Antanas Smetona
Antanas Smetona was the first and last president of independent interwar Lithuania. Born in 1874 in a village in the Kaunas region, the sixth of seven children of a peasant family, he was educated at Russian schools, expelled from one for refusing to sign a loyalty petition, and took a law degree at St Petersburg. He worked as a lawyer and edited nationalist publications at a time when printing Lithuanian in the Latin alphabet was banned by the Russian authorities. He chaired the Council of Lithuania, which declared independence on 16 February 1918, and became the first president in 1919, holding the office during the wars against Bolshevik, Bermontian and Polish forces that secured the state — and losing Vilnius, the historic capital, to Poland. He left office in 1920 and taught philosophy and translated Plato. In December 1926 a military coup removed the elected government, and Smetona was installed as president. He dissolved parliament in 1927, banned opposition parties in 1936, and governed under a 1938 constitution that concentrated authority in his office. He was styled the leader of the nation. The regime was authoritarian and comparatively mild, and it presided over economic growth, a literacy campaign and the development of Kaunas as a provisional capital. He accepted a Polish ultimatum in 1938 and a German one over Klaipėda in 1939. The Soviet ultimatum of June 1940 demanded troop entry and a new government. Smetona argued for armed resistance, was outvoted by his own cabinet, and crossed into Germany. He died in a house fire in Cleveland in 1944.
- Lived: 1874 CE – 1944 CE
- Nationality: Lithuanian
- Roles: statesman, head_of_state
