What reforms did Princess Olga? What were the reforms of Princess Olga?

The greatest princess in Kyiv Rus is considered the wife of Igor Rurikovich - Olga.

Who is Princess Olga?

According to ancient chronicles, the girl was of peasant origin. Thanks to her positive qualities, and also her extraordinary wisdom, she was noticed by the Grand Duke Igor as a young adolescent and chosen as his wife. It so happened that for quite a long period the prince's couple had no children. This fact contributed to the fact that Olga began to pray to the Christian god, and in a short time the couple had an heir. Thus, Olga among the pagan people first adopted Christianity and began to help its spread in Russia. In a sense, the very fact of Olga's decision to accept the Christian faith testified to her intelligence and subtle intellect. Despite this, Olga's husband and son remained true to their pagan gods who helped them in the battles. Nevertheless, Olga's actions had an important influence on her grandson, Prince Vladimir, who baptized Rus. He also chose the Christian religion as the state religion.

Accession to the throne

Princess Olga became a widow early: during the collection of tribute Igor was brutally murdered by angry Drevlyans. Since the heir was still small, the princess herself ascended the throne.

The first thing she did was to deal with the Drevlyane who had executed her husband, sharply suppressing their insurrection. After that, the period began, during which the reforms of Princess Olga were implemented. During this time, structural changes in the system of government took place. The main task of Olga was the prevention in the future of incidents, such as that which resulted in the death of her husband.

Innovations and transformations

What reforms did Princess Olga? First of all, she started to collect the tribute by establishing an orderly taxation system. Princess Olga conducted the reform, whose goal was to weaken the tribal power by strengthening its influence. This event is described in "The Tale of Bygone Years" by Nestor: "And Olga went with her son and with the druzhina on the Drevlyan land, establishing tribute and taxes." The reforms of Princess Olga began in 946.

Tax Reform

An important stage was the establishment of so-called "lessons". Princess Olga was recorded clearly defined amounts of tribute, which should be paid at certain times. Unlike "polyudya", this became a more civilized form of taxation, since the tribute was collected only once a year in kind: products, furs, and also various kinds of products.

Significance of the church

On this, Princess Olga's reforms did not end. An important innovation was the establishment of the churchyards. They were small centers of princely power. Henceforth, each administrative district acquired its own churchyard and base where the collection of tribute was made. Pogosts were also used for trade. Thus, the administrative reforms of Princess Olga contributed to the creation of territorial units that were under the authority of the prince's viceroy and capable of repelling any discontented politician and decrees of the princess. Later, by the XII century, the churchyard turned into a control center of the district.

Before the reign of Olga, the collection of tribute was carried out in the form of polyudya - the annual winter detour of possessions by the authorities, during which a tax could be collected twice from one courtyard. Undoubtedly, this fact caused discontent and indignation of the payers. However, with the introduction of the pogosts, people who paid tribute received a special princely seal, which saved them from re-collecting the tax. This reform Olga carefully brought into action, gradually honing its mechanism. In the process of implementing the new system, most local princes lost their power, and independence of autonomous tribes was sharply curtailed. The work done by Olga did not receive publicity and enthusiastic feedback, but it had a great importance in the development of statehood.

Approval of tiunas

The next stage was the appointment of tribute-collecting tribes in the pogosts. Before entering the Old Russian state, the Eastern Slavs called the Tiiuns "cattlemen". First of all, this reform testified to the development of commodity-money relations. Instead of cattle Rusichi approved a special form of equivalent, reminiscent of metal money.

If you enumerate the reforms of Princess Olga briefly, then you can identify certain aspects. This statement of lessons, the creation of churchyards and the appointment of collectors of dani-tiuns. Princess Olga during her reign held the first financial reform in Russia. She fixed a fixed amount of tribute and the order of her fees. The meaning of the activities of Princess Olga consisted in the regulation of duties, the centralization of the Kiev government, the weakening of local (tribal) power.

In other words, the reforms of Princess Olga contributed to the fact that the tribute collected from autonomous tribes was replaced by the same fixed tax that paid the entire population. At the same time, the probability of re-collection from one payer was avoided.

Thus, the reforms of Princess Olga finally approved the central authority of Kiev, streamlined the taxation system, created the administrative division of the state. Later , Olga's domestic policy was sung by the people in tales and songs. Thanks to the introduction of the Christian religion, Olga was elevated to the rank of saints and became an Equal-Apostolic preacher. Changes in the social, political, economic and spiritual spheres made it possible to strengthen Rus. Undoubtedly, this became the most important stage in the history of the creation of the Russian statehood.