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Booksmugglers: Juozas Miliauskas

 

 

Juozas Miliauskas. Nuotrauka iš B. Kaluškevičiaus archyvoJUOZAS MILIAUSKAS, (pseudonym Miglovara; 1845-1937), poet, collaborator on clandestine Lithuanian publications, born in Galne, county of Taurage, on March 24, 1845. While a student at Siauliai High School, he participated in the insurrection of 1863; he later tutored children of the gentry. From 1872-1885 he was employed by the Riga, Latvia, police. Settling in Siauliai in 1886, he worked as a secretary to the notary public and for some time practiced homeopathy until he retired in 1927. He died in Siauliai on January 20, 1937. Miliauskas is mostly known as disseminator of Ausra), a monthly of the Lithuanian national movement published in Lithuania Minor (then under German rule). The publication was forbidden in Russian ruled Lithuania Major. Miliauskas, as a police employee, had more opportunities, not without risk, to obtain and publicize the paper. He published his poetry in Ausra (The Dawn), Tevyves Sargas (Guardian of the Fatherland), Zemaiciu ir Lietuvos Apzvalga (Samogitian and Lithuanian Review), and other clandestine publications. He also published Ivairios eiles (Various Verses), 1884; Giedmenys (Singings), 1914; Vidukles krastas (The Land of Vidukle), 1928. In his poetry he followed Strazdas, Baranauskas and the Polish writer Kondratowicz in expressing patriotic feelings, love of nature and religious attitudes. Though not equal to his predecessors, he excelled many other writers who published poetry in Ausra. His reminiscences of the 1863 insurrection have some historical merit; they were published in Karo Archyvas (Military Archive) in 1925.

Literature:
ENCYCLOPEDIA LITUANICA I-VI, 1970-1978, Boston