Liudas Noreika

Liudas Noreika (19 August 1884 – 30 May 1928) was a Lithuanian attorney, activist, and politician. He served as the Minister of Justice under three prime ministers in March 1919 – June 1920.

Noreika studied to become a Catholic priest, but lack of calling made him switch to studies of law at Saint Petersburg University. During World War I, he worked with the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers to provide aid to Lithuanian war refugees and was politically active in the Party of National Progress. He was one of the organizers of the Petrograd Seimas in June 1917.

After his return to Lithuania, he was coopted into the Council of Lithuania in November 1918. He left government service in 1920, but continued to be actively involved with the Party of National Progress which merged to form the Lithuanian Nationalist Union in 1924. He was editor of many of the party's periodicals, including Vairas (1914–1915), Tauta (1920) and (1926). He was party's chairman from December 1926 to August 1927 and from February 1928 to his death in May 1928. He was shot and killed after a quarrel broke out while playing cards.

Biography Early life and education Noreika was born on 19 August 1884 to a Lithuanian family of peasants in near Žemaičių Kalvarija and Alsėdžiai. After completing primary school in Alsėdžiai in 1897, he enrolled at the Palanga Progymnasium. As it was common for Lithuanian men at the time, he enrolled at the Kaunas Priest Seminary which he completed in 1905.