The well-known journalist Mykolas Drunga died

As LRT radio reported, Mykolas Drunga, a well-known Lithuanian and US Lithuanian journalist and public figure, died at the age of 76.

Mykolas Jurgis Drunga was born in 1948. April 20 in Tübingen. in 1959 moved with his family to the USA, to New York, later to Chicago.

M. Drunga in 1972 together with others founded the radio program “Garso bangos” and until 1976 organized cultural shows regarding Lithuanian literature and music in English. He won the Armstrong prize for the program regarding MKČiurlionis’ music.

VIDEO: Loss: journalist Mykolas Drunga died

Since 1990 editor of the Lithuanian broadcasts of the company “Laisvosios Europos radijas/Laisvės radijas” in Munich, since 1995. – In Prague. When George W. Bush stopped financing the radio station because of the war in Iraq, he came to Lithuania. Since 2004 was a collaborator of Vytautas Magnus University’s Emigration Studies Center, Lithuanian Radio.

M. Drunga 1960-1989 participated in the activities of the “Santara-Šviesa” society, was a member of the society’s board. 1979-1988 – Councils of the Lithuanian community in the USA, 1979-1982, 1985 member of its presidium, 1983-1987. Member of the Board of the World Lithuanian Community, Chairman of the Press and Information Commission. 1984-1989 Member of the Council of the Lithuanian Foundation.

Photo by A. Madziliauskas/

Also in 1980-1990 M. Drunga was a translator for the publishing house “Lithuanian Library Press”. He collaborated with the magazines Akiračiai, Metmenys, Naujasis Židinys-Aidai.

Interview with Ignas Staškevičius in 2020 In July M. Drunga said: “Since I was born in Germany, I grew up in a Lithuanian family, so my two native languages ​​were Lithuanian and German. I was born in 1948, and there was already a lot of Lithuanian literature written by refugees from Lithuania. They ran for their lives, but many of them, out of regarding 60 thousand, were from the intelligentsia. In Germany, they mostly settled in refugee camps – English, American and French.

We lived in the occupied part of France, and they didn’t have refugee camps, they housed refugees in apartments that were left empty or rented because the owners died in the war. I learned Lithuanian and German as a child, so I read German encyclopedias and was very interested, first of all I always looked at what was written in them regarding Lithuania. And I found texts regarding Lithuania, and that’s pretty good. I used to read books.

From sports, I was only interested in swimming, I really liked swimming, but otherwise I didn’t do sports. I am not and was not sporty in my childhood. And I didn’t do business because there were few opportunities in the French area.

Well, some used to trade goods in the camps to make a living. I became interested in culture, but mostly in music, classical music. I loved her, I loved her, and then the visual arts also contributed to that. And I read a lot of literature, I read fairy tales, German literature, then Lithuanian literature, as much as it was available, because foreigners published books.”

– From your point of view, what is culture in general? Often everyone uses this word – culture, there is the Ministry of Culture, the Minister of Culture. What is culture?

– Culture is everything that a person creates. This is what makes culture different from nature, because man does not create nature, the physical world, but only participates in it. And culture is human creation.

This is perhaps one, but the most important description of culture. Other definitions of the term “culture” are a bit narrower, but I like the broader one, I use it and suggest others use it. Culture is everything that man creates. Dot.

Read the full interview here: Igna Staškevičius’ conversation with Mykolas Drunga: “I ruined the revolution”.