Juozas Ziugzda

Born Feb. 17 (Mar. 1), 1893, in Plýniai, in present-day Kapsukas Raion, Lithuanian SSR. Soviet historian and statesman. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR (1946). Became a member of the CPSU in 1947. The son of a peasant.

Žiugžda graduated from Kaunas University in 1929. He became deputy people’s commissar of education of the Lithuanian SSR in 1940 and later was people’s commissar and minister of education until 1948. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania from 1949 to 1964. Žiugžda was vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR (1946–66), director of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR (1948–70), and a professor at the University of Vilnius. The theme of his scholarly works is the history of the struggle of the Lithuanian people for social and national liberation, for the establishment of Soviet power, and for friendship between the Lithuanian and Russian peoples. Žiugžda was the editor in chief and author of several sections of the History of the Lithuanian SSR (vols. 1–3, 1957–65) and the editor of a number of collections. He has been awarded two Orders of Lenin and three other orders, as well as medals.