4. The whims of fate, Rus 2 Russia
Just before his death, in 1015, Vladimir was faced with an acute problem of ruling the conquered lands.
[Note: This section might come across as confusing, (well it is). It is about the ruling families of Kiev, and their escapades, over about 3 - 4 generations, of a 100 years. The names of all these brothers, sons and grandsons sound about the same to us. (I would have done a great service if I had sorted out all these names and made it clear who is who, and what city-state they were attached to. But I didn't.) If someone else cares to do it, you can put it in a comment. I will transfer the comment to the main body for future readers.
Addendum, Here’s part of it I just picked up: With the death of Yaroslav the Wise, it turned out that the Kiev ruling group could no longer rule alone and was forced to switch to the principle of federation, although power remained the privilege of the princes of the Rurik house. The princes-heirs were placed in the cities by seniority: Iziaslav - in Kiev and Novgorod, Svyatoslav - in Chernigov and Seversk land, Vsevolod - in Pereyaslavl with a "surplus" from Rostov-Suzdal land, Vyacheslav - in Smolensk, Igor - in Vladimir-Volynsky. According to the law, called "Yaroslavl Row", the succession to the throne went from the elder brother to the next, and after the death of all the brothers - to the eldest nephew.
And some more: Thethree leading princes are associated with the Kiev parties: with Germanophiles - Izyaslav, with the Grecophiles - Vsevolod and with the Russophiles - Svyatoslav, and the younger ones - Vyacheslav and Igor - colorless figures who left the arena of political history early.
One thing is notable; that somehow the people went along with much of it, or were somehow dragged along. (Tremendous suffering and carnage.) You can see that there is a belief in the necessity of a central power, no matter what kind of a rouge he is. Also the complicated rules of succession of power, (above), going to eldest brother and not to the eldest son. Which caused a war at every death. And then to the sons of the eldest brother. And for the most part, this was also accepted by the people.
Another thing is certain, that these princes were always able to raise and army and to find foreign allies to fight against another prince. So part of the people loved to be in the army and have military clashes. Rulers have success when their close associates are talented and help them sincerely, without sparing themselves. And this applies to the appanage princes more than to any other crowned princes. The squad, like the prince, was fed by the city. The number of squads was measured by hundreds of people, and the princely armies - tens of thousands. Consequently, the power was on the side of the townspeople, who could dictate the princes' line of conduct.
Yaroslav (“the Wise”) was actually one of the most despicable murderous characters, as they all were. He was a long time Perun pagan, Perun were the Nordish homicidal gods. He got to be “the Wise” by switching to Orthodox, all that went on before was forgiven or forgotten. Olga was Orthodox 100 years before him, but the population didn’t follow her. Genocide was typical of all the tribal conflicts, not only around Kievian Rus. But this is not the place to tell about it.]
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Vladimir's sons.
His own military forces were sufficient to achieve individual victories, but they were clearly insufficient to keep all the lands of the Kievan state in submission. Novgorod, Polotsk, Chervlena Rus, and even Northeastern Rus kept trying to break away from Kiev. It was a risky and unreliable way to send voivods to subdue them. The voivod could prove to be a pretender to the local throne, and break away together with those subjects who sympathized with him. For this reason, under Vladimir, and later, under Yaroslav, was created the system of distributing the principalities to the closest relatives, usually sons, became stronger.
Prince Sviatopolk. Engraving 1805.
Prince Yaroslav the Wise. An engraving from 1805.
Grand Duke Vladimir of Kiev had twelve sons. We shall note only those who have taken part in the following events. The son of Vladimir and Rogneda, Yaroslav reigned in Novgorod, his brother Mstislav - in Tmutarakan'. Naturally, the first depended on the Novgorodians, and the second - on the Tmutarakans. Vladimir's favorite children were his sons by a Bulgarian woman: Boris and little Gleb. Vladimir hated his elder son and lawful heir Sviatopolk. Sviatopolk was called the "son of two fathers", for Vladimir captured and took as wife, his mother - a Greek who was pregnant from the prince Vladimir had killed.
Svyatopolk actively established contacts both with Pechenegs, and with Poles. He was probably the first "Russian Westerner". As his spiritual father Svyatopolk chose the German bishop of Kolobeezh - Reinburn, which ended very badly for both of them. Vladimir imprisoned both the German and the prince, from which the bishop never emerged.
