Mykolas Biržiška
Encyclopedia
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n editor, historian, professor of literature, diplomat, and politician, was one of the twenty signatories
Signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania
The signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania were the twenty Lithuanian men who signed the Act of Independence of Lithuania on February 16, 1918. The signatories were elected to the Council of Lithuania by the Vilnius Conference in September 1917 and entrusted with the mission of...
of the Act of Independence of Lithuania
Act of Independence of Lithuania
The Act of Independence of Lithuania or Act of February 16 was signed by the Council of Lithuania on February 16, 1918, proclaiming the restoration of an independent State of Lithuania, governed by democratic principles, with Vilnius as its capital. The Act was signed by all twenty...
.
Born in a noble Lithuanian family Biržiška was twice expelled from gymnasium in Šiauliai
Šiauliai
Šiauliai , is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 133,900. It is the capital of Šiauliai County. Unofficially, the city is the capital of Northern Lithuania.-Names:...
after refusing to attend Orthodox services, and after organising a Lithuanian evening, although later was allowed to finish the studies.
He graduated from law school at the University of Moscow in 1907. He was arrested at a student meeting in 1902 for advocating Lithuanian causes and served part of a two-year sentence, but succeeded in regaining admission to the university. After returning to Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
, he became involved in the independence movement, frequently contributing articles to periodicals and later working with the War Relief Committee. at the time he was also working as assistant of Tadeusz Wróblewski
Tadeusz Wróblewski
Tadeusz Wróblewski was a Polish–Lithuanian noble, politician, lawyer, bibliophile and cultural activist. He supported the democratic wing of krajowcy movement. Wróblewski sponsored a large library in Vilnius .- Life :...
. In 1915 he became principal of the first Lithuanian high school in Vilnius.
Together with his fellows he wrote a letter for US President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
asking for support for Independence of Lithuania.
In 1918 he was elected a member of the Council of Lithuania
Council of Lithuania
The Council of Lithuania , after July 11, 1918 The State Council of Lithuania , was convened at the Vilnius Conference that took place between September 18 and 23, 1917. The council was granted the executive authority of the Lithuanian people and was entrusted to establish an independent...
, and signed the Act in 1918. He served briefly as Minister of Education in the Second Cabinet of Ministers, and was busy preparing to reopen Vilnius University
Vilnius University
Vilnius University is the oldest university in the Baltic states and one of the oldest in Eastern Europe. It is also the largest university in Lithuania....
.
During the events that preceded the concession of Vilnius to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 1920, Biržiška acted as a negotiator. In summer 1921 he landed in court for an article in newspaper "Straż Litwy", and was defended by attorney Tadeusz Wróblewski. He was briefly arrested 1922 for protesting the outcome and served time in Lukiškės prison
Lukiškes Prison
Lukiškės Prison is a prison in the center of Vilnius, Lithuania, near the Lukiškės Square. As of 2007, it houses approximately 1,000 prisoners and employs around 250 prison guards...
. In February 1922 he was charged with treason by the Polish government and sentenced to be shot; only intervention by the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
saved him from this fate. He was one of 32 Lithuanians formally expelled from Vilnius on September 20, 1922 and handed over to Lithuanian army.
After this narrow escape he moved to Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
, the temporary capital
Temporary capital of Lithuania
The temporary capital of Lithuania was the official designation of the city of Kaunas in Lithuania during the interwar period. It was in contrast to the declared capital in Vilnius , which was under Polish control from 1920 until 1939...
, where he became a professor of literature at University of Lithuania. While a professor, he was an editor of the Lithuanian Encyclopedia, and participated in a number of social and cultural organizations. Biržiška then served as rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of Vilnius University
Vilnius University
Vilnius University is the oldest university in the Baltic states and one of the oldest in Eastern Europe. It is also the largest university in Lithuania....
from 1940 to March 1943, and in autumn 1944.
After the second Soviet occupation in 1944, Biržiška went to West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, and was a professor at the Baltic University
Baltic University
The Baltic University in Exile was established in the displaced persons camps in Germany to educate refugees from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the aftermath of the Second World War....
in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
and Pinneberg
Pinneberg
Pinneberg is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, capital of the district Pinneberg in Germany. The town has 42,301 inhabitants. Pinneberg is located 18 km northwest of Hamburg....
. He moved to the United States in 1949. He pursued his earliest interests, folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
and folk dance
Folk dance
The term folk dance describes dances that share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music....
, until his death in 1962.
Important works
- Lietuvių dainų literatūros istorija, 1919.
- Mūsų raštų istorija. 1547-1904, expanded later to "Mūsų raštų istorja (nuo 16 a iki 1864) (1925).
- Dainos kelias,1921.
- Barono gyvenimas ir raštai, 1924.
- Duonelaičio gyvenimas ir raštai, 1927.
- Rinktiniai mūsų senovės raštai, 1927.
- Together with his brother Vaclovas he prepared and published a work by Simonas DaukantasSimonas DaukantasSimonas Daukantas or Szymon Dowkont was a Lithuanian writer, ethnographer and historian. One of the pioneers of the Lithuanian national revival, he is credited as an author of the first book on the history of Lithuania written in the Lithuanian language...
, Darbai senųjų lietuvių ir žemaičių, 1929. - Aleksandrynas,3 vol. (1960-1965) Bibliography of Lithuanian writers up to 1865. Primarily Vaclovas' work, but Mykolas served as collaborator and editor after Vaclovas' death in 1956.
- Anuo metu Viekšniuose ir Šiauliuose (memoirs).
- Lietuviu Tautos Kelias 2 vol. written in exile in Los Angeles, 1952
Family
Biržiška belonged to an eminent noble family. His great-grandfather Mykolas Biržiška was a representative in the SejmSejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
when the Constitution of May 3 was accepted in 1791; his grandfather Leonardas Biržiška was an active participant in the 1839-1831 Uprising
November Uprising
The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...
; and his brothers, Vaclovas Biržiška
Vaclovas Biržiška
Vaclovas Biržiška was a Lithuanian attorney, bibliographer, and educator.He was a member of a notable Lithuanian family; his great-grandfather Mykolas Biržiška was a representative in the Sejm when the Constitution of 3 May was accepted in 1791; his grandfather Leonardas Biržiška was an active...
and Viktoras Biržiška
Viktoras Biržiška
Viktoras Biržiška was a Lithuanian mathematician, engineer, journalist, and encyclopedist of noble extraction...
, were also leaders of the Lithuanian community. His father, the physician Antanas Biržiška, declined a professorship at the University of Moscow to practice medicine in the rural areas of Lithuania.