Outstanding economist Vladas Terleckas wins prestigious Vladas Jurgutis Award this year

“This research work of Vladas Terleckas is really worth Vladas Jurgutis Award. The author carried out an extensive search for archival sources and literature, was the first to look into the archives of credit institutions that were in operation in Lithuania at the time of Tsarist Russia. This study is as if an extension to the investigation of the treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 17^th century by another laureate of Vladas Jurgutis Award, academician Antanas Tyla”, professor Vaidievutis Geralavičius, member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania and Chairman of Vladas Jurgutis Award Commission said.     

The monograph “Banking in Lithuania 1795–1915” (in Lithuanian Bankininkystė Lietuvoje 1795–1915 m.) by Vladas Terleckas contains a lot of interesting and important information about the landownership russification process in Lithuania, credit institutions unknown by then – Jewish interest free credit societies, other phenomena and personalities of the financial world from the investigated period.

It is already the fourth monograph of Terleckas. The first book "The Bank of Lithuania 1922-1943” was published in 1997, the second one “The History of Banking in Lithuania 1918-1941” appeared in libraries in 2000. A year later, the third book “Lithuanian bankers. Imprints of the Lives and Works 1918-1940” was published.

Celebrating the 75^th anniversary of the Bank of Lithuania and the issuance of national currency Litas in 1997, the Bank of Lithuania established Vladas Jurgutis Award to perpetuate the merits of professor, academician and the first governor of the Bank of Lithuania Vladas Jurgutis to banking in Lithuania. The Award is granted for significant works in the areas of banking, finance, monetary and macroeconomic research in Lithuania.    

In 2008, the Bank of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences agreed on joint granting of Vladas Jurgutis Award.  Currently its amount is 50 thousand litas.

In accordance with the regulations for granting the Award, the laureate of the Award is publicly announced on Vladas Jurgutis' birthday – November 5th. This year’s laureate will be honoured in December this year at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius.  

Since the beginning of its establishment Vladas Jurgutis Award has already been granted for a sixth time.   

Vladas Jurgutis, who was born in 1885 in Palanga, headed the Bank of Lithuania in 1922-1929. He was the President of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in 1942-1943. In 1943, Vladas Jurgutis together with a group of Lithuanian intellectuals appeared in Stutthoff concentration camp for criticizing the Nazis. In 1945 he returned to Lithuania, for some time was a professor at Vilnius University, but lost the job shortly because of falling from favour of the Soviets. He died on 9 January 1966 and was buried in Palanga. 

The Bank of Lithuania has also established Vladas Jurgutis Scholarship. It is awarded every year to two best performing full-time students of banking and finance at Republic of Lithuania universities.

Economic and financial education