This article is about one of the most famous rulers of Kyivan Rus’. Born in 948, Prince Volodymyr Sviatoslavych was the youngest of the three sons of Kyivan Prince Sviatoslav Ihorevych the Brave and the youngest grandson of Kyivan Princess Olha the Wise. When Princess Olha died in 969, Sviatoslav decided to appoint his sons as the rulers of various lands in his state, Ukraine-Rus’. Leaving his elder son Yaropolk in Kyiv, he sent his middle son Oleh to Ovruch, the land of the Derevlianians, and the youngest son Volodymyr to Novhorod at the request of that city’s envoys. The prince himself set off to Pereyaslavets, the center of the Bulgarian lands that he had conquered earlier. Since his sons were still young, Sviatoslav instructed two of his loyal voivodes, Dobrynia and Sveneld, to assist Volodymyr and Yaropolk, respectively.
As the chronicler Nestor recorded, no sooner had Prince Sviatoslav breathed his last than an internecine struggle broke out between the brothers. At first there was a quarrel between Yaropolk and Oleh because the latter had killed Sveneld’s son Liut, who had trespassed upon the Derevlianians’ land during a forest hunt. The grief-stricken Sveneld began pursuading Yaropolk, a mild and pliant person, to take revenge on Oleh by attacking him and seizing his land. In 977 Yaropolk marched against Oleh, their troops engaged in battle near Ovruch, and Oleh’s warriors began retreating to the city. There was a stampede on the bridge in front of the fortress wall. The panic-stricken people pushed Oleh and some of his troops into the water-filled moat, where they drowned. As soon as Prince Volodymyr of Novhorod learned about Yaropolk’s march on Ovruch and the death of Oleh, he went to Scandinavia to reinforce his troops with Varangians, leaving Novhorod to Yaropolk, who only ruled for a very short time. After mustering a large Varangian army, Volodymyr recaptured Novhorod and later, in 980, he seized Kyiv and became the autocratic ruler of the huge Kyivan state now referred to as Ukraine-Rus’.
VOLODYMYR UNITES ALL THE UKRAINIAN LANDS
Continuing the previous Kyivan princes’ policy of uniting the Slav lands under Kyiv’s control, Volodymyr waged wars in 981-993 against the Yatvingians, Viatichians and Croats, thus completing the long process of creating the centralized Kyivan state. It was at this time that Ukraine-Rus’ finally demarcated and reinforced its borders, which generally coincided with the ethnic boundaries of the Eastern Slavs. Volodymyr in fact had begun to consolidate the Kyivan state in 981, when he quelled an uprising of the Viatichians and imposed the “plowman’s tribute” on them. In 982 Volodymyr again went to war with the Viatichians whom he defeated. Long before, Volodymyr had annexed the Polotsk land when he was fighting against Yaropolk. In 981 he conquered the western-based Great Moravian cities of Peremyshl, Cherven, Volyn and others populated by the Dulibians and White Croats. From the Lithuanians Volodymyr recaptured the lands adjacent to the Buh River in 983 and built a city that he named Volodymyr-Volynsky. In 984 Volodymyr marched against the rebellious Radimichians and routed them on the river Pishchana. He imposed tribute on them, which, according to a 12th-century chronicle, “they are still bringing.”
Not so successful was Volodymyr’s eastward expedition in 985 against the Volga Bulgars: the Kyivan prince failed to compel them to pay tribute to him, so he had to confine himself to concluding a peace treaty with them. Having thus united all the Ukrainian lands in a unitary state, Prince Volodymyr ensured their security against foreign encroachments. At the time, the territory of Ukraine-Rus’ spanned 800,000 sq. km. and stretched northward as far as the Chud, Ladoga and Onega Lakes, southward to the rivers Don, Ros, Sula and Southern Buh, eastward to the valley between the Oka and the Volga, and westward as far as the Dniester, the Carpathians, the Western Buh, the Neman, and the Western Dvina. In other words, ancient Ukraine-Rus’ became Europe’s largest state.
