Shimkus, Ionas

(also Jonas Šimkus). Born Aug. 27, 1906, in Riga; died Oct. 28, 1965, in Vilnius. Soviet Lithuanian writer. Member of the CPSU from 1942.

Shimkus joined a group of anti-Fascist writers in the 1930’s. In 1940 he became editor of the newspaper Taribų Lietuvą (Soviet Lithuania), and from 1954 to 1958 he edited the journal Pergalė (Victory). His poetry was first published in 1925. Shimkus was the author of the collections of poems Behind the Door (1927) and Folk Tales of Cement (1929). In his articles of literary criticism, he supported the principles of socialist realism. His collections Stories (1953) and Tomorrow the Weather Will Be Good (1962) depicted the life of the Soviet people. Shimkus was chairman of the Writers’ Union of Lithuania from 1948 to 1954.

Shimkus was awarded four orders and various medals.