Yaroslav Vladimirovich the Wise (978-1054) - Rostov and Novgorod prince, Grand Duke of Kiev, son of the Baptist of Rus'. After numerous battles with his brothers, he was able to secure the southern and western borders of the state. Also during the reign of Yaroslav, dynastic ties were established with European countries. It was under him that the “Russian Truth” was compiled. In addition, under this statesman, the Golden Gate, Pechersky Monastery and St. Sophia Cathedral were built in Kyiv. To soften the dependence of the Russian Orthodox Church on Byzantium, the ruler sent his Metropolitan Hilarion to the temple.

Family connections

There are discussions among historians about the years of Yaroslav’s life, but most of them adhere to the version about the year of birth in 978. He was born into the family of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, who baptized Kievan Rus. The mother of the statesman was Rogneda Rogvolodovna.

Already in 987 he received the title of Prince of Rostov. It was in this year that a city called Yaroslavl was founded. Since the boy was very young, a breadwinner and governor of Buda was assigned to him. He helped the ruler get comfortable, and later he became Yaroslav’s closest ally.

After the death of Vysheslav in 1010, Yaroslav was recognized as the prince of Novgorod. In 1014, he first refused to pay tribute to Kyiv, which led to disagreements with his father Vladimir, who at that time was the head of state. He became furious and began preparing a campaign to punish his son. However, he later fell ill and died suddenly.

Vladimir’s other sons took on the task of pacifying his brother. Since 1015, conflicts between Yaroslav and Svyatopolk the Accursed and Mstislav of Tmutarakan began. They lasted for several years. During this time, the borders of the state moved several times.

Conflicts with brothers

When Vladimir died, Svyatopolk took his place. He had to destroy three brothers to maintain power. Boris, Svyatoslav and Gleb died at the hands of the ruler's hired killers. This fate awaited his younger brother, but he managed to win the battle of Lyubich. In 1016, Svyatopolk fled to his father-in-law Boleslav, two years later they together tried to attack Yaroslav. The battle took place in Volyn, on the banks of the Bug. For a while, Boleslav managed to take possession of Kyiv, but later he quarreled with his son-in-law and left. At this time, the Wise again attacks along with his Varangians and wins.

In 1019, Yaroslav managed to become the prince of Kyiv. He saw his main goal as protecting his native land from the Pechenegs and other conquerors. Under his authority, the ruler united almost all ancient Russian territories. But for full control, the man needed to deal with other relatives.

In 1021, he expelled his nephew Bryachislav of Polotsk, after which he divided the state along the Dnieper with his brother Mstislav. In 1036 he dies, and Yaroslav again becomes the only prince. At the same time, he sends his son Vladimir to the post of Novgorod sovereign.

The wise man preferred to resolve all issues through diplomacy, resorting to violence only as a last resort. Studies of his remains showed that the statesman's leg was almost completely severed. He could not get by without outside help because he had a severe limp.

Some historians claim that the injury was sustained during feuds with the brothers. Other scientists believe that Yaroslav limped since childhood. The chronicles contain confirmation of the second version, allegedly in his youth the ruler suffered paralysis of his legs. But this did not diminish his physical strength.

Administration of Kievan Rus

The Wise ruled Kiev from 1019 to 1054, during which time Rus' became the strongest country in Europe. The territory was surrounded by a stone wall, and the main gate of the city was called “Golden”. The Church of the Annunciation towered above them. Thanks to this statesman, the first full-fledged set of laws, “Russian Truth,” was published in Rus'. To strengthen the defense of the state, several fortresses were cut down along the Ros River.

He also founded several monasteries, including Yuriev and Kiev-Pechersk, as well as the Hagia Sophia Cathedral. The foundation for the last of them was laid on the site of an enchanting victory over the nomads. Even now, the temple amazes the townspeople with its splendor; the frescoes and mosaics are perfectly preserved. For finishing, the statesman invited the best craftsmen from Greece. Not far from the cathedral are the monasteries of St. George and St. Irene.

The sovereign paid special attention to the church and the development of writing. He gathered numerous translators and book writers to expand the library of Kievan Rus. All over the land, children learned to read and write thanks to a school for boys opened in Novgorod. Yaroslav himself spent a lot of time reading. The specialists he hired translated books into Old Russian and Church Slavonic languages.

In 1054, the prince felt his death approaching, so he divided all his lands between his sons, bequeathing them to live in peace. The Kyiv throne went to Prince Izyaslav. The statesman died on February 20, 1054. He was buried in a marble coffin, the ceremony took place in the Church of Hagia Sophia.

Dynastic marriages

Yaroslav Vladimirovich was married only once in his life, but the chronicles mention two names of his wife - Irina and Anna. The statesman's wife's name was Ingigerde, she was the daughter of the Swedish king Olav. According to historians, at baptism the girl received the name Irina, after being tonsured as a nun they began to call her Anna.

To strengthen his power, Yaroslav married all his daughters to kings of other countries. Elizabeth became the wife of the Norwegian Harald, Anastasia married the Hungarian ruler Andrei. Historians have devoted a lot of time to studying the fate of Anna Yaroslavna, who became the wife of the French king Henry I.

The prince married Vsevolod’s son to a Greek princess, and two more offspring tied the knot with German princesses. Izyaslav married the sister of the Polish prince Casimir, who, in turn, married the sister of the Wise. Her name was Dobrogneva. Yaroslav Vladimirovich sought to build a policy on love and diplomacy, avoiding the use of weapons. He hoped that his sons would continue his work, but the death of the sovereign was the impetus for the beginning of feudal fragmentation.

During his life, the statesman managed to do more than many other rulers. He had a strong character, constantly strived for enlightenment, for which he was nicknamed the Wise. The Russian Orthodox Church remembers and annually honors the memory of its prince. In a leap year, this date falls on March 4th, at all other times - on the 5th.
 

YAROSLAV VLADIMIROVICH THE WISE

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Yaroslav the Wise - the prince who made Kievan Rus a great power

Yaroslav (baptized George) the Wise (born around 980 - died on February 20, 1054 in Vyshgorod) - Grand Duke of Kiev (from 1019), during whose reign Rus' reached its greatest prosperity. He was the son of Vladimir the Great and the Polotsk princess Rogneda. The nickname Wise was assigned to Yaroslav in official Russian historiography only in the second half of the 19th century; during his lifetime he was not called that. The period of Yaroslav's reign is considered the culmination of the greatness of Kyiv, which then became one of the largest cities in Europe and was called the “Mother of Russian Cities” in the chronicles. Prince Yaroslav ruled the largest country in Europe for 35 years, and never before or after him did the ancient Russian power have such power. During this time, the prince proved himself to be outstanding:

Stages of the reign of Yaroslav the Wise.

