“Prince Igor” (constructed in 1890) opera, music. Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (1833–1887), completed by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and A. K. Glazunov, libr. Borodin with the participation of V.V. Stasov 850 I wouldn’t bother, / I would know how to live. D. I, map. 1, song of Prince Galitsky 851 Neither sleep, nor rest

YURI DOLGORUKY (?-1157), Prince of Suzdal and Grand Duke of Kiev 22 Come to me, brother, in Moscow. An invitation sent to the Novgorod-Seversk prince Svyatoslav Olgovich in 1147. This first written mention of Moscow was preserved in the Ipatiev Chronicle. ? PSRL. – M.,

Many facts from the life of one of the greatest rulers of Rus' are unknown to this day. Princess Olga, whose short biography has many “blank spots”, is still one of the most odious people today.

Origin of Princess Olga

Historians and researchers of Olga’s life and work even today have not come to a consensus about her origin. Several sources of those years give different information about the origin of the future wife of Grand Duke Igor.

Thus, one of the recognized sources of those times - “The Tale of Bygone Years” - indicates that the future Princess Olga, whose short biography does not provide accurate information about her parents, was brought from Pskov.

Another source - “The Life of Princess Olga” - claims that she was born on Pskov land, in the village of Vybuty. a commoner, which is why the names of her parents remained unknown.

The Jokimov Chronicle mentions that the future wife of the Prince of Kyiv was from the noble Izborsky family, and her roots go back to the Varangians.

Another version: Olga is a daughter

Marriage

Igor's acquaintance with his future wife is also shrouded in a lot of inaccuracies and mysteries. The “Life” says that the future Princess Olga, whose brief biography is sometimes contradictory in different sources, met her future husband in Pskov, where the prince was hunting. He needed to get across the river, and when he saw the boat, Igor got into it. Afterwards the prince discovered that his ferryman was a beautiful girl. She refused all of her passenger's advances. And when the time came to choose a bride for the prince, he remembered the girl in the boat and sent messengers for her with a marriage proposal. This is how Olga became the wife of a Russian. The Princess of Kiev, whose brief biography has since been traced more clearly, was a good and wise wife. Soon she gave birth to Igor’s son, Svyatoslav.

Murder of Prince Igor

Prince Igor was a great conqueror; he constantly raided neighboring lands with his squad, collecting tribute from weak tribes. One of these campaigns became fatal for the Russian prince. In 945, Igor and his retinue went to the neighboring Drevlyans for the due tribute. Having taken a lot of wealth, destroyed villages and abused the local population, the Russians went home. However, on the way back, the prince with a small number of soldiers decided to return and again plunder the Drevlyan lands. But the local men, making sure that the prince was coming with a small army, attacked him and killed him.

Revenge on the Drevlyans

Having learned about the death of her husband at the hands of the Drevlyans, Olga grieved for a long time. The Princess of Kiev, whose brief biography is described in The Tale of Bygone Years, turned out to be a wise wife and ruler. According to the customs of that time, it was acceptable. Naturally, Olga could not get around this tradition. Having gathered a squad, She began to wait. Soon, ambassadors from the Drevlyans came with a wedding proposal for the sake of uniting the Russian and Drevlyan lands. The princess agreed - this was her revenge.

The gullible Drevlyans believed her, entered the capital, but were captured, thrown into a hole and covered with earth. Thus, some of the bravest and bravest Drevlyans were destroyed. The second batch of ambassadors was also killed by cunning - they were burned in a bathhouse. When Olga and her squad approached the gates of Iskorosten, the main city of the Drevlyans, under the pretext of holding a funeral feast (funeral) for the prince, she drugged her enemies, and the squad chopped them up. According to chroniclers, about five thousand Drevlyans died then.

In 946, the princess and her army went to the Drevlyan lands, destroyed them, collected taxes and established a mandatory, fixed tax, but she never managed to occupy Iskorosten. The city was impregnable. Then Olga burned the city to the ground with the help of pigeons and sparrows, tying burning cloth to their legs. Schoolchildren are told who Princess Olga is. A short biography for elementary school children omits the full story of revenge. Mainly attention is paid to the years of her reign and the adoption of the Christian faith.

