Leonas Bistras

Leonas Bistras was one of the most prominent Lithuanian politicians of the interwar period. A Christian Democrat, he was appointed as Prime Minister of Lithuania in 1925. Bistras also headed the ministries of education, defense, and foreign affairs in several different governments throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and twice served as the speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas. After the 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état and the subsequent fall of parliamentary democracy, Bistras led the Christian Democrats and, despite persecution, acted as an outspoken leader of the opposition to the authoritarian President Antanas Smetona.