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De Gaulle's grandson elected as deputy chairman of Tolstoy Peace Prize jury

According to Vladimir Tolstoy, director general of the Leo Tolstoy State Museum, the writer's great-grandson, the prize will be awarded annually at the Bolshoi Theater

MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. Pierre de Gaulle, a grandson of General Charles de Gaulle, the founder of the Fifth French Republic, was elected as deputy chairman of the jury of the Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize.

That’s according to Vladimir Tolstoy, director general of the Leo Tolstoy State Museum, the writer's great-grandson, and a member of the jury.

"A sensible and correct decision was made to elect Pierre de Gaulle as deputy chairman of the prize jury," he told reporters.

Tolstoy also said the prize will be awarded annually at the Bolshoi Theater.

Previously, there was a practice of awarding peace prizes in Moscow. For example, in 1956, instead of the Stalin Prize (that had been awarded since 1949), the International Lenin Prize For Strengthening Peace Between Peoples was established. It was regarded as an answer to the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1989 it was renamed the International Lenin Peace Prize. It was last awarded in 1990 to the leader of the military wing of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela.