Leonas Prapuolenis

Leonas Prapuolenis (9 June 1913 – 23 July 1972) was a Lithuanian public figure, commander, and leader of the June Uprising of 1941 in Lithuania.

Born to a family of affluent farmers in Suvalkija, Prapuolenis was an active member of the Ateitininkai Catholic youth movement and a vocal opponent of the authoritarian regime of President Antanas Smetona. Therefore, he faced difficulties completing his education. For organizing a student strike to demand democracy, he was expelled from the Klaipėda Commerce Institute and given a four-year prison sentence in December 1938. However, he was allowed to resume his studies due to the changing political situation in the aftermath of the German ultimatum to Lithuania of March 1939.

After the Soviet Union occupation of Lithuania in June 1940, Prapuolenis joined the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) and started organizing the anti-Soviet June Uprising. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union and LAF members started the uprising, Prapuolenis read the independence proclamation at 9:28 a.m. on 23 June 1941 at the Kaunas radio station. Prapuolenis became the LAF representative to the Provisional Government of Lithuania. However, when Prapuolenis protested the German decision to disband the Provisional Government, he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Dachau concentration camp. After five months, he was freed due to the efforts of Kazys Škirpa. Prapuolenis lived in Munich under police supervision, but kept contacts with Lithuanian resistance groups. After the war, he briefly lived in Austria and Switzerland before moving to West Germany in 1948 and the United States in 1955. He worked for the (BALF), was an active member of the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (VLIK), and a board member of the Society of Friends of the Lithuanian Front.

Biography Early life and education Prapuolenis was born into a family of affluent farmers. His father was elected burgomaster of Kybartai for twenty years.