page_title: Algirdas
section_title: Expansion of Lithuania
hierarchical_section_title: Algirdas / Expansion of Lithuania
caption_attribution_description: English: Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania. 1578 Русский: Великий князь Литовский Ольгерд Гедиминович. Гравюра 1578 года. Українська: Ольгерд, Великий князь Литовський. Гравюра італійського хроніка (1578)
context_page_description: Algirdas was a ruler of medieval Lithuania. He ruled the Lithuanians and Ruthenians from 1345 to 1377. With the help of his brother Kęstutis he created an empire stretching from the present Baltic states to the Black Sea and to within fifty miles of Moscow.
context_section_description: Algirdas held his own, also acquiring influence and territory at the expense of Muscovy and the Golden Horde and extending the borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Black Sea. His principal efforts were directed toward securing the Slavic lands which were part of former Ukrainian Kievan Rus'. Although Algirdas engineered the election of his son Andrew as Prince of Pskov and a powerful minority of Novgorod Republic citizens supported him against Muscovy, his rule in both commercial centres was (at best) precarious.
  Algirdas occupied the important principalities of Smolensk and Bryansk in western Muscovia. Although his relationship with the grand dukes of Muscovy was generally friendly (demonstrated by his marriages to two Orthodox Muscovite princesses), he besieged Moscow in 1368 and 1370 during the Lithuanian–Muscovite War (1368–1372). An important feat by Algirdas was his victory over the Tatars in the Battle of Blue Waters at the Southern Bug in 1362, which resulted in the breakup of the Kipchaks and compelled the khan to establish his headquarters in the Crimea.
caption: Algirdas by Alexander Guagnini
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