Smalakys was born into a wealthy landowning family in Prussia (Lithuania Minor), and in the 1850s used his inheritance to fund his travels across Europe, through the Balkans, and into Asia and Egypt.

In the first round, he received only 23% of the vote, but an alliance with the liberals allowed him to gather 55% in the run-off and defeat his conservative opponent Generaloberst Graf Alfred von Waldersee.

[5][6][7] Two other Prussian Lithuanians, Dovas Zaunius and Mikelis Juška, as well as pro-Lithuanian linguist Georg Sauerwein unsuccessfully ran in the election.

In a March 1899 speech to the Reichstag, he offered "every coin and the last drop of blood" for the benefit of the German Imperial Army.

[12] After his death in May 1901, a by-election was held in July and another Prussian Lithuanian Friedrich Martin Mattschull [de], a member of the German Conservative Party, was elected in his place.