Tomb of Janonis in Pushkin, Saint Petersburg
Memorial stone in Janonis' birthplace
Julius Janonis was born on April 5, 1896 in Birzai, Panevezio Apskritis, Lithuania. His parents were poor peasants and belonged to the Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed Church. In 1911, the family moved to the nearby Mieleišiai [lt] village where his parents rented 10 hectares (25 acres) of land. His mother was literate and taught her children basic reading skills.
Julius Janonis was gifted and so his parents sent him to a Russian-language primary school in Biržai in autumn 1906. His older siblings, brother Mykolas and sister Marija, did not attend school due to financial difficulties.
The distance from home to school was about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) and so he lived with a bell-ringer of the Evangelical Reformed Church. In autumn 1909, he began classes at a four-year progymnasium in Biržai. He always struggled financially; he received some help from his brother Mykolas and priest Povilas Jakubėnas in addition to earning a few rubles by tutoring others.
Julius Janonis began writing in 1910. He translated Latvian folk songs on poor orphans hired by local peasants as well as poems by Alexander Pushkin and Aleksey Koltsov. His first poems were published in 1912 in Jaunimas and Lietuvos žinios. He collected Lithuanian folk songs and sent them to the Lithuanian Scientific Society. At the time, there were two major camps of Lithuanian activist - more conservative Catholic ateitininkai and more progressive leftist aušrininkai. Julius Janonis joined activities of aušrininkai with a group of students at his school that held informal gatherings were they shared and discussed books and periodicals. In 1913, he attended a conference of aušrininkai organized in Šiauliai. He also participated in cultural society Lyra that organized occasional folk theater performances.
With assistance from doctor Mykolas Kuprevičius and attorney Kazimieras Venclauskis and a small stipend from Žiburėlis, Julius Janonis continued his education and aušrininkai activities at Šiauliai Gymnasium in 1913. He was a social-democrat but leaned more and more towards communism. He not only contributed articles to Vilnis but also helped with its distribution in Šiauliai.
In 1914, he edited almanac Nauju taku (On New Path) which included works by Janonis, Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas, Balys Sruoga. World War I started in summer 1914, and cultural activities were curtailed. Julius Janonis interacted with Russian soldiers and wrote anti-war works. On 15 April 1915, Germans captured Šiauliai and the gymnasium dispersed. Janonis evacuated to Vilnius and then Voronezh where a special Lithuanian gymnasium was opened by Martynas Yčas. There he was roommate with Butkų Juzė. Janonis was elected to the three-member presidium of aušrininkai organization and to editors of its hectographed newspaper Sūkurys (Whirlpool). However, the organization did not support revolutionary socialism and Janonis left in protest. In early 1916, he departed to Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg). In Pertrograd, Julius Janonis enrolled at the XII Gymnasium.
Julius Janonis returned to Petrograd where he lived with Zigmas Angarietis and worked on publishing Tiesa (Truth). He was a press correspondent at the 7th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In spring 1917, he passed gymnasium graduation exams but his tuberculosis was getting worse. Not wanting to be a burden, he committed suicide by jumping in front of a train halfway between Petrograd and Pushkin. As a suicide victim, he was buried outside a cemetery in Pushkin. In the early 1960s, it was decided to rebury him at the center of the cemetery.
Several Janonis' poems were turned into songs by composers Mikas Petrauskas, Stasys Šimkus, Juozas Gruodis, Nikodemas Martinonis, Jonas Dambrauskas, and others. Janonis translated several poems from Russian, including Requiem ("Don't mourn dead fighters…") by Liodor Palmin which became popular and was sung by the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union. In addition to lyric poems, Janonis also wrote short stories and feuilletons.
Julius Janonis joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (bolsheviks). For the revolutionary work, he was arrested in December 1916 and imprisoned in the Kresty Prison. Released, he traveled to Tartu where he met with Karolis Požela and Vladas Rekašius. He took a train further south but once again was arrested and imprisoned in Vitebsk. He was freed after the February Revolution but his health was failing.
Quotes from others about the person
According to literary critic Vytautas Kubilius: "he combined precise detail and concrete imagery with intense lyricism and the energy of strongly felt experience."
