KIEVAN RUS’, 1024–1204

In 1024 Mstislav of Tmutarakan’ defeated his elder brother Jaroslav of Novgorod at Listven north of Chernigov and partitioned Rus’ into two autonomous principalities. Jaroslav got Kiev and the right (west) bank of the Dnepr as well as Novgorod; Mstislav kept Chernigov and the left (east) bank in addition to the principality of Tmutarakan’ on the north-east shore of the Black Sea. However, after the latter died (1034) Jaroslav appropriated Mstislav’s domain and this made him the most powerful ruler in the land. He controlled all of Rus’ except for two patrimonies: Polotsk belonged to the family of his elder brother Izyaslav, and Pskov, south-west of Novgorod, was the domain of his brother Sudislav.

Jaroslav established friendly ties with the Poles, the Swedes, the Norwegians, the Germans and the French, but his relations with Byzantium were strained. In 1043 he ordered his eldest son Vladimir of Novgorod to attack the Greeks, but after the expedition failed he restored good relations with them. In 1036 Jaroslav’s victory over the Petcheneks secured safe passage for merchants travelling from Kiev to Constantinople. He also helped the Novgorodians to wage expansionist campaigns against the neighbouring Finns and Lithuanians.

Jaroslav’s reign was one of the high points in the history of Rus’ and his achievements earned for him the sobriquet ‘the Wise’. To consolidate his authority, to protect trade routes and to defend the frontiers he established new fortified towns. He helped to lay the foundation for a codified law by issuing ‘The Russian Law’ (Pravda russkaya). He imported Greek craftsmen to build churches and monasteries. He encouraged religious and secular learning by assembling a library and patronizing the translation of Greek and Old Church Slavonic texts. In 1051, wishing to assert the independence of the church in Rus’ Jaroslav named the hermit Hilarion as the first native metropolitan.