Rule in Novgorod and the struggle for Kyiv. Yaroslav had to fight for the Kyiv throne. First, his father put him in charge in Rostov, and then in Novgorod. In 1014, Yaroslav refused to pay tribute to Kyiv, which angered his father. This, by the way, was the first manifestation of separatism among the Rurikovichs. Only sudden death prevented Vladimir Svyatoslavovich from starting a campaign against Novgorod.

Immediately after the death of Vladimir, the Kiev throne was seized by the Turov prince Svyatopolk I the Accursed, half-brother of Yaroslav, who ordered the murder of his brothers: the Rostov prince Boris, the Murom prince Gleb and the Drevlyan prince Svyatoslav. Yaroslav Vladimirovich was warned in time about the danger by his sister Predslava.

Using the support of the Novgorodians, in December 1015 he defeated Svyatopolk in the battle of Lyubech and captured Kyiv. In this battle, he established himself as an excellent tactician, managing to attack suddenly and putting the Kyivans in an almost hopeless situation, pressing them to the river. But Svyatopolk did not resign himself: in 1018, together with his father-in-law, the Polish king Boleslav the Brave, he defeated Yaroslav in the Battle of the Bug and recaptured Kyiv.

Yaroslav the Wise fled to Novgorod, from where he intended to cross to Scandinavia and hide there forever. But the Novgorodians cut down the prince's boats and forced Yaroslav to continue the fight. They also raised money to hire a new squad in Scandinavia. In 1019, the final victory over Svyatopolk was won at the Battle of Alta. By that time, the accursed man had already lost the support of his Polish father-in-law, with whom he had imprudently quarreled, but he called on the Pechenegs for his protection, which, however, did not help him. Yaroslav Vladimirovich sat down in the capital city, but civil strife in Rus' did not end there.

In 1021, Yaroslav defeated another contender for the Kiev throne - his brother Bryachislav Izyaslavovich of Polotsk. In 1024, he had a new, much more formidable rival - Mstislav of Tmutarakan, who captured Chernigov. In the battle of Listvenny, Yaroslav was defeated, but despite this, the brothers managed to come to an agreement, dividing their father’s heritage among themselves. Dual power in Rus' persisted until the death of Mstislav in 1035, only after which Yaroslav became the sovereign ruler of Ancient Rus'.

The main merits of Yaroslav the Wise as the Prince of Kyiv.

Testament of Yaroslav the Wise.

Yaroslav died on February 20, 1054. Before his death, he bequeathed the Kiev throne to the Novgorod prince Izyaslav, and left other principalities as inheritance to his remaining sons, ordering everyone to live in peace.

1. Yaroslav was not a conqueror; war did not attract him. The reason for this was probably his lameness. According to one version, Yaroslav was injured during a fight with his brothers: an examination of the remains showed that his leg was severed. However, this did not stop him from being an excellent horseman and often leading his warriors into battle. The Vikings, who made up a significant part of Prince Yaroslav’s squad, by the way, considered him a natural Scandinavian, called him King Yaritsleiv and respected him very much.

2. Of all the sons of Vladimir the Great, only Mstislav (about 983-1036) was most similar to his warlike grandfather, the famous Svyatoslav Igorevich. He ruled in the distant Tmutarakan principality, constantly fighting with the neighboring tribes of the Yases and Kosogs (modern Circassians and Ossetians). The army loved Mstislav very much for his character, courage and simplicity. Mstislav shared all the hardships of the military campaign, as well as the joys of victory, equally with his warriors. There is a legend how, before one of the wars, Mstislav, in order to avoid bloodshed, went out to fight one-on-one against the leader of the Kosogs, the giant Rededi. The duel took place in front of the warring armies and Mstislav won. The Kosogi submitted to the formidable warrior prince without a fight.

In 1024, the paths of two brothers crossed - Mstislav of Tmutarakan and Yaroslav the Wise. The latter brought the Varangians from Novgorod and wanted, with their help, to finally establish himself in Kyiv. Mstislav stood at the head of a large army, consisting of Chernigov, northerners and Kosogov. Two squads met at night near Listvennaya under pouring rain and flashes of lightning. Mstislav's army completely defeated the mercenaries from the north, and Yaroslav himself fled to Novgorod. However, Mstislav sent a messenger to him with a call: “Sit down in your Kyiv. You are the elder brother, and let me have that side.” Only in 1025 did Yaroslav, at the head of a large army, come from Novgorod to Kyiv and make peace with his brother. Mstislav was given lands along the left bank of the Dnieper, and Yaroslav - the Right Bank. So the two of them ruled Russia, and, as the chronicler writes: “... there was great silence on Earth.” In 1035, Prince Mstislav died while hunting, and Yaroslav became the sole ruler of a great power.

3. Not only European monarchs considered it an honor to become related to the great prince of Kyiv, but also the Byzantine imperial court. Yaroslav actively intervened in international conflicts, defending the interests of his own state.

Yaroslav's wife is Ingegerda (baptized Irina), daughter of King Olaf Sjotkonung of Sweden. As a dowry, the princess brought “the lands of Ingigerda” (Ingermanland) with the city of Ladoga. Their children dispersed throughout Europe. Izyaslav married the daughter of the Polish king Casimir I Gertrude. Vsevolod - on the Byzantine princess Anna, from whose marriage Vladimir Monomakh was born. Vyacheslav and Igor married the German princesses Oda of Stadenskaya and Cunegonde of Orlaminda. The eldest daughter Elizabeth became the wife of the Norwegian king Harald the Bold, and after his death - the wife of the Danish king Sven Estidsen. Anastasia's husband was King Andrew of Hungary. The youngest daughter Anna married King Henry I of France. King Casimir I of Poland, whom Yaroslav the Wise supported in the struggle for the throne, married his sister Maria (Dobronega). There is an opinion that Yaroslav the Wise had another daughter, Agatha, who became the wife of Edward the Exile, heir to the English throne, who fled to Rus' from the wrath of King Knut the Great.

4. Anna (Agnesa) Yaroslavna - the most famous daughter of the Grand Duke of Kyiv, went down in history as Anna of Russia, Queen of France. Being the youngest in the family, in 1049 she married the French king Henry I of Valois in Reims, who sought Yaroslav's support in the fight against the German emperor. After the death of her husband in 1060, Anne became regent for her young son Philip I. This is a rare case when a woman ruled France. It is interesting that Queen Anne signed some letters in Cyrillic.

