“To Bring Science Closer to the People...” 120th Anniversary of Prof. Kazimieras Baršauskas

“To Bring Science Closer to the People…” 120th Anniversary of Prof. Kazimieras Baršauskas

13 May 2024 would mark the 120^th anniversary of Prof. Kazimieras Baršauskas, Rector of Kaunas Polytechnic Institute (Kaunas University of Technology since 1990). Prof. K. Baršauskas (1904-1964) was a Doctor of Physics, Head of the Department of Physics at Kaunas State Vytautas Magnus University, Dean of the Faculty of Technology and later of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, and Rector of Kaunas Polytechnic Institute. Under his leadership, Kaunas Polytechnic Institute became one of the most important higher education institutions in the Baltic countries occupied by the USSR, educating almost 7000 engineers during the 13 years of his leadership, establishing close links with manufacturing, and establishing departments of evening and part-time studies in the largest Lithuanian cities. Prof. Baršauskas was a brilliant organiser and a gifted scientist, as well as courageous and humane leader, who matured in independent Lithuania and preserved patriotism, nationalism, respect and compassion for the people under the Soviet system. When K. Baršauskas died, the exiles and political prisoners who worked and studied at KPI lost their greatest intercessor and supporter. On the occasion of the 110th anniversary of Prof. K. Baršauskas at KTU, his sister Viktorija told us that when she asked her brother why he was working so hard by organising KPI departments in other cities, K. Baršauskas replied: “To bring science closer to the people. When there are more educated people, Lithuania will not lose its national identity.”

The exhibition uses photographs and documents from KTU Museum, KTU Archive, KTU Photo Archive and the family archive of Prof. K. Baršauskas. The exhibition is prepared by the Head of KTU Museum Dr. Audronė Veilentienė.

Childhood and the Path to Education

Kazimieras Baršauskas was born in a large farmer’s family on 13 May 1904 in Gižai Village in Vilkaviškis County. When his father died during the First World War, ten-year-old Kazimieras, together with his older brother, was left with the main burden of farm work. After intermittent studies in primary school, he entered the second grade of Marijampolė Realgymnasium. After graduating from the gymnasium, Kazimieras Baršauskas started studying physics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Nature of the University of Lithuania. The serious studies and earning a living were time-consuming, but the active student was also interested in public affairs. He belonged to the liberal “Varpas” corporation and was a member of the board of the student mathematician-physicist society. He did not forget the cultural affairs of his native village: during one holiday he directed a play by Gižai amateur dramatists about the outlaw and folk hero Tadas Blinda. In the last year of his studies, Kazimieras Baršauskas was invited to work at the Department of Physics as a junior laboratory assistant. His diploma project “Thermal Conductivity of Good and Bad Conductors” received a high evaluation, and the instruments manufactured for the project were used in the Department of Physics for teaching purposes.

Prof. Kazimieras Baršauskas (1904 – 1964) – Head of the Department of Physics at Kaunas University, Dean of the Faculty of Technology and later the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Director and later Rector of Kaunas Polytechnic Institute. (the original photograph is at KTU Photo Archive)

6th grade Lithuanian language and literature lesson, 1923. K. Baršauskas is 2nd from the left in the 4th row. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

K. Baršauskas (seated) – a pupil of Marijampolė Realgymnasium, 1923. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

K. Baršauskas – a gymnasium pupil, 1924. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

A group of the 6th graders of Marijampolė Realgymnasium, 1924. K. Baršauskas is in the middle of the 1st row. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Pupils of Marijampolė Realgymnasium with their teacher M. Smolskienė. K. Baršauskas is seated 1st from the right in the 1st row. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

K. Baršauskas takes the final examinations at the gymnasium. Marijampolė, 1925. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Vignette of the 7th cohort of Marijampolė Realgymnasium, 1924–1925. (the original document is at KTU Museum)

Baršauskai family, 1926. 1st row (from the left to the right): Vincas, Viktorija, Juozas. 2nd row: mother, youngest brother Bronius, stepfather B. Bungarda. 3rd row: Jonas, Edvardas Kazimieras and Aleksandras. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Identity document of the student of the Faculty of Mathematics and Nature of the University of Lithuania K. Baršauskas, 1926. (the original document is at KTU Museum)

K. Baršauskas – student of the Faculty of Mathematics and Nature of the University of Lithuania, 1926. (the original photograph is at K. Baršauskas family archive)

K. Baršauskas with fellow students from Marijampolė, 1927. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

K. Baršauskas with fellow students, 1926–1927. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

K. Baršauskas earned money for his tuition fee by giving private math lessons, 1927. (the original photograph is at K. Baršauskas family archive)

