7b) Vladimir – Part 2 (989-1015)

Vladimir / Владимир

In the last episode, Vladimir took over as Grand Prince of Kiev, refusing to allow his Viking recruits to plunder the city. He set up new pagan temples in Kiev and Novgorod, after which he moved against Poland in order to incorporate the Volynyane and White Croats into the Russian state. He faced down rebellions from the Vyatichi and Radimichi, crushed the Yotvingians, made first war, then peace with the Volga Bulgars, who started him on a search for the best religion. After hearing the missionaries from Islam, Judaism, Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy, and sending envoys to rate the religious services of the various competing faiths, he finally chose the religion of his grandmother Olga: Orthodox Christianity.

The first thing Vladimir did after converting the city was to do some building. He recognised that Kiev was vulnerable to attack from the Pechenegs, so ordered that new towns (i.e. fortresses with a population to man the walls and provide an economic base to help cover the costs) be set up along the tributaries of the Dnieper near Kiev: the rivers named are the Desna, Oster, Trubezh, Sula and Stugna, all of which except the Stugna join the Dnieper on the left bank (from the East). The population was recruited from far away – the Slovenes, Krivichi and Chud from the north were brought down south, as well as the Vyatichi from further east.

In 989, Vladimir took to building churches for his newly Christianised city. The first to go up was the Church of St Basil, on the previous site of his pagan temple, followed soon after by the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Vladimir’s man in Korsun’, Anastas, was put in charge of the construction. He arranged for craftsmen from the Roman Empire to come and paint icons for the church. It was to be staffed by priests from Korsun’ who brought with them the ritual equipment necessary. When it was complete (in 996), Vladimir was so amazed at the beauty of the church that he promised to give a tenth of his wealth and that of his cities to the upkeep, from which the church was known as the Tithe Church. It stood until the city was destroyed by the Mongols in 1240. A Dutch artist, Abraham van Westerveld, drew this picture of the ruins in around 1650.

In 991, Vladimir turned his palace in Belgorod (to the west of Kiev, where he had previously kept one of his harems) into a town, and brought many people to live there, as it was one of his favourite places. Setting up another fortified place, this time to the west of Kiev, might be linked to his campaign against the White Croats in 992. They lived just to the south of the Volhynians he had brought into Russia back in 981 and had obviously attracted Vladimir’s ire in some way.

Building Belgorod.

However, when he had returned from his western campaign, the Pechenegs attacked up the left bank of the Dnieper. Vladimir met them at a ford on the river Trubezh, where Pereyaslavl’ now stands. The armies faced each other across the river until the Pecheneg Khan and Vladimir met and the Khan suggested they settle the matter by getting two champions to wrestle. If the Pecheneg loses, there will be peace for three years, but if the Russian loses, then the Pechenegs will raid for the next three years.

Why don’t we settle this man to man? Obviously not us personally – someone else will fight, but you get the idea.

Vladimir agrees and sends men to ask around the camp, if anyone would volunteer to go and fight the Pecheneg champion man-to-man. Unfortunately, no-one was keen and when the Pechenegs turned up the next day with their fighter, that reluctance only grew. The man was enormous. Vladimir grieved that no-one wanted to try their strength against the Pecheneg and sent messengers around his whole army again. This time, an old man came and said “Prince! I came here with my four sons, but left the youngest at home. Since childhood, nobody has been able to throw him to the ground. He is so strong that, once I was scolding him while he was working leather, he got so angry that he tore the hide apart with his bare hands. Vladimir was delighted and sent for the youth (traditionally known as Yan) straight away.

I reckon my son could have that huge Pecheneg in a fight.

When he arrived at the camp, they brought him to the Grand Prince, who explained the situation. The lad replied “Prince, I am not sure if I can fight him – test me: do you have a large, strong bull anywhere?” They found a bull, big and strong, and they infuriated it by burning it with a piece of hot metal. The bull rushed forth towards the young man, who grabbed hold of it and tore off a huge chunk of meat and skin with the power of his hands. Vladimir saw this and said “Yes, you can fight him!”

