1045 years ago, in March 972, the great Russian prince, one of the creators of the Russian state (First Russian Empire) Svyatoslav Igorevich, died. According to the official version, Svyatoslav with a small detachment was returning after the war with Byzantium, fell into a Pecheneg ambush and died.
The Russian chronicle “The Tale of Bygone Years” reports: “When spring came, Svyatoslav went to the rapids. And Kurya, the prince of Pecheneg, attacked him, and they killed Svyatoslav, and took his head, and made a cup from the skull, bound it, and drank from it. Sveneld came to Kyiv to Yaropolk.”
The Byzantine historian Leo the Deacon writes about this in his: “Sfendoslav left Doristol, returned the prisoners according to the agreement and sailed with the remaining comrades, heading his way to his homeland. On the way, they were ambushed by the Patsinaki - a large nomadic tribe that eats lice, carries dwellings with them and spends most of their lives in carts. They killed almost all [the Ros], killing Sfendoslav along with the others, so that only a few of the huge army of the Ros returned unharmed to their native places.”
Starting with N.M. Karamzin, it was generally accepted that it was Byzantine diplomacy that convinced the Pechenegs to attack Svyatoslav: “The then policy of the Emperors did not know generosity: foreseeing that Svyatoslav would not leave them alone for long, almost the Greeks themselves instructed the Pechenegs to take advantage of the weakness Russian troops"("History of the Russian State." Vol. 1).
Svyatoslav
Russian Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich is one of the most prominent rulers and commanders of Rus'-Russia. It’s not for nothing that he suffered greatly from liberals (supporters of the pro-Western, “classical” version of history) and Marxist historians, who called him a warrior prince, an “adventurer” who put his personal glory and the search for booty for the squad above the state, national interests of Russia. As a result, his adventurous campaigns led to a heavy defeat from the Roman (Byzantine) army and the death of the prince himself.
The general conclusion was this: “Svyatoslav was an example of a warrior, but not an example of a sovereign. He left the Russian land for distant exploits, glorious for him, but not always useful for Rus'. He was almost not a prince on his land; his mother ruled for him. Svyatoslav broke away from Rus', acted only with one of his squads, and did not rally the united forces of all tribes, which could have, with the great talent of Svyatoslav himself, been of great importance for the fate of the Kyiv state, and perhaps for the entire of Eastern Europe"("Pages of the Government of the Russian State." 1990).
Obviously, this is a superficial look at the military-political activities of Prince Svyatoslav. It fits into the version of the history of Rus'-Russia by Westerners, according to which the history of Russia is secondary and peripheral in relation to the history of Western Europe. They say that Rus' is “Asia”, a “barbarian country”, which was introduced to civilization by the “Viking Swedes” (Scandinavians, Germans). Then the invasion of the “Mongol-Tatars” again threw Rus' back into the past, and only Peter I “cut a window to Europe.” And only by following the Western path of development (Western matrix) will Russia someday be able to reach the level of development and prosperity of, for example, Poland or Portugal. Therefore, it is necessary to discard “Great Russian chauvinism” and urgently repent of the sins of the “bloody” Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible, Joseph Stalin and other Russian rulers and statesmen. Forget about the great Russian history, which supposedly never happened. Allegedly, the entire history of Russia is full of mistakes, blunders, adventurism, blood, dirt, ignorance and drunkenness. The story of the “prince-adventurer” Svyatoslav, who “left his homeland for the sake of glory and exploits,” fits well into this line.
However, there is another view on Svyatoslav’s state activities. As one of the leading Soviet and Russian historians, a specialist in the history of diplomacy, noted, foreign policy and the ideology of Ancient Rus' A. N. Sakharov: “Strikingly, the whole life of Svyatoslav, as we know it from the Russian chronicle, from Byzantine sources, appeared in the form of one continuous challenge to the Byzantine Empire, a fierce and uncompromising challenge, which became his glory and his tragedy. Having barely taken up and led the Kyiv squad, he ultimately directed all his campaigns towards the fight against the empire. It would be naive to think that this struggle was explained only by Svyatoslav’s personal feelings. Behind the confrontation between the two countries were their common socio-economic and political interests, the laws of social development.”
The military-strategic, socio-economic interests of Rus' were also behind Svyatoslav’s uncompromising struggle against the Khazars, which the Russian chronicle (written already in the Christian era and edited in the interests of the Christianized elite of Rus') characterizes very briefly and dispassionately: “Svyatoslav went to the Kozars.” As A. N. Sakharov writes: behind the laconic and dispassionate phrase from the chronicle “there is a whole era of liberation of the East Slavic lands from the yoke of the Khazars, the transformation of the confederation of East Slavic tribes into a single Old Russian state. It was a time of consolidation and self-affirmation, new foreign policy contacts and searches for new trade routes, and Khazaria was traditionally an enemy in this formation of Rus', a constant, persistent, cruel and treacherous enemy. ... Everywhere, wherever possible, Khazaria opposed Rus', blocked its path to the East, forming here a powerful anti-Russian bloc consisting of the Volga Bulgaria, the Burtases, other Pook and Volga tribes, and some peoples of the North Caucasus. Still eastern Slavic tribe The Vyatichi was dependent on the Kaganate... The struggle of Rus' against the eternal rival, behind which Byzantium stood for many decades, was difficult. They had to endure the Sarkel fortress near their borders, they had to endure treacherous attacks on the routes returning from the East. For more than a hundred years, step by step, Rus' pushed the Khazar Khaganate aside from its destinies, but even until the middle of the 10th century, Khazaria, although weakening and isolated, was one of the main enemies of the rising Slavs.”
