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Algirdas Brazauskas
Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas (Lithuanian: [ˈɐ̂ˑlʲɡʲɪrdɐs ˈmʲîːkoːɫɐs brɐˈzɐ̂ˑʊskɐs] ⓘ, 22 September 1932 – 26 June 2010) was the fourth president of Lithuania, in office from 1993 to 1998. He also served as Prime Minister of Lithuania from 2001 to 2006. Brazauskas was the first democratically elected president of post-Soviet Lithuania.
He also served as head of the Communist Party of Lithuania that broke with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Brazauskas was born in Rokiškis, Lithuania. Brazauskas traces his family back to the 18th century. In the village of Mikailiškiai (now Radviliškis District Municipality). His father was Kazimieras Brazauskas (1906–1997) and mother was Sofija Brazauskienė (née Perezilevičiūtė; 1904–1979). He finished Kaišiadorys High School in 1952 and graduated from Kaunas Polytechnic Institute in 1956 with a degree in civil engineering. He later served as a Conscript sailor in the Soviet Navy, serving as a Fire controlman on board the Riga-class frigate Rosomakha until 1960. In 1967, Brazauskas started working in the Governmental Planning Committee, as a Committee's head's assistant. In 1974, Brazauskas received a PhD in economics.[citation needed]
He divorced his first wife, Julija, with whom he had two daughters; he married Kristina Butrimienė in 2002.
Brazauskas held various positions in the government of Lithuanian SSR and Communist Party of Lithuania from 1965 onwards:
In the 1980s, he transformed himself from a Communist Party apparatchik to a moderate reformer. He was seen as cautious by nature, and when confronted by the tide of nationalist feeling in the Soviet Union, Brazauskas initially believed that the USSR might be reconstituted as a looser federation of independent, but communist, states. In seeing the tide of an independent democracy, he joined the reformist cause observing in 1990 that "We are realists now, and we cannot be propagating any utopian ideas. It's no secret [that] the Communist Party has a dirty history."
In 1988, he became the first secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania. Under his leadership, the majority of the Communist Party of Lithuania supported the Lithuanian independence movement, broke away from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and transformed itself into social-democratic Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania (now merged into the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party). Brazauskas was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 15 January until 11 March 1990.[citation needed]
Though he sought to avoid a breach with Moscow in 1989, as leader of Lithuania's Communist Party, he formally severed the party's links with Moscow. This was rare in that no other local communist party organizations in the former Soviet Union dared to take this step. Some historians and journalists have later suggested that this act was the earliest certain indication of the inevitability of the demise of the Soviet Union.
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Algirdas Brazauskas
Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas (Lithuanian: [ˈɐ̂ˑlʲɡʲɪrdɐs ˈmʲîːkoːɫɐs brɐˈzɐ̂ˑʊskɐs] ⓘ, 22 September 1932 – 26 June 2010) was the fourth president of Lithuania, in office from 1993 to 1998. He also served as Prime Minister of Lithuania from 2001 to 2006. Brazauskas was the first democratically elected president of post-Soviet Lithuania.
He also served as head of the Communist Party of Lithuania that broke with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Brazauskas was born in Rokiškis, Lithuania. Brazauskas traces his family back to the 18th century. In the village of Mikailiškiai (now Radviliškis District Municipality). His father was Kazimieras Brazauskas (1906–1997) and mother was Sofija Brazauskienė (née Perezilevičiūtė; 1904–1979). He finished Kaišiadorys High School in 1952 and graduated from Kaunas Polytechnic Institute in 1956 with a degree in civil engineering. He later served as a Conscript sailor in the Soviet Navy, serving as a Fire controlman on board the Riga-class frigate Rosomakha until 1960. In 1967, Brazauskas started working in the Governmental Planning Committee, as a Committee's head's assistant. In 1974, Brazauskas received a PhD in economics.[citation needed]
He divorced his first wife, Julija, with whom he had two daughters; he married Kristina Butrimienė in 2002.
Brazauskas held various positions in the government of Lithuanian SSR and Communist Party of Lithuania from 1965 onwards:
In the 1980s, he transformed himself from a Communist Party apparatchik to a moderate reformer. He was seen as cautious by nature, and when confronted by the tide of nationalist feeling in the Soviet Union, Brazauskas initially believed that the USSR might be reconstituted as a looser federation of independent, but communist, states. In seeing the tide of an independent democracy, he joined the reformist cause observing in 1990 that "We are realists now, and we cannot be propagating any utopian ideas. It's no secret [that] the Communist Party has a dirty history."
In 1988, he became the first secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania. Under his leadership, the majority of the Communist Party of Lithuania supported the Lithuanian independence movement, broke away from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and transformed itself into social-democratic Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania (now merged into the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party). Brazauskas was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 15 January until 11 March 1990.[citation needed]
Though he sought to avoid a breach with Moscow in 1989, as leader of Lithuania's Communist Party, he formally severed the party's links with Moscow. This was rare in that no other local communist party organizations in the former Soviet Union dared to take this step. Some historians and journalists have later suggested that this act was the earliest certain indication of the inevitability of the demise of the Soviet Union.