Kiev uprising of 1068
The Kiev uprising of 1068 was a revolt against Grand Prince
The Polovtsy raid of 1068–1069 was only the tribe's second major raid into Rus’ (they had negotiated a treaty with Prince
The Polovsty continued to raid throughout the area, prompting the Kievans to call on the grand prince to rearm them so they could march out and meet the threat. Iziaslav refused, prompting the rebellion. The Tale of Bygone Years (in Russian Povest Vremennikh Let), a part of The Lavrentian Chronicle, relates what happened next:
The Kievans who had escaped to their native city held a veche (literally "created a veche") on the marketplace and sent the following communication to the Prince [Iziaslav]: 'The Polovtsy have spread over the country. O Prince, give us arms and horses, that we may offer them combat once more.' Iziaslav, however, paid no heed to this request. Then the people began to murmur against his general (voevoda) Konstantin. From the place of the assembly, they mounted the hill and arrived before the house of Konstantin.[2]
The Kievan mob ransacked Konstantin's house, apparently blaming him for the defeat. They then drove out Iziaslav and freed Prince
In Iziaslav's absence, Prince Sviatoslav managed to defeat a much larger Polovetsian army on November 1, 1068 and stem the tide of Polovetsian raids. A small skirmish in 1071 was the only disturbance by the Polovtsy for the next two decades.[3] Thus, while the Battle of Alta River was a disgrace for Kievan Rus' and led briefly to the ouster of the grand prince, Sviatoslav's victory the following year relieved the Polovtsy threat to Kiev and Chernigov for a considerable period and allowed Iziaslav the breathing space necessary to reclaim the throne.
The uprising has been seen by a number of Russian and Soviet historians as proof of the power of the
Notes
- ^ Janet Martin, Medieval Russia 980-1584 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 45
- ^ Lavrentevskaia Letopis (Povest Vremennikh Let), in Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Letopisei, Vol. 1, cols. 170-1; see also Boris D. Grekov, Kiev Rus, trans. by Y. Sdobnikov (Moscow, Foreign Language Publishing House. 1959), 656-7; Martin, Medieval Russia, 35, 49; Mikhail Tikhomirov, The Towns of Ancient Rus, trans. by Y. Sdobnikov (Moscow, Foreign Language Publishing House. 1959), 198-199.
- ^ Martin, Medieval Russia, 49.