The history of Ancient Rus' is very interesting for posterity. It has reached the modern generation in the form of myths, legends and chronicles. The genealogy of the Rurikovichs with the dates of their reign, its diagram exists in many historical books. The earlier the description, the more reliable the story. The dynasties that ruled, starting with Prince Rurik, contributed to the formation of statehood, the unification of all principalities into a single strong state.
The genealogy of the Rurikovichs presented to readers is a clear confirmation of this. How many legendary personalities who created the future Russia are represented in this tree! How did the dynasty begin? Who was Rurik by origin?
Inviting grandchildren
There are many legends about the appearance of the Varangian Rurik in Rus'. Some historians consider him a Scandinavian, others - a Slav. But the best story about this event is the Tale of Bygone Years, left by the chronicler Nestor. From his narration it follows that Rurik, Sineus and Truvor are the grandchildren of the Novgorod prince Gostomysl.
The prince lost all his four sons in battle, leaving only three daughters. One of them was married to a Varangian-Russian and gave birth to three sons. It was them, his grandchildren, that Gostomysl invited to reign in Novgorod. Rurik became the Prince of Novgorod, Sineus went to Beloozero, and Truvor went to Izborsk. Three brothers became the first tribe and the Rurik family tree began with them. It was 862 AD. The dynasty was in power until 1598 and ruled the country for 736 years.
Second knee
Novgorod Prince Rurik ruled until 879. He died, leaving in the arms of Oleg, a relative on his wife’s side, his son Igor, a representative of the second generation. While Igor was growing up, Oleg reigned in Novgorod, who during his reign conquered and called Kyiv “the mother of Russian cities” and established diplomatic relations with Byzantium.
After Oleg's death, in 912, Igor, the legal heir of the Rurik family, began to reign. He died in 945, leaving sons: Svyatoslav and Gleb. There are many historical documents and books that describe the genealogy of the Rurikovichs with the dates of their reign. The diagram of their family tree looks like the one shown in the photo on the left.
From this diagram it is clear that the genus is gradually branching out and growing. Especially from his son, Yaroslav the Wise, offspring appeared that were of great importance in the formation of Rus'.
and heirs
In the year of his death, Svyatoslav was only three years old. Therefore, his mother, Princess Olga, began to rule the principality. When he grew up, he was more attracted to military campaigns rather than reigning. During a campaign in the Balkans in 972, he was killed. His heirs were three sons: Yaropolk, Oleg and Vladimir. Immediately after the death of his father, Yaropolk became the prince of Kyiv. His desire was autocracy, and he began to openly fight against his brother Oleg. The genealogy of the Rurikovichs with the dates of their reign suggests that Vladimir Svyatoslavovich nevertheless became the head of the Kyiv principality.
When Oleg died, Vladimir first fled to Europe, but after 2 years he returned with his squad and killed Yaropolk, thus becoming the Grand Duke of Kyiv. During his campaigns in Byzantium, Prince Vladimir became a Christian. In 988, he baptized the inhabitants of Kyiv in the Dnieper, built churches and cathedrals, and contributed to the spread of Christianity in Rus'.
The people gave him a name and his reign lasted until 1015. The Church considers him a saint for the baptism of Rus'. The Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir Svyatoslavovich had sons: Svyatopolk, Izyaslav, Sudislav, Vysheslav, Pozvizd, Vsevolod, Stanislav, Yaroslav, Mstislav, Svyatoslav and Gleb.
Descendants of Rurik
There is a detailed genealogy of the Rurikovichs with the dates of their lives and periods of reign. Following Vladimir, Svyatopolk, who would be popularly called the Damned, took over the principality for the murder of his brothers. His reign did not last long - in 1015, with a break, and from 1017 to 1019.
The Wise One ruled from 1015 to 1017 and from 1019 to 1024. Then there were 12 years of rule together with Mstislav Vladimirovich: from 1024 to 1036, and then from 1036 to 1054.
From 1054 to 1068 - this is the period of the principality of Izyaslav Yaroslavovich. Further, the genealogy of the Rurikovichs, the scheme of rule of their descendants, expands. Some of the representatives of the dynasty were in power for very short periods and did not manage to accomplish outstanding deeds. But many (such as Yaroslav the Wise or Vladimir Monomakh) left their mark on the life of Rus'.
Genealogy of the Rurikovichs: continuation
The Grand Duke of Kiev Vsevolod Yaroslavovich took over the principality in 1078 and continued it until 1093. In the pedigree of the dynasty there are many princes who are remembered for their exploits in battle: such was Alexander Nevsky. But his reign was later, during the period of the Mongol-Tatar invasion of Rus'. And before him, the Principality of Kyiv was ruled by: Vladimir Monomakh - from 1113 to 1125, Mstislav - from 1125 to 1132, Yaropolk - from 1132 to 1139. Yuri Dolgoruky, who became the founder of Moscow, reigned from 1125 to 1157.
