Death of Sviatoslav at the Dnieper rapids
Returning from Bulgaria with a small force, Sviatoslav wintered at the mouth of the Dnieper and in the spring of 972 was ambushed at the rapids by the Pecheneg prince Kurya, who made a drinking cup from his skull.
- Date
- 972year known
- Place
- Dnieper Rapidsapproximate locationtoday: Stretch of the Dnieper between Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine (submerged by the Dnieper Reservoir since 1932) · Eastern Europe
- Route
- Dorostolon → Beloberezhye at the mouth of the Dnieper → Dnieper Rapids
- Participants
- Sviatoslav I, Pechenegs, Kievan Rus’
- Threads
- Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Kurya; Куря; Skull cup of Sviatoslav
The chronicle says that the people of Pereyaslavets warned the Pechenegs that Sviatoslav was coming with great riches and few men, and the voevoda Sveneld advised him to go round the rapids on horseback. The prince refused, spent a hungry winter at Beloberezhye and was killed when he tried to pass the rapids in spring; Sveneld reached Kyiv overland. The Byzantine historian John Skylitzes also records that he was killed by the Pechenegs.
The skull cup, bound with gold, follows a custom of the steppe peoples known since antiquity. Sviatoslav’s death left Rus’ divided among the three sons he had installed in 970 — Yaropolk in Kyiv, Oleg among the Drevlians and Vladimir in Novgorod.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Siege of Dorostolon23 April 971 – July 971 · Balkans and Anatolia
Consequences
- Feud of the Sviatoslavichi977 – between 978 and 980 · Eastern Europe
Related events
- Constantine VII describes the Rus’ route to Constantinoplebetween 948 and 952 · Eastern Europethe rapids where the Pechenegs lay in wait
Same participants
- Sviatoslav’s invasion of Bulgariabetween 967 and 968 – July 971 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Pechenegs
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Baptism of Poland14 April 966
- Imperial coronation of Otto I2 February 962
- Hugh Capet becomes King of the FranksMay 987 – 3 July 987
- Battle of Lechfeld10–12 August 955
Balkans and Anatolia
- Siege of Dorostolon23 April 971 – July 971
- Sviatoslav’s invasion of Bulgariabetween 967 and 968 – July 971
- Battle of the Gates of Trajan17 August 986
- Olga’s visit to Constantinople and her baptism9 September – 18 October 957
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Sviatoslav I
- Wikipedia (English): Pechenegs
- Wikipedia (Russian): Святослав Игоревич
- Повесть временных лет / Подгот. текста, пер., ст. и коммент. Д. С. Лихачёва; под ред. В. П. Адриановой-Перетц. — 2-е изд. — СПб.: Наука, 1996.