Aleksandras Bendinskas (23 February 1920 – 25 September 2015) was a member of the anti-Soviet resistance in Lithuania and, after the independence of Lithuania, a member of its parliament, Seimas.

Biography

Bendinskas was born to a peasant family in Skersabalis village, Marijampolė district, Lithuania on 23 February 1920.^[1]

Bendinskas enrolled in the Technical Faculty at the Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas in 1938, graduating in 1944. Between 1940 and 1943 he worked as a technician and, later, manager at company Parama. Between 1943 and 1945 Bendinskas also lectured at the Higher Trading School in Kaunas.^[2]

In 1941, Bendinskas was an active participant in June Uprising in Lithuania, directed against the occupying Soviet forces. In 1945 the returning Soviet authorities imprisoned Bendinskas for anti-Soviet activities; he remained in Soviet gulags until 1956.^[3]

In 1960, Bendinskas graduated from Moscow Institute of Textile as an engineer-technician. Upon returning to Lithuania, he joined the anti-Soviet resistance activities, helping to publish and distribute banned literature and newspapers. Bendinskas worked as a mechanic in various factories, as a constructor in a design and construction bureau and as a craftsman at a vocational school.^[1]

Upon Lithuanian independence, he became the first commander of the restored Lithuanian Riflemen's Union.^[2] In the elections in 1992, Bendinskas represented the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania and was elected as the member of the Sixth Seimas through its electoral list.^[1]

Bendinskas died on 25 September 2015.^[2]

References