Lithuanian Algirdas pushes into Kievan lands

1353

The pagan grand duke Algirdas of Lithuania exploited the Golden Horde's weakness to absorb Kiev, Chernihiv, and much of modern Belarus and Ukraine into his polyglot realm. Lithuania quietly became the largest state in Europe by area, its Orthodox and Catholic subjects outnumbering its pagan rulers by a wide margin, creating a pluralistic empire unlike any other in Christendom.