Other Events and Attributes:

• House: Varangians
• FSID: LYNX-745
• Religion: Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic
• Appointments / Titles: 962; Grand Princess of Kiev
• Appointments / Titles: 962; Regent for her son
• Life Event: 1547; Cannonized as Saint Olge; Patron of Widows & Converts; July 11

Notes:

Saint Olga (Church Slavonic: Ольга, died 969 AD in Kiev) was a regent of Kievan Rus' for her son Svyatoslav from 945 until 960. She is known for her obliteration of the Drevlians, a tribe that had killed her husband Igor of Kiev. Even though it would be her grandson Vladimir that would convert the entire nation to Christianity, for her efforts to spread Christianity through the Rus' Olga is venerated as a saint. While her birthdate is unknown, it could be as early as AD 890 and as late as 5 June 925.[1]

Grand Princess of Kiev, Equal to the Apostles
Born
Pskov
Died
11 July 969
Kiev
Venerated in
Roman Catholicism
Eastern Catholicism, especially in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodoxy
Feast
July 11/24

Early life Edit

Olga was reportedly from Pskov. The Primary Chronicle gives 879 as her date of birth, which is unlikely, given the birth of her only son probably some 65 years after that date. She was, hypothetically, of Varangian extraction.

She married the future Igor of Kiev arguably in 903, but perhaps as early as 901-902.

Regency Edit

After Igor's death on 945, Olga ruled Kievan Rus as regent on behalf of their son Svyatoslav.[2]

In 947, Princess Olga launched a punitive expedition against the tribal elites between the Luga and the Msta River.[3] Following this successful campaign, a number of forts were erected at Olga’s orders. One of them is supposed to be Gorodets in the Luga region[4] a fortification dated to the middle of the 10th century. Because of its isolated location, Gorodets does not seem to have been in any way associated with the pre-existing settlement pattern. Moreover, the fort produced another example of square timber frames designed to consolidate the rampart that was seen at Rurikovo Gorodische. The same building technique was in use a century later in the Novgorod fortifications.

Olga remained regent ruler of Kievan Rus with the support of the army and her people. She changed the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe. She continued to evade proposals of marriage, defended the city during the Siege of Kiev in 968, and saved the power of the throne for her son.

Drevlian Uprising Edit
The following account is taken from the Primary Chronicle. Princess Olga was the wife of Igor of Kiev, who was killed by the Drevlians. At the time of her husband's death, their son Svyatoslav was three years old, making Olga the official ruler of Kievan Rus' until he reached adulthood. The Drevlians wanted Olga to marry their Prince Mal, making him the ruler of Kievan Rus', but Olga was determined to remain in power and preserve it for her son.

The Drevlians sent twenty of their best men to persuade Olga to marry their Prince Mal and give up her rule of Kievan Rus'. She had them buried alive. Then she sent word to Prince Mal that she accepted the proposal, but required their most distinguished men to accompany her on the journey in order for her people to accept the offer of marriage. The Drevlians sent the best men who governed their land. Upon their arrival, she offered them a warm welcome and an invitation to clean up after their long journey in a bathhouse. After they entered, she locked the doors and set fire to the building, burning them alive.

With the best and wisest men out of the way, she planned to destroy the remaining Drevlians. She invited them to a funeral feast so she could mourn over her husband's grave. Her servants waited on them, and after the Drevlians were drunk, Olga's soldiers killed over 5,000 of them.[2] She then placed the city under siege.[2] She asked for three pigeons and three sparrows from each house; she claimed she did not want to burden the villagers any further after the siege.[2] They were happy to comply with the request.

Now Olga gave to each soldier in her army a pigeon or a sparrow, and ordered them to attach by thread to each bird a piece of sulfur bound with small pieces of cloth. When night fell, Olga bade her soldiers release the pigeons and the sparrows. So the birds flew to their nests, the pigeons to the cotes, and the sparrows under the eaves. The dove-cotes, the coops, the porches, and the haymows were set on fire. There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames because all the houses caught on fire at once. The people fled from the city, and Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them. Thus she took the city and burned it, and captured the elders of the city. Some of the other captives she killed, while some she gave as slaves to her followers. The remnant she left to pay tribute.[5]

The story, however, is most likely a myth.[2]

