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

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), 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. Lithuania ...

n politician,

Prime Minister of Lithuania The prime minister of Lithuania ( lt, Ministras Pirmininkas; "Minister-Chairman") is the head of the government of Lithuania. The prime minister is Lithuania's head of government and is appointed by the president with the assent of the Lithuania ...

, teacher, encyclopedist, editor, and professor.

Biography

Pranas Dovydaitis was born in

Marijampolė Marijampolė (; also known by several other names) is a cultural and industrial city and the capital of the Marijampolė County in the south of Lithuania, bordering Poland and Russian Kaliningrad Oblast, and Lake Vištytis. The population of Mari ...

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

University of Moscow 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 1913 he became an

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, 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, orga ...

of a newspaper '' Viltis'' in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

. It was closed in 1915 and Dovydaitis went to

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

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 post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

in the University of Lithuania (now -

Vytautas Magnus University Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) ( lt, Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas (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 ...

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

religious science The Religious Science movement, or Science of Mind, was established in 1927 by Ernest Holmes (1887–1960) and is a spiritual, philosophical and metaphysical religious movement within the New Thought movement. In general, the term "Scie ...

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and

natural science Natural 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 review and repeatab ...

, 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 two different ...

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

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

camps in the northern

Ural Ural may refer to: *Ural (region), in Russia and Kazakhstan *Ural Mountains, in Russia and Kazakhstan *Ural (river), in Russia and Kazakhstan * Ual (tool), a mortar tool used by the Bodo people of India *Ural Federal District, in Russia *Ural econ ...

. 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. Ateitis is a member of the umbrella of Catholic youth organizatio ...

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 organizatio ...

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. LCC 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 Executed Lithuanian people Burials at Rasos Cemetery {{Lithuania-politician-stub