Kiev principality - K. the principality was formed in the land of the meadows. Already around the tenth century. it included the Drevlyane land, which subsequently only briefly separated from the Kiev region. The borders of the K. principality changed frequently. The eastern and northern borders were comparatively more stable. The first went along the Dnieper, and K. belonged to the principality on the left bank of the corner between the lower reaches of the Desna and the Dnieper and a narrow strip of land to the mouth of the Koran River. In the northeast, the border ran along the Pripyat River, sometimes crossing it and capturing part of the Dregovichi region. The western border was subject to fluctuations: either it followed the Sluch River, or it reached the Goryn River and even crossed it. The southern border was even more changeable; sometimes it reached the Southern Bug and crossed the Ros River, sometimes it retreated to the Stugna River (under St. Vladimir and at the end of the 11th century). Approximately, the K. principality occupied most of the current Kyiv province, the eastern half of Volhynia, and small segments in the western part of the provinces of Chernigov and Poltava. The lands of the Drevlyans and the northern part of the land of the glades were covered with forests; only south of the Stugna did the country take on a steppe character. The Dnieper River plays a huge role in the history of the Polyana tribe. The position of the country on the great waterway from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, where the Dnieper receives its two most important tributaries - the Pripyat and the Desna, is due to the early development of culture here. On the banks of the Dnieper, traces of Stone Age settlements are found in large numbers. Coin hoards indicate that trade has flourished on the Dnieper coast for a long time. In the 9th-10th centuries, the meadows carried on extensive trade with Byzantium and the East. There are also indications of early trade relations between the Dnieper region and Western Europe. Due to their favorable geographical position, the meadows were more cultured than the neighboring Slavic tribes and subsequently subjugated them. It can be thought that in earlier times the meadows were divided into small communities. Around the 8th century they fell under the power of the Khazars. The fight against foreigners was supposed to cause the formation of a military class of vigilantes, whose leaders receive power over the community. These chiefs-princes are, at the same time, big merchants. As a result, the princes of more important trading centers acquire significant funds, enabling them to increase the contingent of their squad - and this allows them to subjugate less powerful neighboring communities. Simultaneously with the expansion of the territory, the princes within the community were seizing judicial and administrative functions. The expansion of princely power took place among the glades, apparently gradually, without a strong struggle; at least in historical times we do not see antagonism between the prince and the people.
When the K. principality was formed - we do not have reliable information. Arab writers of the tenth century. they report, obviously based on a source of an earlier time, that the Russ have three states, one of which has the large city of Cuiaba as its capital. The initial chronicle conveys a number of legends about the formation of the K. principality, which the chronicler tries to connect with each other. Thus, the story turned out that Kyiv, founded by Kiy and his brothers (see Kiy), after their death was occupied by the Varangians Askold and Dir (see), who were killed by Oleg. The personality of Oleg, to which the chronicler dates several legends, is already historical, since Oleg concluded a trade agreement with the Greeks. Igor and Olga, who ruled Kyiv after Oleg, are also historical figures, although several legends are also associated with their names in the annals. Regarding the origin of the first K. princes, the opinions of researchers differ: some consider them Varangians, others attribute to them a native origin. The chronicler says that Oleg subjugated the neighboring Slavic tribes to Kyiv. Be that as it may, but by the middle of the tenth century. the possessions of the K. princes already occupied a vast territory. True, the conquered tribes had little connection with the center; the princes limited themselves to collecting tribute from them and did not interfere in their internal routines; the tribes were ruled by their local princes, some of which we find in the annals. To maintain their power and to collect tribute to K., the princes had to undertake distant campaigns; often such campaigns were undertaken for the sake of prey. Particularly remarkable in this regard are the campaigns of Igor's son, Svyatoslav: he went to the Volga, destroyed the Khazar kingdom and, finally, transferred his activities to the Danube, to Bulgaria, from where he was ousted by the Byzantines. For such enterprises, the princes needed a significant squad. This squad was distinguished by a diverse composition and was not at all tied to the ground. The warriors served only the prince; in turn, the princes value the squad, do not spare property for it, consult with it. With the frequent absence of princes, the Polyana land enjoyed largely self-government. The interests of the princes, as major merchants, coincided with the interests of the more prosperous part of the population, which also carried on significant trade. For the sake of trade interests, the princes undertake campaigns, conclude trade agreements (the agreements of Oleg and Igor with the Greeks). One of the main concerns of the K. princes was to retain the diverse parts of their state. To this end, Svyatoslav already distributes, during his lifetime, various areas for the management of his sons: he puts Yaropolk in Kyiv, Oleg - in the Drevlyane land, Vladimir - in Novgorod. After the death of Svyatoslav, a struggle for possession of the entire state begins between his sons. The winner of this struggle was his youngest son, Vladimir of Novgorod, who also took possession of Kyiv (see St. Vladimir). Thanks to lively relations with Byzantium, the Christian faith began to spread early in Kyiv. Under Igor, there was already a Christian church here and part of the princely retinue consisted of Christians, and Igor's widow, Olga, herself was baptized. Vladimir, seeing the growth of Christianity in his land, was baptized and baptized his sons. Like his father, during his lifetime, Vladimir distributed various volosts to his numerous sons to manage. After his death, a struggle began between the brothers, and one of them, Yaroslav of Novgorod, again managed to unite almost all Russian lands in his hands. And this prince, following the policy of his father and grandfather, distributes volosts to his sons. Dying, he bequeaths to K. the principality, i.e., the lands of Polyanskaya and Drevlyanskaya, to his eldest son Izyaslav; at the same time, he transfers to him the right of seniority over the brothers (1054). In other areas, the princes are gradually imbued with the interests of the population, which, in turn, gets used to a certain branch of the princely family. One K. region was an exception in this respect, due to the right of seniority assigned to K. to the prince, and the wealth of the region, the possession of which was very tempting for the princes. All the princes who can rely on law or force claim to be on the K. table. With the multiplication of the princely family, the definition of seniority became very difficult and constantly gave rise to wrangling. Strong princes "got" a table for themselves, not embarrassed by any ancestral accounts. The population also did not take into account tribal rights and sought to have princes from their favorite branch. Already under Izyaslav (see), complications occurred, he was expelled from Kyiv several times and returned there again. After him, Kyiv passed to the eldest of the living Yaroslavichs, Vsevolod, and then to the son of Izyaslav, Svyatopolk-Mikhail. When at the Lyubech Congress it was decided that everyone should own what his father owned, K. the table, after the death of Svyatopolk, was to go to Svyatopolk's son, Yaroslav, and if you stick to seniority, David Svyatoslavich. But the people of Kiev did not like either the Svyatoslavichs or Svyatopolk and called for the reign of Vsevolod's son, Vladimir Monomakh, who acquired their favor. From that time (1113) for 36 years, K. the table was in the hands of one branch: Monomakh passes it on to his son, Mstislav, and the last to his brother, Yaropolk. This transfer takes place with the consent of the population. After the death of Yaropolk, Kyiv is captured by force by the Chernigov prince Vsevolod Olgovich (see) and manages to