Jurgis Bielinis (1846-1918)

Lithuania’s book smugglers became a symbol of resistance to Russification
Jurgis Bielinis was one of the most famous Lithuanian book-smugglers. "Book smugglers (Lithuanian: knygnešys, or plural knygnešiai) were people who transported Lithuanian language books printed in the Latin alphabet into Lithuanian-speaking areas of the Russian Empire, defying a ban on such materials in force from 1866 to 1904. Opposing imperial Russian authorities' efforts to replace the traditional Latin orthography with Cyrillic, and transporting printed matter from as far away as the United States to do so, the book smugglers became a symbol of Lithuanians' resistance to Russification." (Wikipedia) Thank you for the post, National Lithuanian American Hall of Fame!

Boris Bakunas
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I forgot all about it till now. Thank you Boris Bakunas for this post
What a great post..I remember vaguely my Dede Jonas talking about this when I was a child. I forgot all about it till now. Thank you Boris Bakunas for this post.

Irene Simanavicius
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The Lithuanians who helped save our language, our culture, and our history were remarkable people
The Lithuanians who helped save our language, our culture, and our history were remarkable people. They were not driven by greed or by a hunger for glory. They were idealists, and they lived by their ideals.

With so much dirt slung around on the internet, I applaud the National Lithuanian American Hall of Fame for helping to inspire Lithuanians and people of Lithuanian descent with examples we can learn from.

Boris Bakunas