http://www.friesian.com/russia.htm#kiev

Sviatoslav l of Kiev,

http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00079371&tree=LEO

Sviatoslav I of Kiev Prince of Rus' Sviatoslav the Brave

Sviatoslav Reign 945–972 Coronation 964 Predecessor Igor Successor Yaropolk I Issue: Yaropolk I Oleg

With Malusha: Vladimir the Great Full name Sviatoslav Igorevich Father Igor Mother Saint Olga (regent 945-964) Born 942? Kiev Died March 972 [aged ~30] The island of Khortytsa Dnieper Burial ? Religion Paganism

Princely stamp Sviatoslav I Igorevich (Old East Slavic: ?~??????? / ??????????[1] ?????????, Sventoslavu / Svantoslavu Igorevici; Russian: ????????? ????????, Sviatoslav Igorevich; Ukrainian: ????????? ????????, Sviatoslav Ihorovych; Bulgarian: ?????????, Svetoslav, Greek: Sfe?d?s???ß??, Sphendosthlabos) (c. 942 – March 972), also spelled Svyatoslav, was a prince of Rus.[2][3] The son of Igor of Kiev and Olga, Sviatoslav is famous for his incessant campaigns in the east and south, which precipitated the collapse of two great powers of Eastern Europe—Khazaria and the First Bulgarian Empire; he also conquered numerous East Slavic tribes, defeated the Alans and the Volga Bulgars,[4] and at times was allied with the Pechenegs and Magyars.

His decade-long reign over Rus' was marked by rapid expansion into the Volga River valley, the Pontic steppe and the Balkans. By the end of his short life, Sviatoslav carved out for himself the largest state in Europe, eventually moving his capital from Kiev (modern day Ukraine) to Pereyaslavets (modern day Romania) on the Danube in 969. In contrast with his mother's conversion to Christianity, Sviatoslav remained a staunch pagan all of his life. Due to his abrupt death in ambush, Sviatoslav's conquests, for the most part, were not consolidated into a functioning empire, while his failure to establish a stable succession led to fratricidal feud among his sons, resulting in two of his three sons being killed.

Contents [hide] 1 Name 2 Early life and personality 3 Appearance 4 Religious beliefs 5 Family 6 Eastern campaigns 7 Campaigns in the Balkans 8 Death and aftermath 9 Sayings by Svyatoslav 10 In art and literature 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References [edit]Name

The Kievan Rus' at the beginning of Sviatoslav's reign (in red), showing his sphere of influence to 972 (in orange) Sviatoslav was the first ruler of Rus' who is recorded in the Primary Chronicle with a name of Slavic origin (as opposed to his predecessors, whose names are ultimately derived from Old Norse). This name is however not recorded in other medieval Slavic countries. Even in Rus', it was attested only among the members of the house of Rurik, as were the names of Sviatoslav's immediate successors: Vladimir, Yaroslav, Mstislav).[5] This is questionable,as these names follow conventions well established in other Slavic lands, and it ignores Vladimir of Bulgaria, who ruled between 889-893. Some scholars speculate that the name of Sviatoslav, composed of the Slavic roots for "holy" and "glory", was an artificial derivation combining those of his predecessors Oleg and Rurik (they mean "holy" and "glorious" in Old Norse, respectively).[6] On the other hand,such a compound structure name was already known from Great Moravia, as in the rulers named Svatopluk. Clearly Sviatislav's name belongs to this tradition, as he had a son by the name of Yaropolk, of much the same form, and a grandson by the very same name, Sviatopolk.

[edit]Early life and personality

Ship burial of Igor the Old in 945, depicted by Henryk Siemiradzki (1843–1902). Virtually nothing is known about his childhood and youth, which he spent reigning in Novgorod. Sviatoslav's father, Igor, was killed by the Drevlians around 945 and his mother, Olga, ruled as regent in Kiev until Sviatoslav's maturity (ca. 963).[7] His tutor was a Varangian named Asmud. "Quick as a leopard,"[8] The tradition of having Varangian tutors for the sons of ruling princes survived well into the 11th century. Sviatoslav appears to have had little patience for administration. His life was spent with his druzhina (roughly, "troops") in permanent warfare against neighboring states. According to the Primary Chronicle: upon his expeditions he carried with him neither wagons nor kettles, and boiled no meat, but cut off small strips of horseflesh, game or beef, and ate it after roasting it on the coals. Nor did he have a tent, but he spread out a horse-blanket under him, and set his saddle under his head, and all his retinue did likewise.[9]

[edit]Appearance

Illustration of Sviatoslav wearing a vyshyvanka

Madrid Skylitzes. Meeting between John Tzimiskes and Sviatoslav. Sviatoslav's appearance has been described very clearly by Leo the Deacon, who himself attended the meeting of Sviatoslav with John I Tzimiskes. Following Deacon's memories, Sviatoslav was a blue-eyed male of average height but of stalwart build, much more sturdy than Tzimiskes. He shaved his blond head and his beard but wore a bushy mustache and a sidelock as a sign of his nobility.[10] He preferred to dress in white, and it was noted that his garments were much cleaner than those of his men, although he have had a lot in common with his warriors. He wore a single large gold earring bearing a carbuncle and two pearls.[11]

[edit]Religious beliefs

His mother, Olga, converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity at the court of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in 957. However,[12] Sviatoslav remained a pagan for all of his life. In the treaty of 971 between Sviatoslav and the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes, the Rus' are swearing by Perun and Veles.[13] According to the Primary Chronicle, he believed that his warriors (druzhina) would lose respect for him and mock him if he became a Christian.[14] The allegiance of his warriors was of paramount importance in his conquest of an empire that stretched from the Volga to the Danube.

