Kazys Grinius

Kazys Grinius ( born December 17, 1866 in Selima at Marijampole, † June 4, 1950 in Chicago ) was a Lithuanian statesman and politician.

Grinius was a member of the Lithuanian National Assembly in 1918 for the peasant People's Party. From 1920 to 1922 he was prime minister of his country and negotiated a treaty with the Soviet Union, which was signed in 1922. In 1926 he was elected President, but after only six months in office overthrown by a military coup led by Antanas Smetona.

After the German occupation of Lithuania during World War II he did not cooperate with the occupying power. Prior to the Soviet occupation in 1944, he fled to the West and could in 1947 to emigrate to the United States.