Izyaslav Mstislavich, Grand Duke of Kiev: years of life and reign. Prince Izyaslav I Prince Izyaslav

   Izyaslav inherited Kyiv from his father, along with the title of Grand Duke, and even earlier Novgorod and Turov were given to him. Chernigov and Pereyaslav, which went to the next two sons, were considered rich and strategically important fiefs. Vladimir-Volynsky and Smolensk, bequeathed to the younger brothers, could not compete with these key areas.

It is quite obvious that Yaroslav’s last will was dictated not by concern for the introduction of a firm law in Rus' on the transfer of royal power, but by the specific situation and the father’s opinion about the abilities of his sons. Probably, the Grand Duke doubted that in the event of discord, Izyaslav would have the strength and intelligence to cope with the rest of the brothers alone. That is why such a “five-power” arose.

History knows no cases of such structures lasting long. The system created by Yaroslav lasted at least a decade and a half, but at the first serious test it fell apart. And this is where the history of the first centralized Russian state ended. Yaroslav had enough wisdom to create a powerful power, but not to ensure its strength.

Economic and political ties between the capital and the regions were not strong enough. For the military class, the support of the society of that time, personal loyalty to the immediate master meant more than loyalty to a distant monarch, and even more so to some abstract “Rus”. People who until recently considered themselves Vyatichi, or Krivichi, or Polyanians, now said: “we are Kievans” or “we are Novgorodians,” but not “we are Russians.” The concept of a nation has not yet been formed. The supreme power of Kyiv was more burdensome than beneficial - both for the residents and for the appanage ruler. It is known from the chronicle that he had to send two-thirds of the collected tribute to the Grand Duke. Of course, only the military power of Kyiv could serve as a guarantee of the fulfillment of this heavy duty.

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

  February 20, 1054 After the death of his father (Yaroslav the Wise), he became the Grand Duke of Kyiv.

  1054-1064 Reign in Tmutarakan of Gleb Svyatoslavich, son of the Vladimir-Volyn prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich.

  1054 Battle with the Torks at Warrior on Sula.

  1055(?) - after 1061 Stay at the Kyiv Metropolitan See of Ephraim.

  1056-1057 Creation of the Ostromir Gospel.

  1058 A successful trip to the loach.

  1060 Anna Yaroslavna became regent under the young Philip I (the first regency in the history of France), which lasted until 1066.

  1060 The united campaign of three princes (Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod Yaroslavich) against the Torci.

  1061 The first attack of the Polovtsians on Rus' began a protracted struggle with them. Battle with the Polovtsians near Pereyaslavl.

  1061-1062 Construction of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery.

  1062-1072 Stay at the Kyiv Metropolitan See of George.

  1062-1074 Abbess in the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery of Theodosius of Pechersk.

  1064-1065 Expulsion of Prince Gleb Svyatoslavich from Tmutarakan. The reign of Rostislav Vladimirovich - the nephew of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich.

  1064 Izyaslav repels the attack of the Polovtsians. Battle on the Snovi River.

  1065 Death of the Tmutarakan prince Rostislav Vladimirovich.

  1066 Return to Tmutarakan of Prince Gleb Svyatoslavich.

  1066 War of Polotsk with Novgorod. Capture of Novgorod by Vseslav Bryachislavich.

  1067 Capture of Minsk by the Yaroslavichs. Battle on the Nemiga River between Vseslav Bryachislavich and the Yaroslavichs.

  1068 The Polovtsians approached Kyiv. Battle of the Alta River. Uprising in Kyiv. Vseslav Bryachislavich ascended the throne.

  1069-1071 Reign of Svyatopolk Izyaslavich in Polotsk.

  1070s Transfer of the Tmutarakan prince Gleb Svyatoslavich to reign in Novgorod. Confirmation of his younger brother Roman Svyatoslavich on the Tmutarakan table.

