Unė Babickaitė-Graičiūnienė (born Uršulė Babickaitė also known as Une Baye; 19 April 1897 – 1 August 1961) 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 actress and theater director. During World War I, she attended the

Saint Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory (russian: Санкт-Петербургская государственная консерватория имени Н. А. Римского-Корсакова) (formerly known as th ...

. After the war, she staged several plays in Lithuania, but they were not well received by the critics. She then moved to the United States and appeared in several

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

s. In 1924, she married

Vytautas Andrius Graičiūnas Vytautas Andrius Graičiūnas (August 17, 1898 in Chicago – January 9, 1952 in Olzheras, Siberia) was a Lithuanian American management theorist, management consultant, and engineer, and was a known expert in his field. Born to Lithuanian immigran ...

. With his financial support, she organized theater plays in Paris and London. Babickaitė returned to Lithuania in 1936. After World War II, she was sentenced to five years in a

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 ...

Biography

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Babickaitė and her family retreated to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. There she met writer

Balys Sruoga Balys Sruoga (February 2, 1896, in , Kovno Governorate – October 16, 1947, Vilnius) was a Lithuanian poet, playwright, critic, and literary theorist. Early life He contributed to cultural journals from his early youth. His works were publishe ...

, who encouraged her to begin theater studies at the

in 1916. Balys named her ''Unė''. After return to Lithuania, she organized theater group Daina and staged several performances. However, a woman director stirred up controversy in a conservative society and the plays were attacked by critics. In 1919, Babickaitė moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where she simplified her name to ''Unė Baye'' and between 1922 and 1924 appeared in several

s by

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

. She left the film industry due to a visual impairment and instead performed in the theaters in New York, Washington DC, Chicago. In 1924, she married Graičiūnas, her

cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...

, and moved with him to London in 1928. With her husband financing her artistic endeavors, she established the New Russian Theatre, and later the Anglo-American Company Troupe, appeared in theaters in both London and Paris. In France, she met with

Konstantin Balmont Konstantin Dmitriyevich Balmont ( rus, Константи́н Дми́триевич Бальмо́нт, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪdʑ bɐlʲˈmont, a=Konstantin Dmitriyevich Bal'mont.ru.vorb.oga; – 23 December 1942) was a Rus ...

, who dedicated at least four of his poems to her. Following a serious illness, two car crashes and multiple surgeries, she joined the

Third Order of Saint Francis The Third Order of Saint Francis is a third order in the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi. The preaching of Francis and his disciples caused many ma ...

in Italy but did not take vows. In 1936, she returned to Lithuania and directed plays for the

Lithuanian Riflemen's Union The Lithuanian Riflemen's Union (LRU, lt, Lietuvos šaulių sąjunga), also referred to as Šauliai ( lt, šaulys for ''rifleman''), is a paramilitary non-profit organisation supported by the State. The activities are in three main areas: milita ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, following the

Soviet occupation of the Baltic states The Soviet occupation of the Baltic states covers the period from the Soviet–Baltic mutual assistance pacts in 1939, to their invasion and annexation in 1940, to the mass deportations of 1941. In September and October 1939 the Soviet governme ...

, her husband, an American citizen, was arrested in 1951 and sentenced to ten years in

. He died the following year under unclear circumstances. Babickaitė was also sentenced to five years. In 1953, during the

de-Stalinization De-Stalinization (russian: десталинизация, translit=destalinizatsiya) comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by ascension ...

campaign after

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

's death, she received amnesty and was allowed to return to Lithuania. She died in 1961 in

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 ...

Legacy

Babickaitė left an extensive collection of documents, correspondence, and photos, which are preserved by the

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos nacionalinė Martyno Mažvydo biblioteka) is a national cultural institution which collects, organizes and preserves Lithuania's written cultural heritage content, develops the colle ...

. Two volumes of documents were published in 2001 and 2005. Various theater exhibits, collected by her, are displayed by the Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Film Museum, established by

and

Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius Vincas Mickevičius (pl. ''Wincenty Mickiewicz'', October 19, 1882 – July 17, 1954), better known by his pen name Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius, was a Lithuanian writer, poet, novelist, playwright and philologist. He is also known as Vincas Krė ...

in 1926. The family home in village, where Babickaitė and her brother writer were born, was turned into an ethnographic and memorial museum in 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Babickaite, Une 1897 births 1961 deaths People from Kupiškis District Municipality People from Ponevezhsky Uyezd Lithuanian film actresses Lithuanian stage actresses 20th-century Lithuanian actresses Lithuanian theatre directors category:Gulag detainees