stay here until his death (1146); but his attempt to transfer the table to his brother Igor was unsuccessful - the people of Kiev killed Igor (see) and called the prince from the Monomakhovich family, Izyaslav Mstislavich (see). Izyaslav had to endure the struggle with his uncle, Yuri of Suzdal. Yuri expelled him several times, but in the end Izyaslav prevailed, although he had to accept his uncle, Vyacheslav, as co-rulers. The Kievans in this struggle adhere to such a policy: whenever Yuri is in K. land with a strong army, they advise Izyaslav to leave and accept Yuri, but as soon as Izyaslav returns, with allies, they gladly meet him and assist him. Only after the death of Izyaslav and Vyacheslav, Yuri managed to settle more firmly in Kyiv. Then there is again the struggle for Kyiv between Izyaslav Davidovich of Chernigov (see) and Rostislav of Smolensk. Rostislav managed to stay in Kyiv with the help of his nephew Mstislav Izyaslavich, to whom he gave K. the suburbs of Belgorod, Torchesk and Trepol. Thus, the K. principality began to fragment. Mstislav, having taken K. the table after Rostislav, gave his sons the suburbs of Vyshgorod and Ovruch. K. princes became weaker and weaker. Meanwhile, the strong Prince of Vladimir Andrei Yuryevich Bogolyubsky made a claim to Kyiv (see). Andrey did not even think of occupying K.'s table himself; for him it was only important to deprive him of the importance of the senior table and transfer the political center to the northeast, to his volost (see Vladimir Grand Duchy). He sent a large army of himself and his allies to Kyiv. Kyiv was taken and plundered (1169); Andrei planted his younger brother Gleb in it, and after his death he gave K. the principality to one of the Rostislavichs, Roman. Andrei treated the Rostislavichs arrogantly, as if they were his assistants; hence the clashes that Andrey's death put an end to. The intervention of the princes from the northeast in K. affairs stopped for a while. The princely table passed from hand to hand until the Chernigov prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich entered into an agreement with the Rostislavichs: Svyatoslav sat in Kyiv, and gave the Rostislavichs the Belogorod, Vyshegorod and Ovruch appanages, that is, most of the K. land. Not having enough power to support the importance of the Grand Duke, Svyatoslav played, in comparison with Vsevolod of Suzdal, a secondary role; but in his almost 20-year reign of K., the land rested a little from strife. After his death K. the table was occupied by Rurik Rostislavich. His relatives received inheritances in K. land; his son-in-law, Roman Mstislavich, owned cities in Porosye. Vsevolod of Suzdal demanded from Rurik "parts in the Russian land" and precisely those cities that Roman owned. Rurik did not dare to resist the powerful prince. Vsevolod, in fact, did not need these cities at all; he gave one of them, Torchesk, to the son of Rurik, his son-in-law. The goal of the Suzdal prince was to quarrel Rurik with Roman. Indeed, there was a feud between them. A few years later, Roman became a prince of Galicia and, having great strength, could take revenge on Rurik: he invaded K. land and found support in the people of Kyivians and black hoods. Rurik had to give in and be content with the Ovruch lot. Roman did not stay in Kyiv; K. the table lost all meaning, and Roman gave it to his cousin, Ingvar Yaroslavich. Having united with the Olgovichi and the Polovtsy, Rurik again took possession of Kyiv, which was again completely plundered (1203). Roman forcibly tonsured Rurik, but after the death of Roman (1205), Rurik threw off his monastic cassock and again reigned in Kyiv. Now he had to fight with the Chernigov prince Vsevolod Svyatoslavich; The Olgovichi never left a claim on the K. table. Vsevolod Svyatoslavich managed to capture Kyiv, and plant Rurik in his place in Chernigov, where he died. Vsevolod could not resist in Kyiv, which was captured by Mstislav Romanovich, who died in the first clash between the Russians and the Mongols on the Kalka River. The struggle for Kyiv between the Monomakhoviches and the Olegovichs begins again; country and city are ruined. Princes are quickly replaced on the K. table until the invasion of the Tatars.
In the specific period (from the middle of the 11th to the middle of the 13th century), three components can be distinguished in the K. principality: the land of the meadows, which is called Russia, the Russian land par excellence, the land of the Drevlyans, which closely adjoined the principality, and the southern outskirts - Porosye - inhabited by nomads of Turkic origin, known under the common name of black hoods. In the history of the K. land, the land of the glades played the most prominent role. There were most cities here, and the population took the most active part in the political life of the country. It was concentrated mainly in the northern wooded half, since here it was more secure from the raids of the steppes, and the economy of that time flourished more in the wooded areas, from where furs, honey, and wax were obtained (beekeeping was beekeeping). The Drevlyans (see) submitted to the glades only after a stubborn struggle, the memory of which was preserved in the legends recorded in the annals; they, apparently, early lost their local government, but, even being closely connected with Kyiv, they still showed little interest in the affairs of the entire principality. The Drevlyansk territory suffered the least from both the steppe nomads and princely strife. The black hoods formed the line of the border guards in the south; they were ruled by their own khans, retained their religion, way of life and mixed little with the Russian population. Their number was constantly increasing by new settlers; from the middle of the 12th century. they already play a prominent role in the political history of the Principality. With the fragmentation of the K. principality in the land of the Drevlyansk and Porosye, two significant inheritances were formed - Ovruch and Torchesky. The largest number of cities at that time was located in the northern part of the K. region, that is, in the land of the meadows. Opposite Kyiv, near the present village of Vigurovshchina, lay Gorodets, 15 versts above Kyiv along the Dnieper - Vyshgorod, 10 versts south-west of Kyiv - Zvenigorod, 20 versts west of Kyiv - Belgorod; beyond the Dnieper, south of Kyiv - Sakov, at the confluence of the Stugna into the Dnieper - Trepol, in its upper reaches - Vasilev (current Vasilkov), on the Dnieper, against Pereyaslav - Zarub, at the mouth of the Ros - Rodnya, later Kanev, higher along the Ros - Yuryev . In the western part of the K. land there were cities: Zvizhden, Michsk (present-day Radomysl), Kotelnitsa, Vruchiy (Ovruch), Iskorosten, Vvyagl (present-day Novgorod-Volynsk) and Korchesk (present-day Korets).
In the specific-veche period, a prince stands at the head of the K. of the earth. The people of Kiev do not consider it possible to exist without a prince: they are ready to call on even an unloved prince, if only not to remain, at least temporarily, without a prince at all. But at the same time, they recognize the right to call on pleasing princes and depose objectionable princes. They do not always manage to exercise this right, but the princes themselves allow it. Treaties (rows) with a prince in K. land are rare; relations are based on mutual trust between the prince and the people. The prince governs with the help of combatants. Over time, the squad acquires a local character; there is news from the middle of the 12th century that warriors own the land. The population is very reluctant to accept princes from other volosts, who bring with them someone else's squad. After the death of such princes, the population usually robs and beats the newcomers. The prince gathers the veche, but it can convene without his call. There were no designated meeting places. The suburbs, although treated as separate communities, almost always join in the decision of the older city; only Vyshgorod sometimes shows signs of independence. The veche to some extent controls the management of the prince and his officials, decides on the issue of war, if the convocation of the zemstvo militia - "wars" - is connected with this, over which the thousands commanded during the campaign. The army was composed of a squad, hunters of the Zemstvo militia and black hoods. Trade continues to play an important role in the life of the Principality. Princes take care of the protection of trade routes and often equip military expeditions for this purpose. A prominent role belongs to the clergy, especially since Kyiv is the spiritual center of the Russian land. The K. region, in addition to the metropolis, included two more bishoprics: Belgorod and Yuryev (later Kanev), which appeared in the 2nd half of the 12th century.
