Yaroslav the Wise
Yaroslav I Vladimirovich[a] (c. 978 – 20 February 1054), better known as Yaroslav the Wise,[b] was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1019 until his death in 1054.[3] He was also earlier Prince of Novgorod from 1010 to 1034 and Prince of Rostov from 987 to 1010, uniting the principalities for a time. Yaroslav's baptismal name was George[c] after Saint George.[4]
For other uses, see Yaroslav the Wise (disambiguation).Yaroslav the Wise
Yaroslav was a son of Vladimir the Great and Rogneda of Polotsk. Yaroslav ruled the northern lands around Rostov before being transferred to Novgorod in 1010. He had a strained relationship with his father and refused to pay tribute to Kiev in 1014. Following Vladimir's death in 1015, Yaroslav waged a complicated war for the Kievan throne against his half-brother Sviatopolk, ultimately emerging victorious in 1019.
As the Grand Prince of Kiev, Yaroslav focused on foreign policy, forming alliances with Scandinavian countries and weakening Byzantine influence on Kiev. He successfully captured the area around present-day Tartu, Estonia, establishing the fort of Yuryev, and forced nearby regions to pay tribute. Yaroslav also defended his state against nomadic tribes such as the Pechenegs by constructing a line of forts. He was a patron of literary culture, sponsoring the construction of Saint Sophia Cathedral in 1037 and promoting the first work of Old East Slavic literature by Hilarion of Kiev.
Yaroslav married Ingegerd Olofsdotter in 1019 and had several children who married into foreign royal families. His children from his second marriage went on to rule various parts of Kievan Rus'. Yaroslav was known for promoting unity among his children and emphasizing the importance of living in peace. After his death, his body was placed in a sarcophagus within Saint Sophia's Cathedral, but his remains were later lost or stolen. Yaroslav's legacy includes founding several towns and having numerous monuments and institutions named after him.
Reign[edit]
Power struggles between siblings[edit]
Leaving aside the legitimacy of Yaroslav's claims to the Kievan throne and his postulated guilt in the murder of his brothers, Nestor the Chronicler and later Russian historians often presented him as a model of virtue, styling him "the Wise". A less appealing side of his personality is revealed by his having imprisoned his youngest brother Sudislav for life. In response, another brother, Mstislav of Chernigov, whose distant realm bordered the North Caucasus and the Black Sea, hastened to Kiev.
Despite reinforcements led by Yaroslav's brother-in-law King Anund Jacob of Sweden (as Yakun - "blind and dressed in a gold suit"[16] or "handsome and dressed in a gold suit")[17] Mstislav inflicted a heavy defeat on Yaroslav in 1024. Yaroslav and Mstislav then divided Kievan Rus' between them: the area stretched east from the Dnieper River, with the capital at Chernigov, was ceded to Mstislav until his death in 1036.
Allies along the Baltic coast[edit]
In his foreign policy, Yaroslav relied on a Scandinavian alliance and attempted to weaken the Byzantine influence on Kiev. According to Heimskringla, Olaf the Swede made an alliance with Yaroslav, even though the alliance was not liked in Sweden, in order to declare war against Olaf II of Norway. This was sealed in 1019 when King Olof of Sweden married his daughter to Yaroslav instead of the Norwegian king. That led to protests in Sweden because the Swedes wanted to reestablish control over their lost eastern territories and bring in tribute from Kievan Rus', as his father Eric the Victorious had, but after years of war against Norway, Sweden no longer had the power to collect regular tributes from Kievan Rus', according to Heimskringla. In 1022 Olaf was deposed and forced to give power to his son Anund Jakob.[18]
He defended the Eastern countries from invaders, ensuring Swedish military interests.[18]
In a successful military raid in 1030, he captured Tartu, Estonia and renamed it Yuryev[19] (named after Yury, Yaroslav's patron saint) and forced the surrounding Ugandi County to pay annual tribute.
