Lithuanian Red Cross Society
National Red Cross Society in Lithuania
The Lithuanian Red Cross (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Raudonasis kryžius) was founded in 1919. It was reestablished after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Seimas, the Lithuanian parliament, passed a Red Cross law in 2000. The society has its headquarters in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
The society's departments include: the Financial Department, the First Aid Training Department, the Humanitarian Aid Department, the International Humanitarian Law Department, the Refugee Department, the Social Welfare Department, the Tracing Department, and the Youth Department.
History
Before World War I, a branch of the Russian Red Cross was active in Lithuania, organising courses for nurses. In 1919, the independent Lithuanian Red Cross was established on the joint initiative of Rokas Šliūpas, Jurgis Alekna and Vladas Ingelevičius.
In 1919, it was decided that two Red Cross hospitals should be established in Kaunas and one in Panevėžys, with a further hospital being opened in Klaipėda in 1932. Schools of the Sisters of Mercy were set up in 1919 and 1932, the latter in Klaipėda. In 1922, a laboratory for orthopaedic equipment was opened in Kaunas.
“Lithuanian Red Cross Society” enters the record as national Red Cross Society in Lithuania. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lithuanian, Cross and Society can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Lithuanian Red Cross Society” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Lithuanian, Cross and Society provides the most credible route into that argument.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6648412. VIAF identifies the subject as 7707154260840324480004. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 2000, 1932 and 1922.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lithuanian Red Cross Society” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.