Lame-footed prince in Rus'. European values ​​of “Russian Truth”

The more Vladimir aged, the more trouble his numerous sons caused him. In subsequent events the main role was played by:
1) Svyatopolk, whose mother was left pregnant by Vladimir after the murder of Yaropolk;
2) Yaroslav - one of three sons from Rogneda, who was taken by force;
3) Boris, beloved son from a Bulgarian wife, and his half-brother Gleb;
4) Mstislav - the son of the “other Czech”, who was imprisoned in Tmutarakan.
Vladimir suspected Svyatopolk, married to the daughter of the powerful Polish prince Boleslav the Brave, of intrigues and imprisoned him. Boleslav tried to help his daughter and son-in-law, but fell out with his Pecheneg allies and retreated. Yaroslav, who was sitting in Novgorod, took advantage of his father’s difficult situation by stopping sending tribute to Kyiv. Having sent Boris to repel the Pecheneg raid, Vladimir began to prepare for a campaign against Novgorod, where clashes took place between the local population and the Varangians hired by Yaroslav. However, on July 15, 1015, on the eve of his march to the north, Vladimir died.
Subsequent events in PVL are outlined as follows. “Svyatopolk,” writes the chronicler, “sat in Kyiv after the death of his father, and called the people of Kiev, and began to give them gifts. They took it, but their hearts did not lie to him, because their brothers were with Boris.” Boris, returning from the campaign, did not want to fight with his brother, so his soldiers, not expecting anything good for themselves, went home. On the night of July 24, 1015, the boyars sent by Svyatopolk approached Boris’s tent and pierced the prince and his servant with spears. The wounded Boris was laid on a cart. Svyatopolk was informed that his brother was still breathing, and he sent two Varangians, one of whom thrust a sword into Boris’s heart.
On September 5, Gleb, who was sitting in Murom, was also killed. Many of Vladimir’s sons then fled to Byzantium and Scandinavia, and there is no more news of them. For the murder of his brothers, the chronicler branded Svyatopolk with the nickname “Cursed.”
Another version of events is based on the so-called. Eimund's saga, recorded from the words of Norwegian warriors.
King Eymund, not getting along with the Norwegian king Olav Tolstoy 13, went with his people to Novgorod and hired himself to King Yaritsleiv, who was at enmity with his brother Buritslav. The cautious Yaritsleiv did not want to fight, but the Varangians persuaded him not to yield. However, as soon as he had hope that Buritslav had died, he stopped paying the mercenaries. Finally, angered by his brother’s constant attacks, Yaritsleiv said to the Varangians: “I will neither encourage people to fight with King Buritslav, nor blame him if he is killed.” The Varangians understood their employer correctly. Having found Buritslav’s camp in the forest, they attacked his tent at night, killed him, cut off his head and disappeared. Yaritsleiv, seeing his brother’s head, blushed and ordered to take care of the burial. And since he continued to delay his salary, Eymund and his people went to another brother, Vartilav.
Most Russian researchers believe that the saga describes the struggle between Yaroslav and Svyatopolk, and that the Normans confused the name of the prince hostile to them. In Scandinavian sources, Slavic names and titles are indeed often distorted; however, Svyatopolk died under completely different circumstances. Some see Buriclaw as the Polish king Boleslaw the Brave; but the plot of the saga is based precisely on the fact that Yaritsleiv and Buritslav are brothers. At the same time, a number of researchers, starting with O. Senkovsky, believe that the saga is about the murder of Boris by Yaroslav. Evidence is given that after Yaroslav's victory, Boris was buried without any honors, and began to be venerated as a saint much later, unlike Gleb, whose veneration began immediately after his murder (however, the dates of the brothers' canonization remain in question).
After the death of Boris, Yaroslav made peace with the Novgorodians, gathered a large army and moved against Svyatopolk. For three months the armies stood opposite each other on different banks of the Dnieper, quarreling across the river: the Kyivians teased the Novgorodians with Yaroslav’s lameness (he was lame from birth) and promised to force them to do the carpentry work for themselves (the Novgorodians were famous as skilled carpenters). It was late autumn, frosts had begun. According to the chronicler, “Svyatopolk stood between two lakes and drank all night with his retinue.” At dawn, Yaroslav and his army crossed the Dnieper; Svyatopolk’s warriors, who had not slept well after drinking, were pressed against the lake and retreated onto the ice, which began to crack and break. The Pechenegs, allies of the Kievites, were located on the other side of the lake and could not quickly come to the rescue. The defeated Svyatopolk fled to Poland to his father-in-law Boleslav, and Yaroslav defeated the Pechenegs and occupied Kyiv.
In the summer of 1018, Svyatopolk returned to Rus' together with Boleslav. Yaroslav met them on the banks of the Bug with an army of Kyivans, Novgorodians and Varangians. Voivode Blud began to revile Boleslav, threatening to pierce his thick belly; “For Boleslav was great and heavy, so that he could not sit on a horse, but he was smart,” the Russian chronicler notes respectfully. The enraged Polish prince was the first to ride into the river (apparently, he still had a suitable horse), and his army followed him. In the ensuing battle, the father-in-law and son-in-law won complete victory, and on August 14 the Kiev Archbishop solemnly welcomed them to the Monastery of St. Sophia. Yaroslav barely escaped and galloped off to Novgorod. From there he was going to flee to Scandinavia, but the Novgorodians, led by the mayor Konstantin, the son of Dobrynya, forced him to prepare for war. Following the example of his brother, Yaroslav decided to strengthen his position by getting married.
Shortly before the events described, Ingigerd, the daughter of the Swedish king Olav Shetkonung, was preparing to marry the Norwegian king Olav Tolstoy out of mutual sympathy, but the namesakes quarreled over the disputed territory, and the marriage failed. At the end of 1018, matchmakers from Yaroslav arrived in Sweden, and Ingigerd agreed to marry the lame Russian king. Meanwhile, her sister Astrid, having secretly conspired with Olav Tolstoy, ran to him and became his wife. Ingigerd came to Novgorod in the spring of 1019, converted to Orthodoxy and began to be called Irina, but continued to communicate with her ex-fiancé. “And they sent each other, King Olav and Ingigerd, many of their treasures and faithful people,” says the saga.
Boleslav, who captured Kyiv, according to the chronicler Martin Gall, “for ten months owned the richest city and the most powerful kingdom of the Rus and continuously sent money from there to Poland. In the eleventh month, since he owned a very large kingdom, and did not yet consider his son Meshko suitable to rule it, he installed in his place in Kiev one Russian who had become related to him (i.e. Svyatopolk), and himself with the remaining treasures began to prepare for Poland.” According to the PVL, Boleslav had to flee, since the residents of the Kiev region, angry at the violence of the Poles, began to catch and beat them, and Svyatopolk took the side of his subjects. Leaving the Russian land, Boleslav grabbed the Kyiv treasury, many prisoners and Yaroslav's half-sister Predslava, whom he made his concubine.
Svyatopolk, having lost the support of his father-in-law, was expelled from Kyiv by Yaroslav; he fled to the west, fell ill and died somewhere between Poland and the Czech Republic. However, Yaroslav was prevented from gaining a foothold in Kyiv by another brother, Mstislav, who controlled the lands along the left bank of the Dnieper. Strong, brave and generous, he was the complete opposite of the lame, stingy and cautious Yaroslav; but the people of Kiev did not want to accept him, and soon the brothers made peace. Mstislav recognized Yaroslav as the eldest in the clan, and he, apparently, promised not to be an eyesore in Kyiv and retired to Novgorod. Here in 1029 Olav the Fat, expelled from Norway by the powerful king of Denmark and England, Knut the Great, came to him. Yaroslav allocated land for feeding to his brother-in-law and his wife Astrid. Meanwhile, marital ties did not prevent Olav and Ingigerd from spending time together. He read poetry to her, and in the saga there is a mysterious phrase - “they loved each other with a secret love”; however, it is unclear whether it refers to Ingigerd and Olav or Ingigerd and her cousin Rognvald, whom Yaroslav made his governor in Ladoga. In any case, Yaroslav's position looks unenviable. Fortunately for him, in December of the same year, Olav, due to changed circumstances, returned to his homeland, leaving his son Magnus to be raised by Yaroslav, and the following summer he died in battle. Olav's brother Harald the Severe arrived in Rus' with the remnants of the defeated army; Yaroslav made him “the leader of the people who guarded the country” and married him to his daughter Elizabeth. Later, in 1045, Harald became king of Norway.
Mstislav died in 1036. The wise Yaroslav annexed his lands and calmly settled in Kyiv, planting his son Vladimir in Novgorod. Immediately after this, he took the most important step to strengthen the independence of the Russian church - he established a metropolis in Kyiv, headed by the Greek Theopomptus sent from Byzantium. In 1037, a stone wall was built, a new stone church of St. Sophia was founded on the site of the victory over the Pechenegs, and the Pechersky Monastery was built near Kiev.
A few years later, Yaroslav, taking advantage of the murder of a Russian merchant in Constantinople, tried, following the example of his grandfather and great-grandfather, to attack Byzantium, weakened by the rebellion. But the Russian fleet, numbering about 400 boats, was burned by “Greek fire” 14. The consequence of this conflict was the departure of Metropolitan Theopomptus to Byzantium. At the same time, Yaroslav married his sister Dobrogneva to the Polish prince Casimir, the grandson of Boleslav the Brave, and as an ally of his son-in-law he made two campaigns against the rebellious Mazovians.
Ingigerd died in 1050. Soon, Yaroslav, without asking the Patriarch of Constantinople, appointed priest Hilarion, the author of the “Sermon on Law and Grace,” as metropolitan. And on May 9, 1051 in France, in the Reims Cathedral, Yaroslav’s daughter Anna was married to the widowed French king Henry; the groom was 39 years old, the bride 27. The next year, Anna gave birth to a son, Philip, who nine years later took the throne of France.
In general, Yaroslav preferred to look for marriage partners for his children in the West. His son Izyaslav was married to a Polish princess, another son, Svyatoslav, to a German countess, and his daughter Anastasia married the Hungarian king Andras. However, all these marriages, profitable and honorable for Yaroslav, in no way affected the life of Rus'.
Another act of marriage diplomacy ended the conflict with Byzantium: the Greek princess Maria became the wife of Vsevolod Yaroslavich. The son, born to them in 1053, received three names: Russian Vladimir, Christian Vasily and Monomakh in honor of his maternal grandfather. The metropolitan see, which Hilarion quietly left in 1054, was again occupied by a Greek.
Yaroslav died on February 19, 1054, and five months later, on July 16, in Constantinople, the Roman cardinal Humbert de Silva Candida laid a bull on the altar of the Church of St. Sophia, in which the pope excluded Patriarch Michael Cerularius from his communion. The centuries-long divergence between the Christian churches of the East and West ended in a formal break. And although the subjects of previous fierce controversy were mainly theological and liturgical questions (whether the Holy Spirit comes only from God the Father or also from the Son, whether it is permissible to baptize women in labor during agony, whether shaven men should be allowed to take communion, etc.), The gap recorded the incompatibility of the churches of Byzantium and the West, and most importantly, the ways of life that they embodied and sanctified.
The schism of 1054 is sometimes seen as almost the main reason for the isolation of Rus' from the European West. This is a gross exaggeration. The fact that Rus' was not affected by the church reforms that soon began in the West, including the ban on priests to marry, can still be somehow connected with the church schism. However, something else is incomparably more important.
At this time, the West completes the millennium-long process of mastering ancient culture and reaches a new level of development. Guibert Nozhansky, born a few months before Yaroslav’s death, writes in his autobiography: “Not long before my childhood, and perhaps even then, there were so few school teachers that in small towns it was almost impossible to find them, and in big cities - perhaps that with great difficulty; and even if it happened to meet such a person, his knowledge was so poor that it could not even be compared with the learning of today’s wandering clerics.” It was from the second half of the 11th century that changes in Western Europe acquired an explosive character: Roman law was revived in Italy, the poetry of troubadours and vagantes appeared, schoolchildren migrated from one school to another; and in the 12th century universities appeared.
And all this had absolutely nothing to do with Rus', just like, for example, the repentance brought by Emperor Henry IV to the Pope in Canossa in 1077, or the beginning of the Crusades in 1095/96. These events could just as well have taken place on Mars. The hypothetical preservation of the formal unity of the churches of Constantinople and Rome would not bring Rus' one millimeter closer to the West.
Yaroslav's merit was the further strengthening of Christianity, in particular the establishment of monasteries - nurseries of faith and enlightenment. “And Yaroslav loved church statutes,” notes the chronicler, “he loved a lot of priests, especially the monks, and he loved books, reading them often both night and day. And he gathered many scribes, and they translated from Greek into Slavic. And they wrote (that is, rewrote) many books; believers learn from them and enjoy divine teaching.” But the legal thinking of Europeans remained completely alien to the Russian consciousness: it was still much easier to take away here than to earn or buy.
Yaroslav, not for nothing called the Wise, was the last of the Kyiv rulers who managed to firmly unite in his hands almost all the lands between the Baltic and Black Seas. After his death, the power begins to fragment between the multiplying descendants of Rurik; in 1097, they gathered in Lyubech and finally divided it into appanages. On the southern borders of Rus', a red-haired people appeared - the Kipchaks (Polovtsians), who pushed the Pechenegs into Byzantine territory. In 1055, the Polovtsian Khan Blush made peace with the Russian princes, but two years later the nomadic tribes that had gained strength violated the peace, and, as the chronicler writes, “from the Polovtsians an incessant army began.”