[edit]Family

Svjatoslav's mother, Olga, with her escort in Constantinople, a miniature from the late 11th-century chronicle of John Skylitzes. Very little is known of Sviatoslav's family life. It is possible that Sviatoslav was not the only (and the eldest) son of his parents. The Russo-Byzantine treaty of 945 mentions a certain Predslava, Volodislav's wife, as the noblest of the Rus' women after Olga. The fact that Predslava was Oleg's mother is presented by Vasily Tatishchev. He also speculated that Predslava was of a Hungarian nobility. George Vernadsky was among many historians to speculate that Volodislav was Igor's eldest son and heir who died at some point during Olga's regency. Another chronicle told that Oleg (? - 944?) was the eldest son of Igor. At the time of Igor's death, Sviatoslav was still a child and he was raised by his mother or at her instructions. Her influence, however, did not extend to his religious observance.

Sviatoslav, had several children, but the origin of his wives is not specified in the chronicle. By his wives, he had Yaropolk and Oleg.[15] By Malusha, a woman of indeterminate origins,[16] Sviatoslav had Vladimir, who would ultimately break with his father's paganism and convert Rus' to Christianity. John Skylitzes reported that Vladimir had a brother named Sfengus; whether this Sfengus was a son of Sviatoslav, a son of Malusha by a prior or subsequent husband, or an unrelated Rus' nobleman is unclear.[17]

[edit]Eastern campaigns

Sviatoslav I in the Tsarsky Titulyarnik, 1672 Shortly after his accession to the throne, Sviatoslav began campaigning to expand the Rus' control over the Volga valley and the Pontic steppe region. His greatest success was the conquest of Khazaria, which for centuries had been one of the strongest states of Eastern Europe. The sources are not clear about the roots of the conflict between Khazaria and Rus', so several possibilities have been suggested. The Rus' had an interest in removing the Khazar hold on the Volga trade route because the Khazars collected duties from the goods transported by the Volga. Historians have suggested that the Byzantine Empire may have incited the Rus' against the Khazars, who fell out with the Byzantines after the persecutions of the Jews in the reign of Romanus I Lecapenus.[18]

Sviatoslav began by rallying the Khazars' East Slavic vassal tribes to his cause. Those who would not join him, such as the Vyatichs, were attacked and forced to pay tribute to the Kievan Rus' rather than the Khazars.[19] According to a legend recorded in the Primary Chronicle, Sviatoslav sent a message to the Vyatich rulers, consisting of a single phrase: "I want to come at you!" (Old East Slavic: "???? ?? ?? ???")[20] This phrase is used in modern Russian (usually misquoted as "??? ?? ??") and in modern Ukrainian ("??? ?? ??") to denote an unequivocal declaration of one's intentions. Proceeding by the Oka and Volga rivers, he invaded Volga Bulgaria and exacted tribute from the local population, thus bringing under Kievan control the upper Volga River. He employed Oghuz and Pecheneg mercenaries in this campaign, perhaps to counter the Khazars' and Bulgars' superior cavalry.[21]

The site of the Khazar fortress at Sarkel, sacked by Sviatoslav c. 965 (aerial photo from excavations conducted by Mikhail Artamonov in the 1930s) Sviatoslav destroyed the Khazar city of Sarkel around 965, and possibly sacked (but did not occupy) the Khazar city of Kerch on the Crimea.[22] At Sarkel he established a Rus' settlement called Belaya Vyezha ("the white tower" or "the white fortress", the East Slavic translation for "Sarkel").[23] He subsequently destroyed the Khazar capital of Atil.[24] A visitor to Atil wrote soon after Sviatoslav's campaign: "The Rus' attacked, and no grape or raisin remained, not a leaf on a branch."[25] The exact chronology of his Khazar campaign is uncertain and disputed; for example, Mikhail Artamonov and David Christian proposed that the sack of Sarkel came after the destruction of Atil.[26]

Although Ibn Haukal reports Sviatoslav's sack of Samandar in modern-day Dagestan, the Rus' leader did not bother to occupy the Khazar heartlands north of the Caucasus Mountains permanently. On his way back to Kiev, Sviatoslav chose to strike against the Ossetians and force them into subservience.[27] Therefore, Khazar successor statelets continued their precarious existence in the region.[28] The destruction of Khazar imperial power paved the way for Kievan Rus' to dominate north-south trade routes through the steppe and across the Black Sea, routes that formerly had been a major source of revenue for the Khazars. Moreover, Sviatoslav's campaigns led to increased Slavic settlement in the region of the Saltovo-Mayaki culture, greatly changing the demographics and culture of the transitional area between the forest and the steppe.[29]

[edit]Campaigns in the Balkans

Main article: Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria

Pursuit of Sviatoslav's warriors by the Byzantine army, a miniature from 11th-century chronicles of John Skylitzes.

Sviatoslav invading Bulgaria; Manasses Chronicle The annihilation of Khazaria was undertaken against the background of the Rus'-Byzantine alliance, concluded in the wake of Igor's Byzantine campaign in 944.[30] Close military ties between the Rus' and Byzantium are illustrated by the fact, reported by John Skylitzes, that a Rus' detachment accompanied Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros Phokas in his victorious naval expedition to Crete.

