Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh

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. Vladimir II Vsevolodovich , called Monomakh ( Old Russian: Володимѣръ Мономахъ, Ukrainian Володимир Мономах; Russian Владимир Всеволодович Мономах ; *  1053 ; † 19th May 1125 ) was Prince of Smolensk , Pereyaslav , Chernigov and 1113-1125 Grand Prince of Kiev .

Vladimir Monomakh on the National Monument Thousand Years of Russia in Novgorod

Vladimir was the son of Vsevolod Yaroslavich and the successor of his cousin Svyatopolk II as Kiev Grand Duke. He bears his nickname "Monomach" after the name of his mother, the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX. Monomachus (lone warrior), and is considered one of the most important medieval rulers of the Kievan Rus .

Domestic politics

According to the seniority principle , Vladimir Monomakh would not have come first among the possible successors of Svyatopolk II. In the previous battles within the Rurikid dynasty , however, he had gained a stable power base through his military skill and gained great personal reputation, so that he was able to assert his eligibility for the title of Grand Duke in 1113, after he tried unsuccessfully on the Prince's Day of Lyubetsch in 1097 had to weaken the seniority principle. From that year Monomakh waged constant wars with the Polovzians (Cumans), who often devastated the country in alliance with Russian princes.

With Vladimir Monomach taking office, the last blooming phase of the Kievan Rus began . He succeeded in tying the partial principalities more strongly to the center of Kiev again, mostly through military pressure and the appointment of his sons as territorial princes. He campaigned for a swift end to the bloody feuds between the princes and for joint action against the Polovzians. Vladimir tried to enforce this view on several royal days (1097, 1100, 1103). After the meeting of Dolobsk in 1103, Monomakh and the Russian princes allied with him succeeded in inflicting severe defeats on the Polovzians in the wake of several campaigns (1103, 1107, 1111) and in averting the danger from the warlike nomad people from the Russian land.

After the death of the Kiev Grand Duke Svyatopolk II in 1113, a popular uprising broke out in Kiev, in the course of which the city authorities offered Vladimir Monomakh the seat of Kiev, which he accepted.

Vladimir Vsevolodowitsch 'Monomakh' after a successful hunt, picture by Viktor Michailowitsch Wasnezow

After the suppression of the uprising, Vladimir Monomakh felt compelled to implement reform measures and to undertake a new version of the social legislation in the form of a separate ordinance, which included an improvement in the living conditions of the lower classes. The same mental attitude spoke from his moral writing , entitled “Instruction” , which testifies to the literary talent of the Grand Duke and in which he propagated the peaceful balance of interests between the nobles and the peasants and in doing so developed the ideal of a just ruler who cares about worries cared of his people.

Vladimir Monomakh died at the age of seventy-three. After his death, the Kievan Rus fell apart for good. His son and successor Mstislaw I comes from his marriage to Gytha , daughter of King Harold II of England . His daughter Maria (or Marina ) was married to the Byzantine pretender Pseudo-Leon Diogenes († 1116).

Foreign policy

The campaign against the Principality of Vladimir-Wolynsk (see also: Volhynia ) sparked clashes with the neighboring empires of Poland and Hungary . The local Prince Yaroslav Svyatopoltschitsch, who himself aspired to the Grand Duke of the Kievan Rus, was a brother-in-law of Bolesław III. Wrymouth of Poland, his first wife was a daughter of Ladislaus I of Hungary. In 1121 and 1123 Boleslaw III undertook. With the support of Hungarian and Bohemian troops, campaigns against Vladimir Monomakh to reinstate Yaroslav. However, this did not succeed, mainly because the alliance of the campaigners quickly fell apart. Vladimir Monomakh seems to have quickly made peace with the Hungarians. This is indicated by the marriage of his daughter Eufemija to Koloman I of Hungary.

During the reign of Vladimir Monomach, Kiev Russia played an important role in the European state system of the early Middle Ages. It was therefore not by chance that Nordic poets, German chroniclers and annalists, Byzantine historians as well as Arabic travel writers and Persian geographers reported on the Kiev Empire.

Monomak's hat

The Monomacha's cap adorned with precious stones , actually a conical crown made of gold with a sable fur edge (Monomach's cap, transliterated Šapka Monomacha, Russian Шапка Мономаха) was used as the crown of the Russian tsars for a long time . It is now in the Moscow Kremlin . There is a Russian proverb: “Monomachs cap is heavy” , which is still used in Russian . The saying goes to point out to someone that they have taken on too much responsibility, that they have overestimated themselves.

literature

  • Gottfried Schramm : The beginning of old Russia. Historical conclusions from names, words and texts on the 9th and 10th centuries (= Rombach Sciences. Series Historiae. Vol. 12). Rombach, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2002, ISBN 3-7930-9268-2 .

Web links

Commons : Vladimir Vsevolodowitsch Monomakh  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Svyatopolk II Grand Duke of the Kievan Rus
1113–1125 		Mstislaw I.
personal data
SURNAME Vsevolodowitsch Monomakh, Vladimir
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Всеволодович Мономах, Владимир
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kiev Grand Duke
DATE OF BIRTH 1053
DATE OF DEATH May 19, 1125