JUOZAS
MILIAUSKAS, (pseudonym Miglovara; 1845-1937), poet, collaborator on
clandestine Lithuanian publications, born in Galne, county of Taurage, on
March 24, 1845. While a student at Siauliai High School, he participated in
the insurrection of 1863; he later tutored children of the gentry. From
1872-1885 he was employed by the Riga, Latvia, police. Settling in Siauliai
in 1886, he worked as a secretary to the notary public and for some time
practiced homeopathy until he retired in 1927. He died in Siauliai on
January 20, 1937. Miliauskas is mostly known as disseminator of Ausra), a
monthly of the Lithuanian national movement published in Lithuania Minor
(then under German rule). The publication was forbidden in Russian ruled
Lithuania Major. Miliauskas, as a police employee, had more opportunities,
not without risk, to obtain and publicize the paper. He published his poetry
in Ausra (The Dawn), Tevyves Sargas (Guardian of the
Fatherland), Zemaiciu ir Lietuvos Apzvalga (Samogitian and Lithuanian
Review), and other clandestine publications. He also published Ivairios
eiles (Various Verses), 1884; Giedmenys (Singings), 1914; Vidukles
krastas (The Land of Vidukle), 1928. In his poetry he followed Strazdas,
Baranauskas and the Polish writer Kondratowicz in expressing patriotic
feelings, love of nature and religious attitudes. Though not equal to his
predecessors, he excelled many other writers who published poetry in Ausra.
His reminiscences of the 1863 insurrection have some historical merit; they
were published in Karo Archyvas (Military Archive) in 1925.
Literature:
ENCYCLOPEDIA LITUANICA I-VI, 1970-1978, Boston
