Jonas Šliūpas (6 March 1861 – 6 November 1944) was a prominent and prolific Lithuanian activist during the Lithuanian National Revival. For 35 years, he lived in the United States working to build national consciousness of Lithuanian Americans. He edited numerous periodicals, organized various societies, and published some 70 books and brochures on various topics. His sharp criticism of the Catholic Church made him highly controversial and unpopular among the conservative Lithuanians.
Šliūpas was educated at home and by his relatives before he enrolled in the Mitau Gymnasium in present-day Latvia. There he read works by John William Draper that Šliūpas credited for laying the foundations for his lifelong dedication to freethought, promotion Jonas Šliūpas (6 March 1861 – 6 November 1944) was a prominent and prolific Lithuanian activist during the Lithuanian National Revival. For 35 years, he lived in the United States working to build national consciousness of Lithuanian Americans. He edited numerous periodicals, organized various societies, and published some 70 books and brochures on various topics. His sharp criticism of the Catholic Church made him highly controversial and unpopular among the conservative Lithuanians.
Šliūpas was educated at home and by his relatives before he enrolled in the Mitau Gymnasium in present-day Latvia. There he read works by John William Draper that Šliūpas credited for laying the foundations for his lifelong dedication to freethought, promotion of science, and criticism of the Catholic Church. His studies at the Moscow University and Saint Petersburg Imperial University were cut short when was imprisoned for participating in a student riot in 1882. He was released due to an illness and, fearing conscription, he fled to Switzerland and later East Prussia. He accepted an offer to edit Aušra, the first Lithuanian newspaper. Šliūpas edited eight issues in 1883–1884 and introduced some socialist ideas. German police detected some elements of Pan-Slavism in his writings and forced him to leave. Šliūpas arrived to New York City in June 1884 and, despite severe financial hardships, he began publishing Lithuanian newspapers Unija and Lietuviškasis balsas and helped establishing the first Lithuanian parish that was separate from Polish. Soon, Pennsylvania Lithuanians began publishing Vienybė lietuvninkų in response to Šliūpas' anti-Catholic and anti-Polish rhetoric. In 1888, Šliūpas moved from New York to Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, where many Lithuanian immigrants worked in local coal mines. The new parish priest Aleksandras Burba [lt] became a collaborator with Šliūpas and brokered a short-lived peace between Šliūpas and the Catholic camp. Burba helped Šliūpas to establish the Lithuanian Scientific Society and provided financial help for his studies. To secure means of making a decent living, Šliūpas studied medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and started a successful private medical practice in 1891. The collaboration with Burba broke down in 1892.
Šliūpas anti-religious and pro-socialist views grew stronger and louder. He published socialist weekly magazine Nauja gadynė (1894–1896), freethrought monthly magazine Laisvoji mintis (1910–1914), various mainly translated texts promoting freethought and publicizing the conflict thesis between Christianity and science, and texts on the history of Lithuania (on the origins of Lithuanians in 1899 and three-volume history of Lithuania in 1904–1909). He organized Lithuanian miners in response to the Lattimer massacre in September 1897 and during the Coal strike of 1902 and unsuccessfully ran in the elections to the United States House of Representatives in 1896 and 1900. Šliūpas organized local socialist groups and joined the Lithuanian Socialist Party of America [lt] organized in May 1905. He quickly withdrew form the party and more active socialist work, though continued to sympathize with socialist ideas. He was a popular public speaker and by 1907 had given over 1,000 lectures on political, social, religious and scientific subjects.[1] At the outbreak of World War I, Šliūpas organized the Lithuanian National League of America as the third or middle road between the radical socialists and the conservative Catholics. He organized fundraising drives to help Lithuanian war refugees, visited Russia in 1916–1918, and publicized the Lithuanian demands for independence in English-language essays and memorandums (one of them was added to the Congressional Record). In 1919, Šliūpas briefly represented Lithuania in London, at the Paris Peace Conference, and in Latvia. ...more
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