Vaclovas Birziska Lithuanian lawyer, bibliographer, cultural historian, public and political figure Date of Birth: 02.12.1884 Country: Lithuania

1. Early Life and Education
2. Political and Literary Activism
3. Professional Career
4. World War I and the Interwar Period
5. Academic and Cultural Endeavors
6. Later Life and Legacy

Early Life and Education

Lithuanian lawyer, bibliographer, cultural historian, and public and political figure, Mykolas Biržiška was born into a family of intellectuals. His elder brother, Viktoras Biržiška, was a prominent historian and educator, and his younger brother, Mykolas Biržiška, became a renowned linguist. Mykolas attended high school in Šiauliai from 1875 and enrolled at St. Petersburg University in 1903. He initially pursued a degree in natural sciences and mathematics but later transferred to the law faculty in 1904.

Political and Literary Activism

Biržiška played an active role in the secret Lithuanian student society, serving as its chairman from 1907 to 1908. During the university closure due to unrest in autumn 1905, he worked in a printing house in Vilnius. In 1906, he became its manager and subsequently published newspapers such as "Naujoji Gadynė," "Skardas," and "Žarija." Biržiška also participated in the Lithuanian choir and took part in the first public Lithuanian play in Vilnius, "Prince Pilėnai."

Professional Career

Upon his return to St. Petersburg, Biržiška continued his activism in the Lithuanian Social Democratic organization. After graduating from university in 1909, he worked as an assistant lawyer in Vilnius from 1910 to 1911. He served as a librarian for the Lithuanian society "Rūta" and in the library of the Lithuanian Scientific Society. During his military service from 1911 to 1912, he attained the rank of warrant officer. Returning to civil life, he practiced law in Šiauliai from 1912 to 1914.

World War I and the Interwar Period

Mobilized into the army in 1914, Biržiška rose to the rank of army committee member. After the Bolshevik Revolution, he was arrested in Romania but escaped to Moscow. In 1918, he was arrested as a former officer but avoided execution by agreeing to become the Commissioner for Education in Vincas Kapsukas' government in Vilnius from January to March 1919. After Polish forces occupied the city in April 1919, Biržiška was imprisoned for a month. He worked as a teacher in various Lithuanian schools and universities, and in 1920, he became the head of the university library.

Academic and Cultural Endeavors

From 1922 to 1944, Biržiška served as the Director of the University Library in Kaunas. He also lectured as an associate professor at the law faculty of the University of Lithuania (later Vytautas Magnus University) and became a full professor in 1930. Biržiška founded and led the Vincas Kudirka People's University from 1922 to 1926. He chaired the Lithuanian Society of Librarians from 1931 to 1944.

Later Life and Legacy

After the Soviet annexation of Lithuania in 1940, Biržiška became the Director of the University Library in Vilnius and the Dean of the law faculty. In 1941, he was dismissed by the Soviet authorities from Vilnius University. He continued teaching in Kaunas at the Faculty of Philosophy.

With the approach of Soviet troops in 1944, Biržiška emigrated to Germany, where he taught at the Baltic University in Hamburg and Pinneberg from 1946 to 1949. In 1949, he moved to the United States, working as an honorary consultant at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., from 1951 to 1953.

Mykolas Biržiška passed away in 1956, leaving behind a vast and influential legacy as a scholar, educator, and cultural ambassador for Lithuania.