Veliki Kniaz / Grand Dukes of Kiev
The history of Russia melts into tradition prior to the year 862, at which time Rurik, prince of the Russians, was Duke of Kiev. What a frozen wilderness and chaos of savage turmoil it was in those days, can be imagined, though record thereof there is little or none. The Dukes of Kiev were masters of the nucleus of what is now Russia in Europe, from 862 to 1157, the most notable of them being Vladimir, called the Apostle and Solomon of Russia, and its first Christian sovereign, who reigned in the tenth century. Two centuries later the Dukes of Kiev metamorphosed into Grand-Dukes of Vladimir; in 1328 the title became Grand-Duke of Moscow; in 1633 Ivan, the first czar, called Czar of Muscovy, began to rule; and Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg, and raised the monarchy to an empire, in 1721.
Rurik's purported descendants organized Kievan Rus' as their shared possession. Princely succession devolved from elder to younger brother and from uncle to nephew, as well as from father to son. Junior members of the dynasty usually began their princely careers by ruling a minor district, then sought to obtain a more lucrative principality, and finally competed for the coveted golden throne of Kiev.
The early Kievan princes are semi-legendary, semi-historical figures. Popular tradition and the Church have collaborated in surrounding them with the romantic aura of national heroes. The first Scandinavian rulers of Kiev, Askold and Dir, were murdered by one of their countrymen, Oleg, who came to Kiev from Novgorod in 879. The story of Oleg's life bears unmistakable resemblance to those of the heroes of the Nordic sagas. In 912 Oleg was succeeded by Igor, who was killed in 945 while attempting to exact particularly heavy tribute from one of the Slavic tribes. Igor's son, Sviatoslav, became his father's successor, with Olga, Igor's widow, acting as regent. In 957 Olga visited Constantinople, where she was received by the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. It was during her stay in Constantinople that, according to the Russian Chronicle, Olga embraced eastern Christianity.
The grand prince controlled the lands around Kiev, while his theoretically subordinate relatives ruled in other cities and sent him tribute. The zenith of Kievan Rus' came during the reigns of Prince Vladimir (978-1015) and Prince Iaroslav the Wise (1019-54). Both rulers continued the steady expansion of Kievan Rus', begun under Prince Oleg.
Vladimir I (978-1015), one of the most picturesque figures of this period of Russia's history, repudiated heathenism, became converted to Christianity, and established Greek Orthodoxy as the official Church of Russia. The Bulgarians, a Mohammedan nation, inhabiting the banks of the Volga, in the present government of Kazan, were celebrated for their commercial spirit. The powerful nation of the Khazars, which occupied the country' between the Caspian and Black Seas bordering on Vladimir's empire, contained many Jews; even the kings bod for some time followed the Jewish religion. All these religious professions tried to convert Vladimir to their respective creeds. It is said that the polygamy permitted by the Khoran and the sensual paradise promised to its disciples had greatly pleased him, but that he would not consent to give up wine. The religion of the Jews, who were exiles from their own country, could not produce a favourable impression upon a warlike prince. The Greek church, which already numbered many converts in Russia, had a great advantage over that of Rome, whose missionaries were strangers in that country. To enhance his power, Vladimir married the sister of the Byzantine emperor. Vladimir and his grandmother Olga were both canonized, although such information as can be gathered about their lives does not disclose any striking devotion on their part to the Christian virtues of humility, charity, chastity, and abstinence.
Iaroslav (1019-54) arranged marriages for his sister and three daughters to the kings of Poland, France, Hungary, and Norway. Vladimir's greatest achievement was the Christianization of Kievan Rus', starting in 988, and he built the first great edifice of Kievan Rus', the Tithe Church in Kiev. Iaroslav promulgated the first East Slavic law code, Ruska Pravda (Rus' Justice); built the St. Sofia cathedrals in Kiev and Novgorod; patronized native clergy and monasticism; and is said to have founded a school system. Kiev's great Monastery of the Caves, which functioned in Kievan Rus' as an ecclesiastical academy, was developed under Iaroslav's sons.
The division of the empire made by Yaroslav the Great at his death in 1054, produced incessant wars among his successors, who continued to subdivide their heritages among their children. By the same arrangement of Yaroslav the sovereignty over all the other princes belonged to the grand-dukes of Kiev, who succeeeded to that dignity, not according to the law of primogeniture, but according to that of seniority, or as being the oldest of all the princes of Russia. This arrangement, customary at that time with all the Slavonian nations, lod unavoidably to quarrels among all those who either had any right to or possessed the means of claiming the throne of Kiev.
Vladimir Monomachos (also Monomachus), one of tho most remarkable persons of the middle ages, was born in 1052. He was tho son of Vsevolod, the grandson of Vladimir the Great. He took an active fart in the domestic quarrels among the Russian princes, and received from his father, who became grand duke of Kiev in 1078, the principality of Chernigoff, which was tho lawful heritage of his cousin Oleg, having on a former occasion obtained, in an equally illegal manner, that of Smolensk, which was given him by the father of the same Oleg whom he now spoiled. Vsevolod died in 1093, but Vladimir, who was the real sovereign during the reign of his father, did not venture to break the law of seniority, and he called to the throne of Kiev his cousin Sviatopolk, prince of Turov, the eldest of the family. In 1112 he became, on the death of Sviatopolk, grandduke of Kiev, being already sixty years old. He reigned thirteen years till 1126, and he proved himself during this time a really great prince. Internal peace was maintained by his authority, and foreign enemies were repelled with uninterrupted success. New towns were built, old ones improved, and the country enjoyed general peace and prosperity. He died at Kiev May 19, 1126.
Monomachos is a person who fights his own battles (a person who does not seek outside help to fight a war). It is a nick name for a VERY COURAGEOUS person. Monos means Alone; It definitely does not mean "ONE". Machos (from machi (i = eta)) means battle [the translation "One Battle" or "One Fight" is wrong]. Vladimir was surnamed Monomachos by his mother, a daughter of the Emperor Constantino IX Monomachos. His first wife was Gyda, daughter of Harold, the last Saxon king of England, who had found, after the death of her father, a refuge at the court of Swen II, king of Denmark. Marriages between the Russian princes and those of Western Europe, particularly of Scandinavia, were very common during that period. Thus Vladimir's aunts were married to Henri I of France, and to Harold Hardrade, king of Norway, who perished in 1000, at the battle of Stamford Bridge.
The crown used at the coronation of the monarchs of Russia is called the golden cap of Monomachos, and is supposed to have been presented to Vladimir, with the sceptre and some other regalia used on the same occasion, by the Greek Emperor Alexius Comnenos, as having belonged to his grandfather Constantino Monomachos. These objects are undoubtedly of Byzantine workmanship, but the history of their origin is considered by many as a modern invention made during the 15th century, when Ivan III of Moscow, having married the Greek princess Sophia Palaeologos, assumed the pretensions of a successor to the emperors of the East.
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