Vladas Stašinskas was born on 10 October 1874. He later became a lawyer, political figure and the second Chairman of the Bank of Lithuania, appointed to this position on 7 June 1930 under the Act of the Republic of Lithuania. He held this position until 1938, which was the longest period among all the Chairmen during the interwar period. He succeeded Vladas Jurgutis who was in office from the establishment of the Bank of Lithuania on 2 October 1922 until 31 October 1929.
Stašinskas was born in the village of Dameliai (the current-day district of Joniškis). At the same time as Antanas Smetona, he studied at Mintauja (Jelgava) Gymnasium. In 1902, he completed his legal studies at the University of Moscow. After returning to Lithuania, he started working as a lawyer in Kaunas and soon became well-known for being a qualified and eloquent specialist. Stašinskas also participated in political life and, in 1907, was elected to the Second State Duma where he spread the ideas of Lithuania’s autonomy. His left-wing views caused his incarceration during the Tsarist years. At the dawn of independence, Stašinskas took part in various organisations supporting the country’s autonomy. In 1917, he participated at the Vilnius Conference which adopted a resolution on establishing independent Lithuania.
When the Council of Lithuania was formed, Stašinskas became its principal clerical officer. In 1918, he took the position of the Minister of the Interior and served as an acting Minister for Food. A funny fact is that ministries did not have any vehicles or security at the time, thus Stašinskas and his colleagues once called a cabman but, after unsuccessful price negotiations, had to fend off him with a broomstick.
When Augustinas Voldemaras temporarily left the country in 1918, Stašinskas also became the acting Prime Minister.
In 1919, the government retreated to Kaunas. Stašinskas was against this decision, claiming that if Lithuanians do so, they will never be able to get Vilnius back. Therefore, he stayed in Vilnius and was arrested by the Bolsheviks. Interestingly, Stašinskas defended Bolsheviks (Zigmontas Antanas Angarietis, Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas and others) in court during the Tsarist period, but they no longer valued him and, therefore, Stašinskas was sentenced. However, he was valued in Lithuania, thus the Bolsheviks offered Lithuania to exchange prisoners and asked the country to release 10 Bolsheviks in exchange for Stašinskas.
On 23 July 1919, Stašinskas was set free and solemnly welcomed in Kaunas. He did not try to engage in politics anymore because his health had severely deteriorated in the Bolshevik prison. However, he was still active and continued his work as a lawyer. In 1920, Stašinskas was elected as the Chairman of the Lithuanian Bar Association. After that, he also worked as a legal advisor to various establishments (including the Bank of Lithuania) as well as contributed to the establishment of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union.
In 1931, Stašinskas was entrusted with a very important task – to protect Lithuania’s interests at the Hague International Tribunal in the case on Poland’s demand to open rail traffic across the demarcation line. The interests were protected.
When Stašinskas was appointed the Chairman of the Bank of Lithuania, he chose the motto: “Strong litas – the pillar of assets”. However, his appointment was viewed ambiguously. His former colleagues wrote in their memoirs that he did not enjoy this position, would often fall asleep during meetings and his deputies had to do all his work. However, this was probably not entirely true because Stašinskas had to lead the Bank of Lithuania during quite challenging times. 1931 marked the onset of the financial crisis in Lithuania. Gold reserves were diminishing and banks faced bankruptcy. However, these difficulties were overcome by making credit policy stricter and adopting other important decisions. A financial collapse was avoided and the stability of the litas was maintained. It is doubtful whether it would have been possible without Stašinskas’ decisions (even if they were made with great contribution from his advisors).
Probably the major mistake made during his time in office was legitimising the exchange of litas banknotes (no less than 20,000 litas) to gold bars or a convertible currency in 1931. An impending financial crisis was not foreseen even though it had already taken over large parts of the world.
On 30 September 1938, pursuant to a Presidential Act, Stašinskas was removed from the Chairman’s position at his own request and appointed the Minister of Justice. According to the same Act, the Chairman’s position was appointed to Juozas Tūbelis, who was then the Minister of Agriculture and for a long time before that – the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. This castling was probably a political decision. Tūbelis was very ill at the time and the husband of his wife’s sister, Antanas Smetona, probably got him a relatively less stressful position. Tūbelis remained at this post for a very short time because he passed away one year later.
In 1939, Stašinskas retired. During the Soviet occupation, he was deprived of his state pension and two of his manors in Kėdainiai district were confiscated. Around this time, he also fell ill. During the Nazi reign, he was already completely impoverished. The reinstated Bank of Lithuania granted him an allowance of 500 marks. Stašinskas died on 11 March 1944.
