Juozas Tūbelis (9 April 1882 – 30 September 1939) 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 politician,

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 ...

, and member and chairman of the

Lithuanian Nationalists Union The Lithuanian Nationalist Union ( or LTS), also known as the Nationalists (), was the ruling political party in Lithuania during the authoritarian regime of President Antanas Smetona from 1926 to 1940. The party was established in 1924 but was n ...

. In 1908, he graduated from Polytechnical Institute in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

receiving a diploma in

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

. Not being able to find employment in his field, for another two years, he worked in Riga as a teacher, and then on land exploitation projects. In 1915, he was drafted to the Russian army. He was able to assist the

Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers The Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers () was a Lithuanian charity organization that was active from 1914 to 1918. It was founded by various Lithuanian political figures as a committee to assist Lithuanian refugees of the First W ...

, which helped out refugees and others suffering from war. He traveled across Russia, and in 1918, he returned to Lithuania, and worked for the

Council of Lithuania In the history of Lithuania, the Council of Lithuania (; ; ), after July 11, 1918, the State Council of Lithuania () was convened at the Vilnius Conference that took place between 18 and 23 September 1917. The twenty men who composed the c ...

at an education commission. On 11 November 1918, Tūbelis became Minister of Agriculture and State Treasures. On 12 March 1919, he had to resign from the post, but became Minister of Education till 19 June 1920. From September 1929, he was

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

. He held this position until 24 March 1938. On 23 September 1929, he became the

Prime Minister of Lithuania The prime minister of Lithuania (, , colloquially also referred to as the premier ) is the head of government of Lithuania. The prime minister is appointed by the President of Lithuania, president with the assent of the Lithuanian parliament, th ...

. He led three Minister Cabinets (the 14th, 15th and 16th) before resigning on 24 March 1938. Tūbelis was the longest standing Prime Minister of Lithuania. From March 1938 until 5 December 1938, he was Minister of Agriculture. He was also the Governor of the

Bank of Lithuania The Bank of Lithuania () is the national central bank for Lithuania within the Eurosystem. It was the Lithuanian central bank from 1922 to 2014, albeit with a long suspension between 1940 and 1993. It issued the Lithuanian litas between 1922 ...

in 1939. Between political roles, Tūbelis helped to establish and direct large enterprises like ''Lietūkis'' (est. in 1923), ''Maistas'' (est. in 1925), and ''Pienocentras'' (est. in 1926). After the coup d'état in 1926, his brother-in-law

Antanas Smetona Antanas Smetona (; 10 August 1874 – 9 January 1944) was a Lithuanian intellectual, journalist and politician. He served as the first president of Lithuania from 1919 to 1920 and later as the authoritarian head of state from 1926 until the Occu ...

became the president. Since the two men agreed on political views, Tūbelis became the second most powerful man in Lithuania in the 1930s. He is credited for stable economy, national currency

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 ...

, and small foreign debt despite the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. He was married to Jadvyga Tūbelienė.

References

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Juozas Tūbelis
'', Previous Governments: Between 1918 and 1940, Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Accessed September 7, 2006. 1882 births 1939 deaths People from Rokiškis District Municipality People from Kovno Governorate Party of National Progress politicians Lithuanian Nationalist Union politicians Prime ministers of Lithuania Ministers of agriculture of Lithuania Ministers of education of Lithuania Ministers of finance of Lithuania Chairmen of the Bank of Lithuania Lithuanian agronomists Lithuanian military personnel in the Imperial Russian Army of World War I Riga Technical University alumni {{Lithuania-politician-stub