Povilas Matulionis (17 September 1860 – 15 March 1932) was a Lithuanian forester, often named as the "father" of scientific forestry in Lithuania. He was an activist of the Lithuanian National Revival and vice minister of agriculture and state resources from July 1919 to January 1924.
Educated at the Forestry Institute in Saint Petersburg, Matulionis worked for the Foresters' Corps of the Russian Empire from 1889 to 1918. He lived in Vilnius in 1894–1907 which allowed him to join Lithuanian cultural life and became a member of the Twelve Apostles of Vilnius and later the Lithuanian Mutual Aid Society of Vilnius. He directed the first Lithuanian theater performances in the city and organized the first legal five-year co-ed Lithuanian school.
When Lithuania regained independence, Matulionis led the country's Forestry Department (1918–1921) and was vice minister of agriculture and state resources (1919–1924). In March–April 1919, he was effectively the minister as no minister was selected in the short-lived government of the prime minister Pranas Dovydaitis. In 1921, Matulionis started teaching forestry at the agricultural technical school in Dotnuva. He officially became professor and director of the Forestry Department of University of Lithuania in January 1923. Agricultural and forestry subjects were transferred to the dedicated Agriculture Academy in Dotnuva (present-day Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy). Matulionis was the first rector of the Agriculture Academy (1924–1928). The forestry section of the academy was closed and Matulionis retired in December 1928.
Matulionis published more than 150 works, which included a number of articles and books on forestry, a dictionary of about 3,000 Lithuanian plant names, and a color poster with a calendar indicating the breeding seasons of various fish species. He compiled a topographic map of Lithuania and made a plaster model of the topography of Lithuania and Latvia in 1922. He also co-authored the first Lithuanian math textbook in 1885 and published a poetry collection in 1888.
Biography Early life and education Matulionis was born on into a family of Lithuanian peasants. He was the youngest of ten children; two of his siblings died in childhood. He learned to read at home and attended a primary school in . He graduated with excellent grades in 1873, but his father had died and he had no funds for further education. Nevertheless, with two other local boys he enrolled into the in November 1874.
He struggled financially and for some time slept in a dormitory hallway because he could not afford to rent a room. He later earned some money by tutoring and also received a government stipend of 150 Russian rubles per year. He was a good student, particularly in history, geography, and mathematics. He completed the main course in June 1881, but lacked chemistry which was needed to attend a technical school. Therefore, he took another year of chemistry classes. He considered various Russian educational institutions but had no funds. Convinced by a local priest, he briefly enrolled into the Kaunas Priest Seminary in 1882. He was judged unfit for military service and thus avoided conscription to the Russian Army.
In 1883, he took exams for the in Saint Petersburg and was placed on a waiting list. Matulionis was briefly arrested in connection with the murder of the police chief Georgy Sudeykin. He was released but ordered to leave Saint Petersburg. He returned to Dinaburg and worked as a tutor. In 1885, he tried again and this time was accepted into the Forestry Institute in Saint Petersburg. To be admitted, he had to provide a letter from Prince , Governor of Vitebsk that he was not politically suspect. He was a good student and, after the second year, received a government stipend of 30 rubles per month.
Forestry in the Russian Empire After his graduation in 1889, Matulionis was offered an assistant's position at the Forestry Institute, but he refused. Matulionis joined the Foresters' Corps of the Ministry of State Property and was assigned as a deputy forester of the forest district of Opochka in Pskov Governorate in November 1889. In Opochka, Matulionis met Sofija Rožnovska, daughter of a nobleman with Polish roots. Sofija was sixteen years his junior; they wed in May 1893. The couple had three children: a daughter and two sons.
At the beginning of his career, Matulionis was ranked as District Secretary (12th class) according to the Table of Ranks. He was promoted every few years, eventually reaching State Councilor (5th class) in 1909. In April 1892, he was assigned as junior tax collector (assessor) to the forests near Kholm. In 1894, he was assigned to Vilnius even though Catholics were not supposed to be assigned to the Northwestern Krai according to Russification policies. This allowed him to join Lithuanian cultural life in Vilnius and became a member of the Twelve Apostles of Vilnius and later the Lithuanian Mutual Aid Society of Vilnius.
In March 1898, Matulionis was promoted to senior tax collector. He worked in the forests near Kuršėnai, Rumšiškės, Karmėlava and other areas of Vilna and Kovno Governorates. That meant that he was working on site in the various forests from around April to November. Additionally, in 1900, he was tasked with taking care of the imperial park in Vilnius (present-day Vingis Park). After completing major field projects in 1904, he had a more sedentary office job until 1907.
For three months in 1906, Matulionis worked to investigate stoppages at and to restart the production. In summer 1907, he was assigned to inventory the forests near Suoyarvi in the Vyborg Governorate. At the same time, he was promoted to forest inspector (only six such positions existed in the Russian Empire in 1908). It was an untouched large forest covering some 1.4 million dessiatins. With a crew of 18 people, Matulionis completed the task by 1909.
