History of Russia
Heads of the state
JAROSLAV
THE WISE
(about 980?-1054?),The grand duke of Kiev (1019.) The son of Vladimir 1 Svjatoslavich.He drove out Svjatopolk 1 the Damned, struggled with brother Mstislav, shared the state with him (1025), and in 1035 united it again. He secured southern and western borders of Russia by numbers of victories. He established dynastic connections with many countries of Europe. « the Russian truth » was made under him. The RUSSIAN TRUTH is the old russian law set. It includes: separate norms of " the Law of Russia », Jaroslav Mudryj's Truth, Jaroslavishi's Truth, Vladimir Monomah's Charter, etc., the protection of a life and property of princely soldiers and servants, the position of dependent people, obligatory and inherited laws, etc. It had 3 editions: Brief, Lengthy, Reduced. Lists of 13-18 centuries
JAROSLAV (George, Jury) Vladimirovich THE WISE (about 980? — February, 20th 1054?), the grand duke of Kiev (since 1019).
The son of the great Kiev's prince Vladimir 1 Svjatoslavich and Polotsk princess Rogneda. He was married to Ingigerda - the daughter of the Swedish prince Olav. In old russian sources two names of Jaroslav`s wife existed - Irina and Anna, probably Ingigerda, received at the christening name Irina, was one of Jaroslav's wives, or Irina-Ingigerda became the nun before her death , having accepted a monastic name Anna (under this name she was canonized by Russian orthodox church as the first princess who had accepted a nunhood before death).
The first period of the life of Jaroslav the Wise was connected with struggle for the Kiev`s throne. After Jaroslav achieved the mature age his father appointed him as Rostov`s prince, and about 1013 after the death of Vysheslav (the senior son of Vladimir Svjatoslavich) Jaroslav became Novgorod`s prince. Being the prince of Novgorod, he wished to break off any dependence on Kiev and to become an absolutely independent sovereign of extensive Novgorod area. He refused (1014 ) to pay to his father an annual tribute of 2000 gold coins as all inhabitants of Novgorod did; his desire coincided with aspiration of inhabitants of Novgorod which never wanted to be dependant on southern Russia and to be imposed with the tibute. Jaroslav's refusal to pay the tribute to Kiev caused anger of his father and caused the order to prepare for the war with Novgorod and Vladimir ordered to repair the roads and to build the bridges. But on July, 15th 1015 Vladimir Svjatoslavich suddenly died, without having any time to carry out the plan.
The Kiev throne was captured by prince Svjatopolk 1 Damned, the stepbrother of Jaroslav Vladimirovich. Wishing to eliminate any possible contenders, Svjatopolk killed his brothers, the Rostov`s prince Boris, the Murom`s prince Gleb and Svjatoslav; also tried to kill Jaroslav, but he was warned of danger by his sister Predslava. Meanwhile Jaroslav quarrelled with the inhabitants of Novgorod: the reason of the quarrel was obvious preference of Jaroslav and his wife, the Swedish princess Ingigerda (the daughter of the Swedish king Olav Svetkokung), to the hired team of vikings. Considering the struggle against Svjatopolk inevitable, Jaroslav searched for the reconciliation with inhabitants of Novgorod; and they easily agreed to go with him against the brother; to refuse the help to the prince would mean to them to renew the dependent relations with Kiev and to accept from there the manager; besides Jaroslav could return from the sea with vikings and revenge to Novgorod. Having collected about 40 thousands of soldiers from Novgorod and several thousands of vikings (mercenaries who was hired before for the war with the father) Jaroslav moved against Svjatopolk, who called pechenegi for the help, Jaroslav defeated Svjatopolk in the big battle under the city of Ljubech, entered Kiev and got the grand-ducal throne (1016) then he generously awarded the inhabitants of Novgorod and let them to go home.