“...The campaign was over: the main goal was achieved - Khazaria was crushed. The Russian army drew a huge triangle in these parts between the points Itil - Semender - Sarkel, between the mouth of the Volga, the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea, and the lower reaches of the Don. In the north were the defeated Bulgars and Burtases. With its eastern corner, this triangle faced the Azov Sea, the Taman Peninsula, the Cimmerian Bosporus - the Kerch Strait, where Russian settlements have long been located. From here it was a stone's throw to the Crimean possessions of Byzantium. ... Essentially, Svyatoslav spent three years on campaign and during this time he subjugated a vast territory from the Oka forests to the grapevine Semender to his influence. ... Svyatoslav’s campaign finally put an end to the Khazar yoke over the East Slavic lands, liberated the Vyatichi tribe from the influence of the Khazars, removed from the path a powerful military barrier that blocked the paths of the Russian merchants to the East, eliminated the force that was always ready to stab Rus' in the back during its military enterprises in the south and east. Now in the Northern Black Sea region, near the mouth of the Dnieper, on the Taman Peninsula, Rus' could not fear pressure from the Khazars. The Volga and North Caucasus allies of Khazaria also received a very clear military lesson. The entire situation in the region has changed dramatically. Rus' came to the fore here, regaining the positions lost during numerous steppe invasions” (A. N. Sakharov. “We are from the Russian family...” L., 1986.).
And the activities of Prince Svyatoslav were very impressive: “the huge Khazar empire was defeated and disappeared forever from political map Europe. The paths to the East were cleared; Volga Bulgaria ceased to be a hostile barrier and, in addition, Sarkel and Tmutarakan, two most important cities in the southeast, became Russian centers. The balance of forces in the half-Byzantine, half-Khazar Crimea also changed, where Kerch (Korchev) also became a Russian city” (B. A. Rybakov. “The Birth of Rus'.” M., 2012). A hundred years later, Russian Prince Gleb, the great-great-grandson of Svyatoslav, measured the frozen Kerch Strait and left a famous inscription about how he “measured the sea on ice from Tmutarakan to Korchev.”
Then Svyatoslav continued the struggle, solving national problems of strengthening in the Northern Black Sea region and the Balkans (in the distant future, the same problems will be solved by the Russian tsars and Secretary General Stalin, showing that rulers can change, but the strategic tasks of Russian civilization and people remain the same). The assessment of the war between Rus' and Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire) was distorted already at that time, which was due to the incompleteness of information in Russian chronicles and the extreme bias of Greek (Byzantine) sources, which sought to portray the Russians as “wild barbarians”, “Tavro-Scythians”, enemies of the Bulgarians, who invaded Bulgaria, and the Byzantines (Romans) as friends and liberators of the Bulgarians. Greek sources are full of omissions, contradictions, obvious lies (for example, the loss of Rus and Romans in battles, when for one defeated Roman there were hundreds and thousands of killed Rus and other “barbarians”) and a clear reluctance to recognize the anti-Byzantine alliance of Russians with the Bulgarians. Although this alliance was revealed already at the first appearance of Russian squads on the Danube, when 80 Bulgarian cities went over to Svyatoslav’s side. These principles of policy of the rulers of the West have remained unchanged for more than a thousand years. Westerners are rewriting history in their own interests, turning black into white, and white into black.
Svyatoslav expanded the possessions of Rus' to Pereyaslavets on the Danube, the “island of the Rus”, formed by a bend and the great delta European river, the sea and the “Trajan Wall”, where the Ulichi Rus (one of the predecessors of the later Cossacks) lived. Svyatoslav himself was very pleased with the new land, where he moved in 967-969. “We don’t like to live in Kiev,” Svyatoslav said to his mother Olga and the boyars. “I want to live in Pereyaslavtsi in the Danube, as that is the environment of my land...” Thus, Svyatoslav founded a new residence of the Grand Duke on the Danube, securing a new, very advantageous position at the crossroads of different paths.
Russian and Bulgarian troops, with the support of their allies (Pechenegs, Hungarians), drove the Byzantine-Romans out of Bulgaria, and also defeated the treacherous pro-Byzantine Bulgarian party. The allies then launched a broad offensive along the entire northern border of the Byzantine Empire. Svyatoslav's troops crossed the Balkans, crossed the Byzantine border and took Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv). One of the decisive battles in Thrace, when Svyatoslav’s soldiers met with superior enemy forces, was colorfully described by the Russian chronicler: “Let us not disgrace the Russian land, but lie down with bones, dead, for there is no shame in the imam. If we run away, shame on the imam. The imam should not run away, but let us stand strong, and I will go before you; If my head falls, then think for yourself.” And Rus' became angry, pressed down, and Svyatoslav prevailed, and the Greeks fled.
True, another part of the army, dominated by Russian allies - Bulgarians, Pechenegs and Hungarians, was defeated near Arcadiopolis. But it was not this battle that decided the outcome of the war in 970. All sources telling about the Russian-Byzantine war: the Tale of Bygone Years, Leo the Deacon, and other Byzantine chronicles unanimously report that in the summer of 970 the Greeks asked for peace. Obviously, the winners of the world do not ask. If the core of Svyatoslav’s army was defeated and fled near Arcadiopolis, it is clear that the Greeks (Romans) would have no need to seek a peace agreement with the Russian prince. Tzimiskes had to organize the pursuit of the defeated enemy and finish him off. In terms of finishing off an already defeated enemy, the Romans were great masters and they knew no mercy towards the defeated.
Thus, Svyatoslav won the decisive battle. And he moved “towards the city, fighting and destroying cities... And the king called his Bolyars into the camp, and said to them: “What will we do, since we cannot resist him?” The Byzantines decided to ask for peace. And this meant that Svyatoslav defeated the main forces of the enemy, and moved towards Constantinople-Constantinople, “breaking” other “cities” along the way. At first the Romans failed. Svyatoslav promised to pitch his tents “in front of the Byzantine gates.” Then the Greeks offered the Russian prince gold and pavoloks, but Svyatoslav showed indifference to them. John Tzimiskes again sends his people to the prince and prays for peace. This time, according to Russian sources, the ambassadors offered weapons as gifts. Svyatoslav was delighted with such gifts. This made it possible to stop the advance of Russian troops on Constantinople. The Russians had only 4 days left to reach Constantinople. The Romans agreed with the consolidation of Svyatoslav on the Danube and with the need to pay tribute. Svyatoslav: “I took many gifts and returned to Pereyaslavets with great praise.”
