This aspect of her life is attributed to the characteristics of the individual, because this legend characterizes the princess first of all as a person and only then as a ruler.
The Drevlyans managed to find the main information about the revenge of the princess in the PVL and the generalizing works of Karamzin and Solovyov, as well as in the multi-volume "History of the USSR ..." (it contains an article that concludes about the deliberate course of the boyar circles in Kyiv, who wanted to show "what terrible punishments await all those who disobey the princely will "Princess Olga / / History of the USSR. - P. 493.).
Olga's revenge is carefully thought out, scientists emphasize the coldness of her mind, calculation and cunning. The tradition of blood vengeance against offenders is fully respected. This one of the traits inherent in pagans speaks of supreme role family ties in her life. Tatishchev writes most briefly about revenge: “Prince Drevlyansky Mal, son of Niskinin, sent ambassadors to Olga to ask, let her go for him. She commanded the messengers to beat the ovs, burn the ovs and, having gathered howls, the idea of the Drevlyans, their princes and people, beat them, and ruin the city of Korosten and burn it down ”Tatishchev V.N. - P.109 .. Solovyov and Karamzin convey the content of this revenge most clearly, they are based on the data of the PVL.
According to legend, Olga was in Kyiv with her young son Svyatoslav in 945, when Igor died in one of the campaigns against the Drevlyans: “The Drevlyans said: “Here we killed the Russian prince; we will take his wife Olga for our prince Mal and Svyatoslav we will take and make him whatever we want." And the Drevlyans sent best husbands their own, twenty in number, in the boat to Olga, and landed in the boat near Borichev. ... And Olga said to them: "So tell me, why did you come here?" The Drevlyans answered: "The Derevskaya land sent us with these words:" We killed your husband, because your husband, like a wolf, plundered and plundered, and our princes are good, because they protect the Derevskaya land, - marry our prince for Mala "... Olga said to them:" Your speech is kind to me, - I can no longer resurrect my husband; but I want to honor you tomorrow before my people; now go to your boat and lie down in the boat, magnifying, and in the morning I will send for you, and you say: “We don’t ride horses, we won’t go on foot, but carry us in the boat,” and they will lift you up in the boat. and let them go to the boat. Olga ordered to dig a great and deep hole in the terem courtyard, outside the city. The next morning, sitting in the terem, Olga sent for the guests, and they came to them and said: "Olga is calling you for the great honor" They answered: “We do not ride either on horses or carts, and we do not go on foot, but carry us in a boat.” And the people of Kiev answered: “We are not free; our prince has been killed, and our princess wants for your prince, "and they carried them in a boat. They sat, magnifying, shaking their sides and in great breast plaques. And they brought them to Olga's yard, and as they carried them, they threw them together with a rook into the pit. And, leaning towards the pit, Olga asked them: "Do you have a good honor?". They answered: "Worse for us Igor's death." And ordered to fill them alive; and they covered them "PVL.
Her revenge did not end there: “And Olga sent to the Drevlyans, and said to them:“ If you really ask me, then send the best husbands to marry your prince with great honor, otherwise the people of Kyiv will not let me in. Hearing about this, the Drevlyans chose the best men who ruled the Derevskoy land, and sent for it. When the Drevlyans came, Olga ordered a bath to be prepared, telling them this: "After washing, come to me." And they heated the bath, and the Drevlyans entered it, and began to wash; and they locked the bathhouse behind them, and Olga ordered to light it from the door, and then everyone burned down.
Then Olga came to the Drevlyansk land, "to perform a feast for her husband." They arranged a feast, and when the Drevlyans were already drunk, the princess ordered to beat the Drevlyans. The chronicle says that "5000 Drevlyans were excised." In the end, in the year 6454 (946), Olga burned the Drevlyansk city of Iskorosten, collecting three pigeons and three sparrows from each yard and launching them with gunpowder back into the city: “And how she took the city and burned it, she took the city elders prisoner , and killed the rest of the people, and gave others into slavery to her husbands, and left the rest to pay tribute ”PVL ..