The genealogy of the Rurikovichs is voluminous and deserves very careful study. It is impossible to ignore such famous names as John “Kalita”, Dmitry “Donskoy”, who reigned from 1362 to 1389. Contemporaries always associate the name of this prince with his victory on the Kulikovo Field. After all, this was a turning point that marked the beginning of the “end” of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. But Dmitry Donskoy was remembered not only for this: his internal policy was aimed at unifying the principalities. It was during his reign that Moscow became the central place of Rus'.
Fyodor Ioannovich - the last of the dynasty
The genealogy of the Rurikovichs, a diagram with dates, suggests that the dynasty ended with the reign of the Tsar of Moscow and All Rus' - Feodor Ioannovich. He reigned from 1584 to 1589. But his power was nominal: by nature he was not a sovereign, and the country was ruled by the State Duma. But still, during this period, the peasants were attached to the land, which is considered a merit of the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich.
The Rurikovich family tree was cut short, the diagram of which is shown above in the article. The formation of Rus' took more than 700 years, the terrible yoke was overcome, the unification of the principalities and the entire East Slavic people took place. Further on the threshold of history stands a new royal dynasty - the Romanovs.
Chapter 22. The end of the Rurik dynasty
On March 18, 1584, Moscow bells, with their sad chimes, announced to the residents of the capital about the death of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible. With this news, the people forgot all the great cruelties of the Terrible Tsar, forgot all his hated oprichnina, and remembered only such great deeds of his reign as the capture of Kazan, the conquest of Astrakhan and Siberia, the publication of the Tsar's Code of Law and the construction of the great St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. The Russian people sincerely prayed for the repose of the formidable, but at the same time great sovereign in his deeds.
After Tsar John, his two sons remained: Fyodor, who was the son of everyone’s beloved, meek Anastasia Romanovna, the first wife of Grozny, and the young Tsarevich Dimitri, to whom his father, shortly before his death, assigned the city of Uglich as his inheritance. The Tsar had long felt the approach of death and made all the orders, so his eldest son Fyodor calmly, without any worries or disturbances, as the chronicler said, “enthroned and sat on the highest throne of the God-protected Russian Kingdom.”
Everyone in the state, however, realized that the new king would not be able to cope with state affairs. A faster and a silent man, he looked more like a humble monk than a king. This was already well seen by his father, who tried to surround his son with loyal and experienced people in government affairs. In the first days around the new king, we see five boyars who, forming a kind of permanent council under him, are in charge of all the affairs of the government.
Among these five persons, the boyar Nikita Romanovich Yuryev-Zakharyin, the uncle of the Tsar, the brother of his mother Anastasia, stands out in terms of his spiritual qualities and his influence on the Moscow population. During the entire reign of Ivan the Terrible, he was close to the sovereign and enjoyed his constant trust; however, he not only did not stain himself with the slightest participation in his cruelties, but even became famous as a constant intercessor with him for the disgraced; more than once the kind hand of Nikita Romanovich snatched them from the tenacious claws of Malyuta Skuratov.
Hundreds of three years have passed since this wonderful man died, but even now, in our distant north, there lives a legend about how Nikita saved his own son from the wrath of Ivan the Terrible... It is clear why it was he, as the royal uncle and as the brightest a man among the Moscow boyars, took first place at the throne of the young sovereign.
While Nikita Romanovich was alive, he restrained hatred among the boyars with his good advice and influence. But a year later, old man Zakharyin died, and the enmity among the boyars manifested itself strongly and sharply. The sovereign's brother-in-law, Boris Fedorovich Godunov, began to take all measures to eliminate dangerous rivals and rule the state alone. After the death of Zakharyin, disgrace befell the noblest boyars, among them the princes Mstislavsky and Shuisky: they were sent to distant prisons and monasteries. Boris at this time was still friendly with the young Romanovs (as Nikita’s sons began to be called after their grandfather). They say that the old man, dying, took an oath from Godunov that he would take care of his sons, and Godunov has so far kept his promise. Meanwhile, his power in the state is increasingly increasing: he receives the title of “ruler”, “domestic governor” and “vicar of the kingdoms of Kazan and Astrakhan”. Not only Russians, but also foreigners visiting Moscow notice that he, and not Fedor, rules the kingdom. And it cannot be said that this reign was bad: the tsar’s brother-in-law, an intelligent and experienced man, tried to calm the state after the shocks it experienced under Grozny, and was successful in this good deed.