Yaroslav Vladimirovich, in the historiographic tradition Yaroslav the Wise. Born approx. 978 - died on February 20, 1054 in Vyshgorod. Prince of Rostov (987-1010), Prince of Novgorod (1010-1034), Prince of Kiev (1016-1018, 1019-1054).

Yaroslav the Wise was born around 978. The son of the baptist of Rus', the prince (from the Rurik family) and the Polotsk princess.

At baptism he was named George.

Yaroslav is first mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years in article 6488 (980), which talks about the marriage of his father, Vladimir Svyatoslavich, and Rogneda, and then lists 4 sons born from this marriage: Izyaslav, Mstislav, Yaroslav and Vsevolod.

Year of birth of Yaroslav the Wise

In the article of the year 6562 (1054), which talks about the death of Yaroslav, it is said that he lived for 76 years (according to the ancient Russian count of years, that is, he lived for 75 years and died in the 76th year of his life). Accordingly, according to the chronicles, Yaroslav was born in 978 or 979. This date is the most commonly used in the literature.

However, there is an opinion that this year is erroneous. The chronicle article under the year 1016 (6524) talks about the reign of Yaroslav in Kyiv. If you believe this news, then Yaroslav should have been born in 988 or 989. This is explained in different ways. Tatishchev believes that there was a mistake and he should be not 28, but 38 years old. In the chronicles that have not survived to this day, which were at his disposal (Raskolnichya, Golitsyn and Khrushchev chronicles), there were 3 options - 23, 28 and 34 years, and according to the Orenburg manuscript, the date of birth of Yaroslav should have been attributed to 972.

Moreover, in some later chronicles it is read not 28 years, but 18 (Sofia First Chronicle, Arkhangelsk Chronicle, Ipatiev List of the Ipatiev Chronicle). And in the Laurentian Chronicle it was stated that “And then Yaroslav would be 28 years old in Novgorod,” which gave S. M. Solovyov grounds to assume that the news refers to the duration of Yaroslav’s Novgorod reign: if we take 18 years as correct, then from 998, and if 28 years is the total reign in Rostov and Novgorod since 988. Solovyov also doubted the correctness of the news that Yaroslav was 76 years old in the year of his death.

