The period 862-92 is the time of formation of the Old Russian state. In 862, Rurik was called to reign in Novgorod. He is the founder of the great Russian Rurik dynasty. An important event of this time was the unification of the East Slavic tribes into a single state. It was also during this period that successful military campaigns against Constantinople were made. A powerful state is being created.

According to the Tale of Bygone Years, Rurik was called to reign in 862 by the Ilmen Slovenes. He accepted the request and came along with his brothers Sineus and Truvor, who began to reign in Beloozero and Izborsk. Rurik himself began to reign in Novgorod. With the help of his squad, Rurik managed to unite the East Slavic tribes, thus creating a large principality with Novgorod as its center.

In 879, after the death of Rurik, Oleg became the prince of Novgorod, who continued Rurik’s policies. In 882, he captured Kyiv and made it the capital of the ancient Russian state, killing Askold and Dir, who had previously reigned there. Thus, Oleg became the Great Prince of Kyiv. Oleg also subjugated the tribes of the Drevlyans, Northerners and Radimichi. During Oleg's reign, Kievan Rus expanded its international contacts. The prince carried out successful campaigns against Byzantium in 907 and 911. Thanks to the treaty of 911, Rus' received duty-free trade rights, which significantly affected the development of the merchant class of Rus'.

Let's consider the cause-and-effect relationships for each of the events. The need to form a single state was caused by several reasons. Firstly, the Eastern Slavs lacked order, there were constant civil strife and struggles for power. Secondly, they needed protection from external enemies. Also, Kyiv rose among other cities due to its convenient geographical location and the trade route passing through the city: “From the Varangians to the Greeks.” As a result, Kyiv became the capital of the ancient Russian state.

Historians have differing opinions regarding the formation of the Old Russian state. There are two theories of the origin of the state among the Slavs: Norman (Miller) and anti-Norman (Lomonosov). According to the first theory, Rus' was created by the Varangians with the voluntary consent of the Slavs. However, M.V. Lomonosov denies the role of the Varangians in the formation of the ancient Russian state and their calling to reign.

From the above it follows that from the moment of its formation Rus' becomes a strong, powerful state. Agreements are concluded with Byzantium, promoting the development of trade and further relations between the two states. East Slavic tribes unite. New cities, centers of crafts and trade appeared. Thus, we can say that the activities of the first Russian princes subsequently led to the second stage of the development of the state - its dawn.

In 2012, 1150 years passed since the event, which in the domestic historiography of the 18th - 19th centuries. received the name “the calling of the Varangians”, “the birth of Russian statehood”.

In 862, there was an act of voluntary agreement between the Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes, who agreed, in order to stop civil strife, to call as ruler an “outsider”, not associated with any of the local clans, who was supposed to perform the functions of an arbitrator, “to judge by right” , that is, according to the law. Such an invited ruler was Prince Rurik, who laid the foundation for the first Russian dynasty, which ruled the country for more than seven centuries.

Traditionally, the year 862 is considered the date of the birth of Russian statehood, the starting point of Russian history.

150 years ago, Novgorod became the center of festive celebrations on the occasion of the thousandth anniversary of this event.

The basis of our ideas about the “calling of the Varangians” is the message “The Tale of Bygone Years” under 862: “In the summer of 6370. I expelled the Varangians overseas, and did not give them tribute, and began to become ill with themselves, and there was no need for them.” righteousness, and generation arose against generation, and there was strife among them, and they often fought against each other. And deciding to ourselves: “Let us look for a prince who would rule over us and judge us rightfully.” And I went overseas to the Varangians, to Rus'. Sitsa is afraid of the name of the Varangians, Rus', as if the friends are called theirs, the friends are the Urmans, the Anglyans, the friends are gate, tako and si. Deciding to Rus', Chud, Slovenes, and Krivichi and all: “Our land is great and abundant, but there is no outfit in it. May you come and reign over us.” And the 3 brothers were chosen from their generations, girding all of Rus' around themselves, and came; the oldest, Rurik, is located in Novgorod, and the other, Sineus, is on Bela Lake, and the third is Izborsk, Truvor. And from those Varangians they were nicknamed Russian Land, Novugorodtsy, they are people of Novugorodtsi from the Varangian family, before they were Slovenian.”

The chronicler not only spoke about the fact of inviting foreigners to Rus', the reason for which was the endless civil strife in the local tribal confederation of the Slavs, but also precisely determined who the Varangians of Rurik were and where they came from. He emphasized the ethnic difference between the Varangians-Russians and the Swedes, Normans, Angles, and Gotlanders.

Vasnetsov V.M., “Varyags”, 1909. Oil, canvas

Rurik fulfilled the historical mission assigned to him. Through his efforts and the efforts of his successors, a powerful East Slavic state was formed in Europe. It was from Rurik that the Russian princes until the suppression of the ruling dynasty at the end of the 16th century. traced their genealogy.

The presence of Scandinavians in Rus' in the 9th - 11th centuries. and their great role in the life of East Slavic society is a firmly established fact. This is evidenced by both chronicle news and numerous archaeological finds. The historicity of Rurik himself should also hardly be in doubt (but his brothers Sineus and Truvor are completely mythical figures who appeared only under the pen of the chronicler, who thus personified the words of the ancient Swedish language “sine hus” - “one’s kind” and “thru” varing" - "faithful squad"). The chronicle story about Rurik’s “calling” apparently reflects the fact of concluding an agreement with the invited prince.

It should be borne in mind that 862 is a fairly arbitrary date. The first dates in chronicle reports (the so-called “weather grid”) appear only in the 11th century. For events of an earlier time, the chronicler had to select the most suitable dates through calculations. Therefore, we know for a fact that the date of the “calling of the Varangians” is calculated. But it agrees well with our modern ideas about the level of development of East Slavic society in the 9th century. and is confirmed by archaeological data. Therefore, a possible error of several years in the dating of the event itself does not have a serious impact on the general ideas about the formation of the Russian state.

In addition to the chronology of any historical event, an important issue is its geographical location. In relation to the “calling of the Varangians,” this question can be formulated as follows: to what exact point in the East Slavic lands was Rurik invited “with his family and faithful retinue”? In modern historical science there are two answers to this question: Ladoga and Novgorod.

To justify the choice of these two points, you should find out for which tasks each of them was convenient. Ladoga, which arose back in the 8th century, was located in the lower reaches of the Volkhov and was convenient for controlling the trade route along this river in the area closest to the Baltic. But it lay far from the main areas of Slavic settlement in the North-West; settlements in its immediate area were extremely rare. Novgorod, in addition to its location at the intersection of trade routes along the Volkhov and Msta, was located among a large cluster of rural settlements and had convenient connections with other regions of the North-West. Therefore, Ladoga could only serve to control transit trade, and Novgorod had the added possibility of exercising control over the vast territory of East Slavic settlement. Thus, for the purposes of managing the emerging state territory, Novgorod was much more suitable than Ladoga. And Ladoga could only be an intermediate point of stay for the invited Scandinavian prince, and his main place should have been Novgorod.

As is known, on the territory of modern Novgorod, during archaeological research, no layers older than the first half of the 10th century were discovered. At the same time, at the Settlement there are not only layers of the 9th century, but also a large number of objects of Scandinavian origin have been discovered. Therefore, Gorodishche is the territory on which Novgorod first arose. And it was here that Rurik was supposed to come in the middle of the 9th century.

The Tale of Bygone Years, our main source on the initial history of Rus', tells the continuation of the famous biblical story about the Tower of Babel, when a single human race was scattered throughout the entire earth. The Tale says, in particular, that the tribe of Joapheth, which included 72 nations, moved west and north. From this tribe came the “so-called Noriks, who are the Slavs.” “After a long time,” the chronicler continues, “the Slavs settled along the Danube, where now the land is Hungarian and Bulgarian. From those Slavs the Slavs spread throughout the land and were called by their names from the places where they settled. So, some, having arrived, sat down on the Morava River and were called Moravians, and others were called Czechs... When... these Slavs came and sat on the Vistula and were called Poles, and from those Poles came the Poles, other Poles - Lutichi, others - Mazovshans, others - Pomeranians." And here is what the chronicle says about the tribes that later made up the Russian people: “... the Slavs came and sat along the Dnieper and called themselves Polyans, and others Drevlyans, because they sat in the forests, and others sat between Pripyat and the Dvina and called themselves Dregovichs, others sat along the Dvina and they called themselves Polochans after a river flowing into the Dvina, called Polota... The same Slavs who settled near Lake Ilmen were called by their own name - the Slavs and built a city, and called it Novgorod. And others sat on the Desna, and along the Seim, and along the Sula and called themselves northerners. And so the Slavic people dispersed, and after his name the letter was called Slavic.”

The legendary history has been studied for centuries, and there is no consensus in science about the origin of the Slavs. Many historians think that the Slavs began moving across the earth not from the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, but from the coast of the Baltic Sea, from where the warlike tribes of the Germans began to push them out. The Slavs moved to Eastern Europe, gradually mastering its spaces to the east and south, until they encountered the Byzantines on the Danube, to whom they became known by their name - “Slavs”. This happened no earlier than the 6th century. Having met resistance on the Danube, some of the Slavic tribes settled on the borders of Byzantium, and some moved to the northwest and northeast. This is how the single mass of Slavs collapsed into southern, western and eastern ones. It is not surprising that the echoes of this decay are also heard in The Tale of Bygone Years.

Archaeologists, having studied the evidence of the life of the Slavs of that era preserved in the ground, came to the conclusion that on the vast plain from modern Prague to the banks of the Dnieper and from the middle reaches of the Oder to the Lower Danube in the VI-VII centuries. n. e. there was a single Slavic culture, which was conventionally called “Prague”. This can be seen from the typical Slavic types of housing, household utensils, women’s jewelry, and types of burials. All these traces that have reached us testify to the unity of material, spiritual culture, as well as the common language and self-awareness of the Slavs over a vast space. Here are the same type of small, unfortified villages, consisting of wooden half-dugouts with a stove in the corner (and not in the center, like the Germans). Remains of rough molded pottery were found here. Judging by the shape of this ceramics, the Slavs clearly belong to the “potter” tribes, in contrast to the Germans – “bowl makers”. The pot has always remained the main “tool” of the Slavic and then Russian housewife. In the Proto-Slavic language, the word “misa” is of Germanic origin, while “pot” is an original Slavic word. The unity is also noticeable in women’s jewelry, the fashion for which was common among Slavic women throughout the entire area of ​​distribution of “Prague culture.” The funeral rite was also the same: the deceased was burned and a mound was always built over his ashes.

The various Slavic tribes that later formed the Russian people had their own path in history. It has been established that the Polyans, northerners and Drevlyans came to the Middle Dnieper region, Pripyat, Desna from the banks of the Danube; The Vyatichi, Radimichi and Dregovichi moved east to their places of settlement from the land of the “Poles”, i.e. from the region of Poland and Belarus (the names of the rivers Vyacha, Vyatka, Vetka are still there). Polotsk and Novgorod Slovenes came from the southwest through Belarus and Lithuania. The Slavs in the northeast develop stable, repeating types of burials, more precisely, two main ones - the so-called “culture of long mounds” and “culture of the Novgorod hills.” “Long burial mounds” are a type of burial of the Pskov, Smolensk and Polotsk Krivichi. When a person died, a mound was built over him, which was adjacent to the already existing old burial mound. Thus, from the merged mounds, an embankment emerged, sometimes reaching hundreds of meters in length. The Novgorod Slovenes buried their dead differently: their mounds grew not in length, but upward. The ashes of the next deceased were buried at the top of the old mound and earth was poured over the new burial. So the mound grew into a high, 10-meter hill. All this happened no earlier than the 6th century. and continued until the 10th century, when the Slavs arose statehood.

Some of the settlers (Krivichi) settled on the East European Upland, from where the Dnieper, Moscow River, Oka, Velikaya, and Lovat flow. This resettlement took place no earlier than the 7th century. The first Slavic settlers in the area of ​​the future Moscow appeared from the west no earlier than the 9th century. Archaeologists find rough molded pottery and traces of low wooden houses sunk into the ground in places where the Slavs settled. Usually the arriving Slavic tribe established a large settlement, from which small villages sprang up in the surrounding area. Near the main tribal settlement there was a burial mound, as well as a refuge settlement on a hill, in a river bend or at the confluence of one river with another. In this settlement there could have been a temple of Slavic gods. As they developed new lands, the Slavs pushed out, subjugated or assimilated the Baltic and Finno-Ugric tribes who lived here, who, like the Slavs, were pagans.

There are still debates about where and when the ancient Russian state arose. According to legend, in the middle of the 9th century. In the land of the Ilmen Slovenes and Finno-Ugric tribes (Chud, Merya, etc.), civil strife began, “generation after generation rose up.” Tired of strife, local leaders in 862 decided to invite rulers from Scandinavia, Rorik (Rurik) and his brothers: Sineus and Truvor. As stated in the chronicle, the leaders turned to the brothers with the words: “Our land is great and abundant, but there is no order in it. Come reign and rule over us." There was nothing offensive or humiliating in such an invitation for local tribes - many peoples then, and later, invited noble foreigners to their throne who were not connected with the local tribal nobility and did not know the traditions of clan struggle. People hoped that such a prince would rise above the warring local leaders and thereby ensure peace and quiet in the country. An agreement was concluded with the Varangians - a “row”. The transfer of supreme power to them (“possession”) was accompanied by the condition of judging “by right,” that is, according to local customs. The “Ryad” also stipulated the conditions of maintenance and support for the prince and his squad.

King Rurik and his brothers (or more distant relatives) agreed to the conditions of the Slavic leaders, and soon Rurik arrived in Ladoga - the first known city in Rus', and “sat down” to “own” it. Sineus settled in the north, in Beloozero, and Truvor - in the west, in Izborsk, where the hill “Truvorovo Settlement” is still preserved. After the death of his younger brothers, Rurik began to “own” all the lands alone. It is generally accepted that Rurik (Rorik) was a minor Danish king (prince) from the shores of the North Sea, one of many Viking conquerors who, on their fast ships - drakars, raided European countries. Their goal was production, but if given the opportunity, the Vikings could also seize power - this is what happened in England and Normandy. The Slavs, who traded with the Vikings (Varangians), knew that Rurik was an experienced warrior, but not a very rich ruler, and that his lands were constantly threatened by powerful Scandinavian neighbors. It is not surprising that he willingly responded to the tempting offer of the ambassadors. Having settled in Ladoga (now Staraya Ladoga), Rurik then climbed the Volkhov to Lake Ilmen and founded a new city - Novgorod, taking possession of all the surrounding lands. Together with Rurik and the Varangians, the word “Rus” came to the Slavs, the first meaning of which is a warrior-rower on a Scandinavian boat. Then they began to call the Varangian warriors who served the king-princes this way. Then the name of Varangian “Rus” was first transferred to the Lower Dnieper region (Kyiv, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl), where the Varangians settled. For a long time, residents of Novgorod, Smolensk or Rostov said, going to Kyiv: “I’ll go to Rus'.” And then, after the Varangians “dissolved” in the Slavic environment, the Eastern Slavs, their lands and the state created on them began to be called Russia. Thus, in an agreement with the Greeks in 945, the possessions of Rurik’s descendants were first called “Russian Land”.

The Slavic tribe of the Polyans lived on the Dnieper in the 9th century. Their capital was the small city of Kyiv, which received (according to one version) the name of the leader of the local tribe Kiya, who ruled there with the brothers Shchek and Khoreb. Kyiv stood in a very convenient place, at the intersection of roads. Here, on the banks of the deep Dnieper, a trade arose, where grain, livestock, weapons, slaves, jewelry, fabrics were bought or exchanged - the usual trophies of leaders and their squads returning from raids. In 864, two Scandinavian Varangians, Askold and Dir, captured Kyiv and began to rule there. Walking along the Dnieper, they, according to the chronicle, noticed a small settlement and asked the local residents: “Whose town is this?” And they were told: “No one! Three brothers built it - Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv, ​​disappeared somewhere, and we pay tribute to the Khazars.” Then the Varangians captured “homeless” Kyiv and settled there. At the same time, they did not obey Rurik, who ruled in the north. What really happened? Apparently, the glades who lived in these places were a rather weak tribe, a splinter from the once united tribe that came from Poland, known from Byzantine sources as the “Lendians”, i.e. “Poles”. This tribe, oppressed by the powerful Krivichi tribe, began to disintegrate. At this moment, the kings Dir and Askold appeared on the Dnieper, subjugating the glades and founding their principality. From this legend about the conquest of the glades by Dir and Askold, it is clear that Kyiv already existed as a settlement. Its origin is shrouded in deep mystery, and no one can say exactly when it arose. Some historians believe that this happened in the 5th century, others are convinced that Kyiv is “younger” than Ladoga, which appeared in the 8th century. After the separation of Ukraine from Russia, this problem immediately acquired a political overtones - the Russian authorities would like to see the capital of Rus' not in Kyiv, but in Ladoga or Novgorod. It is no longer fashionable to use the term “Kievan Rus”, which was previously popular in Soviet times. They think differently in Kyiv itself, repeating the formula known from chronicles: “Kyiv is the mother of Russian cities.” In fact, in the middle of the 9th century. neither Kyiv, nor Ladoga, nor Novgorod were the capitals of the ancient Russian principality, because this principality itself had not yet emerged.

After Rurik's death in 879, power in Novgorod passed not to his young son Igor, but to Rurik's relative Oleg, who had previously lived in Ladoga. However, perhaps Igor was not the son of Rurik. The kinship of Rurik and Igor could have been invented by later chroniclers, who tried to trace the dynasty to the most ancient ancestor and link together all the first rulers into one Rurik dynasty. Be that as it may, in 882 Oleg and his retinue approached Kyiv. Disguised as a Varangian merchant who arrived on ships from the upper reaches of the river, he appeared before Askold and Dir on the banks of the Dnieper. Suddenly, Oleg’s soldiers, hidden among the goods, jumped out of the ships moored to the shore and killed the Kyiv rulers. Kyiv, and then its surrounding lands, submitted to Oleg. So in 882, the lands of the Eastern Slavs from Ladoga to Kyiv were united for the first time under the rule of one prince. A kind of Varangian-Slavic state was formed - Ancient Rus'. It was archaic and amorphous, lacking many of the features of a modern state. The first rulers defended the lands recognized as “theirs” from an external enemy; they collected a “lesson” from the subordinate tribes - a tribute, which was more of a payment for the safety of the subordinate tribes to the Varangian princes than a tax.

Prince Oleg (Scandinavian Helg) largely followed the policies of Rurik and annexed more and more lands to the resulting state. Oleg can be called a prince-city planner, for in the annexed lands he, according to the chronicler, immediately “began to build cities.” These were wooden fortresses that became the centers of individual lands and made it possible to successfully fight off nomads behind their walls. The first “guests” whom Oleg encountered were the Turks from the Khazar Kaganate. These were formidable neighbors. The Kaganate, a Jewish state by faith, was located in the Lower Volga region and the Black Sea region. The Byzantines, concerned about the Khazars' raids on their possessions, bribed Oleg with gifts, and he made a sudden and successful attack on the Khazar fortress of Tamatarcha (Tmutarakan) on the shore of the Kerch Strait. There Oleg remained until he made peace with the Khazars and moved to Byzantium. In this and other cases, he acted as many Varangian kings did, ready to take any side if they were paid well.

Oleg’s famous act was the 907 campaign against Constantinople (Constantinople), the capital of Byzantium. His large detachment, consisting of the Varangians (including King Igor), as well as Slavs, unexpectedly appeared on light ships at the walls of Constantinople. The Greeks, unprepared for defense, seeing how the barbarians who came from the north were plundering and burning churches in the vicinity of the city, killing and capturing local residents, went to negotiate with Oleg. Soon, Emperor Leo VI concluded an agreement with the Russians, paid Oleg a ransom, and also promised to support Russian ambassadors and merchants who came to Constantinople from Rus' for free. Before leaving Constantinople, Oleg allegedly hung his shield on the gates of the city as a sign of victory. At home, in Kyiv, people were amazed by the rich booty with which Oleg returned, and gave the prince the nickname Prophetic, that is, wise, magician.

In fact, magicians and magi were pagan priests, very influential among their fellow tribesmen before the adoption of Christianity. They challenged the power over the people from the alien princes. Perhaps this conflict was reflected in the legend known to everyone since school years about the death of the Prophetic Oleg “from his horse,” which the sorcerer allegedly predicted to him. More trust should be given to the report that the restless warrior-king Oleg died in one of his usual campaigns of conquest, this time to the Caspian Sea, where he went in 943. Oleg managed to conquer the rich Caspian city of Berdaa at the mouth of the Kura. Here he decided to settle permanently, founding the Varangian principality. It is known that the Varangians acted in a similar way in other lands. But the local rulers defeated Oleg’s small Varangian squad, which did not receive help from Scandinavia in time. Oleg also died in this battle. Therefore, during the next Viking campaign against Byzantium in 944, peace was made with the Byzantines by Igor, who had already replaced Oleg.

Oleg's successor was Igor (Ingvar), nicknamed the Old One. From an early age he lived in Kyiv, which became his home. We know little about Igor's personality. He was, like Oleg-Helg, a warrior, a stern Varangian. He almost never got off his horse, conquering the Slavic tribes and imposing tribute on them. Like Oleg, Igor raided Byzantium. His first campaign together with Oleg in 941 failed. The Greeks burned the Russian ships with the so-called “Greek fire” - shells with burning oil. The second campaign in 944 turned out to be more successful. This time the Greeks decided to pay off the Scandinavians with expensive fabrics and gold. This is exactly what Igor wanted - he immediately turned home. Under Igor, new opponents came from the steppe to replace the Khazars - the Pechenegs. Their first appearance was noted in 915. Since then, the danger of raids by nomads from the south and east has constantly increased.

Rus' was not yet an established state. It stretched from south to north along the only communications - waterways, and they were precisely controlled by the Varangian princes. In general, the chronicles impose on us the idea of ​​Rurik, Oleg, Igor as sovereign rulers from the princely dynasty of the Rurikovichs. In fact, the Varangian princes were not such rulers. The kings were only the leaders of the Varangian squads and often, when going on campaigns, they acted in alliance with other kings, and then broke away from them: they either left for Scandinavia, or settled down - “sat down” on the lands they conquered, as happened with Oleg in Kyiv. The entire strength of the Varangian kings consisted of their powerful squads, constantly replenished with new fighters from Scandinavia. Only this force united the distant lands of the Russian state from Ladoga to Kyiv.

At the same time, the king-prince in Kyiv divided possessions between relatives and allied kings for their “feeding”. So, Igor-Ingvar gave Novgorod to his son Svyatoslav, Vyshgorod to his wife Olga, and the Drevlyan lands to King Sveneld. Every winter, as soon as the rivers and swamps froze, the kings went to the “polyudye” - they traveled around their lands (made a “circle”), judged, settled disputes, collected a “lesson”. This is what the kings did in Scandinavia during similar detours. As the chronicler reports, back in the 12th century. the sleigh on which Princess Olga rode to Polyudye was kept in Pskov; but, apparently, spring found her in Pskov and the sleigh had to be abandoned there. They also punished the tribes that had “sat aside” over the summer: relations with the local Slavic tribal elite among the Varangians were difficult for a long time, until its elite began to merge with the Scandinavian warriors. It is generally accepted that the process of merging the Slavic and Varangian elites occurred no earlier than the beginning of the 11th century, when five generations of rulers, already born in Rus', changed. Exactly the same process of assimilation took place in other lands conquered by the Vikings - in France (Normandy), Ireland.

Igor died during the usual polyud in those days in 945, when, having collected tribute in the land of the Drevlyans, he was not satisfied with it and returned for more. According to another version, the Drevlyansky land was in the power of King Sveneld. When he and his men appeared in Kyiv in rich outfits taken from the Drevlyans, Igor’s squad was overcome with envy. Igor went to the capital of the Drevlyans - the city of Iskorosten - to take tribute for himself. The inhabitants of Iskorosten were outraged by this lawlessness, grabbed the prince, tied him by the legs to two bent mighty trees and released them. This is how Igor died ingloriously.

The unexpected death of Igor led to the fact that his wife Princess Olga (Helga, or Elga) took power in Kyiv into her own hands. She was helped (or shared power with her) by the kings - Igor’s associates Asmud and Sveneld. Olga herself was Scandinavian and lived in Pskov before her marriage to Igor. After Igor’s death, she toured her estates and established clear “lesson” dimensions everywhere. Under her rule, administrative centers of the district arose - “cemeteries”, where tribute was concentrated. In legends, Olga became famous for her wisdom, cunning and energy. She was the first ruler to understand the importance of Christianity for her country. It is known about Olga that she was the first of the Russian rulers to receive foreign ambassadors in Kyiv who arrived from the German Emperor Otto I. The terrible death of her husband in Iskorosten entailed Olga’s no less terrifying revenge on the Drevlyans. When they sent ambassadors to her for negotiations (the Drevlyans wanted, according to tribal customs, to end the feud by marrying their prince to Olga the widow), the princess ordered them to be buried alive.

A year later, Olga burned the Drevlyan capital Iskorosten in a cunning way. She collected a light tribute from the townspeople in the form of live pigeons and sparrows, and then ordered smoldering tinder to be tied to their paws. The birds released into the wild returned to the city and set it on fire from all sides. The princess's soldiers could only take into slavery the townspeople fleeing the great fire. The chronicler tells us how Olga deceived the Drevlyan ambassadors who arrived in Kyiv in peace. She suggested that they take a bath before starting negotiations. While the ambassadors were enjoying the steam room, Olga's warriors blocked the doors of the bathhouse and killed their enemies in the heat of the bathhouse.

This is not the first mention of a bathhouse in Russian chronicles. The Nikon Chronicle tells about the arrival of the holy Apostle Andrew to Rus'. Then, returning to Rome, he spoke with surprise about a strange action in the Russian land: “I saw wooden bathhouses, and they would heat them up very much, and they would undress and be naked, and they would douse themselves with leather kvass, and they would lift up young rods and beat themselves, and They will finish themselves off to such an extent that as soon as they crawl out barely alive, they will douse themselves with cold water, and that’s the only way they will come to life. And they do this constantly, not tormented by anyone, but tormenting themselves, and then they perform ablution for themselves, and not torment.” After this, the sensational theme of the extraordinary Russian bathhouse with a birch broom will become an indispensable attribute of many travel accounts of foreigners for many centuries, from medieval times to the present day.

