Petras Klimas (, 23 February 1891 - 16 January 1969) was a Lithuanian diplomat, author, historian, and one of the twenty signatories of the

Act of Independence of Lithuania The Act of Independence of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Nepriklausomybės Aktas) or the Act of February 16, also the Lithuanian Resolution on Independence ( lt, Lietuvos Nepriklausomybės Nutarimas), The signed document is actually titled simply '' ...

. Klimas attended law school at the

University of Moscow M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. After graduating, he returned to

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

and served on the Lithuanian Central Relief Committee. He was elected to the Council of Lithuania in 1917, and signed the Act of Independence in 1918. Klimas went on to serve as the Lithuanian diplomatic envoy to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, and

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. In September 1917, Petras Klimas wrote:

Giving the right of self-determination to the inhabitants of Vilnius, a population devoid of culture, would mean giving an opportunity to agitators to fool people. The thing is to unite former branches with the old trunk. Based on that, we draw the border far beyond Vilnius, near Ašmena. is also Lithuanian...

During the Interwar period Klimas published a number of scholarly works in Lithuanian and German language, including ''Russisch Litauen'' (Russian Lithuania), a study of Russian rule of Lithuania from 1795–1915; ''Der Werdegang des litauischen Staates'' (The Development of the Lithuanian State), describing the emergence of the Lithuanian state from 1915–1918; and ''Lietuvos žemės valdymo istorija'' (History of land ownership in Lithuania). While he was serving on a diplomatic mission to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in 1940, the Lithuanian Legation was turned over to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. The

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

occupational authorities in France arrested him in 1942, and he was sent to a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

until 1943. He was released for a short while and returned to Lithuania, but was re-arrested in 1944 during the second Soviet occupation of Lithuania. This time he was sent to a concentration camp in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

and spent ten years there. His health was permanently impaired until his death in 1969. He was buried in Petrašiūnai Cemetery.

References

Sources

* *"Klimas, Petras". Encyclopedia Lituanica III: 142-143. (1970–1978). Ed. Simas Sužiedėlis. Boston, Massachusetts: Juozas Kapočius. LCC 74-114275. {{DEFAULTSORT:Klimas, Petras 1891 births 1969 deaths People from Kalvarija Municipality 20th-century Lithuanian historians Lithuanian diplomats Lithuanian people of World War II Baltic diplomatic missions Members of the Council of Lithuania Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Imperial Moscow University alumni Lithuanian independence activists Burials at Petrašiūnai Cemetery