12) Svyatoslav II (1073 – 76)

Svyatoslav / Святослав

Svyatoslav was the second oldest son of Yaroslav still alive at Yaroslav’s death. His older brother Izyaslav got the main prize of Kiev and Novgorod, but Yaroslav tried to set up a system to keep everyone happy. Svyatoslav got the extensive Chernigov principality and his younger brothers also got lands to rule. The two youngest brothers – Igor’ and Vyacheslav – both died within a few years, but the remaining three worked as a team, opposing both nomadic invaders and Vseslav of Polotsk. In 1068, however, they faced a huge Polovtsian army near Pereyaslavl’ and lost badly. Izyaslav was driven out of Kiev by a mob and replaced by Vseslav, before returning to power seven months later in 1069. However, things never quite got back to normal and in 1073, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod moved against their elder brother, forcing him into exile once more. Svyatoslav took the throne.

Yaroslav’s sons had worked well together for a long time after his death – the defeat at the river Al’ta in 1068 seems to have been the catalyst for the problems that came later. Vsevolod has the excuse that the battle was waged very close to his capital city and it was not practicable to defend the principality further. A tactical retreat in order to reform one’s army seemed the only sensible action, he and Izyaslav retreated to Kiev, while Svyatoslav returned to Chernigov to carry on the fight. The men of Kiev requested weapons and horses from Izyaslav to avenge the deaths of their kinsmen, but Izyaslav refused. The crowd drove him out and replaced him with Vseslav. However, in Chernigov, things went differently.

The Principality of Chernigov was one of those that directly faced the Polovtsian steppe and after Pereyaslavl’ had fallen, they were next in the firing line. Svyatoslav made it back to Chernigov, quickly raised another army of 3,000 men and took them out to fight the invaders. Svyatoslav’s force ran into a Polovtsian horde of around 12,000 men on the river Snov. Svyatoslav said “Let’s fight, we can’t avoid it anyway” and led his men to an unlikely victory. Many of the Polovtsy drowned in the river trying to get away and Svyatoslav and his men were able to capture a number of Polovtsian commanders, including, according to a Novgorod chronicle, Khan Sharukan himself.

Svyatoslav returns to Chernigov after beating the Polovtsy.

On Izyaslav’s return in April / May 1069, the people of Kiev asked Svyatoslav and Vsevolod to intercede with Izyaslav for them; Izyaslav promised to Svyatoslav that he would not avenge himself upon his rebellious capital city. However, Izyaslav sent his son Mstislav before him into Kiev and Mstislav did wreak vengeance, killing seventy people involved in the freeing of Vseslav, blinding others who had rebelled and killing some people for no apparent reason. Although the brothers continued to work together after this: the joint legislation known as the Justice of the Yaroslavichi was passed in the early 1070s, for example; it can be little surprise that Svyatoslav would have felt let down by his brother and nephew, having acted as Izyaslav’s spokesman to the people of Kiev.

Kievans ask Svyatoslav and Vsevolod to intercede for them.

In 1073, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod joined forces and drove Izyaslav from Kiev. The PVL puts the blame for this on Svyatoslav, accusing him of greed for power, inspired by Satan, and of decieving Vsevolod into thinking Izyaslav was in a secret alliance with Vseslav against them. While we have little else to go on, we shall see that Svyatoslav had poor relations with St. Theodosius at the Caves Monastery, while Nestor, the author of the PVL, was also the author of the first hagiography of St. Theodosius, so might not be an unbiased source.

Theodosius criticised Svyatoslav’s take over and refused to mention him in the prayers for the Grand Prince, continuing to name Izyaslav. Svyatoslav granted the monastery 100 golden grivnas to build the Dormition Cathedral, even coming to break ground for the foundations in person. After that Theodosius mentioned Svyatoslav, but in second place, after Izyaslav. Theodosius died in 1074, so making Svyatoslav’s life a little easier. He maintained his generosity to the church, founding a monastery dedicated to St Simeon the Stylite, on a hill just outside the walls of Kiev at the time.

Svyatoslav comes to start work on the Dormition Cathedral.

In 1073, Svyatoslav’s son-in-law (and cousin) Boleslaw II of Kiev robbed the exiled Izyaslav of most of his wealth and expelled him from Poland. Izyaslav moved on to the Holy Roman Empire, whose ruler Henry IV promised to help, but did little more than send ambassadors to Svyatoslav. The PVL claims that when they arrived, in 1075, Svyatoslav underlined the strength of his position by showing the ambassadors the wealth in the treasury. They weren’t impressed, saying “This has no real value, as it lies there dead. Warriors are better than this, because with warriors, you can get much more wealth.”

