Aleksandras Stulginskis: Putting Lithuania Back On the Map

Stulginskis and Ona Matulaitytė

by Darius Norvilas

In 1885, Lithuania had been under Russian occupation for 90 years. That year Aleksandras Stulginskis was born near the small hamlet of Kaltinėnai in the Šilalės district of Žemaitija. From humble origins, Stulginskis would go on to have one of the most important résumés in modern Lithuania history, documenting his roles as: member of the first Provisional Government 1918–1920, President of the Constitutional Assembly 1920–22, President of Lithuania 1922–1926, Speaker of the Seimas 1926–1927, successful agronomist and farmer 1928–1941, and Kraslag Gulag prisoner 1941–1956. At the end of his life in Lithuania 1969, he was the last surviving member of the original 20 signatories to the February 16, 1918 Lithuanian Declaration of Independence.

Origins

Aleksandras Stulginskis was the youngest of 12 children. His father Dominikas and mother Marijona were farm laborers who made a living growing crops and raising animals. His childhood was spent on the farm tending geese and later pigs and cows. During the winters while working the looms his older sisters would teach the younger siblings how to read from simple ABC books. From a very early age Aleksandras showed an aptitude for learning, reading, and writing. Walking four kilometers one way to reach primary school, Aleksandras finished his elementary studies in three years. At this point secondary education would require tuition the family did not have, so he picked up a part time job as a scribe for local administrative offices and courts. Aleksandras was 15 years old, working on the farm, earning a few extra kopeks for his writing, and feeling restless. Realizing this could well be his permanent career, Aleksandras decided to ask for help. 

Learning 

Several years back, four of his older siblings had emigrated to America to work in the coal mines. They had settled in the Lithuanian community of Westville, Illinois, having purchased farms, and were living comfortably. To this day Stulginskis descendants still live in that area and host an annual family reunion picnic where they proudly remember their great uncle the President of Lithuania while eating kugelis. Aleksandras asked his older siblings for financial assis tance to continue his education. He decided to pursue theological studies and seriously considered the priesthood.

His relatives in America responded favorably to his requests for financial support and sent tui tion money. Aleksandras spent the next few years studying at second ary schools in Latvia and Kaunas and he became proficient in Latin and German. Aleksandras first spoke Lithuanian, then learned Russian and Polish, adding these two languages to his vernacular. Later in life he would pick up some French and English, rounding out quite the linguistic portfolio.

Aleksandras Stulginskis, February 26,
1885 – September 22, 1969. (Lithuanian
National Museum)

The spiritual authorities decided to send Aleksandras and his friend Mykolas Vaitkus, who would go on to be a famous writer, journalist, and priest, to the Jesuit seminary at Innsbruck, Austria. Nearing ordination, and about to officially become a priest, Aleksan dras hesitated and decided to with draw from the program. He wanted to return to Lithuania and help the country become more Lithuanian. He reasoned this would be easier to accomplish while operating as a lay intellectual rather than hav ing to fulfill the sacred duties of a priest. In the course of his studies and travels Stulginskis belonged to many academic circles and he began to tap into a spirit of nation alistic revival going on in Eastern Europe at this time. He was drawn into a movement of young edu cated Lithuanians who wanted to preserve their culture, and lan guage, and who held a strong sense of national identity. 

The agronomist 

Stulginskis moved back to Lith uania and lived in Kaunas, where he continued to work translating articles and documents and pub lished the newspaper Vienybė. He volunteered and taught Lithuanian language classes to high school stu dents in the evenings as study of foreign languages was not part of the approved curriculum. Now 25 years old, Stulginskis wanted to have the greatest impact on improving the lives of ordinary Lithuanians. He theorized that most Lithuanians were farmers and that by improving farming he might make a worth while impact on his people.

Aleksandras Stulginskis was born in 1885 in this wooden structure that still stands in the
tiny hamlet of Kuteliai in Samogitia. The shack was a dūminė, meaning it had no chim-
ney – smoke from the hearth would have to escape by passing through the straw roof. Today the homeowners use the structure as a tool shed.

Thus, Aleksandras set out for Halle, Germany where he enrolled in the local agricultural institute. During this era, agriculture was a very fast evolving science and in 3 years Stulginskis became a highly qualified agronomist armed with the latest knowledge and techniques. The Tsarist government preferred to send educated Lithuanians to work in various cities in Russia, and Stulginskis was offered a promising position in St. Petersburg. However, he opted to stay in Lithuania, and found work in the Vilnius region. He set to work visiting farms to teach best practices and published manuals and guidebooks on farm ing. It was 1914 and Stulginskis’s and millions more people’s lives were about to change dramatically. The Great War had arrived. 

