CHAPTER IV

[Contents]CHAPTER IVANDREI BOGOLYUBOFFIn 1151 the Kief prince and King Geiza of Hungary attacked Vladimirko near Peremysl, where, though hemmed in by the armies, he managed to escape to the town with a single attendant. He informed the king straightway, that, mortally wounded and dying, he begged him for peace and forgiveness. He sent also, through agents, great presents and bribes to Geiza’s attendants and to the archbishop. “Let me not die without peace or pardon,” implored he. “Great is my sin, but forgive me.”Notwithstanding all protests from Izyaslav, peace and pardon were granted, Vladimirko promising to return the towns seized from Izyaslav, and to be his ally, both in defeat and in triumph. Vladimirko was lying in bed, as if mortally wounded, and seemed to dread his last hour, then approaching.When King Geiza was sending officials with a cross, which the dying man was to kiss, Izyaslav objected with anger. “That man jests with every oath,” said he. “It is vain to send a cross to Vladimirko.” “This is the very wood on which died Christ our Lord,” explained Geiza. “By God’s will it came to Saint Stephen, my ancestor. If Vladimirko kisses this cross, survives, and breaks his oath, I will lay down my life, or capture Galitch and give it to thee. I cannot kill a man on his death-bed.”Izyaslav yielded, but Mystislav, his son, who was present, added these words: “He will break the oath surely, and I repeat here before this holy cross, forget not thy word, O King of Hungary, but come again with thy warriors to Galitch, and do what thou hast promised.”“If Vladimirko breaks his oath,” replied Geiza, “I will ask thy father to help me in Galitch, as he has asked me up to this time.” Vladimirko kissed the cross to do all that he had promised.[89]On his way home Izyaslav sent posadniks to take possession of the towns which were to be returned to him. These men came back quickly with news that not one town had been given to them—one half of the oath was now broken. On learning that Yuri was marching against Izyaslav, Vladimirko at once sent troops to help Yuri, and thus broke the rest of his oath. He returned home only when the Grand Prince was marching against him a second time.Izyaslav sent Borislavitch, his boyar, who had witnessed the oath on the holy cross of Saint Stephen, to demand the towns promised. “Say to Izyaslav,” said the Galitch prince, “that he attacked me unawares and perfidiously, that he brought a foreign king with him, and that I will either lay down my life, or avenge the wrong done me.” “But, thou hast taken an oath to the king and to Izyaslav,” said the boyar. “Wilt thou foreswear the cross?” “Oh, that little cross!” retorted Vladimirko. “Though that cross be small it is mighty,” said the boyar. “Men have told thee that Christ the Lord died on that wood, and that thou wouldst not live if thy promises were broken. Dost remember?” “I remember that ye spoke many words to me then, but leave this place now and go back to thy Izyaslav.”While the boyar was leaving the courtyard, Vladimirko started for vespers, but halted to ridicule him. When, on his way back from the church, the prince reached the spot where he had stood to revile Borislavitch, he call out on a sudden: “Some one has struck me on the shoulder!” He could not move his legs, and would have fallen had men not seized him. He was borne to his chambers and placed at once in a hot bath, but he grew rapidly worse, and died that same night.Borislavitch, who had passed the night at a village by the wayside, was roused hurriedly next morning at daybreak, and bidden to wait till the prince should recall him. Some hours later a second message came, asking him to return. When he reappeared at Vladimirko’s palace, servants clothed in black came out to meet him. In the chief seat was Yaroslav, son of Vladimirko, dressed in black; his boyars also were in black, every man of them. Yaroslav burst into tears as he looked at the envoy, who learned at once how Vladimirko had died in the night, though in perfect health a few hours earlier. “God has shown his will,”[90]said Yaroslav; “thou art called back to hear these words from me. Go thou to Izyaslav, bow down to him and say from me: ‘God has taken my father, be thou in his place. There were questions between thee and him, those questions the Lord will judge as he pleases. God has taken my father and left me here in place of him. His warriors and attendants are all at my order. I salute thee, O father, receive me as thou dost Mystislav, thy son. Let him ride at one of thy stirrups, and I with my forces will ride at the other.’ ”The boyar went home with this message, which seems to have been sent to win time and lull Izyaslav, for no towns were returned, and all things remained as they had been.Hence, in 1153, the Grand Prince again moved against Galitch. The two forces met at Terebovl, but the battle was strangely indecisive as to victory, though its results were more useful to Yaroslav than to the Grand Prince. One part of the Kief force defeated one part of Yaroslav’s army, while the other part of those forces was badly beaten and pursued by the Galitch men. Izyaslav, impetuous as usual, broke the ranks of his opponents and drove them far from the first place of onset, but his brothers and allies were beaten, and hopelessly scattered.Izyaslav, having no forces with which to continue the struggle, returned to Kief and abandoned all plans against Galitch. Some months later he married a Georgian princess, and died shortly after, 1154. Kief and the south mourned greatly for this prince, and most of all mourned Vyatcheslav his uncle. “Thou art where I ought to be, but against God all are powerless,” sobbed the old man, bending over the coffin.If in Kief men were saddened by this death, they rejoiced in Chernigoff immensely. Izyaslav, son of David, who yearned for Kief as a man yearns for her of whom he is desperately enamoured, set out for the city at once, but was stopped at the Dnieper by Vyatcheslav, who sent this inquiry: “Why hast thou come? Who has called thee? Go back to thy Chernigoff.” “I wish to weep over my cousin. I was far from him when he died. Let me weep at his coffin,” implored Izyaslav. By the advice of the boyars, and the son of the dead prince, this request was rejected. They dared not trust the son of David, and were waiting impatiently for Rostislav to take the place of his brother.[91]Prompt action was taken meanwhile to divide the Chernigoff cousins. Vyatcheslav sent for Sviatoslav, son of Vsevolod, who came at once, without knowledge of his uncle’s death. The Smolensk prince appeared at the earliest moment, and all felt relieved when Rostislav sat in the place of his brother, as a son and subordinate of Vyatcheslav, the Grand Prince, though really commanding. “Act,” said the Kief men, “as did thy brother, and Kief will be thine till thy death hour.”The first act of Rostislav was a settlement with Sviatoslav, son of Vsevolod. “I give thee Turoff and Pinsk,” said he to this nephew, “because thou didst come to my father, I give thee good lands for that act of thine.” Sviatoslav took this large gift with gladness. There was need to attach him firmly, since his uncles of Chernigoff were treating already with Yuri, whose son Glaib was now marching on Pereyaslavl with a strong force of Polovtsi. Rostislav sent his son straightway to that city with assistance. The Polovtsi had attacked, but at sight of Kief warriors they withdrew beyond the Sula. Rostislav resolved then to march on Chernigoff, and crossing the Dnieper he was ready to move forward when a courier galloped up with the message: “Vyatcheslav, thy uncle, is dead!”After the prince had been interred with great honor, Rostislav went back to the army and held a council: “Return to the capital,” said the Kief boyars, who wished to be sure of the offices. “Settle there with the people, and begin to rule anew well supported. If Yuri comes, make peace or war, as need dictates.” Rostislav did not take their advice, but moved on Chernigoff, sending this message first to Izyaslav, son of David: “Wilt thou kiss the cross to reign in Chernigoff, while I am in Kief?” “I know not what I have done to make thee march against me. If thou come, we shall have that which God gives,” was the answer.But this far-seeing son of David had sent Polovtsi under Glaib to Pereyaslavl, and was in fact warring at that time with Rostislav. He now joined Glaib with great promptness. Rostislav, finding no zeal in Kief boyars, and thinking himself outnumbered and powerless, lost courage, and discussed terms of peace with the son of David. Such indecision roused Mystislav, son of the recent Grand Prince, who left his uncle with these words: “Soon neither thou nor I will have any place.” Rostislav, deserted by his nephew,[92]and outflanked by the Polovtsi, fought two days, and then fled, saving his life with much difficulty. The Polovtsi turned now toward Kief, which they threatened. “I wish to go to you,” was the message sent by Izyaslav to Kief citizens. The capital was helpless, Izyaslav was the one man to save it. “Come thou to Kief, lest the Polovtsi take us. Thou art our prince, come at once,” was the quick answer.Izyaslav needed no second call. He appeared, took the throne of Kief, and sent Glaib, son of Yuri, to Pereyaslavl. When Yuri heard that Izyaslav, his nephew, was dead, and that Rostislav, his other nephew, was in Kief, he set out with strong forces immediately, and was nearing Smolensk, for which he intended the first blow, when he learned that Vyatcheslav, his brother, was dead; that Rostislav was defeated, that Izyaslav, son of David, was reigning in Kief, and Glaib his own son, was prince in Pereyaslavl.Rostislav, who had reached Smolensk and had collected men, was marching to meet Yuri. Each now wished peace with the other. Yuri was hastening to Kief, which he coveted beyond everything else. Rostislav, who had no desire at that juncture for Kief, was glad to agree with his uncle, and they made peace with apparent sincerity. Yuri continued his march toward Kief, and Rostislav retired to his own capital. Near Storodub, Yuri met his old ally, Sviatoslav, son of Oleg, with whom was Vsevolod’s son, Sviatoslav, who appeared now with a prayer for reinstatement. “In days past I lost my mind altogether. Forgive me.” These were his words to Yuri. The son of Oleg interceded, and Yuri gave pardon, making Sviatoslav kiss the cross not to desert either him, or the son of Oleg. All three set out then for Chernigoff.Before reaching that city the son of Oleg sent the Kief prince this message: “Go out of Kief, brother, Yuri is marching against thee.” Izyaslav was unwilling to leave Kief. A second message came, but he took no note of it. Thereupon Yuri sent these words: “Kief is my inheritance, not thine.” Without right, and without the special favor of the people, Izyaslav could not remain, so he answered: “I am here not of my own will; the Kief people sent for me. Kief is thine, but harm me not.” Yuri made peace with him and entered Kief, 1155, with four sons, whom he seated in regions about there,—Andrei in Vyshgorod, Boris in Turoff; Vassilko in the Ros country, and Glaib remained in Pereyaslavl.[93]Thus the succession of Kief fell at last to the oldest man of the family. The heirs of Mystislav the Great could not stand against the seniority of Yuri their uncle. David’s descendants had dropped out still earlier; those of Oleg had perished. Yuri’s seniority now received perfect recognition; he had broken through every claim and given victory once more to the right of seniority. Once more and for the last time appeared a perfect reëstablishment of the old regime of Kief dominion, but in the person of Yuri it ended forever. In this was the fateful position of the last son of Monomach: Yuri Dolgoruki stood on the very line dividing the old from the new time in Russia. Even in the early days of this unresisted establishment of Yuri in Kief, there was dissatisfaction, for it was quickly manifest how unacquainted he was with the state of things there, and with the minds of the people. Though perhaps not wantonly cruel, according to the standards of that age, he was grasping and selfish, but as his grandfather, Monomach, was the most popular prince in Russian history, and Mystislav the Great, his father, was second only to the renowned Monomach, he, Dolgoruki, was endured as Prince of Kief, because of his family position. He held the office until death came to him, two years later, 1157, just before an effort was to have been made to expel him.Yuri, when he became Grand Prince, wishing to keep Andrei near him, had given this favorite son the fortified town of Vyshgorod, fifteen versts distant from Kief, but Andrei was ambitious, and soon became dissatisfied with his humble and dependent position. Therefore he left Vyshgorod secretly and went to Vladimir, his birthplace, taking with him all his belongings and the miraculous image of the Mother of God painted, according to legend, by Saint Luke, and greatly valued by Russians.This holy image had been brought from Tsargrad to Kief, especially for Yuri, and he had placed it in a cathedral inVyshgorod.When Andrei, with the help of the monks, secured the image, he intended to place it in a church in Rostoff, but after leaving Vladimir, and when ten versts beyond that city, the horses drawing the vehicle containing the holy image stopped suddenly, and could not be made to cross the river. Several times the horses were changed, but with no result. Thereupon Andrei declared to the[94]people present that the previous night the Mother of God had appeared to him in a vision with a charter in her hand, and had told him to put her image in a church in Vladimir.The procession turned back at once, and the image was placed in the Vladimir church. Andrei commanded a church and monastery to be built on the spot where the Virgin had made herself manifest. He called this place Bogolyuboff, which means the love of God, and from it he received his own name later on. Henceforth all deeds of valor and prowess, and successes of every kind were ascribed to the miraculous image.Yuri did not urge Andrei to return to Vyshgorod, nor did he insist upon his restoring the holy painting. Andrei could not have done so, in any case, for all people believed that the Mother of God had selected Vladimir as the home of her image.After Yuri’s death his territory was divided, and Mystislav assumed the title of Grand Prince of Kief, though in reality there ceased to be any Grand Principality of Kief.Born in the north, the city of Vladimir was dear to Andrei. Only through necessity did he go from it to serve in the various wars waged by his father. From youth, Andrei was famous as a warrior, and was the chief and right hand of Yuri. Prompt, energetic and resolute, he loved to be in the front rank of every battle, and on a mighty horse to tear through the heart of the enemy. He was greatly distinguished in war, excelling in management, in the knowledge of details, and in the power of going at once to the very root of a question. No matter what he undertook, he always proved himself a master.In 1169 Andrei, becoming greatly dissatisfied with Mystislav’s management in Kief, formed a coalition of eleven princes, and marched with a large force against him. After three days Kief was taken by assault; during three more days the place was pillaged, the victors, in the frenzy of triumph, forgetting that they were Russians and that Kief was a Russian city. Everything of value, including the contents of churches, was carried away.Through continual civil wars, and the increased power of wandering hordes, a condition of any permanency had become impossible, and the interest which Yuri took in Kief was not shared by Andrei. Yuri had founded Suzdal, but, notwithstanding that fact, he had spent most of his life in an effort to become Grand Prince of Kief.[95]Upon the decline of Kief, Suzdal, in the basin of the Volga, became the chief city, but loving neither Suzdal nor Rostoff, Andrei determined to make Vladimir the capital of Russia. The majesty of buildings had always attracted him, and he now invited from every part of Russia, not only skilled workers in stone and in wood, but clever craftsmen of all kinds. In Bogolyuboff he established many artificers; a whole ward was occupied by masters in silver and gold work, and makers of holy images. He brought in not only Russian artists, but artists from other lands, from Tsargrad and Italy. The chroniclers of those days were astonished at the great number of these persons.Andrei spared neither treasure nor labor in ornamenting Vladimir. Remembering his ancestor, who had adorned Kief with the Golden Gate and the Tithe Church, he determined that his birthplace should equal Kief, the mother of Russian cities, hence he built the Assumption Cathedral, which was esteemed at that time a marvel, and during centuries it served in the North as a model for similar structures. The Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, once the place for crowning the Tsars of Russia, and where the Emperors are now crowned, was built on this model. He erected the Golden, as well as the Silver Gate, called thus because the church dome at one gate was of gold, while at the other it was of silver.The city of Vladimir, adorned with beautiful buildings, and exalted by the presence of the marvelous image, became Andrei’s residence, and, because of the image and the residence, also the capital city. In spite of the opposition of boyars in Rostoff and Suzdal, the Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir became the main sanctuary of the Russian land, and gave primacy to the city. The North was no longer the land of Rostoff and Suzdal, it was mentioned more and more frequently as Vladimir. This Vladimir country included what are known now as the governments of Vladimir, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Ryazan, Tuer, Nizni-Novgorod, Bailozero, in other words what is really Great Russia.From time immemorial, in Russia the only place held in high honor was a place with a sanctuary. The people revered Kief, because the Christian faith had first been accepted there. In Kief there were relics and holy places and there also was the monastery in which the great monks Antonio and Fedosia had lived. Till[96]Andrei’s day, the immense northern land beyond the forest contained nothing sacred. Now two images, one made by Luke the Evangelist, and known as the Vladimir Mother of God, the other that of the Holy Virgin as she made herself manifest to Andrei in a vision, made Vladimir the first sanctuary in Russia.Popular belief assigned the founding of the city to St. Vladimir the Apostle and Grand Prince. He had, in fact, come from Kief with the first metropolitan to baptize the pagan people of that region, but the city was founded only during the days when Vladimir Monomach was the ruler. It occupied, however, the spot on which the Apostolic Vladimir had camped, on his way to baptize the people of Rostoff and Suzdal, hence it was said that the city received its name from Vladimir the Apostle, the Purifier. Political power helped the religious idea, and religion gave strength to the policy.In the mind of Yuri Dolgoruki the plan had been fixed firmly that his northern lands must remain undivided. One reason why he had struggled for Kief so persistently was to satisfy some of his sons in the South, while the North was to remain intact, and be given to his eldest son. Through increase of Vladimir’s descendants, and the separation of property, princes who had little land and no power became numerous. In extreme cases Yuri had divided out towns of Rostoff and Suzdal for the temporary use of those princes. Andrei’s brothers were not treated differently from others.Having fixed himself at Vladimir as the one power, Andrei would not give any brother, or even any son, a bit of land in that region. His brothers and some of his nephews worked with him, but all did what he commanded; they were simply his agents, doing as he directed. And for them, he was the same lord precisely that he was for others. Of course the boyars signified less than the princes, whether the boyars were his own near advisers, or of the “ancient strong, local people,” “proud and powerful high persons,” as men called them. These boyars had been met by his father and conquered. They might have thought of struggling with Yuri Dolgoruki, but not with Andrei. Yuri had battled with one and another of them. When defeated some had fled to neighboring princes, others had been exiled, or imprisoned. But in Andrei’s time it might be said with truth that every question as to the strength of the prince or the boyars was settled.[97]With those who opposed him, Andrei showed still less ceremony than had his father. He spared not his brothers, in the least degree. Those of the “ancient strong people” in Rostoff and in Suzdal who preferred the new order rallied round Andrei, and gave him full support. There were others, and those were in the majority, who warred against him in secret. For the time they threw out merely words like the following: “Rostoff is old, and a great place, and so is Suzdal; Vladimir is only an adjunct.” But these people knew that they were powerless against a prince who had the common men, the land-tillers and craftsmen in full force behind him. Because of this relation of common men to Andrei, and the hostility of most of the boyars and the wielders of weapons who had lost places, there rose reports and explanations quite opposite, the substance of which was expressed by the phrase: “There is a fierce battle in Rostoff and Suzdal.” This was uttered by “proud high people,” and by men thrown out of office. Common men used other phrases: “We love Prince Andrei. We love this grandson of Monomach. This prince never rests from his labor, he keeps his mind and conscience clear. He has love for God and man. He is firm and kind. He is good to the weak and to the ailing.”Andrei’s wars were waged always to benefit Vladimir and the people. He had no thought for petty quarrels among princes, and never took part in them. A prince in his place needed no special army. Towns and cities in that region were numerous, and ever prompt to send warriors in defense of their interests. Whenever an enemy came, all people were ready to rise. Instead of a chosen legion, led by boyars, who, in the old time, surrounded the prince and curbed freedom immensely, Andrei received into his “courtyard” whomever he wished, people of all sorts, and even all origins. They were not called as in the old days drujina (friends), but dvoryani (court men). They lived in his court and around it in complete acquiescence; they were people of his court. Though the former name of drujina was not abandoned immediately, it lost its old meaning, and soon the prince’s assistants were known as dvoryani, a word translated later as noble. This word, used afterward to denote specially the highest people of Moscow, had its origin in the Vladimir of Andrei.The wars carried on by Andrei had a definite policy. If he gave aid to some prince who annoyed him by imploring, this aid was[98]limited to sending a small detachment. But he defended those who asked assistance against enemies more by a threat than by fighting. If he warred, as happened later, he did so in the interest of his own principality. His problem was to manage freely in Kief and in Novgorod for the benefit of Vladimir. When one or another prince asked his permission to reign in Kief, the mother city, that prince had to take an oath not to meddle with Novgorod. Andrei did not care about Kief, but between Novgorod and Vladimir there were endless dissensions, which rose from the fact that Vladimir and Novgorod were neighbors. Novgorod, rich in commerce, was poor in land, and had to get wheat and rye from Vladimir or regions beyond it. “Vladimir and Novgorod stood face to face as opponents.” And besides the question of grain on one side and of trade on the other was that of the boundless North with its treasures. Novgorod claimed that northern region, claimed all of it. Wherever a foot of land presented itself Novgorod wanted that to be the land of a man in its service. This proud understanding of things was expressed by the phrase: “Who can stand against God and Lord Novgorod?” But into those northern places had entered Rostoff and Suzdal, and now they were dealing with Andrei of Vladimir.From times before Rurik, Novgorod men had the wish for dominion, but they could not have this unless they could find a man to keep order, and be at the same time their servant. That was why they had summoned Rurik. The Novgorod men had explored the great North and East, and knew that its size was enormous. They counted as theirs that northeastern region, but there was one corner, White Lake, which Vladimir could claim. Of this corner Novgorod might not say beyond doubt: “It is mine,” still the city laid claim to it. In Yuri’s day, Daniel the Hermit was sent by him to take possession of a point north of White Lake, which place lapped over the Novgorod boundary, and caused endless quarrels. But the real origin of the dispute was the water connection between the Neva and the Volga—the so-called Dvina tribute. This was the source of the continual dissension between Novgorod and Vladimir. Of this tribute and other questions we shall hear later.Andrei made a campaign to Bulgar, a town on the Volga. Possessing already the upper course of that river, he must have[99]command of its lower course, at least to the point where the Kama falls into it. Somewhat lower than the entrance of the Kama, which finds its source in the great Ural Mountains, was the city Bulgar. This time Andrei led the army in person. Under him were Ryazan princes. He took the Vladimir Mother of God to arouse the courage and strength of the army. The confidence which this holy image gave to the warriors passed every description. When the Vladimir men entered the country of “unbelievers” the clergy went in front of them bearing the image, and while preparing for battle, they turned to the “Commanderess” with prayers for her blessing.The Bulgar campaign gave a great victory. Andrei’s forces captured all that they met in that country and seized Bryahimoff, the chief town. Wherever the enemy appeared, they were scattered. Vast booty was