In 967 or 968[31] Nikephoros sent to Sviatoslav his agent, Kalokyros, with the task of talking Sviatoslav into assisting him in a war against Bulgaria.[32] Sviatoslav was paid 15,000 pounds of gold and set sail with an army of 60,000 men, including thousands of Pecheneg mercenaries.[33][34]

Sviatoslav defeated the Bulgarian ruler Boris II[35] and proceeded to occupy the whole of northern Bulgaria. Meanwhile, the Byzantines bribed the Pechenegs to attack and besiege Kiev, where Olga stayed with Sviatoslav's son Vladimir. The siege was relieved by the druzhina of Pretich, and immediately following the Pecheneg retreat, Olga sent a reproachful letter to Sviatoslav. He promptly returned and defeated the Pechenegs, who continued to threaten Kiev.

[show] v t e Rus'–Byzantine Wars

Boris Chorikov. Sviatoslav's Council of War Sviatoslav refused to turn his Balkan conquests over to the Byzantines, and the parties fell out as a result. To the chagrin of his boyars and mother (who died within three days after learning about his decision), Sviatoslav decided to move his capital to Pereyaslavets in the mouth of the Danube due to the great potential of that location as a commercial hub. In the Primary Chronicle record for 969, Sviatoslav explains that it is to Pereyaslavets, the centre of his lands, "all the riches flow: gold, silks, wine, and various fruits from Greece, silver and horses from Hungary and Bohemia, and from Rus' furs, wax, honey, and slaves".

In summer 969, Sviatoslav left Rus' again, dividing his dominion into three parts, each under a nominal rule of one of his sons. At the head of an army that included Pecheneg and Magyar auxiliary troops, he invaded Bulgaria again, devastating Thrace, capturing the city of Philippopolis, and massacring its inhabitants. Nikephoros responded by repairing the defenses of Constantinople and raising new squadrons of armored cavalry. In the midst of his preparations, Nikephoros was overthrown and killed by John Tzimiskes, who thus became the new Byzantine emperor.[36]

John Tzimiskes first attempted to persuade Sviatoslav into leaving Bulgaria, but was unsuccessful. Challenging the Byzantine authority, Sviatoslav crossed the Danube and laid siege to Adrianople, causing panic on the streets of Constantinople in summer 970.[37] Later that year, the Byzantines launched a counteroffensive. Being occupied with suppressing a revolt of Bardas Phokas in Asia Minor, John Tzimiskes sent his commander-in-chief, Bardas Skleros, who defeated the coalition of Rus', Pechenegs, Magyars, and Bulgarians in the Battle of Arcadiopolis.[38] Meanwhile, John, having quelled the revolt of Bardas Phokas, came to the Balkans with a large army and promoting himself as the liberator of Bulgaria from Sviatoslav, penetrated the impracticable mountain passes and shortly thereafter captured Marcianopolis, where the Rus' were holding a number of Bulgar princes hostage.

Siege of Durostorum in Manasses Chronicle Sviatoslav retreated to Dorostolon, which the Byzantine armies besieged for sixty-five days. Cut off and surrounded, Sviatoslav came to terms with John and agreed to abandon the Balkans, renounce his claims to the southern Crimea and return west of the Dnieper River. In return, the Byzantine emperor supplied the Rus' with food and safe passage home. Sviatoslav and his men set sail and landed on Berezan Island at the mouth of the Dnieper, where they made camp for the winter. Several months later, their camp was devastated by famine, so that even a horse's head could not be bought for less than a half-grivna, reports the Kievan chronicler of the Primary Chronicle.[39] While Sviatoslav's campaign brought no tangible results for the Rus', it weakened the Bulgarian statehood and left it vulnerable to the attacks of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer four decades later.

[edit]Death and aftermath

The Death of Sviatoslav by Boris Chorikov Fearing that the peace with Sviatoslav would not endure, the Byzantine emperor induced the Pecheneg khan Kurya to kill Sviatoslav before he reached Kiev. This was in line with the policy outlined by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in De Administrando Imperio of fomenting strife between the Rus' and the Pechenegs.[40] According to the Slavic chronicle, Sveneld attempted to warn Sviatoslav to avoid the Dnieper rapids, but the prince slighted his wise advice and was ambushed and slain by the Pechenegs when he tried to cross the cataracts near Khortitsa early in 972. The Primary Chronicle reports that his skull was made into a chalice by the Pecheneg khan, Kurya.[41]

Following Sviatoslav's death, tensions between his sons grew. A war broke out between Sviatoslav's legitimate sons, Oleg and Yaropolk, in 976, at the conclusion of which Oleg was killed. In 977 Vladimir fled Novgorod to escape Oleg's fate and went to Scandinavia, where he raised an army of Varangians and returned in 980. Yaropolk was killed and Vladimir became the sole ruler of Kievan Rus'.

[edit]Sayings by Svyatoslav

I come at you. The dead can not be dishonored. [edit]In art and literature

Ivan Akimov. Sviatoslav's Return from the Danube to His Family in Kiev (1773) Sviatoslav has long been a hero of Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian patriots due to his great military successes. His figure first attracted attention of Russian artists and poets during the Russo-Turkish War, 1768–1774, which provided obvious parallels with Sviatoslav's push towards Constantinople. Russia's southward expansion and Catherine II's imperialistic ventures in the Balkans seemed to have been legitimized by Sviatoslav's campaigns eight centuries earlier.

Among the works created during the war was Yakov Knyazhnin's tragedy Olga (1772). The Russian playwright chose to introduce Sviatoslav as his protagonist, although his active participation in the events following Igor's death is out of sync with the traditional chronology. Knyazhnin's rival Nikolai Nikolev (1758–1815) also wrote a play on the subject of Sviatoslav's life. Ivan Akimov's painting Sviatoslav's Return from the Danube to Kiev (1773) explores the conflict between military honour and family attachment. It is a vivid example of Poussinesque rendering of early medieval subject matter.

