Vsevolod Yaroslavich

Triumvirate member

The fourth son of Yaroslav the Wise and Ingigerdy of Sweden . “The Tale of Bygone Years” puts into his mouth Yaroslav the phrase that he loved Vsevolod more than his other sons. During the life of his father, Vsevolod was not his viceroy in any city and lived in Kiev with his parents. From 1054 to 1073, the prince of Pereyaslavsky ( Pereyaslavl-Russky ) and the Rostov land , a member of the so-called “ Yaroslavich triumvirate ” (together with the elder brothers Izyaslav of Kiev and Svyatoslav of Chernigov ), took equal part with them in government (the new edition of “ Russian Truth ", Trips to nomads, struggle with Vseslav Polotsky ). The Pereyaslav Diocese (like Chernigov) was raised during this period to the Metropolis. ^[3] .

Vsevolod, along with his brothers, was defeated on the Alta by the Polovtsi, was in Kiev with Izyaslav during a popular uprising , then together with Svyatoslav was in Kiev when Izyaslav led the Poles to Russia.

Reign in Chernigov

In 1073, the triumvirate collapsed: Svyatoslav and Vsevolod drove Izyaslav, accusing him of alliance with Vseslav Polotsk against them. Vsevolod moved to Chernihiv, giving Pereyaslavl Davydu Svyatoslavich . Izyaslav did not receive help from his Polish allies, moreover - in 1076, Oleg Svyatoslavich and Vladimir Vsevolodovich led the Russian army in a campaign to help the Poles against the Czechs.

In December 1076, Svyatoslav died suddenly. Vsevolod took his place, but after six months he returned to the throne who had moved to Kiev with the Poles Izyaslav, not only keeping Chernihiv , but also returning Pereyaslavl. But the nephews Oleg Svyatoslavich and Boris Vyacheslavich with the Polovtsi rose up against him and defeated him on the Sozhitsa river. Vsevolod fled for help to Kiev and returned with Izyaslav to Chernigov, who sat under siege in the absence of his princes. The decisive battle took place on October 3, in which Izyaslav and Boris were killed.

Great reign

Vsevolod finally occupied the Kiev throne, in the words of the chronicler overtook Russian power all , despite the fact that Yaropolk and Svyatopolk Izyaslavichi sat respectively in Volyn and in Novgorod. In 1079, Oleg and his brother Roman moved again from Tmutarakan to Kiev, but Vsevolod bribed the Polovtsy , who killed Roman, and sent Oleg to Byzantium on the island of Rhodes, where he stayed for another fifteen years; Tmutarakan passed under the control of Kiev.

The bitter struggle with Vseslav of Polotsk, resumed immediately after the death of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, was continued. At the turn of 1070-1080-ies Vseslav conducted a campaign near Smolensk, after which Vladimir Monomakh spent a devastating campaign against the Polotsk principality, and then a second campaign with the Polovtsi, during which Minsk was captured. About these and other events in more precise details than the “ Tale of Bygone Years ” (but without exact dating, reproducing only their sequence), reports “The Instructions of Vladimir Monomakh ” ^[4] . In particular, about the episodes of the struggle against the Polovtsy , when they passed to Starodub , but were defeated at the Desna by Vladimir Monomakh, the khans Asaduk and Sauk were captured, then Khan Belkatgin was defeated east of Novgorod-Seversky . In the early 1080s, two consecutive winter campaigns were conducted against the tribal alliance of Vyatichi . Their prince Khodot is the last tribal East Slavic prince mentioned in the sources. The land of the Vyatichi was finally incorporated into the Chernigov principality.

