Draft:Capture of Novgorod (1067)

Capture of Novgorod (1067) — capture of Novgorod by the troops of Prince of Polotsk Vseslav Bryachislavich, which occurred in 1067, during Vseslav's campaign on Novgorod Republic

The Polotsk-Novgorod War (1065-1067)

Reasons

In 1044 Vseslav Bryachislavich became the head of the Principality of Polotsk. Until 1065, his reign was peaceful with neighboring principalities, but in 1065 he began attacking the Principality of Novgorod. The chronicles do not report the reasons for these attacks, but only indicate that they occurred. "The Tale of Igor's Regiment" tells about Vseslav's campaign against Novgorod, as an episode of his struggle for the Kievan grand ducal table. All this information for the majority of researchers (S. Solovyov, M. Grushevsky, L. Alekseev, E. Zagorulsky, Y. Zayats) became the reason to see in the person of the Prince of Polotsk the main cause of internecine wars of the second half of the XI century. According to the English historians S. Franklin and D. Shepard, Vseslav's actions show an attempt to neutralize Novgorod and its subordination to Polotsk, this made it possible to strengthen control over the Baltic coast^[1]. Meanwhile, the Belarusian historian G. Semenchuk believes, that Vseslav's actions were provoked by the campaign of the Grand Duke of Kiev Izyaslav Yaroslavich (father of the Novgorod Prince Mstislav Izyaslavich) on the Sassols in the Lower Dvina region and imposing tribute on them, as these actions threatened Polotsk's control over the West Dvina trade communication and over the territories subordinate to it zemgalov^[2]. The Belarusian historian S. Tarasov believes that Vseslav led campaigns against Pskov and Novgorod to intercede for the orphan princes, who were his nephews and were deprived by the Yaroslavichs when deciding on the inheritance of Smolensk^[3].

Military operations

In 1065, Prince Vseslav Bryachislavich of Polotsk invaded the lands of the Novgorod Principality and besieged Pskov.

In 1067, Prince Vseslav Bryachislavich of Polotsk re-invaded the Novgorod Principality. Prince of Novgorod Mstislav Izyaslavich met him at the river Cheryokhi. battle took place there, which the Novgorodians lost. Mstislav fled to Kiev.

Storming of Novgorod

In Novgorod, the defense was not prepared. In the absence of the prince, the Novgorodians were at a loss and did not know what to do next.

Vseslav came to the city. Having learned that the city would not surrender to him, he, based on the miniature in the Radziwill Chronicle According to the Radziwill Chronicle, he ordered his soldiers to set fire to the walls. The walls were set on fire and burned down. After that, the Polotsk troops attacked and captured the city. According to academician A. N. Likhachev, Novgorod was taken from the third attack^[4].

In "The story of Igor's regiment" tells a different version of the capture of Novgorod by the Prince of Polotsk. It says that the army of Vseslav Bryachislavich made its way into the city through the gates and captured it:

"In the morning, open the gates of Novo-grad, smash the glory Yaroslav, ride like a wolf to Nemiga and Dudutok."

Sofia Bell Tower in Novgorod

Looting of Novgorod

Novgorod was partially burned, and some of the townspeople were captured.

Vseslav plundered the local St. Sophia Cathedral (Novgorod) with special zeal.|St. Sophia's Church]] — all church utensils were removed from there, the panikadila and bells were removed, and the holy images were removed.

By his actions, Vseslav sought to belittle the importance of Novgorod as the largest ecclesiastical center of Northern Russia. In addition, it was a punishment for the Novgorod diocese for its intransigence in the creation of the Polotsk bishopric. However, there is another version that by capturing Novgorod, he avenged the burning of Polotsk by the Novgorod army in 986, and the Sofia bells, Prince Polotsky returned his own, which he ordered from Byzantium, that is, the Novgorodians took them away from Polotsk (or the Novgorod ushkuyniki stole them, robbing the Byzantine merchants, so to speak, expatriated the goods ordered by the Polochans)^[4].

Consequences

After this victory, Vseslav Bryachislavich continued his campaigns against neighboring principalities. In the spring of 1067, he captured Novogrudok. After that, united army Kievan Rus and inflicted upon him defeat at the Nemiga River. A little later, he was captured by deception and put in a log cabin. However, already in 1068, the Yaroslavich triumvirate suffered defeat from the Polovtsians. This provoked the uprising in Kiev. The rebels elevated Vseslav to the Kiev throne, on which he held out for seven months.

1. . Franklin, D. Shepard, The Beginning of Russia. 750-1200, St. Petersburg, 2000, pp. 362, 364.
2. "G. Semenchuk." Usiaslay Brachyslavich, Prince of Polacki Template:Wayback/url=http://epolotsk.com/page.php id=263.html (Belarusian) : historical. — 2006. — December 18.
3. Tarasov S. V. Charadzey semaga to the age of Trajan: Usslai Polacki. P. 31.
4. https://samlib.ru/s/strokin_w_w/vseslavcharod.shtmlArticle ([[Special:EditPage/{{{1}}}|edit]] | [[Talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] | [[Special:PageHistory/{{{1}}}|history]] | [[Special:ProtectPage/{{{1}}}|protect]] | [[Special:DeletePage/{{{1}}}|delete]] | [{{fullurl:Special:WhatLinksHere/{{{1}}}|limit=999}} links] | [{{fullurl:{{{1}}}|action=watch}} watch] | logs | views)