Alexander Nevsky was born on May 30 (June 6), 1220. The second son of the Pereyaslavl prince (later the Grand Duke of Kiev and Vladimir) Yaroslav Vsevolodovich from his second marriage to Rostislava-Feodosia Mstislavovna, daughter of the Prince of Novgorod and Galicia Mstislav Udatny. Born in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky in May 1220.
In 1225, Yaroslav “conducted princely tonsure on his sons” - a rite of initiation into warriors, which was performed by Bishop of Suzdal Saint Simon in the Transfiguration Cathedral of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky.
In 1228, Alexander, together with his elder brother Fyodor, were left by their father in Novgorod under the supervision of Fyodor Danilovich and tiun Yakim, together with the Pereyaslavl army, who were preparing to march on Riga in the summer, but during the famine that came in the winter of this year, Fyodor Danilovich and tiun Yakim, did not Having waited for Yaroslav's answer to the request of the Novgorodians to abolish the religious order, in February 1229 they fled from the city with the young princes, fearing reprisals from the rebel Novgorodians. In 1230, when the Novgorodians called Prince Yaroslav, he spent two weeks in Novgorod and installed Fyodor and Alexander to reign in the Novgorod land, but three years later, at the age of thirteen, Fyodor died. In 1234, Alexander's first campaign (under his father's banner) against the Livonian Germans took place.
In 1236, Yaroslav left Pereyaslavl-Zalessky to reign in Kyiv (from there in 1238 - to Vladimir). From this time on, Alexander’s independent activity began. Back in 1236-1237, the neighbors of the Novgorod land were at enmity with each other (200 Pskov soldiers took part in the unsuccessful campaign of the Order of the Swordsmen against Lithuania, which ended with the Battle of Saul and the entry of the remnants of the Order of the Swordsmen into the Teutonic Order). But after the devastation of North-Eastern Rus' by the Mongols in the winter of 1237/1238 (the Mongols took Torzhok after a two-week siege and did not reach Novgorod), the western neighbors of the Novgorod land almost simultaneously launched offensive operations.
Nickname of Alexander Nevsky
The official version says that Alexander received his nickname - Nevsky - after the battle with the Swedes on the Neva River. It is believed that it was for this victory that the prince began to be called that, but for the first time this nickname appears in sources only from the 14th century. Since it is known that some of the prince’s descendants also bore the nickname Nevsky, it is possible that in this way possessions in this area were assigned to them. In particular, Alexander’s family had their own house near Novgorod, with the residents of which he had strained relations.
Reflecting aggression from the West
In 1239, Yaroslav repelled the Lithuanians from Smolensk, and Alexander married Alexandra, daughter of Bryachislav of Polotsk, and built a series of fortifications on the southwestern border of Novgorod land along the Sheloni River.
In 1240, the Germans approached Pskov, and the Swedes moved to Novgorod, according to Russian sources, under the leadership of the ruler of the country himself, the royal son-in-law of Jarl Birger (there is no mention of this battle in Swedish sources; the jarl at that moment was Ulf Fasi, not Birger) . According to Russian sources, Birger sent Alexander a declaration of war, proud and arrogant: “If you can, resist, know that I am already here and will take your land captive.” With a relatively small squad of Novgorodians and Ladoga residents, Alexander, on the night of July 15, 1240, surprised the Swedes of Birger when they stopped at a rest camp at the mouth of Izhora, on the Neva, and inflicted a complete defeat on them - the Battle of the Neva. Fighting himself in the front ranks, Alexander “put a seal on the forehead of the infidel who stole them (Birger) with the tip of a sword.” Victory in this battle demonstrated Alexander's talent and strength.
However, the Novgorodians, always jealous of their liberties, managed to quarrel with Alexander that same year, and he retired to his father, who gave him the principality of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. Meanwhile, the Livonian Germans were approaching Novgorod. The knights besieged Pskov and soon took it, taking advantage of the betrayal among the besieged. Two German Vogts were planted in the city, which became an unprecedented case in the history of the Livonian-Novgorod conflicts. Then the Livonians fought and imposed tribute on the leaders, built a fortress in Koporye, took the city of Tesov, plundered the lands along the Luga River and began to rob Novgorod merchants 30 versts from Novgorod. The Novgorodians turned to Yaroslav for a prince; he gave them his second son, Andrei. This did not satisfy them. They sent a second embassy to ask Alexander. In 1241, Alexander came to Novgorod and cleared his region of enemies, and the next year, together with Andrei, he moved to the aid of Pskov. Having liberated the city, Alexander headed to the Peipus land, to the domain of the order.
On April 5, 1242, the Battle of Lake Peipsi took place. This battle is known as the Battle of the Ice. The exact course of the battle is unknown, but according to the Livonian chronicles, the order knights were surrounded during the battle. According to the Novgorod chronicle, the Russians drove the Germans across the ice for 7 versts. According to the Livonian chronicle, the losses of the order amounted to 20 killed and 6 captured knights, which is consistent with the Novgorod Chronicle, which reports that the Livonian order lost 400-500 “Germans” killed and 50 prisoners - “and the fall of Chudi was beschisla, and the Germans were 400, and 50 with my hands I brought you to Novgorod.” Considering that for every full-fledged knight there were 10-15 warriors of lower rank, we can assume that the data from the Livonian Chronicle and the data from the Novgorod Chronicle well confirm each other.
With a series of victories in 1245, Alexander repelled the attacks of Lithuania, led by Prince Mindaugas. According to the chronicler, the Lithuanians fell into such fear that they began to “observe his name.”
Alexander's six-year victorious defense of northern Rus' led to the fact that the Germans, according to a peace treaty, abandoned all recent conquests and ceded part of Latgale to the Novgorodians. Nevsky's father Yaroslav was summoned to Karakorum and poisoned there on September 30, 1246. Almost simultaneously with this, on September 20, Mikhail Chernigovsky was killed in the Golden Horde, who refused to undergo a pagan rite.
The Great Reign of A. Nevsky
After the death of his father, in 1247, Alexander went to the Horde to see Batu. From there, together with his brother Andrei, who had arrived earlier, he was sent to the Great Khan in Mongolia. It took them two years to complete this journey. In their absence, their brother, Mikhail Khorobrit of Moscow (the fourth son of Grand Duke Yaroslav), took the great reign of Vladimir from his uncle Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich in 1248, but in the same year he died in battle with the Lithuanians in the Battle of the Protva River. Svyatoslav managed to defeat the Lithuanians at Zubtsov. Batu planned to give the reign of Vladimir to Alexander, but according to Yaroslav’s will, Andrei was to become the prince of Vladimir, and Alexander of Novgorod and Kyiv. And the chronicler notes that they had “a direct message about the great reign.” As a result, the rulers of the Mongol Empire, despite the death of Guyuk during the campaign against Batu in 1248, implemented the second option. Modern historians differ in their assessment of which of the brothers held formal seniority. After the Tatar devastation, Kyiv lost its dominant significance; therefore, Alexander did not go to him, but settled in Novgorod (According to V.N. Tatishchev, the prince was still going to leave for Kyiv, but the Novgorodians “kept him for the sake of the Tatars,” but the reliability of this information is in question).
There is information about two messages from Pope Innocent IV to Alexander Nevsky. In the first, the pope invites Alexander to follow the example of his father, who agreed (the pope referred to Plano Carpini, in whose works this news is absent) to submit to the Roman throne before his death, and also proposes coordination of actions with the Teutons in the event of an attack by the Tatars on Rus'. In the second message, the pope mentions Alexander’s agreement to be baptized into the Catholic faith and build a Catholic church in Pskov, and also asks to receive his ambassador, the Archbishop of Prussia. In 1251, two cardinals came to Alexander Nevsky in Novgorod with a bull. Almost simultaneously in Vladimir, Andrei Yaroslavich and Ustinya Danilovna were married by Metropolitan Kirill, an associate of Daniil of Galitsky, to whom the pope offered the royal crown back in 1246-1247. In the same year, the Lithuanian prince Mindovg converted to the Catholic faith, thereby securing his lands from the Teutons. According to the chronicler's story, Nevsky, after consulting with wise people, outlined the entire history of Rus' and in conclusion said: “We know everything good, but we do not accept teachings from you.”
In 1251, with the participation of the troops of the Golden Horde, Batu's ally Munke won the victory in the struggle for supreme power in the Mongol Empire, and already in 1252, Tatar hordes led by Nevruy were moved against Andrei. Andrei, in alliance with his brother Yaroslav Tverskoy, opposed the Tatars, but was defeated and fled to Sweden through Novgorod, Yaroslav gained a foothold in Pskov. This was the first attempt to openly oppose the Mongol-Tatars in North-Eastern Rus', and it ended in failure. After Andrei's flight, the great reign of Vladimir passed to Alexander. In the same year, Prince Oleg Ingvarevich the Red, captured in 1237 wounded, was released from Mongol captivity to Ryazan. Alexander's reign in Vladimir was followed by many years of internecine war in Rus' and a new war with its western neighbors.
Already in 1253, soon after the start of Alexander’s great reign, his eldest son Vasily and the Novgorodians were forced to repel the Lithuanians from Toropets, in the same year the Pskovians repulsed the Teutonic invasion, then, together with the Novgorodians and Karelians, invaded the Baltic states and defeated the Teutons on their land, after which peace was concluded on the entire will of Novgorod and Pskov. In 1256, the Swedes came to Narova and began to build a city (probably we are talking about the Narva fortress that was already founded in 1223). The Novgorodians asked for help from Alexander, who led a successful campaign against him with the Suzdal and Novgorod regiments. In 1258, the Lithuanians invaded the Smolensk principality and approached Torzhok.
In 1255, the Novgorodians expelled Alexander's eldest son Vasily and summoned Yaroslav Yaroslavich from Pskov. Nevsky forced them to accept Vasily again, and replaced the displeased mayor Anania, a champion of Novgorod freedom, with the obliging Mikhalka Stepanovich. In 1257, the Mongol census took place in the Vladimir, Murom and Ryazan lands, but was disrupted in Novgorod, which was not devastated during the invasion. The big people, with the mayor Mikhalka, persuaded the Novgorodians to submit to the will of the khan, but the smaller ones did not want to hear about it. Mikhalko was killed. Prince Vasily, sharing the feelings of the younger ones, but not wanting to quarrel with his father, went to Pskov. Alexander Nevsky himself came to Novgorod with Tatar ambassadors, exiled his son to “Niz,” that is, the Suzdal land, seized and punished his advisers (“cut off one’s nose, and plucked out the eyes of another”) and placed his second son, Dmitry, as prince with them. In 1258, Nevsky went to the Horde to “honor” the Khan’s governor Ulavchiy, and in 1259, threatening a Tatar pogrom, he obtained consent from the Novgorodians to a census and tribute (“tamgas and tithes”).
Daniil Galitsky, who accepted the royal crown in 1253 with his own forces (without allies from North-Eastern Rus', without Catholicization of the subject lands and without the forces of the crusaders) was able to inflict a serious defeat on the Horde, which led to a break with Rome and Lithuania. Daniel undertook a campaign against the Kyiv land - the possession of Alexander - and the great Russian historian Karamzin N.M. calls the plan to establish control over Kiev “liberation.” The Lithuanians were repulsed from Lutsk, after which followed the Galician-Horde campaigns against Lithuania and Poland, the break of Mindaugas with Poland, the Order and the alliance with Novgorod. In 1262, Dmitry Alexandrovich with the Novgorod, Tver and allied Lithuanian regiments undertook a campaign in Livonia and took the city of Yuryev, captured in 1224 by the crusaders.
Death of Alexander Nevsky
In 1262, in Vladimir, Suzdal, Rostov, Pereyaslavl, Yaroslavl and other cities, Tatar tribute farmers were killed, and the Sarai Khan Berke demanded military recruitment among the inhabitants of Rus' [source not specified 167 days], since there was a threat to his possessions from the Iranian ruler Hulagu. Alexander Nevsky went to the Horde to try to dissuade the khan from this demand. There Alexander fell ill. Already sick, he left for Rus'.