In 1062, Anna united her fate with Charlemagne's heir, Count Valois de Crepy. This union was not flawless: not only was the count his political opponent during the life of Henry I, he was also already married. Anna remained with the count, despite the fact that the church declared their marriage illegal. Only after the death of her second husband did the queen reappear at court. This fact, however, was the reason that Anne was not buried in the royal tomb. Her grave is located in the abbey she founded in the town of Senlis. There, on the portal of the church of St. Vincent has a sculptural image of Anna Yaroslavna in all the splendor of her beauty. The Reims Gospel, brought from Kyiv, written in Cyrillic, on which all French kings swore allegiance until 1825, also became a memory of Anna.

5. As the author of “The Tale of Bygone Years” reports, Yaroslav the Wise “... gathered a lot of scribes, and they translated from Greek into Slovenian language and writing. And they wrote many books, and gained fame for this... Yaroslav had a love of books and he copied them a lot and collected them in the church of St. Sophia." At that time they wrote on parchment, which was made from the skins of calves or sheep. It took a whole herd to create one book. Morocco covers were decorated with gold, diamonds, emeralds and pearls.

Traces of the legendary library disappeared after the capture of Kyiv by the Mongol-Tatars. It may have been robbed, or hidden during the siege, which lasted ten weeks. In the underground corridors of the St. Sophia Cathedral, located at a depth of six meters, they found an inscription: “If anyone finds this passage, he will find Yaroslav’s great treasure.” However, there was not a single book there, and the inscription turned out to be a fake. One can only guess where the library is located. After the death of Yaroslav, Hilarion, deprived of his metropolitan rank, could take many church books with him to the Pechersky Monastery. It is no less likely that the library is hidden in the Zverinetsky caves not far from the Vydubetsky monastery, which was one of the centers of chronicle writing (and not all underground galleries have yet been explored). After the death of Yaroslav, the books could have ended up in the Mezhigorsky Monastery near Kiev, located not far from the princely residence.

Historical memory of Yaroslav the Wise.

Monuments to Yaroslav the Wise were erected in Kyiv, Kharkov, Bila Tserkva and Yaroslavl.

The image of the prince is imprinted on the Ukrainian banknote with a face value of two hryvnias and the Russian banknote with a face value of one thousand rubles.

In Ukraine there is a state award - the Order of Yaroslav the Wise.

The National Academy of Law in Kharkov is named after Yaroslav the Wise.

Novgorod State University is named after Yaroslav the Wise.

In 2008, Prince Yaroslav the Wise took first place in the television project “Great Ukrainians”.

The image of the Kyiv prince was repeatedly recreated in music, literature and cinema.

Yaroslav the Wise on social networks.

On Youtube for the query “Yaroslav the Wise” – 2020 search results.

How often do Yandex users from Ukraine look for information about Yaroslav the Wise?

To analyze the popularity of the query “Yaroslav the Wise,” the Yandex search engine service wordstat.yandex is used, from which we can conclude: as of June 11, 2016, the number of queries for the month was 68,183, as can be seen in the screenshot:

Since the end of 2014, the largest number of requests for “Yaroslav the Wise” was registered in February 2015 – 126,875 requests per month.

III. DIVISION INTO PARTIHS. POCUTS AND VLADIMIR MONOMACH

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Division of Rus' into volosts. - Sons of Yaroslav. – Rostislav Tmutarakansky and Vseslav Polotsky. - Torquay and Cuman. – Twice expulsion of Izyaslav. – Svyatoslav Chernigovsky and his sons. - Vsevolod Pereyaslavsky.

Division of Rus' between the sons of Yaroslav the Wise

Yaroslav united almost all Russian lands in his possession. But this autocracy was personal and temporary. Like Vladimir the Great, he restored the unity of the Russian lands only in order to strengthen them for his own family, and not in order to establish autocracy in Rus'. The morals and concepts of the Eastern Slavs of that time were too far from such a thought; no orders, no wills in this sense could be valid. The concept of Rus' as a single, indivisible possession, a single state, has not yet developed. If the Kiev prince had decided to give the entire Russian land to one son, then the other sons and relatives would not have recognized such an order and would have taken up arms against him with their joint forces. The state principle and unity of the Russian lands, we repeat, were supported only by the fact that they were in the possession of one princely family and that the prince sitting in Kyiv was considered the elder of all Russian princes.

Rus' in the 11th century

Yaroslav, like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, during his lifetime distributed his lands to his sons for management or viceroyalty. His eldest son Vladimir, according to established custom, was the governor in northern Novgorod. He died two years before the death of his father, and then Izyaslav was transferred to Novgorod from Turov, now remaining the eldest. The chronicle says that before his death, Yaroslav disposed of the regions in this way: he assigned Kyiv to Izyaslav, Chernigov to Svyatoslav, Pereyaslavl to Vsevolod, Vladimir Volynsky to Igor, and Smolensk to Vyacheslav. At the same time, he exhorted them to live in love and harmony among themselves and act together against their enemies; otherwise, he predicted the destruction of the Russian land, which their fathers and grandfathers acquired through great labor. He inspired them to obey their elder brother, having his “place in their father”; and he bequeathed to the eldest not to offend any of the brothers and to help the offended. But such exhortations are commonplace; of course, almost every caring father did them for his children. The chronicler, however, immediately reports that at the time of Yaroslav’s death, Izyaslav was in Novgorod, Svyatoslav was in Vladimir Volynsky, and only Vsevolod remained in Kyiv, whom his father loved and always kept with him. In any case, the sons of Yaroslav should have been more closely related to each other than the sons of Vladimir: the latter were born in paganism from different wives and concubines; while the Yaroslavichs were the fruit of a marriage sanctified by the church, there were children not only of one father, but also of one mother.

Yaroslav lived to a ripe old age: death overtook him at the age of 76 in nearby Vyshgorod, in February 1054. Vsevolod ordered the burial: the body of the late prince was placed on a sleigh, brought to Kyiv with prayers and church chants and lowered into a marble tomb, which was placed in one of the aisles of the St. Sophia Cathedral that he had erected.

His younger sons, Igor and Vyacheslav, soon followed their father, and their volosts went to the elders, mainly Izyaslav. Thus, the latter, having retained Novgorod, owned the lands of Kiev and Volyn, i.e. almost the entire country west of the Dnieper. Svyatoslav, in addition to Chernigov, captured the entire region of Severyan, Vyatichi, Ryazan, Murom and Tmutarakan; therefore, almost all the lands east of the Dnieper. Vsevolod settled in southern Pereyaslavl on the Trubezh River; but to this inheritance he also received almost the entire Upper Volga region, i.e. lands of Rostov, Suzdal and Belozersk. Then each of the three brothers in their inheritance distributed cities and volosts for administration or viceroyship to members of their own family. One of the sons of Vladimir the Great, Sudislav, was still alive, imprisoned by Yaroslav. Due to his seniority, he now had the right to occupy the Grand Duke's Kyiv table; but, having spent more than 20 years in prison, the old man no longer thought about his rights. His nephews freed him, taking an oath from him not to seek reign, and he soon died as a monk.