There was no unity in the sentiments of the Kievers. There were supporters of Sviatopolk, Yaroslav, and Mstislav among the inhabitants of the city, and the ardent supporters of one prince were the bitter enemies of the others.
When Vladimir died, his beloved son Boris, sent by his father against the Pechenegs, was abandoned by his associates. His retinue left him and went to Kiev. Boris and his few friends found themselves helpless and defenseless. At the same time, on the death of the prince, the crowd freed Svyatopolk from imprisonment and proclaimed him the great prince. As for Novgorod, shortly before his death Vladimir was gathering troops to subdue the Novgorodians and his son Yaroslav.
So, we see a complete disintegration of the state, which could only end in war. And the war began.
It should be said that Novgorod was a rich city, and Novgorodians were quite warlike people. But Yaroslav, not trusting them, invited mercenaries - Vikings. The Vikings bullied the Novgorodians and molested the women. In the ensuing brawl the Novgorodians killed several of the Scandinavians. Fearful of the prince's wrath, the townspeople sent parliamentarians to Yaroslav and offered a viru (ransom) for the killed, but the prince ordered the Vikings to kill the messengers. In response the city rebelled. At that moment a messenger from Kiev arrived by the Volkhov river from Ilmen Lake with the news that Vladimir had died and Svyatopolk seized power. The new prince killed the defenseless Boris and put to death the boy Gleb. The people sent by Sviatopolk caught up with and killed Sviatoslav Drevlyansky - Vladimir's son from the "Czechs", who tried to run away to his mother's native land.
Yaroslav understood that his fate was also predetermined. Having lost his father and brothers, the prince found himself in danger of death at the hands of the Sviatopolk murderers. In addition, he was in dire straits, having quarrelled with the Novgorodians. Yaroslav decided to flee to Sweden. Here it was discovered that the Novgorodians were not only belligerent but also practical and resolute. They again sent ambassadors to the prince, and they said: "Prince, we will not baptize (not resurrect) the dead. Let's go get the table of Kiev!" Novgorodians in this case were not so much noble, but more calculating. After all, Novgorod had to send a large tax to Kiev every year. Therefore, it was natural that the Novgorodians tried to at least reduce this tax.
Princes Boris and Gleb. An icon of the mid-14th century.
The Novgorod army headed by Yaroslav (I guess he didn’t go to Sweden, or he came back with an army?) began to go down the Dnieper to Kiev. The Svyato-regiment came to meet the retinue of Kievan and auxiliary detachments of Pechenegs. When the opponents met near the town of Lyubech (1016), it was late autumn. Sviatopolk's complete lack of military abilities manifested in the fact that he placed the detachments of Kievan and Pechenegians on opposite sides of the lake, which was already frozen. Yaroslav attacked the Kievan forces and overthrew them. The Badjanaks, separated from Kievan by icy water, simply could not join the fight. Victory went to Yaroslav, and Svyatopolk fled to Poland.
The victorious Novgorodians entered Kiev, "and pogore churches", - writes the chronicler. We conclude from this that the ideological basis of Yaroslav's actions, his program was reduced to the restoration of paganism. But the Christianization of Kiev was already too strong. Nobody wanted to return the cult of Perun. Because of this, Yaroslav felt extremely insecure in the capital.
In 1018 the divisions between the pagan and Christian parties intensified. The Polish king Boleslav the Brave and the fugitive Sviatopolk took advantage of this situation. The Polish army marched on Kiev in order, the Poles claimed, to free Christians from the power of the evil pagans.
Boleslav and Yaroslav met on the Bug. The armies of the enemies were separated by the river. According to the custom of those times, the Poles and Russians shouted insults at each other across the river. And when a witty Novgorodian shouted that he would pierce Boleslav's "fat belly with a stake", the Polish king, indeed a well-fed man, was utterly offended. The self-loving Pole threw himself on his horse into the water. Following his king, the Polish knights forced the river and ... completely defeated the Novgorodians. Yaroslav's forces fled, and the enraged Polish horsemen cut down those who fled. Yaroslav himself with four companions rode to Kiev. But there was no hope for the Kievers, and the Poles and supporters of Svyatopolk drew nearer. Yaroslav moved to Novgorod and again began to build boats to flee to Sweden. And again, the prince was stopped by the Novgorodians. They "chopped up" the ships, promising to collect the money and the army for a new campaign.
М. M. Antokolsky. Yaroslav the Wise.