At the geophysics lecture by Prof. K. Sleževičius. (1st row, 2nd from the right), 1927. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Student excursion at Kaunas elevator, 1928. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

3rd year students of physics and mathematics, 1928. K. Baršauskas stands 1st from the right. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

At Joniškis station on the way to the excursion in Riga with Prof. K. Sleževičius, 1929. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Instruments manufactured by K. Baršauskas for his diploma project, 1928. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

A potentiometer manufactured by K. Baršauskas for his diploma project, 1929. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

K. Baršauskas' application to the head of the Department of Physics for a job, 1929. (Original – in the KTU archive)

On the excursion in Riga with Prof. K. Sleževičius and Prof. P. Jodelė and students, 1930. (K. Baršauskas is in the 1st row, 1st from the left) (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Work is the Foundation of Life

In 1929, while still studying at the University, K. Baršauskas was hired as a junior laboratory assistant in the Department of Physics. On 23 September 1930, he was awarded his University diploma, and on 3 November, he was conscripted for military service in the Lithuanian army. He joined the 5^th infantry regiment of the Grand Duke Kęstutis of Lithuania, where he received initial military training. After 2 months, K. Baršauskas became a cadet-aspirant at the Military School and was later assigned to the 3^rd artillery regiment. In the autumn of 1931, having received a proposal from Prof. Ignas Končius, K. Baršauskas took part in a competition for the position of junior laboratory assistant at the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Nature of VMU and was successful. He finished his military service only a year later, as he fell ill with typhoid fever and spent 3 weeks in a military hospital. Kazimieras Baršauskas resumed his position as a junior laboratory technician at the Department of Physics, and a year later was appointed as a senior laboratory technician and then assistant. K. Baršauskas became interested in the photoelectric effect and later in cosmic rays. He started to work in the Faculty of Mathematics and Science under the leadership of the Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Nature Prof. Z. Žemaitis, K. Baršauskas went to Berlin for a one-year fellowship at the Institute of Physics of the Higher Technical School in Charlottenburg, where he studied with the prominent cosmic ray specialist Prof. Hans Geiger. There he learned how to make cosmic ray detectors, set up the necessary equipment and conducted many experiments, the results of which he summarised in the article entitled “Reports on the Distribution of Energy in the Groups of Cosmic Rays”. The article was published in Zeitschrift für Physik, one of the most authoritative physics journals of the time. Upon returning to Kaunas, he continued his scientific work and defended his doctoral thesis on the energy distribution in secondary cosmic rays in 1938.

After the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania in 1940, Vytautas Magnus University was renamed Kaunas University. K. Baršauskas was appointed as an associate professor, and later as the head and professor of the Department of Physics. When the Germans occupied Lithuania, K. Baršauskas was dismissed from the position of the head of the Department of Physics. When the occupiers suspended lectures at the University, Assoc. Prof. K. Baršauskas urged them to disregard the ban and to admit students to the first year for the academic year 1943-1944. He used the cover of the Adult Institute of evening studies, founded in 1941, and officially organised courses for technicians, which attempted to complete the curriculum of the first year of University studies.

In 1944, when the Soviet Union reoccupied Lithuania, K. Baršauskas was appointed as the head of the Department of Physics at Kaunas State Vytautas Magnus University. The situation of the university was difficult: during the retreat, the Germans bombed the technical faculty building in Aleksotas and looted the equipment. Some teachers fled to the West. The classrooms and laboratories were cold and textbooks were scarce. In the post-war years, the talent of K. Baršauskas as an organiser of higher education became particularly evident. He was appointed as the dean of the Faculty of Technology, and when the Faculty of Technology was divided into three units, he was appointed as the dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. In 1944-1950, the Soviet occupiers, with the help of the Communists, organised repressions, deportations and ideological-moral coercion in Lithuania, which did not bypass the academic community of the University. Prof. K. Baršauskas tried to help the persecuted people, but he did not escape ideological persecution when his textbook “Physics Part I-II: Mechanics, Sound, Heat”, prepared for the third edition in 1947, was negatively reviewed for “lacking ideas”, and its publication was suspended.

