Stanisław Narutowicz or Stanislovas Narutavičius (; 2 September 1862 – 31 December 1932) was a Lithuanian lawyer and politician, one of the 20 signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania. His brother was the first president of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz.
Born into a family of Lithuanian nobility, Narutowicz studied law at Kiev University. As a student, he joined socialist groups and organised the publication of the Polish-language workers' newspaper , but soon withdrew from more active political work. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, he was elected to a zemstvo (an institution of local self-government), participated in the Great Seimas of Vilnius, and was briefly arrested for his involvement in the anti-Tsarist activities in Alsėdžiai. Together with his wife Joanna, Narutowicz established a progymnasium for girls and a gymnasium for boys in Telšiai in 1907 and 1909, respectively.
In 1917, he helped organize the Vilnius Conference and was elected to the 20-member Council of Lithuania. He was the only Polish–Lithuanian member of the council. When the council adopted an act declaring independent Lithuania but in "a firm and permanent alliance" with Germany, Narutowicz and three other members of the council resigned in protest. This forced the council to reconsider and unanimously adopt the Act of Independence of Lithuania on 16 February 1918. This final Act of Independence made no political promises to Germany. Narutowicz was also staunchly against a constitutional monarchy and resigned from the Council of Lithuania when it selected Wilhelm Karl, Duke of Urach as the King of Lithuania in July 1918.
In summer 1919, the Polish Military Organisation organised a coup d'état against the government of Lithuania. Narutowicz was selected to become the Prime Minister of the new pro-Polish government. However, the coup was discovered and Narutowicz retired from public life. He returned to agricultural matters at his . However, he faced financial difficulties, social alienation and family troubles. He died by suicide on 31 December 1932.
Biography
Early life and education Narutowicz was born into a family of Lithuanian nobility. Their original Lithuanian surname Narutis was Polonised as Narutowicz. He was a self-declared Samogitian, Lithuanian and a Pole. He could speak the Samogitian dialect. His grandmother Anna Kossakowska acquired near Alsėdžiai in 1813 and brought it to the Narutowicz family as her dowry. His father, Jan Narutowicz, rented out the manor and moved to Telšiai, where he worked as a judge and where Stanisław Narutowicz was born on . He had two older half-siblings and a younger brother Gabriel (future President of Poland). Their father joined the unit of Antanas Mackevičius during the anti-Tsarist January Uprising of 1863 and served a year in prison. He died in 1866, leaving the family in a difficult financial situation.
Narutowicz's mother, Wiktoria Szczepkowska and her two sons were taken in by Anton Rönne, owner of the Renavas Manor. In summer 1868, Rönne hired Laurynas Ivinskis, an activist of the Lithuanian National Revival, as tutor for the children. In 1873, Szczepkowska moved to Liepāja (Libau) so that her sons could attend the German Liepāja Gymnasium. There Narutowicz became interested in liberal and socialist ideas and became good friends with Tadeusz Rechniewski. One of his teachers was Edmund Veckenstedt who encouraged his students to collect examples of Lithuanian folklore.
In 1882, Narutowicz graduated from the gymnasium and enrolled at Saint Petersburg University to study law. However, he became involved in the student anti-Tsarist movement and was expelled from the university the same year. After living for a year in Liepāja under police supervision, Narutowicz decided to continue his law studies at Kiev University. There he joined a group of revolutionary minded students, known as the Commune of Polish Socialists (), and became one of their leaders. The group maintained contacts with the Second Proletariat, an underground socialist-revolutionary party and the predecessor of the Polish Socialist Party. Narutowicz was supposed to help Tadeusz Rechniewski escape imprisonment. However, around 1886, Narutowicz started questioning socialist ideas and withdrew from political work.
Manor owner Narutowicz graduated with a law degree in 1887 and moved to Warsaw, where for about a year he worked as a court clerk. Together with Ludwik Krzywicki, he decided to establish Polish-language workers' newspaper edited by Wiktor Gomulicki. Narutowicz wrote very little for the newspaper, but organized its publishing matters, including obtaining financial support from Graf Vladimir Zubov and the brother of . However, he quickly became disillusioned with the newspaper – encounters with Russian censors, financial difficulties and personal debts, attacks by political opponents, etc.
In 1889, Narutowicz married Joanna née Billewicz in a civil ceremony in Zürich, where Joanna studied philosophy. She was from an old family of Samogitian nobles and a cousin of Józef Piłsudski. In May 1900, they married again in a religious ceremony in Vilnius. Narutowicz's disappointment with Warsaw activists and Joanna's inability to find employment led the couple to return to Narutowicz's native . The manor had about of land, but renters left it in a deplorable state. Narutowicz became preoccupied with agricultural matters. The family continued to support the Lithuanian National Revival by supporting Lithuanian book smugglers and by secretly educating peasant children.
