Piłsudski's colonels

[4] In some contexts, the term refers primarily to the final period (1935–1939), which followed the death of their mentor and patron, Józef Piłsudski.

[4] After the BBWR's 1930 electoral victory (the "Brest elections"), Piłsudski left most internal matters in the hands of his "colonels", while himself concentrating on military and foreign affairs.

[9] The "colonels" included Józef Beck,[4] Janusz Jędrzejewicz,[4] Wacław Jędrzejewicz,[4] Adam Koc, Leon Kozłowski, Ignacy Matuszewski, Bogusław Miedziński  [pl], Bronisław Pieracki, Aleksander Prystor,[4] Adam Skwarczyński, Walery Sławek,[4] and Kazimierz Świtalski.

[10] After Piłsudski's death (1935), the hardliner "colonels", led by Walery Sławek, lost influence to the Castle faction of Ignacy Mościcki and Edward Rydz-Śmigły.

[12] In that last period, the Polish government, a "dictatorship without a dictator", to bolster its popular support, paradoxically adopted some of the nationalistic anti-minority policies that had been opposed by Piłsudski and advocated by his most vocal adversaries, the National Democrats.