page_title: Rapolas Skipitis
section_title: Work with Lithuanians abroad
hierarchical_section_title: Rapolas Skipitis / Biography / Work with Lithuanians abroad
caption_attribution_description: From left: Aleksandras Mykolas Račkus, Antanas Kalvaitis, and Rapolas Skipitis
context_page_description: Rapolas Skipitis was a Lithuanian attorney and politician. In 1920–1922, he was Minister of the Interior and was later elected to the Second and Third Seimas. After the 1926 coup d'état, he chaired the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union, Society for the Support of Lithuanians Abroad, and several other Lithuanian organizations. He also edited several newspapers, including Ūkininko balsas, Trimitas, Namų savininkas and Pasaulio lietuvis. At the start of World War II, he retreated to Germany and joined the Lithuanian Activist Front. He was reserved the seat of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government of Lithuania. After the war, he settled in Chicago where he was active in Lithuanian American cultural life.
context_section_description: From 1922, Skipitis had a private attorney practice. From April 1927 to June 1928, he was chairman of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union. He was also active in other societies such as the Society for the Support of Higher Education Students (Aukštųjų mokyklų lietuviams moksleiviams šelpti draugija), which he chaired in 1927–1928, the Union of Lithuanian Homeowners' Associations (Lietuvos namų savininkų draugijų sąjunga), and the Council of Attorneys, of which he was a member in 1932–1940. In April 1933, Skipitis organized electricity boycott in Kaunas to force the local electricity producer, a monopoly controlled by a Belgian corporation, to lower the prices from up to 1.35 Lt/kWh to 0.82 Lt/kWh. He edited weekly magazine Namų savininkas (Homeowner) in 1937–1940.
  In February 1932, he was one of the co-founders of the Society for the Support of Lithuanians Abroad (Draugija užsienio lietuviams remti) and became its chairman. Thousands of Lithuanians had emigrated to United States and South America mostly due to economic reasons. The society sought to encourage the emigrants to maintain their Lithuanian traditions and increase their economic ties with Lithuania by supporting Lithuanian-language schools, libraries, press. The society also wanted to establish a unifying global Lithuanian organization and Skipitis raised an idea to organize the first Lithuanian World Congress. To that end, in early 1935, he visited Lithuanian communities in United States and South America advertising the congress which was held on 11–17 August 1935 in Kaunas. The congress was accompanied by various sport competitions, concerts, exhibitions, etc. Two Lithuanian American basketball players, Konstantinas "Connie" Savickas and Juozas Knašas, remained in Lithuania and trained the fledgling Lithuania men's national basketball team. During the congress, delegates from eight countries established the Union of World's Lithuanians (Pasaulio lietuvių sąjunga), chaired by Skipitis, to develop cultural and economic ties between Lithuania and the communities abroad. The union published, and Skipitis edited, 63 issues of Pasaulio lietuvis magazine (The World's Lithuanian) in 1937–1940.
caption: Skipitis (right) with collector Aleksandras Mykolas Račkus (left) who gifted his large numismatic collection to Lithuania during the first Congress of the World Lithuanians in 1935[13]
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