The most ancient homeland of the Slavs is Central Europe, where the Danube, Elbe and Vistula have their sources. From here the Slavs moved further east, to the banks of the Dnieper, Pripyat, and Desna. These were the tribes of the Polyans, Drevlyans, and Northerners. Another stream of settlers moved northwest to the shores of Volkhov and Lake Ilmen. These tribes were called Ilmen Slovenes. Some of the settlers (Krivichi) settled on the hills from where the Dnieper, Moscow River, and Oka flow. This resettlement took place no earlier than the 7th century. As they explored new lands, the Slavs pushed out and subjugated the Finno-Ugric tribes, who were pagans just like the Slavs.
Founding of the Russian state
In the center of the possessions of the glades on the Dnieper in the 9th century. a city was built, which received the name of the leader Kiy, who ruled in it with the brothers Shchek and Khoreb. Kyiv stood in a very convenient location at the intersection of roads and quickly grew as a shopping center. In 864, two Scandinavian Varangians Askold and Dir captured Kyiv and began to rule there. They went on a raid against Byzantium, but returned, badly battered by the Greeks. It was no coincidence that the Varangians ended up on the Dnieper - it was part of a single waterway from the Baltic to the Black Sea (“from the Varangians to the Greeks”). Here and there the waterway was interrupted by hills. There the Varangians dragged their light boats on their backs or by dragging them.
According to legend, civil strife began in the land of the Ilmen Slovenes and Finno-Ugric peoples (Chud, Merya) - “generation after generation rose up.” Tired of strife, local leaders decided to invite King Rurik and his brothers from Denmark: Sineus and Truvor. Rurik willingly responded to the tempting offer of the ambassadors. The custom of inviting a ruler from overseas was generally accepted in Europe. People hoped that such a prince would rise above the unfriendly local leaders and thereby ensure peace and quiet in the country. Having built Ladoga (now Staraya Ladoga), Rurik then climbed the Volkhov to Ilmen and settled there in a place called “Rurik’s settlement”. Then Rurik built the city of Novgorod nearby and took possession of all the surrounding lands. Sineus settled in Beloozero, and Truvor in Izborsk. Then the younger brothers died, and Rurik began to rule alone. Together with Rurik and the Varangians, the word “Rus” came to the Slavs. This was the name of the warrior-oarsman on a Scandinavian boat. Then the Varangian warriors who served with the princes were called Rus, then the name “Rus” was transferred to all the Eastern Slavs, their land, and state.
The ease with which the Varangians took power in the lands of the Slavs is explained not only by the invitation, but also by the similarity of faith - both the Slavs and the Varangians were pagan polytheists. They revered the spirits of water, forests, brownies, and goblins, and had extensive pantheons of “main” and minor gods and goddesses. One of the most revered Slavic gods, the lord of thunder and lightning Perun, was similar to the Scandinavian supreme god Thor, whose symbols - archaeologists' hammers - are also found in Slavic burials. The Slavs worshiped Svarog - the master of the Universe, the sun god Dazhbog and the god of the earth Svarozhich. They respected the god of cattle, Veles, and the goddess of handicraft, Mokosh. Sculptural images of gods were placed on hills, and sacred temples were surrounded by high fences. The gods of the Slavs were very harsh, even ferocious. They demanded veneration and frequent offerings from people. Gifts rose upward to the gods in the form of smoke from burning sacrifices: food, killed animals and even people.
The first princes - Rurikovich
After Rurik’s death, power in Novgorod passed not to his young son Igor, but to Rurik’s relative Oleg, who had previously lived in Ladoga. In 882, Oleg and his retinue approached Kyiv. Under the guise of a Varangian merchant, he appeared before Askold and Dir. Suddenly, Oleg’s warriors jumped out of the rooks and killed the Kyiv rulers. Kyiv submitted to Oleg. Thus, for the first time, the lands of the Eastern Slavs from Ladoga to Kyiv were united under the rule of one prince.
Prince Oleg largely followed the policies of Rurik and annexed more and more lands to the new state, called Kievan Rus by historians. In all lands Oleg immediately “began to build cities” - wooden fortresses. Oleg’s famous act was the 907 campaign against Constantinople (Constantinople). His large squad of Varangians and Slavs on light ships suddenly appeared at the city walls. The Greeks were not ready for defense. Seeing how the barbarians who came from the north were plundering and burning in the vicinity of the city, they negotiated with Oleg, made peace and paid him tribute. In 911, Oleg's ambassadors Karl, Farlof, Velmud and others signed a new treaty with the Greeks. Before leaving Constantinople, Oleg hung his shield on the gates of the city as a sign of victory. At home, in Kyiv, people were amazed by the rich booty with which Oleg returned, and gave the prince the nickname “Prophetic”, that is, a wizard, a magician.
Oleg's successor Igor (Ingvar), nicknamed "Old", son of Rurik, ruled for 33 years. He lived in Kyiv, which became his home. We know little about Igor's personality. He was a warrior, a stern Varangian, who almost continuously conquered the Slavic tribes and imposed tribute on them. Like Oleg, Igor raided Byzantium. In those days, the name of the country of the Rus appeared in the treaty with Byzantium - “Russian Land”. At home, Igor was forced to repel the raids of nomads - the Pechenegs. Since then, the danger of attack by nomads has never subsided. Rus' was a loose, unstable state, stretching for a thousand miles from north to south. The power of a single princely power was what held the lands distant from each other.
Every winter, as soon as the rivers and swamps froze, the prince went to Polyudye - he traveled around his lands, judged, settled disputes, collected tribute (“lesson”) and punished the tribes that had “deferred” during the summer. During the Polyudia of 945 in the land of the Drevlyans, it seemed to Igor that the tribute of the Drevlyans was small, and he returned for more. The Drevlyans were outraged by this lawlessness, grabbed the prince, tied his legs to two bent mighty trees and released them. This is how Igor died ingloriously.
The unexpected death of Igor forced his wife Olga to take power into her own hands - after all, their son Svyatoslav was only 4 years old. According to legend, Olga (Helga) herself was a Scandinavian. The terrible death of her husband became the reason for the no less terrible revenge of Olga, who brutally dealt with the Drevlyans. The chronicler tells us exactly how Olga killed the Drevlyan ambassadors by deception. She suggested that they take a bath before starting negotiations. While the ambassadors were enjoying the steam room, Olga ordered her soldiers to block the doors of the bathhouse and set it on fire. There the enemies burned. This is not the first mention of a bathhouse in Russian chronicles. The Nikon Chronicle contains a legend about the visit to Rus' by the Holy Apostle Andrei. Then, returning to Rome, he spoke with surprise about a strange action in the Russian land: “I saw wooden bathhouses, and they would heat them up very much, and they would undress and be naked, and they would douse themselves with leather kvass, and they would lift up young rods and beat themselves, and They will finish themselves off to such an extent that they will hardly crawl out, barely alive, and will douse themselves with cold water, and that’s the only way they will come to life. And they do this constantly, not being tormented by anyone, but torturing themselves, and then they perform ablution for themselves, and not torment.” After this, the sensational theme of the extraordinary Russian bathhouse with a birch broom for many centuries will become an indispensable attribute of many travel accounts of foreigners from medieval times to the present day.
Princess Olga toured her property and established clear lesson sizes there. In legends, Olga became famous for her wisdom, cunning, and energy. It is known about Olga that she was the first of the Russian rulers to receive foreign ambassadors from the German Emperor Otto I in Kyiv. Olga was in Constantinople twice. For the second time - in 957 - Olga was received by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. And after that she decided to be baptized, and the emperor himself became her godfather.
By this time, Svyatoslav had grown up and began to rule Russia. He fought almost continuously, carrying out raids with his retinue on neighbors, even very distant ones - the Vyatichi, Volga Bulgars, and defeated the Khazar Kaganate. Contemporaries compared these campaigns of Svyatoslav to the leaps of a leopard, swift, silent and powerful.
Svyatoslav was a blue-eyed, bushy-moustached man of average height; he cut his head bald, leaving a long lock on the top. An earring with precious stones hung in his ear. Dense, strong, he was tireless on campaigns, his army did not have a baggage train, and the prince made do with the food of the nomads - dried meat. All his life he remained a pagan and a polygamist. At the end of the 960s. Svyatoslav moved to the Balkans. His army was hired by Byzantium to conquer the Bulgarians. Svyatoslav defeated the Bulgarians, and then settled in Pereslavets on the Danube and did not want to leave these lands. Byzantium began a war against the disobedient mercenary. At first, the prince defeated the Byzantines, but then his army was greatly thinned out, and Svyatoslav agreed to leave Bulgaria forever.
Without joy, the prince sailed on boats up the Dnieper. Even earlier, he told his mother: “I don’t like Kiev, I want to live in Pereyaslavets on the Danube - there is the middle of my land.” He had a small squad with him - the rest of the Varangians went to plunder neighboring countries. On the Dnieper rapids, the squad was ambushed by the Pechenegs, and Svyatoslav died in a battle with the nomads at the Nenasytninsky threshold. From his skull his enemies made a gold-decorated wine cup.
Even before the campaign to Bulgaria, Svyatoslav distributed lands (allotments) among his sons. He left the eldest Yaropolk in Kyiv, the middle one, Oleg, sent to the land of the Drevlyans, and the youngest, Vladimir, was planted in Novgorod. After the death of Svyatoslav, Yaropolk attacked Oleg, and he died in battle. Vladimir, having learned about this, fled to Scandinavia. He was the son of Svyatoslav and his concubine, the slave Malusha, Olga’s housekeeper. This made him unequal to his brothers - after all, they came from noble mothers. The consciousness of his inferiority aroused in the young man the desire to establish himself in the eyes of people with strength, intelligence, and actions that would be remembered by everyone.
Two years later, with a detachment of Varangians, he returned to Novgorod and moved through Polotsk to Kyiv. Yaropolk, not having much strength, locked himself in the fortress. Vladimir managed to persuade Yaropolk's close adviser Blud to treason, and as a result of the conspiracy, Yaropolk was killed. So Vladimir captured Kyiv. Since then, the history of fratricides in Rus' begins, when the thirst for power and ambition drowned out the voice of native blood and mercy.
The fight against the Pechenegs became a headache for the new Kyiv prince. These wild nomads, who were called "the cruelest of all pagans", caused general fear. There is a well-known story about the confrontation with them on the Trubezh River in 992, when for two days Vladimir could not find a fighter among his army who would fight the Pechenegs. The honor of the Russians was saved by the mighty Nikita Kozhemyaka, who simply lifted him into the air and strangled his opponent. The city of Pereyaslavl was established at the site of Nikita's victory. Fighting nomads, making campaigns against different tribes, Vladimir himself was not distinguished by his daring and belligerence, like his ancestors. It is known that during one of the battles with the Pechenegs, Vladimir fled from the battlefield and, saving his life, climbed under a bridge. It is difficult to imagine his grandfather, the conqueror of Constantinople, Prince Igor, or his father, Svyatoslav-Bars, in such a humiliating form. The prince saw the construction of cities in key places as a means of protection against nomads. Here he invited daredevils from the north like the legendary Ilya Muromets, who were interested in the dangerous life on the border.
Vladimir understood the need for change in matters of faith. He tried to unite all pagan cults and make Perun the only god. But the reform failed. Here it is appropriate to tell the legend about the birdie. At first, faith in Christ and his atoning sacrifice had difficulty making its way into the harsh world of the Slavs and Scandinavians who came to rule over them. How could it be otherwise: hearing the rumble of thunder, how could one doubt that this is the terrible god 6 Din on a black horse, surrounded by Valkyries - magical horsewomen, galloping to hunt for people! And how happy is a warrior dying in battle, knowing that he will immediately go to Valhall - a giant palace for chosen heroes. Here, in the Viking paradise, he will be blissful, his terrible wounds will instantly heal, and the wine that the beautiful Valkyries will bring him will be wonderful... But the Vikings were haunted by one thought: the feast in Valhalla will not last forever, the terrible day Ragnarok will come - the end of the world, when Bdin's army will fight the giants and monsters of the abyss. And they will all die - heroes, wizards, gods with Odin at their head in an unequal battle with the gigantic serpent Jormungandr... Listening to the saga about the inevitable death of the world, the king-king was sad. Outside the wall of his long, low house, a blizzard howled, shaking the entrance covered with skin. And then the old Viking, who converted to Christianity during the campaign against Byzantium, raised his head. He said to the king: “Look at the entrance, you see: when the wind lifts the skin, a small birdie flies towards us, and for that short moment, until the skin closes the entrance again, the birdie hangs in the air, it enjoys our warmth and comfort, so that in the next moment jump out again into the wind and cold. After all, we live in this world only for one moment between two eternities of cold and fear. And Christ gives hope for the salvation of our souls from eternal destruction. Let's go get him! And the king agreed...
The great world religions convinced the pagans that there is eternal life and even eternal bliss in heaven, you just need to accept their faith. According to legend, Vladimir listened to different priests: Jews, Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Muslims. In the end, he chose Orthodoxy, but was in no hurry to be baptized. He did this in 988 in Crimea - and not without political benefits - in exchange for the support of Byzantium and consent to a marriage with the sister of the Byzantine emperor Anna. Returning to Kyiv with his wife and Metropolitan Mikhail, appointed from Constantinople, Vladimir first baptized his sons, relatives and servants. Then he took on the people. All the idols were thrown from the temples, burned, and chopped up. The prince issued an order to all pagans to appear for baptism on the river bank. There the people of Kiev were driven into the water and baptized en masse. To justify their weakness, people said that the prince and boyars would hardly have accepted an unworthy faith - after all, they would never wish anything bad for themselves! However, later an uprising of those dissatisfied with the new faith broke out in the city.
Churches immediately began to be built on the site of the ruined temples. The Church of St. Basil was erected on the sanctuary of Perun. All the churches were wooden, only the main temple - the Assumption Cathedral (Church of the Tithes) was built by the Greeks from stone. Baptism in other cities and lands was also not voluntary. A rebellion even began in Novgorod, but the threat of those sent from Vladimir to burn the city made the Novgorodians come to their senses, and they went to Volkhov to be baptized. The stubborn ones were dragged into the water by force and then checked to see if they were wearing crosses. Stone Perun was drowned in Volkhov, but faith in the power of the old gods was not destroyed. They were secretly prayed to many centuries later after the Kyiv “baptists”: when getting into a boat, a Novgorodian threw a coin into the water - a sacrifice to Perun, so that he would not drown in an hour.
But gradually Christianity established itself in Rus'. This was largely facilitated by the Bulgarians, the Slavs who had previously converted to Christianity. Bulgarian priests and scribes came to Rus' and brought Christianity with them in an understandable Slavic language. Bulgaria became a kind of bridge between Greek, Byzantine and Russian-Slavic cultures.
Despite the harsh measures of Vladimir's rule, the people loved him and called him the Red Sun. He was generous, unforgiving, flexible, ruled non-cruelly, and skillfully defended the country from enemies. The prince also loved his retinue, with whom he made it a custom to consult (duma) at frequent and plentiful feasts. Vladimir died in 1015, and upon learning of this, crowds rushed to the church to weep and pray for him as their intercessor. People were alarmed - after Vladimir there were 12 of his sons left, and the struggle between them seemed inevitable.
Already during Vladimir’s life, the brothers, planted by his father on the main lands, lived unfriendly, and even during Vladimir’s life, his son Yaroslav, who was sitting in Novgorod, refused to bring the usual tribute to Kiev. The father wanted to punish his son, but did not have time - he died. After his death, Svyatopolk, the eldest son of Vladimir, came to power in Kyiv. He received the nickname "Cursed", given to him for the murder of his brothers Gleb and Boris. The latter was especially loved in Kyiv, but, having sat down on the Kiev “golden table”, Svyatopolk decided to get rid of his rival. He sent assassins who stabbed Boris to death, and then killed Gleb’s other brother. The struggle between Yaroslav and Svyatopolk was difficult. Only in 1019 did Yaroslav finally defeat Svyatopolk and strengthen his position in Kyiv. Under Yaroslav, a set of laws was adopted (“Russian Truth”), which limited blood feud and replaced it with a fine (vira). The judicial customs and traditions of Rus' were also recorded there.
Yaroslav is known as “Wise”, that is, learned, intelligent, educated. He, sick by nature, loved and collected books. Yaroslav built a lot: he founded Yaroslavl on the Volga, and Yuryev (now Tartu) in the Baltic states. But Yaroslav became especially famous for the construction of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. The cathedral was huge, had many domes and galleries, and was decorated with rich frescoes and mosaics. Among these magnificent Byzantine mosaics of the St. Sophia Cathedral, the famous mosaic “The Unbreakable Wall”, or “Oranta” - the Mother of God with raised hands - has been preserved in the altar of the temple. This work amazes everyone who sees it. It seems to believers that since the time of Yaroslav, for almost a thousand years, the Mother of God, like a wall, stands indestructibly at full height in the golden radiance of the sky, raising her hands, praying and shielding Rus' with herself. People were surprised by the mosaic floor with patterns and the marble altar. Byzantine artists, in addition to depicting the Virgin Mary and other saints, created a mosaic on the wall depicting Yaroslav’s family.
In 1051 the Pechersky Monastery was founded. A little later, hermit monks who lived in caves (pechers) dug in a sandy mountain near the Dnieper, united into a monastic community led by Abbot Anthony.