Relations with the Holy Roman Emperor Edit
Seven Latin sources document Olga's embassy to Holy Roman Emperor Otto I in 959. The continuation of Regino of Prüm mentions that the envoys requested the emperor to appoint a bishop and priests for their nation. The chronicler accuses the envoys of lies, commenting that their trick was not exposed until later. Thietmar of Merseburg says that the first archbishop of Magdeburg, Saint Adalbert of Magdeburg, before being promoted to this high rank, was sent by Emperor Otto to the country of the Rus' (Rusciae) as a simple bishop but was expelled by pagan allies of Svyatoslav I. The same data is repeated in the annals of Quedlinburg and Hildesheim.

Christianity

Olga was the first ruler of Rus' to convert to Christianity, done in either 945 or 957. The ceremonies of her formal reception in Constantinople were detailed by Emperor Constantine VII in his book De Ceremoniis. Following her baptism, Olga took the Christian name Yelena, after the reigning Empress Helena Lekapena. The Slavonic chronicles add apocryphal details to the account of her baptism, such as the story of how she charmed and "outwitted" Constantine and spurned his proposals of marriage. In actuality, at the time of her baptism, Olga was an old woman, while Constantine already had a wife.

Olga was one of the first people of Rus' to be proclaimed a saint for her efforts to spread Christianity throughout the country. Because of her proselytizing influence, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church call Saint Olga by the honorific Isapóstolos, "Equal to the Apostles". She is also a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. However, she failed to convert Svyatoslav, and it was left to Vladimir I, her grandson and pupil, to make Christianity the lasting state religion. During her son's prolonged military campaigns, she remained in charge of Kiev, residing in the castle of Vyshgorod with her grandsons. She died in 969, soon after the Pechenegs' siege of the city.[6][7]

Notes

1. “Princess Olga of Kiev". Russiapedia. Retrieved 18 May 2016.

2. a b c d e Clements 2012, p. 7.

3. Laurentian Codex (1997:60)

4. Lebedev 1982:225-238; Zalevskaia 1982:49-54

5. Russian Primary Chronicle

6. extracts of the Primary Chronicle in English translation, University of Oregon

7. Primary Sources - A collection of translated excerpts on Medieval Rus, University of Washington Faculty Web Server (November 6, 2004)

References

Clements, Barbara Evans (2012). A History of Women in Russia: From Earliest Times to the Present. Indiana University Press.

Additional History:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev

https://www.ffish.com/family_tree/descendants_igor/d1.ht

Olga married Rurikovich, Igor in 903. Igor (son of of Novgorod, Prince Rurik Rurikovich and of Novgorod, Princess Efanda-Edvina) was born in 877 in Velikiy Novgorod, Novgorod, Russia; died in 945 in Korosten', Zhytomyr, Ukraine; was buried in 945 in Dereva, Novgorod, Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• House: Rurikid
• FSID: L8YY-PP2
• Appointments / Titles: 945, Kievian Rus' Empire (Historical)
• Appointments / Titles: Between 945 and 972, Kievian Rus' Empire (Historical); Grand Prince of Kiev

Notes:

Sviatoslav I Igorevich (Old East Slavic: С~тославъ / Свѧтославъ[1] Игорєвичь, Sventoslavŭ / Svantoslavŭ Igorevičǐ; Old Norse: Sveinald Ingvarsson) (c. 942 – 26 March 972), also spelled Svyatoslav was a Grand prince of Kiev[2][3] famous for his persistent campaigns in the east and south, which precipitated the collapse of two great powers of Eastern Europe, Khazaria and the First Bulgarian Empire. He also conquered numerous East Slavic tribes, defeated the Alans and attacked the Volga Bulgars,[4][5] and at times was allied with the Pechenegs and Magyars.

His decade-long reign over the Kievan Rus' was marked by rapid expansion into the Volga River valley, the Pontic steppe, and the Balkans. By the end of his short life, Sviatoslav carved out for himself the largest state in Europe, eventually moving his capital in 969 from Kiev (modern-day Ukraine) to Pereyaslavets (identified as the modern village of Nufăru, Romania)[6] on the Danube. In contrast with his mother's conversion to Christianity, Sviatoslav remained a staunch pagan all of his life. Due to his abrupt death in ambush, his conquests, for the most part, were not consolidated into a functioning empire, while his failure to establish a stable succession led to a fratricidal feud among his three sons, resulting in two of them being killed.

