The Rise Of Vladimir-Suzdal

Following Mstislav’s death none of Volodimer Mono­makh’s relatives were able to impose hegemony, as Kyivbegan to decline militarily and politically. Princelywarfare became common as the number of brothers, uncles and nephews grew.

Great prince ViacheslavVolodimerich, son of Monomakh, left Turov to become prince of Pereiaslav, while prince Sviatoslav Vsevolodich (son of Vsevolod Olgovich of Kyiv) went west to Turov. In the meantime, Prince Igor Olgovich also wanted to be­come prince OfPereiaslav. He assembled many warriors and marched to Pereiaslav which he besieged for two months. Then Viacheslav^,s nephew, Iziaslav Mstislavich, came to Viacheslav^,s aid with his brother Rostislav Mstislavich from Smolensk and they occupied Igor’s four cities. When Prince Igor heard that his cities had been captured he marched away from Pereiaslav. Then Great PrinceviacheslavVolodimerich, son of Monomakh, gave Pereiaslav to his nephew, Prince Iziaslav Mstislavich, and he, himself, returned to Turov to be Great Prince there. Then, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of January, Great Prince Vsevolod Olgovich of Kyiv sent his son, Sviatoslav, to be Great Prince of Volodimer (in Volin).⁹

The main rivalry eventually ended up between Mstislav’s eldest son Iziaslav and a brother Iury Dolgoruky, each supported by allies. The hostilities began in 1149 when Iziaslav sacked Iury Dolgoruky s son’s domain in a continuing disagreement with his uncles and cousins. Iziaslavhad been invited by the people of Kyiv to be prince three years before when he went to Nov­gorod’s aid to block Dolgorukys intention to dominate the re­public. Enraged by his son’s humiliation, and the fact that he was shut out from the southern lands (“How does it happen that I and my children have no part in the land of Rus?”)/⁰ Prince Dolgoruky raised a large army consisting of his own men, a force from Chernihiy as well as Hungarians, Czechs and Poles.

The first round of fighting had gone to Iury Dolgoruky, who installed his son Rostislav as prince of Pereiaslav and three days later he himself entered Kyiv. Pressing his advantage Dol- goruky attacked Lutsk, but after three weeks of fighting neither side gained the upper hand and a peace settlement was arrived at; Iury Dolgoruky could keep Kyiv, and Iziaslav received Volodimer in Volin. The contest, however, was not yet over, and the fortunes of war would swing back and forth several times. Iury Dolgoruky and his men were not well received by the citizens of Kyiv, who began to conspire to bring back Iziaslav. Taking his “druzhina,” Iziaslav entered Kyiv in secret and drove his uncle from the city, to assume once again the title of Great Prince. Iury Dolgoruky was not Mstislav s oldest brother and had no right to the throne of Kyiv, and in 1150 to gain legitimacy Iziaslav accepted his oldest surviving uncle, Viacheslav, as co­ruler of Kyiv. As the legal heir to the throne, Viacheslav was symbolically installed in the main Great Palace while Iziaslav moved to the smaller Ugorsky Palace, although he remained the actual ruler of Kyiv.

Now Prince Volodimerko of Galicia came to Dolgoruky s aid, and gathering their forces the two princes converged on Kyiv, one from the west and the other from the east. Not waiting for the two armies to unite, Iziaslav marched against Volodi- merko but was defeated, which allowed Dolgoruky to enter Kyiv once more.

Iury Dolgoruky continued to advance “with a great mul­titude of men-at-arms... like the waves of the sea and it was terrifying to see them in their armour which shone just as water shines in the bright sun” as commented poetically by the Kyiv Chronicler. The force laid siege to Chernihiv, which in the meantime had switched sides, but after a 21-day siege Iziaslav arrived with a relieving army and Dolgoruky was forced to retreat to his domain. Shortly afterwards Iziaslav s son, Mstislav, won a great victory over Dolgoruky s Polovtsi allies, after which “they rejoiced greatly and showed such love and mercifulness towards the afflicted and the sad, the poor and the paupers, as if they were their own brothers.”¹² Prince Iziaslav was Kyiv^,s popular choice, and he remained on the throne until his death.