Olga also made long journeys. She visited Constantinople twice. The second time, in 955, she, as a noble pagan, was received by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Olga sought to find an ally in the emperor of Byzantium and wanted to enlist the support of the Greeks. It was clear that this would not be easy to do without accepting Christianity. The princess had long been acquainted with Christians in Kyiv and shared their faith. But she finally decided when she saw the shrines of Constantinople and appreciated the power of this great Christian city. There Olga was baptized and became Helen, and asked Emperor Constantine himself to be her godfather. However, according to one version, she did this to discourage the emperor from courting a beautiful northern woman - after all, the godfather was considered a relative.

In 957, the son of Igor and Olga Svyatoslav (Sfendisleif) reached the age of 16, and his mother, Princess Olga, ceded power to him. He ruled Russia, like his father Igor, from horseback: he fought almost continuously, carrying out raids with his squad on neighbors, often very distant. First, he fought with Khazaria, subjugated (as it is said in the chronicle - “nalez”) the Slavic tribe of the Vyatichi, who paid tribute to the Khazars, then defeated the Volga Bulgars and imposed tribute on them. Then Svyatoslav moved against the Khazar Khaganate, which had already weakened by that time, and in 965 captured its main city, Sarkel. Three years later, having waited for great help from Scandinavia, Svyatoslav again attacked the Khazars and finally defeated the Kaganate. He also subjugated Tmutarakan in the Azov region, which became one of the Russian principalities remote from Kyiv, which gave rise to the well-known saying about “a trip to Tmutarakan” as about a trip to a distant, remote side.

In the second half of the 960s. Svyatoslav moved to the Balkans. Like his father and other Scandinavian kings before him, the Greeks used him as a mercenary to conquer the Slavic power that had weakened by this time - Bulgaria. After the capture of part of the Bulgarian kingdom in 968, Svyatoslav, following the example of his father Igor, who settled first in Tmutarakan and then on Terek, decided to stay in the Balkans, settle in Pereyaslavets on the Danube and conduct raids from there, trading goods from Rus' - furs, honey , wax, slaves. But the sudden threat to Kyiv from the Pechenegs forced him to leave for Rus' for a while. Soon he returned to the Balkans and again took from the Bulgarians Pereyaslavets, which he liked so much. This time, the Byzantine emperor John Tzimiskes spoke out against the presumptuous Svyatoslav. The war went on for a long time with varying success. More and more Scandinavian troops approached Svyatoslav, they won victories and expanded their possessions, reaching Philippol (Plovdiv). It is curious that in that war of conquest far from his homeland, Svyatoslav uttered before the battle what later became the catchphrase of the Russian patriot: “We will not disgrace the Russian land, but we will lie with our bones, for the dead have no shame.” But the troops of Svyatoslav and other kings melted away in the battles, and in the end, surrounded in 971 in Dorostol, Svyatoslav agreed to make peace with the Byzantines and leave Bulgaria.

The prince's contemporaries compared Svyatoslav's campaigns to the leaps of a leopard: swift, silent and striking. According to the testimony of the same contemporaries, Svyatoslav was a blue-eyed, bushy-moustached man of average height; he shaved his head bald, leaving a long tuft of hair on the top - oseledets (the kind the Cossacks later wore). From the outside, the only thing that helped distinguish him from warriors like him was the cleaner shirt that the prince was wearing. An earring with precious stones hung in Svyatoslav’s ear, although the warrior prince loved excellent weapons more than jewelry. He showed his warlike spirit already in childhood, when the squad of his father Igor went to take revenge on the Drevlyans for the murder of the prince. Legend has it that little Svyatoslav threw a spear towards the enemy and it fell at the feet of the enemy’s horse. Dense, strong, Svyatoslav was famous for his tirelessness in campaigns, his army did not have a baggage train, and the prince and his soldiers made do with the food of nomads - dried meat. All his life he remained a pagan and a polygamist. Having agreed to peace with the Greeks, Svyatoslav decided to return to Kyiv. By that time, his mother was no longer there - Olga died in 969. At parting, Svyatoslav met his main rival - Emperor John Tzimiskes. He sailed to meet him in a canoe, without guards, and sat on the oars himself. Thanks to this visit, we know from the Greeks from John’s retinue what Svyatoslav looked like.

Having made peace, Svyatoslav in 972 without joy set off on boats up the Dnieper, returning to Kyiv. Even earlier, he told his mother and the Kyiv boyars: “I don’t like Kiev, I want to live in Pereyaslavets on the Danube - there is the middle of my land.” He considered the lands conquered by the sword on the Danube to be his own, now lost possession. He had few warriors - most of the kings with squads on their boats broke away from his army and went to plunder the shores of Spain. The experienced king Sveneld, who was sailing with Svyatoslav, advised him to bypass the dangerous Dnieper rapids by dry land, where a Pecheneg ambush could await him. But Svyatoslav did not listen to the advice and died in a battle with nomads at the Dnieper threshold with the ominous name Nenasytnensky. The chronicle tells that from the skull of a murdered Russian prince, the Pecheneg prince Kurya made a wine cup decorated with gold and drank from it at a banquet. In our time, where Svyatoslav died, two swords from the mid-10th century were found. Perhaps the great warrior who died on the Dnieper rapids had such a sword.

Before leaving Kyiv for the Danube, Svyatoslav decided on the fate of his three sons. He left the eldest, Yaropolk, in Kyiv; the middle one, Oleg, was sent to reign in the land of the Drevlyans, and the youngest, Vladimir (Voldemar), was planted in Novgorod. So, Yaropolk Svyatoslavich came to power in Kyiv. But soon strife began between the brothers. In 977, Yaropolk, on the advice of Sveneld, attacked Oleg Drevlyansky, and in a battle near the city of Ovruch he died - he was thrown from a bridge into a ditch and there crushed by his mounted warriors falling from above. The younger, young brother Vladimir, having learned about Yaropolk’s speech against Oleg and fearing for his life, fled to Scandinavia.

This was a time of still close ties between the Varangian kings who ruled Russia and the homeland of their ancestors. In the scientific literature of the 20th century. they sought to “slavify” the Vikings as early as possible, to unite them with the local Slavic nobility. This process, of course, went on, but much more slowly than some historians would like. For a long time, the Russian elite was bilingual - hence the double Slavic-Scandinavian names: Oleg - Helg, Igor - Ingvar, Svyatoslav - Sfendisleif, Malusha - Malfred. For a long time, the Varangians who came from Scandinavia found refuge in Kyiv before their raids on Byzantium and other southern countries. More than once or twice, Russian princes, who abandoned the Scandinavian name "Hakan", fled to the homeland of their ancestors - to Scandinavia, where they found help and support among relatives and friends.

The fugitive Vladimir did not stay long in Scandinavia. With the Varangian squad hired there in 980, he moved to Kyiv, sending ahead a messenger who conveyed to Yaropolk: “Vladimir is coming at you, get ready to fight him!” This was the noble custom of declaring war at that time. Previously, Vladimir wanted to get Polotsk, where the Varangian Rogvolod then ruled, as an ally. To do this, Vladimir decided to become related to him by marrying Rogvolod’s daughter Rogneda, who, however, was already considered the bride of Prince Yaropolk. Rogneda proudly answered Vladimir's ambassadors that she would never marry the son of a slave (Vladimir was indeed born from the slave Princess Olga, housekeeper Malusha). Taking revenge for this humiliation, Vladimir attacked Polotsk, killed Rogvolod and his two sons and took Rogneda as his wife by force. She became one of the many wives of Vladimir, who had a large harem. The chronicler claims that there were 800 women in Vladimir’s harem, and the prince was distinguished by immeasurable lasciviousness: he grabbed other people’s wives and corrupted girls. But he married Rogneda for political reasons. According to legend, subsequently Rogneda, offended by Vladimir’s many years of inattention to her, wanted to kill the prince, but he managed to grab the knife raised above him.

Soon Vladimir, at the head of a powerful Varangian squad, easily captured Kyiv. Yaropolk turned out to be inexperienced in business, becoming a toy in the hands of his advisers. One of them, named Blud, treacherously advised the prince to flee from fortified Kyiv, and then surrender to the mercy of the winner, which he did. Another adviser to the prince, named Varyazhko, persuaded him not to believe Vladimir and run to the Pechenegs. But the prince did not listen to Varyazhko’s advice, for which he paid: “And Yaropolk came to Vladimir, and when he entered the door, two Varangians lifted him with their swords under their bosoms,” as the chronicler notes. And at that time the insidious Blud held the door so that Yaropolk’s retinue would not interfere with the fratricide. With the campaign of Yaropolk against Oleg Drevlyansky and Vladimir against Yaropolk, a long history of fratricides in Rus' begins, when the thirst for power and immense ambition drowned out the call of native blood and the voice of mercy.

So, Vladimir Svyatoslavich began to reign in Kyiv. Many problems befell him. With great difficulty, he managed to persuade the Varangians who came with him not to plunder Kyiv. He tried to escort them out of Kyiv on a raid on Byzantium, having previously rewarded them. During the strife, some Slavic tribes fell away from Rus', and Vladimir had to pacify them “with an armed hand.” To do this, he went on a campaign against the Vyatichi and Radimichi. Then it was necessary to “calm down” the neighbors - Vladimir began a campaign against Volga Bulgaria, and in 981 he turned to the west and conquered Volyn from the Polish king Mieszko I. There he founded his main stronghold - the city of Vladimir Volynsky.

Wars with their southern neighbors - the Pechenegs - became a difficult test for Vladimir. These wild, cruel nomads were feared by everyone. There is a well-known story about the confrontation between the Kyivans and the Pechenegs on the Trubezh River in 992, when for two days Vladimir could not find among his army a daredevil who was ready to fight the Pechenegs - in those days, battles usually began with a duel of heroes. Finally, the honor of the Russian weapon was saved by the mighty skinman Nikita, who, without any wrestling techniques or tricks, grabbed his opponent - the Pechenezh hero - and simply strangled him with his huge hands, accustomed not to swinging a sword, but to crushing thick cowhide. On the site of the victory of the Russian hero, Vladimir founded the city of Pereyaslavl.

The prince saw the construction of cities in strategically important places as the most reliable means of protecting Kyiv from sudden and dangerous attacks by nomads. He allegedly said: “It’s not good that there are few cities near Kyiv,” and quickly began to correct the situation. Under him, fortresses were erected along the Desna, Trubezh, Sula, Stugna and other rivers. There were not enough first settlers (“inhabitants”) for the new cities, and Vladimir invited people from the north of Rus' to move to him. Among them were many brave souls like the legendary Ilya Muromets, who were interested in dangerous, risky service on the border. Vasnetsov’s famous painting “Three Bogatyrs” is not without a historical basis: so, tired of peaceful life or having had enough fun at feasts, the heroes went to the steppe - to breathe free air, “to amuse their right hand,” to fight with the Polovtsians, and if the opportunity arises, then and rob visiting merchants.

Vladimir, like his grandmother, Princess Olga, understood the need for reforms in matters of faith. In general, the ease with which the Varangians took power in the lands of the Slavs is also explained by the similarity of faith - both the Slavs and the Varangians were pagan polytheists. They revered the spirits of water, forests, brownies, and goblins; they had major and minor gods and goddesses. One of the most important Slavic gods, the lord of thunder and lightning Perun, was very similar to the Scandinavian supreme god Thor, whose symbol - a bronze hammer - is often found by archaeologists in Slavic burials. The image of Perun in the form of an idol-sculpture had a silver head and a golden mustache.

The Slavs also worshiped Svarog - the god of fire, the master of the Universe, bringing good luck to the sun god Dazhbog, as well as the god of the earth Svarozhich. They greatly respected the god of cattle Beles and the goddess Mokosh. She was the only female deity in the Slavic pantheon and was looked upon as mother earth. Two gods of the Slavs - Khors and Simargl - bore Iranian names. The name of the first is close to the word “good” and means “sun”, the name of the second echoes the name of the magical bird of the ancient Persians, Simurg. Sculptural images of gods were placed on hills, and sacred temples were surrounded by high fences. The gods of the Slavs, like all other pagans, were very harsh, even ferocious. They demanded veneration and frequent offerings from people. Gifts rose upward to the gods in the form of smoke from burned victims: food, killed animals and even people.

At first, Vladimir tried to unite all pagan cults, to make the Scandinavian Perun the main god, so that only him could be worshiped. The innovation did not take root, paganism was in decline, and a new era was dawning. Having come into contact with the world of Christianity throughout Europe, from Britain to Byzantium and Sicily, the Varangians were baptized.

The great world religions convinced the pagans that eternal life and even eternal bliss in heaven exist and that they are available, you just need to accept their faith. This is where the problem of choice arose. According to legend, Vladimir listened to various priests sent by his neighbors and thought: everyone has their own faith and their own truth! The Khazars became Jews, the Scandinavians and Poles became Christians, subordinate to Rome, and the Bulgarians adopted the Byzantine (Greek) faith. The sensual Vladimir liked the Muslim paradise with its houris, but he did not want circumcision, and he could not refuse pork and wine: “Rus' has joy to drink, it cannot be without it!” The harsh faith of the Jews, whom God Yahweh scattered throughout the world for their sins, also did not suit him. “How do you teach others,” he asked the rabbi, “while you yourself are rejected by God and scattered? If God loved you and your law, then you would not have been scattered throughout foreign lands. Or do you want the same for us?” He also rejected the Roman faith, although the reasons for Vladimir’s rejection of it are not explained in the chronicle. Perhaps Vladimir found the Latin language required for worship difficult. The Greek faith seemed to be better known to Vladimir. Connections with Byzantium were close; some of the Varangians who lived in Kyiv had long professed Christianity in the Byzantine version - the Church of St. Elijah was even built for them in Kyiv. The eyes of the pagan were also pleased by the special colorfulness (under the influence of the East) of the service according to the Greek rite. “There is no such spectacle and such beauty on earth,” said Vladimir. Finally, the boyars whispered in Vladimir’s ear: “If the Greek law had been bad, then your grandmother Olga would not have accepted it, but she was the wisest of all people.” Vladimir respected his grandmother. In a word, Vladimir chose the Greek (Orthodox) faith, especially since the services were supposed to be conducted not in Greek, but in the Slavic language.

But, having chosen faith, Vladimir was in no hurry to be baptized. “I’ll wait a little longer,” he said. Indeed, was it easy for him to renounce the free life of a pagan and part with his beloved harem in Berestov and two more - in Vyshgorod and Belgorod? It is clear that Vladimir’s baptism was primarily a political matter, determined by considerations of the pragmatic benefit of an inveterate pagan, and not the result of some kind of divine enlightenment. The fact is that on the eve of these events, the Byzantine Emperor Vasily II hired Vladimir with an army to suppress the rebellion that broke out in Asia Minor. Vladimir set a condition - he would help the emperor if the emperor’s sister Anna was given in marriage to him. At first the emperor agreed. The Rus helped the Byzantines suppress the rebellion, but Vasily II broke his word given to Vladimir and did not marry his Christian sister to him. Then Vladimir captured the rich Byzantine city in Crimea - Chersonesos and again wooed Anna, offering the city as a bride price. The emperor agreed to this, but demanded that the prince himself be baptized. During the baptism of the prince in 987, a miracle supposedly happened in the temple of Chersonesos - Vladimir’s blindness, which had begun before, disappeared. In this insight, everyone saw a sign of God, a confirmation of the correctness of the choice. In 989 Anna arrived, Vladimir married her and went to Kyiv with rich booty.

He brought with him not only his Greek wife, but also sacred relics and priests from Korsun (Chersonese). Vladimir first baptized his sons, relatives and servants. Then he took on the people. All the idols were thrown from the temples, burned, chopped up, and Perun, dragged through the city, was thrown into the Dnieper. The people of Kiev, looking at the desecration of holy places, cried. Greek priests walked the streets and convinced people to be baptized. Some Kievans did this with joy, others did not care, and still others did not want to renounce the faith of their fathers. And then Vladimir realized that the new faith would not be accepted here with goodness, and resorted to violence. He ordered a decree to be announced in Kyiv so that all pagans would appear for baptism on the river bank tomorrow, and whoever did not appear would be considered an enemy of the prince. In the morning, undressed Kiev residents were driven into the water and baptized en masse. No one was interested in how true such an appeal was. To justify their weakness, people said that the boyars and the prince themselves would hardly have accepted an unworthy faith - after all, they would never wish anything bad for themselves! Nevertheless, later an uprising of those dissatisfied with the new faith broke out in the city.

They immediately began to build churches on the site of the temples, so that, as they have long said in Rus', the holy place would not remain empty. The Church of St. Basil was erected on the temple of Perun - after all, Vladimir himself accepted the Christian name Vasily at baptism. All the churches were wooden, only the main temple - the Assumption Cathedral - was built by Greek craftsmen from stone. Vladimir donated a tenth of his income to the Assumption Cathedral. That's why the church was called Tithe. She died in 1240 along with the city, taken by the Mongol-Tatars. The first metropolitan was the Greek Fiofilakt. He was succeeded by Metropolitan John I, from whose time a seal with the inscription “John, Metropolitan of Rus'” has been preserved.

The baptism of the population of other cities and lands was also accompanied by violence. In the West this was often not the case. Under the influence of the first Christians, peoples who had previously worshiped pagan gods were baptized en masse of their own free will, and their rulers were often the last to accept the widespread Christian faith among the people. In Rus', first the ruler became a Christian, and then the people who persisted in their paganism. When the boyar Prince Vladimir Dobrynya arrived in Novgorod in 989 with Bishop Joachim Korsunyanin, neither persuasion nor threats helped. The Novgorodians, led by the sorcerer Nightingale, stood firmly for the old gods and, in a rage, even destroyed the only church that had been built a long time ago. Only after an unsuccessful battle with the squad of Putyata - Dobrynya’s henchman - and the threat to set fire to the city, the Novgorodians came to their senses: they climbed to Volkhov to be baptized. The stubborn ones were dragged into the water by force and then checked to see if they were wearing crosses. Subsequently, a proverb was born: “Putyata baptized with a sword, and Dobrynya with fire.” Stone Perun was drowned in Volkhov, but faith in the power of the old gods was not destroyed. They prayed to them in secret, made sacrifices, and many centuries later after the arrival of the Kyiv “baptists,” when getting into a boat, a Novgorodian threw a coin into the water - a sacrifice to Perun, so that he would not drown in an hour.

But gradually Christianity was introduced into Rus'. This was largely facilitated by the Bulgarians, the Slavs who converted to Christianity earlier. Bulgarian priests and scribes came to Rus' and brought Christianity with them in an understandable Slavic language. So Bulgaria became a kind of bridge between Greek, Byzantine and Russian-Slavic culture. Russian writing, improved by Cyril and Methodius, came to Rus' from Bulgaria. Thanks to them, the first books appeared in Rus', and Russian book culture was born.

The fact that Vladimir was the son of a slave put him from childhood in an unequal position with his brothers - after all, they came from noble, free mothers. The consciousness of his inferiority awakened in the young man the desire to establish himself in the eyes of people with strength, intelligence, and decisive actions that would be remembered by everyone. It is noteworthy that the prince’s most faithful person, who accompanied Vladimir on his campaigns like a shadow, was his uncle, Malusha’s brother, Dobrynya, who became a famous epic hero in Russian folklore. At the same time, while fighting nomads and making campaigns against neighbors, Vladimir himself did not show much prowess and was not known as such a warlike and formidable knight as his father or grandfather. During one of the battles with the Pechenegs, Vladimir fled from the battlefield and, saving his life, climbed under a bridge. It is difficult to imagine his grandfather, the conqueror of Constantinople, Prince Igor, or his father, Svyatoslav the leopard, in such a humiliating position.

Vladimir ruled Christian Russia for a long time. The chronicles create an image of the prince as an inveterate pagan who, having converted to Christianity, immediately became an exemplary Christian. In paganism he was depraved and dishonest, but having become Orthodox, he changed dramatically and began to do good. In general, he is not remembered in folklore as a formidable, fanatical and cruel crusader. Apparently, the former life-loving pagan himself was not particularly persistent in spreading the faith, and people loved Vladimir and nicknamed him the Red Sun. As a ruler, he was famous for his generosity, was unforgiving, flexible, ruled humanely, skillfully defending the country from enemies. The prince also loved his retinue, with whom it was his custom to consult (duma) at frequent and plentiful feasts. Once, having heard the murmur of the feasting warriors that they were eating not with silver, but with wooden spoons, Vladimir immediately ordered silver spoons to be made for them. At the same time, he did not worry about the loss of his silver reserve: “I won’t find a squad with silver and gold, but with a squad I will get gold and silver.”

Vladimir died in his suburban castle of Berestov on July 15, 1015, and, having learned about this, crowds of people rushed to the church to mourn the good prince, their intercessor. Vladimir's body was transported to Kyiv and buried in a marble coffin. At the same time, the people of Kiev were alarmed - after Vladimir, 12 of 16 sons remained alive, and the struggle between them seemed inevitable to everyone.

Already during Vladimir’s life, the brothers, planted by his father in the main Russian lands, lived unfriendly, and Yaroslav, the son of Rogneda, who was sitting in Novgorod, even refused to bring the usual tribute to Kyiv. Vladimir wanted to punish the apostate and prepared to go on a campaign against Novgorod. Yaroslav urgently hired a Varangian squad to resist his father. But then Vladimir died - and the campaign against Novgorod did not take place. Immediately after Vladimir’s death, power in Kyiv was taken by his eldest son, Svyatopolk Vladimirovich. For some reason, the people of Kiev did not like him; they gave their hearts to Vladimir’s other son, Boris. His mother was Bulgarian, and at the time of Vladimir’s death, Boris was 25 years old. He was sitting in the principality in Rostov and at the time of his father’s death he was going on his instructions with his squad against the Pechenegs. Having taken over his father's table, Svyatopolk decided to get rid of Boris. In principle, Boris was indeed potentially dangerous for Svyatopolk. After all, at that time Boris was on a campaign with a fighting squad and, using the support of the people of Kiev, could capture Kyiv. But Boris decided differently: “I will not raise my hand against my elder brother.” However, Christian humility almost never brings political success. Svyatopolk sent assassins to his brother, who overtook Boris on the banks of the Alma River. Knowing that the murderers were standing at the tent, Boris prayed fervently and went to bed, that is, he deliberately went to martyrdom. At the last moment, when the murderers began to pierce the prince’s tent with spears, his Hungarian servant George tried to save the master by covering him with his body. The young man was killed, and the wounded Boris was finished off later. At the same time, the dead were robbed. To remove the golden hryvnia, a gift from Boris, from George’s neck, the villains cut off the young man’s head. Summoned from Murom to Kyiv, Boris's younger brother, Gleb, learned from his sister Predslava that Boris had been killed, but still continued on his way. Surrounded by Svyatopolk’s killers near Smolensk, he, like his brother, did not resist them and died: he was stabbed to death by the cook Torchin. Gleb, together with Boris, became the first Russian saints for their Christian humility. After all, not every murdered Russian prince is a martyr! Since then, the brother princes have been revered as protectors of the Russian land. However, there is a version that the true inspirer of the murder of the brothers was not Svyatopolk, but Yaroslav, who, like his brother, also thirsted for power in Kyiv.

The people of Kiev considered Prince Svyatopolk, who received the nickname the Damned, to be the culprit in the death of Boris and Gleb. Yaroslav got involved in the struggle for the Kiev gold table (as the Kiev throne was called in epics).

In 1016, he came to Kyiv with a thousand Varangians he hired, as well as a Novgorod squad. The people of Kiev greeted him well, and Svyatopolk the Accursed had to flee the capital. However, he did not despair. Soon Svyatopolk also brought his mercenaries - the Poles, and they, having defeated Yaroslav's squad in the battle of 1018, drove him out of Kyiv. Yaroslav did not remain in debt - he again hired the Varangian squad, paid them well, and the Varangians defeated Svyatopolk in the Battle of Alma (at the place where Boris was killed) in 1019, finally establishing Kyiv for Yaroslav. Right at the site of the battle, Svyatopolk suffered from paralysis (probably from a terrible nervous shock), and soon he died, and from his grave, the chronicler merciless to Svyatopolk noted with satisfaction, “a terrible stench emanates.”

But as soon as Yaroslav, as it is said in the chronicle, “wiped off his sweat with his squad, showing victory and great labor,” his other brother, Mstislav the Udal from Tmutarakan, went to war against him. Unlike the lame and frail Yaroslav, Mstislav was “mighty in body, handsome in face, with big eyes, brave in battle.” His name became famous after his victory in a personal duel over the leader of the Kasogs (Circassians) Rededey, and the opponents did not fight with swords or spears, but fought hand-to-hand. And only after throwing the enemy to the ground, Mstislav took out his knife and finished him off. In 1024, Mstislav's army defeated Yaroslav's squad. The leader of the Varangians, Yakun, took a shameful flight and lost his famous gold-woven cloak, in which he was accustomed to go into battle, showing off in front of everyone. Yaroslav again fled to Novgorod and again, as in previous years, sent to hire a squad in Scandinavia - his only support in the protracted strife.

However, having defeated Yaroslav, Mstislav did not sit down on the Kiev gold table, but suggested that Yaroslav divide his possessions: leave the lands on the left bank of the Dnieper to him, Mstislav, and give the Right Bank to Yaroslav. Yaroslav agreed to his brother's terms. So two rulers appeared in Rus' - Yaroslav and Mstislav Vladimirovich, and peace finally came. A rare entry in the turbulent Russian history appeared in the chronicle: “In the year 6537 (i.e. 1029. - E. A.) It was peaceful." Dual power lasted for 10 years. When Mstislav died in 1036, Yaroslav began to rule all of Russia.

Prince Yaroslav built a lot. Under him, the golden domes of the gate churches shone on the new stone gates of Kyiv. Yaroslav built a city on the Volga, which received his name (Yaroslavl), and also founded the city of Yuryev in the Baltic states (Yaroslav’s baptismal name was Yuri), now Tartu. The main temple of Ancient Rus' - St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv - was also built by Yaroslav in 1037. It was huge - it had 13 domes, galleries, and was decorated with rich frescoes and mosaics. People were surprised by the mosaic floor with patterns and the marble altar. Byzantine artists, in addition to the saints, depicted Yaroslav's family using mosaics on the wall of the cathedral. Among the many magnificent Byzantine mosaics of the St. Sophia Cathedral, the famous image of the “Unbreakable Wall”, or “Oranta” - the Mother of God with raised hands - is still preserved in the altar of the temple. Created by Byzantine masters, this work will amaze everyone who sees it. It seems to believers that since the time of Yaroslav, for almost a thousand years, the Mother of God, like a wall, stands indestructibly at full height in the golden radiance of the sky, raising her hands, praying for us and overshadowing Rus'.