Name

The Primary Chronicle records Sviatoslav as the first ruler of the Kievan Rus' with a name of Slavic origin (as opposed to his predecessors, whose names had Old Norse forms). The name Sviatoslav, however, is not recorded in other medieval Slavic countries. Nevertheless, Sveinald is the Old East Norse cognate with the Slavic form as attested in the Old East Norse patronymic of Sviatoslav's son Vladimir: Valdamarr Sveinaldsson. This patronymic naming convention continues in Icelandic and in East Slavic languages. Even in Rus', it was attested only among the members of the house of Rurik, as were the names of Sviatoslav's immediate successors: Vladimir, Yaroslav, and Mstislav.[7][need quotation to verify] Some scholars see the name of Sviatoslav, composed of the Slavic roots for "holy" and "glory", as an artificial derivation combining the names of his predecessors Oleg and Rurik (whose names mean "holy" and "glorious" in Old Norse, respectively).[8]

Early life and personality

Virtually nothing is known about Sviatoslav's childhood and youth, which he spent reigning in Novgorod. Sviatoslav's father, Igor, was killed by the Drevlians around 945, and his mother, Olga, ruled as regent in Kiev until Sviatoslav reached maturity (ca. 963).[9] Sviatoslav was tutored by a Varangian named Asmud.[10] The tradition of employing Varangian tutors for the sons of ruling princes survived well into the 11th century. Sviatoslav appears to have had little patience for administration. His life was spent with his druzhina (roughly, "company") in permanent warfare against neighboring states. According to the Primary Chronicle, he carried on his expeditions neither wagons nor kettles, and he boiled no meat, rather cutting off small strips of horseflesh, game, or beef to eat after roasting it on the coals. Nor did he have a tent, rather spreading out a horse-blanket under him and setting his saddle under his head, and all his retinue did likewise. [11]

Sviatoslav's appearance has been described very clearly by Leo the Deacon, who himself attended the meeting of Sviatoslav with John I Tzimiskes. Following Deacon's memories, Sviatoslav was a blue-eyed man of average height but of stalwart build, much more sturdy than Tzimiskes. He shaved his blond head and his beard but wore a bushy mustache and a sidelock as a sign of his nobility.[12] He pre ferred to dress in white, and it was noted that his garments were much cleaner than those of his men, although he had a lot in common with his warriors. He wore a single large gold earring bearing a carbuncle and two pearls.[13]

Religious beliefs

Sviatoslav's mother, Olga, converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity at the court of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in 957,[14] at the approximate age of 67. However, Sviatoslav remained a pagan all of his life. In the treaty of 971 between Sviatoslav and the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes, the Rus' are swearing by Perun and Veles.[15] According to the Primary Chronicle, he believed that his warriors (druzhina) would lose respect for him and mock him if he became a Christian.[16] The allegiance of his warriors was of paramount importance in his conquest of an empire that stretched from the Volga to the Danube.

Family

Very little is known of Sviatoslav's family life. It is possible that he was not the only (or the eldest) son of his parents. The Russo-Byzantine treaty of 945 mentions a certain Predslava, Volodislav's wife, as the noblest of the Rus' women after Olga. The fact that Predslava was Oleg's mother is presented by Vasily Tatishchev. He also speculated that Predslava was of a Hungarian nobility. George Vernadsky was among many historians to speculate that Volodislav was Igor's eldest son and heir who died at some point during Olga's regency. Another chronicle told that Oleg (? - 944?) was the eldest son of Igor. At the time of Igor's death, Sviatoslav was still a child, and he was raised by his mother or under her instructions. Her influence, however, did not extend to his religious observance. Sviatoslav had several children, but the origin of his wives is not specified in the chronicle. By his wives, he had Yaropolk and Oleg.[17] By Malusha, a woman of indeterminate origins,[18] Sviatoslav had Vladimir, who would ultimately break with his father's paganism and convert Rus' to Christianity. John Skylitzes reported that Vladimir had a brother named Sfengus; whether this Sfengus was a son of Sviatoslav, a son of Malusha by a prior or subsequent husband, or an unrelated Rus' nobleman is unclear.[19]
Five wives: Maloucha & Maloucha Malkonva & Debrime & Maria Monomakh & Kilikiya Dietmarschen

