Teofilis Tilvytis

Biography

Teofilis Tilvytis (28 January 1904 – 5 May 1969) was a Soviet Lithuanian poet and writer. He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1951 and recognized as the People's Poet of the Lithuanian SSR in 1954. Expelled from a gymnasium, Tilvytis did not complete any specialized education. In 1923, he moved to Kaunas where he joined cultural life, performing with the Vilkolakis Theatre and participating in the literary movement Keturi vėjai (Four Winds). He was the editor and publisher of the satirical weekly newspaper Kuntaplis (1933–1940). During the German occupation of Lithuania during World War II, he was briefly imprisoned in Kaunas and Pravieniškės. In the Lithuanian SSR, Tilvytis devoted most of time to writing. He was a delegate to the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR (1947–1963) and chairman of the Lithuanian chapter of the Soviet Peace Committee (1958–1969). During the interwar period, Tilvytis published literary parodies and satirical poems and novels that targeted bureaucrats. During the Soviet era, he adopted socialist realism style and wrote works praising the new communist regime. For his epic poem Usnynė, which described lives of Lithuanian peasants from struggles in interwar Lithuania to building of the utopian socialism, he was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1951.

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