The Romans deceived and did not keep peace. Taking advantage of the respite, they mobilized new forces (Tzimiskes recalled troops from the Middle East), prepared a fleet, and in 971 launched a counteroffensive. But Svyatoslav sent away the allied troops, and was not ready for a new campaign. Obviously, Svyatoslav did not expect that the enemy would recover from defeats so quickly and immediately violate the agreement. The passages in the mountains turned out to be open and were not guarded. It is unknown whose miscalculation it was - the Bulgarians or the Russian garrison in the Bulgarian capital Preslav. Perhaps the pro-Byzantine group in Bulgaria itself worked. The result is known. A huge and well-armed Byzantine army calmly surrounded Veliki Preslav, where the Bulgarian Tsar Boris and the Russian detachment led by Sveneld were located. After a desperate assault, the Romans broke the resistance of a small Russian-Bulgarian garrison and took the city. At the same time, part of Sveneld’s squad managed to break out of the encirclement.
The Byzantine army began the occupation of Bulgaria. Tzimiskes gave the Bulgarian capital and many other cities and fortresses to be plundered by his army. Then the Greeks went to the Danube, where Svyatoslav stood with a small army in the Dorostol fortress. This time the enemy had a complete advantage: the ground forces blocked the fortress from the land, the fleet from the river. A number of major battles took place here, and in some cases literally a miracle (natural disaster) saved the Romans from defeat. For more than two months, the army of Tzimiskes unsuccessfully besieged Dorostol. Both armies were exhausted in fierce battles and did not achieve victory. Then negotiations began. Tzimiskes, fearing problems in the rear and new battles with the Russians, who even in small numbers fought the enemy on equal terms, happily signed peace. Peace was honorable. Svyatoslav pledged not to fight with Byzantium and left with great booty. Read more in the articles: ; ; .
With the departure of Svyatoslav from Bulgaria, the independence of the Eastern Bulgarian Kingdom fell (Western Bulgaria retained its independence). The Romans occupied the main cities, renamed them, humiliated the Bulgarians and deprived them of statehood. Tsar Boris was overthrown, together with his brother Roman, whom the Greeks castrated, he was taken to Constantinople and took part in the solemn triumph that Tzimiskes arranged for himself. The crown of the Bulgarian kings was given to the Church of St. Sophia, then in the imperial palace Boris laid aside the royal insignia - precious clothes, royal shoes. Broken, drenched in blood, robbed and humiliated, Bulgaria lost its independence for two centuries. All this was the result of the treacherous policy of the pro-Byzantine ruling circles.
Obviously, Svyatoslav was not an “adventurer” who “wandered” the steppes in search of glory. He solved the main national problems of Rus'. As B. A. Rybakov noted: “His Volga-Khazar campaign was vitally important for the young state of Rus', and his actions on the Danube and the Balkans were a manifestation of friendship and solidarity with the people of Bulgaria, whom Svyatoslav helped defend both their capital and their king, and political independence from the encroachments of Byzantium. ... In relation to Rus', all the rapid activity of Svyatoslav was not only not inattention to its interests or an unconscious desire to “abuse” or neglect it, but, on the contrary, everything was designed to solve large state problems that required the exertion of all forces. The most important task, which consisted of ensuring security from Khazar Khaganate, was resolved quite successfully. The second task - the creation of a peaceful trading bridgehead on the western coast of the Russian Sea (as the Black Sea was then called - A.S.), in collaboration with Bulgaria - was not completed...” But this is not Svyatoslav’s fault. The Russian tsars will solve this problem for centuries and will never complete the great task (the capture of Constantinople). Svyatoslav could have continued the fight, restoring his strength in Rus', but he was eliminated.
To be continued…
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Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich (Brave) - conqueror of the Vyatichi and conqueror of the Khazars
The Grand Duke of Kiev Svyatoslav Igorevich (born in 940 - died in 972) is, without exaggeration, the most desperate warrior in the history of medieval Rus'. He was the son of his cruel time, and it is certainly not worth judging the actions of this warlike monarch from a modern point of view. The prince fits little into the ethical canons today, like, indeed, all his contemporaries. At the same time, Svyatoslav would look ideal in the Ukrainian version of “Games of Thrones” as one of the most striking characters and colorful characters.
The Great Kiev Prince Svyatoslav (Brave) is the first great Kiev prince with a Slavic name, which even historians themselves cannot give an unambiguous assessment of. So,
What became famous for the great Kiev prince Svyatoslav Igorevich, whose monuments were installed in many cities of Ukraine?
1. Expansion of territory Kievan Rus due to the annexation of the Vyatichi lands to Kyiv (modern Smolensk, Moscow, Tula, Voronezh region RF).
2. The defeat and robbery of numerous neighbors - Volga Bulgaria, the Khazar Khaganate and the invasion of the Balkans, where he was ultimately defeated by Byzantium. He was killed by the Pechenegs on the island of Khortitsa on the Dnieper, when he was returning with a small squad from his failed campaign in Bulgaria.
From these 2 points, Professor Solovyov’s sarcasm about the “great warrior” and “the uselessness of his deeds for his native land” becomes clear. Yes, in that era, all the great national heroes of other countries, at first glance, acted in exactly the same way, but they not only smashed, ruined and weakened their neighbors, but also held this territory, annexing it to their state. So,
The son of the wise Christian princess Olga and Prince Igor, Svyatoslav was raised by the Vikings Sveneld and Asmud, which, together with the veneration of pagan idols, instilled in him a belligerence unusual for a Slav. From the age of 10, the prince was taken to numerous battles, where the boy had to fully master all the military wisdom of that harsh time. With Svyatoslav, his father’s friend, governor Sveneld, was constantly present, who, to the best of his ability, introduced the young man to military affairs.
Each year of the young prince's reign was marked by a new war. Under him, the Russians turned into very dangerous neighbors for literally everyone. Svyatoslav never looked for serious reasons to start hostilities, he simply sent a messenger ahead of him with the laconic message “I’m coming to you.” It was in this way that he subjugated the Slavic tribe of the Vyatichi, defeated the Volga Bulgaria and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Khazar Kaganate. The ancient Russian troops not only put an end to their long-standing and powerful enemy (the Khazars took tribute from the Slavs even before Prince Oleg arrived in Kyiv), but also demonstrated their extraordinary strength to the whole world by capturing the impregnable fortresses of Itil and Sarkel. At the same time, Svyatoslav and his close warriors gained control of a busy trade route along the Volga with access to the Caspian Sea.