Nice pots.

However, Svyatoslav did have access to plenty of warriors. Indeed, to help strengthen the alliance with Poland, Svyatoslav’s son Oleg and Vsevolod’s son Vladimir Monomakh went to Poland with their warbands to help Boleslaw II in his war against Bohemia in 1076. They got to share a 1000 grivna tribute payment on top of the 1000 grivnas Vratislav II had to pay Boleslaw. However, Pope Gregory VII had been convinced by Yaropolk Izyaslavich’s lobbying to, not only support Izyaslav, but to pressure Boleslaw to change sides. Boleslaw was very keen to receive the title of King and the Pope made an alliance with Izyaslav one of the conditions for him to grant that title. On Christmas Day 1076, the new alliance was underlined when Boleslaw invited Izyaslav to his coronation as the guest of honour.

Svyatoslav probably never found out about this foreign policy set-back as he died at the age of 50 as a result of a burst tumour two days later. It is thought that he might have died in an unsuccessful attempt to surgically remove the tumour, which in turn suggests a reason for Svyatoslav to move against Izyaslav when he did. If he was noticing a down-turn in his health in 1073, he might have wanted to make sure he had occupied the throne in Kiev to allow his sons to have a claim to that title – if that was the plan, it didn’t work.

Svyatoslav is believed to have been married twice, his first wife Cecilia bore four sons: Gleb, who we will look at in Reflected Glory below, but (spoiler alert) met a sticky end. His second son Roman was Prince of Tmutarakan’, which he used as a base for moves against Izyaslav and Vsevolod after Svyatoslav’s death. Roman and Oleg, Svyatoslav’s fourth son, took part in the 1078 attack which led to Izyaslav’s death and prepared a further campaign the next year, again with Polovtsian help. However, Vsevolod made a peace deal with the Polovtsy and they turned on Roman, killing him. Oleg was kidnapped by “Khazars”, sent to the Roman Empire but with a change in Emperor, he was sent back to take Tmutarakan’. He eventually succeeded his youngest brother Yaroslav, son of Svyatoslav’s second wife Oda, as Prince of Chernigov, was swiftly exiled to the smaller Murom, but his successors held Murom and then Ryazan’ until the 16th century.

Rather than being buried in Kiev, Svyatoslav’s body was returned to Chernigov, where he had spent so long as Prince, and buried in the Transfiguration Cathedral.

RATINGS:

Length of Reign: Svyatoslav was Grand Prince from March 1073 to December 1076, but was also Prince of Chernigov from 1054 to 1073. The account of Yaroslav’s death states that Svyatoslav was in Vladimir-Volynsky at the time, many have taken this to suggest that he was ruling as Prince there. However, we don’t know that, so I have only taken his rule in Chernigov lasting 19 years, giving him 2 points out of 10

World Fame: Svyatoslav has his life story in 29 languages on Wikipedia as of November 2023, so giving him 2 points out of 20.

Achievements: In many ways, up to 1073, Russia was being run by the three Yaroslavich brothers as a team, so it seems fair to give Svyatoslav some of the credit for achievements scored under Izyaslav’s Grand Princeship, if he was directly involved. The most obvious of these is the introduction of the Justice of the Yaroslavichi into the Russian lawcode initiated by Yaroslav in the early 1070s, which stated very clearly that it was the joint work of all three brothers.

His relations with the church are quite interesting, in that although he had difficult relations with Theodosius of the Caves Monastery, in previous years, he had given asylum to St. Anthony, the spiritual leader of that monastery who had evoked the suspicions of Izyaslav, in Chernigov. As Grand Prince, Svyatoslav made no move to act against Theodosius, despite the fairly seditious refusal to pray for him and even contributed generously to the building of his church.

Svyatoslav is famous for having commissioned two of the earliest surviving Russian manuscript codices: his Izbornik of 1073 and Izbornik of 1076. The first book is a selection of works, including ones on theology, astronomy, language and rhetoric. It seems to have been a translation of an anthology put together for Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria, as some of the language used has southern Slavic traits, but it was very popular and many copies of Svyatoslav’s version were made. The original is famous for a portrait of Svyatoslav and his family.

Portrait of Svyatoslav and his family in the 1073 Izbornik.

The 1076 Izbornik is a more strictly theological work, with translations from the Book of Sirach as well as works from a wide range of Church Fathers and later theologians.

