Antanas Smetona | |
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1st President of Lithuania | |
In office 19 December 1926 – 15 June 1940 | |
Prime Minister | Augustinas Voldemaras Juozas Tūbelis Vladas Mironas Jonas Černius Antanas Merkys |
Preceded by | Aleksandras Stulginskis (acting) |
Succeeded by | Antanas Merkys (acting, de facto) Vytautas Landsbergis (in 1990, as Chairman of the Supreme Council) |
In office 4 April 1919 – 19 June 1920 | |
Prime Minister | Pranas Dovydaitis Mykolas Sleževičius Ernestas Galvanauskas |
Succeeded by | Aleksandras Stulginskis |
1st Chairman of the Council of Lithuania | |
In office 23 September 1917 – 4 April 1919 | |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Stasys Šilingas |
Personal details | |
Born | Užulėnis, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire | 10 August 1874
Died | 9 January 1944 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. | (aged 69)
Resting place | All Souls Cemetery, Chardon, Ohio |
Political party | Lithuanian Democratic Party (1902–1907) Party of National Progress (before 1924) Lithuanian Nationalist Union (1924–1940) |
Spouse | Sofija Chodakauskaitė-Smetonienė (1885–1968) |
Children | Marija Danutė (1905–1992) Birutė (1906–1909) Julius Rimgaudas (1913–1974) |
Alma mater | University of Saint Petersburg |
Signature | |
Antanas Smetona (Lithuanian: [ɐnˈtǎːnɐs sʲmʲɛtoːˈnɐ] ; 10 August 1874 – 9 January 1944) was a Lithuanian intellectual, journalist and politician who served as the first president of Lithuania from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1926 as a de facto dictator until the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940. Referred to as the "Leader of the Nation" during his presidency,[1] Smetona is recognised as one of the most important Lithuanian political figures between World War I and World War II, and a prominent ideologist of Lithuanian nationalism and the movement for national revival.[2]