The life of the state was proceeding so peacefully and calmly, when suddenly in 1591 it was disrupted by a terrible event: on May 15, seven-year-old Tsarevich Dimitri was stabbed to death in Uglich. On the same day, residents of Uglich killed Boris Bityagovsky, Kachalov and their comrades, who were considered the perpetrators of the terrible crime. Four days later, persons sent from Moscow arrived from Moscow to investigate the whole matter: these were Metropolitan Gelasius of Krutitsky, Prince Vasily Shuisky, who had recently been returned by Godunov from exile and became related to him, and the okolnichy Kleshnin, who owed everything to Boris. These investigators conducted the case stupidly, and perhaps even in bad faith, and, returning to Moscow, reported to the Tsar and the Boyar Duma that the Tsarevich was not killed at all, but that he himself, in an epileptic fit, came across a knife. The Boyar Duma was satisfied with this strange explanation, and severely punished the Uglich residents for arbitrariness and the murder of supposedly innocent people. However, the people could not believe the naive explanation of the Moscow investigators and said that the prince had been killed; and many added that he was killed at the instigation of Godunov.
This terrible case in Uglich has remained completely unsolved to this day. There are some reasons to consider Godunov guilty of the death of the prince, but it is impossible to prove his guilt. Be that as it may, the closest heir to the royal throne passed away in 1591. With Fedor, the royal family of Rurikovich, which ruled Russia for more than 700 years, ended.
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In the history of Russia, the numerous and extensive Rurik dynasty, ruling Kiev, Novgorod, Rostov, Moscow, and other important cities, played a huge role. It was during this dynasty that the Russian state was finally formed and went through such important stages of its development as feudal fragmentation, centralization and the formation of an autocratic monarchy. At the same time, the Rurikovichs, who fought for power for seven centuries, were always shrouded in secrets and riddles.
Several of them are in the RG collection.
1. Was there Rurik?
There definitely were Rurikovichs, but whether the founder of the Rurik dynasty existed, historians cannot definitively say. Who was the person who was called to reign in Veliky Novgorod and where did Rurik come from? Rurik was first mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. It describes the story of the calling of the Varangian Rurik and his brothers by the Eastern Slavs to reign in 862. From this year it is customary to count the beginning of the Rurik dynasty, which strengthened in Novgorod, and then, after the death of Rurik, through the efforts of his relative Oleg, regent under Igor Rurikovich, who captured Kyiv. However, “The Tale of Bygone Years” began to be compiled two centuries after the events described, its sources have not been established, and there are many omissions and ambiguities in the narrative.
This gave rise to hypotheses as to who Rurik was. The first, the so-called Norman theory, says that Rurik, his brothers and squad were Scandinavians, that is, Vikings. An argument in favor of this is considered to be the historically proven existence of the name Rurik (meaning “illustrious and noble man”) among the Scandinavian peoples of that time. True, there is a problem with a specific historical candidate - none of the candidates (and this is the noble Danish Viking of the 9th century Rerik of Jutland, whose life and deeds are described in sufficient detail, and a certain Eirik Emundarson from Sweden, who raided the Baltic lands) has decisive evidence of identity with chronicle Rurik.
The second, Slavic theory, which was supported by opponents of the Norman theory, called Rurik a representative of the princely family of Obodrites, a West Slavic tribal union. There is evidence that in those days one of the Baltic Slavic tribes on the territory of historical Prussia was called Varangians. Rurik is a variant of the West Slavic “Rerek, Rarog” - not a personal name, but a generic name of the Obodrit princely family, meaning “falcon”. Supporters of this opinion believe that the Rurikovich coat of arms was precisely a symbolized image of a falcon. Finally, the third theory believes that no Rurik existed in reality - the founder of the Rurik dynasty emerged from the local population during the struggle for power, and a couple of centuries later his descendants, in order to ennoble their origins, commissioned the author of The Tale of Bygone Years to write a propaganda story about the Varangian Rurik.
2. Olga's Revenge
In the fall of 945, Rurik's son, the Grand Duke of Kiev Igor, at the request of his squad, dissatisfied with his content, went for tribute to the Drevlyans (a Slavic tribe that lived in Ukrainian Polesie). Moreover, he arbitrarily increased the amount of tribute from previous years, and when collecting it, the vigilantes committed violence against the local residents. On the way home, Igor made an unexpected decision:
“After thinking about it, he said to his squad: “Go home with tribute, and I will return and go again.” And he sent the squad home, and he himself returned with a few soldiers in order to collect more tribute. The Drevlyans, having heard that Igor was coming to them again , they decided at the council: “If a wolf gets into the habit of the sheep, he will carry out the entire flock until they kill him; so is this one: if we don’t kill him, then he will destroy us all.” And the Drevlyans killed Igor and his warriors.
