page_title: Felicija Bortkevičienė
section_title: After World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Felicija Bortkevičienė / Biography / After World War I
caption_attribution_description: English: Varpas printing press after an explosion in 1927. From left: Justas Paleckis, Felicija Bortkevičienė, J. Jasiūnas.
context_page_description: Felicija Bortkevičienė née Povickaitė was a Lithuanian politician and long-term publisher of Lietuvos ūkininkas and Lietuvos žinios. She became active in social life after she moved to Vilnius in 1900 and became known as an energetic and prolific organizer, manager, and treasurer of numerous political, cultural, and charitable organizations. She joined and was one of the leaders of various political parties, including Lithuanian Democratic Party, Peasant Union, and Lithuanian Peasant Popular Union. She was a delegate to the Great Seimas of Vilnius and was elected to the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania and was considered for the position of Minister of Provision and Public Work and President of Lithuania. Bortkevičienė organized and ran several charitable organizations, including those supporting gifted students, political prisoners of the Tsarist regime, and deported Prussian Lithuanians. She was also a member of women's movement in Lithuania, being an active member of the Lithuanian Women's Association and the chair of the Lithuanian Women's Union.
context_section_description: In July 1919, Bortkevičienė returned to Kaunas. In April 1920, as a candidate of the Peasant Union, she was elected to the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania, but due to her busy schedule she refused the mandate. She became a member of the Constituent Assembly in January 1921 when she replaced deceased Juozas Lukoševičius. She helped to prepare the Statute of the University of Lithuania and Patient's Fund Law. The law was particularly important for women as it provided 6-week maternity leave and forbade termination of employment on grounds of pregnancy. During the Assembly sessions Bortkevičienė spoke rarely, but she voiced her opinions on two major issues: land reform and the institution of the president. She opposed returning land that was confiscated by the Tsarist regime from churches and monasteries. When discussing the constitution, she also opposed creating the institution of the president. Both of these measures passed by the votes of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party. In 1926, she ran in the parliamentary election as a candidate of the Lithuanian Peasant Popular Union. She was not elected to the Third Seimas of Lithuania, but she was nominated to the President of Lithuania. She received one vote.
  In April 1920, together with the Lithuanian Popular Socialist Democratic Party (LPSDP), she established publishing company AB Varpas (bell) that she headed until 1930. Because LPSDP shared office space with the press, in effect, she was in charge of the finances and daily operations of LPSDP. In February 1922, she revived the publication of Lietuvos žinios and Lietuvos ūkininkas. The publications were outspoken about their ideals and did not shy from criticism of the government for which Bortkevičienė faced fines and arrests. In 1923 alone there were 17 lawsuits where Bortkevičienė was named as the responsible party. For publishing a caricature of Prime Minister Vytautas Petrulis and Minister of Defense Leonas Bistras in October 1925, she was fined 2,000 litas or imprisonment for 1.5 months. Not having enough funds, she was imprisoned until her friends raised enough money.
  All her life Bortkevičienė campaigned for democratic liberties and was particularly upset by the December 1926 coup d'état that brought the authoritarian regime of Antanas Smetona. Her publications were critical of the regime either directly or indirectly (for example, via examination of negative effects of other authoritarian regimes). On 11 March 1927, the printing house was bombed by unknown persons, most likely members of the fascist Voldemarininkai movement; she lived in a small house near the printing house. The explosion was powerful enough to collapse two floors of the building and destroy printing presses. However, the newspaper was not discontinued – the same day Lietuvos žinios was printed by a different press. Bortkevičienė rebuilt the press by October 1928. The publication of Lietuvos žinios was temporarily suspended by the government censors four times; the last and the longest time was six months for making fun of a son of Benito Mussolini. Bortkevičienė campaigned for amnesty of Juozas Pajaujis who received a death sentence for organizing an anti-Smetona coup in 1927.
  In 1922, she helped reestablish the Lithuanian Women's Union which she chaired until 1928. She was also a member of other women's organizations, including Lithuanian Women's Support Committee and Association of Lithuanian Women with Higher Education. She also participated in the establishment of the umbrella organization Lithuanian Women's Council in 1928, but became its opponent when the Council became financed and used as a political tool by the Smetona's regime.
  When Soviet Union occupied Lithuania in 1940, the press was nationalized taking away Bortkevičienė's life work and means of living. In 1945, she was arrested and interrogated by NKVD several times. That negatively affected her health and she died in October 1945 in Kaunas. Her funeral was supervised by NKVD; her body was transported in a simple truck to Troškūnai and buried next to her sister.
caption: Bortkevičienė (in the middle) looks at the printing press destroyed by the explosion 1927
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