In the 19th century, interest in Sviatoslav's career waned. Klavdiy Lebedev depicted an episode of Sviatoslav's meeting with Emperor John in his well-known painting, while Eugene Lanceray sculpted an equestrian statue of Sviatoslav in the early 20th century.[42] Sviatoslav appears in the 1913 poem of Velimir Khlebnikov Written before the war (#70. ?????????? ?? ?????)[43] as an epitome of militant Slavdom:

?????????? ??? ?????, Pouring the famed juice of the Danube ??????? ? ????? ?????, Into the depth of my head, ????? ???? ?, ????????? I shall drink and remember ??????? ????: "??? ?? ??!". The cry of the bright ones: "I come at you!"[44]

Monument by Vyacheslav Klykov (2005) He is the villain of Samuel Gordon[disambiguation needed]'s novel The Lost Kingdom, or the Passing of the Khazars,[45] a fictionalized account of the destruction of Khazaria by the Rus'. The Slavic warrior figures in a more positive context in the story "Chernye Strely Vyaticha" by Vadim Viktorovich Kargalov; the story is included in his book Istoricheskie povesti.[46]

In 2005, reports circulated that a village in the Belgorod region had erected a monument to Sviatoslav's victory over the Khazars by the Russian sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov. The reports described the 13-meter tall statue as depicting a Rus' cavalryman trampling a supine Khazar bearing a Star of David. This created an outcry within the Jewish community of Russia. The controversy was further exacerbated by Klykov's connections with Pamyat and other anti-Semitic organizations, as well as by his involvement in the "letter of 500", a controversial appeal to the Prosecutor General to review all Jewish organizations in Russia for extremism.[47] The Press Center of the Belgorod Regional Administration responded by stating that a planned monument to Sviatoslav had not yet been constructed, but would show "respect towards representatives of all nationalities and religions."[48] When the statue was unveiled, the shield bore a twelve-pointed star.

Svyatoslav is the main character of books "Knyaz" ("?????") and "The Hero" ("?????") writed by Russian writer Alexander Mazin.

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Sviatoslav I Igorevich (Old East Slavic: ?~??????? / ?????????? ?????????, Sventoslavu / Svantoslavu Igorevici; Russian: ????????? ????????, Svyatoslav Igorevic; Ukrainian: ????????? ????????, Svyatoslav Igorovic; Svetoslav; Bulgarian: ?????????, Greek: Sfe?d?s???ß??, Sphendosthlabos)

Father: Igor Mother: Olga Spouse: Unnamed daughter of Tormas, Prince of Hungary Issue: Iaropolk Sviatoslavich

Born: 935-940 Died: 972

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sviatoslav_I_of_Kiev#Sons

Sons

Oleg
Yaropolk
Vladimir, a son of Malusha (supposedly slavanized version of Malfried)
http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/RUSSIA,%20Rurik.htm

SVIATOSLAV, son of IGOR [Ingvar] of Kiev & his wife Olga --- ([935/40]-killed in battle [Mar/May] 972). The De administrando imperio names "Sphendosthlabus Ingor Russiæ principis filius". The Primary Chronicle names Sviatoslav as son of Olga. His birth date is estimated on the assumption that he was a young adult when the De administrando imperio was compiled, before the death of Emperor Konstantinos VII in 959. According to the Primary Chronicle he "was but a child" in 946. At an early age, Sviatoslav´s father appears to have established him in the northern town of Gorodishche, which indicates a claim to overlordship of the northern Scandinavian settlements. The place is called "Nemogardas" in the De administrando imperio, which could be a corruption of Novgorod. He succeeded his father as SVIATOSLAV I Grand Prince of Kiev, under the regency of his mother. Kiev was besieged by the Pechenegs in 962. Ruling alone by the mid-960s, Prince Sviatoslav launched a major attack against the Khazars in 965, using the Pechenegs as allies. He conquered the entire middle Volga area and took control of the commercial centres of Sarkel and Ityl. Sviatoslav invaded the territory of the Bulgars along the Danube in 967, having been invited to do so by Emperor Nikephoros Phokas, and established a base at Pereiaslavets on the Danube delta. It is not clear whether Pereiaslavets was the same place as Preslava, the Bulgarian capital, as Franklin & Shepard appear to assume, or a different place which appears to be the basis on which Fine writes. Zonaras records that "Borises…Bulgarorum rex" reconquered Preslav but was defeated by "Sphendosthlavus Russorum dux". Faced with the perceived threat of invasion by Sviatoslav, Emperor Ioannes Tzimisces marched into Bulgaria, captured the capital, and negotiated Sviatoslav's withdrawal. During Sviatoslav's absence in Bulgaria, the Pechenegs raided as far as Kiev. Fine points out that according to the Primary Chronicle the Bulgarians summoned the Pechenegs to attack Kiev, without help from Byzantium. The Primary Chronicle records that, on Sviatoslav´s return journey to Kiev while crossing the Dnieper river in Spring 972, he was attacked and killed by the Pecheneg leader Kuria who reputedly made his skull into a ceremonial cup covered with gold. This represents a curious echo of the report in Paulus Diaconus according to which the skull of Alboin King of the Lombards in Pannonia was allegedly made into a drinking cup after he was defeated and killed by Cunimund King of the Gepids in 567. m (before [960]) --- [of Hungary], daughter of [TORMAS Prince of Hungary & his wife ---]. The primary source which confirms her parentage and marriage has not yet been identified. She was known as PREDSLAVA in Russia. Europäische Stammtafeln suggests that Predslava was the possible daughter of Tormas but the basis for this speculation is not known. Her marriage date is estimated from the estimated date of birth of her son. Mistress (1): ESFIR, daughter of ---. She is named as Sviatoslav´s mistress in Europäische Stammtafeln. The primary source which confirms her parentage and relationship with Sviatoslav has not yet been identified. Mistress (2): MALUSHA [Malfred], daughter of MALK of Lyubech & his wife --- (-1002). The Primary Chronicle names Malusha, stewardess of Olga and sister of Dobrinya (naming their father Malk of Lyubech), as mother of Sviatoslav's son Vladimir. Grand Prince Sviatoslav & his wife had one child, Iaropolk Sviatoslavich. Grand Prince Sviatoslav & Mistress (1) had one child, Oleg Sviatoslav. Grand Prince Sviatoslav & Mistress (2) had one child, Vladimir Sviatoslavich.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sviatoslav_I_of_Kiev