With Christianity, the Slavic alphabet came to Rus', which was invented in the middle of the 9th century by the brothers from the Byzantine city of Thessaloniki Cyril and Methodius. They adapted the Greek alphabet to Slavic sounds, creating the “Cyrillic alphabet”, and translated the Holy Scriptures into the Slavic language. Here in Rus', the first book was “The Ostromir Gospel.” It was created in 1057 on the instructions of the Novgorod mayor Ostromir. The first Russian book had miniatures of extraordinary beauty and color headpieces, as well as a note that said that the book was written in seven months and that the scribe asks the reader not to scold him for his mistakes, but to correct them. Let us note in passing that in another similar work - the “Arkhangelsk Gospel” of 1092 - a scribe named Mitka admits why he made so many mistakes: the interference was “voluptuousness, lust, slander, quarrels, drunkenness, simply put - everything evil!” Another ancient book is “Svyatoslav’s Collection” of 1073, one of the first Russian encyclopedias, containing articles on various sciences. “Izbornik” is a copy of a Bulgarian book, rewritten for the princely library. In the “Izbornik”, praise is sung to knowledge; it is recommended to read each chapter of the book three times and remember that “beauty is a weapon for a warrior, and a sail for a ship, and so a righteous man is bookish veneration.”
Chronicles began to be written in Kyiv during the times of Olga and Svyatoslav. Under Yaroslav in 1037-1039. The center of the chroniclers' work was the St. Sophia Cathedral. They took old chronicles and compiled them into a new edition, which they supplemented with new entries. Then the monks of the Pechersk Monastery began to keep the chronicle. In 1072-1073 Another edition of the chronicle appeared. Abbot of the monastery Nikon collected and included new sources, checked the chronology, and corrected the style. Finally, in 1113, the chronicler Nestor, a monk of the same monastery, created the famous Tale of Bygone Years. It remains the main source on the history of Ancient Rus'. The incorrupt body of the great chronicler Nestor rests in the dungeon of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, and behind the glass of his coffin you can still see the fingers of his right hand folded on his chest - the same one that wrote for us the ancient history of Rus'.
Yaroslav's Russia was open to Europe. It was connected with the Christian world by the family relations of the rulers. Yaroslav married Ingigerda, the daughter of the Swedish king Olaf, and he married the son of Vsevolod to the daughter of Emperor Constantine Monomakh. Three of his daughters immediately became queens: Elizabeth - Norwegian, Anastasia - Hungarian, and his daughter Anna became the French queen by marrying Henry I.
Yaroslavichy. Strife and crucifications
As the historian N.M. Karamzin wrote, “Ancient Russia buried its power and prosperity with Yaroslav.” After the death of Yaroslav, discord and strife reigned among his descendants. Three of his sons entered into a dispute for power, and the younger Yaroslavichs, the grandchildren of Yaroslav, also became mired in infighting. All this happened at a time when for the first time a new enemy came to Rus' from the steppes - the Polovtsians (Turks), who expelled the Pechenegs and themselves began to often attack Rus'. The princes, warring with each other, for the sake of power and rich inheritances, entered into an agreement with the Polovtsians and brought their hordes to Rus'.
Of the sons of Yaroslav, his youngest son Vsevolod (1078-1093) ruled Russia the longest. He was reputed to be an educated man, but he ruled the country poorly, unable to cope with the Polovtsians, or with the famine, or with the pestilence that devastated his lands. He also failed to reconcile the Yaroslavichs. His only hope was his son Vladimir - the future Monomakh.
Vsevolod was especially annoyed by the Chernigov prince Svyatoslav, who lived a life full of adventures and adventures. Among the Rurikovichs, he was a black sheep: he, who brought troubles and grief to everyone, was called “Gorislavich.” For a long time he did not want peace with his relatives; in 1096, in the struggle for inheritance, he killed Monomakh’s son Izyaslav, but then he himself was defeated. After this, the rebellious prince agreed to come to the Lyubech Congress of Princes.
This congress was organized by the then appanage prince Vladimir Monomakh, who understood better than others the disastrous feud for Rus'. In 1097, on the banks of the Dnieper, close relatives met - Russian princes, they divided the lands, kissed the cross as a sign of fidelity to this agreement: “Let the Russian land be a common ... fatherland, and whoever rises up against his brother, we will all rise up against him.” " But immediately after Lyubech, one of the princes Vasilko was blinded by another prince - Svyatopolk. Mistrust and anger reigned again in the family of princes.
The grandson of Yaroslav, and on his mother’s side of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomakh, he adopted the nickname of his Greek grandfather and became one of the few Russian princes who thought about the unity of Rus', the fight against the Polovtsians and peace among their relatives. Monomakh entered the Kiev gold table in 1113 after the death of the Grand Duke Svyatopolk and the uprising that began in the city against rich moneylenders. Monomakh was invited by the Kyiv elders with the approval of the people - “the people”. In the cities of pre-Mongol Rus', the influence of the city assembly - the veche - was significant. The prince, for all his power, was not an autocrat of the later era and, when making decisions, usually consulted with the veche or boyars.
Monomakh was an educated man, had the mind of a philosopher, and had the gift of a writer. He was a red-haired, curly-haired man of average height. A strong, brave warrior, he made dozens of campaigns and more than once looked death in the eye in battle and hunting. Under him, peace was established in Rus'. Where with authority, where with weapons he forced the appanage princes to quiet down. His victories over the Polovtsians diverted the threat from the southern borders. Monomakh was also happy in his family life. His wife Gita, the daughter of the Anglo-Saxon king Harold, bore him several sons, among whom Mstislav stood out, who became Monomakh's successor.
Monomakh sought the glory of a warrior on the battlefield with the Polovtsians. He organized several campaigns of Russian princes against the Polovtsians. However, Monomakh was a flexible politician: while suppressing the warlike khans by force, he made friends with the peace-loving ones and even married his son Yuri (Dolgoruky) to the daughter of the allied Polovtsian khan.
Monomakh thought a lot about the futility of human life: “What are we, sinful and bad people? “he wrote to Oleg Gorislavich, “today we are alive, and tomorrow we are dead, today in glory and honor, and tomorrow in a grave and forgotten.” The prince took care that the experience of his long and difficult life would not be wasted, so that his sons and descendants would remember his good deeds. He wrote a “Teaching,” which contains memories of his past years, stories about the prince’s eternal travels, about the dangers in battle and hunting: “Two rounds (wild bulls - author) threw me with their horns along with the horse, a deer gored me, and of the two moose, one trampled with his feet, the other butted with his horns; the boar tore off the sword on my thigh, the bear bit my sweatshirt at my knee, the fierce beast jumped on my hips and overturned the horse with me. And God kept me safe. And he fell from his horse a lot, broke his head twice, and damaged his arms and legs,” And here are Monomakh’s advice: “What my youth should do, he did it himself - in war and on hunts, night and day, in heat and cold , without giving yourself peace. Without relying on mayors or privet, he did what was necessary himself.” Only an experienced warrior can say this:
“When you go to war, do not be lazy, do not rely on the commander; do not indulge in drinking, eating, or sleeping; Dress up the guards yourself and at night, placing guards on all sides, lie down next to the soldiers, and get up early; and do not take off your weapons in a hurry, without looking around out of laziness.” And then follow the words that everyone will subscribe to: “A person dies suddenly.” But these words are addressed to many of us: “Learn, O believer, to control your eyes, to control your tongue, to humble your mind, to subdue your body, to suppress your anger, to have pure thoughts, motivating yourself to do good deeds.”
Monomakh died in 1125, and the chronicler said about him: “Adorned with a good disposition, glorious in victories, he did not exalt himself, did not magnify himself.” Vladimir's son Mstislav sat on the Kiev gold table. Mstislav was married to the daughter of the Swedish king Christina, he enjoyed authority among the princes, and he had a reflection of the great glory of Monomakh. However, he ruled Russia for only seven years, and after his death, as the chronicler wrote, “the entire Russian land was torn apart”—a long period of fragmentation began.
By this time, Kyiv had already ceased to be the capital of Rus'. Power passed to the appanage princes, many of whom did not even dream of the Kiev gold table, but lived in their own small inheritance, judged their subjects and feasted at the weddings of their sons.
Vladimir-Suzdal Rus'
The first mention of Moscow dates back to the time of Yuri, where in 1147 Dolgoruky invited his ally Prince Svyatoslav: “Come to me, brother, in Moekov.” Yuri ordered the construction of the city of Moscow on a hill among forests in 1156, when he had already become the Grand Duke. He had long “pulled his hand” from his Zalesye to the Kyiv table, for which he received his nickname. In 1155 he captured Kyiv. But Yuri ruled there for only 2 years - he was poisoned at a feast. Chroniclers wrote about Yuri that he was a tall, fat man with small eyes, a crooked nose, “a great lover of wives, sweet foods and drinks.”
Yuri's eldest son, Andrei, was an intelligent and powerful man. He wanted to live in Zalesye and even went against the will of his father - he left Kyiv for Suzdal without permission. Dissuaded from his father, Prince Andrei Yuryevich decided to secretly take with him from the monastery the miraculous icon of the Mother of God from the late 11th - early 12th centuries, painted by a Byzantine icon painter. According to legend, it was written by the Evangelist Luke. The theft to Andrey was a success, but already on the way to Suzdal miracles began: the Mother of God appeared to the prince in a dream and ordered him to take the image to Vladimir. He obeyed, and in the place where he saw the wonderful dream, he then built a church and founded the village of Bogolyubovo. Here, in a specially built stone castle adjacent to the church, he lived quite often, which is why he received his nickname “Bogolyubsky”. The icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir (also called “Our Lady of Tenderness” - the Virgin Mary tenderly presses her cheek to the infant Christ) - has become one of the shrines of Russia.
Andrei was a politician of the new type. Like his fellow princes, he wanted to take possession of Kiev, but at the same time he wanted to rule all of Russia from Vladimir, his new capital. This became the main goal of his campaigns against Kyiv, which he subjected to a terrible defeat. In general, Andrei was a stern and cruel prince, did not tolerate objections or advice, and conducted affairs according to his own will - “autocratic.” In those pre-Moscow times, this was new and unusual.
Andrei immediately began to decorate his new capital, Vladimir, with wondrously beautiful churches. They were built from white stone. This soft stone served as a material for carved decorations on the walls of buildings. Andrei wanted to create a city superior to Kyiv in beauty and wealth. It had its own Golden Gate, the Church of the Tithes, and the main temple - the Assumption Cathedral was higher than St. Sophia of Kyiv. Foreign craftsmen built it in just three years.
Prince Andrei was especially glorified by the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, built under him. This temple, still standing among the fields under the bottomless dome of the sky, evokes admiration and joy in everyone who walks towards it from afar along the path. This is precisely the impression that the master sought when in 1165 he erected this slender, elegant white-stone church on an embankment above the quiet river Nerlya, which immediately flows into the Klyazma. The hill itself was covered with white stone, and wide steps went from the water itself to the gates of the temple. During the flood - a time of intense shipping - the church ended up on the island, serving as a noticeable landmark and sign to those who sailed, crossing the border of Suzdal land. Perhaps here guests and ambassadors who came from the Oka, Volga, from distant countries, disembarked from the ships, climbed up the white stone stairs, prayed in the temple, rested on its gallery and then sailed further - to where the princely palace shone white in Bogolyubovo, built in 1158-1165. And even further, on the high bank of the Klyazma, like heroic helmets, the golden domes of Vladimir’s cathedrals sparkled in the sun.
In the palace in Bogolyubovo at night in 1174, conspirators from the prince’s entourage killed Andrei. Then the crowd began to rob the palace - everyone hated the prince for his cruelty. The murderers drank in joy, and the naked, bloody corpse of the formidable prince lay for a long time in the garden.
The most famous successor of Andrei Bogolyubsky was his brother Vsevolod. In 1176, the people of Vladimir elected him prince. The 36-year reign of Vsevolod turned out to be a blessing for Zalesye. Continuing Andrei's policy of elevating Vladimir, Vsevolod avoided extremes, respected his squad, ruled humanely, and was loved by the people.
Vsevolod was an experienced and successful military leader. Under him, the principality expanded to the north and northeast. The prince received the nickname "Big Nest". He had ten sons and managed to “place” them in different inheritances (small nests), where the number of Rurikovichs multiplied, from which entire dynasties subsequently emerged. So, from his eldest son Konstantin came the dynasty of Suzdal princes, and from Yaroslav - the Moscow and Tver great princes.
And Vladimir Vsevolod decorated his own “nest” - the city, sparing no effort and money. The white-stone Dmitrovsky Cathedral, built by him, is decorated inside with frescoes by Byzantine artists, and outside with intricate stone carvings with figures of saints, lions, and floral ornaments. Ancient Rus' did not know such beauty.
Galicia-Volyn and Chernigov principalities
But the Chernigov-Seversky princes were not loved in Rus': neither Oleg Gorislavich, nor his sons and grandchildren - after all, they constantly brought the Polovtsians to Rus', with whom they were sometimes friends, sometimes quarreled. In 1185, Gorislavich's grandson Igor Seversky, along with other princes on the Kayala River, was defeated by the Polovtsians. The story of the campaign of Igor and other Russian princes against the Polovtsians, the battle during an eclipse of the sun, the cruel defeat, the crying of Igor’s wife Yaroslavna, the strife of the princes and the weakness of divided Rus' is the plot of “The Lay.” The history of its emergence from oblivion at the beginning of the 19th century is shrouded in mystery. The original manuscript, found by Count A.I. Musin-Pushkin, disappeared during the fire of 1812 - only the publication in the magazine and a copy made for Empress Catherine II remained. Some scientists are convinced that we are dealing with a talented forgery of later times... Others believe that this is an ancient Russian original. But all the same, every time you leave Russia, you involuntarily remember Igor’s famous farewell words: “Oh Russian land! You are already behind the shelomyan (you have already disappeared behind the hill - author!)"
Novgorod was “cut down” in the 9th century. on the border of forests inhabited by Finno-Ugric peoples, at the intersection of trade routes. From here, the Novgorodians penetrated to the northeast in search of furs, founding colonies with centers - graveyards. The power of Novgorod was determined by trade and craft. Furs, honey, and wax were eagerly bought in Western Europe, and from there they brought gold, wine, cloth, and weapons. Trade with the East brought a lot of wealth. Novgorod boats reached the Crimea and Byzantium. The political weight of Novgorod, the second center of Rus', was also great. The close connection between Novgorod and Kiev began to weaken in the 1130s, when strife began there. At this time, the power of the veche strengthened in Novgorod, which expelled the prince in 1136, and from that time Novgorod turned into a republic. From now on, all the princes invited to Novgorod commanded only the army, and they were driven off the table at the slightest attempt to encroach on the power of the veche.
The veche was held in many cities of Rus', but gradually died out. And only in Novgorod did it, consisting of free citizens, on the contrary, intensify. The Veche decided issues of peace and war, invited and expelled princes, and tried criminals. At the veche, deeds for land were given, mayors and archbishops were elected. The speakers spoke from a raised platform—the veche stage. The decision was made only unanimously, although the disputes did not subside - disagreements were the essence of the political struggle at the veche.
Many monuments have come down from ancient Novgorod, but the most famous are Sophia of Novgorod - the main temple of Novgorod and two monasteries - Yuryev and Antoniev. According to legend, the Yuryev Monastery was founded by Yaroslav the Wise in 1030. In its center is the grandiose St. George Cathedral, which was built by master Peter. The monastery was rich and influential. Novgorod princes and mayors were buried in the tomb of St. George's Cathedral. But still, the St. Anthony Monastery was surrounded by special holiness. Associated with him is the legend of Anthony, the son of a wealthy Greek who lived in the 12th century. in Rome. He became a hermit and settled on a rock, right on the seashore. On September 5, 1106, a terrible storm began, and when it subsided, Anthony, looking around, saw that he and the stone found himself in an unknown northern country. It was Novgorod. God gave Anthony an understanding of Slavic speech, and the church authorities helped the young man to found a monastery on the banks of the Volkhov with the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (1119). Princes and kings made rich contributions to this miraculously established monastery. This shrine has seen a lot in its lifetime. Ivan the Terrible in 1571 staged a monstrous destruction of the monastery and massacred all the monks. The post-revolutionary years of the 20th century turned out to be no less terrible. But the monastery survived, and scientists, looking at the stone on which Saint Anthony was supposedly transported to the shores of the Volkhov, established that it was the ballast stone of an ancient ship, standing on the deck of which the righteous Roman youth could easily reach from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to Novgorod.
On Mount Nereditsa, not far from Gorodishche - the site of the oldest Slavic settlement - stood the Church of the Savior-Nereditsa - the greatest monument of Russian culture. The single-domed, cubic church was built in one summer in 1198 and was similar in appearance to many Novgorod churches of that era. But as soon as they entered it, people experienced an extraordinary feeling of delight and admiration, as if they had found themselves in another wonderful world. The entire interior surface of the church, from the floor to the dome, was covered with magnificent frescoes. Scenes of the Last Judgment, images of saints, portraits of local princes - Novgorod masters completed this work in just one year, 1199..., and for almost a millennium until the 20th century, the frescoes retained their brightness, liveliness and emotionality. However, during the war, in 1943, the church with all its frescoes perished, it was shot from cannons, and the divine frescoes disappeared forever. In terms of significance, among the most bitter irreparable losses of Russia in the 20th century, the death of Spas-Nereditsa is on a par with Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo destroyed during the war, and the demolished Moscow churches and monasteries.
In the middle of the 12th century. Novgorod suddenly had a serious competitor in the northeast - the Vladimir-Suzdal land. Under Andrei Bogolyubsky, a war even began: the people of Vladimir unsuccessfully besieged the city. Since then, the fight with Vladimir, and then with Moscow, has become the main problem of Novgorod. And he ultimately lost this fight.