Princess Olga: brief biography, years of reign

After Igor's death, their son Svyatoslav became the successor, but virtually all power was concentrated in the hands of his mother, both while he was young and after he came of age. Svyatoslav was a warrior, and spent most of his time on campaigns. Princess Olga was engaged in the improvement of lands and controlled territories. A short biography of the ruler indicates that this woman founded several cities, including Pskov. Everywhere she improved her lands, erected walls around large villages, and built churches in honor of Christian saints. During Olga's reign, excessive taxes were replaced by fixed fees.

The princess's foreign policy also deserves attention. Olga strengthened ties with Germany and Byzantium. This was facilitated, first of all, by her acceptance of the Christian faith.

Princess Olga's baptism

Princess Olga is called the first sign of Christianity on Russian soil. A short biography for grade 4 pays special attention to this event. In written sources of past years there is no single date for the princess’s adoption of Christianity. Some say 955, others say 957.

Having visited Constantinople, Olga was not only baptized in the Christian faith, but also renewed the trade agreements signed by her late husband. The princess was baptized by VII himself and the priest Theophylact. They named her Elena (according to Christian custom).

Returning home, Olga tried in every possible way to introduce her son Svyatoslav to the new faith, but the prince was not inspired by this idea and remained a pagan, fearing the condemnation of the squad. And yet, he did not forbid his mother to build cathedrals and churches. Olga remained in Kyiv and actively participated in raising her grandchildren. Perhaps it was this fact that led Svyatoslav’s son, Vladimir, to baptize Rus' in 988, thereby uniting it.

In 968, the Pechenegs attacked Russian land. Olga was in the besieged capital with her grandchildren. She sent a messenger for Svyatoslav, who at that time was on another campaign. The prince arrived home, defeated the Pechenegs, but Olga asked her son not to plan another campaign, since she was seriously ill and foresaw the end was near. In 969, Princess Olga died and was buried according to Christian rites. Legend says that the relics of the Grand Duchess were incorruptible.

In the 16th century, Olga was canonized.

) from 945, after death Prince Igor, until 962.

She accepted Christianity even before the baptism of Rus' - under the name Elena, since Olga is a Scandinavian name, not a Christian one. According to The Tale of Bygone Years, she was originally from Pskov, from a poor family, and Oleg brought her together with Igor.

After Igor's death, her determination tilted her husband's squad in her favor - thanks to this, she became a ruler, which was not typical for Rus' at that time. For the death of her husband Drevlyans(who killed him) Olga took revenge four times:

1. When 20 matchmakers of the Drevlyan prince Mal came to Olga on a boat to woo, she buried them alive along with the boat.
2. After that, she asked to send to her a new embassy of the Drevlyans from the best husbands (they say the first twenty were not God knows what). She burned the new ambassadors alive in the bathhouse where they bathed before meeting the princess.
3. Olga arrived in the lands of the Drevlyans with the official version of celebrating a funeral feast for her deceased husband at his grave. The Drevlyans fell in love again - Olga drugged them and massacred them cleanly (chronicles speak of 5 thousand dead).
4. Campaign of 946 to the lands of the Drevlyans. Princess Olga surrounded the capital Korosten (Iskorosten) and, after a long unsuccessful siege, burned the city with the help of birds (tying set fire tow with sulfur to their paws). Only ordinary peasants were left alive.

Having avenged the death of her husband, Olga returned to Kyiv and ruled there until Svyatoslav came of age, and in fact even after that - because Svyatoslav was constantly on campaigns and did little to govern the principality.

Olga's main achievements in the reign of Russia:

1. Strengthened the centralization of power in Rus' by going to Novgorod and Pskov in 947, and appointed tribute (lessons) there.
2. Formed a system of trade and exchange centers (the so-called “ churchyards"), which later turned into administrative-territorial units. Initially, these were small settlements with a temple and a market, as well as an inn.
3. She conquered the Drevlyan lands and Volyn, opening trade routes to the west, as well as control over them.
4. She was the first to start building houses in Kyiv from stone, not wood.
5. Back in 945, she developed a new taxation system ( polyudya) with different terms, frequency and amounts of payments - taxes, dues, charters.
6. Divided the lands subject to Kyiv into administrative units with princely administrators ( tiunami) at the head.
7. She was baptized in 955 in Constantinople, then promoted Christian ideas among the Kyiv nobility.