Solovyov considers the tradition of revenge on the Drevlyans to be precious for the historian: it “reflects the prevailing concepts of the time, which set revenge for the murder loved one sacred duty; it is clear that during the compilation of the annals, these concepts did not lose their strength ... revenge for a relative was a feat par excellence; ... the story of such a feat aroused everyone's lively attention and ... remained in the memory of the people. ... the custom of revenge was conserved ... replacing justice. Solovyov S.M. - P.148.
Olga becomes a hero of truth, an exemplary citizen. Her revenge is worthy - so say the historians of the XVIII-XIX centuries. - V.N. Tatishchev, N.M. Karamzin, S.M. Solovyov. Olga becomes an example of independent, strong woman who managed to invent worthy revenge. The duty of vengeance native person was a religious duty, a duty of piety. Solovyov S.M. - P.148.
Olga, the wife of Prince Igor, the mother of Svyatoslav and the grandmother of the baptist of Russia Vladimir, entered our history as a holy princess, the first to bring the light of Christianity to our land. However, before becoming a Christian, Olga was a pagan, cruel and vengeful. This is how she entered the annals of The Tale of Bygone Years. What did Olga do?
Igor's campaign
Should start with last trip her husband Prince Igor. The entry for 945 says that the squad began to complain to Igor that the “youths of Sveneld”, that is, the people who made up the inner circle of his governor Sveneld, all “dressed themselves with weapons and clothes”, while Igor’s warriors themselves were “naked” . It is unlikely that the prince's warriors were so “naked” that it was worth talking about it seriously, but in those days they tried not to argue with the squad, since it depended on it whether the prince would sit on the throne of Kiev. Therefore, Igor went to the Drevlyans, a tribe that lived on the territory of the Ukrainian Polissya, and carried out a pogrom, adding new payments to the previous tribute in order to cover up the flagrant nakedness of his combatants. Having collected this tribute, he set off, it was, home, but on the way, apparently, he decided that the cunning Drevlyans had hidden something somewhere else. Having sent the main part of his people home, he returned with a small retinue to the Drevlyan capital Iskorosten, "desiring more wealth." It became his mistake. The Drevlyans, led by their prince Mal, rebuffed him, killed all the soldiers, and subjected Igor himself to a terrible execution - they tore him apart, tying him by the legs to the tops of two bent trees.
Olga's first revenge
Having dealt with Igor in this way, the Drevlyansky prince sent a delegation to Kyiv to the helpless, as it seemed to him, widow. Mal offered Olga his hand and heart, as well as protection and patronage. Olga received the ambassadors affectionately, said pleasantries, they say, you can’t return Igor, why not marry such a wonderful prince as Mal. And so that the wedding arrangement was even more magnificent, she promised the ambassadors to show great honor, promising that tomorrow they would be brought with honor to the prince's court right in the boat, after which the prince's will would be solemnly announced to them. While the ambassadors were sleeping at the pier, Olga ordered to dig a deep hole in the yard. In the morning, the boat with the Drevlyans was picked up by Olga's servants and solemnly carried through Kyiv to the very prince's court. Here they, together with the boat, were thrown to the bottom of the pit. The chronicler reports that Olga, approaching the edge of the pit and bending over it, asked: “Well, what is your honor?”, To which the Drevlyans answered: “More bitter than Igor's death.” At a sign from Olga, the wedding embassy was covered with earth alive.
Olga's second revenge
After that, the princess sent an ambassador to Mal with a request to send her the most the best people so that the people of Kiev could see the honor they are giving her, otherwise they might even resist, not let the princess go to Iskorosten. Mal, not suspecting a trick, immediately equipped a large embassy. When the matchmakers arrived in Kyiv, Olga, as befits a hospitable hostess, ordered them to prepare a bathhouse so that the guests could wash themselves on the way. And as soon as the Drevlyans began to wash, the doors of the bath were propped up from the outside, and the bath itself was set on fire from four sides.
