Stanisław Narutowicz

Act of Lithuanian independence, Narutowicz's signature visible in the right column, third from the bottom

Stanislovas Narutavičius pronunciation^ⓘ; 1862-1932) was a Lithuanian lawyer and politician, one of the twenty signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania and brother to the first president of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz. He was also the only Lithuanian-Polish member of the Taryba, the provisional Lithuanian parliament formed in the late stages of World War I.

Narutowicz was born September 2, 1862, in Brevikai near Telšiai (modern Telšiai County, Lithuania, then in the Russian Empire), to an old Lithuanian noble family, with roots as far back as the time period of Vytautas the Great and tracing back to a semi-mythical Narutis, a Samogitian noble and founder of the family. A self-declared Pole, he was nevertheless for most of his life loyal to the traditions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His parents, Jan Narutowicz and Wiktoria née Szczepkowska were landowners and ran a manor.

Early in his life Narutowicz married Joanna née Billewicz, owner of the Brewiki manor and a cousin to Józef Piłsudski. After 1907 the couple created and maintained a gymnasium for girls in Telšiai. It was the first school for girls in Russian-held Lithuania where teaching in Polish and Lithuanian was allowed. The couple were also engaged in several education societies spreading knowledge among the Lithuanian peasants of the area. As a politician, Narutowicz was a mild socialist and a supporter of independence of Lithuania. At the same time he also supported close ties between the nations formerly constituting the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and took part in various Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian enterprises.

In September of 1917 Narutowicz joined the Council of Lithuania (Lietuvos Taryba), a Lithuanian governing body established by the Germans as part of their Mitteleuropa plan, yet largely independent and striving for establishment of Lithuania as an independent state. As a member of that body, Narutowicz became one of twenty signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania. However, following the conflicts within the Taryba he took a more anti-German stance than most of his colleagues. After the body asked the government of Germany for protection and help and vowed for stable and strong alliance with the German Reich, Narutowicz protested. When, on January 26, 1918, 12 of the Taryba's members voted for compromise with Germany, Narutowicz and three of his social-democratic colleagues (Steponas Kairys, Jonas Vileišis and Mykolas Biržiška) resigned their posts.

In the following years Stanisław Narutowicz continued to actively support the increasingly difficult rapprochement between Poland and Lithuania, but to little avail. The futility of his actions, renounced on both sides of the border, as well as the increasingly hostile stance of the Lithuanian government towards the Polish minority in Lithuania and Narutowicz's alienation led to his suicidal death on December 31, 1932, in Kaunas.

After Narutowicz's death his son Kazimierz Narutowicz (1904-1987) tried to mediate between the ministries of diplomacy of Poland and Lithuania for settlement of the conflict for the city of Vilna. Arrested by the Soviets during the World War II and forcibly resettled to Siberia, in 1947 he was released and settled in Poland.

Reference

• Template:Pl icon Krzysztof Buchowski (2001). "Stanisław Narutowicz - szkic do portretu idealisty (Stanisław Narutowicz: a sketch for a portrait of an idealist)". Biuletyn Historii Pogranicza (2). Białystok: Polskie Towarzystwo Historyczne: 41–51. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)

External link

• Template:Lt icon Bio in Lithuanian