Yaropolk / Ярополк
Svyatoslav became Grand Prince at a very young age after the Drevlyane killed his father for taking too much tribute. As a child, his mother Olga ran the country but by around 960AD, he was old enough to take charge. He kept himself busy by crushing his enemies – destroying the Khazar Khaganate, bringing the Vyatichi, Ulichi and Sivertsy into the Russian state, crushing Bulgaria at the request of the Romans, then when the Romans got nervous and tried to act against him, he joined forces with the Bulgars, Hungarians and Pechenegs to attack the Roman Empire. Reports differ as to how that went, but his losses were great enough to convince him to set off for home. On the way, he was stopped by the Pechenegs, forced to over-winter in the steppes with little food and finally defeated in 972, his skull being taken by the Pecheneg Khan and turned into a ghoulish goblet.
As Svyatoslav had been ruling from Pereyaslavets, he had left his eldest son Yaropolk in charge of the previous capital Kiev, with Oleg in charge of the Drevlyane at Vruchy and Vladimir up north in Novgorod. The return of Svyatoslav from Bulgaria might mean Yaropolk would lose his place as Prince of Kiev so some historians have suggested that this might explain the lack of help from Kiev (only 300 miles / 500 km away) during the long winter months Svyatoslav spent cold and hungry on the banks of the Dnieper.
Questions have also been asked about the relative status of the three brothers now Svyatoslav was dead – dividing the country between a number of heirs was a first for Russia. Were all three brothers expecting to rule in concert, or did Yaropolk’s status as the elder brother and Grand Prince of Kiev put him indisputably in charge? The dates of birth of Svyatoslav’s children are not known, but if we accept Svyatoslav was born in the late 930s, not 942, and fathered his children in the years before his period of constant campaigning which started in 964, it is likely all three would be late teenagers or in their early twenties at this point, so definitely men by the standards of the time.
Yaropolk’s first act we know of was to send an embassy to the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II in 973, which was present at the Imperial Diet at Quedlinburg at Easter of that year. It is not known exactly what the mission was intended to achieve, possibly a search for allies after Svyatoslav’s war with the Romans and betrayal by the Bulgars and Pechenegs. Suggestions that Yaropolk, like his grandmother, might be looking to convert to Christianity don’t seem to have any basis – he remained a polygamous pagan to the end of his life. He also had every chance to convert while Olga was alive, she only died four years before this.
The next we hear of Yaropolk is in the Povest Vremennykh Let (PVL), under the year 975 AD. There are a lot of questions about this dating. It has been suggested that it was known he was Prince of Kiev for eight years, but in the PVL, this was taken as meaning eight years since becoming Grand Prince, not since he was placed in charge of Kiev by Svyatoslav in late 969. It is very common for official dating in monarchies to be linked to the reign of the monarch (they only stopped dating British Acts of Parliament this way under Elizabeth II), so it is entirely possible that all of what comes next actually happened two years earlier than it says in the PVL – I think that’s probably the case, but I’ll put both dates in, PVL one first.
Over in Oleg’s principality, in the Prince’s hunting ground, an interloper was discovered. To hunt in the Prince’s land was always a crime and in this case, probably a deliberate insult, as the hunter was clearly a man of wealth and status. Oleg saw him and asked “Who is this?” Someone in the entourage recognised him – it was Lyut, Sveneld’s son who had travelled all the way from Kiev to hunt on Oleg’s land. It isn’t clear exactly where Lyut was discovered but Kiev is about 95 miles / 150 km from Iskorosten’ and 110 miles / 180km from Vruchy, so despite the wording of the PVL, it’s unlikely Lyut could have gone out for a little ride and just found himself in Oleg’s principality. This was a deliberate expedition on the part of Lyut.
Oi! Did you just kill my deer?
