Olga and Sviatoslav — two completely different ways of ruling

When Prince Igor was killed by the Drevlyans, the future of Rus’ was suddenly in the hands of his widow, Olga. Their son Sviatoslav was still a child, so Olga became the ruler of Kyiv in his place.

It was a dangerous position. Igor had been killed because his attempt to collect tribute had gone too far, and the people responsible for his death were still close to Kyiv. The Drevlyans even sent messengers to Olga with a proposal: their own prince, Mal, could marry her, and the two lands could be joined under his rule.

Olga had no intention of accepting.

The chronicle tells the story of her revenge in several dramatic episodes. The first group of Drevlyan ambassadors arrived by boat and were invited to come to Olga. Instead of receiving them in the usual way, her servants carried the boat, with the men still inside it, to a deep pit that had been prepared in advance. The ambassadors were buried alive.

A second group came afterwards, not knowing what had happened to the first. Olga told them to wash before meeting her, and when they entered the bathhouse, it was set on fire.

Whether every detail happened exactly as the chronicle describes it is impossible to know. The story was written down later, and medieval chronicles often told important events in a dramatic way. But the basic fact is clear enough: Olga wanted to punish the Drevlyans and, at the same time, make sure that no one would doubt the authority of the Kyiv prince.

Her revenge did not end with the ambassadors. Olga travelled into Drevlyan territory, and the chronicle tells us that she demanded tribute from the people there. Eventually she destroyed their main city, Iskorosten.

This is the Olga we usually meet in the old stories: clever, patient and extremely ruthless. But there was another side to her rule that was just as important.

After the death of Igor, Olga understood that the system of tribute needed to be made more stable. A ruler could not simply travel from place to place demanding as much as he wanted. That could make local people rebel, as the Drevlyans had done. Olga therefore established fixed places where tribute could be collected and fixed amounts that were expected.

The change may sound simple, but it was important. It meant that the ruler was beginning to depend less on sudden acts of force and more on a regular system of government.

Olga also became famous for another reason. She travelled to Constantinople and was baptised as a Christian. The exact details of her journey are uncertain, but her connection with the Byzantine Empire is well recorded in the tradition of Rus’.

Her baptism did not make Rus’ Christian. Olga herself could not simply order the whole country to change its religion. Most of the population continued to follow the old beliefs, and even her son Sviatoslav remained a pagan.

Sviatoslav was very different from his mother.

If Olga represented patience and careful government, Sviatoslav represented war.

When he became an adult, he spent much of his life on campaign. He was not the sort of prince who wanted to remain in Kyiv and rule through messengers. He travelled with his warriors and fought against neighbouring peoples.

One of his most important enemies was the Khazar Khaganate, a powerful state that had controlled much of the steppe north of the Caspian and Black Seas. Sviatoslav attacked the Khazars and destroyed important centres of their power. He also fought the Volga Bulgars and other peoples of the region.

His campaigns took Rus’ far beyond the lands around Kyiv. Sviatoslav wanted to control important routes and territories, and he dreamed of making his centre of power farther south, near the Danube. At one point he even told his mother and his advisers that Kyiv was not where he wanted to live. The city, he complained, was too far from the lands where he wished to fight and trade.

The chronicle gives us a famous picture of Sviatoslav’s life on campaign. He is described as travelling lightly, without a large camp or luxurious supplies. He supposedly carried only what a warrior needed and slept in the open with his army.

Whether the picture is completely accurate or not, it captures something real about his reputation. Sviatoslav wanted to be seen as a warrior among warriors.

He was also famous for announcing his attacks openly. Before going to war, he was said to send a short message to his enemies: “I am coming for you.”

Olga understood that a state needed order, predictable tribute and careful diplomacy. Sviatoslav believed in movement, conquest and military strength.

There is a striking contrast between mother and son. Olga understood that a state needed order, predictable tribute and careful diplomacy. Sviatoslav believed in movement, conquest and military strength. Both were successful in their own way, but their ideas of what a ruler should do were very different.

Sviatoslav’s victories made Rus’ more powerful, but they also created new dangers. He fought far from Kyiv and became involved in the politics of the Byzantine Empire and the Balkans. His ambitions eventually brought him into conflict with the Byzantines.

In 971, after a long war, Sviatoslav made peace with the Byzantine emperor. He began the journey back towards Kyiv, but on the way he was attacked by the Pechenegs, a steppe people who controlled parts of the region around the Dnieper. Sviatoslav was killed.

His death left Rus’ with another problem: several of his sons were now competing for power.

Olga had created greater order inside the country, while Sviatoslav had greatly expanded its military reach. Neither had solved the question that would return again and again in the history of Rus’: what happens when a powerful prince dies and several men believe they have the right to rule?

For the moment, that question would be answered by another of Sviatoslav’s sons.

His name was Vladimir.

And Vladimir would change Rus’ in a way that neither Olga nor Sviatoslav had imagined.