1076 Izbornik

A short time as Grand Prince leaves little to work with, but when considering his work as a joint ruler of a split land, and what he managed to do in the three and a half years he had as Number One, I’ll give him 13 points out of 30.

Defence of the Realm: As I am taking work done as a joint ruler into account for the Yaroslavichi, we have two real achievements to look at here. Firstly, his ability to scrape together a very successful defence in the wake of the Battle on the River Al’ta, thrashing a far larger Polovtsian force and capturing its commanders. Secondly, his use of the warbands of his son and nephew to cement the alliance with Poland and put off his brother’s return to power until after his own death. Although most of the campaigns he was involved with were joint efforts, when acting on his own he was really quite successful. I think he deserves a solid 15 points out of 30.

Bonus Points: As well as being buried there, Svyatoslav now has a street in Chernigov named after him, although it doesn’t look like anyone has told Google. He is also a locally venerated saint in Chernigov, with his day of remembrance on 21st May. As such, he gets 6 points out of 20.

Reflected Glory: The main characters linked with Svyatoslav’s time in power are the churchmen at the Caves Monastery and his nephew Vladimir Monomakh. The latter will be Grand Prince himself soon, while the others have been covered in Izyaslav’s Reflected Glory section. The only character we haven’t looked at in great depth in one place is Gleb Svyatoslavich.

Gleb was born in 1052 and at some point after Yaroslav’s death in 1054, he was placed by his father to “rule” in Tmutarakan’ despite his tender age. In 1064, when Gleb was twelve years old, Rostislav Vladimirovich, who had been ruling in the small principality of Vladimir-Volynsky, takes his warband across the steppes (or possibly down the river Prut or Dniester by boat) and drives his cousin Gleb from Tmutarakan’. The next year, Svyatoslav raises a large army to restore Gleb to power and Rostislav retreats from the city, so as not to fight his uncle. However, as soon as Svyatoslav had returned across the steppes, Rostislav re-entered the city, drove Gleb out again and ruled there for another two years, while Gleb lived in Chernigov with his father.

Gleb Svyatoslavich’s second term as Prince of Tmutarakan’ (1066 – 1068) saw the first recorded topographic and hydrographic investigation in Russian history. A stone discovered in the 18th century states that in 6576 (1068) Prince Gleb measured the distance between Tmutarakan’ and Kerch’ across the ice, which was 14,000 fathoms (24,000 metres). This very accurately describes the distance between the central churches in each town.
 

The block of stone giving the results of Gleb’s project to measure the distance between Tmutarakan’ and Kerch’.

The reign of Vseslav seems to have precipitated a change and Gleb Svyatoslavich was sent to rule Novgorod upon Izyaslav’s return in 1069. His rule was quickly challenged by Vseslav, who had collected an army of Votians (and possibly Lithuanians) and tried to attack Novgorod. Gleb won a battle on 23rd October 1069 and even captured Vseslav, although Gleb released him soon after.

In 1071, the peace of the city was disturbed by a pagan sorcerer, although Gleb sorted the problem out swiftly. The wizard claimed to be able to tell the future and had managed to convince a number of locals that he was a god. The bishop asked the people of Novgorod to come and stand with him to show their faithfulness to Christ, but a large crowd stayed with the pagan priest. To deal with this incipient revolt, Gleb himself came to speak to the man, asking “Do you know what will happen tomorrow, or today before the evening?” “I know everything,” replied the priest. “And do you know what will happen to you today?” “I will perform great miracles!” At this point, Gleb pulled out the axe he had under his cloak and struck the priest with it, killing him.

Вот это поворот! Prince Gleb Svyatoslavich kills the pagan priest at the people’s assembly of Novgorod – Andrey Ryabushkin, 1898.

In 1073, Gleb was transferred by his father to rule in Pereyaslavl’ on the southern border, close to Kiev, underlining his seniority after Vsevolod. However upon Izyaslav’s return to power, he was again moved back to Novgorod. That year, the population rebelled against him and, given the disturbances in the south that led to Izyaslav’s death, Gleb found himself more or less on his own. He moved north-east, into territories that had recently come into Novgorod’s sphere of influence, but was killed by the locals on 30th May. His body was returned, like his father’s, to Chernigov for burial on 23rd July 1078.

Svyatoslav II’s Rating: 38 out of 100

Next time, we will look at the last of Yaroslav’s sons to rule as Grand Prince: Vsevolod.