 Close allies of Józef Piłsudski, most of "the colonels" had been officers in the Polish Legions and Polish Military Organization ("POW"), and in the Polish Army (particularly from 1919–1920, during the Polish-Soviet War, prior to Piłsudski's 1923 resignation as Chief of the Polish General Staff).They had held key, if not necessarily the highest, military ranks during Piłsudski's May 1926 coup d'état.Later they became important figures in Piłsudski's Sanation movement and ministers in several governments.