Panorama of Upper Kiev at the end of the 11th century. Reconstruction
Meanwhile the Poles occupied Kiev: Svyatopolk ascended the "golden table of Kiev". Foreign soldiers were placed in the homes of Kievers and surrounding villages. And immediately the conflicts with the local population began. In just a few nights, many Poles were slaughtered. It turned out that the people could do much more than the prince and his retinue. The power of the people was great. Boleslaw understood this very well and led his warriors back to Poland, leaving Sviatopolk in Kiev.
Yaroslav with Novgorodians, or more precisely, Novgorodians with Yaroslav again moved towards Kiev. They encountered Sviatopolk, who, relying little on the Kievers after the story with the Poles, again called upon the Pechenegs for help. The Badjanaks did not help, and Sviatopolk, nicknamed Okayan', fled westward and soon died, allegedly from remorse for the innocently murdered brothers Boris and Gleb. Yaroslav became the head of almost all of Russia, except for the left bank of the Dnieper and the far southeastern outskirts - Tmutarakan'.
In these events two circumstances attract our attention. First, nowadays Slavs - Poles and Russians - practically do not understand each other, especially if they speak fast. But back then, the languages were so close that the fighting across the river was understandable to both sides. The idea of Slavic unity was already lost, but as a trace of the former Slavic community of the 6th-8th centuries, the linguistic proximity was still preserved.
А. I. Ivanov. Mstislav Udaloj's fight with the Kosozhsky prince Rededej
The second important circumstance we see is that Kiev strongly expressed its negative attitude toward Westernism and any close contacts with Western Europe. Although there were ethnic differences between the populations of Novgorod and Polotsk, Rostov and Smolensk, Galich and Chernigov, Old Russia was a single community in relation to other similarly large groups of ethnic groups (super-ethnoses). Such groups were, for example, the inhabitants of Catholic Western Europe or the population of Muslim countries.
In the eleventh century. Poland became closer to the Catholic West. The border of the two different cultures ran through the Slavic peoples. This fact is important for us because throughout further history in Ancient Russia, and later in Russia, there was a constant struggle of two political currents: "Westernist (pro-European) and pro-Pentecostalist, which manifested itself in a desire to cling to its traditions. Manifestations of this desire were both the resistance of Kievan residents against Boleslav's occupying armies, and Kiev's negative reaction to Sviatopolk's Westernization.
The wisdom of compromise
And what happened in Tmutarakan, where we left the six-year-old Mstislav Vladimirovich? Like any child, he played on the seashore with colored pebbles, met his peers and made friends with them. Mstislav's childhood and youth friends were Jews, who settled in Tmutarakan after the death of Khazaria and became known as the Khazars. The Judeo-Khazars firmly held in their hands all the trade in the northeastern Black Sea region.
Fierce battle during the storm between the troops of Mstislav Vladimirovich of Tmutarakan and the troops of Yaroslav Vladimirovich of Kiev and his allied Vikings. Miniature from the Radziwill Chronicle
The main adversary of the Judeo-Khazar community of Tmutarakan was the Circassian tribe of the Kasogs. In 1022 the military forces of the Tmutarakan prince and the leader of the Kasgos, Rededi, met. The leaders of the forces wisely decided to avoid a great bloodshed and to determine the winner in a personal combat. Mstislav, who had by this time become a mighty warrior, overpowered Rededi and slaughtered him before the eyes of the Kasoga forces. He was merciful to the defeated: he released captured and married his daughter to the son of the Kasoga chief he killed. So Mstislav established good contacts with the Circassians. Afterwards he got along quite peacefully with the steppe Ossetians - Yasses. As a result, the prince’s squad was enlarged with Kasozhian and Yassian daring men.
As the governor of a southern town far from Kiev, Mstislav never forgot that he was the son of the great Russian prince Vladimir. Mstislav gathered together steppe tribes, Yasses and Kasogs, summoned to himself a tribe of Northerners, who lived in the land of Severs to the east of Chernigov, and in 1023, having joined these forces with the Judeo-Khazar army of Tmutarakan, he set out in search of the "golden table of Kiev".
Prince Mstislav I. Engraving 1805.
The moment was chosen conveniently. Yaroslav was in the north of his empire: first he had to repel the attack of the Polotsk prince Bryachislav on Novgorod, and then to quell the movement of the Magi, who had renewed pagan human sacrifices.
