Transcription
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
The Russian Military and Historical Society with the Support of the Government of the Novgorod Region present:
“There was no truth among them, and a kin turned against a kin, and a war started, and they began fighting each other...”
That huge land had everything in abundance. Except for peace. Each tribe and each kin was ardently defending its own interests – until they all met at the very edge. Just a bit more, and nobody would be left to populate that land.
People were coming from all the corners of the immense land. Farmers, merchants, hunters, warriors – everybody who survived the bloody massacre. They were walking, looking at their neighbor with suspicion, ready to snatch the sword out at any moment... They were going to decide their fate. They had to take a decision that was to lay the foundations of a new state.
In 50 years, Rus will confidently enter the international arena. In 120, it will become a Christian nation. It will withstand an invasion that devastated many states. It will outlive mighty empires. It will spread and become the largest country in the world. In the course of seven centuries, its fate will be determined by the descendants of one prince’s kin that became a great dynasty. THE RURIK DYNASTY.
Episode One
In the middle of the 5th century, Slavic tribes settled over a huge territory between the three seas – the Black, the White, and the Baltic. They called themselves “Slovene” from the word “slovo” – “word”, or “those who know the word”. It meant that they were talking a language they understood, as opposed to the neighboring nations whose language the Slavs didn’t understand and called them “nemtsi” from the word “nemoy”, “deaf and dumb”.
The Slavs were governed by a “Veche”, or people’s council. They mostly worked on the land and also in the forest and on the river. They preferred to settle along rivers. A river fed them and gave them the way to the other lands. Each settlement was surrounded by a fence and called a “grad”, “a town”.
The Scandinavian merchants, the most frequent guests of the Russian North, were so impressed with the quantity of the reinforced settlements there that they called those lands Gardariks, or a Land of Towns. The forests around them teemed with fur game. The northern furs were a very expensive and popular good. On the markets of East and West, the price for sables, beavers, and weasels exceeded their buying price thousand-fold.
Thanks to the “soft gold”, a small settlement on the bank of the Volkhov River transformed into a bustling city of merchants and artisans that the Slavs called Ladoga. Ancient Ladoga was situated on a high bank. Trade moors and ship repair workshops were located along the shore. The residents of Ladoga used the planks left from boarding the boats to pave the streets and floor their houses.
The Trade Square was the center of the city; the Veche gathered there too. The Trade Square, or Torg, was surrounded by workshops – jewelry, bone-cutting, carpenter, ceramics, and casting where special beads called “eyes” were cast using Arabic technology. Those beads were used to pay the forest hunters for their furs that were later re-sold to the foreign merchants for silver coins, dirhems, that circulated freely on all the markets of Europe and Asia.
Huge profits of Ladoga had a reserve side – they attracted bandits. However, the war between their own people was much scarier than any invasion. Each tribe and each kin wanted to have its share of the profits from furs. They failed to come to terms. Only when the ashes covered their households did the Slavs and the forest people come to their senses. They said: “Let us look for a prince who will own us and judge us justly...”
The general council of the tribes decided that they needed a prince with neither interests nor roots on their land – an outsider. He had to be a brilliant warrior to organize a reliable defense, and an experienced ruler to divide profits and pass fair judgments. They found such a person behind the sea, in a northern land. The prince’s name was Rurik.
The personality of Rurik mostly comes from tales. The best-grounded scientific theory identifies the first Russian prince with a famous Danish konung, or king – Rorik of Jutland, who disappeared from the pages of the western chronicles at the same time when the Slavic tribes chose a prince to rule them. Alternative versions about the Slavic, Persian, and even Celtic descent of Rurik don’t stand up to the archaeological and linguistic evidence. The written sources also fail to confirm that.
All his life, he was greedy for glory. All his life, he had been fighting. The best warriors of the North were ready to go to the edge of the world if he called them. He was lucky, brave, and merciless. Then, the envoys arrived from the Land of Towns and said: “Our land is large and rich, but there is no order in it. Come to rule and to own us”!
Those lands had everything in abundance – forests and rivers, honey and furs, tender ladies and brave warriors. The king will be rich there. Will he be free? No. The envoys hinted that the king would have to swear allegiance to the people. Scandinavian warriors traditionally swore on their swords and luck. A man who violated his oath was destined to die by his own sword.