Notes

^ "E.g. in the ''Primary Chronicle'' under year 970". Litopys.org.ua. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
^ "Svyatoslav I - Prince of Kiev". Online Encyclopædia Britannica. Britannica.com. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
^ "Vladimir I - Grand Prince of Kiev". Online Encyclopædia Britannica. Britannica.com. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
^ A History of Russia: Since 1855, Walter Moss, pg 29
^ Khazarian state and its role in the history of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus A.P. Novoseltsev, Moscow, Nauka, 1990. (in Russian)
^ Stephenson, Paul (2000). Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900-1204. Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-521-77017-0. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
^ Литвина, А. Ф.; Успенский, Федор Борисович (2006). Выбор имени у русских князей в X-XVI вв: династическая история сквозь призму антропонимики [The choice of personal names for the Russian princes of the 10th-16th centuries: a dynastic history through the prism of anthroponymy]. Труды по филологии и истории: Именослов, имя (in Russian). Индрик [Indrik]. p. 43. ISBN 5-85759-339-5. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^ See А.М. Членов. К вопросу об имени Святослава, in Личные имена в прошлом, настоящем и будущем: проблемы антропонимики (Moscow, 1970).
^ If Olga was indeed born in 879, as the Primary Chronicle seems to imply, she should have been about 65 at the time of Sviatoslav's birth. There are clearly some problems with chronology.
^ Primary Chronicle entry for 968
^ Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Primary Chronicle, p. 84.
^ For the alternative translations of the same passage of the Greek original that say that Sviatoslav may have not shaven but wispy beard and not one but two sidelocks on each side of his head, see e.g. Ian Heath "The Vikings (Elite 3)", Osprey Publishing 1985; ISBN 978-0-85045-565-6, p.60 or David Nicolle "Armies of Medieval Russia 750–1250 (Men-at-Arms 333)" Osprey Publishing 1999; ISBN 978-1-85532-848-8, p.44
^ Vernadsky 276–277. The sidelock is reminiscent of Turkic hairstyles and practices and was later mimicked by Cossacks.
^ Based on his analysis of De Ceremoniis, Alexander Nazarenko hypothesizes that Olga hoped to orchestrate a marriage between Sviatoslav and a Byzantine princess. If her proposal was peremptorily declined (as it most certainly would have been), it is hardly surprising that Sviatoslav would look at the Byzantine Empire and her Christian culture with suspicion. Nazarenko 302.
^ Froianov, I. Ia.; A. Iu. Dvornichenko; Iu. V. Krivosheev (1992). "The Introduction of Christianity in Russia and the Pagan Traditions". In Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer. Russian Traditional Culture: Religion, Gender, and Customary Law. M.E. Sharpe. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-56324-039-3. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
^ Primary Chronicle _____.
^ Shared maternal paternity of Yaropolk and Oleg is a matter of debate by historians.
^ She is traditionally identified in Russian historiography as Dobrynya's sister; for other theories on her identity, see here.
^ Indeed, Franklin and Shepard advanced the hypothesis that Sfengus was identical with Mstislav of Tmutarakan. Franklin and Shepard 200-201.

Additional History:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Святослав_Игоревич
https://www.ffish.com/family_tree/descendants_igor/d1.ht

Family/Spouse: of Lyubech, Malusha Malkovna. Malusha was born in 940 in Lyubech, Chernihiv, Ukraine; died in 1020 in Ukraine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Nickname: The Great
• FSID: L8BY-3VJ
• Appointments / Titles: 969; Prince of Novgorod
• Appointments / Titles: Between 11 Jun 980 and 15 Jul 1015, Kievian Rus' Empire (Historical); Grand Prince
• Life Event: Aug 988, Kiev, Ukraine; Beginning of Byzantine Orthodox Christianity in Kyivan Rus
• Life Event: Aug 988; Fourded the city of Yaroslavl

Notes:

Vladimir I, in full Vladimir Svyatoslavich or Ukrainian Volodymyr Sviatoslavych, by name Saint Vladimir or Vladimir the Great, Russian Svyatoy Vladimir or Vladimir Veliky, (born c. 956, Kyiv, Kievan Rus [now in Ukraine]—died July 15, 1015, Berestova, near Kyiv; feast day July 15), grand prince of Kyiv and first Christian ruler in Kievan Rus, whose military conquests consolidated the provinces of Kyiv and Novgorod into a single state, and whose Byzantine baptism determined the course of Christianity in the region.

