Alexander Shtromas ( lt, Aleksandras Štromas; 4 April 1931 in Kaunas, Lithuania – 12 June 1999 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

) was a prominent Lithuanian political scientist, dissident, professor and author. Alexander Štromas was a cousin of

Irena Veisaitė Irena Veisaitė (9 January 1928 – 11 December 2020) was a Lithuanian theatre scholar, intellectual and human rights activist. She was awarded the Goethe Medal in 2012 for her contribution to cultural exchange between Germany and Lithuania. L ...

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

and later Lithuanian scholar of German literature. Irena's mother and Alexander's father were siblings.

Biography

Shtromas was born in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Nazi occupation of Lithuania he was imprisoned in the ghetto. After he was saved from the ghetto, Shtromas was harbored by

Antanas Sniečkus Antanas Sniečkus ( – 22 January 1974) was a Lithuanian communist politician who served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania from 15 August 1940 to 22 January 1974. Biography Sniečkus was born in 1903, in the village o ...

. He studied at

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow and ...

, and later finished at

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. In 1964 Shtromas defended his doctoral thesis in law. Soon afterward Shtromas became a critic of the Soviet regime and was forced to emigrate. In 1973 he settled in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. There, he was appointed to a position in the Department of Peace Studies at the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...

by Adam Curle. He later worked at

Salford University , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...

, and, until his death, at Hillsdale College. Aleksandras Shtromas died on 12 June 1999 in the US, and was interred in Petrašiūnai Cemetery in Kaunas. A book with tributes by fellow dissidents, academic colleagues and former students (mainly in English but also in Lithuanian and Russian) was published in 2008 in Lithuania, edited by Leonidas Donskis (XX a. žmogus: Aleksandro Štromo portretai).

Books in English

* * ''Political change and social development: the case of the Soviet Union'' (1981) * ''To fight communism: why and how?'' (1985) * ''The Soviet Union and the challenge of the future'' (edited with Morton A. Kaplan, 1988) * ''The end of "isms"?: reflections on the fate of ideological politics after Communism's collapse'' (edited, 1994) * ''Totalitarianism and the prospects for world order: closing the door on the twentieth century'' (2003)

Articles

* *

References

Aleksandras Štromas
Retrieved on 2008-09-14 1931 births 1999 deaths Vilnius University alumni Moscow State University alumni Lithuanian Jews Lithuanian legal scholars American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Lithuanian political scientists Soviet dissidents Burials at Petrašiūnai Cemetery Academics of the University of Bradford Academics of the University of Salford Hillsdale College faculty Peace and conflict scholars 20th-century political scientists {{Lithuania-academic-bio-stub