Aleksandras Stulginskis was born in the village of Kutaliai of the Kaltinenai Rural District of the then Taurage District on February 26, 1885 in the family of a land tenant. He studied at elementary school in Kaltinenai, the Liepaja gymnasium, the Samogitian Theological Seminary in Kaunas. After graduating from the latter, he continued his studies in philosophy and theology at the University of Innsbruck (Austria). But upon making a decision not to be ordained as a priest, he entered the agronomy institute in Halle (Germany), and after graduating from it in 1913 started to work in Lithuania as an agronomist. He wrote quite many articles for the then Lithuanian press, mostly on the problems of the development of agriculture; from 1914 he edited the Viensedis (The Isolated Farm) periodical publication. When the Germans occupied Lithuania, he left for Vilnius and here joined the activity of Lithuanian organizations, was elected to the Lithuanian Relief Committee, organized education courses for elementary school teachers. For quite a lengthy period headed the Rytas (Morning) Education Society, managed gardens in a Vilnius suburb, supplying orphanages with vegetables and potatoes. In 1918 he started publishing the newspaper Ukininkas (The Farmer), Ukininko kalendorius (The Farmer's Calendar).
Stulginskis was one of the founders of the Christian Democratic Party, in 1917 he was elected Chairman of the Central Committee of the Party. In 1917 together with other Lithuanian patriots he appealed with a memorandum to the President of the United States W. Wilson on the recognition of Lithuania's independence. He was one of the organizers of the Lithuanian conference of Vilnius, a participant In it, was elected to the Council of Lithuania(later the State Council). On February 16, 1918 he signed the Independence Act. With the war nearing the end and with Lithuanian refugees returning from Russia, A. Stulginskis headed the state commission for their affairs.A. Stulginskis spoke for an independent, democratic Lithuania and criticized severely those who agreed for Lithuania to become a monarchic state.
A. Stulginskis organized the defence of Lithuania against the Bolshevists and Poles, founded a Lithuanian army. In M. Slezevicius' government he served as a minister without a portfolio. In P. Dovydaitis' cabinet of ministers A. Stulginskis served as a Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Internal Affairs, afterwards Minister of Agriculture and State Wealth, was one of the incorporators of the Ukio (Economic) Bank, etc.
In May of 1920 he was elected Chairman of the Constituent Seimas and President of the State, reelected President at the First (December 21, 1922) and the Second (June 19, 1923) Seimas, holding post of the President uninterruptedly until June 7, 1926, when Dr. Kazys Grinius was elected President. In 1925-1930 A. Stulginskis was in charge of the Lithuanian Scout Brotherhood.
After the coup d'etat of December 17, 1926, A. Stulginskis was elected Chairman of the Fourth Seimas and held this post until April 12, 1927 when A. Smetona dissolved the Seimas. Then A. Stulginskis bought an estate in Jokubavas, the Kretinga Rural District, and started to run it; at his leisure he wrote articles to the XX amzius (The 20th Century), Ukininkas and other periodical publications. In 1938 he took part in the first World Lithuanian Congress in Kaunas, where he delivered a speech demanding the observance of the democratic principles in Lithuania.
The first year of the Soviet occupation he spent at his estate in Jokubavas. In June, 1941 he and his wife were arrested (their daughter Aldona evaded the arrest). The former President was deported to the camps in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, his wife was exiled to the Komi Republic. Only in 1952, in the camp, A. Stulginskis' case was completed - he was sentenced to the 25 years of Soviet camps. But after Stalin's death, due to A. Stulginskis' daring attempts he and his wife were allowed to return to Lithuania at the end of 1956. They resided in Kaunas. A. Stulginskis died on September 22, 1969. He was buried in the Aukstoji Panemune cemetery In Kaunas. Tile Lithuanian Philology Centre in Chicago (the USA) in 1980 published A. Stulginskis' book of reminiscences, embracing the period from his youth to the beginning of the reestablishment of Lithuania's independence.