Creve, Vincas

Vincas Creve was born on October 19, 1882 in the village of Subartonyai, Alytus county (now Varensky district ). The village of Mickiewicz was also called Kreve, because the writer chose this last name as his pseudonym . For a long time he used a double surname (V. Kreve-Mickiewicius), and in America he already officially had the surname Kreve.

V. Kreve studied with a rural teacher and at Merkine School, then studied privately in Vilnius . Having passed exams externally, in 1898 entered the Vilnius Theological Seminary. Not feeling a call to the priesthood, he left the seminary two years later. In 1904, V. Kreve entered the University of Kiev , studied philology. In 1905 he continued his studies at the University of Lviv . In 1908 he graduated from Lviv University with a doctorate in philology, passed exams at Kiev University, was invited to prepare for a professorship. Due to a small salary, he left the university and moved to Baku , where he taught Russian language and literature at the city gymnasium. In 1913 he defended a thesis at Kiev University and received a master's degree in comparative linguistics. In March 1919, V. Kreve was appointed Consul of Lithuania in Azerbaijan , and invited to teach at Baku University .

In 1920, Kreve returned to Lithuania, settled in Kaunas . He worked as a secretary of the publishing commission at the Ministry of Education (Kaunas was the capital of Lithuania at that time), editor of the literary magazine Skaitimai (1920-1923), professor at the University of Lithuania, and at the Faculty of Humanities. In the years 1925-1937. He was the dean of this faculty, edited the scientific publications of the faculty and literary journals. V. Kreve actively participated in public and political life. When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1940, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the so-called. People’s government, but soon resigned. Having retired from politics, he worked at Vilnius University , was appointed director of the Institute of Lithuanism. In 1941, he was president of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences , deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

In 1944, Vincas Creve moved to the West, and for some time lived in Austria . In 1947 he moved to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. He taught Russian and Polish languages ​​and literature at the University of Pennsylvania . He died on July 7, 1954 in Pennsylvania, in 1992 he was reburied at home.

He made his debut in literature in poetry (1907). The author of the drama Šarunas (Šarunas, 1911), the collection of stylized legends Dainavos šalies senų žmonių padavimai (Traditions of the old people of the Dainava region; Traditions of the Dainava antiquities, 1912), the collection of short stories Šiaudinėj Podogėj thatched roof ”, part I 1921, part II 1922), the mystery“ Likimo keliais ”(“ Ways of Fate ”), historical dramas“ Skirgaila ”(“ Skirgaila ”, 1925; the first version is written in Russian and published in Vilnius in 1922), “Mindaugo mirtis” (“The Death of Mindovg”, 1935), the novel “Raganius” (“The Sorcerer”, 1939), the novel “Miglose” (“In the Dark”, 1944). In exile, he worked on the biblical epic “Dangaus ir žemės sūnūs” (“Sons of heaven and earth”).

• Vincas Creve: biography, texts, archival documents

The texts of some works by V. Kreve are available on the Internet (in . Language ):

• Šiaudinėj pastogėj
• Skirgaila