But Svjatopolk didnt want to be defeated, and in 1018 together with his father-in-law, the Polish king Boleslav Hrabrym who was glad to cause a distemper in Russia and to weaken it, he invade in Russia. Together with Poles came the teams of Germans, Hungarians and pechenegi. Polish king himself was in the head of the armies. This time Svjatopol was lucky and managed to defeat Jaroslav in the battle near Bug and to beat off Kiev. Jaroslav ran to Novgorod and was going to go to Scandinavia from there. But inhabitants of Novgorod had chopped the prince`s boats and made Jaroslav to continue the struggle. Boleslav gave Kiev to Svjatopolk (1017), but he himself left Kiev soon, having learned about Jaroslav's new preparations. Jaroslav with a new greater army defeated Svjatopolk and his allies pechenegi, on the river Alto (1019), the place where Boris had been killed. Svjatopolk ran to Poland and died on the way there. the same year Jaroslav became the grand duke of Kiev.
In 1021 the nephew of Jaroslav, Brjachislav Izjaslavich the prince of Polotsk, declared the claims to a part of Novgorod`s areas; having been refused, he attacked Novgorod, captured and plundered it. Having heard about Jaroslav's approach, Brjachislav left Novgorod with the great amount of captives and hostages. Jaroslav caught up with them in the Pskov`s area, on the river Sudom, he won and released the captured inhabitants of Novgorod. After that victory Jaroslav made peace with Brjachislav, having given up to him Vitebsk volost.
Hardly had ended that war, Jaroslav began more difficult struggle against the younger brother Mstislav from Tmutarakan.. That aggressive prince demanded from Jaroslav the half of Russian lands and approached with his army to Kiev (1024.) at that time Jaroslav was in Novgorod and in the north, in Suzdal, where was the famine and the strong mutiny caused by volhvi "sorcerers." In Novgorod Jaroslav collected the big army against Mstislav and called for hired vikings, under command of notable hero Jakun the Blind. Jaroslav's army met the army of Mstislav at a place Listven (near Chernigov) and in severe fight it was defeated. Jaroslav left to Novgorod again. Mstislav sent people to tell him that he recognized his seniority and did not want to get Kiev. Jaroslav did not trust the brother and returned there having collected a strong army in the north; then he made the peace with the brother at Gorodets (possibly, near Kiev) where Russian lands was divided into two parts (on the river Dnepr): the Areas on the eastern part of Dnepr went to Mstislav, and on the western one - to Jaroslav (1025.) In 1035 Mstislav died and Jaroslav started to rule Russia . The same year Jaroslav placed in prison his brother Sudislav, the prince of Pskov. The reason of anger of Jaroslav with the brother is unknown.
By that time all Russian areas were in Jaroslav's hands, except Polotsk princedom. Besides that specified wars connected with prince`s intestines, Jaroslav had to make a lot of campaigns against external enemies; almost all his reigning was filled with wars.
In 1017 - he successfully reflected an attack of pechenegi to Kiev and then struggled with them, as with allies of Svjatopolk Damned.
Its written in the chronicles that in 1036 there was an attack of pechenegi in Kiev, while Jaroslav having been gone out to Novgorod. Having received the news about that attack, Jaroslav hastened there and defeated pechenegi under the walls of Kiev. After that the attacks of pechenegi to Russia stopped.
Also known Jaroslav's campaigns to the north, against Finns.
In 1030 Jaroslav went with the war to Chud` and asserted his power on the coast of the lake Chudskoe; he founded a town there and named it Jur`ev, in honour of his own angel (Jaroslav's Christian name - George or Jury).
In 1042 Jaroslav sent his son Vladimir to the campaign to Yam; the campaign was successful, but Vladimir's army returned almost without horses, because a lot of horses died from disease.
It is known about the campaign of Russians to the Ural ridge, under the leadership of Uleb (1032.) On the western borders Jaroslav conducted wars with Lithuania and Poland. In 1022 Jaroslav went to besiege Brest, but it is not known if it was successful or not; in 1031 with brother Mstislav he captured the cities of chervensk and brought many Polish captives to Russia whom he settled near the river Ros` in small towns to defend the lands from steppe nomads. Several times Jaroslav went to Poland to help the king Kazimiru for the suppression of the revolts; the last campaign was in 1047. Jaroslav's reigning was marked by the last hostile armed clash of Russia with Greeks. One of Russian merchants was killed in the quarrel with Greeks. Having not recieved the satisfaction for the insult, Jaroslav sent to Byzantium the big fleet (1043), under the command of his senior son - Vladimir of Novgorod and the military leader Vyshata. The storm divided Russian ships; Vladimir annihilated the Greek`s fleet, but Vyshata had been surrounded and taken in the captivity at the Varna town. In 1046 the peace was made; the captured from both sides were returned, and the bonds of friendship was tighten by the marriage of Jaroslav`s favourite son Vsevolod with Greek`s tsarevna. As we can see from the chronicles Jaroslav hadn`t left such enviable memory, as his father.
