Teodoras Daukantas

Teodoras Daukantas was a Lithuanian military officer who served as Lithuanian Minister of Defense. In 1903–1918, Daukantas served in the Imperial Russian Navy. He attended Naval Training School at St. Petersburg (1903–1906). In 1911–1914, Daukantas attended High Naval Training School at St. Petersburg from which he graduated with a Silver Star in Naval Tactics Training. In 1913, he published The Defense of Abu-Alaud and in 1916, Essays on Naval Tactics. Later he published the articles "The Defense of Coasts", "The War on Rivers". He published the books The South of Brazil and Our Way to Vilnius. After World War I, Daukantas returned to Lithuania in 1922. He was head of education section of the Senior Officers Academy in Kaunas until 1924. Twice, in 1924–1925 and 1927–1928, he served as the Lithuanian Minister of Defense. In between serving as the Lithuanian Minister of Defense, he was the Chief of the General Staff of the Lithuanian Army. In his diary for 1927, American diplomat Robert Heingartner who served in Lithuania recorded that "Colonel Daukantas is said to be so powerful in the army that no government could last a day without his support." In 1928, he was promoted to brigadier general.