Taking into account the fact that the marriage between Vladimir and Rogneda, according to the now established opinion, was concluded in 978, and also that Yaroslav was the third son of Rogneda, he could not have been born in 978. According to historians, the dating of 76 years appeared in order to present Yaroslav as older. However, there is evidence that it was Svyatopolk who was the eldest of the sons at the time of Vladimir’s death. Indirect evidence of this can be the words of Boris, which he said to his squad, not wanting to occupy Kiev, since it was Svyatopolk who is the eldest: “He said, “Don’t let me lay my hands on my elder brother, even if my fathers die, then I’ll be in Father's revenge."

At the moment, the fact of Svyatopolk’s seniority is considered proven, and the indication of age is considered evidence that the chronicler tried to present Yaroslav as the elder, thus justifying his right to the great reign.

If we accept the traditional date of birth and seniority of Svyatopolk, then this leads to a revision of the chronicle story about the struggle of Vladimir and Yaropolk for the Kiev throne, and attributing the capture of Polotsk and Vladimir’s marriage to Rogneda to 976 or the beginning of 977, before his departure for the sea.

Additional information about Yaroslav’s age at the time of death is provided by data from a study of Yaroslav’s bone remains conducted in 1939-1940. D.G. Rokhlin indicates that Yaroslav was over 50 years old at the time of death and indicates 986 as the probable year of birth, and V.V. Ginsburg - 60-70 years old. Based on these data, it is assumed that Yaroslav could have been born between 983 and 986.

In addition, some historians, following N.I. Kostomarov was expressed doubts that Yaroslav is the son of Rogneda. However, this contradicts the news of the chronicles, in which Yaroslav is repeatedly called her son. There is also a hypothesis by the French historian Arrignon, according to which Yaroslav was the son of the Byzantine princess Anna, and this explains Yaroslav’s intervention in internal Byzantine affairs in 1043. However, this hypothesis also contradicts all other sources.

Yaroslav the Wise (documentary film)

Yaroslav in Rostov

The Tale of Bygone Years for the year 6496 (988) reports that Vladimir Svyatoslavich sent his sons to various cities. Among the listed sons is Yaroslav, who received Rostov as a table. However, the date indicated in this article, 988, is quite arbitrary, since many events fit into it. Historian Alexey Karpov suggests that Yaroslav could have left for Rostov no earlier than 989.

The chronicles about Yaroslav's reign in Rostov do not report anything other than the fact of his imprisonment. All information about the Rostov period of his biography is of a late and legendary nature, their historical reliability is low.

Since Yaroslav received the Rostov table as a child, real power was in the hands of the mentor sent with him. According to A. Karpov, this mentor could be the “breadwinner and governor named Buda (or Budy)” mentioned in the chronicle in 1018. He was probably Yaroslav's closest ally in Novgorod, but he no longer needed a breadwinner during the Novgorod reign, so it is likely that he was Yaroslav's educator even during the Rostov reign.

The founding of the city of Yaroslavl, named after the prince, is associated with the reign of Yaroslav in Rostov. Yaroslavl was first mentioned in the “Tale of Bygone Years” in 1071, when the “revolt of the Magi” caused by famine in the Rostov land was described. But there are legends that attribute the founding of the city to Yaroslav. According to one of them, Yaroslav traveled along the Volga from Novgorod to Rostov. According to legend, on the way he was attacked by a bear, which Yaroslav, with the help of his retinue, hacked to death with an axe. After this, the prince ordered to cut down a small wooden fortress on an impregnable cape above the Volga, named after him - Yaroslavl.

These events are reflected on the city's coat of arms. This legend was reflected in “The Legend of the Construction of the City of Yaroslavl,” published in 1877. According to the research of the historian and archaeologist N. N. Voronin, the “Tale” was created in the 18th-19th centuries, however, according to his assumption, the basis of the “Tale” was formed by folk legends associated with the ancient cult of the bear, characteristic of the tribes that lived in the forest zone of the modern Russia. An earlier version of the legend is given in an article published by M. A. Lenivtsev in 1827.

However, there are doubts that the Yaroslavl legend is connected specifically with Yaroslav, although it probably reflects some facts from the initial history of the city.

In 1958-1959, Yaroslavl historian Mikhail Germanovich Meyerovich substantiated that the city appeared no earlier than 1010. This date is currently considered the founding date of Yaroslavl.

Yaroslav reigned in Rostov until the death of his elder brother Vysheslav, who ruled in Novgorod. The Tale of Bygone Years does not report the date of Vysheslav’s death.

The “State Book” (XVI century) reports that Vysheslav died before Rogneda, Yaroslav’s mother, whose year of death is indicated in the “Tale of Bygone Years” (1000). However, this information is not based on any documents and is probably a guess.

Another version was given in “Russian History” by V.N. Tatishchev. Based on some chronicle that has not reached our time (probably of Novgorod origin), he places information about the death of Vysheslav in an article for the year 6518 (1010/1011). This date is now accepted by most historians. Vysheslav was replaced in Novgorod by Yaroslav.

Yaroslav in Novgorod

After the death of Vysheslav, Svyatopolk was considered the eldest son of Vladimir Svyatoslavovich. However, according to Thietmar of Merseburg, he was put in prison by Vladimir on charges of treason. The next eldest son, Izyaslav, had also died by that time, but even during his father’s life he was actually deprived of the right to inheritance - Polotsk was allocated to him as an inheritance. And Vladimir installed Yaroslav in Novgorod.

The Novgorod reign at this time had a higher status than the Rostov reign. However, the Novgorod prince still had a subordinate position to the Grand Duke, paying an annual tribute of 2000 hryvnia (2/3 collected in Novgorod and the lands subordinate to it). However, 1/3 (1000 hryvnia) remained for the maintenance of the prince and his squad, the size of which was second only to the size of the squad of the Kyiv prince.

The period of the Novgorod reign of Yaroslav until 1014 is just as little described in the chronicles as the Rostov one. It is likely that from Rostov Yaroslav first went to Kyiv, and from there he left for Novgorod. He probably arrived there no earlier than 1011.

Before Yaroslav, the Novgorod princes from the time of Rurik lived, as a rule, on the Settlement near Novgorod, but Yaroslav settled in Novgorod itself, which, by that time, was a significant settlement. His princely court was located on the Trade side of Volkhov, this place was called “Yaroslav’s courtyard”. In addition, Yaroslav also had a country residence in the village of Rakoma, located south of Novgorod.

It is likely that Yaroslav's first marriage dates back to this period. The name of his first wife is unknown, but presumably her name was Anna.

During excavations in Novgorod, archaeologists found the only copy of the lead seal of Yaroslav the Wise, which was once suspended from a princely charter. On one side of it are depicted the holy warrior George with a spear and shield and his name, on the second - a man in a cloak and helmet, relatively young, with a protruding mustache, but without a beard, as well as inscriptions on the sides of the chest figure: “Yaroslav. Prince Russian." Apparently, the seal contains a rather conventional portrait of the prince himself, a strong-willed man with a humpbacked predatory nose, whose dying appearance was reconstructed from the skull by the famous scientist - archaeologist and sculptor Mikhail Gerasimov.

Yaroslav's speech against his father

In 1014, Yaroslav resolutely refused to pay his father, the Kyiv prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, an annual lesson of two thousand hryvnia. Historians suggest that these actions of Yaroslav were connected with Vladimir’s intention to transfer the throne to one of his younger sons, the Rostov prince Boris, whom he brought closer to himself in recent years and transferred command of the princely squad, which actually meant the recognition of Boris as heir. It is possible that this is precisely why the eldest son Svyatopolk rebelled against Vladimir, who was then imprisoned (he remained there until his father’s death). And it was precisely this news that could prompt Yaroslav to oppose his father.

In order to confront his father, Yaroslav, according to the chronicle, hired the Varangians overseas, who arrived led by Eymund. Vladimir, who in recent years lived in the village of Berestovo near Kiev, ordered to “break the path and pave bridges” for the campaign, but fell ill. In addition, in June 1015, the Pechenegs invaded and the army gathered against Yaroslav, led by Boris, was forced to set off to repel the raid of the steppes, who, having heard about Boris’s approach, turned back.