Testing the strength of Yan the Leather Worker by Grigory Ugryumov

The next morning, the Pechenegs came again with their fighter asking “Where is your man? Ours is ready!” Vladimir had got his army ready and the two sides arranged themselves facing each other. The Pechenegs let their man go forwards and everyone could see he was huge and terrifying. The Russian chap stepped forth, the Pecheneg saw him and burst out laughing because he was only of average height. They grappled and the Russian champion squeezed so hard, that he killed the Pecheneg and threw his body to the ground. The Russians cheered and ran after the fleeing Pechenegs, beating those they caught as they chased them away. Vladimir was very pleased and ordered a town to be founded at the river crossing, which he called Pereyaslavl’, because the young man had “taken the glory / перея славу / pereya slavu” from the Pechenegs.

Run away! Run away!

The Pechenegs must have stuck to their word not to attack for three years, as we hear no more from them until 996. After Vladimir had offered the tithe of his income to the Church of the Assumption, the Pechenegs returned and got as far as Vasilyov, one of the fortresses Vladimir had ordered to be built in 988 on the river Stugna, only 36km / 23 miles from Kiev. This time things went so badly that Vladimir barely escaped with his life, hiding under a bridge from the marauding Pecheneg hordes. As it was the festival of the Transfiguration (6th August), Vladimir promised to build a church in Vasilyov in honour of the festival if he survived, which he did. When the church was complete, he ordered a great feast with 300 measures of mead for his nobles, representatives and elders from various towns. He gave away 300 grivnas to the poor during the eight day celebration and then returned to Kiev in time for the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (15th August), when he held another feast, this time opening the Princely Court to the poor who could come and eat as much as they liked. He even went so far as to arrange for wagons to take food and drink around the city for those too weak or ill to make it to the palace. These feasts became a regular thing and some of the notables were unhappy that Vladimir had given them wooden spoons to eat with, not silver, so Vladimir had silver spoons made, saying “I won’t find a warband with silver and gold, but I will find silver and gold with a warband, like my father and grandfather.

Vladimir’s amazing free food wagon.

However, Vladimir’s desire to live up to the principles of his new religion sometimes disturbed the priests themselves. His wish to be merciful was threatening to lead to the breakdown of law and order, until a delegation of bishops exhorted him to start punishing the wicked. “Bandits have multiplied, why don’t you punish them?” “I fear sin,” replied Vladimir. They told him “You have been put in place by God to punish the wicked and to show mercy to the good. You should punish outlaws but only after checking the facts”, so Vladimir abandoned the practice of paying fines and started executing brigands. The bishops, however, suggested that if he took the fines as well, they could help pay for the defence of the state, so Vladimir agreed, saying “Let it be so.”

You need to fine them AND cut their heads off.

In 997, the war with the Pechenegs had got so bad that Vladimir was forced to go up north to Novgorod to recruit more men. When the Pechenegs heard that Vladimir was away, they beseiged Vladimir’s fortress at Belgorod. They didn’t let anyone in or out of the town, Vladimir couldn’t help as he still didn’t have enough men and the Pechenegs had brought a huge army. Time passed and hunger chewed at the defenders, so eventually, they had a town meeting to discuss what to do. “Soon we will all die of hunger and there is still no help from the Prince. Do we really want to die in this manner? We can surrender to the Pechenegs, they’ll kill some of us, but some will live. If we don’t, we will all die.”

I’m hungry, let’s give up.

However, there was one old man who had not heard about the meeting, so stayed at home. When he was told what was decided, he went to the town elders and said that he had heard they had decided to surrender the city. They defended their decision, saying that the people couldn’t take the hunger any longer. The old man said, “Don’t surrender the town for three more days, but do exactly what I say. Collect however much oats, wheat or bran there is, even a handful,” and they collected what they could find with joy. He ordered that the women make a gruel from this, as you would when making kisel’. He also told them to dig a well, put a wooden bucket at the bottom and fill the bucket with the kisel’. While they were doing that, he asked others to find some honey. They managed to find a basketfull in the Prince’s stores, from which they made a sweet drink which they put in a wooden bucket in a second well.

I have a cunning plan, my Lord.