  1070 The battle of Novgorod between Vseslav Bryachislavich and Gleb Svyatoslavich.

  1071 An uprising in Beloozero, raised by wise men who came from Yaroslavl, against local elders. Suppression of the uprising by the Kyiv governor Jan Vyshatich.

  1071 An uprising in the Rostov-Suzdal land led by the Magi.

  1071 Expulsion of Svyatopolk Izyaslavich from Polotsk by Prince Vseslav Bryachislavich.

  1072 Capture of Przemysl by Vladimir Monomakh.

  1072 Vyshgorod Princely Congress. The adoption by the princes of Yaroslavich of the addition to the Russian Truth - the so-called. truth of the Yaroslavichs.

  1072 Transfer of the relics of Saints Boris and Gleb to the new church in Vyshgorod, built by Izyaslav Yaroslavich.

  March 1073 The Yaroslavichs began to fight for the Kyiv throne. Expulsion of Izyaslav Yaroslavich from Kyiv.

Izyaslav Yaroslavich

In life, joys are often interspersed with troubles, and the fun is adjacent to the sad.

The years 1023 and 1024 were alarming for Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich, later called the Wise. His younger brother Mstislav moved his regiments from Tmutarakan to Kyiv. Only the intractability of the Kievites prevented him from occupying the capital of the Russian land. But this did not significantly reduce Yaroslav’s worries. The Chernigov land recognized Mstislav as its prince, and his possessions were almost equal in size to the territories of the Kyiv prince. In addition, the Tmutarakan prince established control over the southern part of the trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks.” Yaroslav's income was bound to fall.

Yaroslav saw no other way out but to force his brother to return again to coastal Tmutarakan. But the force was on the side of the lucky younger brother. In 1024, the elder brother suffered a crushing defeat from Mstislav in the battle of Listven.

However, soon after all these troubles, Yaroslav, who had crossed the forty-year mark, had another son? Izyaslav. It is not difficult to understand the feelings of a father to whom his wife, the Swedish princess Ingigerda, gave him a child, and even a son. At that time, many children were born into families, but many also died. Each child was a gift of fate, which was so difficult to preserve. At baptism they named their son Dmitry.

Failures in the relationship with Mstislav were not so acutely experienced when Yaroslav approached the cradle of his son. When Mstislav died, the Russian land became united again.

Fate would have it that 30 years later it was to Izyaslav, on the eve of his death, that Yaroslav handed over the work of his whole life, the Russian land he had so laboriously gathered together. His previously born sons, Ilya and Vladimir, had already died by this time. It must be borne in mind that in the Old Russian language the word “land” was used not only in the sense of “soil” or “territory”. The Russian land was understood as the Russian state and its parts. In the Tale of Bygone Years, under the year 1054, Yaroslav’s will was conveyed to his sons: “Here I entrust my table in Kyiv to my eldest son and your brother Izyaslav; obey him, as you obeyed me, let him be for you instead of me.”

Izyaslav took the throne in Kyiv, already having a family. His wife was Gertrude, sister of King Casimir I of Poland, who bore him three sons? Mstislav, Yaropolk and Svyatopolk, as well as the daughter Eupraxia (Slavic name of Vysheslav).

At that time, ruling a state meant making a campaign against foreigners, expanding the borders of one’s country, and acquiring new tributaries. In 1058, Izyaslav made a successful trip to hunt for golyad. N.M. Karamzin assumed that they were Latvians, residents of Prussian Galindia.

State affairs were intertwined with family affairs. It turned out that in the first years of his reign, Izyaslav made all the most important decisions on the advice of his younger brothers, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod. Historians would later call this coordinated government decision-making a “triumvirate.” However, in his will, Yaroslav assigned separate parts of the Russian land to each of the brothers: “I give Chernigov to Svyatoslav, and Pereyaslavl to Vsevolod, and Vladimir to Igor, and Smolensk to Vyacheslav.” This was not a division of a single state. The younger brothers, if we literally understand Yaroslav’s will, were the governors of the great Kyiv prince, whether he was Yaroslav himself or the elder brother appointed by him: “...Obey him, as you obeyed me...” At the same time, each brother had control their lands, and the eldest in the family was obliged to protect the interests of each of them: “If anyone wants to offend his brother, you help the one who is offended.” Of course, such a duality of the situation should have led to manifestations of discontent among those who considered their interests to be infringed. As subsequent events showed, the interests of even the greatest Kyiv prince, to whom the throne was officially transferred, were infringed. But that was later, and at first the brothers knew how to find a common language with each other.