The chronicles say that Mstislav came to Kiev, but the Kievers flatly refused to let the troops from Tmutarakan into the city: the memory of the "exploits" of the commander Pesach and of the tribute levied on Rus by the Judeo-Khazars was still alive.
Mstislav's forces were confronted by the Vikings of Yaroslav returning from the north in the battle of Listvene (1024). The chronicler tells of a thunderstorm that took place on the night of the battle. The soldiers fought in the light of lightning. The Vikings were opposed by a militia of Northerners - allies of Mstislav. At the decisive moment, when both sides were already exhausted by the fighting, Mstislav threw his cavalry, consisting of Yasses and Kasogs, at the Viking army. The Vikings mingled and fled - victory remained with the Prince of Tmutarakan.
Bypassing the field of battle in the morning, Mstislav very frankly expressed his feelings. His phrase was recorded in the annals: "Who is not happy? (How not to rejoice?) Here lies a northerner, here is a Viking, and my retinue is unharmed. It is clear that allied to Mstislav northerners, yasses and kassogs were insulted. As a result, the victorious prince remained with a small team of Judeo-Khazars, and asked the defeated Yaroslav for peace. So, Yaroslav again sat in Kiev, and Mstislav left for the distant Tmutarakan' and Seversk land (Chernigov). The brothers began to reign in Russia in peace and harmony.
The question arises: why did the Jews succeed in subjugating Khazaria and its Turkic dynasty of the Ashin khans, and why were their attempts against Rus' and the Rurikovich princes unsuccessful? Mstislav's piety is well known: obviously the prince could not have had an unbaptized wife and thus his descendants could not have converted to Judaism.
Kiev Golden Gate. Reconstruction by Y. S. Aseev
After making peace with his brother Mstislav predominantly lived in his Chernigov possessions. The prince died in 1036. He left no heir, and Yaroslav took over all Rus'. The unity of the empire was based on an agreement between Novgorod, an independent Slavic "republic", Kiev, with its influential Christian community, and Chernigov, a rich city with a warlike population. In addition, the Meryan city of Rostov had already been annexed to Kievan Rus'. It was this agreement, a compromise based on the recognition by the individual regions of Rus' of the supreme power of the great Kievan prince, - brought long-awaited peace to the country. This was the greatest achievement of Yaroslav, nicknamed the Wise.
Change
Unfortunately, any compromise is good for a certain moment, and it cannot ensure the secure future of the state. This future depends to a large extent on the right choice of friends. Yaroslav maintained relations with the Vikings and was ready for friendship with Poland, but unfortunately neither he nor his circle had any sympathy for Byzantium. The deterioration of relations between Kiev and Constantinople in the 30-40s occurred against the backdrop of sharply worsening contradictions between the Orthodox East and the Catholic West. The Pope of Rome demanded recognition as head of the Christian Church, while the Pope of Constantinople, Patriarch Michael Kirularius, argued that the Greek Church was in no way inferior to the Roman Catholic Church.
The Pope had the support of Western Europe: Germany, France, the Spanish kingdoms, and the city-republic of Genoa. Meanwhile, Tsargrad sought help from Bulgaria, which it had conquered, and Serbia, which had voluntarily joined Byzantium. The religious confrontation between Rome and Constantinople culminated in the final split of the Christian Church into the Western (Roman Catholic) and Eastern (Greek Orthodox) churches in 1054.
The reign of Yaroslav Vladimirovich in Kiev; his retinue. Miniature from the Radziwill Chronicle
Interior of Kiev's Saint Sophia Cathedral
Oranta. Mosaic image in the apse of the central altar of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. The drawing by F. Solntsev.
Meanwhile the anti-Greek sentiments of Yaroslav and his entourage, caused by their desire to free the metropolitanate of Kiev from the tutelage of the Constantinople patriarch, turned into a military conflict.
In 1043 the Russian fleet led by Yaroslav's son Vladimir and the army of Vyshata moved upon Constantinople. The chronicler reports that "a great storm" broke the Russian ships. But, probably, the cause of the destruction of the Russian fleet was again "Greek fire". In any case the Russians, fleeing ashore, were beaten and taken prisoner by the Byzantine cavalry. Vladimir and part of his warriors were able to return to Russia, while the voivode Vyshata was captured and released by the Greeks only three years later. Many Russian prisoners of war were blinded by the Byzantines.
This failure forced Yaroslav to stop his active foreign policy against the Greeks.
