Andrius Bulota (; 16 November 1872 – 16 August 1941) was a Lithuanian lawyer and politician 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 ...

. He was a member of the Second and Third Russian State Dumas (1907–1912) and the

Russian Constituent Assembly The All Russian Constituent Assembly () was a constituent assembly convened in Russia after the February Revolution of 1917. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m., , whereupon it was dissolved by the Bolshevik-led All-Russian Central Ex ...

(1918). Educated at the Saint Petersburg University, Bulota worked at the district court of

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

(1898—1903) and then as an attorney. He joined Lithuanian cultural and political life. He supported the publication of Lithuanian newspaper ''

Varpas ''Varpas'' (literally: ''The Bell'') was a monthly Lithuanian-language newspaper published during the Lithuanian press ban from January 1889 to December 1905. Because its publication was illegal in Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, it w ...

'' and was one of the founders of the Lithuanian Democratic Party. He actively participated in the

Russian Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

and the

Great Seimas of Vilnius The Great Seimas of Vilnius (, also known as the ''Great Assembly of Vilnius'', the ''Grand Diet of Vilnius'', or the ''Great Diet of Vilnius'') was a major assembly held on December 4 and 5, 1905 (November 21–22, 1905 Old Style and New Style d ...

, and was briefly arrested by the Tsarist police. As a member of the

Trudoviks The Trudoviks () were a democratic socialist political party of Russia in the early 20th century. History The Trudoviks were a breakaway of the Socialist Revolutionary Party faction as they defied the party's stance by standing in the First ...

, he was elected to the Second and Third Russian State Dumas. He spoke hundreds of times at the Duma on issues ranging from local Lithuanian matters to introducing a bill granting women equal voting rights. As an attorney, Bulota worked on the defense in several political trials including those of Ilya Fondaminsky, signers of the Vyborg Manifesto, Vincas Kapsukas. At the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Bulota organized aid for the war refugees and traveled to the United States and Canada to raise funds from Lithuanian communities for the relief efforts. Upon return in 1917, as a member of the

Socialist Revolutionary Party The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia. The party memb ...

, he joined various Russian political institutions, including the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, Provisional Council of the Russian Republic, and

. After the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

takeover, he returned to Lithuania and settled in

Marijampolė Marijampolė (; also known by Marijampolė#Names, several other names) is the Capital city, capital of Marijampolė County in the south of Lithuania, bordering Poland and Russian Kaliningrad Oblast, and Lake Vištytis. The city's population stood ...

. There he founded Marijampolė Realgymnasium which was closed by the Lithuanian government in 1925 for supporting communist causes. After his nephew made an attempt on the life of Prime Minister

Augustinas Voldemaras Augustinas Voldemaras (16 April 1883 – 16 May 1942) was a Lithuanian nationalist political figure. He briefly served as the country's first prime minister in 1918 and continued serving as the minister of foreign affairs until 1920, representing ...

in 1929, Bulota was briefly jailed at the Varniai concentration camp and then ordered to leave Lithuania. He returned to Marijampolė in 1930. After the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in June 1940, Bulota joined the new Soviet regime and headed the legal department of the Presidium of the

Supreme Council of the Lithuanian SSR The Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR (; , ''Verkhovnyy Sovet Litovskoy SSR'') was the supreme soviet (main legislative branch, legislative institution) of the Lithuanian SSR, one of the republics constituting the Soviet Union. The Supreme Sov ...

. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Bulota was arrested and executed in the

Ponary massacre The Ponary massacre (), or the Paneriai massacre (), was the mass murder of up to 100,000 people, mostly Jews, Poles, and Russians, by German '' SD'' and '' SS'' and the Lithuanian '' Ypatingasis būrys'' killing squads, during World War II a ...

on 16 August 1941.

Biography

Early life and education

Bulota was born on 16 November 1872 in village in

Suvalkija Suvalkija or Sudovia ( or ''Sūduva'') is the smallest of the five cultural regions of Lithuania. Its unofficial capital is Marijampolė. People from Suvalkija (Suvalkijans) are called (plural) or (singular) in Lithuanian. It is located sout ...