K. Baršauskas (on the left) – a cadet-aspirant at the Military School, 1930. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

3rd Artillery Regiment in Šančiai, 1931. K. Baršauskas is 4th from the right. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

K. Baršauskas at the military hospital, 1931(1st row, 1st from the right) (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

A final project of the cadet-aspirant K. Baršauskas on ballistics, 1931. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

K. Baršauskas with his colleagues at the chamber of the Physics and Chemistry Institute in Aleksotas, 1935. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

A letter from the Ministry of Education permitting to go on a fellowship to the Higher Technical School in Charlottenburg, 1936. (the original photograph is at KTU Archive)

K. Baršauskas on a scientific fellowship at the Institute of Physics of the Higher Technical School in Charlottenburg, 1937. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

A caricature of K. Baršauskas, 1936. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

K. Baršauskas in Berlin, 1936. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

K. Baršauskas performs tests at the Higher Technical School in Charlottenburg, 1937. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

K. Baršauskas in Paris, 1937. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

An article by K. Baršauskas with a dedication to Prof. Liudas Vailionis, 1936. (the original article is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

An article by K. Baršauskas with a dedication to his brother Juozas, 1937. (the original article is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

K. Baršauskas defends his doctoral dissertation, 1938. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

K. Baršauskas and A. Puodžiukynas after the dissertation defence, 1938. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Doctoral diploma of K. Baršauskas, 1938. (the original document is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

K. Baršauskas prepares for the trip to study the Earth's magnetism, 1939. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Teachers and students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Nature on 20 June 1940. 1st row, 3rd from the left is Dean Prof. Z. Žemaitis, 8th is K. Baršauskas. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Identity document of Prof. K. Baršauskas, February of 1941. (the original document is at KTU Museum)

Statement of Assoc. Prof. of the Faculty of Technology of Vytautas Magnus University K. Baršauskas that there are no persons of Jewish origin in his family, 2 July 1942. (the original document is at KTU Museum)

K. Baršauskas – a teacher of Kaunas Secondary School No. 4, 1944. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Books by K. Baršauskas, published from 1945 to 1948. (the original books are at KTU Museum)

Doctoral diploma and professor certificate of K. Baršauskas, 1947. (the original documents are at KTU Museum)

The More Educated People, the Better the Nation

At the end of 1950, the Minister of Higher Education of the USSR signed an order to reorganise Kaunas State Vytautas Magnus University into two institutes. Prof. K. Baršauskas was appointed Rector of Kaunas Polytechnic Institute and held this position for thirteen years until his death. Under his leadership, the construction of KPI (KTU since 1990) campus was started and the network of dormitories was expanded. Under the leadership of Prof. Kazimieras Baršauskas, KPI became one of the most important higher education institutions in the Baltic States. In 1956, Prof. K. Baršauskas was elected an academician of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. At the same time, as the head of the Department of Physics, he continued to develop physics research, skilfully predicting future relevant fields in physics, such as semiconductor physics, ultrasound physics and technology and nuclear magnetic resonance. He brought together teams to research these problems, from which many well-known scientists emerged: Prof. Habil. Dr. V. Ilgūnas and D. Eidukas. He was the research supervisor of 15 doctoral (candidate) dissertations and the reviewer of 36 dissertations. The Ultrasound Problem Laboratory (now renamed Prof. K. Baršauskas Ultrasound Research Institute) was established by his efforts. His leadership in the field of semiconductor research led to the establishment of the Laboratory for Automation of Technological Processes for the Production of Integrated Circuits in 1970.

Prof. Kazimieras Baršauskas was the author of many popular scientific articles, an active member of the Lithuanian Physics Society, a member of the editorial boards of the journal “Lithuanian Journal of Physics”, and one of the founders of the “Žinija” Society. Kazimieras Baršauskas was very much involved in the popularisation and teaching of physics at the university and secondary schools. After publishing his first textbooks in independent Lithuania, he worked even harder in the post-war years. Whole generations of schoolchildren have learned from the textbooks written by Prof. K. Baršauskas and his colleagues. Before his death, on the occasion of his 60^th birthday, Prof. K. Baršauskas was awarded the honorary title of Meritorious Scientist of the Lithuanian SSR.

The professor was always fun, energetic and easily accessible to everyone. He tried to help people who had fallen under the disfavour of the Soviet authorities: exiles, political prisoners and their children. People who had been imprisoned in Soviet concentration camps worked at KPI, and their children studied there. Complaints were written about the professor to the KGB for helping people persecuted by the Soviet authorities, which in 1957 handed him a list of 120 unreliable students. With the growth of industry in Lithuania, Prof. K. Baršauskas began to establish KPI departments of evening studies: in 1956, a department of evening studies was established in Vilnius, and in 1960-1961, such departments began to operate in Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys. Prof. K. Baršauskas wanted Lithuania to have as many educated people as possible and to have fewer Russian-speaking specialists. By creating the departments of evening studies and limiting the admission of students from other republics of the USSR, Prof. K. Baršauskas tried to stop the Russification of Lithuania. However, his activities did not go unnoticed and in 1957, Prof. K. Baršauskas received a strict reprimand from the USSR Ministry of Higher Education for refusing to admit students from other republics of the Soviet Union to KPI. However, this did not stop Prof. K. Baršauskas, who continued his mission until the end of his life. Prof. K. Baršauskas died suddenly on 24 May 1964, at the age of 60. He was buried in Kaunas, Petrašiūnai Cemetery. Tens of thousands of people attended the funeral of their beloved professor. It was said that the number of people attending the funeral of Prof. K. Baršauskas was equal to the number of people attending the funeral of the pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas who flew across the Atlantic and died heroically.