At Yaroslav's court there were still three parties: one Westernizing, one purely nationally oriented, believing that Russia could compete with any coalitions of Western powers, and a third that sought peace and friendship with Byzantium. The Westerners were led by Izyaslav Yaroslav Yaroslavich (baptized Dmitry, the grand duke's eldest son), the National party by Svyatoslav Yaroslavich (who sat in Chernigov), and the Pro-Byzantine party by Vsevolod (who reigned in Pereyaslavl, Yaroslav's third son). After the death of Yaroslav the Wise, in 1054 Izyaslav reigned in Kiev (the Westerner).
At that time considerable changes took place not only in Western Europe and Byzantium, but also in the Great Steppe. The Muslim propaganda, penetrating into the Pechenezh nomads from the IX century, was doing its job. It is true that it was counteracted by Christian propaganda, but the supporters of Christianity were defeated by the Pechenegs, the majority of whom favored the adoption of Islam. As a result, the Pechenegs became the worst enemies of all Christian countries. In 1036, in the absence of Yaroslav, they raided Kiev. Yaroslav who came up with the Varangians and Novgorodians, replenishing the army with Kievers, gave battle to the Pechenegians on the place of what is now St. Sophia. The fight was fierce and persistent. Yaroslav "scarcely won by the evening. But the defeat of Pechenegian was complete, and this tribe no longer disturbed Russia. "A remnant of them is running somewhere to this day," the chronicler reported.
Figures by F. G. Solntsev from the frescoes on the plafond of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
At that time, Byzantium suffered severe setbacks in its struggle with the Seljuk Turkmens, who were kindred of the Pechenegs. Both the Pechenegs and the Seljuks belonged to the same branch of Turkic peoples - the Oghuz. Their sense of kinship and their common beliefs (the Seljuks also practiced Islam) made them formidable opponents to the Greeks. The Seljuks invaded the Asia Minor regions of the empire, sometimes reaching as far as the city of Nicea and the Bosporus Strait, while in the Balkan Peninsula, the Greeks were pressed by the Pechenegs. From the second half of the 11th century, the complete conquest of the Seljuk Turks of all Asia Minor became a real threat to the Byzantine Empire.
At the same period, Kumans appeared on the historical stage of Eastern Europe. (The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsy in Rus, Cumans in Western and Kipchaks in Eastern sources.) By the middle of the 11th century, they occupied almost the entire territory of modern Kazakhstan, crossed the lower reaches of the Volga River and appeared in the Southern Russian steppes. Blue-eyed, blond-haired Kumans in Rus began to be called Polovtsy (from the word "Polova", which means chopped straw of a matte yellow color). The Kipchaks had a long-time archenemy - the Pechenegs. "Steppe vendetta", which lasted for centuries, became especially bitter in the 11th century because of the creeds. As we know, the Pechenegs converted to Islam, while the Kumans preserved the pagan beliefs of their ancestors.
After the death of Yaroslav-the-Wise, Prince Vsevolod tried to establish contacts with the Polovtsy, but without success. Constant clashes between Russians and Polovtsians ended with the fact that in September 1068 the Polovtsians moved in a great campaign to the Russian land. Three Yaroslavichs: Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod met the nomads at the river Alta. The cavalry battle proved unsuccessful for the Russians. As the poet said:
With the dawn on the Polovtsians Prince Izyaslav
There rode out, formidable and vicious.
With his double-edged sword high up,
he was like St. George;
But by nightfall, with his hands on his mane,
the horse was dragged from the battle,
Already across the field
the wounded prince rushed, with his head thrown back.
The Yaroslavites were defeated. Izyaslav fled to Kiev, where Kievers demanded weapons and horses from him to fight the Polovtsians again. But the prince did not dare to give the people weapons: Izyaslav was well aware of his unpopularity. Kiev became indignant, and the great prince, taking his son Mstislav, fled to Poland. His further wanderings are very interesting in themselves, but now the outcome of the Polovtsian invasion and the events in Kiev are important for us.
Yaroslav's tomb in the Kiev Sofia cathedral
On November, the 1st of the same year 1068 the Chernigov prince Svyatoslav Jaroslavich, having only 3 thousand Russian soldiers, decapitated 12 thousand Polovtsians in a fight on the river Snova. It turned out that the Kipchaks were successful in short raids and skirmishes of mounted detachments, but the fight against Russian towns and Russian infantry was beyond their power. Therefore, the Kumans posed no threat to the existence of Rus.