. Due to the

Lithuanian press ban The Lithuanian press ban () was a ban on all Lithuanian language publications printed in the Latin alphabet, in force from 1865 to 1904, within the Russian Empire, which controlled Lithuania proper at the time. Lithuanian-language publications t ...

, he learned to read Lithuanian in an illegal village school. After graduating from a primary school in 1884, he enrolled at

Marijampolė Gymnasium Marijampolė Rygiškių Jonas Gymnasium () is a secondary school in Marijampolė, Lithuania. It is named after Rygiškių Jonas, one of the pen names of linguist Jonas Jablonskis who was one of the gymnasium's alumni. Established in 1867, the gy ...

. His parents wanted him to become a Catholic priest When he refused, his parents cut off financial support and he was forced to earn a living by tutoring other children. He joined Lithuanian cultural life and read and distributed the banned Lithuanian publications. In 1892, he attended a meeting of ''

'' contributors and publishers. From 1893, he contributed poems and short news to ''Varpas'' and ''

Ūkininkas ''Ūkininkas'' or ''Ukinįkas'' (literally: ''The Farmer'') was a monthly Lithuanian-language newspaper published during the Lithuanian press ban by the editorial staff of ''Varpas'' from 1890 to 1905. ''Ūkininkas'' was printed in Tilsit (current ...

''. In 1892–1897, Bulota studied law at Saint Petersburg University. During this time, he was an active member and chairman of an illegal Lithuanian student society. He also helped Eduards Volters to edit and publish the history of Lithuania by Simonas Daukantas. During summer vacations, he would return to Lithuania and help Lithuanian book smugglers, particularly the Sietynas Society. After graduation from the university, Bulota was drafted for the mandatory service in the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

and was promoted to '' praporshchik''.

Russian Empire

Activist

In 1898–1903, Bulota worked at the district court of

(as a Catholic, he was not allowed to work in Lithuania). Bulota became a sworn attorney in 1904. He worked on several political cases, including the defense of Ilya Fondaminsky,

who signed the Vyborg Manifesto, Vincas Kapsukas, and . In 1908, he defended the arrested members of Šviesa Society (educational society in Marijampolė established by

Kazys Grinius Kazys Grinius (, 17 December 1866 – 4 June 1950) was the third President of Lithuania, holding the office from 7 June 1926 to 17 December 1926. Previously, he had served as the fifth Prime Minister of Lithuania, from 19 June 1920 until his r ...

) and even personally visited Prime Minister

Pyotr Stolypin Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin ( rus, Пётр Аркадьевич Столыпин, p=pʲɵtr ɐrˈkadʲjɪvʲɪtɕ stɐˈlɨpʲɪn; – ) was a Russian statesman who served as the third Prime Minister of Russia, prime minister and the Ministry ...

and raised the issue in the State Duma. He continued to be involved with Lithuanian activities. He financially supported the publication of ''

'' and helped

Jonas Jablonskis Jonas Jablonskis (; 30 December 1860, in Kubilėliai, Šakiai district – 23 February 1930, in Kaunas) was a distinguished Lithuanian linguist and one of the founders of the standard Lithuanian language. He used the pseudonym ''Rygiškių Jonas'' ...

to edit the 70,000-word Lithuanian–Polish dictionary of

Antanas Juška Antanas Juška (; 16 June 1819 – 1 November 1880) was a Lithuanians, Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest known for his lifelong study of Lithuanian folk traditions. For about three decades, he observed the Lithuanian people, their traditions, and ...

. Tsarist police searched his residence in connection with the trials of Sietynas Society and Liudas Vaineikis, but Bulota managed to avoid persecution. In 1902, he attended the founding meeting of the Lithuanian Democratic Party. He actively participated in the

in Estonia. As a member of the Lithuanian Democratic Party, he attended the

and was considered for its presidium. He spoke three times during the proceedings, including on the key issue of seeking autonomy for Lithuania. In December 1905, Bulota was arrested for organizing a workers' strike. He was released on 10,000 ruble bail after three months and the case was subsequently dropped.

