Pranas Dovydaitis (; 2 December 1886 – 4 November 1942) 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 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 ...

, teacher, encyclopedist, editor, and professor.

Biography

Pranas Dovydaitis was born 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 ...

County, Runkiai and attended Veiveriai Teachers' Seminary, later studied in the

University of Moscow Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

. In 1913 he became an

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

of a newspaper '' Viltis'' in

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 ...

. It was closed in 1915 and Dovydaitis went to

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 ...

where he started to participate actively in its academic circles and from 1922 to 1940 was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in the University of Lithuania (now -

Vytautas Magnus University Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) (, VDU) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university. Initially it was known as the University of Lithuania, but ...

). The range of topics of his articles was quite wide -

religious science The Religious Science movement, or Science of Mind, was established in 1926 by Ernest Holmes and is a spiritual, philosophical and metaphysical spiritual movement within the New Thought movement. In general, the term "Science of Mind" applie ...

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

, but in all his articles some synoptical-historical interest could be found. The topics of primitive man and culture were one of his priorities. He was a Signatory of the Act of Independence of Lithuania. After the

Soviet occupation During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into three differe ...

of Lithuania Dovydaitis was arrested in 1941 with his family and sent to one of the

Soviet 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 ...

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

camps in the northern Ural. His remains have not yet been found. Dovydaitis was a member and one of the founders of the Catholic youth and student organization

Ateitis The Lithuanian Catholic Federation Ateitis (literally, 'future') is a youth organization in Lithuania uniting Catholic-minded schoolchildren, university students, and alumni. Members of the Ateitis Federation are known as . Name and aims The a ...

in Lithuania which is now a full member of

Fimcap The FIMCAP, which is short for Fédération Internationale des Mouvements Catholiques d'Action Paroissiale (French for "International Federation of Catholic Parochial Youth Movements"), is an umbrella organization for Catholic youth organizations ...

Family

Pranas Dovydaitis was the eldest of 15 children in his family. His wife - Marcelė Bucevičiūtė-Dovydaitienė. They had three sons and two daughters.

References

* "Dovydaitis, Pranas". Encyclopedia Lituanica II: 101-103. (1970–1978). Ed. Simas Sužiedėlis. Boston, Massachusetts: Juozas Kapočius. LCCN 74-114275. * "Žemaičių Krikšto Pėdsakais", 2013, Lietuvių Katalikų Mokslo Akademija, UDK 23/28(474.5)(091)(036) 1886 births 1942 deaths People from Kazlų Rūda Municipality People from Suwałki Governorate Prime ministers of Lithuania Members of the Council of Lithuania Lithuanian independence activists Lithuanian male writers Lithuanian schoolteachers Lithuanian encyclopedists Lithuanian jurists Executed prime ministers Lithuanian people executed by the Soviet Union Burials at Rasos Cemetery {{Lithuania-politician-stub