Sviatoslav I Igorevich was a warrior prince of Kievan Rus'. The son of Igor of Kiev and Olga, Sviatoslav is famous for his incessant campaigns in the east and south, which precipitated the collapse of two great powers of Eastern Europe—Khazaria and the First Bulgarian Empire; he also subdued the Volga Bulgars, the Alans, and numerous East Slavic tribes, and at times was allied with the Pechenegs and Magyars. His decade-long reign over Rus' was marked by rapid expansion into the Volga River valley, the Pontic steppe and the Balkans. By the end of his short life, Sviatoslav carved out for himself the largest state in Europe, eventually moving his capital from Kiev to Pereyaslavets on the Danube in 969. In contrast with his mother's conversion to Christianity, Sviatoslav remained a staunch pagan all of his life. Due to his abrupt death in combat, Sviatoslav's conquests, for the most part, were not consolidated into a functioning empire, while his failure to establish a stable succession led to civil war among his successors.

Personality

Sviatoslav was the first true ruler of Kievan Rus' whose name is indisputably Slavic in origin (as opposed to his predecessors, whose names are ultimately derived from Old Norse). This name is not recorded in other medieval Slavic countries. Even in Rus', it was attested only among the members of the house of Rurik, as were the names of Sviatoslav's immediate successors: Vladimir, Yaroslav, Mstislav). Some scholars speculate that the name of Sviatoslav, composed of the Slavic roots for "holy" and "glory", was an artificial derivation combining those of his predecessors Oleg and Rurik (they mean "holy" and "glorious" in Old Norse, respectively). Virtually nothing is known about his childhood and youth, which he spent reigning in Novgorod. Sviatoslav's father, Igor, was killed by the Drevlians around 945 and his mother, Olga, ruled as regent in Kiev until Sviatoslav's maturity (ca. 963). His tutor was a Varangian named Asmud. "Quick as a leopard," Sviatoslav appears to have had little patience for administration. His life was spent with his druzhina (roughly, "troops") in permanent warfare against neighboring states. According to the Primary Chronicle:

“Upon his expeditions he carried with him neither wagons nor kettles, and boiled no meat, but cut off small strips of horseflesh, game or beef, and ate it after roasting it on the coals. Nor did he have a tent, but he spread out a horse-blanket under him, and set his saddle under his head, and all his retinue did likewise. ” Sviatoslav was noted by Leo the Deacon to be of average height and build. He shaved his head and his beard (or possibly just had a wispy beard) but wore a bushy mustache and a one or two sidelocks as a sign of his nobility. He preferred to dress in white, and it was noted that his garments were much cleaner than those of his men. He wore a single large gold earring bearing a ruby and two pearls. His mother converted to Christianity at the court of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in 945 or 957. However, Sviatoslav continued to worship Perun, Veles, Svarog and the other gods and goddesses of the Slavic pantheon. He remained a pagan for all of his life; according to the Primary Chronicle, he believed that his warriors would lose respect for him and mock him if he became a Christian. The allegiance of his warriors was of paramount importance in his conquest of an empire that stretched from the Volga to the Danube.

Family

Very little is known of Sviatoslav's family life. It is possible that Sviatoslav was not the only (and the eldest) son of his parents. The Russo-Byzantine treaty of 945 mentions a certain Predslava, Volodislav's wife, as the noblest of the Rus' women after Olga. George Vernadsky was among many historians to speculate that Volodislav was Igor's eldest son and heir who died at some point during Olga's regency. At the time of Igor's death, Sviatoslav was still a child and he was raised by his mother or at her instructions. Her influence, however, did not extend to his religious observance. Sviatoslav, had several children, but the origin of his wives is not specified in the chronicle. By his wives, he had Yaropolk and Oleg. By Malusha, a woman of indeterminate origins, Sviatoslav had Vladimir, who would ultimately break with his father's paganism and convert Rus to Christianity. John Skylitzes reported that Vladimir had a brother named Sfengus; whether this Sfengus was a son of Sviatoslav, a son of Malusha by a prior or subsequent husband, or an unrelated Rus' nobleman is unclear. When Sviatoslav went on campaign he left his various relations as regents in the main cities of his realm: his mother Olga and later Yaropolk in Kiev, Vladimir in Novgorod, and Oleg over the Drevlians.

