2_Fall of the Kyivan Rus

This is the second #generalhistory note, following 1_Path to Kyivan Rus.

Yaroslav the Wise

• After his father, Volodymyr the Great, passed away, Yaroslav the Wise emerged as the ruler following a brutal 17-year succession struggle that claimed the lives of 10 of his brothers.
• Throughout his reign, Yaroslav worked on consolidating the realm he had inherited. This materialized through construction projects, such as the Golden Gate and the Cathedral of St. Sophia.
• His efforts continued his father's legacy of emulating Byzantine civilization. To push toward this goal, he promoted learning and scholarship, alongside supporting Christianity.
  • This period marked the beginning of literacy in Kyivan Rus, which adopted the Church Slavonic developed by Cyril and Methodius to translate Greek texts.
  • However, texts were not only translated but also written in Church Slavonic, with an early example being the Sermon on Law and Grace.
  • Other texts that followed included historical writings. The first Kyivan chronicle is estimated to have been produced in the 1030s.
  • Literacy spread from Kyiv to regional centers. Novgorod literati, in particular, took up the challenge of writing historical texts.
  • It is from them that we learn of Yaroslav's role as a lawgiver. Under Yaroslav (though it is not certain), the first law code was compiled. Known as the Rus Justice, it had an enormous impact on Rus society and the legal codes of its successor states.
• Yaroslav also continued his father's assertions of independence against the Byzantines, presenting two direct challenges to the empire's authority during his reign.
  • First, he appointed a Rus native to the office of Metropolitan instead of the person sent by Constantinople. This decision to defy the patriarch was unpopular within the church and was reversed after his death.
  • Secondly, he sent a fleet to blackmail Constantinople, demanding money to prevent an attack. The Greeks, however, refused to pay and chose to fight. While the Rus fleet won, the victor was almost destroyed by a storm and was forced to flee.
• In the larger context, this demonstrated that newer cooperation was more advantageous than old Viking tactics. The state's priorities had shifted. With the ambition to maintain and govern, Byzantium was far more useful as an ally than as an enemy.
• This shift was evident as, under Yaroslav's rule, Kyivan Rus established itself as a member of the community of Christian nations, with him marrying off his children to neighboring kingdoms.
• In 1054 Yaroslav died, starting a new era.

The Struggle of the Municipalities

• Much of the historical debate about the successor states of Kyivan Rus centers around this period, with both Russians and Ukrainians claiming Yaroslav as their medieval ruler. Both countries feature his image on their banknotes (though depicted differently). To understand how this manifested, one must examine the period immediately following his death.
• Yaroslav's death marked the end of the era of consolidation in Kyivan Rus and the beginning of the era of disintegration.
• Several factors contributed to this disintegration, many of which are comparable to the decline of the Carolingian Empire. Both:
  • Had weak succession principles.
  • Were plagued by struggles within the ruling family.
  • Had to contend with the rise of local political and economic centers.
  • Were unable to handle external threats.
  • Collapsed into polities that later developed into modern states. In the case of the Carolingians, France and Germany; for Kyivan Rus, Russia and Ukraine.
• Yaroslav foresaw the succession struggle and attempted to prevent it by dividing the principalities among his sons, with the eldest receiving Kyiv and having oversight over the others. It was assumed that the throne would be passed from eldest to youngest until one generation of princes died out.
• There were five sons, of whom three would ultimately attain power. The eldest took the Kyivan throne, sharing power with two of his brothers in Chernihiv and Pereieslav.
• Together, the three governed, and their capitals became centers of the Rus Land (a new term for Kyivan Rus, reflecting its multipolarity).
• Their successors tried to stabilize the succession system while combating external threats. Monomakh, a prince of Pereieslav, attempted this by organizing a congress where the princes agreed to replace the rotating system with one that would allow each dynasty to rule its own domain. Under this system, only the descendants of Yaroslav's eldest son would inherit Kyiv.
• However, even Monomakh did not adhere to these rules, resulting in Kyiv being ruled by 18 different leaders in less than 40 years.
• Many princes vied for control of Kyiv due to its immense cultural and political significance, much like the power struggles over Rome in its time. To achieve this, they used coups and hostile takeovers.
• A major turning point occurred when Andrey Bogolyubsky ordered his forces to loot Kyiv in 1169. Unlike other princes, he simply looted the city and returned to his capital in Vladimir, in his Vladimir-Suzdal principality.
• This demonstrated the trend that peripheral municipalities were growing in size and power while the center was plagued by constant internal strife.
  • The Halych principality in western Ukraine controlled the Danube trade.
  • Vladimir-Suzdal relied on the Volga trade route.
  • Novgorod engaged in Baltic commerce.
• The Dnieper River was no longer the primary economic lifeline of the realm (although it was growing in volume).
• As a result, local princes grew richer and began asserting their independence from Kyiv. This was also seen in Bogolyubsky's attempts to turn his new capital into a second Kyiv and even request a new Metropolitan there.
• A key development in the loyalty of Rus princes can be observed: Yaroslav was motivated by his bond to Kyiv and the vast realm beyond. Monomakh's allegiance lay with the broader Rus Land, with Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Pereiaslav at its center. Andrey, however, was primarily loyal to his own principality, with the broader Rus realm coming second.

