Historical personalities of the Bank of Lithuania. Pijus Grajauskas

2 October 2022, marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Bank of Lithuania and the first money — the litas. The establishment of the Issuing Bank of Lithuania, the issuance of litas banknotes, and the creation of the national monetary system is an event of epochal significance, as it was done for the first time in the history of the state of Lithuania. It is a great opportunity to remember the first bankers of independent Lithuania, people whose activities, patriotic feelings, and decisive decisions allowed Lithuania to become a modern, economically independent state. In this article, we present a Member of the Board, Director of the Bank of Lithuania, Pijus Grajauskas.

Pijus Grajauskas was born on 17 December 1890 in Ožkabaliai village (Vilkaviškis district) to a family of farmers. In 1911, he graduated from the Kaunas Commerce Gymnasium and later studied at the Moscow Commercial Institute, together with Zigmas Starkus, the future Deputy Governor of the Bank of Lithuania, and Romas Dulskis, Director of the Land Bank. In 1913, he joined the Lithuanian Science Society.

During WWI, Grajauskas returned to Vilnius and taught at a Lithuanian gymnasium. Here he taught geography and mathematics. 

Grajauskas actively participated in the political life of the restored Lithuanian state. He was a member of the Christian Democratic Party, participated in the Vilnius Conference in 1917, and advocated that Lithuania should seek independence with the help of Germany. 

After the restoration of independence, he worked at the Lithuanian Representation in Berlin and studied at the Berlin Higher School of Commerce. After graduating, he returned to Lithuania and became a Member of the Board of the Bank of Commerce, and in 1921 he became the director of Ūkio bankas. 

In 1922, Grajauskas was invited to work at the Bank of Lithuania, elected to the Board, and became the forefather of the creation of the Bank of Lithuania. In 1923, he received a responsible task — to deposit part of the gold reserves of the Bank of Lithuania with the Central Bank of Sweden. In 1924–1926, he represented the interests of the Bank of Lithuania in the Central Discount Committee. 

Grajauskas worked on the Board until 1929 when he was appointed to head the branch of the Bank of Lithuania in Kaunas. Later he headed several other departments (in Vilkaviškis, Šilutė, and Ukmergė). However, he was not satisfied in the other cities, he constantly wrote requests to be returned to Kaunas. He was particularly dissatisfied in Šilutė, where “he had to let his sons go to the German chauvinist school.” However, he was not allowed to return to Kaunas.

In fact, Grajauskas’ complaints about conditions in other cities seemed rather strange. Directors of bank divisions received a decent salary of LTL 500–850, they did not have to pay for their apartment, utilities, and medical services. Grajauskas himself was even able to buy a 79-acre farm. 

But why was Grajaukas actually “exiled” from Kaunas? It is assumed that this was because he was a supporter of the former Prime Minister, Augustinas Voldemaras, who was terminated from office after a conflict with Antanas Smetona in 1929. 

Despite his political views, Grajauskas remained an active public figure, even while in “exile.” In Ukmergė, he led the literary Naujoji Romuva Society, while in 1925 he established a society to study the Lithuanian economy, and helped organise meetings of the atheists. He also contributed to the preparation of the statutes of the Kaunas Exchange and was one of the founders of Palemonas AB. 

After the occupation of Lithuania on 12 October 1940, together with eight directors of other divisions, he was dismissed from office. His farm was nationalised, and he was moved out of his 5-room apartment, which was soon occupied by a Soviet officer. 

During the German occupation, he participated in the Lithuanian resistance movement against the Nazis, and in 1944 retired to Germany and worked in the Red Cross of Lithuania. He died in Germany in 1947.