Bistras also headed the ministries of education, defense and foreign affairs in several different governments throughout the 1920s and 1930s and twice served as the speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas.

After the 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état and the subsequent fall of parliamentary democracy, Bistras led the Christian Democrats and, despite persecution, acted as an outspoken leader of the opposition to the authoritarian President Antanas Smetona.

He then returned to studying medicine in Dorpat (now Tartu), but was unable to finish due to the complex international environment leading up to World War I.

When the war started, Bistras was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army and served in Russia until the Bolshevik Revolution, initially as a private and later as a medic.

During the conference, Bistras emerged as one of the leaders of the movement and proposed a solution once an impasse was reached – both radical and moderate Christian Democrats would be represented in the joint leadership of the party and both programs would remain in place until they could be aligned.

[2] He played a role in the election of Stulginskis as President of Lithuania, dismissing complaints from the opposition politicians that the Seimas did not have the necessary quorum when it voted on his candidacy.

[5] The first Seimas, however, had a short and troubled life – no clear majority emerged in the elections (Christian Democrats and their allies won 38 of the 78 seats allocated), making it difficult to govern.

Successive Lithuanian governments bitterly contested Polish possession of the Vilnius region and refused to open diplomatic relations.

Feeling isolated in the international arena, Bistras started negotiations with the Soviet Union on the Soviet–Lithuanian Non-Aggression Pact that the government of Mykolas Sleževičius evrntually signed in 1926.

Seeing the growing power of the Soviet Union and Germany in the mid-1930s, he advocated for stronger ties with Latvia, Estonia and, above else, Poland, even if it meant accepting Polish possession of Vilnius.

While this did not confer diplomatic recognition of the Polish possession of Vilnius, public opinion in Lithuania turned against the Vatican and the Christian Democrats, who were perceived as their allies.

For the first time in six years, the party was in the opposition to a left-leaning coalition that attempted to normalize life in Lithuania by lifting martial law and introducing far-reaching reforms.

In December 1926, military officers executed a coup d'état, that removed Mykolas Sleževičius as prime minister and Kazys Grinius as president.

[7] Christian Democrats voted to elect Antanas Smetona president, thus giving him constitutional legitimacy, and initially joined the government, with Bistras appointed minister of education.

In 1928, publication of the newspaper was suspended as a result of "infractions" and Bistras began publishing Sutemos' (The Dusk) instead, expressing the editor's view of the situation in the country.

His sentence was cut short and Bistras even returned to the government after Lithuania lost the Klaipėda Region to the German ultimatum of March 1939.

Even as a member of the government, Bistras maintained an explicitly cold relationship with Smetona, refusing to present the president with the work plan for his ministry.