The Act of March 11 signatories, who worked in the Bank of Lithuania

In the beginning of the 20th century, three signatories of the February 16 Act of Independence worked in the office of the Bank of Lithuania: Mykolas Biržiška, Antanas Smetona and Jurgis Šaulys. Actually, there was no Bank of Lithuania at the time; it was established only after the declaration of independence, in 1922. Still, there were quite a few who had some connection to banks amongst the signatories of the first Act of Independence.

Soon we will celebrate thirty years since the Restitution of Independence of Lithuania. So, how many of the Act of March 11 signatories worked in the Bank of Lithuania? How many of them contributed to creating Lithuanian money and strengthening the country’s economy?

The Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania was signed by 124 deputies of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania. Quite a few amongst them were economists, who also contributed to the monetary system creation or Lithuania’s economic development. Those in the highest positions of power (Vytautas Landsbergis, Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas, Gediminas Vagnorius and others) had an impact on the most important decisions being made, while the activities of other important persons were also connected to the Bank of Lithuania (Valdemaras Katkus could be singled out, he was the head of the delegation when retrieving Lithuania’s gold from abroad).

Today, we would like to commemorate three signatories of the Act of Independence who worked in the Bank of Lithuania after the Restitution of Independence of Lithuania. Interestingly enough, same as in the beginning of the 20th century, there were also three of them: Vilius Baldišis, Stasys Kropas and Vladas Terleckas.

Vilius Baldišis

Vilius Baldišis (born 1961) is an economist, politician and banker. Before the Independence, Baldišis worked as a chief economist at the Republic of Lithuania’s office of the State Bank of the USSR and was a lecturer at Finance and Credit Division of Vilnius University. At the end of 1980s, he was an active participant in discussions with other economists about Lithuania's autonomous economic policy and the adoption of its own currency. On 18 May 1989, a law on the Economic Autonomy of the Lithuanian S.S.R. was passed, thus making it legally valid to introduce the country’s own money. After the law was passed, working groups were created and had to submit their conception and drafts. Baldišis took part in the creation of autonomous money and credit system working group, formed under the Council of Ministers.
On 1 March 1990, the Bank of Lithuania was established. Bronius Povilaitis was appointed its first Chairman. In July 1990, after four and a half months in office, Povilaitis was dismissed from this position at his own request. On 31 July 1990, Baldišis was appointed to this position. He was the one entrusted to overlook the creation of an autonomous financial system. And he had to do this during one of the most complicated and challenging periods, experiencing opposition from both within and outside of the country.

However, despite complicated circumstances, with the occupation regime still in force (the soviet army was still inside the country and other power structures were in operation), during an unstable political situation (governments were constantly replaced by others), political (there was tension between the government and the Bank of Lithuania) and economic disturbances, the former head of the Bank managed to successfully gather a strong team of professionals and essentially create Lithuania’s central bank from zero. During Baldišis time in office, Lithuanian gold reserves that were stored in other countries were returned, the Bank of Lithuania’s membership in international institutions was renewed, a national monetary system was created (Baldišis was a member of the Litas Committee), talonas became national currency, an autonomous international transaction system was launched, litas banknotes were created, printed and delivered to Lithuania, coins were minted. Of course, a strong team of professionals that was gathered also helped to move things forward. Inter-institutional issues of political importance were solved unanimously.
Baldišis also had to work during an especially challenging time of the beginning of 1991, when the Soviet army attempted to break our young state; therefore, all the governmental institutions, the Bank of Lithuania included, had to prepare to defend themselves. Baldišis decided that the Bank of Lithuania had to be armed, and this is how he recalls it:

“The Weaponry Fund, which was used while transporting Gosbank’s money and valuables, had Soviet Kalashnikov assault rifles and TT pistols. So I had this idea (and felt that it was my duty) to arm what was then the Security Department of the Supreme Council. I made up my mind after the events that took place on 8 January 1991. So we, the Bank of Lithuania, together with an authorised representative of the Supreme Council’s Security Department, made an urgent decision on how to take and transport those weapons. Since the Bank only had one vehicle at the time (a Moskvich 2141 that the government handed over to us from the market funds (intended for the citizens)) and I often used it to drive from the Bank to the Supreme Council, we decided to transport some of the weapons in it, since we presumed that I would look less suspicious driving it. Weapons storage was in Vilnius str., in the basement of a Soviet bank. Weapons and ammunition were loaded into the collectors’ minibus and, accompanied by collectors’ security, secretly transported to the republican Gosbank’s courtyard at Totorių g. 4, where the Bank of Lithuania was also located. I got behind the Moskvich's wheel, one of the Artūras Skučas men sitting next to me with a radio receiver, for a direct contact with the Supreme Council. The collectors’ minibus was behind us with a driver and two collectors inside, all of them armed with AK rifles. On the evening of 12 January 1991, the Supreme Council Security Department director’s office was filled with military weapons: 4 Kalashnikov automatic rifles and 1,000 of their ammunition, 15 TT pistols and 1,000 of their ammunition as well as 15 pistol holsters.”

