Brazauskas, who had been undergoing treatment for prostate and lymphatic cancer, passed away at his home in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, deputy Social Democrat leader Juozas Olekas told AFP.
In a statement, President Dalia Grybauskaite paid tribute to Brazauskas as a "sincere" man who saw Lithuania through tough times.
Born on September 22, 1932, in Rokiskis in northern Lithuania, Brazauskas was a child when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union first carved up and then fought over the region during World War II.
After ruling Lithuania from 1939-1941, Moscow again took over in 1944, and Brazauskas grew up a Soviet citizen.
He graduated as an engineer in 1956, and climbed the ladder in the local Soviet administration and Communist Party.
In the late 1980s, Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev's "perestroika" reforms opened the road in the Baltic for the "Singing Revolution" independence drive, so-called because it centred on mass traditional choral gatherings.
Brazauskas, elected chief of the local party in 1988, backed the freedom movement.
He took the Lithuanian branch out of the Kremlin-controlled Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1989 and rebranded it the Democratic Labour Party, now the Social Democrats.
On January 15, 1990, Brazauskas was elected chairman of the board of Lithuania's Soviet parliament, dominated by pro-independence members. That made him de facto head of state.
Lithuania declared independence on March 11, 1990, setting off a freedom wave across the Soviet Union. Brazauskas became deputy leader of its unrecognised government.
Moscow imposed an economic blockade. A failed Soviet military crackdown in January 1991 left 14 Lithuanians dead and hundreds injured.
It only recognised Lithuanian independence after a failed coup by communist hardliners in the Soviet capital in August 1991.
In 1992 the Democratic Labour Party won a general election. Brazauskas became speaker of parliament.
In February 1993 he was elected president of Lithuania with 60 percent of the vote.
As head of state, he launched Lithuania's bid to join NATO and the European Union. The nation of 3.3 million people entered both in 2004.
He unexpectedly opted not to seek re-election in 1998, and quit politics.
In 2001, however, he returned to lead the Social Democrats. Within months, he was named prime minister by his non-partisan successor as president, Valdas Adamkus.
"He was a historic personality and a good politician who worked faithfully for Lithuania during difficult times," Adamkus told the Lithuanian news website Delfi on Saturday.
"He dared to decide which side to choose in a critical moment," he added.
Brazauskas was prime minister for five years -- a feat on Lithuania's fractious political scene -- but quit in 2006 after Adamkus demanded the scalp of two ministers over graft claims.
He stayed at the helm of the Social Democrats until 2007, and remained an influential voice in Lithuanian politics until his death.
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