Interior commissar of Soviet Lithuania, a Lithuanian communist leader killed in the Great Terror
He urged that Lithuania remain an independent state, yet imagined that independence as socialist.
A Lithuanian communist leader, he was commissar for internal affairs of Soviet Lithuania and Litbel in 1918 and 1919. In exile he worked in the Comintern and wrote the history of the Lithuanian labour movement; arrested in 1938, he was shot in 1940.
Activities and affiliations
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1906–1918
Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL)
Political and party leadership -
1916–
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
Social movements and organizing -
1918–1919
Lithuania state institutionsPeople's Commissar of Internal AffairsMain
Security, intelligence and policing
Career Timeline
- 1906Joined the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (Central Committee member from 1907)
- 1909Arrested and sentenced to four years' katorga, later exiled to the Yenisei province
- 1917Deputy commissar for Lithuanian affairs in Petrograd, editor of Tiesa
- 1918–1919Commissar for internal affairs of the first Soviet Lithuanian government
- 1920Secretary of the Lithuanian CP's Foreign Bureau (Comintern executive representative from 1921)
- 1926–1935Chairman of the Comintern International Control Commission
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionInterior commissar of Soviet LithuaniaCommissar for internal affairs in the Soviet Lithuanian and Litbel governments, taking part in Soviet state-building in 1918 and 1919.
- 1918.11–1920.10Baltic wars of independence and border settlementsInterior commissar of Soviet LithuaniaCommissar for internal affairs in the Soviet Lithuanian and Litbel governments, taking part in Soviet state-building in 1918 and 1919.
- 1917.03–1921.03The Belarusian People’s Republic and Soviet BelarusLitbel Commissar for Internal AffairsServed as Commissar for Internal Affairs in the Litbel government in 1919.
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeGreat Terror arrest and execution victimHe was arrested in 1938 and shot in Moscow in May 1940.
Revolution and independence wars
Zigmas Aleksa-Angarietis, a Social Democrat trained at the Warsaw veterinary institute, was arrested in 1909, served Siberian exile and in 1917 organized the Lithuanian section of the Bolsheviks in Petrograd. In December 1918 he became commissar for internal affairs in Kapsukas's Soviet government of Lithuania and in 1919 joined the Litbel government. After the defeat he led the Lithuanian party's leadership abroad from Soviet Russia, sat on the Comintern executive and its International Control Commission and wrote several volumes on the history of the Lithuanian labour movement. Sidelined in the party after a line dispute with Kapsukas, he was arrested in 1938 and shot in Moscow in May 1940.