Korsakas, Kostas Pranovic

Born Oct. 5 (18), 1909, in Pasvitinis, now in Pakruojis Raion. Soviet Lithuanian poet, critic, literary scholar, and public figure. Honored Scientist of the Lithuanian SSR (1959); member of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR (1949).

Korsakas studied at the University of Kaunas. He was imprisoned for antifascist activity from 1928 to 1930. He made his literary debut in 1925 and later contributed to the magazine Triachias frontas (The Third Front, 1930-31) and edited the magazine Kultura (1933-40). During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 he headed the bureau of Soviet Lithuanian writers in Moscow and was chairman of the Board of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union and dean of the history and philology department of the University of Vilnius (1944-45). In 1946 he became director of the Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR.

Korsakas’ poetry is written in civic spirit—for example, the collections The Law of Struggle (1943) and The Birds Are Returning (1945). He was the author of Articles on Literature (1932), Critique (1936), Writers and Books (1940), Against the Eternal Enemy (1945), Literature and Criticism (1949), and The Friendship of Literatures (book 1, 1962). He was editor in chief and one of the authors of The History of Lithuanian Literature (vols. 1-4, 1957-68). Korsakas was a deputy to (1947-63) and the deputy chairman of (1959-63) the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR. He received five orders and various medals.