Oleg wasn’t a man to take this kind of insult laying down, so he attacked and killed Lyut there and then. The nature of this insult may well be linked to the circumstances around Igor’s death back in 945. Then, Igor went to collect tribute from the Drevlyane because Sveneld had collected from them and Sveneld’s men were better clothed and armed than Igor’s as a result. After Olga’s vengeance, the Drevlyane were paying tribute directly to the administration in Kiev, with Olga taking her 1/3 cut. It has been suggested that Sveneld and his son were taking advantage of the death of Svyatoslav and the youth and inexperience of both Yaropolk and Oleg to regain the source of wealth they had once lost.
In any case, Sveneld now had a feud to pursue and he did so by whispering in Yaropolk’s ear that he should not trust Oleg and ought to go to fight him and take his territory. After two years of intrigue, in 977 / 975, Sveneld finally convinced Yaropolk to raise and army and attack his brother. The two armies met and Yaropolk was victorious. Oleg and his surviving warband were chased to Vruchy, but at the bridge the crush was so great that Oleg’s horse was pushed into the moat where he was suffocated by the men and horses who fell in on top of him.
The death of Oleg, so near to safety and yet so far.
Yaropolk entered the city in triumph and sent men to search for his brother. Towards the end of the day, one local man said he had seen Oleg fall off the bridge, so the next morning, Yaropolk ordered that they clear the bodies out of the moat. At midday they found Oleg’s body, dragged him out of the moat and laid him on a rug before Yaropolk. Yaropolk cried over his body, turned to Sveneld and reproached him, saying “Look! You wanted this!”
Sveneld is the tall one, smiling.
Oleg was buried in Vruchy. It is not known if he had any children, but a Moravian noble family, the Žerotins, claimed to be the descendants of Oleg of Moravia, a legendary Russian prince who ruled Moravia in the 940s, but who was thought by them to be Oleg Svyatoslavich’s son. However, if Oleg of Moravia existed and was the son of a Russian Prince Oleg as the stories say, the date of his rule makes it more likely to be Oleg the Far-seeing’s son, if he had one. The first mention of the Žerotin family was in the 1200’s so it could just be stories made up to ennoble an up-and-coming family with more humble roots.
Monument to Oleg in Ovruch / Vruchy.
Word of the killing reaches Vladimir in Novgorod and according to the PVL, he gets scared and runs overseas. Yaropolk sent his own men to Novgorod to take over and became undisputed ruler of Russia. However, in 780 / 778, Vladimir returns to Russia with an army of Vikings and took back Novgorod, sending messengers to Kiev saying “Go to my brother and tell him Vladimir is coming after him; he should prepare for battle.”
Don’t forget to tell him to prepare for battle – I like a good fight.
In Polotsk, there was a prince called Rogvolod (Ragnvald in Norse, Reginald in English) who had come from overseas, he had a daughter called Rogneda (Ragnheidr), whom Vladimir asked to marry. Rogneda sent an insulting reply, stating that she had no intention of marrying the son of a slave but would marry Yaropolk. Vladimir’s mother Malusha was a servant of Olga’s, the klyuchnitsa / ключница, or keyholder of her household, a post of high responsibility. As a servant, she was of lower legal status than a noble or even a free man or woman, but as a royal servant, some of the glory of her mistress would rub off. 1 To be a royal servant is an honour
Vladimir’s matchmaker asks if Rogneda would marry his master; Rogneda discusses her refusal with her father. He may come to regret passing on her words verbatim.
Rogvolod passed on Rogneda’s words to Vladimir’s matchmakers, but unfortunately, Vladimir took the refusal and deliberate insult to his dignity badly. He took the army he had raised in Scandinavia as well as men from his territory in the north: Slovenes, Chud and Krivichi, and moved on Polotsk. Rogvolod was getting ready to send his daughter to Yaropolk when Vladimir’s army arrived. Vladimir attacked Polotsk, killing Rogvolod and his two sons. At this point Rogneda married Vladimir after all – not that she had much choice in the matter.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Vladimir rides to Polotsk.