At the same time, the Varangians hired by Yaroslav, doomed to inaction in Novgorod, began to cause unrest. According to the first Novgorod chronicle: “The Varangians began to commit violence against their married wives.”

As a result, the Novgorodians, unable to withstand the violence being committed, rebelled and killed the Varangians in one night. Yaroslav at this time was at his country residence in Rakom. Having learned about what had happened, he called to himself representatives of the Novgorod nobility who participated in the rebellion, promising them forgiveness, and when they arrived to him, he brutally dealt with them. This happened in July - August 1015.

After this, Yaroslav received a letter from his sister Predslava, in which she reported on the death of his father and the events that happened after that. This news forced Prince Yaroslav to make peace with the Novgorodians. He also promised to pay the viru for each person killed. And in subsequent events, the Novgorodians invariably supported their prince.

Yaroslav in Kyiv

On July 15, 1015, Vladimir Svyatoslavich died in Berestovo, having not managed to extinguish his son’s rebellion. And Yaroslav began the fight for the Kiev throne with his brother Svyatopolk, who was released from prison and declared their prince by the rebellious Kyivians. In this struggle, which lasted four years, Yaroslav relied on the Novgorodians and the hired Varangian squad led by King Eymund.

In 1016, Yaroslav defeated the army of Svyatopolk near Lyubech and occupied Kyiv in late autumn. He generously rewarded the Novgorod squad, giving each warrior ten hryvnia. From the chronicles: “And let them all go home, - and having given them the truth, and having written off the charter, he said to them: walk according to this letter, just as it was copied for you, keep it in the same way.”

The victory at Lyubech did not end the fight with Svyatopolk: he soon approached Kiev with the Pechenegs, and in 1018 the Polish king Boleslav the Brave, invited by Svyatopolk, defeated Yaroslav’s troops on the banks of the Bug, captured his sisters, his wife Anna and Yaroslav’s stepmother in Kiev and, instead In order to transfer the city (“table”) to his daughter’s husband Svyatopolk, he himself made an attempt to establish himself in it. But the people of Kiev, outraged by the furies of his squad, began to kill the Poles, and Boleslav had to hastily leave Kyiv, depriving Svyatopolk of military assistance. And Yaroslav, having returned to Novgorod after the defeat, prepared to flee “overseas.”

But the Novgorodians, led by the mayor Konstantin Dobrynich, having chopped up his ships, told the prince that they wanted to fight for him with Boleslav and Svyatopolk. They collected money, concluded a new treaty with the Varangians of King Eymund and armed themselves.

In the spring of 1019, this army, led by Yaroslav, carried out a new campaign against Svyatopolk. In the battle on the Alta River, Svyatopolk was defeated, his banner was captured, he himself was wounded, but escaped. King Eymund asked Yaroslav: “Will you order him to be killed or not?” - to which Yaroslav gave his consent: “I will not do any of this: I will not set anyone up for a (personal, chest to chest) battle with King Burisleif, nor blame anyone if he is killed.”

In 1019, Yaroslav married the daughter of the Swedish king Olaf Sjötkonung - Ingigerda, for whom the king of Norway Olaf Haraldson had previously wooed her, who dedicated his wife to her and subsequently married her younger sister Astrid. Ingigerda in Rus' is baptized with a consonant name - Irina. As a dowry, Ingigerda received from her father the city of Aldeigaborg (Ladoga) with adjacent lands, which have since received the name Ingermanlandia (Ingigerda's land).

In 1020, Yaroslav's nephew Bryachislav attacked Novgorod, but on the way back he was overtaken by Yaroslav on the Sudoma River, defeated here by his troops and fled, leaving behind prisoners and loot. Yaroslav pursued him and forced him to agree to peace terms in 1021, assigning to him the two cities of Usvyat and Vitebsk as his inheritance.

In 1023, Yaroslav's brother - the Tmutarakan prince Mstislav - attacked with his allies the Khazars and Kasogs and captured Chernigov and the entire Left Bank of the Dnieper, and in 1024 Mstislav defeated Yaroslav's troops under the leadership of the Varangian Yakun near Listven (near Chernigov). Mstislav moved his capital to Chernigov and, sending ambassadors to Yaroslav, who had fled to Novgorod, offered to share the lands along the Dnieper with him and stop the wars: “Sit down in your Kiev, you are the elder brother, and let me have this side.”

In 1025, Bolesław the Brave's son Mieszko II became king of Poland, and his two brothers, Bezprym and Otto, were expelled from the country and took refuge with Jarosław.

In 1026, Yaroslav, having gathered a large army, returned to Kyiv and made peace at Gorodets with his brother Mstislav, agreeing with his peace proposals. The brothers divided the lands along the Dnieper. The left bank was retained by Mstislav, and the right bank by Yaroslav. Yaroslav, being the Grand Duke of Kyiv, preferred to stay in Novgorod until 1036 (the year of Mstislav's death).

In 1028, the Norwegian king Olaf (later called the Saint) was forced to flee to Novgorod. He arrived there with his five-year-old son Magnus, leaving his mother Astrid in Sweden. In Novgorod, Ingigerda, the half-sister of Magnus's mother, Yaroslav's wife and Olaf's former fiancée, insisted that Magnus remain with Yaroslav after the king returned to Norway in 1030, where he died in the battle for the Norwegian throne.

In 1029, helping his brother Mstislav, he made a campaign against the Yases, expelling them from Tmutarakan. The following year, 1030, Yaroslav defeated Chud and founded the city of Yuryev (now Tartu, Estonia). In the same year he took Belz in Galicia. At this time, an uprising arose against King Mieszko II in the Polish land, the people killed bishops, priests and boyars.

In 1031, Yaroslav and Mstislav, supporting Bezprym's claims to the Polish throne, gathered a large army and marched against the Poles, recaptured the cities of Przemysl and Cherven, conquered Polish lands, and, taking many Poles prisoner, divided them. Yaroslav resettled his prisoners along the Ros River. Shortly before this, in the same 1031, Harald III the Severe, king of Norway, half-brother of Olaf the Saint, fled to Yaroslav the Wise and served in his squad. As is commonly believed, he took part in Yaroslav's campaign against the Poles and was a co-leader of the army. Subsequently, Harald became Yaroslav's son-in-law, taking Elizabeth as his wife.

In 1034, Yaroslav installed his son Vladimir as prince of Novgorod. In 1036, Mstislav suddenly died while hunting, and Yaroslav, apparently fearing any claims to the reign of Kiev, imprisoned his last brother, the youngest of the Vladimirovichs - the Pskov prince Sudislav - in a dungeon (cut). Only after these events did Yaroslav decide to move with his court from Novgorod to Kyiv.

In 1036, he defeated the Pechenegs and thereby freed Rus' from their raids. 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.

In the same year, after the death of his brother Mstislav Vladimirovich, Yaroslav became the sole ruler of most of Rus', with the exception of the Principality of Polotsk, where his nephew Bryachislav reigned, and after the death of the latter in 1044 - Vseslav Bryachislavich.

In 1038, Yaroslav's troops made a campaign against the Yatvingians, in 1040 against Lithuania, and in 1041 a water expedition on boats to Mazovia.

In 1042, his son Vladimir defeated the Yams, and during this campaign there was a large loss of horses. Around this time (1038-1043), the English prince Edward the Exile fled from Canute the Great to Yaroslav.

In addition, in 1042, Prince Yaroslav the Wise provided great assistance in the struggle for the Polish royal throne to the grandson of Boleslav the Brave - Casimir I. Casimir married Yaroslav's sister - Maria, who became the Polish Queen Dobronega. This marriage was concluded in parallel with the marriage of Yaroslav’s son Izyaslav to Casimir’s sister, Gertrude, as a sign of alliance with Poland.