By a strange irony of fate, the Kipchaks turned out to be the saviors of Byzantium, because the latter, oppressed by the Badjanaks both in Europe and in Asia, called upon the Kuman-Kipchaks for help. The khans of Bonyak and Sharukan brought to the Balkan Peninsula mounted armies of the Kumans.
By 1091 the Pechenegs in the Balkans were finished. Pinned by the Kumans and Byzantines to the sea at Cape Lebourne, the Pechenegians were partly destroyed, partly captured. The allies disposed of the captives' fate in different ways. The Greeks killed their own, and the Polovtsians joined their own army. The remnants of the Pechenegs became the Gagauz people that still exist today.
Kiev Sophia Cathedral (view from the eastern side). Engraving from the 19th century.
Vseslav of Polotsk and the Yaroslavichi
In the years full of wars with Polovtsians and princely feuds, Vseslav, the Prince of Polotsk, grandson of Izyaslav Vladimirovich, son of Vladimir the Baptist, proved himself. The fate and activities of Vseslav of Polotsk are extraordinarily interesting. Polotsk has preserved the memory of the destruction of the town by Vladimir in 980, when the future grand duke killed Duke Rogvolod and his sons and mocked (raped) Rogvolod's daughter, Rogneda.
We can imagine how Novgorodians and mercenary Vikings behaved in the seized city because of the massacre of the princely family. When Vseslav, a descendant of Rogneda, appeared on the throne of Polotsk, the Polotsk dwellers actively supported their prince in his war with Pskov and later Novgorod.
Vseslav captured and robbed Novgorod in 1067, but was soon defeated by the Yaroslavichi in a battle on the river Nemiga. Relying on the "kiss of the cross," the prince met with the victors and the prince was captured and thrown into Kiev in a hewnwn carcass without windows and doors, where the prisoner was lowered from above on ropes, and meals were served to him in the same manner, which was considered a very severe imprisonment. But Vseslav did not remain in the gatehouse for long. As soon as it turned out that Izyaslav, having lost the battle with the Polovtsians on Alta, refused the Kiev citizens weapons and horses, the city, as we already know, rose up. The townspeople broke up the bramble and proclaimed the freed Vseslav the prince of Kiev, which Vladimir's great-grandson had, in their opinion, all the rights to do.
Princess Anna Yaroslavna. Engraving 1805.
Prince Izyaslav I. An engraving from 1805.
Prince Vsevolod I. Engraving of 1805.
Meanwhile Izyaslav and his son Mstislav received the support of the Polish king. In 1069 the Polish army with Mstislav Izyaslavich at its head moved towards Kiev. Vseslav, who had no big troops, did not even try to fight the Polish regular armies. He left Kiev and fled to his native Polotsk. Mstislav entered Kiev and carried out a cruel massacre of the population of the city. Executions and tortures forced Kievers to appeal to the other two Yaroslavichs for protection.
Svyatoslav and Vsevolod demanded that Mstislav stop the bloodshed in Kiev. Executions stopped, and the Kievers got rid of the Polish army by the means tested already under Sviatopolk Okajnon: mass murders of Polish soldiers who had been stationed there. The Poles returned to their homeland and Izyaslav reigned in Kiev. But in 1073 the unpopular prince was again expelled by the Kievers, who this time allied themselves with Izyaslav's brothers. Svyatoslav and Vsevolod. Izyaslav again fled to the West. In Poland the fugitive prince was robbed, and only the intercession of the pope returned to him the princely jewels.
Meanwhile in Kiev the second son of Yaroslav the Wise, Prince Svyatoslav of Chernigov, who was fully supported by the third Yaroslavich - Vsevolod, ascended the throne. Svyatoslav, a man of intelligence and will, was an excellent military leader. At the same time, he strove for contacts with the Polovtsi, who had settled on the Southern Russian steppes, and did not gravitate to the West. His position can be called "nationalistic”. Unfortunately, narrow nationalists always run the risk of being left without support. Svyatoslav neither managed to establish real peace with the Polovtsy nor to restore relations with Byzantium.
