Petras Klimas was a Lithuanian diplomat, author, historian, and one of the twenty signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania. Klimas attended law school at the University of Moscow. After graduating, he returned to Vilnius and served on the Lithuanian Central Relief Committee. He was elected to the Council of Lithuania in 1917, and signed the Act of Independence in 1918. Klimas went on to serve as the Lithuanian diplomatic envoy to France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Luxembourg. In September 1917, Petras Klimas wrote: