Algirdas

Algirdas became Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1345, inheriting a state that was still finding its shape. While his brother Kęstutis held the western frontier against external pressure, Algirdas drove east and south with methodical force. By the time of his death in May 1377, the territory under Lithuanian control stretched from the Baltic coast to the Black Sea, reaching to within 80 kilometres of Moscow. It was an empire built in a single lifetime, carved from the contested ground between powers, and it redrew the map of Eastern Europe for generations.