Important events of the Kiev reign of Vsevolod Yaroslavich occurred in the south-west of Russia and ended up, according to the formulation of the decision of the Lyubech congress , distributed the city: Davydu - Vladimir , Rostislavicham : Volodar - Peremyshl , Vasilka - Terebovl ^[5] . The outcasts, sons of Rostislav Vladimirovich, the senior great-grandchildren of Yaroslav the Wise, fled from Yaropolk Izyaslavich, and occupied Cherven cities . Davyd Igorevich , having intercepted a trade artery in the mouth of the Dnieper, achieved a fortune from Vsevolod, and in Volyn. Thus, the interests of Yaropolk Izyaslavich collided with the interests of Vsevolod, and soon Yaropolk was killed by an assassin in a campaign against Rostislavich ( 1086 ). In 1088, Vsevolod gave Turov to Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, planting his 12-year-old grandson Mstislav Vladimirovich in Novgorod.

Foreign policy under Vsevolod was marked by intensive contacts with the Holy Roman Empire , for which the emperor Henry IV the prince married his daughter, Eupraxia-Adelheidu , and later with the Pope Urban II , Henry's opponent. Probably, the transfer of Rus to the camp of the emperor's opponents was connected with the scandalous conflict between Eupraxia and Heinrich: Vsevolod's daughter fled from Germany to Verona and appeared before her father, accusing her husband of bullying her, orgies and participating in satanic rituals.

At the initiative of the prince (apparently due to contacts with Rome), a holiday was established in Russia to transfer the relics of St. Nicholas of Mirlikiya to Bari , which was not celebrated by the Greek Church, which always regarded this transfer as an abduction.

There were centuries of Troyan, the years of Yaroslav passed, there were also the wars of Oleg, Oleg Svyatoslavich. After all, Oleg forged swords with a sword of strife and swords. He enters the golden stirrup in the city of Tmutorokan, but the old great Yaroslavov’s son Vsevolod heard the ring, and Vladimir laid ears every morning in Chernigov. ^[6]

The Laurentian chronicle describes Vsevolod in the following way: “Publishing was god-loving, loved the truth, endowed the needy, paid tribute to bishops and presbyters, especially loved the Black-Nesses, making them donations, he himself refrained from drunkenness and from lust, for which his father loved more than all his children ".

Vsevolod Yaroslavich - one of the most educated people of his time. His son, Vladimir Monomakh , in the "Instructions" writes that his father, "sitting at home," spoke five languages. Apparently, among these languages ​​were Swedish (the language of the mother of Vsevolod), Greek (the language of his wife), and also, perhaps, English (the language of his daughter-in-law, wife of Vladimir, Gita of Saxon ) and Polovtsy .

Vsevolod was married twice: for the first time - to Monomakh , the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX, Monomakh Maria, who died in 1067 .

• Children:
  • Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomah (1053— 1125)
  • St. Janka Vsevolodovna (Anna), died in 1112

The second time - at the Polovtsian Princess Anna , who died in 1111 .

• Children:
  • Rostislav Vsevolodovich (1070-1093) - Prince Pereyaslavsky
  • Eupraxia Vsevolodovna (1069/1071 - 1109) - the German Empress
  • Ekaterina (Irina) Vsevolodovna (died July 11, 1108)
  • Maria

Graffiti in Kiev’s Hagia Sophia , which was opened by S. S. Vysotsky and recently re-analyzed by A. Zaliznyak, mentions his burial. Dmitr, Vsevolod's vigilante, wrote down that “Andrew, the Russian prince of the good,” died on Wednesday “at dinner” and was buried the next day, on Holy Thursday , April 14, 1093.

“The Tale of Bygone Years” (text on the Ipatiev List of the Ipatiev Chronicle (Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, code 16.4.4) contains an entry (translation): “In the year 6601 (1093), indict in the 1st year, the Grand Duke Vsevolod, son of Yaroslavov, grandson reposed Vladimir, the month of April on the 13th day, and was buried on the 14th day; the week was then Passionate, and the day was then Thursday great, when he was laid in a coffin in the great church of St. Sophia "

• Valkova V. G., Valkova O. A. The rulers of Russia. - M. , 1999. - p. 40. - 352 p. - 10 000 copies - ISBN 5-7836-0101-2 .
• Institalsky A.V. Chernigov princes // Russian biographical dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.