Vladimir was the son of the Norman-Rus prince Svyatoslav of Kyiv by one of his courtesans and was a member of the Rurik lineage dominant from the 10th to the 13th century. He was made prince of Novgorod in 970. On the death of his father in 972, he was forced to flee to Scandinavia, where he enlisted help from an uncle and overcame Yaropolk, another son of Svyatoslav, who attempted to seize the duchy of Novgorod as well as Kyiv. By 980 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads.

Although Christianity in Kyiv existed before Vladimir’s time, he had remained a pagan, accumulated about seven wives, established temples, and, it is said, taken part in idolatrous rites involving human sacrifice. With insurrections troubling Byzantium, the emperor Basil II (976–1025) sought military aid from Vladimir, who agreed, in exchange for Basil’s sister Anne in marriage. A pact was reached about 987, when Vladimir also consented to the condition that he become a Christian. Having undergone baptism, assuming the Christian patronal name Basil, he stormed the Byzantine area of Chersonesus (Korsun, now part of Sevastopol) to eliminate Constantinople’s final reluctance. Vladimir then ordered the Christian conversion of Kyiv and Novgorod, where idols were cast into the Dnieper River after local resistance had been suppressed. The new Rus Christian worship adopted the Byzantine rite in the Old Church Slavonic language. The story (deriving from the 11th-century monk Jacob) that Vladimir chose the Byzantine rite over the liturgies of German Christendom, Judaism, and Islam because of its transcendent beauty is apparently mythically symbolic of his determination to remain independent of external political control, particularly of the Germans. The Byzantines, however, maintained ecclesiastical control over the new Rus church, appointing a Greek metropolitan, or archbishop, for Kyiv, who functioned both as legate of the patriarch of Constantinople and of the emperor. The Rus-Byzantine religio-political integration checked the influence of the Roman Latin church in the Slavic East and determined the course of Russian Christianity, although Kyiv exchanged legates with the papacy. Among the churches erected by Vladimir was the Desiatynna in Kyiv (designed by Byzantine architects and dedicated about 996) that became the symbol of the Rus conversion. The Christian Vladimir also expanded education, judicial institutions, and aid to the poor.

Another marriage, following the death of Anne (1011), affiliated Vladimir with the Holy Roman emperors of the German Ottonian dynasty and produced a daughter, who became the consort of Casimir I the Restorer of Poland (1016–58). Vladimir’s memory was kept alive by innumerable folk ballads and legends.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-I

Vladimir Yaroslavich (Russian: Владимир Ярославич, Old Norse Valdamarr Jarizleifsson;[1] 1020 – October 4, 1052) reigned as prince of Novgorod from 1036 until his death. He was the eldest son of Yaroslav I the Wise of Kiev by Ingigerd, daughter of king Olof Skötkonung of Sweden.[2]

In the state affairs he was assisted by the voivode Vyshata and the bishop Luka Zhidiata. In 1042, Vladimir may have been in conflict with Finns, according to some interpretations even making a military campaign in Finland.[3] In the next year he led the Russian armies together with Harald III of Norway against the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX. He predeceased his father by two years and was buried by him in St Sophia Cathedral he had built in Novgorod. His sarcophagus is in a niche on the south side of the main body of the cathedral overlooking the Martirievskii Porch. He is depicted in an early twentieth-century fresco above the sarcophagus and on a new effigial icon on top of the sarcophagus.[4] The details of his death is unknown, however his son Rostislav and his descendants were in unfriendly relationship with the descendants of the Yaroslaviches triumvirate (Iziaslav, Sviatoslav, and Vsevolod). Three of Vladimir's younger brothers Izyaslav I, Svyatoslav II and Vsevolod I all reigned in Kiev, while other two (Igor and Vyacheslav) died in their early twenties after which their lands were split between the Yaroslaviches triumvirate. Coincidentally, the Vyshata of Novgorod pledged his support to Rostislav in the struggle against the triumvirate.