25 years later, in a letter to Svyatoslav, the Byzantine Emperor John Tzimiskes recalled the fate of Prince Igor, calling him Inger. The emperor reported that Igor went on a campaign against certain Germans, was captured by them, tied to the tops of trees and torn in two.
According to the legend set out in the chronicle, Igor's widow, Princess Olga, took cruel revenge on the Drevlyans. She cunningly destroyed their elders, killed many common people, burned the city of Iskorosten and imposed a heavy tribute on them. Princess Olga, with the support of Igor's squad and boyars, began to rule Russia while little Svyatoslav, Igor's son, was growing up.
3. From libertine to saint
The Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir - the baptist of Rus' - before his baptism was known as the “great libertine”, who had several hundred concubines in Kyiv and in the country residence Berestov. In addition, he was in several official pagan marriages, in particular, with Rogneda, with a “Czech” (according to some sources, he relied on an alliance with the Czech Republic in the fight against Yaropolk, an ally of the German emperor) and a “Bulgarian” (from the Volga or Danube Bulgarians - unknown; according to one version, she was the daughter of the king of the Danube Bulgarians Peter, and Boris and Gleb were her children). In addition, Vladimir made the widow of his brother Yaropolk, a Greek nun who had been kidnapped during one of his campaigns, as a concubine. Soon she gave birth to a son, Svyatopolk, who was considered “from two fathers”: Vladimir considered him as his legal heir, while Svyatopolk himself, according to indirect evidence, considered himself the son of Yaropolk, and Vladimir a usurper.
After baptism, Vladimir was supposedly in two successive Christian marriages - with the Byzantine princess Anna and, and after her death in 1011, with the unknown “stepmother of Yaroslav”, who was captured in 1018.
Vladimir had 13 sons and at least 10 daughters from different women.
4. Fratricide
Prince of Turov Svyatopolk Vladimirovich (according to some sources, the son of Vladimir, the baptist of Rus') took the Kiev throne, killing his half-brothers.
According to the story "The Tale of Bygone Years", he was born to a Greek woman, the widow of the Grand Duke of Kyiv Yaropolk Svyatoslavich, who died in an internecine war with his brother, Prince Vladimir of Novgorod and was taken by the latter as a concubine. In one of the articles, the chronicle says that the widow was already pregnant. In this case, Svyatopolk’s father was Yaropolk. Nevertheless, Vladimir called Svyatopolk his legitimate son (third in seniority) and gave him the reign in Turov.
Shortly before Vladimir's death, Svyatopolk was imprisoned in Kyiv. His wife was taken into custody along with him. The reason for the arrest of Svyatopolk, who rebelled against Vladimir, was, apparently, Vladimir’s plan to bequeath the throne to his beloved son Boris. It is noteworthy that another, Vladimir’s eldest son, Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod, who later received the nickname Wise, also rebelled against his father around the same time.
After the death of Vladimir on July 15, 1015, Svyatopolk turned out to be closer than all the other brothers to Kyiv, was released and ascended the throne without much difficulty: he was supported by both the people and the boyars who made up his entourage in Vyshgorod near Kiev.
In Kyiv, Svyatopolk managed to issue silver coins (50 such coins are known), similar to Vladimir’s silver coins.
During the same year, three half-brothers of Svyatopolk were killed - Boris, the Murom prince Gleb and the Drevlyan Svyatoslav. "The Tale of Bygone Years" accuses Svyatopolk of organizing the murder of Boris and Gleb, who were glorified as holy martyrs under Yaroslav. According to the chronicle, Svyatopolk sent the Vyshgorod men to kill Boris, and having learned that his brother was still alive, he ordered the Varangians to finish him off. According to the chronicle, he called Gleb in the name of his father to Kyiv and sent people to kill him along the way. Svyatoslav died trying to escape from the killers to Hungary.