Who is he? A warrior or a bandit? A mercenary or a ruler? How will Konung Rorik go down in history? Rurik and his warriors agreed to swear allegiance and serve that land and its peoples. Serve in accordance with an agreement and custom – loyally and eternally.
RURIK.
Chapter One
According to the agreement, the prince was to defend the Slavic lands from the pirates and solve disputes between the tribes. For that, he could collect tribute from the population and, possibly, get interest from the trade operations. In 190 km from Ladoga, Rurik founded a fortress that served both as a prince’s residence and an outpost in an important sector of the trade route. Later, that place would be called Rurik’s settlement.
For some period of time, it was a military and administrative center of the Slavic lands until a new city was built lower down the Volkhov. It was called Novgorod – the New City. The Volkhov River divided Novgorod the Great into two sides, the Left-Bank (later called the Sophia’s Side) and Right-Bank (the Trade Side). The majority of streets were paved with wood, and those pavements were two centuries older than in Paris.
The biggest square was by the prince’s court, and the Veche would usually gather there. In the 12th century, Novgorod became the first free city-republic in Rus and got the right to invite and demote princes. It held onto its political independence for more than three centuries. The economic might of the Great Novgorod that owned lands from the Baltic Sea to the Urals made it one of the richest cities in Europe.
Rurik got control over vast lands. Fairy-tale opportunities opened in front of him. Thousands of merchants traveling with their goods along the Volkhov were paying taxes for the right of way. The Prince of Novgorod held many trade routes in his hands – the ancient Volga route “from the Varangians to the Persians” and a new Dnieper one, “from the Varangians to the Greeks” leading into Byzantium.
The Byzantine Empire inherited land and civilization of ancient Greece and Rome. By the 9th century, it occupied a huge territory – around 3.5 million square kilometers. In the course of the centuries, the Empire was the mightiest state of the Mediterranean region. Its capital, Constantinople, or Tsargrad (“Tsar’s City”) as it was called in Rus, was the largest city of the medieval world.
People of Rus told legends about the beauty and riches of Tsargrad. The Byzantine merchants were bringing incredibly beautiful fabrics and wonderful jewelry to the northern markets. Constantinople was a cherished goal of every warrior, a city where all dreams were supposed to come true. Rurik was obsessed with Constantinople too.
During the fourth year of his rule, he sent his trusted war leaders Askold and Dir and their troops to test their luck. Time passed. Merchants from far-away lands were bringing hazy news about the Russians that came to Constantinople and then perished when a sea storm ruined their fleet. However, Askold and Dir didn’t die by the walls of Constantinople. They came back – not to Novgorod, though, but to Kiev, the very center of the trade route, and began to rule it.
In a state that had still been developing, two centers of power appeared. One was in Kiev, located closer to the Great Steppe and the Byzantine Empire, and Novgorod, closer to Northern and Western Europe. The further geopolitical development of the state depended on which of the cities would become more powerful. However, it wasn’t Rurik who decided that.
The first Russian prince who arrived from behind the sea was leaving for good to a place people don’t come back from. His subjects were bidding farewell to him with all possible solemnness, trying to facilitate the way of the dead into the other world. The pagan funeral rite stipulated a fire burial. It was believed that smoke takes the soul of the deceased to the upper world.
The body was placed on a construction made out of logs. Close to him, everything that he could need in the other world was placed – including slaves and horses. Noble warriors were buried in a boat. After the burning, the ashes were collected into a special jar, and a mound was erected over it. Then, a trizna, or a burial commemoration feast, was taking place. It included a tournament, a competition in military art.
The foreign prince did everything as promised; he didn’t violate his oath. No matter who he had been, a Slav or a Scandinavian, an experienced ruler or a lucky robber, Prince Rurik became the founder of the first ruling dynasty in the country, the history of which began from an agreement between the ruler and his people. That land had neither a name nor a united territory. And its Prince hadn’t even turned two.
According to Rurik’s testament, the power was handed over to his trusted war leader Oleg. Oleg was to rule until Rurik’s son came of age. The fate of the dynasty fell into the hands of a person who wasn’t connected with it by blood ties but became its pillar according to the rules of honor.
