Danielius Alseika

Danielius Alseika (; 1881–1936) was a Lithuanian physician and activist. He was the father of the archaeologist Marija Gimbutas.

Born to a family of Lithuanian peasants, Alseika became actively involved in Lithuanian cultural life as a high school student. He participated in the smuggling of the banned Lithuanian publications, organized protests during the Russian Revolution of 1905, and was one of the co-founders of the Peasant Union.

He graduated as doctor from the Imperial University of Dorpat. During World War I, he was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army and worked as a doctor at various military hospitals. He founded the Lithuanian Sanitary Aid Society which cheaply purchased inventory of a military hospital and transported it to Vilnius where a new Lithuanian hospital was established in 1918. Alseika was director of the hospital until 1933 and chairman of the society until his death. In 1931, Alseika acquired an x-ray machine which did not have proper shielding. He died of the chronic radiation syndrome in 1936.

Alseika lived and worked in Vilnius which was bitterly contested between the interwar Lithuania and the Second Polish Republic. He actively defended Lithuanian rights in Vilnius Region and was chairman of the in 1923–1928. He also founded and edited Lithuanian periodicals Vilniaus šviesa and Vilniaus žodis.

Biography Early life and education Alseika was born in near Skuodas in present-day northern Lithuania.