The next day, he asked the elders to call for the Pechenegs, offering to give them ten hostages, while ten Pechenegs come to see how things are in Belgorod. The Pechenegs were delighted, thinking the Russians were going to surrender, so they accepted the hostages and sent ten of their best men to go to Belgorod. When they came to the square, they were met by the elders who asked them “Why are you killing yourselves? Do you think you can outlast us? You could stay outside our walls for ten years and what would that do to us? Nothing, for we are fed by the earth itself. If you don’t believe us, see with your own eyes.” And they took them first to the well with the kisel’, took a draught and poured it into cups for them all Pechenegs to try. After that they went to the second well and had some drink poured out. The Pecheneg envoys took the evidence back with them and when the Khans were told what had happened, and were shown the food and drink that the earth was providing the defenders of Belgorod, the Pechenegs sent back the hostages, packed up and rode away.

If you thought that was tasty, wait till you try this!

One must presume the army Vladimir had recruited from the north must have had the desired deterrent effect, as we don’t hear much from the Pechenegs for the next several years. Instead the PVL gives us a roll call of the wives, children and even grandchildren of Vladimir who predeceased him: In 1000 AD, Malfrida and Rogneda died. In 1001, Rogneda’s son Izyaslav died. In 1003, Izyaslav’s son, Vseslav died. In 1007, for a change, the relics of the Saints are transferred to the Church of the Virgin Mary, including Olga, Vladimir’s grandmother, whose body was uncorrupted, despite having died almost forty years previously. and finally, in 1011, the Grand Princess Anna dies.

At this point, Vladimir is no longer young. If we assume he was born before Svyatoslav spent most of his time on campaign and an adult when he took power from Yaropolk, he would be in his fifties, with a clutch of sons in the flower of youth, looking to make a name for themselves. One of them, Yaroslav, Prince of Novgorod, decides to rebel. The PVL states that Yaroslav would send two thousand grivnas (if we assume Kievan grivnas, that’s 300 kg of silver or its value in goods to trade with the Romans) to Vladimir in Kiev each year and keep one thousand (150kg Ag) to pay his own warbands. In 1014, the city elders had collected the tax, but Yaroslav decided to keep it all. When Vladimir heard the bad news (presumably over winter, when the tax was collected, he ordered his servants to clear the roads and fix the bridges so that he could go to war against his son, even though Vladimir was ill.

Here’s a letter from Yaroslav, sir. It says he’s keeping all the money.

In 1015, when Yaroslav heard that Vladimir was coming, he sent abroad for Vikings to come and reinforce his army. However, Vladimir never came. He was still in Kiev, accompanied by his son Boris, Prince of Rostov (like Novgorod, also a northern principality) but Vladimir’s illness had got worse, and the Pechenegs attacked. Vladimir sent Boris with the army he had raised to deal with Yaroslav to defend the country against the Pechenegs. While Boris was away, Vladimir’s disease got worse and he died in Berestovo on 15th July 1015.

Vladimir gives Boris his sword to fight the Pechenegs.

The courtiers in Berestovo tried to keep the death a secret, as Svyatopolk was in Kiev and they clearly favoured Boris as the heir. They smuggled the body out of Berestovo by wrapping it in a carpet and lowering it out of a window on ropes, so no-one would see it leave the building.

Body smuggling.

They brought it secretly to the Tithe Church in Kiev but at this point, word got out. The nobles came to mourn the defender of their country, the poor came to grieve over the loss of the ruler who had been so generous to them and they buried Vladimir there in a marble tomb. However sad they may have been to hear of Vladimir’s death, things were about to get a lot worse. Svyatopolk took power.

RATINGS

Length of Reign: Vladimir was Prince of Novgorod from about 970 to 976, then fled abroad, returning in 978, so I’ll give him six years for that, then he was Grand Prince of Kiev from 978 to 1015, so another thirty-seven years as sovereign. My spreadsheet tells me that gives him an impressive 8 out of 10.

World Fame: As of November 2023, like his father, Vladimir had his Wikipedia biography in sixty-three languages, giving him 6 out of 20.