In the 12th century. Pskov was considered a suburb (border point) of Novgorod and followed its policies in everything. But after 1136, the Pskov veche decided to separate from Novgorod. The Novgorodians, reluctantly, agreed to this: Novgorod needed an ally in the fight against the Germans - after all, Pskov was the first to meet an attack from the west and thereby covered Novgorod. But there was never any friendship between the cities - in all internal Russian conflicts, Pskov found itself on the side of Novgorod’s enemies.
Invasion of the Mongol-Tatars in Rus'
In Rus', they learned about the appearance of the Mongol-Tatars, which sharply increased under Genghis Khan, in the early 1220s, when this new enemy burst into the Black Sea steppes and drove the Polovtsians out of them. They called for help from the Russian princes, who came out to meet the enemy. The arrival of conquerors from unknown steppes, their life in yurts, strange customs, extraordinary cruelty - all this seemed to Christians the beginning of the end of the world. In the battle on the river. In Kalka on May 31, 1223, the Russians and Cumans were defeated. Rus' had never known such an “evil slaughter”, shameful flight and cruel massacre - the Tatars, having executed prisoners, moved towards Kiev and mercilessly killed everyone who caught their eye. But then they turned back to the steppe. “We don’t know where they came from, and we don’t know where they went,” the chronicler wrote.
The terrible lesson did not benefit Rus' - the princes were still at enmity with each other. 12 years have passed. In 1236, the Mongol-Tatars of Khan Batu defeated Volga Bulgaria, and in the spring of 1237 they defeated the Cumans. And now it’s Rus'’s turn. On December 21, 1237, Batu’s troops stormed Ryazan, then Kolomna and Moscow fell. On February 7, Vladimir was taken and burned, and then almost all the cities of the Northeast were destroyed. The princes failed to organize the defense of Rus', and each of them courageously died alone. In March 1238, in a battle on the river. The last independent Grand Duke of Vladimir, Yuri, also died. The enemies took his severed head with them. Then Batu moved, “cutting people like grass,” towards Novgorod. But before reaching a hundred miles, the Tatars suddenly turned south. It was a miracle that saved the republic - contemporaries believed that the “filthy” Batu was stopped by the vision of a cross in the sky.
In the spring of 1239, Batu rushed to southern Rus'. When the Tatar detachments approached Kyiv, the beauty of the great city amazed them, and they invited the Kyiv prince Mikhail to surrender without a fight. He sent a refusal, but did not strengthen the city, but on the contrary, he himself fled from Kyiv. When the Tatars came again in the fall of 1240, there were no princes with their squads. But still the townspeople desperately resisted the enemy. Archaeologists have found traces of the tragedy and heroism of the people of Kiev - the remains of a city dweller literally pierced with Tatar arrows, as well as another person who, covering the child with himself, died with him.
Those who fled from Rus' brought terrible news to Europe about the horrors of the invasion. They said that during the siege of cities, the Tatars threw the fat of the people they killed on the roofs of houses, and then released Greek fire (oil), which burned better because of this. In 1241, the Tatars rushed to Poland and Hungary, which were ruined to the ground. After this, the Tatars suddenly left Europe. Batu decided to found his own state in the lower reaches of the Volga. This is how the Golden Horde appeared.
What remains for us from this terrible era is “The Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land.” It was written in the middle of the 13th century, immediately after the Mongol-Tatar invasion of Rus'. It seems that the author wrote it with his own tears and blood - he suffered so much from the thought of the misfortune of his homeland, he felt so sorry for the Russian people, for Rus', which had fallen into a terrible “roundup” of unknown enemies. The past, pre-Mongol time seems sweet and kind to him, and the country is remembered only as prosperous and happy. The reader’s heart should clench with sadness and love at the words: “Oh, the Russian land is bright and beautifully decorated! And you are surprised by many beauties: many lakes, rivers and deposits (sources - the author), steep mountains, high hills, clean oak groves, wondrous fields, various animals, countless birds, great cities, wondrous villages, abundant grapes (gardens - author), church houses, and formidable princes, honest boyars, many nobles. The Russian land is filled with everything, O faithful Christian faith!”
After the death of Prince Yuri, his younger brother Yaroslav, who was in Kyiv these days, moved to devastated Vladimir and began to adapt to “living under the khan.” He went to pay his respects to the khan in Mongolia and in 1246 he was poisoned there. Yaroslav’s sons, Alexander (Nevsky) and Yaroslav Tverskoy, were to continue their father’s difficult and humiliating work.
Alexander became the prince of Novgorod at the age of 15 and from an early age did not let go of the sword. In 1240, while still a young man, he defeated the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva, for which he received the nickname Nevsky. The prince was handsome, tall, and his voice, according to the chronicler, “blown before the people like a trumpet.” In difficult times, this great prince of the North ruled Russia: a depopulated country, general decline and despondency, heavy oppression of a foreign conqueror. But the smart Alexander, having dealt with the Tatars for years and living in the Horde, mastered the art of servile worship, he knew how to crawl on his knees in the khan’s yurt, he knew what gifts to give to the influential khans and murzas, and he mastered the skill of court intrigue. And all this in order to survive and save their table, the people, Rus', so that, using the power given by the “tsar” (as the khan was called in Rus'), to subjugate other princes, to suppress the love of freedom of the people’s veche.
Alexander's whole life was connected with Novgorod. Honorably defending the lands of Novgorod from the Swedes and Germans, he obediently carried out the will of Khan Vatu, his brother-in-law, punishing the Novgorodians dissatisfied with Tatar oppression. Alexander, the prince who adopted the Tatar style of ruling, had a difficult relationship with them: he often quarreled with the veche and, offended, left for Zalesye - Pereslavl.
Under Alexander (from 1240), the complete dominance (yoke) of the Golden Horde over Russia was established. The Grand Duke was recognized as a slave, a tributary of the khan, and received from the hands of the khan a golden label for the great reign. At the same time, the khans could take it away from the Grand Duke at any time and give it to another. The Tatars deliberately pitted the princes against each other in the struggle for the golden label, trying to prevent the strengthening of Rus'. The khan's collectors (and then the grand dukes) collected a tenth of all income from all Russian subjects - the so-called “Horde exit”. This tax was a heavy burden for Rus'. Disobedience to the will of the khan led to Horde raids on Russian cities, which were subjected to terrible defeat. In 1246, Batu summoned Alexander to the Golden Horde for the first time, from there, at the behest of the khan, the prince went to Mongolia, to Karakorum. In 1252, he knelt before Khan Mongke, who handed him a label - a gilded plate with a hole, which made it possible to hang it around his neck. This was a sign of power over Russia.
At the beginning of the 13th century. In the Eastern Baltic, the crusader movement of the German Teutonic Order and the Order of the Sword intensified. They attacked Rus' from Pskov. In 1240 they even captured Pskov and threatened Novgorod. Alexander and his retinue liberated Pskov and on April 5, 1242, on the ice of Lake Pskov in the so-called “Battle of the Ice” completely defeated the knights. The attempts of the crusaders and Rome, standing behind them, to find a common language with Alexander failed - as soft and compliant as he was in relations with the Tatars, he was so harsh and irreconcilable towards the West and its influence.
Moscow Rus'. Mid-XIII - mid-XVI centuries.
After the death of Alexander Nevsky, strife broke out again in Rus'. His heirs - brother Yaroslav and Alexander's own children - Dmitry and Andrey, never became worthy successors to Nevsky. They quarreled and, “running... to the Horde,” led the Tatars to Rus'. In 1293, Andrei brought “Dudenev’s army” against his brother Dmitry, which burned and plundered 14 Russian cities. The true masters of the country were the Baskaks - tribute collectors who mercilessly robbed their subjects, the pitiful heirs of Alexander.
Alexander's youngest son Daniel tried to maneuver between his brother princes. Poverty was the reason. After all, he inherited the worst of the appanage principalities - Moscow. Carefully and gradually, he expanded his principality and acted with certainty. Thus began the rise of Moscow. Daniil died in 1303 and was buried in the Danilovsky Monastery, the first in Moscow, which he founded.
The heir and eldest son of Daniel, Yuri, had to defend his inheritance in the fight against the Tver princes, who became stronger by the end of the 13th century. Tver, located on the Volga, was a rich city for those times - for the first time in Rus', after the arrival of Batu, a stone church was built there. A bell, rare in those days, rang in Tver. In 1304, Mikhail Tverskoy managed to receive from Khan Tokhta a golden label for the reign of Vladimir, although Yuri Moskovsky tried to challenge this decision. Since then, Moscow and Tver have become sworn enemies and began a stubborn struggle. In the end, Yuri managed to get a label and discredit the Tver prince in the eyes of the khan. Mikhail was summoned to the Horde, brutally beaten, and in the end, Yuri’s henchmen cut out his heart. The prince bravely faced his terrible death. He was later declared a holy martyr. And Yuri, seeking the submission of Tver, did not give the body of the martyr to his son Dmitry Groznye Ochi for a long time. In 1325, Dmitry and Yuri accidentally collided in the Horde and in a quarrel, Dmitry killed Yuri, for which he was executed there.
In a stubborn struggle with Tver, Yuri’s brother, Ivan Kalita, managed to get the golden label. During the reign of the first princes, Moscow expanded. Even after becoming grand dukes, the Moscow princes did not move from Moscow; they preferred the convenience and safety of their father’s house on a fortified hill near the Moscow River to the glory and anxiety of capital life in golden-domed Vladimir.
Having become the Grand Duke in 1332, Ivan was able, with the help of the Horde, not only to deal with Tver, but also to annex Suzdal and part of the Rostov principality to Moscow. Ivan carefully paid tribute - a “way out”, and in the Horde he achieved the right to collect tribute from Russian lands on his own, without the Baskaks. Of course, part of the money “stuck” to the hands of the prince, who received the nickname “Kalita” - a belt purse. Behind the walls of the wooden Moscow Kremlin, built from oak logs, Ivan founded several stone churches, including the Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals.
These cathedrals were built under Metropolitan Peter, who moved from Vladimir to Moscow. He had been working towards this for a long time, constantly living there under the caring supervision of Kalita. Thus Moscow became the ecclesiastical center of Rus'. Peter died in 1326 and became the first Moscow saint.
Ivan continued the fight against Tver. He managed to skillfully discredit the Tver people - Prince Alexander and his son Fyodor - in the eyes of the Khan. They were summoned to the Horde and brutally killed there - they were quartered. These atrocities cast a dark shadow on Moscow's early rise. For Tver, all this became a tragedy: the Tatars exterminated five generations of its princes! Then Ivan Kalita robbed Tver, evicted the boyars from the city, taking away the only bell from the Tver people - the symbol and pride of the city.
Ivan Kalita ruled Moscow for 12 years, his reign and his bright personality were remembered for a long time by his contemporaries and descendants. In the legendary history of Moscow, Kalita appears as the founder of a new dynasty, a kind of Moscow “Forefather Adam,” a wise sovereign, whose policy of “pacifying” the ferocious Horde was so necessary for Rus', tormented by the enemy and strife.
Dying in 1340, Kalita handed over the throne to his son Semyon and was calm - Moscow was growing stronger. But in the mid-1350s. A terrible disaster has come to Rus'. It was a plague, the Black Death. In the spring of 1353, Semyon's two sons died one after another, and then the Grand Duke himself, as well as his heir and brother Andrei. Of all, only brother Ivan survived, who went to the Horde, where he received a label from Khan Bedibek.
Under Ivan II the Red, “Christ-loving, quiet, and merciful” (chronicle), politics remained bloody. The prince brutally dealt with people he disliked. Metropolitan Alexy had a great influence on Ivan. It was to him that Ivan II, who died in 1359, entrusted his nine-year-old son Dmitry, the future great commander.
The beginning of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery dates back to the time of Ivan II. It was founded by Sergius (in the world Bartholomew from the town of Radonezh) in a forest tract. Sergius introduced a new principle of community life in monasticism - a poor brotherhood with common property. He was a true righteous man. Seeing that the monastery had become rich, and the monks began to live in contentment, Sergius founded a new monastery in the forest. This, according to the chronicler, “a holy elder, wonderful, and kind, and quiet, meek, humble,” was revered as a saint in Rus' even before his death in 1392.
Dmitry Ivanovich received a golden label at the age of 10 - this has never happened in the history of Rus'. It can be seen that the gold accumulated by his tight-fisted ancestors, and the intrigues of loyal people in the Horde helped. The reign of Dmitry turned out to be unusually difficult for Rus': there were a continuous series of wars, terrible fires, and epidemics. Drought destroyed the seedlings in the fields of Rus', depopulated by the plague. But descendants forgot Dmitry’s failures: in the memory of the people he remained, first of all, a great commander, who for the first time defeated not only the Mongol-Tatars, but also the fear of the previously indestructible power of the Horde.
Metropolitan Alexy was the ruler under the young prince for a long time. A wise old man, he protected the young man from dangers, and enjoyed the respect and support of the Moscow boyars. He was also respected in the Horde, where by that time unrest had begun, Moscow, taking advantage of this, stopped paying the exit, and then Dmitry generally refused to obey Emir Mamai, who had seized power in the Horde. In 1380, he decided to punish the rebel himself. Dmitry understood what a desperate task he had taken on - to challenge the Horde, which had been invincible for 150 years! According to legend, Sergius of Radonezh blessed him for this feat. A huge army for Rus'—100 thousand people—set out on the campaign. On August 26, 1380, the news spread that the Russian army had crossed the Oka and “there was great sadness in the city of Moscow and in all ends of the city there arose bitter crying and cries and sobs” - everyone knew that the crossing of the army across the Oka would cut off its path back and make it a battle and the death of loved ones is inevitable. On September 8, the battle began with a duel between the monk Peresvet and the Tatar hero on the Kulikovo field, which ended in victory for the Russians. The losses were horrific, but this time God was really for us!
The victory was not celebrated for long. Khan Tokhtamysh overthrew Mamai and in 1382 he himself moved to Rus', captured Moscow by cunning and burned it. “There was a great heavy tribute imposed on Rus' throughout the entire Grand Duchy.” Dmitry humiliatedly recognized the power of the Horde.
The great victory and great humiliation cost Donskoy dearly. He became seriously ill and died in 1389. When peace was concluded with the Horde, his son and heir, 11-year-old Vasily, was taken away as a hostage by the Tatars. After 4 years he managed to escape to Rus'. He became the Grand Duke according to his father’s will, which had never happened before, and this spoke of the strength of the power of the Moscow prince. True, Khan Tokhtamysh also approved the choice - the khan was afraid of the terrible Tamerlane coming from Asia and therefore pleased his tributary. Vasily ruled Moscow carefully and prudently for 36 long years. Under him, petty princes began to turn into grand-ducal servants, and coinage began. Although Vasily I was not a warrior, he showed firmness in relations with Novgorod and annexed its northern possessions to Moscow. For the first time, the hand of Moscow reached out to Bulgaria on the Volga, and since its squads burned Kazan.
In the 60s XIV century In Central Asia, Timur (Tamerlane), an outstanding ruler, became famous for his incredible, seemingly savage cruelty even then, strengthened. Having defeated Turkey, he destroyed the army of Tokhtamysh, and then invaded the Ryazan lands. Horror gripped Rus', which remembered Batu’s invasion. Having captured Yelets, Timur moved towards Moscow, but on August 26 he stopped and turned south. In Moscow it was believed that Rus' was saved by the icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir, which, at the request of the people, averted the coming of the “iron lame man.”
Those who have seen Andrei Tarkovsky’s great film “Andrei Rublev” remember the terrible scene of the capture of the city by Russian-Tatar troops, the destruction of churches and the torture of a priest who refused to show the robbers where the church treasures were hidden. This whole story has a genuine documentary basis. In 1410, the Nizhny Novgorod prince Daniil Borisovich, together with the Tatar prince Talych, secretly approached Vladimir and suddenly, during the afternoon rest of the guards, burst into the city. The priest of the Assumption Cathedral, Patrikey, managed to lock himself in the church, hid the vessels and part of the clergy in a special light, and while the gates were being broken down, he knelt down and began to pray. The Russian and Tatar villains burst in and grabbed the priest and began to find out where the treasure was. They burned him with fire, drove wood chips under his nails, but he was silent. Then, tying him to a horse, the enemies dragged the priest’s body along the ground, and then killed him. But the people and treasures of the church were saved.
In 1408, the new Khan Edigei attacked Moscow, which had not paid the “exit” for more than 10 years. However, the Kremlin's cannons and its high walls forced the Tatars to abandon the assault. Having received the ransom, Edigei and many prisoners migrated to the steppe.
Having fled to Rus' from the Horde through Podolia in 1386, young Vasily met the Lithuanian prince Vitovt. Vitovt liked the brave prince, who promised him his daughter Sophia as a wife. The wedding took place in 1391. Soon Vytautas became the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Moscow and Lithuania fiercely competed in the matter of “gathering” Rus', but more recently Sophia turned out to be a good wife and a grateful daughter - she did everything to prevent her son-in-law and father-in-law from becoming sworn enemies. Sofya Vitovtovna was a strong-willed, stubborn and decisive woman. After her husband's death from the plague in 1425, she fiercely defended the rights of her son Vasily II during the strife that again swept Rus'.