Yaroslav, unlike his father Vladimir, was a pious man (“he loved a lot of priests”), built churches in Kyiv and other cities. Under him, new dioceses were established and the first metropolitan, Russian by birth, was elected. His name was Hilarion. While still a monk, he created the “Sermon on Law and Grace” - one of the first Russian journalistic works. In 1051, Hilarion founded the Pechersk Monastery (the future Kiev Pechersk Lavra) on the site of the first settlement of monks, in small caves on the wooded slope of a mountain above the Dnieper. Under Yaroslav, the first written law appeared, Russian Truth or “The Most Ancient Truth,” a set of the first Russian regulations set out on parchment. It takes into account the judicial customs and traditions of Rus' - the so-called “Russian law”, which guided the prince in the analysis of court cases. One of the judicial customs was the “Divine Judgment” - a trial by fire, when a person’s innocence was tested with a red-hot piece of iron. It was believed that burns on the hand of an innocent person healed faster than those of a guilty person. With this law, the enlightened prince limited blood feud and replaced it with a fine (vira). Russian Truth became the basis of Russian legislation for many centuries and laid the foundation of Russian law.

When Yaroslav died in 1054, he was buried in his beloved St. Sophia Cathedral, in a white marble sarcophagus, which has survived (unfortunately, without the ashes of the deceased) to this day.

Yaroslav is known in history not only as the creator of St. Sophia Cathedral, the founder of many churches and cities, but also as a scribe. It was not for nothing that he was called the Wise, that is, learned, intelligent, educated. This sickly man, lame from birth, loved and collected books, which the monks translated for him from Greek and copied in a special workshop. The chronicler wrote with respect about him as a ruler who read books “often both night and day.” Yaroslav's Rus' and Europe were connected not only by trade and cultural relations, but also by family ties of rulers. Yaroslav himself married Ingigerda, daughter of the Swedish king Olaf. He married his son Vsevolod to Maria, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomakh, and the son of Izyaslav, to the daughter of the Polish king Gertrude. Son Svyatoslav became the husband of Oda, the daughter of a German count. Three daughters of Yaroslav immediately married European monarchs. Elizabeth was married to the King of Norway and Denmark, Anastasia was married to the Hungarian Duke Andrew, who, with the help of Yaroslav, took the royal throne in Hungary. Anastasia gave birth to two sons - Solomon (Shalamon) and David. After the death of her husband, Yaroslav's daughter ruled Hungary under the young King Shalamon. Finally, Anna Yaroslavna, who became the French queen by marrying Henry I in 1049, is better known than others. After the death of her husband in 1060, she became regent of France under her 7-year-old son Philip I.

After the death of Yaroslav, as before, after the death of his father Vladimir, discord and strife reigned in Rus'. As N.M. Karamzin wrote: “Ancient Russia buried its power and prosperity with Yaroslav.” But this did not happen immediately. Of the five sons of Yaroslav (Yaroslavich), three survived their father: Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod. Dying, Yaroslav approved the order of succession to the throne, according to which power passes from the older brother to the younger. At first, Yaroslav’s children did just that: the gold table went to the eldest of them, Izyaslav Yaroslavich, and Svyatoslav and Vsevolod obeyed him. They lived with him amicably for 15 years, together they even supplemented “Yaroslav’s Truth” with new articles, focusing on increasing fines for attacks on princely property. This is how “Pravda Yaroslavichy” appeared.

But in 1068 the peace was broken. The Russian army of the Yaroslavichs suffered a heavy defeat from the Polovtsians. The Kyivians, dissatisfied with them, expelled Grand Duke Izyaslav and his brother Vsevolod from the city, plundered the princely palace and declared the ruler of the Polotsk prince Vseslav, released from the Kyiv prison - he was captured during the campaign against Polotsk and brought as a prisoner to Kyiv by the Yaroslavichs. The chronicler considered Vseslav bloodthirsty and evil. He wrote that Vseslav’s cruelty came from the influence of a certain amulet - a magic bandage that he wore on his head, covering a non-healing ulcer with it. Expelled from Kyiv, Grand Duke Izyaslav fled to Poland, taking the princely wealth with the words: “With this I will find warriors,” meaning mercenaries. And soon he actually appeared at the walls of Kyiv with a hired Polish army and quickly regained power in Kyiv. Vseslav, without offering resistance, fled home to Polotsk.

After Vseslav’s flight, a struggle began within the Yaroslavich clan, who had forgotten the commandments of their father. The younger brothers Svyatoslav and Vsevolod overthrew the elder Izyaslav, who again fled to Poland, and then to Germany, where he could not find help. The middle brother Svyatoslav Yaroslavich became the Grand Duke in Kyiv. But his life was short-lived. Active and aggressive, he fought a lot, had immense ambitions, and died from the knife of an incompetent surgeon, who in 1076 tried to cut out some kind of tumor from the prince.

The younger brother Vsevolod Yaroslavich, who came to power after him, married to the daughter of the Byzantine emperor, was a God-fearing and meek man. He also did not rule for long and innocently gave up the throne to Izyaslav, who had returned from Germany. But he was chronically unlucky: Prince Izyaslav died on Nezhatina Niva near Chernigov in 1078 in a battle with his nephew, Svyatoslav’s son Oleg, who himself wanted to take his father’s throne. The spear pierced his back, therefore, either he fled, or, most likely, someone dealt a treacherous blow to the prince from behind. The chronicler tells us that Izyaslav was a prominent man, with a pleasant face, had a rather quiet disposition, and was kind-hearted. His first act at the Kiev table was the abolition of the death penalty, replaced by a vira - a fine. His kindness became, apparently, the reason for his misadventures: Izyaslav Yaroslavich always craved the throne, but was not cruel enough to establish himself on it.

As a result, the Kiev gold table again went to the youngest son of Yaroslav, Vsevolod, who ruled until 1093. Educated, endowed with intelligence, the Grand Duke spoke five languages, but ruled the country poorly, unable to cope with the Polovtsians, or with the famine, or with the pestilence that devastated Kyiv and surrounding lands. On the magnificent Kiev table, he remained the modest appanage prince of Pereyaslavl, as the great father Yaroslav the Wise made him in his youth. He was unable to restore order in his own family. The grown-up sons of his siblings and cousins ​​desperately quarreled over power, constantly fighting with each other over land. For them, the word of their uncle - Grand Duke Vsevolod Yaroslavich - no longer meant anything.

The strife in Rus', now smoldering, now flaring up into war, continued. Intrigues and murders became common among princes. So, in the fall of 1086, the nephew of the Grand Duke Yaropolk Izyaslavich, during a campaign, was suddenly killed by his servant, who stabbed the master in the side with a knife. The reason for the crime is unknown, but, most likely, it was based on a feud over the lands of Yaropolk with his relatives - the Rostislavichs, who were sitting in Przemysl. Prince Vsevolod's only hope remained his beloved son Vladimir Monomakh.

The reign of Izyaslav and Vsevolod, the feuds of their relatives took place at a time when for the first time a new enemy came from the steppes - the Polovtsians (Turks), who expelled the Pechenegs and began to almost continuously attack Rus'. In 1068, in a night battle, they defeated the princely regiments of Izyaslav and began to boldly plunder the Russian lands. Since then, not even a year has passed without Polovtsian raids. Their hordes reached Kyiv, and once the Polovtsians burned the famous princely palace in Berestov. The Russian princes, warring with each other, entered into agreements with the Polovtsians for the sake of power and rich inheritances and brought their hordes to Rus'.

July 1093 turned out to be especially tragic, when the Polovtsians on the banks of the Stugna River defeated the united squad of Russian princes, who acted unfriendly. The defeat was terrible: the entire Stugna was filled with the corpses of Russian soldiers, and the field was smoking from the blood of the fallen. “The next morning, the 24th,” the chronicler writes, “on the day of the holy martyrs Boris and Gleb, there was great mourning in the city, and not joy, for our great sins and untruths, for the multiplication of our iniquities.” In the same year, Khan Bonyak almost captured Kyiv and destroyed its previously inviolable shrine - the Kiev Pechersky Monastery, and also burned the outskirts of the great city.

Dying in 1093, Vsevolod Yaroslavich asked to place his coffin near the tomb of his father - such was the will of Yaroslav the Wise, who once told his son: “When God sends you death, lie where I lie, at my tomb, because I love you more than your brothers " By the time of Vsevolod’s death, his son, Prince of Chernigov Vladimir Monomakh, was considered the most likely candidate for the Kiev table. But he did not dare to take his father’s place - he gave up the Kiev table to his cousin Svyatopolk Izyaslavich Turovsky. This decision was approved by everyone - then it was customary to transfer power “horizontally” - from the older brother to the younger, and not “vertically” - from father to son. Therefore, the son of the eldest Yaroslavich Izyaslav Svyatopolk stood “above” Vladimir Monomakh, the son of the youngest Yaroslavich Vsevolod. Monomakh took this into account, although his relationship with Svyatopolk Izyaslavich was difficult.

Having become the prince of Kyiv and experiencing a constant threat from the steppes, Svyatopolk tried to pursue a flexible policy: he married the daughter of the Polovtsian prince Tugorkan, fought the Polovtsians not only with weapons, but also sought to come to an agreement with them, especially after the memorable defeat of the Russian troops at Stugna. Other Russian princes later followed this path, especially those who lived in the principalities bordering the Polovtsians and feared their raids or dreamed of seizing more lands with the help of the Polovtsians, and perhaps even sitting on the Kiev gold table. Seeing the constant “dislike” and discord of the princes, Vladimir Monomakh invited all the princes to get together, discuss mutual claims and put an end to the constant strife.

Everyone agreed, and in 1097, on the banks of the Dnieper, not far from the princely castle of Lyubech, on a carpet spread in a field, that is, on neutral territory, the Russian princes met. These were cousins ​​(grandsons of Yaroslav) - Grand Duke Svyatopolk Izyaslavich and appanage princes - Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh, as well as Oleg Svyatoslavich, nicknamed Gorislavich, his brothers Davyd and Yaroslav Svyatoslavich, Davyd Igorevich (son of Igor Yaroslavich). There were also Vasilko and Volodar Rostislavich, the children of the late Rostislav Vladimirovich, who settled in Volyn. At this congress, the princes divided the lands among themselves and solemnly kissed the cross in observance of this agreement: “Let the Russian land be a common ... fatherland, and whoever rises up against his brother, we will all rise up against him.” After they parted peacefully, a crime occurred: Prince Svyatopolk, at the instigation of Davyd Igorevich and his boyars, lured Prince Vasilko to Kyiv and ordered him to be blinded. The chronicler claims that Davyd slandered Vasilko in front of the Grand Duke, accusing him of intending to seize power. But another reason for Svyatopolk’s treachery is more likely - he wanted to seize the rich Volyn lands of the Rostislavichs. Be that as it may, the reprisal against one of the close relatives immediately after a peaceful family meeting at Lyubech outraged all the princes. They forced Grand Duke Svyatopolk to admit guilt and give his word to punish the slanderer Davyd. But it was too late - mistrust and anger reigned again in the family of princes.

The famous Oleg Svyatoslavich, nicknamed Gorislavich, was considered one of the constant contenders for the reign of Kiev. This son of Grand Duke Svyatoslav Yaroslavich played a special and sad role in the history of strife and strife in Rus'. He lived a life full of adventures and adventures (died in 1115). After the death of his father Svyatoslav, he fled from Kyiv to Tmutarakan, which he ruled for a long time as an independent ruler, even minting his own coin there. More than once Oleg made campaigns against Rus' together with the Polovtsians (“he brought the filthy ones to the Russian land”). He had a bad reputation among the far from meek Rurikovichs. Apparently, the prince had a nasty, grumpy, quarrelsome character. It is no coincidence that he, who brings only troubles and grief to everyone, was nicknamed Gorislavich.

In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” it is said about Oleg: “That Oleg forged sedition with a sword / And sowed arrows on the ground.” The ambitious and restless Oleg did not want peace with his relatives for a long time and in 1096, in the struggle for inheritance, he killed the son of Vladimir Monomakh, Izyaslav, but soon he himself was defeated by Mstislav, another son of Monomakh. Only after this Gorislavich agreed to come to the Lyubech Congress, where Monomakh and other princes called him for a long time.

Grand Duke Svyatopolk died in the spring of 1113. Immediately a rebellion began in Kyiv against moneylenders, who took huge interest from debtors and enjoyed the patronage of the late prince. The rebellious townspeople headed to the city center, where the boyars lived and the Church of Hagia Sophia stood. The crowd destroyed the courtyards of the elected head of the city, Tysyatsky Putyata, as well as the houses of Jewish moneylenders, their synagogue, and then rushed to the princely court and the Pechersky Monastery. The frightened authorities urgently called Monomakh to the city: “Go, prince, to your father’s and grandfather’s table.” Monomakh took power in Kyiv and, in order to calm people down, introduced a special “Charter of Vladimir Monomakh”, which reduced the interest on the debt from 100-200 to 20%.

So, Vladimir Monomakh ascended the grand-ducal throne at the invitation of the Kyiv elders and with the approval of the people - the people of Kiev. This is generally typical for pre-Mongol Rus'. The influence of the elders and the city council in cities was much greater than it seems at first glance. The prince, with all his power, usually consulted with his squad, but also had in mind the opinion of the city council. In essence, the veche order, which was preserved for a long time in Novgorod, also existed in many other ancient Russian cities in the pre-Mongol era, and even in some places remained for a long time after the conquest of Rus' by the Mongols.

Under Prince Vladimir Monomakh, peace reigned in Rus'. Where with authority, where with “armed hand,” he forced the appanage princes to quiet down. He was a man of his time - he brutally dealt with the Polotsk prince Gleb, whom he disliked, just as his ancestor Svyatoslav Monomakh cherished the dream of settling on the Danube, taking advantage of the weakness of Byzantium. Even a century later, he was remembered as a fabulous, powerful ruler. The unknown author of “The Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land” wrote enthusiastically about Monomakh, who, unlike the princes of the 13th century humiliated by the Tatars. - the author’s contemporaries, everyone feared and respected: “... the Polovtsy their small children (in his name. - E. A.) scared. But the Lithuanians did not show themselves from their swamps, and the Hungarians strengthened the stone walls of their cities with iron gates so that the great Vladimir would not conquer them, and the Germans rejoiced that they were far away - across the blue sea.”

Monomakh became famous as a courageous warrior who more than once looked death in the eye. Even during his appanage reign in the border land of Pereyaslavl, he organized several campaigns of Russian princes against the Polovtsians. Not all of these campaigns ended successfully. In 1093, in the above-mentioned battle on the Stugna River, Monomakh saw his younger brother Rostislav die in the river waves. Ten years later, when Monomakh became the Grand Duke, a battle near the Suten tract (Azov region) brought victory to the Russians. The decisive battle took place in 1111. Then Russian troops came to the steppe under the banners of the crusade and, on the banks of a tributary of the Don - the Solnitsa River - defeated the main forces of the Polovtsians. After this, the danger of Polovtsian raids on Rus' significantly weakened. However, Monomakh remained a skillful, flexible politician: while suppressing the irreconcilable khans by force, he was friends with the peace-loving Polovtsians and even married one of his sons Yuri (Dolgoruky) to the daughter of the allied Polovtsian khan Bonyak.

Chronicles began to be written in Kyiv during the times of Olga and Svyatoslav. Under Yaroslav in 1037-1039. the place where the chronicler-monks worked was the St. Sophia Cathedral. They took old chronicles and compiled them into a new edition, which they supplemented with their own notes. Then the monks of the Pechersk Monastery began to keep the chronicle. In 1072-1073 Another edition of the chronicle appeared. Abbot of the monastery Nikon collected and included new sources, checked the dates, and corrected the style. Finally, in 1113, the chronicler Nestor, a monk of the same monastery, created the famous Tale of Bygone Years. It remains the main source on the history of Ancient Rus'.

The incorrupt body of the great chronicler Nestor rests in the dungeon of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, and behind the glass of his coffin you can still see the fingers of his right hand - the same one that wrote for us the ancient history of Rus'.

Vladimir Monomakh had a glorious pedigree: he was the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, and on his mother’s side, the grandson of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomakh. In his honor, Vladimir adopted the nickname Monomakh. He became one of the few Russian princes who thought about the unity of Rus', the fight against the Polovtsians and peace among their relatives. Monomakh was an educated man of a philosophical mindset and possessed the gift of a writer. He came to supreme power in his old age, at 60 years old. He was a red-haired, curly man with a thick beard. A strong, brave warrior, he went on dozens of campaigns and more than once looked death in the eye in battle and hunting. He wrote: “Two rounds (of wild bulls. – E. A.) They threw me with their horns along with the horse, one of the deer gored me, and of the two elk, one trampled with his feet, the other butted me with his horns; the boar tore off the sword on my thigh, the bear bit my sweatshirt at my knee, the fierce beast jumped on my hips and overturned the horse with me. And God kept me safe. And he fell from his horse a lot, broke his head twice, and injured his arms and legs.”

Monomakh thought a lot about the futility of human life. “What are we, sinful and bad people? – he once wrote to Oleg Gorislavich. “Today they are alive, and tomorrow they are dead, today in glory and honor, and tomorrow in a grave and forgotten.” The prince strove to ensure that the experience of his long and difficult life did not go in vain, so that his sons and descendants would remember his good deeds. That’s why Vladimir wrote his famous “Teaching,” which contains memories of his years, the intricacies of politics, stories about eternal travels and battles. Here are Monomakh’s advice: “What my youth should do, he did it himself - in war and on hunts, night and day, in heat and cold, without giving himself rest. Without relying on mayors or privet, he did what was necessary himself.” Only an experienced warrior can say these words: “When you go to war, do not be lazy, do not rely on the commander; do not indulge in drinking, eating, or sleeping; Dress up the guards yourself and at night, placing guards on all sides, lie down next to the soldiers, and get up early; and do not take off your weapons in a hurry, without looking around out of laziness.” And then follow the words that everyone will subscribe to: “A person dies suddenly.”

But these words are addressed to many of us: “Learn, believer, to be an achiever of piety, learn, according to the Gospel word, “control of the eyes, temperance of the tongue, humility of the mind, submission of the body, suppression of anger, to have pure thoughts, encouraging yourself to do good.” affairs"".

Monomakh died in 1125, 72 years old, and his epitaph was the words of the chronicler: “Adorned with a good disposition, glorious in victories, he did not exalt himself, did not magnify himself.” He was happy in his family life. His wife Gita, the daughter of the Anglo-Saxon king Harold, who was defeated at Hastings in 1066 by William the Conqueror, bore him several sons, among whom Mstislav, who became Monomakh’s successor, stood out.

The Rurikovichs from Kyiv in those days had extensive family ties with many European dynasties. Monomakh married his daughters to noble foreign suitors from Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Croatia. Vladimir's son Mstislav was married to a Swedish princess, who gave birth to a daughter, who later became the Byzantine empress, wife of Emperor Andronikos Komnenos.

So, the Kiev gold table was occupied by Vladimir’s son Mstislav Vladimirovich, who was then almost 50 years old. Already during his father’s life, he participated in governing the state, was distinguished by his courage, courage, and more than once defeated the enemy in battles. After the death of Vladimir Monomakh, Mstislav successfully repelled the invasion of the Polovtsians, and then dealt with the Polotsk princes, who had long resisted the power of the Yaroslavichs. Mstislav got rid of the unpleasant princely clan from Polotsk that had bothered him in a very original way: all the captured Polotsk princes with their families were put on boats and... sent (now they would say deported) forever to Byzantium. Contemporaries remembered the reign of Mstislav for the famine in the Novgorod land of 1128, unprecedented in its terrible consequences: that summer the streets of the city were covered with the bodies of the dead, and for the first time in many years the chronicler wrote: “Novgorod was empty.”

Mstislav enjoyed authority among the princes, the reflection of the great glory of Monomakh lay on his brow, but he only had the chance to rule Russia for 7 years. After the death of Mstislav in 1132, as the chronicler wrote, “the entire Russian land was torn apart” - a long period of fragmentation began. At first, the Kiev throne passed to the brother of the deceased, Yaropolk Vladimirovich. This is what the people of Kiev wished then, who again intervened in the political struggle at the gold table. And almost immediately a quarrel began in the Monomakhovich family. Yaropolk's brothers Yuri (Dolgoruky) and Andrei Vladimirovich encountered the Mstislavichs - their nephews, the children of the late Mstislav: princes Izyaslav, Vsevolod and Rostislav. Both sides constantly resorted to the help (far from disinterested) of mercenaries: Polovtsians, Hungarians, Poles. They all plundered cities and villages and even allowed themselves previously unprecedented impudence - to drive up to the walls of Kyiv and shoot their arrows towards the city.

From this time on, the collapse of the united Old Russian state began and gradually intensified. Seeing the quarrel in the Monomakhovich family, the Olgovichs - Vsevolod, Igor, Svyatoslav, sons of the restless Chernigov prince Oleg Gorislavich - perked up. They also declared their claims to the Kiev table. For several decades, the struggle of the Monomakhovichs and Olgovichs and their descendants did not subside.

In 1139, Grand Duke Yaropolk Vladimirovich died. The eldest of the Olgovichs, Vsevolod Olgovich, entered into a fight with his brother Vyacheslav Vladimirovich, who inherited Kyiv. He won and soon became the prince of Kyiv. So, finally, the Olgovichi achieved supreme power. But after the death of Vsevolod in 1146, the Monomakhovichs again took possession of the Kyiv table, and under very dramatic circumstances. The fact is that, while dying, Grand Duke Vsevolod Olgovich begged the people of Kiev to swear allegiance to his younger brothers Igor and Svyatoslav. However, the townspeople, having sworn allegiance, still did not keep their word to the prince. They expelled the brothers from Kyiv and sent for Monomakhovich - Izyaslav Mstislavich, who was the eldest son of the late Grand Duke Mstislav. Igor Vsevolodovich, expelled by them, hid in the swamps for four days, but nevertheless was captured by Izyaslav and, avoiding dishonor, became a monk. However, he did not live long: the people of Kiev, fearing punishment for perjury, killed him. By this time, Kyiv had lost its supremacy in Rus'. Real power passed to the appanage princes, many of whom could not seize power in Kyiv, and therefore lived in their possessions, not thinking about anything more. Others, stronger ones, were still drawn to Kyiv, dreamed of the Kiev throne, although not each of these dreamers was destined to even come close to the Kyiv gold table.

A notable feature of the life of the city was the leading role of the people's council, which met at the walls of St. Sophia of Kyiv and decided the fate of the city and the princes. All this was accompanied by the intrigues of the “strongest” boyars, various “parties” and the riot of the mob, which was easy to raise to reprisal against undesirable people. This is what happened in the story of the murder of Prince Igor. At the funeral service for the martyr, the abbot of the Feodorovsky monastery, Anania, exclaimed: “Woe to those who live now! Woe to the vain age and cruel hearts!” His last words, as if to confirm them, were covered by a sudden bolt from the clear sky. However, subsequent centuries were worthy of equally harsh assessment.

Even in the time of Yaroslav the Wise, the Vladimir-Suzdal land was called Zalesye, being a remote pagan outskirts where brave Christian preachers disappeared without a trace. But gradually the Slavs began to move to the Zalessk region, trying to move away from the dangerous southern border with the Polovtsians. Great navigable rivers flowed here - the Volga and Oka, and the road to Novgorod, as well as to Rostov and Vladimir. Peaceful life was a common blessing in Zalesye, and not a respite between wars, as in the south.

The political separation of the northeastern territories from Kyiv occurred already under Monomakh’s son Yuri Vladimirovich (Dolgoruky) in 1132-1135. He had long ago and reliably settled down in the Vladimir principality, having cut down the cities of Yuryev-Polskaya, Dmitrov, Pereslavl-Zalessky, and Zvenigorod. However, Yuri, having become friends with the Olgovichs, got involved in the struggle for Kyiv and left his Zalessk principality. In general, the prince continuously “stretched his hand” to the Kyiv heritage from his distant Zalesye, for which he received his nickname Yuri Long Hands. In 1154, the Kiev prince Izyaslav Mstislavich died, and after a short struggle, Yuri Vladimirovich, who was already over 65 years old, finally seized power in Kyiv. But he ruled there for only 2 years. He was poisoned at a feast hosted by the Kyiv boyar Petrila. Chroniclers, without much warmth, remember Prince Yuri - a tall, fat man with small eyes and a crooked nose, “a great lover of wives, sweet foods and drinks,” under whom his favorites ruled the state. Yuri was married twice - to the Polovtsian princess Aepa (from her a son was born - Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky) and to the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel Komnenos (mother of princes Vsevolod, Mikhail and Vasily).

Around the same years, the Galicia-Volyn principality began to stand out among the Russian appanage principalities. The mild climate, fertile lands, proximity to Europe, large cities - Galich, Vladimir-Volynsky, Lvov, Przemysl - all this made the Galicia-Volyn land rich. The Polovtsians rarely came here, but there was no peace on this land, for people suffered from continuous strife between the local boyars and princes. The relationship between Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich Osmomysl (descendant of Yaroslav the Wise) and the boyars especially worsened in 1187, when his wife Olga Yuryevna (Dolgoruky’s daughter) fled from Yaroslav, offended by the fact that her husband preferred his mistress Nastasya to her. The Galician boyars solved the prince's family problem radically: they captured and burned Nastasya, and then forced the prince to make peace with his runaway wife. And yet, dying, Yaroslav handed over the table not to Olga’s son Vladimir, with whom he had a difficult relationship, but to Oleg, the son of his beloved Nastastya. Therefore, Prince Oleg in history bears the nickname Nastasyich, which is offensive to a man.

The Galician boyars did not obey the will of the unlucky Yaroslav, drove Nastasich away and invited Vladimir Yaroslavich to the table. But apparently, it was not for nothing that his father was angry with him - the prince turned out to be a drinker (“loving a lot of drink”), and soon followed the path of his sinful father: he married a priest while her husband, the priest, was alive. The boyars drove this prince from the table too. Vladimir fled to Hungary, where he was imprisoned. While under arrest in the castle, Vladimir Yaroslavich tied a long rope and climbed down it from the window of his prison. He returned to Galich, again sat down on the table and reigned there for 10 years until his death in 1199. Everyone who listened to A.P. Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor” remembers the brave comrade of the unfortunate Igor, Prince Vladimir Galitsky, whose real dashing image clearly inspired the composer.