5. Where are the remains?
In the 20th century, the sarcophagus of Yaroslav the Wise in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv was opened three times: in 1936, 1939 and 1964. In 2009, the tomb in the St. Sophia Cathedral was opened again, and the remains were sent for examination. During the autopsy, Soviet newspapers Izvestia and Pravda, dated 1964, were discovered. The results of a genetic examination published in March 2011 are as follows: the tomb contains not male, but only female remains, and they are composed of two skeletons, dating from completely different times: one skeleton from the time of Kievan Rus, and the second a thousand years older, that is, from the time of the Scythians settlements. The remains of the Kyiv period, according to anthropologists, belong to a woman who did a lot of hard physical labor during her life - clearly not of a princely family. The first to be written about female remains among the discovered skeletons was in 1939. Then it was announced that in addition to Yaroslav, other people were buried in the tomb. The trace of the ashes of Yaroslav the Wise can be traced to the icon of St. Nicholas the Mokroy, which was taken from the St. Sophia Cathedral by representatives of the church who retreated along with the German occupiers from Kyiv in the fall of 1943. The icon was discovered in the Holy Trinity Church (Brooklyn, New York, USA) in 1973. According to historians, the remains of the Grand Duke should also be looked for in the USA.
6. Did you die or were you poisoned?
There are many mysteries not only in the life and death of the first, but also the last representatives of the Rurik dynasty.
Thus, a study of the remains of Ivan the Terrible showed that in the last six years of his life he developed osteophytes (growths on bone tissue), to such an extent that he could no longer walk - he was carried on a stretcher. The anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov, who examined the remains, noted that he had not seen such thick deposits even in the oldest people. Forced immobility, combined with a general unhealthy lifestyle and nervous shocks, led to the fact that at just over 50 years old, the tsar already looked like a decrepit old man.
In February and early March 1584, the king was still engaged in state affairs. The first mention of the disease dates back to March 10 (when the Lithuanian ambassador was stopped on his way to Moscow “due to the sovereign’s illness”). On March 16, things got worse, the king fell into unconsciousness, but on March 17 and 18 he felt relief from hot baths. But on the afternoon of March 18, the king died. The sovereign's body was swollen and smelled foul due to decomposition of the blood.
There were persistent rumors about the violent death of Ivan the Terrible. A 17th-century chronicler reported that “the king was given poison by his neighbors.” According to the testimony of clerk Ivan Timofeev, Boris Godunov and Bogdan Belsky “ended the tsar’s life prematurely.” Crown Hetman Zholkiewski also accused Godunov: “He took the life of Tsar Ivan by bribing the doctor who treated Ivan, because the matter was such that if he had not warned him (had not forestalled him), he himself would have been executed along with many other noble nobles.” . The Dutchman Isaac Massa wrote that Belsky put poison in the royal medicine. The Englishman Horsey also wrote about the Godunovs’ secret plans against the tsar and put forward a version of the tsar’s strangulation: “Apparently, the tsar was first given poison, and then, to be sure, in the turmoil that arose after he suddenly fell, they were also strangled.” The historian Valishevsky wrote: “Bogdan Belsky and his advisers harassed Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, and now he wants to beat the boyars and wants to find the kingdom of Moscow for his adviser (Godunov) under Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich.”
The version of the poisoning of Grozny was tested during the opening of the royal tombs in 1963: studies showed normal levels of arsenic in the remains and increased levels of mercury, which, however, was present in many medicinal preparations of the 16th century and was used to treat, in particular, syphilis, with which the king was supposedly ill . The murder version remained a hypothesis.
At the same time, the Kremlin’s chief archaeologist Tatyana Panova, together with researcher Elena Aleksandrovskaya, considered the conclusions of the 1963 commission incorrect. In their opinion, the permissible limit for arsenic in Ivan the Terrible was exceeded by more than 2 times. In their opinion, the king was poisoned by a “cocktail” of arsenic and mercury, which was given to him over a period of time.
7. Injured yourself with a knife?
The mystery of the death of Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Terrible, has also not been solved. Officially, he could not claim the throne, since he was from Ivan the Terrible’s sixth wife, and the church recognized only three marriages. Dmitry died during the reign of his elder brother, Fyodor Ioannovich, but due to the latter’s poor health, the real government of the state was carried out by the boyar and brother-in-law of the Tsar, Boris Godunov. For a long time, there was a widespread version that it was Godunov, who had prepared the royal throne for himself in advance after the death of the childless Tsar Fyodor, who organized the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry.
However, there is another version: it was an accident. The initial commission of inquiry established the following picture: the prince, who at that time was not even nine years old, was playing “knives” with his peers. During the game, he suffered a seizure similar in description to an epileptic attack, as a result of which he received a fatal wound to his neck. Judging by the testimony of witnesses, Dmitry received the wound from a knife that he was holding in his hands and on which he fell after the attack began. Queen Maria's brother Nagoya, who was entrusted with protecting the prince, was afraid of possible punishment for a fatal oversight and accused several people of killing Dmitry. The angry crowd tore the “murderers” to pieces, but subsequently the investigation established that at the time of the death of the prince, the accused were on the other side of the city.