seized, and many lands were annexed to Vladimir. The chief encounter took place August 1st, a day famed in the Russian calendar till then as the day of the Maccabees, but thence forward changed to the day of the Merciful Saviour. Andrei, seeing in this victory special favor, conveyed news of it speedily to Manuel, the Greek Emperor. In Tsargrad, on that very day, they were celebrating a victory over Saracens in Asia. On comparing dates it was found that the victory in Asia and that on the Volga coincided. Hence the Orthodox Church in both lands determined that the day should be called ever after the day of the Merciful Saviour.Andrei’s friendship in Tsargrad was great both with Emperor and Patriarch, and he hoped that this friendship might aid him in giving Vladimir the first place in Russia. He had resolved to raise it, not merely above northern cities, but above Kief, the old capital. The problem was difficult, but he must attempt it. In church matters Vladimir was still under Kief, whose metropolitan had power in all Russia. Vladimir had its bishop, but he lived in Rostoff, a rival city. Now that Andrei had built the great golden-domed church, and had subdued Volga regions, he intended to make his Vladimir the capital of Russia in every sense,—not merely independent as to Kief,—but superior, and resolved that the metropolitan of all Russia should reside there.Andrei summoned princes, boyars and people to Vladimir, and said to them: “This city was founded by Saint Vladimir,[100]the Grand Prince who enlightened all Russia by baptism. I, though unworthy and sinful, have by God’s aid exalted the Christian faith and extended it. I have adorned the church of the glorious and holy Mother. I have given lands to it, and one tenth of my income, I wish Vladimir to be the capital, the head of all cities in Russia.” No man said a word to oppose this.Russian princes in regard to some things communicated with the Patriarch in Tsargrad directly; on occasions they sent presents, and at times they sent envoys, but when church affairs were discussed they were forced to act through the Kief metropolitan.Andrei sent a special envoy in this case, whose name, Yakov Stanishavitch, is preserved to us. The prince explained in a letter that Vladimir was at the head of a new, immense country where the Christian faith, unknown till recently, had become firmly fixed and widely extended. Vladimir needed more strength and order in church service; she prayed to receive a metropolitan. Boundless regions were now in light, regions which, till his father’s day and his own, had been in darkness. His recent victories had opened up new and vast countries. Andrei spoke a greater truth than he himself realized. He had in fact opened up a new world in such form and meaning as no man at that time comprehended.The boyars gazed with dread on him. Well might they ask: “How far will his plans go? Does he think to enforce them on all Russia? Will he not take power from us, and every significance? If he makes Vladimir the great mother city, where shall we find a place in it?”In due time came the answer to Andrei’s letter. The Patriarch praised the zeal of the prince in planting truth in new places, approved of his bringing order to lands hitherto without it, but while revering that for which Andrei was toiling so earnestly, his Humility the Patriarch could not grant the prayer of Prince Andrei, because the Kief metropolitan already had jurisdiction in those northern lands. If the prince had won new lands, in regions apart and divided geographically, the question would have been different, but the regions under discussion could not be taken from their present right relations without violating ancient rules and destroying Christian truth as existent. Andrei had asked in the name of religion and truth, concealing his chief, if not his only object. The Patriarch answered in the same way,—the[101]inevitable and ever recurrent method of masking the main point. Andrei was obliged to abandon the project.During his father’s life, Andrei had married the daughter of Kutchka, a boyar who had been put to death by Yuri. In family life Andrei knew little, if any happiness. All his children died earlier than he, except one, the youngest son, Yuri, who married Queen Tamara of Georgia and died in the Trans-Caucasus, prematurely, after painful adventures. Neither from his wife nor her relatives had Andrei witnessed good-feeling. No matter how he strove to draw near the Kutchkas, no matter what he spent in lavish kindness toward them and their friends, they ever cherished for him a hatred which nothing could extinguish. The same might be said of the men near Andrei. He had removed his drujina and the boyars, and chosen new people. He treated those people with such kindness and so liberally that he might hope to see them grateful. “Father,” “Giver of good,” “Bestower of pleasant things,” “Nourisher” were the only words which they might with honesty have said of him. These were the terms used in satire by those men who witnessed but did not receive this attention. It was with the following words that all described Andrei,—all save the circle which opposed him. “The beloved father, the nourisher of orphans, kind and gentle, simple and strong, putting his arms round the poor, loving those who are abandoned, giving them to eat and drink, like his great ancestor Monomach.” He was holy also, though men did not know it. He had commanded that at any time of the day or night, if there were a really needy man or woman, that man or woman should be nourished. He had also built houses where the sick and the unprotected might be received and cared for.From his youth Andrei, with all the kindness ascribed to him by the people, had not many friends, because he was abrupt in manner, and as he grew older this abruptness became more apparent. The expulsion of boyars and men who had been connected with his father caused great discontent, and now his one prop was the people, who, though with him to a man, were not in physical touch with him. He had incensed the princes because he commanded at all points in Russia as he did in his own house. There were reasons enough why princes and boyars desired the death of Andrei. Much was said about[102]defense against such a man. Reports were even current that Glaib of Ryazan and his boyars were plotting against him, and that Rostoff and Suzdal boyars had joined with Glaib. While men might expect action from this point, Andrei fell a victim to what seemed a conspiracy of his servants and relatives. In any case he died at the hands of his servants, brought to the deed, it may be, by keen machinations of princes and boyars. That princes and boyars were the movers, and the others only the instruments, there is, however, no formal proof. The story of the crime is as follows:The whole number of assassins was twenty. Four men were the leaders in the murder,—Takin, whose personality is uncertain; Pyotr, son-in-law of one of the Kutchkas, Anval the key-bearer, at that time a great favorite, and Yevfrem Moiseitch, a converted Jew. A report was spread, on Friday, June 28th, 1174, that Andrei intended to summon and execute one of the Kutchkas. That same day the four men made this decision: “To-night, when Andrei lies down to sleep, we will kill him.” In the darkness between Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th the key-bearer, Anval, stole from Andrei’s chamber the sword of Prince Boris, which had been an heirloom in Vladimir Monomach’s family. On the afternoon of that day, Andrei’s wife had gone on a visit. In the evening Andrei lay down to sleep without anxiety or suspicion. On the floor in the room lay one of the little serving boys called “Bones,”—thus are they termed in the chronicles. The murderers were completely armed. They came to the house, but when at the entrance fear seized them and they ran out again. To get courage they went to find drink. After they had drunk sufficiently, they returned and groped their way in the darkness. Having found the door of the chamber where Andrei was sleeping, one of them tapped at it lightly. “Who is there?” called the prince. The man who had knocked answered: “Prokofi.” The assassins heard the prince say: “That is not the voice of Prokofi.” Hearing this, they burst the door in with one effort. Andrei, suspecting the deed, sprang up and grasped for his sword; the sword was not there. The two men who entered first Andrei put down quickly. There being no light in the chamber, the assassins struck at random and hit their own men till they found Andrei. He, being strong, fought in the darkness a long time. The battle was[103]stubborn, but since twenty men were fighting with one, they at last overpowered him. The victim groaned as he said: “God will take vengeance on you for my bread, which you have eaten.” They hastened to finish. The breath seemed to halt in Andrei as if the soul were going out of him, and he lay on his back in agony. They gave him, as they thought, final blows, and waited in the darkness, till every sound ceased in his body, and they found no trace of breath in him. Then, taking with them a man whom Andrei had killed in the struggle, they started to grope their way out, but they could not go quickly, for in fear and in darkness the right passage was missed. Halting a moment, they discovered it, and going down the stone stairs to the open, again visited the mead cellar. Coming back, they stood a while to recover from the inner air, and from terror of the deed just accomplished.While this was taking place Prince Andrei, who had been left for dead, regained consciousness. He sat up and remembered with difficulty what had happened; then, leaving the room, he began to descend the stone stairway slowly, but as he went he betrayed himself. He might have escaped had he gone down in silence, but he could not suppress groans of anguish. The assassins heard those groans. “He is not killed!” whispered one in alarm. They returned to the chamber hurriedly; Andrei was not there. “Where is he?” asked one of another. “Quick! quick! we must find him!” They struck a light and, through blood which had dropped from the wounds of the prince as he passed down the stairway, they discovered him. Andrei, who saw the men coming, rose and stood behind a stone pillar near the entrance to his palace, and when they saw him, he cried: “O God, receive Thou my spirit!” Those were Andrei’s last words, He struggled no longer in mind, but still he raised his hand and they cut off his arm at the shoulder. Thus died Andrei, son of Yuri Dolgoruki, slain in his own house, by men whom he had treated justly and with kindness.The next work of the murderers was to kill Prokofi, the favorite of the prince, and their opponent. After the death of Prokofi they began to pillage. Before daylight they had emptied the palace, the cellars, the places where holy images were made, and the workshops where cloth of gold and of silver was woven and where precious stones were set. Everything had vanished, gold, silver, silk, satin, rich furs, weapons, and rare objects which Andrei[104]had possessed in abundance. At daybreak Bogolyuboff was as empty “as a hollow, old tree.” The assassins were gone, each stolen thing had been secreted. To remove those things quickly they had taken all the horses, even those used in the personal service of the prince. They now sent men to Vladimir to declare what had taken place. “Have no feeling against us,” said they to the people. “The thing done has happened in spite of us.” “We know not who were with you,” replied the Vladimir men, “but whoever they were, they will answer for this vile murder.”In Vladimir the boyars feared the morrow, and with reason, for common men loved Andrei. And now came the clashing of forces. Men who had land and lived from it through the labor of others had been opposed to Andrei, but those who themselves tilled land had been on his side. These two groups stood face to face now like two armies. What was to be done? Among boyars and the powerful at this time of peril, there was no confidence in their own leaders. If there had been a leader in whom they could have trusted, they would surely have conquered, but that man was lacking. The leader of the people had been Andrei; now he was gone, and both sides were helpless.At first there was utter discouragement in Vladimir, a paralysis of mind for the moment. Meanwhile no one knew where the body of Andrei was; no one knew what the murderers had done with it till Kuzma, a former servant of the dead prince, discovered it. This faithful man, who feared only God and loved no man on earth save Andrei, did not cease his questions: “Where is the prince? Where is his body?” “We threw it into the garden,” replied one of the assassins at last, with great insolence. “But go not near. We threw out the body that the dogs might devour it. If thou go near, men will kill thee.”The old servant said nothing, but sought for the body and found it. “O thou my master and friend!” cried he, weeping. “Didst thou not feel the approach of those murderers, thou who didst terrify thousands so many times?” As he was weeping he turned, and through an opening saw the eyes of the key-bearer, Anval. “O thou enemy, why art thou looking?” called he then. “Give me some garment to cover my lord’s body, O thou heretic!” “Be off!” called out Anval; “dogs will eat up that body.” “Give this body to dogs! Remember, O reprobate, in what[105]clothes thou didst come to Prince Andrei; now thou art in velvet and cloth with gold threads in it, while thy lord is lying dead here, and naked. Even such as thou art, throw out to me something to cover my master.”Anval threw out an upper garment and a piece of carpet. Kuzma covered the body, wrapped it in the carpet and carried it on his shoulders to the church, but no one would open the door to him. “Do not come with him here,” said they. At that moment all near were either on the side of Andrei’s enemies or in dread of them. Kuzma put down the body before the door and cried, stooping over it: “Thou my master, thou, O strong prince, thy lowest servants do not regard thee. Thou, O my master, who didst conquer the Balgars, and gain immense countries, art not admitted to the church which was built by thee. We are here at the door of it, I living and thou dead, and no one will admit us.”The body lay there two days, wrapped in the carpet and guarded continually by Kuzma. In Vladimir the people were waiting in dread of the future. Those were two evil days, opened by murder and robbery in Bogolyuboff, and succeeded by violence from Andrei’s enemies. Every treasure was carried off, all that their hands could lay hold of. If any servant was faithful, he was slain without mercy. In neighboring villages they killed those who held office from Andrei, or were known to be friends of his. They raised riots to excite evil passions and help men to forget themselves. But many of those who committed such deeds were afraid, and with reason, that punishment would strike them from Vladimir.That which failed the Vladimir men, namely courage, and which had to come, if it came, from some other source, came from the clergy, and began in the Golden-domed Church of Vladimir. The chief priest there was Mikulets, that same priest who in Vyshgorod had care of the holy image, and later assisted in bringing it to Vladimir. After consulting with other priests, Mikulets, arrayed in his robes, bore the sacred image of the Mother of God through the city. A procession followed him. The conspirators were dumb and complete quiet reigned in Vladimir. The people recovered their minds at once, and all joined the clergy, who had great power, for the common people were with them. After that men talked on the street and in other places about the need of burying Prince Andrei with honor, of bringing his body from[106]Bogolyuboff and placing it in the Golden-domed Church which he had erected. The moment that this was decided upon, the citizens formed a guard for protection. Seeing this, the conspirators lost all courage.In Bogolyuboff also the clergy now showed the bravery and the decision necessary to meet the blind insolence of those insurgent and riotous boyars, who thought that because they had had the upper hand for a moment they would have it forever. On the third day Arsenie, an abbot, took action. “Is our prince,” said he, “to lie before the church door unconsidered, guarded by Kuzma? Open the door, and I will chant the sacred words over the body. I will place it in the coffin myself, if no man will help me. God will then have mercy and make an end of this disorder. Men will come from Vladimir to bear hence the coffin with reverence.” Andrei’s body was put in a coffin, and placed in front of the altar, and all the people of the city wept and sang in the sacred service.On the sixth day the men of Vladimir asked of the clergy a burial the most imposing and majestic that could be given. It was arranged that the clergy of Bogolyuboff, in complete church array, with crosses and emblems, were to follow behind the coffin, and with them Kuzma, the old servant who had sat two days and nights before the church door, guarding the body of his master. The clergy of Vladimir were to meet them between the two places.When the Vladimir people met the procession, they were shown the highest honor. The Bogolyuboff men, ready to receive them, stood around the coffin, and those who had been appointed to take the coffin received it and moved on toward the city with awe, and with great weeping. The road was thronged with a multitude of persons, filled with reverence. All came forward to make the sign of the cross and look at the coffin as it was borne toward its resting-place. No man could restrain his tears, as he wailed, “O our friend, art thou gone from us, thou who built the Golden-domed Church of the Holy Mother? Art thou gone from us?”Every man held it his duty to make the sign of the cross and repeat a prayer for the soul of Andrei. Day and night continued those prayers, which people thought it a privilege to say over the body of their prince, and the prayers offered by the Vladimir people, and by a multitude of pilgrims from all parts of that northern region in behalf of the victim, continued to increase for a long time.[107]From that day to this the people who wish to pray for Andrei are not decreasing in number. To our time, in the chief church of Vladimir on the right side, as one enters the northern door, stands the coffin of Andrei, and near it on the wall is his portrait. Six miles from Vladimir is a single church, which marks the site of Bogolyuboff. There also stands a part of the stone building in which Andrei lived, some of the walls with their heavy arches, and the stone column behind which the prince stood when his murderers gave him the last blow.A gloomy tradition is preserved among the people, touching the assassins and their punishment. The Kutchkas and Anval were hanged, and fifteen men were decapitated. Andrei’s princess, who it was thought had had knowledge of the plot, was sewed up alive in a canvas bag and put into a basket holding stones sufficient to sink it. That done, a cloth was wrapped around the basket and this cloth sewed together securely. The basket was then thrown into the lake, and it vanished immediately.The following legend has immortalized the history of Andrei’s death. Near Vladimir is a dark, swampy lake. In that weird lake is a spot which the people call “Floating Island.” On that island are seen dark patches, which move hither and thither when the wind blows. Every anniversary of Andrei Bogolyuboff’s murder, noises like groans are said to come forth from the depths of that lake, now known as Foul Water—into this foul water the basket containing Andrei’s false princess was thrown, and into it were hurled also the murderers’ bodies.Of Andrei there remains in the minds of the Russian people a bright and pure memory. From every part of Russia come pilgrims to Vladimir to pray before his coffin. With the blood of a martyr, the prince sprinkled the house in which he lived. In the moments of his bitterest agony he parted from this world with the words, “O God, receive Thou my spirit,” and to that coffin people turn now, saying: “Pray thou for us also, that the Lord may assist us against enemies.”Immediately after the death of Andrei, men of the party opposed to him in Suzdal and Rostoff began to ask: “What are we to do, now that our prince is gone? With whom can we replace him? Ryazan is our neighbor; if Ryazan princes attack, what shall we do without a leader? Shall we not take a Ryazan prince?[108]The wife of their ruling prince is a daughter of Rostislav, son of Yuri Dolgoruki; she is a relative of our late prince. Let us find a prince in Ryazan; that is better.” The boyars sent confidants to Vladimir, who declared to the friends of Andrei: “Ye are not many in number; ye would better not oppose Rostoff and Suzdal; your city is still a dependency. It is wise for you to agree with us. If ye hold to the plans of Andrei, we will meet you with war to the death. The Ryazan princes may also attack you.”Volunteers from Rostoff and Suzdal hovered round, as it were, to support all these statements. In Vladimir the “smallest people,” as they called themselves, and those who were not in the boyar conspiracy, gave answer in this form: “Whose is with you, is not on our side.” The boyars wanted a prince who would not punish those who had caused the murder of Andrei. They wanted a prince who would be an opponent of all that Andrei had established, hence they selected two nephews of Andrei, two orphans, sons of Rostislav, Andrei’s elder brother, who died early.In Ryazan itself, where the conspiracy had originated, there was joy, but words were few: no discussion was needed; all knew exactly what they wanted. In Rostoff and Suzdal the plan existed even before Andrei was assassinated. Glaib of Ryazan, when envoys came to him to ask for a prince in place of Andrei, was greatly delighted. To those envoys he added others, and all went to Chernigoff, where the orphans were living.When the envoys appeared before Sviatoslav, he saw at once the meaning of the embassy and was not pleased with the project of choosing the orphans. He insisted that Mihalko and Vsevolod, brothers of Andrei, who were in Chernigoff, should go to Vladimir in company with Mystislav and Yaropolk (the orphans).On hearing of this, the Rostoff and Suzdal boyars were angry, and sent a message saying that Mihalko and Vsevolod were not to come nearer than Moscow. Mihalko paid no attention to the message, but hastened to Vladimir, where the people received him with gladness, and prepared for a siege by the boyars. Meanwhile Glaib of Ryazan, bringing Rostoff and Suzdal forces, with Mystislav and Yaropolk, attacked the city. A siege of seven weeks brought the people to famine and a surrender on promise that no harm should meet any man. Mihalko and Vsevolod went back to Chernigoff, and the new princes, after hearing the statement[109]of the Vladimir men: “Not against you have we struggled, but against the boyars of Rostoff, who boasted: we will scorch you, and then send a posadnik to rule. Ye are our slaves, O ye masons and carpenters,” took oath to give kindness and peace to the people.But their position was impossible. The boyars, who had insulted Vladimir and forced those two princes upon the country, were the real masters. Their friend, Glaib of Ryazan, did what seemed good to him; his troops sacked villages in every direction and burned them. Rostoff boyars got what they wanted; they and their friends took all the offices of value. The importance of Vladimir was leaving it daily. The cathedral was plundered, the holy images taken, and the chief one, that of the Mother of God, was given to Glaib. He got also the sword of Boris, inherited from Monomach, as well as silver and gems from the churches. He got much for he had helped much, and might help still more in the future. Soon the position became unendurable. The plan of the boyars was evident. They were undoing the work of Andrei, reducing and robbing Vladimir, and enslaving common people. Seeing this clearly, the Vladimir men were enraged to the utmost, and sent at once for Mihalko and Vsevolod. The brothers set out from Chernigoff immediately, but at theOkáMihalko fell ill and was carried on a litter to Moscow, where envoys from Vladimir were waiting.The boyars prepared now for a life and death struggle. Yaropolk was sent with forces toward Moscow to cut off Andrei’s brothers from Vladimir. But they were well on their way, and Yaropolk missed them in the deep forests of that time. On learning this, he sent a swift courier with warning to Mystislav, who hastened at once to cut off Mihalko and Vsevolod. He met them near Vladimir, and rushed at them “as if to devour them,” says the chronicler. But as his chief forces were militia without marks to distinguish them from other men, they became mixed and confused with the men of Vladimir, and had to cease fighting. That at least was the tale told when they were reproached by the boyars. The truth was, as it seems, that the common men of Rostoff and Suzdal would not fight against those of Vladimir, and whatever struggle there was, was sustained by the personal following of the boyars.[110]Mihalko and Vsevolod, in after years called “Big Nest” because of his many children, were installed June 15, 1176, a great and memorable day for Vladimir. The people praised the Lord and His Holy Mother for their ready assistance. “Oh,” said they, of the Ryazan and Suzdal boyars, “they did not care for God’s truth; they boasted that they would do what they liked with us. Well, God did not let them offend us.” The defeated princes vanished; Mystislav fled to Novgorod, and Yaropolk sought refuge in Ryazan.The new princes gave peace to the whole country promptly, and then, resolved to settle with the faith-breaking Glaib of Ryazan, they marched against him that summer. Their success had thus far been so signal that Glaib was alarmed and sent envoys with this message: “I bow down to you; I am to blame in every way. All that was seized by Mystislav and Yaropolk and given to me, I will gladly return.” He sent back the treasures with the holy image, and the sword of Boris that Andrei had kept in his bed-chamber. Peace was made, and the princes returned to Vladimir.[111]