Cousins

The following people are mentioned as the Igor's nephews: Sludy Prasten Akun

Sons

Oleg Yaropolk Vladimir, a son of Malusha (supposedly slavanized version of Malfried)

Eastern campaigns

Shortly after his accession to the throne, Sviatoslav began campaigning to expand the Rus' control over the Volga valley and the Pontic steppe region. His greatest success was the conquest of Khazaria, which for centuries had been one of the strongest states of Eastern Europe. The sources are not clear about the roots of the conflict between Khazaria and Rus', so several possibilities have been suggested. The Rus' had an interest in removing the Khazar hold on the Volga trade route because the Khazars collected duties from the goods transported by the Volga. Historians have suggested that the Byzantine Empire may have incited the Rus' against the Khazars, who fell out with the Byzantines after the persecutions of the Jews in the reign of Romanus I Lecapenus. Sviatoslav began by rallying the Khazars' East Slavic vassal tribes to his cause. Those who would not join him, such as the Vyatichs, were attacked and forced to pay tribute to the Kievan Rus' rather than the Khazars. According to a legend recorded in the Primary Chronicle, Sviatoslav sent a message to the Vyatich rulers, consisting of a single phrase: "I want to come at you!" (Old East Slavic: "???? ?? ?? ???") This phrase is used in modern Russian (usually misquoted as "??? ?? ??") to denote an unequivocal declaration of one's intentions. Proceeding by the Oka and Volga rivers, he invaded Volga Bulgaria and exacted tribute from the local population, thus bringing under Kievan control the upper Volga River. He employed Oghuz and Pecheneg mercenaries in this campaign, perhaps to counter the Khazars' and Bulgars' superior cavalry. Sviatoslav destroyed the Khazar city of Sarkel around 965, and possibly sacked (but did not occupy) the Khazar city of Kerch on the Crimea. At Sarkel he established a Rus' settlement called Belaya Vyezha ("the white tower" or "the white fortress", the East Slavic translation for "Sarkel"). He subsequently (probably in 968 or 969) destroyed the Khazar capital of Atil. A visitor to Atil wrote soon after Sviatoslav's campaign: "The Rus attacked, and no grape or raisin remained, not a leaf on a branch." The exact chronology of his Khazar campaign is uncertain and disputed; for example, Mikhail Artamonov and David Christian proposed that the sack of Sarkel came after the destruction of Atil. Although Ibn Haukal reports Sviatoslav's sack of Samandar in modern-day Dagestan, the Rus' leader did not bother to occupy the Khazar heartlands north of the Caucasus Mountains permanently. On his way back to Kiev, Sviatoslav chose to strike against the Ossetians and force them into subservience. Therefore, Khazar successor statelets continued their precarious existence in the region. The destruction of Khazar imperial power paved the way for Kievan Rus' to dominate north-south trade routes through the steppe and across the Black Sea, routes that formerly had been a major source of revenue for the Khazars. Moreover, Sviatoslav's campaigns led to increased Slavic settlement in the region of the Saltovo-Mayaki culture, greatly changing the demographics and culture of the transitional area between the forest and the steppe.

Campaigns in the Balkans

The annihilation of Khazaria was undertaken against the background of the Rus'-Byzantine alliance, concluded in the wake of Igor's Byzantine campaign in 944. Close military ties between the Rus' and Byzantium are illustrated by the fact, reported by John Skylitzes, that a Rus' detachment accompanied Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros Phokas in his victorious naval expedition to Crete. In 967 or 968 Nikephoros sent to Sviatoslav his agent, Kalokyros, with the task of talking Sviatoslav into assisting him in a war against Bulgaria. Sviatoslav was paid 15,000 pounds of gold and set sail with an army of 60,000 men, including thousands of Pecheneg mercenaries. Sviatoslav defeated the Bulgarian ruler Boris II and proceeded to occupy the whole of northern Bulgaria. Meanwhile, the Byzantines bribed the Pechenegs to attack and besiege Kiev, where Olga stayed with Sviatoslav's son Vladimir. The siege was relieved by the druzhina of Pretich, and immediately following the Pecheneg retreat, Olga sent a reproachful letter to Sviatoslav. He promptly returned and defeated the Pechenegs, who continued to threaten Kiev. Sviatoslav refused to turn his Balkan conquests over to the Byzantines, and the parties fell out as a result. To the chagrin of his boyars and mother (who died within three days after learning about his decision), Sviatoslav decided to move his capital to Pereyaslavets in the mouth of the Danube due to the great potential of that location as a commercial hub. In the Primary Chronicle record for 969, Sviatoslav explains that it is to Pereyaslavets, the centre of his lands, "all the riches flow: gold, silks, wine, and various fruits from Greece, silver and horses from Hungary and Bohemia, and from Rus furs, wax, honey, and slaves". In summer 969, Sviatoslav left Rus' again, dividing his dominion into three parts, each under a nominal rule of one of his sons. At the head of an army that included Pecheneg and Magyar auxiliary troops, he invaded Bulgaria again, devastating Thrace, capturing the city of Philippopolis, and massacring its inhabitants. Nikephoros responded by repairing the defenses of Constantinople and raising new squadrons of armored cavalry. In the midst of his preparations, Nikephoros was overthrown and killed by John Tzimiskes, who thus became the new Byzantine emperor. John Tzimiskes first attempted to persuade Sviatoslav into leaving Bulgaria, but was unsuccessful. Challenging the Byzantine authority, Sviatoslav crossed the Danube and laid siege to Adrianople, causing panic on the streets of Constantinople in summer 970. Later that year, the Byzantines launched a counteroffensive. Being occupied with suppressing a revolt of Bardas Phokas in Asia Minor, John Tzimiskes sent his commander-in-chief, Bardas Skleros, who defeated the coalition of Rus', Pechenegs, Magyars, and Bulgarians in the Battle of Arcadiopolis. Meanwhile, John, having quelled the revolt of Bardas Phokas, came to the Balkans with a large army and promoting himself as the liberator of Bulgaria from Sviatoslav, penetrated the impracticable mountain passes and shortly thereafter captured Marcianopolis, where the Rus were holding a number of Bulgar princes hostage. Sviatoslav retreated to Dorostolon, which the Byzantine armies besieged for sixty-five days. Cut off and surrounded, Sviatoslav came to terms with John and agreed to abandon the Balkans, renounce his claims to the southern Crimea and return west of the Dnieper River. In return, the Byzantine emperor supplied the Rus' with food and safe passage home. Sviatoslav and his men set sail and landed on Berezan Island at the mouth of the Dnieper, where they made camp for the winter. Several months later, their camp was devastated by famine, so that even a horse's head could not be bought for less than a half-grivna, reports the Kievan chronicler of the Primary Chronicle. While Sviatoslav's campaign brought no tangible results for the Rus', it weakened the Bulgarian statehood and left it vulnerable to the attacks of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer four decades later.

