We all remember the words from a heroic narrative poem (bylina), “Near the glorious city of Kyiv... there was an outpost of heroic warriors.”
This outpost may well have been Bilhorod, the famous city of Kyivan Rus’, which in ancient times was destined to play the role of a key to the capital city of Kyiv. Now it will take a considerable effort to look back one thousand years and see one of Prince Volodymyr of Rus’s largest “heroic outposts” instead of the village buildings in Bilhorodoka, located on the steep slopes of the Irpin River. I am embarking on a journey in time and space with this very goal.
Between Boiarka and Bilohorodka is the village of Bobrytsia. Its northern outskirts open up to a view of the high, steep right bank of the Irpin River, carved with ravines, which was once crowned with impregnable walls. Places like this always attracted our distant forefathers. Bilhorod owes its emergence not only to the defensive terrain. The existence of this town was an objective necessity for the “mother of all Rus’ cities,” for it not only protected Kyiv’s western close approaches but was also a fortified area on the Irpin, in fact the Polianian-Derevlianian borderline.
It is difficult to determine the degree of veracity of the chronicler’s claim that the Polianians “were wronged” by the Derevlianians after the death of Kyi, Shchek, and Khoryv, but it is a proven fact that relations between these neighbors were far from cloudless. Archeological data show that Kyiv may have been founded on Derevlianian territory, later seized by the Polianians, in order to control the strategically important “route from the Varangians to the Greeks.” Bilhorod may have emerged in those ancient times as the outpost of Kyi’s city at the place where the Polianian-Derevlianian border was crossed by a road that led to the Western countries.
When the Varangians came to the Middle Dnipro Territory and Oleh seized Kyiv, the Derevlianians put up a stiff resistance to the invaders and rose up repeatedly. To consolidate his power, Oleh “began to build towns” (882) in the lands he had conquered. These lines in the chronicle may also explain a later date for the founding of Bilhorod.
In any case, Bilhorod was already a large settlement by 992, although The Tale of Bygone Years records the following entry for that year: “Volodymyr founded the city of Bel...and brought a lot of people into it, for he liked this city.” But the word “founded” does not necessarily mean that it was established in a new place. Most cities in ancient Rus’ were built by erecting fortifications around existing villages, restoring early Slavic settlements, or developing small towns. The city that was established by Volodymyr also adjoined the earlier Bilhorod, which a chronicle entry dated 980 mentions together with Vyshhorod and Berestiv as the Kyivan prince’s country retreat.
The road that leads from Boiarka to the village center suddenly turns into a deep ravine. On the left you can see the high earth rampart of a dytynets built by Volodymyr in the late 10th century: this was the term designating the fortified center of an ancient Rus’ town, which was in turn surrounded by a ring of settlements enclosed within fortress walls. We walked up a steep slope onto the crest of the rampart. On the right, beyond the gully among the village houses and vegetable gardens, we saw the ramparts that once surrounded these outskirts. Once, these earthen fortifications sheltered epic heroes and historical figures, and saw real events turning into popular epics. In Bilhorod Prince Volodymyr the Radiant Sun mustered warriors from all places to fight the Pechenegs. These warriors were concentrated behind the walls of this settlement. For instance, Dobrynia Mykytych, also known from the chronicles as Dobrynia, may well have rested here after his knightly labors.
We walk along another, even higher and longer, rampart, looking into the distant skyline, and once again become convinced that what is in front of us is one of the largest 10th-13th-century settlements with an area of 110 hectares. In his book In the Footsteps of Dobrynia, the journalist and historian A. Chlenov wrote the following about Bilhorod: “First of all, this is the only 10th-century Derevlianian fortress that has survived together with almost all its ramparts. Second, this is the only 10th-century Rus’ fortress that has preserved its identity to this extent. Third, this is the largest surviving fortress of that era.” Populated by many people who were loyal to Volodymyr and located just next to the capital city of Rus’, Bilhorod was a key deterrent to the intrigues of the Kyivan boyars, among whom were numerous followers of ex-Prince Yaropolk.
A hypothesis concerning Volodymyr’s genealogy may shed light on why the prince attached such great importance to the town located on the border of the Derevlianians’ land. This well-substantiated hypothesis, raised as early as 1864 by the Russian historian Dmitrii Prozorovsky, states that Volodymyr was not the son of a slave woman but the grandson of the Derevlianian prince Mal, who rose up against Ihor in 945. This fact, as well as the founding in Bilhorod of one of the first dioceses in Rus’, dovetails with Prof. Boris Rybakov’s conclusion that Volodymyr made Bilhorod the Derevlianian capital and placed his son Sviatoslav on the throne. It is noteworthy that as soon as Volodymyr gained the princely throne, the chronicles ceased to report about the Derevlianians’ uprisings. Thus, the Kyivan-Derevlianian antagonism was overcome, which closely linked the destinies of the Derevlianian capital and Kyiv.