[Contents]CHAPTER IVANDREI BOGOLYUBOFFIn 1151 the Kief prince and King Geiza of Hungary attacked Vladimirko near Peremysl, where, though hemmed in by the armies, he managed to escape to the town with a single attendant. He informed the king straightway, that, mortally wounded and dying, he begged him for peace and forgiveness. He sent also, through agents, great presents and bribes to Geiza’s attendants and to the archbishop. “Let me not die without peace or pardon,” implored he. “Great is my sin, but forgive me.”Notwithstanding all protests from Izyaslav, peace and pardon were granted, Vladimirko promising to return the towns seized from Izyaslav, and to be his ally, both in defeat and in triumph. Vladimirko was lying in bed, as if mortally wounded, and seemed to dread his last hour, then approaching.When King Geiza was sending officials with a cross, which the dying man was to kiss, Izyaslav objected with anger. “That man jests with every oath,” said he. “It is vain to send a cross to Vladimirko.” “This is the very wood on which died Christ our Lord,” explained Geiza. “By God’s will it came to Saint Stephen, my ancestor. If Vladimirko kisses this cross, survives, and breaks his oath, I will lay down my life, or capture Galitch and give it to thee. I cannot kill a man on his death-bed.”Izyaslav yielded, but Mystislav, his son, who was present, added these words: “He will break the oath surely, and I repeat here before this holy cross, forget not thy word, O King of Hungary, but come again with thy warriors to Galitch, and do what thou hast promised.”“If Vladimirko breaks his oath,” replied Geiza, “I will ask thy father to help me in Galitch, as he has asked me up to this time.” Vladimirko kissed the cross to do all that he had promised.[89]On his way home Izyaslav sent posadniks to take possession of the towns which were to be returned to him. These men came back quickly with news that not one town had been given to them—one half of the oath was now broken. On learning that Yuri was marching against Izyaslav, Vladimirko at once sent troops to help Yuri, and thus broke the rest of his oath. He returned home only when the Grand Prince was marching against him a second time.Izyaslav sent Borislavitch, his boyar, who had witnessed the oath on the holy cross of Saint Stephen, to demand the towns promised. “Say to Izyaslav,” said the Galitch prince, “that he attacked me unawares and perfidiously, that he brought a foreign king with him, and that I will either lay down my life, or avenge the wrong done me.” “But, thou hast taken an oath to the king and to Izyaslav,” said the boyar. “Wilt thou foreswear the cross?” “Oh, that little cross!” retorted Vladimirko. “Though that cross be small it is mighty,” said the boyar. “Men have told thee that Christ the Lord died on that wood, and that thou wouldst not live if thy promises were broken. Dost remember?” “I remember that ye spoke many words to me then, but leave this place now and go back to thy Izyaslav.”While the boyar was leaving the courtyard, Vladimirko started for vespers, but halted to ridicule him. When, on his way back from the church, the prince reached the spot where he had stood to revile Borislavitch, he call out on a sudden: “Some one has struck me on the shoulder!” He could not move his legs, and would have fallen had men not seized him. He was borne to his chambers and placed at once in a hot bath, but he grew rapidly worse, and died that same night.Borislavitch, who had passed the night at a village by the wayside, was roused hurriedly next morning at daybreak, and bidden to wait till the prince should recall him. Some hours later a second message came, asking him to return. When he reappeared at Vladimirko’s palace, servants clothed in black came out to meet him. In the chief seat was Yaroslav, son of Vladimirko, dressed in black; his boyars also were in black, every man of them. Yaroslav burst into tears as he looked at the envoy, who learned at once how Vladimirko had died in the night, though in perfect health a few hours earlier. “God has shown his will,”[90]said Yaroslav; “thou art called back to hear these words from me. Go thou to Izyaslav, bow down to him and say from me: ‘God has taken my father, be thou in his place. There were questions between thee and him, those questions the Lord will judge as he pleases. God has taken my father and left me here in place of him. His warriors and attendants are all at my order. I salute thee, O father, receive me as thou dost Mystislav, thy son. Let him ride at one of thy stirrups, and I with my forces will ride at the other.’ ”The boyar went home with this message, which seems to have been sent to win time and lull Izyaslav, for no towns were returned, and all things remained as they had been.Hence, in 1153, the Grand Prince again moved against Galitch. The two forces met at Terebovl, but the battle was strangely indecisive as to victory, though its results were more useful to Yaroslav than to the Grand Prince. One part of the Kief force defeated one part of Yaroslav’s army, while the other part of those forces was badly beaten and pursued by the Galitch men. Izyaslav, impetuous as usual, broke the ranks of his opponents and drove them far from the first place of onset, but his brothers and allies were beaten, and hopelessly scattered.Izyaslav, having no forces with which to continue the struggle, returned to Kief and abandoned all plans against Galitch. Some months later he married a Georgian princess, and died shortly after, 1154. Kief and the south mourned greatly for this prince, and most of all mourned Vyatcheslav his uncle. “Thou art where I ought to be, but against God all are powerless,” sobbed the old man, bending over the coffin.If in Kief men were saddened by this death, they rejoiced in Chernigoff immensely. Izyaslav, son of David, who yearned for Kief as a man yearns for her of whom he is desperately enamoured, set out for the city at once, but was stopped at the Dnieper by Vyatcheslav, who sent this inquiry: “Why hast thou come? Who has called thee? Go back to thy Chernigoff.” “I wish to weep over my cousin. I was far from him when he died. Let me weep at his coffin,” implored Izyaslav. By the advice of the boyars, and the son of the dead prince, this request was rejected. They dared not trust the son of David, and were waiting impatiently for Rostislav to take the place of his brother.[91]Prompt action was taken meanwhile to divide the Chernigoff cousins. Vyatcheslav sent for Sviatoslav, son of Vsevolod, who came at once, without knowledge of his uncle’s death. The Smolensk prince appeared at the earliest moment, and all felt relieved when Rostislav sat in the place of his brother, as a son and subordinate of Vyatcheslav, the Grand Prince, though really commanding. “Act,” said the Kief men, “as did thy brother, and Kief will be thine till thy death hour.”The first act of Rostislav was a settlement with Sviatoslav, son of Vsevolod. “I give thee Turoff and Pinsk,” said he to this nephew, “because thou didst come to my father, I give thee good lands for that act of thine.” Sviatoslav took this large gift with gladness. There was need to attach him firmly, since his uncles of Chernigoff were treating already with Yuri, whose son Glaib was now marching on Pereyaslavl with a strong force of Polovtsi. Rostislav sent his son straightway to that city with assistance. The Polovtsi had attacked, but at sight of Kief warriors they withdrew beyond the Sula. Rostislav resolved then to march on Chernigoff, and crossing the Dnieper he was ready to move forward when a courier galloped up with the message: “Vyatcheslav, thy uncle, is dead!”After the prince had been interred with great honor, Rostislav went back to the army and held a council: “Return to the capital,” said the Kief boyars, who wished to be sure of the offices. “Settle there with the people, and begin to rule anew well supported. If Yuri comes, make peace or war, as need dictates.” Rostislav did not take their advice, but moved on Chernigoff, sending this message first to Izyaslav, son of David: “Wilt thou kiss the cross to reign in Chernigoff, while I am in Kief?” “I know not what I have done to make thee march against me. If thou come, we shall have that which God gives,” was the answer.But this far-seeing son of David had sent Polovtsi under Glaib to Pereyaslavl, and was in fact warring at that time with Rostislav. He now joined Glaib with great promptness. Rostislav, finding no zeal in Kief boyars, and thinking himself outnumbered and powerless, lost courage, and discussed terms of peace with the son of David. Such indecision roused Mystislav, son of the recent Grand Prince, who left his uncle with these words: “Soon neither thou nor I will have any place.” Rostislav, deserted by his nephew,[92]and outflanked by the Polovtsi, fought two days, and then fled, saving his life with much difficulty. The Polovtsi turned now toward Kief, which they threatened. “I wish to go to you,” was the message sent by Izyaslav to Kief citizens. The capital was helpless, Izyaslav was the one man to save it. “Come thou to Kief, lest the Polovtsi take us. Thou art our prince, come at once,” was the quick answer.Izyaslav needed no second call. He appeared, took the throne of Kief, and sent Glaib, son of Yuri, to Pereyaslavl. When Yuri heard that Izyaslav, his nephew, was dead, and that Rostislav, his other nephew, was in Kief, he set out with strong forces immediately, and was nearing Smolensk, for which he intended the first blow, when he learned that Vyatcheslav, his brother, was dead; that Rostislav was defeated, that Izyaslav, son of David, was reigning in Kief, and Glaib his own son, was prince in Pereyaslavl.Rostislav, who had reached Smolensk and had collected men, was marching to meet Yuri. Each now wished peace with the other. Yuri was hastening to Kief, which he coveted beyond everything else. Rostislav, who had no desire at that juncture for Kief, was glad to agree with his uncle, and they made peace with apparent sincerity. Yuri continued his march toward Kief, and Rostislav retired to his own capital. Near Storodub, Yuri met his old ally, Sviatoslav, son of Oleg, with whom was Vsevolod’s son, Sviatoslav, who appeared now with a prayer for reinstatement. “In days past I lost my mind altogether. Forgive me.” These were his words to Yuri. The son of Oleg interceded, and Yuri gave pardon, making Sviatoslav kiss the cross not to desert either him, or the son of Oleg. All three set out then for Chernigoff.Before reaching that city the son of Oleg sent the Kief prince this message: “Go out of Kief, brother, Yuri is marching against thee.” Izyaslav was unwilling to leave Kief. A second message came, but he took no note of it. Thereupon Yuri sent these words: “Kief is my inheritance, not thine.” Without right, and without the special favor of the people, Izyaslav could not remain, so he answered: “I am here not of my own will; the Kief people sent for me. Kief is thine, but harm me not.” Yuri made peace with him and entered Kief, 1155, with four sons, whom he seated in regions about there,—Andrei in Vyshgorod, Boris in Turoff; Vassilko in the Ros country, and Glaib remained in Pereyaslavl.[93]Thus the succession of Kief fell at last to the oldest man of the family. The heirs of Mystislav the Great could not stand against the seniority of Yuri their uncle. David’s descendants had dropped out still earlier; those of Oleg had perished. Yuri’s seniority now received perfect recognition; he had broken through every claim and given victory once more to the right of seniority. Once more and for the last time appeared a perfect reëstablishment of the old regime of Kief dominion, but in the person of Yuri it ended forever. In this was the fateful position of the last son of Monomach: Yuri Dolgoruki stood on the very line dividing the old from the new time in Russia. Even in the early days of this unresisted establishment of Yuri in Kief, there was dissatisfaction, for it was quickly manifest how unacquainted he was with the state of things there, and with the minds of the people. Though perhaps not wantonly cruel, according to the standards of that age, he was grasping and selfish, but as his grandfather, Monomach, was the most popular prince in Russian history, and Mystislav the Great, his father, was second only to the renowned Monomach, he, Dolgoruki, was endured as Prince of Kief, because of his family position. He held the office until death came to him, two years later, 1157, just before an effort was to have been made to expel him.Yuri, when he became Grand Prince, wishing to keep Andrei near him, had given this favorite son the fortified town of Vyshgorod, fifteen versts distant from Kief, but Andrei was ambitious, and soon became dissatisfied with his humble and dependent position. Therefore he left Vyshgorod secretly and went to Vladimir, his birthplace, taking with him all his belongings and the miraculous image of the Mother of God painted, according to legend, by Saint Luke, and greatly valued by Russians.This holy image had been brought from Tsargrad to Kief, especially for Yuri, and he had placed it in a cathedral inVyshgorod.When Andrei, with the help of the monks, secured the image, he intended to place it in a church in Rostoff, but after leaving Vladimir, and when ten versts beyond that city, the horses drawing the vehicle containing the holy image stopped suddenly, and could not be made to cross the river. Several times the horses were changed, but with no result. Thereupon Andrei declared to the[94]people present that the previous night the Mother of God had appeared to him in a vision with a charter in her hand, and had told him to put her image in a church in Vladimir.The procession turned back at once, and the image was placed in the Vladimir church. Andrei commanded a church and monastery to be built on the spot where the Virgin had made herself manifest. He called this place Bogolyuboff, which means the love of God, and from it he received his own name later on. Henceforth all deeds of valor and prowess, and successes of every kind were ascribed to the miraculous image.Yuri did not urge Andrei to return to Vyshgorod, nor did he insist upon his restoring the holy painting. Andrei could not have done so, in any case, for all people believed that the Mother of God had selected Vladimir as the home of her image.After Yuri’s death his territory was divided, and Mystislav assumed the title of Grand Prince of Kief, though in reality there ceased to be any Grand Principality of Kief.Born in the north, the city of Vladimir was dear to Andrei. Only through necessity did he go from it to serve in the various wars waged by his father. From youth, Andrei was famous as a warrior, and was the chief and right hand of Yuri. Prompt, energetic and resolute, he loved to be in the front rank of every battle, and on a mighty horse to tear through the heart of the enemy. He was greatly distinguished in war, excelling in management, in the knowledge of details, and in the power of going at once to the very root of a question. No matter what he undertook, he always proved himself a master.In 1169 Andrei, becoming greatly dissatisfied with Mystislav’s management in Kief, formed a coalition of eleven princes, and marched with a large force against him. After three days Kief was taken by assault; during three more days the place was pillaged, the victors, in the frenzy of triumph, forgetting that they were Russians and that Kief was a Russian city. Everything of value, including the contents of churches, was carried away.Through continual civil wars, and the increased power of wandering hordes, a condition of any permanency had become impossible, and the interest which Yuri took in Kief was not shared by Andrei. Yuri had founded Suzdal, but, notwithstanding that fact, he had spent most of his life in an effort to become Grand Prince of Kief.[95]Upon the decline of Kief, Suzdal, in the basin of the Volga, became the chief city, but loving neither Suzdal nor Rostoff, Andrei determined to make Vladimir the capital of Russia. The majesty of buildings had always attracted him, and he now invited from every part of Russia, not only skilled workers in stone and in wood, but clever craftsmen of all kinds. In Bogolyuboff he established many artificers; a whole ward was occupied by masters in silver and gold work, and makers of holy images. He brought in not only Russian artists, but artists from other lands, from Tsargrad and Italy. The chroniclers of those days were astonished at the great number of these persons.Andrei spared neither treasure nor labor in ornamenting Vladimir. Remembering his ancestor, who had adorned Kief with the Golden Gate and the Tithe Church, he determined that his birthplace should equal Kief, the mother of Russian cities, hence he built the Assumption Cathedral, which was esteemed at that time a marvel, and during centuries it served in the North as a model for similar structures. The Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, once the place for crowning the Tsars of Russia, and where the Emperors are now crowned, was built on this model. He erected the Golden, as well as the Silver Gate, called thus because the church dome at one gate was of gold, while at the other it was of silver.The city of Vladimir, adorned with beautiful buildings, and exalted by the presence of the marvelous image, became Andrei’s residence, and, because of the image and the residence, also the capital city. In spite of the opposition of boyars in Rostoff and Suzdal, the Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir became the main sanctuary of the Russian land, and gave primacy to the city. The North was no longer the land of Rostoff and Suzdal, it was mentioned more and more frequently as Vladimir. This Vladimir country included what are known now as the governments of Vladimir, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Ryazan, Tuer, Nizni-Novgorod, Bailozero, in other words what is really Great Russia.From time immemorial, in Russia the only place held in high honor was a place with a sanctuary. The people revered Kief, because the Christian faith had first been accepted there. In Kief there were relics and holy places and there also was the monastery in which the great monks Antonio and Fedosia had lived. Till[96]Andrei’s day, the immense northern land beyond the forest contained nothing sacred. Now two images, one made by Luke the Evangelist, and known as the Vladimir Mother of God, the other that of the Holy Virgin as she made herself manifest to Andrei in a vision, made Vladimir the first sanctuary in Russia.Popular belief assigned the founding of the city to St. Vladimir the Apostle and Grand Prince. He had, in fact, come from Kief with the first metropolitan to baptize the pagan people of that region, but the city was founded only during the days when Vladimir Monomach was the ruler. It occupied, however, the spot on which the Apostolic Vladimir had camped, on his way to baptize the people of Rostoff and Suzdal, hence it was said that the city received its name from Vladimir the Apostle, the Purifier. Political power helped the religious idea, and religion gave strength to the policy.In the mind of Yuri Dolgoruki the plan had been fixed firmly that his northern lands must remain undivided. One reason why he had struggled for Kief so persistently was to satisfy some of his sons in the South, while the North was to remain intact, and be given to his eldest son. Through increase of Vladimir’s descendants, and the separation of property, princes who had little land and no power became numerous. In extreme cases Yuri had divided out towns of Rostoff and Suzdal for the temporary use of those princes. Andrei’s brothers were not treated differently from others.Having fixed himself at Vladimir as the one power, Andrei would not give any brother, or even any son, a bit of land in that region. His brothers and some of his nephews worked with him, but all did what he commanded; they were simply his agents, doing as he directed. And for them, he was the same lord precisely that he was for others. Of course the boyars signified less than the princes, whether the boyars were his own near advisers, or of the “ancient strong, local people,” “proud and powerful high persons,” as men called them. These boyars had been met by his father and conquered. They might have thought of struggling with Yuri Dolgoruki, but not with Andrei. Yuri had battled with one and another of them. When defeated some had fled to neighboring princes, others had been exiled, or imprisoned. But in Andrei’s time it might be said with truth that every question as to the strength of the prince or the boyars was settled.[97]With those who opposed him, Andrei showed still less ceremony than had his father. He spared not his brothers, in the least degree. Those of the “ancient strong people” in Rostoff and in Suzdal who preferred the new order rallied round Andrei, and gave him full support. There were others, and those were in the majority, who warred against him in secret. For the time they threw out merely words like the following: “Rostoff is old, and a great place, and so is Suzdal; Vladimir is only an adjunct.” But these people knew that they were powerless against a prince who had the common men, the land-tillers and craftsmen in full force behind him. Because of this relation of common men to Andrei, and the hostility of most of the boyars and the wielders of weapons who had lost places, there rose reports and explanations quite opposite, the substance of which was expressed by the phrase: “There is a fierce battle in Rostoff and Suzdal.” This was uttered by “proud high people,” and by men thrown out of office. Common men used other phrases: “We love Prince Andrei. We love this grandson of Monomach. This prince never rests from his labor, he keeps his mind and conscience clear. He has love for God and man. He is firm and kind. He is good to the weak and to the ailing.”Andrei’s wars were waged always to benefit Vladimir and the people. He had no thought for petty quarrels among princes, and never took part in them. A prince in his place needed no special army. Towns and cities in that region were numerous, and ever prompt to send warriors in defense of their interests. Whenever an enemy came, all people were ready to rise. Instead of a chosen legion, led by boyars, who, in the old time, surrounded the prince and curbed freedom immensely, Andrei received into his “courtyard” whomever he wished, people of all sorts, and even all origins. They were not called as in the old days drujina (friends), but dvoryani (court men). They lived in his court and around it in complete acquiescence; they were people of his court. Though the former name of drujina was not abandoned immediately, it lost its old meaning, and soon the prince’s assistants were known as dvoryani, a word translated later as noble. This word, used afterward to denote specially the highest people of Moscow, had its origin in the Vladimir of Andrei.The wars carried on by Andrei had a definite policy. If he gave aid to some prince who annoyed him by imploring, this aid was[98]limited to sending a small detachment. But he defended those who asked assistance against enemies more by a threat than by fighting. If he warred, as happened later, he did so in the interest of his own principality. His problem was to manage freely in Kief and in Novgorod for the benefit of Vladimir. When one or another prince asked his permission to reign in Kief, the mother city, that prince had to take an oath not to meddle with Novgorod. Andrei did not care about Kief, but between Novgorod and Vladimir there were endless dissensions, which rose from the fact that Vladimir and Novgorod were neighbors. Novgorod, rich in commerce, was poor in land, and had to get wheat and rye from Vladimir or regions beyond it. “Vladimir and Novgorod stood face to face as opponents.” And besides the question of grain on one side and of trade on the other was that of the boundless North with its treasures. Novgorod claimed that northern region, claimed all of it. Wherever a foot of land presented itself Novgorod wanted that to be the land of a man in its service. This proud understanding of things was expressed by the phrase: “Who can stand against God and Lord Novgorod?” But into those northern places had entered Rostoff and Suzdal, and now they were dealing with Andrei of Vladimir.From times before Rurik, Novgorod men had the wish for dominion, but they could not have this unless they could find a man to keep order, and be at the same time their servant. That was why they had summoned Rurik. The Novgorod men had explored the great North and East, and knew that its size was enormous. They counted as theirs that northeastern region, but there was one corner, White Lake, which Vladimir could claim. Of this corner Novgorod might not say beyond doubt: “It is mine,” still the city laid claim to it. In Yuri’s day, Daniel the Hermit was sent by him to take possession of a point north of White Lake, which place lapped over the Novgorod boundary, and caused endless quarrels. But the real origin of the dispute was the water connection between the Neva and the Volga—the so-called Dvina tribute. This was the source of the continual dissension between Novgorod and Vladimir. Of this tribute and other questions we shall hear later.Andrei made a campaign to Bulgar, a town on the Volga. Possessing already the upper course of that river, he must have[99]command of its lower course, at least to the point where the Kama falls into it. Somewhat lower than the entrance of the Kama, which finds its source in the great Ural Mountains, was the city Bulgar. This time Andrei led the army in person. Under him were Ryazan princes. He took the Vladimir Mother of God to arouse the courage and strength of the army. The confidence which this holy image gave to the warriors passed every description. When the Vladimir men entered the country of “unbelievers” the clergy went in front of them bearing the image, and while preparing for battle, they turned to the “Commanderess” with prayers for her blessing.The Bulgar campaign gave a great victory. Andrei’s forces captured all that they met in that country and seized Bryahimoff, the chief town. Wherever the enemy appeared, they were scattered. Vast booty was seized, and