After the death of Vladimir, the sovereign Galician boyars were “pacified” by the Volyn prince Roman Mstislavich, who annexed the Galician lands to his Volyn lands. Here the boyars groaned - Roman was no match for Vladimir Galitsky. The son of the great warrior, Prince Mstislav the Udal, he himself was an excellent warrior, a tough ruler. According to the chronicler, Roman “rushed at the filthy ones like a lion, he was angry like a lynx and destroyed their land like a crocodile, and passed through their land like an eagle, but he was brave like an aurochs.” Roman was famous for his exploits throughout Europe and in 1205 he died in a battle with the Poles on the Vistula.

Even more famous in the history of Ancient Rus' is his son Daniil Romanovich (1201-1264). From the age of four, having lost his father, he and his mother suffered hardships in a foreign land, where they had to flee from their native Galich. And then all his life he did not let go of the sword. It was he who fought so bravely with the Mongol-Tatars on the ill-fated Kalka in 1223 that he did not notice the dangerous wound on his body. He later fought with both the Hungarians and the Poles. Without submitting to anyone, he became famous in Europe as a brave knight and thereby glorified the dynasty of Galician-Volyn princes. Unlike his contemporary Alexander Nevsky, Daniil remained a determined, irreconcilable opponent of the Mongol-Tatars, drawing closer to European sovereigns in the fight against them.

We owe the first mention of Moscow to Yuri Dolgoruky, who wrote a letter to the same Svyatoslav Olgovich, who was driven out by the people of Kiev who killed his brother Igor. “Come to me, brother, in Moskov,” Yuri invited his ally and his son to this unknown village among the forests on the border of Suzdal land. There, on April 5, 1147, “Gyurga ordered a strong dinner” in honor of the Olgovichs. This is the first mention of Moscow in the chronicle. Until then, the village on Borovitsky Hill belonged to the Suzdal boyar Kuchka, whose wife Yuri Dolgoruky fell in love with. Kuchka hid his wife from the prince in Moscow. But Yuri suddenly came there and killed Kuchka. After that, he looked around and, “loving that great place, he founded the city.” It is noteworthy that on the eve of the meeting, Svyatoslav sent Yuri with his son a priceless gift - a tamed cheetah, the best deer hunter. How this wondrous beast came to Rus' is unknown. However, some historians translate the word “pardus” as lynx. Yuri ordered the city of Moscow itself (translated from Finno-Ugric as “dark water”) to be built on a hill among forests, presumably in 1146, although another date for the start of Moscow construction is also known - 1156, when Yuri was already sitting on the Kiev table.

The fate of another appanage principality - Chernigov-Seversky - developed differently than the fate of the Vladimir-Suzdal land. The scandalous descendants of Gorislavich were in Chernigov. They were not loved in Rus', and they did not add to its glory. Everyone remembered that Oleg Gorislavich, famous for his quarrels, his sons Vsevolod and Svyatoslav, and then his grandsons Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich and Igor Svyatoslavich Seversky constantly brought the Polovtsians to Rus', with whom they themselves were either friends or quarrels. So, Prince Igor, himself a useless warrior, although the hero of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” together with the khans Konchak and Kobyak, obtained the Kiev table for his cousin Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich. However, then, in 1181, having suffered another defeat, he fled in the same boat with his friend Khan Konchak. However, they soon quarreled and began to fight until they made peace again. But in 1185, when Igor learned that the Kiev prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich went against the Polovtsy and achieved his first successes, he raised his vassals with the words: “Are we not princes, or what? Let’s go on a hike and get glory for ourselves too!” How this campaign for glory ended on the banks of the Kayala River on May 11-14, 1185, we know well from the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign”: having reached the Don, beyond the borders of Rus', the regiments of the Russian princes acted passively, separately and were defeated. Thus, Prince Igor, against his will, became famous for centuries thanks to the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”

The story of the campaign of Igor and other Russian princes against the Polovtsians, the battle during an eclipse of the sun, the cruel defeat, the crying of Igor’s wife Yaroslavna, the deep sadness of the poet who saw the strife of the princes and the weakness of disunited Rus' - this is the formal plot of the Lay. But the true reason for the greatness of the “Word” is its poetry and high artistic merit. The history of its emergence from oblivion at the beginning of the 19th century. shrouded in mystery. The original manuscript, found by the famous collector Count A. I. Musin-Pushkin, allegedly disappeared during the Moscow fire of 1812 - only Musin-Pushkin’s publication and a copy made for Empress Catherine II remained. The work of some researchers with these sources has led them to the conviction that we are dealing with a talented forgery of later times... But still, every time you leave Russia, you involuntarily remember the famous farewell words of Igor, who looked back over his shoulder for the last time: “O Russian land ! You are already behind the sheloman (you have already disappeared behind the hill. – E. A.)!".

After the unsuccessful Battle of Kayala, Rus' was subjected to brutal raids by the Cumans. Igor himself lived with Konchak as an honorary prisoner, but then fled to Rus'. Igor died in 1202 as the Prince of Chernigov. His son Vladimir was the son-in-law of Khan Konchak.

In 1155, after Yuri Dolgoruky captured the Kiev table, his son, 43-year-old Andrei, dared to go against his father’s will and did not stay with him in Kyiv, but without permission left for his homeland, Suzdal, along with his squad and household members. He wanted to strengthen himself in Zalesye, and after the death of Yuri’s father in Kyiv, Andrei Yuryevich was elected prince in Vladimir. He was a politician of the new type. Like his fellow princes, he wanted to take possession of Kiev, but at the same time he was not eager for the Kiev table, wanting to rule Russia from his new capital - Vladimir. This became the main goal of his campaigns against Novgorod and Kyiv, which passed from the hands of one to the hands of other princes. In 1169, Prince Andrei, as a fierce conqueror, subjected Kyiv to a merciless defeat.

When Andrei fled from his father from Kyiv to Vladimir, he took with him from the convent a miraculous icon of the Mother of God of the late 11th - early 12th centuries, painted by a Byzantine icon painter. According to legend, it was written by the Evangelist Luke. The theft to Andrey was a success, but already on the way to Suzdal miracles began: the Mother of God appeared to the prince in a dream and ordered him to take the image to Vladimir. He obeyed, and in the place where he saw the wonderful dream, he then built a church and founded the village of Bogolyubovo.

Here, in a specially built stone castle adjacent to the church, he often lived and thanks to this he received his nickname Bogolyubsky. The icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir (also called “Our Lady of Tenderness” - the Virgin Mary tenderly presses her cheek to the infant Christ) has become one of the greatest shrines in Russia.

Prince Andrei Yuryevich immediately began to decorate his new capital, Vladimir, with marvelous temples. They were built from white limestone. The amazing properties of this stone (soft at first, it became very strong over time) made it possible to cover the walls of the building with continuous carved patterns. Andrei passionately wanted to create a city superior to Kyiv in beauty and wealth. To do this, he invited foreign craftsmen and donated a tenth of his income for the construction of temples. Vladimir (like Kyiv) had its own Golden Gate, its own Church of the Tithes, and the main temple, the Assumption Cathedral, was even higher than the Church of St. Sophia of Kyiv. Italian craftsmen built it in just 3 years. In memory of his early deceased son, Andrei ordered the construction of the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl.

This temple, which still stands among the fields under the bottomless sky, evokes admiration and joy in everyone who walks towards it from afar along the path. It was precisely this impression that the master unknown to us sought, who in 1165, by the will of Prince Andrei, erected this slender, elegant white-stone church on an embankment above the quiet Nerl River, which flows into the Klyazma not far from this place. The hill itself was covered with white stone, and wide steps went from the water itself to the gates of the temple. This deserted place for the church was not chosen by chance. During the flood - a time of intense shipping - the church ended up on the island, serving as a noticeable landmark for those who sailed, crossing the border of Suzdal land. Perhaps here guests and ambassadors from distant countries disembarked from ships, climbed up the white stone stairs, prayed in the temple, rested on its gallery and then sailed further - to where the princely palace in Bogolyubovo, built in 1158-1165, shone white. And even further, on the high bank of the Klyazma, like heroic helmets, the golden domes of Vladimir’s cathedrals sparkled in the sun.

A brave warrior who defeated enemies many times in fights, Prince Andrei was famous for his intelligence and had a powerful and independent character. He was sometimes stern and even cruel, and did not tolerate anyone’s objections or advice. Unlike other princes of his time, Andrei did not take into account his squad, the boyars, and conducted state affairs according to his own will - “autocratic.” He viewed his sons and princely relatives only as an instrument of his will. Andrei intervened in their quarrels not as a brother-mediator, but as an imperious master resolving a dispute between his well-born, but still servants. As he wrote to his protege on the Kiev table, the Smolensk prince Roman Rostislavich: “If you don’t go with your brother according to my will, then leave Kyiv!” The prince was clearly ahead of his era - such actions seemed new to “pre-Moscow” politicians. He was the first to rely on his neighbors, unborn, armed servants dependent on him, who were called “nobles.” He eventually fell by their hands.

By the summer of 1174, the autocratic prince managed to turn many against himself: boyars, servants, and even his own wife. A conspiracy was formed against him. On the night of June 28 in Bogolyubovo, drunken conspirators burst into Andrei’s bedroom and stabbed him to death. When they left the princely chambers, the wounded Andrei managed to get up and tried to get down the stairs. The killers, hearing his groans, returned to the bedroom and followed the bloody trail to find the prince behind the stairs. He sat and prayed. First they cut off his hand, with which he was baptized, and then they finished him off. The murderers robbed the palace. The crowd that came running helped them in this - people hated Prince Andrei for his cruelty and openly rejoiced at his death. Then the murderers drank in the palace, and Andrei’s naked, bloody corpse lay in the garden for a long time until he was buried.

After the death of Bogolyubsky, Vladimir was ruled for 3 years by Mikhail Rostislavich (son of the late Rostislav Yuryevich, grandson of Dolgoruky). It was he who tried and executed the murderers of Andrei Bogolyubsky. After the death of Mikhail, the people of Vladimir chose as prince his uncle, 23-year-old Vsevolod Yuryevich, the younger brother of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky (he was 42 years younger than the murdered man!). He had to assert his right to the Vladimir table in the battle with the rebellious boyars. Vsevolod's life was not easy. For 8 years, Vsevolod lived with his mother, the daughter of the Byzantine emperor, and two brothers in Byzantium.

They were sent there as if into exile by Yuri Dolgoruky, who for some reason did not like his wife and her offspring. And only during the reign of his brother, Andrei Bogolyubsky, Vsevolod Yuryevich returned to Rus', and so, in 1176, he became the Grand Duke of Vladimir. And then there was a blessed silence. The 36-year reign of Vsevolod turned out to be a true blessing for Vladimir-Suzdal Rus'. Continuing Andrei's policy of elevating Vladimir, Vsevolod avoided extremes, respected his squad, ruled humanely, and was loved by the people. At least that's what the chroniclers wrote.

Vsevolod received the nickname Big Nest because he had 10 sons and earned a reputation as a caring father: he managed to “place” them in different destinies, where they subsequently created entire specific princely dynasties. So, from the eldest son, Konstantin, came the dynasty of Suzdal princes, and from Yaroslav - the dynasty of Moscow and Tver princes. And Vladimir Vsevolod built his own “nest” - the city, sparing no effort and money. The white-stone Dmitrovsky Cathedral, which he erected, is decorated inside with frescoes by Byzantine artists, and outside with intricate stone carvings with figures of animals and floral patterns.

Vsevolod was an experienced and successful military leader. He often went on hikes with his squad. Under him, the Vladimir-Suzdal principality expanded to the north and northeast. In 1181 he founded Khlynov (Vyatka) and Tver. Twice Vsevolod led his squad to pacify the rebellious Ryazan residents. He also went to Novgorod, which either accepted one of his sons to the table, or expelled them. Vsevolod’s successful campaign against Volga Bulgaria is known, which (like many similar campaigns in those days) openly pursued the goal of profiting at the expense of the rich Volga neighbors. The power of Vsevolod’s army is clearly stated in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”: “You can splash the Volga with oars, and pour out the Don with helmets.”

At the end of his life, Prince Vsevolod the Big Nest, for some offenses, denied the inheritance to his eldest son Konstantin Rostovsky and transferred the Vladimir table to his youngest son Yuri Vsevolodovich.

This offended Konstantin so much that he did not even show up to his father’s funeral and started a war with Yuri and his other younger brother, Yaroslav. In 1216, Constantine, in alliance with Mstislav the Udal, Novgorodians, Smolyans, Pskovians and Kyivians, went to war against Yuri and Yaroslav. Thus began a real fratricidal war. As the chronicler wrote, “it was a terrible and wonderful miracle, brothers: sons went against father, fathers against children, brother against brother, slaves against master, and master against slaves.”

In the battle on the Lipitsa River (near Yuryev-Polsky) on June 21, 1216, Yuri and Yaroslav were defeated, although the day before the Suzdal residents boasted, looking at the barefoot Novgorod army: “Yes, we will throw saddles at them!” The fact is that the Novgorodians went into battle on foot, and also half naked, having thrown off excess clothes and shoes. Before the battle they exclaimed: “Let us forget, brothers, houses, wives and children!” All this was reminiscent of the attack of the Scandinavian knights - berserkers, who also went into battle naked and barefoot, intoxicated with a special narcotic infusion that dulled fear and pain. It is unknown whether it was due to this or something else, but the victory of the Novgorodians was complete.

From all these long-standing events, it would seem that nothing remained, but suddenly, six centuries later, people remembered the Battle of Lipitsa. The fact is that during this battle such an inexplicable panic gripped Yuri’s brother, Prince Yaroslav, that he lost his gilded helmet, galloped to Pereelavel-Zalessky and immediately ordered the gates to be locked and the city fortified. He ordered the Novgorodians who were in Pereslavl at that time to be imprisoned in a cramped prison, where all of them (150 people in total) died a few days later from stuffiness and thirst... But then, having learned that Konstantin and the Novgorodians were coming to Pereslavl, Yaroslav stopped “ get angry” and went out with a prayer to meet his brother. This killer of Novgorodians became the father of the famous Alexander Nevsky... And in 1808, that is, almost 600 years after the battle, the helmet of Prince Yaroslav was accidentally found in a field by some peasant. And now it is kept in the Armory Chamber.

According to Rostov legend, in the army of Constantine, two heroes went into battle against the Suzdal people - Dobrynya Zolotoy Belt and Alyosha Popovich with his squire Topot. To the two famous heroes, the people in their epics added a third - Ilya Muromets, although he lived during the time of Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko. This is probably why he appears in the epics as an “old woman,” a sedate, middle-aged warrior. This is how the famous dashing Russian trinity, immortalized in epics and in Vasnetsov’s painting, appeared.

Prince Yuri, having lost his weapons, armor and honor at Lipitsa, fled to Vladimir, driving three horses along the road. The townspeople, seeing the horseman rushing towards Vladimir, thought that this was a messenger from the battlefield rushing to please them with the good news of victory, and therefore, without delay, they began the celebration. But it soon became clear that this was not a messenger, but the half-naked prince himself, who immediately ordered the walls to be strengthened and asked the people of Vladimir not to hand him over to his enemies. Soon his victorious allies were already standing at the walls of Vladimir. Yuri had to surrender to the mercy of the victors. They drove him away from the Vladimir table and gave him a small inheritance for food - Gorodets-Radilov. Konstantin Vsevolodovich became the Grand Duke, who received the nickname “Kind”, which is quite rare in history, for his gentle character. When he died in 1218, the disgraced Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich regained his table in Vladimir - such was the will of Constantine, who thought about the prosperous fate of his young children. Yuri's reign, like his life, was tragically cut short during the terrible invasion of the Mongol-Tatars.

Novgorod was “cut down” in the 9th century. on the border of the taiga, inhabited by Finno-Ugric tribes. From here, the Novgorodians penetrated to the northeast in search of furs, founding colonies with centers - graveyards. Novgorod itself lay at the crossroads of important trade routes from West to East. This provided it with rapid growth and economic prosperity. The political weight of Novgorod was also great - let us remember the first Russian princes Oleg, Vladimir, Yaroslav the Wise, who came out from here to conquer the Kyiv table. The close connection between Novgorod and Kiev began to weaken in the 1130s, when strife began in the capital. And earlier, Novgorod did not have its own dynasty, but now the power of the veche has grown, which in 1125 elected (“placed on the table”) Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich. It was with him that an agreement was first concluded - a “row”, by which the prince’s power was limited to several fundamental conditions. When in 1136 the prince broke the line, he, along with his wife, mother-in-law and children, were driven from the table with dishonor - “they showed the clear path” out of Novgorod. From that time on, Novgorod gained independence from Kyiv and actually became an independent republic. From now on, all the princes invited to the Novgorod table commanded only the army, and they were expelled at the slightest attempt to encroach on the power of the Novgorod people. However, sometimes the Novgorodians did not invite an outside prince, but by agreement with the Grand Duke, they took his son, a young princely youth, to Novgorod, and raised him to be a ruler obedient to the republic. This was called “nursing the prince.” Prince Mstislav, who ruled in Novgorod for 30 years, was such a “nurtured” prince, and the townspeople valued him, their “tamed” prince.

Veliky Novgorod had its own shrines except Sophia of Novgorod. The most famous was the Yuriev Monastery. According to legend, this monastery, dedicated to St. George (Yuri), was founded by Yaroslav the Wise in 1030. The center of the monastery is the grandiose St. George Cathedral, which was built by master Peter. The construction of the monastery buildings continued until the 17th century. Yuryev Monastery became the main holy monastery of Novgorod, rich and influential. Novgorod princes and mayors were buried in the tomb of St. George's Cathedral. The abbot of the Yuryev Monastery was revered no less than the Novgorod archimandrite himself.

Another famous Novgorod monastery, Antoniev, is surrounded by special holiness. Associated with him is the legend of Anthony, the son of a wealthy Greek who lived in the 12th century. in Rome. He became a hermit and settled on a rock, right on the seashore. On September 5, 1106, a terrible storm began, and when it subsided, Anthony, looking around, saw that he and the stone found himself in an unknown northern country. It was Novgorod. God gave Anthony an understanding of Slavic speech, and the Novgorod church authorities helped the young man found a monastery on the banks of the Volkhov, the center of which was the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, built in 1119. Princes and kings gave rich contributions to this miraculously established monastery. This shrine has seen a lot in its lifetime. Ivan the Terrible in 1571 staged a monstrous destruction of the monastery, slaughtering all the monks. The post-revolutionary years of the 20th century turned out to be no less terrible. But the monastery survived, and scientists, studying the stone on which Saint Anthony was supposedly transported to the shores of the Volkhov, established that it was the ballast stone of an ancient undecked ship, standing on which the righteous Roman youth could easily reach from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to Novgorod...

On Mount Nereditsa, not far from Gorodishche - the site of the oldest Slavic settlement, stood the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa - the greatest monument of Russian culture. The single-domed, cubic church was built in the summer of 1198 by Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich and outwardly resembled many Novgorod churches of that era. But as soon as they entered the building, people experienced an extraordinary feeling of delight and admiration, as if they were entering another, beautiful world. The entire interior surface of the church, from the floor to the dome, was covered with magnificent frescoes. Scenes of the Last Judgment, images of saints, portraits of local princes - Novgorod masters completed this work in just one year (1199) ... and for almost a thousand years - frescoes until the 20th century. have not lost their brightness, liveliness and emotionality. However, during the Great Patriotic War, in 1943, the church with all its frescoes perished - it was shot from cannons. In terms of significance, it is among the most bitter, irreparable losses of Russia in the 20th century. The death of the Savior on Nereditsa is on a par with Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo destroyed during the war, and Moscow churches and monasteries demolished in peacetime.

The people's assembly (veche) existed in many cities of Rus', but under the influence of various circumstances the veche gradually disappeared. This was not the case in Novgorod. There, after the separation from Kyiv in 1136, the veche, on the contrary, intensified. All free citizens were considered participants in the veche. They jointly resolved important issues of peace and war, invited and expelled princes. The basis of Novgorod democracy was street communities - veche gatherings of individual streets. They merged into a veche of one of the five districts - the “ends” of Novgorod, and then into a citywide veche, which met on the Trade Side near the walls of St. Nicholas Cathedral. The city council consisted of several hundred elected representatives - “golden belts” (a precious belt in ancient times was considered a sign of honor and power).

The veche approved the main law of the state - the Novgorod Judgment Charter, and, if necessary, it acted as the highest city court, which could impose a death sentence. Then the criminals were “put in the water” - they were dragged to Volkhov and thrown into it tied up. At the veche, they gave charters to the lands, elected mayors and their assistants - thousanders, as well as the church head - the archbishop. The speakers spoke from the dais - from the veche “step”. The decision at the meeting was made only unanimously. At the same time, the Novgorod ends had their own interests - and at the veche serious disagreements, disputes and even fights arose. The veche was also torn apart by social contradictions between the Novgorod elite - the boyars, rich merchants, and the common people - the “black people”.

The strength of Novgorod was determined not by its militia, but by the wealth that their trade and craft brought to the Novgorodians. The vast Novgorod land was famous for its furs, honey, and wax. All this was transported to Western Europe - Scandinavia, Germany, France. From there, precious metals, wines, cloth, and weapons were delivered to Rus'. Novgorod traded with the Hanseatic League of German trading cities; Novgorod merchants had their own trading court on the island of Gotland. In Novgorod itself, the so-called “German” and “Gothic” courtyards were opened, in which German and Scandinavian merchants stored goods and lived when they came to trade in Novgorod. Trade with the East, with Volga Bulgaria, where goods from Central Asia came, also brought a lot of wealth to Novgorod. Novgorod boats on the way “from the Varangians to the Greeks” reached the Crimea and Byzantium. Usury capital was also strong in Novgorod; Novgorodians lent money at high interest rates and thereby enriched themselves.

In the middle of the 12th century, after the liberation from the power of Kyiv, Novgorod became the desired prey of the Rostov-Suzdal (and then Vladimir-Suzdal) princes who had strengthened in the northeast. Under Andrei Bogolyubsky, the war with Novgorod began. Andrei, in his characteristic decisive manner, declared: “I want to seek Novgorod with both good and bad,” intending to place his protege on the Novgorod table. In 1170, the Suzdal residents surrounded the city and launched an assault. The defenders managed to repel four of their attacks. During the fifth, as the legend says, a Suzdal arrow hit the icon of the Mother of God, which the archbishop brought to the wall. Here the Virgin Mary, unable to bear such outrage, began to cry, and the Suzdal residents allegedly became gloomy, and they attacked each other. That time the city survived, but Prince Andrei still emerged victorious in this war, using economic leverage - after all, the Novgorodians received their bread from the Suzdal land. From now on, for half a century, the struggle with the Suzdal-Vladimir princes became the most important foreign policy problem of the Novgorod Republic. Only in 1216, in the Battle of Lipetsk, the Novgorodians under the leadership of Mstislav the Udal with their allies (Smolensk) managed to defeat the Vladimir people and thereby eliminate the threat from the north-west. As it turned out, only for a while - until the rise of Moscow.

His neighbor Pskov lived his own life, separate from Novgorod. In the 12th century it was considered a suburb (border point) of Novgorod and followed its policies in everything. But after 1136, when the Novgorodians expelled Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich, the Pskovites went against them and accepted the exile. Novgorod's attempts to pacify the Pskovites failed. And although Vsevolod soon died, the Pskovites declared him a saint, and kept his sword as a relic. The Pskov Veche, which met in Krome (the Kremlin), expressed the general desire of the Pskovites to separate from Novgorod. Tom, reluctantly, had to go for it. Economics and politics made the Novgorodians tractable: Novgorod needed Pskov bread, and from the beginning of the 13th century. together with the Pskovites, they had to fight off the Germans - after all, Pskov was the first to take upon itself any attack from the west, covering Novgorod with itself. But there was never real friendship between the cities - in all internal Russian conflicts, Pskov took the side of the enemies of Novgorod. In the end, Pskov, following Novgorod, paid for this with its freedom.

The most outstanding discovery of Russian archeology in the 20th century. Novgorod birch bark letters became. The first of them was found by the expedition of A. Artsikhovsky on July 26, 1951 during excavations in Novgorod. More than 600 birch bark scrolls with texts scratched on them have now been discovered. The oldest of the charters date back to the second half of the 11th century, the latest - to the middle of the 15th century. Here are notes from ordinary Novgorodians to each other, schoolchildren's notebooks, and drafts of parchment letters and business agreements. Birch bark letters allow not only to study the life of ordinary Novgorodians, but also to clarify data from chronicle sources and learn more about people famous in the political history of Novgorod. And most importantly, there is always a glimmer of hope that the most important discoveries are yet to come. Historians working with archival written sources no longer have such hopes.

Genghis Khan (Temuchjin) - the son of a failed tribal leader, thanks to his talent and luck, became the founder of the great Mongol empire and where, through pressure and courage, and where through cunning and deceit, he managed to exterminate or subjugate many khans of the nomadic Tatar and Mongol tribes. He carried out a military reform that dramatically increased the power of the army. In 1205, at the kurultai, Temujin was proclaimed Genghis Khan (“Great Khan”). He managed to defeat the Chinese troops, and in 1213 the Mongols took Beijing. At the same time, Genghis Khan adopted many of the military achievements of the Chinese. His army had unsurpassed cavalry, advanced siege engines, and excellent reconnaissance. Having never been defeated by anyone, Genghis Khan died in 1227. After this, the Mongol-Tatars began a grandiose offensive to the West. In the early 1220s. new conquerors burst into the Black Sea steppes and drove the Polovtsians out of them. Polovtsian Khan Kotyan called the Russian princes for help. He came to his son-in-law, the Galician prince Mstislav, and said: “Our land was taken away today, and yours will be taken tomorrow, defend us. If you don’t help us, we will be cut off today, and you will be cut off tomorrow!” The Russian princes, having gathered in Kyiv, according to the chronicle, argued for a long time until they came to the conclusion: “This is what they, the godless and evil Polovtsians, need, but if we, brothers, do not help them, then the Polovtsians will be handed over to the Tatars and their strength will be greater.” " In the spring of 1223, the Russian army set out on a campaign. The arrival of conquerors from unknown steppes, their life in yurts, strange customs, extraordinary cruelty - all this seemed to Christians the beginning of the end of the world. “That year,” the chronicler wrote in 1223, “peoples came about whom no one knows for sure - who they are and where they came from and what their language is, and what tribe, and what their faith is. And they are called Tatars..."

