 Despite the early death of his father, and with the support from his aunt and uncle, Mykolas Sleževičius left for studies in Jelgava (then known as Mitau), graduating from the Jelgava Gymnasium in 1901.After failing to get accepted to the Riga Polytechnicum (now Riga Technical University), he started studying law at the Odessa University in 1902.While in Odessa, Sleževičius became politically involved, with Juozas Gabrys taking credit for converting him to the Lithuanian nationalist cause.