In 1031, he conquered Cherven cities from the Poles followed by the construction of Sutiejsk to guard the newly acquired lands. In c.1034 Yaroslav concluded an alliance with Polish King Casimir I the Restorer, sealed by the latter's marriage to Yaroslav's sister, Maria.
Yaroslav's eldest son, Vladimir, ruled in Novgorod from 1034 and supervised relations in the north.[20]
Later in Yaroslav's reign, around c.1035, Ingvar the Far-Travelled, Anund Jakob's jarl, sent Swedish soldiers into Kievan Rus due to Olof's son wanting to assist his father's ally Yaroslav in his wars against the Pechenegs and Byzantines. Later, in c.1041 Anund Jakob tried to reestablish Swedish control over the Eastern trade routes and reopen them.[21] The Georgian annals report 1000 men coming into Georgia but the original force was likely much larger, around 3,000 men.[22]
Ingvar's fate is unknown, but he was likely captured in battle during the Byzantine campaigns or killed, supposedly in 1041. Only one ship returned to Sweden, according to the legend.[23]
In 1019, Yaroslav married Ingegerd Olofsdotter, daughter of Olof Skötkonung, the king of Sweden.[26][27] He gave Ladoga to her as a marriage gift.
Saint Sophia's Cathedral in Kiev houses a fresco representing the whole family: Yaroslav, Irene (as Ingegerd was known in Rus'), their four daughters and six sons.[28] Yaroslav had at least three of his daughters married to foreign princes who lived in exile at his court:
Yaroslav had one son from the first marriage (his Christian name being Ilya (?–1020)), and six sons from the second marriage. Apprehending the danger that could ensue from divisions between brothers, he exhorted them to live in peace with each other. The eldest of these, Vladimir of Novgorod, best remembered for building the Cathedral of St. Sophia, Novgorod, predeceased his father. Vladimir succeeded Yaroslav as prince of Novgorod in 1034.[20]
Three other sons—Iziaslav I, Sviatoslav II, and Vsevolod I—reigned in Kiev one after another. The youngest children of Yaroslav were Igor Yaroslavich (1036–1060) of Volhynia and Vyacheslav Yaroslavich (1036–1057) of the Principality of Smolensk. There is almost no information about Vyacheslav. Some documents point out the fact of him having a son, Boris Vyacheslavich, who challenged Vsevolod I sometime in 1077–1078.
Yaroslav's Rock.
Reverse of the two hryvnia coin, Ukraine, 2018
Four towns in four countries were named after Yaroslav, three of which he also founded: Yaroslavl (in today's Russia), Jarosław in Poland, Yuryev (now Bila Tserkva, Ukraine), and another Yuryev in place of conquered Tarbatu (now Tartu) between 1030 and 1061 in Estonia. Following the Russian custom of naming military objects such as tanks and planes after historical figures, the helmet worn by many Russian soldiers during the Crimean War was called the "Helmet of Yaroslav the Wise". It was the first pointed helmet to be used by a modern army, even before German troops wore pointed helmets.
In 2008 Yaroslav was placed first (with 40% of the votes) in their ranking of "our greatest compatriots" by the viewers of the TV show Velyki Ukraintsi.[31] Afterwards, one of the producers of The Greatest Ukrainians claimed that Yaroslav had only won because of vote manipulation and that (if that had been prevented) the real first place would have been awarded to Stepan Bandera.[32]
In 2003, a monument to Yaroslav the Wise was erected in Kyiv, Ukraine. The creators of the monument are Boris Krylov and Oles Sydoruk. There is also a Yaroslavska Street in Kiev, and there are various streets named after him in cities throughout Ukraine.
The Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University in Kharkiv is named after him.
Iron Lord was a 2010 feature film based on Yaroslav's early life as a regional prince on the frontier.
On December 12, 2022, on the Constitution Day of the Russian Federation, a monument to Yaroslav the Wise was unveiled at the site near the Novgorod Technical School. The author of the monument is sculptor Sergey Gaev.[33]