Algirdas Brazauskas, First Lithuanian President, Dies at 77
Algirdas Brazauskas, a former Communist bureaucrat who helped steer his native Lithuania through tempestuous political straits to independence from the Soviet Union and then became the country's first president after it broke with the Soviet Union, died Saturday at his home in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. He was 77.
The cause was lymphoma and prostate cancer, according to Lithuanian news reports.
As president of Lithuania from 1993 to 1998 and prime minister from 2001 to 2006, Mr. Brazauskas forcefully addressed the serious economic and foreign policy challenges faced by the new non-Communist government. But it was in his role as the last leader of Lithuanian Communists that he helped pave the way for Lithuanian independence....
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The cause was lymphoma and prostate cancer, according to Lithuanian news reports.
As president of Lithuania from 1993 to 1998 and prime minister from 2001 to 2006, Mr. Brazauskas forcefully addressed the serious economic and foreign policy challenges faced by the new non-Communist government. But it was in his role as the last leader of Lithuanian Communists that he helped pave the way for Lithuanian independence....