Volodymyr the Great lived in peace with the neighboring peoples and states, such as the Poles, Greeks, Bulgarians, Czechs, and Magyars. His only headache was the Pechenegs, who made frequent forays into the Ukrainian lands, wiping out entire villages and cities.
VOLODYMYR’S STRUGGLE AGAINST THE PECHENEGS
In addition to conducting military campaigns in order to unite the state, Volodymyr had to wage a relentless struggle against the Pechenegs, a semi-savage nomadic people of Turkic origin. They had lived in the Ukrainian steppes for more than fifty years and would often approach Kyiv. Nestor the chronicler wrote that the war against them was “never-ending.” To stem the tide of enemy attacks, Volodymyr began to build towns and fortifications on both banks of the Dnipro, Ostra, Desna and Irpin rivers and in Left Bank Rus’ near the Sula, Trubizh and Seym rivers. Fortified cities were built at critical points on the defense line, with high ramparts between them spanning several dozen miles. These fortification measures helped blunt enemy attacks and allowed Volodymyr to wage a more effective struggle against the Pechenegs. The chronicler notes that the Pecheneg wars of 990, 992 (two), 996, 997, 1001, and 1004 brought military glory to the Kyivan prince. Those battles are the subject of many stories and bylinas (folk epic poems). Here is a story about one of the battles fought in 992.
When the Pechenegs reached Kyiv, they saw a mighty force with Volodymyr at the head. The Pecheneg chieftain said to him, “Let one of your warriors and one of mine come out and wrestle. If yours overpowers mine, we will not make war for three years, but if ours gets the upper hand, we will plunder your land for three full years.” At first there were no volunteers among Volodymyr’s troops, while the Pechenegs fielded a very tall and fierce-looking giant. When the prince addressed his soldiers again, an old man came up to the prince and said, “My prince! I’ve come here to the war together with my four sons, but my fifth, the youngest one, stayed behind at home. Since he was a child, there hasn’t been a man who could overpower him.” The prince rejoiced and sent for the strong man named Kyrylo Kozhumyaka. When he arrived, he asked the prince to bring a big, strong bull to test him. Goaded with a hot iron, the bull was let loose. When it was running past Kyrylo, he caught its side with his hand and tore off a piece of flesh. When Volodymyr saw this, he said, “You can fight the Pecheneg.” The next morning the two wrestlers came to a designated spot between the opposing detachments, clasped each other and began to wrestle. After one effective grip, Kyrylo squeezed the Pecheneg so hard that his bones cracked and he dropped dead. Seeing this, the Pechenegs ran away to the steppe, and Volodymyr did not have to fight with them for the next three years. But in 995 the Pechenegs advanced to Kyiv’s suburb Vasyliv (now Vasylkiv). Volodymyr and a small detachment of warriors engaged them in battle, and failing to rout them, he was forced to retreat.
In 997 Volodymyr went to Novhorod to reinforce and replenish his troops for new battles with the Pechenegs. Learning that the prince was not in Kyiv, the Pechenegs attacked and pitched camp near Bilhorod. The besieged town was soon stricken with famine, and at first its residents decided to surrender. But a certain wise old man suggested fooling the Pechenegs into believing that “the very earth in the town produces food, and residents can endure even a ten-year-long siege.” Seeing this, the Pecheneg chiefs were greatly surprised and ordered their warriors to break camp and leave. After describing these events, Nestor never mentioned any Pecheneg forays into Ukraine-Rus’ until Volodymyr Sviatoslavych died in 1015.
VOLODYMYR’S ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS
The final stage of forming the state of Ukraine-Rus’ meant that Volodymyr had to carry out a number of far-reaching social reforms aimed at consolidating the country, the most important of which was the introduction of Christianity in Ukraine-Rus’.