Achievements: I’m not sure I can really consider his breathtaking collection of several hundred concubines here, not least because many suspect the numbers were overblown to make a comparison with Solomon by Nestor, the monastic author of the PVL. Solomon started off wise, but fell into sin through the influence of his many wives who worshipped other gods, while Vladimir took the opposite path, from debauchery to sainthood. However, the second half of Nestor’s parable does deserve consideration. Vladimir clearly understood the importance of religion in building a state. He first attempted to formalise the old pagan religion, with a central temple in Kiev and at least one regional centre in Novgorod. That one was probably only mentioned to foreshadow the story of what happened when Dobrynya tried to pull it down. Unlike his nephew, he needed to use the threat of armed force before the local pagans would allow the shrine to be destroyed.

The story in the PVL of how Vladimir chose Christianity is interesting for the view the Russians had of the other religions – that Islam was joyless and some how dirty – probably because of the link to the Volga Bulgars whom the Russians had defeated in war under Svyatoslav and Vladimir, Judaism was a religion for losers, again, no doubt influenced by the fate of the Khazars. Catholicism was a bit boring but the ties between Russia and the Roman Catholic areas of Europe were weak. The PVL states that Vladimir had peaceful relations with Oldrich of Bohemia, Boleslaw of Poland and St. Stephen of Hungary, but the whole economic system of the Russian state depended on trade with Constantinople. Russians had been travelling to Constantinople for over a century to trade and there must have been hundreds, if not thousands of people in Kiev who could have told Vladimir what Orthodox worship was like without needing to send an embassy to make a report, not counting the fact that Vladimir had been brought up under his grandmother Olga, who had herself been a Christian. There had been an Orthodox community and a church in Kiev under Igor, the story of the Christian boy chosen by lot to be sacrificed shows there must have been plenty of Orthodox Christians in Kiev at the time.

Converting, himself, his household and his city to Christianity brought with it a series of advantages. The Orthodox church was the heir to a tradition of learning with roots in Hebrew, Greek and Latin literature and philosophy. With the earlier development of the Cyrillic alphabet and the accompanying translations of the service books of the Orthodox church from Greek into what is now known as Old Church Slavonic, the advantages of literacy in one’s native tongue was opened to the Russian state and people. With the spread of the church throughout Russia, a network of literate, educated people grew up, at first in the major centres, and gradually spreading from there to smaller towns and settlements. Monasteries would set up scriptoria to create new copies of service books and Bibles, while the scribes trained in reading and writing would also be available for secular purposes – writing government records, orders, law books, tax records, legal judgements etc.

Vladimir continued the practice of minting coins started by his brother Yaropolk. In keeping with his religious policy, the coins followed the examples of those of Roman emperors, showing the Grand Prince holding a crucifix, like these ones:

Finally, and the two might be linked, not only did Vladimir complete the unification of all the Eastern Slavic tribes into the Russian state, but he also oversaw the formalisation of the process by which the tribal identities started to be politically less relevant. By following his father’s example of setting up his own sons as Princes over areas of the country, it was these principalities that became the focus of local government, administration and loyalty, not the tribes. In the map, we can see the divisions of the country and the centres of the principalities, those with dotted lines as borders were temporary and were absorbed into neighbouring principalities on the holder’s death, or in the warfare that followed Vladimir’s demise. Some reappear after a little while and one major principality, that of Pereyaslavl’, isn’t here yet, but comes to play a major role in the defence of the Pecheneg frontier.

Both the formalised division of the state into principalities and the conversion to Christianity had huge effects on the subsequent history of Russia, the conversion mostly positive, the division mostly negative, especially in the absence of a regular system of inheritance. However, in a country the size of Russia, with a number of heirs to occupy, the difficulty of defending the very long borders without local organisation and the cultural background of the ruling elite, it is difficult to know what else could have been done. However, the splitting of the country was something that lead to disaster later on, and to the deaths of a number of his sons almost straight away, taking away from the total score.

Overall, I would give Vladimir 22 out of 30.