Ancient crosses and images found during excavations in Kiev
Meanwhile, within the country part of the population returned to paganism. The Slavs, as well as their neighbors the Turks and the Ugro-Finns, believed in the existence of ghouls, i.e. spirits of the dead, and spirits of nature: forest, water and house spirits. It is not right to call such views a religion. Rather it is "natural history" that was more in keeping with the state of knowledge at that time. Taken separately, superstitions represented some semblance of a worldview, but one cannot consider them a true religious cult, nor can one identify a house-dweller with the Creator-God.
Interestingly, these pagan beliefs got along just fine and continue to get along with the pagan beliefs of the Old Believers' Society, as well as of Christianity and Islam, and, in our time, of "scientific" atheism, continue to coexist. At the beginning this phenomenon was called dvovery, and later it was called superstition, but the name does not change the matter.
Prince Sviatoslav II. An engraving from 1805.
An outbreak of pagan fanaticism is recorded in the chronicle in 1071. Magi appeared in Rostov - land, who at the time of crop failures successfully found the "guilty" of the famine. Victims of sorcerers were usually women, apparently wealthy peasant women. By taking the grain out of the poor women's backs, the magi persuaded the worried people that the "women are hiding the corn". The women died, and the movement of the Magi, the fanatic zealots, took over more and more areas.
At Beloozer the militant pagans encountered Jan, Svyatoslav's voivode. Jan, the son of the voivode Vyshata, who had so unsuccessfully marched on Tsargrad in 1043, was a fearless man, and to the misfortune of the Magi, he was ruthless. Having dispersed the mutinous crowd with a few soldiers, he forced the people of White Lake to give him the instigators of the sorcerers. The chronicles record the conversation between Yan and the sorcerers. The magi persisted in their beliefs, and only after being "compelled" did they sorrowfully confess to Jan: "Thus the gods say to us: we shall not be alive by you". Jan, immediately agreeing with them, handed over the murderous sorcerers to the relatives of the dead. The magi who were hanged on a tree were gnawed away by night by honey bees - after all, a very honorable animal for pagans.
A kind of sorcerer also appeared in Novgorod land. He declared himself a soothsayer, incited people to revolt against the church and promised an unseen miracle. The Belozero pagans were restrained by Prince Gleb, the son of Svyatoslav. Hiding his axe under his cloak, he asked the sorcerer if he knew the future. "I know everything," was the answer. The prince asked: "Do you know what will happen to you today?" "I will perform great miracles," the wise man prophesied. Gleb took out his axe and cut down the sorcerer, thus proving that he was a worthless prophet. "The people dispersed," the chronicler reports. Thus, the revival of paganism in northern Russia was suppressed by the vigorous actions of the authorities.
In December 1076 Prince Svyatoslav died. This sudden, "by a gall", death of the prince who was not yet fifty years old, upset the balance established in Rus'.
Oleg Sviatoslavich.
According to the line (the law) of Yaroslav Mudryi after the death of the great prince, the successor was not his son, but his brother following in the seniority of birth. If the generation of brothers ceased to exist, the throne was inherited by the son of the elder brother, after his death by the son of the following brother, and so on. When Sviatoslav Yaroslavich died, leaving five sons, the question arose: to consider him the lawful grand duke of Kiev or a usurper who grasped the Kiev throne during the life of his elder brother Izyaslav?
The fate of Svyatoslav's sons also depended on the resolution of this question, because in ancient Russia there was a very cruel custom. People, who were guilty of something, were "banished from life," that is, they were deprived of the right to engage in business that fed their family. There were three categories of such people: the priest's son, who could not read and write; the merchant who owed money and didn’t pay it back; and the peasant who deviated from the faith (community). To some extent this was true. A priest's son could inherit his father's parish, but for ordination he had to know the literacy and be able to serve the liturgy.
If, because of laziness, a priest could not read and write, he was expelled from the parish. It was his own fault, we say; he should have studied. A merchant who did not repay a debt was also considered guilty: "if you borrowed money, pay it back". Whether a caravan was robbed, a storm sank a boat with cargo or a merchant simply squandered other people's money - all this was considered a question of idleness. In the same way a mortal who broke away from his faith, where he was known by relatives and neighbors, was not accepted to live and work in other communities, not interested in the reasons of exile.
