so easily. After some time, the police department received another inquiry as to whether it had even sent a reply to the previous inquiry…

We do not know if the answer was finally received and whether the tsarist officials managed to classify the money. The fact is that the matter of 2 rubles, or rather the rest, i.e. 45 kopecks, entangled the clerical machine for many months, reaching the ministerial level . Carscy officials were unable to classify the money in question (or even get along with each other), and it circulated with the pile of protocols and inquiries from department to department. However, they never reached their addressee, Piłsudski.

If the young Ziuk knew how much confusion he caused with his application, he would have perhaps had less remorse, and certainly a bitter but nonetheless satisfaction that, despite the fact that he was refused, he had hurt the hated enemy in this way.