Grand Duke Izyaslav Yaroslavich

After Yaroslav, internal peace in Rus' did not last long, although his three sons still lived in harmony with each other. But they had relatives who did not want to make peace with their lion's parts during the division of lands, and little by little a long, continuous series of princely feuds opened up over appanages, or volosts.

The first example of civil strife this time was set by the Yaroslavichs’ own nephew, Rostislav, the son of their elder brother Vladimir of Novgorod. Whether he was completely deprived of his uncles or received too insignificant a parish from them is not known exactly. We only see that this enterprising prince turned to Novgorod, where the memories of his father, who, apparently, enjoyed popular love, were still alive. Here Rostislav recruited a free squad. Among his comrades, noble Novgorod people, Porey and Vyshata, are also mentioned. The last was the son of Izyaslav’s mayor Ostromir, who several years before died in one campaign on the Miracle. Rostislav retired to the Tmutarakan region, which attracted him with its separate position, trade connections with industrial Korsun and proximity to the warlike Caucasian peoples, where it was easy to recruit auxiliary mercenary detachments. This region at that time was ruled by Gleb, the eldest son of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich. Rostislav ousted his cousin from Tmutarakan. The latter's father Svyatoslav came to the aid of his son and restored his inheritance. But as soon as Svyatoslav went back to his Chernigov, Rostislav again expelled Gleb and again occupied Tmutarakan (1064), where he reigned until his death. But this reign was short-lived: it lasted only two years. Rostislav soon became menacing to his neighbors, i.e. for the Korsun Greeks and Caucasian Kasogs. The latter were forced to pay him tribute; and the Greeks, burdened by the proximity of such a warlike prince, decided to exterminate him. Our chronicle tells that some Greek chief, or catapan, came to the Russian prince, flattered him and then poisoned him during a feast, when the prince drank the health of his guest. He was buried in the stone church of the Mother of God, which was built by Mstislav Chermny. After the death of Rostislav, the citizens of Tmutarakan sent to Chernigov to ask Svyatoslav to let his son Gleb reign with them again: obviously the latter enjoyed their love. Svyatoslav fulfilled their request. The monument to Glebov's administration at this end of ancient Rus' is the famous Tmutarakan stone, which is a slab with an inscription carved on the side of it. This inscription testifies that Prince Gleb in 1068 measured the strait between the cities of Korchev and Tmutarakan on the ice and counted 14,000 fathoms.

Almost at the same time as Rostislav, another nephew, however, a cousin, rose up against the Yaroslavichs. This was the Polotsk prince Vseslav, son of Bryachislav (who died in 1044). With his enterprising and restless character, he was not inferior to Rostislav. The chronicle depicts him as a cunning and cruel prince. He naturally had some kind of ulcer on his head, as a result of which he wore a bandage, and superstitious people attributed a special magical meaning to this bandage. Vseslav, in all likelihood, harbored displeasure because he was limited to one Polotsk region and was not given parts in other Russian lands. Like his father, he discovered claims to the Novgorod region, or at least to the nearby Novgorod volosts. At first he tried to besiege Pskov, but without success; then he appeared with an army near Novgorod, burst into it and burned part of the city; and robbed the church of St. Sofia, having removed the bells and chandeliers. Then the Yaroslavichs with united forces went to fight the Polotsk land. They took the city of Minsk and, with the cruelty characteristic of that time, beat the male population, and distributed their wives and children into slavery to their warriors. Vseslav met his uncle not far from this city on the banks of the Nemiza River. It happened in March, and the ground was still covered with deep snow. After a stubborn battle, the Yaroslavichs won; but, obviously, the fight against such an enemy was not easy; since they chose to resort to treachery. The princes gathered for negotiations somewhere near Smolensk and camped on the opposite banks of the Dnieper. The Yaroslavichs invited Vseslav to move to their side and kissed the cross, i.e. swore an oath for his safety. But as soon as Izyaslav brought him into his tent, the Prince of Polotsk was captured, taken to Kyiv and put in a log house along with his two sons.

The beginning of the struggle between Rus' and the Polovtsians

Such treachery, according to the chronicler, was not slow to bring about God’s punishment on the oath-breaking princes. New enemies, foreigners, visited the Russian land. These were the Polovtsians, a people of the same origin as the Pechenegs, but even wilder and more numerous.

After the famous defeat of the Pechenegs near Kiev in 1036, our chronicle no longer mentions their invasions of Russian land. The persistent, victorious struggle of Vladimir and Yaroslav against them obviously weakened their strength; They were finally broken by their own civil strife and other nomads advancing from the east. In the 9th century, as is known, the Pechenegs were pushed back from behind the Don by their fellow tribesmen Uza in alliance with the Khazar Khagans. When the Pechenegs scattered in the Black Sea steppes on both sides of the Dnieper, the Uzes occupied their nomadic camps in the Zadonsk steppes. Not all Pechenegs left their former steppes; some of them remained between the Uzes, from which, according to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, they differed in a shorter dress that reached only to the knees and had no sleeves. In the first half of the 10th century, according to the same Constantine, a desert space of five days' drive separated the Pechenegs from Uzov. But the latter did not remain quiet for long in their new places. In turn, pressed by other nomads, they crossed to the western side of the Don and began to move their nomads to the Dnieper steppes, where they again encountered the Pechenegs. Like the Pechenegs, the Uzes were a Turco-Tatar people, divided into different hordes under the control of their clan elders, or khans. Russian princes, in the fight against the Pechenegs, sometimes took advantage of their enmity with the Uzes. Of the latter, as well as of the former, on occasion they hired auxiliary cavalry for war with their neighbors. We saw that Vladimir the Great already had mounted Torks in his campaign against the Kama Bolgars. The Russian chronicle calls Uzov by this name.

The Pechenegs still bravely held out against Uzov. But in the last years of Yaroslav's reign, brutal civil strife arose between the Pecheneg hordes. The reason for them was the enmity of the most powerful of the Pecheneg khans, Turakh, against Kegen, who, from ordinary people, rose to the ranks of the main elders, thanks to his exploits in the wars with the Uzes. Pressed by a rival, Kegen fled with part of the Pechenegs across the Danube and surrendered under the protection of Emperor Constantine Monomakh with the obligation to protect the Greek borders from the attacks of his own fellow tribesmen. Then the Uzes finally gained the upper hand over the Pechenegs, who remained in the steppes between the Dnieper and the Danube, which prompted the latter to make new crossings across the Danube, where they received from the Byzantine government land for settlement, mainly in those places of Bulgaria that were desolate after the extermination wars of Vasily II.