State Duma

In 1907, Bulota was elected to the Second and Third Russian State Dumas as a representative from the

Suwałki Governorate Suwałki Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of Congress Poland of the Russian Empire, which had its seat in the city of Suwałki. It covered a territory of about . History In 1867, the territories of the Augustów ...

. He was a leader of the Trudovik (labor group) fraction. He was also a leader of other Lithuanian representatives in the Duma. He spoke hundreds of times during the sessions of the Duma on Lithuanian and more general issues. For example, he spoke on allowing Lithuanian language in schools, establishing local government (

zemstvo A zemstvo (, , , ''zemstva'') was an institution of local government set up in consequence of the emancipation reform of 1861 of Imperial Russia by Emperor Alexander II of Russia. Nikolay Milyutin elaborated the idea of the zemstvo, and the fi ...

) in Lithuania, establishing an agricultural school in Dotnuva. He obtained a government grant for the first exhibition of Lithuanian farmers in

. In addition, together with others, he worked on a proposal for Lithuania's autonomy. He also spoke on issues like land reform, freedom of religion, constitution of Finland, etc. In 1908, he attended the conference of the

Inter-Parliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; , UIP) is an international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other initiatives include advancing g ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In early 1909, he helped to expose

Yevno Azef Yevno Fishelevich (Yevgeny Filippovich) Azef (; 1869–1918) was a Russian socialist revolutionary who also operated as a double agent and agent provocateur. He worked as both an organiser of assassinations for the Socialist Revolutionary Party ...

as an

agent provocateur An is a person who actively entices another person to commit a crime that would not otherwise have been committed and then reports the person to the authorities. They may target individuals or groups. In jurisdictions in which conspiracy is a ...

of the

Okhrana The Department for the Protection of Public Safety and Order (), usually called the Guard Department () and commonly abbreviated in modern English sources as the Okhrana ( rus , Охрана, p=ɐˈxranə, a=Ru-охрана.ogg, t= The Guard) w ...

. In February 1912, he introduced a bill drafted by the League for Women's Equality on granting women equal voting rights, but it was rejected. As historian Nerijus Udrėnas summarized, Bulota was an "idealist lawyer defended all the weak and disadvantaged". He was not reelected to the Duma in 1912. He then moved to

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 as an attorney. He continued to active in the Lithuanian Democratic Party and contributed articles to party's periodicals '' Lietuvos žinios'' and ''

Lietuvos ūkininkas ''Lietuvos ūkininkas'' (literally: ''Lithuanian farmer'') was a weekly Lithuanian-language newspaper published between 1905 and 1940. It was published by and reflected the political views of the Lithuanian Democratic Party, Peasant Union, and L ...

''. Bulota joined several

Masonic lodges A Masonic lodge (also called Freemasons' lodge, or private lodge or constituent lodge) is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also a commonly used term for a building where Freemasons meet and hold their meetings. Every new l ...

, including Polar Star (headed by Maksim Kovalevsky) in Saint Petersburg in 1908, Litwa in 1913, and Białoruś in 1914.

World War I

At the outbreak of

, he organized aid for the war refugees, was one of the founders of the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers (though, together with other leftists, he was soon removed from the organization), and a representative of the Imperial Tatiana Committee. He personally toured the devastated

and organized soup kitchens and medical aid stations. In December 1915, together with others, Bulota founded the Lithuanian newspaper ' in Saint Petersburg. It propagated ideas of the () (Bulota was a member of its Central Committee). Bulota and Zemaite in United States

Invited by the Lithuanian Relief Fund (), Bulota together with his wife Aleksandra Bulotienė (as a representative of Žiburėlis society) and writer

Žemaitė Žemaitė (, , "Samogitian woman") was the pen name of Julija Beniuševičiūtė-Žymantienė ( – 7 December 1921). She was a Lithuanian/Samogitian writer, democrat and educator. Born to impoverished gentry, she became one of the major partici ...

travelled to the United States in 1916. From March 1916 to April 1917, they toured about a hundred cities with

Lithuanian American Lithuanian Americans refer to American citizens and residents of Lithuanian descent or were born in Lithuania. New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has the largest percentage of Lithuanian Americans (20.8%) in its population in the United States. ...

and Lithuanian Canadian communities and raised about US$50,000 () for the relief efforts in Lithuania. He returned via

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...

to Saint Petersburg in May 1917. He was elected to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and became the head of its judicial department. After the

July Days The July Days () were a period of unrest in Petrograd, Russia, between . It was characterised by spontaneous armed demonstrations by soldiers, sailors, and industrial workers engaged against the Russian Provisional Government. The demonstrat ...

