The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-21
Leader of C.P.
OF Lithuania
Dies in USSR
Mitshevitch Kapsukas
Played Leading Role
in Revolution
lspeeIaI o be DaIIy worLerl

MOSCOW, Feb. 20 (By Cable) -
An admirable revolutionist and a
brilliant strategist in a hundred
critical moments during the course
Of the revolution and after it, Vim
cent Mitskevitch -Kapsukns, member
Of the Executive Committee of the
Communist International and lead
er Of the Lithuanian Communist
Party, who died here yesterday, was
mourned by all sections of the Com
munist international and the So
Wet government, as well as by mil
lions of workers in the Soviet Union
and throughout the world.
Born in 1880 in Lithuania, Vim
cent Mitskevitch- Kapsukas joined
the revolutionary movement on the
eve of the revolution Of 1905.
Being connected with the prepa-
rations for revolutionary actions in
the garrison at Mariampol, Mitske-
witch was arrested for the first time.
After q successful escape he again
occupied a fighting post. actively
participating in Party work as
member of the Contra, Committee
Of the SociaI-Democrats of Lithu-
ania and as editor Of the central
party organ.
Sentenced to 5 Years
In the spring of 1907 Mitskevitch
was again imprisoned. In 1909 he
was sentenced to penal servitude
after three years preliminary inn
prisonment. After finishing his
penal servitude sentence, Mitske-
witch fled from Siberia into Galicia,
At the beginning of the war
Mitskevitch went to England,
where he actively participated in
work among Lithuanian miners.
There he edited a local Lithuanian
Social-Democrat paper, Rankpolnis,
and the Social-Demokratas, the
central organ of the Social-Demo-
Gratis in Lithuania. In these press
organs he conducted a merciless
struggle against Lithuanian social
patriotism.
Worked in U. S. A.
In 1916 Mitskevitch went to
America, where he worked actively
among the Lithuanian workers.
heading the struggle against Lithu-
anian social-patriotism. This strug-
gle was also carried into Lithuania.
After the Zimmerwald conference,
Mitskevitch joined the left thinner
valid group. He went to Petrograd
after the February revolution in
Russia, where he began active work
among the Lithuanian workers who
followed the Bolsheviks. He became
a member of the Central Bureau OF
the Lithuanian section Of the Rus
sian Social-Democrati Labor Party
(Bolsheviks).
He actively participated in the de-
tense of Petrograd against the adj
vance of General Krasnov in the
October days. The Council of Peo-
pies Commissars then appointed
him Commissar for Lithuanian At
fairs. At the end Of 1918 Mitske-
witch went to Wilma, which was then
occupied by German troops, where
he was leading force in the ex-
pulsion of occupational troops from
Lithuania. When the Provisional
Revolutionary Workers and Peas
ants Government of Lithuania was
formed, he was elected president of
the government and soon elected
chairman of the Council of Peoples
Commissars of the Soviet Socialist
Republic of Lithuania.
Worked Underground
When the Lithuanian and White
Russian republics fell, in 1920-21,
Mitskevitch-K apsukas, despite the
hard conditions of the occupational
terror, despite the fact that he was
well-known, remained in under
ground work in Lithuania.
In 1919 MitskeVitch was elected as
candidate to the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of the So
Wet Union. In 1924 at the Fifth
Congress of the Comintern, Mitske-
witch was elected candidate to the
Executive Committee Of the Com
munist International, and at the
Sixth Congress in 1928 he was
elected member of the E. G, G. l.
All this time, until the last days
of his life, Mitskevitch, despite the
serious illness which seriously weak
ened his body, courageously full
filed responsible work in the Com
munist international.