Antanas Mackevičius

Antanas Mackevičius (Polish: Antoni Mackiewicz) (June 14, 1828 in Morkiai, near Kelmė – December 16, 1863 in Kaunas) – was a Lithuanian priest and one of the initiators and leaders of the 1863 January Uprising in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, on the lands of the partitioned Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Antanas Mackevičius was born into a family of minor Polish-Lithuanian nobility. Between 1846-1849, after finishing his secondary education at the gymnasium in Vilnius, he continued his studies at St. Vladimir University in Kiev. During this period a series of political upheavals occurred throughout the European continent, the Revolutions of 1848, which spread eastward. As a consequence of these events and influenced by them, Mackevičius began to consider the possibility of liberating Lithuania from the Russian Empire. In 1850 he left Kiev and entered the seminary in Varniai. He was ordained, and between 1853 and 1855 he served as the vicar in Krekenava, and between 1856 and 1862, served as pastor of the church in Paberžė.

According to Jurgis Želvys, following the unsuccessful 1831 Uprising, Antanas Mackevičius, like most of the Lithuanian nobility, did not lose hope of restoring Lithuania's independence. A new opportunity arose in the spring of 1863, when a subsequent uprising against the Russian Empire spread to Lithuania. Antanas Mackevičius was one of the first to openly agitate for Lithuanian independence. In a sermon at the church in Paberžė he called upon the people to rise up and restore independence, and promised to reorganize society by granting greater rights for peasants, and also promised them land. Mackevičius also criticized Polish nobility attempts to attach Lithuania to Poland. However, according to Timothy Snyder, although now seen as a "proto-Lithuanian nationalist", Mackevičius' goal was indeed to recreate the Grand Duchy - but "in a provisional association with Poland"

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