26 Facts About Leonas Bistras

Leonas Bistras was one of the most prominent Lithuanian politicians of the interwar period.

Leonas Bistras lived the remaining years of his life in obscurity and poverty, supported only by the local people of Kaunas.

Leonas Bistras was born in 1890 to a working-class family in Liepaja, Courland Governorate of the Russian Empire, where his father had emigrated.

Leonas Bistras attempted to study medicine at the University of Geneva, switching to philosophy at the University of Freiburg a year later.

Leonas Bistras then returned to studying medicine in Dorpat, but was unable to finish due to the complex international environment leading up to World War I When the war started, Bistras was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army and served in Russia until the Bolshevik Revolution, initially as a private and later as a medic.

Leonas Bistras graduated from the University of Freiburg in 1921 with a PhD in philosophy.

In Voronezh, Leonas Bistras met other active Lithuanian Catholics and edited the newspaper Voice of the Lithuanians, giving him his first experience in journalism, which would take much of his interest in the coming decades.

In 1917, Leonas Bistras joined the emerging Lithuanian Christian Democratic movement.

Leonas Bistras officially joined the party as a member in 1921 and from 1922 onward was regularly elected to its central committee.

Leonas Bistras' growing prominence in Lithuanian politics was evident when, in 1922, he was elected to the First Seimas from the constituency of Raseiniai and became its speaker.

Leonas Bistras played a role in the election of Stulginskis as President of Lithuania, dismissing complaints from the opposition politicians that the Seimas did not have the necessary quorum when it voted on his candidacy.

Between January and September 1925, Leonas Bistras again served as speaker of the Seimas.

An ultimatum from military offices forced Petrulis to resign and Leonas Bistras was appointed as prime minister of the 12th cabinet on 25 September 1925.

Leonas Bistras served as minister of defense and, after Mecislovas Reinys resigned, as the minister of foreign affairs.

Leonas Bistras's government was in power for less than a year, until the Seimas elections.

Leonas Bistras was elected to the Third Seimas in 1926, this time from Marijampole, but Christian Democrats and their allies did not fare well in the elections.

Christian Democrats voted to elect Antanas Smetona president, thus giving him constitutional legitimacy, and initially joined the government, with Leonas Bistras appointed minister of education.

Leonas Bistras, ever trying to reach a compromise, initially hoped that a new election would be called, allowing the Christian Democrats to return to power.

Leonas Bistras assumed leadership of the Christian Democrats in 1927 in a difficult period.

Until 1936, Leonas Bistras edited newspaper giving a voice to Christian Democrats in Lithuania.

In 1928, publication of the newspaper was suspended as a result of "infractions" and Leonas Bistras began publishing ' instead, expressing the editor's view of the situation in the country.

Leonas Bistras had many political articles published in the minority, and especially Jewish, press, which was less subject to censor.

For inciting protests against the government, Leonas Bistras was sentenced in 1938 to a three-month exile to Alytus, isolating him from the political elite in Kaunas.

Leonas Bistras's sentence was cut short and Bistras even returned to the government after Lithuania lost the Klaipeda Region to the German ultimatum of March 1939.

Leonas Bistras served in the 20th cabinet as minister of education.

In July 1940, Leonas Bistras was arrested, imprisoned in Kaunas Prison and deported without a trial to Archangelsk in 1941.