Petras Vileišis

Petras Vileišis (Polish: Piotr Wilejszys; 25 January 1851 – 12 August 1926) was a prominent Lithuanian engineer specializing in the construction of railroad bridges. He was very active in Lithuanian public life and together with his brothers Jonas and Antanas became one of the key figures of the Lithuanian National Revival.

He studied mathematics at St. Petersburg University and railroad construction at the Emperor Alexander I Institute of Transport Engineers. For about two decades, Vileišis designed and constructed various railroad bridges across the Russian Empire amassing a substantial personal fortune. In 1899, he returned to Lithuania and settled in Vilnius where he built Vileišis Palace and established the first Lithuanian-language daily newspaper Vilniaus žinios as well as a Lithuanian printing press, bookstore, and ironwork factory which later became Vilija. None of these activities were profitable and by 1908 he had exhausted his savings. He then returned to Russia to work on railway bridges for another decade. After World War I, Vileišis returned to now independent Lithuania in 1921 and briefly served as the Minister of Transport in the government of Prime Minister Ernestas Galvanauskas. Vileišis died suddenly while on vacation in Palanga in 1926.

Vileišis was very active in Lithuanian public life. Already as a student, he published a handwritten four-page newsletter Kalvis melagis which is the first known Lithuanian periodical in the Russian Empire. Due to an error by the state censors, he managed to get approvals to publish four Lithuanian booklets despite the Lithuanian press ban. When the censorship office caught on the error, Vileišis published at least 55 books in East Prussia and United States that were smuggled into Lithuania. Most of these books were educational texts for the common people. He also continuously petitioned and lobbied various Russian officials, including Minister of Finance Sergei Witte and Governor-General of Vilnius Pyotr Sviatopolk-Mirsky, to get the press ban lifted. His brother Jonas even claimed that Vileišis spent considerable sums in bribing Russian officials to get the ban lifted in 1904. When the ban was lifted, Vileišis hurried to establish the daily newspaper Vilniaus žinios and a Lithuanian printing press. The newspaper's staff was instrumental in organizing the Great Seimas of Vilnius in 1905. Vileišis also supported other Lithuanian activities, including the first exhibition of Lithuanian art which was hosted at his house.