Albertas Juozėnas, mostly known by his pseudonym Juozas Baltušis (27 April [O.S. 14 April] 1909 in Riga – 4 February 1991 in Vilnius) was a Soviet Lithuanian writer, radio and press operative and public figure. A popular author in Lithuania, albeit with a strong Soviet identity, among his best known works are the 1947 play Gieda gaideliai (The Cocks Are Crowing), the novel Parduotos vasaros (Sold-out Summers), first published in two volumes in 1957 and 1969 and Sakmė apie Juzą (The Tale of Juzas), a 1979 universal piece of literature which won the Lithuanian SSR State Prize and the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (French literary prize). From 1946 to 1954 he was the secretary of the party organization of the Lithuanian Writers' Union and from 1946 to 1954 and then 1958 until 1962 he worked as the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Pergalė (Victory). He was the deputy of the Supreme Council of the Lithuanian SSR for several decades. Early life and work He was born into a peasant family in 1909, the son of Karolis Juozėnas (1871–1934) from Bitėnai and Marijona Baltušytė-Juozėnienė (1883–1964) from Puponiai in Kupiškis District. His sister, Marijona Juozėnaitė (1906–1997), became a nun and his brother, Leonardas Juozėnas (born 1914) was a military pilot and author. On 19 April 1909 Juozas was baptized in the Riga Catholic Church of St. Albert. During World I, the family moved east and lived in the Russian cities of Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, and Tsaritsky (Volgograd). In 1918, the family settled in Puponiai, Kupiškis District. Baltušis grew up in Puponiai until leaving the family home in 1929 and moving to live in Kaunas, where he found work in various printing houses as a messenger and letter collector. Baltušis began to have works published in 1932, seeking inspiration from the writer Kazys Boruta. His first work was entitled Darbas (Work), a collection of short stories. He began to write humorous plays during the 1930s, and he published short story collections such as The Week Begins Well (1940) and White Clover (1943). World War II and organizational positions During World War II he moved to the Soviet Union, where he worked on the Radio Committee in Moscow from 1942 to 1944. From 1944 to 1946 he was the chairman of the Lithuanian Radio Committee and from 1946 to 1954 he was the secretary of the party organization of the Lithuanian Writers' Union.