This was preceded by the following historical and political events. First of all, Christian influence had been approaching the borders of Volodymyr’s state since the second half of the 9th century: Christianity was adopted by Bulgaria in 864, Bohemia and Moravia in 928-935, and Poland in 962-992. Prince Volodymyr realized that his state could only become a full-fledged member of the European community if it embraced Christianity. Second, Volodymyr knew full well that Kyivan Prince Askold had converted to Christianity in 862 and Volodymyr’s grandmother Princess Olha had been baptized in Constantinople in 955. Thus, the combination of political and psychological prerequisites persuaded Volodymyr of the necessity and expediency of adopting Christianity. He was only waiting for a suitable moment, which soon presented itself. Here is the chronicler’s account of the event.
After returning from a successful expedition against the Yatvingians, Volodymyr decided to offer a human sacrifice to the pagan god Perun. The lot fell to the son of a Christian Varangian. He refused to give up his son and publicly declared that the pagan gods were created by men and were not genuine, while the only true God was the one worshipped by the Greeks. The enraged mob of pagans killed both the father and the son. After this, Volodymyr finally decided to adopt the Christian faith. However, the prince considered it humiliating to admit his errors to the Greeks and ask the Byzantine emperors for baptism: he wanted to “conquer” the faith of Christ and accept it as a victor. After the Byzantine emperors deceived Volodymyr and refused to give their sister Princess Anna in marriage to him, the prince mustered a large army and marched to the Greek colony of Korsun (Chersonesos) in the Crimea. After capturing the city, Volodymyr sent a message to Emperors Basil and Constantine, once again requesting the hand of Anna. In the event of a refusal, he threatened to march on Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The emperors agreed on condition that he convert to Christianity. Volodymyr agreed and was baptized in Korsun, at St. Basil’s Church, together with many of his warriors. After the baptism, Volodymyr married Anna and returned Korsun to the Greeks. All this occurred in 988.
Back in Kyiv, Volodymyr set about baptizing his people. The chronicler reports that a Greek metropolitan and some priests were invited to Kyiv to conduct the baptism. At a designated time, the Kyivans came to the banks of the Dnipro, where they saw Volodymyr and the Greek priests. The sacrament of baptism was administered in the river, with mothers holding their babies in their arms. After the baptism, Volodymyr ordered all the pagan idols to be thrown into the Dnipro. Once Ukraine-Rus’ became a Christian state, scholarship and education flourished and learned monks began to write the history of Ukraine- Rus’. This is why there is more information about Volodymyr the Great than about his predecessors Oleh, Ihor, Olha, and Sviatoslav. In the same year, 988, the first schools were opened and a church was built in Kyiv and named after St. Basil (upon his baptism, the prince received the Ukrainian name of Vasyl). Volodymyr invited Byzantine architects to Kyiv, who built the Holy Virgin’s Cathedral in 989-996. The prince donated a tenth part of his revenue to the construction — hence the church’s other name, the Church of the Tithes.
As the chronicler points out, Volodymyr’s character underwent major changes after his baptism. He became a pious and loving man, who gave generous alms, built schools and churches — he became a father to his subjects in the finest sense of the word. He helped the poor, elderly, disabled, orphans, and widows. It is no wonder that he was called an affectionate father and “Radiant Sun.” During his long life Volodymyr ruled the state efficiently and authoritatively for 35 years, implementing far-reaching and effective administrative, territorial, and military reforms. He died on July 15, 1015, in the village of Berestiv near Kyiv and was buried at the Church of the Tithes, and later canonized and awarded the title of “Equal to the Apostles.” As Mykhailo Hrushevsky wrote, “The times of Volodymyr the Saint, or the Great, were the culmination of the building process, the completion, so to speak, of the mechanical evolution in the process of establishing the ancient Ruthenian, Kyivan, state.”
Today, nearly 1,000 years after the prince’s death, the enormous historical importance of his epoch and the reforms that he succeeded in carrying out during his 35-year rule of the Kyivan state (980-1015) remains undiminished. When Volodymyr assumed power, Kyivan Rus’ was suffering from incessant internecine fighting and internal conflicts. By the time of his death it was a mighty and prosperous state with which all the countries of Europe had to reckon. The personality and the deeds of Grand Prince Volodymyr of Kyiv, and those of his son Yaroslav the Wise, constitute a glorious and “golden” page in the history of ancient Rus’.