In 1043, Yaroslav, for the murder of “one famous Russian” in Constantinople, sent his son Vladimir, together with Harald Surov and governor Vyshata, on a campaign against Emperor Constantine Monomakh, in which hostilities unfolded on sea and land with varying success and which ended in peace , concluded in 1046.

In 1044, Yaroslav organized a campaign against Lithuania.

In 1045, Prince Yaroslav the Wise and Princess Irina (Ingegerda) went to Novgorod from Kyiv to visit their son Vladimir to lay the foundation stone for the St. Sophia Cathedral, instead of the burnt wooden one.

In 1047, Yaroslav the Wise broke the alliance with Poland.

In 1048, ambassadors of Henry I of France arrived in Kyiv to ask for the hand of Yaroslav's daughter Anna.

The reign of Yaroslav the Wise lasted 37 years. Yaroslav spent the last years of his life in Vyshgorod.

Yaroslav the Wise died on February 20, 1054 in Vyshgorod, exactly on the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, in the arms of his son Vsevolod, having outlived his wife Ingigerda by four years and his eldest son Vladimir by two years.

The inscription (graffiti) on the central nave of the St. Sophia Cathedral under the ktitor's fresco of Yaroslav the Wise himself, dated 1054, speaks of the death of “our king”: “In 6562 February 20 of the Ascension of our Tsar in (Sunday) in (n) food (lyu) (mu)ch Theodore.”

In different chronicles, the exact date of Yaroslav’s death was determined differently: either February 19, or February 20. Academician B. Rybakov explains these disagreements by the fact that Yaroslav died on the night from Saturday to Sunday. In Ancient Rus', there were two principles for determining the beginning of the day: in church reckoning - from midnight, in everyday life - from dawn. That is why the date of Yaroslav’s death is called differently: according to one account it was still Saturday, but according to another, church account, it was already Sunday. Historian A. Karpov believes that the prince could have died on the 19th (according to the chronicle), but he was buried on the 20th.

However, the date of death is not accepted by all researchers. V.K. Ziborov dates this event to February 17, 1054.

Yaroslav was buried in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. The six-ton ​​marble sarcophagus of Yaroslav still stands in the Cathedral of St. Sofia. It was discovered in 1936, 1939 and 1964 and not always qualified research was carried out.

Appearance of Yaroslav the Wise

Based on the results of the autopsy in January 1939, anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov created a sculptural portrait of the prince in 1940.

The height of Yaroslav the Wise was 175 centimeters. The face is of the Slavic type, with a medium-height forehead, a narrow bridge of the nose, a strongly protruding nose, large eyes, a sharply defined mouth (with almost all teeth, which was extremely rare in old age), and a sharply protruding chin.

It is also known that he was lame (which is why he walked poorly): according to one version, from birth, according to another, as a result of being wounded in battle. Prince Yaroslav's right leg was longer than his left due to damage to the hip and knee joints. This may have been a consequence of hereditary Perthes disease.

According to Newsweek magazine, when the box with the remains of Yaroslav the Wise was opened on September 10, 2009, it was found that it contained, presumably, only the skeleton of Yaroslav’s wife, Princess Ingegerda. During the investigation conducted by journalists, a version was put forward that the remains of the prince were taken from Kiev in 1943 during the retreat of German troops and are currently possibly at the disposal of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA (the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople).

Disappearance of the remains of Yaroslav the Wise

In the 20th century, the Sarcophagus of Yaroslav the Wise was opened three times: in 1936, 1939 and 1964.

In 2009, the tomb in the St. Sophia Cathedral was opened again, and the remains were sent for examination. During the autopsy, Soviet newspapers Izvestia and Pravda, dated 1964, were discovered.

The results of a genetic examination published in March 2011 are as follows: the tomb contains not male, but only female remains, and they are composed of two skeletons, dating from completely different times: one skeleton from the times of Ancient Rus', and the second a thousand years older, that is, from the time of Scythian settlements .

The remains of the Old Russian period, according to anthropologists, belong to a woman who did a lot of hard physical labor during her life - clearly not of a princely family. M. M. Gerasimov was the first to write about female remains among the found skeletons in 1939. Then it was announced that in addition to Yaroslav the Wise, other people were buried in the tomb.

The trace of the ashes of Yaroslav the Wise can be traced to the icon of St. Nicholas the Wet, which was taken from the St. Sophia Cathedral by representatives of the UGCC, who retreated along with the German occupiers from Kyiv in the fall of 1943. The icon was discovered in the Holy Trinity Church (Brooklyn, New York, USA) in 1973.

According to historians, the remains of the Grand Duke should also be looked for in the USA.

Yaroslav the Wise - Monument “1000th Anniversary of Russia”

Personal life of Yaroslav the Wise:

First wife (before 1019) - presumably Norwegian by name Anna. She was captured in Kyiv in 1018 by the Polish king Boleslav the Brave along with Yaroslav's sisters and taken forever to Poland.

Second wife (since 1019) - Ingegerda(in baptism Irina, in monasticism, possibly Anna); daughter of King Olaf Skötkonung of Sweden. Their children dispersed throughout Europe.

Sons of Yaroslav the Wise:

Ilya(before 1018 -?) - possible son of Yaroslav the Wise from his first wife, taken to Poland. Hypothetical prince of Novgorod.

Vladimir(1020-1052) - Prince of Novgorod.

(Dmitry) (1025-1078) - married the sister of the Polish king Casimir I - Gertrude. Grand Duke of Kiev (1054-1068, 1069-1073, 1077-1078).

(Nicholas) (1027-1076) - Prince of Chernigov, it is believed that he was married twice: the first time in Killikia (or Cicilia, Cecilia), of unknown origin; the second time was probably on the Austrian princess Oda, daughter of Count Leopold.

Vsevolod (Andrey)(1030-1093) - married a Greek princess (presumably the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomakh), from whose marriage Prince Vladimir Monomakh was born.

Vyacheslav(1033-1057) - Prince of Smolensk.

Igor(1036-1060) - Prince of Volyn. Some historians assign Igor fifth place among the sons of Yaroslav, in particular, based on the order of listing the sons in the news of the will of Yaroslav the Wise and the news that after the death of Vyacheslav in Smolensk, Igor was removed from Vladimir (“The Tale of Bygone Years”).

Daughters of Yaroslav the Wise:

Elizabeth became the wife of the Norwegian king Harald the Harsh.

Anastasia became the wife of King Andras I of Hungary. In the city of Tichony, on the shores of Lake Balaton, a church was named in their honor and a monument was erected.

She married King Henry I of France. In France she became known as Anna of Russia or Anna of Kiev. In France, in the city of Senlis, a monument was erected to Anna.

Holy relatives of Yaroslav the Wise:

The future Orthodox saint, noble prince Yaroslav (King Yaritsleiv) was the brother-in-law of the common Christian future saint, the Norwegian king Olaf the Saint - they were married to sisters: Yaroslav to his older sister, the future Orthodox saint Ingigerd, Olaf to his younger sister, Astrid.

Before that, both saints had one bride - Princess Ingigerd of Sweden (in Rus', the blessed princess Irina), who in the spring of 1018 agreed to marry Olaf of Norway and personally embroidered a cloak with a gold clasp for her groom, and in the fall of the same year, at the request of her father, she gave agreement to marry Yaroslav (the wedding took place in 1019).

The romantic relationship between Olaf and Ingigerd from 1018 to 1030 is described in three Scandinavian sagas: “The Saga of Olaf the Holy”, “The Strands of Eymund”, etc. "Rotten skin."

In 1029, Olaf, while in exile in Novgorod, wrote a visu (poem) about Ingigerd; part of it has survived to the present day. According to the sagas, Olaf in Novgorod in the winter of 1029/1030 showed two miracles of healing: in particular, he cured the seriously ill nine-year-old son of Yaroslav and Ingigerd, the future Orthodox saint Vladimir (Valdemar). After the death and glorification of Olaf in Novgorod, b. In the capital city of Yaroslav, the Church of St. Olaf, popularly nicknamed the “Varangian”, was erected.