Iury Dolgoruky outlived both his nephew and his older brother. Iziaslav died in 1154, Viacheslav followed him a year later, and Dolgoruky assumed the throne of Kyiv for the next two years until he too died. He was being hosted by a customs duty collector by the name of Petrillo when he became ill and died five days later, probably from poison. Dolgorukywas ex­ceptionally unpopular in Kyiv and already in 1150 he had been forced by the citizens to leave the city. Now after his death the inhabitants of Kyiv rose against his men:

On Thursday he was buried in the church of the monastery of the Holy Saviour in Berestevo, and much wickedness occurred there the same day: his Krasny Palace was sacked; also his other estate beyond the Dnipro called “Samorai” was sacked.

The wars for the throne of Kyiv had gone beyond a dy­nastic struggle between princely relatives and had assumed a more popular character, expressing a regional hostility towards outsiders, probably caused by Dolgoruky s rule which was par­ticularly oppressive, as was that of his son Andrei Bogoluibsky several years later. Prince Iury Dolgoruky was responsible for building the first fortification on the Moscva (Moscow) River the beginning of the capital of Muscovy.

It was Andrei Bogoliubsky, Dolgoruky s oldest son by the Polovetsian princess, who would widen the split between the northeast and Kyiv. He began to assert his authority by attacking and defeating the Volga Bulgars in 1165, which secured his rear and allowed him to strengthen trade links with the Muslim world. Next, in alliance with Smolensk and Polotsk in 1167 he marched on Novgorod in support of Prince Sviatoslav Ros- tislavich who had been expelled by the citizens of the city. He had to Withdrawwithout achieving his objective, and the Nov- gorodians sent a delegation to Kyiv to ask Iziaslav s son Prince Mstislav to send his son Roman to be prince. This would have caused a power imbalance between the wealthy principalities of Kyiv and Novgorod on the one hand and the other city states on the other, and provoked suspicion amongst the lesser princes. Kyivhad already shown its Strengthwhen in 1167, sup­ported by his two brothers and the Prince of Volin, Mstislav in­flicted two crushing defeats on Bogoliubsky s Polovtsi allies. This was a dire warning to Andrei Bogoliubsky, whose aim was to replace Kyiv (and Novgorod, which was traditionally close

to Kyiv) by his own principality of Suzdal, Vladimir and Rostov, as the new political and economic center of OrthodoxEastern Europe. After building Kyiv-style churches and monasteries in Vladimir at great expense, Prince Bogoliubskywrote to the Pa­triarch of Constantinople requesting a Metropolitanate for Vladimir, similar to that of Kyiv and Rus.

Bogoliubskybegan to assemble an alliance of princes from Murom, Smolensky, Vyshorod, Drohobich, Pereiaslav, Seversk, and several others who were joined by Hungarians, Czechs, Poles and Lithuanians as well as the always willing Polovtsi. The chronicles comment on the Tremendous multitude of war­riors” who were gathered to march against Prince Mstislav of Kyiv, commanded by Bogoliubsky s son, also named Mstislav. Kyivwas besieged and after three weeks of intense fighting the city still held out, until a conspiracy of renegade boyars sent out a secret message pointing out the weak spots in Kyiv s mas­sive defenses. In the attack that followed the besiegers stormed Kyiv s walls once again but this time as a decoy, in the meantime sending a powerful strike force against the more vulnerable part. Overcoming the defenders’ resistance, Bogoliubsky s force broke into the city and proceeded to pillage and loot the wealthy metropolis, something which had not been achieved before. No doubt an eyewitness, the Kyiv chronicler described what occurred next:

And so Kyivwas taken on 8 March (1169) in the second week of Lent, on Wednesday. And for two days they plundered the entire city, both the Podol and the Hill, as well as the monasteries and the (churches of) St. Sophia and of the Mother of God the (church of the) Tithe. And there was no mercy to anyone from nowhere: the churches were burning, the Christians were being put to death, others were captured, the women separated by force from the men (and) taken into captivity, the children see­ing their mothers taken away were crying. And much property was plundered....¹⁵

Andrei Bogoliubsky took his share of the war booty and returned to Vladimir-Suzdal, appointing his uncle Gleb to rule Kiev in his stead. Perhaps he feared the same fate would await him as met his father, but in any case the move illustrates the distance which had grown between the northeast and the south.