Having arranged his marital affairs (rather fruitfully – Rogneda was the mother of Vladimir’s most outstanding son, Yaroslav the Wise), Vladimir moves on Kiev. He set up camp to the north west of the city and sent a message to Blud, the replacement for Sveneld2 Sveneld the bringer of death as military commander. The message said “Be my friend. If I get to kill my brother, I will honour you like a father and you will receive great distinction from me. After all, it wasn’t me that started killing brothers, but him. Being worried the same would happen to me, I came out against him”. Blud replied saying “I will be with you in love and friendship”. Blud spent his time sending messages to Vladimir to attack the city, which he would use as distraction so he could murder Yaropolk, but in the end he decided Kiev was too loyal. He managed to convince Yaropolk that the people of Kiev were negotiating with Vladimir and that they should abandon the city and go to Roden’, a royal fortress on the Dnieper 80 miles / 130km to the south east.
Yaropolk runs to Roden’.
Having abandoned Kiev to Vladimir, one could say Yaropolk was no longer Grand Prince, but he was still a threat, so Vladimir followed him to Roden’ and beseiged the fortress. The hunger grew so bad that the PVL says “as bad as in Roden’” was still a saying at the time the chronicle was written 120 years later. Blud convinced Yaropolk that Vladimir’s forces were too great and he would have to submit, to which Yaropolk agreed. However, Blud sent a message to Vladimir urging him to kill Yaropolk when he arrived. As Yaropolk was setting out, a faithful warrior, Varyazhko, warned him not to go to Vladimir, but to escape to the Pechenegs. Yaropolk ignored Varyazhko’s warning and rode to Vladimir’s camp.
Upon arriving, he entered the doorway, where two Vikings were waiting to impale him on their swords. Blud locked the door behind them so none of Yaropolk’s bodyguard could enter and defend him. Varyazhko saw what had happened, leapt on a horse and rode off to the Pechenegs, with whom he was to be a thorn in the side of Vladimir for some years, until Vladimir was able to convince him to return, swearing an oath not to harm him.
Yaropolk Svyatoslavich meets his end.
RATINGS:
Length of Reign: Yaropolk was Prince of Kiev under Svyatoslav for 3 years, then Grand Prince of Kiev as sovereign for another 6, which gives him only 1 point out of 10.
World Fame: Yaropolk’s Wikipedia article has only been translated into 36 languages, so he gets 3 points out of 20.
Achievements: You might be thinking his only major achievement was to resist Sveneld’s malicious influence for two years and then surviving Vladimir’s vengeance for while, but actually Yaropolk is known as the first Russian ruler to mint his own coins: the Pseudodirham.
The Pseudodirham (this is what it is known as now, they would have called it a шеляг / shelyag) was designed to be almost identical in weight and look to the silver coins issued by the Abbasid Caliphate and therefore to have the same widespread acceptance as the true silver dirham, which had been, if you remember, the unit of currency in which the Khazars used to collect tribute from the east Slavic tribes. Yaropolk’s pseudodirham had a picture of a falcon’s head (a diving falcon was the symbol of the Rurikovich family) topped with a cross on one side, but otherwise copied the same Arabic text as contemporary coins from the Caliphate. Because the text includes the Muslim statement of faith, a similar project by Offa of Mercia has been used to argue that Offa had converted to Islam – not true, and equally untrue of Yaropolk.
Only about ten examples of this coin have been found, but it does suggest a strong interest from Yaropolk’s government in taking advantage of the opening up of the trade routes to the east after Svyatoslav’s defeat of the Khazars and also of joining the ranks of “proper” states who issued their own coinage instead of relying on that of other countries. For a chap only in the saddle for a short while, this was a major development and something continued by his successors, even though there was no native source of silver available and the coins had to be made from bullion gained from overseas trade.
He doesn’t have much else to boast of, seemingly coasting on the achievements of his more illustrious predecessors until his mistakes catch up with him in the person of Vladimir’s sword-wielding Vikings. I would give him 10 out of 30.
Defence of the Realm: An interesting thing here is the lack of external invasion, even by the Pechenegs who had just killed Svyatoslav. Maybe the Pechenegs felt that after Svyatoslav’s campaigns, the shattered remains of Khazaria and Bulgaria offered easier pickings than Russia, or they didn’t want to push their luck with the son of a mighty warrior.