The young son of the future Saint Olaf, Magnus the Good, was adopted by the future Saint Yaroslav the Wise after the death of his father, was brought up in his family, and upon reaching adulthood, with the help of his adoptive father, received back the throne of Norway, and then Denmark.

Also Yaroslav the Wise is the brother of the Orthodox, the first saints glorified in Rus' - princes Boris and Gleb, the father of the Orthodox saints Vladimir and Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, the grandfather of the locally revered Orthodox saint Vladimir Monomakh and the Catholic Hugo the Great, Count of Vermandois.

Yaroslav was buried in Sophia of Kyiv in the former six-ton ​​Prokonesian marble tomb of the Holy Pope Clement, which his father Vladimir Svyatoslavich took from the Byzantine Chersonese he conquered. The tomb is still intact.

There is also a point of view that Yaroslav the Wise had another daughter named Agatha, who became the wife of Edward the Exile, heir to the throne of England. Some researchers question the fact that Yaroslav was the son of Rogneda, and there is also a hypothesis that he had a wife, Anna, who died around 1018. Perhaps Anna was Norwegian, and in 1018 she was captured by Boleslav the Brave during the capture of Kyiv . There, a hypothesis is put forward that a certain Ilya is the “son of the King of Rus'” Yaroslav the Wise.

The origin of the wife of one of the sons - the German princess Oda, daughter of Leopold - is a controversial fact in terms of belonging to the Staden family (rulers of the North March) or the Babenbergs (rulers of Austria before the Habsburgs). It is also controversial whose wife Oda was - Vladimir, Svyatoslav or Vyacheslav. Today the dominant point of view is that Oda Leopoldovna was the wife of Svyatoslav and came from the Babenberg family.

Yaroslav the Wise in culture

Yaroslav is a traditional character in literary works of the hagiographic genre - the Life of Boris and Gleb. The very fact of the murder serves as a favorite theme for individual legends for ancient chroniclers. In total, “The Tale of Boris and Gleb” has been preserved in more than 170 copies, of which the oldest and most complete are attributed to the Monk Nestor and the monk Jacob Mnich.

It says, for example, that after the death of Vladimir, power in Kyiv was seized by Vladimir’s stepson Svyatopolk. Fearing the rivalry of the Grand Duke's own children - Boris, Gleb and others, Svyatopolk first of all sent assassins to the first contenders for the table in Kyiv - Boris and Gleb. A messenger sent from Yaroslav conveys to Gleb the news of the death of his father and the murder of his brother Boris... And now, saddened by grief, Prince Gleb sails along the river in a boat, and it is surrounded by the enemies who have overtaken him. He realized that this was the end and said in a humble voice: “Since you have already started, when you start, do what you were sent to do.” And Yaroslav’s sister Predslava warns that their brother Svyatopolk is going to eliminate him too.

Yaroslav is also mentioned in the “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion and in “Memory and Praise to the Russian Prince Vladimir” by Jacob Mnich.

Since Yaroslav was married to Ingegerda - the daughter of the Swedish king Olaf Skötkonung and arranged dynastic marriages of his daughters, including Elizabeth (Ellisiv) - with the King of Norway Harald the Severe, he himself and his name are repeatedly mentioned in the Scandinavian sagas, where he appears under the name " Yarisleyva Konung Holmgard", that is, Novgorod.

In 1834, a professor at St. Petersburg University, Senkovsky, having translated “Eymund’s Saga” into Russian, discovers that the Varangian Eymund, together with his retinue, was hired by Yaroslav the Wise. The saga tells how King Yarisleif (Yaroslav) fights with King Burisleif (Boris), and in the saga Burisleif is killed by the Varangians by order of Yarisleif. Then, some researchers, based on the saga about Eymund, supported the hypothesis that the death of Boris was the “work of the hands” of the Varangians sent by Yaroslav the Wise in 1017, given that, according to the chronicles, Yaroslav, Bryachislav, and Mstislav refused to recognize Svyatopolk as the legitimate prince in Kyiv.

However, Senkovsky’s hypothesis, based solely on the data of the “Eymund Saga”, an active supporter of which is currently the historian and source scientist I. N. Danilevsky, proves the possible “involvement” of Yaroslav only in the murder of Boris (“Buritsleiv”), but not in any way Gleb, who is not mentioned at all in the saga.

At the same time, it is known that after the death of Prince Vladimir, only two brothers - Boris and Gleb - declared their allegiance to the new Kyiv prince and pledged to “honor him as their father” and for Svyatopolk it would be very strange to kill his allies. To date, this hypothesis has both its supporters and opponents.

Also, historians, starting with S. M. Solovyov, suggest that the story of the death of Boris and Gleb was clearly inserted into the Tale of Bygone Years later, otherwise the chronicler would not have repeated again about the beginning of the reign of Svyatopolk in Kyiv.

Old Russian chroniclers raise the topic of Yaroslav’s wisdom, starting with the “praise of books” placed under the year 1037 in the “Tale of Bygone Years”, which, according to them, consisted in the fact that Yaroslav is wise because he built the churches of Hagia Sophia in Kyiv and Novgorod, then there is dedicated the main temples of the cities of Sofia - the wisdom of God, to which the main temple of Constantinople is dedicated. Thus, Yaroslav declares that the Russian Church is on a par with the Byzantine Church. Having mentioned wisdom, chroniclers, as a rule, reveal this concept by referring to the Old Testament Solomon.

The oldest of the portraits of the Kyiv prince was made during his lifetime on the famous fresco in the Cathedral of St. Sophia. Unfortunately, part of the fresco with portraits of Yaroslav and his wife Ingegerda has been lost. Only a copy of A. van Westerfeld, the court painter of the Lithuanian hetman A. Radzivil, made in 1651 from an entire fresco, has survived.

The famous sculptor and anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov reconstructed Yaroslav’s face based on his skull. The sculptural image of Yaroslav was created by M. O. Mikeshin and I. N. Schroeder in the monument “Millennium of Russia” in 1862 in Novgorod.

In fiction: he is a minor hero in the historical novels by Valentin Ivanov “Great Rus'” (1961), by Antonin Ladinsky “Anna Yaroslavna - Queen of France” (1973), in the historical story by Elizaveta Dvoretskaya “The Treasure of Harald”, as well as in the story by Boris Akunin “Fiery finger" (2014).

In cinema:

- “Yaroslavna, Queen of France” (1978; USSR) directed by Igor Maslennikov, in the role of Prince Yaroslav Kirill Lavrov;
- “Yaroslav the Wise” (1981; USSR) directed by Grigory Kokhan, in the role of Yaroslav Yuri Muravitsky, Yaroslav in childhood Mark Gres;
- "Yaroslav. A thousand years ago" (2010; Russia) directed by Dmitry Korobkin, in the role of Yaroslav Alexander Ivashkevich.

One of the most revered ancient Russian princes is Prince Yaroslav the Wise, the son of the great (Baptist). He received the nickname “Wise” for his love of education and the creation of the first code of laws known in Rus', later called “Russian Truth”.

He is also the father, uncle and grandfather of many European rulers. At baptism, Yaroslav received the name George (or Yuri). The Russian Orthodox Church reveres him as a faithful believer and even included the day of his memory in the calendar. In a leap year it is March 4th, and in a normal year it is March 5th.

Childhood and youth

The date of birth of Yaroslav Vladimirovich is still debated today. But most historians and scientists are inclined to believe that the prince was born in 978, although no one is completely sure of this. His birthday is even more unknown.

His parents were Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, who belonged to the Rurik family, and the Polotsk princess. Although there is no agreement here either. For example, the famous historian Nikolai Kostomarov doubted that Rogneda was Yaroslav’s mother. And his French colleague Arrignon even believed that the Byzantine princess Anna gave birth to the prince. Allegedly, this circumstance explains his intervention in internal Byzantine affairs in 1043.

But for the sake of fairness, it is worth noting that the rest of the historians are inclined to consider Rogneda to be the woman who gave birth to the most famous of the ancient Russian princes.