Having adopted the schema under the name Alexy, he died on November 14 (November 21), 1263 in Gorodets (there are 2 versions - in Gorodets Volzhsky or in Gorodets Meshchersky). Metropolitan Kirill announced to the people in Vladimir about his death with the words: “My dear children, understand that the sun of the Russian land has set,” and everyone cried out with tears: “We are already perishing.” “The preservation of the Russian land,” says the famous historian Sergei Solovyov, “from trouble in the east, famous exploits for faith and land in the west brought Alexander a glorious memory in Rus' and made him the most prominent historical figure in ancient history from Monomakh to Donskoy.” Alexander became the favorite prince of the clergy. In the chronicle tale that has reached us about his exploits it is said that he was “born of God.” Victorious everywhere, he was not defeated by anyone. A knight who came from the west to see Nevsky said that he had passed through many countries and peoples, but nowhere had he seen anything like this “neither in the kings of the king, nor in the princes of the prince.” The Tatar Khan himself allegedly gave the same review about him, and Tatar women frightened children with his name.
Family of Alexander Nevsky
Alexandra, daughter of Bryachislav of Polotsk,
Vasily (before 1245-1271) - Novgorod prince;
Dmitry (1250-1294) - Prince of Novgorod (1260-1263), Prince of Pereyaslavl, Grand Duke of Vladimir in 1276-1281 and 1283-1293;
Andrey (c. 1255-1304) - Prince of Kostroma in (1276-1293), (1296-1304), Grand Duke of Vladimir (1281-1284, 1292-1304), Prince of Novgorod in (1281-1285, 1292-1304), Prince of Gorodets (1264-1304);
Daniel (1261-1303) - first prince of Moscow (1263-1303).
Evdokia, who became the wife of Konstantin Rostislavich Smolensky.
The wife and daughter were buried in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary of the Dormition Princess Monastery in Vladimir
Alexander Nevsky was initially buried in the Nativity Monastery in Vladimir. In 1724, by order of Peter I, the relics of Alexander Nevsky were solemnly transferred to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.
Canonization
Icon of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky.
Canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in the ranks of the faithful under Metropolitan Macarius at the Moscow Council in 1547. Memory (according to the Julian calendar): November 23 and August 30 (transfer of relics from Vladimir-on-Klyazma to St. Petersburg, to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery (from 1797 - Lavra) on August 30, 1724). Days of celebration of St. Alexander Nevsky:
August 30 (September 12 according to the new art.) - the day of transfer of the relics to St. Petersburg (1724) - the main one
Relics of St. Alexander Nevsky
Nevsky was buried in the Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin in Vladimir, and until the mid-16th century the Nativity Monastery was considered the first monastery in Rus', the “great archimandrite.” In 1380, his relics were discovered in Vladimir. According to the lists of the Nikon and Resurrection Chronicles of the 16th century, during the fire in Vladimir on May 23, 1491, “the body of the great Prince Alexander Nevsky burned.” In the same chronicles of the 17th century, the story about the fire is completely rewritten and it is mentioned that the relics were miraculously preserved from the fire.
Exported from Vladimir on August 11, 1723, the holy relics were brought to Shlisselburg on September 20 and remained there until 1724, when on August 30 they were installed in the Alexander Nevsky Church of the Alexander Nevsky Holy Trinity Monastery by order of Peter the Great. During the consecration of the Trinity Cathedral in the monastery in 1790, the relics were placed there, in a silver shrine donated by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. In May 1922, the relics were opened and soon removed. The seized cancer was transferred to the Hermitage, where it remains to this day. The relics of the saint were returned to the Lavra Trinity Cathedral from the storerooms of the Museum of Religion and Atheism, located in the Kazan Cathedral, in 1989.
In 2007, with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', the saint’s relics were transported throughout the cities of Russia and Latvia for a month. On September 20, the holy relics were brought to the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior; on September 27, the reliquary was transported to Kaliningrad (September 27 - 29) and then to Riga (September 29 - October 3), Pskov (October 3 - 5), Novgorod (October 5 - 7 October), Yaroslavl (October 7 - 10), Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg. On October 20, the relics returned to the Lavra.
A piece of the relics of the holy blessed prince Alexander Nevsky is located in the Temple of Alexander Nevsky in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria. Also, part of the relics (little finger) of Alexander Nevsky is located in the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Vladimir. The relics were transferred by decree His Holiness Patriarch Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II in October 1998 on the eve of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the metochion of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Moscow.
Display of Alexander Nevsky in cinema
Nikolai Cherkasov as Alexander Nevsky
- Alexander Nevsky, Nevsky - Nikolai Cherkasov, director - Sergei Eisenstein, 1938.
- Mister Veliky Novgorod, Nevsky - Alexander Franskevich-Laie, director - Alexey Saltykov, 1984.
- Life of Alexander Nevsky, Nevsky - Anatoly Gorgul, director - Georgy Kuznetsov, 1991.
- Alexander. Battle of Neva, Nevsky - Anton Pampushny, director - Igor Kalenov, - Russia, 2008.
HOLY BLESSED PRINCE ALEXANDER NEVSKY (†1263)
Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky born May 30, 1220 in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. His father, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (+ 1246), was the youngest son of Vsevolod III the Big Nest (+ 1212). The mother of Saint Alexander, Theodosia Igorevna, the Ryazan princess, was the third wife of Yaroslav. The eldest son was the holy noble prince Theodore (+ 1233), who reposed in the Lord at the age of 15. Saint Alexander was their second son.
.jpg)
Origin of Alexander Nevsky (family tree)
Alexander's maternal and paternal ancestor was a glorious warrior and wise ruler Vladimir Monomakh . His son Yuri, nicknamed Dolgoruky, became famous not only for his military valor, but also for his cruelty. From 1176 to 1212, the youngest son of Yuri Dolgorukov, Vsevolod, was the Prince of Vladimir. Vsevolod received the nickname Big Nest because he had many sons. After his death, his sons divided the principality into parts and waged fierce strife. One of them was Yaroslav Prince Pereslavl - Zalessky father of Alexander Nevsky.
The first years of the young prince were spent in Pereslavl, where his father reigned. When Alexander was 5 years old, Prince Yaroslav gave his son a “princely tonsure,” after which the experienced governor, boyar Fyodor Danilovich, began training him in military affairs.
Alexander studied the rules of etiquette, writing and reading, and the history of his great ancestors. In Novgorod, under his father, he studied internal and external diplomacy, learned the art of subjugating the boyars and commanding a fickle and menacing crowd. He learned this by being present at the meeting, sometimes at the council, listening to his father’s conversations. But a special place in the training and education of the prince was given to military affairs. Alexander learned to wield a horse, defensive and offensive weapons, to be a tournament knight and to know the formation of foot and horse, the tactics of field battle and siege of a fortress.
Increasingly, the young prince traveled with his father’s squad to distant and nearby cities, to hunt, took part in collecting princely tribute, and most importantly, in military battles. With the upbringing of that time, strong characters developed in the princely environment very early. The political situation of the early Middle Ages implied frequent military actions and violent internal intrigues. This, in turn, was a good “visual aid” for the emerging commander. The example of our ancestors obliged us to be a hero.
At the age of 14 in 1234. Alexander's first campaign took place (under his father's banner) against the Livonian Germans (battle on the Emajõgi River (in present-day Estonia)).
In 1227, Prince Yaroslav, at the request of the Novgorodians, was sent by his brother, Grand Duke Yuri of Vladimir, to reign in Novgorod the Great. He took with him his sons, Saints Theodore and Alexander.
The daughter of Saint Michael of Chernigov (+ 1246; commemorated September 20), Theodulia, became engaged to Saint Theodore, the elder brother of Saint Alexander. But after the death of the groom in 1233, the young princess went to a monastery and became famous in her monastic feat as Venerable Euphrosyne of Suzdal (+ 1250) .
In 1236, Yaroslav left to reign in Kyiv and Alexander, who was already 16 years old, began to rule independently in Novgorod. Novgorodians were proud of their prince. He acted as a defender of orphans and widows, and was an assistant to the hungry. From a young age the prince revered the priesthood and monasticism, i.e. was a prince from God and obedient to God. In the first years of his reign, he had to strengthen Novgorod, since the Tatar Mongols threatened from the east. Alexander built several fortresses on the Sheloni River.
In 1239, Saint Alexander entered into marriage, taking as his wife the daughter of the Polotsk prince Bryachislav.
Some historians say that the princess in Holy Baptism was the namesake of her holy husband and bore the name Alexandra. Father, Yaroslav, blessed them at the wedding of the saint miraculous icon Feodorovskaya Mother of God (in Baptism my father’s name was Theodore). This icon was then constantly with Saint Alexander, as his prayer image, and then, in memory of him, it was taken from the Gorodets Monastery, where he died, by his brother, Vasily Yaroslavich of Kostroma (+ 1276), and transferred to Kostroma.
Historical situation at the beginning of the reign of Alexander Nevsky
Map 1239—1245
The reign of Alexander Nevsky (1236-1263) coincided with one of the most difficult and tragic periods of Russian history: Mongol hordes were coming from the east, knightly hordes of “crusaders” (Swedes and German knights of the Livonian Order) were advancing from the west.The horror of this situation was expressed in the fact that, on the one hand, the threat of invasion of the steppe nomads - the Mongols - loomed over the Russian lands, which certainly led to enslavement, in best case scenario, and to destruction at worst. On the other hand, on the Baltic side, the best option promised the Russian people a renunciation of the Christian faith and kneeling before the banners of Western Catholicism.
In addition, the 12th - 13th centuries were a period of feudal fragmentation. Rus' was weakened by the internecine wars that overwhelmed it. Each principality tried to exist in its own way. Brother went at brother. Everything was used: murder, entering into family ties with authoritative foreign families, incest, intrigue, flirting and simultaneous cruelty with the townspeople. The historical conditions of the period in which the princes were placed pushed them to take certain actions.
The noble prince Alexander Nevsky became the central figure of the new, reborn from the ruins of the petty princely appanages of Rus', and it was to him that eyes were turned as to the defender and unifier of the lands in the face of the Golden Horde threat.
Battle of the Neva (1240)
The victory he won on the banks of the Neva, near Lake Ladoga on July 15, 1240 over the Swedes, who, according to legend, were commanded by the future ruler of Sweden, Earl Birger, brought universal glory to the young prince.
Alexander personally took part in the battle. It is believed that it was for this victory that the prince began to be calledNevsky . Historians called the battle itself.
Taking advantage of Batu's invasion, the destruction of Russian cities, the confusion and grief of the people, the death of their best sons and leaders, hordes of crusaders invaded the borders of the Fatherland.
Saint Alexander, who was not yet 20 years old at the time, prayed for a long time in the Church of Hagia Sophia, the Wisdom of God. Coming out of the temple, Saint Alexander strengthened his squad with words filled with faith: “God is not in power, but in righteousness. Some with weapons, others on horses, but we will call on the Name of the Lord our God! They wavered and fell, but we rose up and were strong.”
With a small retinue, trusting in the Holy Trinity, the prince hurried towards the enemies - there was no time to wait for help from his father, who did not yet know about the enemy attack. Novgorod was left to its own devices. Rus', defeated by the Tatars, could not provide him with any support.
Alexander had only his small squad and a detachment of Novgorod warriors. The lack of forces had to be compensated for by a surprise attack on the Swedish camp.
The Swedes, tired of the sea crossing, took a rest. Ordinary warriors rested on ships. The servants set up tents on the shore for the commanders and knights.On the morning of July 15, 1240, he attacked the Swedes. The Swedes who were on the ships could not come to the aid of those who were on shore. The enemy found himself divided into two parts. The squad, led by Alexander himself, dealt the main blow to the Swedes. A fierce battle ensued.
The small Russian army completely defeated the significantly superior enemy forces. Neither numerical superiority, nor military skill, nor magic spells Swedish bishops were unable to save the enemy from complete defeat. Alexander struck the leader of the invasion, Jarl Birger, in the face with his spear.
The victory in the eyes of his contemporaries placed him on a pedestal of great glory. The impression of the victory was all the stronger because it happened during a difficult time of adversity in the rest of Rus'. In the eyes of the people on Alexander and Novgorod land, the special grace of God was manifested.
Nevertheless, the Novgorodians, always jealous of their liberties, managed to quarrel with Alexander that same year, and he retired to his father, who gave him Pereslavl-Zalessky.
