Lithuania's first president who led the declaration of independence, later leader of the 1926 coup
A journalist who had studied law in St Petersburg, he chaired the Lithuanian Council (Taryba) formed under German occupation in September 1917 and signed the declaration of independence of 16 February 1918. He had also signed the December declaration premised on alliance with Germany and took part in the election of Duke Wilhelm of Urach as king in July 1918, leaving a controversy inside the independence movement. Elected first president by the State Council in April 1919, he led the first governments that fought the Red Army, Bermondt's troops and the Polish army, and stepped down when the Constituent Assembly met in 1920. A military coup in December 1926 made him president again; he banned the parties and built an authoritarian regime, and lived through the Polish ultimatum of 1938 and Germany's seizure of Klaipėda in 1939. Urging resistance to the Soviet ultimatum of June 1940, he fled to Germany and then the United States, where he died in a house fire in Cleveland in 1944.
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionLithuania’s first presidentChaired Lithuania’s Council, signed the 1918 independence act and became its first president in 1919. He led authoritarian rule after the 1926 coup and died in a fire in American exile after Soviet occupation.
- 1918.11–1920.10Baltic wars of independence and border settlementsLithuania’s first presidentElected first president in April 1919, he led the first governments that fought the Red Army, Bermondt's troops and the Polish army.
Revolution and independence wars
Chaired Lithuania’s Council, signed the 1918 independence act and became its first president in 1919. He led authoritarian rule after the 1926 coup and died in a fire in American exile after Soviet occupation.