However, Yaropolk’s reign was marked by internecine conflict for which his initial inability to keep Sveneld’s family on a tight leash was largely responsible. Despite this, the instability was kept to a surprising minimum. He held off attacking his brother Oleg for two years and when he did, the victory was swift. The conflict with Vladimir was also not particularly bloody. The main battle was between Vladimir and Rogvolod at Polotsk, something Rogvolod largely brought upon himself by passing on his daughter’s insult. After that, aside from the unnamed casualties beseigers might inflict on defenders and vice versa, and those who may have died of hunger in Roden’, the only noted casualty was Yaropolk himself.
In some ways he was more successful than Igor: both died as a result of violent internal opposition, but at least Yaropolk had not sent thousands of men to their doom outside Constantinople. For maintaining the external security of the country, as well as for trying, in the end, to peacefully resolve the conflict with Vladimir, I’ll give him 12 points out of 20.
Bonus points: This was intended as a way of rewarding rulers whose world fame may not be so great, but who were recognised by the successor states to the Russian monarchy. Yaropolk, unfortunately, while not completely unknown, certainly isn’t widely commemorated. He does appear in Rurikovichi – episode two, Kreshchenie Rusi, the 2016 Russian film Viking as well as Saga Drevnykh Bulgar: Lestvitsa Vladimira – Krasnoye Sol’nyshko. The conflict between Yaropolk and Vladimir is portrayed in the 2006 cartoon Knyaz’ Vladimir, although somewhat ahistorically. The guilty party in the cartoon is a pagan priest.
In 2022, the city council in Kiev renamed a street in honour of Yaropolk Svyatoslavich, and there is a Russian cargo ship called Yaropolk as well, but it’s not clear which Yaropolk the ship is named after: there were two Grand Princes of Kiev with that name as well as a Saint Yaropolk.
He didn’t last long and he is one of those princes you’d need to be quite keen on history to remember as anything other than a minor player in someone else’s story, normally Vladimir’s. He’s not completely unknown, but he doesn’t deserve a huge score here: I’m giving him 4 out of 20.
Reflected Glory.
Rulers don’t get any points for this section, which is a shame for Yaropolk. Maybe because we are getting closer to the time the PVL was first written, we are getting some more characters appear. Sveneld we have covered earlier, but here we see his son Lyut. It’s not clear if Lyut was the Norse name Ljot, or from Slavic Лютый meaning fierce – another son of Sveneld was called Mstisha, possibly short for Mstislav – a Slavic name (vengeance glory)3 Trends in naming. Lyut was clearly fierce enough to ride for several days just to pick a fight with someone by hunting on their estate.
Other stars of Yaropolk’s reign were Rogvolod, Prince of Polotsk and his daughter Rogneda. Rogvolod is particularly interesting because of the implication of him ruling Polotsk as a semi-, or even completely, independent ruler. The PVL associates Rogvolod with another Viking – Tury (Thorir) who founded the city Turov to the south of Polotsk, which also became the centre of a principality. The names Ragnvald, Thorir and Ragnhild also appear in the family of a character from a legendary saga i.e. historical fiction written purely for entertainment – the Saga of Hrolf the Walker. The story starts with a Viking king attacking a city in Russia, killing the ruler and taking his daughter, possibly inspired by confused tales of Vladimir’s capture of Polotsk after his time overseas (presumably in Sweden / Roslagen). Ragnvald, Thorir and Ragnhild were real people: Ragnvald was the first Viking Earl of Orkney, but it might suggest a link to the family of the Princes of Polotsk and Turov, taking the names of their illustrious predecessors. Or it could be coincidence.