OLEG THE PROPHET.
Chapter Two
The year was 882. Huge troops were moving along the rivers of the endless woodland land. It was led by a young war leader Oleg. He was going to Kiev to get rid of a hinder for the free transit trade – the self-proclaimed princes Askold and Dir. The real legal prince, Igor, son of Rurik, was too small and didn’t remember his father. Oleg became everything for him – his teacher, his protector, and his patron.
In that campaign, Oleg taught him his first serious lessons. Sailing along the Dnieper, he took two towns at strategically important sections of the trade route under his control, namely Smolensk and Lyubech. After providing for a reliable rear, he approached Kiev under the disguise of a merchant caravan. Oleg and little Igor disembarked. The self-proclaimed Princes Askold and Dir came out to look at the foreign goods. Warriors ran off the ships at them.
Oleg said: “You’re not Princes; you don’t come from the kin of princes”, and pointed at Igor: “He, however, is a son of Rurik”. The rulers of Kiev didn’t have time to respond. They were killed right there, at the bank. On seizing Kiev, Oleg united huge territories under his power and got control over a major part of the trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks”.
Novgorod became the northern outpost of the country while Kiev transformed into its heart. From Kiev, Oleg started to spread his authority into all spheres of life along the route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” wherever his troops could reach. The first thing he did was start a campaign against the Drevlians. The Drevlians were the only tribe out of all Dnieper Slavs who weren’t paying tribute to anyone, and they didn’t want it to change.
However, they couldn’t resist the hardened warriors of Kiev. Oleg defeated the Drevlians and made them pay yearly tribute to Kiev. In a year, Oleg campaigned against the Severians. They knew about the plight of their neighbors. So, they threw weapons aside in the first battle and agreed to pay the same tribute. Later, the Radimichi went under the hand of Kiev – under the same conditions.
The scheme of the accession was the same everywhere. The power of the Prince of Kiev permitted him to collect tribute from other lands, and for that, he had to provide a garrison of Varangians for the defense of the tribe and construct a small fortress. Those Oleg’s outposts became the basis for many towns of the Southern Rus.
Many years passed. Almost the entire trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” was under the control of Kiev’s Prince Oleg. Countless merchant caravans were sailing along the Dnieper, certain in their safety. The only thing he lacked were beneficial conditions for trade on the main market of Europe – in Constantinople. Oleg went to seize Tsargrad, leaving a now adult Prince Igor, son of Rurik, in Kiev.
Oleg wasn’t sure that he would return alive, for that campaign he started was very difficult and dangerous. The army that left Kiev was huge by those times standards – a long caravan of battle ships. The Scandinavian sea vessels, drakkars and shnekers, were 10-20 meters long. They moved with the help of a sail and paddles and could develop a speed of up to 12 knots (over 20 km per hour).
Curved elements of their construction, ribs and keels, were made of naturally curved tree trunks. The elements weren’t sawn but cracked along the fibers, due to which they were especially flexible and durable. To sail rivers, Slavic boats, monoxiles, were used. They were made of the hollowed-out trunks of oaks and linden trees, with planks boarded on their sides. Such boats could carry up to 20 tons of cargo and speed up to 7 knots (13 km per hour).
Oleg’s fleet sailed down the Dnieper, crossed the stony teeth of the Dnieper rapids where they had to drag the boats over, and withstood sea storms nearly breaking into splinters against the rocks by the shore. Golden outlines of the city of dreams were already noticeable through Bosporus blue haze. Nobody stopped them at the approaches to Tsargrad. The city was ready to fall into the hands of the Russian Prince Oleg like a ripe fruit.
However, a huge chain blocked their way across the bay. “The barbarians will be helpless without their ships,” the residents of Constantinople thought. Then, Oleg ordered to pull the ships onto the shore and put them on wooden rollers. The Greeks were amazed – the ships of the barbarians were sailing the land like the sea! They didn’t have time to come to their senses when a huge army was already standing by the city walls.