Novgorod especially stood out from the Russian cities of that time and occupied one of the dominant positions. It was independent from Kievan Rus.
.png)
Map of the Russian principalities at the beginning of the 13th century.
Back in 1136, it was established in the Novgorod land republican government. According to the form of government, it was a feudal democratic republic with elements of oligarchy. The upper class were the boyars, who owned land and capital and lent money to merchants. The institution of public administration was the Veche, which summoned and approved Novgorod princes from nearby principalities (as a rule, from the Vladimir-Suzdal principality).The figure of the prince in Novgorod was not so authoritative; he had to swear allegiance Novgorod Republic. The functions of the prince were civil court and defense, during the war he was also the chief military commander. Residents of the city had the right to accept or not accept the prince. The opinion of townspeople influenced certain political decisions. Naturally, the assessment of the significance of these decisions for the state was not always adequate. Their view came from the problems of current, everyday life, as if from their “everyday bell tower”. There was also the danger of a riot. Conflicts between boyars and ordinary people were frequent. Particular aggravation of contradictions was observed in economically unstable and politically alarming moments. The reason could be a bad harvest or the danger of military intervention from foreigners. Alexander Nevsky's father, Yaroslav, spent his entire life either quarreling with the Novgorodians or getting along with them again. Several times the Novgorodians drove him out for his tough temper and violence, and several times they invited him again, as if they were unable to do without him. To please the Novgorodians meant to raise their authority among the entire Russian people.
Ice battle on Lake Peipsi (1242)
.jpg)
Battle on the Ice
In 1240, while Alexander was fighting the Swedes, German crusaders began the conquest of the Pskov region, and in the following 1241 the Germans took Pskov itself. In 1242, encouraged by successes, the Livonian Order, having gathered the German crusaders of the Baltic states, the Danish knights from Revel, enlisting the support of the papal curia and the long-time rivals of the Novgorodians, the Pskovs, invaded the Novgorod lands.
The Novgorodians first turned to Yaroslav, and then asked Alexander to protect them. Since danger threatened not only Novgorod, but the entire Russian land, Alexander, forgetting for a while about past grievances, immediately set out to clear the Novgorod lands of the German invaders.
In 1241, Alexander came to Novgorod and cleared his region of enemies, and the next year, together with his brother Andrei, he moved to the aid of Pskov, where the German governors were sitting.
Alexander liberated Pskov and from here, without wasting time, moved to the border of the Livonian Order, which ran along Lake Peipsi.
Both sides began to prepare for the decisive battle. It happened on the ice Lake Peipsi, at the Raven Stone April 5, 1242 and went down in history as Battle on the Ice . The German knights were defeated. The Livonian Order was faced with the need to conclude a peace, according to which the crusaders renounced their claims to Russian lands, and also transferred part of Latgale.
They say that it was then that Alexander uttered words that became prophetic on Russian soil:“Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword!”
After the Swedes and Germans, Alexander turned his arms on the Lithuanians and with a series of victories (in 1242 and 1245) showed them that they could not raid Russian lands with impunity. According to the chroniclers, Alexander Nevsky instilled such fear in the Livonians that they began to “fear his name.” So, in 1256, the Swedes again tried to take the Finnish coastline from Novgorod and, together with the subject Emya, began to build a fortress on the river. Narov; but at one rumor about the approach of Alexander with the Suzdal and Novgorod regiments, they left. To frighten the Swedes, Alexander made a campaign into the Swedish possessions, into the country of Emi (present-day Finland), subjecting it to devastation.
Around this time, in 1251. Pope Innocent IV sent an embassy to Alexander Nevsky with an offer to accept Catholicism, supposedly in exchange for his help in the joint fight against the Mongols. This proposal was rejected by Alexander in the most categorical form.
The struggle with the Livonians and the Swedes was, in essence, a struggle between the Orthodox East and the Catholic West. In the conditions of terrible trials that befell the Russian lands, Alexander Nevsky managed to find the strength to resist the Western conquerors, gaining fame as a great Russian commander.
The successful military actions of Alexander Nevsky ensured the security of the western borders of Rus' for a long time, but in the east the Russian princes had to bow their heads before a much stronger enemy - the Mongol-Tatars.
Relations with the Golden Horde
Map of the Golden Horde in the 13th century.
Golden Horde
— medieval state in Eurasia, formed as a result of the division of Genghis Khan's empire between his sons. Founded in 1243 by Batu Khan. Geographically, the Golden Horde occupied most of the forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia, the flat part of the Caspian and Turan lowlands, Crimea, as well as the Eastern European steppes to the Danube. The core of the state was the Kypchak steppe. The Russian lands were not part of the Golden Horde, but fell into vassalage - the population paid tribute and obeyed the orders of the khans. The capital of the Golden Horde was the city of Sarai, or Saray-Batu, founded near present-day Astrakhan.
From 1224 to 1266, the Golden Horde was part of the Mongol Empire.
Khan's headquarters
Numerous raids of the Mongol-Tatars on Russian lands in 1227-1241. did not entail the immediate establishment of foreign domination. The Mongol-Tatar yoke, which lasted until 1480, began only in 1242. (since the Russian princes began to pay tribute).
In 1266, under Khan Mengu-Timur, it gained complete independence, retaining only formal dependence on the imperial center. In the 13th century, the state religion was paganism and for part of the population Orthodoxy. Since 1312 the dominant and the only religion became Islam.
By the middle of the 15th century, the Golden Horde split into several independent khanates; its central part, which nominally continued to be considered supreme - the Great Horde, ceased to exist at the beginning of the 16th century.
In 1243 Khan Batu (grandson of Genghis Khan), the ruler of the western part of the Mongolian state - the Golden Horde, presented the label of the Grand Duke of Vladimir for the management of the conquered Russian lands to Alexander's father - Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. The Great Khan of the Mongols Guyuk summoned the Grand Duke to his capital Karakorum, where Yaroslav unexpectedly died on September 30, 1246 (according to the generally accepted version, he was poisoned). Then, in 1247, at the request of Batu, his sons, Alexander and Andrei, were summoned to the capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai-Batu. Batu sent them to worship the great Khan Gayuk in Mongolia (Korakorum). While the Yaroslavichs were getting to Mongolia, Khan Guyuk himself died, and the new mistress of Karakorum, Khansha Ogul-Gamish, decided to appoint Andrei Grand Duke of Vladimir (Vladimir at that time was the largest political center of all Russian lands). It should be noted that Andrei did not come to supreme power by seniority, bypassing several contenders to whom the grand-ducal throne rightfully belonged. Alexander received control of southern Rus' (Kyiv) and Novgorod, devastated as a result of the raids. After the Tatar devastation, Kyiv lost all significance; Therefore, Alexander settled in Novgorod.
Alexander Nevsky clearly understood that keeping the northwestern borders of Rus' intact, as well as keeping access to the Baltic Sea open, was possible only if there were peaceful relations with the Golden Horde - Rus' did not have the strength to fight against two powerful enemies at that time. The second half of the famous commander’s life was glorious not with military victories, but with diplomatic ones, no less necessary than military ones.
Given the small number and fragmentation of the Russian population in the eastern lands at that time, it was impossible to even think about liberation from the power of the Tatars. Ruined and mired in poverty and feudal fragmentation, it was almost impossible for the Russian princes to gather any army to provide worthy resistance to the Tatar-Mongols. Under these conditions, Alexander decided to get along with the Tatars at all costs. This was all the easier because the Mongols, who mercilessly exterminated everyone who resisted them, were quite generous and lenient towards the submissive peoples and their religious beliefs.
Not all Russian princes shared the views of Saint Alexander Nevsky. Among them were both supporters of the Horde and supporters of the West, inclined to introduce Catholicism in Rus' and submit to Rome. Supporters of a pro-Western course of development in the fight against the Tatar yoke hoped for help from Europe. Negotiations with the Pope were conducted by Saint Michael of Chernigov, Prince Daniil of Galicia, brother of Saint Alexander, Andrey. But Saint Alexander knew well the fate of Constantinople, which was captured and destroyed in 1204 by the crusaders. And his own experience taught him not to trust the West. Daniil Galitsky paid for an alliance with the pope, which did not give him anything, with betrayal of Orthodoxy - union with Rome. Saint Alexander did not want this for his native Church. Catholicism was unacceptable for the Russian Church; union meant a renunciation of Orthodoxy, a renunciation of the source of spiritual life, a renunciation of the historical future intended by God, and dooming oneself to spiritual death.
5 years later, in 1252, in Karakorum, Ogul-Gamish was overthrown by the new great khan Mongke (Mengke). Taking advantage of this circumstance and deciding to remove Andrei Yaroslavich from the great reign, Batu presented the label of Grand Duke to Alexander Nevsky, who was urgently summoned to the capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai-Batu.
But Alexander’s younger brother, Andrei Yaroslavich, supported by his brother Prince Yaroslav of Tver and Prince Daniil Romanovich of Galicia, refused to submit to Batu’s decision and even stopped paying tribute to the Horde. But the time to repel the Horde had not yet come - there were not sufficient forces for this in the Russian lands.
To punish the disobedient princes, Batu sends Mongol cavalry under the command of Nevryuy. It was a terrible, bloody campaign, which remains in the chronicles as "Nevryuev's army" . Andrei, in alliance with his brother, Yaroslav Tverskoy, fought with the Tatars, but was defeated and fled through Novgorod to Sweden to seek help from those whom, with the help of God, his great brother crushed on the Neva. This was the first attempt to openly oppose the Tatars in northern Rus'. During the invasion of the “Nevryuev Army,” Alexander Nevsky was in the Horde.
After Andrei's flight, the great principality of Vladimir, by the will of the khan, passed to Alexander Nevsky. He accepted this post from the hands of Sartak, the son of Batu, with whom he became friends during his first visit to the Horde. Sartak was a Nestorian Christian. Saint Alexander became the sole Grand Duke of all Rus': Vladimir, Kyiv and Novgorod, and retained this title for 10 years, until his death.
F.A. Moskvitin. Alexander Nevsky and Sartak in the Horde.
In 1256, Alexander's ally Khan Batu died and in the same year Batu's son Sartak was poisoned because of his sympathies for Christianity.
Then Alexander again went to Sarai to confirm the peaceful relations of Rus' and the Horde with the new khan Berke.
The new khan (Berke), for a more accurate taxation of the population, ordered a second census in Rus' (the first census was taken under Yaroslav Vsevolodovich). Alexander was able to negotiate the payment of tribute in exchange for military assistance. The treaty with the Mongols can be called Alexander's first diplomatic victory. L.N. Gumilyov sees the significance of this agreement for the Russian princes in the fact that they retained greater freedom of action, that is, they could solve internal problems at their own discretion. At the same time, “Alexander was interested in the prospect of receiving military assistance from the Mongols to resist pressure from the West and internal opposition.”
But it was the agreement that served as the reason for the riot in Novgorod.Novgorod was not, like other Russian cities, conquered by Tatar weapons, and the Novgorodians did not think that they would have to voluntarily pay a shameful tribute.
During the Mongol invasion of Rus' and the subsequent Mongol and Horde campaigns, Novgorod managed to avoid ruin due to the remote location of the republic. But the southeastern cities of the Novgorod possessions (Torzhok, Volok, Vologda, Bezhetsk) were plundered and devastated.
.jpg)
In 1259, an uprising began in Novgorod, lasting about a year and a half, during which the Novgorodians did not submit to the Mongols. Even Alexander’s son, Prince Vasily, was on the side of the townspeople. The situation was very dangerous. Once again a threat arose to the very existence of Rus'.
Alexander knew that he had to force the Novgorodians to accept the census. At the same time, the prince did not want to bring matters to an armed conflict with the Novgorodians and shed Russian blood. The task facing Alexander as a commander and politician was extremely difficult: the proud Novgorodians vowed to die rather than recognize the power of the “filthy” over themselves. It seemed that nothing could undermine their resolve. However, the prince knew these people well - as brave as they were frivolous and impressionable. Quick to speak, the Novgorodians were, like peasants, not in a hurry to get to work. Moreover, their determination to fight was by no means unanimous. Boyars, merchants, wealthy artisans - although they did not dare to openly call for prudence, in their hearts they were ready to pay off the Tatars.