In the battle on the Kalka River on May 31, 1223, the Russian and Polovtsian regiments faced a terrible, unprecedented defeat. Rus' has never known such an “evil slaughter,” shameful flight and cruel massacre of the vanquished. The victors executed all the prisoners, and the captured princes, with particular cruelty: they were tied up, thrown to the ground, and a flooring of boards was laid on top and on this platform they held a merry feast for the victors, thereby putting the unfortunate ones to a painful death from suffocation.

The Horde then moved towards Kyiv, mercilessly killing everyone in sight. But soon the Mongol-Tatars unexpectedly turned back to the steppe. “We don’t know where they came from, and we don’t know where they went,” the chronicler wrote.

The terrible lesson did not benefit Rus' - the princes were still at enmity with each other. As N.M. Karamzin wrote, “the villages devastated by the Tatars on the eastern banks of the Dnieper were still smoking in ruins; fathers, mothers, friends mourned the murdered, but the frivolous people completely calmed down, for the past evil seemed to them the last.”

There was a lull. But 12 years later, the Mongol-Tatars again came from their steppes. In 1236, under the leadership of Genghis Khan's beloved grandson, Batu Khan, they defeated Volga Bulgaria. Its capital, other cities and villages disappeared from the face of the earth forever. At the same time, the last “hunt” of the Mongol-Tatars for the Polovtsians began. A raid began across the entire vast expanse of the steppes, from the Volga to the Caucasus and the Black Sea: thousands of horsemen in a chain encircled vast territories in a ring and began to narrow it continuously, day and night. All the steppe inhabitants who found themselves inside the ring, like animals, were brutally killed. In this unprecedented raid, the Polovtsians, Kipchaks and other steppe peoples and tribes died - all without exception: men, children, old people, women. As the French traveler Rubruk, who was traveling through the Polovtsian steppe several years later, wrote: “In Comania (the land of the Polovtsians), we found numerous heads and bones of dead people lying on the ground like dung.”

And then it was the turn of Rus'. The decision to conquer Rus' was made back at the kurultai of 1227, when the great Khan Ogedei set the goal for his people: “To take possession of the countries of the Bulgars, Asov (Ossetian - E. A.) and Rus', which were located in the neighborhood of the Batu camp, and had not yet been conquered, and were proud of their numbers.” The campaign against Rus' in 1237 was led by Batu Khan along with 14 descendants of Genghis. The army numbered 150 thousand people. People did not remember a more terrible spectacle than this invasion of the steppes. As the chronicler writes, the noise was such that “from the multitude of troops the earth groaned and hummed, and from the large number and noise of the hordes wild animals and predatory animals became paralyzed.”

On the borders of the Russian land, more precisely in the Ryazan principality, the enemies were met by the army of the local prince Yuri Igorevich. At first, Yuri sent his son Fyodor to Batu with an embassy and gifts, asking him to leave the Ryazan land alone. Having accepted the gifts, Batu ordered to kill the envoys of the Ryazan prince. Then in the “evil and terrible battle” the prince, his brothers, appanage princes, boyars and all the “daring warriors and frolics of Ryazan... all fell as equals, all drank the same cup of death. Not one of them came back: they all lie dead together,” the chronicler concludes. After this, Batu’s troops approached Ryazan and, true to their tactics, began a continuous - day and night - assault on the strong fortifications of Ryazan. Having exhausted the defenders, on December 21, 1237, the enemies broke into the city. A massacre began in the streets, and women who sought salvation in the church were burned alive there. Archaeologists still find terrible traces of this massacre (broken skulls, bones cut by sabers, arrowheads sticking out in the vertebrae) on the ruins of a city that has never been revived - modern Ryazan arose in a new place.

The princes failed to organize the joint defense of Rus' from invasion. Each of them, powerless against an experienced and numerous enemy, courageously died alone. History has preserved many of the exploits of Russian warriors like Evpatiy Kolovrat, the Ryazan hero, who gathered the surviving remnants of the Ryazan squads (about 1,600 people) and bravely struck in the rear of the enemy who was leaving the burned Ryazan. With great difficulty, throwing stones at the Russians from throwing weapons, the Mongol-Tatars dealt with the “strong-armed and daring-hearted lion-furious Evpatiy.”

An example of true heroism was shown by the small city of Kozelsk, whose defenders resisted the conquerors behind wooden walls for two whole months, and then all died in hand-to-hand combat on the walls and streets of the city, called “evil” by the Mongol-Tatars. The bloodshed turned out to be so terrible that, according to the chronicle, 12-year-old Prince Vasily Kozelsky drowned in a stream of blood. The united Russian troops that gathered near Kolomna in January 1238 also fought bravely with the enemy. Even the Novgorodians came to the battle, which had never happened before - apparently, the awareness of the terrible threat also reached proud Novgorod. But the Mongol-Tatars gained the upper hand in this battle, too, despite the fact that Russian soldiers managed to kill for the first time one of the Genghisids, Khan Kulkan. After Kolomna Moscow fell, the conquerors rushed across the ice of frozen rivers, like a terrible mudflow, towards golden-domed Vladimir. To intimidate the defenders of the capital, the Mongol-Tatars brought thousands of naked prisoners under the city walls, who began to be brutally beaten with whips. On February 7, 1238, Vladimir fell, the family of Prince Yuri and many townspeople were burned alive in the Assumption Cathedral. Then almost all the cities of the North-East were destroyed: Rostov, Uglich, Yaroslavl, Yuryev-Polskoy, Pereslavl, Tver, Kashin, Dmitrov, etc. “And Christian blood flowed like a strong river,” exclaimed the chronicler.

There are many examples of heroism and courage shown in that terrible year 1237, but there are many bitter stories about mediocre death without benefit to the country and damage to the enemy. In March 1238, in the battle against Khan Burundai on the Sit River, Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich of Vladimir also died with his squad. He tried to resist, but fell victim to his inexperience and carelessness. The guard service in his army was not organized; the regiments were stationed in villages remote from each other. The Tatars approached the main Russian camp suddenly. The guard detachment, which was supposed to meet the enemy at the distant approaches, set out on the campaign too late and unexpectedly encountered the Horde regiments right at the gates of their camp. A battle began, which was hopelessly lost by the Russians. The enemies took the severed head of Grand Duke Yuri with them - usually the nomads made a victory cup from such trophies. Those Russian prisoners whom the Mongol-Tatars did not kill immediately were killed by the cold - the frost in those days was terrible.

On March 5, Torzhok, who had begged the Novgorodians for help in vain, fell, and Batu moved, “cutting people like grass,” towards Novgorod. But not reaching the city a hundred miles, the Tatars turned south. Everyone regarded this as a miracle that saved Novgorod - after all, there were no frosts at that time, and the flood had not begun. Contemporaries believed that the “filthy” Batu was stopped by the vision of a cross in the sky. But nothing stopped him before the gates of the “mother of Russian cities” - Kyiv.

What feelings people experienced then, seeing how their homeland was dying under the hooves of Mongol horses, was well conveyed by the author of the work that has reached us only partially, “The Lay of the Destruction of the Russian Land,” written immediately after the Mongol-Tatar invasion of Rus'. It seems that the author wrote it with his own tears and blood - he suffered so much from the thought of the misfortune of his homeland, he felt so sorry for the Russian people, Rus', which had fallen into a terrible “roundup” of unknown enemies. The past, pre-Mongol time, seems sweet and kind to him, and the country is remembered only as prosperous and happy. The reader’s heart should clench with sadness and love at the words: “Oh, bright and beautifully decorated, Russian land! And you are surprised by many beauties: you are surprised by many lakes, rivers and treasure troves (sources. - E. A.) local (revered. – E. A.), mountains, steep hills, high oak groves, clean fields, wondrous animals, various birds, vast cities, wonderful villages, grapes (orchards. - E. A.) monasteries, church houses and formidable princes, honest boyars, many nobles. The Russian land is filled with everything, O true Christian faith!”

In the spring of 1239, Batu moved to Southern Rus'. First Pereyaslavl South fell, and then Chernigov perished in fire. There are no words to convey the scale of the catastrophe of these glorious Russian cities: prosperous, populated Pereyaslavl was called “a city without people” for a long time, and Chernigov, burned by the enemy, reached its pre-Mongol borders only in the 18th century, 500 years later! The same fate awaited Kyiv. By the time the Mongol-Tatars arrived, he had already lost his proud power. At the end of the XII - beginning of the XIII century. There was a continuous struggle between the princes for its possession. In 1194, Monomakh's grandson, Prince Rurik Rostislavich, took possession of the Kyiv table, from where in 1202 he was expelled by his son-in-law, the above-mentioned Volyn prince, the dashing Roman Mstislavich. Rurik managed to recapture Kyiv and rob it. In 1204, Roman decided to calm his violent father-in-law in an original way: he forcibly tonsured him as a monk. A year later, he threw off his cassock, fled from the monastery and again returned Kyiv by force. At the same time, he had to fight off not only his son-in-law, but also other candidates for the Kiev table. And this pandemonium continued until the Mongol-Tatars put their terrible end to this struggle.

The first troops of Khan Mengu approached Kyiv at the beginning of 1240. The beauty of the great city amazed the enemies, and Mengu sent ambassadors who invited Prince Mikhail Vsevolodovich, who was then sitting in Kyiv since 1235, to surrender without a fight. He interrupted the ambassadors. The Mongol-Tatars retreated to the steppe, postponing the assault on the city for another time. The Kiev prince did not take advantage of the respite provided, did not strengthen the city, and soon fled from Kyiv, expelled by the famous Daniil Romanovich of Galitsky.

When Khan Batu approached the Dnieper in the fall of 1240, neither the great warrior Daniel nor the other Russian princes with their squads were in the city - they left Kyiv for their principalities. The capital of Ancient Rus' was doomed to destruction. And yet the townspeople desperately resisted the enemy for 9 days. The last of them died during the assault under the rubble of the Tithe Church, which collapsed from the blows of Mongol battering machines. Many centuries later, archaeologists found traces of the resistance and heroism of the people of Kiev: the remains of a city dweller, literally studded with Tatar arrows, as well as the skeleton of another person who, covering a child (or woman), died with him.

The terrible fate of Kyiv befell other cities. “And there was no one in Vladimir (Volynsky) who would have remained alive,” the chronicler wrote. We know nothing at all about how many cities perished.

The finds of archaeologists in the Volyn and Galician lands are sad: the ashes and coal of terrible fires compacted by time, human skeletons with chopped bones and skulls pierced with large iron nails...

Those who fled from Rus' from the Tatars brought terrible news to Europe about the horrors of the invasion. They said that during the siege of cities, the Tatars threw the fat of the people they killed on the roofs of houses, and then started “Greek fire”, which burned well from this.

The German Emperor Frederick II called on Europe: “We considered the danger remote when so many brave peoples and princes were between the enemy and us. But now that some of these princes have perished and others have been enslaved, now it is our turn to become a bulwark of Christianity against a fierce enemy.”

In 1241, the Mongol-Tatars rushed to Poland and Hungary. At the Battle of Liegnitz on April 9, the combined forces of the Czechs, Poles and Germans suffered a terrible defeat, and on April 12, the Hungarian army was defeated on the Sajó River. Cities and villages in Hungary, Poland, Silesia and other countries burned. Tatar horsemen reached the shores of the Adriatic in the area of ​​Dubrovnik (now Croatia). The united forces of the Czech Republic and Austria were waiting for the enemy on the road to Vienna, but the Mongol-Tatars did not move this way. They left Europe through Bulgaria after learning that Khan Ogedei had died in Mongolia. After this, Batu decided to found his own state in the lower reaches of the Volga.

Consequences of the defeat of Rus' by the Mongol-Tatars in 1237-1240. turned out to be terrible, many losses were irreparable. In those years, the historical path of Rus' changed abruptly and dramatically, the country entered a different, terrible time. In the fight against the Mongol-Tatars, many Russian princes and noble boyars died, which fatally influenced the development of the Russian ruling class in a later era. After the colossal losses of the old princely nobility, the elite began to be formed not from the ancient ancient Russian aristocracy, proud of its origin and nobility, but from the lower warriors and servants of the princely court, including those who were not free. And this happened under the conditions of typical eastern oppression of the Mongol-Tatar conquerors. All this left its slavish imprint on the policy of the Russian princes, on the mentality of the elite, and the morals of the people.

After the death of Yuri, his middle-aged, 53-year-old brother, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who was at that time in devastated Kyiv, returned to his homeland in Zalesye in 1243 and sat down on the empty Vladimir table. A difficult fate awaited him - after all, from that time on, the complete dominance (yoke) of the Golden Horde over Russia was established. That year, Batu, who founded the city of Sarai-Batu in the lower reaches of the Volga, summoned Prince Yaroslav and recognized him as the Grand Duke of Vladimir - his tributary. According to the Horde hierarchy, Russian great princes were equated with beks (emirs). From now on, the Russian Grand Duke was deprived of sovereignty, became a slave, a tributary of the khan, and had to kneel before the tsar (as the khan was called in Rus') and receive a label for reign.

The label is a gold-plated plate with a hole that allows it to be hung around the neck. Perhaps the label was also attached to the letter certifying it, for later the letters granted by the khans to tributaries, as well as their messages, were called labels. Unfortunately, none of the labels issued to the Russian princes in the Horde have survived to our times. Of the labels-messages, the label of Edigei to Grand Duke Vasily II Dmitrievich (December 1408), as well as the label of Akhmat Ivan III, is known.

The khans freely disposed of the label; they could at any time take it away from one prince and transfer it to another. At times, the Mongol-Tatars deliberately pitted the Russian princes against each other in the struggle for the golden label, trying to prevent either the excessive strengthening of the Grand Duke or his excessive weakening due to the power of the appanage princes. The Russian princes lived in the Horde for years, currying favor with the Murzas and pleasing the khan's wives in order to beg from the “great king” for at least some land for themselves - a “fatherland”.

So, at the end of the 15th century. Suzdal prince Semyon Dmitrievich lived in the Horde for 8 years, but never achieved a label for the coveted Nizhny Novgorod reign, which was in the hands of the Moscow prince. When in 1401 Moscow troops captured his family, Semyon had to go to Moscow with a bow, and then be content with distant Vyatka, where he died. In a word, the Moscow chronicler wrote maliciously, Prince Semyon “took a lot of hard work, finding no rest for his feet, and achieved nothing, trying everything in vain.” The khan's collectors (and then the grand dukes) collected a tenth of all income from all Russian subjects - the so-called “Horde exit”.

This tax was a heavy burden for Rus'. Disobedience to the Khan's will led to the Horde's punitive raids on Russian cities, which were completely destroyed, and their inhabitants were carried away by the Mongol-Tatars.

After the death of Prince Yaroslav, who was summoned to Mongolia, to Karakorum, and poisoned there in 1246, his eldest son Svyatoslav Yaroslavich became the Grand Duke. However, he did not rule for long; after 2 years he was expelled from the Vladimir table by Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich Khorobrit, who came from the south, who soon died in a battle with the Lithuanians on the Protva River. And then Batu recognized Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky as the Grand Duke of Vladimir, but ordered him, along with his brother Andrei, to go to bow to Mongolia, to the Supreme Khansha of all Mongols, Ogul Gamish. Khansha changed Batu’s decision: she recognized Andrei Yaroslavich as the Great Prince of Vladimir, and transferred Kyiv to Alexander Yaroslavich. At that moment, the Mongol-Tatars relied in their policy on the formation of two great principalities in the large “Russian ulus” - Vladimir and Kyiv. But, returning to Rus', Alexander Yaroslavich did not obey the Khansha and left for Novgorod. Perhaps Alexander did not want to live in Kyiv - devastated, having lost all its greatness and finding itself in the sphere of influence of the Galician-Volyn princes. Alexander was a realist politician, and yet the Novgorodians called him to their place - Novgorod really needed such a prince-warrior and diplomat.

Alexander was born in 1220 and matured early - at the age of 15 he became the Prince of Novgorod. From an early age, Alexander did not let go of the sword, and already as a 19-year-old youth he defeated the Swedes on the banks of the Neva in 1240 in the glorious Battle of the Neva in Rus'. The prince was courageous (he was called “Brave” even earlier than “Nevsky”), handsome, tall, his voice, according to the chronicler, “roared before the people like a trumpet.”

Alexander had a chance to live and rule Russia in difficult times: a depopulated country, general decline and despondency, the heavy power of a foreign conqueror. But smart Alexander, having dealt with the Tatars for years, living in the Horde, mastered the art of servile worship: he knew how to crawl on his knees in the khan’s yurt, knew how to give gifts to influential khans and murzas, mastered the skills of court intrigue, was stern and cruel with his enemies . And all this in order to survive and save their table, the people, Rus', so that, using the power given by the “tsar”, to subjugate other princes, to suppress the love of freedom of the people’s veche.

Evil tongues claim that there was no trace of the Battle of the Neva on May 15, 1240, that it was invented by the author of the “Life of Alexander Nevsky” many decades later. Indeed, in Scandinavian sources there is not the slightest mention of the massacre, much less the crushing defeat on the banks of the Neva of the Swedes, Norwegians and Finns led by the king, whom Alexander, according to Russian sources, allegedly “put a seal on his face with his sharp spear.” According to Scandinavian historians, the Swedish king Erik Erikssen was not on the Neva bank at that time, and strife was brewing among the Norwegians - King Hakon Hakonssen was suppressing the rebellion of Duke Skule Bardsson, and he clearly had no time for campaigns against Rus'. What really happened?

It is safe to say that the campaign of a small detachment of Scandinavians as part of the Crusades to Finland in 1240 really took place. There was also a battle between them and the Novgorodians on the banks of the Neva. But the significance of the battle turned out to be greatly inflated 50 years later, at the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th centuries, when a massive and fairly successful Swedish offensive against Rus' began. With great difficulty, Novgorod managed to stop the invaders. The Novgorodians were helped in this by the powerful Oreshek fortress built in 1322 at the mouth of the Neva. There they made peace with the Swedes in 1323. At that difficult time, Alexander's victorious battle with the Swedes in 1240 was used to inspire society. Then it became, along with the Battle of the Ice of 1242, a symbol of the successful struggle against the West.

Alexander Yaroslavich's whole life was connected with Novgorod, where he reigned from childhood. Before that, his father reigned here, to whom the Novgorodians, by the way, more than once “showed the clear path.” In Novgorod, Alexander survived the hard times of Batu's invasion of Rus'. Here in 1238 he married the Polotsk princess Alexandra Bryachislavna. Alexander honorably defended the lands of Novgorod from the Swedes and Germans, but, fulfilling the will of Khan Batu, who became his sworn brother, he punished the Novgorodians dissatisfied with Tatar oppression. Alexander, a prince who had partly adopted the Tatar style of ruling, had uneven and sometimes difficult relations with them. He stubbornly pursued the policy of the Golden Horde, demanded regular payment of tribute to the conquerors, quarreled with the Novgorodians and, offended, left for Zalesye.

In the early 1240s. Relations between Pskov and Novgorod with their neighbors - the German knights who came from Germany to the Eastern Baltic in the 12th century - worsened. and those who formed the orders here. They almost continuously waged crusades in the direction of “wild” Lithuania, as well as lands inhabited by Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes. Rus' was one of the goals of the crusaders. They directed their offensive towards Pskov, which they even managed to capture in 1240. A real threat of conquest loomed over Novgorod. Prince Alexander and his retinue liberated Pskov and on April 5, 1242, on the ice of Lake Pskov in the so-called Battle of the Ice, they completely defeated the knights, some of whom drowned in the lake ice holes.

The sensitive defeat of 1242 contributed to a change in the tactics of the crusaders. They more often began to use not the sword, but the word, to turn the Orthodox away from their “delusions.” In 1251, Pope Innocent IV with two cardinals - Galda and Gemont - sent Alexander a bull, in which he stated that Alexander's father Yaroslav promised the papal legate Plano Carpini to subordinate Rus' to the Catholic faith. Alexander refused - no matter how soft and compliant he was in relations with the Tatars (who cared little about the faith of conquered peoples who regularly paid taxes), he was so harsh and uncompromising about the West and its influence.

It is known that in the script of the famous film by Sergei Eisenstein “Alexander Nevsky” there was a last scene, which later did not appear in the film. It continues the scene of the victors' feast, when the prince makes a toast and mentions the famous biblical quote: “He who lifts up the sword will perish by the sword.” At this time, a mud-splattered messenger appears between the feasters, makes his way to the prince and whispers something in his ear. Alexander leaves the feast, mounts his horse and rides out of the gates of the Novgorod Kremlin. In the snowy field, as far as the eye can see, he sees lights and wagons - the Horde has approached the city. Having arrived at the khan's yurt, the proud conqueror of the German knights dismounts from his horse, kneels down and begins, according to custom, to crawl between two fires to the entrance to the khan's yurt...

This episode was allegedly crossed out with Stalin’s blue pencil, and the highest resolution read: “Such a good man could not have done this! I. Stalin." But this is precisely the case when a true artist sees history better than a politician or historian. Such an act of Alexander at that moment was thought out and rational: the bloodless victors of the Germans could not resist the Tatars, and this contradicted the entire concept of Alexander, who relied on the fight against the West and submission to the Mongols. Daniil Galitsky acted diametrically opposite - whenever possible, he was friends with the West and fought with the Horde. To each his own!

Alexander Yaroslavich received a gold label and became the Grand Duke of Vladimir only in 1252, when Grand Duke Andrei Yaroslavich, fearing a new invasion by Khan Nevryuy, fled to Sweden. And then Alexander went to the Horde and received from Batu a golden label for the Great Reign of Vladimir. After the death of Batu in 1255, he had to go to the new khan, Ulagchi, for approval of the label. By his order, Prince Alexander helped the Tatars collect tribute in Novgorod, the inhabitants of which he, not without difficulty, kept from revolting against the khan's collectors. In 1262, he went to Mongolia for the fourth and last time to visit the Great Khan Berke.

This last trip to Mongolia was especially difficult for Prince Alexander. Berke demanded that Prince Alexander send Russian squads to participate in the campaign against Iran. The Grand Duke managed to save Rus' from this campaign. As the Hungarian monk Julian wrote, the Mongol-Tatars did not consider the warriors of the conquered peoples as allies, but were driven into battle as slaves, and “even if they fight well and win, there is little gratitude. If they die in battle, there is no concern for them, but if they retreat in battle, they are mercilessly killed by the Tatars. Therefore, when fighting, they prefer to die in battle than under the swords of the Tatars, and they fight more bravely so as not to live longer and die sooner.”

After Alexander, Russian regiments marched with the Mongol-Tatars to Poland, and in 1280 they stormed Beijing.

Returning home, Alexander Nevsky fell ill and died on November 14, 1263 in Gorodets on the Volga, in the Fedorovsky Monastery. Perhaps he was poisoned by the Mongol-Tatars. Before his death, the prince took monastic vows and put on the black schema - the clothes of a hermit monk. This was the custom among pious Christians. He was buried in Vladimir, in the Nativity Monastery. Subsequently, Prince Alexander Yaroslavich was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

IV century AD - Formation of the first tribal union of the Eastern Slavs (Volynians and Buzhans).
V century - Formation of the second tribal union of the Eastern Slavs (Polyans) in the middle Dnieper basin.
VI century - The first written news about “Rus” and “Rus”. Conquest of the Slavic tribe Duleb by the Avars (558).
VII century - Settlement of Slavic tribes in the basins of the upper Dnieper, Western Dvina, Volkhov, Upper Volga, etc.
VIII century - The beginning of the expansion of the Khazar Kaganate to the north, the imposition of tribute on the Slavic tribes of the Polyans, Northerners, Vyatichi, Radimichi.