Vasily II the Dark. Civil War
The reign of Vasily II Vasilyevich was a time of 25 years of civil war, “dislike” of Kalita’s descendants. Dying, Vasily I bequeathed the throne to his young son Vasily, but this did not suit Vasily II’s uncle, Prince Yuri Dmitrievich - he himself dreamed of power. In the dispute between uncle and nephew, the Horde supported Vasily II, but in 1432 the peace was broken. The reason was a quarrel at the wedding feast of Vasily II, when Sofya Vitovtovna, accusing Yuri’s son, Prince Vasily Kosoy, of illegally appropriating the golden belt of Dmitry Donskoy, took away this symbol of power from Kosoy and thereby terribly insulted him. Victory in the ensuing strife went to Yuri II, but he ruled for only two months and died in the summer of 1434, bequeathing Moscow to his son Vasily Kosoy. Under Yuri, for the first time, an image of St. George the Victorious slaying a serpent with a spear appeared on a coin. This is where the name “kopek” came from, as well as the coat of arms of Moscow, which was later included in the coat of arms of Russia.
After Yuri's death, Vasily P. again gained the upper hand in the struggle for power. He captured Yuri's sons Dmitry Shemyaka and Vasily Kosoy, who became the Grand Duke after his father, and then ordered Kosoy to be blinded. Shemyaka himself submitted to Vasily II, but only feignedly. In February 1446, he arrested Vasily and ordered him to “take out his eyes.” So Vasily II became “Dark”, and Shemyaka became Grand Duke Dmitry II Yuryevich.
Shemyaka did not rule for long, and soon Vasily the Dark regained power. The struggle continued for a long time, only in 1450, in the battle of Galich, Shemyaka’s army was defeated, and he fled to Novgorod. The cook Poganka, bribed by Moscow, poisoned Shemyaka - “gave him a potion in the smoke.” As N.M. Karamzin writes, Vasily II, having received the news of Shemyaka’s death, “expressed immodest joy.”
No portraits of Shemyaka survived; his worst enemies tried to denigrate the prince’s appearance. In Moscow chronicles, Shemyaka looks like a monster, and Vasily - a bearer of good. Perhaps if Shemyaka had won, then everything would have been the other way around: both of them, cousins, had similar habits.
The cathedrals built in the Kremlin were painted by Theophanes the Greek, who arrived from Byzantium first to Novgorod and then to Moscow. Under him, a type of Russian high iconostasis emerged, the main decoration of which was the “Deesis” - a number of the largest and most revered icons of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist and the archangels. The pictorial space of the Deesis row of the Greek was unified and harmonious, and the painting (like the frescoes) of the Greek is full of feeling and internal movement.
In those days, the influence of Byzantium on the spiritual life of Rus' was enormous. Russian culture was nourished by juices from Greek soil. At the same time, Moscow resisted Byzantium’s attempts to determine the church life of Rus' and the choice of its metropolitans. In 1441, a scandal broke out: Vasily II rejected the church union of the Catholic and Orthodox churches concluded in Florence. He arrested the Greek Metropolitan Isidore, who represented Rus' at the council. And yet, the fall of Constantinople in 1453 caused sadness and horror in Rus'. From now on, she was doomed to church and cultural loneliness among Catholics and Muslims.
Theophanes the Greek was surrounded by talented students. The best of them was the monk Andrei Rublev, who worked with a teacher in Moscow, and then, together with his friend Daniil Cherny, in Vladimir, the Trinity-Sergius and Andronikov monasteries. Andrei wrote differently than Feofan. Andrey does not have the harshness of images characteristic of Feofan: the main thing in his painting is compassion, love and forgiveness. Rublev’s wall paintings and icons amazed contemporaries with their spirituality, who came to watch the artist work on the scaffolding. The most famous icon of Andrei Rublev is the “Trinity”, which he made for the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The plot is from the Bible: a son, Jacob, is about to be born to the elderly Abraham and Sarah, and three angels came to tell them about it. They are patiently waiting for the home team to return from the field. It is believed that these are incarnations of the triune God: on the left is God the Father, in the center is Jesus Christ, ready to sacrifice in the name of people, on the right is the Holy Spirit. The figures are inscribed by the artist in a circle - a symbol of eternity. This great creation of the 15th century is imbued with peace, harmony, light and goodness.
After the death of Shemyaka, Vasily II dealt with all his allies. Dissatisfied with the fact that Novgorod supported Shemyaka, Vasily went on a campaign in 1456 and forced the Novgorodians to curtail their rights in favor of Moscow. In general, Vasily II was a “lucky loser” on the throne. On the battlefield, he suffered only defeats, he was humiliated and captured by his enemies. Like his opponents, Vasily was an oathbreaker and fratricide. However, every time Vasily was saved by a miracle, and his rivals made even more serious mistakes than he himself made. As a result, Vasily managed to hold on to power for more than 30 years and easily transfer it to his son Ivan III, whom he had previously made co-ruler.
From an early age, Prince Ivan experienced the horrors of civil strife - he was with his father on the very day when Shemyaka’s people dragged Vasily II out to blind him. Then Ivan managed to escape. He did not have a childhood - already at the age of 10 he became co-ruler with his blind father. In total, he was in power for 55 years! According to the foreigner who saw him, he was a tall, handsome, thin man. He also had two nicknames: “Humpbacked” - it’s clear that Ivan was stooped - and “Terrible”. The last nickname was later forgotten - his grandson Ivan IV turned out to be even more formidable. Ivan III was power-hungry, cruel, and treacherous. He was also harsh towards his family: he starved his brother Andrei to death in prison.
Ivan had outstanding gifts as a politician and diplomat. He could wait for years, slowly move towards his goal and achieve it without serious losses. He was a real “gatherer” of lands: Ivan annexed some lands quietly and peacefully, and conquered others by force. In short, by the end of his reign, the territory of Muscovy grew sixfold!
The annexation of Novgorod in 1478 was an important victory for the nascent autocracy over the ancient republican democracy, which was in crisis. The Novgorod veche bell was removed and taken to Moscow, many boyars were arrested, their lands were confiscated, and thousands of Novgorodians were “deported” (evicted) to other districts. In 1485, Ivan annexed another long-time rival of Moscow - Tver. The last Tver prince Mikhail fled to Lithuania, where he remained forever.
Under Ivan, a new management system developed, in which they began to use governors - Moscow service people, replaced from Moscow. The Boyar Duma also appears - the council of the highest nobility. Under Ivan, the local system began to develop. Service people began to receive plots of land - estates, that is, temporary (for the duration of their service) holdings in which they were located.
Under Ivan, an all-Russian code of laws also arose - the Code of Laws of 1497. It regulated legal proceedings and the size of feedings. The code of law established a single period for the peasants to leave the landowners - a week before and a week after St. George's Day (November 26). From this moment we can talk about the beginning of Rus''s movement towards serfdom.
The power of Ivan III was great. He was already an “autocrat”, that is, he did not receive power from the hands of the Khanate. In treaties he is called “the sovereign of all Rus',” that is, the ruler, the only master, and the double-headed Byzantine eagle becomes the coat of arms. A magnificent Byzantine ceremony reigns at the court, on the head of Ivan III is the “Monomakh cap”, he sits on the throne, holding in his hands the symbols of power - a scepter and the “power” - a golden apple.
For three years, the widowed Ivan wooed the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine Palaiologos, Zoe (Sophia). She was an educated, strong-willed woman and, as sources say, obese, which in those days was not considered a disadvantage. With the arrival of Sophia, the Moscow court acquired the features of Byzantine splendor, which was a clear merit of the princess and her entourage, although the Russians did not like the “Roman woman”. Ivan’s Rus' gradually becomes an empire, adopting the traditions of Byzantium, and Moscow from a modest city turns into the “Third Rome”.
Ivan devoted a lot of effort to the construction of Moscow, or more precisely, the Kremlin - after all, the city was entirely wooden, and fires did not spare it, just like the Kremlin, whose stone walls did not protect from fire. Meanwhile, stone work worried the prince - Russian craftsmen had no practice in constructing large buildings. The destruction of the almost completed cathedral in the Kremlin in 1474 made a particularly difficult impression on Muscovites. And then, by the will of Ivan, the engineer Aristotle Fioravanti was invited from Venice, who “for the sake of the cunning of his art” was hired for a huge amount of money - 10 rubles a month. It was he who built the white-stone Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin - the main temple of Russia. The chronicler was in admiration: the church “is wonderful with its great majesty, and height, and lightness, and ringing, and space, such has never happened in Rus'.”
Fioravanti's skill delighted Ivan, and he hired more craftsmen in Italy. Since 1485, Anton and Mark Fryazin, Pietro Antonio Solari and Aleviz began to build (instead of those that had dilapidated since the time of Dmitry Donskoy) new walls of the Moscow Kremlin with 18 towers that have already reached us. The Italians built the walls for a long time - more than 10 years, but now it is clear that they built for centuries. The Faceted Chamber for receiving foreign embassies, built from faceted white stone blocks, was distinguished by its extraordinary beauty. It was built by Mark Fryazin and Solari. Aleviz erected the Archangel Cathedral next to the Assumption Cathedral - the tomb of Russian princes and tsars. Cathedral Square - the place of solemn state and church ceremonies - was completed by the bell tower of Ivan the Great and the Annunciation Cathedral, the home church of Ivan III, built by Pskov craftsmen.
But still, the main event of Ivan’s reign was the overthrow of the Tatar yoke. In a stubborn struggle, Akhmatkhan managed to revive for some time the former power of the Great Horde, and in 1480 he decided to re-subdue Rus'. The Horde and Ivan's troops converged on the Ugra River, a tributary of the Oka. In this situation, positional battles and firefights began. The general battle never happened, Ivan was an experienced, cautious ruler, he hesitated for a long time - whether to enter into a mortal battle or submit to Akhmat. Having stood until November 11, Akhmat went to the steppes and was soon killed by enemies.
Towards the end of his life, Ivan III became intolerant of others, unpredictable, unjustifiably cruel, almost continuously executing his friends and enemies. His capricious will became law. When the envoy of the Crimean Khan asked why the prince killed his grandson Dmitry, whom he had initially appointed as heir, Ivan answered like a true autocrat: “Am I not, the great prince, free in my children and in my reign? I will give reign to whomever I want!” According to the will of Ivan III, power after him passed to his son Vasily III.
Vasily III turned out to be the true heir of his father: his power was, in essence, unlimited and despotic. As the foreigner wrote, “he oppresses everyone equally with cruel slavery.” However, unlike his father, Vasily was a lively, active person, he traveled a lot, and was very fond of hunting in the forests near Moscow. He was distinguished by his piety, and pilgrimage trips were an important part of his life. Under him, derogatory forms of address to the nobles appeared, who did not spare themselves, submitting petitions to the sovereign: “Your servant, Ivashka, beats with his forehead...”, which especially emphasized the system of autocratic power in which one person was the master, and slaves were slaves. - other.
As a contemporary wrote, Ivan III sat still, but his state grew. Under Vasily this growth continued. He completed his father's work and annexed Pskov. There Vasily behaved like a true Asian conqueror, destroying the liberties of Pskov and evicting wealthy citizens to Muscovy. The Pskovites could only “cry for their antiquity and according to their own will.”
After the annexation of Pskov, Vasily III received a message from the elder of the Pskov Eliazar Monastery, Philotheus, who argued that the former centers of the world (Rome and Constantinople) had been replaced by a third - Moscow, which had accepted holiness from the fallen capitals. And then the conclusion followed: “Two Romes have fallen, and the third stands, but there will not be a fourth.” Filofei's thoughts became the basis of the ideological doctrine of imperial Russia. Thus, the Russian rulers were included in a single series of rulers of world centers.
In 1525, Vasily III divorced his wife Solomonia, with whom he lived for 20 years. The reason for the divorce and forced tonsure of Solomonia was her lack of children. After this, 47-year-old Vasily married 17-year-old Elena Glinskaya. Many considered this marriage illegal, “not in the old days.” But he transformed the Grand Duke - to the horror of his subjects, Vasily “fell under the heel” of young Elena: he began to dress in fashionable Lithuanian clothes and shaved his beard. The newlyweds did not have children for a long time. Only on August 25, 1530, Elena gave birth to a son, who was named Ivan. “And there was,” the chronicler wrote, “great joy in the city of Moscow...” If only they knew that on that day the greatest tyrant of the Russian land, Ivan the Terrible, was born! The Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye became a monument to this event. Placed on a picturesque bend of the bank of the Moek River, it is beautiful, light and graceful. I can’t even believe that it was erected in honor of the birth of the greatest tyrant in Russian history - there is so much joy in it, aspiration upward to the sky. Before us is a truly majestic melody frozen in stone, beautiful and sublime.
Fate prepared a grave death for Vasily - a small sore on his leg suddenly grew into a terrible rotten wound, general blood poisoning began, and Vasily died. As the chronicler reports, those standing at the bedside of the dying prince saw “that when they laid the Gospel on his chest, his spirit departed like a small smoke.”
The young widow of Vasily III, Elena, became regent under the three-year-old Ivan IV. Under Elena, some of her husband’s undertakings were completed: a unified system of weights and measures was introduced, as well as a unified coinage system throughout the country. Elena immediately showed herself to be a powerful and ambitious ruler and brought her husband’s brothers Yuri and Andrei into disgrace. They were killed in prison, and Andrei died of starvation in a blank iron cap placed on his head. But in 1538, death overtook Elena herself. The ruler died at the hands of poisoners, leaving the country in a difficult situation - continuous raids by the Tatars, squabbling among the boyars for power.
Reign of Ivan the Terrible
After the death of Elena, a desperate struggle between the boyar clans for power began. First one, then the other won. The boyars pushed around young Ivan IV before his eyes; in his name they carried out reprisals against people they disliked. Young Ivan was unlucky - from an early age, left an orphan, he lived without a close and kind teacher, saw only cruelty, lies, intrigue, duplicity. All this was absorbed by his receptive, passionate soul. Since childhood, Ivan was accustomed to executions and murders, and the innocent blood shed before his eyes did not bother him. The boyars pleased the young sovereign, inflaming his vices and whims. He killed cats and dogs, rushed on horseback through the streets of Moscow, mercilessly crushing people.
Having reached adulthood - 16 years old, Ivan amazed those around him with his determination and will. In December 1546, he announced that he wanted to have a “royal rank” and be called a king. Ivan's crowning ceremony took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin. The Metropolitan placed the Monomakh's Cap on Ivan's head. According to legend, this hat was made in the 12th century. inherited from Byzantium Prince Vladimir Monomakh. In fact, this is a gold skullcap, trimmed with sables, decorated with stones, made in Central Asia in the 14th century. It became the main attribute of royal power.
After a terrible fire that happened in Moscow in 1547, the townspeople rebelled against the boyars who abused their power. The young king was shocked by these events and decided to begin reforms. A circle of reformers, the “Chosen Rada,” arose around the tsar. The priest Sylvester and the nobleman Alexei Adashev became his soul. Both of them remained Ivan's main advisers for 13 years. The activities of the circle led to reforms that strengthened the state and autocracy. Orders were created - central authorities; in the localities, power transferred from the previous governors appointed from above to elected local elders. The Tsar's Code of Law, a new set of laws, was also adopted. It was approved by the Zemsky Sobor, a frequently convened general meeting of elected officials from different “ranks.”
In the first years of his reign, Ivan’s cruelty was softened by his advisers and his young wife Anastasia. Ivan chose her, the daughter of the devious Roman Zakharyin-Yuryev, as his wife in 1547. The Tsar loved Anastasia and was under her truly beneficial influence. Therefore, the death of his wife in 1560 was a terrible blow for Ivan, and after that his character completely deteriorated. He abruptly changed his policy, refused the help of his advisers and put them in disgrace.
The long struggle between the Kazan Khanate and Moscow on the Upper Volga ended in 1552 with the capture of Kazan. By this time, Ivan’s army had been reformed: its core consisted of mounted noble militia and infantry - archers, armed with firearms - arquebuses. The fortifications of Kazan were taken by storm, the city was destroyed, and the inhabitants were killed or enslaved. Later, Astrakhan, the capital of another Tatar Khanate, was taken. Soon the Volga region became a place of exile for Russian nobles.
In Moscow, not far from the Kremlin, in honor of the capture of Kazan, the masters Barma and Postnik built St. Basil's Cathedral, or the Intercession Cathedral (Kazan was taken on the eve of the Feast of the Intercession). The cathedral building, which still amazes the viewer with its extraordinary brightness, consists of nine churches connected to each other, a sort of “bouquet” of domes. The unusual appearance of this temple is an example of the bizarre imagination of Ivan the Terrible. The people associated its name with the name of the holy fool - the soothsayer St. Basil the Blessed, who boldly told Tsar Ivan the truth to his face. According to legend, by order of the king, Barma and Postnik were blinded so that they could never create such beauty again. However, it is known that the “church and city master” Postnik (Yakovlev) also successfully built stone fortifications of the recently conquered Kazan.
The first printed book in Russia (the Gospel) was created in a printing house founded in 1553 by master Marusha Nefediev and his comrades. Among them were Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets. For a long time, Fedorov was mistakenly considered the first printer. However, the merits of Fedorov and Mstislavets are already enormous. In 1563 in Moscow, in a newly opened printing house, the building of which has survived to this day, in the presence of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Fedorov and Mstislavets began printing the liturgical book “Apostle.” In 1567, the masters fled to Lithuania and continued printing books. In 1574, in Lvov, Ivan Fedorov published the first Russian ABC “for the sake of early infant learning.” It was a textbook that included the beginnings of reading, writing and counting.