All four offspring born in marriage with Rogneda, Izyaslav, Mstislav, Yaroslav and Vsevolod, were sent by Grand Duke Vladimir to reign in different cities. Yaroslav got Rostov. But since the boy was barely 9 years old, a breadwinner and governor Budy was assigned to him (in other sources of Buda). Later, when the matured Prince Yaroslav the Wise began to rule Novgorod, the breadwinner and mentor turned into his closest ally.

Governing body

This period is in the nature of traditions and legends. The time of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, as well as the personality himself, is tended to be idealized by some historians, and demonized by others. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle.

The reign of Novgorod had a higher status than the reign of Rostov. And yet, the Novgorod ruler had a subordinate status in relation to the Kyiv ruler, that is, Vladimir. Therefore, Prince Yaroslav the Wise obligatorily paid his father 2/3 of the tribute collected from the Novgorod lands every year. It was the amount of 2 thousand hryvnia. 1 thousand remained for the maintenance of the nobleman himself and his squad. It must be said that its size was only slightly inferior to Vladimir’s squad.

Probably, it was precisely this circumstance that prompted the son to rebel and in 1014 refuse to pay a huge tribute to his father. The Novgorodians supported their mayor, as there is information about in the surviving chronicles. Vladimir became angry and began to prepare a campaign to pacify the rebels. But at that time he was advanced in age. Soon he fell ill and died suddenly, without punishing his son.

The place of his father was taken by the eldest son, Svyatopolk the Accursed. To protect himself and keep power in his hands, he destroyed three brothers: Boris, whom the people of Kiev especially loved, Gleb and Svyatoslav. The same fate awaited the Novgorod mayor. But he managed to defeat Svyatopolk in the bloody battle of Lyubech and in 1016 entered Kyiv.

The fragile truce between the brothers who divided Kyiv along the Dnieper from time to time passed into a “hot” stage. But in 1019 Svyatopolk died, and Yaroslav the Wise began undivided rule of the Kyiv throne.

The great merit of Prince Yaroslav the Wise was the victory over the Pechenegs. This happened in 1036. As the chronicles say, the city was besieged by nomads during the period when the ruler went to Novgorod, where he took part in the foundation of the temple. But having received news of the danger, he quickly returned and defeated the Pechenegs. From that moment on, their devastating and bloody raids on Rus' stopped for a short time.

The “golden” time of Yaroslav the Wise began. After the victories, the nobleman took up grandiose construction. At the site of the brilliant victory over the nomads, the St. Sophia Cathedral was founded. In many ways it was a copy of the cathedral in Constantinople. Decorated with magnificent frescoes and mosaics, the temple amazed its contemporaries with its beauty and delights the eye today.

The nobleman spared no expense on the church splendor and invited the best Greek craftsmen to decorate the cathedral. And the famous Golden Gate appeared in the city, which was repeated in Constantinople. The Church of the Annunciation grew above them.

Domestic and foreign policy

The ruler made considerable efforts to break the dependence of the Russian Orthodox Church on Byzantium, which dominated it. Therefore, in 1054, for the first time in the history of Rus', its church was headed by a Russian, and not a Greek, metropolitan. His name was Hilarion.

The internal policy of Yaroslav the Wise was aimed at increasing the education of the people and eradicating the remnants of the pagan faith. The Christian faith was instilled with renewed vigor. In this, the son continued the work of his great father, Vladimir the Baptist.

The son ordered the translation of Greek handwritten books into the Slavic language. He himself loved to read and tried to instill a love of reading and education in his subordinates. The clergy began teaching children to read and write. A school for boys appeared in Novgorod, which accepted its first 300 students.

The number of books grew rapidly and book wisdom became a kind of fashion of the time. It became prestigious to be enlightened.

The Tale of Bygone Years talks about a certain collection of books and documents, which is usually called the Library of Yaroslav the Wise. Scientists talk about different quantities: from 500 to 950 volumes. According to some sources, the library was transferred by the prince (according to other sources - by his great-grandson) to the St. Sophia Cathedral.

Since ancient books that are a thousand years old have not been found, there are many hypotheses about where they could be stored. Some claim that these may be the dungeons of the St. Sophia Cathedral, others talk about the catacombs of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, and still others talk about the Vydubitsky Monastery. But there are also skeptics who believe that the priceless tomes could not have survived the devastating Polovtsian raids and fires.

Another version that has the right to exist is that the Library of Yaroslav the Wise became part of the no less legendary Library.

Prince Yaroslav the Wise stood at the origins of the emergence of the first Russian monasteries, including the main one - Kiev-Pechersk. The monastery not only made a huge contribution to the promotion and popularization of Christianity and Orthodoxy, but also played a huge role in enlightenment. After all, chronicles were compiled here and books were translated.

And at this wonderful time, “Russian Truth” by Yaroslav the Wise appeared. This is the first set of laws of Rus', which followers added and expanded.

Historians also highly appreciate the foreign policy of the nobleman, in which he also achieved enormous success. It seems that he was the first of the Russian princes to emphasize diplomacy rather than force of arms.

At that time, dynastic marriages were considered the main way to improve relations with other states. And since Kievan Rus during the reign of the Wise turned into an enlightened and strong state, many rulers of European countries expressed a desire to “marry” with it.

The wife of Yaroslav the Wise was the daughter of King Olaf of Sweden, Ingigerda, who received the name Irina after baptism. From her father she inherited a rich dowry - the city of Aldeigaborg (later Ladoga). The lands adjacent to it were called Ingermanlandia (which translates as the lands of Ingigerda).

The prince's son, Vsevolod, married a Greek princess. Two more offspring are among the German princesses. Son Izyaslav married the sister of the Polish prince Casimir, and Casimir himself married the sister of the Wise, Dobrogneva.

The daughters of a Kyiv nobleman had similar dynastic marriages. Elizabeth was married to the Norwegian king Harald, Anastasia - to the Hungarian ruler Andrew. But the most famous and revered was the daughter Anna Yaroslavna, who became the wife of the French king Henry I. As a result of such a foreign policy, Prince Yaroslav the Wise found himself connected by ties of kinship with many powerful neighbors, near and far.

Founding of cities

Prince Yaroslav the Wise founded Yuryev. This happened in 1030, when he went on a campaign to Chud. A new city, named after its angel, appeared on the shores of Lake Peipsi. Now it is called Tartu and is the second largest Estonian city after Tallinn.

Another city of Yaroslav the Wise is Yaroslavl, although some historians consider the fact of its founding by the prince not indisputable.

There is another Yuriev, which was founded by a prince. This city turned out to be at the same time a fortress that was part of the Poros defensive line. It was erected to protect Kyiv from nomads. In 1240, the Tatar-Mongols destroyed it, leaving only the ruins of the church. The city was revived around it, receiving the name Bila Tserkva. It is still called that today.

Personal life

Many historians agree that Ingigerd’s wife, who became Irina after baptism, had a huge influence on her husband and left a noticeable mark on the history of Rus'. On the lands she inherited from her father, St. Petersburg was built in 1703.

In Kyiv, thanks to Princess Irina, the first convent appeared. It was built at the Church of St. Irene. One of its columns “survived” until the mid-twentieth century. Now only the quiet Irininskaya Street reminds of the existence of the temple.

How the personal lives of Yaroslav the Wise and Ingigerda-Irina turned out is difficult to say today. What is known is that 6 sons and 3 daughters were born in her marriage. The wife shared the views of her husband and converted to his faith, doing a lot to promote it.

The great nobleman, it seems, was not handsome. A strongly protruding nose and the same chin, a sharply defined mouth and large eyes did not add to the attractiveness. He was also lame due to different lengths of his legs. According to one version - due to hip and knee joints damaged in battle, and according to another - due to hereditary Perthes disease.

There is a historical puzzle-riddle about which different historians have their own opinions. Some of them claim that Prince Yaroslav the Wise was married twice.

