The Kyiv uprising of 1113 and the reign of Vladimir Monomakh
When Sviatopolk II died in April 1113, Kyiv rose: the townspeople plundered the court of the tysyatsky Putyata, attacked the Jews and called Vladimir Monomakh, who took the throne on Sunday, 20 April. As grand prince until his death in 1125 he limited usury by statute, ruled most of Rus’ through his sons and drove the Cumans back from its borders; historians see his reign as the last flowering of a united Kievan Rus’.
- Date
- 17 April 1113 – 19 May 1125exact date · duration: ≈ 12 yearsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Kyivtoday: Kyiv, Ukraine · Eastern Europe
- Participants
- Vladimir II Monomakh, Mstislav the Great, Kievan Rus’
- Threads
- Rus (11th–12th c.)
- Also known as
- Kiev uprising of 1113; Kyiv uprising of 1113; Statute of Vladimir Monomakh; Instruction of Vladimir Monomakh; Testament of Vladimir Monomakh; Battle of the Salnitsa; Киевское восстание 1113 года; Устав Владимира Мономаха; Устав о резах; Поучение Владимира Мономаха; Битва на Сальнице
Sviatopolk Iziaslavich died near Vyshgorod on 16 April 1113 and was buried in the church of St Michael that he had built. The next day, according to the Hypatian Chronicle, the Kyivans held a council and invited Vladimir Monomakh of Pereiaslav to the throne of his father and grandfather. When he refused, grieving for his kinsman, they plundered the court of the tysyatsky Putyata and robbed the Jews; a second embassy warned that the crowd would turn next on Sviatopolk’s widow, the boyars and the monasteries. Monomakh came and took his seat in Kyiv on a Sunday — 20 April by the calendar — welcomed by Metropolitan Nikephoros and the bishops, ‘and the unrest subsided’. Historians explain the uprising differently: B. A. Rybakov saw its main cause in the fiscal policy of Sviatopolk’s administration, above all a salt tax, and I. Ya. Froyanov in a political struggle between Kyivan factions.
Monomakh, then about sixty, had long led the princes against the Cumans and routed them on the Salnitsa in 1111. Soon after his accession he gathered his retinue at Berestove — the tysyatskys of Kyiv, Belgorod and Pereiaslav and others, among them Ivanko Chudinovich, a man of Oleg Sviatoslavich — and issued a statute on interest: a lender who had collected interest three times lost the right to the principal. Together with rules protecting merchants ruined by shipwreck, war or fire and defining the status of indentured labourers (zakupy) and slaves, it entered the Extended Pravda. Through his sons Monomakh controlled most of the Rus’ lands: in 1116 he forced Gleb of Minsk to submit, taking Minsk itself in 1119, and his son Yaropolk and Vsevolod, son of David of Chernihiv, took the Cuman towns of Sugrov, Sharukan and Balin on the upper Donets (the chronicle says ‘on the Don’); in 1117 he brought his eldest son Mstislav from Novgorod to Belgorod near Kyiv, and in 1118 summoned the Novgorod boyars to Kyiv to swear allegiance. In 1116 his son-in-law Leo, a pretender to the Byzantine throne, was killed at Dorostolon on the Danube by two ‘Saracens’ sent by Emperor Alexios I.
Monomakh died on 19 May 1125 and was buried in St Sophia beside his father; the next day Mstislav took the throne of Kyiv. Monomakh’s Instruction to his children — moral counsel, an account of his journeys, campaigns and hunts, and a letter to Oleg Sviatoslavich — survives only in the Laurentian copy of 1377, inserted under 1096; scholars date it variously, from 1099 to after 1117, and in it he counts 83 great campaigns and 19 peace treaties with the Cumans. Historians see his reign and that of Mstislav (1125–1132) as the last flowering of a united Kievan Rus’, which broke apart after Mstislav’s death.