many lands were annexed to Vladimir. The chief encounter took place August 1st, a day famed in the Russian calendar till then as the day of the Maccabees, but thence forward changed to the day of the Merciful Saviour. Andrei, seeing in this victory special favor, conveyed news of it speedily to Manuel, the Greek Emperor. In Tsargrad, on that very day, they were celebrating a victory over Saracens in Asia. On comparing dates it was found that the victory in Asia and that on the Volga coincided. Hence the Orthodox Church in both lands determined that the day should be called ever after the day of the Merciful Saviour.Andrei’s friendship in Tsargrad was great both with Emperor and Patriarch, and he hoped that this friendship might aid him in giving Vladimir the first place in Russia. He had resolved to raise it, not merely above northern cities, but above Kief, the old capital. The problem was difficult, but he must attempt it. In church matters Vladimir was still under Kief, whose metropolitan had power in all Russia. Vladimir had its bishop, but he lived in Rostoff, a rival city. Now that Andrei had built the great golden-domed church, and had subdued Volga regions, he intended to make his Vladimir the capital of Russia in every sense,—not merely independent as to Kief,—but superior, and resolved that the metropolitan of all Russia should reside there.Andrei summoned princes, boyars and people to Vladimir, and said to them: “This city was founded by Saint Vladimir,[100]the Grand Prince who enlightened all Russia by baptism. I, though unworthy and sinful, have by God’s aid exalted the Christian faith and extended it. I have adorned the church of the glorious and holy Mother. I have given lands to it, and one tenth of my income, I wish Vladimir to be the capital, the head of all cities in Russia.” No man said a word to oppose this.Russian princes in regard to some things communicated with the Patriarch in Tsargrad directly; on occasions they sent presents, and at times they sent envoys, but when church affairs were discussed they were forced to act through the Kief metropolitan.Andrei sent a special envoy in this case, whose name, Yakov Stanishavitch, is preserved to us. The prince explained in a letter that Vladimir was at the head of a new, immense country where the Christian faith, unknown till recently, had become firmly fixed and widely extended. Vladimir needed more strength and order in church service; she prayed to receive a metropolitan. Boundless regions were now in light, regions which, till his father’s day and his own, had been in darkness. His recent victories had opened up new and vast countries. Andrei spoke a greater truth than he himself realized. He had in fact opened up a new world in such form and meaning as no man at that time comprehended.The boyars gazed with dread on him. Well might they ask: “How far will his plans go? Does he think to enforce them on all Russia? Will he not take power from us, and every significance? If he makes Vladimir the great mother city, where shall we find a place in it?”In due time came the answer to Andrei’s letter. The Patriarch praised the zeal of the prince in planting truth in new places, approved of his bringing order to lands hitherto without it, but while revering that for which Andrei was toiling so earnestly, his Humility the Patriarch could not grant the prayer of Prince Andrei, because the Kief metropolitan already had jurisdiction in those northern lands. If the prince had won new lands, in regions apart and divided geographically, the question would have been different, but the regions under discussion could not be taken from their present right relations without violating ancient rules and destroying Christian truth as existent. Andrei had asked in the name of religion and truth, concealing his chief, if not his only object. The Patriarch answered in the same way,—the[101]inevitable and ever recurrent method of masking the main point. Andrei was obliged to abandon the project.During his father’s life, Andrei had married the daughter of Kutchka, a boyar who had been put to death by Yuri. In family life Andrei knew little, if any happiness. All his children died earlier than he, except one, the youngest son, Yuri, who married Queen Tamara of Georgia and died in the Trans-Caucasus, prematurely, after painful adventures. Neither from his wife nor her relatives had Andrei witnessed good-feeling. No matter how he strove to draw near the Kutchkas, no matter what he spent in lavish kindness toward them and their friends, they ever cherished for him a hatred which nothing could extinguish. The same might be said of the men near Andrei. He had removed his drujina and the boyars, and chosen new people. He treated those people with such kindness and so liberally that he might hope to see them grateful. “Father,” “Giver of good,” “Bestower of pleasant things,” “Nourisher” were the only words which they might with honesty have said of him. These were the terms used in satire by those men who witnessed but did not receive this attention. It was with the following words that all described Andrei,—all save the circle which opposed him. “The beloved father, the nourisher of orphans, kind and gentle, simple and strong, putting his arms round the poor, loving those who are abandoned, giving them to eat and drink, like his great ancestor Monomach.” He was holy also, though men did not know it. He had commanded that at any time of the day or night, if there were a really needy man or woman, that man or woman should be nourished. He had also built houses where the sick and the unprotected might be received and cared for.From his youth Andrei, with all the kindness ascribed to him by the people, had not many friends, because he was abrupt in manner, and as he grew older this abruptness became more apparent. The expulsion of boyars and men who had been connected with his father caused great discontent, and now his one prop was the people, who, though with him to a man, were not in physical touch with him. He had incensed the princes because he commanded at all points in Russia as he did in his own house. There were reasons enough why princes and boyars desired the death of Andrei. Much was said about[102]defense against such a man. Reports were even current that Glaib of Ryazan and his boyars were plotting against him, and that Rostoff and Suzdal boyars had joined with Glaib. While men might expect action from this point, Andrei fell a victim to what seemed a conspiracy of his servants and relatives. In any case he died at the hands of his servants, brought to the deed, it may be, by keen machinations of princes and boyars. That princes and boyars were the movers, and the others only the instruments, there is, however, no formal proof. The story of the crime is as follows:The whole number of assassins was twenty. Four men were the leaders in the murder,—Takin, whose personality is uncertain; Pyotr, son-in-law of one of the Kutchkas, Anval the key-bearer, at that time a great favorite, and Yevfrem Moiseitch, a converted Jew. A report was spread, on Friday, June 28th, 1174, that Andrei intended to summon and execute one of the Kutchkas. That same day the four men made this decision: “To-night, when Andrei lies down to sleep, we will kill him.” In the darkness between Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th the key-bearer, Anval, stole from Andrei’s chamber the sword of Prince Boris, which had been an heirloom in Vladimir Monomach’s family. On the afternoon of that day, Andrei’s wife had gone on a visit. In the evening Andrei lay down to sleep without anxiety or suspicion. On the floor in the room lay one of the little serving boys called “Bones,”—thus are they termed in the chronicles. The murderers were completely armed. They came to the house, but when at the entrance fear seized them and they ran out again. To get courage they went to find drink. After they had drunk sufficiently, they returned and groped their way in the darkness. Having found the door of the chamber where Andrei was sleeping, one of them tapped at it lightly. “Who is there?” called the prince. The man who had knocked answered: “Prokofi.” The assassins heard the prince say: “That is not the voice of Prokofi.” Hearing this, they burst the door in with one effort. Andrei, suspecting the deed, sprang up and grasped for his sword; the sword was not there. The two men who entered first Andrei put down quickly. There being no light in the chamber, the assassins struck at random and hit their own men till they found Andrei. He, being strong, fought in the darkness a long time. The battle was[103]stubborn, but since twenty men were fighting with one, they at last overpowered him. The victim groaned as he said: “God will take vengeance on you for my bread, which you have eaten.” They hastened to finish. The breath seemed to halt in Andrei as if the soul were going out of him, and he lay on his back in agony. They gave him, as they thought, final blows, and waited in the darkness, till every sound ceased in his body, and they found no trace of breath in him. Then, taking with them a man whom Andrei had killed in the struggle, they started to grope their way out, but they could not go quickly, for in fear and in darkness the right passage was missed. Halting a moment, they discovered it, and going down the stone stairs to the open, again visited the mead cellar. Coming back, they stood a while to recover from the inner air, and from terror of the deed just accomplished.While this was taking place Prince Andrei, who had been left for dead, regained consciousness. He sat up and remembered with difficulty what had happened; then, leaving the room, he began to descend the stone stairway slowly, but as he went he betrayed himself. He might have escaped had he gone down in silence, but he could not suppress groans of anguish. The assassins heard those groans. “He is not killed!” whispered one in alarm. They returned to the chamber hurriedly; Andrei was not there. “Where is he?” asked one of another. “Quick! quick! we must find him!” They struck a light and, through blood which had dropped from the wounds of the prince as he passed down the stairway, they discovered him. Andrei, who saw the men coming, rose and stood behind a stone pillar near the entrance to his palace, and when they saw him, he cried: “O God, receive Thou my spirit!” Those were Andrei’s last words, He struggled no longer in mind, but still he raised his hand and they cut off his arm at the shoulder. Thus died Andrei, son of Yuri Dolgoruki, slain in his own house, by men whom he had treated justly and with kindness.The next work of the murderers was to kill Prokofi, the favorite of the prince, and their opponent. After the death of Prokofi they began to pillage. Before daylight they had emptied the palace, the cellars, the places where holy images were made, and the workshops where cloth of gold and of silver was woven and where precious stones were set. Everything had vanished, gold, silver, silk, satin, rich furs, weapons, and rare objects which Andrei[104]had possessed in abundance. At daybreak Bogolyuboff was as empty “as a hollow, old tree.” The assassins were gone, each stolen thing had been secreted. To remove those things quickly they had taken all the horses, even those used in the personal service of the prince. They now sent men to Vladimir to declare what had taken place. “Have no feeling against us,” said they to the people. “The thing done has happened in spite of us.” “We know not who were with you,” replied the Vladimir men, “but whoever they were, they will answer for this vile murder.”In Vladimir the boyars feared the morrow, and with reason, for common men loved Andrei. And now came the clashing of forces. Men who had land and lived from it through the labor of others had been opposed to Andrei, but those who themselves tilled land had been on his side. These two groups stood face to face now like two armies. What was to be done? Among boyars and the powerful at this time of peril, there was no confidence in their own leaders. If there had been a leader in whom they could have trusted, they would surely have conquered, but that man was lacking. The leader of the people had been Andrei; now he was gone, and both sides were helpless.At first there was utter discouragement in Vladimir, a paralysis of mind for the moment. Meanwhile no one knew where the body of Andrei was; no one knew what the murderers had done with it till Kuzma, a former servant of the dead prince, discovered it. This faithful man, who feared only God and loved no man on earth save Andrei, did not cease his questions: “Where is the prince? Where is his body?” “We threw it into the garden,” replied one of the assassins at last, with great insolence. “But go not near. We threw out the body that the dogs might devour it. If thou go near, men will kill thee.”The old servant said nothing, but sought for the body and found it. “O thou my master and friend!” cried he, weeping. “Didst thou not feel the approach of those murderers, thou who didst terrify thousands so many times?” As he was weeping he turned, and through an opening saw the eyes of the key-bearer, Anval. “O thou enemy, why art thou looking?” called he then. “Give me some garment to cover my lord’s body, O thou heretic!” “Be off!” called out Anval; “dogs will eat up that body.” “Give this body to dogs! Remember, O reprobate, in what[105]clothes thou didst come to Prince Andrei; now thou art in velvet and cloth with gold threads in it, while thy lord is lying dead here, and naked. Even such as thou art, throw out to me something to cover my master.”Anval threw out an upper garment and a piece of carpet. Kuzma covered the body, wrapped it in the carpet and carried it on his shoulders to the church, but no one would open the door to him. “Do not come with him here,” said they. At that moment all near were either on the side of Andrei’s enemies or in dread of them. Kuzma put down the body before the door and cried, stooping over it: “Thou my master, thou, O strong prince, thy lowest servants do not regard thee. Thou, O my master, who didst conquer the Balgars, and gain immense countries, art not admitted to the church which was built by thee. We are here at the door of it, I living and thou dead, and no one will admit us.”The body lay there two days, wrapped in the carpet and guarded continually by Kuzma. In Vladimir the people were waiting in dread of the future. Those were two evil days, opened by murder and robbery in Bogolyuboff, and succeeded by violence from Andrei’s enemies. Every treasure was carried off, all that their hands could lay hold of. If any servant was faithful, he was slain without mercy. In neighboring villages they killed those who held office from Andrei, or were known to be friends of his. They raised riots to excite evil passions and help men to forget themselves. But many of those who committed such deeds were afraid, and with reason, that punishment would strike them from Vladimir.That which failed the Vladimir men, namely courage, and which had to come, if it came, from some other source, came from the clergy, and began in the Golden-domed Church of Vladimir. The chief priest there was Mikulets, that same priest who in Vyshgorod had care of the holy image, and later assisted in bringing it to Vladimir. After consulting with other priests, Mikulets, arrayed in his robes, bore the sacred image of the Mother of God through the city. A procession followed him. The conspirators were dumb and complete quiet reigned in Vladimir. The people recovered their minds at once, and all joined the clergy, who had great power, for the common people were with them. After that men talked on the street and in other places about the need of burying Prince Andrei with honor, of bringing his body from[106]Bogolyuboff and placing it in the Golden-domed Church which he had erected. The moment that this was decided upon, the citizens formed a guard for protection. Seeing this, the conspirators lost all courage.In Bogolyuboff also the clergy now showed the bravery and the decision necessary to meet the blind insolence of those insurgent and riotous boyars, who thought that because they had had the upper hand for a moment they would have it forever. On the third day Arsenie, an abbot, took action. “Is our prince,” said he, “to lie before the church door unconsidered, guarded by Kuzma? Open the door, and I will chant the sacred words over the body. I will place it in the coffin myself, if no man will help me. God will then have mercy and make an end of this disorder. Men will come from Vladimir to bear hence the coffin with reverence.” Andrei’s body was put in a coffin, and placed in front of the altar, and all the people of the city wept and sang in the sacred service.On the sixth day the men of Vladimir asked of the clergy a burial the most imposing and majestic that could be given. It was arranged that the clergy of Bogolyuboff, in complete church array, with crosses and emblems, were to follow behind the coffin, and with them Kuzma, the old servant who had sat two days and nights before the church door, guarding the body of his master. The clergy of Vladimir were to meet them between the two places.When the Vladimir people met the procession, they were shown the highest honor. The Bogolyuboff men, ready to receive them, stood around the coffin, and those who had been appointed to take the coffin received it and moved on toward the city with awe, and with great weeping. The road was thronged with a multitude of persons, filled with reverence. All came forward to make the sign of the cross and look at the coffin as it was borne toward its resting-place. No man could restrain his tears, as he wailed, “O our friend, art thou gone from us, thou who built the Golden-domed Church of the Holy Mother? Art thou gone from us?”Every man held it his duty to make the sign of the cross and repeat a prayer for the soul of Andrei. Day and night continued those prayers, which people thought it a privilege to say over the body of their prince, and the prayers offered by the Vladimir people, and by a multitude of pilgrims from all parts of that northern region in behalf of the victim, continued to increase for a long time.[107]From that day to this the people who wish to pray for Andrei are not decreasing in number. To our time, in the chief church of Vladimir on the right side, as one enters the northern door, stands the coffin of Andrei, and near it on the wall is his portrait. Six miles from Vladimir is a single church, which marks the site of Bogolyuboff. There also stands a part of the stone building in which Andrei lived, some of the walls with their heavy arches, and the stone column behind which the prince stood when his murderers gave him the last blow.A gloomy tradition is preserved among the people, touching the assassins and their punishment. The Kutchkas and Anval were hanged, and fifteen men were decapitated. Andrei’s princess, who it was thought had had knowledge of the plot, was sewed up alive in a canvas bag and put into a basket holding stones sufficient to sink it. That done, a cloth was wrapped around the basket and this cloth sewed together securely. The basket was then thrown into the lake, and it vanished immediately.The following legend has immortalized the history of Andrei’s death. Near Vladimir is a dark, swampy lake. In that weird lake is a spot which the people call “Floating Island.” On that island are seen dark patches, which move hither and thither when the wind blows. Every anniversary of Andrei Bogolyuboff’s murder, noises like groans are said to come forth from the depths of that lake, now known as Foul Water—into this foul water the basket containing Andrei’s false princess was thrown, and into it were hurled also the murderers’ bodies.Of Andrei there remains in the minds of the Russian people a bright and pure memory. From every part of Russia come pilgrims to Vladimir to pray before his coffin. With the blood of a martyr, the prince sprinkled the house in which he lived. In the moments of his bitterest agony he parted from this world with the words, “O God, receive Thou my spirit,” and to that coffin people turn now, saying: “Pray thou for us also, that the Lord may assist us against enemies.”Immediately after the death of Andrei, men of the party opposed to him in Suzdal and Rostoff began to ask: “What are we to do, now that our prince is gone? With whom can we replace him? Ryazan is our neighbor; if Ryazan princes attack, what shall we do without a leader? Shall we not take a Ryazan prince?[108]The wife of their ruling prince is a daughter of Rostislav, son of Yuri Dolgoruki; she is a relative of our late prince. Let us find a prince in Ryazan; that is better.” The boyars sent confidants to Vladimir, who declared to the friends of Andrei: “Ye are not many in number; ye would better not oppose Rostoff and Suzdal; your city is still a dependency. It is wise for you to agree with us. If ye hold to the plans of Andrei, we will meet you with war to the death. The Ryazan princes may also attack you.”Volunteers from Rostoff and Suzdal hovered round, as it were, to support all these statements. In Vladimir the “smallest people,” as they called themselves, and those who were not in the boyar conspiracy, gave answer in this form: “Whose is with you, is not on our side.” The boyars wanted a prince who would not punish those who had caused the murder of Andrei. They wanted a prince who would be an opponent of all that Andrei had established, hence they selected two nephews of Andrei, two orphans, sons of Rostislav, Andrei’s elder brother, who died early.In Ryazan itself, where the conspiracy had originated, there was joy, but words were few: no discussion was needed; all knew exactly what they wanted. In Rostoff and Suzdal the plan existed even before Andrei was assassinated. Glaib of Ryazan, when envoys came to him to ask for a prince in place of Andrei, was greatly delighted. To those envoys he added others, and all went to Chernigoff, where the orphans were living.When the envoys appeared before Sviatoslav, he saw at once the meaning of the embassy and was not pleased with the project of choosing the orphans. He insisted that Mihalko and Vsevolod, brothers of Andrei, who were in Chernigoff, should go to Vladimir in company with Mystislav and Yaropolk (the orphans).On hearing of this, the Rostoff and Suzdal boyars were angry, and sent a message saying that Mihalko and Vsevolod were not to come nearer than Moscow. Mihalko paid no attention to the message, but hastened to Vladimir, where the people received him with gladness, and prepared for a siege by the boyars. Meanwhile Glaib of Ryazan, bringing Rostoff and Suzdal forces, with Mystislav and Yaropolk, attacked the city. A siege of seven weeks brought the people to famine and a surrender on promise that no harm should meet any man. Mihalko and Vsevolod went back to Chernigoff, and the new princes, after hearing the statement[109]of the Vladimir men: “Not against you have we struggled, but against the boyars of Rostoff, who boasted: we will scorch you, and then send a posadnik to rule. Ye are our slaves, O ye masons and carpenters,” took oath to give kindness and peace to the people.But their position was impossible. The boyars, who had insulted Vladimir and forced those two princes upon the country, were the real masters. Their friend, Glaib of Ryazan, did what seemed good to him; his troops sacked villages in every direction and burned them. Rostoff boyars got what they wanted; they and their friends took all the offices of value. The importance of Vladimir was leaving it daily. The cathedral was plundered, the holy images taken, and the chief one, that of the Mother of God, was given to Glaib. He got also the sword of Boris, inherited from Monomach, as well as silver and gems from the churches. He got much for he had helped much, and might help still more in the future. Soon the position became unendurable. The plan of the boyars was evident. They were undoing the work of Andrei, reducing and robbing Vladimir, and enslaving common people. Seeing this clearly, the Vladimir men were enraged to the utmost, and sent at once for Mihalko and Vsevolod. The brothers set out from Chernigoff immediately, but at theOkáMihalko fell ill and was carried on a litter to Moscow, where envoys from Vladimir were waiting.The boyars prepared now for a life and death struggle. Yaropolk was sent with forces toward Moscow to cut off Andrei’s brothers from Vladimir. But they were well on their way, and Yaropolk missed them in the deep forests of that time. On learning this, he sent a swift courier with warning to Mystislav, who hastened at once to cut off Mihalko and Vsevolod. He met them near Vladimir, and rushed at them “as if to devour them,” says the chronicler. But as his chief forces were militia without marks to distinguish them from other men, they became mixed and confused with the men of Vladimir, and had to cease fighting. That at least was the tale told when they were reproached by the boyars. The truth was, as it seems, that the common men of Rostoff and Suzdal would not fight against those of Vladimir, and whatever struggle there was, was sustained by the personal following of the boyars.[110]Mihalko and Vsevolod, in after years called “Big Nest” because of his many children, were installed June 15, 1176, a great and memorable day for Vladimir. The people praised the Lord and His Holy Mother for their ready assistance. “Oh,” said they, of the Ryazan and Suzdal boyars, “they did not care for God’s truth; they boasted that they would do what they liked with us. Well, God did not let them offend us.” The defeated princes vanished; Mystislav fled to Novgorod, and Yaropolk sought refuge in Ryazan.The new princes gave peace to the whole country promptly, and then, resolved to settle with the faith-breaking Glaib of Ryazan, they marched against him that summer. Their success had thus far been so signal that Glaib was alarmed and sent envoys with this message: “I bow down to you; I am to blame in every way. All that was seized by Mystislav and Yaropolk and given to me, I will gladly return.” He sent back the treasures with the holy image, and the sword of Boris that Andrei had kept in his bed-chamber. Peace was made, and the princes returned to Vladimir.[111]

