Igor(Church Slavonic:Игорь;[1][a]Old Norse:Ingvarr;[2]c. 877– 945)[3][4][5]wasPrince of Kievfrom 912 to 945.[6]Traditionally, he is considered to be the son ofRurik,who established himself atNovgorodand died in 879 while Igor was an infant.[7]According to thePrimary Chronicle,Rurik was succeeded byOleg,who ruled as regent and was described by the chronicler as being "of his kin".[8]
| Igor | |
|---|---|
 Igor in theRadziwiłł Chronicle,15th century | |
| Prince of Kiev | |
| Reign | 912–945 |
| Predecessor | Oleg |
| Successor | Sviatoslav I |
| Prince of Novgorod | |
| Reign | 879–945 |
| Predecessor | Rurik |
| Successor | Sviatoslav I |
| Regent | Oleg(879–912) |
| Born | c. 877 |
| Died | 945 Iskorosten |
| Spouse | Olga |
| Issue | Sviatoslav I |
| Dynasty | Rurik |
| Father | Rurik |
Life
editInformation about Igor comes mostly from thePrimary Chronicle,which states that Igor was the son ofRurik:
6378–6387 (870–879). On his deathbed,Rurikbequeathed his realm to Oleg, who belonged to his kin, and entrusted to Oleg's hands his son Igor', for he was very young.
6388–6390 (880–882). Oleg set forth, taking with him many warriors from among the Varangians, theChuds,the Slavs, theMeriansand all theKrivichians.He thus arrived with his Krivichians beforeSmolensk,captured the city, and set up a garrison there. Thence he went on and capturedLyubech,where he also set up a garrison. He then came to the hills of Kiev, and saw howAskold and Dirreigned there. He hid his warriors in the boats, left some others behind, and went forward himself bearing the child Igor'. He thus came to the foot of the Hungarian hill, and after concealing his troops, he sent messengers to Askold and Dir, representing himself as a stranger on his way to Greece on an errand for Oleg and for Igor', the prince's son, and requesting that they should come forth to greet them as members of their race. Askold and Dir straightway came forth. Then all the soldiery jumped out of the boats, and Oleg said to Askold and Dir, "You are not princes nor even of princely stock, but I am of princely birth." Igor' was then brought forward, and Oleg announced that he was the son of Rurik. They killed Askold and Dir, and after carrying them to the hill, they buried them there, on the hill now known as Hungarian, where the castle of Ol'ma now stands.[9]
Little is known about him between the years 912 and 941 due to a gap in the chronicle record.[7]
Igortwice besiegedConstantinople,in 941 and 944, and althoughGreek firedestroyed part of his fleet, he concludeda favourable treatywith theByzantineEmperorConstantine VII(945), the text of which the chronicle has preserved. In 913 and 944, theRus'plundered theArabsin theCaspian Seaduring theCaspian expeditions of the Rus',but it remains unclear whether Igor had anything to do with these campaigns.
Igor was killed while collectingtributefrom theDrevliansin 945. The Byzantine historian and chroniclerLeo the Deacon(bornc. 950) describeshow Igor met his death:"They had bent down twobirch treesto the prince's feet and tied them to his legs; then they let the trees straighten again, thus tearing the prince's body apart. "[10]Igor's widowOlgaavenged his death by punishing the Drevlians. ThePrimary Chronicleblames his death on his own excessive greed, indicating that he tried to collect tribute for a second time in a month. As a result, Olga changed the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in what may be regarded as the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe.
Historiography
editDrastically revising the chronology of thePrimary Chronicle,Constantin Zuckermanargues that Igor actually reigned for three years, between summer 941 and his death in early 945. Zuckerman argues that the 33-year reign attributed to Igor in theChronicleis the result of its author's faulty interpretation of Byzantine sources.[11]Indeed, none of Igor's activities recorded in theChronicleis dated before 941.
Referring to theIoachim Chronicle,Vasily Tatishchevargues that the Swedish princess Efanda, whose existence has been questioned by many historians, was Igor's mother. According to Tatishchev, the name "Ingor" comes from theFinnish(Izhora) nameInger.[12]Tatishchev also gives Igor's birth dates from various manuscripts: 875 in the Schismatic manuscript, 861 in the Nizhny Novgorod manuscript, 865 in the Orenburg manuscript.
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^Клосс, Борис (15 May 2022).Полное собрание русских летописей. Том 1. Лаврентьевская летопись(in Russian). Litres. p. 42.ISBN978-5-04-107383-1.
- ^Winroth, Anders (1 March 2016).The Age of the Vikings.Princeton University Press. p. 50.ISBN978-0-691-16929-3.
- ^Войтович, Леонтій Вікторович (1992).Генеалогія Рюриковичів і Гедиміновичів.p. 16.ISBN5-7702-0506-7.
- ^Biographical Index of the Middle Ages.Walter de Gruyter. 1 March 2011. p. 571.ISBN978-3-11-091416-0.
- ^Hanak, Walter K. (10 October 2013).The Nature and the Image of Princely Power in Kievan Rus', 980-1054: A Study of Sources.BRILL. p. 20.ISBN978-90-04-26022-1.
- ^Rosser, John Hutchins (2012).Historical Dictionary of Byzantium.Scarecrow Press. p. 245.ISBN978-0-8108-7567-8.
- ^abLanger, Lawrence N. (15 September 2021).Historical Dictionary of Medieval Russia.Rowman & Littlefield. p. 75.ISBN978-1-5381-1942-6.
- ^Franklin, Simon; Shepard, Jonathan (6 June 2014).The Emergence of Russia 750-1200.Routledge. p. 57.ISBN978-1-317-87224-5.
- ^The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text(PDF).Translated by Cross, S. H.; Sherbowitz-Wetzor, O. P. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Crimson Printing Company. 1953. pp. 60–61.Retrieved16 February2014.
- ^ Tarasenko, Leonid (27 February 2008)."Korosten (Iskorosten): A small town with a great history".geocities.com. Archived fromthe originalon 26 October 2009.Retrieved16 February2014.
- ^Zuckerman, Constantin(1995)."On the Date of the Khazars' Conversion to Judaism and the Chronology of the Kings of the Rus Oleg and Igor: A Study of the Anonymous Khazar Letter from the Genizah of Cairo"(PDF).Revue des études byzantines.53(1): 237–270.doi:10.3406/rebyz.1995.1906.ISSN0766-5598.Retrieved5 July2016.[permanent dead link]
- ^Tatishchev. The History of Russia. Part 1, Chapter 4
Sources
edit- Katchanovski, Ivan;Kohut, Zenon E.;Nesebio, Bohdan Y.; Yurkevich, Myroslav (2013).Historical Dictionary of Ukraine.Lanham, Maryland;Toronto;Plymouth:Scarecrow Press. p. 992.ISBN9780810878471.Retrieved26 January2023.