Vaclovas Biržiška

Who was Vaclovas Biržiška?

Vaclovas Biržiška was a Lithuanian attorney, bibliographer, and educator.

He was a member of a notable Lithuanian family; his great-grandfather Mykolas Biržiška was a representative in the Sejm when the Constitution of 3 May was accepted in 1791; his grandfather Leonardas Biržiška was an active participant in the November Uprising; and his brothers, Mykolas Biržiška and Viktoras Biržiška, were also leaders of the Lithuanian community. His father, the physician Antanas Biržiška, declined a professorship at the University of Moscow to practice medicine in the rural areas of Lithuania.

Biržiška was born in a Viekšniai village in Samogitia. He studied science and mathematics at the University of St. Petersburg, transferred into the school of law, graduating in 1909, and then practiced law in Vilnius until the outbreak of World War I.

After serving as an officer in the Russian army, he worked in Moscow for the office of Lithuanian affairs, as Commissar for Education in Lithuania, and as a teacher in Lithuania. During the conflicts between Lithuania, Poland, and Russia that took place between 1918 and 1920, he served as legal counsel to both Lithuanian and Polish defendants. After Vilnius was annexed by Poland, he moved to the temporary Lithuanian capital of Kaunas.