In the autumn of 1240, Batu took Kyiv, which was then owned by Daniel of Galicia. Since then, we have very little data on the fate of K. land. This gave some scientists a reason to assert that after the Tatar invasion, the princely land was empty, the population went north, and only later did new colonists from the west, the ancestors of the current Little Russian population of the country, come here. This opinion, which is based more on a priori assumptions and philological conjectures, does not meet with confirmation in the few information about the history of the earth that reached us during the period from the second half of the 13th to the beginning of the 14th century. K. land, no doubt, suffered greatly from the Tatars, but hardly more than other Russian lands. Batu gave the devastated Kyiv to the Suzdal prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, and in the 40s. 13th century the boyar of this prince sits in Kyiv. In 1331 K. prince Fedor is mentioned. Around this time, the K. principality became part of the Lithuanian-Russian state. Regarding the date of this event, opinions differ: some accept the date of Stryikovsky - 1319-20, others attribute the conquest of Kyiv by Gediminas to 1333, and finally, some (V. B. Antonovich) completely reject the fact of the conquest of Kyiv by Gediminas and attribute it to Olgerd, dating 1362 year. There is no doubt that after 1362 the son of Olgerd, Vladimir, was sitting in Kyiv, who was distinguished by his devotion to Orthodoxy and the Russian people. Vladimir, it seems, did not like either Jagiello or Vitovt, and in 1392 he was replaced by another Olgerdovich, Skirgail. But Skirgailo was also imbued with Russian sympathies; under him, Kyiv becomes the center of the Russian party in the Lithuanian state. Skirgailo soon died, and the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vitovt did not give Kyiv to anyone, but appointed a governor there. Only in 1440 was K.'s inheritance restored; Vladimir's son Olelko (Alexander) was appointed prince. After his death, Grand Duke Casimir did not recognize the patrimonial rights of his sons to K. land and gave it only as a lifetime fief to the eldest of them, Simeon. Both Olelko and Simeon rendered many services to the Kyiv principality, taking care of its internal structure and protecting it from Tatar raids. Among the population, they enjoyed great love, so that when, after the death of Simeon, Casimir did not transfer the reign to either his son or brother, but sent the governor of Gashtold to Kiev, the people of Kiev put up armed resistance, but had to submit, although not without protest. At the beginning of the 16th century, when Prince Mikhail Glinsky raised an uprising with the aim of tearing away the Russian regions from Lithuania, the people of Kiev reacted sympathetically to this uprising and assisted Glinsky, but the attempt failed and K. the land finally became one of the provinces of the Polish-Lithuanian state.
In the Lithuanian period of the K., the principality extended eastward to Sluch, in the north it passed beyond the Pripyat (Mozyr district), in the east it went beyond the Dnieper (Oster district); in the south, the border either retreated to Ros, or reached the Black Sea (under Vitovt). At this time, the principality was divided into povets (Ovruch, Zhytomyr, Zvenigorod, Pereyaslav, Kanev, Cherkasy, Oster, Chernobyl, and Mozyr), which were ruled by governors, elders, and holders appointed by the prince. All the inhabitants of the povet were subordinate to the governor in military, judicial and administrative respects, paid tribute in his favor and bore duties. The prince owned only the supreme power, expressed in the leadership in the war of the militia of all districts, the right to appeal to him to the court of the governor and the right to distribute land property. Under the influence of the Lithuanian order, the social system also began to change. According to Lithuanian law, the land belongs to the prince and is given to them for temporary possession under the condition of performing public service. Persons who have received plots of land on such a right are called "zemyans"; thus, from the 14th century, a class of landowners was formed in K. land. This class is concentrated mainly in the northern part of the principality, which is better protected from Tatar raids and more profitable for the economy, due to the abundance of forests. Below the zemyans were the "boyars", assigned to povet castles and carrying out service and various duties due to their belonging to this class, regardless of the size of the plot. Peasants ("people") lived on the lands of the state or zemyanskie, were personally free, had the right to move and carried duties in kind and monetary tributes in favor of the owner. This class is moving south to the uninhabited and fertile steppe povets, where the peasants were more independent, although they risked suffering from Tatar raids. From the end of the 15th century, groups of military people, designated by the term "Cossacks" (see), were distinguished from the peasants from the end of the 15th century to protect themselves from the Tatars. In the cities, a bourgeois class begins to form. In the last period of the existence of the K. principality, these estates are only beginning to be designated; there is still no sharp line between them; they finally form only later.
Literature. M. Grushevsky, "Essay on the history of the Kyiv land from the death of Yaroslav to the end of the XIV century" (K., 1891); Linnichenko, "Veche in the Kyiv region"; V. B. Antonovich, "Kyiv, its fate and significance from the XIV to XVI centuries" (monographs, vol. I); Sobolevsky, "On the question of the historical fate of Kyiv" ("Kyiv University News", 1885, 7). Moreover, many articles and notes are devoted to the history of the Kyiv land in "Kyiv Antiquities", "Readings in the Historical Society of Nestor the Chronicler" and "Proceedings of the Kyiv Theological Academy".
Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. - S.-Pb. Brockhaus-Efron.
>> Kiev principality
The Kiev principality is located in the Middle Dnieper region. These lands, located in the forest and forest-steppe zone, were the richest in the state. In addition to fertile black soil, which ensured the development of agriculture, there was enough wood and minerals that were widely used in handicraft production. The rivers - Dnieper, Desna, Pripyat, Southern Bug - connected the Kiev principality with other lands of Russia, as well as with foreign trade markets. In the south, the Kiev principality bordered on the lands of the Polovtsen nomads. The Polovtsy often raided the Kievan land, plundered and ravaged it. Therefore, defensive systems were built to protect against nomads.
By that time, there were about 80 cities in the principality. Among them are Kanev, Cherkassy, Ovruch, Zhitomir, Vyshgorod, Belgorod, Chernobyl, Mozyr and others. Large cities, as a rule, were located in the forest-steppe zone, and fortress cities were built along the southern borders.
Kyiv was the capital of the principality and at the same time remained the largest economic and cultural center of all Eastern Europe. The population of Kyiv of that period was about 50 thousand people. There were courts of boyars and merchants, large craft workshops. During the XII - the first half of the XIII centuries.
Kiev-Pechersky monastery. Panel. 1975
Artists V. Masik, A. Masik
What do you think, what kind of economic activity did the monks of the Kiev Caves Monastery do?