An interesting fact from “The Tale...”: the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII wanted to take Olga as his wife, but she replied that it was inappropriate for a pagan to marry a Christian. Then the patriarch and Constantine baptized her, and the latter repeated his request. Olga told him that he was now her godfather, and led him in this way. The Emperor laughed, presented Olga with gifts and sent her home.

Name: Princess Olga

Date of Birth: 920

Age: 49 years old

Place of Birth: Vybuty, Pskov region

A place of death: Kyiv

Activity: Princess of Kyiv

Family status: widow

Princess Olga - biography

In the history of ancient Rus' there are unconditional heroes and heroines, whose biographies are based only on the legends preserved in chronicles. The most mysterious of these legends is associated with Princess Olga. Her date of birth, origins, and even her name remain a matter of debate, and many of her exploits are inconsistent with the title of saint bestowed upon her.

Olga first appeared on the pages of history in 903. “The Tale of Bygone Years” preserved a meager mention of this: “I grew up Igor... and brought him a wife from Pleskov, named Olga.” We are talking about Igor, the son of Rurik, who was not yet the prince of Kyiv - this title was borne by his teacher Oleg the Prophet. Later, a beautiful legend was born that Olga was a carrier in the Pskov region.

One day, while hunting, Igor needed to cross a river, and he called a boat, driven by a beautiful girl. Halfway through the journey, the loving prince began to speak immodestly to her, but the girl replied: “Why are you embarrassing me, prince? I may be young and ignorant, but know: it is better for me to throw myself into the river than to endure reproach!” Ashamed, Igor generously paid the carrier and said goodbye to her. And then, when the time came for him to get married, he remembered the Pskov woman and took her as his wife.

Most likely, the marriage of Igor and Olga took place much later than the chronicle date, and the princess herself was born around 920. But Igor at that time was still well over forty. Why didn't he get married earlier? And if he was married, then where did his heirs go? There can be two answers. Igor could well have been not the son of Rurik, but an impostor, a protege of the cunning Oleg. Perhaps, as was common among pagans, Igor had other wives and children, but Olga managed to get them out of the way. Both are unprovable, although the chronicles mention the names of princely relatives who disappeared to God knows where. True, this happened after Igor became the prince of Kyiv in 912, replacing the mysteriously deceased Oleg.

It was probably then, in order to strengthen his power, that he married Olga. And she was by no means a simple carrier - especially from Pskov, which, according to archaeologists, did not yet exist at that time. The chronicle name of Pskov “Pleskov” is very similar to the name of the first Bulgarian capital Pliska (Pliskovs). Bulgaria in the 10th century was well known to the Russians, inhabited by related Slavic people, and ruled by Simeon, who assumed the title of Tsar in 919.

He could well have married his daughter or niece to the Kyiv prince as a sign of friendship - otherwise why later did Olga’s son Svyatoslav consider Bulgaria his “fatherland”? When he came there with an army, the country submitted to him without a fight - wasn’t it because the Bulgarians considered the young prince theirs by blood? In addition, before her marriage Olga was called Preslava, a Bulgarian name that later became the name of the new capital of the country. The Bulgarian word “boyar” also came into use in Rus' from the time of Olga and Svyatoslav, as did the name Boris, which belonged to the father of Tsar Simeon. Olga's second son was named Gleb - this name also came from Bulgaria.

And yet it is impossible to say with one hundred percent certainty that Olga is a Bulgarian princess. There is no mention of her name in the Bulgarian chronicles, nor is there any mention of the wedding of a royal relative with the Kyiv prince. And the behavior of the princess resembles not soft Slavs, but stern Norman Valkyries. But the Bulgarian version seems the most likely - also for this reason. that the Bulgarians, unlike the Russians and Scandinavians, were already Orthodox, and Olga felt a deep craving for this religion.

