After Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1944, the Ðeteniai estate where Cz. Miùosz was born on June 30, 1911 was annexed by the local kolkhoz (collective farm). Only one building – the over a hundred years old granary survived the destructive neglect of the new masters. The park was allowed to grow wild but was still recognizable after years of abandonment.
After an absence of over fifty years, Cz. Miùosz returned to Lithuania and visited Ðeteniai in May of 1992. Following this visit, professor Algirdas Aviþienis, a colleague of Cz. Miùosz at the University of California for some thirty years, initiated an effort to return the Ðeteniai estate to the poet. At that time prof. Aviþienis was serving as Rector of Vytautas Magnus university in Kaunas. Ownership papers were handed to the poet in Ðeteniai on September 7, 1997, and he, in turn, donated the property to the Czesùaw Miùosz Birthplace Foundation.
The restoration of Ðeteniai has received support from the governing bodies of the region of Kaunas and of the district of Këdainiai, in which Ðeteniai is located. The conversion of the old granary to a small residential conference center was paid for by a generous grant from the LIFOSA Corporation of Këdainiai. However, additional funds are urgently needed to improve, maintain and to operate the facility.
His Excellency the President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus is the Patron of the Foundation. On September 8, 1998 he personally laid the cornerstone for the restoration of the old granary in Ðeteniai. He and professor Vytautas Landsbergis, chairman of the Lithuanian legislature also took part in the dedication of the conference center on June 12, 1999. Professor Cz. Miùosz and his wife, Dr. Carol Thigpen-Miùosz visited the center on July 14, 1999.
Eleven individuals among whom are citizens of three countries (the USA, Poland, and Lithuania) in 1993 agreed to found the Foundation, a non–profit, non–governmental organization registered in the Republic of Lithuania. The Foundation was registered on July 30, 1997.
The Foundation has entered into an agreement of cooperation with Vytautas Magnus University in the city of Kaunas, about 70 kilometers south of Ðeteniai. The Foundation also has received cooperation from cultural organizations in Poland, France, USA and Lithuania (Vilnius, Kaunas, Këdainiai).