Kievan Rus

838 - The first known embassy of the “Russian Kagan” to Constantinople..
860 - Campaign of the Rus (Askold?) against Byzantium..
862 - Formation of the Russian state with its capital in Novgorod. The first mention of Murom in chronicles.
862-879 - The reign of Prince Rurik (879+) in Novgorod.
865 - Capture of Kyiv by the Varangians Askold and Dir.
OK. 863 - Creation of the Slavic alphabet by Cyril and Methodius in Moravia.
866 - Slavic campaign against Constantinople (Constantinople).
879-912 - The reign of Prince Oleg (912+).
882 - Unification of Novgorod and Kyiv under the rule of Prince Oleg. Transfer of the capital from Novgorod to Kyiv.
883-885 - Subjugation of the Krivichi, Drevlyans, Northerners and Radimichi by Prince Oleg. Formation of the territory of Kievan Rus.
907 - Prince Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople. The first agreement between Rus' and Byzantium.
911 - Conclusion of the second treaty between Rus' and Byzantium.
912-946 - Reign of Prince Igor (946x).
913 - Uprising in the land of the Drevlyans.
913-914 - Campaigns of the Rus against the Khazars along the Caspian coast of Transcaucasia.
915 - Treaty of Prince Igor with the Pechenegs.
941 - 1st campaign of Prince Igor to Constantinople.
943-944 - 2nd campaign of Prince Igor to Constantinople. Treaty of Prince Igor with Byzantium.
944-945 - Campaign of the Rus on the Caspian coast of Transcaucasia.
946-957 - Simultaneous reign of Princess Olga and Prince Svyatoslav.
OK. 957 - Olga's trip to Constantinople and her baptism.
957-972 - Reign of Prince Svyatoslav (972x).
964-966 - Campaigns of Prince Svyatoslav against Volga Bulgaria, Khazars, tribes of the North Caucasus and Vyatichi. The defeat of the Khazar Khaganate in the lower reaches of the Volga. Establishing control over the Volga - Caspian Sea trade route.
968-971 - Campaigns of Prince Svyatoslav to Danube Bulgaria. Defeat of the Bulgarians in the Battle of Dorostol (970). Wars with the Pechenegs.
969 - Death of Princess Olga.
971 - Treaty of Prince Svyatoslav with Byzantium.
972-980 - Reign of Grand Duke Yaropolk (980s).
977-980 - Internecine wars for the possession of Kiev between Yaropolk and Vladimir.
980-1015 - Reign of Grand Duke Vladimir the Saint (1015+).
980 - Pagan reform of Grand Duke Vladimir. An attempt to create a single cult uniting the gods of different tribes.
985 - Campaign of Grand Duke Vladimir with the allied Torci against the Volga Bulgars.
988 - Baptism of Rus'. The first evidence of the establishment of the power of the Kyiv princes on the banks of the Oka.
994-997 - Campaigns of Grand Duke Vladimir against the Volga Bulgars.
1010 - Founding of the city of Yaroslavl.
1015-1019 - Reign of Grand Duke Svyatopolk the Accursed. Wars for the princely throne.
beginning of the 11th century - settlement of the Polovtsians between the Volga and Dnieper.
1015 - Murder of princes Boris and Gleb by order of Grand Duke Svyatopolk.
1016 - Defeat of the Khazars by Byzantium with the help of Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich. Suppression of the uprising in Crimea.
1019 - Defeat of the Grand Duke Svyatopolk the Accursed in the fight against Prince Yaroslav.
1019-1054 - Reign of Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise (1054+).
1022 - Victory of Mstislav the Brave over the Kasogs (Circassians).
1023-1025 - War of Mstislav the Brave and Grand Duke Yaroslav for the great reign. Victory of Mstislav the Brave in the battle of Listven (1024).
1025 - Division of Kievan Rus between princes Yaroslav and Mstislav (border along the Dnieper).
1026 - Conquest of the Baltic tribes of Livs and Chuds by Yaroslav the Wise.
1030 - Founding of the city of Yuryev (modern Tartu) in the Chud land.
1030-1035 - Construction of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernigov.
1036 - Death of Prince Mstislav the Brave. Unification of Kievan Rus under the rule of Grand Duke Yaroslav.
1037 - The defeat of the Pechenegs by Prince Yaroslav and the foundation of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv in honor of this event (finished in 1041).
1038 - Victory of Yaroslav the Wise over the Yatvingians (Lithuanian tribe).
1040 - War of the Rus with the Lithuanians.
1041 - Campaign of the Rus against the Finnish tribe Yam.
1043 - Campaign of the Novgorod prince Vladimir Yaroslavich to Constantinople (last campaign against Byzantium).
1045-1050 - Construction of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod.
1051 - Founding of the Kiev Pechersk Monastery. The appointment of the first metropolitan (Hilarion) from the Russians, appointed to the position without the consent of Constantinople.
1054-1078 - The reign of Grand Duke Izyaslav Yaroslavich (The actual triumvirate of princes Izyaslav, Svyatoslav Yaroslavich and Vsevolod Yaroslavich. “The Truth of the Yaroslavichs.” Weakening of the supreme power of the Kyiv prince.
1055 - The first news of the chronicle about the appearance of the Polovtsians at the borders of the Pereyaslavl principality.
1056-1057 - Creation of the "Ostromir Gospel" - the oldest dated handwritten Russian book.
1061 - Polovtsian raid on Rus'.
1066 - Raid on Novgorod by Prince Vseslav of Polotsk. The defeat and capture of Vseslav by the Grand Duke Izslav.
1068 - New Polovtsian raid on Rus' led by Khan Sharukan. The Yaroslavichs' campaign against the Polovtsians and their defeat on the Alta River. The uprising of the townspeople in Kyiv, the flight of Izyaslav to Poland.
1068-1069 - Great reign of Prince Vseslav (about 7 months).
1069 - Return of Izyaslav to Kyiv together with the Polish king Boleslav II.
1078 - Death of Grand Duke Izyaslav in the battle of Nezhatina Niva with the outcasts Boris Vyacheslavich and Oleg Svyatoslavich.
1078-1093 - Reign of Grand Duke Vsevolod Yaroslavich. Land redistribution (1078).
1093-1113 - Reign of Grand Duke Svyatopolk II Izyaslavich.
1093-1095 - War of the Rus with the Polovtsians. Defeat of princes Svyatopolk and Vladimir Monomakh in the battle with the Polovtsians on the Stugna River (1093).
1095-1096 - The internecine struggle of Prince Vladimir Monomakh and his sons with Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich and his brothers for the Rostov-Suzdal, Chernigov and Smolensk principalities.
1097 - Lyubech Congress of Princes. Assignment of principalities to princes on the basis of patrimonial law. Fragmentation of the state into specific principalities. Separation of the Murom principality from the Chernigov principality.
1100 - Vitichevsky Congress of Princes.
1103 - Dolob congress of princes before the campaign against the Polovtsians. Successful campaign of princes Svyatopolk Izyaslavich and Vladimir Monomakh against the Polovtsians.
1107 - Capture of Suzdal by the Volga Bulgars.
1108 - Foundation of the city of Vladimir on the Klyazma as a fortress to protect the Principality of Suzdal from the Chernigov princes.
1111 - Campaign of the Russian princes against the Polovtsians. The defeat of the Polovtsians at Salnitsa.
1113 - First edition of The Tale of Bygone Years (Nestor). An uprising of dependent (enslaved) people in Kyiv against the princely power and merchants-usurers. Charter of Vladimir Vsevolodovich.
1113-1125 - Reign of Grand Duke Vladimir Monomakh. Temporary strengthening of the power of the Grand Duke. Drawing up the "Charters of Vladimir Monomakh" (legal registration of judicial law, regulation of rights in other areas of life).
1116 - Second edition of The Tale of Bygone Years (Sylvester). Victory of Vladimir Monomakh over the Polovtsians.
1118 - Conquest of Minsk by Vladimir Monomakh.
1125-1132 - Reign of Grand Duke Mstislav I the Great.
1125-1157 - Reign of Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgoruky in the Rostov-Suzdal Principality.
1126 - First election of mayor in Novgorod.
1127 - Final division of the Principality of Polotsk into fiefs.
1127 -1159 - Reign of Rostislav Mstislavich in Smolensk. The heyday of the Smolensk Principality.
1128 - Famine in the Novgorod, Pskov, Suzdal, Smolensk and Polotsk lands.
1129 - Separation of the Ryazan Principality from the Murom-Ryazan Principality.
1130 -1131 - Russian campaigns against Chud, the beginning of successful campaigns against Lithuania. Clashes between the Murom-Ryazan princes and the Polovtsians.
1132-1139 - Reign of Grand Duke Yaropolk II Vladimirovich. The final decline of the power of the Kyiv Grand Duke.
1135-1136 - Unrest in Novgorod, Charter of the Novgorod prince Vsevolod Mstislavovich on the management of merchants, expulsion of Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich. Invitation to Novgorod for Svyatoslav Olgovich. Strengthening the principle of inviting the prince to the veche.
1137 - Separation of Pskov from Novgorod, formation of the Pskov Principality.
1139 - 1st great reign of Vyacheslav Vladimirovich (8 days). Unrest in Kyiv and its capture by Vsevolod Olegovich.
1139-1146 - Reign of Grand Duke Vsevolod II Olgovich.
1144 - Formation of the Principality of Galicia through the unification of several appanage principalities.
1146 - Reign of Grand Duke Igor Olgovich (six months). The beginning of a fierce struggle between the princely clans for the Kiev throne (Monomakhovichi, Olgovichi, Davydovichi) - lasted until 1161.
1146-1154 - The reign of Grand Duke Izyaslav III Mstislavich with interruptions: in 1149, 1150 - the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky; In 1150 - the 2nd great reign of Vyacheslav Vladimirovich (all - less than six months). Intensification of internecine struggle between the Suzdal and Kyiv princes.
1147 - The first chronicle mention of Moscow.
1149 - The struggle of the Novgorodians with the Finns for Vod. Attempts by the Suzdal prince Yuri Dolgorukov to recapture the Ugra tribute from the Novgorodians.
Bookmark "Yuryev in the field" (Yuryev-Polsky).
1152 - Founding of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky and Kostroma.
1154 - Founding of the city of Dmitrov and the village of Bogolyubov.
1154-1155 - Reign of Grand Duke Rostislav Mstislavich.
1155 - 1st reign of Grand Duke Izyaslav Davydovich (about six months).
1155-1157 - Reign of Grand Duke Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgoruky.
1157-1159 - Parallel reign of Grand Duke Izyaslav Davydovich in Kyiv and Andrei Yuryevich Bogolyubsky in Vladimir-Suzdal.
1159-1167 - Parallel reign of Grand Duke Rostislav Mstislavich in Kyiv and Andrei Yuryevich Bogolyubsky in Vladimir-Suzdal.
1160 - Uprising of the Novgorodians against Svyatoslav Rostislavovich.
1164 - Andrei Bogolyubsky's campaign against the Volga Bulgarians. Victory of the Novgorodians over the Swedes.
1167-1169 - Parallel reign of Grand Duke Mstislav II Izyaslavich in Kyiv and Andrei Yuryevich Bogolyubsky in Vladimir.
1169 - Capture of Kyiv by the troops of Grand Duke Andrei Yuryevich Bogolyubsky. Transfer of the capital of Rus' from Kyiv to Vladimir. The rise of Vladimir Rus'.

Rus' Vladimir

1169-1174 - Reign of Grand Duke Andrei Yuryevich Bogolyubsky. Transfer of the capital of Rus' from Kyiv to Vladimir.
1174 - Murder of Andrei Bogolyubsky. The first mention of the name "nobles" in the chronicles.
1174-1176 - Reign of Grand Duke Mikhail Yuryevich. Civil strife and uprisings of townspeople in the Vladimir-Suzdal principality.
1176-1212 - Reign of Grand Duke Vsevolod Big Nest. The heyday of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus'.
1176 - War of the Rus with the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. The clash between the Rus and the Estonians.
1180 - Beginning of civil strife and collapse of the Smolensk Principality. Civil strife between the Chernigov and Ryazan princes.
1183-1184 - Great campaign of the Vladimir-Suzdal princes under the leadership of Vsevolod Great nest on the Volga Bulgars. Successful campaign of the princes of Southern Rus' against the Polovtsians.
1185 - Unsuccessful campaign of Prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the Polovtsians.
1186-1187 - Internecine struggle between the Ryazan princes.
1188 - Attack of the Novgorodians on German merchants in Novotorzhka.
1189-1192 - 3rd Crusade
1191 - Campaigns of the Novgorodians with Koreloya to the pit.
1193 - Unsuccessful campaign of the Novgorodians against Ugra.
1195 - The first known trade agreement between Novgorod and German cities.
1196 - Recognition of Novgorod liberties by the princes. Vsevolod's Big Nest march to Chernigov.
1198 - Conquest of the Udmurts by the Novgorodians. Relocation of the Teutonic Order of Crusaders from Palestine to the Baltic states. Pope Celestine III proclaims the Northern Crusade.
1199 - Formation of the Galician-Volyn principality through the unification of the Galician and Volyn principalities. The rise of Roman Mstislavich the Great Foundation of the Riga fortress by Bishop Albrecht. Establishment of the Order of the Swordsmen for the Christianization of Livonia (modern Latvia and Estonia)
1202-1224 - Capture of Russian possessions in the Baltic states by the Order of the Swordsmen. The Order's struggle with Novgorod, Pskov and Polotsk for Livonia.
1207 - Separation of the Rostov Principality from the Vladimir Principality. Unsuccessful defense of the Kukonas fortress in the middle reaches of the Western Dvina by Prince Vyacheslav Borisovich (“Vyachko”), grandson of the Smolensk prince Davyd Rostislavich.
1209 - First mention in the chronicle of Tver (according to V.N. Tatishchev, Tver was founded in 1181).
1212-1216 - 1st reign of Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich. Internecine struggle with brother Konstantin Rostovsky. Defeat of Yuri Vsevolodovich in the battle on the Lipitsa River near the city of Yuryev-Polsky.
1216-1218 - Reign of Grand Duke Konstantin Vsevolodovich of Rostov.
1218-1238 - 2nd reign of Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich (1238x) 1219 - foundation of the city of Revel (Kolyvan, Tallinn)
1220-1221 - Campaign of Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich to Volga Bulgaria, seizure of lands in the lower reaches of the Oka. Founding of Nizhny Novgorod (1221) in the land of the Mordovians as an outpost against Volga Bulgaria. 1219-1221 - Genghis Khan's capture of the states of Central Asia
1221 - Yuri Vsevolodovich's campaign against the crusaders, unsuccessful siege of the Riga fortress.
1223 - Defeat of the coalition of Polovtsians and Russian princes in the battle with the Mongols on the Kalka River. Yuri Vsevolodovich's campaign against the crusaders.
1224 - Capture of Yuryev (Dorpt, modern Tartu) by the knights-swords, the main Russian fortress in the Baltic states.
1227 - The campaign was carried out. Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich and other princes to the Mordovians. Death of Genghis Khan, proclamation of Batu as the Great Khan of the Mongol-Tatars.
1232 - Campaign of the Suzdal, Ryazan and Murom princes against Mordovians.
1233 - Attempt of the Knights of the Sword to take the Izborsk fortress.
1234 - Victory of the Novgorod prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich over the Germans near Yuryev and the conclusion of peace with them. Suspension of the advance of the swordsmen to the east.
1236-1249 - Reign of Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky in Novgorod.
1236 - the defeat of the Volga Bulgaria and the Volga tribes by the great Khan Batu.
1236 - defeat of the troops of the Order of the Sword by the Lithuanian prince Mindaugas. Death of the Grand Master of the Order.
1237-1238 - Invasion of the Mongol-Tatars in North-Eastern Rus'. The destruction of the cities of Ryazan and Vladimir-Suzdal principalities.
1237 - defeat of the troops of the Teutonic Order by Daniil Romanovich of Galicia. Merger of the remnants of the Order of the Sword and the Teutonic Order. Formation of the Livonian Order.
1238 - Defeat of the troops of the princes of North-Eastern Rus' in the battle on the Sit River (March 4, 1238). Death of Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich. Separation of the Belozersky and Suzdal principalities from the Vladimir-Suzdal principality.
1238-1246 - Reign of Grand Duke Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich..
1239 - Devastation of the Mordovian lands, Chernigov and Pereyaslav principalities by Tatar-Mongol troops.
1240 - Invasion of the Mongol-Tatars in Southern Rus'. The devastation of Kiev (1240) and the Galician-Volyn principality. Victory of the Novgorod prince Alexander Yaroslavich over the Swedish army in the battle on the Neva River (“Battle of the Neva”)..
1240-1241 - Invasion of the Teutonic knights into the lands of Pskov and Novgorod, their capture of Pskov, Izborsk, Luga;
Construction of the Koporye fortress (now a village in the Lomonosov district of the Leningrad region).
1241-1242 - Expulsion of the Teutonic knights by Alexander Nevsky, liberation of Pskov and other cities. Invasion of the Mongol-Tatars in Eastern Europe. The defeat of the Hungarian troops on the river. Solenaya (04/11/1241), devastation of Poland, fall of Krakow.
1242 - Victory of Alexander Nevsky over the knights of the Teutonic Order in the battle of Lake Peipsi (“Battle of the Ice”). Making peace with Livonia on the terms of its renunciation of claims to Russian lands. Defeat of the Mongol-Tatars from the Czechs in the Battle of Olomouc. Completion of the "Great Western Campaign".
1243 - Arrival of Russian princes at Batu's headquarters. Announcement of Prince Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich as “the oldest” Formation of the “Golden Horde”
1245 - Battle of Yaroslavl (Galitsky) - the last battle of Daniil Romanovich Galitsky in the struggle for possession of the Galician principality.
1246-1249 - Reign of Grand Duke Svyatoslav III Vsevolodovich 1246 - Death of the Great Khan Batu
1249-1252 - Reign of Grand Duke Andrei Yaroslavich.
1252 - The devastating "Nevryuev's army" to the Vladimir-Suzdal land.
1252-1263 - Reign of Grand Duke Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky. The campaign of Prince Alexander Nevsky at the head of the Novgorodians to Finland (1256).
1252-1263 - reign of the first Lithuanian prince Mindovg Ringoldovich.
1254 - foundation of the city of Saray - the capital of the Golden Horde. The struggle of Novgorod and Sweden for Southern Finland.
1257-1259 - The first Mongol census of the population of Rus', the creation of a Baska system for collecting tribute. The uprising of the townspeople in Novgorod (1259) against the Tatar "numerals".
1261 - Establishment of the Orthodox diocese in the city of Saray.
1262 - Uprisings of the townspeople of Rostov, Suzdal, Vladimir and Yaroslavl against Muslim tax farmers and tribute collectors. The assignment of collecting tribute to the Russian princes.
1263-1272 - Reign of Grand Duke Yaroslav III Yaroslavich.
1267 - Genoa receives the khan's label for ownership of Kafa (Feodosia) in Crimea. The beginning of the Genoese colonization of the coast of the Azov and Black Seas. Formation of colonies in Kafa, Matrega (Tmutarakan), Mapa (Anapa), Tanya (Azov).
1268 - Joint campaign of the Vladimir-Suzdal princes, Novgorodians and Pskovites to Livonia, their victory at Rakovor.
1269 - Siege of Pskov by the Livonians, conclusion of peace with Livonia and stabilization of the western border of Pskov and Novgorod.
1272-1276 - Reign of Grand Duke Vasily Yaroslavich 1275 - campaign of the Tatar-Mongol army against Lithuania
1272-1303 - Reign of Daniil Alexandrovich in Moscow. Foundation of the Moscow dynasty of princes.
1276 Second Mongolian census of Rus'.
1276-1294 - Reign of Grand Duke Dmitry Alexandrovich of Pereyaslavl.
1288-1291 - struggle for the throne in the Golden Horde
1292 - Invasion of the Tatars led by Tudan (Deden).
1293-1323 - War of Novgorod with Sweden for the Karelian Isthmus.
1294-1304 - Reign of Grand Duke Andrei Alexandrovich Gorodetsky.
1299 - Transfer of the metropolitan see from Kyiv to Vladimir by Metropolitan Maxim.
1300-1301 - Construction of the Landskrona fortress on the Neva by the Swedes and its destruction by the Novgorodians led by Grand Duke Andrei Alexandrovich Gorodetsky.
1300 - Victory of Moscow Prince Daniil Alexandrovich over Ryazan. Annexation of Kolomna to Moscow.
1302 - Annexation of the Pereyaslav Principality to Moscow.
1303-1325 - Reign of Prince Yuri Daniilovich in Moscow. Conquest of the Mozhaisk appanage principality by Prince Yuri of Moscow (1303). The beginning of the struggle between Moscow and Tver.
1304-1319 - Reign of Grand Duke Mikhail II Yaroslavich of Tver (1319x). Construction (1310) by the Novgorodians of the Korela fortress (Kexgolm, modern Priozersk). Reign of Grand Duke Gediminas in Lithuania. Annexation of the Polotsk and Turov-Pinsk principalities to Lithuania
1308-1326 - Peter - Metropolitan of All Rus'.
1312-1340 - reign of Uzbek Khan in the Golden Horde. The rise of the Golden Horde.
1319-1322 - Reign of Grand Duke Yuri Daniilovich of Moscow (1325x).
1322-1326 - Reign of Grand Duke Dmitry Mikhailovich Terrible Eyes (1326x).
1323 - Construction of the Russian fortress Oreshek at the source of the Neva River.
1324 - Campaign of the Moscow prince Yuri Daniilovich with the Novgorodians to the Northern Dvina and Ustyug.
1325 - Tragic death in the Golden Horde of Yuri Daniilovich of Moscow. Victory of Lithuanian troops over the people of Kiev and Smolensk.
1326 - Transfer of the metropolitan see from Vladimir to Moscow by Metropolitan Theognostus.
1326-1328 - Reign of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich Tverskoy (1339x).
1327 - Uprising in Tver against the Mongol-Tatars. The flight of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich from the punitive army of the Mongol-Tatars.

Rus' Moscow

1328-1340 - Reign of Grand Duke Ivan I Danilovich Kalita. Transfer of the capital of Rus' from Vladimir to Moscow.
The division of the Vladimir principality by Khan Uzbek between Grand Duke Ivan Kalita and Prince Alexander Vasilyevich of Suzdal.
1331 - Unification of the Vladimir principality by Grand Duke Ivan Kalita under his rule..
1339 - The tragic death of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Tverskoy in the Golden Horde. Construction of a wooden Kremlin in Moscow.
1340 - Founding of the Trinity Monastery by Sergius of Radonezh (Trinity-Sergius Lavra) Death of Uzbek, Great Khan of the Golden Horde
1340-1353 - Reign of Grand Duke Simeon Ivanovich Proud 1345-1377 - Reign of Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd Gediminovich. Annexation of Kyiv, Chernigov, Volyn and Podolsk lands to Lithuania.
1342 - Nizhny Novgorod, Unzha and Gorodets joined the Suzdal principality. Formation of the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod principality.
1348-1349 - Crusades of the Swedish king Magnus I in the Novgorod lands and his defeat. Novgorod recognizes the independence of Pskov. Bolotovsky Treaty (1348).
1353-1359 - Reign of Grand Duke Ivan II Ivanovich the Meek.
1354-1378 - Alexey - Metropolitan of All Rus'.
1355 - Division of the Principality of Suzdal between Andrei (Nizhny Novgorod) and Dmitry (Suzdal) Konstantinovich.
1356 - subjugation of the Bryansk principality by Olgerd
1358-1386 - Reign of Svyatoslav Ioannovich in Smolensk and his struggle with Lithuania.
1359-1363 - Reign of Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal. The struggle for the great reign between Moscow and Suzdal.
1361 - seizure of power in the Golden Horde by Temnik Mamai
1363-1389 - Reign of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy.
1363 - Olgerd's campaign to the Black Sea, his victory over the Tatars on the Blue Waters (a tributary of the Southern Bug), the subordination of the Kyiv land and Podolia to Lithuania
1367 - Mikhail Alexandrovich Mikulinsky came to power in Tver with the help of the Lithuanian army. Worsening relations between Moscow and Tver and Lithuania. Construction of the white stone walls of the Kremlin.
1368 - Olgerd’s 1st campaign against Moscow (“Lithuanianism”).
1370 - Olgerd’s 2nd campaign against Moscow.
1375 - Dmitry Donskoy's campaign against Tver.
1377 - Defeat of the troops of Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod from the Tatar prince Arab Shah (Arapsha) on the Pyana River Unification of Mamai uluses west of the Volga
1378 - Victory of the Moscow-Ryazan army over the Tatar army of Begich on the Vozha River.
1380 - Mamai’s campaign against Rus' and his defeat in the Battle of Kulikovo. The defeat of Mamai by Khan Tokhtamysh on the Kalka River.
1382 - Tokhtamysh’s campaign against Moscow and the destruction of Moscow. The destruction of the Ryazan principality by the Moscow army.
OK. 1382 - Coin minting begins in Moscow.
1383 - Annexation of the Vyatka land to the Nizhny Novgorod principality. Death of the former Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal.
1385 - Judicial reform in Novgorod. Declaration of independence from the metropolitan court. Dmitry Donskoy's unsuccessful campaign against Murom and Ryazan. Krevo Union of Lithuania and Poland.
1386-1387 - Campaign of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy at the head of a coalition of Vladimir princes to Novgorod. Payments of indemnity by Novgorod. Defeat of the Smolensk prince Svyatoslav Ivanovich in the battle with the Lithuanians (1386).
1389 - The appearance of firearms in Rus'.
1389-1425 - Reign of Grand Duke Vasily I Dmitrievich, for the first time without the sanction of the Horde.
1392 - Annexation of the Nizhny Novgorod and Murom principalities to Moscow.
1393 - Campaign of the Moscow army led by Yuri Zvenigorodsky to the Novgorod lands.
1395 - Defeat of the Golden Horde by the troops of Tamerlane. Establishment of vassal dependence of the Smolensk Principality on Lithuania.
1397-1398 - Campaign of the Moscow army to the Novgorod lands. Annexation of Novgorod possessions (Bezhetsky Verkh, Vologda, Ustyug and Komi lands) to Moscow, return of the Dvina land to Novgorod. Conquest of the Dvina land by the Novgorod army.
1399-1400 - Campaign of the Moscow army led by Yuri Zvenigorodsky to the Kama against the Nizhny Novgorod princes who took refuge in Kazan 1399 - victory of Khan Timur-Kutlug over the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vitovt Keistutovich.
1400-1426 - Reign of Prince Ivan Mikhailovich in Tver, strengthening of Tver 1404 - capture of Smolensk and the Smolensk principality by the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vitovt Keistutovich
1402 - Annexation of the Vyatka land to Moscow.
1406-1408 - War of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily I with Vitovt Keistutovich.
1408 - March on Moscow by Emir Edigei.
1410 - Death of Prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave Battle of Grunwald. The Polish-Lithuanian-Russian army of Jogaila and Vytautas defeated the knights of the Teutonic Order
OK. 1418 - Popular uprising against the boyars in Novgorod.
OK. 1420 - Beginning of coinage in Novgorod.
1422 - Peace of Melno, agreement between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland with the Teutonic Order (concluded on September 27, 1422 on the shore of Lake Mielno). The Order finally abandoned Samogitia and Lithuanian Zanemanje, retaining the Klaipeda region and Polish Pomerania.
1425-1462 - Reign of Grand Duke Vasily II Vasilyevich the Dark.
1425-1461 - Reign of Prince Boris Alexandrovich in Tver. An attempt to enhance the significance of Tver.
1426-1428 - Campaigns of Vytautas of Lithuania against Novgorod and Pskov.
1427 - Recognition of vassal dependence on Lithuania by the Tver and Ryazan principalities. 1430 - death of Vytautas of Lithuania. The beginning of the decline of the Lithuanian great power
1425-1453 - Internecine war in Rus' between Grand Duke Vasily II the Dark with Yuri Zvenigorodsky, cousins ​​Vasily Kosy and Dmitry Shemyaka.
1430 - 1432 - struggle in Lithuania between Svidrigail Olgerdovich, representing the “Russian” party, and Sigismund, representing the “Lithuanian” party.
1428 - Raid of the Horde army on the Kostroma lands - Galich Mersky, destruction and robbery of Kostroma, Ples and Lukh.
1432 - Trial in the Horde between Vasily II and Yuri Zvenigorodsky (on the initiative of Yuri Dmitrievich). Confirmation of Grand Duke Vasily II.
1433-1434 - Capture of Moscow and the great reign of Yuri of Zvenigorod.
1437 - Ulu-Muhammad's campaign to the Zaoksky lands. Battle of Belevskaya December 5, 1437 (defeat of the Moscow army).
1439 - Basil II refuses to accept the Florentine Union with the Roman Catholic Church. The campaign of the Kazan Khan Makhmet (Ulu-Muhammad) to Moscow.
1438 - separation of the Kazan Khanate from the Golden Horde. The beginning of the collapse of the Golden Horde.
1440 - Recognition of the independence of Pskov by Casimir of Lithuania.
1444-1445 - Raid of the Kazan Khan Makhmet (Ulu-Muhammad) on Ryazan, Murom and Suzdal.
1443 - separation of the Crimean Khanate from the Golden Horde
1444-1448 - War of Livonia with Novgorod and Pskov. The campaign of Tver residents to the Novgorod lands.
1446 - Transfer to Moscow service of Kasim Khan, brother of the Kazan Khan. The blinding of Vasily II by Dmitry Shemyaka.
1448 - Election of Jonah as Metropolitan at the Council of the Russian Clergy. Signing of a 25-year peace between Pskov and Novgorod and Livonia.
1449 - Agreement between Grand Duke Vasily II the Dark and Casimir of Lithuania. Recognition of the independence of Novgorod and Pskov.
OK. 1450 - First mention of St. George's Day.
1451 - Annexation of the Suzdal Principality to Moscow. The campaign of Mahmut, the son of Kichi-Muhammad, to Moscow. He burned the settlements, but the Kremlin did not take them.
1456 - The campaign of Grand Duke Vasily II the Dark against Novgorod, the defeat of the Novgorod army near Staraya Russa. Yazhelbitsky Treaty of Novgorod with Moscow. The first restriction of Novgorod liberties. 1454-1466 - The Thirteen Years' War between Poland and the Teutonic Order, which ended with the recognition of the Teutonic Order as a vassal of the Polish king.
1458 The final division of the Kyiv Metropolis into Moscow and Kyiv. The refusal of the church council in Moscow to recognize Metropolitan Gregory sent from Rome and the decision to henceforth appoint a metropolitan by the will of the Grand Duke and the council without approval in Constantinople.
1459 - Subordination of Vyatka to Moscow.
1459 - Separation of the Astrakhan Khanate from the Golden Horde
1460 - Truce between Pskov and Livonia for 5 years. Recognition of Moscow's sovereignty by Pskov.
1462 - Death of Grand Duke Vasily II the Dark.

