27 December, Vitebsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. A monument to Prince of Krevo and Vitebsk, Grand Duke of Lithuania and Rus Algirdas Gediminaitis will be erected in Vitebsk, Chairman of Vitebsk City Executive Committee Viktor Nikolaikin announced at a press conference, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. The monument project, a horse sculpture, has passed all legally required approval procedures. The process of approving its cost is currently underway. Although sponsors will assist in the construction of the monument, the City Executive Committee intends to use their funds economically and is therefore considering various options for the sculpture's fabrication. The Mayor hopes that the monument will be erected by City Day in June 2013. Algirdas was the first Prince of Vitebsk about whom there is reliable, non-legendary information, unlike, for example, Princess Olga, who allegedly founded Vitebsk. He successfully fought against the Crusaders, and from the early 1350s waged a struggle against the Golden Horde. In 1362, he defeated the Tatars in the battle on the Synia Voda River, as a result of which the lands of Kyiv with Kyiv, as well as Volhynia and Podolia, were liberated from the yoke. The sculptural image of Algirdas is currently depicted in only one monument – the monument dedicated to the Millennium of Rus', which is installed in Veliky Novgorod. Viktor Nikolaikin also noted that no other monument projects dedicated to historical figures will be considered in the city in the near future. -0-

BELTA