But Uzy, or Torki, did not dominate the Transnistrian steppes for long and plundered the Russian borders. Soon they were pushed out from the north by Russian princes; and from the east, following their own footsteps, hordes of Cumans, who are known in our chronicles under the name Polovtsians, approached them. The first mention of the Polovtsians occurs shortly after the death of Yaroslav. It was in 1055 that Prince Vsevolod of Pereyaslavl fought victoriously with the Torks, and in the same year he made peace with the Polovtsians, who came with their khan Bolush. It is very likely that the Russian prince entered into an alliance with more distant barbarians, or with the Cumans, against neighboring enemies, or Torks. Five years later, we see that the Russian princes decided to attack the latter with their joint forces. Not only did the Yaroslavichs, that is, Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod, gather together; but Vseslav of Polotsk also united with them. A large Russian army, horse and ship, went to Torkov and caused such a pogrom among them that they fled further to the south. There, apparently, the Cumans finished them off. The Uzes, or Torki, oppressed by them, following the Pechenegs, whole hordes began to cross the Danube into the Byzantine Empire. In addition, large crowds of them, captured by the Russian princes, were settled on the southern borders of the Kyiv and Pereyaslavl regions to protect these borders from other steppe inhabitants. In the subsequent history of that region, the semi-nomadic descendants of these Torks, or the so-called Black Cowls, played an important role.

Rus' gained nothing with the fall of the Pechenegs and Uzov. Their place in the steppes was taken by their closest fellow tribesmen, the even more ferocious and numerous Cumans, or Cumans, who were not slow to begin their devastating invasions and greatly pushed back the southern Russian regions.

The first expulsion of Prince Izyaslav from Kyiv

The very next year, after the pogrom of Torki, the Polovtsy came to plunder the Pereyaslav region and defeated Vsevolod. In 1068 they appeared again. The Yaroslavich brothers united their squads and gave them a battle on the banks of the Alta River, therefore, almost near Pereyaslavl; but they were defeated and fled, Svyatoslav to Chernigov, and Izyaslav and Vsevolod to Kyiv. After that, the Polovtsians opened their plunder pens in all directions. The people of Kiev were very dissatisfied with the behavior of their prince and his warriors. They willfully gathered at a meeting on the market square in the lower city, that is, on Podol, and from there they sent to tell the Grand Duke: “Give us weapons and horses; we want to fight with the Polovtsians again.” The Grand Duke refused to give in to this noisy demand. Then the citizens rebelled. They rushed to the upper city, first to the house of the Kyiv thousand, that is, the main governor, Kosnyachk; but he managed to escape. From here, one part of the rebels headed to the prison to release the convicts and Vseslav of Polotsk; and the other - to the princely court. Izyaslav at this time was sitting with his retinue in the entryway of his mansion. Some boyars advised him to kill Vseslav as soon as possible. But the Grand Duke did not dare to do anything; finally lost his head, left Kyiv with his brother Vsevolod and fled to Poland to his relative King Boleslav. Meanwhile, the Kievans freed Vseslav and installed him as their prince. Izyaslav's courtyard and property were attached. this was plundered by the rebellious mob.

What the Kievans demanded in vain from Izyaslav, that is, new battles with the Polovtsians who had scattered for plunder, was fulfilled by the courageous Svyatoslav of Chernigov. He went out with a squad of three thousand against the barbarians who were rampaging near Chernigov, and encountered their main (supposedly twelve thousand) detachment on the banks of the Snova River. “We have nowhere to go now. Let's pull“- the prince shouted to his squad; he attacked the Polovtsians, defeated them and captured the leader himself.

For seven whole months Vseslav occupied the grand-ducal table. King of Poland Boleslaw II, nicknamed Brave, was in double relationship with Izyaslav; since he was a cousin of the Kyiv prince through his mother and at the same time a brother-in-law through his sister, Izyaslav’s wife. The warlike Boleslav warmly received the fugitive and willingly set out on a campaign to return the Kyiv table to him. The people of Kiev went to meet him halfway under the command of Vseslav. But the last one in Belgorod secretly left the Kyiv army at night and fled to his Polotsk.

Return of Izyaslav to Kyiv (1069) and his second expulsion from there (1073)

The people of Kiev returned home and at the meeting decided to send the Grand Duke to the brothers with a request to come and protect Kyiv from the Poles and from Izyaslav’s revenge. “If you don’t help us,” they said, “we will set fire to the city and go to the Greek land.” Svyatoslav and Vsevolod really stood up for them and ordered them to tell their elder brother: “Do not take the Lyakhov to Kyiv; if you want to destroy the city, then know that we feel sorry for our father’s table.” Izyaslav obeyed, but not completely. His son (Mstislav), who entered the city with an advanced squad, beat many citizens and blinded others, taking revenge for the release of Vseslav of Polotsk. Boleslav and the Lyakhs, captivated by the free life in Kyiv and the beauty of its women, spent the whole winter in Kyiv (1069). The Polish king, of course, did not help Izyaslav for nothing: in addition to rich gifts, according to some Polish chroniclers, on the way back he occupied part of Red Rus with the strong city of Przemysl, which, however, was taken by him after a courageous defense.

With Izyaslav's return to Kyiv, nothing seemed to disturb the agreement between the three brothers. This agreement lasted about 18 years after the death of their father. Thanks to their unanimity, Vseslav of Polotsk was deprived of his inheritance for some time; and his new attack on Novgorod was repulsed by the Novgorodians under the leadership of Gleb Svyatoslavich. In 1072, the relics of Boris and Gleb were transferred to Vyshgorod from the old wooden church to the new stone one, built by Izyaslav. The brothers gathered for the celebration with their boyars, and after the liturgy they all feasted together “with great love,” as the chronicler puts it. And next year there is already a line between them, i.e. infighting The chronicler does not speak clearly about its reasons; It is not difficult to guess that a dispute arose about the volosts. The reason for it, apparently, was the same restless Vseslav of Polotsk, who managed to regain his inheritance and entered into some negotiations with the Grand Duke, which aroused the displeasure of Svyatoslav of Chernigov. The latter persuaded Vsevolod, and together they expelled Izyaslav from Kyiv. In all likelihood, the citizens of Kyiv harbored displeasure against Izyaslav both for his revenge, committed with the help of the Poles, and for his neglect to protect Rus' from the predatory Polovtsians; while the courageous Svyatoslav had behind him the glory of the winner on the banks of the Snova.

