Dmitrijus Kopelmanas. Photo credit: personal archive of Henry Kopelman-Gidoni.

Dmitrijus Kopelmanas (1928–2018) was born in Kaunas into the family of businessman Moisiejus Kopelmanas and actress Jevgenija Gidoni. In 1940, he finished his early education at Marija Pečkauskaitė Elementary School. During the Nazi occupation, Kopelmanas was imprisoned in the Kovno Ghetto. In 1948, he graduated from a gymnasium in Vilnius but was not admitted to Vilnius University for two years in a row for being the son of an “enemy of the people”. From 1951 to 1955, Kopelmanas studied at Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute. In 1958, he applied for a job as an English language lecturer at the Faculty of History and Philology of Vilnius University and was successfully hired. Until 1974, Kopelmanas worked as an English language lecturer at Vilnius University (mainly at the faculties of Law and Medicine). Throughout this period, he was consistently restricted in both his research and pedagogical activities and was prevented from defending his doctoral dissertation in psychology, which was already fully finished in 1969. During the same period, he worked as a translator at the Lithuanian Film Studio. As Tomas Venclova recalls, ‘Kopelmanas’ research activities were restricted because of his non-Marxist views (he was not allowed to defend his candidate's dissertation in psychology), yet he was quite highly respected in the circles of the artistic and academic bohemia of Vilnius’. From 1989 to 1998, he was an active participant in the Lithuanian Movement “Sąjūdis” and the country’s political life.