Vladimir Mother of God. Old Russian shrine - the icon of the Mother of God, which Andrei Bogolyubsky took as a trophy from Vyshgorod
Kyiv remained one of the centers of domestic and foreign trade. On the market squares one could meet merchants from different lands of Russia, as well as the Czech Republic, Germany, Scandinavia, Poland, Hungary, Byzantium and other countries. Kyiv artisans were famous for their skill in processing various metals, the sophistication of the jewelry, pottery, and glass products they created. The local craftsmen were the first to apply various technological innovations, which then spread to other lands. At the same time, Kyiv was a powerful fortress, behind the walls of which the population hid from enemy attacks.
Kyiv remained an ecclesiastical and religious center. There were many churches and monasteries here (the largest of them - Kiev-Pechersk - was founded by the founders of monasticism Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves). The residence of the metropolitan, the head of the Orthodox Church in Russia, was located in Kyiv.
The powerful power of the Kyiv prince, which extended to all Russian lands, has become a thing of the past. However, the memory that the one who owns Kyiv owns all of Russia haunted many ambitious princes. Unlike other principalities, which turned into hereditary fiefdoms of specific princes, Kyiv during the XII - the first half of the XIII centuries. was constantly in the center of the political and military struggle of the princes of different dynasties.
So, for example, the Rostov-Suzdal prince Yuri Dolgoruky captured Kyiv three times and each time held power in his hands for only a short time. During the reign in Kyiv, Mstislav Izyaslavich, Prince of Kyiv and Volyn, a tragic event occurred for the city. Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky of Suzdal decided to take the throne of Kyiv from Mstislav. He organized a coalition of twelve princes and in 1169 attacked Kyiv with his combined forces. For two months, residents and soldiers defended Kyiv, besieged by the enemy, but the forces were unequal. Andrei Bogolyubsky entered the capital city, plundered and devastated it. In addition, he captured and burned Vyshgorod to the ground, destroyed churches and took to Suzdal a shrine - an icon of the Mother of God, which, according to legend, was painted by the Holy Apostle Luke.
During the XII - the first half of the XIII centuries. Several attempts were made to unite Russia around Kyiv, but none of them were successful.
Prince of Suzdal Andrey Bogolyubsky. Reconstruction by the method of M. Gerasimov
Coalition- association, union to achieve a common goal.
Svidersky Yu. Yu., Ladychenko T. V., Romanishin N. Yu. History of Ukraine: Textbook for 7th grade. - K.: Diploma, 2007. 272 p.: ill.
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Kiev principality
For the author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, the Kiev principality was the first among all Russian principalities. He soberly looks at the contemporary world and no longer considers Kyiv the capital of Russia. The Grand Duke of Kyiv does not order other princes, but asks them to enter "into the golden stirrup ... for the Russian land," and sometimes, as it were, asks: "Don't you think to fly here from afar to guard your father's golden throne?", as he turned to Vsevolod Big Nest.
The author of the Lay has great respect for sovereign sovereigns, princes of other lands, and does not at all suggest redrawing the political map of Russia. When he speaks of unity, he means only what was quite real then: a military alliance against the "nasty", a single defense system, a single plan for a distant raid into the steppe. But the author of the Lay does not lay claim to the hegemony of Kyiv, since Kyiv had long ago turned from the capital of Russia into the capital of one of the principalities and was almost on an equal footing with such cities as Galich, Chernigov, Vladimir on the Klyazma, Novgorod, Smolensk. Kyiv was distinguished from these cities only by its historical glory and the position of the church center of all Russian lands.
Until the middle of the XII century, the Kiev principality occupied significant areas on the Right Bank of the Dnieper: almost the entire Pripyat basin and the Teterev, Irpin and Ros basins. Only later did Pinsk and Turov separate from Kyiv, and the lands to the west of Goryn and Sluch went to the Volyn land.
A feature of the Kyiv principality was a large number of old boyar estates with fortified castles, concentrated in the old land of glades to the south of Kyiv. To protect these estates from the Polovtsy, as early as the 11th century, along the Ros River (in "Porosye"), significant masses of nomads expelled by the Polovtsians from the steppes were settled: Torks, Pechenegs and Berendeys, united in the 12th century by a common name - Black Hoods. They seemed to anticipate the future border noble cavalry and carried out border service in the vast steppe space between the Dnieper, Stugna and Ros. Cities populated by the Chernoklobutsky nobility (Yuriev, Torchesk, Korsun, Dveren, etc.) arose along the banks of the Ros. Defending Russia from the Polovtsy, the Torks and Berendeys gradually adopted the Russian language, Russian culture, and even the Russian epic epic.
The capital of the semi-autonomous Porosye was either Kanev or Torchesk, a huge city with two fortresses on the northern bank of the Ros.
The Black Hoods played an important role in the political life of Russia in the 12th century and often influenced the choice of this or that prince. There were times when the Black Hoods proudly declared to one of the pretenders to the Kyiv throne: "In us, prince, there is both good and evil," that is, that the achievement of the grand prince's throne depends on them, border cavalry constantly ready for battle, located two days way from the capital.
For half a century that separates "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" from the time of Monomakh, the Kiev principality lived a difficult life.
In 1132, after the death of Mstislav the Great, Russian principalities began to fall away from Kyiv one after another: either Yuri Dolgoruky would ride from Suzdal to seize the Pereyaslav principality, then the neighboring Chernigov Vsevolod Olgovich, together with his Polovtsian friends, "went fighting villages and cities ... and people the secant even came to Kyiv ... ".
Facial image of Grand Duke Mstislav Vladimirovich. Titular. 1672
Novgorod was finally freed from the power of Kyiv. The Rostov-Suzdal land was already acting independently. Smolensk voluntarily accepted the princes. Galich, Polotsk, Turov had their own special princes. The horizons of the Kyiv chronicler narrowed down to the Kiev-Chernigov conflicts, in which, however, the Byzantine prince, the Hungarian troops, the Berendeys, and the Polovtsy took part.
After the death of the unlucky Yaropolk in 1139, the even more unlucky Vyacheslav sat on the Kyiv table, but lasted only eight days - he was expelled by Vsevolod Olgovich, the son of Oleg "Gorislavich".
The Kyiv Chronicle depicts Vsevolod and his brothers as cunning, greedy and crooked people. The Grand Duke constantly led intrigues, quarreled with relatives, granted distant destinies in bearish corners to dangerous rivals in order to remove them from Kyiv.
An attempt to return Novgorod was unsuccessful, since the Novgorodians expelled Svyatoslav Olgovich "for his malice", "for his violence."
Igor and Svyatoslav Olgovichi, brothers of Vsevolod, were unhappy with him, and all six years of reigning passed in mutual struggle, violations of the oath, conspiracies and reconciliations. Of the major events, one can note the stubborn struggle between Kyiv and Galich in 1144-1146.
