Adolfas Sruoga (19 April 1889 – 1941) was the director of Lithuanian postal services in

interwar Lithuania In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

. He was the brother of writer

Balys Sruoga Balys Sruoga (2 February 1896 – 16 October 1947) was a Lithuanian poet, playwright, critic, and literary theorist. He contributed to cultural journals from his early youth. His works were published by the liberal wing of the Lithuanian cultura ...

. Educated as an electrical engineer at the Charlottenburg Polytechnic School, Sruoga worked in various electric engineering-related posts in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

until moving to Lithuania in 1918 to work at the Lithuanian postal service. He was its director from 1927 until 1933 when he was accused of tampering with

litas The Lithuanian litas (ISO currency code LTL, symbolized as Lt; plural ''litai'' (nominative) or ''litų'' (genitive) was the currency of Lithuania, until 1 January 2015, when it was replaced by the euro. It was divided into 100 centų (geniti ...

money stamps, accumulating enormous personal wealth. Found guilty of financial manipulation, Sruoga was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor in 1935, eventually dying in 1941 as a deportee in the

Intalag The Inta Corrective Labor Camp or Intalag (, also abbreviated Intinlag, Intlag, and Intastroy) was a forced labor camp of the Gulag, which existed between 1941 and 1948 near the town of Inta in the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Prison ...

forced labor camp of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Biography

Early life and career

Sruoga was born on 12 March 1886 in the village of near Vabalninkas, then part of the

Kovno Governorate Kovno Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Kovno (Kaunas). It was formed on 18 December 1842 by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, Nicholas I from the western part of Vilna Govern ...

. Like his brother

, Adolfas Sruoga went to a private secret Lithuanian-language school. Sruoga participated in organizing Lithuanian-language theater evenings in 1905. Graduating from a gymnasium in 1906, Sruoga studied electrical engineering at a polytechnic school in

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

, graduating in 1911. Sruoga then worked as a telegraph mechanic in

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...

, and also was assigned to head the technical school of the Caucasian Railway Battalion. From 1913 Sruoga worked as a telephone network engineer at the

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

telephone exchange. Sruoga's brother

lived with him while the latter studied in St. Petersburg. In 1918, Sruoga returned to Lithuania,

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, where he worked at various technical commissions. Sruoga was married twice.

Director of postal service

, Sruoga was one of the directors of the Lithuanian postal service. At first, he worked as a co-director, and then as director since 1927. He also led a telegraph and telephone school. Described as a wealthy salon-visiting aphorist, Sruoga owned

Justas Paleckis Justas Paleckis ( – 26 January 1980) was a Lithuanian Soviet author, journalist and politician. He was nominal acting president of Lithuania after the Soviet invasion while Lithuania was still ostensibly independent, in office from 17 June t ...

's newspaper '' Naujas žodis'', the ''Tulpė'' bookstore in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

, a printing house of the same name, and had shares in other companies.

Corruption

Sruoga became infamous in 1931 when speculation arose about an illegal business using small, rhombus-shaped stamps. After checking the stamp warehouse and the expeditions department of the postal services, counterfeit stamps worth almost 3 million

were found. It was established that Sruoga took used stamps from the warehouse and sold them, and instead he placed fake stamps of 3 and 5 litas denominations. Painter

Adomas Varnas Adomas Varnas (January 1, 1879, in Joniškis, Lithuania – July 19, 1979, in Chicago, United States) was a prominent Lithuanian Painting, painter, photographer, collector, philanthropist, and educator. Author of the world first album of ethnogr ...

participated in determining the authenticity of the stamps. In 1933, Sruoga was formally accused of financial manipulation and arrested. Sruoga asserted his innocence by claiming that the stamps were product defects, and that which he had was part of a personal collection. In 1935, Sruoga was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor, and his wealth was confiscated. His wife Tatjana Sruogienė, along with their children, fled to Paraguay. Letters of his brother Balys Sruoga reveal the case's negative psychological effect on Balys and the shame it brought the family name. Sruoga was deported to

in 1941 by Soviet authorities, where he died.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sruoga, Adolfas 1889 births 1941 deaths Postal officials People convicted of corruption People who died in the Gulag Prisoners and detainees of Lithuania Technische Universität Berlin alumni Lithuanian people who died in Soviet detention