Vladimir's only son, Rostislav Vladimirovich, was a landless prince who usurped power in Tmutarakan. His descendants[5] were dispossessed by their uncles and were proclaimed as izgoi (outcast), but gradually managed to establish themselves in Halychyna, ruling the land until 1199, when their line became extinct. In order to downplay their claims to Kiev, the records of Vladimir's military campaigns seem to have been obliterated from Kievan chronicles. As a result, medieval historians often confuse him with two more famous namesakes — Vladimir the Great and Vladimir Monomakh. The name of Vladimir's consort is uncertain either. According to Nikolai Baumgarten, Vladimir was married to the daughter of count Leopold of Staden, Ode. Others (Aleksandr Nazarenko) disregard that assumption or claim a different person.

Vladimir's memory was better preserved in foreign sources. In Norse sagas he frequently figures as Valdemar Holti (that is, "the Nimble"). George Cedrenus noticed Vladimir's arrogance in dealing with the Byzantines.

Further reading
Volkoff, Vladimir. Vladimir, the Russian Viking. Overlook Press, 1985.
References
Fagrskinna ch. 67 (Alison Finlay, Fagrskinna: A Catalogue of the Kings of Norway Brill (2004), p. 236)
Traditionally, Ingegerd is associated with Anna of Novgorod, who is buried in the cathedral in another niche near Vladimir. However, Soviet archaeologists who opened her sarcophagus found the remains to be that of a woman in her 30s, whereas Ingegard is said to have lived into her fifties. Thus it is thought that Vladimir's mother, Anna, was Yaroslav's first wife and is not the same person as Ingegerd.
The first indisputable Novgorodian expedition to Finland was done in 1191. Suomen varhaiskeskiajan lähteitä. Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy, 1989. ISBN 951-96006-1-2. See also "online description of the conflict". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. from Laurentian Codex as hosted by the National Archive of Finland. In Swedish.
T. N. Tsarevskaia, Sofiiskii Sobor v Novgorode.
Marek, Miroslav. "His descendants". Genealogy.EU.
6. Coggeshall, Robt W. "Ancestors and Kin" (1988), p 189

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_of_Novgorod#:~:text=Vladimir%20Yaroslavich%20(Russian%3A%20%D0%92%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%80%20%D0%AF%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87,king%20Olof%20Sk%C3%B6tkonung%20of%20Sweden.

Vladimir married of the Byzantine Empire, Anna Porphyrogenita in 977. Anna (daughter of Macedonicos, Emperor Romanos II and Phocus, Empress of Byzantine Theophano) was born on 13 Mar 963 in Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey; died in 1011 in Kiev, Kiev, Ukraine; was buried in 1011 in Kiev, Kiev, Ukraine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• House: Rurikids
• Nickname: The Wise
• FSID: LDMT-HMZ
• Appointments / Titles: Between 978 and 1054, Novgorod, Russia; Prince of Novgorod
• Appointments / Titles: 1019, Kievian Rus' Empire (Historical); Grand Prince
• Life Event: 1025, Novgorod, Russia; Codified Russian Law

Notes:

Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus', known as Yaroslav the Wise or Iaroslav the Wise (Old East Slavic: Ꙗрославъ Володимѣровичъ Мѫдрꙑи; Ukrainian: Ярослав Мудрий; Russian: Ярослав Мудрый, [jɪrɐˈslaf ˈmudrɨj]; Old Norse: Jarizleifr Valdamarsson; Latin: Iaroslaus Sapiens; c. 978 – 20 February 1054) was thrice grand prince of Veliky Novgorod and Kiev, uniting the two principalities for a time under his rule. Yaroslav's baptismal name was George (Yuri) after Saint George (Old East Slavic: Гюрьгi, Gjurĭgì).

A son of Vladimir the Great, the first Christian Prince of Kiev, Yaroslav acted as vice-regent of Novgorod at the time of his father's death in 1015. Subsequently, his eldest surviving brother, Sviatopolk I of Kiev, killed three of his other brothers and seized power in Kiev. Yaroslav, with the active support of the Novgorodians and the help of Varangian mercenaries, defeated Svyatopolk and became the Grand Prince of Kiev in 1019. Under Yaroslav the codification of legal customs and princely enactments began, and this work served as the basis for a law code called the Russkaya Pravda ("Rus Truth [Law]"). During Yaroslav's lengthy reign, Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural flowering and military power.

