Liudas Gira
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Liudas Gira (27 August 1884 in Vilnius – 1 July 1946 in Vilnius) was a Lithuanian poet, writer, and literary critic. His is noted for his early poetry, which resembles traditional Lithuanian folk songs. Gira was active in cultural and political life, gradually shifting towards communism in 1930s. He supported the Soviet Union and helped to transform independent Lithuania into the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. His son, Vytautas Sirijos Gira, is also a known poet and writer.
In 1905, Gira graduated from the Vilnius Theological Seminary, but was not ordained into priesthood.[1] He was active in cultural and political life. Gira participated in the Great Seimas of Vilnius.[2] He was one of the founders of the Lithuanian Populists' Union and one of the leaders of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party. In the aftermath of World War I, Gira joined the Lithuanian army, but was jailed by the Bolsheviks during the Lithuanian–Soviet War for six months.[1] He briefly headed the Lithuanian intelligence and helped to discover and liquidate the attempted Polish coup d'état against the Lithuanian government in 1919. Later he worked as theater director (1922–1926) and as secretary of commission responsible for book publishing under the Ministry of Education (1926–1936).[3]
In 1930s his political views shifted to communism and he supported the occupation and annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union in June 1940. Elected to the People's Seimas, Gira was one of the 20-member delegation sent to petition the Soviet Union to accept the newly proclaimed Lithuanian SSR into the union.[4] He served as Assistant Commissar of Education until occupation by Nazi Germany in June 1941. Gira fled to the Russian SFSR and joined the 16th Rifle Division.[4] After the war he returned to Lithuania, became a full member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and was recognized as the People's Poet of the Lithuanian SSR.[1]
