The Early Rulers of Kiev

It was not the lofty vision of creating a mighty state (it is highly doubtful whether they were familiar with the concept of statehood) or a flourishing civilization but rather a relentless desire to get at the sources of wealth that primarily motivated the early Kievan princes.

The American historian Richard Pipes has drawn the analogy between the Varangian enterprise based in Kiev and the great early modern commercial enterprises like the East India Company or the Hudson’s Bay Company, which were organized for profit but which, in order to extract it most efficiently, were obliged to provide a modicum of administration in areas that had no viable system of government. As Pipes puts it, “the Great Prince was a merchant par excellence, and his realm was essentially a commercial enterprise, composed of loosely affiliated towns whose garrisons collected tribute and maintained, in a rough sort of way, public order.”³ Thus, while pursuing their predatory practices and commercial interests, the early rulers of Kiev transformed it into the center of a large and powerful political conglomerate.

Little is known about this first historically verifiable ruler of Kiev. It is unclear whether he was a member of the Riurik dynasty or an interloper whom the chronicler Nestor, writing several centuries later, associated with that dynasty. What is evident, however, is that Oleh was a gifted and decisive ruler. After conquering Kiev in 882 and establishing control over the Polianians, he forcefully extended his authority (that is, the right to collect tribute) over the surrounding tribes, the most prominent of which were the Derevlianians. This conquest involved him in a war with the Khazars whose ports on the Caspian Sea he plundered. The highlight of his career came in 911 when, at the head of a large army, he attacked and pillaged Constantinople. But the “Chronicle of Bygone Years” probably exaggerated his success when it recounted how he nailed his shield to the main gates of the Greek capital. Nonetheless, the pressure that Oleh exerted on Byzantium must have been considerable because the Greeks were forced to conclude a trade treaty that was quite favorable to the Kievan prince. Ihor (912–45)

The reign of Ihor was much less successful than that of his predecessor, Oleh. In what became a pattern in the reigns of the early Kievan princes, Ihor spent the initial years of his rule asserting his authority over his rebellious subjects. First the Derevlianians and then the Ulychians rose up against him. It took several years of hard campaigning before Ihor and his druzhyna (retinue) could force the rebels to pay tribute again. Only after he reasserted his authority at home could Ihor undertake the large-scale, far-flung part-trading and part-pillaging expeditions that Oleh had conducted. When the peace that Oleh had arranged with Byzantium crumbled in 941, Ihor launched a sea campaign against Constantinople. It was a disaster. With the help of a flammable concoction called “Greek fire,” the Byzantines destroyed the Rus’ fleet and forced Ihor to beat a hasty retreat.

The compilers of the “Chronicle of Bygone Years” were clearly sympathetic to Olha (Helga in Scandinavian, Olga in Russian), the wife of Ihor and regent during the minority of their son, Sviatoslav. Repeatedly they depict her as being beautiful, vigorous, crafty, and, above all, wise. A male chronicler paid her the ultimate compliment by informing his readers that she was “manly of mind.” Her private conversion to Christianity in ca 955 probably explains some of the adulation that the monk-chroniclers lavished upon her. But even without these biased accounts, Olha would have stood out as a remarkable ruler. Vengeance being the moral prerogative of the times, she quickly and effectively avenged herself on the Derevlianians. However, she realized that the arbitrary and haphazard collection of tribute that had been the cause of Ihor’s death would have to be altered. Therefore, she introduced the first “reforms” in Kievan Rus’, establishing clearly demarcated areas from which specified amounts of tribute were to be collected at regular intervals.

She also saw to it that her subjects were not deprived of all their sustenance to ensure that they would be in a position to pay tribute again. By assigning to the princely treasury exclusive rights to rich fur-bearing areas, she provided it with a steady flow of income. To familiarize herself with her vast domain, Olha made numerous and extensive trips to all its major towns and regions.

Brave, impetuous, simple, and severe, Sviatoslav was a warrior-prince par excellence. Hrushevsky called him “a Cossack on the throne,” and his turbulent reign has aptly been described as “the great adventure.”⁴ Constantly at war, Sviatoslav was enamored of grand and glorious undertakings. His Slavic name, Varangian values, and nomadic life-style reflected a Eurasian synthesis. His reign marked the culmination of the early, heroic period of Kievan Rus’.

In 964, the 22-year-old Sviatoslav launched an ambitious eastern campaign. Its immediate goal was the subjugation of the Viatichians, an East Slavic tribe that lived on the Oka River, the original homeland of modern-day Russians. After this conquest, he sailed down the Volga and crushed the Volga Bulgars. This brought on a climactic confrontation with the mighty Khazars. In a bloody battle, Sviatoslav defeated the Khazar kagan and razed his capital at Itil on the Volga. He then swept on to conquer the northern Caucasus. The results of this spectacular campaign were far reaching. With the conquest of the Viatichians, all of the East Slavs now came under Kievan rule and the northeast – the Russia of today – was opened up to Slavic colonization. The defeat of the Khazars removed Kiev’s great competitor for hegemony in Eurasia and it placed the great Volga trade route under Rus’ control. But the decline of the Khazars also had a drawback: it removed the bulwark that had kept the eastern nomadic hordes, such as the Pechenegs, from penetrating into the Ukrainian steppe.

Map 7 Kievan Rus’ in the 10the century

During the latter part of his reign, Sviatoslav focused his entire attention on the Balkans. In 968 he agreed to help the Byzantines in a war against the powerful and highly developed Bulgarian kingdom. With a huge army he swept into Bulgaria, annihilated his opponents, and captured the rich cities along the Danube, choosing Pereiaslavets as his base. So impressed was he with the wealth of the land that only the threat of a dangerous Pecheneg raid on Kiev could force him to return to his capital. But once the Pecheneg danger passed, Sviatoslav, who now controlled the territory from the Volga to the Danube, declared, “I do not care to remain in Kiev, but should prefer to live in Pereiaslavets on the Danube, since that is the center of my realm; that is where all my riches are concentrated – gold, silks, wine and various fruits from Greece, silver and horses from Hungary and Bohemia, and from Rus’, furs, wax, honey and slaves.”⁵ Therefore, after appointing Iaropolk (his eldest son) to administer Kiev, Oleh (the next oldest) to control the Derevlianians, and Volodymyr (the youngest) to look after Novgorod, Sviatoslav returned once more to Bulgaria.

Worried by this aggressive new neighbor, Byzantium now turned against the Kievan ruler and after a long and brutal campaign, forced him to withdraw. On the way back to Kiev, the decimated Rus’ forces were ambushed by the Pechenegs near the Dnieper rapids and Sviatoslav was killed. According to the “Chronicle of Bygone Years,” the Pecheneg khan had a chalice made out of his skull. Thus ended Sviatoslav’s great adventure.