The early years of Yaroslav's life are mostly unknown. He was one of the numerous sons of Vladimir the Great, presumably his second by Rogneda of Polotsk, although his actual age (as stated in the Primary Chronicle and corroborated by the examination of his skeleton in the 1930s) would place him among the youngest children of Vladimir. It has been suggested that he was a child begotten out of wedlock after Vladimir's divorce from Rogneda and marriage to Anna Porphyrogenita, or even that he was a child of Anna Porphyrogenita herself. Yaroslav figures prominently in the Norse sagas under the name Jarisleif the Lame; his legendary lameness (probably resulting from an arrow wound) was corroborated by the scientists who examined his remains.

In his youth, Yaroslav was sent by his father to rule the northern lands around Rostov but was transferred to Veliky Novgorod, as befitted a senior heir to the throne, in 1010. While living there, he founded the town of Yaroslavl (literally, "Yaroslav's") on the Volga River. His relations with his father were apparently strained, and grew only worse on the news that Vladimir bequeathed the Kyivan throne to his younger son, Boris. In 1014 Yaroslav refused to pay tribute to Kyiv and only Vladimir's death, in July 1015, prevented a war.

During the next four years Yaroslav waged a complicated and bloody war for Kyiv against his half-brother Sviatopolk I of Kyiv, who was supported by his father-in-law, Duke Bolesław I Chrobry (King of Poland from 1025). During the course of this struggle, several other brothers (Boris, Gleb, and Svyatoslav) were brutally murdered. The Primary Chronicle accused Svyatopolk of planning those murders, while the saga Eymundar þáttr hrings is often interpreted as recounting the story of Boris' assassination by the Varangians in the service of Yaroslav. However, the victim's name is given there as Burizaf, which is also a name of Boleslaus I in the Scandinavian sources. It is thus possible that the Saga tells the story of Yaroslav's struggle against Svyatopolk (whose troops were commanded by the Polish duke), and not against Boris.
Yaroslav defeated Svyatopolk in their first battle, in 1016, and Svyatopolk fled to Poland. But Svyatopolk returned in 1018 with Polish troops furnished by his father-in-law, seized Kyiv and pushed Yaroslav back into Novgorod. Yaroslav, at last, prevailed over Svyatopolk, and in 1019 firmly established his rule over Kyiv. One of his first actions as a grand prince was to confer on the loyal Novgorodians (who had helped him to gain the Kyivan throne), numerous freedoms, and privileges. Thus, the foundation of the Novgorod Republic was laid. For their part, the Novgorodians respected Yaroslav more than they did other Kyivan princes; and the princely residence in their city, next to the marketplace (and where the veche often convened) was named Yaroslav's Court after him. It probably was during this period that Yaroslav promulgated the first code of laws in the lands of the East Slavs, the Russkaya Pravda.

Power struggles between siblings
Leaving aside the legitimacy of Yaroslav's claims to the Kievan throne and his postulated guilt in the murder of his brothers, Nestor the Chronicler and later Russian historians often presented him as a model of virtue, styling him "the Wise". A less appealing side of his personality is revealed by his having imprisoned his youngest brother Sudislav for life. Yet another brother, Mstislav of Chernigov, whose distant realm bordered the North Caucasus and the Black Sea, hastened to Kiev and, despite reinforcements led by Yaroslav's brother-in-law King Anund Jacob of Sweden (as Jakun - "blind and dressed in a gold suit"), inflicted a heavy defeat on Yaroslav in 1024. Yaroslav and Mstislav then divided Kievan Rus' between them: the area stretching left from the Dnieper River, with the capital at Chernihiv, was ceded to Mstislav until his death in 1036.

Allies along the Baltic coast
In his foreign policy, Yaroslav relied on a Scandinavian alliance and attempted to weaken the Byzantine influence on Kiev. In 1030, he conquered Cherven Cities from the Poles followed by the construction of Sutiejsk to guard the newly acquired lands. Yaroslav concluded an alliance with Polish King Casimir I the Restorer, sealed by the latter's marriage to Yaroslav's sister, Maria. In another successful military raid the same year, he captured Tartu, Estonia and renamed it Yuryev (named after Yury, Yaroslav's patron saint) and forced the surrounding Ugandi County to pay annual tribute.

