Jonas Černius (6 January 1898, Kupiškis,

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 ...

– 3 July 1977, Los Angeles) was a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n general and

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. When Lithuania declared independence in 1918, he joined the army as a volunteer and participated in the Freedom Wars. He was one of the first graduates from the War School of Kaunas, but he continued to study military engineering in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

(1929) and Paris (1932). On his return to Lithuania, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed as chief of the military technical staff. In 1934 he became a colonel. In 1935 he was promoted to brigadier general and Chief of the General Staff. From 27 March to 21 November 1939 he was the Prime Minister and led the 20th cabinet. After resigning as prime minister, he was promoted to major general and put in command of the 1st Division. Following the annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, he served in the

Soviet Army The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...

's 24th Rifle Corps until Nazi Germany invaded in 1941. He fled to Germany in 1944 to avoid the second Soviet occupation in 1944. At first he lived in Germany, then in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England, where he worked as a farm workerMemoires de la Guerre: Spiegel, 11.10.1947
/ref> and in 1948 moved to the U.S. He later worked as an engineer for

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

References

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Jonas Černius
', Previous Governments: Between 1918 and 1940, Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Retrieved 7 September 2006. 1898 births 1977 deaths People from Kupiškis People from Vilkomirsky Uyezd Prime ministers of Lithuania Lithuanian generals Lithuanian people of World War II {{Europe-mil-bio-stub