He graduated from Taujėnai Primary School, studied privately in Ukmergė and Liepaja (Latvia), graduated from Palanga Pro-Gymnasium in 1893, passed the exams for the Samogitian Theological Seminary in Kaunas, but changed his mind and entered Mindaugava Grammar School. At Mindaugava Gymnasium, together with Jonas Jablonskis and Vince Kudirka, he belonged to a secret Lithuanian organisation. He was expelled from the gymnasium for his national demands and his refusal to pray in Russian.
In 1897 he graduated from the Petersburg gymnasium. He entered the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, was expelled twice, arrested and briefly imprisoned. Graduated in 1902.Worked in the Vilnius Land Bank.
Member of the Lithuanian Democratic Party. On 4-5 December 1905 he took part in the work of the Great Vilnius Seimas. During the First World War he was the First Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Victims, and the Chairman of the Central Committee.
On 18-22 September 1917 he took part in the Lithuanian Conference in Vilnius, where he was elected the Chairman of the Council of Lithuania, later the Chairman of the Council of State (1917-1919).
On 16 February 1918 he signed the Lithuanian Act of Independence. 4 April 1919 - 19 April 1920 First President of the Lithuanian State. 1920-1924 - Head of the Party for the Advancement of the Lithuanian Nation. In November 1923, he was imprisoned for several days by the authorities for publishing an article by Augustinas Voldemaras in the newspaper Vaire, which he edited. Until 1924 he was involved in the activities of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union. In 1924 he was one of the organisers of the Lithuanian Nationalist Union and its chairman (1925-1926). On 17 December 1926 he was proclaimed Head of State of the Republic of Lithuania, on 19 December he was elected President by the Seimas, and was re-elected twice - in 1931 and 1938. He remained President until 15 June 1940.
Persecuted political opponents. During his reign, on 6 May 1929, he was elected President of the Republic of Lithuania. On 6 January 1929, on the occasion of the assassination of A. Voldemar, then Prime Minister, in Kaunas. Pranas Gudynas, the adjutant who was covering the Prime Minister, was shot dead during the assassination attempt. Later, Voldemar was dismissed from his duties as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and interned in Plateli, Žemaitija. At the same time, former Prime Minister Pranas Dovydaitis, university professor Juozas Eretas, Adolfas Damušis and many others were imprisoned in the Varniai concentration camp.
After the ultimatum from Moscow, in a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers convened in the early morning of 15 June 1940, Smetona called for at least symbolic opposition to the USSR's demands and to the Red Army's expansion into Lithuania, but his proposals were not accepted. During this Cabinet meeting, Smetona stated that this was an occupation of Lithuania. In June 1940, he fled to Germany, then to Switzerland and finally to the USA. In his memoirs, he explained his action by personal calculations: "If I had stayed in my own country, I say, the Bolsheviks would have taken away my property, as they take away others' property, and would have deported me and my family to the depths of Russia, where they would have starved us to death or tortured us to death. Man, while he lives, seeks his place in the sky. I, like many others, find it difficult to find it." In Germany, Smetona was an undesirable person for the Nazis, and the Gestapo kept tabs on his activities, so three months later, in the autumn, he moved to Switzerland. Both Smetona himself and Lithuanian envoys abroad wanted him to stay in Europe so that he could participate in the restoration of Lithuanian independence if the situation in the country changed because of USSR-German relations. In autumn 1940, Smetona signed the Kybartai Acts, retrospectively (15 June) appointing Stasys Lozoraitis as Prime Minister of Lithuania and authorising him to act as interim President in order to create the basis for an emigration government. In mid-February 1941, Smetona sailed for New York. The US granted him indefinite asylum on the condition that Smetona would not consider himself a head of state or a member of the government. 1 April. Smetona was received by US Secretary of State Sumner Welles on 1 January and by President Franklin Roosevelt on 18 April, but these meetings did not bring any significant benefit to Lithuania.
In 1921-1924, Smetona edited various publications. In 1923-1927 he taught ethics, ancient philosophy, and Lithuanian language stylistics at the University of Lithuania. In 1932 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy at Vytautas Magnus University.
1924-1940 Vice-Chairman of the Board of the International Bank. He was a founder and one of the leaders of various societies and companies.
He translated several classical works from Greek, and was considered to be one of the best stylists of the Lithuanian language.
He was a contributor to "Vilniaus žinios". He edited "Lietuvos ūkininkas" (Lithuanian Farmer), published "Viltis" (Viltis), published and edited "Vairas" (Vairas), and was publisher and editor-in-chief of "Lietuvos echo" (Lithuanian Echo). He has published original and translated works on philosophy and other sciences.
Died on 9 January 1944 at 10 a.m. He suffocated from carbon monoxide poisoning in a fire in his house at 10:20 am on 10 September 1944. In 1975, his remains were moved from the Knollwood Cemetery Mausoleum in Cleveland to All Souls Cemetery in Chardon, Ohio.