CHAPTER IVANDREI BOGOLYUBOFF

In 1151 the Kief prince and King Geiza of Hungary attacked Vladimirko near Peremysl, where, though hemmed in by the armies, he managed to escape to the town with a single attendant. He informed the king straightway, that, mortally wounded and dying, he begged him for peace and forgiveness. He sent also, through agents, great presents and bribes to Geiza’s attendants and to the archbishop. “Let me not die without peace or pardon,” implored he. “Great is my sin, but forgive me.”Notwithstanding all protests from Izyaslav, peace and pardon were granted, Vladimirko promising to return the towns seized from Izyaslav, and to be his ally, both in defeat and in triumph. Vladimirko was lying in bed, as if mortally wounded, and seemed to dread his last hour, then approaching.When King Geiza was sending officials with a cross, which the dying man was to kiss, Izyaslav objected with anger. “That man jests with every oath,” said he. “It is vain to send a cross to Vladimirko.” “This is the very wood on which died Christ our Lord,” explained Geiza. “By God’s will it came to Saint Stephen, my ancestor. If Vladimirko kisses this cross, survives, and breaks his oath, I will lay down my life, or capture Galitch and give it to thee. I cannot kill a man on his death-bed.”Izyaslav yielded, but Mystislav, his son, who was present, added these words: “He will break the oath surely, and I repeat here before this holy cross, forget not thy word, O King of Hungary, but come again with thy warriors to Galitch, and do what thou hast promised.”“If Vladimirko breaks his oath,” replied Geiza, “I will ask thy father to help me in Galitch, as he has asked me up to this time.” Vladimirko kissed the cross to do all that he had promised.[89]On his way home Izyaslav sent posadniks to take possession of the towns which were to be returned to him. These men came back quickly with news that not one town had been given to them—one half of the oath was now broken. On learning that Yuri was marching against Izyaslav, Vladimirko at once sent troops to help Yuri, and thus broke the rest of his oath. He returned home only when the Grand Prince was marching against him a second time.Izyaslav sent Borislavitch, his boyar, who had witnessed the oath on the holy cross of Saint Stephen, to demand the towns promised. “Say to Izyaslav,” said the Galitch prince, “that he attacked me unawares and perfidiously, that he brought a foreign king with him, and that I will either lay down my life, or avenge the wrong done me.” “But, thou hast taken an oath to the king and to Izyaslav,” said the boyar. “Wilt thou foreswear the cross?” “Oh, that little cross!” retorted Vladimirko. “Though that cross be small it is mighty,” said the boyar. “Men have told thee that Christ the Lord died on that wood, and that thou wouldst not live if thy promises were broken. Dost remember?” “I remember that ye spoke many words to me then, but leave this place now and go back to thy Izyaslav.”While the boyar was leaving the courtyard, Vladimirko started for vespers, but halted to ridicule him. When, on his way back from the church, the prince reached the spot where he had stood to revile Borislavitch, he call out on a sudden: “Some one has struck me on the shoulder!” He could not move his legs, and would have fallen had men not seized him. He was borne to his chambers and placed at once in a hot bath, but he grew rapidly worse, and died that same night.Borislavitch, who had passed the night at a village by the wayside, was roused hurriedly next morning at daybreak, and bidden to wait till the prince should recall him. Some hours later a second message came, asking him to return. When he reappeared at Vladimirko’s palace, servants clothed in black came out to meet him. In the chief seat was Yaroslav, son of Vladimirko, dressed in black; his boyars also were in black, every man of them. Yaroslav burst into tears as he looked at the envoy, who learned at once how Vladimirko had died in the night, though in perfect health a few hours earlier. “God has shown his will,”[90]said Yaroslav; “thou art called back to hear these words from me. Go thou to Izyaslav, bow down to him and say from me: ‘God has taken my father, be thou in his place. There were questions between thee and him, those questions the Lord will judge as he pleases. God has taken my father and left me here in place of him. His warriors and attendants are all at my order. I salute thee, O father, receive me as thou dost Mystislav, thy son. Let him ride at one of thy stirrups, and I with my forces will ride at the other.’ ”The boyar went home with this message, which seems to have been sent to win time and lull Izyaslav, for no towns were returned, and all things remained as they had been.Hence, in 1153, the Grand Prince again moved against Galitch. The two forces met at Terebovl, but the battle was strangely indecisive as to victory, though its results were more useful to Yaroslav than to the Grand Prince. One part of the Kief force defeated one part of Yaroslav’s army, while the other part of those forces was badly beaten and pursued by the Galitch men. Izyaslav, impetuous as usual, broke the ranks of his opponents and drove them far from the first place of onset, but his brothers and allies were beaten, and hopelessly scattered.Izyaslav, having no forces with which to continue the struggle, returned to Kief and abandoned all plans against Galitch. Some months later he married a Georgian princess, and died shortly after, 1154. Kief and the south mourned greatly for this prince, and most of all mourned Vyatcheslav his uncle. “Thou art where I ought to be, but against God all are powerless,” sobbed the old man, bending over the coffin.If in Kief men were saddened by this death, they rejoiced in Chernigoff immensely. Izyaslav, son of David, who yearned for Kief as a man yearns for her of whom he is desperately enamoured, set out for the city at once, but was stopped at the Dnieper by Vyatcheslav, who sent this inquiry: “Why hast thou come? Who has called thee? Go back to thy Chernigoff.” “I wish to weep over my cousin. I was far from him when he died. Let me weep at his coffin,” implored Izyaslav. By the advice of the boyars, and the son of the dead prince, this request was rejected. They dared not trust the son of David, and were waiting impatiently for Rostislav to take the place of his brother.[91]Prompt action was taken meanwhile to divide the Chernigoff cousins. Vyatcheslav sent for Sviatoslav, son of Vsevolod, who came at once, without knowledge of his uncle’s death. The Smolensk prince appeared at the earliest moment, and all felt relieved when Rostislav sat in the place of his brother, as a son and subordinate of Vyatcheslav, the Grand Prince, though really commanding. “Act,” said the Kief men, “as did thy brother, and Kief will be thine till thy death hour.”The first act of Rostislav was a settlement with Sviatoslav, son of Vsevolod. “I give thee Turoff and Pinsk,” said he to this nephew, “because thou didst come to my father, I give thee good lands for that act of thine.” Sviatoslav took this large gift with gladness. There was need to attach him firmly, since his uncles of Chernigoff were treating already with Yuri, whose son Glaib was now marching on Pereyaslavl with a strong force of Polovtsi. Rostislav sent his son straightway to that city with assistance. The Polovtsi had attacked, but at sight of Kief warriors they withdrew beyond the Sula. Rostislav resolved then to march on Chernigoff, and crossing the Dnieper he was ready to move forward when a courier galloped up with the message: “Vyatcheslav, thy uncle, is dead!”After the prince had been interred with great honor, Rostislav went back to the army and held a council: “Return to the capital,” said the Kief boyars, who wished to be sure of the offices. “Settle there with the people, and begin to rule anew well supported. If Yuri comes, make peace or war, as need dictates.” Rostislav did not take their advice, but moved on Chernigoff, sending this message first to Izyaslav, son of David: “Wilt thou kiss the cross to reign in Chernigoff, while I am in Kief?” “I know not what I have done to make thee march against me. If thou come, we shall have that which God gives,” was the answer.But this far-seeing son of David had sent Polovtsi under Glaib to Pereyaslavl, and was in fact warring at that time with Rostislav. He now joined Glaib with great promptness. Rostislav, finding no zeal in Kief boyars, and thinking himself outnumbered and powerless, lost courage, and discussed terms of peace with the son of David. Such indecision roused Mystislav, son of the recent Grand Prince, who left his uncle with these words: “Soon neither thou nor I will have any place.” Rostislav, deserted by his nephew,[92]and outflanked by the Polovtsi, fought two days, and then fled, saving his life with much difficulty. The Polovtsi turned now toward Kief, which they threatened. “I wish to go to you,” was the message sent by Izyaslav to Kief citizens. The capital was helpless, Izyaslav was the one man to save it. “Come thou to Kief, lest the Polovtsi take us. Thou art our prince, come at once,” was the quick answer.Izyaslav needed no second call. He appeared, took the throne of Kief, and sent Glaib, son of Yuri, to Pereyaslavl. When Yuri heard that Izyaslav, his nephew, was dead, and that Rostislav, his other nephew, was in Kief, he set out with strong forces immediately, and was nearing Smolensk, for which he intended the first blow, when he learned that Vyatcheslav, his brother, was dead; that Rostislav was defeated, that Izyaslav, son of David, was reigning in Kief, and Glaib his own son, was prince in Pereyaslavl.Rostislav, who had reached Smolensk and had collected men, was marching to meet Yuri. Each now wished peace with the other. Yuri was hastening to Kief, which he coveted beyond everything else. Rostislav, who had no desire at that juncture for Kief, was glad to agree with his uncle, and they made peace with apparent sincerity. Yuri continued his march toward Kief, and Rostislav retired to his own capital. Near Storodub, Yuri met his old ally, Sviatoslav, son of Oleg, with whom was Vsevolod’s son, Sviatoslav, who appeared now with a prayer for reinstatement. “In days past I lost my mind altogether. Forgive me.” These were his words to Yuri. The son of Oleg interceded, and Yuri gave pardon, making Sviatoslav kiss the cross not to desert either him, or the son of Oleg. All three set out then for Chernigoff.Before reaching that city the son of Oleg sent the Kief prince this message: “Go out of Kief, brother, Yuri is marching against thee.” Izyaslav was unwilling to leave Kief. A second message came, but he took no note of it. Thereupon Yuri sent these words: “Kief is my inheritance, not thine.” Without right, and without the special favor of the people, Izyaslav could not remain, so he answered: “I am here not of my own will; the Kief people sent for me. Kief is thine, but harm me not.” Yuri made peace with him and entered Kief, 1155, with four sons, whom he seated in regions about there,—Andrei in Vyshgorod, Boris in Turoff; Vassilko in the Ros country, and Glaib remained in Pereyaslavl.[93]Thus the succession of Kief fell at last to the oldest man of the family. The heirs of Mystislav the Great could not stand against the seniority of Yuri their uncle. David’s descendants had dropped out still earlier; those of Oleg had perished. Yuri’s seniority now received perfect recognition; he had broken through every claim and given victory once more to the right of seniority. Once more and for the last time appeared a perfect reëstablishment of the old regime of Kief dominion, but in the person of Yuri it ended forever. In this was the fateful position of the last son of Monomach: Yuri Dolgoruki stood on the very line dividing the old from the new time in Russia. Even in the early days of this unresisted establishment of Yuri in Kief, there was dissatisfaction, for it was quickly manifest how unacquainted he was with the state of things there, and with the minds of the people. Though perhaps not wantonly cruel, according to the standards of that age, he was grasping and selfish, but as his grandfather, Monomach, was the most popular prince in Russian history, and Mystislav the Great, his father, was second only to the renowned Monomach, he, Dolgoruki, was endured as Prince of Kief, because of his family position. He held the office until death came to him, two years later, 1157, just before an effort was to have been made to expel him.Yuri, when he became Grand Prince, wishing to keep Andrei near him, had given this favorite son the fortified town of Vyshgorod, fifteen versts distant from Kief, but Andrei was ambitious, and soon became dissatisfied with his humble and dependent position. Therefore he left Vyshgorod secretly and went to Vladimir, his birthplace, taking with him all his belongings and the miraculous image of the Mother of God painted, according to legend, by Saint Luke, and greatly valued by Russians.This holy image had been brought from Tsargrad to Kief, especially for Yuri, and he had placed it in a cathedral inVyshgorod.When Andrei, with the help of the monks, secured the image, he intended to place it in a church in Rostoff, but after leaving Vladimir, and when ten versts beyond that city, the horses drawing the vehicle containing the holy image stopped suddenly, and could not be made to cross the river. Several times the horses were changed, but with no result. Thereupon Andrei declared to the[94]people present that the previous night the Mother of God had appeared to him in a vision with a charter in her hand, and had told him to put her image in a church in Vladimir.The procession turned back at once, and the image was placed in the Vladimir church. Andrei commanded a church and monastery to be built on the spot where the Virgin had made herself manifest. He called this place Bogolyuboff, which means the love of God, and from it he received his own name later on. Henceforth all deeds of valor and prowess, and successes of every kind were ascribed to the miraculous image.Yuri did not urge Andrei to return to Vyshgorod, nor did he insist upon his restoring the holy painting. Andrei could not have done so, in any case, for all people believed that the Mother of God had selected Vladimir as the home of her image.After Yuri’s death his territory was divided, and Mystislav assumed the title of Grand Prince of Kief, though in reality there ceased to be any Grand Principality of Kief.Born in the north, the city of Vladimir was dear to Andrei. Only through necessity did he go from it to serve in the various wars waged by his father. From youth, Andrei was famous as a warrior, and was the chief and right hand of Yuri. Prompt, energetic and resolute, he loved to be in the front rank of every battle, and on a mighty horse to tear through the heart of the enemy. He was greatly distinguished in war, excelling in management, in the knowledge of details, and in the power of going at once to the very root of a question. No matter what he undertook, he always proved himself a master.In 1169 Andrei, becoming greatly dissatisfied with Mystislav’s management in Kief, formed a coalition of eleven princes, and marched with a large force against him. After three days Kief was taken by assault; during three more days the place was pillaged, the victors, in the frenzy of triumph, forgetting that they were Russians and that Kief was a Russian city. Everything of value, including the contents of churches, was carried away.Through continual civil wars, and the increased power of wandering hordes, a condition of any permanency had become impossible, and the interest which Yuri took in Kief was not shared by Andrei. Yuri had founded Suzdal, but, notwithstanding that fact, he had spent most of his life in an effort to become Grand Prince of Kief.[95]Upon the decline of Kief, Suzdal, in the basin of the Volga, became the chief city, but loving neither Suzdal nor Rostoff, Andrei determined to make Vladimir the capital of Russia. The majesty of buildings had always attracted him, and he now invited from every part of Russia, not only skilled workers in stone and in wood, but clever craftsmen of all kinds. In Bogolyuboff he established many artificers; a whole ward was occupied by masters in silver and gold work, and makers of holy images. He brought in not only Russian artists, but artists from other lands, from Tsargrad and Italy. The chroniclers of those days were astonished at the great number of these persons.Andrei spared neither treasure nor labor in ornamenting Vladimir. Remembering his ancestor, who had adorned Kief with the Golden Gate and the Tithe Church, he determined that his birthplace should equal Kief, the mother of Russian cities, hence he built the Assumption Cathedral, which was esteemed at that time a marvel, and during centuries it served in the North as a model for similar structures. The Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, once the place for crowning the Tsars of Russia, and where the Emperors are now crowned, was built on this model. He erected the Golden, as well as the Silver Gate, called thus because the church dome at one gate was of gold, while at the other it was of silver.The city of Vladimir, adorned with beautiful buildings, and exalted by the presence of the marvelous image, became Andrei’s residence, and, because of the image and the residence, also the capital city. In spite of the opposition of boyars in Rostoff and Suzdal, the Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir became the main sanctuary of the Russian land, and gave primacy to the city. The North was no longer the land of Rostoff and Suzdal, it was mentioned more and more frequently as Vladimir. This Vladimir country included what are known now as the governments of Vladimir, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Ryazan, Tuer, Nizni-Novgorod, Bailozero, in other words what is really Great Russia.From time immemorial, in Russia the only place held in high honor was a place with a sanctuary. The people revered Kief, because the Christian faith had first been accepted there. In Kief there were relics and holy places and there also was the monastery in which the great monks Antonio and Fedosia had lived. Till[96]Andrei’s day, the immense northern land beyond the forest contained nothing sacred. Now two images, one made by Luke the Evangelist, and known as the Vladimir Mother of God, the other that of the Holy Virgin as she made herself manifest to Andrei in a vision, made Vladimir the first sanctuary in Russia.Popular belief assigned the founding of the city to St. Vladimir the Apostle and Grand Prince. He had, in fact, come from Kief with the first metropolitan to baptize the pagan people of that region, but the city was founded only during the days when Vladimir Monomach was the ruler. It occupied, however, the spot on which the Apostolic Vladimir had camped, on his way to baptize the people of Rostoff and Suzdal, hence it was said that the city received its name from Vladimir the Apostle, the Purifier. Political power helped the religious idea, and religion gave strength to the policy.In the mind of Yuri Dolgoruki the plan had been fixed firmly that his northern lands must remain undivided. One reason why he had struggled for Kief so persistently was to satisfy some of his sons in the South, while the North was to remain intact, and be given to his eldest son. Through increase of Vladimir’s descendants, and the separation of property, princes who had little land and no power became numerous. In extreme cases Yuri had divided out towns of Rostoff and Suzdal for the temporary use of those princes. Andrei’s brothers were not treated differently from others.Having fixed himself at Vladimir as the one power, Andrei would not give any brother, or even any son, a bit of land in that region. His brothers and some of his nephews worked with him, but all did what he commanded; they were simply his agents, doing as he directed. And for them, he was the same lord precisely that he was for others. Of course the boyars signified less than the princes, whether the boyars were his own near advisers, or of the “ancient strong, local people,” “proud and powerful high persons,” as men called them. These boyars had been met by his father and conquered. They might have thought of struggling with Yuri Dolgoruki, but not with Andrei. Yuri had battled with one and another of them. When defeated some had fled to neighboring princes, others had been exiled, or imprisoned. But in Andrei’s time it might be said with truth that every question as to the strength of the prince or the boyars was settled.[97]With those who opposed him, Andrei showed still less ceremony than had his father. He spared not his brothers, in the least degree. Those of the “ancient strong people” in Rostoff and in Suzdal who preferred the new order rallied round Andrei, and gave him full support. There were others, and those were in the majority, who warred against him in secret. For the time they threw out merely words like the following: “Rostoff is old, and a great place, and so is Suzdal; Vladimir is only an adjunct.” But these people knew that they were powerless against a prince who had the common men, the land-tillers and craftsmen in full force behind him. Because of this relation of common men to Andrei, and the hostility of most of the boyars and the wielders of weapons who had lost places, there rose reports and explanations quite opposite, the substance of which was expressed by the phrase: “There is a fierce battle in Rostoff and Suzdal.” This was uttered by “proud high people,” and by men thrown out of office. Common men used other phrases: “We love Prince Andrei. We love this grandson of Monomach. This prince never rests from his labor, he keeps his mind and conscience clear. He has love for God and man. He is firm and kind. He is good to the weak and to the ailing.”Andrei’s wars were waged always to benefit Vladimir and the people. He had no thought for petty quarrels among princes, and never took part in them. A prince in his place needed no special army. Towns and cities in that region were numerous, and ever prompt to send warriors in defense of their interests. Whenever an enemy came, all people were ready to rise. Instead of a chosen legion, led by boyars, who, in the old time, surrounded the prince and curbed freedom immensely, Andrei received into his “courtyard” whomever he wished, people of all sorts, and even all origins. They were not called as in the old days drujina (friends), but dvoryani (court men). They lived in his court and around it in complete acquiescence; they were people of his court. Though the former name of drujina was not abandoned immediately, it lost its old meaning, and soon the prince’s assistants were known as dvoryani, a word translated later as noble. This word, used afterward to denote specially the highest people of Moscow, had its origin in the Vladimir of Andrei.The wars carried on by Andrei had a definite policy. If he gave aid to some prince who annoyed him by imploring, this aid was[98]limited to sending a small detachment. But he defended those who asked assistance against enemies more by a threat than by fighting. If he warred, as happened later, he did so in the interest of his own principality. His problem was to manage freely in Kief and in Novgorod for the benefit of Vladimir. When one or another prince asked his permission to reign in Kief, the mother city, that prince had to take an oath not to meddle with Novgorod. Andrei did not care about Kief, but between Novgorod and Vladimir there were endless dissensions, which rose from the fact that Vladimir and Novgorod were neighbors. Novgorod, rich in commerce, was poor in land, and had to get wheat and rye from Vladimir or regions beyond it. “Vladimir and Novgorod stood face to face as opponents.” And besides the question of grain on one side and of trade on the other was that of the boundless North with its treasures. Novgorod claimed that northern region, claimed all of it. Wherever a foot of land presented itself Novgorod wanted that to be the land of a man in its service. This proud understanding of things was expressed by the phrase: “Who can stand against God and Lord Novgorod?” But into those northern places had entered Rostoff and Suzdal, and now they were dealing with Andrei of Vladimir.From times before Rurik, Novgorod men had the wish for dominion, but they could not have this unless they could find a man to keep order, and be at the same time their servant. That was why they had summoned Rurik. The Novgorod men had explored the great North and East, and knew that its size was enormous. They counted as theirs that northeastern region, but there was one corner, White Lake, which Vladimir could claim. Of this corner Novgorod might not say beyond doubt: “It is mine,” still the city laid claim to it. In Yuri’s day, Daniel the Hermit was sent by him to take possession of a point north of White Lake, which place lapped over the Novgorod boundary, and caused endless quarrels. But the real origin of the dispute was the water connection between the Neva and the Volga—the so-called Dvina tribute. This was the source of the continual dissension between Novgorod and Vladimir. Of this tribute and other questions we shall hear later.Andrei made a campaign to Bulgar, a town on the Volga. Possessing already the upper course of that river, he must have[99]command of its lower course, at least to the point where the Kama falls into it. Somewhat lower than the entrance of the Kama, which finds its source in the great Ural Mountains, was the city Bulgar. This time Andrei led the army in person. Under him were Ryazan princes. He took the Vladimir Mother of God to arouse the courage and strength of the army. The confidence which this holy image gave to the warriors passed every description. When the Vladimir men entered the country of “unbelievers” the clergy went in front of them bearing the image, and while preparing for battle, they turned to the “Commanderess” with prayers for her blessing.The Bulgar campaign gave a great victory. Andrei’s forces captured all that they met in that country and seized Bryahimoff, the chief town. Wherever the enemy appeared, they were scattered. Vast booty was seized, and