Actualidad

ALGIRDAS MYKOLAS BRAZAUSKAS

Algirdas Brazauskas was born on 22 September 1932 in Rokiškis, into a family of civil servants.

In 1951, he graduated from Kaišiadorys secondary school and in the same year started studies at Kaunas Polytechnic Institute. In 1956, he graduated from the Institute and received a degree in hydrotech engineering.

Before defending his thesis for the degree in 1956, he started career as an engineer at the directorate of Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant.

In 1958, he was appointed as head of Petrašiūnai Construction and Assembly Board of the Energy Construction Trust.

In 1962, he was appointed as head of Building Materials Board of the People’s Economic Council of the Lithuanian SSR.

In 1965, A.Brazauskas was appointed as Minister of Building Materials Industry of the Lithuanian SSR.

In 1967, he started working as the First Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee of the Lithuanian SSR.

In 1974, he was granted the degree of Doctor of Economics.

In 1977, he was elected as Secretary for Industry and Economy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania.

On 21 October 1988, A.Brazauskas was elected as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania. His nomination to this post was supported by Sąjūdis, the Reform Movement of Lithuania. On 22 December 1989, under his leadership, the Communist Party of Lithuania broke away from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and thus fragmented the party’s dictatorial monolithic structure.

On 24 February 1990, he was elected to the Supreme Council - Reconstituent Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania in Kaišiadorys constituency.

On 11 March 1990 at the Supreme Council, he voted for the restoration of independent Lithuania and became a Signatory of the Act of Independence. On 17 March 1990, he was appointed as Vice Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania.

On 8 December 1990 at the constituent congress of the Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party, A.Brazauskas was elected as Chairman of the Party.

On 25 October 1992, after the Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party won the election to the Seimas (Parliament), Algirdas Brazauskas was elected as Member and the Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, and began to act as interim President of the Republic of Lithuania (on 25 November 1992).

On 14 February 1993, he was elected as President of the Republic of Lithuania for a period of 5 years in the first direct general presidential elections by 1 212 075 votes or 60.17% of the electorate. In compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, he suspended membership in the Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party. The President’s Inauguration took place on 25 February 1993. As head of the State, he established the Office of the President and structured it.

On 26 February 1998, Algirdas Brazauskas ended his office as President and was succeeded by Valdas Adamkus, who won the presidential elections.

On 27 January 2001, A.Brazauskas was elected as Chairman of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, and later became Honorary Chairman of this party.

On 4 July 2001, he was appointed by decree of President of the Republic of Lithuania as Prime Minister of the 12th Government of the Republic of Lithuania.

On 29 November 2004 after the parliamentary elections, he resigned as Prime Minister and was re-appointed by decree of President of the Republic of Lithuania V.Adamkus as Prime Minister of the 13th Government of the Republic of Lithuania.

On 1 June 2006 due to the political situation back then, he presented a letter of resignation to the President as Prime Minister.

In 1958, President Algirdas Brazauskas married Julija Stiraitė. They had two daughters and five grandchildren. In 2002, he divorced his wife Julija and married Kristina Butrimienė.

Algirdas Brazauskas was Doctor of Economics and received honorary doctorates from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, Minsk Humanitarian University and Kaunas University of Technology.

He is also the author of the following books: “Lithuanian Divorce” (in the Lithuanian, Russian, German and English languages), “Self-Determination”, “Lithuania’s Power: Works Accomplished And Thoughts About The Future”, “Five Years As The President” (in the Lithuanian and Russian languages), and “Even Then We Worked For The Benefit Of Lithuania”.

A.Brazauskas was awarded the highest decorations of the Republic of Lithuania: by decree of President of the Republic of Lithuania of 26 February 1998 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great; by decree of President of the Republic of Lithuania of 3 February 2003 he received the Order of Vytautas the Great with the Golden Chain; by decree of President of the Republic of Lithuania of 1 July 2000 he was awarded the Lithuanian Independence Medal. A.Brazauskas also received the highest awards from many foreign countries.

A. Brazauskas died from a terminal illness on 26 June 2010 in Vilnius.