Olga's third revenge
Having dealt with the matchmakers, the princess sent to tell Mal that she was going to him, but before the wedding she would like to perform a feast on the grave of her husband. Mal began to prepare for the wedding, ordering mead to be boiled for the feast. Having come to Iskorosten with a small retinue, Olga, accompanied by Mal and the most distinguished Drevlyans, came to Igor's grave. The feast on the mound was almost overshadowed by the questions of Mal and his entourage: where are the matchmakers whom he sent to Kyiv, why are they not in the princess? Olga replied that the matchmakers were following and would soon appear. Satisfied with this explanation, Mal and his men began to drink intoxicating drinks. As soon as they got drunk, the princess gave a sign to her warriors, and they laid down all the Drevlyans in their place.
Hike to Iskorosten
After that, Olga immediately returned to Kyiv, gathered a squad and went on a campaign to the Derevskaya land. In open battle, the Drevlyans were defeated. They fled and hid behind the walls of Iskorosten. The siege lasted all summer. Finally, Olga sent an ambassador to Iskorotten, who proposed lifting the siege for a very long time. mild conditions: Olga will confine herself to expressions of humility and tribute - three doves and three sparrows from each yard. Of course, the requested tribute was immediately sent. Then Olga ordered to tie a lighted rod to each bird and let it go. The birds flew to their nests and the city was on fire. Thus fell Iskorosten, the capital of the Drevlyan prince Mala. On this, Olga was fed up with revenge. Further, according to the chronicle, she no longer behaved like an angry woman, but like a wise statesman. She went through vast lands, subject to Kyiv princes, establishing "lessons and graveyards", that is, the amount of tribute and the place of its collection. Now no one could, like the foolish Igor, go for tribute to the same place several times, arbitrarily setting its size. Princely tribute from robber booty began to turn into normal taxation.
In the Tale of Bygone Years.
Encyclopedic YouTube
-
1 / 5
After the Drevlyans killed Prince Igor in 945, Olga became the princess of Kyiv, because at the time of Igor's death their son Svyatoslav was still very young to rule. Having become the head of state, Olga decided to avenge the death of her husband and force the Drevlyans into submission.
First revenge
After the murder of Igor, the Drevlyans sent 20 "best husbands" to Olga, deciding to woo her to their prince Mal. The ambassadors sailed to Kyiv by boat along the Dnieper and landed near Borichev (opposite the modern St. Andrew's Church). Olga pretended to agree to the proposal of the Drevlyans, and, allegedly in order to honor the ambassadors, she ordered her subjects to solemnly carry those on boats to her palace. Meanwhile, a hole had already been dug in the yard, into which, by order of Olga, the ambassadors were thrown. Then Olga came out of the palace in them, leaning over the pit, asked: “Is your honor good?” To which the Drevlyans replied: "Worse for us is Igor's death." After that, the princess ordered to bury them alive.
Second revenge
After that, Olga asked the Drevlyans to send her their best husbands again. The Drevlyans responded to her request by sending their most distinguished people to Kyiv - the princely family, merchants, and boyars. When the new ambassadors arrived at Olga, she ordered to create a “mov”, that is, to heat a bath for them, and told the ambassadors to “come to me when exhausted.” Then, after waiting for the ambassadors to go inside, Olga locked the Drevlyan ambassadors in the "istobak", after which the bath was set on fire, and the Drevlyans burned alive with her.
third revenge
The Kiev army was ready to march on the Drevlyane land. Before the speech, Olga turned to the Drevlyans with the words: “Behold, I am already coming to you, and arrange for me many honeys, where my husband is killed, and I will perform a feast over him”. After that, she set off on a journey with a small retinue. Near the city of Iskorosten, on the grave of her husband, she ordered to pour a huge mound and perform a feast. The Drevlyans drank, and the Olgin youths served them. The Drevlyans asked Olga: “Where are our matchmakers whom we sent to you?”. She replied that they were coming here together with the Kyiv squad. In pagan times, at a funeral feast, they not only drank, but also arranged competitions and military games; Olga decided to use this ancient custom for another revenge. When the Drevlyans got drunk, the princess first ordered her youths to drink for them, and then ordered them to be killed.