Vsevolod did not enjoy the sympathy of the Kyiv boyars; this was reflected both in the annals and in the characterization that V. N. Tatishchev took from sources unknown to us: “This Grand Duke husband was great in stature and very fat, had little hair on his head, a wide beard, considerable eyes, a long nose. He was wise (cunning - B.R.) in councils and courts, for whom he wanted, he could justify or accuse. And when he died, hardly anyone, except for his beloved women, wept, and they were more glad.
The protagonist of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" - Svyatoslav of Kyiv - was the son of this Vsevolod. Vsevolod died in 1146. Subsequent events clearly showed that the main force in the principality of Kiev, as well as in Novgorod, and in other lands at that time, was the boyars.
Vsevolod's successor, his brother Igor, the same ferocious prince whom the people of Kiev so feared, was forced to swear allegiance to them at the veche "with all their will." But the new prince had not yet had time to leave the veche meeting for dinner, when the "kiyans" rushed to smash the yards of the hated tiuns and swordsmen, which was reminiscent of the events of 1113.
The leaders of the Kyiv boyars, Uleb Tysyatsky and Ivan Voitishich, secretly sent an embassy to Prince Izyaslav Mstislavich, the grandson of Monomakh, in Pereyaslavl with an invitation to reign in Kyiv, and when he approached the walls of the city with his troops, the boyars threw down their banner and, as it was agreed, surrendered to him. Igor was tonsured a monk and exiled to Pereyaslavl. A new stage of the struggle between Monomashich and Olgovichi began.
The clever Kyiv historian of the end of the 12th century, Abbot Moses, who had a whole library of annals of various principalities, compiled a description of these turbulent years (1146-1154) from fragments of the personal chronicles of the warring princes. It turned out to be a very interesting picture: the same event is described from different points of view, the same act was described by one chronicler as a good deed inspired by God, and by others as the intrigues of the "all-sly devil".
The chronicler of Svyatoslav Olgovich carefully conducted all the economic affairs of his prince and, with each victory of his enemies, meticulously listed how many horses and mares were stolen by the enemies, how many haystacks were burned, what utensils were taken in the church and how many troughs of wine and honey stood in the prince's cellar.
Of particular interest is the chronicler of the Grand Duke Izyaslav Mstislavich (1146-1154). This is a man who knew military affairs well, participated in campaigns and military councils, and carried out the diplomatic missions of his prince. In all likelihood, this is the boyar, Kievan thousand Peter Borislavich, mentioned many times in the annals. He conducts, as it were, a political account of his prince and tries to put him in the most favorable light, to show him as a good commander, a managerial ruler, a caring overlord. Exalting his prince, he skillfully vilifies all his enemies, showing an outstanding literary talent.
To document his chronicle-report, obviously intended for influential princely-boyar circles, Peter Borislavich widely used the authentic correspondence of his prince with other princes, the people of Kiev, the Hungarian king and his vassals. He also used the minutes of princely congresses and diaries of campaigns. Only in one case does he disagree with the prince and begins to condemn him - when Izyaslav acts against the will of the Kyiv boyars.
The reign of Izyaslav was filled with a struggle with the Olgovichi, with Yuri Dolgoruky, who twice managed to briefly capture Kyiv.
In the process of this struggle, the prisoner of Izyaslav, Prince Igor Olgovich (1147), was killed in Kyiv by the verdict of the veche.
In 1157 Yuri Dolgoruky died in Kyiv. It is believed that the Suzdal prince, unloved in Kyiv, was poisoned.
During these strife in the middle of the XII century, the future heroes of the "Tale of Igor's Campaign" are repeatedly mentioned - Svyatoslav Vsevolodich and his cousin Igor Svyatoslavich. So far, these are third-rate young princes who went into battle in the vanguard detachments, received small cities as inheritance and "kissed the cross with all their will" of the older princes. Somewhat later, they were fixed in large cities: from 1164 Svyatoslav in Chernigov, and Igor in Novgorod-de-Seversky. In 1180, not long before the events described in the Lay, Svyatoslav became the Grand Duke of Kyiv.
Treasure with hryvnia money bars
Due to the fact that Kyiv was often a bone of contention between the princes, the Kiev boyars entered into a “row” with the princes and introduced a curious system of duumvirate, which lasted the entire second half of the 12th century.
Duumvir co-rulers were Izyaslav Mstislavich and his uncle Vyacheslav Vladimirovich, Svyatoslav Vsevolodich and Rurik Rostislavich. The meaning of this original measure was that at the same time representatives of two warring princely branches were invited and thereby partly eliminated strife and established a relative balance. One of the princes, who was considered the eldest, lived in Kyiv, and the other - in Vyshgorod or Belgorod (he disposed of the land). On campaigns, they acted together and diplomatic correspondence was carried out in concert.
The foreign policy of the Kyiv principality was sometimes determined by the interests of this or that prince, but, in addition, there were two permanent lines of struggle that required daily readiness. The first and most important is, of course, the Polovtsian steppe, where in the second half of the 12th century feudal khanates were created that united individual tribes. Usually Kyiv coordinated its defensive actions with Pereyaslavl (which was in the possession of the Rostov-Suzdal princes), and thus a more or less unified Ros-Sula line was created. In this regard, the significance of the headquarters of such a general defense passed from Belgorod to Kanev. The southern border outposts of the Kievan land, located in the 10th century on the Stugna and on the Sula, now moved down the Dnieper to Orel and Sneporod-Samara.
The second direction of the struggle was the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. Since the time of Yuri Dolgoruky, the northeastern princes, freed by their geographical position from the need to wage a constant war with the Polovtsy, directed their military forces to subjugate Kyiv, using the border Principality of Pereyaslavl for this purpose. The arrogant tone of the Vladimir chroniclers sometimes misled historians, and they sometimes believed that Kyiv at that time was completely stalled. Particular importance was attached to the campaign of Andrei Bogolyubsky, the son of Dolgoruky, against Kyiv in 1169.
The Kyiv chronicler, who witnessed the three-day robbery of the city by the victors, described this event so vividly that he created an idea of some kind of catastrophe. In fact, Kyiv continued to live a full-blooded life as the capital of a rich principality even after 1169. Churches were built here, an all-Russian chronicle was written, the "Word about Igor's Campaign" was created, which is incompatible with the concept of decline.
Kyiv Prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodich (1180-1194) "Word" characterizes as a talented commander.
His cousins, Igor and Vsevolod Svyatoslavich, with their haste awakened the evil that Svyatoslav, their feudal overlord, managed to cope with shortly before:
Svyatoslav, the formidable great Kievan thunderstorm Byashet ruffled his strong regiments and haraluzhny swords;
Step on the Polovtsian land;
Pritopta hills and yarugas;
Stir up rivers and lakes;
Dry up streams and swamps.
And the filthy Kobyak from the bow of the sea
From the great iron regiments of the Polovtsians,
Like a whirlwind, vytorzhe:
And pvdesya Kobyak in the city of Kyiv,
In the grid of Svyatoslavl.
Tu Nemtsi and Veneditsi, that Gretsi and Morava
Sing the glory of Svyatoslav
Prince Igor's cabin...
The poet meant here the victorious campaign of the united Russian forces against Khan Kobyak in 1183.