Realizing that the obstinacy of the Novgorodians could cause the Khan’s anger and a new invasion of Rus', Alexander personally restored order, executing the most active participants in the unrest and obtained consent from the Novgorodians to a census of the population at a universal tribute. Novgorod was broken and obeyed the order to send tribute to the Golden Horde. Few understood then that dire necessity forced Alexander to act in such a way that, had he acted differently, a new terrible Tatar pogrom would have fallen on the unfortunate Russian land.
In his desire to establish peaceful relations with the Horde, Alexander was not a traitor to the interests of Rus'. He acted as common sense told him. An experienced politician of the Suzdal-Novgorod school, he knew how to see the line between the possible and the impossible. Submitting to circumstances, maneuvering among them, he followed the path of the least evil. He was, above all, a good owner and most of all cared about the well-being of his land.
Historian G.V. Vernadsky wrote: “...The two feats of Alexander Nevsky - the feat of warfare in the West and the feat of humility in the East - had a single goal - the preservation of Orthodoxy as a source of moral and political strength of the Russian people.”
Death of Alexander Nevsky
In 1262, unrest broke out in Vladimir, Suzdal, Rostov, Pereyaslavl, Yaroslavl and other cities, where the Khan's Baskaks were killed and Tatar tribute farmers were expelled. The Tatar regiments were already ready to move to Rus'.
To appease the Golden Horde Khan Berke, Alexander Nevsky personally went with gifts to the Horde. He managed to avert disaster and even achieved benefits for the Russians in the delivery of military detachments for the Tatars.
The Khan kept the prince near him all winter and summer; Only in the fall did Alexander get the opportunity to return to Vladimir, but on the wayfell ill and fell ill in Gorodets on the Volga, where he took monastic vows and the schema with the name Alexy. Alexander wanted to accept the great schema - the most full view monastic tonsure. Of course, he tonsured the dying man, and even to the highest monastic degree! - contradicted the very idea of monasticism. However, an exception was made for Alexander. Later, following his example, many Russian princes accepted the schema before their death. It became a kind of custom. Alexander Nevskiy died November 14, 1263 . He was only 43 years old.
G. Semiradsky. Death of Alexander Nevsky
His body was buried in the Vladimir Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin. Numerous healings were noted during the burial.
“The Life of Alexander Nevsky” is notable for the fact that it was written at the end of the 13th century. a contemporary of events, a person who personally knew the prince,and therefore, it is of great importance for understanding how the personality of Alexander Nevsky was assessed in those distant times, and what was the significance of the events in which he was a participant.
Veneration and canonization
The people glorified Alexander Nevsky long before his canonization by the Church. Already in the 1280s, the veneration of Alexander Nevsky as a saint began in Vladimir.
The church-wide glorification of Saint Alexander Nevsky took place under Metropolitan Macarius at the Moscow Council of 1547. Alexander Nevsky was the only Orthodox secular ruler not only in Rus', but throughout Europe, who did not compromise with the Catholic Church in order to maintain power.
The story of the relics of Alexander Nevsky
In 1380, the incorrupt relics of Alexander Nevsky were discovered in Vladimir and placed in a shrine on top of the ground. In 1697, Metropolitan Hilarion of Suzdal placed the relics in a new shrine, decorated with carvings and covered with a precious shroud.
Moskvitin Philip Alexandrovich. Transfer of the relics of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky by Emperor Peter I to St. Petersburg.
In 1724, by order of Peter I, the relics were transferred to St. Petersburg to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where they now rest in the Trinity Church.
I.A. Ivanov. "Alexandro-Nevsky Lavra from the Neva" (1815).
In the middle of the 18th century, on the orders of Peter's daughter, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, a heavy silver shrine was made for the relics. The first silver was awarded to the raku from the Kolyvan factories in Siberia. The shrine was made at the St. Petersburg Mint by outstanding court craftsmen of that time; it became the most striking work of art of that time and was mentioned in many literary works And travel notes foreigners. The cancer was placed in a huge multi-tiered sarcophagus made of pure silver with a total weight of almost one and a half tons - nowhere in the world is there such a grandiose structure made of this precious metal. The decoration of the sarcophagus uses embossing and cast medallions depicting the life and exploits of Alexander Nevsky.
In 1922, during the period of fierce expropriation of church wealth, the relics of the prince, enclosed in a multi-pound silver sarcophagus, were removed from the cathedral and for a long time were in the Museum of Religion and Atheism. And the whole point was precisely in this sarcophagus, in which the Bolsheviks saw a large piece of precious silver - 89 poods 22 pounds 1 with 1/3 spool. In May 1922, this shrine was mercilessly torn down from its pedestal by a group of working comrades. The autopsy was more like a public desecration...
Looting of the tomb of Alexander Nevsky by the Bolsheviks
She, like the priceless iconostasis of the Kazan Cathedral, was destined to be melted down. But the then director of the Hermitage, Alexander Benois, sent a desperate telegram to Moscow with a request to transfer the work of jewelry to the people's museum. The iconostasis of the Kazan Cathedral then, alas, could not be defended, and the shrine was transferred to the Hermitage. For almost 20 years it stood in the silver gallery, haunting many senior government officials. Why - almost one and a half tons of silver are standing in the halls in vain! Letters from both business executives and defenders of the sarcophagus were periodically sent to Moscow. True, Alexander’s ashes had already been removed from it and were moved to the Kazan Cathedral.
In June 1989, the relics of the Grand Duke were returned to the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Today they are available for worship and are kept in a modest copper sarcophagus.
The story with the relics and shrine of the Grand Duke is not over yet. Prominent church leaders have repeatedly appealed to the Russian government to transfer the silver shrine to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in order to place the relics of the holy prince there again.
Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK
for the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Sparrow Hills
Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (born May 13, 1221 - death November 14, 1263) is the second son of Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, great-grandson. Prince of Novgorod (1252), Grand Duke of Vladimir (1252–1263) Russian statesman, commander. Holy Russian Orthodox Church. Genus: Rurikovich.
early years
Alexander spent most of his adolescence and youth in Novgorod, where his father made him reign in 1828 together with his older brother Fedor (d. 1233), giving two Suzdal boyars as leaders of the young princes. 1236 - Yaroslav went to Kyiv, receiving the table there, and Alexander began to independently rule Novgorod.
In 1239, Alexander began building fortresses along the river. Sheloni on the western outskirts of the Novgorod possessions. Soon Alexander would glorify his name in the fight against the Swedes, Germans and Lithuanians, who sought to take possession of Novgorod and Pskov at a time when the rest of Rus' was subjected to a terrible Tatar pogrom.
Key dates
1240 - Battle of the Neva
1242 - on Lake Peipsi - Battle of the Ice
1245 - repulse the Lithuanian attack on Torzhok and Bezhetsk
1247 - Alexander, by the will of Batu, became the Grand Duke of Kyiv
1251 - two cardinals came to Novgorod to Alexander with an offer from the Pope to accept Catholicism, he refused.
1252 - he received the label for the great reign of Vladimir
1256 - The prince led a successful campaign against the Finnish tribe
1262 - Novgorod, Tver and Lithuanian regiments allied to them undertook a campaign in Livonia
Personal life
1239 - Alexander married the daughter of the Polotsk prince Bryachislav, Alexandra. The newlyweds got married in the Church of St. George in Toropets. A year later their son Vasily was born.
Later, the wife gave birth to more children for Alexander: Vasily - Prince of Novgorod; Dmitry - the future prince of Novgorod, Pereyaslav and Vladimir; Andrey will become the prince of Kostroma, Vladimir, Novgorod and Gorodets, Daniil will become the first prince of Moscow. The princely couple also had a daughter, Evdokia, who married Konstantin Rostislavich of Smolensk.
Battle of Neva
1240 - the Swedes, who disputed the possession of Finland with the Novgorodians, prompted by a papal bull to crusade against Novgorod, under the leadership of Birger, entered the Neva and reached the mouth of the Izhora. The news of their invasion was received in Novgorod. The prince with the Novgorodians and Ladoga residents quickly advanced to meet them on the left bank of the Neva, at the confluence of the river. Izhora, on July 16, 1240, was able to completely defeat the Swedes, while Birger himself “put a seal on his face with his sharp spear.” After this battle, decorated with poetic legends (the appearance of St. Boris and Gleb), Alexander received the nickname Nevsky. In the same year, the prince left Novgorod for Pereyaslavl to visit his father, having quarreled with the Novgorod boyars because he wanted to rule as powerfully as his father and grandfather.
Events that preceded the Battle of the Ice
However, circumstances forced the Novgorodians to call on Alexander again. The Order of the Swordsmen, shortly before united with the Teutonic Order, and resumed the offensive movement against Novgorod and Pskov Rus'. In the year of the Battle of the Neva, the Germans began the conquest of the Pskov region, and the next year (1241) Pskov itself was occupied by the Germans. Encouraged by their success, the crusaders began to conquer the Novgorod volost. They imposed tribute on Vod, built a German fortress in the Koporya churchyard, took Tesov, lands along the river. Luga were subject to ruin and, finally, German troops began to rob Novgorod merchants, 30 versts from Novgorod.
Then the Novgorodians sent to Yaroslav Vsevolodovich for the prince and he gave them a son, Andrei. However, Alexander Nevsky was needed, not Andrei. Having thought, the Novgorodians sent the ruler with the boyars to Alexander, who in 1241 was gladly accepted by the Novgorodians and first of all recaptured Koporye.
Battle on the Ice
1242 - having received help from the lower regiments (from the Suzdal land), Alexander managed to liberate Pskov and from here, without wasting time, he headed to the borders of Livonia, and there, on April 5, 1242, he gave the knights a battle on the ice of Lake Peipsi, near the Uzmenya tracts and Crow Stone, known by the name -: the crusaders were completely defeated.
After this defeat, the knights asked for peace and abandoned their conquests in the Russian regions. After the Swedes and Germans, the prince turned his arms on the Lithuanians and achieved a number of victories (in 1242 and 1245)
Clashes with the Swedes
1256 - the Swedes again tried to take away the Finnish coastline from Novgorod and, together with the subject Emya, began to build a fortress on the river. Narov; but upon learning of the approach of Alexander with the Suzdal and Novgorod regiments, they left. To intimidate the Swedes, Alexander Nevsky made a campaign into the Swedish possessions, into the country of Emi (today Finland), subjecting it to devastation. Thus, Alexander victoriously repelled his enemies on the western border, but he had to choose a completely different policy in relation to the Tatars.
Relations with the Golden Horde
After the death of his father (died in 1246), Alexander Nevsky and his brother Andrei went for the first time (in 1247) to the Horde to worship Batu, and from here from the banks of the Volga, along the water of Batu, the Yaroslavichs had the opportunity to make a long journey to Mongolia to the great Khan. It took them two years for this trip. They returned in 1250 with labels for their reign: Andrei, although the younger brother, received, by the will of the khan, the first most important table of Vladimir, while Alexander received Kyiv and Novgorod.
Alexander did not go to Kyiv, which lost all significance after the Tatar devastation, but settled in Novgorod, waiting for events to turn in his favor. Andrei Yaroslavich could not get along with the Tatars, and therefore reigned in Vladimir for a week: in 1252, Tatar hordes under the command of Tsarevich Nevruy were moved against him. Andrew's army was defeated, he fled first to Novgorod, and from there to Sweden.
Principality of Vladimir>
During the Nevryuev invasion, Nevsky was in the Horde and from Batu’s son, Sartak, who ruled the Horde due to his father’s decrepitude, received a label for the great reign of Vladimir. Alexander sat down in Vladimir, and from then on became the same defender of the Russian land from the Tatars, as before from the Swedes and Germans, but began to act in a different way, applying himself to the circumstances, namely: on the one hand, he restrained the senseless uprisings of his subjects against the Tatars, on the other hand the other tried to deliver possible benefits to the Russian lands by submission to the khan.
Alexander gave a lot of gold and silver to the Horde to ransom prisoners. Andrei Yaroslavich soon returned to Rus' and sat down to reign in Suzdal, through Alexander, receiving forgiveness from the khan. The affairs of Novgorod, where his son Vasily reigned, caused Alexander a lot of concern.
