429 



VLADIMIR. 



VLADIMIH, MONOMACHOS. 



430 



nian and Finnish populations spread over the immense tract of laud 

 which they considered aa subject to their rule. This tribute was 

 levied either by the sovereigns themselves, who travelled for that pur- 

 pose about the country, or by their delegates ; and their authority 

 was respected only where they had a sufficient force to maiutain it. 

 Vladimir established a more regular and efficient system of govern- 

 ment. He subjected all the populations which had recovered their 

 independence during the preceding reign, and built many towns in 

 order to maintain them in subjection. He also seems to have con- 

 ceived the idea of cementing hia vast and heterogeneous empire by 

 the powerful bond of a religious centre, and he erected at Kiev tho 

 idol of Perun (thunder), the supreme divinity of the Slavonians, and 

 those of the inferior deities, Khors, Dajbog, Stribog, Semargla, and 

 Mokosh. The first three of these deities were Slavonian, and the last 

 two Finnish, a circumstance which seems to imply the notion of uniting 

 the religious worship of the two different races. To these deities were 

 offered human sacrifices, chosen by lot, and the chronicles relate that 

 two Christian Varingians, father and son, fell victims to that bloody 

 superstition. 



Vladimir got rid of his Scandinavian allies by persuading them to 

 pass into the service of the Greek emperor, and endeavoured to effect 

 an amalgamation between the Varingians and the Slavonians. He 

 gave continual entertainments to his subjects, and the memory of the 

 splendour of his court is still alive in the popular songs of Russia. 



The Chronicles, which extol Vladimir's wisdom and valour, accuse 

 him of great laxity of morals. Besides Rogneda, he had married the 

 widow of his brother Yaropolk, a beautiful Greek nun, who was a 

 captive of their father, and three other wives. He had a great 

 number of concubines who lived in different places ; as, for instance, 

 at Vishgorod 300, at Belgorod the same number, at Berestov 200, and 

 no woman in the country was secure from him. If such were really 

 the case the Chronicles have reason to say that he was fond of women, 

 like Solomon. 



Kiev had already for more than a century frequent intercourse with 

 Constantinople, where Vladimir's grandmother Olga was baptised in 

 955. Her example, though it had not been followed by her son, found 

 many imitators among his subjects, and the trade which was carried 

 on between these two cities had undoubtedly attracted many Greeks 

 to Kiev. It was also natural that missionaries of the Western church 

 should be attracted by the renown of Vladimir from Poland and 

 Germany. The Bulgarians, a Mohammedan nation, inhabiting the 

 banks of the Volga, in the present government of Kazan, and cele- 

 brated for their commercial spirit, had, after a short war, concluded a 

 solemn treaty of peace with Vladimir ; and the powerful nation of 

 the Khasars, which occupied the country between the Caspian and 

 Black Seas northwards to the. Caucasus, and bordering on Vladimir's 

 empire, contained many Jews; even the kings had for some time 

 followed the Jewish religion, although at the time of Vladimir they 

 were Christians. This will explain the circumstance that 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 advan- 

 tage Over that of Rome, whose missionaries were strangers in that 

 country, and Vladimir answered their exhortations by saying "Our 

 ancestors have not known you." When Vladimir consulted his nobles 

 on the same subject, the answer which they gave him was, " If the 

 Greek religion was not good, thy grandmother Olga would not have 

 adopted it." 