Svyatoslav's co-ruler was, as it is said, Rurik Rostislavich, who reigned in the "Russian Land" from 1180 to 1202, and then became for some time the Grand Duke of Kyiv.
"The Tale of Igor's Campaign" is entirely on the side of Svyatoslav Vsevolodich and says very little about Rurik. Chronicle, on the contrary, was in the sphere of influence of Rurik. Therefore, the activities of the duumvirs are biased by the sources. We know about the conflicts and disagreements between them, but we also know that Kyiv at the end of the 12th century experienced an era of prosperity and even tried to play the role of an all-Russian cultural center.
This is evidenced by the Kyiv chronicle of 1198 of Abbot Moses, which, together with the Galician chronicle of the 13th century, was included in the so-called Ipatiev Chronicle.
The Kyiv Code gives a broad idea of the different Russian lands in the 12th century, using a number of annals of individual principalities. It opens with The Tale of Bygone Years, which tells about the early history of all of Russia, and ends with a recording of Moses' solemn speech on the construction of a wall at the expense of Prince Rurik, strengthening the banks of the Dnieper. The orator, who prepared his work for collective performance by "one mouth" (cantata?), calls the Grand Duke the king, and his principality magnifies "an autocratic power ... known not only in Russian borders, but also in distant overseas countries, to the end of the universe."
Mosaic image of the prophet. 11th century Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv
After the death of Svyatoslav, when Rurik began to reign in Kyiv, his son-in-law Roman Mstislavich Volynsky (great-great-grandson of Monomakh) became his co-ruler for a short time in the "Russian Land", that is, the southern Kiev region. He received the best lands with the cities of Trepol, Torchesky, Kanev and others, which made up half of the principality.
However, Vsevolod the Big Nest, the prince of the Suzdach land, envied this "goddamn volost", who wanted to be in some form an accomplice in the management of the Kyiv region. A long feud began between Rurik, who supported Vsevolod, and the offended Roman Volynsky. As always, the Olgovichi, Poland, and Galich were quickly drawn into the strife. The case ended with the fact that Roman was supported by many cities, Black Hoods, and finally in 1202 "opened the gates for him."
In the very first year of the great reign, Roman organized a campaign deep into the Polovtsian steppe "and took the Polovtsian vines and brought a lot of souls full of peasants from them (from the Polovtsy. - B.R.), and there was great joy in the lands of Rus" .
Rurik did not remain in debt and on January 2, 1203, in alliance with the Olgovichi and "the entire Polovtsian land" took Kyiv. "And great evil was done in the Russtey of the land, as if there was no evil from baptism over Kiev ...
Taking the hem and burning it; otherwise you took Mount and plundered St. Sophia and the Tithes (church) as metropolis ... plundered and robbed all the monasteries and adorned the icons ... then put everything in full. and nuns, and the young black women, wives and daughters of Kiev were taken to their camps.
Obviously, Rurik did not hope to gain a foothold in Kyiv, if he robbed him like that, and went to his own castle in Ovruch.
In the same year, after a joint campaign against the Polovtsians in Trepol, Roman captured Rurik and tonsured his entire family (including his own wife, Rurik's daughter) as monks. But Roman did not rule long in Kyiv, in 1205 he was killed by the Poles, when he rode too far from his squads while hunting in his western possessions.
The poetic lines of the chronicle are connected with Roman Mstislavich, which, unfortunately, has come down to us only partially. The author calls him the autocrat of all Russia, praises his mind and courage, noting especially his struggle with the Polovtsians: before their land, like an eagle; hrobor bo be, like a tour. Regarding the Polovtsian campaigns of Roman, the chronicler recalls Vladimir Monomakh and his victorious struggle against the Polovtsians. Epics with the name of Roman have also been preserved.
One of the chronicles that has not come down to us, used by V. N. Tatishchev, provides extremely interesting information about Roman Mstislavich. As if after the forcible tonsure of Rurik and his family, Roman announced to all Russian princes that his father-in-law had been dethroned by him for violating the treaty.
This is followed by a presentation of Roman's views on the political structure of Russia in the 13th century: the Kyiv prince must "defend the Russian land from everywhere, and keep good order among the brethren, the princes of Russia, so that one cannot offend another and run over and ruin other people's regions." The novel blames the younger princes who are trying to capture Kyiv, not having the strength to defend themselves, and those princes who "bring in the filthy Polovtsy."
Then the draft of the election of the Kyiv prince in the event of the death of his predecessor is presented. Six princes must choose: Suzdal, Chernigov, Galician, Smolensk, Polotsk, Ryazan; "Junior princes are not needed for that election." These six principalities should be inherited by the eldest son, but not divided into parts, "so that the Russian land does not diminish in strength." Roman proposed to convene a princely congress to approve this order.
It is difficult to say how reliable this information is, but in the conditions of 1203 such an order, if it could be put into practice, would be a positive phenomenon. However, it is worth recalling the good wishes on the eve of the Lubech Congress of 1097, his good decisions and the tragic events that followed him.
V. N. Tatishchev retained the characteristics of Roman and his rival Rurik:
"This Roman Mstislavich, the grandson of the Izyaslavs, was although not very large, but broad and overbearingly strong; his face was red, his eyes were black, his nose was large with a hump, his hair was black and short; he was very angry; his tongue was slanted, when he was angry, he did not could pronounce words for a long time; had a lot of fun with nobles, but he was never drunk. He loved many wives, but owned none of them. The warrior was brave and cunning in organizing regiments ... He spent his whole life in wars, received many victories, and once. - B. R.) was defeated. "
Rurik Rostislavich is characterized differently. It is said that he was in the great reign for 37 years, but during this time he was expelled six times and "suffered a lot, having no rest from anywhere. After all, he himself had a lot of drink and wives, he was diligent about the government of the state and his security. His judges and in the cities, the rulers caused a lot of burdens for the people; for this, he had very little love among the people and had respect from the princes.
Obviously, these characteristics, full of medieval juiciness, were compiled by some Galician-Volynian or Kievan chronicler who sympathized with Roman.
It is interesting to note that Roman is the last of the Russian princes sung by epics; book and folk assessments coincided, which happened very rarely: the people very carefully selected heroes for their epic fund.
Roman Mstislavich and the "wise-loving" Rurik Rostislavich are the last bright figures in the list of Kievan princes of the 12th-13th centuries. Next come the weak rulers, who left no memory of themselves either in the annals or in folk songs.
The strife around Kyiv continued even in those years when a new unprecedented danger loomed over Russia - the Tatar-Mongol invasion. During the time from the battle on the Kalka in 1223 to the arrival of Batu near Kyiv in 1240, many princes were replaced, there were many battles over Kyiv. In 1238, Prince Michael of Kyiv fled, fearing the Tatars, to Hungary, and in the terrible year of Batiev's arrival, he collected feudal dues donated to him in the principality of Daniel of Galicia: wheat, honey, "beef" and sheep.
"Mother of Russian cities" - Kyiv lived a bright life for a number of centuries, but in the last three decades of its pre-Mongolian history, the negative features of feudal fragmentation, which actually led to the dismemberment of the Kyiv principality into a number of destinies, were too strong.