Rogneda was forced to marry Vladimir and had several sons. After Vladimir converted to Christianity, he abandoned his previous wives and married Anna, the sister of the Roman Emperor. Vladimir’s eldest son, Izyaslav, was given his grandfather’s city Polotsk as an inheritance, Rogneda became a nun under the name Anastasia and returned to her homeland, dying in around 1000 AD. Izyaslav died before his brothers Svyatopolk and Yaroslav, so he never inherited the throne in Kiev. The rest of Russia eventually passed to Yaroslav and his sons, all except Polotsk, which remained in Izyaslav’s family. Maybe as a result of this, his successors considered themselves as much Rogvolodichi as Rurikovichi, although as Yaroslav was also Rogneda’s son, the relation of all the Princes to Rogvolod was the same.
As we remember from Rurik’s reign, he placed his own men in charge of Polotsk when the Polochane and Krivichi became his vassals, so there is a question of when Rogvolod gained Polotsk. His date of birth is estimated at around 920, which means he would have been a young man at the height of his powers in the mid 940s when Igor attacked Constantinople for the second time, and when Olga moved against the Drevlyane, so it is possible he was a Viking recruited with his warband for one of these campaigns and who was rewarded with the governorship of Polotsk as a result.
Although he appears as Yaroslav’s tutor later, Blud’s main appearance in Russian history is at this time, under Yaropolk. The word Blud is currently used to mean specifically sexual promiscuity, although back then, it was used to mean a more general lack of loyalty and of straying from the true path. In some chronicles, including a Polish one, his name appears as Budy, so Blud might be a nickname acquired as a result of his betrayal of Yaropolk. Tatishchev claimed Vladimir first honoured Blud for three days as he had promised, then killed him for having betrayed the Grand Prince, but this seems to be something of a fairytale, given Blud / Budy’s survival to 1018 and responsibility for Vladimir’s son’s upbringing. Blud was the progenitor of the Bludov noble family and met his end in battle against Boleslaw, the king of Poland in 1018.
Finally, we have Varyazhko, a junior member of Yaropolk’s warband, who tried to convince him not meet Vladimir, but rather to run away to the Pechenegs. After Yaropolk’s death, Varyazhko followed his own advice and joined the Pechenegs, avenging his Lord by raiding Vladimir’s lands until Vladimir swore an oath not to harm him for his loyalty to Yaropolk. We know nothing else about him, but in a few years of war and treachery, Varyazhko’s nobility and loyalty to his sworn word stands out.
Varyazho begs Yaropolk not to go to Vladimir, but to seek help from the Pechenegs.
Yaropolk’s Rating: 30 out of 100
In the next update, Vladimir shows us why he gets cities, presidents and leaders of revolutions named after him.
- As an example, in England, the Groom of the Stool was the chap who looked after the monarch’s excretory affairs, but as they had close access to influence the king, the job was sought after and became an honourable post that even a Duke might want to hold. ↩︎
- It is worth noting that Sveneld had a hand in the deaths of a number of Princes and Grand Princes – Igor’s death came as a consequence of Sveneld’s overly profitable collection of tribute from the Drevlyane, Mal died at the hands of an army led by Sveneld, Svyatoslav was killed by Pechenegs while Sveneld escaped and Sveneld was also instrumental in the death of Oleg Svyatoslavich, which led to Yaropolk’s fatal emnity with Vladimir. Getting rid of Sveneld didn’t save things for Yaropolk, though. ↩︎
- This period sees the moving over from Norse names to Slavic ones. Svyatoslav was the first ruler to get a Slavic name, Sveneld was someone from an older generation as well as Rogvolod, but Sveneld too seems to have given at least one of his sons a Slavic name. Soon we see an influx of Greek, Latin and Hebrew names connected with the conversion to Christianity. We have already seen Olga / Helga christened Helen. However, the ruling class maintained a double naming, being known by their Slavic names, rather than their Christian names, sometimes naming cities after themselves using both names, like Yaroslav the Wise, who founded Yaroslavl’, Yuriev Monastery near Novgorod and Belaya Tserkov’, which used to be called Yuriev as well. Yuri is one Russian version of George (Yuri does sound quite like the vocative form of George in mediaeval / modern Greek), along with Georgy with hard “g”s and Yegor. ↩︎
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