[2] Pietaris learned to read and write at home with a private village teacher (Daraktorius [lt] in Lithuanian).

In Ustyuzhna, Pietaris met the deported priest and philosopher Adomas Jakštas, who encouraged the doctor to write.

[6] Jakštas remembered Pietaris as "Plump, round-faced, healthy red, of medium height, he made a very pleasant impression on me.

As Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire, Jakštas and Pietaris theorized over a potential new home for Lithuanians, including Madagascar (many years before Kazys Pakštas's ideas) and Argentina.

[7] Pietaris briefly lived in Kaunas in 1896, where he raised his six children before leaving them in the city to return to Ustyuzhna.

In 1903 after his death, Jonas Basanavičius and Adomas Jakštas exchanged letters on the possibility of releasing his works in two volumes for the Lithuanian public.

[6] In the Lietuviai amžių glūdumose (1894), Pietaris presents an idealized picture of Lithuania's past in contrast to his bleak modern-day counterpart.

[5] In its preface, Pietaris explains that he sought to paint Lithuania's past as in his imagination as a counter to the negative treatment of Lithuanian history presented in the chronicles of other nations.

[6] The multi-layered, unbalanced[11] novel portrays a unified formation of the Lithuanian state against the deceptive duke of Volhynia Roman as well as his ally in Lithuania Aršusis.

[13] Although criticized for its predictable characters and bland portrayal of good and evil, the novel is noted for its greater cultural than aesthetic significance.