The decision came from the Commander himself. Piłsudski clearly wished his brain to be taken out, immersed in formalin and ... what he had repeated ad nauseam for fifteen years was proven.
Józef Piłsudski was a megalomaniac. Only that a megalomaniac… enlightened. He argued that his outstanding abilities and predispositions must be grounded in biology. This topic became his kind of obsession.
The marshal's widow, Aleksandra Piłsudska, emphasized in a radio interview in 1942:“[my husband] did not recognize his own“ intuition ”. He claimed it was his brain's work. That his brain is different than that of average people. ”
Ms Marshal highlighted this issue in more detail in her book memoirs, published in Polish in 1960. She wrote then:“[Ziuk] believed in the work of the human brain and the meaning of human will. He asked me that if I lived longer than he did, I should have his brain tested. He thought that because he thinks and reasoning differently from others, he may also have a different structure of his brain. ”
Rabbit specialist
The wish was granted. Immediately after Piłsudski's death, two doctors - Wiktor Kaliciński and Józef Laskowski - cut open the chief's skull, took out the brain and secured it. The preparation was then handed over to prof. Maximilian Rose. A neurologist specializing in "comparative neuroanatomy". That is, describing and juxtaposing brains.
Marshal Józef Piłsudski on his deathbed in the room where he died.
Earlier, Rose specialized in rabbit brains (prepare their anatomical album). In the 1930s, however, he began to be interested in the brains of outstanding individuals - and Piłsudski was considered to be such (not only in his own opinion).
The Commandant's body was transported to Vilnius and deposited at the Polish Institute for Brain Research established there. The name sounds proud. In practice, however, there was an inconspicuous extension at the State Psychiatric Hospital, prepared for this occasion.
Does not differ from the average weight
Prof. Rose immediately undertook research and analysis. He made a cast of the brain, retaining all the grooves and bends of the original. The organ itself was cut into slices, and these were preserved as material for microscopic examination. He worked extremely meticulously, but the expected breakthrough was not yet to come.
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You wanted to know where the genius was in the brain. "The tedious, even Sisyphean work related to counting, measuring and describing grooves and turns lasted two and a half years." Especially for this, prof. Maksymilian Rose "hardly left his office".
The results were a bit depressing, because the brain's "weight does not differ from the average weight; the lateral width of the right side differs by 3 cm in favor of the left side ", only comforting was" the excellent development of the bends ".
Maksymilian Rose in a portrait photo
Incomplete analysis
All work on the Marshal's brain was discontinued on December 1, 1937. Professor Rose died and it was unclear who would continue his assigned mission. The decision was not made until the outbreak of the war, and then Piłsudski's brain patches were lost.
At least posthumously, the atlas of the Marshal's Brain, unfinished by Rose, was published. The professor himself was remembered only from this one, perhaps intriguing, but ultimately sterile work. According to the obituary published in the weekly "Dzwon Niedzielny":
University professor Maksymilian Rose, a European-renowned brain researcher, died suddenly in VILNIUS. He was entrusted with the scientific study of the March brain. Piłsudski.