chapter 20 Smetona’s In-Laws: Juozas Tūbelis and Jadvyga Chodakauskaitė

It would be wrong to say that Smetona ruled single-handedly. Juozas Tūbelis, his brother-in-law, played a great role in the years of Smetona’s presi- dency: After the coup of December 1926 he became Finance Minister, and from September 23, 1929 until March 24, 1938, he was Lithuania’s Prime Minister. Tūbelis directed Lithuania’s economic life and financial policy, and in all other questions he was Smetona’s most important advisor. Smetona completely trusted Tūbelis, always consulted with him. Tūbelis made decisions without rushing, holding to the principle “measure seven times, cut once.” He controlled state finances, often opposing more money for the military, successfully balanc- ing Lithuania’s budget, avoiding large foreign loans, and maintaining a stable litas. Tūbelis represented the government at lts meetings (Smetona only rarely participated there), and he understood the modes of the Tautininkai well. Tūbelis’s wife, Sofija Smetona’s sister Jadvyga Chodakauskaitė (born December 28, 1892), finished the V. Prozorovienė gimnazium in in 1909 and in 1915 the historical-philological faculty of the Petrograd Bestuzhev wom- en’s courses. In 1917 she passed her state examinations at Petrograd University and received her diploma. She was invited to remain at the university as an assistant, but she returned to Lithuania through Sweden. She had worked for Smetona’s Viltis and was its correspondent in Petrograd; while still a student she worked on the editorial board of Lietuvių Balsas, and taught the Lithuanian language in the Petrograd gimnazium for Lithuanian refugees. Living in Vilnius she participated in , and when the Lithuanian Taryba decided to publish a German-language journal in Berlin, Das neue Litauen, to defend the interests of occupied Lithuania, she became its editor. An unhappy fate awaited the journal – for her article about the oppression of German occupation authorities in Lithuania, it was shut down after just seven issues. Chodakauskaitė returned to Vilnius and worked in the foreign relations sec- tion of the Lithuanian Taryba. She became known as a determined, industrious and thoughtful woman. According to Juozas Pajaujis, it was she who, when the Germans forbade the publication of the February 16 declaration, translated it into German and gave it to a German correspondent, who carried it to Berlin, where it appeared in the German press.743 In 1918 she was chosen to organize and

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Smetona’s In-Laws 307 head the Lithuanian Information Center in Bern, Switzerland, which distributed news to the largest telegraph agencies (Havas, Reuters, Stefan). It was impor- tant for Lithuania to have necessary and useful reports about itself circulating. When the Lithuanian emissary in Switzerland, Vladas Daumantas, left for several months in Lithuania, Chodakauskaitė took over his work. From July 1919 she was charged with organizing and directing the Lithuanian information center in Paris, where the Lithuanian delegation to the Paris Peace conference worked, trying not only to win the recognition of the Lithuanian state but also to defend Lithuania’s territorial interests. Upon returning to Lithuania, she directed for a short time, worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at other jobs. In 1919, having long delayed her marriage, she married Juozas Tūbelis, then Minister of Agriculture, who was ten years older than she. Tūbelis, who always had looked to Smetona as an authority, became his brother- in-law, the husband of his wife’s sister. The Tūbelises had a daughter Marytė. Jadvyga Chodakauskaitė-Tūbelienė [hereinafter Tūbelienė – transl.] was a demanding and attentive worker. Rather by accident she helped uncover con- traband activities in the Foreign Ministry. In 1921 the ministry’s Administrative Department had to stamp diplomatic packages sent from the ministry. Once Tūbelienė, working there, refused to stamp a large package to be carried by a courier to the Lithuanian mission in Moscow. Confusion arose in the ministry, and Foreign Minister put the stamp on himself. Upon return- ing home, Tūbelienė told Smetona’s family about the event. (At this time Smetona was not in the government.) Smetona sent his brother-in-law Captain Tadas Chodakauskas to report on the matter to Minister of Defense Colonel Konstantinas Žukas. Žukas began an investigation that found medicines and medical equipment in the package, things not at all meant for the mission. Several officials were accused of smuggling, and to some extent Purickis him- self.744 Later Žukas extended his work exposed a large group of smugglers, who under cover of diplomatic pouch, had been smuggling sugar to Soviet Russia. For that affair Purickis resigned, ruining his further diplomatic career.745 From 1927 to 1929 Tūbelienė edited Tautininkų balsas, which, understand- ably, completely supported Smetona’s positions. At that time Jadvyga plunged into the field of women’s and social care, and together with others she estab- lished a union of organizations to care for mothers and children of Lithuania, bringing together 23 organizations of social help. She was the chairperson of that union until the Soviet occupation, cooperating with other Baltic countries and participating in various international conferences and congresses. She was one of the creators of the Council of Lithuanian Women. Jadvyga Tūbelienė was a woman of rare sense and talent and even more rare beauty. The Polish military attaché in in 1939 noticed this at the army