The singer of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" could not stop the historical process with his inspired stanzas.
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KIEV PRINCIPALITY
The Kiev principality consisted of lands washed by the middle course of the Dnieper, the western tributaries of the Dnieper - from the Uzh in the north to the Ros in the south, and the southern tributary of the Pripyat, the Sluch River. The total area of the principality was less than the Suzdal land. Chernigov, Smolensk, Polotsk principalities or Volyn land. There were virtually no borders in the south. It is difficult to say where the Kyiv land ended and where the territory of the steppe nomads of the Polovtsy began. An approximate, albeit flexible, dividing line can be drawn from the southern course of the Ros River to the upper reaches of the Southern Bug. The eastern border between Kyiv, on the one hand, and Chernigov and Pereyaslavl, on the other, ran along the Dnieper, although the 15-kilometer strip of land east of the Dnieper between the Desna and Trubezh belonged to Kyiv. In the north, the border with the Turov-Pinsk principality ran along the southern course of the Prinyat River, and the western border of Kyiv with Volyn land ran along a line east of the upper reaches of the Goryn River.
The city of Kyiv itself, built on the hills, was ideally located militarily. Near Kyiv were the well-fortified cities of Vruchiy (or Ovruch, as it was sometimes called), Vyshgorod and Belgorod, which controlled the approaches to the capital from the northwest, west and southwest, respectively. From the south, Kyiv was covered by a system of forts built along the banks of the Dnieper, and a number of well-defended cities on the Ros River.
A feature of the Kyiv principality was a large number of old boyar estates with fortified castles, concentrated in the old land of glades to the south of Kyiv. To protect these estates from the Polovtsy, as early as the 11th century, along the Ros River (in “Porosye”), significant masses of nomads expelled by the Polovtsy from the steppes were settled: Torks, Pechenegs and Berendeys, united in the 12th century by a common name - Black Hoods. They seemed to anticipate the future border noble cavalry and carried out border service in the vast steppe space between the Dnieper, Stugna and Ros. Cities populated by the Chernoklobutsky nobility (Yuriev, Torchesk, Korsun, Dveren, etc.) arose along the banks of the Ros. The capital of the semi-autonomous Porosye was either Kanev or Torchesk, a huge city with two fortresses on the northern bank of the Ros. The Black Hoods played an important role in the political life of Russia in the 12th century and often influenced the choice of this or that prince.
From an economic point of view, the Dnieper provided direct communication not only with the Black Sea, but also connected the city with the Baltic through the Berezina and the Western Dvina, with the Oka and Don - along the Desna and the Seim, and with the Dniester and Neman basins - along the Pripyat and the Western Bug.
At the beginning of the XII century, under the great rulers Vladimir Monomakh(1113-1125) and his son Mstislav the Great(1125-1132) the limits of the territories subject to them were not strictly defined. It is difficult to say whether there were borders under them that separated what later became known as the Principality of Kyiv and the Volyn land, Turovo-Pinsk, Smolensk and Southern Pereyaslavl, which were under the control of close relatives (and henchmen) of the Kyiv prince. The Kyiv land was Rus, and Rus consisted of all the southern lands, excluding the Galician land, the Chernigov and Ryazan principalities. Even separate parts of the Principality of Polotsk in the northwest were ruled by Monomakh and Mstislav. But the unity of the Kyiv land, restored by Vladimir Monomakh after the internecine wars of the XI century. lived the last days. Already the reign of Yaropolk (1132-1139). who succeeded his brother Mstislav, was overshadowed by the division and struggle within the very kind of descendants of Monomakh.
In 1132, after the death of Mstislav the Great, Russian principalities began to fall away from Kyiv one after another. Novgorod was finally freed from the power of Kyiv. The Rostov-Suzdal land was already acting independently. Smolensk voluntarily accepted the princes. Galich, Polotsk, Turov had their own special princes. The horizons of the Kyiv chronicler narrowed down to the Kiev-Chernigov conflicts, in which, however, the Byzantine prince, the Hungarian troops, the Berendeys, and the Polovtsy took part.
After the death of the unlucky Yaropolk in 1139, the even more unlucky Vyacheslav sat on the Kyiv table, but lasted only eight days - he was kicked out Vsevolod Olegovich, son of Oleg "Gorislavich". The Kyiv Chronicle depicts Vsevolod and his brothers as cunning, greedy and crooked people. The Grand Duke constantly led intrigues, quarreled with relatives, granted distant destinies in bearish corners to dangerous rivals in order to remove them from Kyiv. An attempt by Vsevolod to return Novgorod under his hand, planting his brother there Svyatoslav Olegovich was not successful. The brothers of the new Kyiv prince, Igor and Svyatoslav, fought with him for inheritances, accompanied by conspiracies, rebellions and reconciliations. Vsevolod did not enjoy the sympathy of the Kyiv boyars; this was reflected both in the annals and in the description that V.N. Tatishchev took from sources unknown to us:
“This Grand Duke’s husband was great in stature and very fat, he had few hairs on his head, a wide beard, considerable eyes, a long nose. He was wise in councils and courts, for whom he wanted, he could justify or accuse him. He had many concubines and more in fun than in reprisals he practiced. Through this, the burden of him was great for the people of Kiev. And when he died, hardly anyone, except for his beloved women, wept, but more were glad. But moreover, they feared burdens from Igor, knowing his ferocious and proud temperament.
Vsevolod's successor, his brother Igor, the same ferocious prince whom the people of Kiev so feared, was forced to swear allegiance to them at the veche "with all their will." But the new prince had not yet had time to leave the veche meeting for dinner, when the people of Kiev rushed to smash the courtyards of the hated tiuns and swordsmen. The leaders of the Kyiv boyars, Uleb Tysyatsky and Ivan Voitishich, secretly sent an embassy to the prince Izyaslav Mstislavich, the grandson of Monomakh, to Pereyaslavl with an invitation to reign in Kyiv, and when he approached the walls of the city with his troops, the boyars threw down their banner and, as agreed, surrendered to him. Igor was tonsured a monk and exiled to Pereyaslavl. The reign of Izyaslav was filled with a struggle with the Olegovichs and with Yuri Dolgoruky, who twice managed to briefly capture Kyiv. In the process of this struggle, the prisoner of Izyaslav, Prince Igor Olegovich (1147), was killed in Kyiv by the verdict of the veche.
Due to the fact that Kyiv was often a bone of contention between the princes, the Kiev boyars concluded an agreement with the princes and introduced a curious duumvirate system that lasted the entire second half of the 12th century. Duumvir co-rulers were Izyaslav Mstislavich and his uncle Vyacheslav Vladimirovich, Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich and Rurik Rostislavich. The meaning of this original measure was that at the same time representatives of two warring princely branches were invited and thereby partly eliminated strife and established a relative balance. One of the princes, who was considered the eldest, lived in Kyiv, and the other - in Vyshgorod or Belgorod (he disposed of the land). On campaigns, they acted together and diplomatic correspondence was carried out in concert.