Russian state (Russian centralized state)

1462-1505 - Reign of Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilyevich.
1462 - Ivan III stopped issuing Russian coins with the name of the Khan of the Horde. Statement by Ivan III on the renunciation of the khan's label for the great reign..
1465 - Scriba's detachment reaches the Ob River.
1466-1469 - Travel of the Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin to India.
1467-1469 - campaigns of the Moscow army against the Kazan Khanate..
1468 - Campaign of Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat to Ryazan.
1471 - 1st campaign of Grand Duke Ivan III against Novgorod, defeat of the Novgorod army on the Sheloni River. Horde campaign to the Moscow borders in the Trans-Oka region.
1472 - Annexation of the Perm land (Great Perm) to Moscow.
1474 - Annexation of the Rostov Principality to Moscow. Conclusion of a 30-year truce between Moscow and Livonia. The conclusion of the alliance of the Crimean Khanate and Moscow against the Great Horde and Lithuania.
1475 - capture of Crimea by Turkish troops. The transition of the Crimean Khanate into vassal dependence on Turkey.
1478 - 2nd campaign of Grand Duke Ivan III to Novgorod.
Elimination of independence of Novgorod.
1480 - “Great Stand” on the Ugra River of Russian and Tatar troops. Ivan III's refusal to pay tribute to the Horde. The end of the Horde yoke.
1483 - The campaign of the Moscow governor F. Kurbsky in the Trans-Urals on the Irtysh to the city of Isker, then down the Irtysh to the Ob in the Ugra land. Conquest of the Pelym Principality.
1485 - Annexation of the Tver Principality to Moscow.
1487-1489 - Conquest of the Kazan Khanate. Capture of Kazan (1487), adoption by Ivan III of the title "Grand Duke of the Bulgars". Moscow's protégé, Khan Mohammed-Emin, was elevated to the Kazan throne. Introduction of a local land tenure system.
1489 - March on Vyatka and the final annexation of the Vyatka land to Moscow. Annexation of Arsk land (Udmurtia).
1491 - “Campaign into the Wild Field” of a 60,000-strong Russian army to help the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey against the khans of the Great Horde. The Kazan Khan Muhammad-Emin joins the campaign to attack the flank.
1492 - Superstitious expectations of the “end of the world” in connection with the end (March 1) of the 7th millennium “from the creation of the world.” September - decision of the Moscow Church Council to postpone the start of the year to September 1. The first use of the title "autocrat" was in a message to Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilyevich. Foundation of the Ivangorod fortress on the Narva River.
1492-1494 - 1st war of Ivan III with Lithuania. Annexation of Vyazma and the Verkhovsky principalities to Moscow.
1493 - Treaty of Ivan III on an alliance with Denmark against the Hansa and Sweden. Denmark cedes its possessions in Finland in exchange for the cessation of Hanseatic trade in Novgorod.
1495 - separation of the Siberian Khanate from the Golden Horde. Collapse of the Golden Horde
1496-1497 - War of Moscow with Sweden.
1496-1502 - reign in Kazan of Abdyl-Letif (Abdul-Latif) under the protectorate of Grand Duke Ivan III
1497 - Code of Law of Ivan III. The first Russian embassy in Istanbul
1499 -1501 - Campaign of the Moscow governors F. Kurbsky and P. Ushaty to the Northern Trans-Urals and the lower reaches of the Ob.
1500-1503 - 2nd war of Ivan III with Lithuania for the Verkhovsky principalities. Annexation of the Seversk land to Moscow.
1501 - Formation of a coalition of Lithuania, Livonia and the Great Horde, directed against Moscow, Crimea and Kazan. On August 30, the 20,000-strong army of the Great Horde began the devastation of the Kursk land, approaching Rylsk, and by November it reached the Bryansk and Novgorod-Seversky lands. The Tatars captured the city of Novgorod-Seversky, but did not go further to the Moscow lands.
1501-1503 - War between Russia and the Livonian Order.
1502 - The final defeat of the Great Horde by the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey, the transfer of its territory to the Crimean Khanate
1503 - Annexation of half of the Ryazan principality (including Tula) to Moscow. Truce with Lithuania and annexation of Chernigov, Bryansk and Gomel (almost a third of the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) to Russia. Truce between Russia and Livonia.
1505 - Anti-Russian uprising in Kazan. The beginning of the Kazan-Russian War (1505-1507).
1505-1533 - Reign of Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich.
1506 - Unsuccessful siege of Kazan.
1507 - First raid of the Crimean Tatars on the southern borders of Russia.
1507-1508 - War between Russia and Lithuania.
1508 - Conclusion of a peace treaty with Sweden for 60 years.
1510 - Elimination of independence of Pskov.
1512-1522 - War between Russia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
1517-1519 - Publishing activity of Francis Skaryna in Prague. Skaryna publishes a translation from Church Slavonic into Russian - “The Russian Bible”.
1512 - "Eternal Peace" with Kazan. Unsuccessful siege of Smolensk.
1513 - Accession of the Volotsk inheritance to the Moscow Principality.
1514 - Capture of Smolensk by the troops of Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich and annexation of the Smolensk lands.
1515, April - Death of the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey, a longtime ally of Ivan III;
1519 - Campaign of the Russian army to Vilna (Vilnius).
1518 - Moscow’s protégé, Khan (Tsar) Shah-Ali, came to power in Kazan
1520 - Conclusion of a truce with Lithuania for 5 years.
1521 - Campaign of the Crimean and Kazan Tatars led by Muhammad-Girey (Magmet-Girey), Khan of Crimea and Kazan Khan Saip-Girey (Sahib-Girey) to Moscow. Siege of Moscow by the Crimeans. Complete annexation of the Ryazan principality to Moscow. Seizure of the throne of the Kazan Khanate by the dynasty of the Crimean khans Giray (Khan Sahib-Girey).
1522 - Arrest of Novgorod-Seversk Prince Vasily Shemyachich. Annexation of the Novgorod-Seversky Principality to Moscow.
1523-1524 - 2nd Kazan-Russian War.
1523 - Anti-Russian protests in Kazan. The march of Russian troops into the lands of the Kazan Khanate. Construction of the Vasilsursk fortress on the Sura River. Capture of Astrakhan by Crimean troops..
1524 - New Russian campaign against Kazan. Peace negotiations between Moscow and Kazan. Proclamation of Safa-Girey as king of Kazan.
1529 - Russian-Kazan Peace Treaty Siege of Vienna by the Turks
1530 - Campaign of the Russian army to Kazan.
1533-1584 - Reign of the Grand Duke and Tsar (from 1547) Ivan IV Vasilyevich the Terrible.
1533-1538 - Regency of the mother of Grand Duke Ivan IV Vasilyevich Elena Glinskaya (1538+).
1538-1547 - Boyar rule under the infant Grand Duke Ivan IV Vasilyevich (until 1544 - Shuiskys, from 1544 - Glinskys)
1544-1546 - Annexation of the lands of the Mari and Chuvash to Russia, campaign in the lands of the Kazan Khanate.
1547 - Grand Duke Ivan IV Vasilyevich accepted the royal title (coronation). Fires and civil unrest in Moscow.
1547-1549 - Political program of Ivan Peresvetov: the creation of a permanent Streltsy army, the support of royal power on the nobles, the seizure of the Kazan Khanate and the distribution of its lands to the nobles.
1547-1550 - Unsuccessful campaigns (1547-1548, 1549-1550) of Russian troops against Kazan. Campaign of the Crimean Khan against Astrakhan. Construction of a protege of Crimea in Astrakhan
1549 - First news of Cossack towns on the Don. Formation of the embassy order. Convening of the first Zemsky Sobor.
1550 - Sudebnik (code of laws) of Ivan the Terrible.
1551 - "Stoglavy" Cathedral. Approval of the reform program (with the exception of the secularization of church lands and the introduction of a secular court for clergy). 3rd Kazan campaign of Ivan the Terrible.
1552 - 4th (Great) campaign of Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich to Kazan. Unsuccessful campaign of the Crimean troops to Tula. Siege and capture of Kazan. Liquidation of the Kazan Khanate.
1552-1558 - Subjugation of the territory of the Kazan Khanate.
1553 - Unsuccessful campaign of the 120,000-strong army of Prince Yusuf of the Nogai Horde against Moscow..
1554 - 1st campaign of Russian governors to Astrakhan.
1555 - Abolition of feedings (completion of the provincial and zemstvo reforms) Recognition of vassal dependence on Russia by the Khan of the Siberian Khanate Ediger
1555-1557 - War between Russia and Sweden.
1555-1560 - Campaigns of Russian governors to Crimea.
1556 - Capture of Astrakhan and annexation of the Astrakhan Khanate to Russia. The transition of the entire Volga region to Russian rule. Adoption of the “Code of Service” - regulation of the service of nobles and local salary standards. Disintegration of the Nogai Horde into the Greater, Lesser and Altyul Horde..
1557 - The oath of allegiance of the ambassadors of the ruler of Kabarda to the Russian Tsar. Recognition of vassal dependence on Russia by Prince Ismail of the Great Nogai Horde. The transition of the western and central Bashkir tribes (subjects of the Nogai Horde) to the Russian Tsar.
1558-1583 - Russian Livonian War for access to the Baltic Sea and for the lands of Livonia.
1558 - Capture of Narva and Dorpat by Russian troops.
1559 - Truce with Livonia. D. Ardashev's campaign to Crimea. Transition of Livonia under the protectorate of Poland.
1560 - Victory of the Russian army at Ermes, capture of Fellin castle. The victory of A. Kurbsky was won by the Livonians near Wenden. The fall of the government of the Chosen Rada, A. Adashev fell from grace. Transition of Northern Livonia to Swedish citizenship.
1563 - Capture of Polotsk by Tsar Ivan IV Seizure of power in the Siberian Khanate by Kuchum. Severance of vassal relations with Russia
1564 - Publication of "Apostle" by Ivan Fedorov.
1565 - Introduction of oprichnina by Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. The beginning of oprichnina persecution 1563-1570 - Northern Seven Years' War of the Danish-Swedish War for dominance in the Baltic Sea. The Peace of Stettin 1570 largely restored the status quo.
1566 - Completion of the construction of the Great Zasechnaya Line (Ryazan-Tula-Kozelsk and Alatyr-Temnikov-Shatsk-Ryazhsk). The city of Orel was founded.
1567 - Union of Russia and Sweden. Construction of the Terki fortress (Tersky town) at the confluence of the Terek and Sunzha rivers. The beginning of Russia's advance into the Caucasus.
1568-1569 - Mass executions in Moscow. Destruction by order of Ivan the Terrible of the last appanage prince Andrei Vladimirovich Staritsky. Conclusion of peace agreements between Turkey and Crimea with Poland and Lithuania. The beginning of the openly hostile policy of the Ottoman Empire towards Russia
1569 - Campaign of the Crimean Tatars and Turks to Astrakhan, unsuccessful siege of Astrakhan Union of Lublin - Formation of a single Polish-Lithuanian state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
1570 - Punitive campaigns of Ivan the Terrible against Tver, Novgorod and Pskov. The devastation of the Ryazan land by the Crimean Khan Davlet-Girey. The beginning of the Russian-Swedish war. Unsuccessful siege of Revel Formation of the vassal kingdom of Magnus (brother of the King of Denmark) in Livonia.
1571 - Campaign of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey to Moscow. Capture and burning of Moscow. Flight of Ivan the Terrible to Serpukhov, Alexandrov Sloboda, then to Rostov..
1572 - Negotiations between Ivan the Terrible and Devlet-Girey. A new campaign of the Crimean Tatars against Moscow. Victory of governor M.I. Vorotynsky on the Lopasna river. Retreat of Khan Devlet-Girey. Abolition of the oprichnina by Ivan the Terrible. Execution of oprichnina leaders.
1574 - Founding of the city of Ufa;.
1575-1577 - Campaigns of Russian troops in Northern Livonia and Livonia.
1575-1576 - Nominal reign of Simeon Bekbulatovich (1616+), Kasimov Khan, proclaimed by Ivan the Terrible "Grand Duke of All Rus'".
1576 - Founding of Samara. Capture of a number of strongholds in Livonia (Pernov (Pärnu), Venden, Paidu, etc.) Election of the Turkish protege Stefan Batory to the Polish throne (1586+).
1577 - Unsuccessful siege of Revel.
1579 - Capture of Polotsk and Velikiye Luki by Stefan Batory.
1580s - First news of Cossack towns on Yaik.
1580 - 2nd campaign of Stefan Batory to Russian lands and his capture of Velikiye Luki. Capture of Korela by the Swedish commander Delagardi. The decision of the church council to prohibit the acquisition of land by churches and monasteries.
1581 - Capture of the Russian fortresses of Narva and Ivangorod by Swedish troops. Cancellation of St. George's Day. The first mention of “reserved” years. The murder of his eldest son Ivan by Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible.
1581-1582 - Stefan Batory’s siege of Pskov and its defense by I. Shuisky.
1581-1585 - The campaign of the Cossack ataman Ermak to Siberia and the defeat of the Siberian Khanate of Kuchum.
1582 - Yam-Zapolsky truce between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for 10 years. Transfer of Livonia and Polotsk into Polish possession. Relocation of part of the Don Cossacks to the Grebni tract in the North. Caucasus Bull of Pope Gregory XIII on calendar reform and the introduction of the Gregorian calendar.
1582-1584 - Mass uprisings of the peoples of the Middle Volga region (Tatars, Mari, Chuvash, Udmurts) against Moscow Introduction of a new calendar style in Catholic countries (Italy, Spain, Poland, France, etc.). "Calendar riots" in Riga (1584).
1583 - Plyus truce between Russia and Sweden for 10 years with the cession of Narva, Yama, Koporye, Ivangorod. The end of the Livonian War, which lasted (with interruptions) 25 years.
1584-1598 - Reign of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich 1586 - election of the Swedish prince Sigismund III Vasa as king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1632+)
1586-1618 - Annexation of Western Siberia to Russia. Founding of Tyumen (1586), Tobolsk (1587), Berezov (1593), Obdorsk (1595), Tomsk (1604).
OK. 1598 - death of Khan Kuchum. The power of his son Ali remains in the upper reaches of the Ishim, Irtysh, and Tobol rivers.
1587 - Renewal of relations between Georgia and Russia.
1589 - Founding of the Tsaritsyn fortress at the portage between the Don and Volga. Establishment of the patriarchate in Russia.
1590 - Founding of Saratov.
1590-1593 - Successful war between Russia and Sweden 1592 - King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Sigismund III Vasa came to power in Sweden. The beginning of Sigismund's struggle with another contender for the throne and relative Charles Vasa (the future king of Sweden Charles IX)
1591 - Death of Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich in Uglich, uprising of the townspeople.
1592-1593 - Decree on the exemption from duties and taxes of the lands of landowners performing military service and living on their estates (the appearance of “white lands”). Decree banning peasant exit. The final attachment of peasants to the land.
1595 - Treaty of Tyavzin with Sweden. Return to Russia the cities of Yam, Koporye, Ivangorod, Oreshek, Nyenshan. Recognition of Swedish control over Russia's Baltic trade.
1597 - Decree on indentured servants (lifetime of their condition without the possibility of paying off the debt, termination of service with the death of the master). Decree on a five-year period for searching for fugitive peasants (lesson years).
1598 - Death of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. The end of the Rurik dynasty. Adoption of the Babinovskaya road as the official government route to Siberia (instead of the old Cherdynskaya road).

Time of Troubles

1598-1605 - Reign of Tsar Boris Godunov.
1598 - Active construction of cities in Siberia begins.
1601-1603 - Famine in Russia. Partial restoration of St. George's Day and limited output of peasants.
1604 - Construction of the Tomsk fortress by a detachment from Surgut at the request of the prince of the Tomsk Tatars. The appearance of the impostor False Dmitry in Poland, his campaign at the head of the Cossacks and mercenaries against Moscow.
1605 - Reign of Tsar Fyodor Borisovich Godunov (1605x).
1605-1606 - Reign of the impostor False Dmitry I
Preparation of a new Code allowing peasant exit.
1606 - Conspiracy of the boyars led by Prince V.I. Shuisky. Overthrow and murder of False Dmitry I. Proclamation of V.I. Shuisky as king.
1606-1610 - Reign of Tsar Vasily IV Ivanovich Shuisky.
1606-1607 - Rebellion of I.I. Bolotnikov and Lyapunov under the motto “Tsar Dmitry!”
1606 - Appearance of the impostor False Dmitry II.
1607 - Decrees on “voluntary slaves”, on a 15-year period for searching for runaway peasants and on sanctions for the reception and retention of runaway peasants. Cancellation of the reforms of Godunov and False Dmitry I.
1608 - Victory of False Dmitry II over government troops led by D.I. Shuisky near Bolkhov.
Creation of the Tushino camp near Moscow..
1608-1610 - Unsuccessful siege of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery by Polish and Lithuanian troops.
1609 - Appeal for help (February) against False Dmitry II to the Swedish king Charles IX at the cost of territorial concessions. Advance of Swedish troops to Novgorod. Entry of the Polish king Sigismund III into the Russian state (September). The beginning of the Polish intervention in Russia. Naming Metropolitan Philaret (Fedor Nikitich Romanov) patriarch in the Tushino camp. Confusion in the Tushino camp. Flight of False Dmitry II.
1609-1611 - Siege of Smolensk by Polish troops.
1610 - Battle of Klushin (June 24) between Russian and Polish troops. Liquidation of the Tushino camp. A new attempt by False Dmitry II to organize a campaign against Moscow. Death of False Dmitry II. Removal of Vasily Shuisky from the throne. The entry of the Poles into Moscow.
1610-1613 - Interregnum (“Seven Boyars”).
1611 - Defeat of Lyapunov's militia. The fall of Smolensk after a two-year siege. Captivity of Patriarch Filaret, V.I. Shuisky and others.
1611-1617 - Swedish intervention in Russia;.
1612 - Gathering of a new militia of Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky. Liberation of Moscow, defeat of Polish troops. Death of the former Tsar Vasily Shuisky in captivity in Poland.
1613 - Convening of the Zemsky Sobor in Moscow. Election of Mikhail Romanov to the throne.
1613-1645 - Reign of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov.
1615-1616 - Liquidation of the Cossack movement of Ataman Balovnya.
1617 - Peace of Stolbovo with Sweden. The return of Novgorod lands to Russia, the loss of access to the Baltic - the cities of Korela (Kexholm), Koporye, Oreshek, Yam, Ivangorod went to Sweden.
1618 - Deulin truce with Poland. Transfer of Smolensk lands (including Smolensk), except for Vyazma, Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversk lands with 29 cities to Poland. Refusal of the prince of Poland Vladislav from claims to the Russian throne. Election of Filaret (Fedor Nikitich Romanov) as Patriarch.
1619-1633 - Patriarchate and reign of Filaret (Fedor Nikitich Romanov).
1620-1624 - Beginning of Russian penetration into Eastern Siberia. Hiking to the Lena River and up the Lena to the land of the Buryats.
1621 - Establishment of the Siberian diocese.
1632 - Organization of troops of a “foreign system” in the Russian army. Founding of the first ironworks in Tula by A. Vinius. The war between Russia and Poland for the return of Smolensk. Foundation of the Yakut fort (in its present location since 1643) 1630-1634 - Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War, when the Swedish army, having invaded Germany (under the command of Gustav II Adolf), won victories at Breitenfeld (1631), Lützen (1632), but was defeated at Nördlingen (1634).
1633-1638 - Campaign of the Cossacks I. Perfilyev and I. Rebrov from the lower reaches of the Lena to the Yana and Indigirka rivers 1635-1648 - Franco-Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War, when with the entry of France into the war the clear superiority of the anti-Habsburg coalition was determined. As a result, the Habsburg plans collapsed, and political hegemony passed to France. Ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
1636 - Foundation of the Tambov fortress.
1637 - Capture of the Turkish fortress of Azov at the mouth of the Don by the Don Cossacks.
1638 - Hetman Ya. Ostranin, who rebelled against the Poles, moved with his army to Russian territory. The formation of suburban Ukraine began (regions of Kharkov, Kursk, etc. between the Don and Dnieper)
1638-1639 - Campaign of the Cossacks P. Ivanov from Yakutsk to the upper reaches of the Yana and Indigirka.
1639-1640 - Campaign of the Cossacks I. Moskvitin from Yakutsk to the Lamsky (Sea of ​​Okhotsk, access to the Pacific Ocean. Completion of the latitudinal crossing of Siberia, begun by Ermak.
1639 - Founding of the first glass factory in Russia.
1641 - Successful defense of the Azov fortress by the Don Cossacks at the mouth of the Don (“Azov Seat”).
1642 - Termination of the defense of the Azov fortress. The decision of the Zemsky Sobor to return Azov to Turkey. Registration of the noble military class.
1643 - Liquidation of the Koda Khanty principality on the right bank of the Ob. The sea voyage of the Cossacks, led by M. Starodukhin and D. Zdyryan, from Indigirka to Kolyma. The exit of Russian servicemen and industrial people to Baikal (K. Ivanov’s campaign) The discovery of Sakhalin by the Dutch navigator M. de Vries, who mistook Sakhalin Island for part of Hokkaido Island..
1643-1646 - V. Poyarkov’s campaign from Yakutsk to Aldan, Zeya, Amur to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.
1645-1676 - Reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov.
1646 - Replacement of direct taxes with a tax on salt. Cancellation of the salt tax and return to direct taxes due to mass unrest. Census of the draft and partly non-tax population.
1648-1654 - Construction of the Simbirsk abatis line (Simbirsk-Karsun-Saransk-Tambov). Construction of the Simbirsk fortress (1648).
1648 - S. Dezhnev’s voyage from the mouth of the Kolyma River to the mouth of the Anadyr River through the strait separating Eurasia from America. "Salt riot" in Moscow. Uprisings of citizens in Kursk, Yelets, Tomsk, Ustyug, etc. Concessions to the nobles: convening of the Zemsky Sobor to adopt a new Code, abolition of collection of arrears. The beginning of the uprising of B. Khmelnitsky against the Poles in Ukraine..
1649 - Cathedral Code of Alexei Mikhailovich. The final formalization of serfdom (the introduction of an indefinite search for fugitives), the liquidation of “white settlements” (feudal estates in cities exempt from taxes and duties). Legalization of the search for denunciation of intent against the Tsar or his insult (“The Sovereign’s Word and Deed”) Deprivation of the British trade privileges at the request of the Russian merchants..
1649-1652 - E. Khabarov’s campaigns on the Amur and Daurian land. The first clashes between the Russians and the Manchus. Creation of territorial regiments in Sloboda Ukraine (Ostrogozhsky, Akhtyrsky, Sumsky, Kharkovsky).
1651 - Beginning of church reform by Patriarch Nikon. Foundation of the German Settlement in Moscow.
1651-1660 - M. Stadukhin’s hike along the Anadyr-Okhotsk-Yakutsk route. Establishing a connection between the northern and southern routes to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.
1652-1656 - Construction of the Zakamskaya abatis line (Bely Yar - Menzelinsk).
1652-1667 - Clashes between secular and ecclesiastical authorities.
1653 - The decision of the Zemsky Sobor to accept the citizenship of Ukraine and the start of the war with Poland. Adoption of a trade charter regulating trade (a single trade duty, a ban on collecting travel duties in the possessions of secular and spiritual feudal lords, limiting peasant trade to trade from carts, increasing duties for foreign merchants).
1654-1667 - Russian-Polish war for Ukraine.
1654 - Approval of Nikon's reforms by the church council. The emergence of the Old Believers led by Archpriest Avvakum, the beginning of a schism in the church. Approval by the Pereyaslav Rada of the Zaporozhye Treaty of the Zaporozhye Treaty (01/8/1654) on the transition of Ukraine (Poltava, Kiev, Chernihiv, Podolia, Volyn) to Russia with the preservation of broad autonomy (inviolability of the rights of the Cossacks, election of a hetman, independent foreign policy, non-jurisdiction of Moscow, payment of tribute without interference Moscow collectors). Capture of Polotsk, Mogilev, Vitebsk, Smolensk by Russian troops
1655 - Capture of Minsk, Vilna, Grodno by Russian troops, access to Brest. Swedish invasion of Poland. Beginning of the first Northern War
1656 - Capture of Nyenskans and Dorpat. Siege of Riga. Armistice with Poland and declaration of war on Sweden.
1656-1658 - Russian-Swedish war for access to the Baltic Sea.
1657 - Death of B. Khmelnitsky. Election of I. Vyhovsky as hetman of Ukraine.
1658 - Nikon open conflict with Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Beginning of the issuance of copper money (payment of salaries in copper money and collection of taxes in silver). Termination of negotiations with Poland, resumption of the Russian-Polish war. Invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine Gadyach Treaty between Hetman of Ukraine Vyhovsky and Poland on the annexation of Ukraine as an autonomous “Russian principality” to Poland.
1659 - Defeat of Russian troops at Konotop from Hetman of Ukraine I. Vygovsky and the Crimean Tatars. Refusal of the Pereyaslav Rada to approve the Gadyach Treaty. Removal of Hetman I. Vygovsky and election of Hetman of Ukraine Yu. Khmelnytsky. Approval by the Rada of a new agreement with Russia. The defeat of Russian troops in Belarus, the betrayal of Hetman Yu. Khmelnitsky. The split of the Ukrainian Cossacks into supporters of Moscow and supporters of Poland.
1661 - Treaty of Kardis between Russia and Sweden. Russia's renunciation of the conquests of 1656, return to the conditions of the Stolbovo Peace of 1617 1660-1664 - Austro-Turkish War, division of the lands of the Kingdom of Hungary.
1662 - "Copper riot" in Moscow.
1663 - Founding of Penza. The split of Ukraine into the hetmanates of Right-Bank and Left-Bank Ukraine
1665 - Reforms of A. Ordin-Nashchekin in Pskov: establishment of merchant companies, introduction of elements of self-government. Strengthening Moscow's position in Ukraine.
1665-1677 - hetmanship of P. Doroshenko in Right Bank Ukraine.
1666 - Nikon was deprived of the rank of patriarch and the condemnation of the Old Believers by a church council. Construction of a new Albazin fort on the Amur by the rebel Ilim Cossacks (adopted into Russian citizenship in 1672)..
1667 - Construction of ships for the Caspian flotilla. New trading charter. Archpriest Avvakum's exile to the Pustozersky prison for "heresies" (criticism) of the country's rulers. A. Ordin-Nashchekin at the head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz (1667-1671). Conclusion of the Andrusovo truce with Poland by A. Ordin-Nashchekin. Implementation of the division of Ukraine between Poland and Russia (transition of Left Bank Ukraine under Russian rule).
1667-1676 - Solovetsky uprising of schismatic monks (“Solovetsky sitting”).
1669 - Hetman of Right Bank Ukraine P. Doroshenko comes under Turkish rule.
1670-1671 - Uprising of peasants and Cossacks led by Don Ataman S. Razin.
1672 - First self-immolation of schismatics (in Nizhny Novgorod). The first professional theater in Russia. Decree on the distribution of “wild fields” to servicemen and clergy in the “Ukrainian” regions. Russian-Polish agreement on assistance to Poland in the war with Turkey 1672-1676 - the war between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire for Right Bank Ukraine..
1673 - Campaign of Russian troops and Don Cossacks to Azov.
1673-1675 - Campaigns of Russian troops against Hetman P. Doroshenko (campaigns against Chigirin), defeat by Turkish and Crimean Tatar troops.
1675-1678 - Russian embassy mission to Beijing. The Qin government's refusal to consider Russia as an equal partner.
1676-1682 - Reign of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich Romanov.
1676-1681 - Russian-Turkish war for Right Bank Ukraine.
1676 - Russian troops occupy the capital of Right Bank Ukraine, Chigirin. Zhuravsky peace of Poland and Turkey: Türkiye receives Podolia, P. Doroshenko is recognized as a vassal of Turkey
1677 - Victory of Russian troops over the Turks near Chigirin.
1678 - Russian-Polish treaty extending the truce with Poland for 13 years. Agreement of the parties on the preparation of "eternal peace". Capture of Chigirin by the Turks
1679-1681 - Tax reform. Transition to household taxation instead of taxation.
1681-1683 - Seit uprising in Bashkiria due to forced Christianization. Suppression of the uprising with the help of Kalmyks.
1681 - Abolition of the Kasimov kingdom. Bakhchisarai peace treaty between Russia and Turkey and the Crimean Khanate. Establishment of the Russian-Turkish border along the Dnieper. Recognition of Left Bank Ukraine and Kyiv by Russia.
1682-1689 - Simultaneous reign of the princess-ruler Sofia Alekseevna and the kings Ivan V Alekseevich and Peter I Alekseevich.
1682-1689 - Armed conflict between Russia and China on the Amur.
1682 - Abolition of localism. The beginning of the Streltsy riot in Moscow. Establishment of the government of Princess Sophia. Suppression of the Streltsy revolt. Execution of Avvakum and his supporters in Pustozersk.
1683-1684 - Construction of the Syzran abatis line (Syzran-Penza).
1686 - “Eternal Peace” between Russia and Poland. Russia's accession to the anti-Turkish coalition of Poland, the Holy Empire and Venice (Holy League) with Russia's obligation to make a campaign against the Crimean Khanate.
1686-1700 - War between Russia and Turkey. Crimean campaigns of V. Golitsin.
1687 - Founding of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy in Moscow.
1689 - Construction of the Verkhneudinsk fortress (modern Ulan-Ude) at the confluence of the Uda and Selenga rivers. Nerchinsk Treaty between Russia and China. Establishment of the border along the Argun - Stanovoy Range - Uda River to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Overthrow of the government of Princess Sofia Alekseevna.
1689-1696 - Simultaneous reign of Tsars Ivan V Alekseevich and Peter I Alekseevich.
1695 - Establishment of the Preobrazhensky Prikaz. The first Azov campaign of Peter I. Organization of "companies" to finance the construction of the fleet, the creation of a shipyard on the Voronezh River.
1695-1696 - Uprisings of the local and Cossack population in Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Transbaikalia.
1696 - Death of Tsar Ivan V Alekseevich.

