Leonas Bistras

Leonas Bistras (born October 20, 1890 in Liepāja , † October 17, 1971 in Kaunas ) was a Lithuanian journalist , philosopher , translator , politician and Prime Minister of the country from 1925 to 1926 .

Life

Studies and professional career

After graduating from Liepāja high school, Bistras began studying medicine at the University of Geneva in 1911 , which he continued in 1912 at the University of Tartu . In 1914 he became a student at the Schemeitic Seminary in Kaunas . At the same time he served as a military doctor in the Russian army from 1914 to 1918.

After another year of studies at the University of Friborg (Switzerland) took place in 1921 where his promotion to Doctor of Philosophy with a dissertation on the topic: The Justification of the Good or the moral philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov . After his return to Lithuania in 1922 he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas , where he was temporarily head of the Department of Systematic Philosophy.

Before that he was editor of the newspaper Lietuva in 1919 and later from 1926 to 1939 editor of the newspaper Ryto . He was also a journalist for the newspapers Viltyje and Ateitį . He also translated papal encyclicals into the Lithuanian language .

Political career

During his student days, he became a member of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party ( Lietuvių krikščionių Demokratieų partija ) in 1910 . In October 1922 he was elected as a representative of the Christian Democratic Party in the first Seimas of Lithuania, which became independent on November 2, 1918 . Between November 1922 and March 1923 and from January and September 1925 he was President of the Seimas.

On 29 June 1923 he was Prime Minister Ernestas Galvanauskas the education minister appointed. He then held this office until April 2, 1925 in the cabinet of Antanas Tumėnas . On September 25, 1925, he became Prime Minister himself as the successor to Vytautas Petrulis . At the same time he took over the office of defense minister in his cabinet and at times also the office of foreign minister. On June 15, 1926, Mykolas Sleževičius followed him in the office of Prime Minister.

Subsequently he was from 1926 to 1940 chairman of the Christian Democratic Party. On December 17, 1926, after the coup d'état by Antanas Smetona, he was again appointed Minister of Education by Prime Minister Augustinas Voldemaras , but left this post on May 3, 1927. From March 28 to November 21, 1939 he was again Minister of Education in the government of Jonas Černius after the loss of Memelland .

After the occupation of Lithuania by the Red Army , he was arrested on July 11, 1940 and soon afterwards deported into exile in Siberia . In 1945 he was allowed to return to Lithuania, but in 1950 he was arrested again and exiled to Siberia again. After his pardon in 1956, he returned to Lithuania. However, since he was not paid a pension by the authorities of the Lithuanian SSR , he lived on donations from other people.

Web links

• Biography on the Seimas homepage
• Biography on the government homepage
• Biography on the Prime Ministers homepage
• Biography on the homepage of the Ministry of Defense (English)
• Biographical information in rulers.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vygantas Vareikis : German-Lithuanian relations in the first half of the 20th century . (PDF; 129 kB) 1997
2. ↑ Romana Pleckaitis: The Development Of Professional Philosophy At The University Of Lithuania . ( Memento of the original from April 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ The First Seimas 1923–1926
4. ↑ The Second Seimas 1923–1926
5. ^ The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry 1918–1940 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 45 kB) Kaunas 1999  

predecessor	Office	successor
Vytautas Petrulis	Prime Minister of Lithuania September 25, 1925 - June 15, 1926	Mykolas Sleževičius