many lands were annexed to Vladimir. The chief encounter took place August 1st, a day famed in the Russian calendar till then as the day of the Maccabees, but thence forward changed to the day of the Merciful Saviour. Andrei, seeing in this victory special favor, conveyed news of it speedily to Manuel, the Greek Emperor. In Tsargrad, on that very day, they were celebrating a victory over Saracens in Asia. On comparing dates it was found that the victory in Asia and that on the Volga coincided. Hence the Orthodox Church in both lands determined that the day should be called ever after the day of the Merciful Saviour.Andrei’s friendship in Tsargrad was great both with Emperor and Patriarch, and he hoped that this friendship might aid him in giving Vladimir the first place in Russia. He had resolved to raise it, not merely above northern cities, but above Kief, the old capital. The problem was difficult, but he must attempt it. In church matters Vladimir was still under Kief, whose metropolitan had power in all Russia. Vladimir had its bishop, but he lived in Rostoff, a rival city. Now that Andrei had built the great golden-domed church, and had subdued Volga regions, he intended to make his Vladimir the capital of Russia in every sense,—not merely independent as to Kief,—but superior, and resolved that the metropolitan of all Russia should reside there.Andrei summoned princes, boyars and people to Vladimir, and said to them: “This city was founded by Saint Vladimir,[100]the Grand Prince who enlightened all Russia by baptism. I, though unworthy and sinful, have by God’s aid exalted the Christian faith and extended it. I have adorned the church of the glorious and holy Mother. I have given lands to it, and one tenth of my income, I wish Vladimir to be the capital, the head of all cities in Russia.” No man said a word to oppose this.Russian princes in regard to some things communicated with the Patriarch in Tsargrad directly; on occasions they sent presents, and at times they sent envoys, but when church affairs were discussed they were forced to act through the Kief metropolitan.Andrei sent a special envoy in this case, whose name, Yakov Stanishavitch, is preserved to us. The prince explained in a letter that Vladimir was at the head of a new, immense country where the Christian faith, unknown till recently, had become firmly fixed and widely extended. Vladimir needed more strength and order in church service; she prayed to receive a metropolitan. Boundless regions were now in light, regions which, till his father’s day and his own, had been in darkness. His recent victories had opened up new and vast countries. Andrei spoke a greater truth than he himself realized. He had in fact opened up a new world in such form and meaning as no man at that time comprehended.The boyars gazed with dread on him. Well might they ask: “How far will his plans go? Does he think to enforce them on all Russia? Will he not take power from us, and every significance? If he makes Vladimir the great mother city, where shall we find a place in it?”In due time came the answer to Andrei’s letter. The Patriarch praised the zeal of the prince in planting truth in new places, approved of his bringing order to lands hitherto without it, but while revering that for which Andrei was toiling so earnestly, his Humility the Patriarch could not grant the prayer of Prince Andrei, because the Kief metropolitan already had jurisdiction in those northern lands. If the prince had won new lands, in regions apart and divided geographically, the question would have been different, but the regions under discussion could not be taken from their present right relations without violating ancient rules and destroying Christian truth as existent. Andrei had asked in the name of religion and truth, concealing his chief, if not his only object. The Patriarch answered in the same way,—the[101]inevitable and ever recurrent method of masking the main point. Andrei was obliged to abandon the project.During his father’s life, Andrei had married the daughter of Kutchka, a boyar who had been put to death by Yuri. In family life Andrei knew little, if any happiness. All his children died earlier than he, except one, the youngest son, Yuri, who married Queen Tamara of Georgia and died in the Trans-Caucasus, prematurely, after painful adventures. Neither from his wife nor her relatives had Andrei witnessed good-feeling. No matter how he strove to draw near the Kutchkas, no matter what he spent in lavish kindness toward them and their friends, they ever cherished for him a hatred which nothing could extinguish. The same might be said of the men near Andrei. He had removed his drujina and the boyars, and chosen new people. He treated those people with such kindness and so liberally that he might hope to see them grateful. “Father,” “Giver of good,” “Bestower of pleasant things,” “Nourisher” were the only words which they might with honesty have said of him. These were the terms used in satire by those men who witnessed but did not receive this attention. It was with the following words that all described Andrei,—all save the circle which opposed him. “The beloved father, the nourisher of orphans, kind and gentle, simple and strong, putting his arms round the poor, loving those who are abandoned, giving them to eat and drink, like his great ancestor Monomach.” He was holy also, though men did not know it. He had commanded that at any time of the day or night, if there were a really needy man or woman, that man or woman should be nourished. He had also built houses where the sick and the unprotected might be received and cared for.From his youth Andrei, with all the kindness ascribed to him by the people, had not many friends, because he was abrupt in manner, and as he grew older this abruptness became more apparent. The expulsion of boyars and men who had been connected with his father caused great discontent, and now his one prop was the people, who, though with him to a man, were not in physical touch with him. He had incensed the princes because he commanded at all points in Russia as he did in his own house. There were reasons enough why princes and boyars desired the death of Andrei. Much was said about[102]defense against such a man. Reports were even current that Glaib of Ryazan and his boyars were plotting against him, and that Rostoff and Suzdal boyars had joined with Glaib. While men might expect action from this point, Andrei fell a victim to what seemed a conspiracy of his servants and relatives. In any case he died at the hands of his servants, brought to the deed, it may be, by keen machinations of princes and boyars. That princes and boyars were the movers, and the others only the instruments, there is, however, no formal proof. The story of the crime is as follows:The whole number of assassins was twenty. Four men were the leaders in the murder,—Takin, whose personality is uncertain; Pyotr, son-in-law of one of the Kutchkas, Anval the key-bearer, at that time a great favorite, and Yevfrem Moiseitch, a converted Jew. A report was spread, on Friday, June 28th, 1174, that Andrei intended to summon and execute one of the Kutchkas. That same day the four men made this decision: “To-night, when Andrei lies down to sleep, we will kill him.” In the darkness between Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th the key-bearer, Anval, stole from Andrei’s chamber the sword of Prince Boris, which had been an heirloom in Vladimir Monomach’s family. On the afternoon of that day, Andrei’s wife had gone on a visit. In the evening Andrei lay down to sleep without anxiety or suspicion. On the floor in the room lay one of the little serving boys called “Bones,”—thus are they termed in the chronicles. The murderers were completely armed. They came to the house, but when at the entrance fear seized them and they ran out again. To get courage they went to find drink. After they had drunk sufficiently, they returned and groped their way in the darkness. Having found the door of the chamber where Andrei was sleeping, one of them tapped at it lightly. “Who is there?” called the prince. The man who had knocked answered: “Prokofi.” The assassins heard the prince say: “That is not the voice of Prokofi.” Hearing this, they burst the door in with one effort. Andrei, suspecting the deed, sprang up and grasped for his sword; the sword was not there. The two men who entered first Andrei put down quickly. There being no light in the chamber, the assassins struck at random and hit their own men till they found Andrei. He, being strong, fought in the darkness a long time. The battle was[103]stubborn, but since twenty men were fighting with one, they at last overpowered him. The victim groaned as he said: “God will take vengeance on you for my bread, which you have eaten.” They hastened to finish. The breath seemed to halt in Andrei as if the soul were going out of him, and he lay on his back in agony. They gave him, as they thought, final blows, and waited in the darkness, till every sound ceased in his body, and they found no trace of breath in him. Then, taking with them a man whom Andrei had killed in the struggle, they started to grope their way out, but they could not go quickly, for in fear and in darkness the right passage was missed. Halting a moment, they discovered it, and going down the stone stairs to the open, again visited the mead cellar. Coming back, they stood a while to recover from the inner air, and from terror of the deed just accomplished.While this was taking place Prince Andrei, who had been left for dead, regained consciousness. He sat up and remembered with difficulty what had happened; then, leaving the room, he began to descend the stone stairway slowly, but as he went he betrayed himself. He might have escaped had he gone down in silence, but he could not suppress groans of anguish. The assassins heard those groans. “He is not killed!” whispered one in alarm. They returned to the chamber hurriedly; Andrei was not there. “Where is he?” asked one of another. “Quick! quick! we must find him!” They struck a light and, through blood which had dropped from the wounds of the prince as he passed down the stairway, they discovered him. Andrei, who saw the men coming, rose and stood behind a stone pillar near the entrance to his palace, and when they saw him, he cried: “O God, receive Thou my spirit!” Those were Andrei’s last words, He struggled no longer in mind, but still he raised his hand and they cut off his arm at the shoulder. Thus died Andrei, son of Yuri Dolgoruki, slain in his own house, by men whom he had treated justly and with kindness.The next work of the murderers was to kill Prokofi, the favorite of the prince, and their opponent. After the death of Prokofi they began to pillage. Before daylight they had emptied the palace, the cellars, the places where holy images were made, and the workshops where cloth of gold and of silver was woven and where precious stones were set. Everything had vanished, gold, silver, silk, satin, rich furs, weapons, and rare objects which Andrei[104]had possessed in abundance. At daybreak Bogolyuboff was as empty “as a hollow, old tree.” The assassins were gone, each stolen thing had been secreted. To remove those things quickly they had taken all the horses, even those used in the personal service of the prince. They now sent men to Vladimir to declare what had taken place. “Have no feeling against us,” said they to the people. “The thing done has happened in spite of us.” “We know not who were with you,” replied the Vladimir men, “but whoever they were, they will answer for this vile murder.”In Vladimir the boyars feared the morrow, and with reason, for common men loved Andrei. And now came the clashing of forces. Men who had land and lived from it through the labor of others had been opposed to Andrei, but those who themselves tilled land had been on his side. These two groups stood face to face now like two armies. What was to be done? Among boyars and the powerful at this time of peril, there was no confidence in their own leaders. If there had been a leader in whom they could have trusted, they would surely have conquered, but that man was lacking. The leader of the people had been Andrei; now he was gone, and both sides were helpless.At first there was utter discouragement in Vladimir, a paralysis of mind for the moment. Meanwhile no one knew where the body of Andrei was; no one knew what the murderers had done with it till Kuzma, a former servant of the dead prince, discovered it. This faithful man, who feared only God and loved no man on earth save Andrei, did not cease his questions: “Where is the prince? Where is his body?” “We threw it into the garden,” replied one of the assassins at last, with great insolence. “But go not near. We threw out the body that the dogs might devour it. If thou go near, men will kill thee.”The old servant said nothing, but sought for the body and found it. “O thou my master and friend!” cried he, weeping. “Didst thou not feel the approach of those murderers, thou who didst terrify thousands so many times?” As he was weeping he turned, and through an opening saw the eyes of the key-bearer, Anval. “O thou enemy, why art thou looking?” called he then. “Give me some garment to cover my lord’s body, O thou heretic!” “Be off!” called out Anval; “dogs will eat up that body.” “Give this body to dogs! Remember, O reprobate, in what[105]clothes thou didst come to Prince Andrei; now thou art in velvet and cloth with gold threads in it, while thy lord is lying dead here, and naked. Even such as thou art, throw out to me something to cover my master.”Anval threw out an upper garment and a piece of carpet. Kuzma covered the body, wrapped it in the carpet and carried it on his shoulders to the church, but no one would open the door to him. “Do not come with him here,” said they. At that moment all near were either on the side of Andrei’s enemies or in dread of them. Kuzma put down the body before the door and cried, stooping over it: “Thou my master, thou, O strong prince, thy lowest servants do not regard thee. Thou, O my master, who didst conquer the Balgars, and gain immense countries, art not admitted to the church which was built by thee. We are here at the door of it, I living and thou dead, and no one will admit us.”The body lay there two days, wrapped in the carpet and guarded continually by Kuzma. In Vladimir the people were waiting in dread of the future. Those were two evil days, opened by murder and robbery in Bogolyuboff, and succeeded by violence from Andrei’s enemies. Every treasure was carried off, all that their hands could lay hold of. If any servant was faithful, he was slain without mercy. In neighboring villages they killed those who held office from Andrei, or were known to be friends of his. They raised riots to excite evil passions and help men to forget themselves. But many of those who committed such deeds were afraid, and with reason, that punishment would strike them from Vladimir.That which failed the Vladimir men, namely courage, and which had to come, if it came, from some other source, came from the clergy, and began in the Golden-domed Church of Vladimir. The chief priest there was Mikulets, that same priest who in Vyshgorod had care of the holy image, and later assisted in bringing it to Vladimir. After consulting with other priests, Mikulets, arrayed in his robes, bore the sacred image of the Mother of God through the city. A procession followed him. The conspirators were dumb and complete quiet reigned in Vladimir. The people recovered their minds at once, and all joined the clergy, who had great power, for the common people were with them. After that men talked on the street and in other places about the need of burying Prince Andrei with honor, of bringing his body from[106]Bogolyuboff and placing it in the Golden-domed Church which he had erected. The moment that this was decided upon, the citizens formed a guard for protection. Seeing this, the conspirators lost all courage.In Bogolyuboff also the clergy now showed the bravery and the decision necessary to meet the blind insolence of those insurgent and riotous boyars, who thought that because they had had the upper hand for a moment they would have it forever. On the third day Arsenie, an abbot, took action. “Is our prince,” said he, “to lie before the church door unconsidered, guarded by Kuzma? Open the door, and I will chant the sacred words over the body. I will place it in the coffin myself, if no man will help me. God will then have mercy and make an end of this disorder. Men will come from Vladimir to bear hence the coffin with reverence.” Andrei’s body was put in a coffin, and placed in front of the altar, and all the people of the city wept and sang in the sacred service.On the sixth day the men of Vladimir asked of the clergy a burial the most imposing and majestic that could be given. It was arranged that the clergy of Bogolyuboff, in complete church array, with crosses and emblems, were to follow behind the coffin, and with them Kuzma, the old servant who had sat two days and nights before the church door, guarding the body of his master. The clergy of Vladimir were to meet them between the two places.When the Vladimir people met the procession, they were shown the highest honor. The Bogolyuboff men, ready to receive them, stood around the coffin, and those who had been appointed to take the coffin received it and moved on toward the city with awe, and with great weeping. The road was thronged with a multitude of persons, filled with reverence. All came forward to make the sign of the cross and look at the coffin as it was borne toward its resting-place. No man could restrain his tears, as he wailed, “O our friend, art thou gone from us, thou who built the Golden-domed Church of the Holy Mother? Art thou gone from us?”Every man held it his duty to make the sign of the cross and repeat a prayer for the soul of Andrei. Day and night continued those prayers, which people thought it a privilege to say over the body of their prince, and the prayers offered by the Vladimir people, and by a multitude of pilgrims from all parts of that northern region in behalf of the victim, continued to increase for a long time.[107]From that day to this the people who wish to pray for Andrei are not decreasing in number. To our time, in the chief church of Vladimir on the right side, as one enters the northern door, stands the coffin of Andrei, and near it on the wall is his portrait. Six miles from Vladimir is a single church, which marks the site of Bogolyuboff. There also stands a part of the stone building in which Andrei lived, some of the walls with their heavy arches, and the stone column behind which the prince stood when his murderers gave him the last blow.A gloomy tradition is preserved among the people, touching the assassins and their punishment. The Kutchkas and Anval were hanged, and fifteen men were decapitated. Andrei’s princess, who it was thought had had knowledge of the plot, was sewed up alive in a canvas bag and put into a basket holding stones sufficient to sink it. That done, a cloth was wrapped around the basket and this cloth sewed together securely. The basket was then thrown into the lake, and it vanished immediately.The following legend has immortalized the history of Andrei’s death. Near Vladimir is a dark, swampy lake. In that weird lake is a spot which the people call “Floating Island.” On that island are seen dark patches, which move hither and thither when the wind blows. Every anniversary of Andrei Bogolyuboff’s murder, noises like groans are said to come forth from the depths of that lake, now known as Foul Water—into this foul water the basket containing Andrei’s false princess was thrown, and into it were hurled also the murderers’ bodies.Of Andrei there remains in the minds of the Russian people a bright and pure memory. From every part of Russia come pilgrims to Vladimir to pray before his coffin. With the blood of a martyr, the prince sprinkled the house in which he lived. In the moments of his bitterest agony he parted from this world with the words, “O God, receive Thou my spirit,” and to that coffin people turn now, saying: “Pray thou for us also, that the Lord may assist us against enemies.”Immediately after the death of Andrei, men of the party opposed to him in Suzdal and Rostoff began to ask: “What are we to do, now that our prince is gone? With whom can we replace him? Ryazan is our neighbor; if Ryazan princes attack, what shall we do without a leader? Shall we not take a Ryazan prince?[108]The wife of their ruling prince is a daughter of Rostislav, son of Yuri Dolgoruki; she is a relative of our late prince. Let us find a prince in Ryazan; that is better.” The boyars sent confidants to Vladimir, who declared to the friends of Andrei: “Ye are not many in number; ye would better not oppose Rostoff and Suzdal; your city is still a dependency. It is wise for you to agree with us. If ye hold to the plans of Andrei, we will meet you with war to the death. The Ryazan princes may also attack you.”Volunteers from Rostoff and Suzdal hovered round, as it were, to support all these statements. In Vladimir the “smallest people,” as they called themselves, and those who were not in the boyar conspiracy, gave answer in this form: “Whose is with you, is not on our side.” The boyars wanted a prince who would not punish those who had caused the murder of Andrei. They wanted a prince who would be an opponent of all that Andrei had established, hence they selected two nephews of Andrei, two orphans, sons of Rostislav, Andrei’s elder brother, who died early.In Ryazan itself, where the conspiracy had originated, there was joy, but words were few: no discussion was needed; all knew exactly what they wanted. In Rostoff and Suzdal the plan existed even before Andrei was assassinated. Glaib of Ryazan, when envoys came to him to ask for a prince in place of Andrei, was greatly delighted. To those envoys he added others, and all went to Chernigoff, where the orphans were living.When the envoys appeared before Sviatoslav, he saw at once the meaning of the embassy and was not pleased with the project of choosing the orphans. He insisted that Mihalko and Vsevolod, brothers of Andrei, who were in Chernigoff, should go to Vladimir in company with Mystislav and Yaropolk (the orphans).On hearing of this, the Rostoff and Suzdal boyars were angry, and sent a message saying that Mihalko and Vsevolod were not to come nearer than Moscow. Mihalko paid no attention to the message, but hastened to Vladimir, where the people received him with gladness, and prepared for a siege by the boyars. Meanwhile Glaib of Ryazan, bringing Rostoff and Suzdal forces, with Mystislav and Yaropolk, attacked the city. A siege of seven weeks brought the people to famine and a surrender on promise that no harm should meet any man. Mihalko and Vsevolod went back to Chernigoff, and the new princes, after hearing the statement[109]of the Vladimir men: “Not against you have we struggled, but against the boyars of Rostoff, who boasted: we will scorch you, and then send a posadnik to rule. Ye are our slaves, O ye masons and carpenters,” took oath to give kindness and peace to the people.But their position was impossible. The boyars, who had insulted Vladimir and forced those two princes upon the country, were the real masters. Their friend, Glaib of Ryazan, did what seemed good to him; his troops sacked villages in every direction and burned them. Rostoff boyars got what they wanted; they and their friends took all the offices of value. The importance of Vladimir was leaving it daily. The cathedral was plundered, the holy images taken, and the chief one, that of the Mother of God, was given to Glaib. He got also the sword of Boris, inherited from Monomach, as well as silver and gems from the churches. He got much for he had helped much, and might help still more in the future. Soon the position became unendurable. The plan of the boyars was evident. They were undoing the work of Andrei, reducing and robbing Vladimir, and enslaving common people. Seeing this clearly, the Vladimir men were enraged to the utmost, and sent at once for Mihalko and Vsevolod. The brothers set out from Chernigoff immediately, but at theOkáMihalko fell ill and was carried on a litter to Moscow, where envoys from Vladimir were waiting.The boyars prepared now for a life and death struggle. Yaropolk was sent with forces toward Moscow to cut off Andrei’s brothers from Vladimir. But they were well on their way, and Yaropolk missed them in the deep forests of that time. On learning this, he sent a swift courier with warning to Mystislav, who hastened at once to cut off Mihalko and Vsevolod. He met them near Vladimir, and rushed at them “as if to devour them,” says the chronicler. But as his chief forces were militia without marks to distinguish them from other men, they became mixed and confused with the men of Vladimir, and had to cease fighting. That at least was the tale told when they were reproached by the boyars. The truth was, as it seems, that the common men of Rostoff and Suzdal would not fight against those of Vladimir, and whatever struggle there was, was sustained by the personal following of the boyars.[110]Mihalko and Vsevolod, in after years called “Big Nest” because of his many children, were installed June 15, 1176, a great and memorable day for Vladimir. The people praised the Lord and His Holy Mother for their ready assistance. “Oh,” said they, of the Ryazan and Suzdal boyars, “they did not care for God’s truth; they boasted that they would do what they liked with us. Well, God did not let them offend us.” The defeated princes vanished; Mystislav fled to Novgorod, and Yaropolk sought refuge in Ryazan.The new princes gave peace to the whole country promptly, and then, resolved to settle with the faith-breaking Glaib of Ryazan, they marched against him that summer. Their success had thus far been so signal that Glaib was alarmed and sent envoys with this message: “I bow down to you; I am to blame in every way. All that was seized by Mystislav and Yaropolk and given to me, I will gladly return.” He sent back the treasures with the holy image, and the sword of Boris that Andrei had kept in his bed-chamber. Peace was made, and the princes returned to Vladimir.[111]