Order of the Minister of Higher Education of the USSR on the appointment of Prof. K. Baršauskas to the position of the Rector ad Interim of Kaunas Polytechnic Institute, 28 December 1950. (the original document is at KTU Archive)

KPI Rector Prof. K. Baršauskas at his work office, 1962. (the original photograph is at KTU Photo Archive)

The first cohort of KPI Faculty of Mechanics, 1951. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

KPI Rector K. Baršauskas at the construction site of Dovinė hydroelectric power plant, 1951. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

K. Baršauskas with students at the collective farm of the work and recreation camp in Alizava, Vabalninkas District, 1954. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Lithuanian SSR (Bolsheviks) A. Sniečkus with KPI Rector Prof. K. Baršauskas and employees. 6th decade of the 20th century. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Prof. K. Baršauskas in the committee of the 1st KPI festival, 1956. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

A list of unreliable students sent to KPI Rector K. Baršauskas by the KGB, 1957. (the original document is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Prof. K. Baršauskas on his secondment in the USA, 1959. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

A strict reprimand for KPI Director K. Baršauskas from the USSR Ministry of Higher Education for restricting the admission of students of Russian nationality to KPI, 1958. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Delegates of the Lithuanian SSR to the USSR Higher Education Staff Meeting in Moscow, Kremlin, 1961 K. Baršauskas is in the 1st row, on the right, 5th from the left is Rector of Vilnius University Jonas Kubilius. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Rector of Vilnius University Jonas Kubilius and Rector of Kaunas Polytechnic Institute K. Baršauskas cooperated on the establishment of KPI branch in Vilnius, 1961. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

K. Baršauskas with his colleagues Dr. E. Jaronis and V. Ilgūnas, 6th decade of the 20th century. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Prof. K. Baršauskas at the Ultrasound Problem Laboratory, 6th decade of the 20th century. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Prof. K. Baršauskas with doctoral students at the Ultrasound Problem Laboratory, 1964. In the photograph (from the left): J. Vosylius, S. Mickūnas, Prof. K. Baršauskas, R. Krivickas, standing - V. Ambrasas. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Office of the Rector Prof. K. Baršauskas at the Administrative Building of KPI, 1963. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

KPI Rector Prof. K. Baršauskas with the members of the Folk Song and Dance Ensemble “Nemunas”. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Rector K. Baršauskas has a discussion with Vice-Rectors R. Chomskis and M. Martynaitis during a meeting of the KPI Scientific Council, 7th decade of the 20th century. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Athletes lift KPI Rector K. Baršauskas, who opened the new stadium, 1959. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Visit of Mstislav Keldysh, President of the USSR Academy of Sciences to KPI, 1962. In the photograph (from the left): Prof. K. Baršauskas is 1st and M. Keldysh is the 3rd. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

KPI Student Campus project, 1960. (the original document is at KTU Museum)

Prof. K. Baršauskas at the construction of KPI Student Campus, 1964. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Prof. K. Baršauskas and Vice-Rector H. Petrusevičius at the construction of the student campus, 1964. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Celebration of the 60th anniversary of Prof. K. Baršauskas at the 3rd Chamber of KPI, 1964. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

A caricature of Prof. K. Baršauskas gifted by the doctoral students on the occasion of his 60th anniversary, 1964. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

A fragment of the funeral of Prof. K. Baršauskas, 1964. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Certificate of invention issued to Prof. K. Baršauskuas V. Lesauskis and V. Ambrasas. 1965. (the original document is at KTU Museum)

Diploma of the laureate of the Lithuanian SSR Republican Prize, awarded posthumously to Prof. K. Baršauskas for his work “Ultrasonic interferometers for the study of liquids”. 1969. (the original – at the KTU Museum)

