Bronisław Piłsudski

Bronisław Piotr Piłsudski (Polish: [brɔˈɲiswaf piwˈsut͡skʲi]; 2 November 1866 – 17 May 1918) was a Polish ethnologist who researched the Ainu people after he was exiled by Tsar Alexander III of Russia to the Far East.

Piłsudski considered himself Polish, Lithuanian, and Samogitian. Thus some sources identify him as Polish, others as Lithuanian.

In addition to the Ainu, he conducted research on the Orork and Nivkh indigenous peoples of Sakhalin Island. He pioneered Ainu language research in the late 19th century, laying the groundwork for future studies.

Piłsudski pioneered research into Lithuanian cross crafting.

Early life

Piłsudski was born on November 2, 1866, in the Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire in present-day Lithuania. He was one of four brothers, including Józef, Adam, and Jan. Józef later served as the Chief of State and First Marshal of Poland. Bronisław and Józef Piłsudski moved to Vilnius in 1874, where they continued self-education for three years. After their mother's death in 1886, they left together for Saint Petersburg. Bronisław Piłsudski passed an examination at a local university.

Exile & Study of Ainu

For his involvement with a socialist in a plot to assassinate Alexander III of Russia in 1887 together with Vladimir Lenin's brother Aleksandr Ulyanov, Bronisław was initially sentenced to death, later commuted to fifteen years of hard labor on Sakhalin island (Ulyanov was hanged). He used his time there to conduct research. While on Sakhalin in 1891, he met ethnographer Lev Sternberg. Piłsudski was then sent to the island's southern part. The rest of his prison sentence was changed to ten years of internal exile because he had settled without permission from the Russian authorities.