page_title: Bronius Kazys Balutis
section_title: International negotiator
hierarchical_section_title: Bronius Kazys Balutis / Biography / International negotiator
caption_attribution_description: Lietuvių: Suvalkų sutartis. Lenkų delegacija kairėje, iš kairės: W.Przesmycki, J.Łukasiewicz, M. Mackiewicz, A. Romer. Lietuvių delegacija - dešinėje; iš dešinės: Aleksandras Šumskis, Bronius Kazys Balutis, Maksimas Katchė, Voldemaras Vytautas Čarneckis, Mykolas Biržiška Polski: Konferencja w Suwałkach. Polska delegacja (Wacław Paprzyca-Przesmycki, Juliusz Łukasiewicz, Mieczysław Mackiewicz, Adam Romer) po lewej, litewska (Aleksandras Šumskis, Bronius Kazys Balutis, Maksimas Katchė, Voldemaras Vytautas Čarneckis, Mykolas Biržiška) po prawej English: Suwalki Conference. Polish delegates (W. Przesmycki, Juliusz Łukasiewicz, M. Mackiewicz, A. Romer) at left, Lithuanian (Aleksandras Šumskis, Bronius Kazys Balutis, Maksimas Katchė, Voldemaras Vytautas Čarneckis, Mykolas Biržiška) at right
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: After the outbreak of World War I, Balutis joined the Lithuanian National League of America (Amerikos lietuvių tautinė sandara), organized by Jonas Šliūpas in October 1916. When the Council of Lithuania declared independence of Lithuania on 16 February 1918, Balutis was a delegate at the large conference organized on 13–14 March 1918 in New York to support the declaration. The conference elected the Lithuanian Executive Committee chaired by Tomas Naruševičius which was supposed to lobby for the Lithuanian political aspirations in Washington, D.C. Balutis attended meetings of the Lithuanian National League of America and the Lithuanian Executive Committee, and, together with Jonas Žilius, was delegated to represent Lithuanian Americans at the Paris Peace Conference. He departed to Europe on 9 July 1919. The Lithuanian delegation in Paris, headed by Augustinas Voldemaras, was not officially recognized or invited to the Peace Conference. Balutis was in charge of monitoring the press and trying to publish pro-Lithuanian articles. He later became delegation's secretary responsible for note taking, archives, and finances. He also worked to obtain economic aid (financial loans, medical supplies, weapons for the newly established Lithuanian Army) until the delegation was recalled in December 1919. 
   
  Balutis was offered a position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kaunas. He was assigned "particularly important matters" putting him third in the ministry's hierarchy after minister Augustinas Voldemaras and deputy minister Petras Klimas. In this capacity, Balutis negotiated with Poland regarding an exchange of prisoners of war and with Latvia regarding the Latvia–Lithuania border. In March 1920, he was promoted to director of the Political Department of the ministry. Balutis was in charge of maintaining direct contact with the Lithuanian delegation that negotiated the Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty which was concluded in July 1920. When the Red Army captured Vilnius, the proclaimed capital of Lithuania, Balutis had to negotiate with the Soviets regarding the status of the city and Red Army's breaches of Lithuania's neutrality in the Polish–Soviet War. While Lithuanian and Polish armies clashed in the Suwałki Region, diplomats sparred at the League of Nations. Balutis was a member of the six-men Lithuania delegation that concluded the Suwałki Agreement with Poland on 7 October 1920 under pressure and supervision of the League. During the negotiations, every evening, Balutis had to drive to Kalvarija to confer with the Lithuanian government. The lead Polish negotiator, Mieczysław Mackiewicz, was Balutis' classmate from the primary school in Ūdrija. Poland began the Żeligowski's Mutiny just hours after the Suwałki Agreement was concluded and captured Vilnius starting a long and bitter diplomatic fight over the Vilnius Region. When the League proposed to hold a plebiscite in Vilnius, Balutis headed a Lithuanian delegation to outline the logistics on how and when the plebiscite should be carried out. His primary task was to break the negotiations without putting Lithuania at fault. He used the same tactics when he negotiated with Poland regarding the Hymans' Plans that called for some sort of union between Poland and Lithuania in the spirit of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
  After the Klaipėda Revolt in January 1923, Balutis and Petras Klimas helped Prime Minister Ernestas Galvanauskas to coordinate Lithuanian diplomatic communication with the League of Nations. Together with Vaclovas Sidzikauskas, he later negotiated with a three-member commission, chaired by American Norman Davis, of the League of Nations regarding the future of the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). The League decided on an unofficial exchange: Lithuania would receive the Klaipėda Region for the lost Vilnius Region. After lengthy and difficult negotiations, the Klaipėda Convention was concluded in May 1924 and Klaipėda became an autonomous region of Lithuania. Balutis also negotiated the Soviet–Lithuanian Non-Aggression Pact of September 1926. In May–
caption: Polish (right) and Lithuanian (left) delegations negotiating the Suwałki Agreement. Balutis is second on the left
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