At the family council, it was decided to release Uncle Sudislav, who had been languishing in prison for more than 20 years. The old man survived his cruel brother. Even dying, Yaroslav did not remember him and did not order his release.

The chronicles do not say in what conditions Sudislav was kept. The generally accepted place to keep a guilty person in those days was the so-called “cut,” which was a log house without doors, lowered to its entire height into the ground. The condemned man was lowered there through the upper window, through which the unfortunate man was fed. Perhaps for his brother, about whom the chronicle writes that “he was slandered before him,” Yaroslav provided for more “humane” conditions of imprisonment, for example, in a cellar or dungeon. However, the chronicle writes: “In the year 6567 (1059). Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod freed their uncle Sudislav from the cutting, where he had been imprisoned for 24 years, taking the kiss of the cross from him; and he became a black man.”

The length of time he spent in custody is impressive. It is also impressive that before the slandered, and therefore innocently victim, they did not repent, but took the kiss of the cross from him (that is, he himself had to swear to something, perhaps that he would not lay claim to the great reign) and they sent him to live out his life in a monastery. Four years later, in 1063, Sudislav died. He was buried in the church named after the heavenly patron Yaroslav, in the Church of St. George. This can be considered a symbol of the reconciliation of brothers after death.

The brothers made a successful campaign against the Torci (nomadic people) in 1060 together. Prince Vseslav of Polotsk also helped them. The organization of the campaign, apparently, was traditional for the Russian Middle Ages. Part of the forces moved on horseback across the steppe, the other part? along the rivers in boats. The steppe inhabitants suffered serious damage. The next chronicle report of hostilities with them dates back to 1080, that is, for 20 years the Torci did not pose a threat to the Russians. Some of them even switched to a sedentary lifestyle and became allies of the Kyiv prince.

However, the very next year a new, even more formidable enemy appeared than the Torques and even the Pechenegs. In 1061, the Polovtsians appeared on Russian soil for the first time. Having defeated Vsevolod, who came out to meet them, on February 2, the Polovtsy went back to the steppe. Let us note that winter was not a hindrance for the Polovtsians, when there was no grass in the steppe and nothing to feed the horses. Let us also note that only one brother, Vsevolod, acted against the Polovtsians. The other two either did not have time to come to the rescue, or quarrels had already begun between the brothers.

At a time when the Russian princes were fighting the Cumans, the Italian republics were fighting the Arabs in the Mediterranean. In 1063, the Pisans defeated the Arabs in the naval battle of Palermo, after which it was decided to build a cathedral in Pisa, corresponding to the status of a trading republic. Construction of the bell tower began only in 1173, and was completed 164 years later. But the whole world knows this bell tower. This is the famous leaning tower of Pisa.

The Kyiv prince had an opportunity to organize his brothers for joint action against the steppe inhabitants, when unexpectedly in 1067, the Polotsk prince Vseslav, a former ally in the war against the Torks, occupied Novgorod. He was then, according to N.M. Karamzin, the possession of Izyaslav himself. The chronicler best described how the brothers pacified their cousin: “The three Yaroslavichs, Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod, having gathered soldiers, went against Vseslav in the bitter cold. And they approached Minsk, and the Minsk residents locked themselves in the city. These brothers took Minsk and killed all the husbands, and captured the wives and children and went to Nemiga, and Vseslav went against them. And the opponents met on Nemiga in the month of March on the 3rd day; and the snow was great, and they went at each other. And there was a cruel slaughter, and many fell in it, and Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod prevailed, but Vseslav fled.” How many people died in the battles for Novgorod, Minsk and Nemiga (on the Neman River), how many people froze in the severe cold? The chronicler does not report this. The fate of the survivors, the captured wives and children, who were deprived of their husbands and fathers, was also bitter. They were considered the legitimate prey of the victorious princes. Their relatives could not ransom them, since they either died or were also taken prisoner. This means that the path of these unfortunates lay on the slave markets, including the eastern cities, among which the primacy belonged to Constantinople.