Defence of the Realm: Vladimir’s record here suffers from a problem that was exacerbated by the success of his father: the increasing strength of the Pechenegs. The Khazars may have been demanding tribute from East Slavic tribes that were being included in Russia, but while they were strong, they kept the nomadic raiders of the steppes under a degree of control. However, despite setbacks like the defeat at Vasilyov and the siege of Belgorod, Vladimir was up to the task of defending Russia’s borders.

Faced with a similar threat to Alfred the Great – mobile raiders who can range at the speed of their horses – Vladimir came up with a similar response: the building of a network of fortresses at relatively short distances from each other, placed at convenient river crossings on all the major rivers around Kiev. At the one point where there was a ford, but no fortress (Pereyaslavl’), Vladimir founded a town which would become a bulwark of Russia’s defence against the steppe warriors in the next couple of centuries. One might have noticed that, unlike under Svyatoslav, when the Pechenegs beseiged Kiev, under Vladimir, they got caught in the web of new fortresses and, even when successful in battle as at Vasilyov, they were unable to turn that success into a decisive victory. It is also believed that under Vladimir and subsequent rulers, an older set of earthworks to the south of Kiev, the Serpent’s Walls, were re-used and set with wooden fences to slow down raiders. The remains of wooden posts have been dated to the period of Vladimir’s rule.

Vladimir was also able to mobilise the human potential of his state to bring reinforcements from the north and east, when the main threat was in the south. His early campaigns to the west, against Poland, the Yotvingians and the White Croats seem to have been effective in maintaining peace on the western frontier after 992, while the campaign against the Bulgars in 985 also stopped any threat from that side when the Pecheneg threat became the top priority, so Slovenes, Chuds, Krivichi and Vyatichi were brought down to man the defences around Kiev. By setting up fortified towns, rather than just small fortresses, he also created an economic base to help pay for the defences as well as providing manpower.

The story as told in the PVL about how Vladimir disposed of his troublesome vikings may not be the full story, but still shows a skill in dealing with potential internal unrest, the sending of six thousand warriors to the Roman Empire seems to have been part of the process leading to his marriage to Anna and the conversion of Russia, as well as clearing out some troublemakers he could well do without.

Despite having his towns besieged and having to hide from the Pechenegs under a bridge at one point, Vladimir was always a strong defender of the Russian state. Even when he faced the threat of rebellion from his son Yaroslav, Prince of Novgorod, who might have repeated Vladimir’s own means of coming to power, his attention was directed at the Pechenegs, not at covering his own back.

I think Vladimir deserves a good score for this, so I’m going to give him 16 out of 20.

Bonus Points: Vladimir would get five points for being a saint, but his being the saint that converted Russia to Christianity has got him a lot more than five. When my knowledge of early Russian history was paper-thin, I knew two early princes – Rurik, because I knew the dynasty was named after him, and I knew Vladimir, the Baptiser of Russia. With both the state and the church owing him a debt of recognition, he is still famous today. For example, the 1 grivna note in the Ukraine has Vladimir on the front, and a representation of Kiev in his days on the back. He founded the city of Vladimir / Volodymyr in Volhynia, which is still named after him. There was an Order of St. Vladimir awarded in the Russian Empire, as well as a newer order of the Russian Orthodox Church, which is still awarded and also an Order of St Vladimir of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Vladimir has a film festival dedicated to films and TV programmes of a moral or spiritual character named after him, and also, as a saint, very many churches dedicated to him, too many to list here, quite frankly. The English Wikipedia page has eight churches, while the Russian page lists forty churches in twelve countries. Some highlights include the cathedral in Korsun’ / Chersones (now part of Sevastopol’) on the site of the church were Vladimir was baptised and the monastery and cathedral in Irkutsk. St. Vladimir’s day (15th June on the Julian calendar, so 28th June in the Gregorian) is an official day of commemoration of the baptism of Russia in both the Russian Federation and the Ukraine.

Vladimir’s life and his central role in determining the future course of Russian history have also inspired many authors and playwrights to write works based on him, a tradition starting with Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich‘s 1705 play Vladimir, written in Church Slavonic and continuing until the present day. However, there is a much older folk tradition of tales, many of which involve Vladimir, which I will discuss in part three, but in the folk tradition, he plays a role similar is some ways to King Arthur in the English tradition, the ideal ruler, surrounded by heroic warriors.