Throughout Igor's long reign, Olga remained in the shadow of her husband. However, while the prince disappeared on long campaigns, it was she who had to deal with the daily affairs of the country. And in 945, when Igor died at the hands of the Drevlyans, the issue of power in Kyiv was not discussed - it was entirely concentrated in the hands of Olga, speaking on behalf of her young son Svyatoslav.

It is difficult to judge what Rus' was like in that period from the chronicles. The tribal principalities of which it consisted were very conditionally subordinate to Kyiv. Only during the annual “polyudye” - the collection of tribute - did they show submission to the prince. Or disobedience, like the Drevlyans: when Igor wanted to collect additional tribute from them, they said the famous phrase: “If we don’t kill him, then he will destroy us all.” The prince, the conqueror of Byzantium, did not expect resistance from the small forest tribe and easily fell into a trap. The Greeks, having learned about his death “in the trees” (that is, among the Drevlyans), composed a legend that the prince was tied by his legs to young trees and so torn in two.

Having killed the prince, the Drevlyans decided to take possession of his wife and all his property. This was the custom of those times, but Olga did not recognize these customs.
Having met the Drevlyan ambassadors in Kyiv, who had arrived to marry her to Prince Mal, she ordered them to be thrown into a hole and buried alive. The dull Drevlyans sent a second embassy, ​​which Olga locked in a bathhouse and suffocated with steam. After which, in memory of her husband, she organized a feast for the noble Drevlyans and killed them. Then she went with her army on a campaign against the Drevlyan capital Iskorosten, taking with her three-year-old Svyatoslav.

Having besieged the city, she demanded tribute from the residents - three doves per yard. Having received the birds, she tied burning torches to them and launched them back into the city, and they burned Iskorosten with all its inhabitants. Olga gave the surviving Drevlyans into slavery, and distributed their lands to those close to her. Prince Mal died along with his subjects, and the Kiev governor was installed in the Drevlyansky land. After which Olga, with all possible energy, set about arranging the rest of her possessions, setting up tribute collection points - graveyards - throughout Rus'.

From now on, Olga’s messengers no longer needed to travel around her estates, extracting taxes from her subjects - they delivered them on their own, which was easier and safer. However, the princess tried to make the tribute not too heavy. The author of Olga’s life emphasized that she herself “walked around the entire Russian land, teaching tributes and lessons.”

In foreign policy, the princess also preferred to act softly. Khazaria, to which Rus' had recently been subordinate, was busy at war with the Arab Caliphate. There was no need to be afraid of the Scandinavian Vikings, all of whose forces were thrown into raids in England and France. Byzantium remained, which did not allow the Russians to the Black Sea trade routes. In 955, Olga went on a visit to Constantinople. Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, according to the chronicler’s story, “seeing that I was good at school and smart,” offered to become her godfather. Olga agreed, and after baptism, when Konstantin suddenly proposed marriage to her, she stated that he had baptized her and called her his daughter, so marriage with her would be incest. The Emperor was forced to admit: “You outwitted (outwitted) me, Olga.”

Olga returned to Kyiv along with Orthodox priests who began to introduce Christianity in Rus'. The princess wisely reasoned that the new faith could unite the state much better than pagan tribal beliefs. According to some reports, the first Christian church soon appeared in Kyiv. Presumably, it was erected in the suburban Vyshgorod, where the fortified princely residence was located. Kyiv itself then consisted of several settlements inhabited by the Khazars, Varangians, Slavs and other multilingual populations that had yet to merge into a single ancient Russian nation. This was greatly facilitated by the princess with her Christian pathos, which, according to the Testament of the Gospel, did not distinguish between “neither Greek nor Jew.”

To Olga’s chagrin, her son Svyatoslav did not share her Christian sentiments. The young man spent all his time with the warriors in riotous pleasures - feasts, hunting and war games. She tried to teach her son the basics of faith, saying: “I have come to know God, my son, and I rejoice, if you know it too, you will rejoice.” He answered: “How can I accept a new faith alone if my squad starts laughing at me?” And then he got completely angry and stopped listening to his mother’s sermons. In 965, he ventured against the previously invincible Khazars, weakened by constant wars. The campaign ended in an unexpected victory - the Khazar capital White Vezha (Sarkel) fell. In the eyes of its neighbors, Rus' finally established itself as an independent state.