Summer has come. The Yaroslavich brothers continued to see their nephew as a threat to themselves and invited him to negotiations near the town of Rshi near Smolensk, vowing not to harm him. After Vseslav, trusting in the kiss of the cross, sailed with his two sons in a boat across the Dnieper, he was captured and put in prison by Izyaslav.

While the proud Rurikovichs were considering their ambitions among themselves, the Polovtsy reappeared. The night battle of the united forces of Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod took place near the Alta River, which was, apparently, a natural border from the steppe inhabitants. Izyaslav’s uncle, Prince Boris Vladimirovich, used to go to this river against the Pechenegs, and Izyaslav’s father, Yaroslav, fought with his other uncle, Svyatopolk, on whose side were also the Pechenegs. The battle with the Polovtsians in September 1068 was lost, and this had very dire consequences for Izyaslav. One can even say that defeat in the battle with the Polovtsians turned his whole life upside down, leading to the loss of power, material deprivation and many humiliations. To Izyaslav’s credit, at the end of his life he was able to philosophically evaluate all his losses and rise above everyday grievances.

When Izyaslav, having avoided death and captivity, returned to Kyiv, the people of Kiev demanded that the prince give them weapons and horses to fight with the Polovtsians. The prince refused. Then an uprising began, which ended with the expulsion of Izyaslav from their capital, and the people of Kiev on September 15 proclaimed the previously captured Vseslav of Polotsk their prince. It was, as they would write later, a real revolution. The princely court was plundered, the former ruler fled, and the one who was in captivity gained supreme power.

There are moments in this episode that deserve careful analysis.

What would happen if the townspeople, having received weapons, went out into the steppe against the Polovtsians, for whom war was a way of life? If the combined forces of the three brothers had lost the battle, it is unlikely that the people of Kiev, mostly artisans and traders, would have returned home alive after the campaign against the nomads. By refusing to give weapons to the residents of Kyiv for the war with the Polovtsians, Izyaslav, it turns out, saved their lives. Or did the rioters need weapons for other purposes? What did the cry of the rebels mean: “Let’s go and free our squad from prison”? What squad are we talking about? What kind of squad was in the dungeon?

To what has been said, it must be added that there was no immediate threat to the Russian lands after the lost battle. They were driven away from Chernigov by Svyatoslav, who fled there. Further, the chronicle does not report attacks by steppe inhabitants over the next 10 years until 1078, when they were brought to Rus' by Oleg Svyatoslavich and Boris Vyacheslavich.

Those close to Izyaslav feared that the raging crowd would free Vseslav and the rebels would have a leader. They advised to kill him secretly: “Let’s go to Vseslav, let him, by deception, call him to the window, and pierce him with a sword.” Izyaslav did not commit this crime, although in this case there was a question of his life and death, and after some time he was forced to flee to Poland. What is the reason for such mercy? Lack of understanding of the severity of the situation? Or the nobility of the soul, which did not allow one to take the life of a member of one’s clan, even in the name of saving oneself?

The Polish king Boleslav II was married to Izyaslav’s daughter, and therefore he counted on the help of his son-in-law. However, it is possible that in historical literature the degree of relationship between the Kyiv princes and the Polish kings is not indicated entirely accurately. If Boleslav's father, Casimir, and Izyaslav's wife, Gertrude, were brother and sister, then Eupraxia and Boleslav were cousins. In this case, their marriage is unlikely.