Grand Duke Svyatoslav Yaroslavich (1073–1076)

Svyatoslav Yaroslavich with his family. Miniature from Izbornik Svyatoslav, 1073

Izyaslav, who managed to take away with him a lot of valuable property, again turned to his relative Boleslav the Bold for help. But this time the Polish king did not express a desire to arm himself for his rights, although he appropriated most of the property he brought. The exile went to Germany, where the Russian princes of that time also had family ties with the rulers. He turned to Emperor Henry IV, recognizing him as a judge in his case with his brothers and supporting his requests with gifts. But Henry was too busy with his own affairs and the fight against rebellious vassals to undertake armed intervention in the affairs of distant Russia. He limited himself to sending an embassy to Kyiv with a demand that this city be returned to his elder brother. Svyatoslav respectfully accepted the embassy and sent him away with such rich gifts that aroused surprise among the Germans. At least one of their chroniclers says that “never have we seen so much gold, silver and precious fabrics.” Having achieved nothing from Henry IV, Izyaslav turned to his famous opponent, Pope Gregory VII. He sent his son to Rome to ask the pope for intercession and to complain about the treachery of the Polish king. The exile was even ready, apparently, to recognize papal authority over the Russian Church, just to achieve his personal satisfaction. Although distracted at the time by important matters, Gregory VII did not miss the opportunity to show his supremacy over earthly rulers. He sent two letters, one merciful to Izyaslav, and the other, reproachful, to Boleslav, whom he reproached for the unjustly appropriated property of the Russian prince. At this very time we find the Polish king in alliance with Izyaslav’s brothers, so in the next 1076 their young sons, Oleg Svyatoslavich and Vladimir Vsevolodovich (Monomakh), went with the Russian squad to help Boleslav against the Czechs. But in the same year, Grand Duke Svyatoslav died, and circumstances changed again in Izyaslav’s favor. The Polish king finally heeded his requests and gave him an auxiliary army, with which he went against Vsevolod, who occupied Kyiv. Vsevolod did not persist and hastened to make peace with his older brother. Izyaslav again sat on the Kiev table (1077), and gave the Chernigov region to his younger brother. But this transfer, in turn, served as a source of great civil strife, because Svyatoslav’s children considered Chernigov their hereditary inheritance, their fatherland.

Svyatoslav left five sons: Gleb, Oleg, David, Roman and Yaroslav. One curious manuscript has preserved for us an image of these princes along with their parents. Svyatoslav, like his father Yaroslav, was a book lover and forced Slavic-Bulgarian manuscripts to be rewritten for himself. A collection of various articles, mainly of religious content, which was rewritten for him in 1073, has reached us in the original. To this Svyatoslav Collection [ Izbornik] attached is a drawing that depicts the prince and his family, consisting of his wife and the five mentioned sons. All of them are presented in colored caftans, falling below the knees and belted with a gold sash. The kaftans have gold collars and narrow sleeves with gold braces. On the heads of the sons are hats, or hoods, with a fur trim and a blue rounded top. The hood of Svyatoslav himself has a lower top and, apparently, gold. In addition, he is wearing an outer cloak (epancha, or basket), green with a gold border, fastened on the right shoulder with a buckle with an expensive stone. Everyone's boots are made of colored morocco. The sons are all beardless; and the father, who has a round, handsome face, has a thick mustache and a trimmed beard. The princess has a scarf or veil wrapped around her head, one end hanging down to the right side. She is wearing a long outer dress with a wide, turn-down collar, a gold belt and wide sleeves, under which the gold straps of the lower caftan are visible.

The eldest of the Svyatoslavichs, Gleb, as we have seen, gained fame for his leadership in Tmutarakan. Then we meet him as the Prince of Novgorod, the conqueror of Vseslav of Polotsk and the pacifier of the popular rebellion. Already 80 years have passed since the time when Dobrynya and Putyata crushed idolatry in Novgorod the Great with fire and sword; but Northern Rus' still remembered its old religion, and the pagan party was still strong here. In 1071, according to the chronicle, some sorcerer appeared there and began to confuse the people with imaginary miracles and blasphemy against the Christian faith. The Novgorod mob rebelled and wanted to kill the bishop. The bishop put on his vestments, took the cross, went out to the people and said: “Whoever believes the sorcerer, let him follow him; and whoever honors the cross should follow me.” Prince Gleb Svyatoslavich and his retinue stood next to the bishop; but a large crowd of people gathered around the sorcerer. Gleb hid the ax under the skut (that is, under the cloak), approached the sorcerer and asked: “Do you know what will happen tomorrow”? “I know,” he answered. - “Do you know what will happen today?” - “I will do great miracles.” Then Gleb hit the sorcerer with an ax, and he fell dead. The riot subsided after that, and the crowd went home.

Oleg Svyatoslavich and other rogue princes

After the death of his father, Gleb soon died in some campaign against Zavolochye, i.e. in the country of northern Chud. His brothers Oleg and Roman were planted by their father, the first in Vladimir Volynsky, and the second in Tmutarakan. But the uncles took Oleg out of Vladimir and, apparently, decided to leave only the remote Murom-Ryazan lands and Tmutarakan for the children of Svyatoslav. The enterprising Svyatoslavichs, and especially the most restless of them, Oleg, could not come to terms with such a decision. He did not go to his Murom inheritance, but went to Roman in Tmutarakan and there connected with another deprived nephew of the Yaroslavichs, Boris Vyacheslavich. The means to fight the senior princes were at hand; These were Polovtsian squads, always ready to help anyone for payment or booty. Oleg and Boris hired the Polovtsians and went to Chernigov against Vsevolod. The latter was defeated on the Sozhitsa River; Moreover, many noble Russian boyars fell, among other things, Ivan Zhiroslavich, Tuki, Chudinov’s brother, and Porey.

