Liudas Gira

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Liudas Gira around 1915

Liudas Gira (27 August 1884 in

Lithuanian folk songs. Gira was active in cultural and political life, gradually shifting towards communism in 1930s. He supported the Soviet Union and helped to transform independent Lithuania into the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. His son, Vytautas Sirijos Gira
, is also a known poet and writer.

Biography

In 1905, Gira graduated from the

attempted Polish coup d'état against the Lithuanian government in 1919. Later he worked as theater director (1922–1926) and as secretary of commission responsible for book publishing under the Ministry of Education (1926–1936).[3]

In 1930s his political views shifted to communism and he supported the

16th Rifle Division.[4] After the war he returned to Lithuania, became a full member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and was recognized as the People's Poet of the Lithuanian SSR.[1]

Works

Poetry is most important of Gira's works. The early works borrowed from traditional

soviet socialist republic, praised the Soviet Union, and described heroic Soviet struggle against Nazi Germany. They were published in Žalgirio Lietuva (1942), Smurtas ir ryžtas (1942), Tolimuos keliuos (1945).[3] Gira also wrote several plays, including Kerštas (1910), Svečiai (1910), Paparčio žiedas (1928). These works borrowed plots from heroic episodes of the Lithuanian history and were influenced by Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius, Vydūnas, and Stanisław Przybyszewski.[2] Posthumously his works were published in five volumes in 1960–1963.[1]

Monument to Liudas Gira in Vilnius

Gira began writing for periodicals in 1901. He wrote for and edited newspapers Vilniaus žinios (1905–06), Šviesa (1906), and Lietuvos ūkininkas (1907), literary almanac Švyturys (1911–12), first Lithuanian literary journal Vaivorykštė (1913–14), Literatūros naujienos (1938–39).[3] He also translated poems by Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Konstantin Balmont, Władysław Syrokomla, Heinrich Heine, Taras Shevchenko into the Lithuanian language. He also experimented in writing poetry in Polish, Russian, Belarusian languages.[2] Gira compiled and published works by Lithuanian writers Antanas Strazdas, Lazdynų Pelėda, Ksaveras Sakalauskas-Vanagėlis, Pranas Vaičaitis, and Edmundas Steponaitis.[2] He also compiled several anthologies of Lithuanian poetry, including Lietuva pavasarį, vasarą, rudenį ir žiemą (1911), Cit, paklausykit (1914), Aš deklamuoju! (1929), Mūsų tėvynė (1930).[3]

References

  1. ^
    LCCN 74-114275
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 9986-513-95-2. Archived from the original
    on 2007-09-27.
  3. ^
    LCCN 86232954
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-253-33359-9
    .
  5. ISBN 0-313-32355-0
    .

External links

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