Pranas Dovydaitis

Pranas Dovydaitis

Pranas Dovydaitis (born December 2, 1886 in Runkiai ( Marijampolė district ), † November 4, 1942 in Yekaterinburg , Soviet Union ) was a Lithuanian university professor , politician and prime minister .

biography

Studies and professional career

After school education in Marijampolė , he began in 1908 to study law at the Lomonosov University in Moscow , which he graduated in 1912 with the state examination. He also completed a degree in philosophy of history . As a student he was a journalist for newspapers and journals such as Aušrinė ("The Dawn").

After graduating he became in 1913 editor in Vilnius appearing daily newspaper Viltis ( "The Hope"), where it soon, however, conflict with the editor in chief Antanas Smetona came. The reason for this was the different political views, which were partly shaped by Catholicism , partly by nationalism . Nevertheless, he remained editor of Viltis at the beginning of the First World War , but in 1915 he switched to the newspaper Saulė ("The Sun") as an editor . In 1916 he became a teacher and director of the Kaunas grammar school . He also taught at Saulės High School in Kaunas .

Independence and Prime Minister 1919

The Lithuanian State Council u. a. with Jonas Basanavičius (seated 5th from left), Antanas Smetona (seated, 4th from right), Vladas Mironas (standing, 4th from left) and Aleksandras Stulginskis (standing, 9th from left) and Pranas Dovydaitis (standing, far right)

Declaration of independence of February 16, 1918

From September 18 to 22, 1917 he was a participant in the National Conference of Vilnius , at which the process of establishing a Lithuanian state independent of the Russian Empire, Poland and the German Empire began. The National Conference elected him to the 20-member Lithuanian State Council ( Lietuvos Taryba ), where he represented the then Christian Lithuanian Trade Union Confederation ( Lietuvos Krikščionių Darbininkų Profesinės Sąjunga ). On February 16, 1918, the State Council proclaimed the independence of Lithuania, which became a reality with the end of the First World War in November 1918.

On March 12, 1919, he was appointed Prime Minister to succeed Mykolas Sleževičius . He resigned this office to Sleževičius a month later on April 12, 1919. His reign was thus the shortest term in the First Republic of Lithuania. In September 1922 he was honored by issuing a postage stamp .

University professor

Subsequently, he was again high school teacher from Kaunas, as well as a lecturer in philosophy of history at the University of Kaunas ( Aukštieji kursai ). After founding the Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas in 1922, he became a professor of philosophy . During his teaching activity, which lasted until 1940, he was also secretary of the senate and secretary of the theological and philosophical faculty . In 1935 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy. After the occupation of Lithuania by the Red Army , he retired on July 14, 1940 . During his activity as a professor, he was also the editor and publisher of philosophical-religious journals such as Logos and Soter, as well as the author of nearly forty other specialist journals. Between 1931 and 1940 he was deputy editor-in-chief of the Lithuanian Encyclopedia ( Lietuviškoji enciklopedija ).

Other

1925–1927 he headed the Catholic youth organization Ateitininkai .

In 1941 he was arrested by the Soviet occupying forces and, after a few months in prison, executed in an internment camp .

On May 7, 2000, he was recognized as a martyr by the Catholic Church .

Web links

• Biography on the Seimas homepage
• Biography on the government homepage
• Biography on the Prime Ministers homepage
• Biography on the website of the National Museum of Lithuania
• Biographical information in rulers.org
• Governments 1918-1940

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 2 Auksinai stamp from 1922  ( 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.  

predecessor	Office	successor
Mykolas Sleževičius	Prime Minister of Lithuania March 12, 1919 - March 12, 1920	Mykolas Sleževičius