Jurgis Savickis (4 May 1890 – 22 December 1952) was a Lithuanian short story writer and diplomat representing interwar Lithuania mostly in the Scandinavian countries.

Born to a family of well-off Lithuanian farmers, Savickis attended a gymnasium in Moscow and studied painting at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków. During World War I, he was sent as a delegate of the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers to Denmark to care for Lithuanian POWs in Germany. After the war, he was recognized as the official Lithuanian representative in Denmark and later in Norway and Sweden. In 1923–1927, he was posted in Finland. In 1927–1929, he worked in Kaunas as the director of the Law and Administration Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as director of the Kaunas State Drama Theatre. He returned to the diplomatic service and represented Lithuania in Sweden (1930–1937), Latvia (1937–1938), and the League of Nations (1938–1940). After the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in June 1940, Savickis retired in his villa in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin near Monaco in the South of France.

During his life, Savickis published three collections of short stories, one novel, and four travel books. He was one of the first to introduce literary modernism (with elements of Expressionism, Impressionism, and Existentialism, though his works don't neatly fit any particular literary movement) to Lithuanian literature.^[1] As his works departed literary realism, they were not well received by contemporary critics who thought his works were too foreign and too removed from Lithuanian realities. Savickis, having lived abroad for most of his life, reflected aesthetics of modern Western European bourgeois. His works feature sharp and playful wit and irony and succinct and finely tuned sentences. His works were influenced by his interest in painting (abundance of colors, character sketches), theatre (characters as actors, stage setting), and film (dynamic montage of fragments). His narrator is an observer from a certain emotional distance that leaves it up to the reader to finish what is not said.

Savickis was born on 4 May [O.S. 22 April] 1890 in the Pagausantys [lt] village near Ariogala to a family of well-off Lithuanian farmers who owned about 80 hectares (200 acres) of land.^[1] His paternal grandmother was of Lithuanian nobility stock and the family took pride in this heritage, on occasion referring to their farm as a manor. Savickis was the oldest of twelve children, but only five of them reached adulthood.^[1] There is no information available on his childhood, but researchers believe that he received education in Ariogala and Kaunas. In 1902, his uncle took him to Moscow where he attended the 6th Gymnasium. He was not a great student and received "satisfactory" grades in most of his classes.^[2] In fall 1911, he continued his studies at the higher agrarian courses in Saint Petersburg (predecessor of the Saint Petersburg State Agrarian University), but dropped out after a few months and returned to Moscow to study art.^[2] His family disapproved this decision and ceased providing financial support to Savickis. From November 1913 to summer 1914, Savickis attended the School of Fine Arts in Kraków. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I.^[2]

He returned to his native Pagausantys. In fall 1915, he evacuated to Saint Petersburg and joined the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers which sent him as a representative to Kopenhagen, Denmark, a neutral country.^[2] Savickis was tasked with working with the Red Cross to organize the relief efforts for Lithuanian POWs in Germany. He also promoted the Lithuanian cause for independence by writing articles for the Danish press and publishing books and postcards.^[1] In October 1917, he attended the Lithuanian conference in Stockholm, which recognized the Council of Lithuania as the legitimate representative of the Lithuanian nation and reiterated Lithuania's desire for full independence.^[2] On 1 January 1919, the newly established Ministry of Foreign Affairs recognized Savickis as the official representative of Lithuania to Denmark.^[3] Lithuania suffered severe financial difficulties and allotted very limited funds for its representatives abroad. Therefore, Savickis incurred personal debts and could not organize more active representation. In turn, the Ministry complained of Savickis' lax bookkeeping practices.^[2] In January 1922, he was officially recognized as chargés d'affaires ad interim in Denmark and a month later in Norway and Sweden.^[3] In December 1923, the legation was closed due to financial difficulties and Savickis was reassigned to Helsinki, Finland.^[2]

After the coup d'état in December 1926, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augustinas Voldemaras, concentrated his attention on the main powers in Europe and paid a lot less interest to the Scandinavian countries and the legation in Finland was closed on 1 July 1927.^[4] The decision was hastened by a local scandal when Savickis was criticized by a local metal workers' union and he vowed to pursue legal action against them.^[2] Savickis was reassigned to Kaunas to become director of the Law and Administration Department of the Ministry in September 1927. At the same time, he was appointed as director of the troubled Kaunas State Drama Theatre.^[2] Savickis was not particularly interested in running the theatre and was a hands-off manager. Nevertheless, he managed to improve its financial condition, recruit talented actors, and stage Šarūnas by Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius.^[1]

In September 1929, Minister Voldemaras was ousted by President Antanas Smetona and Savickis was again offered a diplomatic position abroad. He accepted a position in the reestablished Lithuanian legation in Stockholm. On 1 January 1930, he became Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.^[3] The Scandinavian countries showed little interest in Lithuanian politics or economy and Savickis concentrated on cultural exchanges.^[2] He prepared and publish an album of Lithuanian art in Swedish (1931) and French (1934) as well as a collection of Lithuanian short stories in Swedish (1940).^[5] He traveled across Europe via car and visited northern Africa; he published three travel books.^[6] In 1935, he started the construction of a villa, which he named after Ariogala, in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, located next to Monaco in the South of France.^[7] At the end of 1937, he was reassigned to Riga, Latvia, where he served for a little less than a year before moving to Geneva, Switzerland, to work as the Lithuanian representative to the League of Nations.^[3] During his tenure, Germany ultimatum forced Lithuania to give up the Klaipėda Region (Memelland) in March 1939. At the end of 1939, two Lithuanian legations in Geneva and Bern were consolidated, leaving Jurgis Šaulys in Switzerland and moving Savickis to Kaunas. He was offered a position in the Propaganda Department, but refused.^[2]

At the time of the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in June 1940, Savickis was resting in his villa in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. He did not join the Lithuanian Diplomatic Service which continued to represent independent Lithuania,^[2] but he was visited by Lithuanian diplomats, including Petras Klimas, Edvardas Turauskas, Stasys Antanas Bačkis, as well as writer Jonas Aistis.^[8] He earned a living from his farm and devoted time to writing. He decorated his villa with works of Lithuanian artists. Not being a very practical farmer, he struggled financially.^[1] He died in December 1952 and was buried in the local cemetery. His remains were later relocated to the more central and prestigious part of the cemetery by the Lithuanian Writers' Society of the United States. The villa was sold by the government and later demolished.^[8]

Savickis was married twice. In 1916, Savickis married Ida Trakiner, a dentist,^[1] daughter of a wealthy Jewish factory owner in Saint Petersburg. They had two sons, Algirdas and Augustinas [lt].^[13] Their marriage was not happy and after a prolonged process they finally divorced in 1935 or 1936.^[2] Both sons were interested in painting and attended art schools.^[14][13] During World War II, Algirdas voluntarily entered the Kaunas Ghetto to be with his Jewish wife and was shot in 1943.^[15] Ida Trakiner was hiding with Savickis' brother, but hung herself.^[13] Augustinas sympathized with communists and retreated into Russia. He returned to Lithuania with the 50th (Lithuanian) Reserve Riffle Division and became a well known painter, awarded the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts in 1999.^[13]

Savickis married Inge Geisler, a Danish woman who worked as his secretary, in December 1936.^[2][16] They adopted an Italian boy, but separated in 1948.^[1] They were not officially divorced and Savickis lived the last year of his live with Mary Albine Koh (or Maria Kock),^[10] a Dutch woman who burned Savickis' archives and manuscripts after his death. She claimed that it was done according to the last wishes of Savickis.^[1]

• List of Lithuanian diplomats (1918–1940)