"Alexander Nevsky receives papal legates." 1876
Unrest in Novgorod
1255 - the Novgorodians, having expelled Vasily, invited Alexander's brother, Yaroslav, Prince of Tver, to reign. However, Alexander wanted to keep Novgorod for himself, went with his army to Novgorod and forced the Novgorodians to accept the reign of Vasily without a battle. 1257 - unrest in Novgorod resumed due to rumors about the intention of the Tatars to carry out the same census there to impose a universal tribute on the inhabitants, which was carried out by the Tatar enumerators in the lands of Suzdal, Murom and Ryazan.
Prince Vasily himself was on the side of the Novgorodians, who did not want to pay tamgas and tithes. For this, Alexander Nevsky sent Vasily to the Suzdal lands, and severely punished the advisers who pushed the young prince to resist the Tatars. 1258 - Alexander went to the horde to “honor” Ulavchiy, an influential Khan dignitary. Only in 1259 did the mediation of Alexander and rumors about the movement of the Tatar army to Novgorod force the Novgorodians to agree to a census.
Last years. Death
1262 - an uprising broke out against the Tatars in Vladimir, Rostov, Suzdal, Pereyaslavl and Yaroslavl, caused by severe oppression from Tatar tribute farmers. The Tatar army was already ready to advance to the Russian lands. Then Alexander Nevsky hurried to the Horde to the khan (4th time) to ward off trouble from the people. He stayed there all winter and not only managed to avert Tatar pogroms, but was also able to obtain from the Khan the release of the Russian land from the duty to field military detachments for the Tatars.
This was the last deed of Alexander Nevsky: sick, he left the Horde and on the road, in Gorodets Volzhsky, died on November 14, 1263, according to the chronicler, “having worked a lot for the Russian land, for Novgorod and for Pskov, for the entire great reign, giving his life and for the true faith." Metropolitan Kirill announced to the people in Vladimir about the death of the Grand Duke with the words: “My dear children, understand that the sun of the Russian land has set,” and everyone exclaimed: “We are already perishing!”
Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky and the silver sarcophagus
Results of the board
XIII century - Rus' was attacked from three sides - the Catholic West, the Mongol-Tatars and Lithuania. Alexander showed the talent of a commander and diplomat, making peace with the most dangerous and powerful (but at the same time more tolerant) enemy - the Golden Horde - and repelling the attack of the Germans, he was able to protect Orthodoxy from Catholic expansion.
There is also a more moderate interpretation of this point of view. So, according to our contemporary historian A. Gorsky, in the actions of the Grand Duke “there is no need to look for some kind of conscious fateful choice... Nevsky was a pragmatist... chose the path that seemed more profitable to him for strengthening his land and for him personally... when necessary to give a decisive battle, he gave battle, when an agreement seemed more useful, he agreed.”
A sign of memory and glory is the special legend “On the life and courage of the blessed Grand Duke Alexander”, the most full text which is in the 2nd Pskov Chronicle. For his feat of endurance and patience, Alexander Nevsky was canonized in 1549, and the Alexander Nevsky Lavra was founded in his honor in 1710. His relics, discovered in 1380, were transferred by order of the emperor in 1724 from Vladimir to St. Petersburg to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where they rest to this day in the Trinity Church in a silver shrine donated by the Empress.
The Grand Duke won his main military victories in his youth. At the time of the Battle of the Neva he was 20 years old, and during the Battle of the Ice the commander was 22 years old. Alexander was a politician and diplomat, but mostly a military leader.
In his entire life, the Grand Duke did not lose a single battle.
Prince Alexander is the only secular Orthodox ruler in all of Europe and Rus' who did not compromise with the Catholic Church in order to maintain power.
2008 - the “Name of Russia” competition took place. The event was organized by representatives of the state TV channel "Russia" together with the Institute Russian history RAS and the Public Opinion Foundation.
Internet users chose the “Name of Russia” from a ready-made list of “500 great figures of the country.” As a result, the competition almost ended in scandal, because Joseph Stalin took the leading position. The organizers said that “numerous spammers” voted for Stalin. As a result, Alexander Nevsky was named the official winner.
Alexander Nevsky is one of those names that is known to everyone in our Fatherland. A prince covered in military glory, honored with a literary story about his deeds soon after his death, canonized by the church; a man whose name continued to inspire generations living many centuries later: in 1725 the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was established, and in 1942 the Soviet Order of Alexander Nevsky (the only Soviet order named after a figure of the Russian Middle Ages). For most Russians, his name evokes an association with the image created by N. Cherkasov in S. Eisenstein’s film “Alexander Nevsky”.
Alexander was born in 1221 in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky 1. His father, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, was the third son of one of the most powerful Russian princes of the late 12th - early 13th centuries. Vsevolod the Big Nest, son of Yuri Dolgoruky, grandson of Vladimir Monomakh. Vsevolod (who died in 1212) owned North-Eastern Russia (Vladimir-Suzdal land). Yaroslav (born in 1190) received from his father the Principality of Pereyaslavl, which was part of the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality. Yaroslav's first wife was Konchak's granddaughter (daughter of his son, Yuri Konchakovich). Around 1213, Yaroslav married a second time (his first wife died or the marriage was dissolved for some reason - unknown) - to Rostislav-Feodosia, daughter of the Novgorod (later Galician) prince Mstislav Mstislavich (in the literature often referred to as "Udaly" based incorrectly understood definition of the prince in the message about his death as “lucky”, i.e. lucky). In 1216, Yaroslav and his older brother Yuri waged an unsuccessful war against Mstislav, were defeated, and Mstislav took his daughter from Yaroslav 2. But then the marriage of Yaroslav and Mstislava was renewed (a statement often found in literature about Yaroslav’s marriage after 1216 with a third marriage on the Ryazan princess - wrongly) and at the beginning of 1220 their first-born Fyodor was born, and in May 1221 - Alexander 3.
In 1230, Yaroslav Vsevolodich, after a difficult struggle with the Chernigov prince Mikhail Vsevolodich (grandson of Svyatoslav of Kyiv "The Tale of Igor's Host") established himself as the reign of Novgorod the Great. He himself preferred to live in his ancestral Pereyaslavl, and left the princes Fyodor and Alexander in Novgorod. In 1233, Alexander remained the eldest of the Yaroslavichs - 13-year-old Fedor unexpectedly died on the eve of his wedding. “And who does not favor this: the wedding has been arranged, the honey has been boiled, the bride has been brought, the princes have been invited; and there will be a place of joy in weeping and lamentation for our sins,” the Novgorod chronicler wrote on this occasion 4.
In 1236, Yaroslav Vsevolodich left Novgorod to reign in Kyiv (which continued to be considered the nominal capital of all Rus'). Alexander became an independent Novgorod prince. It was in Novgorod that he was in the winter of 1237 - 1238, at a time when disaster befell North-Eastern Rus': the hordes of the Mongol Empire, led by the grandson of its founder Genghis Khan Batu (Batu), devastated the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. 14 cities were taken, including the capital, Vladimir. In a battle with one of the Tatar (in Europe, including Rus', the Mongol conquerors were called “Tatars”) detachments on the river. Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodich, the elder brother of Yaroslav 5, died in the city.
After the Mongol troops returned to the Volga steppes in the spring of 1238, Yaroslav Vsevolodich came from Kyiv to the devastated Vladimir and occupied the main princely table of North-Eastern Rus'. After this, in 1239, he took vigorous action to strengthen his influence in neighboring lands. Yaroslav defeated the Lithuanian troops that captured Smolensk, and installed a prince allied with him here; made a successful campaign in Southern Rus' 6. In line with this policy, there was an agreement on the marriage of the eldest son of Yaroslav with the daughter of the ruler of a large Western Russian center - Polotsk. In 1239, the wedding of Alexander and the daughter of the Polotsk prince Bryachislav 7 took place. And the next summer, 1240, an event occurred that brought Alexander his first military glory.
In the first half of the 13th century. Swedish feudal lords launched an attack on the lands of the Finnish tribes and took possession of southwestern Finland. Attempts to advance further to the East would inevitably lead to a clash with Novgorod, which owned the mouth of the Neva and the coast of Lake Ladoga. And in 1240, for the first time since 1164, the Swedish army entered the Neva from the Gulf of Finland. They were led, perhaps, by Jarl (the second most important title in Sweden after the king) Ulf Fasi (the reliability of information from later sources that the Swedish forces were commanded by Birger, later the actual ruler of Sweden, is doubtful) 8. It is unlikely that the goal of the Swedes was a campaign against Novgorod itself; most likely, their task was to strengthen themselves at the mouth of the Neva in order to cut off access to the sea for the Novgorod land and deprive them of the opportunity to resist the Swedes in the fight for eastern Finland 9. The moment for the attack was chosen well: the military forces of the princes of North-Eastern Rus', who often came to the aid Novgorodians in external wars, were weakened as a result of heavy losses suffered during Batu's campaign of 1237 - 1238.
What experience of participation in military campaigns 19-year-old Alexander had by this time is unknown. It is possible that he took part in his father’s campaign in 1234 against the German crusading knights who settled in the first third of the 13th century. on the lands of the Baltic tribes - the ancestors of the Estonians and Latvians, a campaign that ended in a successful battle for the Russians on the river. Emajõgi in South-East Estonia 10. Alexander may have also participated in his father’s actions against the Lithuanians in 1239. But, in any case, for the first time he had to act independently, make decisions himself and take leadership of military operations.
Having received news of the appearance of the Swedish army, the Novgorod prince could take a wait-and-see attitude, send a request for military assistance to his father in Vladimir, and try to gather a militia from the inhabitants of the Novgorod land. But Alexander made a different decision: to immediately attack the enemy with only his squad and a small detachment of Novgorodians. “God is not strong, but in truth,” said, according to the author of the Life of Alexander, the prince, setting off on a campaign 11.
On Sunday, July 15, 1240, the Russian army suddenly attacked the numerically superior Swedes, who were camped near the confluence of the Izhora River with the Neva. The enemy, taken by surprise, suffered heavy losses. The second most important Swedish military leader (called “voevoda” in the Russian chronicle) and many noble warriors died. According to the Life of Alexander, the prince himself engaged in battle with a representative of the enemy army and wounded him in the face with a spear. 12 The battle stopped, apparently, with the onset of darkness, and the Swedes had the opportunity to bury the dead. Under the cover of darkness, the remnants of the enemy army boarded ships and sailed home 13.
At the end of the same 1240, the German knights-crusaders began aggression against the Novgorod land. During the first third of the 13th century. Knights of the Order of the Sword captured the lands of the Baltic tribes - Estonians, Livs and Latgalians. The Order's possessions came into close contact with the borders of Rus' (along the Narva River and Lake Peipsi). From the end of the 10s, direct clashes began. After the defeats suffered by the crusaders from Yaroslav Vsevolodich in 1234 and, especially, from the Lithuanians at Siauliai in 1236 (where almost all the knights of the sword died - 49 people), the Order of the Sword was merged with the Teutonic Order settled in East Prussia (1237 .). The part of the united Order, which received reinforcements from Prussia and Germany, located on the territory of modern Estonia and Latvia, became known as the Livonian Order. Not content with conquering the Baltic tribes, the crusaders tried to expand into Russian lands. As with the invasion of the Eastern Baltic, the papal throne in Rome stood behind the Order. The conquest of the Baltic peoples was sanctified by the idea of converting them to Christianity; the war with Russia was justified by the fact that its inhabitants were, from a Catholic point of view, “schismatics” - adherents of the Eastern, Orthodox version of Christianity. At the end of 1240, the Germans captured Izborsk, a city on the western border of the Novgorod land. Then they defeated the army of the large semi-independent center of Pskov, and, thanks to a subsequent agreement with part of the Pskov boyars, occupied the city. In the North-West of the Novgorod Land, the Germans settled in the Koporye churchyard (east of the Narova River near the Gulf of Finland). The entire western part of the Novgorod possessions was ravaged by German detachments 14.