This strengthening of Rus' led to a cooling in Olga's relations with Byzantium. Even earlier, her “fiancé” Konstantin asked her for the soldiers promised under the contract, and Olga replied: “If you stand with me in Pochaina as I did in the Court, then I will give it to you.” Comparing the Kyiv Pochaina River with the harbor of Constantinople, the princess expressed claims to her equality with the emperor. But he endured the insult and, apparently, came to an agreement with the “bride” - in any case, Russian troops have since participated on the side of Byzantium in many wars.

But Olga did not trust the Greeks too much and in 959 she sent an embassy to the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. He sent Catholic missionaries led by Bishop Adalbert to Rus', but they were met with a cold reception in Kyiv. Olga quickly realized that the Pope's strict spiritual control could limit the power of the Kyiv princes much more than the soft influence of Orthodox Byzantium, and expelled the papal representatives.

But there was no peace with Constantinople either. In 967, Prince Svyatoslav went on a campaign against Bulgaria and began to seriously threaten the Greek possessions and Constantinople itself. The new emperor Nikephoros II Phocas took action - he bribed the Pecheneg leaders, asking them to attack Rus'. The Pechenegs with a large army approached the walls of Kyiv, where Olga and her grandchildren were. By that time, Svyatoslav had managed to marry Princess Predslav, who bore him sons Yaropolk and Oleg. Another son, Vladimir, was born to the prince by the housekeeper Malusha.

Olga led the defense of Kyiv. When the city began to suffer from hunger, she found a youth who knew the Pecheneg language and sent him for help. Passing through the enemy camp with a bridle, the young man asked if anyone had seen the horse. Only when the boy rushed into the Dnieper and swam did the Pechenegs realize their mistake and open fire with arrows. The Kiev resident managed to get over to the other bank, where the detachment that did not take part in Svyatoslav’s campaign was stationed. While the detachment was making its way into the city, Olga managed to send a messenger to her son with bitter words: “You, prince, are looking for a foreign land. Don’t you feel sorry for your fatherland, your old mother and your children?” Having received this news, Svyatoslav and his squad hurried to Kyiv and drove out the Pechenegs.

The strain of strength during the siege turned out to be fatal for Olga. She was, if not seventy years old. as follows from the chronicle story, about fifty, for that time - very old age. In the summer of 969 she fell ill, and the prince postponed his next campaign in Bulgaria. to see his mother off on her last journey. She died on July 11, and “her son, and her grandchildren, and all the people cried for her with great lamentation, and they carried her and buried her in the chosen place.” Olga bequeathed not to perform a pagan funeral funeral over her, but to bury her according to the Orthodox rite. The author of “The Tale of Bygone Years” concludes the story about the princess with the words: “She was before the herald of the Christian land, like the morning star before the sun, like dawn before the dawn, and shone among the pagans, like pearls in the mud.”

In 1000, Prince Vladimir, who after a fratricidal feud replaced his father who had died at the hands of the Pechenegs, ordered Olga’s remains to be transferred to the Kyiv Church of the Tithes. Immediately, rumors of miracles spread throughout Rus': if someone came to the tomb of the princess with firm faith, a window at the top of the sarcophagus opened, and a wonderful light poured out from there. Many healings took place at the tomb, and soon the Church recognized Olga as a saint and equal to the apostles. It is unknown when her official canonization took place, but for a long time the princess was a beloved Russian saint. The cruel revenge on the Drevlyans was forgotten, but the “light tributes”, alms and deeds of piety were remembered. Whoever Olga was - a Bulgarian princess, a Pskov commoner or a northern Valkyrie - she fully quenched the people's craving for merciful, albeit punitive, but fair power. This is how it remains in the memory of the people.

Ancient chronicles give conflicting information about the place and date of Olga’s birth, whether she comes from a princely family or is of an ordinary family, and disputes about this are still going on. Someone calls her the daughter of Prince Oleg the Prophet, other sources believe that her family comes from Bulgaria from Prince Boris. The famous Nestor in “The Tale of Bygone Years” indicates Olga’s homeland is a village near Pskov, and that she is from the common people.