The Great War 

A year after the war began in August of 1915, Germany was about to take over all of Lithuania and the Russian Tsarist government began evacuating people deeper into Russian territory. Stulginskis was expected to leave and all of his belongings had already been shipped, but he decided to stay in Vilnius to await the invading army. Stulginskis witnessed thousands of the Kaiser’s cavalry troops enter the streets of Vilnius and remembers the uncertain mood of what this would mean for Lithuania. Shortly after the Germans settled into Vilnius, Stulginskis and Pranas Dovydaitis were part of a delegation of Lithuanian patriots who met with the new military administration in an attempt to negotiate a degree of autonomy for the country. Stulginskis was fluent in German and did most of the translating. The new occupying force did not entertain any of their ideas, however.

Despite this setback, in the turmoil of war, Stulginskis had more opportunities to help Lithuanian people. Vilnius was flooded with refugees fleeing the countryside seeking food and shelter as well as safety in numbers from marauding gangs. Stulginskis and Dovydaitis began working with the Lithuanian Relief Society. In the absence of clear governance their aim was to prevent starvation, help with medical care, and create a semblance of normal life. Stulginskis taught Lithuanian language courses, ran a pedagogical teacher training program, and gave classes in agronomy. In the course of two years, he would train over 100 teachers; these graduates then spread out across Lithuania to bring a Lithuanian academic mindset to all corners of the country.

Stulginskis as seminarian.

 

In the midst of all this uncertainty and chaos, Stulginskis met a teacher, Ona Matulaitytė, who was also working with the aid society in a children’s shelter and, you guessed it, they got married. Working with Dr. Jonas Basanavičius, Petras Klimas, Antanas Smetona, and others, Stulginskis sent a memorandum to the German government in the hope that Lithuania could be recognized as a democratic, parliamentary state with Vilnius as its capital. They outlined mistreatment perpetrated by the Kaiser’s army such as requisitions of horses and cattle, forced labor from the local population, and the systematic destruction of Lithuania’s forests, among many other abuses.

By spring of 1917, Germany began to look for more legitimacy and refined its ways in dealing with its occupied territories in the East. The energetic Lithuanian intellectuals operating in Vilnius began to sense an opportunity to ensure self determination for their ethnicity, while achieving freedom from Russian control and independence from an alliance with Poland. 

Declaration 

Stulginskis found himself in the center of a rapidly evolving confusing political situation. Lithuanian freethinking patriots were aligning in various factions which were not all in agreement on future tactics and their visions of government. A group of over 200 concerned Lithuanians held a National Conference to elect 20 people to form a Lithuanian Council that would function as an initial Lithuanian government. Stulginskis, now representing the Christian Democrat Party, received 154 votes, easily permitting him a seat on this committee. Militarily, Germany was still firmly in control of Lithuania and began insisting on a more formal annexation of Lithuania as a protectorate.

Stulginskis and Smetona traveled to Berlin to meet with members of the Reichstag to plead their case for autonomy. While in Germany, Stulginskis also focused on ecclesiastic affairs, knowing that recognition from the Pope in Rome would greatly strengthen the Lithuanian national cause. Drawing on his Latin fluency he drafted an official memorandum to the Vatican. Part of this message requested that Blessed Jurgis Matulaitis be appointed bishop of Vilnius, and this was realized a few months later.

This picture was taken on February 16, 1918 in Vilnius after the signing of the Declaration of Independence of Lithuania. Aleksandras Stulginskis (back row, 3rd from the right) is one of the 20 signatories of the document.

On January 8th, President Woodrow Wilson outlined 14 points representing his future vision for the post war world. This gave the Lithuanian Council much needed wind in its sails and previous agreements with the German government were amended to include formal and clear self-determination for a Lithuanian State. Members of the Lithuanian Council met in an office of the Lithuanian Relief Society on Didžioji Street in Vilnius where they signed one of the most important documents in Lithuanian history. The monumental message reads in part… The Council of Lithuania in its session of February 16, 1918 decided unanimously to address the governments of Russia, Germany, and…proclaims the restoration of the independent state of Lithuania, founded on democratic principles, with Vilnius as its capital, and declares the termination of all state ties which formerly bound this State to other nations.

