Balys Sruoga (2 February 1896 – 16 October 1947) was a Lithuanian poet, playwright, critic, and literary theorist.
He contributed to cultural journals from his early youth. His works were published by the liberal wing of the Lithuanian cultural movement, and also in various Lithuanian newspapers and other outlets (such as Aušrinė, Rygos naujienos etc.). In 1914, he began studying literature in Saint Petersburg, and later in Moscow, due to World War I and the Russian Revolution. In 1921, he enrolled in the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, where in 1924 he received his Ph.D. for a doctoral thesis on the relations between Lithuanian and Slavic folk songs. Sruoga was also the first translator of Anna Akhmatova's poetry, which he likely completed between November 1916 and early 1917.
After returning to Lithuania, Sruoga taught at the University of Lithuania and established a theater seminar that eventually became a course of study. He also wrote various articles on literature. From 1930, he began writing dramas. In 1939, he began teaching at Vilnius University. Shortly after the annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, Sruoga relocated to Vilnius, where he continued lecturing on theater. However, during the Nazi occupation of the country, as an intellectual, Sruoga was arrested, imprisoned, and later deported to the Stutthof concentration camp. He wrote of his experience in the camp in the novel Forest of the Gods. After the camp was liberated by Soviet troops, the frail author died two years later in 1947.
Early life
Studies in Lithuania
Balys Sruoga was born on 2 February 1896 in the village of (near modern-day Panevėžys), then the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire. Balys's parents, Pranciškus Sruoga and Agota Sruogienė (née Lomanaitė) also raised Juozas Sruoga (1886–1957), a diplomat; Adolfas Sruoga (1887–1941), director of postal services; and Kazys Sruoga (1899–1974), an economist. Their parents had a large amount of land, but were nevertheless peasants. Future Prime Minister of Lithuania Ernestas Galvanauskas was a distant relative of the Sruoga family. As was standard at the time, before beginning official education, Sruoga attended a private secret school that was set up at his home. He attended a school of the Vabalninkas parish in 1903. From 1906 to 1914, Sruoga attended the Panevėžys real school, where he belonged to the socialist Aušrininkai society and became its leader in the city. Sruoga was an active participant and organizer of the city's music and drama society Aidas. Although reserved in nature, Sruoga became known for his literary school work; he later printed poems, articles, and correspondences in newspapers such as Aušrinė, Rygos naujienos, and the Vaivorykštė magazine.
Studies in Russia
thumb|right|150px|Balys Sruoga in 1915
Although he initially wanted to study philology in Moscow, instead in 1914 Sruoga traveled to St. Petersburg, where he first studied at the Imperial Forestry Institute, but later changed to studying literature in 1915. In the city, Sruoga experienced a psychological crisis mainly due to loneliness and homesickness. Sruoga was one of the editors of the Lithuanian literary almanac in the Russian language. To assist Sruoga in his living standards, Sruoga was invited to work at the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers by Stasys Šilingas and Adomas Varnas, where he had prepared a technical terms glossary that has not survived. In St. Petersburg, Sruoga was also acquainted with Ignas Šeinius, Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Konstantin Balmont, Vyacheslav Ivanov, and Maxim Gorky. Sruoga continued translating the works of Mykolas Vaitkus, Maironis, Sofija Čiurlionienė, Ignas Šeinius, and others.
In 1916, Sruoga moved to Moscow, where he began attending the Imperial Moscow University at the faculty of history and philology. In Moscow, Sruoga was attracted by the symbolist movement as well as the works and ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche. Due to the outbreak of the October Revolution, Sruoga's language almanac was not published. Sruoga visited the Caucasus in 1917. A year later, due to the increasing chaos and famine, Sruoga and other war refugees returned to Lithuania in 1918.
Life in Lithuania
thumb|left|150px|Balys Sruoga as a student in Munich, 1923
After returning to Lithuania, Sruoga lived in Vilnius. However, as military tensions between newly independent Lithuania and Poland were rising (which would culminate in the Polish–Lithuanian War), Sruoga decided to leave Vilnius and traveled to Kaunas on foot in 1919, where Sruoga worked as the chief editor of the newspaper Lietuva. That same year he was elected as the first president of the Vilkolakis Theatre. There he met his future wife Vanda Daugirdaitė-Sruogienė. For example, he wrote "A man is not a machine. He gets tired.", referring to the guards beating prisoners. Originally, the novel was suppressed by the Soviet officials; it was ultimately published in 1957, ten years after the author's death. becoming the most profitable film released after Lithuania restored its independence.
Sruogas's experiences in the concentration camp were written with elements of the grotesque, where dark humor creates an image of an absurd world. The novel is generally compared to Western existentialist literature due to motifs of dehumanization and the fall of civilization – the camp is presented at the beginning of the book as a resort, and German culture is presented as passing from "baroque" to "barrack". He is the namesake of a street in Antakalnis.