The Greek ambassadors went out to meet Oleg. It was the first time when arrogant men from Constantinople had to talk so politely with a barbarian. The Greeks said: “Don’t ruin the city. We’ll give you the tribute in the amount that you want”. Oleg wanted neither honors nor presents. Oleg wanted to have trade privileges for the Russian merchants. He got what he came for.
The Russians got the right of tax-free trade in Constantinople, an incredible benefit that none of the barbarian, aka pagan people had ever succeeded in obtaining. It meant the international recognition of the Russian state. To demonstrate that Tsargrad was under his protection now, Oleg ordered to nail his battle shield over the city gates.
The international trade, the base for the economics of the young Russian state, got the green light. The route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” started working full force, providing the Slavic cities with goods and silver. He returned to Kiev with an incredible, unexpected victory worthy of a great hero. And with a nickname of Veshiy, or Prophet, as he was deemed to see the future.
The word “veshiy” derives from the ancient Indian root “ved” which means “possessing of secret knowledge”. The Indians Veds, collections of secret wisdom, and Russian words “vedun” (“wizard”) and “vedma” (“a witch”) – magicians, healers, intermediaries between the world – derive from that root too. According to another version, “Veshiy” was the translation of the Prince’s name. Oleg or Olg is a Slavic version of the Scandinavian name “Helga” that means “holy” or “sacred”, “the one who has a gift of seeing the future”.
The real name of the person who went down in history as Veshiy Oleg, or Oleg the Prophet, is unknown. The same is true for the real cause of his death; the place of his burial is unknown too, as mounds bearing the name “Oleg’s Grave” are located both in Kiev and in Ladoga. Just in the course of a half of a century, a time that equals one human life, Oleg the Prophet transformed separate lands into a state, huge by those times standards.
He nearly doubled the territory bequeathed to him by Rurik. Oleg fulfilled everything that he had to and disappeared in the fog of ancient legends, passing the power to the legal heir, Igor, son of Rurik. For many years, many considered him to be just a shadow of Oleg the Prophet. He was a Prince only by the word. Now, the time for action came. He, Prince Igor, son of Rurik, will become a winner too, and the heroes of Tsargrad will solemnly carry him on the battle shields...
IGOR THE ANCIENT.
Chapter Three
Igor had long been an adult and knew well how to rule, fight, and judge. Now, he was a real prince, both in the eyes of his army and residents of Kiev. And for the daughter of a boater who became the most important girl in his life.
According to the legend, in his youth, when hunting in the forests of Pskov, Prince Igor came out to a river crossing. He got into the boat and found out that a girl was paddling it, and that she was very beautiful. “Passions overcame him, and he turned to her with shameless words. But she said: “Don’t hope to take me with force. I’d better be swallowed by this deep river than tempt you”. Igor felt ashamed and crossed the river in silence but kept her image in his heart”.
After returning to Kiev, Igor ordered to find the beautiful girl. He married her. That was how a girl from Pskov called Olga became the Princess of Kiev. In Ancient Rus, a marriage was arranged by an agreement between the relatives of the bride and a groom, or his relatives. The ancient custom of stealing the bride was giving the husband a full right of ownership to his wife.
The custom of “buying the bride out” appeared later and gave some rights to a woman, including the right to divorce and marry again. From the moment the bride entered her groom’s home, she was symbolically dying for her kin to be reborn in her husband’s family. That’s why a husband had to carry his young wife into his house in his arms, like a newborn baby.
When left alone, the couple had to eat porridge with one spoon, have some boiled chicken, and a loaf of bread. Then, the wife had to take a shoe off her husband as a sign of her humility. In the right boot, there was usually a coin. And from the left one, a husband had to take out a whip and lightly hit his wife to demonstrate his power over her.
The power of the Prince of Kiev over most of the Russian state was nominal. Each tribe had its own rulers, customs, and gods. Annual payments of tribute were the only sign of their obedience to Kiev. However, it was Oleg the Prophet who had imposed that tribute, and not every tribe wanted to continue paying to the new Prince.
The Drevlians were the first to stop the payments. Prince Igor started a war with the Drevlians, defeated them, and imposed an even bigger tribute – to stop the others from trying their luck. He shared the rich loot gains among his troops to inspire the warriors to serve better. The troops of the Prince, or his “druzhina”, amounted to 200-400 people and constituted the most battle-capable core of the Ancient Rus’s army.