However, there was another mystery in this story. When at the beginning of the 17th century False Dmitry I appeared on the eastern borders, declaring himself to have miraculously escaped from the assassins sent by Boris Godunov by Tsarevich Dmitry, a significant part of the population believed him. Moreover, Queen Maria Nagaya, who by that time had become a nun, allegedly recognized him as her son. Ironically, False Dmitry I was replaced on the throne by Vasily Shuisky, who in 1591 headed the investigative commission. This time he stated that the prince was killed, but on the orders of Boris Godunov. So there is still no clarity on the question of the fate of the last of the Rurikovich dynasty, although modern historians are inclined to believe that there was an accident, and Godunov did not hatch plans against Dmitry, who had no legal rights to the throne.
Historians call the first dynasty of Russian princes and tsars the Rurikovichs. They did not have a surname, but the dynasty received its name after its legendary founder, the Novgorod prince Rurik, who died in 879.
Glazunov Ilya Sergeevich. Gostomysl's grandchildren are Rurik, Truvor and Sineus.
The earliest (12th century) and most detailed ancient Russian chronicle, “The Tale of Bygone Years,” tells the following about Rurik’s calling:
"Rurik's Calling". Unknown author.
“There are 6370 per year (862 according to modern chronology). They drove the Varangians overseas, and did not give them tribute, and began to control themselves, and there was no truth among them, and generation after generation arose, and they had strife, and began to fight with each other. And they said to themselves: “Let’s look for a prince who would rule over us and judge us by right.” And they went overseas to the Varangians, to Rus'. Those Varangians were called Rus, just as others are called Swedes, and some Normans and Angles, and still others Gotlanders, so are these. The Chud, the Slovenians, the Krivichi and all said to the Russians: “Our land is great and abundant, but there is no order in it.
"Rurik's Calling".
Come reign and rule over us." And three brothers were chosen with their clans, and they took all of Rus' with them, and they came and the eldest, Rurik, sat in Novgorod, and the other, Sineus, in Beloozero, and the third, Truvor, in Izborsk. And from those Varangians the Russian land was nicknamed. Novgorodians are those people from the Varangian family, and before they were Slovenians. Two years later, Sineus and his brother Truvor died. And Rurik alone took over all power and began to distribute cities to his husbands—Polotsk to one, Rostov to another, Beloozero to another. The Varangians in these cities are the Nakhodniki, and the indigenous population in Novgorod is the Slovene, in Polotsk the Krivichi, in Rostov the Merya, in Beloozero the whole, in Murom the Muroma, and Rurik ruled over them all.”
Rurik. Grand Duke of Novgorod in 862-879. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Old Russian chronicles began to be compiled 200 years after the death of Rurik and a century after the baptism of Rus' (the appearance of writing) on the basis of some oral traditions, Byzantine chronicles and a few existing documents. Therefore, in historiography there have been different points of view on the chronicle version of the calling of the Varangians. In the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries, the prevailing theory was about the Scandinavian or Finnish origin of Prince Rurik, and later the hypothesis about his West Slavic (Pomeranian) origin developed.
However, a more reliable historical figure, and therefore the ancestor of the dynasty, is the Grand Duke of Kiev Igor, whom the chronicle considers to be the son of Rurik.
Igor I (Igor the Ancient) 877-945. Grand Duke of Kyiv in 912-945.
The Rurik dynasty ruled the Russian Empire for over 700 years. The Rurikovichs ruled Kievan Rus, and then, when it collapsed in the 12th century, large and small Russian principalities. And after the unification of all Russian lands around Moscow, the Grand Dukes of Moscow from the Rurik family stood at the head of the state. The descendants of the former appanage princes lost their possessions and formed the highest layer of the Russian aristocracy, but they retained the title “prince”.
Svyatoslav I Igorevich the Conqueror. 942-972 Grand Duke of Kyiv in 966-972.
Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Vladimir I Svyatoslavich (Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko) 960-1015. Grand Duke of Kyiv in 980-1015. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Yaroslav I Vladimirovich (Yaroslav the Wise) 978-1054. Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1019-1054. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Vsevolod I Yaroslavich. 1030-1093 Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1078-1093.
Vladimir II Vsevolodovich (Vladimir Monomakh) 1053-1025. Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1113-1125. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Mstislav I Vladimirovich (Mstislav the Great) 1076-1132. Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1125-1132. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Yaropolk II Vladimirovich. 1082-1139 Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1132-1139.
Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Vsevolod II Olgovich. ?-1146 Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1139-1146.
Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Igor II Olgovich. ?-1147 Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1146.
Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Yuri I Vladimirovich (Yuri Dolgoruky). 1090-1157 Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1149-1151 and 1155-1157. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Vsevolod III Yurievich (Vsevolod the Big Nest). 1154-1212 Grand Duke of Vladimir in 1176-1212. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich. 1191-1246 Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1236-1238. Grand Duke of Vladimir in 1238-1246. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Alexander I Yaroslavich (Alexander Nevsky). 1220-1263 Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1249-1252. Grand Duke of Vladimir in 1252-1263. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Daniil Alexandrovich. 1265-1303 Grand Duke of Moscow in 1276-1303.
Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Ivan I Danilovich (Ivan Kalita). ?-1340 Grand Duke of Moscow in 1325-1340. Grand Duke of Vladimir in 1338-1340. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Ivan II Ivanovich (Ivan the Red). 1326-1359 Grand Duke of Moscow and Vladimir in 1353-1359. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Dmitry III Ivanovich (Dmitry Donskoy). 1350-1389 Grand Duke of Moscow in 1359-1389. Grand Duke of Vladimir in 1362-1389. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Vasily I Dmitrievich. 1371-1425 Grand Duke of Moscow in 1389-1425. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Vasily II Vasilievich (Vasily the Dark). 1415-1462 Grand Duke of Moscow in 1425-1446 and 1447-1462. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Ivan III Vasilievich. 1440-1505 Grand Duke of Moscow in 1462-1505. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Vasily III Ivanovich. 1479-1533 Grand Duke of Moscow in 1505-1533. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
Ivan IV Vasilievich (Ivan the Terrible) 1530-1584. Grand Duke of Moscow in 1533-1584. Russian Tsar in 1547-1584. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
In 1547, the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan IV was crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin and took the title “Tsar of All Rus'”. The last representative of the Rurik dynasty on the Russian throne was Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, who died childless in 1598.
Fedor I Ivanovich. 1557-1598 Russian Tsar in 1584-1598. Portrait from the Tsar's title book. 1672
But this does not mean that the Rurikovich family ended there. Only its youngest branch, the Moscow branch, was suppressed. But the male offspring of other Rurikovichs (former appanage princes) by that time had already acquired surnames: Baryatinsky, Volkonsky, Gorchakov, Dolgorukov, Obolensky, Odoevsky, Repnin, Shuisky, Shcherbatov, etc.
For more than seven centuries, Rus' was ruled by the Rurik dynasty. Under her, the Russian state was formed, fragmentation was overcome, and the first monarchs ascended the throne. The ancient Varangian family has sunk into oblivion, leaving historians with many unsolvable mysteries.
Dynastic intricacies
The greatest difficulty for historians is compiling the family tree of the Rurikovichs. The point is not only the remoteness of the eras, but also the breadth of the geography of the clan, its social interweaving, and the lack of reliable sources.
Certain difficulties in studying the Rurik dynasty are created by the so-called “ladder” (sequential) law, which existed in Rus' until the 13th century, in which the successor of the Grand Duke was not his son, but the next oldest brother. Moreover, princes often changed their inheritance, moving from city to city, which further confuses the overall picture of the genealogy.
True, until the reign of Yaroslav the Wise (978-1054), succession in the dynasty proceeded in a straight line, and only after his sons Svyatoslav and Vsevolod, during the period of feudal fragmentation, the branches of the Rurikovichs began to continually multiply, spreading across the ancient Russian lands.
One of the Vsevolodovich branches leads to Yuri Dolgoruky (1096?-1157). It is from him that the line begins to count, which subsequently led to the emergence of the Grand Dukes and Tsars of Moscow.
First of a kind
The identity of the founder of the dynasty, Rurik (d. 879), still causes a lot of controversy to this day, even to the point of denying his existence. For many, the famous Varangian is nothing more than a semi-mythical figure. This is understandable. In the historiography of the 19th – 20th centuries, the Norman theory was criticized, since domestic science could not bear the idea of the inability of the Slavs to create their own state.
Modern historians are more loyal to the Norman theory. Thus, academician Boris Rybakov puts forward a hypothesis that in one of the raids on the Slavic lands, Rurik’s squad captured Novgorod, although another historian, Igor Froyanov, supports the peaceful version of “calling the Varangians” to reign.
The problem is that the image of Rurik lacks specificity. According to some sources, he could be the Danish Viking Rorik of Jutland, according to others, the Swede Eirik Emundarson, who raided the lands of the Balts.
There is also a Slavic version of the origin of Rurik. His name is associated with the word “Rerek” (or “Rarog”), which in the Slavic tribe of Obodrits meant falcon. And, indeed, during excavations of early settlements of the Rurik dynasty, many images of this bird were found.
