Bronius Krivickas

In 1953 the last remaining partisan brother, Jonas, was killed in the forest of Skaistkalnis.

On 21 September 1952, not being able to resist interrogation, the area commander Jonas Kimštas was forced to reveal the location of the eastern headquarters. About a thousand soldiers surrounded the forest of Raguva, and after finding one of the three bunkers in which Bronius Krivickas hid, executed Bronius immediately.

Under fear of his wife being persecuted, Bronius moved to the partisans in Biržai. This period was the most creatively productive for him, as he notably translated 80 of Goethe's poems and wrote numerous sonnets. As the number of partisans increasingly lowered, from 1951 Bronius found himself in the eastern Lithuanian partisan headquarters editing the newspapers "Aukštaičių Kova" and "Laisvės Kova".

Having enjoyed writing at an early age, he joined the Lithuanian partisan movement in 1945 and participated in their activities as a communicator, being dubbed by fellow partisans as "the professor" until his death in 1952 when he was found hiding in a bunker and subsequently executed. Krivickas and his works were one of the main voices of anti-Soviet resistance.

In February 1945 he joined the partisan movement in the same outskirts in which two of his brothers also were active. In the same year, his brother Juozas was killed and their parents were driven out from their homes with the homestead burned. From 1947 to 1948 Bronius would stay in bunkers, such as his wife's parents' homestead bunker in Tylinavai in the winters, and would hide in the forests in the summers. In 1948 the Suostas priest quietly wed Bronius and a school teacher from Smilgiai. The partisans reportedly respected Bronius very much and, working as a communicator between them, intensely studying languages, having a very big amount of books in his bunkers, and also briefly being the second-in-command of another partisan squad led by Petras Tupėnas, Krivickas was known as "the professor". Bronius used to seclude himself, write poems, and then recite them by the fire in the evening for fellow partisans.

Krivickas's first poem from the partisan period is dated 1945. At first, his works, which were poems, sonnets, and satires, were only spread by word of mouth or transcripts among the partisans or their supporters. His work was characterized by the promotion of classical values, as well as heroism and the fearlessness of death, which were values he himself upheld. Because of his time as a partisan, many of his works include describing the life of living with partisans – hiding in bunkers and forests, the death of close friends and family, and most importantly – leaving the last bullet to yourself. Some of his works are characterized by religion as in multiple poems he mentions the wrath of God, describing also that through pain and death one can achieve peace and come to God. His satires included elements of grotesque and absurdism, and in them he chooses to mock the Soviet government and reveal the truth of its occupation, propaganda, and cruelty, also ironizing the supposed "allies" of the USSR.

When Lithuania received the capital Vilnius back under the first Soviet occupation in 1940, Bronius and his colleagues moved there to study at Vilnius University, participating in various social activities and establishing himself as a theatre critic. In 1943, he completed his studies, however the university was shut down in the same year due to Nazi occupation. To continue earning money and out of fear of being sent to Germany for work, from 1944 he assisted in editing the newspapers "Naujoji Romuva", "Darbininkas", "Kūryba", "XX amžius". On 1 October 1944, he briefly became a teacher at the Biržai gymnasium as Lithuania had a deficit of teachers. However, he started getting called to the NKVD headquarters, and fearing arrest, he subsequently started hiding with various partisans.

Bronius went to the Suostas primary school, and in 1938 he finished the Antanas Smetona gymnasium in Biržai, in which Bronius read his works in social literary evenings and once even won the prize of 30 litai in an essay contest. The same year Bronius started to study at the Vytautas Magnus University at the faculty of theology and philosophy, specifically Lithuanian and French language and literature.

In university, he joined the Šatrija art circle – a group of writers with Christian-leaning views, overseen by the writer Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas in whose conventions Bronius met many Lithuanian writers, and also the theatre seminar headed by the writer Balys Sruoga. From 1938 he wrote short novellas which appeared in the newspapers "Ateitis" and "Studentų Dienos" (which he also edited). When on vacation, Bronius would return to his home village to his father.

Bronius Krivickas (17 November 1919 – 21 September 1952) was a Lithuanian writer, poet, literary critic, and anti-Soviet partisan. His work is mainly characterized by satire, dramaturgy, and literary criticism against the occupying Soviet state.

Bronius Krivickas was born on 17 November 1919 in the Pervalkai village of the Pasvalys district in rural Lithuania to Antanas Krivickas and Ona Krivickienė (née Čingaitė). Born in a family of peasants, Krivickas had six siblings: sisters Ona, Veronika, Stasė, and brothers Antanas, Jonas, and Juozas. In 1929, the family moved to the Kiauliškės village in the Biržai district.