In 1908, the Russian Empire established twelve forestry regions, each of which covered several governorates. Matulionis was appointed as the chief of the 2nd region covering four governorates with the headquarters in Veliky Novgorod. In 1910, the regions were reorganized increasing their number to fifteen. He remained chief of the 2nd region which was enlarged to cover six governorates (Estonia, Livonia, Courland, Novgorod, Smolensk, and Vitebsk Governorates) and moved its headquarters to Smolensk where Matulionis lived during World War I.
During the war, Matulionis participated in the activities of the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers in Smolensk. He supported the proposed nationalization of forests after the February Revolution. After the October Revolution, the new Bolshevik government eliminated the position of forest inspector. Matulionis was appointed as the forestry commissar of Vitebsk Governorate and was tasked with inventoring the nationalized forests. He was chairman of a revolutionary committee in Smolensk and he was considered for the position of forestry commissar of the entire Soviet Russia.
Activism in Vilnius In 1894, Matulionis was posted to Vilnius and joined city's Lithuanian cultural life. According to Felicija Bortkevičienė, to get the job in Vilnius, he took a pay cut and obstructed those of his promotions that would have him posted in Russia. She further claimed that Matulionis spent one-third of his salary on Lithuanian activities. He used his status as a Tsarist official to help Lithuanian activists avoid trouble with the Tsarist authorities.
Twelve Apostles of Vilnius Around 1894–1895, several Lithuanians in Vilnius gathered in an informal club which became known as the Twelve Apostles of Vilnius. Matulionis was one of its first members though as a Tsarist official he avoided public association with the group. At the time, no church in Vilnius held masses in Lithuanian. Therefore, the first major task of the club was to get the Church of Saint Nicholas assigned to the Lithuanian community. Matulionis, Donatas Malinauskas, Andrius Domaševičius, and Kazimieras Landsbergis delivered the first known petition with about 300 signatures to the auxiliary bishop in May 1896, but it was rejected.
In 1900–1901, the club organized three secret and illegal amateur theater performances that were directed by Matulionis. In primitive conditions, club members staged simple comedies by Johann Baptist von Schweitzer, , and Žemaitė with Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė.
Lithuanian Mutual Aid Society of Vilnius The club of Twelve Apostles established the official and legal Lithuanian Mutual Aid Society of Vilnius in January 1904. Matulionis was elected to its board during the founding meeting on 14 March 1904. He was briefly society's chairman in 1906 replacing Antanas Vileišis and was selected as honorary member of the society in 1908.
With the Lithuanian Mutual Aid Society, Matulionis worked to establish a shelter for children at the Church of Saint Nicholas and then transform it into a legal five-year co-ed Lithuanian school. Matulionis and Antanas Vileišis were the official founders of the school in March 1907. They also organized a shelter for Lithuanian female servants that opened in October 1906 (these activities later grew into the independent Society of Saint Zita).
During 1905, Matulionis directed several plays that the Lithuanian Mutual Aid Society organized in hopes of raising funds for its operations. However, such cultural evenings were in competition with the events organized by the Kanklės of Vilnius Society chaired by Gabrielius Landsbergis-Žemkalnis; Matulionis disliked Landsbergis-Žemkalnis and became less active in the amateur theater. His last play was the historical tragedy Živilė by Vincas Nagornoskis staged in fall 1908. Theater historian considered Landsbergis-Žemkalnis to be the "father of Lithuanian theater", while Jonas Strazdas-Jaunutis and Romualdas Deltuvas argued that it should be Matulionis.
Political activities Matulionis and others wrote a letter to Tsar Nicholas II thanking him for lifting the Lithuanian press ban in May 1904. It was signed by 155 Lithuanian activists. Varpas criticized the letter and the activists as bootlickers, but the letter was not actually delivered to the Tsar as it read more like a veiled complaint about Russification than a genuine expression of gratitude.
During the Russian Revolution of 1905, Matulionis joined a revolutionary committee in Vilnius and signed a protest letter against excesses of the Tsarist police. He helped organize the Great Seimas of Vilnius and personally delivered a request to allow the Seimas to the Governor-General of Vilnius, but did not officially participate in it. He joined the () which was organized a few days after the Seimas.
Matulionis was a critic of the bishop of Vilnius Edward Ropp. He published a feuilleton in Vilniaus žinios attacking Ropp when he suspended the Lithuanian priest Juozapas Ambraziejus. He also signed a letter, first published in the Russian press, criticizing the organizers of the First Lithuanian Art Exhibition for inviting Ropp to its opening. Matulionis later recanted his signature.
Other societies In January 1905, Matulionis became one of the co-founders of the Aušra book publishing company which was initiated by Jonas Jablonskis. He also assisted in organizing the Lithuanian Scientific Society and was elected its vice-chairman during its founding meeting in April 1907. He became a member of a committee working to build the National House, headquarters for the society, but it was never built due to financial difficulties and the start of World War I. In 1908, Matulionis donated 114 books to the society's library.