Grand Duke of Kiev and Chernigov Igor Olgovich

Grand Duke Igor Olgovich was the second son of Chernigov prince Oleg Svyatoslavich. The exact date of his birth is unknown, he was born at about the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. This prince is known for his short and ended tragedy on the throne of Kiev.

early years

Like other Rurikovichi during the period of political fragmentation, Igor Olgovich spent his entire life in internal strife and bloody clashes between the Eastern Slav princes. The first annalistic evidence of it dates back to 1116. Then young Igor Olgovich participated in a campaign against Minsk, organized by Vladimir Monomakh. 13 years later, when Mstislav the Great, he went with his retinue to Polotsk. The princes who ruled on the territory now belonging to sovereign Belarus belonged to the side branch of the Rurik and regularly collided with their relatives, which led to frequent wars in this region.

In 1136, Igor Olgovich supported the children of Mstislav the Great in their struggle against Yaropolk of Kiev. For this the prince together with his brothers received part of the Pereiaslav land and the outlying city of Kursk. Igor belonged to the Chernigov dynasty. In his family he for a long time remained on the sidelines. The elder brother was Vsevolod, who belonged to Chernigov.

The successor of the Kiev prince

In the era in which Oleg Svyatoslavich lived, the first signs of political fragmentation in Russia appeared. Large provincial centers have headed for independence from Kiev. With the children of Oleg, this process became irreversible. Together with his brothers, his second son Igor occasionally clashed with Kiev. During one of these wars, he called the Polovtsi and plundered the volosts on the banks of the Sula River. And in 1139, the eldest brother of Vsevolod and completely captured Kiev, becoming the Grand Duke.

Igor, who helped in that war, was dissatisfied with his small award. He quarreled with his brother, but again reconciled with him in 1142, when he received from Vsevolod for the inheritance of Yuryev, Gorodets and Rogachev. Since then, the two Olgovich acted together until the death of the eldest. In 1144 they declared war against Volodymyr Volodarivich of Halytsky. After that campaign, Igor Olgovich was declared the heir of Vsevolod, although he had his own sons.

Transfer of power

Shortly before the Grand Duke of Kiev and Chernigov Vsevolod died, his son-in-law, Polish King Vladislav, asked his father-in-law for help in the fight against his brothers. Russian squads to the west led Igor. He rescued Vladislav: he took away from his relatives four disputed cities, and the Russian allies in gratitude gave Vizna.

In the meantime, Vsevolod's condition worsened. Feeling his imminent end, he urged the people of Kiev to recognize Igor as the future ruler. Residents of the city agreed (as shown by the development of events, pretend). Vsevolod died on August 1, 1146. The Kievites disliked the prince, considered him a Chernigov stranger, forcibly taking the city from the descendants of Vladimir Monomakh. This dislike sadly affected the fate of Igor Olgovich.

Conflict with citizens

Before entering the capital as a ruler, Igor sent his younger brother Svyatoslav there. The greatest indignation of the people of Kiev was caused by the tiuny of Vsevolod (the chronicles preserved the name of one of them - Ratsha). Townspeople began to complain about the former governors and boyars. Svyatoslav on behalf of his brother promised that after his accession to the throne, the people of Kiev could choose their own tiunas. The news about this inflamed the citizens so much that they began to smash the palaces of the deceased Vsevolod's relatives. Svyatoslav with great difficulty managed to restore order in the capital.

When Igor the Prince of Kiev entered the city, he did not rush to fulfill promises. At the same time, the residents of the capital began to establish a secret connection with Izyaslav Mstislavovich (son of Mstislav the Great and grandson of Vladimir Monomakh). It was in this prince that many dissatisfied saw the legitimate ruler, whose dynasty was forcibly expelled from the throne of Kiev Vsevolod.

Approaching the war

The key in the fate of the ruler was that the holy prince Igor of Chernigov did not suit not only the inhabitants of Kiev, but also the other appanage princes of Russia. His only loyal allies were only the younger brother Svyatoslav and nephew Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich. When Kiev heard the news that Izyaslav Mstislavovich is walking to the city together with a loyal army, Igor actually remained isolated and helpless.

Without losing hope, Olgovich sent ambassadors to his cousins Davidovichi (Izyaslav and Vladimir), who ruled in the specific cities of the Chernigov land. They agreed to help him in the approaching war in exchange for the concession of some volosts. Igor satisfied their demands, but he did not wait for any help.

Defeat

All his life, Oleg Svyatoslavich spent in the war against the Kiev princes. Now his second son was in the opposite position. He himself was a prince of Kiev, but he was opposed by almost all the other Rurikovichs. Even the capital voevod Ivan Vobyshich and Lazar Sakovsky, as well as the thousandth of Uleb changed it.

Despite the desperate situation, Igor, Prince of Kiev, did not give up the fight. Together with his younger brother and nephew, he armed a small squad and along with it advanced against Izyaslav Mstislavovich. The regiments of the Grand Duke, because of their small numbers, were naturally defeated. Scattered warriors fled. Both Svyatoslavs managed to break away from their pursuers, but Igor Olgovich's horse was bogged down in the swamp. The Grand Duke was caught and brought to the defeated Izyaslav. He ordered to send the enemy to a monastery in the city of Pereyaslavl near Kiev.

The tonsure

The houses of Igor's supporters in the capital were looted. In the pogroms took part the vigilantes of the alleged allies of Olgovich princes Davidovich. Igor's younger brother Svyatoslav tried to help a relative. He unsuccessfully persuaded to help Yuri Dolgoruky. In the end, together with his wife, Igor himself had to flee from his native Seversk land.

The overthrown Kiev prince in the meantime seriously fell ill. His life was in the balance. The prisoner in the monastery asked Izyaslav permission to take tonsure, which he agreed to. Soon Igor accepted the schema. Moreover, he even recovered and moved to the Kiev monastery.

Death

It seemed that Igor, isolated from the outside world, would manage to live the rest of his life in the peaceful atmosphere of the monastery. However, just a few months after the adoption of the schema, he fell prey to another feud. The brothers Davidovichi quarreled with the Grand Duke Iziaslav and moved their squads to Kiev, announcing that they were going to release Igor.

The news of another war led the residents of the capital into a frenzy. Enraged crowd burst into the monastery at a time when Igor listened to the Mass. Yoshyaslav's younger brother, Vladimir Mstislavovich, tried to save the convineman. He hid the monk in his mother's house, hoping that the instigators of the massacre would not dare to break into it. However, the angry townspeople could not stop anything. September 19, 1147 they broke into the last refuge of Igor and killed him.

The body of the deceased was taken to Podol and thrown out in the marketplace for mockery. Finally, the inhabitants of Kiev calmed down and still buried the remains of the prince in the church of St. Simeon. Three years later Svyatoslav Olgovich transported his brother's body to his native Chernigov. Martyrdom of Igor (in the last moments of his life he prayed before the icon, which became a shrine) prompted the Russian Orthodox Church to canonize the prince in the face of a martyr and a faithful.