Kazys Grinius

LTTai išsamiausia lietuvių istoriografijoje studija apie Lietuvos Respublikos prezidento. Kazį Grinių (1866-1950), jo gyvenimą, ir politini; veikla. Knygoje gausu nuotraukų ir istorinių dokumentų, liudijančių Lietuvos visuomenės kova, dėl savo valstybės nepriklausomybės.Reikšminiai žodžiai: Tarybų Sąjunga; Amerika; Antanas Smetona; Carizmas; K. Grinius; Kazys Grinius; Lietuvių išeivija; Lietuvos Respublika; Lietuvos seimas; Marijampolė; Marijampolės gimnazija; Ministras pirmininkas; Okupacija; Pirmasis pasaulinis karas, 1914-1918 (Didysis karas; World War I); Prezidentas; Tarpukaris; Tautinis atgimimas; Varpininkai; Vincas Kudirka; Antanas Smetona; K. Grinius; Kazys Grinius; Lithuanian emigrants; Marijampole; Marijampole gymnasium; National revival; Parliament of Lithuania; Period Between two wars; President; President of the Republik of Lithuania; Prime Minister; Soviet Union; The Czarist; The United States of Amerika; Varpininkai; Vincas Kudirka; World War One.

ENKazys Grinius, a politician and statesman, is ranked among themost outstanding figures of Lithuanian national and socialliberation. Born in a farmer's family, Marijampole district, Kazys Grinius gained his educationat a gymnasium in Marijampole, completed studies at the medical faculty of Moscow University, and returned to Lithuaniato start his practice as a medical doctor. Throughout the 19 century, Lithuania suffered severe oppression of the Russian Empire, and even the press in Lithuanian alphabet was prohibited. Kazys Grinius, one of the most active fighters against Czarist oppression, edited and published Lithuanian periodicals abroad. For these activities he was persecuted by the Czarist government, which led to several arrests and imprisonments. During the years of World War One, Kazys Grinius and his family lived in Russia, Northern Caucasus, where he also practiced as a medical doctor and took part in the activities of Lithuanian war refugees. During the Civil war there, the wife of Kazys Grinius, Joana, and his daughter Gražina were killed in Kislovodsk. Having returned to Lithuania in 1919, Kazys Grinius participated actively in the political life of the independent Republic of Lithuania, and was member of all Lithuanian parliaments. Kazys Grinius was Prime Minister from 1920 to 1922, i. e. in the period in which Lithuania gained outer security and international recognition. After the parliamentary elections of 1926, in which the majority was won by the left parties, Kazys Grinius was elected President of the Republic of Lithuania. During the years of his presidency Lithuania witnessed establishment of democracy and abolition of any restrictions of human freedom. However, this was unacceptable to reactionary political powers, and at the end of the year Kazys Grinius was overthrown during a military putsch.Since the overthrow and up to his retirement Kazys Grinius headed the department of medicine and sanitary of the Kaunas city municipality, taking particular interest in sanitary prophylaxis. After Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union (1940) and by Nazist Germany (1941), Kazys Grinius took part in the underground activities. In reaction to the memorandum against the colonization of Lithuania by the Germans, as well as against the annihilation of the Jewish population, which he signed and distributed, Kazys Grinius was exiled by the German government from Kaunas. In 1944, as Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, Kazys Grinius left for Germany as a war refugee, so as to avoid impending repressions. In 1947 he moved to the United States of America. Settling in Chicago, he joined the active American Lithuanians who demanded the reestablishment of Lithuanian independence. Kazys Grinius died in Chicago in 1950. After the Republic of Lithuania gained independence, the remains of Kazys Grinius were transferred to his country and burried in 1994 in his native soil. The sons of Kazys Grinius left their own deep marks in Lithuanian social and political life: Colonel Kazys Grinius jr. (1899-1965) acted as Lithuanian military atache to Germany (1937-1940). After the occupation of Lithuania by the Red Army, he left for the USA, where he lived until his death. The younger son Liūtas (1927-1989) came to the United States with his parents, went to the university there and became engineer in the research sphere of military industry. He advocated actively the case of Lithuanian independence.