There were not so many major events in Bilhorod in the 11th century — at least according to the chronicles. In the entries for the years 1088 and 1089 the chronicles mention the bishop of Bilhorod for the first time. The chronicler wrote in the entry for 1089 that “the Holy Virgin’s Church of the Caves and the Monastery of Theodosios were blessed by Metropolitan Ivan; Luka, bishop of Bilhorod; Isaii, bishop of Rostov; Ivan, bishop of Chernihiv; and Antonii, hegumen of Hurhiv.” It is not accidental that Bishop Luka is located immediately after the metropolitan on the list of hierarchs.
In the early 12th century Bilhorod assumed the role previously played by Pereiaslav and earlier, by Novhorod. The grand prince would often place his successor to rule there, because those were troubled times and the Kyivan rulers considered it good practice to keep their heir nearby. Volodymyr Monomakh started this tradition by transferring his elder son Mstyslav (the Grand Prince of Kyiv in 1125-33) from Novhorod to Bilhorod in 1117. Earlier, in 1113, a new bishop named Mykyta was appointed to Bilhorod. A year later he took part in the reburial of the relics of Rus’s first saints Borys and Hlib in Vyshhorod’s stone church named after them. The chronicle gives a detailed account of this solemn ceremony.
In 1140 control of Kyiv passed to Prince Vsevolod Olhovych of Chernihiv, who ceded Bilhorod to his brother Sviatoslav. But other princes also coveted the gold-encrusted throne of Kyiv. In 1146 Mstyslav’s talented and energetic son Iziaslav ascended to this throne. The next year he made a resolute attempt to withdraw Rus’s church from Constantinople’s jurisdiction. Following the example of Yaroslav the Wise, he convened an episcopal council, which elected the Ruthenian (Ukrainian) Klym Smoliatych metropolitan (earlier, the metropolitans of Kyiv, usually Greeks, were appointed by the Patriarch of Constantinople). Bishop Feodor of Bilhorod also took part in this election. The chronicle mentions Feodor the next year as Iziaslav’s envoy to the Olhovyches of Chernihiv.
In 1149 Yurii Dovhoruky (“Long Hands”) began his first term as prince of Kyiv. One of his sons, Borys, was assigned to rule Bilhorod. Meanwhile, in 1150-51, Iziaslav Mstyslavych again joined the struggle for the Kyivan throne. He drove Borys out of Bilhorod, and when Yurii learned of this, he fled Kyiv. In 1159 Rostyslav Mstyslavych ascended “the throne of his father and grandfather,” while the future Kyivan prince Mstyslav Iziaslavovych acquired Bilhorod.
The town reached its peak of prosperity under Riuryk Rostyslavych. In 1181 he ceded Kyiv to Vsevolod Sviatoslavych, retaining power “in all the other Rus’ lands.” Riuryk chose Bilhorod as his capital and established his court there. Further proof of the prince’s authority and influence is the following entry in the Rus’ Chronicle dated 1189: “In the same year Maksym, bishop of Bilhorod, departed this life, and Riuryk appointed in his stead his spiritual father Andriian, hegumen of St. Michael’s Monastery.” In other words, it was a prince of Rus’, not a metropolitan, who appointed the bishop of one of Rus’s most influential eparchies. Sviatoslav Vsevolodovych died in 1194, and Riuryk became the Grand Prince of Kyiv, while Bilhorod was assigned to his son Rostyslav.
As an episcopal center, Bilhorod naturally had a number of places of worship. A wooden structure, the Church of the Apostles, was consecrated in 1144, but it existed only for a short while. Already by 1197 Riuryk Rostyslavych erected the stone Church of the Holy Apostles, the seat of the Bilhorod bishop. It was “tall, very large, and decorated with all kinds of wonderful things.” The chronicler’s account is confirmed by archeological excavations of the remnants of this church. While it was common practice to build small four-columned temples in the era of Rus’s feudal fragmentation, the Bilhorod cathedral was a large six-columned structure in which the architect tried to combine the characteristic stylistic features and Gothic elements of the monumental temples from the era of Yaroslav the Wise. Remnants of another, much smaller, church that was built at the turn of the 13th century were found near the Cathedral of the Apostles. It is thought to have been the sepulcher of the Bilhorod bishops.
The decline of Kyiv in 1240 eliminated almost all the factors that had contributed to the emergence and flourishing of Bilhorod, and this town was never destined to rise from the ashes. The only memory of it is the name of the village, Bilohorodka.
Leaving Bilohorodka, I suddenly saw further evidence of its glorious past, connected with the events of 997. Taking advantage of the absence of the prince, who had gone north to recruit warriors to fight the Pechenegs, the nomads decided to seize Volodymyr’s favorite city. When famine struck the besieged city, its residents chose to throw themselves at the enemy’s mercy, but the wise advice of an old man saved Bilhorod, forcing the Pechenegs to lift the siege and depart. The wisdom of an old man overpowered brute force. We read this in the ancient Rus’— and Ukrainian- language text engraved on a granite stele erected near the bridge on the steep banks of the Irpin River.