The foreign policy of the Kyiv principality was sometimes determined by the interests of this or that prince, but, in addition, there were two permanent lines of struggle that required daily readiness. The first and most important is, of course, the Polovtsian steppe, where in the second half of the 12th century feudal khanates were created that united individual tribes. Usually Kyiv coordinated its defensive actions with Pereyaslavl (which was in the possession of the Rostov-Suzdal princes), and thus a more or less unified line of Ros - Court was created. In this regard, the significance of the headquarters of such a general defense passed from Belgorod to Kanev. The southern border outposts of the Kievan land, located in the 10th century on the Stugna and on the Court, now moved down the Dnieper to Orel and Sneporod-Samara.
The second direction of the struggle was the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. Since the time of Yuri Dolgoruky, the northeastern princes, freed by their geographical position from the need to wage a constant war with the Polovtsy, directed their military forces to subjugate Kyiv, using the border Principality of Pereyaslavl for this purpose. The arrogant tone of the Vladimir chroniclers sometimes misled historians, and they sometimes believed that Kyiv at that time was completely stalled. Particular importance was attached to the campaign of Andrei Bogolyubsky, the son of Dolgoruky, against Kyiv in 1169.
The Kyiv chronicler, who witnessed the three-day robbery of the city by the victors, described this event so vividly that he created an idea of some kind of catastrophe. In fact, Kyiv continued to live a full-blooded life as the capital of a rich principality even after 1169. Churches were built here, an all-Russian chronicle was written, the “Word about Igor's Campaign” was created, which is incompatible with the concept of decline.
Among the fifteen principalities that were formed in the XII century. on the territory of Russia, the largest were Kyiv with a center in Kyiv, Chernigov and Severskoe with centers in Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky, Novgorod with a center in Novgorod, Galicia-Volynskoe with a center in Galich, Vladimir-Suzdalskoe with a center in Vladimir-on-Klyazma , Polotsk with the center in Polotsk, Smolensk with the center in Smolensk. Each of them occupied vast lands, the core of which was not only the historical territories of the still old tribal principalities, but also new territorial acquisitions, new cities that have grown in the lands of these principalities in recent decades.
Kiev principality
Although it has lost its significance as the political center of the Russian lands, Kyiv has retained its historical glory as the “mother of Russian cities”. It also remained the church center of the Russian lands. But most importantly, the Kiev principality continued to be the focus of the most fertile lands in Russia; The Dnieper still remained the largest waterway of the Eastern Slavs, although it lost its significance as a “European road”. The largest number of large patrimonial estates was concentrated here and the largest amount of arable land was located. In Kyiv itself and the cities of the Kyiv land - Vyshgorod, Belgorod, Vasilev, Turov, Vitichev and others, thousands of artisans still worked, whose products were famous not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders. The Kiev principality occupied vast areas on the right bank of the Dnieper, almost the entire basin of the Pripyat River, in the south-west of its lands bordered on the Volyn principality. From the south, southwest and southeast, Kyiv was still protected by a strip of fortress cities.
The death of Mstislav the Great in 1132 and the subsequent struggle for the throne of Kyiv between the Monomakhoviches and the Olgoviches became a turning point in the history of Kyiv. It was in the 30-40s of the XII century. he irretrievably lost control over the Rostov-Suzdal land, where the energetic and power-hungry Yuri Dolgoruky ruled, over Novgorod and Smolensk, whose boyars themselves began to select princes for themselves.
After another struggle, the throne of Kyiv passes to Prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, the grandson of Oleg of Chernigov. It is he who is described by the author of the Lay as a mighty and imperious prince, who was an authority for all Russian lands. It was he who urged his cousin, the young Seversk prince Igor, the hero of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, to postpone the campaign against the Polovtsy and wait for the gathering of all-Russian forces. However, Igor Svyatoslavich, the son of Svyatoslav Olgovich and the grandson of the famous Oleg of Chernigov, did not heed the voice of the cautious princes and moved into the steppe without preparation, which doomed him to defeat.
For the Kyiv land, the big European politics, long trips to the heart of Europe, to the Balkans, Byzantium and to the East, are in the past. Now the foreign policy of Kyiv is limited to two directions: the old exhausting struggle with the Polovtsy continues. In addition, the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, growing stronger every year, which, under Yuri Dolgoruky, captured Pereyaslavl and now threatened Kyiv both from the northeast and from the southeast, becomes a new strong adversary.
If the Kyiv princes managed to contain the Polovtsian danger, relying on the help of other principalities, which themselves suffered from Polovtsian raids, then it was more difficult to cope with the northeastern neighbor. After the death of Yuri Dolgoruky, the Vladimir-Suzdal throne passed to his son Andrei Yuryevich Bogolyubsky, who in the 60s had already laid claim to Kyiv, where one of Monomakh's descendants ruled at that time. Vladimir-Suzdal prince approached Kyiv in 1169 with his allies, other princes. After a three-day siege, the squads of the princes besieging Kyiv broke into the city. For the first time in its history, Kyiv was taken “on the shield” and not by external enemies, not by the Pechenegs, Torks or Polovtsians, but by the Russians themselves.
For several days, the victors plundered the city, burned churches, killed the inhabitants, took them captive, plundered private houses and monasteries. As the chronicler said, there were then in Kyiv "on all people groaning and melancholy, inconsolable sadness and incessant tears."
However, the storm passed and Kyiv, despite this brutal defeat, continued to live a full-blooded life as the capital of a large principality. Beautiful palaces and temples have been preserved here, pilgrims from all over Russia converged here, in Kyiv monasteries. Kyiv rebuilt after the fire and amazed people who came here with its beauty. The all-Russian chronicle was written here. Finally, it was here that "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" was created.
The principality of Kiev achieved a certain stability and prosperity under the already mentioned Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, who shared power in the principality with his co-ruler Rurik Rostislavich. So the Kyiv boyars sometimes united representatives of the warring princely clans on the throne and avoided another civil strife. When Svyatoslav died, then Rurik Rostislavich until the beginning of the XIII century. shared power with Roman Mstislavich Volynsky, the great-great-grandson of Monomakh, who claimed the throne of Kyiv.
Then a struggle began between the co-rulers. And again, the Vladimir-Suzdal prince intervened in Kyiv affairs, this time the famous Vsevolod the Big Nest, the brother of Andrei Bogolyubsky, who had been killed by this time. During the struggle of the warring parties Kyiv several times passed from hand to hand. In the end, the victorious Rurik burned Podol, plundered the St. Sophia Cathedral and the Church of the Tithes - Russian shrines. His allies, the Polovtsy, plundered the Kyiv land, took people into captivity, hacked up old monks in monasteries, and "the young black women, wives and daughters of Kiev were taken to their camps." So the city was plundered by its recent ruler. Then Roman captured Rurik and tonsured him and his entire family as monks. And soon the new winner also died: he was killed by the Poles during a hunt, as he drove too far during his stay in his western possessions. This was in 1205. In the fire of internecine struggle, Russian princes perished one after another, Russian cities burned.