Taken into context this was the first step to not only establish a free Lithuania, which had not existed since 1795, but also a completely sovereign nation acting alone, which had not present since the formation of the Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth in 1569. 

Organizing a Government 

Declaring independence is the exciting part. Deciding on the structure of government, writing a constitution, and maintaining diplomatic relations is more difficult. Over the course of a year in the new provisional government Stulginskis served as deputy prime minister, minister for internal affairs, and minister of agriculture. He now immersed himself in his new pet project, gaining back lost Lithuanians. The Russians, now quickly becoming the Bolsheviks, held many Lithuanians who had left voluntarily or had been forced to leave with the Czarist army four years before. Meanwhile the Germans continued to hold POWs, many of whom were Lithuanians who had been conscripted into the Czarist army.

In the weeks leading up to Armistice Day, the Reichstag announced it would be in favor of allowing occupied territories to practice self-determination. This created a burning urgency for the Lithuanian Council to act and solidify a clear direction for Lithuania. Stulginskis had important points to focus on that autumn. He wanted to ensure Lithuanian politics would continue on a path of collective decision making and advanced the organization of a general election to populate a Lithuanian Seimas (parliament). Also, Stulginskis, perhaps most ardently of all the members of Lithuanian Council, argued in favor of organizing a new Lithuanian Army from scratch.

Stulginskis in front of a monument in Kaunas commemorating all those who died fighting
for Lithuanian freedom. This picture was taken on May 15, 1922.

When World War One ended, Lithuania found itself in a very dangerous neighborhood. Vilnius and other large swaths of territory were claimed by the Polish. The Bolsheviks were trying to make the whole world communist. Roaming the greater Baltic area were groups of heavily armed German soldiers, formerly loyal only to the Kaiser, now essentially operating as mercenaries and warlords. All three groups had no interest in a free Lithuania and actively sought to extinguish the growing spirit of independence spreading throughout the country.

As 1919 began, the Russians were back now in the form of Bolshevik communists and had advanced on Vilnius, forcing the new Lithuanian government to retreat to Kaunas. In captured territories the communists immediately began instituting collectivization, promoting atheism and internationalism, and demanding large war payments from towns and individual villagers to help their cause. Now in Kaunas, backed up against the ropes, Stulginskis worked on a plan to counter this dramatic change that could engulf Lithuania at any moment.

The typical Lithuanian was a Catholic peasant aspiring to farm his or her own land, and understood this was a now or never moment to create an independent homeland. To galvanize these people behind the new untested Lithuanian government, Stulginskis actively planned and promoted an idea of land reform. To complicate independence matters further, Poland sought to reinstate the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. A secret coup d’état was planned for the summer of 1919 to replace the acting Lithuanian Council with a government that would then support a union with Poland. This attempt was thwarted, but led to increasing hostile relations with Poland.

The large estates where most rural Lithuanians lived and worked were owned by Polish landlords or Lithuanians who tended to support Polish claims over large parts of Lithuania, including Vilnius. Stulginskis wanted to engage in a sort of an agrarian trust busting, dividing these estates to ensure that Lithuanian farmers could cultivate their own modest hectares and operate them as privately owned family farms. To enhance this process, Stulginskis organized an open meeting of Lithuanian farmers and in this way the Farmers Union of Lithuania was born. This institution streamlined the process of land reform and ensured that landless tenant farmers now had their own plots while the boyars were left with 70 hectares each (173 acres). The Farmers Union also established various cooperatives to assist people who had never owned much of anything on paper. To manage financial needs a Farm Bank was opened, cooperative milk processing concerns were organized, and a farm machinery trading enterprise was rolled out. In a few short years the Farmers Union consisted of 300 cooperatives and thousands of members. Lithuanian farmers continued their ancient work of growing food to feed their people, but now had assistance to integrate their labor into a modern global economy. This vision of a democratic agrarian republic helped gain Stulginskis and his Christian Democrat majority support in upcoming elections.

In this manner, Aleksandras Stulginskis with a band of patriots managed to establish the foundations of an independent Lithuanian state and introduce to the world a new country standing on its own against all odds. Aleksandras was now 35 years old and it is awe-inspiring to consider what he accomplished in those short decades. Enterprising and auspicious, Stulginskis presided over a new beginning; it would be fascinating to see his reaction if told that his greatest challenges and tests were yet to come (to be continued).