А. D. Kivshenko. Yaroslav the Wise. Reading to the people of "Russian Pravda
К. V. Lebedev. The collection of tribute by the prince
But in Russia there was also a fourth category of outcasts who were in no way guilty of their misfortune. "And the fourth outcast: as (if) the prince is orphaned." According to this principle, a prince who was orphaned before his father could occupy the great throne was forever deprived of all rights of possession of the ancestral inheritance. Consequently, for the sons of Svyatoslav in this situation, the choice was very cruel: either they received the right to occupy, in turn, the great dukedom of Kiev, or they became outcast princes. Such an outcast became, after the death of his father Vyacheslav, the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, Boris, who was imprisoned in Smolensk during his father's lifetime. The same thing happened to Davyd Igorevich, the son of the youngest son of Yaroslav the Wise - Igor, who also didn't live long enough for his turn to occupy the Kiev throne.
It is natural, that outcast princes aspired to get a foothold on any of Russian tables.
The only possible place was distant Tmutarakan. There began a continuous struggle between the outcasts, who were invited by the Judeo-Khazars of Tmutarakan, and the Sviatoslavichi, who had lost their paternal Chernigov and who used contacts with the Yasses, Kasogs and Polov. The Sviatoslavichs sought to return to their native land. The Sviatoslavichi sought to regain their father's Chernigov throne, on which first Vsevolod and then his son Vladimir Monomachakh had secured a foothold.
And so, in 1078 Oleg and Roman Sviatoslavichi, together with Boris Vyacheslavich, advanced upon Russia from Tmutarakan' in order to acquire their appanage cities by the sword. Against them came the senior princes - Izyaslav and Vsevolod. Prince Izyaslav, an old man who had lived a life full of ups and downs, perished in a terrible battle at Nezhatina Niva near Chernigov. The young Boris Vyacheslavovich, who had thrown himself into battle for his father's inheritance, also perished. The victory was gained by the senior princes. Vsevolod, who solemnly chided his brother Izyaslav, and became Grand Duke. Thus, Svyatoslav was succeeded on the great throne by Vsevolod.
The fate of the surviving Sviatoslavichs was sad: in 1079 Roman Sviatoslavich was killed by the Polovtsy nomads, and Oleg, who reached Tmutarakan', was captured by the Khazars. Oleg's fate strikes us as exceptional. The Khazars handed Oleg over to the Greeks. The prince lived in Constantinople, apparently as a prisoner of honor. Idle life, also devoid of any perspective, could not but weigh on the young, energetic Oleg. And here he was lucky. Everything was changed by an incident in the imperial palace when Russian mercenaries, drunk with wine, decided to affect a coup and attacked the imperial bedroom. This drunken attempt was not successful. The Greek warriors repulsed the attack and drove the mercenaries into one of the palace rooms. On awakening, the rowdies begged forgiveness and were pardoned. They were of course sent from the capital to the frontier forces, where they fought the Seljuks more than they drank alcohol. The Russian guard at the court of the emperor was eliminated and replaced by Anglo-Saxon soldiers. (5)
View of a church built from the remains of the ancient Tithe Church by Metropolitan Peter Mohyla. Engraving. 1847 г.
As is well known, in 1066 Duke William the Conqueror of Normandy defeated King Harald of England. At the battle of Hastings Harald was killed, England was conquered by the Normans, and the Anglo-Saxons were so severely oppressed by the conquerors that they began to leave their homeland, eagerly enlisting for military service in Byzantium.
Kiev tracts: Kozhemyaki
After a ridiculous rebellion of drunken Vikings Oleg Sviatoslavich, as a Russian he was transferred to the island of Rhodes. There he married a Greek patrician, Theophania Musalon, and two years later was allowed to return to Tmutarakan, where outcasts Davyd Igorevich and Volodar, supported by the Khazars, were entrenched.
In 1083 a Byzantine galley arrived at the wharf of Tmutarakan with the "archonte of Rus'" (the Greek rank of a Russian prince) Oleg and his young wife. Oleg went ashore, and ... a massacre took place in Tmutarakan. The Judeo-Khazars, Oleg's old enemies, were exterminated and the princes Davyd and Volodar were driven out. It is clear that Oleg could not deal with the Jewish community of Tmutarakan by his own forces. Who could support the new prince and carry out these cruel executions? Obviously, only the natives: the Yassians and Kasogians - and possibly the Polovtsians. For a time, Oleg held out in Tmutarakan, maintaining relations with Byzantium, and in 1094, having given the city to the Grand Duke Alexius Comnenus, left for Russia with his cohorts. He took the Polovtsians as allies, drove his cousin Vladimir Vsevolodich Monomakh out of Chernigov, and became the governor of his father's city.
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