Jonas Vileišis was a Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

n lawyer, politician, and diplomat

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

.

Early life and career

Vileišis was born in Mediniai, near Pasvalys

Pasvalys

Pasvalys is a city in Panevėžys County, Lithuania, located near the bank of the Svalia River. Its sister city is Götene in Sweden. In 1557, the Treaty of Pozvol was signed in the town, which provoked Ivan IV of Russia to start the Livonian War.-References:...

. In 1892 he graduated from the Šiauliai

Šiauliai

Šiauliai , is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 133,900. It is the capital of Šiauliai County. Unofficially, the city is the capital of Northern Lithuania.-Names:...

 gymnasium. During 1892-1894, he studied physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 and mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 at Saint Petersburg University

Saint Petersburg State University

Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....

. Later he transferred to the study of law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, graduating in 1898. As a student he began contributing to the newspapers Varpas

Varpas

Varpas was a monthly Lithuanian-language newspaper published during the Lithuanian press ban from January 1889 to December 1905...

(The Bell) and Ūkininkas

Ūkininkas

Ūkininkas or Ukinįkas was a monthly Lithuanian-language newspaper published during the Lithuanian press ban by the editorial staff of Varpas from 1890 to 1905...

(The Farmer). From 1896 to 1898 he was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania

Social Democratic Party of Lithuania

The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania is a centre-left and social democratic political party in Lithuania. It is the oldest party in Lithuania, founded in 1896. The party's president since 2009 is Algirdas Butkevičius. The party led a minority government in the unicameral Seimas, Lithuania's...

. After returning to Lithuania, he began practicing law and joined the 12 Apostles organization, dedicated to defending the right to use the Lithuanian language

Lithuanian language

Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...

 in print, which was banned at the time. In 1902 he participated in the creation of the Lithuanian Democratic Party

Lithuanian Democratic Party

Lithuanian Democratic Party or LDP , established on October 17, 1902, was the second-oldest political party in Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. It published newspapers Lietuvos ūkininkas and Lietuvos žinios . During World War I, the democratic party split into several other parties and...

.

After the ban on Lithuanian language

Knygnešiai

Book smugglers were people who transported Lithuanian language books printed in the Latin alphabet into Lithuanian-speaking areas of the Russian Empire, defying a ban on such materials in force from 1866 to 1904...

 was lifted in 1904, Vileišis obtained permission to publish the newspaper Lietuvos Ūkininkas and was its editor-in-chief from 1905 to 1906. From 1907 to 1909, he served as the publisher of Vilniaus žinios

Vilniaus žinios

Vilniaus žinios was a short-lived newspaper published in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was the first legal Lithuanian-language daily newspaper to appear after the Lithuanian press ban was lifted on May 7, 1904.-History:...

(Vilnius News) and, after it was banned, published and edited Lietuvos Žinios

Lietuvos Žinios

Lietuvos žinios is a daily newspaper in Lithuania. Established in Vilnius in 1909, it was a liberal newspaper representing the Lithuanian Democratic Party...

(Lithuanian News). He was one of the organizers of the Great Seimas of Vilnius

Great Seimas of Vilnius

The Great Seimas of Vilnius , was a major assembly held on December 4 and 5, 1905 in Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, largely inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1905. It was the first modern national congress in Lithuania and dealt primarily not with the social issues that...

 in 1905, and an organizer of the Lithuanian Science Society

Lithuanian Science Society

The Lithuanian Scientific Society was a scientific, cultural, and educational organization that was active between 1907 and 1940 in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was founded in 1907 on the initiative of Jonas Basanavičius....

 in 1907.

At the beginning of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Vileišis co-founded a Lithuanian organization aimed at helping war victims with agronomic and legal support, and became its chairman. He was also an active member of the Lithuanian Committee. Six schools were established by Vileišis in the Alanta district. As a member of the Lithuanian Science Society he organized the publication of school textbooks. For distributing anti-German

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

 fliers among teachers, he was jailed in the Lukiškės Prison

Lukiškes Prison

Lukiškės Prison is a prison in the center of Vilnius, Lithuania, near the Lukiškės Square. As of 2007, it houses approximately 1,000 prisoners and employs around 250 prison guards...

 for six months and later to Germany for forced labor. In Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 he managed to escape from prison, and he went into hiding until he was given permission to return to Lithuania.

Political career

From 1917 to 1920, Vileišis participated in the work of the Council of Lithuania

Council of Lithuania

The Council of Lithuania , after July 11, 1918 The State Council of Lithuania , was convened at the Vilnius Conference that took place between September 18 and 23, 1917. The council was granted the executive authority of the Lithuanian people and was entrusted to establish an independent...

. He was the only member to oppose the Declaration of Independence of December 11, 1917, in which Lithuania promised to be Germany's satellite. Vileišis was one of the four members of the Council to resign on January 26, 1918, on the grounds that the Council of Lithuania had no right to usurp the rights of the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania

Constituent Assembly of Lithuania

The Constituent Assembly of Lithuania was democratically elected in 1920 to draft and adopt the 1922 constitution of Lithuania.- Historical background :...

, and that its authority only applied to the determination of Lithuania's future and model of the state. All twenty members of the Council voted on February 16 to the new edition brought by four members (Jonas Vileišis, Mykolas Biržiška

Mykolas Biržiška

Mykolas Biržiška , a Lithuanian editor, historian, professor of literature, diplomat, and politician, was one of the twenty signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania....