For all his adventurism, the prince, like his Varangian entourage, remained a calm pragmatist. Having imposed tribute on the peoples in the east, he turned his gaze to the southwest - to the Balkans. Svyatoslav’s dream was to take into his own hands the entire “Road from the Varangians to the Greeks,” which would promise him fabulous profits.
In light of such plans, the offer of the Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros Phocas to help suppress the uprising of the Danube Bulgarians, subject to Constantinople, came in very handy. The Emperor of Byzantium Nicephorus Phocas, wanting to take revenge on the Bulgarians for conniving with the Hungarians who attacked his country, promised great gifts if the prince opposed Bulgaria. In 967, Svyatoslav, having received several pounds of gold, captured the Danube cities with 60,000 soldiers. Together with his faithful companions Sveneld, Sfenkel, Ikmor and his retinue, the prince crossed the snowy passes, captured the Bulgarian capital Preslava and captured the local king Boris.
The extreme cruelty with which the victors treated the enslaved became legendary. Slavic people, sparing neither mothers nor babies. The Tsar of Bulgaria soon died of grief, and Svyatoslav sat down to reign in the Bulgarian city of Pereyaslavts. “I don’t like Kiev, I want to live on the Danube, in Pereyaslavets. That town is the middle of my land!” - he said to his mother and boyars.
Of course, Constantinople could not tolerate Kiev’s power strengthening in the Balkans. Ahead of Prince Svyatoslav was the most difficult war in his life - a war with the only superpower of that time, the great Byzantine Empire. It was then, in a battle with the strongest enemy, that all the heroic qualities of Prince Svyatoslav and his brave warriors appeared.
The main feat of Prince Svyatoslav was the war with Byzantium.
As one might expect, the Byzantines had a slightly different opinion regarding the limits of the domain of the unruly prince. In Constantinople, they had long been perplexed as to why he did not leave the borders of their empire. When the skilled military leader John Tzimiskes sat on the throne of Constantinople, the Byzantines decided to move from words to deeds.
First clash with the army of John Tzimiskes near Adrianople ended in victory for the Russian prince. The chronicler Nestor cites a legend about the gifts presented to him after the battle: “Tzimiskes, in fear, in bewilderment, called the nobles for advice and decided to tempt the enemy with gifts, gold and precious silks; he sent them with a cunning man and ordered him to observe all the movements of Svyatoslav. But this prince did not want to look at the gold laid at his feet, and indifferently said to his youths: take it. Then the emperor sent him a gift of weapons: the hero grabbed it with lively pleasure, expressing gratitude, and Tzimiskes, not daring to fight such an enemy, paid him. tribute".
After concluding a peace treaty with the Greeks, the Kiev prince made a number of strategic mistakes: he did not occupy the mountain passes through the Balkans, did not block the mouth of the Danube, and divided his army into two parts, placing them in Preslav and Dorostol. The self-confident commander, apparently, relied heavily on his military luck, but this time he was opposed by a very competent and experienced enemy. John Tzimiskes in 971 sent a large fleet (300 ships) to the mouth of the Danube with the goal of cutting off the path of retreat for Svyatoslav’s troops. The emperor himself, under whose command were 13 thousand horsemen, 15 thousand infantrymen, 2 thousand of his personal guard ("immortals"), as well as a huge convoy with battering and flame-throwing vehicles, crossed the mountain passes without any difficulties and entered the operational space. The Bulgarians, who lived for several years under the rule of Svyatoslav, gladly supported the civilized Byzantines. With his first blow, Tzimiskes captured Preslava, while the remnants of the defeated Russians, led by governor Sfenkel, barely had time to retreat to Dorostol. The time has come for the decisive battle.
First battle near Dorostol took place on April 23, 971. The Greeks approached Svyatoslav's residence. Their troops outnumbered the Russians besieged in Dorostol several times, while the Byzantines had obvious advantage in weapons, combat equipment and equipment. They were led by experienced commanders who had studied all the intricacies of military art from ancient Roman treatises. Despite this, Svyatoslav’s warriors boldly met the attackers in an open field, “closing their shields and spears like a wall.” So they withstood 12 attacks by the Byzantines (in the last one the emperor himself led the heavy cavalry into battle) and retreated under the protection of the city walls. It is believed that the first battle ended in a draw: the Greeks were unable to immediately defeat the Russian squad, but Svyatoslav also realized that this time he was faced with a serious opponent. This conviction was only strengthened the next day, when the prince saw the huge Byzantine battering machines installed opposite the fortress walls. And on April 25, the Byzantine fleet also approached the Danube, finally slamming the deadly trap. On this day, for the first time in his life, Svyatoslav did not answer the call; the troops of Tzimiskes waited in vain for the Russians in the field, returning to their camp with nothing.
Second battle near Dorostol took place on April 26. Voivode Sfenkel died in it. Fearing to be cut off from the city by the Byzantine cavalry, the Russians again retreated under the protection of the fortress walls. A grueling siege began, during which Svyatoslav’s warriors were able to undertake a number of daring forays, and the Byzantine guns nevertheless made a breach in the wall. Three months passed like this.
Third fight passed on July 20 and again without a definite result. Having lost one of the commanders, the Russians “threw their shields on their backs” and disappeared into the city gates. Among the dead enemies, the Greeks were surprised to find women dressed in chain mail, fighting on an equal basis with men. Everything spoke of a crisis in the besieged camp. The next day, a military council met in Dorostol, where it was decided what to do next: try to break through or fight to the death. Prince Svyatoslav said to his commanders: “Grandfathers and fathers bequeathed brave deeds to us! Let us stand strong. We do not have the custom of saving ourselves by shameful flight. Either we will remain alive and win, or we will die with glory! The dead have no shame, and having run away from the battle, as we show in front of people? That's what everyone agreed on.
