The awarding of the laureates of the primary International Peace Prize named after Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy will happen on September 9 on the Bolshoi Theater. This was said by the First Deputy Director General of TASS, Professor Mikhail Gusman.

"On September 9 this year, the State Bolshoi Theater of Russia will host a solemn ceremony of awarding the first laureates of this International Peace Prize named after Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy," he mentioned throughout a spherical desk in TASS devoted to the preparation for the award. Gusman identified that a while in the past a variety of Russian public organizations, specifically the Russian Historical Society headed by Sergei Naryshkin, the Russian Military Historical Society headed by Vladimir Medinsky, the Russian Peace Foundation headed by Leonid Slutsky and another organizations, took the initiative to create a basis that can cope with the issues of understanding the problems of struggle and the world at present stage. "An award was established, which was named after Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy — the International Peace Prize named after Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy.

We additionally name it the Tolstoy Prize," added the first Deputy General Director of TASS. "As is customary at such ceremonies, the intrigue of who would be the first winner of this award will most likely persist till the final or penultimate second," Guzman said. Previously, there was a practice of awarding peace prizes in Moscow. In particular, in 1956, instead of the corresponding Stalin Prize (awarded since 1949), the International Lenin Prize "For Strengthening Peace between Peoples" was established. It was thought-about an analogue of the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1989, it was renamed the International Lenin Peace Prize. The final recipient in 1990 was the chief of the armed wing of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela.

Photo by Artyom Geodakian/TASS