, Steponas Kairys

Steponas Kairys

Steponas Kairys was a Lithuanian engineer, nationalist, and social democrat. He was among the 20 men to sign the Act of Independence of Lithuania on February 16, 1918.-Engineering career:...

 and Stanisław Narutowicz), that returned with new edition of Act of Independence of Lithuania

Act of Independence of Lithuania

The Act of Independence of Lithuania or Act of February 16 was signed by the Council of Lithuania on February 16, 1918, proclaiming the restoration of an independent State of Lithuania, governed by democratic principles, with Vilnius as its capital. The Act was signed by all twenty...

. A few days afterward, together with Justinas Staugaitis

Justinas Staugaitis

Justinas Staugaitis was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic bishop, politician, educator, and author. He one of the twenty signatories to the Act of Independence of Lithuania....

 and Jurgis Šaulys

Jurgis Šaulys

Jurgis Šaulys was a Lithuanian economist, diplomat, and politician, and one of the twenty signatories to the 1918 Act of Independence of Lithuania.Šaulys attended secondary school in Palanga and attended the Kaunas Theological Seminary...

, he left for Germany to seek recognition of Lithuanian independence.

From 1917 to 1922 he was a member of the Lithuanian Popular Socialist Democratic Party

Lithuanian Popular Socialist Democratic Party

Lithuanian Popular Socialist Democratic Party or LSLDP was a political party in interwar Lithuania. It was established in 1917 and in 1922 it was merged with another party...

; from 1922 to 1929 he was a member of the Lithuanian Peasant Popular Union. In 1929 he resigned the post of Chairman of the Central Committee and from the party.

He was invited to serve in the First Cabinet of Lithuania, although he refused. On December 18, 1918, he became Minister of Internal Affairs in the Second Cabinet of Lithuania. While working as a minister he organized municipalities, appointed physicians to every county of Lithuania, and published laws governing cooperative

Cooperative

A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...

s and army recruitment. Vileišis resigned, along with the entire cabinet, on March 12, 1919.

The Fourth Cabinet of Lithuania (June 12–October 2, 1919) appointed Vileišis Minister of Finance. He prepared a plan for Lithuanian currency

Currency

In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...

 reform, although it was not implemented.

In 1919 he was sent as an ambassador

Foreign relations of Lithuania

Lithuania became a member of the United Nations on September 18, 1991, and is a signatory to a number of its organizations and other international agreements. It is also a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, NATO and its adjunct North Atlantic Coordinating Council,...

 to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where he worked to obtain recognition of the state de jure

De jure

De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....

and establish financial and trade relations. He also solicited donations from the Lithuanian-American community, collecting over 1.8 million US dollars; and more importantly, he managed to unite the Lithuanian diaspora. In 1922 he was elected to the First Lithuanian parliament (Seimas), and was a presidential candidate in the June 19, 1922 elections.

Mayor of Kaunas

From September 30, 1921 until July 2, 1931, he served as mayor of Kaunas

Kaunas

Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...

, the temporary capital of Lithuania

Temporary capital of Lithuania

The temporary capital of Lithuania was the official designation of the city of Kaunas in Lithuania during the interwar period. It was in contrast to the declared capital in Vilnius , which was under Polish control from 1920 until 1939...

. Under his direction Kaunas grew rapidly and became a truly modern city. A water and wastewater system, costing over 15 million Lithuanian litas

Lithuanian litas

The Lithuanian litas is the currency of Lithuania. It is divided into 100 centų...

, was put in place; the city expanded from 18 square kilometers to 40; more than 2,500 buildings were built, including three modern bridges over the Neris

Neris

Neris is a river rising in Belarus, flowing through Vilnius and becoming a tributary of the Neman River at Kaunas...

 and Nemunas

Neman River

Neman or Niemen or Nemunas, is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches...

 rivers. All the city streets were paved, horse-drawn transportation was replaced with modern bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

 lines, new suburbs were planned and built, and new parks and squares were established. The foundations for a social security

Social security

Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...

 system were laid, three new schools were built, and new public libraries, including the Vincas Kudirka library, were established. Vileišis maintained many contacts in other European cities, and as a result Kaunas was an active participant in European urban life.

Vileišis was also a professor at Vytautas Magnus University

Vytautas Magnus University

Vytautas Magnus University ) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university...

. On February 1, 1933, he was appointed to the State Council of Lithuania, and worked on the Civil Codecs of Lithuania.

He died in 1942 at Red Cross Hospital

Kaunas Red Cross Hospital

Red Cross Hospital in Kaunas is the oldest still functioning hospital in the city and in Lithuania.-History:Hospital was founded November 29, 1908 and recently has celebrated its 100 years of activity....

 in Kaunas, and is buried in Vilnius' Rasos

Rasos Cemetery

Rasos Cemetery is the oldest and most famous cemetery in the city of Vilnius, Lithuania. It is named after the Rasos district where it is located. It is separated into two parts, the old and the new cemeteries, by a narrow Sukilėliai Street. The total area is 10.8 ha...

 cemetery in the Vileišiai family chapel.

Awards

• Order of Vytautas the Great
  Order of Vytautas the Great
  The Order of Vytautas the Great is the Lithuanian Presidential Award. It may be conferred on the heads of Lithuania and foreign states, as well as their citizens, for distinguished services to the State of Lithuania.-History:...
  
   2nd grade, September 8, 1934.
• Honorary member of Lithuanian Lawyers society.