The VU Community Commemorates the Rector of VU Professor Mykolas Biržiška

On August 24, the Vilnius University community commemorates the 140th anniversary of the birth and 60th anniversary of death of the signatory of the Act of Independence of Lithuania on February 16, the rector of Vilnius University professor Mykolas Biržiška (1882–1962). 

On behalf of Vilnius University, flowers and candles was placed on the grave of the former rector in Vilnius Rasos cemetery. The photos taken during this ceremony will be sent to Biržiška's grandchildren living in the USA.

M. Biržiška was born in 1882 in Viekšniai, Šiauliai County, and died in 1962 in Los Angeles, USA.

He was a literary historian, a signatory of the Act of Independence, and contributed much to strengthening Lithuania and consolidating democratic values.

In 1915 M. Biržiška was appointed director of the first Lithuanian high school. In 1917 together with like-minded people, he organized the Vilnius conference, where he was elected to the Council of Lithuania.

In the Cabinet of Ministers of Mykolas Sleževičius II, M. Biržiška was offered the position of Minister of Education. He undertook to restore Vilnius University. Together with the Science Society, organized Higher courses in Kaunas from 1919 to 1921.

In 1939-1944, M. Biržiška was a professor and rector of Vilnius University.

In June of 1944, he fled to Germany, and from 1949 lived and worked in the USA.