Family and Leisure

On 9 April 1928, while still a student at the University, Baršauskas married Regina Točilauskaitė. In 1930, a son Vytautas was born to a young family, but unfortunately, the family broke up. During the Nazi occupation, K. Baršauskas fell in love and married Donata Norkaitė, a student at the Faculty of Medicine. The family had two sons, Jonas and Petras. He taught his children diligence and patience, encouraged them to pursue education, and told them that work was the foundation of life. He was not a forgiving, not a strict man. For K. Baršauskas, his home was a harbour of peace, an oasis of goodness and a place for recovery. His wife Donata surrounded him and the children with tenderness and peace, she shouldered all the household work, created ideal conditions for her husband to work and was a great help to him. Even though she was a doctor, she did not hesitate to leave her job and lived for twenty years supporting her husband’s work and ideals until his death. It was a great support and blessing in the life of Prof. K. Baršauskas. On weekends, the whole family liked to go fishing. Their favourite place was Kaunas Reservoir near Strėva and Kapitoniškės. Prof. K. Baršauskas was very fond of fishing and loved nature, but he had very little time for his hobbies, so he enjoyed every day he lived. His wife Donata Baršauskienė said the following about her husband: “Love and kindness were inseparable from the meaning of his life. There was nothing in the world that he did not love – he loved his family, home, people, he loved nature, animals, he loved his work and colleagues, even those who did not love him… He saw all the events of his life through the prism of goodness and sensitivity, he saw real life as difficult, but he was optimistic about the future”.

Baršauskai family, 1947. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

K. Baršauskas with his son Jonas 1947. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Prof. K. Baršauskas with his family: wife Donata and sons Petras and Jonas, 1955. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Prof. K. Baršauskas in his work office at home, 1955. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Prof. K. Baršauskas with his family: wife Donata and sons Petras and Jonas, 1956. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Kazimieras Baršauskas with his wife Donata, 1958. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

K. Baršauskas teaches his sons to mow, 1958. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Prof. K. Baršauskas with his family on vacation in Crimea, 1961. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Prof. K. Baršauskas with his children at the seaside, 1960. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Prof. K. Baršauskas with his son Petras by a car, 1960. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Prof. K. Baršauskas with his son Petras, 1961. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Prof. K. Baršauskas is fishing at Kaunas Reservoir, 1962. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Prof. K. Baršauskas with his wife Donata at their house, 1963. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Game of chess with his son Petras in the morning, 1964. (the original photograph is at Prof. K. Baršauskas family archive)

Commemoration

On the anniversary of the death of Prof. K. Baršauskas, the Rector’s Office of KPI, headed by Prof. Marijonas Martynaitis, requested that Kaunas Polytechnic Institute be renamed after Prof. K. Baršauskas, but the leadership of the Lithuanian SSR did not approve. Nevertheless, the anniversary of the death of Prof. K. Baršauskas was commemorated in a very solemn way: KPI film lovers made a documentary film “The Man Who Stayed in Our Hearts”, the Ultrasound Problem Laboratory of KPI was renamed after K. Baršauskas and a plaque was unveiled, and Prof. K. Baršauskas Memorial Room was opened in the Administrative Building of KPI. It was the first exposition of KPI Museum that was established at the initiative of Prof. K. Baršauskas. A part of Tunelio Street was renamed after K. Baršauskas, and K. Baršauskas monumental bust was unveiled in the courtyard of KPI Chamber of the Faculty of Electronics (Studentų St. 50) (sculptor Vladas Pleškūnas). in 1965, the passenger ship with 232 seats, which used to sail on the Curonian Lagoon and the lower reaches of the river Nemunas, was named “Kazimieras Baršauskas” by a decision of the Nemunas Shipping Board. In 1966, the railway viaduct in Petrašiūnai was named after Professor Kazimieras Baršauskas. In 1969, the book “Kazimieras Baršauskas” was published. In 1970, a memorial plaque was unveiled in Žaliakalnis, at the house at Kauko Av. 20, where Prof. K. Baršauskas lived.

Prof. K. Baršauskas was also recognised in independent Lithuania: in 1994, the nominal Kazimieras Baršauskas Prize of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences was launched (established in 1993), which is awarded every 4 years to scientists working in the fields of electronics and electrical engineering. The 100th anniversary of the birth of Prof. K. Baršauskas was officially commemorated at KTU in 2004: a CD of the documentary film “He is Baršauskas: Memories of Contemporaries” was released (script, director – Jonas Klėmanas, cameraman, editing – Vladas Deksnys); a medal “100^th Anniversary of Academic K. Baršauskas” was created for him (sculptor Stasys Žirgulis), the book “Professor Kazimieras Baršauskas: The Power of Love” by Juozas Stražnickas (Kaunas, 2003) was published, the Physics Laboratory was opened at the Faculty of Fundamental Sciences of KTU (Studentų St. 50, room 225), a memorial plaque with a bas-relief was unveiled at the First Chamber of KTU (A. Mickevičiaus St. 37) (sculptor Stasys Žirgulis).