Oleg's Takeover of Rus
By about the first half of the 9th century Rurikwas in control of the military forces of the Staraia Ladoga region, and seeking to gain greater control of the trade routes his successors began to move south.
Kyivwas developing into an important trade hub as well as a rallying point for raiding expeditions against the Eastern Roman territories and their Khazar allies. After Ruriks death command fell to one Oleg, the guardian of Ruriks young son Igor. The Slavicized Scandinavian names of “Helgi” and “Ingvar” again imply that both Oleg and Igorwere probably of mixed Slavic and Norse backgrounds, probably related to the chiefs of the Krivichi tribe. The Kyiv Primary Chronicle tells us that Oleg “took warriors from the Varangians, the Chud (Estonian Finns), the Slavs (Slovenians), the Merians, and all the Krivichi,”15 and began to head south. “With his Krivichi” Oleg captured Smolensk and then in 882 Lybech, and sailing down the Dnipro arrived at Kyiv perched on the high hills overlooking the river. Realizing that his forces were insufficient to capture the timber-walled settlement by a frontal assault he decided on a treacherous ruse. According to the Kyiv Primary Chronicle, Oleg hid most of his men in the longboats and lured Askold and Dir outside of the stockade, and when they emerged from the fort they were attacked and killed.16 The deed was justified by the claim that “'You are not princes nor even of princely stock, but I am of princely birth.’ Igor was then brought forward and Oleg announced that he was the son of Rurik. TheykilledAskold and Dir,”17 a somewhat contradictory account of Oleg’s (and Igor’s) status. It was imperative for the Kyiv Primary Chronicle however, to record the legitimacy of Igor’s direct descent from Rurik and Oleg’s right to rule.With Kyiv secured as his base Oleg began to assemble a large kingdom.
Leaving Staraia Ladoga to be guarded by a force of paid Varangians—“he commanded that Novgorod (sic) should pay Varangians tribute for the preservation of peace”— Oleg proceeded to subjugate the neighboring Slavic tribes. The following year after taking Kyivhe marched against the Dere- vlani tribe and defeated them, imposing a tribute of one black marten skin per household (“per plough”). Next he conquered the Severiani and the Radimichi, who agreed to pay a one “shilling” tribute per household.18 He then waged war with the Ulichi and the Tivertsi tribes but was unable to overcome them. The Ulichi lived along the Dnipro River with their main town Peresichen to the south of the Poliani, with the Tivertsi occupying prairie territory somewhere in the vicinity of the Dnister or Buh rivers. Sometime later, no doubt to avoid tribute, the Ulichi migrated to the west around the Dnister River and being hostile to the rulers ofKyivthey no doubt joined the Pecheneg nomads in raiding Rus territory. Although the first Pecheneg force which appeared in the Ukrainian Steppe was destroyed by Askold and Dir, we are told that half a Centurylater they had become a powerful force.Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus (905-59) observed, when describing the Pechenegs, “In the region of (Old) Bulgaria is also settled a folk of the Pechenegs, towards the region of the Danapri (Dnipro) and the Donastri (Dnister) and other rivers of these parts.” That these are “a folk of the Pechenegs” (and not Pechenegs) and are described Separatelyfrom them seems to imply a different people. The Emperor continues:
... and when he has found them, the Imperial agent sends a message to them... carrying with him and guarding in the ships of war the Imperial goods. And they come down to him... (and) the Imperial agent gives them hostages of his men, and himself takes other hostages of these Pechenegs... and then he makes agreement with them; and when the Pechenegs have taken their oaths to the Imperial agent according to their “zakana,” he presents them with the imperial gifts, and takes from them as many “friends” as he sees fit, and returns.19
“Zakan” (zakon) is a Slavic word meaning “law” and it is unlikely that the Turkic Pechenegs would use a Slavic term rather than one of their own.
