Why were the princes always fighting?

The history of twelfth-century Rus’ contains a great number of wars, and at first they can be difficult to understand. One prince takes Kyiv, another drives him out, a third joins the fight, and then yesterday’s enemy becomes today’s ally. If we simply memorise the names, the whole period becomes a long chain of battles with little meaning.

It becomes easier when we understand what the princes were fighting for.

Kyiv was still the most prestigious throne in Rus’, but it was not the only source of power. A prince also wanted to protect his own land, increase his wealth and make sure that his sons would inherit something valuable. These interests could easily come into conflict with the claims of his relatives.

The problem was especially serious because the princes belonged to one large family. A man might have a legitimate claim to Kyiv because he was senior in the family, while another prince might already control a powerful principality and have no intention of giving it up. A third might support one of them because he hoped to receive land in return.

This meant that wars were rarely simple struggles between two sides. A prince could have several allies, and those allies could have their own reasons for taking part. Some wanted land, some wanted revenge, and some simply wanted to prevent a rival from becoming too strong.

The cities themselves were also important. A prince needed the support of the people who lived in a city, especially its wealthy families and leading men. In places such as Novgorod, the political community could have considerable influence over which prince ruled. Even in other cities, a prince could not completely ignore the interests of the local elite.

The result was a constant movement of alliances. Two princes might fight over Kyiv, while a third supported one side. If that side became too powerful, the third prince might change his position and join the other. There was no permanent division into two political camps.

The Polovtsians added another element to this complicated world. They were powerful nomadic peoples living on the steppe south of Rus’. The princes fought against them, but they also made alliances with them. A Russian prince who wanted to defeat his rival could sometimes ask the Polovtsians for military help.

This was dangerous because the steppe warriors did not always behave like temporary allies who would simply go home after a political dispute. Their raids could bring destruction to villages and carry away people and livestock. A prince might win his struggle for Kyiv and at the same time weaken the lands he hoped to rule.

One of the most dramatic periods of this struggle came in the middle of the twelfth century, when several princes fought repeatedly for Kyiv. The city changed hands more than once, and each new ruler had to deal with enemies who had not accepted his victory.

The famous campaign of Andrei Bogolyubsky in 1169 showed how much the political world had changed. Andrei’s army captured Kyiv and plundered it, but Andrei himself did not remain there. He was interested in strengthening Vladimir in the northeast rather than becoming another ruler who spent his life fighting for Kyiv.

The episode is important because it shows that the old political logic was beginning to disappear. Once, the struggle for Kyiv had been the struggle for the centre of Rus’. Now a prince could attack Kyiv, take its wealth and still return to his own principality.

Yet the princes were not constantly at war. There were also long periods of peace, marriages between rival families and meetings where they tried to settle disputes. They shared a religion and a dynasty, and they often needed one another against enemies from outside.

This is why the word “anarchy” does not describe the period very well. There were rules, customs and ideas about who had the right to rule.

This is why the word “anarchy” does not describe the period very well. There were rules, customs and ideas about who had the right to rule. The problem was that there were too many people with competing rights, and no single ruler was strong enough to enforce those rules everywhere.

For ordinary people, however, the distinction mattered little when an army arrived. A war between princes could mean that crops were destroyed, villages were burned, animals were taken and people were forced to leave their homes. Even when the princes thought they were fighting for legitimate reasons, the cost was often paid by those who had no part in the dispute.

At the same time, the political competition of the period helped create a more varied Rus’. Princes built churches and towns, encouraged trade and strengthened their own lands. Novgorod developed its unusual political traditions, while Vladimir and Suzdal became centres of a distinctive northern culture. Galicia and Volhynia grew into powerful lands in the southwest.

So the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries were not simply an age of decline. They were a time of change. The old Kyiv-centred state was disappearing, but new political and cultural centres were taking its place.

By the beginning of the thirteenth century, Rus’ had become a large and complicated world. It had many rulers, several powerful cities and no single political centre that everyone obeyed.

For the people living there, this was simply the world they knew. They were not waiting for the old Rus’ to return, because they did not know that it had ever existed in quite the way later historians would describe it.

They lived in Novgorod, Vladimir, Kyiv, Smolensk, Galicia and dozens of smaller towns. They traded, farmed, built churches, raised families and fought wars when their princes demanded it.

Rus’ was divided, but it was still alive.