Regardless of the degree of relationship, Boleslav had his own reasons for helping the Kyiv prince. The Polish army marched on Kyiv, and Vseslav, proclaimed Grand Duke by the people of Kiev, advanced to meet him towards Belgorod. The events took place in April 1069. It is difficult to understand what the people of Kiev were counting on when they put Vseslav on the table and entered into confrontation with the three Yaroslavich brothers, who controlled the entire Russian land. The intervention of the Poles made their situation completely hopeless. Vseslav objectively assessed the situation “and with the onset of night, secretly from the people of Kiev, he fled from Belgorod to Polotsk.”

The time has come for sobering up. In despair, the Kyivians even declared to Svyatoslav and Vsevolod, seeking their protection from Izyaslav and the Poles: “We have already done something bad, driving out our prince, and he is leading the Polish land against us: go to your father’s city; if you don’t want to, then you will inevitably have to set fire to your city and go to the Greek land.” Almost all historians paid attention to the threat of the Kievites to leave for the Greek land, but an exhaustive explanation for these words of the chronicler has not yet been given. Also incomprehensible are the words of the chronicler, given below, that “the Greek land will take the place of the Russian one, and the Russian land will take the place of the Greek one.”

The brothers tried to soften their brother’s anger at the rebellious Kievites. It ended with the fact that his son Mstislav Izyaslavich, sent ahead, “killed the Kievites who freed Vseslav, numbering 70 people, and blinded others, and killed others without guilt, without investigation.” On May 2, 1069, after such a “cleansing” of the city, Izyaslav entered Kyiv, expelled Vseslav from Polotsk and installed his son in his place.

To Izyaslav’s grief, his faithful assistant, son Mstislav, who cruelly taught the people of Kiev a lesson, soon died in Polotsk. The chronicler does not say what the reason is, saying only that he was replaced by his brother Svyatopolk. Two years later, in 1071, Vseslav expelled him and took possession of Polotsk.

Of course, Mstislav still had enemies in Kyiv, and they probably appeared in Polotsk as well. It is unlikely that Polotsk residents forgot the events of six years ago, when Minsk was plundered after the battle of Nemiga. There were enough people who wanted to take revenge on Izyaslav’s son, but it is unknown whether they could bring their plans to fruition.

The situation with the Poles was repeated 50 years ago, when they came to Rus', called by Svyatopolk to fight Yaroslav. The local residents began to slowly slaughter the Polish garrison that had been stationed to feed them. Boleslaw returned to Poland.

A symbol of peace and mutual brotherly love was the transfer of the relics of the holy passion-bearers Boris and Gleb to the church newly built by Izyaslav in Vyshgorod. A real bright holiday was organized, Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod themselves carried the coffin with the body of Boris, numerous clergy were present, the brothers had lunch together...

But, as it turned out, the vicissitudes of Izyaslav’s fate did not end with the revolt of the Kievites. Trouble came from an unexpected direction, from his siblings. For almost 20 years, the three Yaroslavichs lived in peace and harmony with each other. When they became older people, discord began. Taking advantage of Izyaslav’s absence, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod entered Kyiv on March 22, 1073 and “sat down on the table.” As the chronicler writes, the initiator of the coup was the ambitious Svyatoslav. Striving for power, he convinced Vsevolod that their brother was plotting against them together with the Polotsk prince Vseslav, and they needed to get ahead of the conspirators. Perhaps this turn of events also corresponded to Vsevolod’s secret desires.

For Izyaslav, years of living abroad in exile began.

He turned to Poland, but squandered all the wealth he took with him in vain. “The Poles took all this from him and drove him out,” ? recorded in the Tale of Bygone Years.