During the wars, the warriors were awarded with the loot, and in peaceful times – with a share from the collected tribute, lavish feasts, and Prince’s gifts. During the first century of the Ancient Rus’s history, the Prince was considered to be “the first among equals” in his troops and had to listen to their interests. If the warriors weren’t satisfied with the Prince for some reason – for example, he rarely organized campaigns or was not generous enough, the druzhina could leave him for another ruler.
After the suppression of the Drevlians, there were no campaigns for a long time. The troops were getting more and more restless. However, in 939, the Greek ambassadors arrived in Kiev and offered the Prince to fight the nomads, the Khazars that were bothering the Empire. The offer was reinforced with rich gifts and flattering speeches: “Our Emperor is in need of the help of a great warrior, the Prince of Rus. What glory and rich loot awaits a person who will defeat the Khazars”...
Igor didn’t think much before agreeing. The Russian troops fought the Khazars and were completely devastated. To save the remainders of the troops and come back home, Igor was forced to conclude peace with the Khazars – on their conditions. They demanded the incredible – to enter a war with Byzantine!
Igor strove to show what he was capable of for long. He decided to go to Tsargrad by the road taken by Oleg the Prophet. And outdo him in heroic acts, loot, and glory. After two years of thorough preparations, the Russian troops started a campaign against Tsargrad. Prince Igor mobilized all his resources. A huge fleet was accompanied by the cavalry riding along the bank.
The reconnaissance helped choose the best moment for the attack when the Greek fleet was fighting with the Arabs and Constantinople remained without defense. When Igor’s fleet approached Bosporus, 15 small vessels met them in the bay. The Russian battleships encircled them. However, the Greek miserable shells suddenly exploded in the fiery storm. That was the first time the Russians encountered the Greek fire.
The Greek fire was the secret weapon of Byzantine, a fiery mixture based on oil and saltpetre that didn’t go out in water. Its exact composition was kept secret and is still unknown to our day. The mixture was heated under pressure in special pots and excreted to the distance of 30 meters via bronze pipes – syphons. Special syphon masters were working on them. Usually, three syphons were located on the nose of a light Byzantine vessel with sails and paddles. However, additional syphons were installed on the sides and at the stern to fight the Russians.
The ships let the Russian boats approach as much as they could and poured fire on them. Igor suffered a humiliating defeat and retreated with the remainder of his troops. Because of the bad organization of the campaign, many of the Russian warriors died on the way back from dysentery. Igor returned to Kiev without any loot and almost without his army.
However, the following spring he went against Tsargrad again. That time, he had his allies, the Pechenegs from the Great Steppes, with him. The fast cavalry of the steppe people was well-known in Byzantine for their cruel and lightning-fast raids. The Emperor decided not to test his fate and sent ambassadors with rich gifts to meet Igor and offer him to renew the previous agreement.
On signing a beneficial trade agreement with Byzantine, Igor returned to Kiev without a single battle, considering himself a winner. That autumn was a happy time for him. His long-awaited son was born. The boy got the name of Svyatoslav, and it was the first Slavic name in the history of Rurik’s kin. Now, Igor had someone to hand the throne over to. All the tribes were silently paying tribute to him, and the state was under his complete control. Or so it seemed to him...
The tribute from the subject tribes was collected during the polyudie, that was how the travel around all the lands dependent on him was called. The Prince usually began it in the company of his druzhina in autumn, ending it by spring. The agreed volumes of furs and silver were collected in sacks and stamped with the Prince’s stamp. Besides, relying on a custom of hospitality, the Prince demanded food for himself and his army, and he also gladly accepted expensive gifts.
The amount of additional takings wasn’t formalized. The polyudie could be accompanied by robberies and repressions against the locals. In the winter of 944, when Prince Igor was returning from polyudie in the land of the Drevlians, his druzhina said that they didn’t take enough. The warriors told him about an example of his own war leader. They said that Swineld’s people got hold of new weapons and clothes. Igor hated somebody’s luck to exceed his own.