Connections
Related events
- The Pravda of Yaroslav, the oldest part of the Russkaya Pravdabetween 1016 and 1039 · Eastern EuropeMonomakh’s statute on interest entered the Extended Pravda, the later redaction of the code that began with Yaroslav’s Pravda
- The Council of Liubech1097 · Eastern EuropeMonomakh, who had brought the princes together at Liubech in 1097, became grand prince of Kyiv in 1113
- Reign of Alexios I Komnenos: the Komnenian restoration begins4 April 1081 – 15 August 1118 · Balkans and Anatoliain 1116 Monomakh backed his son-in-law, the pretender Leo Diogenes, against Alexios I; Leo was killed at Dorostolon (Dristra) by two assassins sent by the emperor
- The Tale of Bygone Years (Primary Chronicle) is compiled in Kyivbetween 1110 and 1118 · Eastern EuropeSylvester dated his redaction to 1116, in the reign of Monomakh in Kyiv
- Battle of Didgori12 August 1121 · Middle East and EgyptThe Kipchak (Cuman) warriors whom David IV settled in Georgia in 1118 and led at Didgori came with Khan Atrak (Otrok), who, according to the Rus chronicle, had been driven from the steppe by Vladimir Monomakh
- Novgorod expels Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich28 May – 15 July 1136 · Eastern Europein 1118 Monomakh had summoned the Novgorod boyars to Kyiv to swear allegiance; in 1136 Novgorod expelled his grandson
Same participants
- Andrei Bogolyubsky’s coalition sacks Kyivbetween 8 March and 12 March 1169 · Eastern Europevia Kievan Rus’
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
- Oleg takes Kyiv882 · Eastern Europe
- The Pechenegs first come to the Rus’ land915 · Eastern Europe
- Constantine VII describes the Rus’ route to Constantinoplebetween 948 and 952 · Eastern Europe
- Pecheneg siege of Kyiv968 · 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
- St Sophia of Kyiv is foundedbetween 1011 and 1037 · Eastern Europe
- Reign of Yaroslav the Wise in Kyiv1019 – 20 February 1054 · Eastern Europe
- Hilarion, the first metropolitan of Kyiv from Rus’1051 … February 1052 · Eastern Europe
- Siege of Kyiv5 September – between 19 November and 6 December 1240 · Eastern Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Bernard founds Clairvaux: the rise of the CisterciansJune 1115
- Investiture Controversy1075 – 23 September 1122
Balkans and Anatolia
- Reign of Alexios I Komnenos: the Komnenian restoration begins4 April 1081 – 15 August 1118
Middle East and Egypt
- Founding of the Knights Templarbetween 1119 and 1120
- Battle of Didgori12 August 1121
Africa
- K2 (Bambandyanalo) and the rise of Mapungubwec. 1000 – c. 1220
- The Almohads: from Ibn Tumart's revolt to the conquest of Marrakesh1121–1147
- The Almoravids: from a desert reform movement to an empirebetween 1039 and 1046 – 1147
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
Central and Northern Asia
South Asia
East Asia
- Wanyan Aguda proclaims the Jin empire28 January 1115
- Zhang Zeduan’s scroll Along the River During the Qingming Festivalbetween 1100 and 1127
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Suryavarman II builds Angkor Watbetween 1113 and 1122 – c. 1150
- Polynesians settle the Society Islandsbetween 1025 and 1120
North America
- Classic Mimbres: the painted bowls of the Mogollonc. 1000 – between 1130 and 1150
- Pueblo II: stone pueblos and the Chaco worldc. 900 – c. 1150
Latin America
- Eight Deer Jaguar Claw unites the Mixtec kingdomsc. 1083 – 1115
- Collapse of Tiwanakuc. 1000 – c. 1150
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
- Tula and the Toltecs: the leading city of central Mexicoc. 900 – c. 1150
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Vladimir II Monomakh
- Wikipedia (English): Russkaya Pravda
- Wikipedia (Russian): Киевское восстание 1113 года
- Wikipedia (Russian): Владимир Всеволодович Мономах
- Wikipedia (Russian): Поучение Владимира Мономаха
- Русская Правда. Пространная редакция (Викитека)
- Полное собрание русских летописей. Т. 2: Ипатьевская летопись. — 2-е изд. — СПб., 1908.
- Franklin S., Shepard J. The Emergence of Rus, 750–1200. — London; New York: Longman, 1996.
- Wikidata: Q4220258