She was born in 1865 in Vilnius, at that time part of the Russian Empire, to Konstanty Koplewski, a prominent physician.

After eleven months Maria was released, while Piłsudski remained imprisoned in the infamous Tenth Pavilion at the Warsaw Citadel in the Russian-occupied part of Poland.

Upon his subsequent escape from a mental hospital in St. Petersburg to which he had been transferred, the couple moved to Lwów, in eastern Galicia in Austria-Hungary.

By 1909, Maria was aware of Józef's affair but refused to divorce him, and they continued to share a home until the outbreak of the First World War.

Maria remained popular among the PPS and its paramilitary faction, and had helped Józef gain adherents amongst them.