Aleksandra Szczerbińska
| Aleksandra Piłsudska | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| First Lady of Poland | |
|
In role 25 September 1921 – 11 December 1922 |
|
| President |
Józef Piłsudski (Chief of State) |
| Preceded by | Maria Piłsudska |
| Succeeded by | vacat (next was Maria Wojciechowska – wife of Stanisław Wojciechowski) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Aleksandra Szczerbińska 12 December 1882 Suwałki, Suwałki Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | 31 March 1963 (aged 80) London, England |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Spouse(s) | Józef Piłsudski (m. 1921–1935) |
| Children | Wanda Piłsudska and Jadwiga Piłsudska-Jaraczewska |
Aleksandra Piłsudska (1882–1963), née Szczerbińska, was the second wife of Józef Piłsudski.
Aleksandra was born on 12 December 1882 in Suwałki, in the Suwałki Governorate, Russian Empire (now in Poland), and was the seventh child of Piotr Paweł and Julia Jadwiga, née Zahorska.
Aleksandra's father was a townsman, and her mother came from the nobility, but both their families were relatively poor. Aleksandra's parents died when she was ten years old, and the orphan was raised by her grandmother, Karolina Zahorska, née Truskolaska and her aunt, Wiktoria Maria Zahorska.
She attended gymnasium, the equivalent of high school, in Suwałki, graduating in 1901, and soon began her studies at the Flying University. In 1903 she began working in the office of the Homa leather factory, located in the Wola district of Warsaw.
In 1904 she joined the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), one of the two main revolutionary and political movements in partitioned Poland, the other being National Democracy. She was soon acting as a PPS agitator in the Warsaw suburb of Praga, taking part in a demonstration held on Plac Grzybowski on 13 November 1904. She also joined the military arm of the PPS, Organizacja Bojowa, where she became a courier and stockpiler of weapons. It became necessary for her to resign from her job at the factory, and she tutored students to supplement her income.
In May 1906 she met Józef Piłsudski. That year the PPS split into two factions, supporters and opponents of Piłsudski. She remained with the Piłsudski faction. Aleksandra was arrested in 1907 and imprisoned for three weeks in Daniłłowicze prison, then transferred to the Pawiak prison, where she was eventually released due to insufficient evidence. She moved to Radzymin and later to Kiev, and at that time fell in love with Piłsudski. (He was then unhappily married to Maria Juszkiewiczowa z Koplewskich).
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