Fourth fight. On July 24, the Russians entered the fourth battle, which was to be their last. Svyatoslav ordered the city gates to be locked so that no one in the army would think about retreat. Tzimiskes came out with an army to meet them. During the battle, the Russians held firm; they had no reserves and were very tired. The Byzantines, on the contrary, could replace attacking units; soldiers emerging from battle were refreshed with wine by order of the emperor. Finally, as a result of simulating flight, the Greeks were able to withdraw the enemy away from the walls of Dorostol, after which the detachment of Varda Sklir was able to go to the rear of Svyatoslav’s army. At the cost of huge losses, the Russians still managed to retreat to the city. The next morning, the prince invited John Tzimiskes to begin peace negotiations. The Greeks, not wanting to lose any more of their people, agreed to Svyatoslav’s proposals and agreed to let his army go home with weapons, and even supply them with bread for the journey. The prince vowed not to fight with Constantinople anymore. After the peace was signed, a personal meeting of the commanders took place. The emperor was not immediately able to recognize the ruler of Rus', who sailed up to him on a boat, sitting at the oars along with ordinary warriors. Of the 60,000-strong army that Svyatoslav led to Bulgaria, approximately 22,000 people remained alive at that time.
On the way to Kyiv, Svyatoslav’s weakened army was ambushed by Pecheneg nomads on the island of Khortitsa. The Russians fought bravely, but, unfortunately, the forces were unequal. Svyatoslav, who died in battle, had his head cut off, and a cup was made from his skull for his khans. This is how the glorious warrior ended his journey, about whom the chronicler said: “Having sought someone else’s, he lost his own.”
Biography of Prince Svyatoslav.
940 (approximately) - Prince of Kiev Svyatoslav Igorevich was born.
945 - after the death of his father, he became the nominal ruler of Kievan Rus.
961 - Princess Olga ceases to be regent, and Svyatoslav becomes the sovereign ruler of all ancient Russian lands.
964 - Svyatoslav undertook a campaign on the Oka River, where he subjugated the Slavic tribe of the Vyatichi to his power.
964-967 - the prince and his army won whole line victories over the Volga Bulgars, Burtases and Khazars, destroyed the powerful citadel of Sarkel, and advanced to the Cimmerian Bosporus. He also went on devastating campaigns to North Caucasus, where he defeated the Yas and Kasog tribes. Returning, he destroyed the last Khazar fortress of Semender.
967 - Svyatoslav set out on his first campaign against Danube Bulgaria. Svyatoslav defeated the Bulgarians in battle and, having taken 80 of their cities along the Danube, sat down to reign in Pereyaslavets, taking tribute, including from the Greeks.
968 – taking advantage of Svyatoslav’s absence, the Pechenegs approached Kyiv. The prince and his retinue had to hastily return from the campaign to drive the nomads away from the capital.
969 - Svyatoslav put Yaropolk in Kyiv, Oleg with the Drevlyans, Vladimir sent to reign in Novgorod, and he himself sailed to Bulgaria to Pereyaslavets. Then he returned to Bulgaria, where he hardly suppressed the uprising of the local population.
970 - the war moved to Thrace, as Svyatoslav began to advance on Constantinople. The Russians captured Philippopolis and Tzimiskes, concerned about the rebellion of the commander Vardas Phokas that began in his rear, agreed to pay a large tribute to the northern “guests”.
971 - John Tzimiskes returned to Bulgaria with his army, renewing the war. The Byzantines captured Preslava, and many Bulgarian cities recognized their authority over them. Svyatoslav with the remnants of the army locked himself behind the walls of Dorostol. A months-long defense of the city began.
972 - returning from Bulgaria to Ukraine, Prince Svyatoslav was attacked by the Pechenegs and was killed. According to one version, the Byzantines sent a message to the Pechenegs: “Behold, Svyatoslav with a small squad is coming past you to Rus', having taken from the Greeks a lot of wealth and countless prisoners.”
Historical memory of Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich.
Monuments to Prince Svyatoslav were erected in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Zaporozhye and Mariupol, in the village. Starye Petrivtsi, as well as in the village. Kholki, Belgorod region of the Russian Federation.
A memorial sign is located at the probable place of the prince’s death on the island. Khortitsa.
There are streets named in honor of Svyatoslav the Brave in Dnepropetrovsk, Lvov, Stryi, Chernigov, Radekhov, Shepetovka.
In 2002 The National Bank of Ukraine issued a commemorative silver coin with a face value of 10 hryvnia, dedicated to Prince Svyatoslav.
Prince Svyatoslav on social networks.
129 videos found in Odnoklassniki.
On Youtube, the search for “Prince Svyatoslav” has 8,850 responses.
How often do Yandex users from Ukraine look for information about Svyatoslav the Brave?
To analyze the popularity of the query “Svyatoslav the Brave”, the Yandex search engine service wordstat.yandex is used, from which we can conclude: as of March 17, 2016, the number of queries for the month was 16,116, as can be seen in the screenshot.
Since the end of 2014, the largest number of requests for “Svyatoslav the Brave” was registered in September 2014 – 33,572 requests per month.
SVYATOSLAV!
"HUSBAND OF BLOOD"
(PRINCE SVYATOSLAV IGOREVICH)
Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich left a bright mark on Russian history. He ruled the Kyiv land for only 8 years, but these few years were well remembered for many subsequent centuries, and Prince Svyatoslav himself became a model of military valor and courage for many generations of Russian people. The first time his name thundered in the Russian chronicle was in 946. After the death of Prince Igor’s father in the Drevlyan land, he, then a three-year-old boy, was the first to begin the battle with the rebel Drevlyans, riding out in front of the Kyiv regiments and throwing a combat spear towards the enemy. And although, thrown by a weak child’s hand, it fell to the ground in front of the feet of his own horse, even then this act of Svyatoslav meant a lot. Not a prince, but a prince! Not a boy, but a warrior! And the words of the old grunt-voivodes, recorded by the chronicler and needing no translation, sound symbolically: “The prince has already begun. Let’s fight, squad, according to the prince!”
Svyatoslav’s teacher and mentor was the Varangian Asmud, who taught his young pupil to be the first in battle and hunting, to stay firmly in the saddle, control a boat, swim, and hide from enemy eyes both in the forest and in the steppe. Apparently, Princess Olga could not find a better mentor for her son than Uncle Asmud - he raised him to be a real warrior. The art of military leadership was taught to Svyatoslav by the chief Kyiv governor Sveneld. There is no doubt that this Varangian only limited the prince’s extraordinary talent, explaining to him the tricks of military science. Svyatoslav was a bright, original commander, who intuitively sensed the high symphony of battle, who knew how to instill courage in his troops with decisive words and personal example, and who could predict the actions and deeds of his enemies.