Some of these folk tales have inspired film makers, so Vladimir is a character in the 1956 film Ilya Muromets. He is, of course, a character in a number of historical films, such as the 1981 film Yaroslav Mudriy, about his son, Legenda o Knyagine Ol’ge about his grandmother, and the 2016 Russian film Viking about his own rise to power. Vladimir also stars in the second of a series of cartoons about the history of Russia and the Volga Bulgars, Saga Drevnykh Bulgar: Lestvitsa Vladimira – Krasnoye Sol’nyshko. And for obvious reasons, he is in the mini-series Rurikovichi and Kreshchenie Rusi (The Baptism of Russia). A number of cartoons have been made about him, including Vybor Knyazya Vladimira (The Choice of Prince Vladimir), Knyaz’ Vladimir, and Bratya (Brothers) about how his sons Boris and Gleb met their ends.

As you might expect, people have been moved to erect statues and other memorials to Vladimir, the earliest statue was set up on Vladimir’s hill in Kiev in 1853. A load more are listed here (in Russian): https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Памятник_Владимиру_Великому, while what might be the most recent was put up in Moscow in 2016. He has a number of ships named after him, including the Saint Vladimir, a bulk carrier and a floating church, the Prince Saint Vladimir and even somewhere for the ships to go, Vladimir Bay in the Far East of Russia.

As Vladimir Krasnoye Solnyshko / the Red Sun, Grand Prince Vladimir is known to centuries of Russian children through the folk tales that have accrued around his reputation. He is remembered every year in church and his admirers have dedicated churches and statues to his memory across the globe. Last, but not least, he is the first Russian ruler to be commonly known as “the Great”. He definitely deserves full marks for his fame beyond that which Wikipedia can translate: 20 out of 20.

Vladimir’s rating: 72 out of 100.

Reflected Glory. Interestingly, although we now have a lot of stories about Vladimir in the PVL, the number of famous individuals in his reign is not that great. We have his uncle Dobrynya, who came from Novgorod and took his nephew back to be Prince under Svyatoslav and who acted as governor / mayor (posadnik) under Vladimir himself. He led forces as part of Vladimir’s expedition against Volga Bulgaria in 985, forced the citizens of Novgorod to accept the new faith after 988, cutting down the idol to Perun and setting up the monastery of Peryn on its place. The angry citizens attacked Dobrynya’s house and killed his wife, but at least one of his children survived to become posadnik after Dobrynya’s death.

Another character we have heard of is Anastas of Korsun’, the priest who helped Vladimir capture the city, who was put in charge of the building of the Tithe Church and who seems to have been Vladimir’s confessor. Interestingly, despite Anastas’s appearance in the PVL and his clearly close relationship with Vladimir, he wasn’t the Metropolitan of Kiev. That honour is supposed to have gone to Mikhail, from either Bulgaria (which would make sense for a man preaching to fellow Slavs) or Syria. The source, the Church Statute of Prince Vladimir, might not be entirely reliable, as it claims Mikhail was a contemporary of both Vladimir and Patriarch Photius, who died in 896. It is therefore possible that Mikhail was sent to Kiev far earlier, under Askold and Dir’s raid on Constantinople, and that he was incorrectly placed in Vladimir’s time later, maybe on the grounds that “everyone knew” that Vladimir had converted Russia. After Vladimir’s death and the war with Poland, Anastas accompanies Svyatopolk into exile in Poland and lives out the rest of his life there.

Another pair of people named who achieved recognition are the Christian Vikings, killed by the pagan mob who had wanted to sacrifice the son. I have told their story already, but the tradition of the local church names these two as Ioann (John) and his father Fyodor (Theodore), the first Russian martyrs recognised as saints, remembered on 12th July (25th July in the Gregorian calendar).

Holy Martyrs, Theodore and John the Vikings.

Next time, we will be looking as Vladimir as the central figure in the Kievan cycle of epic poems, Vladimir the Red Sun.