Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1941, General, The Soviet Union, Volume I

360M.1121 Devenis, Michael: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt)

Washington, December 14, 1940—4 p.m.

873. Your 1640, November 29, 7 a.m.¹ Department considers Michael Devenis² to have continued in status of American citizen since his naturalization on March 15, 1920, and was not naturalized in 1934 in Lithuania but was merely recognized as a Lithuanian under section 1 Lithuanian law January 9, 1919, which latter fact is borne out by certificate issued June 17, 1940, by Ministry of Interior Lithuania which accompanied Devenis’ passport application June 17, 1940. Under Soviet law August 19, 1938, referred to your 1134, September 8, 4 p.m.,³ Soviet citizenship was conferred upon him on the basis of his Lithuanian citizenship and presence in Lithuania. Issue of passport to Devenis enable him return United States for permanent residence was authorized July 22, 1940. On that date he was arrested and thus prevented from departing from Lithuania. Advise appropriate Soviet authorities this sense and request his prompt release on basis that his acquisition of Lithuanian nationality was without voluntary action on his part but resulted from operation of law of that country and acquisition Soviet nationality likewise involuntary and would apparently not have resulted from standpoint of Soviet law if he had not been involuntarily detained in Lithuania subsequent to July 22.

Hull

1. Not printed.

2. Dr. Michael M. (Mikolas Mikolasa) Devenis, born in Lithuania in 1891, emigrated to the United States in 1914. He became a naturalized American citizen, and obtained a medical degree from Yale University before he returned to Lithuania in 1929. His wife Alena (Helen) V., the daughter of a former Lithuanian Prime Minister, was not an American citizen, but their three children were. Dr. Devenis practiced medicine for many years in Lithuania and came under the presumption of loss of his American citizenship.

   Dr. Devenis made moves to return to the United States for permanent residence beginning on June 17, 1940, but he was arrested in Kaunas on July 22. Mrs. Devenis and the children were permitted to leave for the United States early in September, and resided in various places in Connecticut. Dr. Devenis was believed “to be charged with having associated with foreigners and engaging in espionage activities.” He was removed to jails in Ukmerge and Vilna, whence on June 16, he and others were hastily removed by Soviet authorities to Ust Kozhva (Kozva) in the Vorkuta region of the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Here and at Naryan-Mar, and still later on a state cattle farm, Dr. Devenis looked after the health of prisoners in the camps until his release.

3. Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. i, p. 438.