After Listvenskaja battle Jaroslav's activity mostly was connected with enlightenment and christianity of Russia. Probably, the one of the reasons of his refusal from the military activity (so habitual for princes at that time) became the serious trauma which he got during the struggle against his brothers: the examination of his remains showed that his leg had been chopped and the prince should had been limping hard and probably in the end of his life could hardly go without the assistance.
Jaroslav's reigning was important as the epoch of the maximum prosperity of Kiev`s Russia but after that it quickly began to fall into decay. He promoted a lot the dissemination of the christianity in Russia and consider the development of education and the training of clerics from Russians to be necessary for that purpose.
In 1036-37 the powerful fortifications were constructed under his order (« Jaroslav's city »), he decorated Kiev with many beautiful constructions, built around it the new stone walls, having placed inside them the well-known Golden Gates (as imitation of the similar ones in Tsargrad), and placed above them the church in honour of the Lady day. the temple of sacred Sofia (in the place of the victory over pechenegi) and also sacred George and Irina's monasteries (in honour of an angel of the spouse) was also built under Jaroslav. the prototypes of these constructions were architectural constructions of Constantinople and Jerusalem; they symbolized the moving of the center of the orthodox world to Kiev.
There is the favourable mention about Jaroslav's educational activity in «the Story of time years». Jaroslav exerted a lot of his powers for an inner system of orthodox church and successful development of Christian belief.
In the field of the foreign policy Jaroslav achieved the strengthening of the international authority of the Old russian state. in the end of his reigning (about 1050) it was necessary to put a new metropolit, Jaroslav ordered to Russian bishops to take as a metropolit the one of the priests from the village Berestov - Illarion, who was Russian, wishing to remove the dependence of Russian spiritual Hierarchy on Byzantium. To foster in people the beginning of Christian belief, Jaroslav ordered to translate hand-written books from Greek to slavic and even himself bought many of them . These manuscripts Jaroslav placed in the library of Sofia`s cathedral constructed by him for the common use. For the dissemination of the reading and writing Jaroslav ordered to the clergy to teach the children, and in Novgorod, by the latest annalistic data, he arranged the school for 300 boys. Under Jaroslav the church singers had arrived to Russia from Byzantium who taught Russian church how to sing in eight voices. But mostly Jaroslav was known as the legislator.
Jaroslav's time was an epoch of the active relations with the states of the West. Jaroslav had the family ties with Normen: he had been married to Swedish princess Ingigerda (in Orthodoxy Irina), and Norwegian prince Garald Courageous had got married to his daughter Elizabeth.The several sons of Jaroslav also were married to foreign princesses (Vsevolod, Svyatoslav). Princes and notable Normens found a shelter and protection at Jaroslav (Olav the Sacred, Magnus the Kind, Garald the Courageous); viking`s dealers used his special protection. The sister of Jaroslav Maria got married to Kazimir Polish, his second daughter Anna got married to Henry 1 French, his third daughter Anastasia got married to Andrey 1 Hungarian. There is some information about his connection with English kings and about the staying of two English princes at Jaroslav's court yard who had been seek refuge. Jaroslav's capital Kiev seem to the western foreigners to be the rival to Constantinople. Jaroslav died in Vishgorod (near Kiev), being 76 years old (in 1054), having shared Russian lands between his sons. Before his death Jaroslav bequeathed the Kiev throne to the senior of the sons, to the Novgorod prince Izjaslav, telling to his sons to live in the peace.
The nickname "Wise" was attached to Jaroslav in the official Russian historiography only in the second half of 19 century.
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