The terrible time of the oprichnina has arrived in Russia. On December 3, 1564, Ivan unexpectedly left Moscow, and a month later he sent a letter to the capital from Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, in which he declared his anger at his subjects. In response to the humiliated requests of his subjects to return and rule as before, Ivan declared that he was creating an oprichnina. This is how (from the word “oprich”, that is, “except”) this state arose within a state. The remaining lands were called "zemshchina". The oprichnina arbitrarily took the lands of the “zemshchina”, local nobles were exiled, and their property was confiscated. The oprichnina led to a sharp strengthening of autocracy not through reforms, but through arbitrariness, a gross violation of the traditions and norms accepted in society.
Mass murders, brutal executions, and robberies were carried out by the hands of guardsmen dressed in black clothes. They were part of a kind of military monastic order, and the king was its “abbot.” Intoxicated with wine and blood, the guardsmen terrified the country. There was no government or court to be found on them - the guardsmen hid behind the name of the sovereign.
Those who saw Ivan after the beginning of the oprichnina were amazed at the changes in his appearance. It was as if a terrible internal corruption had struck the king’s soul and body. The once blooming 35-year-old man looked like a wrinkled, balding old man with eyes glowing with a dark fire. Since then, riotous feasts in the company of guardsmen alternated in Ivan’s life with executions, debauchery with deep repentance for the crimes committed.
The tsar treated independent, honest, and open people with particular distrust. He executed some of them with his own hand. Ivan did not tolerate protests against his atrocities. So, he dealt with Metropolitan Philip, who called on the king to stop extrajudicial executions. Philip was exiled to a monastery, and then Malyuta Skuratov strangled the metropolitan.
Malyuta especially stood out among the oprichniki murderers, blindly loyal to the tsar. This first executioner of Ivan, a cruel and narrow-minded man, aroused the horror of his contemporaries. He was the tsar's confidant in debauchery and drunkenness, and then, when Ivan atone for his sins in church, Malyuta rang the bell like a sexton. The executioner was killed in the Livonian War
In 1570, Ivan organized the defeat of Veliky Novgorod. Monasteries, churches, houses and shops were robbed, Novgorodians were tortured for five weeks, the living were thrown into the Volkhov, and those who floated out were finished off with spears and axes. Ivan robbed the shrine of Novgorod - St. Sophia Cathedral and took away its wealth. Returning to Moscow, Ivan executed dozens of people with the most brutal executions. After that, he brought executions down on those who created the oprichnina. The blood dragon was devouring its tail. In 1572, Ivan abolished the oprichnina, and forbade the use of the word “oprichnina” on pain of death.
After Kazan, Ivan turned to the western borders and decided to conquer the lands of the already weakened Livonian Order in the Baltics. The first victories in the Livonian War, which began in 1558, turned out to be easy - Russia reached the shores of the Baltic. The Tsar in the Kremlin solemnly drank Baltic water from a golden goblet. But soon defeats began and the war became protracted. Poland and Sweden joined Ivan's enemies. In this situation, Ivan was unable to show his talent as a commander and diplomat; he made erroneous decisions that led to the death of his troops. The king, with painful persistence, looked everywhere for traitors. The Livonian War devastated Russia.
Ivan's most serious opponent was the Polish king Stefan Batory. In 1581 he besieged Pskov, but the Pskovites defended their city. By this time, the Russian army was drained of blood by heavy losses and reprisals against prominent commanders. Ivan could no longer resist the simultaneous onslaught of the Poles, Lithuanians, Swedes, as well as the Crimean Tatars, who, even after the heavy defeat inflicted on them by the Russians in 1572 near the village of Molodi, constantly threatened the southern borders of Russia. The Livonian War ended in 1582 with a truce, but in essence - the defeat of Russia. It was cut off from the Baltic. Ivan as a politician suffered a heavy defeat, which affected the position of the country and the psyche of its ruler.
The only success was the conquest of the Siberian Khanate. The Stroganov merchants, who had mastered the Perm lands, hired the dashing Volga ataman Ermak Timofeev, who with his gang defeated Khan Kuchum and captured his capital - Kashlyk. Ermak's associate, Ataman Ivan Koltso, brought the tsar a letter about the conquest of Siberia.
Ivan, upset by the defeat in the Livonian War, joyfully greeted this news and encouraged the Cossacks and Stroganovs.
“The body is exhausted, the spirit is sick,” Ivan the Terrible wrote in his will, “the scabs of the soul and body have multiplied, and there is no doctor who would heal me.” There was no sin that the king did not commit. The fate of his wives (and there were five of them after Anastasia) was terrible - they were killed or imprisoned in a monastery. In November 1581, in a fit of rage, the tsar killed his eldest son and heir Ivan, a murderer and tyrant equal to his father, with a staff. Until the end of his life, the king did not abandon his habits of torturing and killing people, debauchery, sorting through precious stones for hours and praying for a long time with tears. Seized by some terrible disease, he was rotting alive, emitting an incredible stench.
The day of his death (March 17, 1584) was predicted to the king by the Magi. On the morning of this day, the cheerful king sent to tell the wise men that he would execute them for a false prophecy, but they asked to wait until the evening - after all, the day was not over yet. At three o'clock in the afternoon Ivan suddenly died. Perhaps his closest associates Bogdan Velsky and Boris Godunov, who were alone with him that day, helped him go to hell.
After Ivan the Terrible, his son Fyodor took the throne. Contemporaries considered him weak-minded, almost an idiot, seeing him sitting on the throne with a blissful smile on his lips. For 13 years of his reign, power was in the hands of his brother-in-law (brother of his wife Irina) Boris Godunov. Fyodor was a puppet under him, obediently playing the role of autocrat. Once, at a ceremony in the Kremlin, Boris carefully straightened the Monomakh Cap on Fyodor’s head, which supposedly sat crookedly. So, in front of the amazed crowd, Boris boldly demonstrated his omnipotence.
Until 1589, the Russian Orthodox Church was subordinate to the Patriarch of Constantinople, although in fact it was independent of him. When Patriarch Jeremiah arrived in Moscow, Godunov persuaded him to agree to the election of the first Russian patriarch, who became Metropolitan Job. Boris, understanding the importance of the church in the life of Russia, never lost control over it.
In 1591, stone craftsman Fyodor Kon built walls of white limestone around Moscow (“White City”), and cannon maker Andrei Chokhov cast a gigantic cannon weighing 39,312 kg (“Tsar Cannon”) - In 1590 it came in handy: The Crimean Tatars, having crossed the Oka River, broke through to Moscow. On the evening of July 4, from the Sparrow Hills, Khan Kazy-Girey looked at the city, from whose powerful walls guns roared and bells rang in hundreds of churches. Shocked by what he saw, the khan gave the army the order to retreat. That evening was the last time in history that the formidable Tatar warriors saw the Russian capital.
Tsar Boris built a lot, involving many people in this work to provide them with food. Boris personally founded a new fortress in Smolensk, and the architect Fyodor Kon erected its stone walls. In the Moscow Kremlin, the bell tower, built in 1600, sparkled with a dome, called “Ivan the Great”.
Back in 1582, the last wife of Ivan the Terrible, Maria Nagaya, gave birth to a son, Dmitry. Under Fyodor, due to the machinations of Godunov, Tsarevich Dmitry and his relatives were exiled to Uglich. May 15, 1591 The 8-year-old prince was found in the yard with his throat cut. An investigation by boyar Vasily Shuisky established that Dmitry himself came across the knife with which he was playing. But many did not believe this, believing that the real killer was Godunov, for whom the son of Ivan the Terrible was a rival on the path to power. With the death of Dmitry, the Rurik dynasty was stopped. Soon the childless Tsar Fedor also died. Boris Godunov ascended the throne, he ruled until 1605, and then Russia collapsed into the abyss of the Troubles.
For about eight hundred years, Russia was ruled by the Rurik dynasty - descendants of the Varangian Rurik. Over these centuries, Russia became a European state, adopted Christianity, and created a unique culture. Different people sat on the Russian throne. Among them were outstanding rulers who thought about the good of the people, but there were also many nonentities. Because of them, by the 13th century, Rus' disintegrated as a single state into many principalities and became a victim of the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Only with great difficulty did Moscow, which had risen to prominence by the 16th century, manage to create a new state. It was a harsh kingdom with a despotic autocrat and silent people. But it also fell at the beginning of the 17th century...
The country where we are for the first time
Tasted the sweetness of life,
Fields, native hills,
Sweet light of the native sky,
Familiar streams
Golden games of the first years
And the first years of lessons,
What will replace your beauty?
O holy homeland,
What heart does not tremble,
Blessing you?
Zhukovsky
Slavs before 862 Christian chronology
Dear children! You love to listen to wonderful stories about brave heroes and beautiful princesses, you are amused by fairy tales about good and evil sorceresses. But, right, it will be even more pleasant for you to hear not a fairy tale, but a true story, that is, the real truth? Listen, I will tell you about the deeds of your ancestors. In the old days, in our fatherland, Russia, there were no such beautiful cities as St. Petersburg and Moscow. In those places where you now admire beautiful buildings, where you run so merrily in the shade of cool gardens, there were once impenetrable forests, swampy swamps and smoky huts; In some places there were cities, but not at all as extensive as in our time. People lived in them, beautiful in face and figure, proud of the glorious deeds of their ancestors, honest, kind and affectionate at home, but terrible and irreconcilable in war. They were called Slavs. That’s right, and the youngest of you understand what fame means? The Slavs tried to prove that it was not for nothing that they were called that, and were distinguished by all the good qualities that could earn fame.
They were so honest that in their promises, instead of oaths, they only said: “If I do not keep my word, let me be ashamed!”- and they always fulfilled their promises, so brave that even distant peoples were afraid of them, so affectionate and hospitable that they punished the owner whose guest was offended in some way. The only pity is that they did not know the true God and prayed not to him, but to various idols. Idol means a statue made of wood or some metal and representing a person or an animal.
The Slavs were divided into different tribes. The northern, or Novgorod, Slavs did not even have a sovereign, which happens among many uneducated peoples: they considered as their leader the one who distinguished himself most in war. By this you see how they loved war and everything connected with it. On the field where they fought and then celebrated the victory or the glorious death of their fallen comrades, one could best see the true character of the Slavs. It is a pity that the songs that were usually sung by singers at that time have not reached us. We would then get to know them well, because folk songs express the people. But I can offer you a few lines here, from which you will still get the idea of the Slavs. This is an excerpt from “The Bard’s Song over the Tomb of the Victorious Slavs” by Zhukovsky:
“Hit the ringing shield! Flock together, you are up in arms!
The scolding has ceased - the enemies have subsided, wasteful!
Only the steam settled thick over the ashes,
Only a wolf, hidden in the darkness of the night,
With sparkling eyes, he runs to catch a plentiful catch;
Let's light a fire of oak trees; dig a grave ditch;
Place those who have been cast into dust on their shields.
It's thundering... there was a roar in the awakened oak grove!
Leaders and hosts of warriors flocked;
Deaf fullness of darkness all around;
Before them is a prophetic bard, crowned with gray hair,
And a terrible row of fallen, stretched out on shields.
Enveloped in thought, with a bowed head;
There is blood and dust on the menacing faces;
They leaned on their swords; among them the fire burns,
And with a whistle the mountain wind lifts their curls.
And behold! the hill was raised, and the stone was set up;
And oak, the beauty of the fields, nurtured over centuries,
He bowed his head on the turf, watered by a stream;
And behold! with mighty fingers
The singer struck the strings -
They began to jingle animatedly!
He sang - the oak groves groaned,
And the roar rushed through the mountains.
This picture from the life of the ancient Slavs is presented beautifully and truly.
But this very belligerence, while protecting their land, was the cause of great evil for it. You have already heard that, having no sovereigns, they considered as their commander the one who distinguished himself more than others in the war, and since they were all brave, it sometimes happened that there were many such commanders. Each of them wanted to order in his own way; the people did not know whom to listen to, and that is why they had incessant disputes and disagreements. But you know how unbearable quarrels are! And you, in your small affairs, have probably already experienced what unpleasant consequences they have.
The Slavs also saw that during their disagreements, all their affairs went badly for them, and they even stopped defeating their enemies. For a long time they didn’t know what to do, but they finally came up with a way to put everything in order.
On the shores of the Baltic Sea, not very far from our fatherland, lived a people called Varangians-Rus, descended from the great conquerors in Europe - the Normans. These Varangians-Rus were considered smart people: they had long had good sovereigns who took care of them the way a good father cares for children, there were laws by which these sovereigns ruled, and that is why the Varangians lived happily and they even managed to win sometimes Slavs
So the old Slavic people, seeing the happiness of the Varangians and wishing the same for their homeland, persuaded all the Slavs to send ambassadors to this brave and enterprising people - to ask them for princes to rule them. The ambassadors said to the Varangian princes: “Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it: come reign and rule over us.”
The beginning of the Russian state and the first Russian sovereigns
802-944
The Varangians of Rus' were glad of this honor, and three brothers of their princes - Rurik, Sineus and Truvor - immediately went to the Slavs. Rurik became sovereign in Novo-Gorod
History of Ancient Rus'- history of the Old Russian state from 862 (or 882) to the Tatar-Mongol invasion.
By the middle of the 9th century (according to the chronicle chronology in 862), in the north of European Russia in the Ilmen region, a large union had formed from a number of East Slavic, Finno-Ugric and Baltic tribes, under the rule of the princes of the Rurik dynasty, who founded a centralized state. In 882, the Novgorod prince Oleg captured Kyiv, thereby uniting the northern and southern lands of the Eastern Slavs under one rule. As a result of successful military campaigns and diplomatic efforts of the Kyiv rulers, the new state included the lands of all East Slavic, as well as some Finno-Ugric, Baltic, and Turkic tribes. In parallel, there was a process of Slavic colonization of the northeast of the Russian land.
Ancient Rus' was the largest state formation in Europe and fought for a dominant position in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region with the Byzantine Empire. Under Prince Vladimir in 988, Rus' adopted Christianity. Prince Yaroslav the Wise approved the first Russian code of laws - Russian Truth. In 1132, after the death of the Kiev prince Mstislav Vladimirovich, the collapse of the Old Russian state began into a number of independent principalities: the Novgorod land, the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, the Galician-Volyn principality, the Chernigov principality, the Ryazan principality, the Polotsk principality and others. At the same time, Kyiv remained the object of struggle between the most powerful princely branches, and the Kiev land was considered the collective possession of the Rurikovichs.
In North-Eastern Rus', since the middle of the 12th century, the Vladimir-Suzdal principality has risen; its rulers (Andrei Bogolyubsky, Vsevolod the Big Nest), while fighting for Kiev, left Vladimir as their main residence, which led to its rise as a new all-Russian center. Also, the most powerful principalities were Chernigov, Galicia-Volyn and Smolensk. In 1237-1240, most of the Russian lands were subjected to the destructive invasion of Batu. Kyiv, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl, Vladimir, Galich, Ryazan and other centers of Russian principalities were destroyed, the southern and southeastern outskirts lost a significant part of the settled population.
Background
The Old Russian state arose on the trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” on the lands of the East Slavic tribes - the Ilmen Slovenes, Krivichi, Polyans, then covering the Drevlyans, Dregovichs, Polotsk, Radimichi, Severians.
Before the calling of the Varangians
The first information about the state of the Rus dates back to the first third of the 9th century: in 839, the ambassadors of the Kagan of the people of Rus were mentioned, who arrived first in Constantinople, and from there to the court of the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious. From this time on, the ethnonym “Rus” also became known. The term " Kievan Rus"appears for the first time only in historical studies of the 18th-19th centuries.
In 860 (The Tale of Bygone Years mistakenly dates it to 866), Rus' made its first campaign against Constantinople. Greek sources associate with him the so-called first baptism of Rus', after which a diocese may have arisen in Rus' and the ruling elite (possibly led by Askold) adopted Christianity.
Rurik's reign
In 862, according to the Tale of Bygone Years, the Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes called the Varangians to reign.
Per year 6370 (862). 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. 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. |
In 862 (the date is approximate, like the entire early chronology of the Chronicle), the Varangians and Rurik’s warriors Askold and Dir, heading to Constantinople, subjugated Kiev, thereby establishing complete control over the most important trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks.” At the same time, the Novgorod and Nikon chronicles do not connect Askold and Dir with Rurik, and the chronicle of Jan Dlugosh and the Gustyn chronicle call them descendants of Kiy.
In 879, Rurik died in Novgorod. The reign was transferred to Oleg, regent for Rurik’s young son Igor.
The first Russian princes
Reign of Oleg the Prophet
In 882, according to chronicle chronology, Prince Oleg ( Oleg the Prophet), a relative of Rurik, went on a campaign from Novgorod to the south, capturing Smolensk and Lyubech along the way, establishing his power there and putting his people under reign. In Oleg's army there were Varangians and warriors of the tribes under his control - Chud, Slovene, Meri and Krivichi. Then Oleg, with the Novgorod army and a hired Varangian squad, captured Kyiv, killed Askold and Dir, who ruled there, and declared Kyiv the capital of his state. Already in Kyiv, he established the amount of tribute that the subject tribes of the Novgorod land - the Slovenes, Krivichi and Merya - had to pay annually. The construction of fortresses in the vicinity of the new capital also began.
Oleg extended his power by military means to the lands of the Drevlyans and Northerners, and the Radimichi accepted Oleg’s conditions without a fight (the last two tribal unions had previously paid tribute to the Khazars). The chronicles do not indicate the reaction of the Khazars, however, the historian Petrukhin puts forward the assumption that they began an economic blockade, ceasing to allow Russian merchants through their lands.
As a result of the victorious campaign against Byzantium, the first written agreements were concluded in 907 and 911, which provided for preferential terms of trade for Russian merchants (trade duties were abolished, ship repairs and overnight accommodation were provided), and resolution of legal and military issues. According to historian V. Mavrodin, the success of Oleg’s campaign is explained by the fact that he was able to rally the forces of the Old Russian state and strengthen its emerging statehood.
