Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius

Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius studied at Merkinė gymnasium, Vilnius St. Joseph Seminary and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The recorded working language is Lithuanian. Employment is recorded with Baku State University, Skaitymai and Vytautas Magnus University. Positions recorded include deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.

• Name — Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius • Office1 — Prime Minister of Lithuania • Term Start1 — 24 June 1940 • Term End1 — 1 July 1940 • Office2 — Chairman of Lithuanian Nationalist Union • Term Start2 — 19 August 1924 • Term End2 — 29 June 1925 • Born — 19 October 1882 • Birthplace — Subartonys, Russian Empire (now Subartonys, Alytus Country, Lithuania) • Died — 7 June 1954 • Place of death — Broomall, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Party — Lithuanian Nationalist Union (1924–1926) • Spouse — Rebeka Karak (m. 1913) • Children — Ona Aldona Mickevičiūtė - Mošinskienė (1914–2005) • Alma Mater — Lviv University

Vincas Mickevičius was born to a family of peasant farmers on October 19, 1882, in the village of Subartonys in the Dzūkija ethnographic region of Lithuania. His family was called Krėvė by the local villagers, the name that he later used for his pen name. The customs and traditions of his native district were a constant source of the inspiration for his literary work. • Illustration — Vincas Krėvė and Liudas Gira, early 20th century In 1898, he became a student for the Roman Catholic priesthood at the Vilnius Seminary, but in 1900 he was expelled from the seminary. In 1904, he enrolled the University of Kyiv. However, a year later, the university was temporarily closed due to the revolutionary conditions in the Russian Empire, and Krėvė-Mickevičius, unwilling to interrupt his studies, entered the University of Lviv, in Galicia, which was at the time part of the Austrian Empire, and in 1908, he received his doctorate in philology. That same year, the University of Kyiv awarded him a gold medal for his thesis on the original home of the Indo-Europeans. In 1913, the University of Kyiv awarded him the degree of Master of Comparative Linguistics for his dissertation on the origin of the names Buddha and Pratjekabuddha. In 1909, Krėvė-Mickevičius became a high school teacher in the city of Baku, Azerbaijan. Three years later he assisted in founding the People's University of Baku, and delivered lectures there. Lithuania achieved independence in 1918, and a year later, Krėvė-Mickevičius became Lithuanian Consul in Azerbaijan. In 1920, he returned to Lithuania, and settled in Kaunas, which at the time was the temporary capital. • Illustration — Krėvė-Mickevičius in 1921 When the University of Lithuania was founded in 1922, Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius became professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, and remained there as part of the faculty for the following two decades. His first attempts on writing came at the age fifteen, at first using Russian and Polish languages; however, after 1902, he wrote in Lithuanian. The first volume of his collected works was published in 1921, at which time he was already a well-known and respected figure, serving as editor of several academic and literary periodicals. On 24 June 1940, he was appointed as Prime Minister of Lithuania by acting President Justas Paleckis. He headed the "People's Government of Lithuania", which was formed essentially as a rubber stamp for the Soviet takeover of Lithuania. On July 1, 1940, he, together with some other communists, visited Vyacheslav Molotov (Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR) and asked for full annexation of Lithuania into the USSR (this visit was later used as the pretext for that de jure annexation, although occupation and the de facto annexation happened before that). On returning, he offered his resignation, which was not accepted at the time. After the start of the Nazi occupation of Lithuania in 1941, and the closing of higher educational institutions in 1943, Krėvė-Mickevičius went into hiding. Soviet forces reoccupied Lithuania in 1944, at which point he fled the country and settled in a displaced persons camp at Glasenbach, near Salzburg, Austria. There, he taught at the local camp's high school. In 1947, the University of Pennsylvania extended an invitation to join its faculty. There, he served as an assistant professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures until 1953, when he retired. On July 17, 1954, Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius died in Broomall, Pennsylvania, United States. He was considered as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

• Šarūnas, Dainavos kunigaikštis (Šarūnas, Duke of Dainava), 1911 • Dainavos šalies senų žmonių padavimai (Old people's myths from the land of Dainava), 1912 • Žentas (Son-in-law), 1922 • 'Šiaudinėj pastogėj (Under the thatched roof), 1922 • Skirgaila (Skirgaila), 1922 • Dainavos krašto liaudies dainos (Folk Songs of Dainava Region), 1924 • Likimo keliais (Along the Paths of Destiny), 1926-1929 • Rytų pasakos (Tales of the Orient), 1930 • Sparnuočiai liaudies padavimuose (Winged creatures in the folklore myths), 1933 • Karaliaus Mindaugo mirtis (The death of King Mindaugas), 1935 • Patarlės ir priežodžiai, 1934–37 • Raganius (He-witch), 1939 • Miglose (In the mists), 1940 • Dangaus ir žemės sūnūs (Sons of Heaven and Earth), 1949

He was employed by Baku State University, Skaitymai, Vytautas Magnus University, Vilnius University and University of Pennsylvania. Recorded position is deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. He belonged to Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius is recorded as politician, playwright, poet, language teacher and writer.

The literary production of Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius was wide and varied. It included historical dramas, collections of folklore, short stories and sketches of village life, novels on contemporary problems, and tales based on oriental themes. At his death he was engaged on a major work entitled Sons of Heaven and Earth, which defies classification. It is written partly as drama and partly as a narrative; its subjects are biblical with the action taking place in Palestine at the beginning of the Christian era. His work filled with a romantic impulse, drawing attention to rural life and oriental themes, is balanced with realistic narration and description. His writing is characterized by an unusually large vocabulary with a remarkable purity. Some scholars believe that the Lithuanian language acquired a range of expression through his works only rivaled by that of Ancient Greece.