The Pechenegs first come to the Rus’ land
Under 915 the Primary Chronicle notes that the Pechenegs came to the Rus’ land for the first time, made peace with Igor and went on to the Danube; five years later Igor was already fighting them.
- Date
- 915year known
- Place
- Kyivtoday: Kyiv, Ukraine · Eastern Europe
- Participants
- Pechenegs, Igor of Kiev, Kievan Rus’
- Threads
- Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Pechenegs in Rus'; Печенеги
Driven west by the Oghuz and the Khazars, the Pechenegs had crossed the Volga in the late 9th century and by the 890s had expelled the Magyars from the steppe between the Dnieper and the lower Danube. They now held the lower Dnieper and its rapids, the most dangerous stretch of the route from Kyiv to Constantinople.
For the next century the Pechenegs were both a threat and an instrument of policy: Byzantium paid them to restrain the Rus’, the Magyars and the Bulgarians; Igor hired them for his campaign of 944; they besieged Kyiv in 968 and killed Sviatoslav in 972. The 915 entry, like others of this period, depends on the chronicle’s reconstructed chronology.
Connections
Related events
- Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basinbetween 894 and 895 – 907 · Western and Central EuropeThe Pechenegs, who drove the Magyars from the Pontic steppe, soon reached the borders of Rus’
- Pecheneg siege of Kyiv968 · Eastern Europe
Same participants
- Oleg takes Kyiv882 · Eastern Europevia Igor of Kiev
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Kievan Rus’
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Pechenegs
Same place
- Kyiv culturec. 200 – between 400 and 430 · Eastern Europe
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700 · Eastern Europe
- First Christianization of the Rus’between 860 and 867 · Eastern Europe
- Askold and Dir rule in Kyiv862–882 · Eastern Europe
- Constantine VII describes the Rus’ route to Constantinoplebetween 948 and 952 · Eastern Europe
- Feud of the Sviatoslavichi977 – between 978 and 980 · Eastern Europe
- Vladimir’s pagan pantheonbetween 978 and 980 · Eastern Europe
- Vladimir’s choice of faith986–987 · Eastern Europe
- Baptism of Rus’988 · Eastern Europe
- Building of the Church of the Tithes989–996 · Eastern Europe
- The first Rus’ coinsbetween 988 and 1000 – 1015 · Eastern Europe
- Siege of Kyiv5 September – between 19 November and 6 December 1240 · Eastern Europe
Adjacent events in the thread
- Great Rus’ raid on the Caspianbetween 913 and 914 · Middle East and Egypt
- Ibn Fadlan’s embassy to the Volga Bulgars21 June 921 – 12 May 922 · Eastern Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 5 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte911
- Founding of Cluny Abbeybetween 909 and 910
Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of Achelous20 August 917
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911
- Golden Age of Bulgaria under Simeon I893 – 27 May 927
Middle East and Egypt
- Great Rus’ raid on the Caspianbetween 913 and 914
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Pechenegs
- Wikipedia (Russian): Печенеги
- Плетнёва С. А. Печенеги, торки и половцы в южнорусских степях // Труды Волго-Донской археологической экспедиции. Т. 1. — М.; Л., 1958. — (МИА; № 62).
- Golden P. B. An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. — Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1992.