Meanwhile in the southern prairies the threat from Po- Iovtsi tribes had greatly diminished following their major defeat at the hands of Prince Mstislav of Kyiv. By 1180, however, the eastern tribes along the Don River were raiding river shipping to the Azov and the Black Seas. To halt the raids the prince of Kyiv, Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich, reinforced by other princes moved out into the steppe in search of the nomads. The assem­bled Polovtsi army was not difficult to find, and the two forces clashed by the river Orelia. The battle began with the usual in­dividual combat between champions, followed by a release of arrows, and after Severalhours of bloody hand-to-hand fighting the Polovtsi gave way and fled into the steppe, to fight another day.

The nomads were led by the great Khan Konchak, who had survived the battle together with many of his men and con­tinued to raid the shipping lanes and agricultural settlement. A prince of the Chernhivline, the 34-year-old Igor Sviatoslavich OfNovgorod-Seversky decided to show how it was done. With only his own men and a few other units—“to gain more glory”—he set out to confront Khan Konchak. The expedition became immortalized in the first great medieval poem of Rus, “Slovo O Polku Igoreve” (“Word of Igor s Regiment”) and later in the 19th CenturybyBorodins musical composition “Prince Igor in the Polovtsian Steppe.” Prince Igorhad every expectation of success, being a seasoned campaigner who at the age of 17 had routed a Polovtsian army on the Vorskla River. What he was unaware of was that Konchak had united the western and the “wild” eastern tribes into a powerful force. In the spring of 1185 together with his younger brother Vsevolod and some jun­ior princes (including his 12-year-old son) Prince Igor set out from Pereiaslav deep into the Ukrainian steppe. By the 1st of Mayhis force had reached the Donets Riverwhere a bad omen awaited them—an eclipse of the sun. Undaunted they pressed on and soon came across the enemy on the Surla River. Forming his men into six regiments Igor led the light cavalry flanked by mounted archers, with the remaining three rear guard regiments held in reserve. After a day s fighting the Polovtsi beat a hasty retreat with Igor s cavalry in pursuit to the enemy camp, which was promptly attacked and plundered as a prize of war. Un­known to Igor he had defeated only a part of Khan Konchak s forces, most of which were kept in reserve.

After resting for three days in the enemy camp to decide their next move, Igor s men found themselves surrounded and trapped by the Polovtsi cavalry. The situation was described by a medieval chronicler:

The Polovtsi did not lose time in assembling, and they marched against them (the Rusins). They started galloping about, like demons, everywhere, neither attacking nor retreating. Only their bowmen were shooting, for they expected to be joined by other Polovtsi with greater forces. And so they dealt cunningly, howl­ing for three days, not using lance or sabers, awaiting additional troops... and not allowing the Rusins to draw near water.”

With horses exhausted by thirst, Prince Igor s men found them­selves fighting on foot against the Polovtsi cavalry: “Then the Polovtsi pushed them back to the water, and there was a terrible fight and a wicked massacre.... Divine wrath descended upon the Rusian warriors and they were defeated.... And this was such a Calamitythat not one single messenger came (back) from them to Rus.”¹⁷

Many of the men including Prince Igor were taken pris­oner, but Igor escaped from captivity and returned safely to Rus. Interestingly, the epic poem of Rus describing Igor^,s cam­paign implies that the Goths were still living by the Sea of Azov and were a part of the Polovtsi forces. Following the Rusian de­feat: “Now shame has replaced glory and thundering violence has stunned freedom; and lo, the beautiful Gothic maidens are singing on the shores of the Blue Sea, jingling their ornaments of Rusian gold.”

The conflict with the Polovtsi continued for another dec­ade during which the nomads suffered a series of defeats. Some of the Polovtsi tribes migrated westwards towards the Danube and those who remained behind were no longer able to mount large offensives. Kyivwas still a wealthy and powerful metropo­lis, the main center for manufacturing and commerce, but its status was waning. A major blow would come with the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by the 4th Crusade, which would alter major trade patterns and eliminate the great trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks.” In the meantime other princi­palities to the west, not as dependent on southern trade as Kyiv, were rising in prominence.