Drevlian uprising and death of Igor
Having collected tribute from the Drevlians, Igor returned with a small retinue to take more; the Drevlians of Iskorosten, led by their prince Mal, killed him — by Leo the Deacon’s account, tearing him apart between two bent trees.
- Date
- 945year known
- Place
- Iskorostentoday: Korosten, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine · Eastern Europe
- Participants
- Igor of Kiev, Drevlians, Kievan Rus’
- Threads
- Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Death of Igor; Гибель Игоря; Полюдье
The chronicle blames Igor’s retinue, envious of the wealth of Sveneld’s men, for urging him to go for tribute again. “If a wolf gets into the habit of visiting the sheep, he will carry off the whole flock unless he is killed,” the Drevlians reasoned. The Byzantine historian Leo the Deacon, writing a few decades later, says that Igor was captured by the “Germans” (probably the Drevlians), tied to two bent trees and torn in two.
The story shows how the early princes ruled: through the poliudie, the winter circuit in which the prince and his retinue collected tribute from subject tribes. Both the Primary Chronicle and the Novgorod First Chronicle place Igor’s death under 945; the date is conventional but consistent with the treaty of 944.
Connections
Consequences
- Olga’s revenge on the Drevlians945–946 · Eastern Europe
Related events
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945 · Balkans and Anatoliathe costly campaigns and a less favourable treaty increased the prince’s need for tribute
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Lechfeld10–12 August 955
- First Althing at Þingvellir930
- Abd al-Rahman III proclaims the Caliphate of Córdoba16 January 929
- Imperial coronation of Otto I2 February 962
- Baptism of Poland14 April 966
Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944
- Olga’s visit to Constantinople and her baptism9 September – 18 October 957
- Sviatoslav’s invasion of Bulgariabetween 967 and 968 – July 971
- Golden Age of Bulgaria under Simeon I893 – 27 May 927
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Igor of Kiev
- Wikipedia (English): Drevlians
- Wikipedia (Russian): Восстание древлян
- Wikipedia (Russian): Игорь Рюрикович
- Лев Диакон. История / Пер. М. М. Копыленко; коммент. М. Я. Сюзюмова, С. А. Иванова. — М.: Наука, 1988.
- Wikidata: Q12141260