Next, he turned to the Holy Roman Emperor and the German nation, Henry IV, for help in the city of Mainz. He did not refuse the Russian prince, who had been deprived of his throne, but did not particularly help. The 24-year-old emperor (he was born in 1050) had his own serious problems. He inherited the throne at the age of 6. While the empire was governed on his behalf by a guardian, the central authority weakened. In response to Henry's construction of fortresses and the placement of garrisons in them, the so-called “Saxon uprising” broke out. In August 1074, Henry IV was faced with the need to flee Harzburg, which was besieged by the rebels. N.M. Karamzin wrote, citing German chroniclers, that Izyaslav was even ready to recognize himself as a vassal of the emperor. As you can understand, Henry IV sent his representatives to Kyiv to obtain information at the scene. Historians even write that through ambassadors he demanded that Svyatoslav return the great reign to his brother, threatening otherwise to enter Kyiv with troops. Svyatoslav showed the Germans the wealth of the princely treasury: “countless amounts of gold, silver and silk fabrics.” We must assume that he not only showed it, but made rich gifts to the ambassadors and the emperor himself. The embassy was headed, as N.M. found out. Karamzin, Bishop Burchardt of Trier. According to the research of V.M. Kogan and V.I. Dombrovsky-Shalagin, he was the brother of Oda, the wife of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, that is, he was his brother-in-law. It seems that the choice of the imperial ambassador was not accidental. The relatives were able to come to an agreement among themselves, despite the language barrier.

Having spent money in Poland, Izyaslav found it difficult to compete in generosity with his brother, who was in charge of the princely treasury. Did he try to find support from the spiritual ruler of Western Europe? from Pope Gregory VII. The humiliating negotiations conducted by Yaropolk, the son of Izyaslav, ended, as they say, only with “moral” support for the exile. N.M. Karamzin quotes verbatim the pope’s answer to Izyaslav, from which it follows that he was counting on Russia’s conversion to Catholicism in response to his help: “Gregory Bishop, servant of the servants of God, wishes good health to Demetrius, Prince of the Russians (Regi Russorum), and the Princess, his wife and sends the Apostolic blessing. Your son, having visited the holy places of Rome, humbly prayed to us that we, by the authority of St. Peter, would confirm him in the Principality, and took an oath to be faithful to the Head of the Apostles. Have we fulfilled this good will? I agree with yours, as he testifies,? They entrusted him with the helm of the Russian State in the name of the Supreme Apostle, with the intention and desire that St. Peter would preserve your health, reign and good fortune until the end of your life and make you once a partaker of eternal glory. Wanting to also express our readiness for further services, do we trust these Ambassadors? Of which one is known to you and is a faithful friend? verbally talk to you about everything that is and is not in the letter. Receive them with love, as Ambassadors of St. Peter; listen favorably and undoubtedly believe what they offer you on our behalf? and so on. May Almighty God illuminate your hearts and lead you from temporary blessings to eternal glory. Written in Rome, May 15, Indicta XIII" (that is, in 1075).

Although, perhaps, it was the pope who was able to convince the Poles to help Izyaslav once again, since in 1077 he returned to Rus' with Polish troops.

It must be taken into account that a lot of energy and time was occupied by Henry IV and the Pope by the mutual struggle that had begun with each other. In 1076, the emperor and the pope took turns deposing each other. Their confrontation dragged on for many years.

In 1076, Svyatoslav died during a surgical operation due to some kind of tumor. Vsevolod took his place on the Kiev table. He did not have the same ambition as Svyatoslav. Moreover, he was in a difficult situation: having learned about Izyaslav’s approach with the Polish forces, their nephew, Prince Boris Vyacheslavich, the son of the Smolensk prince Vyacheslav Yaroslavich, seized power in Chernigov.

The young prince (he was not yet 25 years old at the time) felt deprived of his inheritance. As reported by V.M. Kogan and V.I. Dombrovsky-Shalagin in the genealogical study “Prince Rurik and his descendants”, Boris was taken away by his mother after the death of his father in 1057 to her homeland, Germany. Princess Oda was the daughter of Count Leopold of Staden. Perhaps he met with Izyaslav during his wanderings in Europe, where an adventurous plan to seize power in one of the Russian cities was born in his head. But his lightning-fast rush to Chernigov gave him nothing. Eight days later he fled to Tmutarakan, where his cousin Roman Svyatoslavich reigned.

