Salomėja Bačinskaitė-Bučienė, mostly known by her
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
Nėris (; 17 November 1904 – 7 July 1945) 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 poet.
Biography
Salomėja was born in ,
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 ...
(current
district of Vilkaviškis). She graduated from the
University of Lithuania
Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) (, VDU) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the Polish–Lithuanian War, interwar period as an alternate national university.
Initially it was known as the Univ ...
where she studied
Lithuanian and
German language
German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...
and literature.
After she was a teacher in
Lazdijai,
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 ...
, and
Panevėžys
Panevėžys () is the fifth-largest List of cities in Lithuania, city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, eighth-most-populous city in the Baltic States. it occupies with 89,100 inhabitants. As defined by Eu ...
, her first collection of poems titled (''In the Early Morning''), was published in 1927.
In 1928, Salomėja graduated from the university and was appointed to teach German language at the gymnasium of the
Žiburys Society
Žiburys Society (''žiburys'' means light, beacon; ) was a society established in 1906 that organized and maintained Lithuanian schools in the Suwałki Governorate of the Congress Poland, Russian Empire (later, Suvalkija region of independent Li ...
in
Lazdijai. Until 1931, Nėris contributed to nationalist and
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
publications. While studying German in
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. ...
, in 1929, Salomėja met Lithuanian medical student Bronius Zubrickas and became attracted to him. Zubrickas had
socialist views and Salomėja engaged in socialist activities in order to court him.
In 1931, Salomėja moved to live in Kaunas, where she gave lessons and edited
Lithuanian folk tales. In the second collection of Salomėja's poetry, ''(The Footprints in the Sand)'', there is evidence of the onset of a profound spiritual crisis. In the same year, verses containing revolutionary motifs were published in the pro-communist literary journal ''
Trečias frontas'' (''The Third Front'').
A promise to work for
communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
was also published. However, it was not written by her. It was written by the chief ideological editor of ,
Kostas Korsakas, and communist activist
Valys Drazdauskas (Salomėja was more interested in writing poetry than in declarations, politics and theories about art).
[Rasyk.lt: Apie S. NÄries gyvenimo vingius ir jos gyvenimo meiles](_blank)
at www.rasyk.lt
Salomėja Nėris was awarded the State Literature Prize in 1938.
She was a member of the Catholic youth and student organization
Ateitis.
Activities during the Soviet occupation
Controversy surrounds her involvement with the
Soviet occupation. She was appointed as a deputy to the Soviet-backed
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 was a member of the delegation to the
Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSUSSR) was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. Based on the principle of unified power, it was the only branch of government in the So ...
to request Lithuania be accepted into 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 ...
.
Salomėja was requested to write a poem in honour of
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
and was subsequently awarded the
Stalin Prize (posthumously, in 1947). After that, she wrote more verses on the theme, as encouraged by the
Soviet Communist Party
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
officials. She spent
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
in the
Russian SFSR
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
.
Salomėja Nėris returned to Kaunas but was diagnosed and died of
liver cancer
Liver cancer, also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy, is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary in which the cancer starts in the liver, or it can be liver metastasis, or secondar ...
in a Moscow hospital in 1945.
[Salomėja Nėris at www.booksfromlithuania.lt] Her last poems show deep affection for Lithuania itself. She was buried in Kaunas, in a square of the Museum of Culture, and later re-interred in the
Cemetery of Petrašiūnai.
Pseudonym
Her original
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
was ''
Neris
The river Neris () or Vilija (, ) rises in northern Belarus. It flows westward, passing through Vilnius (Lithuania's capital) and in the south-centre of that country it flows into the Nemunas (Neman) from the right bank, at Kaunas, as its ma ...
'', the name of the second biggest
Lithuanian river. In 1940, she received a letter from her students calling her a
traitor
Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...
to her homeland and asking her not to use the name of the
River Neris. She added a
grave accent
The grave accent () ( or ) is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan and many other Western European languages as well as for a few unusual uses in English. It is also used in other ...
to the "''e''" and used only the pen name ''Nėris'', which until then had no particular meaning.
Works

* . – Kaunas: , 1931. – 61p.
* . – Kaunas: , 1931. – 48p.
* . – Kaunas: , 1934. – 160p.
* . –
aunas ,
935
Year 935 ( CMXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Spring – Arnulf I ("the Bad") of Bavaria invades Italy, crossing through the Upper Adige (modern Tyrol). He proceeds ...
– 48p.
* . – Kaunas: , 1938. – 69p.
* . – Kaunas: , 1940. – 107p.
* . – Kaunas: , 1940. – 16p.
* . – Kaunas: , 1941. – 192p.
* . – Kaunas: , 1943. – 39p.
* . – Kaunas: , 1945. – 109p.
* . –
aunas , 1946. – 96p.
* :
t. – Kaunas: , 1946.
* . – Kaunas: , 1947. – 48p.
* . – Chicago, 1947. – 112p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1950. – 276p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1951. – 84p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1951. – 36p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1953. – 38p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1954. – 500p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1956. – 164p.
* . –
ilnius , 1957.
* . – Kaunas: , 1958. – 112p. – ().
* . – Vilnius: , 1959. – 474p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1961. – 51p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1961. – 511p.
* . – Warszaw: , 1963. – 34p. – in Polish
* . – Vilnius: , 1964. – 143p.
* . – Kaunas: , 1965. – 90p. – ().
* . – Vilnius: , 1966. – 25 p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1966
* . – Vilnius: , 1967.
* . – Vilnius: , 1967. – in Russian
* . – Moscow: ''Chudožestvennaja literatura'', 1971. – 230p. – in Russian
* . – Vilnius: , 1972. – 2 volumes
* . – Vilnius: , 1973. – 151p.
* , translation by Daina Avotiņa. – Rīga: , 1974. – 58p. – in Latvian
* . – Vilnius: , 1974. – 477p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1978. – 469p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1979. – 827p.
* . – Moscow: ''Chudožestvennaja literatura'', 1979. – 334p. – in Russian
* . – Vilnius: , 1980. – 38p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1980. – 201p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1983. – 103p.
* . – Rīga: , 1984. – 129p. – in Latvian
* : 3 volumes – Vilnius: , 1984.
* ''Blue sister, river Vilija'' = = . – Moscow: , 1987. – 261p. – in English and Russian
* . – Vilnius: , 1988. – 160p. – (). – in Russian
* : poem, translation by M. Petrov. – Vilnius: , 1989. – 62p. – in Russian
* , translation by M. Stempkowska. – Kaunas: , 1989. – 221p. – in Polish
* . – Vilnius: , 1994. – 96p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1995. – 220p.
* . – Vilnius: , 1998. – 126p.
References
External links
Lithuanian Classic Literature Anthology: Salomėja Nėris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neris, Salomeja
1904 births
1945 deaths
People from Vilkaviškis District Municipality
People from Suwałki Governorate
First convocation members of the Soviet of the Union
Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic people
Lithuanian women poets
Vytautas Magnus University alumni
20th-century Lithuanian poets
Recipients of the Stalin Prize
Deaths from liver cancer in Russia
Deaths from cancer in the Soviet Union
20th-century Lithuanian women writers
Burials at Petrašiūnai Cemetery