The situation was complicated by the fact that at the height of the German offensive, in the winter of 1240 - 1241. Prince Alexander quarreled with the Novgorod boyars and went to his father in Pereyaslavl along with his “court” (squad) 15. Political system Novgorod had certain specific features that were different from the system of other Russian lands. Here, the local boyars represented a significant force, who invited princes from different lands to the Novgorod table at their discretion. Often princes who did not get along with local nobility, were forced to leave Novgorod 16. This happened to Alexander (sources do not report the reasons for the conflict).
Meanwhile, German detachments began to appear already 30 versts from the city, and the Novgorodians sent an embassy to Yaroslav Vsevolodich asking for help. Yaroslav sent the second eldest of his sons, Andrei, to them. Soon, apparently, it became clear that he could not properly organize a rebuff, and a new embassy was sent to Yaroslav, headed by the Novgorod archbishop with a request to send Alexander to reign in Novgorod again. And “Yaroslav gave birth to his son Alexander again” 17.
Returning to Novgorod, Yaroslavich actively got down to business. He directed his first attack (1241) on Koporye, a stronghold of the invaders. The fortress built here by the enemy was taken. Alexander brought some of the captured Germans to Novgorod, and released some; at the same time, he ordered the traitors from the Finnish-speaking Vodi and Chudi tribes who had gone over to the enemy’s side to be hanged. At the beginning of the next year, 1242, the prince with his retinue, an army from Novgorod and a detachment led by his brother Andrei, sent by his father to help from the Suzdal land, moved to the lands of the Order. At the same time, he blocked the roads connecting German possessions with Pskov, and then occupied the city with a sudden blow. The Germans who were in Pskov were captured and sent to Novgorod. Having crossed the border of the Order's possessions, Alexander sent forward a reconnaissance detachment led by the brother of the Novgorod posadnik (the highest official of Novgorod from among the local boyars). This detachment ran into the order's army. In the ensuing battle, the leader of the detachment, Domash Tverdislavich, died, some of the soldiers died or were captured, others fled to Alexander. After this, the prince retreated onto the ice of Lake Peipsi (the natural border between the Novgorod and order possessions) and took up a position near the eastern shore.
On April 5, 1242, Saturday, the order's army attacked the Russians. Having formed a wedge (in Russian sources of that time this formation is called a “pig”), the Germans and “Chud” (Estonians) managed to break through the defensive line made up of lightly armed soldiers, but were attacked from the flanks by cavalry detachments (obviously, the squads of Alexander and Andrey) and suffered complete defeat. Alexander's warriors pursued the fleeing enemy seven miles across the ice to the western shore of Lake 18.
According to the Novgorod chronicle, in the battle “Pade Chudi beshisla” (countless multitude), and there were 400 Germans; in addition, another 50 Germans were captured and brought to Novgorod 19. The Livonian source - "Rhymed Chronicle" - gives other casualty figures: 20 knights killed and 6 captured 20. This discrepancy, however, is most likely not due to overestimation enemy losses in the first case and underestimation of “our own” in the second. Actually, the knights of the Order constituted the best equipped and trained part of the German army, but numerically very insignificant: according to the same Chronicle, during the campaign against Pskov in 1268, out of every hundred warriors, only one was a knight of the Order 21. In addition to the knights, they also took part in the battle their military servants, soldiers of the Bishop of Dorpat, probably detachments from German colonist townspeople. The Russian source gives an approximate total number of German losses; in Livonian we are talking only about order knights. According to researchers, in 1242 there were only about a hundred knights in Livonia, while a significant part of them fought with the Baltic tribe of Curonians 22. Thus, the losses of 26 people killed and captured were apparently about half of the number of knights who participated in the Ice War. massacre, and about a quarter of the total number of knights of the Livonian Order.
In the same year, the Germans sent an embassy to Novgorod asking for peace: the Order renounced all claims to Russian lands and asked for an exchange of prisoners. The peace treaty was concluded on 23.
While the war with the Order was going on in the North of Rus', tragic events were unfolding in the South. At the end of 1240, Batu's army invaded Southern Rus', captured Pereyaslavl, Chernigov, Kyiv, Galich, Vladimir-Volynsky, and many other cities. Having ravaged the southern Russian lands, Batu moved to Central Europe. Hungary and Poland were devastated. Mongolian troops reached the Czech Republic and the shores of the Adriatic. Only at the end of 1242 Batu returned to the Volga region 24. Here the western ulus of the Mongol Empire was formed - the so-called. Golden Horde. As conquerors, the Mongols began to impose their suzerainty on the Russian princes. The first to be summoned to Batu’s headquarters in 1243 was Alexander’s father, the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yaroslav Vsevolodich, the strongest of the Russian princes at that time, who had not fought with the Tatars (during their campaign against North-Eastern Rus' he was in Kyiv, and during the campaign to Southern Rus' - in Vladimir). Batu recognized Yaroslav as the “eldest” of the Russian princes, confirming his rights to Vladimir and Kiev - the ancient capital of Rus' 25. But the Golden Horde was still part of a huge empire stretching from the Carpathians to the Pacific Ocean. And Yaroslav was forced in 1246 to go to Mongolia, to the capital of the great khan - Karakorum - for approval.
Alexander, meanwhile, continued to reign in Novgorod. In 1245, the Novgorod land was raided by the Lithuanians, who reached Torzhok and Bezhichi. The prince chased after them and defeated them in several battles - at Toropets, Zhizhitsy and Usvyat (within the Smolensk and Vitebsk principalities); many Lithuanian “princes” were killed 26.
On September 30, 1246, Yaroslav Vsevolodich, Alexander’s father, died in distant Mongolia. He was poisoned by the mother of the great Mongol Khan Guyuk Turakina, who was hostile to Batu, whose protégé in the eyes of the Karakorum court was Yaroslav. After this, Turakina sent an ambassador to Alexander with a demand to appear in Karakorum. But Alexander refused 27.
In 1247, Svyatoslav Vsevolodich, the younger brother of Yaroslav, became the Grand Duke of Vladimir (in accordance with the ancient Russian tradition of inheritance princely power, according to which brothers were given preference over sons). Alexander, according to the redistribution of tables, got Tver in North-Eastern Rus' (at the same time he retained the reign of Novgorod) 28. But at the end of the same year, the prince, together with his brother Andrei, went to Batu. Obviously, the Yaroslavichs appealed to the act of the khan's grant to their father, which gave his sons priority rights over their uncle to the great reign of Vladimir (later only the descendants of Yaroslav Vsevolodich claimed it). From Batu both went to Karakorum, from where they returned to Rus' only at the end of 1249. 29
While Alexander was in the steppes, two messages were sent to him by Pope Innocent IV 30. The idea of contacts with Alexander Yaroslavich arose in the papal curia in connection with two circumstances. Firstly, his father met in Karakorum with the Pope's ambassador, Plano Carpini, and agreed, according to the latter, to accept the patronage of the Roman Church. Secondly, from Plano Carpini the pope learned of Alexander’s refusal to submit to the great Khansha. In his message to the prince dated January 22, 1248, the pope insisted that he follow the example of his father and asked, in the event of a Tatar offensive, to notify about it “the brothers of the Teutonic Order residing in Livonia, so that as soon as this (the news) reaches through their brothers to our knowledge, we could immediately think about how, with God’s help, we could show courageous resistance to these Tatars” 31.
The papal bull was apparently delivered to Alexander while he was at Batu’s headquarters in the lower reaches of the Volga. The Novgorod prince gave an answer, the text of which has not reached us, but judging by the content of the pope's next message (dated September 15, 1248), this answer was evasive or even mostly positive regarding the acceptance of the patronage of the Roman Church 32. Apparently, being in an uncertain position at Batu's court, the prince wanted to maintain the opportunity to choose depending on the results of his trip. In his second message, Innocent IV gave a positive response to Alexander’s proposal to build a Catholic cathedral in Pskov and asked to receive his ambassador, the Archbishop of Prussia. But the bull did not have time to reach the addressee - he was already on his way to Karakorum 33.
The new ruler Ogul-Gamish (widow of Guyuk) recognized (in 1249) Alexander as the “oldest” among the Russian princes: he received Kyiv. But at the same time, Vladimir went to Andrey. Thus, the inheritance of Yaroslav Vsevolodich was divided into two parts. Alexander chose not to go to distant Kyiv, which suffered greatly from the Tatar defeat in 1240, and continued to reign in Novgorod. Meanwhile, ambassadors from the pope came to him for a final answer to the proposal to convert to Catholicism. The prince responded with a decisive refusal 34.
Andrei Yaroslavich, having settled in Vladimir, entered into an alliance with the strongest prince of Southern Rus', Daniil Romanovich Galitsky, marrying his daughter, and tried to conduct (like his father-in-law at that time) a policy independent of the Golden Horde. This opportunity was apparently given to him by the grant of the Vladimir reign by the Karakorum court, hostile to Batu. But in 1251, Batu’s friend and protégé Munke became the Great Khan. This freed the hands of the Golden Horde Khan, and the next year he organized military actions against Andrei and Daniel. Batu sent Kurimsy’s army against the Galician prince, who did not achieve success, and against Andrei - Nevryuy, who ravaged the outskirts of Pereyaslavl. The Vladimir prince fled, finding refuge in Sweden (he later returned to Rus' and reigned in Suzdal). In the same year, even before Nevryuy’s campaign, Alexander went to Batu, received a label for the great reign of Vladimir, and upon his return (after Andrei’s expulsion) sat down in Vladimir 35.
From 1252 until his death in 1263, Alexander Yaroslavich was the Grand Duke of Vladimir. Having settled here, he took steps to secure his rights to Novgorod. Previously, the Novgorod boyars could invite princes from different Russian lands - Vladimir-Suzdal, Smolensk, Chernigov. Since the time of Alexander, a new order was established: Novgorod recognized as its prince the one who occupied the grand-ducal table in Vladimir. Thus, having become the Grand Duke of Vladimir, Alexander retained the Novgorod reign. There he left his eldest son Vasily, but not as an independent prince, but as his governor 36.
The Novgorod boyars did not immediately accept the new order. In 1255, supporters of an independent Novgorod reign expelled Vasily Alexandrovich from the city and invited Alexander’s younger brother Yaroslav (in 1252, a former ally of Andrei, who fled to Pskov and reigned there until 1255). Alexander moved to Novgorod in war, but did not storm the city, but preferred the path of negotiations. At first, he demanded to hand over his opponents from among the Novgorod nobility (Yaroslav fled from the city when Alexander approached). The Novgorodians agreed to recognize Alexander as their prince, but on the condition that they forgive the leaders of the rebellion. Finally, the prince softened his demands, limiting them to the removal of the objectionable mayor; this was done, Alexander entered the city, and peace was restored 37.
The next year, 1256, the Swedes tried to build a city on the eastern, Russian bank of the river. Narova. Alexander was then in Vladimir, and the Novgorodians sent to him for help. Having heard about the gathering of Russian troops, the Swedes abandoned their idea and sailed “overseas”. The prince, having arrived in Novgorod, set off on a campaign, and at first did not tell the Novgorodians who went with him what his goal was. It turned out that he planned to strike at southeastern Finland, captured by the Swedes in 1250. The campaign turned out to be generally successful: the strongholds of the Swedes in the land of the Finnish tribe Em were destroyed. But on long term It was not possible to eliminate Swedish power over this part of Finland - after the departure of Russian troops, the Swedish administration restored its rule 38.
In 1257, the Mongol Empire carried out a population census in North-Eastern Rus' to streamline the taxation system. Alexander Yaroslavich, who then made a trip to the Horde, was forced to agree to conduct a census, maintaining his line of peaceful relations with the Tatars and recognition of the supreme suzerainty of the ruler of the Golden Horde and the great Mongol Khan. From the Suzdal land, the Tatar "numerals" went to Novgorod. The prince accompanied them with a military detachment. In the city, upon news of the Tatar demands for payment of tribute, a rebellion began, supported by Vasily Alexandrovich, who was still governor there. The Novgorodians did not give “tithes and tamgas” to the Tatar ambassadors, limiting themselves to gifts to the “Caesar” (Great Khan). Alexander and his detachment dealt with the rebels: he expelled Vasily from Pskov (where he fled when his father approached) and sent him to the Suzdal land, and to those who incited him to disobey, “cut his own nose, and took out the eyes of others.” In 1259, the Novgorodians, fearing a Tatar invasion, nevertheless agreed to the Horde census. But when the Tatar ambassadors, accompanied by Alexander, began to collect tribute, a rebellion broke out in Novgorod again. After a long confrontation, the Novgorodians finally conceded. Following the Tatars, Alexander also left the city, leaving his second son Dmitry 39 as governor.