fourth revenge
In 946, Olga went on a campaign against the Drevlyans with an army. A large Drevlyan army came out against the people of Kiev. Olga's army besieged the main city of the Drevlyans - Iskorosten, whose inhabitants killed Igor. However, the townspeople staunchly defended themselves, realizing that there would be no mercy for them. The siege lasted a whole year, but Olga never managed to take the city. Then Olga sent ambassadors to the Drevlyans with these words: “What do you want to sit up to? Or do you want everyone to die of hunger, not agreeing to a tribute. Your cities have already been taken, and people have been cultivating their fields for a long time.. To which the townspeople replied: “We would be glad to get off with tribute, only you are eager to avenge the husband of the deceased”. Olga said this: “I already avenged my husband when you came to Kyiv, and for the second, and for the third time, when they performed the feast for my husband. Therefore, I will not take revenge further, I just want to take a little tribute from you and, having reconciled with you, I will go back.. The ancients asked: “What do you want to take from us? We will gladly give you honey and furs.. She answered it like this: “Now you have neither honey nor furs. But I need a little from you: give me from each yard three doves and three sparrows. For I do not want to impose a heavy tribute on you, like my husband, but I ask you for a little of my own. For you are weary in the siege, so give me only this little.”. The Drevlyans agreed and, having collected the required number of birds from each yard, they sent the princess with a bow. Such an easy tribute did not arouse their suspicions, since Eastern Slavs It was customary to give birds as a sacrifice to the gods.
At this time, Olga, having distributed pigeons and sparrows to her soldiers, ordered to tie tinder to each, and when it gets dark, set it on fire and set the birds free. So they did. Pigeons flew to their dovecotes, sparrows - under the eaves; a fire started in the city. When the inhabitants began to leave the burning city, Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them: some of the Drevlyans were killed, and some were taken prisoner. Later, some prisoners were given into slavery, and Olga imposed a heavy tribute on the rest.
The very birth of the future Princess Olga is a matter of dispute. According to the Life of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga It is believed that she was born in the village of Vybuty, not far from Pskov. There, many sights are associated with her name - Olga's Keys, Holguin, Olga's Gate. Iokaimovskaya claims that she was a certain Gostomysl and at birth they called the girl Beautiful. The typographic chronicle says that Olga is the daughter of Prophetic Oleg, and Bulgarian historians defend the version that the princess is their countrywoman. The year of birth of Princess Olga is also unknown, there is only a record that she died at the age of about 80 years, and, by various calculations, scientists came to the conclusion that she was born no earlier than 890. With such a divergence in the views of historians on the future princess, it is quite natural that early years Olga is also a subject of controversy. historical facts is only that in an unknown year, Prince Igor married her and in 942 they had a son, Svyatoslav. In 945, after the death of the prince at the hands of the Drevlyans, Olga became regent for a minor heir. She ruled Kievan Rus not only until he came of age, but later did not let go of the reins of government, since Svyatoslav preferred to spend time in military campaigns.Olga entered the history of Russia not only as the first princess who converted to Christianity, but also as a wise ruler.
Olga's revenge for her husband's death
There are four main versions, described in various chronicles, of how the princess avenged her husband's death. According to the first three, the Drevlyans sent ambassadors-matchmakers to the princess to persuade her to marry their prince Mal. The first, the most bloodless, compared to the rest, says that the princess ordered the matchmakers to be buried alive. According to the second - matchmakers in the bath. The third tells how the princess went to the Drevlyans to celebrate a funeral feast for her murdered husband and at the wake, when the killers got drunk, she ordered them to be cut out of everyone. The fourth - the most common legend about Princess Olga, was described in The Tale of Bygone Years. It not only unites all three previous ones, but also tells about the final chord of this ancient Russian tragedy.