Broader Implications

• This period should be understood in the context of the broader development of Rus identity. We start from the beginning of consolidation, not from disintegration.
• When recording events, the Primary Chronicle had to address three different pillars of identity:
  • The Rus identity of the Scandinavian rulers.
  • The Slavic identity of the educated elites.
  • The local tribal identities.
• Although the rulers and subjects adopted the name Rus, it was the Slavic, not Scandinavian, identity associated with it that became the basis of their self-understanding.
• The dissemination of this identity became closely tied to the spread of Christianity (through Church Slavonic), meaning that the more the realm turned Christian, the more it also turned Slavic. This was reflected in the integration of local history by scholars into the broader Slavic context.
• At the local level, tribal identity gave way to identification with local principalities. This fostered a sense of unity across all the lands under Kyivan rulers, with the key issue of loyalty being the acceptance of the local prince (pagans who did so were referred to as "ours").
• The unification of these local units into a central structure required the standardization of the social hierarchy:
  • At the top were the descendants of Yaroslav the Wise.
  • Below them were the Boyars, who emerged from the mixing of the Scandinavian retinue with the local elite. They formed the main landholding class, governed in peacetime, and fought in times of conflict.
  • Church hierarchs were also privileged.
  • The rest of the population paid taxes. There was a distinction between townspeople, who held some political power, and peasants, who had none.
• These different classes were reflected in the Rus Justice, where the punishment for killing a higher-ranked individual involved higher fines.
• The legal code itself was spread widely throughout the realm, but the process of disintegration hindered further progress.
• Several factors contributed to this:
  • The increasing number of princes seeking their own principalities.
  • The vastness of the Kyivan realm.
  • The diverse interests of its regions.
• The changing loyalties of the princes ultimately completed the process.
• From these principalities, modern Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus emerged. Russian historians trace their origins to the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, Belarussian ones to Polatsk, and Ukrainian historians look to Galicia-Volhynia for the beginnings of Ukrainian nation-building projects. However, all these identities trace back to Kyiv, giving Ukraine the advantage of seeking its roots without leaving its capital.
• Ultimately, it is misleading to assert any claim about the "true Rus people" based solely on the Kyivan Rus. Neither Russia nor Ukraine can lay exclusive claim to that legacy, as the Kyivan Rus, like the Roman Empire, eventually fractured, with the cultures in these regions evolving independently over time.

Continuation

Continues in 3_Mongol Incursion.

Sources

This information was gathered from The Gates of Europe_A History of Ukraine (Pages 35-49) and Road to Unfreedom_Russia, Europe, America (Pages 64-66).