Algirdas brazauskas biography definition

(b. 1932), Lithuanian political leader.

Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas emerged as a major public figure in the Soviet Union in 1988. A member of the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party (LCP) since 1976, a member of the party's biuro (equivalent of Politburo) since

1977, and by training an engineer, he had been a specialist in construction and economic planning.

In 1988 he won note as a party leader who dared to appear on a public platform with the leaders of the reformist Movement for Perestroika (Sajudis) in Lithuania. He became a popular figure, and in October, with the approval of both Moscow and Sajudis leaders, he replaced Ringaudas Songaila as the party's First Secretary.

In his work as First Secretary of the LCP from 1988 to 1990, Brazauskas became a model for reformers in other republics throughout the Soviet Union.

He pursued a moderate program for decentralizing the Soviet system, attempting to loosen Moscow's control of Lithuania s