So, he came back to the Drevlians to collect the tribute again, in violation of all the rules and agreements. The Drevlians didn’t want to suffer the arbitrariness of the Prince. They came out to fight Igor as an invader. The Prince was taken prisoner and suffered a painful and shameful execution. His legs were tied to the tops of the trees, then they were let go, and he was torn in half – for everybody’s edification.
To scare those who would rule in Kiev after Igor. If somebody would. A similar thing happened many years ago when little Igor became the ruler of a new state after Rurik’s death. However, the mighty figure of a war leader Oleg was always by his side. Now, Kiev was to be ruled by three-year-old Svyatoslav. He was shadowed by a tender woman, his mother, Princess Olga.
HOLY OLGA.
Chapter Four
Her Prince died, and she was nothing more but a defenseless widow. A person who killed her husband had a right to everything that the deceased owned, including the powers to Kiev and her – Olga. The Prince of the Drevlians could simply come and take her by force, but he offered an honorable way out of the situation. He sent envoys to Olga.
She appreciated that noble gesture and honored them, in her turn – the envoys were carried to the palace in the arms of her people, in the boat. On the yard of the palace, a big hole with fire was ready. The Drevlians were thrown in it together with the boat. Olga bent to the hole and asked them: “Do you like the honor”? That was how Olga’s war began.
She started a campaign against the capital of the Drevlians, Iskorosten. She had to destroy the town where her husband met his downfall. According to the custom, a Prince had to begin the battle by throwing a spear. However, three-year-old Svyatoslav was too small to hold it with one hand, so he held it with both. He failed to raise it, but he did manage to throw it. Forward, at the enemy. The spear fell on the ground.
The loud voice of the war leader rose above the battlefield: “The Prince has started the battle! Warriors, let’s follow our Prince”! And the earth shook under the hoofs of the cavalry. On seeing that Iskorosten was impenetrable, Olga, according to the chronicle, succumbed to the ruse of war. She told the Drevlians that she would leave for a symbolic tribute of three pigeons and three sparrows from each household.
She ordered her warriors to tie a piece of burning tinder to each bird and let them go. Pigeons and sparrows returned to their houses, and the town burnt. In the 18th century, the German scientist August Ludwig Shletser was studying ancient Russian chronicles and tried to determine whether birds could indeed carry fire. The cruel experiment failed as the birds were dying before taking flight.
Burning the city with the help of birds is a widespread story of world folklore. It is present, for example, in the legend about Alexander the Great and in the Scandinavian sagas. For many nations, a bird symbolizes the heavenly fire. This idea is still alive in our days. There is a belief that a bird that accidentally flies into a household predicts a fire or death.
It’s unknown how Iskorosten was burnt, but there are no doubts that it was ruined. When she burnt it, she took the elders prisoner, turned some into slaves for her men, and made the rest pay tribute. Her war was over. Her life lost sense, and she had to look for a new one. Revenge didn’t console the Princess. Even a sea of blood wouldn’t resurrect her husband.
Olga stayed alone with a small son in a huge country. The rebellion of the Drevlians demonstrated that the core of all conflicts was the tribute that resembled robbery. If the situation didn’t change, Rus would be torn to pieces. So, the Princess got down to business.
Princess Olga established uroks, strictly determined volumes of the tribute, pogosts, the places where to bring it to, and ustavs – terms and rules of its collection. Polyudie with excessive feasts and extortions by the army was replaced with a well-defined system of taxation. All lands from Kiev to Novgorod were divided into provinces under the control of the Prince’s administrator out of the trusted senior war leaders.
They were directly accountable to the Princess for everything that was happening in his province. From that moment on and up until the death of Princess Olga, there was not a single mention of the rebellions in any of the tribes submitted to Kiev. Kiev was bustling with life now.
Princess left for a campaign far away, into Tsargrad. The residents of the city got tired of counting the sacks loaded into countless boats. The envoy amounted to no less than a thousand people, not counting the guards. Olga was preparing for the trip thoroughly. However, she was going not to war but to negotiations.
She was burning with impatience that none of her close people could comprehend. She was hurrying the ship team. Neither the tumultuous Dnieper rapids, nor rains, nor winds – nothing could stop her. Olga wanted to find a universal and strong means of strengthening her state. Where else could she look for it but in Byzantine, a huge Empire that had been successfully uniting many nations for centuries?