In 1151 the Kief prince and King Geiza of Hungary attacked Vladimirko near Peremysl, where, though hemmed in by the armies, he managed to escape to the town with a single attendant. He informed the king straightway, that, mortally wounded and dying, he begged him for peace and forgiveness. He sent also, through agents, great presents and bribes to Geiza’s attendants and to the archbishop. “Let me not die without peace or pardon,” implored he. “Great is my sin, but forgive me.”

Notwithstanding all protests from Izyaslav, peace and pardon were granted, Vladimirko promising to return the towns seized from Izyaslav, and to be his ally, both in defeat and in triumph. Vladimirko was lying in bed, as if mortally wounded, and seemed to dread his last hour, then approaching.

When King Geiza was sending officials with a cross, which the dying man was to kiss, Izyaslav objected with anger. “That man jests with every oath,” said he. “It is vain to send a cross to Vladimirko.” “This is the very wood on which died Christ our Lord,” explained Geiza. “By God’s will it came to Saint Stephen, my ancestor. If Vladimirko kisses this cross, survives, and breaks his oath, I will lay down my life, or capture Galitch and give it to thee. I cannot kill a man on his death-bed.”

Izyaslav yielded, but Mystislav, his son, who was present, added these words: “He will break the oath surely, and I repeat here before this holy cross, forget not thy word, O King of Hungary, but come again with thy warriors to Galitch, and do what thou hast promised.”

“If Vladimirko breaks his oath,” replied Geiza, “I will ask thy father to help me in Galitch, as he has asked me up to this time.” Vladimirko kissed the cross to do all that he had promised.[89]

On his way home Izyaslav sent posadniks to take possession of the towns which were to be returned to him. These men came back quickly with news that not one town had been given to them—one half of the oath was now broken. On learning that Yuri was marching against Izyaslav, Vladimirko at once sent troops to help Yuri, and thus broke the rest of his oath. He returned home only when the Grand Prince was marching against him a second time.

Izyaslav sent Borislavitch, his boyar, who had witnessed the oath on the holy cross of Saint Stephen, to demand the towns promised. “Say to Izyaslav,” said the Galitch prince, “that he attacked me unawares and perfidiously, that he brought a foreign king with him, and that I will either lay down my life, or avenge the wrong done me.” “But, thou hast taken an oath to the king and to Izyaslav,” said the boyar. “Wilt thou foreswear the cross?” “Oh, that little cross!” retorted Vladimirko. “Though that cross be small it is mighty,” said the boyar. “Men have told thee that Christ the Lord died on that wood, and that thou wouldst not live if thy promises were broken. Dost remember?” “I remember that ye spoke many words to me then, but leave this place now and go back to thy Izyaslav.”

While the boyar was leaving the courtyard, Vladimirko started for vespers, but halted to ridicule him. When, on his way back from the church, the prince reached the spot where he had stood to revile Borislavitch, he call out on a sudden: “Some one has struck me on the shoulder!” He could not move his legs, and would have fallen had men not seized him. He was borne to his chambers and placed at once in a hot bath, but he grew rapidly worse, and died that same night.

Borislavitch, who had passed the night at a village by the wayside, was roused hurriedly next morning at daybreak, and bidden to wait till the prince should recall him. Some hours later a second message came, asking him to return. When he reappeared at Vladimirko’s palace, servants clothed in black came out to meet him. In the chief seat was Yaroslav, son of Vladimirko, dressed in black; his boyars also were in black, every man of them. Yaroslav burst into tears as he looked at the envoy, who learned at once how Vladimirko had died in the night, though in perfect health a few hours earlier. “God has shown his will,”[90]said Yaroslav; “thou art called back to hear these words from me. Go thou to Izyaslav, bow down to him and say from me: ‘God has taken my father, be thou in his place. There were questions between thee and him, those questions the Lord will judge as he pleases. God has taken my father and left me here in place of him. His warriors and attendants are all at my order. I salute thee, O father, receive me as thou dost Mystislav, thy son. Let him ride at one of thy stirrups, and I with my forces will ride at the other.’ ”

The boyar went home with this message, which seems to have been sent to win time and lull Izyaslav, for no towns were returned, and all things remained as they had been.

Hence, in 1153, the Grand Prince again moved against Galitch. The two forces met at Terebovl, but the battle was strangely indecisive as to victory, though its results were more useful to Yaroslav than to the Grand Prince. One part of the Kief force defeated one part of Yaroslav’s army, while the other part of those forces was badly beaten and pursued by the Galitch men. Izyaslav, impetuous as usual, broke the ranks of his opponents and drove them far from the first place of onset, but his brothers and allies were beaten, and hopelessly scattered.

Izyaslav, having no forces with which to continue the struggle, returned to Kief and abandoned all plans against Galitch. Some months later he married a Georgian princess, and died shortly after, 1154. Kief and the south mourned greatly for this prince, and most of all mourned Vyatcheslav his uncle. “Thou art where I ought to be, but against God all are powerless,” sobbed the old man, bending over the coffin.

If in Kief men were saddened by this death, they rejoiced in Chernigoff immensely. Izyaslav, son of David, who yearned for Kief as a man yearns for her of whom he is desperately enamoured, set out for the city at once, but was stopped at the Dnieper by Vyatcheslav, who sent this inquiry: “Why hast thou come? Who has called thee? Go back to thy Chernigoff.” “I wish to weep over my cousin. I was far from him when he died. Let me weep at his coffin,” implored Izyaslav. By the advice of the boyars, and the son of the dead prince, this request was rejected. They dared not trust the son of David, and were waiting impatiently for Rostislav to take the place of his brother.[91]

Prompt action was taken meanwhile to divide the Chernigoff cousins. Vyatcheslav sent for Sviatoslav, son of Vsevolod, who came at once, without knowledge of his uncle’s death. The Smolensk prince appeared at the earliest moment, and all felt relieved when Rostislav sat in the place of his brother, as a son and subordinate of Vyatcheslav, the Grand Prince, though really commanding. “Act,” said the Kief men, “as did thy brother, and Kief will be thine till thy death hour.”

The first act of Rostislav was a settlement with Sviatoslav, son of Vsevolod. “I give thee Turoff and Pinsk,” said he to this nephew, “because thou didst come to my father, I give thee good lands for that act of thine.” Sviatoslav took this large gift with gladness. There was need to attach him firmly, since his uncles of Chernigoff were treating already with Yuri, whose son Glaib was now marching on Pereyaslavl with a strong force of Polovtsi. Rostislav sent his son straightway to that city with assistance. The Polovtsi had attacked, but at sight of Kief warriors they withdrew beyond the Sula. Rostislav resolved then to march on Chernigoff, and crossing the Dnieper he was ready to move forward when a courier galloped up with the message: “Vyatcheslav, thy uncle, is dead!”

After the prince had been interred with great honor, Rostislav went back to the army and held a council: “Return to the capital,” said the Kief boyars, who wished to be sure of the offices. “Settle there with the people, and begin to rule anew well supported. If Yuri comes, make peace or war, as need dictates.” Rostislav did not take their advice, but moved on Chernigoff, sending this message first to Izyaslav, son of David: “Wilt thou kiss the cross to reign in Chernigoff, while I am in Kief?” “I know not what I have done to make thee march against me. If thou come, we shall have that which God gives,” was the answer.

But this far-seeing son of David had sent Polovtsi under Glaib to Pereyaslavl, and was in fact warring at that time with Rostislav. He now joined Glaib with great promptness. Rostislav, finding no zeal in Kief boyars, and thinking himself outnumbered and powerless, lost courage, and discussed terms of peace with the son of David. Such indecision roused Mystislav, son of the recent Grand Prince, who left his uncle with these words: “Soon neither thou nor I will have any place.” Rostislav, deserted by his nephew,[92]and outflanked by the Polovtsi, fought two days, and then fled, saving his life with much difficulty. The Polovtsi turned now toward Kief, which they threatened. “I wish to go to you,” was the message sent by Izyaslav to Kief citizens. The capital was helpless, Izyaslav was the one man to save it. “Come thou to Kief, lest the Polovtsi take us. Thou art our prince, come at once,” was the quick answer.

Izyaslav needed no second call. He appeared, took the throne of Kief, and sent Glaib, son of Yuri, to Pereyaslavl. When Yuri heard that Izyaslav, his nephew, was dead, and that Rostislav, his other nephew, was in Kief, he set out with strong forces immediately, and was nearing Smolensk, for which he intended the first blow, when he learned that Vyatcheslav, his brother, was dead; that Rostislav was defeated, that Izyaslav, son of David, was reigning in Kief, and Glaib his own son, was prince in Pereyaslavl.

Rostislav, who had reached Smolensk and had collected men, was marching to meet Yuri. Each now wished peace with the other. Yuri was hastening to Kief, which he coveted beyond everything else. Rostislav, who had no desire at that juncture for Kief, was glad to agree with his uncle, and they made peace with apparent sincerity. Yuri continued his march toward Kief, and Rostislav retired to his own capital. Near Storodub, Yuri met his old ally, Sviatoslav, son of Oleg, with whom was Vsevolod’s son, Sviatoslav, who appeared now with a prayer for reinstatement. “In days past I lost my mind altogether. Forgive me.” These were his words to Yuri. The son of Oleg interceded, and Yuri gave pardon, making Sviatoslav kiss the cross not to desert either him, or the son of Oleg. All three set out then for Chernigoff.

Before reaching that city the son of Oleg sent the Kief prince this message: “Go out of Kief, brother, Yuri is marching against thee.” Izyaslav was unwilling to leave Kief. A second message came, but he took no note of it. Thereupon Yuri sent these words: “Kief is my inheritance, not thine.” Without right, and without the special favor of the people, Izyaslav could not remain, so he answered: “I am here not of my own will; the Kief people sent for me. Kief is thine, but harm me not.” Yuri made peace with him and entered Kief, 1155, with four sons, whom he seated in regions about there,—Andrei in Vyshgorod, Boris in Turoff; Vassilko in the Ros country, and Glaib remained in Pereyaslavl.[93]

Thus the succession of Kief fell at last to the oldest man of the family. The heirs of Mystislav the Great could not stand against the seniority of Yuri their uncle. David’s descendants had dropped out still earlier; those of Oleg had perished. Yuri’s seniority now received perfect recognition; he had broken through every claim and given victory once more to the right of seniority. Once more and for the last time appeared a perfect reëstablishment of the old regime of Kief dominion, but in the person of Yuri it ended forever. In this was the fateful position of the last son of Monomach: Yuri Dolgoruki stood on the very line dividing the old from the new time in Russia. Even in the early days of this unresisted establishment of Yuri in Kief, there was dissatisfaction, for it was quickly manifest how unacquainted he was with the state of things there, and with the minds of the people. Though perhaps not wantonly cruel, according to the standards of that age, he was grasping and selfish, but as his grandfather, Monomach, was the most popular prince in Russian history, and Mystislav the Great, his father, was second only to the renowned Monomach, he, Dolgoruki, was endured as Prince of Kief, because of his family position. He held the office until death came to him, two years later, 1157, just before an effort was to have been made to expel him.

Yuri, when he became Grand Prince, wishing to keep Andrei near him, had given this favorite son the fortified town of Vyshgorod, fifteen versts distant from Kief, but Andrei was ambitious, and soon became dissatisfied with his humble and dependent position. Therefore he left Vyshgorod secretly and went to Vladimir, his birthplace, taking with him all his belongings and the miraculous image of the Mother of God painted, according to legend, by Saint Luke, and greatly valued by Russians.

This holy image had been brought from Tsargrad to Kief, especially for Yuri, and he had placed it in a cathedral inVyshgorod.

When Andrei, with the help of the monks, secured the image, he intended to place it in a church in Rostoff, but after leaving Vladimir, and when ten versts beyond that city, the horses drawing the vehicle containing the holy image stopped suddenly, and could not be made to cross the river. Several times the horses were changed, but with no result. Thereupon Andrei declared to the[94]people present that the previous night the Mother of God had appeared to him in a vision with a charter in her hand, and had told him to put her image in a church in Vladimir.

The procession turned back at once, and the image was placed in the Vladimir church. Andrei commanded a church and monastery to be built on the spot where the Virgin had made herself manifest. He called this place Bogolyuboff, which means the love of God, and from it he received his own name later on. Henceforth all deeds of valor and prowess, and successes of every kind were ascribed to the miraculous image.

Yuri did not urge Andrei to return to Vyshgorod, nor did he insist upon his restoring the holy painting. Andrei could not have done so, in any case, for all people believed that the Mother of God had selected Vladimir as the home of her image.

After Yuri’s death his territory was divided, and Mystislav assumed the title of Grand Prince of Kief, though in reality there ceased to be any Grand Principality of Kief.

Born in the north, the city of Vladimir was dear to Andrei. Only through necessity did he go from it to serve in the various wars waged by his father. From youth, Andrei was famous as a warrior, and was the chief and right hand of Yuri. Prompt, energetic and resolute, he loved to be in the front rank of every battle, and on a mighty horse to tear through the heart of the enemy. He was greatly distinguished in war, excelling in management, in the knowledge of details, and in the power of going at once to the very root of a question. No matter what he undertook, he always proved himself a master.

In 1169 Andrei, becoming greatly dissatisfied with Mystislav’s management in Kief, formed a coalition of eleven princes, and marched with a large force against him. After three days Kief was taken by assault; during three more days the place was pillaged, the victors, in the frenzy of triumph, forgetting that they were Russians and that Kief was a Russian city. Everything of value, including the contents of churches, was carried away.

Through continual civil wars, and the increased power of wandering hordes, a condition of any permanency had become impossible, and the interest which Yuri took in Kief was not shared by Andrei. Yuri had founded Suzdal, but, notwithstanding that fact, he had spent most of his life in an effort to become Grand Prince of Kief.[95]Upon the decline of Kief, Suzdal, in the basin of the Volga, became the chief city, but loving neither Suzdal nor Rostoff, Andrei determined to make Vladimir the capital of Russia. The majesty of buildings had always attracted him, and he now invited from every part of Russia, not only skilled workers in stone and in wood, but clever craftsmen of all kinds. In Bogolyuboff he established many artificers; a whole ward was occupied by masters in silver and gold work, and makers of holy images. He brought in not only Russian artists, but artists from other lands, from Tsargrad and Italy. The chroniclers of those days were astonished at the great number of these persons.

Andrei spared neither treasure nor labor in ornamenting Vladimir. Remembering his ancestor, who had adorned Kief with the Golden Gate and the Tithe Church, he determined that his birthplace should equal Kief, the mother of Russian cities, hence he built the Assumption Cathedral, which was esteemed at that time a marvel, and during centuries it served in the North as a model for similar structures. The Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, once the place for crowning the Tsars of Russia, and where the Emperors are now crowned, was built on this model. He erected the Golden, as well as the Silver Gate, called thus because the church dome at one gate was of gold, while at the other it was of silver.

The city of Vladimir, adorned with beautiful buildings, and exalted by the presence of the marvelous image, became Andrei’s residence, and, because of the image and the residence, also the capital city. In spite of the opposition of boyars in Rostoff and Suzdal, the Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir became the main sanctuary of the Russian land, and gave primacy to the city. The North was no longer the land of Rostoff and Suzdal, it was mentioned more and more frequently as Vladimir. This Vladimir country included what are known now as the governments of Vladimir, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Ryazan, Tuer, Nizni-Novgorod, Bailozero, in other words what is really Great Russia.

From time immemorial, in Russia the only place held in high honor was a place with a sanctuary. The people revered Kief, because the Christian faith had first been accepted there. In Kief there were relics and holy places and there also was the monastery in which the great monks Antonio and Fedosia had lived. Till[96]Andrei’s day, the immense northern land beyond the forest contained nothing sacred. Now two images, one made by Luke the Evangelist, and known as the Vladimir Mother of God, the other that of the Holy Virgin as she made herself manifest to Andrei in a vision, made Vladimir the first sanctuary in Russia.

Popular belief assigned the founding of the city to St. Vladimir the Apostle and Grand Prince. He had, in fact, come from Kief with the first metropolitan to baptize the pagan people of that region, but the city was founded only during the days when Vladimir Monomach was the ruler. It occupied, however, the spot on which the Apostolic Vladimir had camped, on his way to baptize the people of Rostoff and Suzdal, hence it was said that the city received its name from Vladimir the Apostle, the Purifier. Political power helped the religious idea, and religion gave strength to the policy.

In the mind of Yuri Dolgoruki the plan had been fixed firmly that his northern lands must remain undivided. One reason why he had struggled for Kief so persistently was to satisfy some of his sons in the South, while the North was to remain intact, and be given to his eldest son. Through increase of Vladimir’s descendants, and the separation of property, princes who had little land and no power became numerous. In extreme cases Yuri had divided out towns of Rostoff and Suzdal for the temporary use of those princes. Andrei’s brothers were not treated differently from others.

Having fixed himself at Vladimir as the one power, Andrei would not give any brother, or even any son, a bit of land in that region. His brothers and some of his nephews worked with him, but all did what he commanded; they were simply his agents, doing as he directed. And for them, he was the same lord precisely that he was for others. Of course the boyars signified less than the princes, whether the boyars were his own near advisers, or of the “ancient strong, local people,” “proud and powerful high persons,” as men called them. These boyars had been met by his father and conquered. They might have thought of struggling with Yuri Dolgoruki, but not with Andrei. Yuri had battled with one and another of them. When defeated some had fled to neighboring princes, others had been exiled, or imprisoned. But in Andrei’s time it might be said with truth that every question as to the strength of the prince or the boyars was settled.[97]

With those who opposed him, Andrei showed still less ceremony than had his father. He spared not his brothers, in the least degree. Those of the “ancient strong people” in Rostoff and in Suzdal who preferred the new order rallied round Andrei, and gave him full support. There were others, and those were in the majority, who warred against him in secret. For the time they threw out merely words like the following: “Rostoff is old, and a great place, and so is Suzdal; Vladimir is only an adjunct.” But these people knew that they were powerless against a prince who had the common men, the land-tillers and craftsmen in full force behind him. Because of this relation of common men to Andrei, and the hostility of most of the boyars and the wielders of weapons who had lost places, there rose reports and explanations quite opposite, the substance of which was expressed by the phrase: “There is a fierce battle in Rostoff and Suzdal.” This was uttered by “proud high people,” and by men thrown out of office. Common men used other phrases: “We love Prince Andrei. We love this grandson of Monomach. This prince never rests from his labor, he keeps his mind and conscience clear. He has love for God and man. He is firm and kind. He is good to the weak and to the ailing.”

Andrei’s wars were waged always to benefit Vladimir and the people. He had no thought for petty quarrels among princes, and never took part in them. A prince in his place needed no special army. Towns and cities in that region were numerous, and ever prompt to send warriors in defense of their interests. Whenever an enemy came, all people were ready to rise. Instead of a chosen legion, led by boyars, who, in the old time, surrounded the prince and curbed freedom immensely, Andrei received into his “courtyard” whomever he wished, people of all sorts, and even all origins. They were not called as in the old days drujina (friends), but dvoryani (court men). They lived in his court and around it in complete acquiescence; they were people of his court. Though the former name of drujina was not abandoned immediately, it lost its old meaning, and soon the prince’s assistants were known as dvoryani, a word translated later as noble. This word, used afterward to denote specially the highest people of Moscow, had its origin in the Vladimir of Andrei.

The wars carried on by Andrei had a definite policy. If he gave aid to some prince who annoyed him by imploring, this aid was[98]limited to sending a small detachment. But he defended those who asked assistance against enemies more by a threat than by fighting. If he warred, as happened later, he did so in the interest of his own principality. His problem was to manage freely in Kief and in Novgorod for the benefit of Vladimir. When one or another prince asked his permission to reign in Kief, the mother city, that prince had to take an oath not to meddle with Novgorod. Andrei did not care about Kief, but between Novgorod and Vladimir there were endless dissensions, which rose from the fact that Vladimir and Novgorod were neighbors. Novgorod, rich in commerce, was poor in land, and had to get wheat and rye from Vladimir or regions beyond it. “Vladimir and Novgorod stood face to face as opponents.” And besides the question of grain on one side and of trade on the other was that of the boundless North with its treasures. Novgorod claimed that northern region, claimed all of it. Wherever a foot of land presented itself Novgorod wanted that to be the land of a man in its service. This proud understanding of things was expressed by the phrase: “Who can stand against God and Lord Novgorod?” But into those northern places had entered Rostoff and Suzdal, and now they were dealing with Andrei of Vladimir.

From times before Rurik, Novgorod men had the wish for dominion, but they could not have this unless they could find a man to keep order, and be at the same time their servant. That was why they had summoned Rurik. The Novgorod men had explored the great North and East, and knew that its size was enormous. They counted as theirs that northeastern region, but there was one corner, White Lake, which Vladimir could claim. Of this corner Novgorod might not say beyond doubt: “It is mine,” still the city laid claim to it. In Yuri’s day, Daniel the Hermit was sent by him to take possession of a point north of White Lake, which place lapped over the Novgorod boundary, and caused endless quarrels. But the real origin of the dispute was the water connection between the Neva and the Volga—the so-called Dvina tribute. This was the source of the continual dissension between Novgorod and Vladimir. Of this tribute and other questions we shall hear later.

Andrei made a campaign to Bulgar, a town on the Volga. Possessing already the upper course of that river, he must have[99]command of its lower course, at least to the point where the Kama falls into it. Somewhat lower than the entrance of the Kama, which finds its source in the great Ural Mountains, was the city Bulgar. This time Andrei led the army in person. Under him were Ryazan princes. He took the Vladimir Mother of God to arouse the courage and strength of the army. The confidence which this holy image gave to the warriors passed every description. When the Vladimir men entered the country of “unbelievers” the clergy went in front of them bearing the image, and while preparing for battle, they turned to the “Commanderess” with prayers for her blessing.