And Svyatoslav learned another lesson from the instructions of his governor-educators - to always be at one with his squad. For this reason, he rejected the offer of his mother, Princess Olga, who converted to Christianity in 855 and wanted to baptize her son as well. The Kyiv warriors, who revered Perun, were opposed to the new faith, and Svyatoslav remained with his knights.
“When Svyatoslav grew up and matured,” it is written in the chronicle, “he began to gather many brave warriors, and easily, like a pardus (cheetah), moving on campaigns, he fought a lot. On campaigns he did not carry with him either carts, boilers, or He cooked meat, but, thinly cutting horse meat, or animal meat, or beef, he fried it on coals and ate it like that. When he went to bed, he put the sweatcloth from his horse under him, and the saddle under his head.”
Svyatoslav made two great campaigns.
The first - against the huge predatory Khazaria - a dark kingdom that owned lands from the Caucasus Mountains to the Volga steppes; the second - against Danube Bulgaria, and then, in alliance with the Bulgarians, against Byzantium.
Back in 914, in the Khazar possessions on the Volga, the army of Prince Igor, Svyatoslav’s father, died, trying to secure the Volga trade route. To take revenge on the enemy and complete the work begun by his father - perhaps this is what threw the young Kyiv prince on a long campaign. In 964, Svyatoslav’s squad left Kyiv and, ascending the Desna River, entered the lands of the Vyatichi, one of the large Slavic tribes that were tributaries of the Khazars at that time. Without touching the Vyatichi and without destroying their lands, only ordering them to pay tribute not to the Khazars, but to Kyiv, Svyatoslav went out to the Volga and moved his army against the ancient enemies of the Russian land: the Volga Bulgarians, Burtases, and the Khazars themselves. In the vicinity of Itil, the capital of the Khazar Khaganate, there was decisive battle, in which the Kyiv regiments defeated and put the Khazars to flight. Then he moved his squads against other tributaries of the North Caucasian tribes of the Yases and Kasogs, the ancestors of the Ossetians and Circassians. This unprecedented campaign lasted for about 4 years. Victorious in all battles, the prince crushed all his enemies, captured and destroyed the capital of the Khazar Khaganate, the city of Itil, and took the well-fortified fortresses of Sarkel (on the Don), Semender (in the North Caucasus). On the shores of the Kerch Strait in the captured Khazar village of Tamatarkhe, he founded an outpost of Russian influence in this region - the city of Tmutarakan, the center of the future Tmutarakan principality.
Returning to Kyiv, Svyatoslav spent only about a year in his capital city and already in 968 he set off on a new military expedition - against the Bulgarians on the distant blue Danube. Kalokir, the ambassador of the Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros Phocas, persistently called him there, hoping to pit two peoples dangerous to his empire in a war of extermination. For the help of Byzantium, Kalokir gave Svyatoslav 15 centinarii (455 kilograms) of gold, but it would be wrong to consider the Russian campaign against the Bulgarians as a raid of mercenary squads. The Kiev prince was obliged to come to the rescue of the allied power under an agreement concluded with Byzantium in 944 by Prince Igor. Gold was only a gift accompanying a request for military assistance...
The Russian prince took only 10 thousand soldiers with him on the campaign, but great commanders do not fight by numbers. Having descended along the Dnieper into the Black Sea, Svyatoslav quickly attacked the thirty thousand Bulgarian army sent against him. Having defeated him and driven the remnants of the Bulgarians into the Dorostol fortress, the prince took the city of Malaya Preslava (Svyatoslav himself called this city, which became his new capital Pereyaslavets), forcing both enemies and yesterday's friends to unite against him. The Bulgarian Tsar Peter, feverishly gathering troops in his capital Velikaya Preslava, entered into a secret alliance with Nicephorus Foka. He, in turn, bribed the Pecheneg leaders, who willingly agreed to attack Kyiv in the absence of the Grand Duke. The people of Kiev were exhausted in a desperate, bloody battle, but the Pecheneg onslaught did not weaken. Only a night attack by the small army of governor Pretich, mistaken by the Pechenegs for the vanguard of Svyatoslav, forced them to lift the siege and move away from Kyiv. Connected with this story is the first description in our chronicle of a heroic deed performed by the remaining nameless Kyiv youth. When “the Pechenegs besieged the city with great force, there were countless numbers of them around the city. And it was impossible to leave the city or send messages. And the people were exhausted from hunger and thirst. And the (military) people from that side of the Dnieper gathered in boats and stood on on that shore. And it was impossible either to get to Kiev or from Kiev to them. And the people in the city began to grieve, and said: “Is there anyone who could get over to the other side and tell them: if you don’t approach us in the morning. city - let's surrender to the Pechenegs." One youth said: "I'll get through." And they answered him: "Go." He left the city, holding a bridle, and ran through the Pechenegs' camp, asking them: "Has anyone seen a horse? "For he knew Pecheneg, and they took him for one of their own. And when he approached the river, he threw off his clothes, rushed into the Dnieper and swam. Seeing this, the Pechenegs rushed after him, shot at him, but could not do anything with him to do. They noticed this on the other side, sailed up to him in a boat, took him into the boat and brought him to the squad. And the youth said to them: “If you don’t approach the city tomorrow, the people will surrender to the Pechenegs.” Their commander, named Pretich, said to this: “We will go tomorrow in boats and, having captured the princess and princes, we will rush to this shore. If we do not do this, then Svyatoslav will destroy us.” And the next morning, close to dawn, they got into the boats and blew a loud trumpet, and the people in the city screamed. It seemed to the Pechenegs that the prince himself had come, and they ran away from the city in all directions."
The call of the Kievites, who with difficulty fought off the attack of their enemies, flew far to the Danube: “You, prince, are looking for someone else’s land and taking care of it, but you left your own, the Pechenegs, and your mother, and your children almost took us away. If you don’t come and don’t If you protect us and they will take us again, then don’t you really feel sorry for your old mother or your children?”