His first wife was allegedly a Norwegian, Anna. In this marriage even a son, Ilya, was born. But in 1018, he and his mother were captured by the Polish king Boleslav the Brave and taken to Poland forever. This version is allegedly confirmed by the fact that Anna's name appears in some chronicles.

But there are also opponents to this controversial version. They claim that everything is much simpler. Anna is the monastic name of Ingigerda-Irina. Allegedly, at the end of her life, she took monastic vows as a nun, taking this name for herself. In 1439, Archbishop Euthymius canonized Anna. She is considered the heavenly patroness of Novgorod.

It is noteworthy that Prince Yaroslav the Wise himself was canonized as a saint only in the 21st century.

Death

Prince Yaroslav the Wise spent the last years of his life in Vyshgorod. He died on the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy in the arms of one of his sons, Vsevolod, having outlived his wife by 4 years and his eldest son, Vladimir, by 2 years.

The date of the prince's death is considered to be February 20, 1054. He was buried in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, in a 6-ton marble sarcophagus. Unfortunately, the remains of the great ruler disappeared. It is known that the sarcophagus was opened three times in the 20th century: in 1936, 1939 and 1964. And they did not always do it skillfully and conscientiously.

After the autopsy in 1939, the remains of Yaroslav the Wise were sent to Leningrad, where scientists from the Institute of Anthropology confirmed for the first time that one of the 3 skeletons (male, female and child) from the opened burial actually belonged to the prince. Using the found skull, anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov was able to reconstruct the appearance of the ruler.

The remains were returned to Kyiv. But in 2009, the tomb was opened again and it was discovered that there were no remains of the oldest of the Rurikovichs. Two female skeletons were found at the site - one from the times of Kievan Rus, the second even older - from the Scythian period. The newspapers Izvestia and Pravda from 1964 were also found in the tomb.

Many historians and researchers are inclined to believe that the remains should be looked for in the USA. Allegedly, they were taken there in 1943, when German troops were retreating.

(“Chronicle and deeds of the princes and rulers of the Polish») , written in Latin, consisting of 3 books and covering the history of Poland up to 1113. Chapter 7 of Book I of the Chronicle contains an interesting and vivid description of the “courageous protection "of his principality, Yaroslav the lame, called wise for inexplicable reasons, from the troops of the Polish prince Bolesław I Chrobry. It is necessary to clarify that Boleslav’s aggression was not such in essence, since the prince and the future first Polish ruler took revenge for the expansion of Rabinich, committed back in 981 against the Cherven cities of the Lyash land, withMieszko I, father of the brave Boleslav:
“First of all, it must be said how gloriously and magnificently [Boleslav] took revenge for his insult to the Russian king, who refused to give him his sister as his wife. King Boleslav, indignant, invaded with great courage the kingdom of the Russians and those who at first tried to resist, but did not dare to start a battle, scattered the dust in front of his formation like the wind. He did not, however, linger, according to enemy custom, on the way to capture cities and collect money, but hurried to the capital of the kingdom, Kyiv, to capture both the royal castle and the king.

And the king of the Russians by the simplicity [characteristic] of his people, I was fishing with a fishing rod at that time from the boat, when [he] was suddenly informed that Boleslav was approaching. He hardly believed it, but in the end, since new messengers informed him about this, he was horrified. Then, raising his thumb and forefinger to his mouth and spitting on the bait, according to the custom of fishermen, he said, they say, to the shame of his people, the following words: “Since Boleslav is not engaged in this art, but he is accustomed to amusing himself with military weapons, then the Lord [ he himself] transfers this city, and the kingdom of the Russians, and [its wealth] into his hands.” So he said and, without hesitating for long, ran away.
And Boleslav, without meeting any resistance, entering a huge and rich city, struck the Golden Gate with a naked sword, explaining with a playful laugh to those who asked in amazement why he did so: “Just as at this hour these Golden Gates are being destroyed by the sword , also this night the [honor] of the sister of the most cowardly [of kings], whom he refused to give me [as a wife], will be destroyed. But she will unite with Boleslav not on the marriage bed, but only once as a concubine, so the insult of our people will be avenged, and the Russians will be plunged into shame and dishonor.” He said so and confirmed what he said. King Boleslav [for] ten months owned [this] richest city and powerful kingdom of the Russians, from where he did not tire of constantly sending money to Poland; in the eleventh month, since [he] ruled so many kingdoms, and Mieszko considered the boy not yet very suitable for governance, leaving there [in Kiev] in his place [master] a certain Russian from his family, he returned with the rest of the goods to Poland .
The mysterious Russian from the family of the Polish prince was none other than his son-in-law Svyatopolk, nicknamed the Accursed, the son of the Prince of Kiev Yaropolk Svyatoslavich, killed by Vladimir, half-brother of Yaroslav the lame, Prince of Turov, married to the daughter of Boleslav Polish
In 1018, with the support of Polish and Pecheneg troops, Svyatopolk and his father-in-law Boleslav set out on a campaign against Kyiv. Russian and Polish squads met on the Bug, where the allied army under the command of Boleslav defeated the Novgorodians, Yaroslav himself fled to Novgorod.
The Tale of Bygone Years fully confirms what was described by the Polish chronicler« courage» lame Yaroslav:
In summer 6526 (1018). Boleslav came to Yaroslav with Svyatopolk and the Poles. Yaroslav, having gathered a multitude of Russians, Varangians, and Slovenes, went against Boleslav and Svyatopolk. And he came to Volyn, and they stood on both sides of the Bug River. And I visited Yaroslav breadwinner and commander named Blud, and he began to insult Boleslav, saying: “Let us pierce your fat belly with a stake.” For Boleslav was so big and heavy that he could not even sit on a horse, but he was smart. And Boleslav exclaimed, turning to his squad: “If this mockery does not offend you, then I will die alone.” Mounting his horse, he rode into the river, followed by his soldiers, Yaroslav did not have time to turn, and Boleslav defeated Yaroslav. AND Yaroslav fled with four husbands to Novgorod. Boleslav entered Kyiv with Svyatopolk. And Boleslav said: “Spread my squad around the cities to feed”; and so it was. Yaroslav, having reached Novgorod, wanted to flee overseas...
When Boleslav was still in Kyiv, the madman Svyatopolk said: “As many Poles as there are in the cities, beat them up.” And they killed the Poles. Boleslav fled from Kyiv, taking the wealth of both the Yaroslav boyars and his sisters, and assigned Anastas, the priest of the Church of the Tithes, to these riches, for he had crept into his trust by deception. And he took away many people with him, and he took the cities of Cherven for himself, and came to his land. Svyatopolk began to reign in Kyiv.”
Voivode Iveshchey Blud is a person known for his cowardly meanness; it is not surprising that this breadwinner (educator) of Yaroslav raised the corresponding person. A fragment of the chronicle, which few people pay attention to, contains the first recorded example of empty boasting and stupid fanfare of the state machine, which is immediately punishable - warm greetings, gene. Kiryakov, the British and French under Alma and others laughing« Iskander» .
It should be noted that the Polish prince successfully achieved all the goals of his campaign:
- punished and humiliated(all the women of Yaroslav’s clan were captured by Boleslav: the controversial and beloved sister Predslava, other sisters, wife Anna and stepmother), the lying katsap Yaroslav, whom I would like to call a Muscovite, but it’s too early;
- replenished the treasury with goods captured in Kyiv, compensating himself for military expenses;
- established his son-in-law, the pagan Svyatopolk, on the Kiev table;
- and most importantly, the prince returned the Cherven cities, annexed by Rabinich Valdamar 37 years ago, to the bosom of mother Poland.
Thus continued, begun by the paranoid Equal-to-the-Apostles Vasily, the thousand-year confrontation between the Western Russian lands and the imperial forerunner of the Third Rome, formed by Byzantine meanness, which later joyfully lay down under the spiritually close Asian Horde.

Bolesław I Chrobry ze Szczerbcem i Światopełkiem pod Złotą Bramą w Kijowie.
Po lewej, Przedsława Włodzimierzówna. Jan Matejko, 1883