In 1262, an uprising broke out in several cities of North-Eastern Rus' - Rostov, Vladimir, Suzdal, Yaroslavl, as a result of which the tribute collectors sent by the Great Khan were killed or expelled. There was no punitive campaign from the Golden Horde: its khan Berke at that time sought independence from the Great Khan’s throne, and the expulsion of the Great Khan’s officials from Rus' corresponded to his interests. But in the same year, Berke started a war against the Mongol ruler of Iran, Hulagu, and began to demand that Russian troops be sent to his aid. Alexander went to the Horde to “remove people from misfortune” 40. Before leaving, he organized a large campaign against the Livonian Order.
After the Battle of the Ice in 1242, the crusaders did not disturb the Russian lands for 11 years. But in 1253 they violated the peace treaty and approached Pskov, but were repulsed by the Pskovians and the Novgorodians who came to the rescue 41. In subsequent years, the knights tried to intensify the attack on Lithuania, but failed: in 1260, at Lake Durbe, the army of the emerging Lithuanian state was led by with its ruler Mindaugas inflicted a crushing defeat on the combined forces of the Teutonic and Livonian orders (150 knights alone died). The defeat of the crusaders caused a series of uprisings of the Baltic peoples they conquered. Under these conditions, Alexander entered into an alliance with Mindaugas, and the two winners of the Order began to prepare a joint attack on Livonia from two sides: Russian troops were to move to Yuriev (formerly an ancient Russian city established by Yaroslav the Wise in the land of the Estonians; captured by the crusaders in 1234 and called Dorpat; now Tartu), and the Lithuanian ones - to Wenden (now Cesis).
In the fall of 1262, Russian troops set out on a campaign. They were commanded by Alexander Yaroslavich's son Dmitry and brother Yaroslav (who had by that time reconciled with Alexander and reigned in Tver). Along with the Russian forces went the army of the Lithuanian prince Tovtivil, who was reigning in Polotsk at that time. Yuryev was taken by storm. But the coordinated campaign did not work out: the Lithuanian troops set out earlier and had already moved away from Vendel when the Russians approached Yuryev. Having learned about this after the capture of the city, the Russian troops returned to their land. However, the campaign once again demonstrated the strength of the Order’s two opponents - Northern Rus' and Lithuania 42.
Alexander arrived in the Horde for almost a year. His mission, apparently, was a success: there is no information about the participation of Russian troops in the wars of the Golden Horde against Hulagu. On the way back to Rus' in the fall of 1263, the 42-year-old Grand Duke fell ill and died on November 14, 1263 in Gorodets on the Volga, having taken monastic vows before his death. On November 23, Alexander’s body was buried in the Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Vladimir. In his funeral speech, Metropolitan of All Rus' Kirill said: “My children, understand that the sun of the land of Suzdal has already set!” 43
In the literature one can find an assumption that Alexander, like his father, was poisoned by the Tatars 44. In the sources, however, such a version of his death is not found. In principle, there is nothing surprising in the fact that a long stay in unusual climatic conditions could affect the health of a person who was already middle-aged by the standards of that time. In addition, Alexander, apparently, was not distinguished by iron health: under 1251, the chronicle mentions a serious illness that almost brought him to the grave at the age of thirty 45.
After Alexander's death, his younger brother Yaroslav became the Grand Duke of Vladimir. Alexander's sons received: Dmitry - Pereyaslavl, Andrey - Gorodets 46. The youngest, Daniel (born in 1261) after some time became the first Moscow prince and from him went the dynasty of Moscow great princes and kings.
If the official (secular and ecclesiastical) assessment of the personality of Alexander Nevsky has always been panegyric, then in historical science his activities were interpreted ambiguously. And this ambiguity naturally follows from the visible contradiction in the image of Alexander. Indeed: on the one hand, he is undoubtedly an outstanding commander who won all the battles in which he participated, combining determination with prudence, a man of great personal courage; on the other hand, this is a prince forced to recognize the supreme power of a foreign ruler, who did not try to organize resistance to undoubtedly the most dangerous enemy of Rus' of that era - the Mongols, and, moreover, helped them establish a system of exploitation of Russian lands.
One of the extreme points of view on the activities of Alexander, formulated in the 20s of the last century by the Russian emigrant historian G.V. Vernadsky 47, and recently mainly repeated by L.N. Gumilyov 48, comes down to the fact that the prince did a fateful choice between orientation to the East and orientation to the West. By entering into an alliance with the Horde, he prevented the absorption of Northern Rus' by Catholic Europe and, thereby, saved Russian Orthodoxy - the basis of its identity. According to another point of view, defended by the English historian J. Fennell and supported by the domestic researcher I.N. Danilevsky, it was Alexander’s “collaborationism” in relation to the Mongols, his betrayal of the brothers Andrei and Yaroslav in 1252 that became the reason for the establishment of the yoke of the Golden Horde in Rus' 49 .
So, did Alexander really make a historical choice, and can one and the same person be both a hero and a collaborator-traitor?
Taking into account the mentality of the era and the peculiarities of Alexander’s personal biography, both of these points of view look far-fetched. The suzerainty of the Horde immediately acquired a certain semblance of legitimacy in the worldview of the Russian people; its ruler was called in Rus' by a higher title than any of the Russian princes - the title “tsar” 50. The dependence of the Russian lands on the Horde in its main features (including the collection of tribute) began to take shape back in the 40s of the 13th century. 51 (at a time when Alexander reigned in Novgorod and did not directly influence Russian-Tatar relations); in the 50s there was only a streamlining of the system of economic exploitation. After the death of his father in 1246, when Alexander became the strongest prince in Northern Rus', he really faced a choice: maintain peaceful relations with the Horde, recognizing the supreme suzerainty of the khans over Russia (already recognized by this time by all significant princes of both Northern and Southern Rus') and resist the Order, or begin resistance to the Tatars, concluding an alliance with the Order and the religious head of Catholic Europe standing behind it - the Pope (the prospect of a war on two fronts to the prince, who spent most of his life in Novgorod, near the Horde border, should have seemed unacceptable, and quite fair). Alexander hesitated before returning from a trip to Karakorum and firmly chose the first option only in 1250. What was the reason for the prince’s decision?
Of course, one should take into account the general wary attitude towards Catholicism and the personal experience of Alexander, who in 1241 - 1242, at the age of twenty, had to repel the attack on the Novgorod land of German crusaders supported by Rome. But these factors were also in effect in 1248, however, then the prince’s response to the pope’s message was different. Consequently, something that emerged later tilted the scales against the pope’s proposal. It can be assumed that four factors had an impact:
1) During his two-year trip across the steppes (1247 - 1249), Alexander was able, on the one hand, to become convinced of the military power of the Mongol Empire, and on the other, to understand that the Mongol-Tatars did not lay claim to the direct seizure of Russian lands, being content with recognition vassalage and tribute, and are also distinguished by religious tolerance and do not intend to encroach on Orthodox faith. This should have favorably distinguished them in the eyes of the prince from the crusaders, whose actions were characterized by the direct seizure of territory and the forced conversion of the population to Catholicism.
2) After Alexander returned to Rus' at the end of 1249, information should have reached him that the rapprochement with Rome of the strongest prince of Southern Rus', Daniil Romanovich Galitsky, turned out to be useless for the cause of defense against the Tatars: the anti-Tatar crusade promised by the pope did not take place 52.
3) In 1249, the de facto ruler of Sweden, Earl Birger, began the final conquest of the land of Emi (Central Finland), and this was done with the blessing of the papal legate 53. Since ancient times, the land of Emi had been part of the sphere of influence of Novgorod, and Alexander had reason to regard what had happened as unfriendly towards act towards him from the Curia.
4) The mention in the bull of September 15, 1248 of the possibility of establishing a Catholic episcopal see in Pskov 54 inevitably should have caused negative emotions in Alexander, because Previously, the bishopric had been established in Yuryev, captured by the Germans, and therefore the proposal to establish one in Pskov was associated with the annexationist aspirations of the Order, recalling the more than one-year stay of Pskov in 1240 - 1242. in the hands of the crusaders. Thus, the prince’s decision to stop contacts with Innocent IV was associated with the realization of the futility of rapprochement with Rome to confront the Horde and with obvious manifestations of selfish motives in the pope’s policies.
But what happened in 1252? According to information from early chronicles and the life of Alexander, this year the Novgorod prince went to the Horde. After this, Batu sent an army under the command of Nevryuy against Andrei Yaroslavich; Andrei fled from Vladimir first to Pereyaslavl, where his ally, the younger brother of Alexander and Andrei Yaroslav Yaroslavich, reigned. The Tatars, who approached Pereyaslavl, killed Yaroslav’s wife, captured his children “and the people were merciless”; Andrey and Yaroslav managed to escape. After Nevryuy left, Alexander arrived from the Horde and settled in Vladimir 55.
The following interpretation of these events has become widespread in historiography: Alexander went to the Horde on his own initiative with a complaint against his brother, and Nevryuy’s campaign was a consequence of this complaint 56. At the same time, authors who have a positive attitude towards Alexander always tried to talk about what happened with restraint, not to focus on these facts, while J. Fennell interpreted the events of 1252 without any constraint: “Alexander betrayed his brothers” 57. Indeed, since Nevruy’s campaign was caused by Alexander’s complaint, then there is no escape (if, of course, one strives for objectivity) from the recognition that it was Alexander who was to blame for the devastation of the land and the death of people, incl. his daughter-in-law; Moreover, no reference to higher political considerations can serve as a serious justification. If the above interpretation of the events of 1252 is correct, Alexander Yaroslavich appears as an unprincipled person, ready to do anything to increase his power. But is it true?
Alexander's complaint against his brother is not mentioned in any medieval source. There is a message about it only in V.N. Tatishchev’s “Russian History”; it was from there that it passed into the works of later researchers. According to Tatishchev, “Alexander complained about his brother Grand Duke Andrei, as if he had seduced the khan, taking a great reign under him, as if he were the eldest, and gave him his father’s cities, and did not pay the khan in full for exits and tamgas.”58 In this case, an uncritical judgment is unlawful, that Tatishchev quotes “apparently an early source that was not included in the chronicles” 59. The use in “Russian History” of sources that have not reached us is probable, but relates to other periods (primarily the 12th century). At the same time, Tatishchev’s work contains many additions that are research reconstructions, attempts to restore what the source “did not say”: unlike later historiography, where the text of the source is separated from the researcher’s judgments, in “Russian History” they are not differentiated , which often gives rise to the illusion of mentioning unknown facts where there is a guess (often plausible) by a scientist. This is the case under consideration 60. Article 1252 by Tatishchev as a whole literally repeats one of the sources he had - the Nikon Chronicle 61. The exception is the above passage. It represents a completely logical reconstruction: since Nevruy’s campaign took place after Alexander’s arrival in the Horde, and after the campaign he occupied the table that belonged to Andrei, it means that the campaign was caused by Alexander’s complaint against his brother; analogies of such developments of events are found in the activities of the princes of North-Eastern Rus' of a later time 62. Thus, we are not talking about the source’s message, but about the researcher’s guess, uncritically accepted by subsequent historiography, and the question is whether the sources provide a basis for such an interpretation of events .
Andrei Yaroslavich, apparently, really pursued a policy independent of Batu, but in his actions he relied on such weighty support as the label for the reign of Vladimir, received in 1249 in Karakorum from Khansha Ogul-Gamish, hostile to Batu 63. But in 1251 Batu managed to place his protege Munke on the Karakorum throne and next year he organizes two campaigns simultaneously - Nevryuya against Andrei Yaroslavich and Kuremsy against Daniil Romanovich. Thus, Nevruy’s campaign was clearly a planned action as part of actions against the princes who did not obey Batu, and not a reaction to Alexander’s complaint. But, if we consider the latter a myth, then for what purpose did Alexander go to the Horde?