Vsevolod did not argue with his brother, he met him near Volyn, where they “created the world.” Such compliance of the younger brother shows that, probably, it was Svyatoslav who actually initiated the expulsion of Izyaslav from Kyiv. Perhaps Izyaslav himself decided to try his luck on his native Russian soil only after learning about the death of Svyatoslav. Having released the Poles, Izyaslav returned to Kyiv on July 15, 1077, and Vsevolod occupied Chernigov.

This was the third occupation of the Kyiv throne by Izyaslav. Problems arose with Vsevolod.

Let us recall that Chernigov, according to Yaroslav's will, was intended for Svyatoslav, and Vsevolod? Pereyaslavl. Of course, everyone understood that Chernigov was richer than Pereyaslavl, and Svyatoslav was already in his grave and could not challenge the actions of his brothers. The nephews, the sons of Svyatoslav, could not be taken into account. However, Vsevolod could think so, but the sons of Svyatoslav thought completely differently. Vsevolod also realized the danger posed by his nephews, and kept the most restless of them, Oleg Svyatoslavich, with him in Chernigov.

In 1078, Oleg fled from his uncle to Tmutarakan and his cousins, Oleg and Boris, agreed to act together. They hired the Cumans. Surely Roman Svyatoslavich, who reigned in Tmutarakan, helped them with financial resources. As a result, Vsevolod was defeated by his nephews on August 25, 1078 in the battle of the Sozhitsa River. Defeated, deprived of his principality, he came to Kyiv to Izyaslav. Without a doubt, in this difficult hour he recalled the events of five years ago, when he and Svyatoslav treacherously expelled his elder brother from Kyiv, forcing him to wander in a foreign land. He probably thought how his older brother would greet him.

In “The Tale of Bygone Years” the Kiev prince is characterized as follows: “Izyaslav was a man of handsome appearance and great in body, with a gentle disposition, he hated lies, loving the truth. For there was no cunning in him, but he was simple in mind, and did not return evil for evil.”

The chronicler's description was completely confirmed. Izyaslav said to Vsevolod: “Brother, don’t bother. Do you see how many things happened to me: didn’t they kick me out first and didn’t they plunder my property? And then, what did I do wrong the second time? Was I not driven out by you, my brothers? Have I not wandered through foreign lands, deprived of property, without doing any evil? And now, brother, let’s not bother. If we have a destiny in the Russian land, then for both of us; if we are deprived of it, then both. I will lay down my head for you."

Izyaslav did not yet know that he had not yet drunk the whole cup of his suffering. His words that he would lay down his life for his brother came true literally. In the ensuing battle of Nezhatina Niva on October 3, 1078 with his rebellious nephews, Izyaslav was killed. Boris Vyacheslavich also died, finding his death at the age of less than 25. This is what, it turns out, awaited him in Rus' instead of wealth and honor. The author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” wrote an epitaph for him: “But Boris Vyacheslavich’s boasting brought him to trial and laid a mortal green blanket on the feather grass for insulting Olegov? brave and young prince."

Izyaslav remained in Russian history the first ruler to introduce a “moratorium” on the death penalty. Having taken the throne after the death of Yaroslav, he made, in agreement with his brothers, a change to “Russian Truth”, establishing a monetary vira (fine) for murders. The new edition of the code of law is known among historians as “The Truth of the Yaroslavichs.” During the reign of Izyaslav, the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, founded under Yaroslav, received further development, and then grew into one of the main centers of Orthodoxy. Under Izyaslav, the first Russian saints, Boris and Gleb, were canonized.

The life of different generations does not repeat itself, but similar events appear in a strange way. Just as Yaroslav the Wise more than once lost his power in battles with his brothers, and then regained it again, so his heir to the Kyiv throne, Prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich, experienced in his life the bitterness of losses and the despair of unfulfilled hopes. When it seemed to him that he was already able to regain everything that had been unjustly taken away, fate laid him to rest forever on the battlefield.