Svyatoslav could not help but hear this call. Returning with his squad to Kyiv, he overtook and defeated the Pecheneg army and drove its pitiful remnants far into the steppe. Silence and peace then reigned in the Russian land, but this was not enough for the prince seeking battle and feat of arms. He couldn't stand it peaceful life and prayed to his mother: “I don’t like sitting in Kyiv. I want to live in Pereyaslavets on the Danube. There is the middle of my land. Everything good flows there: from the Greeks - gold, fabrics, wines, various vegetables; from the Czechs and Hungarians - silver and horses, from Rus' - furs, wax and honey."
Princess Olga listened to the hot, passionate words of her son and said only one thing in response: “You see that I am already sick, where do you want to go from me? When you bury me, then go wherever you want...”
3 days later she died. Having buried his mother, Svyatoslav divided the Russian land between his sons: he placed Yaropolk as prince in Kyiv, sent Oleg to the Drevlyansky land, and Vladimir to Novgorod. He himself hastened to his conquered possessions on the Danube by force of arms. He was forced to hurry by the news coming from there - the new Bulgarian Tsar Boris, who had ascended the throne with the help of the Greeks, attacked the Russian detachment left by Svyatoslav in Pereyaslavets and captured the fortress.
Like a swift leopard, the Russian prince rushed at the enemy, defeated him, captured Tsar Boris and the remnants of his army, and took possession of the entire country from the Danube to the Balkan Mountains. Soon he learned about the death of Nicephorus Phocas, who was killed by his close associate John Tzimiskes, a native of the Armenian femme nobility, who declared himself the new emperor. In the spring of 970, Svyatoslav declared war on him, threatening the enemy to pitch his tents near the walls of Constantinople and calling himself and his soldiers “men of blood.” Then he crossed the snow-covered mountain slopes of the Balkans, took Philippol (Plovdiv) by storm and approached Arkadiopol (Lule-Burgaz). There were only 4 days left to travel across the plain to Constantinople. Here there was a battle between the Russians and their allies the Bulgarians, Hungarians and Pechenegs with a hastily assembled army of the Byzantines. Having won this battle, Svyatoslav, however, did not go further, but, having taken “many gifts” from the Greeks, returned back to Pereyaslavets. This was one of the few, but it became a fatal mistake of the famous Russian warrior.
John Tzimiskes turned out to be a good student and a capable commander. Having recalled the best Byzantine troops from Asia, gathering detachments from other parts of his empire, he taught and drilled them all winter, rallying them into a huge trained army. Tzimiskes also ordered to collect new fleet, repairing old and building new warships: fire-bearing triremes, galleys and monerias. Their number exceeded 300. In the spring of 971, Emperor John sent them to the mouth of the Danube, and then up this river to cut off Svyatoslav’s squad and prevent it from receiving help from distant Rus'.
Byzantine armies moved towards Bulgaria from all sides, many times outnumbering the Svyatoslav squads stationed there. In the battle near the walls of Preslava, almost all the soldiers of the 8,000-strong Russian garrison located there were killed. Among the few who escaped and broke through to their main forces were the governor Sfenkel and the patrician Kalokir, who had once called Svyatoslav to Bulgaria. With heavy fighting, fighting off the advancing enemy, the Russians retreated to the Danube. There, in Dorostol (the modern city of Silistria), the last Russian fortress in Bulgaria, Svyatoslav raised his banner, preparing for a decisive battle. The city was well fortified - the thickness of its walls reached 4.7 m.
Approaching Dorostol on April 23, 971, on the day of St. George, the Byzantines saw in front of the city Russian army, lined up for battle. The Russian knights stood like a solid wall, “closing their shields and spears” and did not think of retreating. Over and over again they repulsed 12 enemy attacks during the day. Only at night did they retreat to the fortress. The next morning, the Byzantines began a siege, surrounding their camp with a rampart and a palisade with shields attached to it. It lasted more than two months (65 days) until July 22, 971. On this day the Russians began their last battle. Gathering his soldiers in front of him, Svyatoslav said his famous: “The dead have no shame.” This stubborn battle lasted a long time, despair and courage gave unprecedented strength to Svyatoslav’s soldiers, but as soon as the Russians began to overcome, the rising strong wind hit them in the face, covering their eyes with sand and dust. Thus, nature snatched the almost won victory from Svyatoslav’s hands. The prince was forced to retreat back to Dorostol and begin peace negotiations with John Tzimiskes.
Their historical meeting took place on the banks of the Danube and was described in detail by a Byzantine chronicler who was in the emperor’s retinue. Tzimiskes, surrounded by his entourage, was waiting for Svyatoslav. The prince arrived on a boat, sitting in which he rowed along with ordinary soldiers. The Greeks could distinguish him only because the shirt he was wearing was cleaner than that of other warriors and because of the earring with two pearls and a ruby inserted into his ear. This is how eyewitness Lev Deacon described the formidable Russian warrior: “Svyatoslav was of average height, neither too tall nor too short, with thick eyebrows, blue eyes, a flat nose and a thick, long mustache hanging on his upper lip. He had a head completely naked, only a strand of hair hung on one side, indicating the antiquity of the family. The neck was thick, the shoulders were wide and the whole figure was rather slender. “He seemed gloomy and wild.”
During the negotiations, the parties made concessions. Svyatoslav promised to leave Bulgaria and go to Rus', Tzimiskes promised to let the Russian army through and allocate 2 measures of bread for the 22 thousand surviving soldiers.
Having made peace with the Byzantines, Svyatoslav went to Kyiv. But on the way, at the Dnieper rapids, the Pechenegs, notified by the treacherous Greeks, were already waiting for his thinned army. Sveneld's cavalry detachment managed to cross the steppe to Rus' unnoticed by the enemy. Svyatoslav, who was traveling on boats, had to spend the winter at the mouth of the Dnieper in Beloberezhye, but in the spring of 972 he decided to break through to Kyiv through the Pecheneg barriers. However, the forces were too unequal. In a heavy battle, Svyatoslav’s faithful squad also died, and he himself fell in this cruel battle. From the skull of Svyatoslav, the Polovtsian prince Kurya, according to the old steppe custom, ordered to make a bowl bound in gold for feasts.