Death and aftermath

Fearing that the peace with Sviatoslav would not endure, the Byzantine emperor induced the Pecheneg khan Kurya to kill Sviatoslav before he reached Kiev. This was in line with the policy outlined by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in De Administrando Imperio of fomenting strife between the Rus' and the Pechenegs. According to the Slavic chronicle, Sveneld attempted to warn Sviatoslav to avoid the Dnieper cataracts, but the prince slighted his wise advice and was ambushed and slain by the Pechenegs when he tried to cross the cataracts near Khortitsa early in 972. The Primary Chronicle reports that his skull was made into a chalice by the Pecheneg khan, Kurya. Following Sviatoslav's death, tensions between his sons grew. A war broke out between Sviatoslav's legitimate sons, Oleg and Yaropolk, in 976, at the conclusion of which Oleg was killed. In 977 Vladimir fled Novgorod to escape Oleg's fate and went to Scandinavia, where he raised an army of Varangians and returned in 980. Yaropolk was killed and Vladimir became the sole ruler of Kievan Rus'.

In art and literature

Sviatoslav has long been a hero of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian patriots due to his great military successes. His figure first attracted attention of Russian artists and poets during the Russo-Turkish War, 1768–1774, which provided obvious parallels with Sviatoslav's push towards Constaninople. Russia's southward expansion and Catherine II's imperialistic ventures in the Balkans seemed to have been legitimized by Sviatoslav's campaigns eight centuries earlier. Among the works created during the war was Yakov Knyazhnin's tragedy Olga (1772). The Russian playwright chose to introduce Sviatoslav as his protagonist, although his active participation in the events following Igor's death is out of sync with the traditional chronology. Knyazhnin's rival Nikolai Nikolev (1758–1815) also wrote a play on the subject of Sviatoslav's life. Ivan Akimov's painting Sviatoslav's Return from the Danube to Kiev (1773) explores the conflict between military honour and family attachment. It is a vivid example of Poussinesque rendering of early medieval subject matter. In the 19th century, interest in Sviatoslav's career waned. Klavdiy Lebedev depicted an episode of Sviatoslav's meeting with Emperor John in his well-known painting, while Eugene Lanceray sculpted an equestrian statue of Sviatoslav in the early 20th century. Sviatoslav appears in the Slavophile poems of Velimir Khlebnikov as an epitome of militant Slavdom:

?????????? ??? ?????, Pouring the famed juice of the Danube ??????? ? ????? ?????, Into the depth of my head, ????? ???? ?, ????????? I shall drink and remember ??????? ????: "??? ?? ??!". The cry of the bright ones: "I come at you!"

He is the villain of Samuel Gordon's novel The Lost Kingdom, or the Passing of the Khazars, a fictionalized account of the destruction of Khazaria by the Rus'. The Slavic warrior figures in a more positive context in the story "Chernye Strely Vyaticha" by Vadim Viktorovich Kargalov; the story is included in his book Istoricheskie povesti. In 2005, reports circulated that a village in the Belgorod region had erected a monument to Sviatoslav's victory over the Khazars by the Russian sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov. The reports described the 13-meter tall statue as depicting a Rus' cavalryman trampling a supine Khazar bearing a Star of David. This created an outcry within the Jewish community of Russia. The controversy was further exacerbated by Klykov's connections with Pamyat and other anti-Semitic organizations, as well as by his involvement in the "letter of 500", a controversial appeal to the Prosecutor General to review all Jewish organizations in Russia for extremism. The Press Center of the Belgorod Regional Administration responded by stating that a planned monument to Sviatoslav had not yet been constructed, but would show "respect towards representatives of all nationalities and religions." When the statue was unveiled, the shield bore a twelve-pointed star.

Notes:

The name of Svyatoslav's wives are not preserved. For those who listed Debrima and Elfira as names of the mother(s) of Oleg and Yaropolk, please provide the source (Esfir is named as a mistress by the FMG, not a wife). Svyatoslav's relationship with "Predslava" has not been defined - she is either a wife (speculates FMG) or a daughter (speculates Russian Wikipedia) or an aunt (speculates English Wikipedia). If someone has discovered a primary source document identifying her as Svyatoslav's wife, please provide it.