Campaign against Byzantium
Yaroslav presented his second direct challenge to Constantinople in 1043, when Rus' flotilla headed by one of his sons appeared near Constantinople and demanded money, threatening to attack the city otherwise. Whatever the reason, the Greeks refused to pay and preferred to fight. The Rus' flotilla defeated the Byzantine fleet but was almost destroyed by a storm and came back to Kyiv empty-handed.

Protecting the inhabitants of the Dnieper from the Pechenegs
To defend his state from the Pechenegs and other nomadic tribes threatening it from the south he constructed a line of forts, composed of Yuriev, Bohuslav, Kaniv, Korsun, and Pereyaslavl. To celebrate his decisive victory over the Pechenegs in 1036 (who thereafter were never a threat to Kiev) he sponsored the construction of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in 1037. That same year there were built monasteries of Saint George and Saint Irene. Some mentioned and other celebrated monuments of his reign such as the Golden Gate of Kiev perished during the Mongol invasion of Rus', but later restored.

Establishment of law
Yaroslav was a notable patron of book culture and learning. In 1051, he had a Slavic monk, Hilarion of Kiev, proclaimed the metropolitan bishop of Kiev, thus challenging the Byzantine tradition of placing Greeks on the episcopal sees. Hilarion's discourse on Yaroslav and his father Vladimir is frequently cited as the first work of Old East Slavic literature.

Family life and posterity
In 1019, Yaroslav married Ingegerd Olofsdotter, daughter of the king of Sweden, and gave Staraya Ladoga to her as a marriage gift.

Saint Sophia's Cathedral in Kiev houses a fresco representing the whole family: Yaroslav, Irene (as Ingegerd was known in Rus), their four daughters and six sons. Yaroslav had at least three of his daughters married to foreign princes who lived in exile at his court:

Elisiv of Kiev to Harald Harðráði (who attained her hand by his military exploits in the Byzantine Empire);
Anastasia of Kiev to the future Andrew I of Hungary;
Anne of Kiev married Henry I of France and was the regent of France during their son's minority (she was Yaroslav the Wise's most beloved daughter);
(possibly) Agatha, wife of Edward the Exile, of the royal family of England, the mother of Edgar the Ætheling and Saint Margaret of Scotland.
Yaroslav had one son from the first marriage (his Christian name being Ilya (?-1020)), and six sons from the second marriage. Apprehending the danger that could ensue from divisions between brothers, he exhorted them to live in peace with each other. The eldest of these, Vladimir of Novgorod, best remembered for building the Cathedral of St. Sophia, Novgorod, predeceased his father. Three other sons—Iziaslav I, Sviatoslav II, and Vsevolod I—reigned in Kiev one after another. The youngest children of Yaroslav were Igor Yaroslavich (1036–1060) of Volhynia and Vyacheslav Yaroslavich (1036–1057) of the Principality of Smolensk. About Vyacheslav, there is almost no information. Some documents point out the fact of him having a son, Boris Vyacheslavich, who challenged Vsevolod I sometime in 1077-1078.

Following his death, the body of Yaroslav the Wise was entombed in a white marble sarcophagus within Saint Sophia's Cathedral. In 1936, the sarcophagus was opened and found to contain the skeletal remains of two individuals, one male and one female. The male was determined to be Yaroslav, however, the identity of the female was never established. The sarcophagus was again opened in 1939 and the remains removed for research, not being documented as returned until 1964. Then, in 2009, the sarcophagus was opened and surprisingly found to contain only one skeleton, that of a female. It seems the documents detailing the 1964 reinterment of the remains were falsified to hide the fact that Yaroslav's remains had been lost. Subsequent questioning of individuals involved in the research and reinterment of the remains seems to point to the idea that Yaroslav's remains were purposely hidden prior to the German occupation of Ukraine and then either lost completely or stolen.

Yaroslav married Olafsdotter, Saint Ingrid in 1019 in Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden. Ingrid (daughter of Ericksson, King of Sweden Olaf III and of the Obodrites, Queen Estrid) was born in 1000 in Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden; died in Feb 1050 in Novgorod, Russia; was buried in Feb 1050 in Saint Sophia's Cathedral, Kiev, Ukraine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]