Svyatoslav Igorevich(957–972) already worn Slavic name, but his disposition was still that of a typical Varangian warrior, a warrior. As soon as he had time to mature, he formed himself a large and brave squad and with it began to seek glory and prey for himself. He left the influence of his mother early and “was angry with his mother” when she urged him to be baptized: “How can I change my faith alone? The squad will start laughing at me,” he said. He got along well with his squad, led a harsh marching life with them, and therefore moved with unusual ease: “walking easily, like a pardus (leopard),” as the chronicle puts it.Monument to Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich in Zaporozhye
While his mother was still alive, leaving the Principality of Kiev in Olga’s care, Svyatoslav made his first brilliant campaigns. He went to the Oka and subjugated the Vyatichi, who then paid tribute to the Khazars; then he turned to the Khazars and defeated the Khazar kingdom, taking the main cities of the Khazars (Sarkel and Itil). At the same time, Svyatoslav defeated the Yasov and Kasog (Circassian) tribes on the river. Kuban and captured the area at the mouths of the Kuban and on the Azov coast called Tamatarkha (later Tmutarakan). Finally, Svyatoslav penetrated the Volga, ravaged the land of the Kama Bulgarians and took their city of Bolgar. In a word, Svyatoslav defeated and ruined all the eastern neighbors of Rus' that were part of the Khazar power system. Rus' was now becoming the main force in the Black Sea region. But the fall of the Khazar state strengthened the nomadic Pechenegs. All the southern Russian steppes, previously occupied by the Khazars, now fell at their disposal; and Rus' itself soon had to experience great troubles from these nomads.
Returning to Kyiv after his conquests in the East, Svyatoslav Igorevich received an invitation from the Greeks to help Byzantium in its fight against the Danube Bulgarians. Gathering a large army, he conquered Bulgaria and remained there to live in the city of Pereyaslavets on the Danube, since he considered Bulgaria his property. “I want to live in Pereyaslavets Danube,” he said: “there is the middle (center) of my land, all sorts of benefits are collected there: from the Greeks gold, fabrics, wines and fruits, from the Czechs and Ugrians - silver and horses, from Rus' furs, wax and honey and slaves." But he had to return from Bulgaria to Kyiv for a while, because in his absence the Pechenegs attacked Rus' and besieged Kyiv. The people of Kiev with Princess Olga and Svyatoslav’s children barely managed to escape the formidable enemy and sent to Svyatoslav with reproaches and a request for help. Svyatoslav came and drove the Pechenegs into the steppe, but did not stay in Kyiv. The dying Olga asked him to wait in Rus' until her death. He fulfilled her wish, but, having buried his mother, he immediately left for Bulgaria, leaving his sons as princes in Rus'. However, the Greeks did not want to allow Russian domination over the Bulgarians and demanded that Svyatoslav be removed back to Rus'. Svyatoslav refused to leave the banks of the Danube. The war began, and the Byzantine emperor John Tzimiskes defeated Svyatoslav. After a series of difficult efforts, he locked the Russians in the fortress of Dorostol (now Silistria) and forced Svyatoslav to make peace and cleanse Bulgaria.
Meeting of Prince Svyatoslav with Emperor John Tzimiskes on the banks of the Danube. Painting by K. Lebedev, ca. 1880
Svyatoslav's army, exhausted by the war, on the way home was captured in the Dnieper rapids by the Pechenegs and scattered, and Svyatoslav himself was killed (972). Thus the Pechenegs completed the defeat of the Russian prince, begun by the Greeks.
After the death of Svyatoslav Igorevich in Rus', civil strife occurred between his sons (Yaropolk, Oleg and Vladimir), in which Yaropolk and Oleg died, and Vladimir remained sovereign. The state, shaken by strife, showed signs of internal decay, and Vladimir had to spend a lot of effort to discipline the Varangians who served him and pacify the renegade tribes (Vyatichi, Radimichi). After Svyatoslav’s failure, the external power of Rus' also began to shake. Vladimir waged many wars with various neighbors over the border volosts, and also fought with the Kama Bulgarians. He also became involved in a war with the Greeks, as a result of which he converted to Christianity according to the Greek rite. This the most important event The first period of power of the Varangian dynasty in Rus' ended.
This is how the Principality of Kiev was formed and strengthened, politically uniting most of the tribes of the Russian Slavs.
Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich is the youngest prince in the entire history of Rus'. Not only did he officially ascend to the throne at the age of 3, but he also lived only 30 years. However, these were very important 30 years for our state. Let's look at this in more detail.
Reign of Prince Svyatoslav
Officially, his reign took place in the 4th year of his life, when his father Igor died. But since the new prince was still too young, his mother, Princess Olga, ascended the throne. Later, when Prince Svyatoslav matured and was able to rule Russia himself, all power was also distributed between him and his mother in the following form:
- Svyatoslav went on campaigns and conquered new lands, and also concluded treaties beneficial for Rus'. We'll talk about this a little later.
- Olga was studying internal politics state at the time when Svyatoslav was on campaign.
If we talk about Prince Svyatoslav as a person, then he will be remembered throughout his reign as a warrior prince. After all, from the age of 22 he himself took part and led troops on campaigns.
That is why I propose to continue the conversation about Svyatoslav with stories about his most memorable campaigns.
Hiking
Khazar campaign
There are many versions of who helped the Pechenegs organize such a successful ambush. According to some sources, these could be the Bulgarians, whose desire to take revenge for so many losses of soldiers was still great. According to others, Byzantium, for which this battle would be very useful for its foreign policy reasons.
Still other sources even claim that Byzantium, on the contrary, asked the Pechenegs to clear the way for Prince Svyatoslav and his army and not kill him.
Years of the reign of Prince Svyatoslav
Different chronicles give different names for the prince's birth date. But now this is the generally accepted one: 942. If you believe her, then Svyatoslav lived only 30 years, since he died in a battle with the Pechenegs in March 972.
But we remember that his reign officially began at the age of 3. Thus, The years of the reign of Prince Svyatoslav are as follows: 945 - March 972.
Conclusion
It is not possible for us to know 100% everything that happened in those days. Therefore, we can only blindly believe sources like the “Tale of Bygone Years” and other chronicles of those times.
Considering that we no longer have any other options, I suggest that each of us choose those options for the development of events that he sees as the most possible and truthful.
P.S. I tried to tell the interesting biography of Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich in simple words through my retelling. I hope I succeeded.
If so, then I look forward to your questions and suggestions regarding the next heroes of the “Great Commanders of Russia” column in the comments to the article.