Jurgis Bielinis

Who was Jurgis Bielinis?

Jurgis Bielinis was one of the main organizers of illegal book-smuggling at the time of the Lithuanian press ban. He was also a publicist and contributor to Lithuanian newspapers Aušra and Varpas. Bielinis used pseudonyms Bieliakas, Jakulis, and is informally referred to as King of Knygnešiai. It is estimated, that during 31 years when he was active, Bielinis and his organizations illegally brought about half of all Lithuanian books from the East Prussia into the Lithuanian mainland during the entire press ban.