Vytautas Merkys

Biography

Merkys graduated from Vilnius University's department of history and philology in 1951. In 1952 he began working at the Lithuanian SSR Institute of History, but for ideological reasons he was soon fired, along with Mečislovas Jučas. He returned to the Institute in 1953 as a fellow.

He initiated his candidacy for a doctorate of philosophy degree in 1957 with the thesis Revoliucinis Vilniaus miesto darbininkų judėjimas 1895–1904 m. (The Revolutionary Movement of Vilnius City Workers from 1895 to 1904), and in 1969 he was awarded a doctorate (the Soviet equivalent of habilitation) for his dissertation Lietuvos pramonės augimas ir proletariato formavimasis XIX amžiuje (The Growth of Lithuanian Industry and the Formation of the Proletariat in the 19th Century).

In 1986 he left the Institute and was designated head of the Department of Economic History at the Lithuanian SSR Academy of Sciences. He returned to the Institute of History in 1987 and became its director. Between 1992 and 2000 he was a senior fellow there. Merkys has been a professor at Vilnius University since 1991, and was a professor at Vytautas Magnus University from 1993 to 2000. In 1990 he was elected to the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and since 2001 he has been a member of the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Sciences.

Vytautas Merkys received the Lithuanian presidential award, Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, third class, in 1995.

Awards and recognition

Important works

Vytautas Merkys' principal works focus on Lithuanian 19th-century and early 20th century history, especially the Lithuanian national revival, the Lithuanian book smuggling movement during the ban on the Lithuanian press, the work of the 19th-century historian Simonas Daukantas, and the life of the 19th-century bishop Motiejus Valančius.