(Excerpt from Vidmantas Laurinavičius’ book Money and Monetary System Changes in Lithuania (1988–2016), 2017)

Stasys Kropas

Today an economist, PhD in social science and associate professor Stasys Kropas (born 1953) is known as the president of the Association of Lithuanian Banks. However, he tried many different paths throughout his career. Until 1990, he was a researcher and took part in various working groups that were aiming to change Lithuania’s economy.

Then he became a deputy of the Reconstituent Seimas, and later – a minister without portfolio.

For a long time, Kropas also worked at the Bank of Lithuania. From 1993 to 2008 he was the director of the International Department of the Bank of Lithuania, from 1995 to 2001 – a member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, and from 1996 to 1998 – the executor of the Bank of Lithuania’s institutional development project.

When he was the director of the International Department, he gave directions to transfer the gold kept at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to a gold account at the Bank of England opened in Lithuania’s name. Kropas also looked after the return of the remaining gold to Lithuania. 

In order to ensure proper preparation for the introduction of national currency litas, a secret decree was passed by the government and the Board of the Bank of Lithuania on 27 May 1993, which formed a working group responsible for drawing up an operational programme in cooperation with the specialists working at the Bank and submitting it to the Litas Committee by 1 June 1993. It had to be done in secret, complying with strict security requirements; the working group members had to submit written commitments to keep in secret all the information about litas features, the terms of their entering into circulation and other information which would be a state secret. Kropas was one of the members of this group.

From 1996 to 2000 he was also a member of the Coin Creation Commission of the Bank of Lithuania.

Stasys Kropas, reminiscing about 11 March and the situation in the country:

“My colleagues in the Reconstituent Seimas trusted me to lead the Committee on Local Authority Affairs. 11 March 1990 will undoubtedly remain in my memory as the longest day filled with joyful excitement, on which both the governing organs of the Supreme Council were elected and the interim Constitution was adopted. I recall my days on the Supreme Council as this informal environment, working amongst colleagues that were idealists.

On 11 March 1990, I hoped that the day was going to be the beginning of new opportunities for our country and its people, I realised that we cannot hope to see quick improvement in living standards but hoped that, being small, we will be able to better manage the country’s economic affairs. What I didn’t expect is that those opportunities would be seized only by a small number of Lithuanians, that we would be this irrational and sluggish in governing our country."

Vladas Terleckas

Lithuanian economist, politician and a public figure Vladas Terleckas (born 1939), whose study years in economics were quite challenging (due to his brother Antanas partaking in resistance activities), has been researching the history of interwar period Lithuania’s money and banking ever since the 1970s. From 1989 to 1996, he focused on creating the currency and credit systems for modern day Lithuania. In 1989, Terleckas was appointed the leader of the group responsible for the creation of autonomous money and credit system in Lithuania. The group was composed of scientists and banking specialists. They closely studied large numbers of other countries’ laws and other legislation regarding money and the credit system functioning and also analysed the legislative experiences of those countries. The group prepared the concept of Lithuania’s money and the credit system as well as draft laws on the Bank of Lithuania and other commercial banks and other normative documents, on the basis of which laws were later created.

In 1990, Terleckas was also a member of the group that went to Germany and Switzerland to negotiate the production of Lithuanian money. This was only the beginning of a long road towards finding national currency production and financing opportunities. Later he also took part in negotiating the amount, quality, price and other issues surrounding the national currency.

In 1991, the Science Centre was established in the Bank of Lithuania, employing many famous scientists, who were drafting laws and other legislative acts, various normative documents, conceptions, litas adoption programme and other legislature that helped strengthen the Bank of Lihuania’s operations and prepare for the bank and monetary system reform. Terleckas was the director of this centre, as well as a consultant for the Bank of Lithuania, Vladas Terleckas published quite a few monographs on Lithuanian banking and money, a textbook, three teaching tools for students and more than 400 articles on various topics. In 1999 and 2012, the Board of the Bank of Lithuania awarded Terleckas with Vladas Jurgutis award for the books and articles that he published on the topic of Lithuanian banking history in 1995–1999 and in 2011.