According to the chronicle version, Oleg, who bore the title of Grand Duke, reigned for more than 30 years. Rurik's own son Igor took the throne after Oleg's death around 912 and ruled until 945.
Igor Rurikovich
The beginning of Igor's reign was marked by the uprising of the Drevlyans, who were again conquered and imposed an even greater tribute, and the appearance of the Pechenegs in the Black Sea steppes (in 915), who ravaged the possessions of the Khazars and ousted the Hungarians from the Black Sea region. By the beginning of the 10th century. The Pecheneg nomads extended from the Volga to the Prut.
Igor made two military campaigns against Byzantium. The first, in 941, ended unsuccessfully. It was also preceded by an unsuccessful military campaign against Khazaria, during which Rus', acting at the request of Byzantium, attacked the Khazar city of Samkerts on the Taman Peninsula, but was defeated by the Khazar commander Pesach and turned its arms against Byzantium. The Bulgarians warned the Byzantines that Igor had begun the campaign with 10,000 soldiers. Igor's fleet plundered Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Heraclea Pontus and Nicomedia, but then it was defeated and he, abandoning the surviving army in Thrace, fled to Kyiv with several boats. The captured soldiers were executed in Constantinople. From the capital, he sent an invitation to the Varangians to take part in a new invasion of Byzantium. The second campaign against Byzantium took place in 944.
Igor's army, consisting of Polans, Krivichi, Slovenes, Tiverts, Varangians and Pechenegs, reached the Danube, from where ambassadors were sent to Constantinople. They concluded a treaty that confirmed many of the provisions of the previous treaties of 907 and 911, but abolished duty-free trade. Rus' pledged to defend Byzantine possessions in Crimea. In 943 or 944 a campaign was made against Berdaa.
In 945, Igor was killed while collecting tribute from the Drevlyans. According to the chronicle version, the cause of death was the prince’s desire to receive tribute again, which was demanded of him by the warriors, who were jealous of the wealth of the squad of governor Sveneld. Igor’s small squad was killed by the Drevlyans near Iskorosten, and he himself was executed. Historian A. A. Shakhmatov put forward a version according to which Igor and Sveneld began to conflict over the Drevlyan tribute and, as a result, Igor was killed.
Olga
After Igor's death, due to the minority of his son Svyatoslav, real power was in the hands of Igor's widow, Princess Olga. The Drevlyans sent an embassy to her, inviting her to become the wife of their prince Mal. However, Olga executed the ambassadors, gathered an army and in 946 began the siege of Iskorosten, which ended with its burning and the subjugation of the Drevlyans to the Kyiv princes. The Tale of Bygone Years described not only their conquest, but also the preceding revenge on the part of the Kyiv ruler. Olga imposed a large tribute on the Drevlyans.
In 947, she undertook a trip to the Novgorod land, where, instead of the previous polyudye, she introduced a system of quitrents and tributes, which local residents themselves had to bring to the camps and churchyards, handing them over to specially appointed people - tiuns. Thus, a new method of collecting tribute from the subjects of the Kyiv princes was introduced.
She became the first ruler of the Old Russian state to officially accept Christianity of the Byzantine rite (according to the most reasoned version, in 957, although other dates are also proposed). In 957, Olga made an official visit to Constantinople with a large embassy, known from the description of court ceremonies by Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his “Ceremonies,” and she was accompanied by the priest Gregory.
The Emperor calls Olga the ruler (archontissa) of Rus', the name of her son Svyatoslav (the list of retinues indicates “ Svyatoslav's people") is mentioned without a title. Olga sought baptism and recognition of Rus' by Byzantium as an equal Christian empire. At baptism she received the name Elena. However, according to a number of historians, it was not possible to agree on an alliance immediately. In 959, Olga accepted the Greek embassy, but refused to send an army to help Byzantium. In the same year, she sent ambassadors to the German Emperor Otto I with a request to send bishops and priests and establish a church in Rus'. This attempt to play on the contradictions between Byzantium and Germany was successful, Constantinople made concessions by concluding a mutually beneficial agreement, and the German embassy led by Bishop Adalbert returned back with nothing. In 960, a Russian army went to help the Greeks, fighting in Crete against the Arabs under the leadership of the future emperor Nikephoros Phocas.
The monk Jacob, in the 11th century work “Memory and Praise to the Russian Prince Volodymer,” reports the exact date of Olga’s death: July 11, 969.
Svyatoslav Igorevich
Around 960, the matured Svyatoslav took power into his own hands. He grew up among his father's warriors and was the first of the Russian princes to bear a Slavic name. From the beginning of his reign, he began to prepare for military campaigns and gathered an army. According to the historian Grekov, Svyatoslav was deeply involved in the international relations of Europe and Asia. Often he acted in agreement with other states, thus participating in solving the problems of European and, partly, Asian politics.
His first action was the subjugation of the Vyatichi (964), who were the last of all the East Slavic tribes to continue to pay tribute to the Khazars. Then, according to eastern sources, Svyatoslav attacked and defeated Volga Bulgaria. In 965 (according to other sources also in 968/969) Svyatoslav made a campaign against the Khazar Kaganate. The Khazar army, led by the Kagan, came out to meet Svyatoslav’s squad, but was defeated. The Russian army stormed the main cities of the Khazars: the fortress city of Sarkel, Semender and the capital Itil. After this, the ancient Russian settlement of Belaya Vezha arose on the site of Sarkel. After the defeat, the remnants of the Khazar state were known as the Saksins and no longer played their previous role. The establishment of Rus' in the Black Sea region and the North Caucasus is also connected with this campaign, where Svyatoslav defeated the Yases (Alans) and Kasogs (Circassians) and where Tmutarakan became the center of Russian possessions.
In 968, a Byzantine embassy arrived in Rus', proposing an alliance against Bulgaria, which had then left the obedience of Byzantium. The Byzantine ambassador Kalokir, on behalf of Emperor Nikephoros Phocas, brought a gift of 1,500 pounds of gold. Having included the allied Pechenegs in his army, Svyatoslav moved to the Danube. In a short time, the Bulgarian troops were defeated, Russian squads occupied up to 80 Bulgarian cities. Svyatoslav chose Pereyaslavets, a city in the lower reaches of the Danube, as his headquarters. However, such a sharp strengthening of Rus' aroused fears in Constantinople and the Byzantines managed to convince the Pechenegs to make another raid on Kyiv. In 968, their army besieged the Russian capital, where Princess Olga and her grandchildren - Yaropolk, Oleg and Vladimir - were located. The city was saved by the approach of a small squad of governor Pretich. Soon Svyatoslav himself arrived with a mounted army, driving the Pechenegs into the steppe. However, the prince did not seek to remain in Rus'. Chronicles quote him as saying:
Svyatoslav remained in Kyiv until the death of his mother Olga. After that, he divided the possessions between his sons: he left Kyiv to Yaropolk, Oleg - the lands of the Drevlyans, and Vladimir - Novgorod).
Then he returned to Pereyaslavets. In a new campaign with a significant army (according to various sources, from 10 to 60 thousand soldiers) in 970, Svyatoslav captured almost all of Bulgaria, occupied its capital Preslav and invaded Byzantium. The new emperor John Tzimiskes sent a large army against him. The Russian army, which included Bulgarians and Hungarians, was forced to retreat to Dorostol (Silistria) - a fortress on the Danube.
In 971 it was besieged by the Byzantines. In the battle near the walls of the fortress, Svyatoslav’s army suffered heavy losses, and he was forced to negotiate with Tzimiskes. According to the peace treaty, Rus' pledged not to attack Byzantine possessions in Bulgaria, and Constantinople promised not to incite the Pechenegs to campaign against Rus'.
Voivode Sveneld advised the prince to return to Rus' by land. However, Svyatoslav preferred to sail through the Dnieper rapids. At the same time, the prince planned to gather a new army in Rus' and resume the war with Byzantium. In winter they were blocked by the Pechenegs and Svyatoslav’s small squad spent a hungry winter in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. In the spring of 972, Svyatoslav attempted to break into Rus', but his army was defeated and he himself was killed. According to another version, the death of the Kyiv prince occurred in 973. The Pecheneg leader Kurya made a bowl for feasts from the prince’s skull.
Vladimir and Yaroslav the Wise. Baptism of Rus'
The reign of Prince Vladimir. Baptism of Rus'
After the death of Svyatoslav, civil strife broke out between his sons for the right to the throne (972-978 or 980). The eldest son Yaropolk became the great prince of Kyiv, Oleg received the Drevlyan lands, and Vladimir received Novgorod. In 977, Yaropolk defeated Oleg’s squad, and Oleg himself died. Vladimir fled “overseas”, but returned two years later with a Varangian squad. During the campaign against Kyiv, he conquered Polotsk, an important trading point on the western Dvina, and married the daughter of Prince Rogvolod Rogneda, whom he killed.
During the civil strife, Vladimir Svyatoslavich defended his rights to the throne (reigned 980-1015). Under him, the formation of the state territory of Ancient Rus' was completed, the Cherven cities and Carpathian Rus', which were disputed by Poland, were annexed. After Vladimir’s victory, his son Svyatopolk married the daughter of the Polish king Boleslav the Brave and peaceful relations were established between the two states. Vladimir finally annexed the Vyatichi and Radimichi to Rus'. In 983 he made a campaign against the Yatvingians, and in 985 - against the Volga Bulgarians.
Having achieved autocracy in the Russian land, Vladimir began religious reform. In 980, the prince established a pagan pantheon of six different-tribal gods in Kyiv. Tribal cults could not create a unified state religious system. In 986, ambassadors from various countries began to arrive in Kyiv, inviting Vladimir to accept their faith.
Islam was proposed by the Volga Bulgaria, Western-style Christianity by the German Emperor Otto I, Judaism by the Khazar Jews. However, Vladimir chose Christianity, which the Greek philosopher told him about. The embassy returning from Byzantium supported the prince. In 988, the Russian army besieged the Byzantine Korsun (Chersonese). Byzantium agreed to peace, Princess Anna became Vladimir's wife. The pagan idols that stood in Kyiv were overthrown, and the people of Kiev were baptized in the Dnieper. A stone church was built in the capital, which became known as the Tithe Church, since the prince gave a tenth of his income for its maintenance. After the baptism of Rus', treaties with Byzantium became unnecessary, since closer relations were established between both states. These ties were strengthened to a large extent thanks to the church apparatus that the Byzantines organized in Rus'. The first bishops and priests arrived from Korsun and other Byzantine cities. The church organization within the Old Russian state was in the hands of the Patriarch of Constantinople, who became a great political force in Rus'.
Having become the prince of Kyiv, Vladimir faced an increased Pecheneg threat. To protect against nomads, he builds lines of fortresses on the border, the garrisons of which were recruited from the “best men” of the northern tribes - the Ilmen Slovenes, Krivichi, Chud and Vyatichi. Tribal boundaries began to blur, and the state border became important. It was during the time of Vladimir that many Russian epics took place, telling about the exploits of heroes.
Vladimir established a new order of government: he planted his sons in Russian cities. Svyatopolk received Turov, Izyaslav - Polotsk, Yaroslav - Novgorod, Boris - Rostov, Gleb - Murom, Svyatoslav - Drevlyansky land, Vsevolod - Vladimir-on-Volyn, Sudislav - Pskov, Stanislav - Smolensk, Mstislav - Tmutarakan. Tribute was no longer collected during Polyudye and only in churchyards. From that moment on, the princely family and their warriors “fed” in the cities themselves and sent part of the tribute to the capital - Kyiv.
Reign of Yaroslav the Wise
After the death of Vladimir, a new civil strife occurred in Rus'. Svyatopolk the Accursed in 1015 killed his brothers Boris (according to another version, Boris was killed by Scandinavian mercenaries of Yaroslav), Gleb and Svyatoslav. Having learned about the murder of the brothers, Yaroslav, who ruled in Novgorod, began to prepare for a campaign against Kyiv. Svyatopolk received help from the Polish king Boleslav and the Pechenegs, but in the end he was defeated and fled to Poland, where he died. Boris and Gleb were canonized as saints in 1071.
After the victory over Svyatopolk, Yaroslav had a new opponent - his brother Mstislav, who by that time had gained a foothold in Tmutarakan and Eastern Crimea. In 1022, Mstislav conquered the Kasogs (Circassians), defeating their leader Rededya in battle. Having strengthened the army with the Khazars and Kasogs, he set out to the north, where he subjugated the northerners who joined his troops. Then he occupied Chernigov. At this time, Yaroslav turned for help to the Varangians, who sent him a strong army. The decisive battle took place in 1024 near Listven; victory went to Mstislav. After her, the brothers divided Rus' into two parts - along the riverbed of the Dnieper. Kyiv and Novgorod remained with Yaroslav, and it was Novgorod that remained his permanent residence. Mstislav moved his capital to Chernigov. The brothers maintained a close alliance; after the death of the Polish king Boleslav, they returned to Rus' the Cherven cities captured by the Poles after the death of Vladimir the Red Sun.
At this time, Kyiv temporarily lost its status as the political center of Rus'. The leading centers then were Novgorod and Chernigov. Expanding his possessions, Yaroslav undertook a campaign against the Estonian Chud tribe. On the conquered territory in 1030 the city of Yuryev (modern Tartu) was founded.
In 1036 Mstislav fell ill while hunting and died. His only son had died three years earlier. Thus, Yaroslav became the ruler of all Rus', except for the Principality of Polotsk. In the same year, Kyiv was attacked by the Pechenegs. By the time Yaroslav arrived with the army of Varangians and Slavs, they had already captured the outskirts of the city.
In the battle near the walls of Kyiv, Yaroslav defeated the Pechenegs, after which he made Kyiv his capital. In memory of the victory over the Pechenegs, the prince founded the famous Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv; artists from Constantinople were called to paint the temple. Then he imprisoned the last surviving brother, Sudislav, who ruled in Pskov. After this, Yaroslav became the sole ruler of almost all of Rus'.
The reign of Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054) was the time of the highest prosperity of the state. Social relations were regulated by the collection of laws “Russian Truth” and princely statutes. Yaroslav the Wise pursued an active foreign policy. He became related to many ruling dynasties of Europe, which testified to the wide international recognition of Rus' in the European Christian world. Intensive stone construction began. Yaroslav actively turned Kyiv into a cultural and intellectual center, taking Constantinople as a model. At this time, relations between the Russian Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople normalized.
From that moment on, the Russian Church was headed by the Metropolitan of Kiev, who was ordained by the Patriarch of Constantinople. No later than 1039, the first Metropolitan of Kiev, Theophan, arrived in Kyiv. In 1051, having gathered bishops, Yaroslav himself appointed Hilarion as metropolitan, for the first time without the participation of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Hilarion became the first Russian metropolitan. In 1054 Yaroslav the Wise died.
Crafts and trade. Monuments of writing (The Tale of Bygone Years, the Novgorod Codex, the Ostromirovo Gospel, Lives) and architecture (Tithe Church, St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and the cathedrals of the same name in Novgorod and Polotsk) were created. The high level of literacy of the inhabitants of Rus' is evidenced by numerous birch bark letters that have survived to this day. Rus' traded with the southern and western Slavs, Scandinavia, Byzantium, Western Europe, the peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The reign of the sons and grandsons of Yaroslav the Wise
Yaroslav the Wise divided Rus' between his sons. The three eldest sons received the main Russian lands. Izyaslav - Kyiv and Novgorod, Svyatoslav - Chernigov and the Murom and Ryazan lands, Vsevolod - Pereyaslavl and Rostov. The younger sons Vyacheslav and Igor received Smolensk and Vladimir Volynsky. These possessions were not inherited; a system developed in which the younger brother succeeded the eldest in the princely family - the so-called “ladder” system. The eldest in the clan (not by age, but by line of kinship) received Kiev and became the Grand Duke, all other lands were divided between members of the clan and distributed according to seniority. Power passed from brother to brother, from uncle to nephew. Chernigov occupied second place in the hierarchy of tables. When one of the members of the clan died, all the Rurikovichs younger in relation to him moved to lands corresponding to their seniority. When new members of the clan appeared, their destiny was determined - a city with land (volost). A certain prince had the right to reign only in the city where his father reigned; otherwise, he was considered an outcast. The ladder system regularly caused strife between the princes.
In the 60s In the 11th century, the Polovtsians appeared in the Northern Black Sea region. The sons of Yaroslav the Wise were unable to stop their invasion, but were afraid to arm the Kyiv militia. In response to this, in 1068 the people of Kiev overthrew Izyaslav Yaroslavich and placed on the throne the Polotsk prince Vseslav, who had been captured by the Yaroslavichs during a strife the year before. In 1069, with the help of the Poles, Izyaslav occupied Kyiv, but after this, uprisings of the townspeople became constant during crises of princely power. Presumably in 1072 the Yaroslavichs edited the Russian Truth, significantly expanding it.
Izyaslav tried to regain control of Polotsk, but was unsuccessful, and in 1071 he made peace with Vseslav. In 1073, Vsevolod and Svyatoslav expelled Izyaslav from Kyiv, accusing him of an alliance with Vseslav, and Izyaslav fled to Poland. Kiev began to be ruled by Svyatoslav, who himself was in allied relations with the Poles. In 1076, Svyatoslav died and Vsevolod became the prince of Kyiv.
