page_title: Petras Kriaučiūnas
section_title: During the Lithuanian press ban
hierarchical_section_title: Petras Kriaučiūnas / Biography / During the Lithuanian press ban
caption_attribution_description: Lietuvių: Lietuvių mokslo draugijos narių grupė (1912). English: Members of the Lithuanian Science Society in 1912. Left to right, first row: Jonas Jablonskis, Žemaitė, Petras Kriaučiūnas, Jonas Basanavičius, Liudvika Didžiulienė, Jonas Dielininkaitis; second row: Vincas Palukaitis, Antanas Vileišis, Baltramiejus Čepulis, Adomas Sketeris, Gabrielius Landsbergis-Žemkalnis, Jonas Ambrozaitis; third row: Juozas Kairiūkštis, Jonas Spudulis, Mečislovas Silvestraitis, Mikalojus Kuprevičius.
context_page_description: Petras Kriaučiūnas was an activist during the Lithuanian National Revival. Educated as a priest, he taught at the Marijampolė Gymnasium in 1881–1887 and 1906–1914 and was active as an amateur linguist.
  Kriaučiūnas was born into a well-off Lithuanian family in Suvalkija. He attended Marijampolė Gymnasium and Sejny Priest Seminary. As a good student, he obtained a stipend from the Archbishop of Mogilev to study at the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy. However, the stipend obligated him to work at the Archdiocese of Mogilev. Therefore, he declined the final ordination to priesthood and attended University of Warsaw for a year to get a teaching diploma. He then returned to Lithuania and became a teacher at the Marijampolė Gymnasium. He taught Latin, Lithuanian, German and Greek languages and encouraged his students, many of whom later became prominent figures in independent Lithuania, to be proud of their Lithuanian identity and heritage. He defied the Lithuanian press ban teaching his students Lithuanian in the Latin alphabet and not the government-imposed Cyrillic script. Kriaučiūnas actively supported Aušra and Varpas, the key Lithuanian-language periodicals.
context_section_description: In November 1881, Kriaučiūnas became a teacher at the Marijampolė Gymnasium. He taught Latin, Lithuanian, German and Greek languages. He was a dedicated teacher using new teaching methods (e.g. rhymes to help memorize grammar rules). He defied the Lithuanian press ban and in Lithuanian lessons used illegal Lithuanian books in the Latin alphabet instead of the legal publications in the government-imposed Cyrillic script. He encouraged his students to translate texts into Lithuanian, collect samples of Lithuanian folklore, learn and study Lithuanian history and culture. His students included future President of Lithuania Kazys Grinius who counted some 80 students of Kriaučiūnas who later became prominent figures in Lithuanian culture, science, politics, including 30 who became members of the Seimas, government ministers, and university professors. While his lessons inspired patriotic feelings, they lacked structure and consistency. He taught Lithuanian grammar that was based on an eclectic mix of previous works by August Schleicher, Friedrich Kurschat, Antanas Baranauskas, Kazimieras Jaunius. His apartment at the Warsaw Hotel was frequently visited by students, various activists, Lithuanian book smugglers. Kriaučiūnas became a strong supporter of Aušra, the first Lithuanian-language periodical aimed at Lithuanians in the Russian Empire – he edited articles, donated funds, distributed physical copies. He later also supported Varpas – the first meeting of Varpas collaborators took place at his apartment in June 1888.  
  The Tsarist authorities noticed Lithuanian activities and one by one Lithuanian personnel were forced out of the gymnasium. Kriaučiūnas' workload was reduced to 10 lessons and his salary was cut to 250 rubles a year. He resigned on 1 September 1887. He found employment as a secretary of the Marijampolė Court with a monthly salary of 25 rubles which he shared with Jonas Jablonskis who briefly worked at the court before his appointment to the Mitau Gymnasium. In January 1889, he was transferred as a judge of the peace to Plokščiai where he spent a decade. A position somewhere in the interior of Russia would have been more prestigious and lucrative, but Kriaučiūnas wanted to remain in his native Suvalkija. In May 1889, he married Sofija Zalevskaitė, a widow of the teacher and writer Petras Arminas-Trupinėlis. Kriaučiūnas collected and published Arminas' works in 1893 (republished in 1907). Kriaučiūnas was disliked by Tsarist officials and local landowners and was dismissed from his court job in 1899 and returned to Marijampolė where he started a private attorney practice. 
  During this time, he devoted his free time to philological studies and developed a scholarly reputation. He delivered two lectures to philological societies in Saint Petersburg in 1897 and 1900 and was a member of the Lithuanian Literary Society. His home was frequently visited by various activists and researchers, including foreigners Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay, J. J. Mikkola and his wife Maila Talvio, Aukusti Niemi, Eduards Volters, Alexander Alexandrov, Åge Meyer Benedictsen. His Lithuanian visitors included Antanas Baranauskas, Jonas Jablonskis, Petras Avižonis, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Povilas Višinskis. Kriaučiūnas was particularly close with Vincas Kudirka. Kriaučiūnas submitted numerous petitions arguing in favor of lifting the Lithuanian press ban. He knew eight languages (Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Latin, Greek, Latvian, German, and French) and had a rich philological library. However, he wrote very little and left no extensive bibliography. He collected examples of Lithuanian folklore (about 160 songs collected by him are known), contributed material to the dictionary of Antanas Juška, translated ten poems from various languages (works by Gavrila Derzhavin, Victor Hugo, Mikhail Lermontov, Friedrich Schiller, Alexander Pushkin, Maria Konopnicka), and wrote a couple papers and articles on language matters. There are hints that he was working on a Russian–Polish–Lithuanian dictionary – no manuscript
caption: Members of the Lithuanian Science Society in 1912. Kriaučiūnas sits third from left between Žemaitė and Jonas Basanavičius
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