Stasys Šilingas

He was a Baron through his maternal grandfather, Count Stanislav Šilingas of Paberžė, who was exiled to Siberia and whose property and estate were confiscated by the authorities of the Russian Empire for his monetary support of the failed Uprising of 1863.

He published newspapers and journals for students and educators, including Aušrinė, eventually adding a supplement of Lithuanian folklore which he collected, called Vasaros darbai.

In 1915 he single-handedly published Baras (First Forum) which included works by Kazys Binkis, Balys Sruoga, Ignas Šeinius, Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė, Vincas Krėvė and others.

While still a student, he began collecting funds to preserve Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis’ paintings and other Lithuanian works of art.

During this two-year period of service, Šilingas gathered and dispensed funds to aid Lithuanians displaced by war in Saint Petersburg, particularly to writers and artists.

On October 25, 1915, Šilingas, Balys Sruoga, and Ignas Šeinius met with Maxim Gorki to discuss publishing a book in Russian about Lithuania.

The same year he began to organize Lithuania's military scattered throughout the Russian Empire and to publish Liberty's Officer for army personnel.

He returned to Vilnius in 1918 at the end of World War I and was a member of the State Council of Lithuania, creating a National Militia as Minister of Defence.

[4] Among his accomplishments, he drafted the Constitution of Lithuania which was adopted in 1938 and organized the National Guard which successfully repelled an attempted Bolshevik invasion in 1918, during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence.

However the Polish-Lithuanian War (1 September - 7 October 1920) resulted in the fall of Vilnius and its surrounding territory to the forces of the Second Polish Republic.

Due to his previous high-profile activities, Šilingas was arrested in Vilnius by the new Polish-controlled regime in August, 1921, but released in November of the same year in deference to his title of Baron.

He supported the dissolution of Parliament in 1926 in order to bring stability to the nascent nation, and he became Minister of Justice, reigning in the Bar Association for which he was duly criticized.

He was first buried in Kelmė, but in 1999, his remains, and those of his wife and daughter, were reburied in the family plot at Ilguva near Misiūnai according to his wishes expressed while in exile.

The Stasys Šilingas Society, founded in 1999, documents his achievements and life and commemorates his contributions to Lithuania's existence at yearly events in Vilnius, Kaunas, Šakiai, and other locations.