Also the “friends” who were taken aboard the ships were probably Slavic “drughs” or comrades, brought back to serve in the Imperial armies. We know that by the time Oleg fought the Ulichi, the Pechenegs had already crossed the Dnipro heading westwards, putting them in touch with the Slavs around the Dnister and Buh rivers.Oleg s seizure ofKyivwas only a means to an end, the establishment of a trade link with the wealth of Constantinople and other centers of the Eastern Roman Empire. Kyiv had become of strategic importance since it controlled the middleupper reaches of the Dnipro, which led directly to the Black Sea. Besides the Pechenegs, however, there was a major physical obstacle to negotiate. After Kyiv the Dnipro flows to the east for some distance before turning west and entering the Black SeaJust before its furthest eastern point the river becomes full of rapids, a set of seven obstacles spread over a distance of some 67 kilometers (40 miles).20 While some could be navigated by unloading the boats, others could only be bypassed by lengthy portages. The other main trade route besides the “way from the Varangians to the Greeks” was the “Khazar way,” following the Desna River from Kyiv to Chernihiv, and then by the Seym and Donets rivers to the Don. From there the boats could either proceed south to the Sea of Azov or continue to the closest point between the Don and the Volga, portage and head to the Khazar capital Itil on the Caspian delta of the Volga River.
Trade with the Eastern Roman Empire for some reason was not forthcoming and in 907 Oleg launched a major expedition against Constantinople. The Kyiv Chronicle tells us (with some exaggeration) that 2000 boats attempted to approach the citybut could not continue, due to the fortified strait between the Marmara and the Black Seas.
Oleg disembarked upon the shore, and ordered his soldiery to beach the ships. They waged war around the city and accomplished much slaughter of the Greeks.
They also destroyed many palaces and burned the churches. Of the prisoners they captured, some they beheaded, some they tortured, some they shot, and still others they cast into the sea. The Rusians (“Rusichi”) inflicted many other woes upon the Greeks, after the usual manner of soldiers. Oleg commanded his warriors to make wheels which they attached to the ships, and when the wind was favorable they spread the sails and bore down upon the city from the open country. When the Greeks beheld this, they were afraid, and sending messengers to Oleg, they implored him not to destroy the city and offered to submit to such tribute as he should desire... so Oleg demanded that they pay tribute for his two thousand ships at the rate of twelve grivna per man, with forty men reckoned to a ship.21The claim that Oleg used wheels to move his ships over land is unusual for the time but not impossible since attaching wheels to ships was also practiced elsewhere at a later date. The purpose would have been to bypass the great chain that blocked access to the Golden Horn. Whether Oleg did in fact sail over land, the claim of80,000 men is certainly an exaggeration and was virtually impossible for the period given the population of Eastern Europe. With such a force, Oleg could have overrun the whole Balkan Peninsula, which did not occur. Oleg s raid has been discounted by many historians, who point out that there is no Romanian record of the event, as for example with the raid of860. If such a great expedition did take place it surely would have been recorded by the Imperial authorities in Constantinople. There is, however, an indirect mention by Leo the Deacon of the treaty, who quotes the Emperor in a letter to Sviatoslav in 970: “We do not think it is right to break the peace that God mediated and has come down to us intact from our fathers... it is not we, but you, who will be breaking the treaties formulated of old.”22 Also the significance of the claim by the Kyiv Primary Chronicle that Oleg nailed his shield to the great gates of Constantinople as a sign of victory has been misunderstood by the Chronicle.
It was a Scandinavian practice to often raise or hang a shield when concluding a peace agreement, and Oleg may simply have made use of this borrowed tradition.If we can trust the Kyiv Primary Chronicle, a trade treaty was signed in 911 between the envoys of Rus and those of the Emperor Leo the Wise. The treaty stipulated the number of merchants from Rus that could enter Constantinople (50 at any one time), which part of the city they could set up their quarters, and the disciplinary action which would be taken in case of theft or a killing. Also the Emperor was to have first choice when purchasing the valuable IursJudging by the names of the individual signatories of the treaty on behalf of Oleg (and Rus) his closest associates were ScandinavianVarangians, probably members of his personal retinue.23 The treaty was the first to open the main southern trade route between Staraia Ladoga, Kyiv and Constantinople, but it would take more raids from Rus before Kyivwould be taken seriously.