Russian Empire

1689 - 1725 - Reign of Peter I.
1695 - 1696 - Azov campaigns.
1699 - Reform of city government.
1700 - Russian-Turkish truce agreement.
1700 - 1721 - Great Northern War.
1700, November 19 - Battle of Narva.
1703 - Founding of St. Petersburg.
1705 - 1706 - Uprising in Astrakhan.
1705 - 1711 - Uprising in Bashkiria.
1708 - Provincial reform of Peter I.
1709, June 27 - Battle of Poltava.
1711 - Establishment of the Senate. Prut campaign of Peter I.
1711 - 1765 - Years of life of M.V. Lomonosov.
1716 - Military regulations of Peter I.
1718 - Establishment of the college. Beginning of the capitation census.
1721 - Establishment of the Chief Magistrate of the Synod. Decree on possessional peasants.
1721 - Peter I accepted the title of ALL-RUSSIAN EMPEROR. RUSSIA BECAME AN EMPIRE.
1722 - "Table of Ranks".
1722 -1723 - Russian - Iranian war.
1727 - 1730 - Reign of Peter II.
1730 - 1740 - Reign of Anna Ioannovna.
1730 - Repeal of the 1714 law on unified inheritance. Acceptance of Russian citizenship by the Younger Horde in Kazakhstan.
1735 - 1739 - Russian - Turkish War.
1735 - 1740 - Uprising in Bashkiria.
1741 - 1761 - Reign of Elizabeth Petrovna.
1742 - Discovery of the northern tip of Asia by Chelyuskin.
1750 - Opening of the first Russian theater in Yaroslavl (F.G. Volkov).
1754 - Abolition of internal customs.
1755 - Foundation of Moscow University.
1757 - 1761 - Russia's participation in the Seven Years' War.
1757 - Establishment of the Academy of Arts.
1760 - 1764 - Mass unrest among assigned peasants in the Urals.
1761 - 1762 - Reign of Peter III.
1762 - Manifesto "on the freedom of the nobility."
1762 - 1796 - Reign of Catherine II.
1763 - 1765 - Invention of I.I. Polzunov's steam engine.
1764 - Secularization of church lands.
1765 - Decree allowing landowners to exile peasants to hard labor. Establishment of the Free Economic Society.
1767 - Decree prohibiting peasants from complaining about landowners.
1767 - 1768 - "Commission on the Code".
1768 - 1769 - "Koliivschina".
1768 - 1774 - Russian - Turkish war.
1771 - "Plague riot" in Moscow.
1772 - First partition of Poland.
1773 - 1775 - Peasant War led by E.I. Pugacheva.
1775 - Provincial reform. Manifesto on freedom of organization of industrial enterprises.
1783 - Annexation of Crimea. Treaty of Georgievsk on a Russian protectorate over Eastern Georgia.
1783 - 1797 - Uprising of Sym Datov in Kazakhstan.
1785 - Charter granted to the nobility and cities.
1787 - 1791 - Russian - Turkish war.
1788 -1790 - Russian-Swedish war.
1790 - Publication of “Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A.N. Radishchev.
1793 - Second partition of Poland.
1794 - Uprising in Poland led by T. Kosciuszko.
1795 - Third partition of Poland.
1796 - 1801 - Reign of Paul I.
1798 - 1800 - Mediterranean campaign of the Russian fleet under the command of F.F. Ushakova.
1799 - Italian and Swiss campaigns of Suvorov.
1801 - 1825 - Reign of Alexander I.
1803 - Decree "on free cultivators."
1804 - 1813 - War with Iran.
1805 - Creation of an alliance between Russia and England and Austria against France.
1806 - 1812 - War with Turkey.
1806 - 1807 - Creation of an alliance with England and Prussia against France.
1807 - Peace of Tilsit.
1808 - War with Sweden. Accession of Finland.
1810 - Creation of the State Council.
1812 - Annexation of Bessarabia to Russia.
1812, June - Invasion of Napoleonic army into Russia. The beginning of the Patriotic War. August 26 - Battle of Borodino. September 2 - leaving Moscow. December - Expulsion of Napoleonic army from Russia.
1813 - Annexation of Dagestan and part of Northern Azerbaijan to Russia.
1813 - 1814 - Foreign campaigns of the Russian army.
1815 - Congress in Vienna. The Duchy of Warsaw is part of Russia.
1816 - Creation of the first secret organization of the Decembrists, the Union of Salvation.
1819 - Uprising of military settlers in the city of Chuguev.
1819 - 1821 - Around the world expedition to Antarctica F.F. Bellingshausen.
1820 - Unrest of soldiers in the tsarist army. Creation of a "prosperity union".
1821 - 1822 - Creation of the "Southern Secret Society" and the "Northern Secret Society".
1825 - 1855 - Reign of Nicholas I.
1825, December 14 - Decembrist uprising on Senate Square.
1828 - Annexation of Eastern Armenia and all of Northern Azerbaijan to Russia.
1830 - Military uprising in Sevastopol.
1831 - Uprising in Staraya Russa.
1843 - 1851 - Construction of the railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
1849 - Help the Russian army in suppressing the Hungarian uprising in Austria.
1853 - Herzen created the “Free Russian Printing House” in London.
1853 - 1856 - Crimean War.
1854, September - 1855, August - Defense of Sevastopol.
1855 - 1881 - Reign of Alexander II.
1856 - Treaty of Paris.
1858 - The Aigun Treaty on the border with China was concluded.
1859 - 1861 - Revolutionary situation in Russia.
1860 - Beijing Treaty on the border with China. Foundation of Vladivostok.
1861, February 19 - Manifesto on the liberation of peasants from serfdom.
1863 - 1864 - Uprising in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus.
1864 - The entire Caucasus became part of Russia. Zemstvo and judicial reforms.
1868 - The Khanate of Kokand and the Emirate of Bukhara recognize political dependence on Russia.
1870 - Reform of city government.
1873 - The Khan of Khiva recognized political dependence on Russia.
1874 - Introduction of universal conscription.
1876 ​​- Liquidation of the Kokand Khanate. Creation of a secret revolutionary organization "Land and Freedom".
1877 - 1878 - Russian - Turkish War.
1878 - Treaty of San Stefano.
1879 - Split of "Land and Freedom". Creation of the "Black Redistribution".
1881, March 1 - Assassination of Alexander II.
1881 - 1894 - Reign of Alexander III.
1891 - 1893 - Conclusion of the Franco-Russian alliance.
1885 - Morozov strike.
1894 - 1917 - Reign of Nicholas II.
1900 - 1903 - Economic crisis.
1904 - Murder of Plehve.
1904 - 1905 - Russian - Japanese War.
1905, January 9 - "Bloody Sunday".
1905 - 1907 - The first Russian revolution.
1906, April 27 - July 8 - First State Duma.
1906 - 1911 - Stolypin's agrarian reform.
1907, February 20 - June 2 - Second State Duma.
1907, November 1 - 1912, June 9 - Third State Duma.
1907 - Creation of the Entente.
1911, September 1 - Murder of Stolypin.
1913 - Celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.
1914 - 1918 - First World War.
1917, February 18 - Strike at the Putilov plant. March 1 - creation of the Provisional Government. March 2 - Nicholas II abdicates the throne. June - July - crisis of power. August - Kornilov rebellion. September 1 - Russia is declared a republic. October - Bolshevik seizure of power.
1917, March 2 - Formation of the Provisional Government.
1917, March 3 - Abdication of Mikhail Alexandrovich.
1917, March 2 - Establishment of the Provisional Government.

Russian Republic and RSFSR

1918, July 17 - murder of the deposed Emperor and the royal family.
1917, July 3 - July Bolshevik uprisings.
1917, July 24 - Announcement of the composition of the second coalition of the Provisional Government.
1917, August 12 - Convening of the State Conference.
1917, September 1 - Russia is declared a republic.
1917, September 20 - Formation of the Pre-Parliament.
1917, September 25 - Announcement of the composition of the third coalition of the Provisional Government.
1917, October 25 - Appeal by V.I. Lenin on the transfer of power to the Military Revolutionary Committee.
1917, October 26 - Arrest of members of the Provisional Government.
1917, October 26 - Decrees on peace and land.
1917, December 7 - Establishment of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission.
1918, January 5 - Opening of the Constituent Assembly.
1918 - 1922 - Civil War.
1918, March 3 - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
1918, May - Uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps.
1919, November - Defeat of A.V. Kolchak.
1920, April - Transfer of power in the Volunteer Army from A.I. Denikin to P.N. Wrangel.
1920, November - Defeat of the army of P.N. Wrangel.

1921, March 18 - Signing of the Peace of Riga with Poland.
1921 - X Party Congress, resolution “On Party Unity.”
1921 - Beginning of the NEP.
1922, December 29 - Union Treaty.
1922 - “Philosophical Steamship”
1924, January 21 - Death of V.I. Lenin
1924, January 31 - Constitution of the USSR.
1925 - XVI Party Congress
1925 - Adoption of the resolution of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) regarding the party’s policy in the field of culture
1929 - The year of the “great turning point”, the beginning of collectivization and industrialization
1932-1933 - Famine
1933 - Recognition of the USSR by the USA
1934 - First Congress of Writers
1934 - XVII Party Congress (“Congress of Winners”)
1934 - Inclusion of the USSR in the League of Nations
1936 - Constitution of the USSR
1938 - Clash with Japan at Lake Khasan
1939, May - Clash with Japan at the Khalkhin Gol River
1939, August 23 - Signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
1939, September 1 - Beginning of World War II
1939, September 17 - Soviet invasion of Poland
1939, September 28 - Signing of the Treaty with Germany “On Friendship and Borders”
1939, November 30 - Beginning of the war with Finland
December 14, 1939 - Expulsion of the USSR from the League of Nations
March 12, 1940 - Conclusion of a peace treaty with Finland
1941, April 13 - Signing of a non-aggression pact with Japan
1941, June 22 - Invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany and its allies
1941, June 23 - The Headquarters of the High Command was formed
1941, June 28 - Capture of Minsk by German troops
1941, June 30 - Establishment of the State Defense Committee (GKO)
1941, August 5-October 16 - Defense of Odessa
1941, September 8 - Beginning of the siege of Leningrad
1941, September 29-October 1 - Moscow Conference
1941, September 30 - Start of implementation of the Typhoon plan
1941, December 5 - Beginning of the counter-offensive of Soviet troops in the Battle of Moscow

1941, December 5-6 - Defense of Sevastopol
1942, January 1 - Accession of the USSR to the Declaration of the United Nations
1942, May - Defeat of the Soviet army during the Kharkov operation
1942, July 17 - Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad
1942, November 19-20 - Operation Uranus begins
1943, January 10 - Operation Ring begins
1943, January 18 - End of the siege of Leningrad
1943, July 5 - Beginning of the counteroffensive of Soviet troops in the Battle of Kursk
1943, July 12 - Beginning of the Battle of Kursk
1943, November 6 - Liberation of Kyiv
1943, November 28-December 1 - Tehran Conference
1944, June 23-24 - Beginning of the Iasi-Kishinev operation
1944, August 20 - Operation Bagration begins
1945, January 12-14 - Beginning of the Vistula-Oder operation
1945, February 4-11 - Yalta Conference
1945, April 16-18 - Beginning of the Berlin operation
1945, April 18 - Surrender of the Berlin garrison
1945, May 8 - Signing of the act of unconditional surrender of Germany
1945, July 17 - August 2 - Potsdam Conference
1945, August 8 - Announcement of soldiers of the USSR to Japan
1945, September 2 - Japanese surrender.
1946 - Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad””
1949 - Testing of USSR atomic weapons. Leningrad affair". Testing of Soviet nuclear weapons. Education of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. 1949 Formation of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA).
1950-1953 - Korean War
1952 - XIX Party Congress
1952-1953 - “the doctors’ case”
1953 - Test of hydrogen weapons of the USSR
1953, March 5 - Death of I.V. Stalin
1955 - Formation of the Warsaw Pact organization
1956 - XX Party Congress, debunking the personality cult of J.V. Stalin
1957 - Completion of construction of the nuclear-powered icebreaker "Lenin"
1957 - The USSR launches the first satellite into space
1957 - Establishment of Economic Councils
1961, April 12 - Yu. A. Gagarin's flight into space
1961 - XXII Party Congress
1961 - Kosygin reforms
1962 - Unrest in Novocherkassk
1964 - Removal of N. S. Khrushchev from the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee
1965 - Construction of the Berlin Wall
1968 - Introduction of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia
1969 - Military clash between the USSR and China
1974 - Construction of BAM begins
1972 - A.I. Brodsky expelled from the USSR
1974 - A.I. Solzhenitsyn expelled from the USSR
1975 - Helsinki Agreement
1977 - New Constitution
1979 - Entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan
1980-1981 - Political crisis in Poland.
1982-1984 - Leadership of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Yu.V. Andropova
1984-1985 - Leadership of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee K.U. Chernenko
1985-1991 - Leadership of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Gorbachev
1988 - XIX Party Conference
1988 - Beginning of the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan
1989 - Election of the Congress of People's Deputies
1989 - Withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan
1990 - Election of M. S. Gorbachev as President of the USSR
1991, August 19-22 - Creation of the State Emergency Committee. Coup attempt
1991, August 24 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns from the post of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (August 29, the Russian parliament prohibits the activities of the Communist Party and seizes party property).
1991, December 8 - Belovezhskaya Agreement, abolition of the USSR, creation of the CIS.
1991, December 25 - M.S. Gorbachev resigns as president of the USSR.

Russian Federation

1992 - Beginning of market reforms in the Russian Federation.
1993, September 21 - “Decree on phased constitutional reform in the Russian Federation.” The beginning of the political crisis.
1993, October 2-3 - clashes in Moscow between supporters of the parliamentary opposition and the police.
1993, October 4 - military units seized the White House, arrested A.V. Rutsky and R.I. Khasbulatova.
1993, December 12 - Adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Elections to the first State Duma of the Russian Federation for a transition period (2 years).
1994, December 11 - Entry of Russian troops into the Chechen Republic to establish “constitutional order.”
1995 - Elections to the State Duma for 4 years.
1996 - Elections to the position of President of the Russian Federation. B.N. Yeltsin gains 54% of the vote and becomes President of the Russian Federation.
1996 - Signing of a temporary agreement on the suspension of hostilities.
1997 - completion of the withdrawal of federal troops from Chechnya.
1998, August 17 - economic crisis in Russia, default.
1999, August - Chechen militants invaded the mountainous regions of Dagestan. Beginning of the Second Chechen Campaign.
1999, December 31 - B.N. Yeltsin announced his early resignation as President of the Russian Federation and the appointment of V.V. Putin as acting president of Russia.
2000, March - election of V.V. Putin as President of the Russian Federation.
2000, August - the death of the nuclear submarine Kursk. 117 crew members of the Kursk nuclear submarine were posthumously awarded the Order of Courage, the captain was posthumously awarded the Hero's Star.
2000, April 14 - The State Duma decided to ratify the Russian-American START-2 treaty. This agreement involves further reductions in the strategic offensive weapons of both countries.
2000, May 7 - Official entry of V.V. Putin as President of the Russian Federation.
2000, May 17 - Approval of M.M. Kasyanov Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.
2000, August 8 - Terrorist attack in Moscow - an explosion in the underground passage of the Pushkinskaya metro station. 13 people were killed, a hundred were injured.
2004, August 21-22 - There was an invasion of Grozny by a detachment of militants numbering more than 200 people. For three hours they held the city center and killed more than 100 people.
2004, August 24 - Two passenger planes taking off from Moscow Domodedovo Airport to Sochi and Volgograd were simultaneously blown up in the sky over the Tula and Rostov regions. 90 people died.
2005, May 9 - Parade on Red Square on May 9, 2005 in honor of the 60th anniversary of Victory Day.
2005, August - Scandal with the beating of the children of Russian diplomats in Poland and the “retaliatory” beating of Poles in Moscow.
2005, November 1 - A successful test launch of the Topol-M missile with a new warhead was carried out from the Kapustin Yar test site in the Astrakhan region.
2006, January 1 - Municipal reform in Russia.
2006, March 12 - First Unified Voting Day (change in the electoral legislation of the Russian Federation).
2006, July 10 - Chechen terrorist “number 1” Shamil Basayev was killed.
2006, October 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel unveiled a monument to Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky in Dresden by People's Artist of Russia Alexander Rukavishnikov.
2006, October 13 - Russian Vladimir Kramnik was declared the absolute world chess champion after winning a match over Bulgarian Veselin Topalov.
2007, January 1 - Krasnoyarsk Territory, Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) and Evenki Autonomous Okrugs merged into a single subject of the Russian Federation - Krasnoyarsk Territory.
2007, February 10 - President of Russia V.V. Putin said the so-called "Munich speech".
2007, May 17 - In the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' and the First Hierarch of the ROCOR, Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York Laurus, signed the “Act of Canonical Communion,” a document that put an end to the division between the Russian Church Abroad and the Moscow Patriarchate.
2007, July 1 - Kamchatka Region and Koryak Autonomous Okrug merged into Kamchatka Territory.
2007, August 13 - Nevsky Express train accident.
2007, September 12 - The government of Mikhail Fradkov resigned.
2007, September 14 - Viktor Zubkov was appointed as the new Prime Minister of Russia.
2007, October 17 - The Russian national football team led by Guus Hiddink defeated the English national team with a score of 2:1.
2007, December 2 - Elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the 5th convocation.
2007, December 10 - Dmitry Medvedev was nominated as a candidate for President of the Russian Federation from United Russia.
2008, March 2 - The elections of the third president of the Russian Federation were held. Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev won.
2008, May 7 - Inauguration of the third President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev.
2008, August 8 - Active hostilities began in the zone of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict: Georgia stormed Tskhinvali, Russia officially joined the armed conflict on the side of South Ossetia.
2008, August 11 - Active hostilities began in the zone of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict: Georgia stormed Tskhinvali, Russia officially joined the armed conflict on the side of South Ossetia.
2008, August 26 - Russian President D. A. Medvedev signed a decree recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
2008, September 14 - A Boeing 737 passenger plane crashed in Perm.
2008, December 5 - Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II died. Temporarily, the place of the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church is occupied by the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad.
2009, January 1 - The Unified State Exam became mandatory throughout Russia.
2009, January 25-27 - Extraordinary Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church elected a new Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. It was Kirill.
2009, February 1 - Enthronement of the newly elected Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill.
2009, July 6-7 - Visit of US President Barack Obama to Russia.

Since 753 there has been Old Ladoga, where in 862, according to the chronicle, the legendary Varangian Rurik came at the invitation of the Slavic and Finnish tribes. He moved his residence to Novgorod (first mentioned in the chronicle in 859). Rurik died in 879. After him, Oleg ruled (879-912), who in 882 made Kyiv the capital of Ancient Rus' and in 907 concluded the first treaty with Byzantium.

After Oleg, Rurik’s son Igor (912-945) ruled, who concluded two treaties with Byzantium (941,944). Igor was succeeded by his wife Olga (945-969). She ruled instead of Svyatoslav, who was small at first and then fought almost continuously (945-972). During the struggle for power between the three sons of Svyatoslav (972-980), Vladimir I (980-1015) won, who baptized Rus' (988).

Alongside the struggle between the sons of Vladimir I the Saint (1015-1019), Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054) ruled. His rule became sole after the death of his brother Mstislav in 1036. Yaroslav the Wise in 1036 defeated the Pechenegs on the Alta River, established the Russian Truth, built the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, and installed his own metropolitan (1051). St. Sophia cathedrals were also erected in Novgorod and Polotsk.

After a struggle within the House of Rurik in 1097, at a congress in Lyubech, the princes agreed that each would own the land inherited from his father. The beginning of feudal fragmentation was temporarily overcome by Vladimir II Monomakh (1113-1125) and his son Mstislav (1125-1132). Yuri Dolgoruky (1125-1157), Andrei Bogolyubsky (1157-1174) and Vsevolod III the Big Nest (1176-1212) tried to control most of the Russian lands, but there was no real unity. Andrei Bogolyubsky was killed as a result of a conspiracy. Prince Igor's campaign in 1185 against the Polovtsians ended in complete defeat. In 1187, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” was born.

The Rurikovichs underestimated the danger from the east. Russian troops in 1223 were defeated by advanced Mongol-Tatar detachments on the Kalka River, and in 1237/38 and 1240/42 the Mongol-Tatars ravaged most of the Russian lands, subjugated them and included them in the Golden Horde (1243). The Mongols defeated Russian troops on the Sit River (1238). Salvation for Rus' was the victory of Alexander Yaroslavich (Nevsky) over the Swedish (1240) and German (1242) crusaders.

Biographical code of Ancient Rus'

“And the Greeks set one hundred thousand against Svyatoslav, and did not give tribute. And Svyatoslav went against the Greeks, and they came out against the Russians. When the Russians saw them, they were greatly frightened by such a great number of soldiers, but Svyatoslav said: “We have nowhere to go, whether we want it or not, we must fight. So we will not disgrace the Russian land, but we will lie here as bones, for the dead know no shame. If we run, it will be a shame for us. So let’s not run, but let’s stand strong, and I’ll go ahead of you: if my head falls, then take care of your own.” And the soldiers answered: “Where your head lies, there we will lay our heads.” And the Russians became angry, and there was a cruel slaughter, and Svyatoslav prevailed, and the Greeks fled" (from The Tale of Bygone Years).