Zigmas Angarietis

Zigmas Angarietis (born Zigmontas Antanas Aleksa, Russian: Зигмас Ангаретис; June 13, 1882 – May 22, 1940) was a Lithuanian communist, Russian revolutionary, one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Lithuania. He was one of the main people behind the short-lived Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (1918–1919) and Lithuanian–Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Litbel). Angarietis was arrested in 1938 during the Great Purge and executed two years later. During his lifetime he wrote over a hundred Marxist–Leninist works.

Angarietis was born in Obelupiai in the Suwałki Governorate of Vistula Land (present-day Lithuania) to a family of wealthy landowners. His brothers Jonas Aleksa became Lithuanian Minister of Agriculture and Konradas Aleksa was a professor at the Lithuanian Agricultural Academy. After graduation from Marijampolė Gymnasium, Angarietis enrolled to the Warsaw Veterinary Institute in 1902. In his memoirs, Angarietis claimed that at age 15 he read The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels which left a lasting impression on him and turned him to socialism. In Warsaw, he became acquainted with activists from the Polish Socialist Party and the General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia. For anti-Tsarist protests leading to the Revolution of 1905, he was arrested, expelled from the institute, and served a 6.5-month prison sentence in 1904. The experience prompted Angarietis to devote his life for communist causes.