Eliziejus Draugelis
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Eliziejus Draugelis | |
|---|---|
 Draugelis in Lithuania Album (1921) | |
| Born | 11 April 1888 |
| Died | 8 October 1981 (aged 93) São Paulo, Brazil |
| Alma mater | Marijampolė Gymnasium Imperial Moscow University |
| Occupations | Physician and politician |
| Political party | Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party |
| Board member of | Farmers' Association |
| Relatives | Sister Magdalena Galdikienė |
Eliziejus Draugelis (11 April 1888 – 8 October 1981) was a Lithuanian physician and politician.
After finishing elementary school in his hometown, he attended the Marijampolė Gymnasium. In 1914, he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the Imperial Moscow University. During his studies, he founded Rūta, a society of Lithuanian Catholic students, and was its first chairman.
After the outbreak of World War I, he was mobilized and worked as a doctor in the Russian Imperial Army. In 1917, he became a member of the Supreme Council of Lithuanians in Russia, based in Voronezh, but in the same year he was arrested and imprisoned by the Bolsheviks for a month.[1]
Political career
In 1918, he returned to Lithuania and became the first mayor of Marijampolė (up to 1919). On 23 July 1918, he was co-opted to the Council of Lithuania. In the government of Ernestas Galvanauskas he took over the Ministry of Internal Affairs (1919–1920).[2]
In 1919, he was among the founders of the Farmers' Association (Lietuvos ūkininkų sąjunga) and was its long-term chairman. In 1920, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania, and later was re-elected in 1922 and 1923 (in all cases, he was a member of Christian Democratic bloc). From 1923 until 1926, he served as Secretary of the Third Seimas.
