Algirdas Brazauskas in 2009 at a Social Democratic Party rally. Photo by the Social Democratic Party.

VILNIUS — Algirdas Brazauskas, Lithuania’s first president after the country became independent from the Soviet Union, died Saturday evening at age 77 after a long battle with cancer.

Brazauskas, born in the small town of Rokiškis in northeast Lithuania, was one of the instrumental figures in Lithuania’s breakaway from the Soviet empire. He served as the leader of the Lithuanian branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, eventually splitting to form the Communist Party of Lithuania in support of independence and the Sąjūdis movement.

The head of the Social Democratic Party for many years, Brazauskas also served as prime minister from 2001 to 2006 during which time Lithuania joined the European Union and NATO and the “Baltic Tiger” economic boom initiated.

The government resigned after then President Valdas Adamkus expressed a lack of confidence in two of the ministers. The Social Democrats remained at the head of government, though, until 2008 with Brazauskas as party chief until 2007.

“The memory of the first directly elected president of Lithuania after it restored its independence, of a strong and charismatic personality, will remain for a long time in the hearts of the Lithuanian people,” President Dalia Grybauskaitė said in a statement.

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