- JONAS SLIUPAS, (1861-1944), physician,
publicist, and nationalist liberal activist, born in Rakandzai, county
of Siauliai, on February 23, 1861. He studied history, philology, and
law at the University of Moscow (1880-1881). Transferring to St.
Petersburg to study natural sciences (1882), he was incarcerated for 3
months for his part in an anti-government student demonstration, and
lost his right to continue his studies at any Russian university. In
1883 he left for Switzerland and enrolled at the University of Geneva,
but, failing to receive the expected financial support from patrons in
Lithuania, he accepted an offer to edit Ausra (The Dawn), the
monthly of the Lithuanian national movement published at Tilze, East
Prussia (Lithuania Minor). However, the Prussian police began to
harass him as an alleged Slavophile and eventually ordered him to
leave the region. After secretly visiting Lithuania, he left for the
United States in 1884. There he acquired a doctor of medicine degree
from the University of Maryland Medical School (1891) and began
practicing among Lithuanian immigrants in Pennsylvania (Wilkes-Barre,
Plymouth, Shenandoah, Scranton, Phila-delphia).
- Sliupas was one of the most noted and
energetic Lithuanian-American activists of his time. During the 35
years he spent in the United States, he founded and edited one
publication after another: Unija (Union, 1884-1885), Lietuviskasis
Balsas (The Lithuanian Voice, 1885-1889), Apsvieta
(Enlighten-ment, 1892-1893), Nauja Gadyne (The New Era,
1894-1896), and Laisvoji Mintis (The Free Thought, 1910-1915).
The names of these publications reflected the concepts they
propagated. With his first newspaper, Uniija, published by
Mykolas Tvarauskas, Sliupas attempted to join together Lithuanians and
Poles descended from Lithuania. The attempt proved a failure. As a
result, in his next paper, Lietuviskasis Balsas, Sliupas urged
Lithuanians to discontinue forming parishes and so- cieties jointly
with the Poles and spoke out in favor of a distinctly Lithuanian
orientation, attracting many contributors from Lithuania itself. At
the same time, in this and later publications, he promoted a
materialist and atheist liberalism, frequently attacking the clergy
and faithful, in the harshest of terms, as exponents of a regressive
and unenlightened mentality. Thus, on the one hand, Sliupas, a
prolific writer and fiery speaker, exercised a tremendous influence on
the raising of the patriotic consciousness of his fellow countrymen,
while, on the other, his aggressive, immoderate style fiercely fanned
the flames of political and ideological dissension. This divlsiveness
also spilled over Into the organizations that Sliupas founded, alone
or in collaboration with others: Friends of Lithuania
(1885-1888), Alliance of All the Lithuanians in America
(1886-1888), Lithuanian Learned Society (1889-1896), Lithuanian
Freethinkers' Alliance (1900-1910), and Lithuanian Socialist
Alliance (est. 1905). For example, he soon withdrew from the
last-mentioned organization when he decided that it was becoming more
interested in promoting global revolution than political freedom for
Lithuania. His idea to form a liberal nationalist party took shape at
the Lithuanian American congress of 1914 in New York, after the
Socialist-led majority rejected his proposal to demand autonomy for
Lithuania.
- During World War I Sliupas was prominent
in the action to reestablish independent Lithuania. He chaired the
Lithuanian Autonomy Fund, which provided financial help for the
reconstruction of Lithuania, and was a member of the American
Lithuanian Council. In 1917 he took part in Lithuanian conferences in
Russia and Sweden. Two years later he helped organize the Lithuanian
mission in London and served on the Lithuanian delegation at the Paris
Peace Conference. Returning to Lithuania in the summer of 1919, he was
appointed his country's first minister to the states of Latvia and
Estonia. Resigning from these duties in 1920, he briefly returned to
the United States to solicit funds for industrial development projects
in Lithuania.
- From 1921 onwards Sliupas resided
continuously in Lithuania, teaching at Birzai and Siauliai high
schools (1921-1923), directing the Etines Kulturos Draugija
(Society of Ethical Culture) which he had established in 1923-1924,
and reviving his former periodical, Laisvoji Mintis
(1933-1941). This society and magazine were forums for such causes as
the separation of church and state, civil registry, non-denominational
cemeteries, and the elimination of religion from the schools. From
1925 - 1930 he taught history of medicine at the University of Kaunas.
He was awarded honorary doctoral degrees by the university's medical,
humanities, and law faculties. In 1933 he was elected mayor of
Palanga, a seaside resort, serving until 1940 and briefly during the
Nazi occupation before being removed for protesting the destruction of
Jewish and Lithuanian lives. He withdrew from Lithuania in
anticipation of the second Soviet invasion (1944); he died in Berlin
on Nov. 6,1944. His ashes have since been transferred to Chicago.
- Throughout his long life Sliupas
contributed articles to Lithuanian publications, both his own and
others', as well as to Polish, German, and American periodicals. Only
a small portion of them were connected with his profession of
physician; the majority revolved around national, social, and
ideological questions, often treated with a dose of vitriol. In
addition, he published a multitude of pamphlets and books falling
roughly into two groups. The first comprises writings on Lithuanian
history and culture, including Lietuviskieji rastai ir rastinynkai
(Lithuanian Literature and Its Authors, 1890), the first attempt at a
historical survey of Lithuanian letters; Lietuviu tauta senoveje ir
siandien (The Lithuanian Nation in the Past and Present, 2 vols.,
1904-1905);
- Gadyne Slektos viespatavimo Lietuvoje (The
Age of Nobility in Lithuania, 1909); Mazoji arba Prusiskoji Lietuva
19-tam simtmetyje (Lithuania Minor or Prussian Lithuania in the 19th
Century, 1910); Essays on the Past, Present and Future of Lithuania
(1918); Lietuviu, latviu bei prusu arba baltu ir ju proseniu
mitologija (The Mythology of the Lithuanians, Latvians and
Prussians, or of the Baits and their Ancestors, 1932). The second, even
larger, group of books and pamphlets consists of popularizations of
materialist and atheist ideas current in the latter half of the 19th
century. Partly compilations or borrowings from Western authors, partly
original, they feature titles such as Dievas, dangus ir pragaras
(God, Heaven, and Hell, 1893); Tikyba ar mokslas (Religion or
Science, 1895); Gyvenimas Jesaus Kristaus (The Life of Jesus
Christ, 1896); Tikri ir netikri sventieji (Real and Unreal
Saints, 1907, 1930; the second edition was confiscated in Lithuania); Jesus
Kristus ir Sv. Romos inkvizicija (Jesus Christ and the Holy Roman
Inquisition, 1929); and Palyginamoji pasaulio religiju istorija
(Comparative History of World Religions, 1936). His most important
translation is that of Ludwig Buchner's Kraft wnd Staff (Force
and Matter), published in Lithuanian as Speka ir Medega (1902).
Of his works on medicine noteworthy are Higiena (Hygiene, 1928);
and Senoves ir viduramziu medicinos istorija (History of Ancient
and Medieval Medicine, 1934).