Narutowicz continued to struggle financially. To earn some money for children's education, Narutowicz moved to Kalisz where he was director of Vereinigte Gaswerke (United Gasworks) in 1899–1904. He then returned to Lithuania, where he worked as an attorney in Telšiai in 1904–1908.
Russian Revolution of 1905 During the Russian Revolution of 1905, the Vilna Governorate-General was allowed to organize a zemstvo (an institution of local self-government) and each uezd elected one representative. Narutowicz was elected as a representative of the Telšiai Uezd. In August 1905, during the first meeting with Governor General , Narutowicz objected to the inclusion of Tsarist officials in the commission and left the meeting in protest.
In preparation for the Great Seimas of Vilnius in December 1905, Narutowicz agitated residents of Alsėdžiai Volost to send representatives to the congress. He spoke at the Seimas in support of total nationalization of land, which was a radical position for a landowner. Inspired by the Seimas, residents of Alsėdžiai decided to establish their own "republic" (oust Tsarist officials, stop paying taxes, organize their own police and court, introduce the Lithuanian language at the local school, etc.). For his involvement with this "republic", Narutowicz was arrested by the Tsarist police. He was released shortly and as an attorney, he defended many others arrested for their anti-Tsarist actions during the revolution.
Schools in Telšiai
In August 1907, Narutowicz's wife, Joanna, received a permit to establish a private progymnasium for girls in Telšiai. It was the first girls' school in Lithuania to teach Polish and Lithuanian. In spring 1913, the school had a total of 114 students (32 Lithuanians, 42 Jews, 32 Poles and 8 Russians). In 1909, Narutowicz became the first chairman of a society that worked to establish a private boys' gymnasium in Telšiai (he was soon replaced by Graf , but remained the society's vice-chairman). The school opened in October 1909. The number of students grew from 50 in 1909 to 103 in the 1912/1913 school year. One of gymnasium students, the future writer Butkų Juzė, became severely ill with typhoid fever and pneumonia which left him paralyzed and unable to speak. Narutowicz took in Butkų Juzė and nursed him back to health.
Narutowicz joined the Lithuanian Scientific Society when it was first organized in August 1907. He was also a member of the Lithuanian Art Society. In 1912, Narutowicz was a candidate in the Russian election to the State Duma. However, priests did not want to vote for a socialist and Narutowicz lost to Antanas Juozapavičius, pastor in Varniai, who in turn lost to a candidate put forth by the nobility.
World War I At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Narutowicz continued to work at his manor and care for the gymnasiums in Telšiai. In spring 1915, just as the German Imperial Army pushed towards Telšiai, his wife and children hastily evacuated to Russia while he remained in Brėvikiai to look after the manor. During the German occupation, as an attorney, Narutowicz often defended local residents against the German Ober Ost officials. He even wrote a memorandum protesting oppressive and exploitative German policies. However, he also assisted German authorities. For example, he acted as a secretary and interpreter during legal proceedings and assisted with the census count of Telšiai residents in January 1916.
Vilnius Conference
As German military advances stalled, German leadership rethought its strategy for occupied Lithuania. The policy of open annexation was replaced by a more subtle strategy of creating a network of formally independent states under German influence (the so-called Mitteleuropa). To that end, Germans asked Lithuanians to establish an advisory council (Vertrauensrat). Narutowicz became a member of the 21-member organising committee, which organised the Vilnius Conference, which in turn elected the Council of Lithuania. The organising committee met in Vilnius on 1–4 August 1917. Already at this meeting, Narutowicz proposed a resolution that the ultimate goal is an independent Lithuania in its ethnographic border. After these meetings, Narutowicz traveled across Samogitia agitating and selecting delegates to the Vilnius Conference, which was held on 18–22 September 1917. At the opening of the conference, Narutowicz was a member of a four-person commission to register and check the eligibility of the delegates.
The Vilnius Conference voted to elect the 20-member Council of Lithuania. Narutowicz was not initially elected (he received 94 votes for, and 108 votes against). However, the social democrats were dissatisfied with the composition of this council since it included six Roman Catholic priests and only two social democrats (Steponas Kairys and Mykolas Biržiška). When the two social democrats threatened to resign from the council, two priests ( and ) agreed to resign in favor of Narutowicz and Jonas Vileišis (even thought Narutowicz did not belong to any political party). At the age of 56, Narutowicz was the second-eldest (after Jonas Basanavičius) member of the council.
Act of Independence of Lithuania
Starting with the meetings of the organising committee, Narutowicz often disagreed with Antanas Smetona, the chairman of the council and the future President of Lithuania. Disagreements with Smetona persisted and had a lasting impact on Narutowicz's political career. More fundamental disagreements were regarding Lithuania's relationship with Germany and the form of government. Narutowicz spoke against making any promises to Germany, while Smetona saw no option but to agree to the German demands and agree to the future special (albeit undefined) ties to Germany.