"The Tale of Bygone Years" is the first surviving manuscript source covering the period of Russian history from the original times to 1117.
According to the "Tale ...", the princess first lured two embassies of the Drevlyans to Kyiv in turn - she buried one, burned the second, and then went to Iskorsten, the capital of the Drevlyans. At its walls, a bloody feast took place, on which the blood of five thousand inhabitants of the city was shed. Then Olga returned to Kyiv, so that a year later she would again come "to the Derevskaya land" at the head of her army and demand tribute from the defeated tribe. She assured the Drevlyans that she no longer wanted to take revenge, but that she would take a symbolic tribute - three doves and three sparrows from each yard. Delighted, the vanquished brought Olga what was required, and the next day she ordered tinder to be tied to the legs of the birds and let them go home. Making their way from the howls of nests and under the eaves, the birds struck sparks from which the haylofts caught fire, and then all the other buildings of the Drevlyans, and since everyone and everything burned, there was no one to extinguish, a terrible
Having lost her beloved husband, she did not lose heart, but cruelly took revenge on the murderers and strengthened the power of the state. “She shone like the moon in the night, and shone among the pagans like pearls in the mud,” the chronicler wrote about her. The light of her life illuminates us today.
The circumstances of the birth of the future princess Olga still shrouded in mystery. It is known that she was born between 885 and 895, and left this world in 969.
One of the legends says that Olga was the daughter of the Varangian Oleg, the founder ancient Russian state. The Varangian origin of the princess is also proved by her name: from the Old Norse Helga (analogous to the name Olga) is translated as “saint”.
According to another legend, Olga was born in the village of Vybuty, Pskov land, in the family of princes Izborsky. But scientists are in no hurry to believe him, because in the annals of those years, the authors often confused the city of Pskov with Pleskov (or Pliska) - the Bulgarian capital of that time. And if so, Olga could have been born in the family of Prince Boris from Bulgaria.
There is also a third version of Olga's origin: she is from the family of Askold, one of the princes of Kyiv. However, the question of the genealogy of the future ruler Kievan Rus hardly matters to us. After all, in the centuries she became famous thanks to her personal qualities - marital fidelity, wisdom and beauty.
"Wonderful in girls"
With the future spouse, the girl brought the case. The young Prince Igor hunted in the forests of the Pskov region. On the Velikaya River, he noticed a boy in a boat and asked to be transported to the other side.
Only in the middle of the river did Igor realize that this was not a guy at all, but a beautiful girl dressed as a man. The brave hunter decided not to waste time and confessed to a stranger that he fell in love with her at first sight.
However, the maiden's answer struck the prince even more than her beauty. “Why do you embarrass me, prince, with immodest words?- said Olga. - Let me be young and humble, and alone here, but know that it is better for me to throw myself into the river than to endure reproach!”. The girl reminded Igor of his princely dignity: “You are the ruler of the Russian land, and should be an example of good deeds for your subjects!”.
Olga's wise words remained in Igor's memory forever. And when it was time to choose a life partner for himself, the prince remembered the "wonderful girl."
Hostage of debt
Olga lost her beloved husband early, when their son, heir to the throne, Svyatoslav, was only three years old. The sophistication of revenge on the Drevlyans who killed her husband shocked more than one generation of Russian people.
Dealing with Igor Drevlyans they sent matchmakers to the widow - they wanted her to marry their prince Mal. This would allow them to take power in Kievan Rus: after the death of Igor Olga became regent under the minor ruler Svyatoslav.
Two dozen ambassadors who arrived by river, Olga gave the most cordial welcome. She pretended to accept the offer drevlyans, and warned that tomorrow they would be brought with honors to the prince's feast right in the boat. In the morning, the ambassadors, proudly akimbo, stood in their boat, and Olga's squad carried the ship on their shoulders. Having reached the middle of the courtyard, the boat was thrown into a deep hole, which the princess ordered to dig during the night. "Is honor good for you?" Olga asked from above. "Worse than Igor's death!"- the doomed answered from below, after which they were buried alive.