In the Laurentian Chronicle (the oldest of those containing a story about the events of 1252), the facts are presented in the following sequence: first it is said that “Prince Oleksandr of Novgorod and Yaroslavich released him as a Tatar and released him with great honor, giving him seniority among all his brothers,” then it tells about the Tatar campaign against Andrei, after which it tells about the arrival of Alexander from the Horde to Vladimir 64. Since he returned to Rus' undoubtedly after the “Nevryu army”, the words “let go and with honor”, etc. should be attributed to the same time. Before talking about the Tatar campaign, the chronicler says: “Andrya’s prince Yaroslavich decided to run away with his boyars rather than serve as the Tsar.” 65. We are clearly talking about a decision made not at the time of Nevryu’s attack (then the question was not “serve or flee,” a "fight or flight"), and earlier. Most likely, Andrei’s “duma” with the boyars took place after the Vladimir prince received a demand to come to the Horde. Batu, having finished with internal Mongolian affairs, decided to reconsider the decision on the distribution of the main tables in Rus', adopted in 1249 by the former Karakorum court, hostile to him, and summoned both Alexander and Andrei. The first obeyed the khan's demand. Andrei, after consulting with his boyars, decided not to go (perhaps he did not count on a successful outcome of the trip because of the favor shown to him in 1249 by the government of the now deposed and murdered Great Khansha). After this, Batu decided to send a military expedition against Andrei, as well as against another prince who did not obey him - Daniil of Galitsky, and to issue Alexander a label for the great reign of Vladimir. It should be noted that Nevruy’s campaign was a much more “local” enterprise than the campaigns against the princes who disobeyed Sarai in the early 80s. XIII century and in 1293 (“Dudenev’s Army”): only the outskirts of Pereyaslavl and, possibly, Vladimir were devastated 66. It is possible that such “limitedness” was a consequence of Alexander’s diplomatic efforts.
In general, it can be stated that in the actions of Alexander Yaroslavich there is no reason to look for some kind of conscious fateful choice. He was a man of his era, acting in accordance with the worldview of the time and personal experience. Alexander was, in modern terms, a “pragmatist”: he chose the path that seemed more profitable to him for strengthening his land and for him personally. When it was a decisive battle, he fought; when an agreement with one of Rus'’s enemies seemed most useful, he agreed to an agreement. As a result, during the period of the great reign of Alexander (1252 - 1263) there were no Tatar raids on the Suzdal land and only two attempts to attack Rus' from the West (Germans in 1253 and Swedes in 1256), which were quickly stopped. Alexander achieved recognition by Novgorod of the suzerainty of the Grand Duke of Vladimir (which became one of the factors due to which North-Eastern Rus' later turned into the core of the new Russian state). His preference for the Vladimir table over the Kiev table was a decisive event in the process of moving the nominal capital of Rus' from Kiev to Vladimir (since it turned out that it was Vladimir who was chosen as the capital by the prince, recognized as the “oldest” in Rus') 67. But these are the long-term consequences of Alexander’s policy Nevsky were not a consequence of his changing the objective course of events. On the contrary, Alexander acted in accordance with the objective circumstances of his era, acted prudently and energetically.
Alexander Nevsky, whose biography is presented in this article, was the Prince of Novgorod in the period from 1236 to 1251, and from 1252 - Grand Duke Vladimirsky. He was presumably born in 1221, and died in 1263. The son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, a Russian prince, was Alexander Nevsky. His biography in a nutshell is as follows. He secured Rus' and its western borders with victories over the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240, as well as over the knights of the Livonian Order in 1242 (Battle of the Ice). Alexander Nevsky was canonized Orthodox Church. Read more about these and other events below.
Origin of Alexander, beginning of reign
The future prince was born into the family of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Feodosia, daughter of Mstislav the Udal. He is the grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest. The first information about the future prince dates back to 1228. Then in Novgorod, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich came into conflict with the townspeople and was forced to go to his ancestral inheritance, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. Despite the forced departure, this prince left two sons in the care of the boyars in Novgorod. These were Fedor and Alexander Nevsky. The latter’s biography was marked by important events precisely after the death of his older brother, Fedor. Then Alexander becomes his father's heir. He was put in charge of the Novgorod reign in 1236. Three years later, in 1239, Prince Alexander Nevsky married Alexandra Bryachislavna.
His short biography for this period is as follows. In the first years of his reign, Alexander Nevsky had to strengthen Novgorod, since the Mongol-Tatars threatened the city from the east. He built several fortresses on the Sheloni River.
Victory on the Neva
The victory that he won over a Swedish detachment on the banks of the Neva River, at the mouth of Izhora, in 1240 on July 15, brought universal glory to the young prince. According to legend, it was commanded by Jar Birger, the future ruler of Sweden, although this campaign is not mentioned in the chronicle dating back to the 14th century. Alexander personally took part in the battle. It is believed that the prince began to be called Nevsky precisely because of this victory, although this nickname was first found only in sources of the 14th century. It was known that some of the princely descendants bore the nickname Nevsky. It is possible that this secured their possessions in the area. That is, there is a possibility that Prince Alexander was awarded this nickname not only for the victory on the Neva. The Nevskys, whose biography has not been fully studied, may have simply passed on this nickname to their descendant. It is traditionally believed that the battle that took place in 1240 preserved the shores of the Gulf of Finland for Russia and stopped the Swedish aggression aimed at the Pskov and Novgorod lands.
Events leading up to the Battle of the Ice
Due to another conflict, upon returning from the banks of the Neva, Alexander was forced to leave Novgorod for Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. Meanwhile, an enemy threat from the west loomed over the city. Having gathered German crusaders in the Baltic states, as well as Danish knights in Reval, the Livonian Order, enlisting the support of the Pskovites, longtime rivals of the Novgorodians, as well as the papal curia, invaded the territory of the Novgorod lands.
An embassy with a request for help was sent from Novgorod to Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. In response, he provided an armed detachment, headed by Andrei Yaroslavich, his son. He was soon replaced by Alexander Nevsky, whose biography interests us. He liberated the Vodskaya land and Koporye, occupied by the knights, after which he drove the German garrison out of Pskov. The Novgorodians, inspired by their successes, invaded the lands of the Livonian Order and began to destroy the settlements of the crusaders' tributaries, the Estonians. The knights who left Riga destroyed the regiment of Domash Tverdislavich, which was considered the forefront of the Russians, forcing Alexander Nevsky to withdraw his troops to the border of the Livonian Order. At that time it passed along Lake Peipsi. After this, both sides began to prepare for the decisive battle.
The Battle of the Ice and the defeat of the Lithuanian troops
The decisive battle took place at the Crow Stone, on the ice of Lake Peipsi, in 1242 on April 5. This battle went down in history as the Battle of the Ice. The German knights were defeated. The Livonian Order was faced with the need to make peace. Under the terms of the truce, the crusaders had to renounce their claims to Russian lands, transferring part of Latgale to Rus'.
After this, Alexander Nevsky began to fight against the Lithuanian troops. His biography at this time can be briefly presented as follows. In the summer of the same year (1242) he defeated seven Lithuanian detachments that were attacking Russian lands in the north-west. After this, Alexander recaptured Toropets, which was captured by Lithuania, in 1245, destroyed a Lithuanian detachment at Lake Zhitsa, and finally defeated the Lithuanian militia near Usvyat.
Alexander and the Horde
Alexander’s successful actions ensured the security of the Russian borders in the west for a long time, but in the east the princes had to be defeated by the Mongol-Tatars.
Khan Batu, ruler of the Golden Horde, in 1243 handed the label for the management of the Russian lands, conquered by them, to Alexander's father. Guyuk, the great Mongol Khan, summoned him to Karakorum, his capital, where in 1246, on September 30, Yaroslav died unexpectedly. He was poisoned, according to the generally accepted version. Then his sons, Andrei and Alexander, were summoned to Karakorum. While they were getting to Mongolia, Khan Guyuk himself died, and Khansha Ogul-Gamish, the new mistress of the capital, decided to make Andrei the Grand Duke. Alexander Nevsky (the prince whose biography interests us) received control only of Kyiv and devastated southern Rus'.
Alexander refuses to accept the Catholic faith
The brothers were only able to return to their homeland in 1249. Prince Alexander Nevsky did not go to his new possessions. A short biography of his subsequent years is as follows. He headed to Novgorod, where he became seriously ill. Innocent IV, the Pope, sent an embassy to him around this time with an offer to convert to the Catholic faith, offering in exchange his help in the fight against the Mongols. However, Alexander categorically refused.
Ogul-Gamish in Karakorum was overthrown by Khan Mengke (Mongke) in 1252. Batu, taking advantage of this circumstance to remove Andrei Yaroslavich from the great reign, presented Alexander Nevsky with the label of Grand Duke. Alexander was urgently summoned to Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde. However, Andrei, supported by Yaroslav, his brother, as well as the Galician prince Daniil Romanovich, refused to submit to the decision of Batu Khan.
He, in order to punish the disobedient princes, sent a Mongol detachment, commanded by Nevryu (the so-called “Nevryu’s army”), or Batu. As a result of this, Yaroslav and Andrei fled from North-Eastern Rus'.
Alexander restores his son's rights
Yaroslav Yaroslavovich later, in 1253, was invited to Pskov to reign, and then to Novgorod (in 1255). At the same time, the Novgorodians expelled Vasily, their former prince, who was the son of Alexander Nevsky. However, Alexander, having imprisoned him again in Novgorod, severely punished his warriors, who failed to protect the rights of their son. They were all blinded.
Alexander suppresses the uprising in Novgorod
The glorious biography of Alexander Nevsky continues. Summary events related to the uprising in Novgorod are as follows. Khan Berke, the new ruler of the Golden Horde, introduced in Rus' in 1255 a system of tribute, common to all conquered lands. In 1257, as in other cities, “counters” were sent to Novgorod in order to carry out a population census. This outraged the Novgorodians, who were supported by Prince Vasily. An uprising began in the city, which lasted more than a year and a half. Alexander Nevsky personally restored order and ordered the execution of the most active participants in these unrest. Vasily Alexandrovich was also captured and taken into custody. Novgorod turned out to be broken, which was forced to obey the order and begin to pay tribute to the Golden Horde. Dmitry Alexandrovich became the new governor in the city in 1259.
Death of Alexander Nevsky
Unrest broke out in Suzdal cities in 1262. Here the Khan's Baskaks were killed, and the Tatar merchants were expelled from here. In order to soften the anger of Khan Berke, Alexander decided to personally go to the Horde with gifts. All winter and summer the prince was kept by the Khan's side. Only in the fall was Alexander able to return to Vladimir. On the way, he fell ill and died in Gorodets in 1263, on November 14. The biography of Alexander Nevsky ends with this date. We tried to describe its brief content as succinctly as possible. His body was buried in the Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Vladimir.
Canonization of Alexander Nevsky
This prince, in the conditions that brought terrible trials to the lands of Rus', was able to find the strength to resist the conquerors from the west, thereby gaining the glory of a great commander. Thanks to him, the foundations for interaction with the Golden Horde were also laid.
In Vladimir, already in the 1280s, the veneration of this man as a saint began. Prince Alexander Nevsky was officially canonized a little later. His short biography, compiled by us, mentions that he refused the offer of Innocent IV. And this important detail. Alexander Nevsky is the only secular Orthodox ruler in all of Europe who, in order to maintain his power, did not compromise with Catholics. His life story was written with the participation of Dmitry Alexandrovich, his son, as well as Metropolitan Kirill. It became widespread in Rus' (15 editions have reached us).
Monastery and orders in honor of Alexander
The monastery in honor of Alexander was founded in St. Petersburg by Peter I in 1724. Now it is the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The remains of the prince were transported there. Peter I also ordered to honor the memory of this man on August 30, the day of peace with Sweden. Catherine I founded the Order of Alexander Nevsky in 1725.
This award existed until 1917 as one of the highest in Russia. The Soviet order named after him was established in 1942.
This is how Prince Alexander Nevsky was immortalized in our country, short biography which was presented to you.
This man is an important figure in Russian history, so we meet him for the first time back in our school years. The biography of Alexander Nevsky for children, however, notes only the most basic points. In this article, his life is examined in more detail, which allows us to get a more complete picture of this prince. Nevsky Alexander Yaroslavich, whose biography we have described, fully deserves his fame.
