Persia. Igor was killed by the Drevliane in 945 while collecting tribute in their land.
Oleg's and Igor's treaties with Byzantium deserve special attention. Their carefully worded and remarkably detailed provisions dealt with the sojourn of the Russians in Constantinople, Russian trade with its inhabitants, and the relations between the two states in general. It may be noted that the Russians in Constantinople were subject to their own courts, but that, on the other hand, they were free to enter Byzantine service.
While their relations with Byzantium increased the prestige and the profits of the Russians, the inhabitants of the steppe continued to threaten the young Kievan state. In addition to the relatively stabilized and civilized Khazars, more primitive peoples pressed westward. At the dawn of Kievan history, the Magyars, a nomadic horde speaking a Finno-Ugrian language and associated for a long time with the Khazar state, moved from the southern Russian steppe to enter, at the end of the ninth century, the Pannonian plain and lay the foundations for Hungary. But they were replaced and indeed in part pushed out of southern Russia by the next wave from the east, rather primitive and ferocious Turkic nomads, the Pechenegs or Patzinaks. The approach of the Pechenegs is mentioned in the
Igor's sudden death left his widow Olga in charge of the Kievan state, for their son Sviatoslav was still a boy. Olga rose to the occasion, ruling the land from 945 to about 962 and becoming the first famous woman in Russian history as well as a saint of the Orthodox church. The information concerning Olga describes her harsh punishment of the Drevliane and her persistent efforts to strengthen Kievan authority among other East Slavic tribes. It tells also of her conversion to Christianity, possibly in 954 or 955, and her journey to Constantinople in 957. There she was received by the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who left us an account of her visit. But the conversion of Olga did not mean a conversion of her people, nor indeed of her son Sviatoslav.
The ten years of Sviatoslav's rule of Kievan Russia, 962 to 972, which marked the culmination of the first period of Kievan history in the course of which the new state obtained a definite form and role on the east European plain, have been trenchantly called 'the great adventure.' If successful, the adventure might have given Russian history a new center and a different course. Even with their ultimate failure, Sviatoslav's daring campaigns and designs left their imprint all the way from Constantinople to the Volga and the Caspian Sea. Sviatoslav stands out in history as a classic warrior-prince, simple, severe, indefatigable, brave, sharing with his men uncounted hardships as well as continuous battles. He has been
likened to the cossack hetmans and to the viking captains as well as to leaders in other military traditions, and the cossack, if not the viking, comparison has a point: Sviatoslav's appearance, dress, and manner of life all remind us of the steppe. In the words of the
In 964 Sviatoslav started out on a great eastern campaign. First he subjugated the East Slavic tribe of the Viatichi, who had continued to pay tribute to the Khazars rather than to Kiev. Next he descended to the mouth of the river Oka bringing the surrounding Finnic-speaking tribes under his authority. From the mouth of the Oka he proceeded down the Volga, attacked the Volga Bulgars, and sacked their capital, the Great Bulgar. But instead of developing his campaign against the Bulgars, he resumed in 965 his advance down the Volga toward the Khazar state, subduing Finnic and Turkic tribes on the way. Sviatoslav's war against the Khazars had a sweeping scope and impressive results: the Russians smashed the Khazar army, captured and sacked the Khazar capital, Itil, reached the Caspian and advancing along its western shore seized the key fortress of Samandar. Next, turning west, they defeated the Alans and some other peoples of the northern Caucasus, came to the mouth of the Don and stormed the Khazar fortress of Sarkil, which dominated that area. The Khazars, although their state lasted for another half century, never recovered from these staggering blows. Sviatoslav returned to Kiev in 967. His remarkable eastern campaign, which led to the defeat of the Volga Bulgars and the Khazars, completed the unification of the East Slavs around Kiev, attaching to it both the Viatichi and other groups to the southeast, notably in the Don area. Also, it brought under Russian control the entire flow of the Volga, and thus the great Volga-Caspian Sea trade route - a more ancient and perhaps more important north-south communication artery than the Dnieper way itself - whereas formerly the Russians had held only the upper reaches of the Volga. Yet the magnificent victory over the Khazars had its reverse side; it weakened decisively their effectiveness as a buffer against other Asiatic peoples, in particular the Pechenegs.
In 968 Sviatoslav became involved in another major undertaking. On the invitation of the Byzantine emperor Nicephorus Phocas, he led a large army into the Balkans to attack the Bulgarian state in the Danubian valley. Once more the Russians achieved notable military successes, capturing the capital of the Bulgarians and taking prisoner their ruler Boris, although they had to interrupt the campaign to defeat the Pechenegs, who in 969 in the
absence of Sviatoslav and his troops had besieged Kiev. Sviatoslav, who thus came to control the territory from the Volga to the Danubian plain, apparently liked the Balkan lands especially well. According to the
But the Byzantine state, ruled from 969 by the famous military leader Emperor John Tzimisces, had become fully aware of the new danger. As Sviatoslav would not leave the Balkans, a bitter war ensued. In his characteristic manner the Russian prince rapidly crossed the Balkan mountains and invaded the Byzantine Empire, capturing Philippopolis and threatening Adrianople and Constantinople itself. However, John Tzimisces managed in the nick of time to restore his position in Asia, which had been threatened by both a foreign war and a rebellion, and to shift his main effort to the Balkans. He counterattacked, crossing in his turn the Balkan range and capturing Great Preslav, the Bulgarian capital. The Russian army, its lines of communication endangered, had to retreat to the fortress of Dorostolon on the Danube - present-day Dristra or Silistria - which, after a hard-fought battle, John Tzimisces placed under siege. Following more desperate fighting, in July 971 Sviatoslav was finally reduced to making peace with Byzantium on condition of abandoning the Balkans, as well as the Crimea, and promising not to challenge the Byzantine Empire in the future. On his way back to Russia, with a small retinue, he was intercepted and killed by the Pechenegs. Tradition has it that the Pecheneg khan had a drinking cup made out of Sviatoslav's skull. The great adventure had come to its end. Sviatoslav's Balkan wars attract attention not only because of the issues involved but also because of the sizes of the contending armies and because of their place in military history; Byzantine sources indicate that Sviatoslav fought at the head of 60,000 troops of whom 22,000 remained when peace was concluded.
After the death of his mother Olga in 969, Sviatoslav, constantly away with the army, entrusted the administration of the Kiev area to his elder son Iaropolk, dispatched the second son Oleg to govern the territory of the Drevliane, and sent the third, the young Vladimir, with an older relative to manage Novgorod. A civil war among the brothers followed Sviatoslav's death. At first Iaropolk had the upper hand, Oleg perishing in the struggle and Vladimir escaping abroad. But in two years Vladimir returned and with foreign mercenaries and local support defeated and killed Iaropolk. About 980 he became the ruler of the entire Kievan realm.
Vladimir, who reigned until 1015, continued in most respects the policies of his predecessors. Among the East Slavs, he reaffirmed the authority of the Kievan state which had been badly shaken during the years of civil war. He recovered Galician towns from Poland and, further to the north, subdued the warlike Baltic tribe of the Iatviags, extending his domain in that area to the Baltic Sea. Vladimir also made a major and generally successful effort to contain the Pechenegs. He built fortresses and towns, brought settlers into the frontier districts, and managed to push the steppe border to two days, rather than a single day, of travel time from Kiev.
However, Vladimir's great fame rests on his relations with Byzantium and, most especially, on his adoption of Christianity, which proved to be of immense significance and long outlasted the specific political and cultural circumstances that led to the step. Interest in Christianity was not unprecedented among the Russians. In fact,