, he chaired a special commission to investigate the

s responsible for the riots. He was a member of the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic. Bulota was elected to the

in the Vitebsk electoral district as a member of the

Independent Lithuania

After the

was dispersed by the Bolsheviks in January 1918, Bulota returned to Tallinn and then

. At the end of 1918, Bulota together with others established the Marijampolė Realgymnasium. It was a private high school which became known for its support of socialist and communist causes. The school was closed by the Lithuanian government in 1925. As an attorney, Bulota defended members of the

Polish Military Organisation The Polish Military Organisation, PMO (, POW) was a secret military organization that was formed during World War I (1914–1918). Józef Piłsudski founded the group in August 1914. It adopted the name ''POW'' in November 1914 and aimed to gathe ...

(PMO) accused of the attempted coup against the Lithuanian government in August–September 1919. Bulota established a local credit union and was elected to the local district council. In 1921, he attended a meeting of the former members of the

in Paris. On 6 May 1929, Bulota's nephew also named and two others attempted to assassinate Prime Minister

. As a result, on 31 May 1929, Bulota together with his wife Aleksandra were imprisoned at the Varniai concentration camp. They were released after three months on a condition that they would leave Lithuania. They lived in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

for over a year and were allowed to return to Marijampolė in 1930. In 1931, he attended the 4th Congress of the

Labour and Socialist International The Labour and Socialist International (LSI) was an international organization of socialist and labourist parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The group was established through a merger of the rival Vienna International and the Berne Intern ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

World War II

After the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in June 1940, Bulota joined the new Soviet regime. He was a member of the electoral commission that organized the show elections to the

People's Seimas The People's Seimas () was a puppet legislature organized in order to give legal sanction to the occupation and annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union. After the Soviet ultimatum in June 1940, a new pro-Soviet government was formed, known a ...

and headed the legal department of the Presidium of the

. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Bulota was arrested and executed in the

on 16 August 1941.

Personal life

In 1913, Bulota married Aleksandra Stepanova (1891–1941). She was born in

Omsk Omsk (; , ) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third List of cities and tow ...

and attended university in Switzerland. She was active in public life, particularly in Žiburėlis society which provided financial aid to Lithuanian students. After the Soviet occupation, she worked at the Presidium of the

. She was executed together with Bulotas in Ponary. They did not have children, but cared after eight sons of Bulota's brother. The family was close with the writer

. She taught Aleksandra the

Lithuanian language Lithuanian (, ) is an East Baltic languages, East Baltic language belonging to the Baltic languages, Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of t ...

. Bulotas and Žemaitė toured Lithuanian communities in the United States and Canada in 1916–1917. Bulotas also took care of Žemaitė during her last months before her death in December 1921. Andrius Bulota published four volumes of collected works of Žemaitė, while Aleksandra translated several short stories to Russian. Around 1925, Bulota purchased a wooden house in Marijampolė where he lived until 1940. Since then, the house was used by various institutions, but some of the original architectural details have been preserved. A memorial museum dedicated to the Bulotas family was opened in the house after extensive renovations in 2017–2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulota, Andrius 1872 births 1941 deaths Members of the 2nd State Duma of the Russian Empire Members of the 3rd State Duma of the Russian Empire Russian Constituent Assembly members Socialist Revolutionary Party politicians Trudoviks 20th-century Lithuanian lawyers Lawyers from the Russian Empire Prisoners and detainees of Lithuania Lithuanian collaborators with the Soviet Union (1940–41) Victims of the Ponary massacre Communists executed by Nazi Germany Saint Petersburg State University alumni