Expelled from Chernigov, Vsevolod turned to his elder brother for help in Kyiv. Izyaslav tried to console him, reminded him of his own two-time expulsion from Kyiv and expressed his readiness to lay down his own head for his brother’s offense. He gathered a large army and moved with Vsevolod against the rebellious nephews. Vsevolod's son Vladimir Monomakh, who reigned in Smolensk, also rushed to help his father. The Yaroslavichs besieged Chernigov, whose citizens seemed to be devoted to the Svyatoslav family: they defended themselves courageously, although their young princes were absent. But Oleg and Boris soon appeared with new hired crowds of Polovtsians. Then the Yaroslavichs left the siege of the city and went to meet their nephews. In view of the unequal forces, Oleg wanted to avoid battle, but the ardent Boris boasted of going into battle with only his own squad. Somewhere near Chernigov, on a place called Nezhatina Niva in the chronicle, a hot battle took place. Boris fell in this battle. Izyaslav was standing in the middle of his foot regiments when some enemy horseman galloped at him and struck him with a spear. The Grand Duke fell dead. The Battle of Nezhatin ended in the victory of Vsevolod. Broken Oleg again went to Tmutarakan. Izyaslav's body was taken to Kyiv and placed in a marble tomb in the Tithe Church (1078). Death for his younger brother in the eyes of the people partly redeemed the memory of the weaknesses of Izyaslav’s reign. We see this from the warm words with which the chronicler accompanies the story of his burial: he especially sets Izyaslav’s brotherly love as an example to modern princes.

Grand Duke Vsevolod Yaroslavich (1078–1093)

Grand Duke Vsevolod, son of Yaroslav the Wise. Portrait from the Tsar's title book, 1672

The last of the Yaroslavichs, Vsevolod, now remained the senior prince in Rus'. He took the Kyiv table, and Chernigov handed it over to his son Vladimir Monomakh. He generously awarded the sons of his elder brother Izyaslav with inheritances: he gave the Volyn region to Yaropolk Izyaslavich, and planted Svyatopolk Izyaslavich in Novgorod. But the Svyatoslavichs, Roman and Oleg, as well as David Igorevich and the three sons of the deceased Rostislav of Tmutarakan, Rurik, Vasilko and Volodar, considered themselves deprived and continued to achieve the volosts with weapons; funds for this were provided by the Polovtsians, Khazarian-Circassians and free Russian squads. Roman and Oleg, from their Tmutarakan, again went with the Polovtsian and Circassian cavalry to conquer Chernigov; during this campaign, Roman was killed by the Polovtsians themselves; and Oleg, captured by the Tmutarakan Khazars, was handed over to the Greeks, who imprisoned him on the island of Rhodes.

The Rostislavichs, the same warlike, restless princes as their father, received the Cherven cities as their inheritance, which, although they were captured by Boleslav the Bold, were again returned to Russia, thanks to the unrest that occurred in Poland. Not content with these cities, the Rostislavichs tried to take away part of the Volyn land from Yaropolk. David Igorevich achieved some volosts in the same land. Meanwhile, the restless Vseslav of Polotsk also continued his hostile actions. In vain Vsevolod tried to subdue the rebellious relatives and sent his son Vladimir Monomakh against them: civil strife, extinguished in one place, arose with new force in another. Under him, Rus' also suffered from frequent Polovtsian raids; and the Kiev population still suffered insults from the princely tiuns. Dejected by old age and illness, Vsevolod himself was little concerned with the main duties of the prince, that is, court and reprisal, and left matters to his tiuns: popular complaints about their robberies and lies penetrated into the very chronicle, usually so favorable to the family of Monomakh. Moreover, the reign of Vsevolod was marked by other disasters, such as an extreme pestilence, which destroyed many people, and a terrible drought, accompanied by forest fires.

In 1093, Vsevolod died and was buried in the great Sophia Church, in the same place as his father Yaroslav, who loved him more than other children. He left behind two sons, Vladimir Monomakh and Rostislav, and several daughters. Of the latter, Anna, or Yanka, as the chronicle calls her, who was distinguished by her commitment to the church, took monastic vows as a maiden and founded a convent at the Church of St. Andrey. After the death of Metropolitan John, known for his learning and his writings, Yanka undertook a trip to Constantinople and from there brought to Kyiv a new metropolitan, also named John, an unlearned husband, and also an eunuch. The people did not like the latter, who, looking at his pale face, called him a dead man (Navier); however, he really died soon. Vsevolod’s other daughter, Eupraxia, had a wonderful fate. At first she was married to a German margrave. Left a widow, in 1089 she entered into a new marriage with Emperor Henry IV, who also managed to become a widow. But this marriage was the most unhappy. She had to endure a lot of violence and all kinds of insults from her cruel and depraved husband. She was even deprived of her freedom, but managed to escape and found refuge with the famous Tuscan Margravess Matilda, with whose help she sought a divorce from Pope Urban II. Then she returned to her homeland, to Kyiv; Here she took monastic vows, died in 1109 and was buried in the Pechersky Monastery. Yanka survived her for four years.

The year when Yaroslav baptized the Volga, the pagan inhabitants of the Medvezhiy Ugol tract released the “Holy Bear” against him, but the prince, armed with an ax, defeated the beast.

External relations

Yaroslav still had to make many campaigns against external enemies - almost his entire reign was filled with wars. In the year he successfully repelled the Pechenegs' attack on Kyiv and then fought with them as allies of Svyatopolk the Accursed. In the year of the chronicle they note the siege of Kyiv by the Pechenegs, in the absence of Yaroslav, who left for Novgorod. Having received news of this, he hastened to help and completely defeated the Pechenegs under the very walls of Kyiv. After this defeat, Pecheneg attacks on Rus' ceased. Yaroslav's campaigns to the north against the Finns are known. In the year he went to Chud and established his power on the shores of Lake Peipus, where he built a city and named it Yuryev, in honor of his patron saint. In the year Yaroslav sent his son Vladimir on a campaign against the pit. The campaign was successful, but Vladimir’s squad returned almost without horses, due to death. There is news of the Russian campaign under Yaroslav to the Ural ridge, under the leadership of Uleb in the year. On the western borders, Yaroslav waged wars with Lithuania and the Yatvingians, to stop their raids, and with Poland. In the year Yaroslav went to besiege Brest; in the year he took Belz (in northeastern Galicia; the next year, with his brother Mstislav, he returned the Cherven cities to Rus' and brought many Polish captives, whom he settled along the Ros River in towns to protect the lands from the steppe nomads. He finally recaptured Brest in the year Several times Yaroslav went to Poland to help King Casimir to pacify the rebellious Mazovia; the reign of Yaroslav was also marked by the last hostile clash between Rus' and the Greeks. One of the Russian merchants was killed in a quarrel with the Greeks, after which he received no satisfaction. offended, Yaroslav sent a large fleet to Byzantium in the year, under the command of the eldest son of Vladimir of Novgorod and the governor Vyshata. The storm scattered the Russian ships. Vladimir destroyed the Greek fleet sent to pursue him, but Vyshata was surrounded and captured at Varna. peace; prisoners on both sides were returned, and friendly relations were sealed by the marriage of Yaroslav's beloved son, Vsevolod, with the Byzantine princess.