When Izyaslav returned with the Polish army, Vsevolod returned the capital to him, retaining Pereyaslavl and Chernigov. At the same time, Svyatoslav’s eldest son Oleg was left without possessions, who began the fight with the support of the Polovtsians. Izyaslav Yaroslavich died in the battle with them, and Vsevolod again became the ruler of Rus'. He made his son Vladimir, born of a Byzantine princess from the Monomakh dynasty, the prince of Chernigov. Oleg Svyatoslavich fortified himself in Tmutarakan. Vsevolod continued the foreign policy of Yaroslav the Wise. He sought to strengthen ties with European countries by marrying his son Vladimir to the Anglo-Saxon Gita, daughter of King Harald, who died at the Battle of Hastings. He married his daughter Eupraxia to the German Emperor Henry IV. The reign of Vsevolod was characterized by the distribution of lands to prince-nephews and the formation of an administrative hierarchy.
After the death of Vsevolod, Kyiv was occupied by Svyatopolk Izyaslavich. The Polovtsians sent an embassy to Kyiv with a peace proposal, but Svyatopolk Izyaslavich refused negotiations and seized the ambassadors. These events became the reason for the large Polovtsian campaign against Rus', as a result of which the combined troops of Svyatopolk and Vladimir were defeated, and significant territories around Kyiv and Pereyaslavl were devastated. The Polovtsy took away many prisoners. Taking advantage of this, the sons of Svyatoslav, enlisting the support of the Polovtsians, laid claim to Chernigov. In 1094, Oleg Svyatoslavich with Polovtsian troops moved to Chernigov from Tmutarakan. When his army approached the city, Vladimir Monomakh made peace with him, ceding Chernigov and going to Pereyaslavl. In 1095, the Polovtsians repeated the raid, during which they reached Kyiv itself, ravaging its surroundings. Svyatopolk and Vladimir called for help from Oleg, who reigned in Chernigov, but he ignored their requests. After the departure of the Polovtsians, the Kyiv and Pereyaslav squads captured Chernigov, and Oleg fled to his brother Davyd in Smolensk. There he replenished his troops and attacked Murom, where the son of Vladimir Monomakh Izyaslav ruled. Murom was taken, and Izyaslav fell in battle. Despite the peace proposal that Vladimir sent him, Oleg continued the campaign and captured Rostov. Another son of Monomakh, Mstislav, who was the governor in Novgorod, prevented him from continuing his conquests. He defeated Oleg, who fled to Ryazan. Vladimir Monomakh once again offered him peace, to which Oleg agreed.
Monomakh's peaceful initiative was continued in the form of the Lyubech Congress of Princes, who gathered in 1097 to resolve existing differences. The congress was attended by the Kiev prince Svyatopolk, Vladimir Monomakh, Davyd (son of Igor Volynsky), Vasilko Rostislavovich, Davyd and Oleg Svyatoslavovich. The princes agreed to stop strife and not lay claim to other people's possessions. However, the peace did not last long. Davyd Volynsky and Svyatopolk captured Vasilko Rostislavovich and blinded him. Vasilko became the first Russian prince to be blinded during civil strife in Rus'. Outraged by the actions of Davyd and Svyatopolk, Vladimir Monomakh and Davyd and Oleg Svyatoslavich set off on a campaign against Kyiv. The people of Kiev sent a delegation headed by the Metropolitan to meet them, which managed to convince the princes to maintain peace. However, Svyatopolk was entrusted with the task of punishing Davyd Volynsky. He freed Vasilko. However, another civil strife began in Rus', which escalated into a large-scale war in the western principalities. It ended in 1100 with a congress in Uvetichi. Davyd Volynsky was deprived of his principality. However, for “feeding” he was given the city of Buzhsk. In 1101, the Russian princes managed to make peace with the Cumans.
Changes in public administration at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 12th centuries
During the baptism of Rus', the authority of Orthodox bishops, subordinate to the Kyiv metropolitan, was established in all its lands. At the same time, the sons of Vladimir were installed as governors in all lands. Now all the princes who acted as appendages of the Kyiv Grand Duke were only from the Rurik family. Scandinavian sagas mention the fiefs of the Vikings, but they were located on the outskirts of Rus' and on newly annexed lands, so at the time of writing “The Tale of Bygone Years” they already seemed like a relic. The Rurik princes waged a fierce struggle with the remaining tribal princes (Vladimir Monomakh mentions the Vyatichi prince Khodota and his son). This contributed to the centralization of power.
The power of the Grand Duke reached its highest strengthening under Vladimir and Yaroslav the Wise (then, after a break, under Vladimir Monomakh). The position of the dynasty was strengthened by numerous international dynastic marriages: Anna Yaroslavna and the French king, Vsevolod Yaroslavich and the Byzantine princess, etc.
Since the time of Vladimir or, according to some information, Yaropolk Svyatoslavich, the prince began to give lands to the warriors instead of monetary salaries. If initially these were cities for feeding, then in the 11th century villages began to receive warriors. Along with the villages, which became fiefdoms, the boyar title was also granted. The boyars began to form the senior squad. The service of the boyars was determined by personal loyalty to the prince, and not by the size of the land allotment (conditional land ownership did not become noticeably widespread). The younger squad (“youths”, “children”, “gridi”), who were with the prince, lived off feeding from the princely villages and the war. The main fighting force in the 11th century was the militia, which received horses and weapons from the prince during the war. The services of the mercenary Varangian squad were largely abandoned during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise.
Over time, the church began to own a significant part of the land (“monastery estates”). Since 996, the population has paid tithes to the church. The number of dioceses, starting from 4, grew. The department of the metropolitan, appointed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, began to be located in Kiev, and under Yaroslav the Wise, the metropolitan was first elected from among the Russian priests; in 1051, Hilarion, who was close to Vladimir and his son, became the metropolitan. Monasteries and their elected heads, abbots, began to have great influence. The Kiev-Pechersk Monastery becomes the center of Orthodoxy.
The boyars and squad formed special councils under the prince. The prince also consulted with the metropolitan and the bishops and abbots who made up the church council. With the complication of the princely hierarchy, by the end of the 11th century, princely congresses (“snems”) began to gather. There were veches in the cities, which the boyars often relied on to support their own political demands (uprisings in Kyiv in 1068 and 1113).
In the 11th - early 12th centuries, the first written set of laws was formed - “Russian Truth”, which was successively replenished with articles from “The Truth of Yaroslav” (c. 1015-1016), “The Truth of the Yaroslavichs” (c. 1072) and the “Charter of Vladimir” Vsevolodovich" (c. 1113). The “Russian Truth” reflected the increasing differentiation of the population (now the size of the vira depended on the social status of the killed), and regulated the position of such categories of the population as servants, serfs, smerdas, purchases and ordinary people.
“Yaroslav’s Truth” equalized the rights of “Rusyns” and “Slovenians” (it should be clarified that under the name “Slovenes” the chronicle mentions only Novgorodians - “Ilmen Slovenes”). This, along with Christianization and other factors, contributed to the formation of a new ethnic community that was aware of its unity and historical origin.
Since the end of the 10th century, Rus' has known its own coin production - silver and gold coins of Vladimir I, Svyatopolk, Yaroslav the Wise and other princes.
Decay
The Principality of Polotsk was the first to separate from Kyiv - this happened already at the beginning of the 11th century. Having concentrated all the other Russian lands under his rule only 21 years after the death of his father, Yaroslav the Wise, dying in 1054, divided them between the five sons who survived him. After the death of the two youngest of them, all lands came under the rule of the three elders: Izyaslav of Kyiv, Svyatoslav of Chernigov and Vsevolod of Pereyaslavl (“the Yaroslavich triumvirate”).
In 1061 (immediately after the defeat of the Torci by the Russian princes in the steppes), raids by the Polovtsians began, replacing the Pechenegs who migrated to the Balkans. During the long Russian-Polovtsian wars, the southern princes for a long time could not cope with their opponents, undertaking a number of unsuccessful campaigns and suffering sensitive defeats (the battle on the Alta River (1068), the battle on the Stugna River (1093).
After the death of Svyatoslav in 1076, the Kyiv princes attempted to deprive his sons of the Chernigov inheritance, and they resorted to the help of the Cumans, although the Cumans were first used in strife by Vladimir Monomakh (against Vseslav of Polotsk). In this struggle, Izyaslav of Kiev (1078) and the son of Vladimir Monomakh Izyaslav (1096) died. At the Lyubech Congress (1097), called upon to stop civil strife and unite the princes for protection from the Polovtsians, the principle was proclaimed: “ Let everyone keep his fatherland" Thus, while preserving the right of ladder, in the event of the death of one of the princes, the movement of the heirs was limited to their patrimony. This opened the way to political fragmentation (feudal fragmentation), since a separate dynasty was established in each land, and the Grand Duke of Kiev became first among equals, losing the role of overlord. However, this also made it possible to stop the strife and unite forces to fight the Cumans, which was moved deep into the steppes. In addition, treaties were concluded with the allied nomads - the “black hoods” (Torks, Berendeys and Pechenegs, expelled by the Polovtsians from the steppes and settled on the southern Russian borders).
In the second quarter of the 12th century, the Old Russian state broke up into independent principalities. The modern historiographical tradition considers the chronological beginning of fragmentation to be 1132, when, after the death of Mstislav the Great, the son of Vladimir Monomakh, the power of the Kiev prince was no longer recognized by Polotsk (1132) and Novgorod (1136), and the title itself became the object of struggle between various dynastic and territorial associations of the Rurikovichs. In 1134, the chronicler, in connection with a schism among the Monomakhovichs, wrote: the whole Russian land was torn apart" The civil strife that began did not concern the great reign itself, but after the death of Yaropolk Vladimirovich (1139), the next Monomakhovich, Vyacheslav, was expelled from Kyiv by Vsevolod Olgovich of Chernigov.
During the XII-XIII centuries, part of the population of the southern Russian principalities, due to the constant threat emanating from the steppe, as well as due to the ongoing princely strife for the Kiev land, moved north to the calmer Rostov-Suzdal land, also called Zalesye or Opolye. Having joined the ranks of the Slavs of the first, Krivitsa-Novgorod migration wave of the 10th century, settlers from the populous south quickly became the majority on this land and assimilated the rare Finno-Ugric population. The massive Russian migration throughout the 12th century is evidenced by chronicles and archaeological excavations. It was during this period that the founding and rapid growth of numerous cities of the Rostov-Suzdal land (Vladimir, Moscow, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, Yuryev-Opolsky, Dmitrov, Zvenigorod, Starodub-on-Klyazma, Yaropolch-Zalessky, Galich, etc.) occurred. often repeated the names of the cities of origin of the settlers. The weakening of Southern Rus' is also associated with the success of the first crusades and changes in the main trade routes.
During two major internecine wars in the mid-12th century, the Principality of Kiev lost Volyn (1154), Pereyaslavl (1157) and Turov (1162). In 1169, the grandson of Vladimir Monomakh, the Vladimir-Suzdal prince Andrei Bogolyubsky sent an army led by his son Mstislav to the south, which captured Kyiv. For the first time, the city was brutally plundered, Kyiv churches were burned, and the inhabitants were taken captive. Andrei's younger brother was placed in the reign of Kiev. And although soon, after unsuccessful campaigns against Novgorod (1170) and Vyshgorod (1173), the influence of the Vladimir prince in other lands temporarily fell, Kyiv began to gradually lose, and Vladimir began to acquire, the political attributes of an all-Russian center. In the 12th century, in addition to the Kyiv prince, the title of great also began to be borne by the Vladimir princes, and in the 13th century, occasionally also by the princes of Galicia, Chernigov and Ryazan.
Kyiv, unlike most other principalities, did not become the property of any one dynasty, but served as a constant bone of contention for all powerful princes. In 1203, it was plundered for the second time by the Smolensk prince Rurik Rostislavich, who fought against the Galician-Volyn prince Roman Mstislavich. The first clash between Rus' and the Mongols took place in the Battle of the Kalka River (1223), in which almost all the southern Russian princes took part. The weakening of the southern Russian principalities increased the pressure from the Hungarian and Lithuanian feudal lords, but at the same time contributed to the strengthening of the influence of the Vladimir princes in Chernigov (1226), Novgorod (1231), Kiev (in 1236 Yaroslav Vsevolodovich occupied Kiev for two years, while his older brother Yuri remained reign in Vladimir) and Smolensk (1236-1239). During the Mongol invasion of Rus', which began in 1237, Kyiv was reduced to ruins in December 1240. It was received by the Vladimir princes Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, recognized by the Mongols as the oldest in the Russian lands, and later by his son Alexander Nevsky. They, however, did not move to Kyiv, remaining in their ancestral Vladimir. In 1299, the Kiev Metropolitan moved his residence there. In some church and literary sources - for example, in the statements of the Patriarch of Constantinople and Vytautas at the end of the 14th century - Kiev continued to be considered as a capital city at a later time, but by this time it was already a provincial city of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Since 1254, the Galician princes bore the title “King of Rus'”. From the beginning of the 14th century, the Vladimir princes began to bear the title of “Grand Dukes of All Rus'”.
In Soviet historiography, the concept of “Kievan Rus” was extended both until the middle of the 12th century, and for the wider period of the mid-12th - mid-13th centuries, when Kiev remained the center of the country and the governance of Russia was carried out by a single princely family on the principles of “collective suzerainty”. Both approaches remain relevant today.
Pre-revolutionary historians, starting with N.M. Karamzin, adhered to the idea of transferring the political center of Rus' in 1169 from Kiev to Vladimir, dating back to the works of Moscow scribes, or to Vladimir (Volyn) and Galich. In modern historiography there is no consensus of opinion on this matter. Some historians believe that these ideas are not confirmed in the sources. In particular, some of them point to such a sign of the political weakness of the Suzdal land as a small number of fortified settlements compared to other lands of Rus'. Other historians, on the contrary, find confirmation in the sources that the political center of Russian civilization moved from Kyiv, first to Rostov and Suzdal, and later to Vladimir-on-Klyazma.
The country where we are for the first time
Tasted the sweetness of life,
Fields, native hills,
Sweet light of the native sky,
Familiar streams
Golden games of the first years
And the first years of lessons,
What will replace your beauty?
O holy homeland,
What heart does not tremble,
Blessing you?
Slavs
before 862 Christian years
Dear children! You love to listen to wonderful stories about brave heroes and beautiful princesses, you are amused by fairy tales about good and evil sorceresses. But, it’s true, it will be even more pleasant for you to hear not a fairy tale, but a true story, i.e. the real truth? Listen, I will tell you about the deeds of your ancestors.
In the old days, in our fatherland, Russia, there were no such beautiful cities as St. Petersburg and Moscow. In those places where you now admire beautiful buildings, where you run so merrily in the shade of cool gardens, there were once impenetrable forests, swampy swamps and smoky huts; In some places there were cities, but not at all as extensive as in our time. People lived in them, beautiful in face and figure, proud of the glorious deeds of their ancestors, honest, kind and affectionate at home, but terrible and irreconcilable in war. They were called Slavs. That's right, and the youngest of you understand what it means glory? The Slavs tried to prove that it was not for nothing that they were called that, and were distinguished by all the good qualities that could earn fame.
They were so honest that in their promises, instead of oaths, they only said: “If I do not keep my word, I'll be ashamed! - and always fulfilled their promises; so brave that even distant nations feared them; so affectionate and hospitable that they punished the owner whose guest was offended in some way. The only pity is that they did not know the true God and prayed not to him, but to various idols.
Idol means a statue made of wood or some metal and representing a person or an animal.
The Slavs were divided into different tribes. The northern, or Novgorod, Slavs did not even have a sovereign, which happens among many uneducated peoples: they considered as their leader the one who distinguished himself most in war. By this you see how they loved war and everything connected with it. On the field where they fought and then celebrated the victory or the glorious death of their fallen comrades, one could best see the true character of the Slavs. It is a pity that the songs that were usually sung by singers at that time have not reached us. We would then get to know them well, because folk songs express the people. But I can offer you a few lines here, from which you will still get the idea of the Slavs.
This is an excerpt from “The Bard’s Song over the Tomb of the Victorious Slavs” by Zhukovsky:
“Hit the ringing shield! Flock together, you are up in arms!
The scolding has ceased - the enemies have subsided, wasteful!
Only the steam settled thick over the ashes;
Only a wolf, hidden in the darkness of the night,
With sparkling eyes, he runs to catch a plentiful catch;
Let's light a fire of oak trees; dig a grave ditch;
Place those who have been cast into dust on their shields.
Yes, the hill here speaks to the centuries about the days of war,
Yes, the stone here keeps the mighty trace of the sacred!It's thundering... there was a roar in the awakened oak grove!
Leaders and hosts of warriors flocked;
Deaf fullness of darkness all around;
Before them is a prophetic bard, crowned with gray hair,
And a terrible row of fallen, stretched out on shields.Enveloped in thought, with a bowed head;
There is blood and dust on the menacing faces;
They leaned on their swords; among them the fire burns,
And with a whistle the mountain wind lifts their curls.And behold! the hill was raised, and the stone was set up;
And oak, the beauty of the fields, nurtured over centuries,
He bowed his head on the turf, watered by a stream;
And behold! with mighty fingers
The singer struck the strings -
They began to jingle animatedly!
He sang - the oak groves groaned,
And the roar rushed through the mountains.
This picture from the life of the ancient Slavs is presented beautifully and truly.
But this very belligerence, while protecting their land, was the cause of great evil for it.
You have already heard that, having no sovereigns, they considered as their commander the one who distinguished himself more than others in the war, and since they were all brave, it sometimes happened that there were many such commanders.
Each of them wanted to order in his own way; the people did not know whom to listen to, and that is why they had incessant disputes and disagreements. But you know how unbearable quarrels are! And you, in your small affairs, have probably already experienced what unpleasant consequences they have.