When Olga arrived in Tsargrad, the Greek diplomats didn’t know how to combine the centuries-old protocols of the official visits with her arrival as they didn’t know its goal. Usually, ambassadors came for negotiations, but Olga came personally. At last, they arranged a luxurious feast in her honor. The reception took place in Magvarna, a hall for parade ceremonies for the VIPs.
The Emperor’s throne was decorated with gold and precious stones and mechanized. When a secret lever was pulled, clockwork birds began to sing, the throne went up and down, and gilded lions by its pedestal slapped the ground with their tails and roared, opening their mouths and sticking out their tongues. That performance usually impressed the foreign ambassadors greatly.
All foreigners had to stick to a ritual of proskynesis – fall down before the Emperor. The status of the Russian Princess didn’t allow for that, so Olga barely bent her head in appreciation. After a ceremonial event, Olga got a chance to talk with Emperor Constantine one on one. It’s unknown what they were talking about.
However, after that, Constantine took a pause for a long 40 days. She got time to admire the treasures of the greatest city in the world, first of all – with its countless shrines. The only Greek who was close to the Princess while she was waiting was the Patriarch. He was talking, she was listening. Then the Princess found what she was looking for.
It was the Christian faith that was holding Byzantine together. “Talking to her, the Prince was impressed with her smartness. He said: “You’re worthy of ruling together with us in our capital”. She thought it over and replied: “I am a pagan. If you want to baptize me, do it yourself. Otherwise, I won’t baptize”.
Olga wanted to know the secret of the Empire’s might. However, when baptizing in water, Olga – now not Olga anymore but God’s slave Elena – found something more: immortal soul and eternal life. According to a legend from a chronicle, after the baptizing, the Emperor called Olga again and said: “I want to marry you”.
And she said: “How may you marry me if you personally baptized me and called me your daughter”? And the Emperor said: “You outwitted me, Olga”. Princess went home, thinking not so much of the results of the negotiations, military unions, gifts, and mutual agreements. What difference did they make now, when her entire world had changed?
On her way back to Kiev, Olga had no doubts that the rest of her people would follow her example. Maybe not everybody, but the majority. First of all, her son Svyatoslav. Olga believed that he was ready to accept the ideas of Christianity. But Svyatoslav grew up among the army men. He grew up to be a warrior. He was already an adult, took control over the power, and was doing what he thought fit.
The faith of the Christians seemed not only stupid but also shameful for him. What kind of God would allow people to kill him? Svyatoslav didn’t even want to listen about baptizing. Princess’s hopes were ruined. Kiev remained pagan. Only foreign merchants from the Greek market were Christian, plus the close circle of the Princess – a small island in the sea of pagans.
Svyatoslav tolerated Christians for his mother’s sake. But how much longer would that last? Years passed. Olga was no more a ruler but the Princess-mother. Her grandchildren grew, but they weren’t interested in their grandmother’s icons either. However, Olga hoped. Prayed. And believed. She died in 969.
Svyatoslav fulfilled her last wish – to bury the Princess in accordance with the Christian rites. Christians don’t burn their dead, believing in their resurrection in the end of times. The preparation of the body for burial has a deep symbolic meaning and partially repeats the placing of Christ into the coffin. The body of the deceased, or rather temporarily asleep person, shall rest in peace.
The Russian word for a dead man, pokoynik, comes from the word “pokoy” – “rest”. On the third day after the death, the dead is commemorated in a church and buried in the ground in a wooden coffin. A cross is placed at his feet as a sign of salvation. The grave is positioned so that the dead face the east, waiting for the morning of the future world – the doomsday.
Olga was one of the first Russian rulers to convert to Christianity. She was also the first to be glorified in the rank of a holy person equal to the apostles, that are respected both by the Orthodox and Catholic churches. In 40 years after Olga’s death, her grandson Prince Vladimir finished the construction of the first stone church in Rus. He ordered to transfer the coffin with the remains of his grandmother Princess Olga there.
When the coffin was opened, the body of the Princess turned out to be intact by decay. She seemed to be sleeping. Hers were the first imperishable relics in Russian history.