page_title: Bronius Kazys Balutis
section_title: Interwar
hierarchical_section_title: Bronius Kazys Balutis / Biography / Diplomatic representative / Interwar
caption_attribution_description: English: Lithuanian Embassy
context_page_description: Bronius Kazys Balutis was a Lithuanian diplomat. He worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania in 1919–1928 and was involved in many of the major international negotiations of the period. He was the Lithuanian envoy to United States and to the United Kingdom.
  With the help of his uncle, Catholic priest Juozas Židanavičius, Balutis graduated from a teachers' seminary in Skępe and a school for land surveyors in Pskov. He was drafted the to the Russo-Japanese War but decided to escape to the United States where his uncle had founded a Lithuanian parish in Amsterdam, New York. In the United States, Balutis worked as a cartographer at Rand McNally for six years and as editor of the Lithuanian weekly Lietuva for seven years. He joined the cultural life of Lithuanian Americans and was a member of the Lithuanian Alliance of America and chairman of the Association of Lithuanian Patriots. He helped publish writings of Vincas Kudirka, editor of Lithuanian newspaper Varpas, and prepared a detailed Lithuanian-language map of Suvalkija that was printed in 1915. Balutis completed his master's in law at the Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1916.
context_section_description: Balutis was promoted to the director of the Political Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March 1920. A year later, the ministry was reorganized into separate departments dealing with Western (headed by Balutis), Eastern, and Central Europe. However, it was not an efficient structure and was abandoned within few months. Balutis resumed directorship of the Political Department. In 1923, due to budget cuts, Political and Economy Departments were merged into one. Balutis continued to head the combined department as during the tenure of Mykolas Sleževičius, who was Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs at the same time, was effectively in charge of the ministry. In his memoirs, Balutis claimed that he had heard rumors about the preparations for the coup d'état of December 1926, but did not take them seriously. On the day of the coup he was ordered to take over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Sleževičius was arrested. Despite sympathizing with the Lithuanian Nationalist Union, Balutis refused. The major concern was that Poland could use the internal crisis as an excuse to intervene in Lithuanian affairs. One of Balutis' priorities was to communicate the developments to Lithuanian diplomats abroad. In March 1927, the ministry added the position of the general secretary (i.e. vice minister) which was assumed by Balutis. Balutis continued to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until July 1928. He worked under ten different cabinets and eleven Ministers of Foreign Affairs. His status was approaching that of a permanent secretary. He was offered to become the Minister of Foreign Affairs at least on three occasions, but refused.
  In his memoir, Balutis claimed that he wanted to remain in Kaunas and continue working at the ministry, but Prime Minister Augustinas Voldemaras and President Antanas Smetona pushed him to chose a post in either London or Washington D.C. Reportedly, the move was also motivated by Balutis' frequent gambling. Balutis served as the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to United States from 1 July 1928 to 31 May 1934. The Lithuania–United States relations were friendly, United States followed the general policy of isolationism and generally stayed out of European politics, and there was very little foreign trade between the two countries. Therefore, the Legation of Lithuania in Washington, D.C. mainly worked on matters of the sizable Lithuanian American community. Balutis was received with suspicion that he arrived as an agent of the new authoritarian regime of President Smetona, which was unpopular with the Lithuanian Americans. Balutis, however, promised to stay away from political intrigues. He served as the envoy during the Great Depression and advised the Lithuanian government to exchange U.S. dollars to gold. During Christmas 1933, Balutis received an order to return to Kaunas from where he was to head a trade delegation to London and remain there as the new envoy. He officially became the envoy to United Kingdom and Holand on 1 June 1934. The new post presented the opposite challenges from the work in the United States: the Lithuanian community in the United Kingdom was relatively small, but London was at the center of European politics and an increasingly important trade partner with Lithuania. At the time, the Legation of Lithuania in London employed about twenty people.
caption: Lithuanian embassy in Washington D.C. where Balutis worked in 1928–1934
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