Edvardas Turauskas (30 May 1896 – 12 September 1966) was a Lithuanian diplomat.
He started law studies at the Saint Petersburg University, but they were interrupted by the October Revolution. In Lithuania, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which sent him to work at the Lithuanian legation in Switzerland. At the same time, he completed his philosophy and law studies at the University of Fribourg. He was chargés d'affaires ad interim to Switzerland from June 1922 to the closing of the Lithuanian mission in August 1923. He then moved to Paris to study law at the University of Paris. He returned to Lithuania in 1926 and as a member of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party was elected to the Third Seimas (parliament). He became editor of the daily newspaper (1927–1928) and director of ELTA, Lithuanian news agency (1928–1934). At the same time, he was active in Lithuanian public life. He was elected chairman of the Ateitis Federation of Catholic youth, active member of various Catholic societies, and author and translator of several booklets. In 1934, Turauskas was appointed as the envoy to Czechoslovakia and later to Romania and Yugoslavia. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, he returned to Lithuania and became director of the Political Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He had to coordinate Lithuania's response to the outbreak of World War II and the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty. In March 1940, he became representative to the League of Nations and a deputy of Jurgis Šaulys, Lithuanian envoy to Switzerland. After the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in June 1940, he worked to protect and preserve the Lithuanian Diplomatic Service as representative of independent Lithuania thus preserving legal continuity of the Lithuanian state. He continued to represent Lithuania at the League of Nations until it was closed in 1946. He then retired from the diplomatic service and moved to Paris. He continued to be involved with various international and Lithuanian Catholic and anti-Soviet organizations, including Pax Romana, Assembly of Captive European Nations, European Movement International, Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania, American Lithuanian Council, United Lithuanian Relief Fund of America, until his death in 1966.
Biography
Early life and education
Turauskas was born in Endriejavas, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire. He was the only son of a sacristan who organized book smuggling during the Lithuanian press ban. After a local primary school in Endriejavas, Turauskas studied in Telšiai. From 1912, he chaired Ateitininkai (Catholic youth) student group. In spring 1915, due to World War I, he evacuated into Russia and attended schools in Babruysk (evacuated from Kiev) and Saratov until finally graduating from a Lithuanian school (evacuated from Vilkaviškis) in Voronezh in 1917. In fall 1917, he enrolled at the Saint Petersburg University to study law, but the studies were interrupted by the October Revolution. He wrote articles and assisted in editing Catholic weekly Vadas. He helped Lithuanians persecuted by the new communist regime and had to go into hiding himself.
He returned to Lithuania in fall 1918 and joined the board of the Catholic Action Center and traveled across Samogitia organizing its local chapters. He briefly worked at the Press Bureau attached to the government of Lithuania. In March 1919, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent Turauskas to Bern in Switzerland to work at the Lithuanian legation with Vaclovas Sidzikauskas. At the same time, he underwent treatments to improve his poor health and studied philosophy and later law at the University of Fribourg. After graduation, he was promoted to the secretary of the Lithuanian legation in November 1921. When Sidzikauskas was moved to Berlin in June 1922, Turauskas headed the Lithuanian legation in Switzerland until it was closed in August 1923. With a stipend from the ministry, Turauskas studied law at the University of Paris. During his studies, he met Hungarian who depicted him as a character in his novel Párizsi eső (Paris Rain). He also met French writer and journalist and inspired him to write more than 200 articles and several books on Lithuania. He completed doctoral studies, but did not submit this PhD thesis. In Paris he met Elena Jankauskaitė, daughter of a Lithuanian chef working at the Hôtel Ritz Paris, and they were married by Justinas Staugaitis at the Telšiai Cathedral on 8 August 1926. They had no children.