Also, in the biography of Princess Olga, only brief information has been preserved.

According to one legend, Prince Igor Rurikovich met Olga in the forest when he was having fun hunting. Having decided to cross the river, he asked Olga, who was passing by on a boat, to transport him, mistaking her for a young man. The girl turned out to be very beautiful, smart and pure in intentions. Later, Prince Igor married Olga.

Kiev Princess Olga proved herself to be a very wise ruler in Rus'. During the military campaigns of Prince Igor, she dealt with political issues, received ambassadors, and dealt with complainants, governors, and warriors. Prince Igor and Princess Olga were not only a happy married couple, but also ruled the country together, sharing administrative responsibilities.

Igor led the war and resolved inter-tribal issues, while Olga dealt with the internal life of the country.

In 945, Prince Igor was killed by the Drevlyans for collecting tribute again. Princess Olga brutally took revenge on the rebels, showing cunning and strong will.

To settle the matter with Olga, the Drevlyans sent 20 husbands to her with an offer to marry their prince Mal. According to Olga’s order, they were met and carried with honor right in the boats, and at the place of arrival they were thrown into a pre-prepared pit and buried alive.

Then Princess Olga sent her ambassadors to the Drevlyan land with a demand to send the best husbands for her in order to come to them with great honor. A bathhouse was flooded for the new ambassadors, where they were locked and then burned.

And again Olga sent ambassadors and demanded that honey be prepared in order to celebrate a funeral feast at her husband’s grave. The princess arrived with a small retinue. During the funeral feast, the Drevlyans became drunk, and Olga’s squad cut them down with swords.

But Princess Olga’s revenge on the Drevlyans did not end there. She gathered an army and the next year went to the Drevlyan land. The Drevlyans were defeated, but their main city, Korosten, was not taken.

Then Olga demanded a tribute from them in the amount of three doves and three sparrows from each yard. The besieged inhabitants of the city were delighted with such a small payment and fulfilled her wish. Olga ordered the soldiers to tie pieces of tinder to the birds’ feet (tinder is a flammable material such as grass, sawdust, bark, paper) and release them into the wild. The birds flew to their nests, and soon Korosten was engulfed in fire. People who fled the city were killed or enslaved, and a heavy tribute was imposed on the rest.

Having pacified the Drevlyans, Grand Duchess Olga actively took up tax reform. She abolished polyudyas, divided the lands into “pogosts” (regions) and established “lessons” (a fixed amount of taxes) for each graveyard. The meaning of Princess Olga's reforms was to create an orderly system for collecting tribute, weakening tribal power and strengthening the authority of the Kyiv prince.

Princess Olga's son Svyatoslav was still small after the death of Prince Igor, so power was concentrated in Olga's hands. And then Olga’s reign in Rus' continued, because Svyatoslav very often went on military campaigns.

Under Princess Olga, the first stone structures began to be built in Kyiv, new cities appeared, surrounded by strong stone walls.

Princess Olga's foreign policy was carried out not through military methods, but through diplomacy. She strengthened international ties with Germany and Byzantium.

Relations with Greece revealed to Olga how superior the Christian faith is to the pagan one. In 957, she undertook a trip to Constantinople to receive baptism from Emperor Constantine VII himself (although some sources speak of his co-ruler Romanus II) and Patriarch Theophylact. At baptism, the Kyiv princess received the name Elena.

The Byzantine emperor, fascinated by the beauty and intelligence of the Russian princess, decided to take her as his wife. Olga, true to her memory of her husband, managed to reject the offer without offending the emperor.

Olga's attempts to convert her son Svyatoslav to Orthodoxy were unsuccessful, apparently because Svyatoslav was afraid of losing the authority and respect of his squad, although he did not prevent others from converting to Christianity.

The baptism of Princess Olga did not lead to the establishment of Christianity in Rus', but she had a great influence on her grandson Vladimir, who continued her work.

Princess Olga died in 969 in Kyiv. And only in 1547 she was recognized as a saint.