Education
Cvirka attended an art school in Kaunas between 1926 and 1930. He began publishing poetry in 1924 and studied literature in Paris during 1931 and 1932.
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Cvirka attended an art school in Kaunas between 1926 and 1930. He began publishing poetry in 1924 and studied literature in Paris during 1931 and 1932.
He wrote under a variety of noms de plume: A. Cvingelis, Cezaris Petrėnas, J. K. Pavilionis, K. Cvirka, Kanapeikus, Kazys Gerutis, Klangis, Klangis Petras, Klangių Petras, L. P. Cvirka, Laumakys, P. Cvinglis, P. Cvirka-Rymantas, P. Gelmė, P. Veliuoniškis, Petras Serapinas, and South. Laumakys. However, after graduation he drifted away from visual arts to literature. He translated 9 books and 34 shorter works from French into Lithuanian.
Later in the decade he travelled to Moscow, Leningrad, and western Europe.
He joined the Communist Party in 1940 and supported Lithuania"s incorporation into the Soviet Union. In 1941, following the outbreak of war between Germany and the Soviet Union, he moved to Alma-Ata and then Moscow, joining the Union of Writers of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. After Cvirka"s death in 1947, the Soviet authorities erected a monument to his memory in Vilnius.
This monument became the object of controversy after the restoration of independence in 1990 due to Cvirka"s pro-communist activities. There were calls for its removal.
Returning to Lithuania in 1944, he went on to serve as chairman of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic"s Writer"s Union and as editor of the journal Pergalė (Victory).