Besides this circumstance Vladimir had motives of ambition which 

 prompted him to become a convert to the Eastern church. This was 

 a matrimonial alliance with the imperial house of Constantinople, 

 which was then generally sought by the rulers of the barbarian 

 nations bordering on the empire. In order to insure the success of 

 his object, he began by an attack on the frontiers of the empire, and 

 having besieged the important town of Cherson in the present Crimea, 

 he demanded the hand of the Princess Anna, daughter of the Emperor 

 Romanus the Second, and sister of the then reigning Emperors Con- 

 stantino and Basilius, and of Theophania, empress of Otho the Second 

 of Germany. He promised, if his request was granted, to receive 

 baptism with all his subjects, and to become an ally of the empire, 

 which he threatened with war in case of a refusal. His demand was 

 granted ; he was baptised with his followers at Cherson, and married 

 the Greek princess in 988. He immediately applied himself with 

 great zeal to the establishment of Christianity in his dominions ; all 

 the idols were destroyed by his orders, and the inhabitants were 

 baptised in crowds. He built churches, established schools, and his 

 exertions were greatly facilitated by the circumstance that there was 

 already a Slavonian version of the Scriptures by Cyrillus and Metho- 

 dius, as well as liturgical works in the same language. An ordinance 

 on the ecclesiastical tribunals, taken from the Greek Nomocanon, was 

 published by Vladimir, and he became so strongly penetrated with 

 the spirit of Christian meekness, that he would no longer punish with 

 death even the greatest criminals, and was content to fine them. This 

 ill-judged lenity produced great disorders, and the clergy themselves 



were obliged to remonstrate against it, and to induce Vladimir to 

 restore public order by capital punishments. He is said to have 

 entirely amended his former licentious manners, and his charity to 

 the poor was unbounded. He divided the government of his empire 

 among his eleven sons, whom he had by several wives, and his step- 

 son Sviatopolk, with whom his murdered brother's widow was pregnant 

 when he married her. After his conversion he had some wars with 

 his neighbours, but they did not produce any consequences; and his 

 reign was chiefly spent in promoting the civilisation of his subjects, 

 for which he received ample means from Constantinople, then the 

 only seat of arts and literature in Christian Europe. 



The end of his life was disturbed by the growing spirit of liberty 

 at Novgorod. The citizens of Novgorod refused to pay the annual 

 tribute sent by that city to Kiev. His son Yaroslav, who was estab- 

 lished by him at Novgorod, took the part of the inhabitants, at least 

 he did it apparently, as some suppose. Vladimir assembled an army 

 in order to coerce his refractory subject?, but he died on his march 

 not far from Kiev, in 1014. His wife Anna died in 1011, aa it seems 

 without issue. The Russian church has placed him amongst her 

 saints, and given him a rank equal to that of the apostles. 



VLADIMIR MONO'MACHOS, grand-duke of Kiev, is one of the 

 most remarkable persons of the middle ages, whose life and writings 

 present an interesting picture of the social state of Russia during the 

 llth and 12th centuries. He is extolled by the Chronicles as a most 

 virtuous prince, and considered by them almost a saint. He was 

 undoubtedly a man of superior character and abilities, but by no 

 means free from the faults of his barbarous age. 



Vladimir was born in 1052. He was the son of Vsevolod, the grand- 

 son of Vladimir the Great. The division of the empire made by 

 Vladimir's grandfather Yaroslav the Great in 1054, produced inces- 

 sant 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, led unavoidably to quarrels 

 among all those who either had any right to or possessed the means 

 of claiming the throne of Kiev. This unfortunate state of Russia was 

 rendered still Worse by the appearance of the Polovtzee, or Comanes 

 of the Byzantines, a nomadic nation, who arrived from the deserts of 

 Central Asia, and encamped in the country extending northward from 

 the shores of the Black Sea and that of Azoff, about the middle of the 

 llth century. These nomadic people made continual inroads into 

 the territories of the Russian princes, but were also frequently 

 employed by them as auxiliaries in their internal and foreign wars. 

 Vladimir made his first campaign under his relative Boleslav II., or 

 the Dauntless, king of Poland, whom he joined with an auxiliary force 

 in a war against Bohemia 1 in 1076. He afterwards took an active part 

 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 the 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. This circumstance created a deadly hatred between 

 the two cousins, established an hereditary feud between their descend- 

 ants, and entailed for a long time great disasters on the country. 

 Having taken during these wars the town of Minsk, he did not spare 

 " either man or beast ; " and when his cousin Oleg was marching with 

 the Polovtzee to recover his principality, Vladimir bribed those bar- 

 barians, who carried back the prince whom they came to assist as a 

 captive, and murdered his brother. He also compelled the legitimate 

 prince of Novgorod to cede it to his eon, and to content himself with 

 a small principality. This proves that he was no more scrupulous 

 than his contemporaries in the means of attaining his objects. 



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. Sviatopolk confirmed 

 the possessions usurped by Vladimir during his father's life; but 

 both these princes being defeated by the Polovtzee, Oleg, who since 

 his expulsion had lived in exile, chiefly in Greece, returned to the 

 country, and compelled Vladimir to restore Chernigoff and Smolensk 

 to him and his brother. The differences among the princes were 

 settled by a congress held at Lubech and at Kiev, on which occasions 

 Vladimir displayed, in the prosecution of his interests, great diplomatic 

 talents. He also defeated, with the assistance of other princes, the 

 terrible Polovtzee on several occasions, by which he secured for some 

 time the country from their devastations, and justly acquired great 

 popularity. In 1112 he became, on the death of Sviatopolk, grand- 

 duke of Kiev, being already sixty years old. He reigned thirteen 

 years till 1125, 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. 



His character, his views, and his principles are displayed by his tes- 

 tament, or his last instructions to his children, which also gives an 



