Tadas Blinda

Tadas Blinda (1846–1877) was a Lithuanian outlaw and folk hero. Biography He was born in the village of Kinčiuliai, Kovno Governorate, in the region of Samogitia, and inherited his father's 40 hectares at the age of 20. He then married, had three daughters, and became the village elder. There are several versions of the turning point in his life that led to his later career. One story has it that he participated in the 1863 uprising, and was sentenced to exile in Siberia. Another has it that his landlord, Duke Ogiński, ordered him to flog some serfs, became angry when Blinda refused, and then struck him with a whip. Blinda responded with a counterattack. After Blinda had chosen to live outside the law, he gathered a band of followers in the dense forests near Byvainė. According to his admirers, he was a latter-day Robin Hood – he stole from the rich and gave to the poor. His detractors argued that he stole from the poor as well. Other stories have him disguising himself as a priest and collecting alms that he then gave away. Many of the tales claim that he buried a treasure in the forest, which remains undiscovered to this day. The circumstances surrounding his death have also been an object of contention. The popularly held version was that Duke Oginskis was finally able to gain revenge by organizing the local authorities and murdering him. In 1993 an archivist uncovered police records indicating that he was lynched as a horse thief on April 22, 1877, and buried in an unconsecrated corner of a cemetery in Luokė. No traces of this burial have been found.