The Slavs also saw that during their disagreements, all their affairs went badly for them, and they even stopped defeating their enemies.
For a long time they didn’t know what to do, but they finally came up with a way to put everything in order.
On the shores of the Baltic Sea, not very far from our fatherland, lived a people called Varangians-Rus, descended from the great conquerors in Europe - the Normans.
These Varangians-Rus were considered smart people: they had long had good sovereigns who took care of them the way a good father cares for children, there were laws by which these sovereigns ruled, and that is why the Varangians lived happily and they even managed to win sometimes Slavs
So the old Slavic people, seeing the happiness of the Varangians and wishing the same for their homeland, persuaded all the Slavs to send ambassadors to this brave and enterprising people - to ask them for princes to rule them.
The ambassadors said to the Varangian princes: “Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it: come reign and rule over us.”
The beginning of the Russian state and the first Russian sovereigns
802–944
The Varangians of Rus' were glad of this honor, and three brothers of their princes - Rurik, Sineus and Truvor - immediately went to the Slavs. Rurik became sovereign in Novo-gorod, the oldest of the Slavic cities, Truvor - in Izborsk, Sineus - in the land lying near White Lake. From these Varangian-Russian princes the Slavs began to be called Russians, and their land Russia, or Russia. Sineus and Truvor soon died, and Rurik became one great Russian prince and the founder of the Russian state. He reigned happily for two years with his brothers and fifteen years alone.
There are poems written by one of our best poets, Derzhavin, on the victories won by the Russians in Italy in later times, and in these poems there is an image of Rurik. Since any poetic description has a much more vivid effect on the mind and remains in it for a long time than one made in prose, I am sure that you will forever leave in your memory the features in which the great poet presented the first sovereign of Russia:
But who are the white waves of fog?
Covered across the chest, shoulders,
In steel armor shines red
Like the blue sea and ice?
Who, bowing his head on a spear,
Event listens to times? -
Isn't it the one from ancient times who fought
Shook the hardness of the Parisian walls?
So, he is captivated by singers,
Singing his deeds,
Watching how the rays of battle shine
Through the darkness of times his praise.
Yes, he is! - Rurik is triumphant
In Valkala the sound of their victories
And with his finger he points down
On the Ross that goes along it.
After Rurik, his little son Igor remained, who could not yet become a sovereign, and for this, Rurik asked his relative and comrade, Oleg, to rule the state until Igor grew up. Oleg was brave and smart, defeated many neighboring peoples and enlarged Russia so much that under him it extended almost to the Carpathian Mountains, which lie in Hungary. But Oleg did not entirely deserve the praise. You will see it for yourself.
Together with Rurik, many Varangians came to the Slavs, who had served him in their homeland and, loving their good leader, did not want to part with him. For this zeal, Rurik gave some of them Slavic villages and settlements: from this we had landowners, those. such boyars who owned people and lands. But not all landowners were happy with their estates: others thought it was more fun to seek happiness in the war than to sit at home. It must be said that back then people loved war very much. This is because, being pagans, they considered it an indispensable duty to take revenge for insults, and they offended each other very often. Moreover, they studied little and did not understand the pleasures of the world, which gives us the opportunity to indulge in quiet activities, sweet for the heart and useful for the mind. They thought only of fighting and defeating their enemies.
Two of these brave warriors, Askold and Dir, went with their comrades south of Novgorod and on the beautiful banks of the Dnieper River they saw a small town that they really liked. This town was Kyiv. Without thinking twice, they took possession of it and became sovereigns of Kyiv. This state can be called Southern, because it lay south of Novgorod.
Oleg, ruling Novgorod after the death of Rurik, heard that everyone who came from Kyiv praised the new principality, and decided to conquer it. But he knew that the princes of Kyiv and their people were brave, that they would fight with the same courage as his soldiers, and therefore he decided to use cunning. Approaching Kiev, he left the army behind, sailed to the Kiev shore in a small boat with only Igor and several soldiers and sent to tell the Kiev sovereigns that the Varangian merchants from Novgorod, their friends and countrymen, wanted to see them. Askold and Dir were very happy to have such guests and immediately went to the boat. But as soon as they entered there, Oleg’s warriors surrounded them, and Oleg himself, raising little Igor in his arms, said: “You are not princes, but I am a prince, and here is the son of Rurik!” At that very moment, the soldiers rushed at both princes of Kyiv and killed them. Here is one bad deed of Oleg, but by the way, he was a good guardian of his little pupil, tried for the benefit of the Russian people, united both new states of the Varangians into one, made Kiev the capital and became so famous for his courage that even the Greeks in Constantinople were afraid of him and the name of the Russian . Oleg waged war with them, approached the very walls of their glorious capital, hung his shield on its gates as a sign of victory, collected tribute from the Greeks, and when he returned to Kiev, the people called him prophetic- this means almost the same as omniscient.
His glorious deeds were briefly and beautifully described by Yazykov in the poem “Oleg.” He imagined how the sovereign who succeeded him, young Igor, together with the people celebrated a solemn funeral, or funeral, for him, and at this funeral there was, according to the custom of the Slavs, a singer who was supposed to sing the deeds of the deceased. But read Yazykov’s poems from the very place where the singer, or, as the Slavs called him, the button accordion, comes to the midst of the people who were celebrating the memory of their famous prince:
Suddenly, as if a noisy rebellion was pacified
And decorously gives the way,
When gray-haired in goodness and reasonable
The boyar goes to the meeting, -
The crowds parted - and stood among the gathering
Slav with a harp in his hands
Who is he? He is not a prince or a prince's son,
Not an old man, an adviser to the people,
Not a glorious squad of a governor,
Not a glorious ally of the squads;
But everyone knows him, people know him
The beauty of an inspired voice...He stood in the middle of the gathering - silence all around,
And a sonorous song rang out!
He sang how wise and how courageous he was
Ruler of the midnight power,
How he was the first to announce the thunder of war
Drevlyan centuries-old oak forests;
How they prepared together for a long hike
Nations according to Oleg's word;
How they walked through the rapids under the roar of water
Along the heights of the Dnieper bank;
Like the wind carried across a stormy sea
Agile Russian boats;
The village of sails flew and rustled,
And the boats jumped over the waves!
As after, led by your beloved leader,
The squad fought and walked
Through towns and villages with sword and fire
To the city of Tsar Constantine;
How did the winner nail it to the gate?
Your shield, famous in battle,
And how he dressed his squad
The riches of the Greek tribute!
He fell silent - and with a joyful cry of praise
Countless people responded,
And the prince himself embraced the button accordion brotherly;
Into a golden and treasured glass
He poured sparkling honey
And with a kind word I gave it to him.
And, again filled with honey,
From the hands of the young ruler of the Slavs
From end to end between people
There was a golden and treasured glass.
Oleg ruled the state for 33 years: the good Igor did not want to remind him that he himself could already reign, and became the Russian sovereign only when Oleg died.
Igor, like all Russian princes, was brave, but not as happy as Oleg: with him the Pechenegs came to Russia for the first time - a people who later always became the terrible enemy of our ancestors.
The Pechenegs settled between the Don and Dnieper rivers, in the meadows where their herds grazed. They did not build houses, but made movable tents or huts. When the herds could no longer find food in the meadows, they moved the huts to another place and remained there as long as there was grass. They themselves and their horses ran very quickly, but they knew how to swim in rivers almost like fish. This helped them attack their neighbors, take poor residents captive and get rid of punishment. Evil Pechenegs even hired themselves into the service of peoples who were at war with someone, and then they committed evil acts as much as they wanted. Igor, although he imposed tribute on them, i.e. forced everyone to pay into their treasury, could not drive them further from the borders of their state.
Even more unfortunate was his campaign against the Drevlyan people, who lived in what is now the Volyn province. The Drevlyans were also a Slavic tribe, they were conquered by Oleg. Igor went to them in order to take more tribute than what they always paid. The Drevlyans found this so offensive that they forgot all the respect they should have for their sovereign, and committed a terrible sin: they killed Igor.
This is how this unfortunate sovereign died. He reigned for 32 years, but was not distinguished by any particularly noteworthy deeds.
Saint Olga
945–955
His beautiful wife Olga became much more famous than Igor. Svyatoslav, her son, was still very young when his father died, and therefore Olga ruled the state together with two famous governors - boyar Asmud, the uncle of little Svyatoslav, and Sveneld, the commander of the army. The story of this princess is very interesting. Every Russian boy and Russian girl should know her. Listen now.
Olga was born in a village near Pskov. The young Prince Igor came there to hunt and accidentally saw this village beauty, whom he liked so much for her modesty and intelligence that he did not want to hear about other brides and married sweet Olga. In the high palace of the sovereign, she was as smart and amiable as before in the small house of her parents, as kind and affectionate with the noble noblewomen around her, as before with her rural girlfriends.
Hearing about Igor's death, Olga promised to take revenge on the evil Drevlyans and immediately sent her army to their land.
The Drevlyans sent ambassadors with excuses, but Olga ordered their execution, not wanting to listen to these excuses, and when her army conquered them, she imposed a large tribute on this people she hated and annexed their land to her state.
Olga, together with little Svyatoslav, traveled around their regions and everywhere put in order what was upset. You remember, dear readers, that since our sovereigns began to live in Kyiv, Novgorod has ceased to be the capital of the Russian state. The princes of Kiev, fighting with Greece and neighboring peoples, did not have time to take care of their distant subjects - the Novgorodians - and allowed them to choose their own judges and commanders who would decide their affairs, reward the good, punish the evil and collect tribute from the people for the prince Kiev The Novgorodians called the chief of such leaders mayor Knowing that the Prince of Kiev was far from them, they began to respect him less and thought that they could do without a sovereign, having their own mayor.
Olga went there and, with clever orders, forced the Novgorodians to remember that they must be submissive to their sovereign, even if he lived much further from them. Princess Olga was so good at governing the state!
The people loved and blessed the kind mother of their sovereign. But of all Olga’s wonderful deeds, the best and greatest was that she accepted the Christian faith. She was the first Russian to understand how stupid it is to pray to idols, who could hear the prayers of poor people just as much as your dolls can hear you when you talk to them. The intelligent princess felt in her heart that there is a God, without whom the world and everything that we see in this world could not exist. In addition, she had heard a lot about the Christian faith since she lived in Kiev: the soldiers of Prince Oleg and her husband Igor, who were with them in the Greek Empire, spoke at home about the happiness and virtues of true Christians, about the holiness of their faith, about patience , with whom they endured the misfortunes of this life, hoping for a reward in the future.
It must be said that at this time the Greeks had long ceased to be idolaters and knew the true God. In their capital, Constantinople, lived the patriarch, i.e. head of the Greek Christian clergy. It was from him that Princess Olga wanted to learn the law of God and for this purpose she went to Constantinople in 955, when her son had already grown up and she ceased to govern the state.
The Patriarch and Greek Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus marveled at the intelligence and meekness of the famous Russian empress. The Patriarch told her about the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, taught her everything that all who love the Lord and believe in him should know, and then baptized her. The Emperor was Olga's godfather; At baptism they named her Elena. She returned to Kyiv with delight, rejoicing that she could enlighten the soul of her son and make him also a Christian. But the young, proud Svyatoslav did not want to hear about the new law. The princess was sad that she could not share with her son the happiness of knowing the true God, and she died with this sadness 14 years after baptism. Our Church recognized her as holy, and history recognized her as Wise.
Nikolai Nikolaevich Golovin
My first Russian story
in stories for children
Be afraid, children, of laziness,
Like a bad habit.
And read a day
At least one page at a time.
How our grandfathers lived in the past centuries,
And a number of their actions, hopes and concerns,
Campaigns, suffering, battles, victories...
Here everyone will read in short stories.
Preface
We tried to adapt the history of the Russian land to children's understanding, starting from ancient times and ending with recent events. It is known how interested children are in stories about heroes and exploits. Russian history is rich in examples of heroic deeds and good undertakings. Instead of fairy tales, children in this book will encounter an interesting and instructive reality, examples of work, love for the homeland and self-sacrifice, told as clearly and simply as possible and illustrated by the accompanying pictures.
Let's hope that stories about the glory and good qualities of the Russian people and their great leaders will plant in children's souls the first impulses to work, the first seeds of love for their native land.
Our ancestors
A long time ago, in the country where we now live, there were no rich cities, no stone houses, no large villages. There were only fields and dense dark forests in which wild animals lived.
Along the banks of the rivers, far from each other, there were poor huts. Our ancestors, the Slavs, as the Russian people were called then, lived in huts.
The Slavs were a brave people. They fought a lot with their neighbors and often went hunting to kill wild animals that ran out of the forests and attacked people.
The Slavs made warm clothes for the winter from the fur and skin of killed animals. And in the summer, when it was warm, they wore clothes made of linen, which were light and not hot. When the Slavs did not fight or go hunting, they were engaged in some other activity: they worked in the fields, sowed grain, tended herds and fished in rivers and lakes.
The Slavs were very kind people, they treated their servants well and kindly. When some poor wanderer came to visit them, they kindly received him and treated him well.
Each Slav family, father, mother and children, lived in their own hut separately from other similar families. When the father had many big sons, and each son had his own wife and children, everyone, both children and grandchildren, lived with their parents and with their grandfather. It was a very large family, and it was called a clan, or tribe.
In each clan, all the younger ones obeyed their parents in everything, but loved and respected their old grandfather more. They called him the elder and head of the clan.
The Slavs were pagans, that is, they believed that there were many gods. Some gods, the Slavs thought, are good gods and love people. Other gods are evil and do a lot of harm to humans. So, the good sun warmed and illuminated the earth, and the Slavs called him the good god. The sun was also called Dazhdbog, because it gave people warmth and harvest.
Often in the summer thunder rumbled in the sky and lightning flashed. The person became scared then! And the Slavs thought that the angry god Perun was hiding behind the clouds, who was angry with people for something. The Slavs were very afraid of this god and made various sacrifices to him so that he would be kinder to people.
The Slavs also thought that in every house there lives a house god, who makes sure that everything is good in this house, loves good people and does good to them, and punishes the evil ones.
There are no such gods at all and never have been in the world. There is only one God, who created thunder and the sun and everything that is on earth. But the Slavs in those ancient times did not yet know the real God: that is why they prayed to other, pagan gods.
How the Russian state began
In former times, foreign peoples who lived next door to our Slavic ancestors often offended them. Foreign warriors came to the land of the Slavs, burned houses and carried away the property of the inhabitants.
And the Slavs themselves kept quarreling among themselves, did not want to obey each other; they were like children who have neither a father nor a good mother. There was no one to sort out their quarrels, to reconcile them and to ensure that no one offended them.
Then one old and smart leader of the Slavs, named Gostomysl, called many old people to him before his death and began to tell them: “Look for a person who would sort out your quarrels, reconcile you and punish the disobedient. Such a person will also take care that foreign peoples did not offend you!
The old men retold these words of Gostomysl to the entire Slavic people, and the Slavs listened to the wise advice. They sent ambassadors across the seas to another, distant country, where a people called Varangians lived. The ambassadors came overseas to the Varangian people, Rus', and told the noble Russian leaders, whom the Varangians called princes, the following words: “Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it: come rule us!”
Then three brothers, three noble Russian princes, Rurik, Sineus and Truvor, gathered and came to the Slavic land. Since then, our land began to be called Russia after the Russian princes.
Rurik settled on the Volkhov River, his brother, Sineus, began to live on White Lake, and the third brother, Truvor, built himself the town of Izborsk.
Two years later, two younger brothers died, and Rurik began to reign alone and rule the Russian people. The prince made sure that no one offended the Russian people: he sorted out their quarrels among themselves and reconciled them. Rurik also ordered the Slavs to build cities for themselves. But the Slavic cities were not like our big beautiful cities: they resembled our present villages with poor wooden houses and small huts. Only then the Slavs built a strong fence around the entire village, behind which they hid from their enemies.
Since there were many cities, and Rurik did not have time to defend the people everywhere himself and sort out their quarrels, he sent his warriors to different cities instead of himself. Rurik's noble warriors were also his friends and were called the prince's squad.
Rurik himself lived in the city of Novgorod, and his warriors lived in other smaller cities. There they judged the people and protected them from enemies.
Prince Rurik was angry with two of his warriors, Askold and Dir, for disobedience and did not allow them to rule the cities. Then Askold and Dir were offended by the prince, did not want to serve him anymore and left Novgorod.
They boarded boats and sailed along the Dnieper River to a foreign land.
On the banks of the Dnieper they saw a beautiful town on a high green mountain and asked its inhabitants: “Who built this town?”
The inhabitants answered them: “It was built by three brothers, Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv. Now all three have died, and a wild people, the Khazars, have attacked us and are offending us. They are taking a lot of tribute from us: a lot of honey, furs, linen and bread we owe give it to them!"
Askold and Dir with their warriors drove the Khazars out of the city, while they themselves remained in Kyiv and began to rule its inhabitants.
Prophetic Oleg
Prince Igor, the son of the former Russian prince Rurik, was still a very small boy and could not govern the people himself. His uncle, Oleg, who loved his little nephew very much and took care of him, began to reign for him.
Prince Oleg wanted to conquer the rich city of Kyiv. The prince gathered an army and sailed in boats along the Dnieper River. Near Kyiv itself, Oleg ordered many of his soldiers to hide in boats for the time being and wait for him. Oleg himself with little Igor went ashore and sent his servant to Askold and Dir, who ruled the city of Kiev, to tell them: “The people whom Prince Oleg sent to you have arrived in Kiev; come and see them!”