The Bulgar campaign gave a great victory. Andrei’s forces captured all that they met in that country and seized Bryahimoff, the chief town. Wherever the enemy appeared, they were scattered. Vast booty was seized, and many lands were annexed to Vladimir. The chief encounter took place August 1st, a day famed in the Russian calendar till then as the day of the Maccabees, but thence forward changed to the day of the Merciful Saviour. Andrei, seeing in this victory special favor, conveyed news of it speedily to Manuel, the Greek Emperor. In Tsargrad, on that very day, they were celebrating a victory over Saracens in Asia. On comparing dates it was found that the victory in Asia and that on the Volga coincided. Hence the Orthodox Church in both lands determined that the day should be called ever after the day of the Merciful Saviour.

Andrei’s friendship in Tsargrad was great both with Emperor and Patriarch, and he hoped that this friendship might aid him in giving Vladimir the first place in Russia. He had resolved to raise it, not merely above northern cities, but above Kief, the old capital. The problem was difficult, but he must attempt it. In church matters Vladimir was still under Kief, whose metropolitan had power in all Russia. Vladimir had its bishop, but he lived in Rostoff, a rival city. Now that Andrei had built the great golden-domed church, and had subdued Volga regions, he intended to make his Vladimir the capital of Russia in every sense,—not merely independent as to Kief,—but superior, and resolved that the metropolitan of all Russia should reside there.

Andrei summoned princes, boyars and people to Vladimir, and said to them: “This city was founded by Saint Vladimir,[100]the Grand Prince who enlightened all Russia by baptism. I, though unworthy and sinful, have by God’s aid exalted the Christian faith and extended it. I have adorned the church of the glorious and holy Mother. I have given lands to it, and one tenth of my income, I wish Vladimir to be the capital, the head of all cities in Russia.” No man said a word to oppose this.

Russian princes in regard to some things communicated with the Patriarch in Tsargrad directly; on occasions they sent presents, and at times they sent envoys, but when church affairs were discussed they were forced to act through the Kief metropolitan.

Andrei sent a special envoy in this case, whose name, Yakov Stanishavitch, is preserved to us. The prince explained in a letter that Vladimir was at the head of a new, immense country where the Christian faith, unknown till recently, had become firmly fixed and widely extended. Vladimir needed more strength and order in church service; she prayed to receive a metropolitan. Boundless regions were now in light, regions which, till his father’s day and his own, had been in darkness. His recent victories had opened up new and vast countries. Andrei spoke a greater truth than he himself realized. He had in fact opened up a new world in such form and meaning as no man at that time comprehended.

The boyars gazed with dread on him. Well might they ask: “How far will his plans go? Does he think to enforce them on all Russia? Will he not take power from us, and every significance? If he makes Vladimir the great mother city, where shall we find a place in it?”

In due time came the answer to Andrei’s letter. The Patriarch praised the zeal of the prince in planting truth in new places, approved of his bringing order to lands hitherto without it, but while revering that for which Andrei was toiling so earnestly, his Humility the Patriarch could not grant the prayer of Prince Andrei, because the Kief metropolitan already had jurisdiction in those northern lands. If the prince had won new lands, in regions apart and divided geographically, the question would have been different, but the regions under discussion could not be taken from their present right relations without violating ancient rules and destroying Christian truth as existent. Andrei had asked in the name of religion and truth, concealing his chief, if not his only object. The Patriarch answered in the same way,—the[101]inevitable and ever recurrent method of masking the main point. Andrei was obliged to abandon the project.

During his father’s life, Andrei had married the daughter of Kutchka, a boyar who had been put to death by Yuri. In family life Andrei knew little, if any happiness. All his children died earlier than he, except one, the youngest son, Yuri, who married Queen Tamara of Georgia and died in the Trans-Caucasus, prematurely, after painful adventures. Neither from his wife nor her relatives had Andrei witnessed good-feeling. No matter how he strove to draw near the Kutchkas, no matter what he spent in lavish kindness toward them and their friends, they ever cherished for him a hatred which nothing could extinguish. The same might be said of the men near Andrei. He had removed his drujina and the boyars, and chosen new people. He treated those people with such kindness and so liberally that he might hope to see them grateful. “Father,” “Giver of good,” “Bestower of pleasant things,” “Nourisher” were the only words which they might with honesty have said of him. These were the terms used in satire by those men who witnessed but did not receive this attention. It was with the following words that all described Andrei,—all save the circle which opposed him. “The beloved father, the nourisher of orphans, kind and gentle, simple and strong, putting his arms round the poor, loving those who are abandoned, giving them to eat and drink, like his great ancestor Monomach.” He was holy also, though men did not know it. He had commanded that at any time of the day or night, if there were a really needy man or woman, that man or woman should be nourished. He had also built houses where the sick and the unprotected might be received and cared for.

From his youth Andrei, with all the kindness ascribed to him by the people, had not many friends, because he was abrupt in manner, and as he grew older this abruptness became more apparent. The expulsion of boyars and men who had been connected with his father caused great discontent, and now his one prop was the people, who, though with him to a man, were not in physical touch with him. He had incensed the princes because he commanded at all points in Russia as he did in his own house. There were reasons enough why princes and boyars desired the death of Andrei. Much was said about[102]defense against such a man. Reports were even current that Glaib of Ryazan and his boyars were plotting against him, and that Rostoff and Suzdal boyars had joined with Glaib. While men might expect action from this point, Andrei fell a victim to what seemed a conspiracy of his servants and relatives. In any case he died at the hands of his servants, brought to the deed, it may be, by keen machinations of princes and boyars. That princes and boyars were the movers, and the others only the instruments, there is, however, no formal proof. The story of the crime is as follows:

The whole number of assassins was twenty. Four men were the leaders in the murder,—Takin, whose personality is uncertain; Pyotr, son-in-law of one of the Kutchkas, Anval the key-bearer, at that time a great favorite, and Yevfrem Moiseitch, a converted Jew. A report was spread, on Friday, June 28th, 1174, that Andrei intended to summon and execute one of the Kutchkas. That same day the four men made this decision: “To-night, when Andrei lies down to sleep, we will kill him.” In the darkness between Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th the key-bearer, Anval, stole from Andrei’s chamber the sword of Prince Boris, which had been an heirloom in Vladimir Monomach’s family. On the afternoon of that day, Andrei’s wife had gone on a visit. In the evening Andrei lay down to sleep without anxiety or suspicion. On the floor in the room lay one of the little serving boys called “Bones,”—thus are they termed in the chronicles. The murderers were completely armed. They came to the house, but when at the entrance fear seized them and they ran out again. To get courage they went to find drink. After they had drunk sufficiently, they returned and groped their way in the darkness. Having found the door of the chamber where Andrei was sleeping, one of them tapped at it lightly. “Who is there?” called the prince. The man who had knocked answered: “Prokofi.” The assassins heard the prince say: “That is not the voice of Prokofi.” Hearing this, they burst the door in with one effort. Andrei, suspecting the deed, sprang up and grasped for his sword; the sword was not there. The two men who entered first Andrei put down quickly. There being no light in the chamber, the assassins struck at random and hit their own men till they found Andrei. He, being strong, fought in the darkness a long time. The battle was[103]stubborn, but since twenty men were fighting with one, they at last overpowered him. The victim groaned as he said: “God will take vengeance on you for my bread, which you have eaten.” They hastened to finish. The breath seemed to halt in Andrei as if the soul were going out of him, and he lay on his back in agony. They gave him, as they thought, final blows, and waited in the darkness, till every sound ceased in his body, and they found no trace of breath in him. Then, taking with them a man whom Andrei had killed in the struggle, they started to grope their way out, but they could not go quickly, for in fear and in darkness the right passage was missed. Halting a moment, they discovered it, and going down the stone stairs to the open, again visited the mead cellar. Coming back, they stood a while to recover from the inner air, and from terror of the deed just accomplished.

While this was taking place Prince Andrei, who had been left for dead, regained consciousness. He sat up and remembered with difficulty what had happened; then, leaving the room, he began to descend the stone stairway slowly, but as he went he betrayed himself. He might have escaped had he gone down in silence, but he could not suppress groans of anguish. The assassins heard those groans. “He is not killed!” whispered one in alarm. They returned to the chamber hurriedly; Andrei was not there. “Where is he?” asked one of another. “Quick! quick! we must find him!” They struck a light and, through blood which had dropped from the wounds of the prince as he passed down the stairway, they discovered him. Andrei, who saw the men coming, rose and stood behind a stone pillar near the entrance to his palace, and when they saw him, he cried: “O God, receive Thou my spirit!” Those were Andrei’s last words, He struggled no longer in mind, but still he raised his hand and they cut off his arm at the shoulder. Thus died Andrei, son of Yuri Dolgoruki, slain in his own house, by men whom he had treated justly and with kindness.

The next work of the murderers was to kill Prokofi, the favorite of the prince, and their opponent. After the death of Prokofi they began to pillage. Before daylight they had emptied the palace, the cellars, the places where holy images were made, and the workshops where cloth of gold and of silver was woven and where precious stones were set. Everything had vanished, gold, silver, silk, satin, rich furs, weapons, and rare objects which Andrei[104]had possessed in abundance. At daybreak Bogolyuboff was as empty “as a hollow, old tree.” The assassins were gone, each stolen thing had been secreted. To remove those things quickly they had taken all the horses, even those used in the personal service of the prince. They now sent men to Vladimir to declare what had taken place. “Have no feeling against us,” said they to the people. “The thing done has happened in spite of us.” “We know not who were with you,” replied the Vladimir men, “but whoever they were, they will answer for this vile murder.”

In Vladimir the boyars feared the morrow, and with reason, for common men loved Andrei. And now came the clashing of forces. Men who had land and lived from it through the labor of others had been opposed to Andrei, but those who themselves tilled land had been on his side. These two groups stood face to face now like two armies. What was to be done? Among boyars and the powerful at this time of peril, there was no confidence in their own leaders. If there had been a leader in whom they could have trusted, they would surely have conquered, but that man was lacking. The leader of the people had been Andrei; now he was gone, and both sides were helpless.

At first there was utter discouragement in Vladimir, a paralysis of mind for the moment. Meanwhile no one knew where the body of Andrei was; no one knew what the murderers had done with it till Kuzma, a former servant of the dead prince, discovered it. This faithful man, who feared only God and loved no man on earth save Andrei, did not cease his questions: “Where is the prince? Where is his body?” “We threw it into the garden,” replied one of the assassins at last, with great insolence. “But go not near. We threw out the body that the dogs might devour it. If thou go near, men will kill thee.”

The old servant said nothing, but sought for the body and found it. “O thou my master and friend!” cried he, weeping. “Didst thou not feel the approach of those murderers, thou who didst terrify thousands so many times?” As he was weeping he turned, and through an opening saw the eyes of the key-bearer, Anval. “O thou enemy, why art thou looking?” called he then. “Give me some garment to cover my lord’s body, O thou heretic!” “Be off!” called out Anval; “dogs will eat up that body.” “Give this body to dogs! Remember, O reprobate, in what[105]clothes thou didst come to Prince Andrei; now thou art in velvet and cloth with gold threads in it, while thy lord is lying dead here, and naked. Even such as thou art, throw out to me something to cover my master.”

Anval threw out an upper garment and a piece of carpet. Kuzma covered the body, wrapped it in the carpet and carried it on his shoulders to the church, but no one would open the door to him. “Do not come with him here,” said they. At that moment all near were either on the side of Andrei’s enemies or in dread of them. Kuzma put down the body before the door and cried, stooping over it: “Thou my master, thou, O strong prince, thy lowest servants do not regard thee. Thou, O my master, who didst conquer the Balgars, and gain immense countries, art not admitted to the church which was built by thee. We are here at the door of it, I living and thou dead, and no one will admit us.”

The body lay there two days, wrapped in the carpet and guarded continually by Kuzma. In Vladimir the people were waiting in dread of the future. Those were two evil days, opened by murder and robbery in Bogolyuboff, and succeeded by violence from Andrei’s enemies. Every treasure was carried off, all that their hands could lay hold of. If any servant was faithful, he was slain without mercy. In neighboring villages they killed those who held office from Andrei, or were known to be friends of his. They raised riots to excite evil passions and help men to forget themselves. But many of those who committed such deeds were afraid, and with reason, that punishment would strike them from Vladimir.

That which failed the Vladimir men, namely courage, and which had to come, if it came, from some other source, came from the clergy, and began in the Golden-domed Church of Vladimir. The chief priest there was Mikulets, that same priest who in Vyshgorod had care of the holy image, and later assisted in bringing it to Vladimir. After consulting with other priests, Mikulets, arrayed in his robes, bore the sacred image of the Mother of God through the city. A procession followed him. The conspirators were dumb and complete quiet reigned in Vladimir. The people recovered their minds at once, and all joined the clergy, who had great power, for the common people were with them. After that men talked on the street and in other places about the need of burying Prince Andrei with honor, of bringing his body from[106]Bogolyuboff and placing it in the Golden-domed Church which he had erected. The moment that this was decided upon, the citizens formed a guard for protection. Seeing this, the conspirators lost all courage.

In Bogolyuboff also the clergy now showed the bravery and the decision necessary to meet the blind insolence of those insurgent and riotous boyars, who thought that because they had had the upper hand for a moment they would have it forever. On the third day Arsenie, an abbot, took action. “Is our prince,” said he, “to lie before the church door unconsidered, guarded by Kuzma? Open the door, and I will chant the sacred words over the body. I will place it in the coffin myself, if no man will help me. God will then have mercy and make an end of this disorder. Men will come from Vladimir to bear hence the coffin with reverence.” Andrei’s body was put in a coffin, and placed in front of the altar, and all the people of the city wept and sang in the sacred service.

On the sixth day the men of Vladimir asked of the clergy a burial the most imposing and majestic that could be given. It was arranged that the clergy of Bogolyuboff, in complete church array, with crosses and emblems, were to follow behind the coffin, and with them Kuzma, the old servant who had sat two days and nights before the church door, guarding the body of his master. The clergy of Vladimir were to meet them between the two places.

When the Vladimir people met the procession, they were shown the highest honor. The Bogolyuboff men, ready to receive them, stood around the coffin, and those who had been appointed to take the coffin received it and moved on toward the city with awe, and with great weeping. The road was thronged with a multitude of persons, filled with reverence. All came forward to make the sign of the cross and look at the coffin as it was borne toward its resting-place. No man could restrain his tears, as he wailed, “O our friend, art thou gone from us, thou who built the Golden-domed Church of the Holy Mother? Art thou gone from us?”

Every man held it his duty to make the sign of the cross and repeat a prayer for the soul of Andrei. Day and night continued those prayers, which people thought it a privilege to say over the body of their prince, and the prayers offered by the Vladimir people, and by a multitude of pilgrims from all parts of that northern region in behalf of the victim, continued to increase for a long time.[107]From that day to this the people who wish to pray for Andrei are not decreasing in number. To our time, in the chief church of Vladimir on the right side, as one enters the northern door, stands the coffin of Andrei, and near it on the wall is his portrait. Six miles from Vladimir is a single church, which marks the site of Bogolyuboff. There also stands a part of the stone building in which Andrei lived, some of the walls with their heavy arches, and the stone column behind which the prince stood when his murderers gave him the last blow.

A gloomy tradition is preserved among the people, touching the assassins and their punishment. The Kutchkas and Anval were hanged, and fifteen men were decapitated. Andrei’s princess, who it was thought had had knowledge of the plot, was sewed up alive in a canvas bag and put into a basket holding stones sufficient to sink it. That done, a cloth was wrapped around the basket and this cloth sewed together securely. The basket was then thrown into the lake, and it vanished immediately.

The following legend has immortalized the history of Andrei’s death. Near Vladimir is a dark, swampy lake. In that weird lake is a spot which the people call “Floating Island.” On that island are seen dark patches, which move hither and thither when the wind blows. Every anniversary of Andrei Bogolyuboff’s murder, noises like groans are said to come forth from the depths of that lake, now known as Foul Water—into this foul water the basket containing Andrei’s false princess was thrown, and into it were hurled also the murderers’ bodies.

Of Andrei there remains in the minds of the Russian people a bright and pure memory. From every part of Russia come pilgrims to Vladimir to pray before his coffin. With the blood of a martyr, the prince sprinkled the house in which he lived. In the moments of his bitterest agony he parted from this world with the words, “O God, receive Thou my spirit,” and to that coffin people turn now, saying: “Pray thou for us also, that the Lord may assist us against enemies.”

Immediately after the death of Andrei, men of the party opposed to him in Suzdal and Rostoff began to ask: “What are we to do, now that our prince is gone? With whom can we replace him? Ryazan is our neighbor; if Ryazan princes attack, what shall we do without a leader? Shall we not take a Ryazan prince?[108]The wife of their ruling prince is a daughter of Rostislav, son of Yuri Dolgoruki; she is a relative of our late prince. Let us find a prince in Ryazan; that is better.” The boyars sent confidants to Vladimir, who declared to the friends of Andrei: “Ye are not many in number; ye would better not oppose Rostoff and Suzdal; your city is still a dependency. It is wise for you to agree with us. If ye hold to the plans of Andrei, we will meet you with war to the death. The Ryazan princes may also attack you.”

Volunteers from Rostoff and Suzdal hovered round, as it were, to support all these statements. In Vladimir the “smallest people,” as they called themselves, and those who were not in the boyar conspiracy, gave answer in this form: “Whose is with you, is not on our side.” The boyars wanted a prince who would not punish those who had caused the murder of Andrei. They wanted a prince who would be an opponent of all that Andrei had established, hence they selected two nephews of Andrei, two orphans, sons of Rostislav, Andrei’s elder brother, who died early.

In Ryazan itself, where the conspiracy had originated, there was joy, but words were few: no discussion was needed; all knew exactly what they wanted. In Rostoff and Suzdal the plan existed even before Andrei was assassinated. Glaib of Ryazan, when envoys came to him to ask for a prince in place of Andrei, was greatly delighted. To those envoys he added others, and all went to Chernigoff, where the orphans were living.

When the envoys appeared before Sviatoslav, he saw at once the meaning of the embassy and was not pleased with the project of choosing the orphans. He insisted that Mihalko and Vsevolod, brothers of Andrei, who were in Chernigoff, should go to Vladimir in company with Mystislav and Yaropolk (the orphans).

On hearing of this, the Rostoff and Suzdal boyars were angry, and sent a message saying that Mihalko and Vsevolod were not to come nearer than Moscow. Mihalko paid no attention to the message, but hastened to Vladimir, where the people received him with gladness, and prepared for a siege by the boyars. Meanwhile Glaib of Ryazan, bringing Rostoff and Suzdal forces, with Mystislav and Yaropolk, attacked the city. A siege of seven weeks brought the people to famine and a surrender on promise that no harm should meet any man. Mihalko and Vsevolod went back to Chernigoff, and the new princes, after hearing the statement[109]of the Vladimir men: “Not against you have we struggled, but against the boyars of Rostoff, who boasted: we will scorch you, and then send a posadnik to rule. Ye are our slaves, O ye masons and carpenters,” took oath to give kindness and peace to the people.

But their position was impossible. The boyars, who had insulted Vladimir and forced those two princes upon the country, were the real masters. Their friend, Glaib of Ryazan, did what seemed good to him; his troops sacked villages in every direction and burned them. Rostoff boyars got what they wanted; they and their friends took all the offices of value. The importance of Vladimir was leaving it daily. The cathedral was plundered, the holy images taken, and the chief one, that of the Mother of God, was given to Glaib. He got also the sword of Boris, inherited from Monomach, as well as silver and gems from the churches. He got much for he had helped much, and might help still more in the future. Soon the position became unendurable. The plan of the boyars was evident. They were undoing the work of Andrei, reducing and robbing Vladimir, and enslaving common people. Seeing this clearly, the Vladimir men were enraged to the utmost, and sent at once for Mihalko and Vsevolod. The brothers set out from Chernigoff immediately, but at theOkáMihalko fell ill and was carried on a litter to Moscow, where envoys from Vladimir were waiting.

The boyars prepared now for a life and death struggle. Yaropolk was sent with forces toward Moscow to cut off Andrei’s brothers from Vladimir. But they were well on their way, and Yaropolk missed them in the deep forests of that time. On learning this, he sent a swift courier with warning to Mystislav, who hastened at once to cut off Mihalko and Vsevolod. He met them near Vladimir, and rushed at them “as if to devour them,” says the chronicler. But as his chief forces were militia without marks to distinguish them from other men, they became mixed and confused with the men of Vladimir, and had to cease fighting. That at least was the tale told when they were reproached by the boyars. The truth was, as it seems, that the common men of Rostoff and Suzdal would not fight against those of Vladimir, and whatever struggle there was, was sustained by the personal following of the boyars.[110]

Mihalko and Vsevolod, in after years called “Big Nest” because of his many children, were installed June 15, 1176, a great and memorable day for Vladimir. The people praised the Lord and His Holy Mother for their ready assistance. “Oh,” said they, of the Ryazan and Suzdal boyars, “they did not care for God’s truth; they boasted that they would do what they liked with us. Well, God did not let them offend us.” The defeated princes vanished; Mystislav fled to Novgorod, and Yaropolk sought refuge in Ryazan.

The new princes gave peace to the whole country promptly, and then, resolved to settle with the faith-breaking Glaib of Ryazan, they marched against him that summer. Their success had thus far been so signal that Glaib was alarmed and sent envoys with this message: “I bow down to you; I am to blame in every way. All that was seized by Mystislav and Yaropolk and given to me, I will gladly return.” He sent back the treasures with the holy image, and the sword of Boris that Andrei had kept in his bed-chamber. Peace was made, and the princes returned to Vladimir.[111]

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