Wise and Damned
After the division of ancient Russian lands between the descendants of Rurik, with appanages in Rostov, Novgorod, Suzdal, Vladimir, Pskov and other cities, a real fratricidal war broke out for the possession of the estates, which did not subside until the centralization of the Russian state. One of the most power-hungry was the Prince of Turov, Svyatopolk, nicknamed the Damned. According to one version, he was the son of Vladimir Svyatoslavovich (the Baptist), according to another, Yaropolk Svyatoslavovich.
Having rebelled against Vladimir, Svyatopolk was put in prison on charges of trying to turn Rus' away from baptism. However, after the death of the Grand Duke, he turned out to be more efficient than others and took the empty throne. According to one version, wanting to get rid of competitors in the person of the half-brothers Boris, Gleb and Svyatoslav, he sent his warriors to them, who dealt with them one by one.
According to another version, favored by historian Nikolai Ilyin, Svyatopolk could not kill Boris and Gleb, since they recognized his right to the throne. In his opinion, the young princes fell victim at the hands of the soldiers of Yaroslav the Wise, who laid claim to the Kiev throne.
One way or another, a long fratricidal war broke out between Svyatopolk and Yaroslav for the title of Grand Duke of Kyiv. It continued with varying success, until in the decisive battle on the Alta River (not far from the place of Gleb’s death), Yaroslav’s squads finally defeated Svyatopolk’s detachment, who was branded a treacherous prince and a traitor. Well, “history is written by the victors.”
Khan for the kingdom
One of the most odious rulers from the Rurik family was Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (1530-1584). On his father's side he descended from the Moscow branch of the dynasty, and on his mother's side from Khan Mamai. Perhaps it was his Mongolian blood that gave his character such unpredictability, explosiveness and cruelty.
Mongolian genes partly explain Grozny's military campaigns in the Nogai Horde, Crimean, Astrakhan and Kazan khanates. By the end of the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich, Muscovite Rus' possessed a territory larger than the rest of Europe: the expanding state was more likely to correspond to the possessions of the Golden Horde.
In 1575, Ivan IV unexpectedly abdicated the throne and proclaimed Kasimov Khan, Semeon Bekbulatovich, a descendant of Genghis Khan and great-grandson of the Khan of the Great Horde, Akhmat, as the new king. Historians call this action a “political masquerade,” although they cannot fully explain it. Some argue that in this way the tsar was saved from the predictions of the magi who prophesied his death, others, in particular the historian Ruslan Skrynnikov, see this as a cunning political move. It is interesting that after the death of Ivan the Terrible, many boyars consolidated around Semeon’s candidacy, but they ultimately lost the fight with Boris Godunov.
Death of the Tsarevich
After the weak-minded Fyodor Ioannovich (1557-1598), the third son of Ivan the Terrible, was installed in the kingdom, the question of a successor became relevant. He was considered to be Fyodor's younger brother and Ivan the Terrible's son from his sixth marriage, Dmitry. Even despite the fact that the Church did not officially recognize Dmitry’s right to the throne, since only children from his first three marriages could be contenders, Fyodor’s brother-in-law, who was really running the state and counting on the throne, Boris Godunov seriously feared a competitor.
Therefore, when on May 15, 1591, in Uglich, Tsarevich Dmitry was found dead with his throat cut, suspicion immediately fell on Godunov. But, as a result, the prince’s death was blamed on an accident: allegedly, the prince, suffering from epilepsy, mortally wounded himself during an attack.
Historian Mikhail Pogodin, who worked with the original of this criminal case in 1829, also exonerates Godunov and confirms the version of the accident, although some modern researchers tend to see insidious intent in this.
Tsarevich Dmitry was destined to become the last of the Moscow branch of the Rurikovichs, but the dynasty was finally interrupted only in 1610, when Vasily Shuisky (1552-1612), representing the Suzdal line of the Rurikovich family, was overthrown from the throne.
Ingigerda's betrayal
Representatives of the Rurikovichs can still be found today. Russian scientists have recently conducted studies of DNA samples of those who consider themselves the legitimate heirs of an ancient family. The researchers came to the conclusion that the descendants belong to two haplogroups: N1c1 - branches leading from Vladimir Monomakh and R1a1 - descending from Yuri Tarussky.
However, it is the second haplogroup that is recognized as the original one, since the first could have appeared as a result of the infidelity of the wife of Yaroslav the Wise, Irina. Scandinavian sagas tell that Irina (Ingigerda) fell in love with the Norwegian king Olaf II. According to historians, the fruit of this love was Vsevolod, the father of Vladimir Monomakh. But even this option once again confirms the Varangian roots of the Rurikovich family.