But the widow did not stop there. She asked the Drevlyans to send new ambassadors to her - even more noble and more number. Unaware of what fate befell the first delegation, fifty inspired by success drevlyans arrived at the place. Olga received them graciously and offered them a good wash off the road before the evening feast. They agreed and thus signed their own death warrant: the prince's servants barred the doors from the outside, overlaid the bath with brushwood and "let the red cock go." All the guests were burned alive.
Olga committed the third revenge already on the land of the offending tribe, where she went to honor the memory of her husband at his grave. The Drevlyans also arrived at the feast, still unaware of the fate of their ambassadors. Having generously treated and drunk the Drevlyans, the ruler Kievan Rus ordered them to be cut down. The chronicle mentions five thousand killed.
The final point in Olga's vendetta against the Drevlyans was the famous burning of their villages with the help of pigeons. As a conciliatory tribute, the princess asked the Drevlyans to give her one dove from each house. The people of the tribe obeyed. When Olga had all the birds, she ordered to tie pieces of smoldering tow to their paws and release them under their native thatched roofs. All the villages of the Drevlyans flared up like matches.
How could a woman decide on a cruel reprisal against such large quantity of people? Moreover, Prince Igor was executed by the Drevlyans for trying to take tribute from them for the third time in a row, and even then under pressure from the squad, distraught with greed? Olga could not do otherwise, because she was a hostage of duty.
Firstly, she had to take revenge on the Drevlyans for her husband in order to arouse the respect of the people of Kiev. Secondly, she should have shown the rebellious Drevlyans, and indeed all other tribes, that with the death of the prince, Russia not only did not weaken, but became even stronger. And both goals were achieved.
Wise ruler
But people cannot live forever in fear, a strong state is law and order. Therefore, for all the tribes subordinate to Kyiv, the far-sighted princess established a fixed amount of tribute - “lessons”. Now the tax was levied only once a year in kind: furs, products, etc.
Olga also installed the so-called churchyards. These were small centers of princely power, where tribute was collected and trade was conducted. Later they turned into district control centers and divided Russia into prototypes of future provinces. Already under Olga, each of them was controlled by the viceroy of the princess, who, if necessary, prevented political revolts among the population.
Under Olga, stone town planning began in Kievan Rus: she understood that a strong state could not be supported by wooden fortresses.
Faithful wife
Princess Olga was the first of the rulers in Russia to accept the Christian faith, although her son Svyatoslav, and the squad, and the whole people remained pagans with her. Olga was baptized in 955 in Constantinople - she arrived in Byzantium on state affairs. The ceremony was conducted by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and Patriarch Theophylact.
According to one of the legends, this event was not without an offer of a hand and heart to a stately Russian princess from the emperor. Olga's answer was cunning: she hinted to the sovereign that it was not appropriate for Christians to marry pagans, wished to be baptized and asked to be her godfather.
When, after the ceremony, Konstantin resumed his courtship, Olga noticed to him that now he was her godfather, and therefore there could no longer be a marriage between them. The emperor only exclaimed in admiration: “You outwitted me, Olga!” Thanks to this female trick, Princess Olga remained faithful to her only husband, Igor.
From grandmother to grandson
The princess died in 969 and was buried according to the Christian rite. She never managed to convince her son Svyatoslav to accept Christianity. But her speeches about beauty and greatness orthodoxy touched the heart of their grandson - the future Prince Vladimir the Red Sun, who baptized Russia in 988.
In 1547 Olga was canonized as a saint Equal-to-the-Apostles. Except for her, like an honor in history Christianity Only five women were honored: Mary Magdalene, Empress Helen, First Martyr Thekla of Iconium, Martyr Apphia of Colosse, and Enlightener of Georgia Nina.
bagira.guru
From: ,