Antanas Smetona

Antanas Smetona (, August 10, 1874 - January 9, 1944) was one of the most important Lithuanian political figures during the period between World War I, and World War II. He was the first President of Lithuania from April 4, 1919, to June 19, 1920. He was also the last President of the country from December 19, 1926, to June 15, 1940, before its occupation by the Soviet Union. He was also one of the famous ideologists of nationalism in Lithuania.

Biography

Born in the village of Užulėnis, Taujėnai rural district of Ukmergė county, Antanas Smetona was sent to the primary school in Taujėnai. Graduating from the Palanga Pre-Gymnasium in 1893, he passed his entrance examinations into the Samogitian Diocesan Seminary in Kaunas, with thoughts of becoming a Catholic priest, but soon thereafter changed his mind, and enrolled at Jelgava Gymnasium (high school), in Latvia. Here together with Jonas Jablonskis, Vincas Kudirka and others, he belonged to a secret Lithuanian organization. This organization was nationalistic, and anti-Czarist in nature. In the autumn of 1896, he organized the resistance of students against obligatory attendance of the Russian Orthodox church, and was expelled from the Gymnasium, but was later allowed to study at the Gymnasium No.9, in St. Petersburg.

After graduating from this Gymnasium in 1897, Smetona entered the Faculty of Law of the University of St. Petersburg. He joined the activities of the secret Lithuanian Student Organization at the university, and was made its chairman. He became involved with the publishing and dissemination of Lithuanian books. On two occasions he faced the threat of being expelled from the university, and experienced being arrested and a short imprisonment. After his graduation from the university in 1902, he worked at the Agricultural Bank of Vilnius. Two years later he married Sofija Chodakauskaitė.

Early activities

From his very first days in Vilnius, Smetona became involved in the activities of various Lithuanian nationalist groups, and joined the Lithuanian Democratic Party, which he represented in the Great Seimas (parliament). He was later elected into its Presidium. In 1904 and 1907, he was on the staff of the Lithuanian newspapers, Vilniaus Žinios (The Vilnius News), and in 1905-1906, edited the weekly Lietuvos Ūkininkas (The Lithuanian Farmer). In 1907, Smetona and the Rev. Juozas Tumas established a venture to print the newspaper Viltis (The Hope), and started publishing and circulating it. In Viltis, Smetona advocated national unity; he was also one of the incorporators of the Aušra (Dawn) company for the publishing of Lithuanian books, a member of the Lithuanian Mutual Aid Society of Vilnius, the Lithuanian Learned Society, the Vilniaus aušra (The Dawn of Vilnius), and Rytas (The Morning) education societies, the Rūta Art Society and many other societies, taught the Lithuanian language at Vilnius schools. In 1914, he started publishing Vairas (The Rudder), a new bi-weekly magazine.

Politics

During the First World War, he was the 1st Vice-Chairman, and later Chairman of the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Relief Society for helping victims of the war. In the summer of 1916, Antanas Smetona, together with other Lithuanians from Vilnius, presented a memorandum to the German Chief Commander of the Eastern Front, in which he demanded the right of the Lithuanian nation to have an independent State. On September 6, 1917, he started printing the newspaper Lietuvos Aidas (Lithuania's Echo), worked as its publisher and its editor-in-chief. In the first issue of the newspaper, Smetona wrote that the most important goal of the Lithuanian nation was the re-establishment of an independent Lithuanian state.

Between September 18 and 22, 1917, he participated in the Lithuanian Conference in Vilnius, and was elected Chairman (1917-1919), of the Council of Lithuania (later Council of the State). On February 16, 1918, Antanas Smetona signed the Declaration of Independence of Lithuania.

Between December, 1918 and March, 1919, he lived primarily in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, soliciting loans for the cause of Lithuanian independence. On April 4, 1919, the State Council of Lithuania elected Smetona the first President of the Republic of Lithuania. On April 19, 1920, the Constituent Assembly elected Aleksandras Stulginskis President. Not re-elected to the Seimas, from 1921 throughout 1924 he edited several periodicals.

After the Klaipėda Revolt of January 1923, in the Memelland, which had been separated from Germany, he was made commissioner there on February 20, but due to disagreements with Prime Minister Ernestas Galvanauskas, he resigned from his post.

In November 1923, authorities imprisoned Smetona for several days for publishing an article by Augustinas Voldemaras, in Vairas. Between 1923, and 1927, he was an assistant Professor at the University of Lithuania - at first at the Chair of Art Theory and History and later at the department of Philosophy. He lectured on ethics, antique philosophy, and gave lectures on Lithuanian linguistics. He became a senior lecturer at Vilnius University, in 1926. In 1932, he was awarded an honorary PhD, at the Vytautas Magnus University.

Smetona participated in the activity of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union that had staged the Klaipėda Revolt, which gave him greater name-recognition. More than once, he was elected to its central board. Between 1924 and 1940, he was the vice-Chairman of the Board of the International Bank, and one of the members of a number of societies and companies.

Authoritarian dictator

Antanas Smetona was one of the leaders of the coup d'état of 1926, and became President on December 17, of that year. He designated Augustinas Voldemaras, as Prime Minister. One year later he suppressed the parliament, and on May 15, 1928, with the approval of the government, he promulgated a new Constitution of the Lithuanian State with more extensive presidential powers. In 1929, he removed Voldemaras and became dictator. He was re-elected President in 1931 and 1938, and remained in office until June 15, 1940.

Exile

Lithuania was occupied by Soviet troops in 1940, as a consequence of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. After the USSR presented an ultimatum to Lithuania in June of that year, Smetona proposed armed resistance against the Soviets. The majority of the government and the commanders of the army did not concur with this proposal, and Smetona turned over the duties of President to Prime Minister Antanas Merkys, and on June 15 he and his family fled to Germany, and then on to Switzerland. On the next day, Antanas Merkys announced on national radio that he had removed Smetona from the position of President, and had taken over the Presidency himself. On June 17, 1940, Merkys was arrested by the Soviet occupiers.

At the beginning of 1941, Smetona and his family came to the United States, and settled in Cleveland, Ohio, with his son Julius' family. While in exile, he wrote many articles, began writing a work on the history of Lithuania, and on his memoirs. Smetona died in a house fire in Cleveland, on January 9, 1944, and was buried there. His wife Sofija died in Cleveland, on December 28, 1968.

References

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See also

* List of Lithuanian rulers{{Persondata