Although he had to wage war almost constantly, according to the chronicler, he did not like to fight. In foreign policy, Yaroslav, like his father, relied more on diplomacy and mutually beneficial relations than on weapons. His time was an era of active relations with Western states. Yaroslav was related to the Normans: he himself had been married for a year to the Swedish princess Saint Ingigerda, baptized Irene, and the Norwegian prince Harald the Bold received the hand of his daughter Elizabeth. Yaroslav's four sons, among them Vsevolod, Svyatoslav and Izyaslav, were also married to foreign princesses. Foreign princes, such as Olaf the Holy, Magnus the Good, Harald the Bold, the English princes Edmund Etheling and Edward the Exile, and noble Normans found shelter and protection with Yarsoslav, and Varangian traders enjoyed his special patronage. Yaroslav Dobrogreva's sister Maria was married to Casimir of Poland, his second daughter Anna was married to Henry I of France, and the third, Anastasia, was married to Andrew I of Hungary.

Internal management

The significance of Yaroslav in Russian history is based mainly on his works on the internal structure of the Russian land. Yaroslav was the prince of the land, its beautifier. Like his father, he populated the steppe spaces, built new cities like Yuryev (now Tartu) and Yaroslavl, and continued the policy of his predecessors to protect borders and trade routes from nomads and to protect the interests of Russian trade in Byzantium. He fenced off the southern border of Rus' with the steppe with forts and in the year began to build cities here - Yuryev (now White Church), Torchesk, Korsun, Trepol and others.

Yaroslav's capital, Kyiv, seemed to Western foreigners to be a rival to Constantinople; its liveliness, caused by the intense trading activity of that time, amazed foreign writers of the century - it is significant that Yaroslav’s son, Vsevolod, learned five languages ​​without leaving Kyiv. Decorating Kyiv with many new buildings, he surrounded it with new stone walls (“the city of Yaroslav”), installing the famous Golden Gate in them, and above them - a church in honor of the Annunciation. Yaroslav founded the Church of St. Sophia in Kyiv, at the site of his victory over the Pechenegs, magnificently decorating it with frescoes and mosaics, and also built here the monastery of St. George and the monastery of St. Irene (in honor of the angel of his wife). The prototypes of these buildings were the architectural structures of Constantinople and Jerusalem. The completion of construction coincided with the creation of the great monument of ancient Russian literature, “The Sermon on Law and Grace,” which was pronounced by the future Saint Hilarion on March 25 of the year. At the same time, the first Russian chronicle was written - the so-called. "The most ancient vault."

The core of the holy prince’s internal activity was to promote the spread of Christianity in Rus', the development of the education and training of Russian clergy necessary for this purpose. Both in Kyiv and in other cities, Yaroslav did not spare funds for church splendor, inviting Greek craftsmen for this. Under Yaroslav, church singers came to Rus' from Byzantium and taught the Russians octal singing. The chronicler Nestor noted that under Yaroslav the Christian faith began to “be fruitful and expand, and the monasteries began to multiply and monasteries to appear.” When, at the end of his reign, it was necessary to install a new metropolitan in the Kyiv Metropolis, Yaroslav in the year ordered a council of Russian bishops to install St. Hilarion, the first archpastor of the Russian Metropolis, who was originally from the Russians, as Metropolitan.

In order to instill in the people the principles of the Christian faith, Yaroslav ordered the translation of handwritten books from Greek into Slavic and bought a lot of them himself. Gathering book writers and translators everywhere, he increased the number of books in Rus' and gradually introduced them into widespread use. Yaroslav placed all these manuscripts in the library he built at the St. Sophia Cathedral for public use. To spread literacy, Yaroslav ordered the clergy to educate children, and in Novgorod, according to later chronicles, he set up a school for 300 boys.

Finally, Yaroslav remained the most famous as a legislator. Already in Novgorod, when he was appointed governor there, he was called Justice - it was there that the development of the written laws of Rus' began. Yaroslav is credited with the oldest Russian monument of law - “Russian Truth” (also called the “Charter” or “Yaroslavl Court”), which is a collection of existing laws and customs, the oral “Russian Law”, which was mentioned in the treaties of Rus' with Byzantium. Russian Truth was given to Novgorod in the year and was the first written code of laws - criminal, civil and administrative. He dealt primarily with issues of maintaining public order. Under Yaroslav, the Church Charter or the Pilot's Book, compiled on the basis of the Byzantine Nomocanon, also appeared. In it, for the first time, the concepts of sin and crime were differentiated: every crime is a sin, but not every sin is a crime.

Character and demise

According to the chronicle, the Grand Duke “was lame, but he had a kind mind and was brave in battle.” Describing his character, the chronicler speaks of intelligence, prudence, compassion for the poor, and courage. Yaroslav's character was strict and his life was modest, unlike his father, who loved cheerful feasts. Contemporaries noted that Yaroslav himself was a well-read person in liturgical books and owned a large personal library. He, according to the chronicler, considered books “rivers capable of giving wisdom.” The noble prince was distinguished by zeal in faith. According to one of the legends, he ordered to dig up the bones of princes Yaropolk and Oleg and, having baptized them, buried them in the Kyiv Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, hoping by this to save their souls from eternal torment and destruction.

The blessed Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise died on February 20 of the year at his country residence Vyshgorod, near Kiev. He was buried in a marble coffin in the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral, which he founded. One of the prince’s subjects scratched an inscription on the wall of the temple: “In the summer of 6562 February 20th, the Dormition of our king...” Having divided his lands among his sons and transferred the Kiev throne to his eldest son Izyaslav, he left them the following will:

“Here I am leaving this world, my children. Love one another, for you are brothers, from one father and one mother. If you live in love with each other, then God will be with you. He will subdue all your enemies, and you will live in peace. If you begin to hate each other and quarrel, then you yourself will perish and destroy the land of your fathers and grandfathers, which they acquired with their great labor.” .

Memory, appreciation and veneration

The reign of Yaroslav was marked by the flourishing of the capital city of Kyiv and the strengthening of economic and cultural ties between individual parts of the state. This was the era of the highest prosperity of Kievan Rus. Yaroslav rose to such heights through his activities that over time the nickname “Wise” was assigned to him.

The name of the blessed Grand Duke Yaroslav was included in the monthly calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' on December 8 of this year.

Family

• Father: St. equal to Vladimir Svyatoslavich (approx. -), leader. book Kyiv.
• Mother: Rogneda Rogvolodovna, baptized Anastasia, Prince. Polotsk.
• Wife: Rev. Ingigerda Olafovna, baptized Irina, monastically Anna, bgv. Princess of Sweden.