Set up in 1947, the Józef Piłsudski Institute in London focuses on the legacy of Marshal Piłsudski, his Legions, and Polish military in the armed struggle for independence before, during, and after World War I. It was founded by the group of Piłsudski's collaborators, army officers and politicians who remained in exile after 1945. Its archival holdings also include materials related to the postwar activities of Pilsudski-ites in exile, cooperation with other émigrés, and education and sciences. The Institute continued the mission of the Institute for the Research of Contemporary History of Poland, established in Warsaw in 1923. Given the propaganda of the communist regime, which belittled the role of Józef Piłsudski  and his political camp in the struggles for independence, the Institute became the hub of free historical research and guardian of a national ethos that countered the historiosophy of People's Poland. Notwithstanding its cultural and educational role among Polish diaspora, the Piłsudski Institute also attracted dissident historians from Poland influencing the academic treatment of 20th Century Poland, undermining state censorship, and breaking the regime's monopoly on academic publishing. At present, it consists of archives, museum, and library and continues to attract scholars and non-academics interested in Polish and world history. The Institute collaborates with the Polish and British cultural institutions participating in exhibitions, international conferences and workshops. It possesses one of the few remaining copies of Enigma code-breaking machines from World War II. The Józef Piłsudski Institute in London is the sister institution of the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America in New York.