Centre of Juozas Urbšys’ social thought and culture

Contacts
Address: Zaosės grange, Čiūrų village, elderate of Krekenava., Panevėžys county
Tel. 8 688 75 727
E-mail: arnoldas.simenas@pavb.lt
http://www.pavb.lt/index.php?skyrius=urbsio
Head – Arnas Simėnas

Information for the visitor

Opening hours:
open from Monday to Friday (preliminary arrangement is needed).

Exposition
The permanent exposition is not yet prepared. At the moment one can see some documents and photographs commemorating the minister of foreign affairs of Lithuania Juozas Urbšys: family’s pictures, diplomatic passport of the minister of foreign affairs of the Interwar Lithuania, an album as a present of the 80th jubilee containing signatures of all those who were born in Zaosė, a letter of Juozas Urbšys to his mother. The aim is to perpetuate the memory of J. Urbšys and Marija Urbšienė-Mašiotaitė. In order to achieve this goal it is necessary to upholster an exposition in the farmstead which would familiarize the society with their life, social, political and cultural activities. The future plans are to rebuild the granary, to replant the garden and to clean the environment.

Moments of history
The grange of Zaosė, site of 64 a. and the farmstead on it, was transferred by the nephew of J. Urbšys, P. Urbšys, to the Library of G. Petkevičaitė-Bitė in Panevėžys county. The relative in this way made his effort to protect elements of authenticity such as the roof and other parts of the house contemporaneous with one of the most famous politicians in Lithuania. Restoration works demanded a half of million Litas.   The grange of Zaosė was revitalized in 2009, just before the 20th anniversary of the Baltic Way. Opening of the conference „Baltic Way. 1939–1989–2009“ was held in Zaosė. The Centre was established on 18th of March, 2009 and the beginning of the conference marked the opening of revitalized house of the grange and the opening of the first (temporary) exposition. It is expected that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will help to establish a conference centre in Zaosė intended for seminars, conferences, en plein airs, camps and other events committed for educating civil society and to promote international cultural relations and relations between Lithuania and its emigration.

Juozas Urbšys
Minister of Foreign Affairs in the interwar Republic of Lithuania, diplomat, officer, and translator.
J. Urbšys was born on 29th of February, 1896 in Šeteniai, Kėdainiai district, died on 30th of April, 1991 in Kaunas.
1905-1907 he lived in Zaosė. From 1907 to 1914 J. Urbšys learned in the Panevėžys’ school of sciences. From the year 1915 he studied in the Riga’s Polytechnic. In 1916 J. Urbšys was conscripted into the Russian army.  After one year he graduated the school of Chuguev (Kharkiv region) and was sent to front. After the October Revolution J. Urbšys started to work in people‘s commissariat of Soviet Russia.
In 1918 J. Urbšys returned to Lithuania. During 1919–1922 he served in Lithuanian army, in Panevėžys’ battalion, later became an assistant of the chief of the Operation Division of the General Staff. Since going to reserve, J. Urbšys started to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1922-1927). From 1927 to 1933 he worked as a head of a consular department in Berlin, from 1933 to 1934 he was employed as the first secretary and as an advisor of the embassy in Paris, and the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary in Riga. Starting the year 1934 he worked as a director of Politics’ Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kaunas, and as a director general of the Ministry. On the 5th of December, 1938 J. Urbšys was appointed minister of foreign affairs. He stayed in his office until 15th of June, 1940.
On 17th of July, 1940 J. Urbšys together with his wife Marija Urbšienė-Mašiotaitė (daughter of writer Pranas Mašiotas) was deported to the city of Tambov. He was held in prisons of Tambov, Saradov, Moskow, Kirov, Gorky, Ivanov, Vladimir, mostly in solitary cells. A political prisoner, not broken by occupants during the winter of 1943-1944 he addressed two memorandums to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in that he argued for the necessity to rebuild the Lithuanian state. In 1954 after the revision of cases J. Urbšys was released from the prison without a right to return to Lithuania and amnestied on the 27th of August. He lived in Vyazniki with his wife and worked as a cashier in a local bathhouse without the possibility to find a more prestigious job.
In 1956 they returned to their homeland and lived in the house of Sofija Čiurlionienė, in Kaunas. M. Urbšienė was able to find a job in the Manuscript Division of the Republican Library. After the death of his wife in 1959 the daughter of J. Urbšys brother, Marija, took care of him. J. Urbšys liked to visit Pažaislis, Pinewood of Panemunė, Oakery. In 1963 he traveled to Eastern Berlin with an aim to witness in the case of Nazi Hans Globke. The last Interwar Minister of Foreign Affairs died on 30th of April, 1991 at the age of 95 and was buried in Petrašiūnai cemetery.

Photograph from the archive of the Centre of Juozas Urbšys’ Social Thought and Culture