Jonas Černius

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}

{{short description|Lithuanian politician}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Jonas Černius

|image = Jonas Černius.jpg

|office = 15th Prime Minister of Lithuania

|president = Antanas Smetona

|term_start = 28 March 1939

|term_end = 21 November 1939

|predecessor = Vladas Mironas

|successor = Antanas Merkys

|birth_date = 18 January 1898

|birth_place = Kupiškis, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire

|death_date = 3 July 1977 (aged 79)

|death_place = Los Angeles, United States

|party = Lithuanian Nationalist Union

}}

Jonas Černius (6 January 1898, Kupiškis, Kovno Governorate – 3 July 1977, Los Angeles) was a Lithuanian general and Prime Minister. When Lithuania declared independence in 1918, he joined the army as a volunteer and participated in the Freedom Wars. He was one of the first graduates from the War School of Kaunas, but he continued to study military engineering in Brussels (1929) and Paris (1932).

On his return to Lithuania, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed as chief of the military technical staff. In 1934 he became a colonel. In 1935 he was promoted to brigadier general and Chief of the General Staff. From 27 March[https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/lithuania-in-crisis/section/830304af-bb05-457c-9619-4c07e4438eb6 THE ČERNIUS GOVERNMENT: March 27, 1939] to 21 November 1939 he was the Prime Minister and led the 20th cabinet. After resigning as prime minister, he was promoted to major general and put in command of the 1st Division. Following the annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, he served in the Soviet Army's 24th Rifle Corps until Nazi Germany invaded in 1941.

{{External video|video1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf4JYngdR60 Kentish Farm Aka Ex-Premier Of Lithuania On Farm (1947)]|float=left}}

He fled to Germany in 1944 to avoid the second Soviet occupation in 1944. At first he lived in Germany, then in Kent, England, where he worked as a farm worker[https://www.memoiresdeguerre.com/article-general-jonas-cernius-117981579.html Memoires de la Guerre: Spiegel, 11.10.1947] and in 1948 moved to the U.S. He later worked as an engineer for General Motors.