Svyatoslav's birth location is not identified. Indeed, his birth year is approximated. The problem is the age of his mother, Olga, being too old to have gave birth in 942 (if she was born in 879 as the Primary Chronicle states). And if there is record of Svyatoslav being baptized, please provide it. Although Olga may have converted to Christianity in 945 (during the subjugation of the Drevlians?), Svyatoslav refused to convert for fear of losing the respect of his soldiers.

From the Russian Biographical Dictionary:

http://www.rulex.ru/01180088.htm

Prins (knjaz) Svjatoslav I av Kiev (omkring 942 – 972) var en varjagisk eller östslavisk krigare som utvidgade Kievriket till det för den tiden största i Europa. Han flyttade rikets huvudstad till Perejaslavets i Bulgarien år 969. Svjatoslav hade för avsikt att göra Bulgarien till ett centrum för hans imperium. Han tvingades att ge upp Balkanländerna 971 i kriget mot den byzantinske härskaren Johannes I Tzimiskes. Vid återresan från det misslyckade fälttåget mot Bysans blev Svjatoslav år 972 dödad medelst armborstpil av petjeneger.

Det finns inget nedtecknat om Svyatoslavs barn- och ungdomsperiod i Novgorod. Hans mor, S:t Olga, var härskarinna av Kiev fram till Svjatoslav blev myndig, omkring 963. Sviatoslav var en notorisk och hårdnackad hedning som förnekade kristendomen, till skillnad från hans mor som döptes omkring 957.

-----------------------------------------------------

From the English Wikipedia page on Sviatoslav I of Kiev:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sviatoslav_I_of_Kiev

Sviatoslav I of Kiev (Old East Slavic: ?~??????? (??a???????)[1] ????????? (Sventoslavu Igorevichi), Russian: ????????? ????????, Ukrainian: ????????? ????????, Bulgarian: ?????????, Greek: Sfe?d?s???ß?? (Sfendoslavos) ) (c. 942 – March 972) was a warrior prince of Kievan Rus'.

The son of Igor of Kiev and Olga, Sviatoslav is famous for his incessant campaigns in the east and south, which precipitated the collapse of two great powers of Eastern Europe—Khazaria and the First Bulgarian Empire; he also subdued the Volga Bulgars, the Alans, and numerous East Slavic tribes, and at times was allied with the Pechenegs and Magyars.

His decade-long reign over Rus' was marked by rapid expansion into the Volga River valley, the Pontic steppe and the Balkans. By the end of his short life, Sviatoslav carved out for himself the largest state in Europe, eventually moving his capital from Kiev to Pereyaslavets on the Danube in 969.

In contrast with his mother's conversion to Christianity, Sviatoslav remained a staunch pagan all of his life. Due to his abrupt death in combat, Sviatoslav's conquests, for the most part, were not consolidated into a functioning empire, while his failure to establish a stable succession led to civil war among his successors.

Personality

The Kievan Rus' at the beginning of Sviatoslav's reign (in red), showing his sphere of influence to 972 (in orange)

Sviatoslav was the first true ruler of Kievan Rus' whose name is indisputably Slavic in origin (as opposed to his predecessors, whose names are ultimately derived from Old Norse). This name is not recorded in other medieval Slavic countries. Even in Rus', it was attested only among the members of the house of Rurik, as were the names of Sviatoslav's immediate successors: Vladimir, Yaroslav, Mstislav).[2]

Some scholars speculate that the name of Sviatoslav, composed of the Slavic roots for "holy" and "glory", was an artificial derivation combining those of his predecessors Oleg and Rurik (they mean "holy" and "glorious" in Old Norse, respectively).[3]

Virtually nothing is known about his childhood and youth, which he spent reigning in Novgorod. Sviatoslav's father, Igor, was killed by the Drevlians around 942 and his mother, Olga, ruled as regent in Kiev until Sviatoslav's maturity (ca. 963).[4] His tutor was a Varangian named Asmud.

"Quick as a leopard,"[5] Sviatoslav appears to have had little patience for administration. His life was spent with his druzhina (roughly, "troops") in permanent warfare against neighboring states.

According to the Primary Chronicle: "Upon his expeditions he carried with him neither wagons nor kettles, and boiled no meat, but cut off small strips of horseflesh, game or beef, and ate it after roasting it on the coals. Nor did he have a tent, but he spread out a horse-blanket under him, and set his saddle under his head, and all his retinue did likewise.[6]”

Sviatoslav was noted by Leo the Deacon to be of average height and build. He shaved his head and his beard (or possibly just had a wispy beard) but wore a bushy mustache and a one or two sidelocks as a sign of his nobility. He preferred to dress in white, and it was noted that his garments were much cleaner than those of his men. He wore a single large gold earring bearing a ruby and two pearls.[7][8]

His mother converted to Christianity at the court of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in 945 or 957. However,[9] Sviatoslav continued to worship Perun, Veles, Svarog and the other gods and goddesses of the Slavic pantheon. He remained a pagan for all of his life; according to the Primary Chronicle, he believed that his warriors would lose respect for him and mock him if he became a Christian.[10] The allegiance of his warriors was of paramount importance in his conquest of an empire that stretched from the Volga to the Danube.

Family

Very little is known of Sviatoslav's family life. It is possible that Sviatoslav was not the only (nor the eldest) son of his parents. The Russo-Byzantine treaty of 945 mentions a certain Predslava, Volodislav's wife, as the noblest of the Rus' women after Olga. George Vernadsky was among many historians to speculate that Volodislav was Igor's eldest son and heir who died at some point during Olga's regency.

At the time of Igor's death, Sviatoslav was still a child and he was raised by his mother or at her instructions. Her influence, however, did not extend to his religious observance.

Sviatoslav, had several children, but the origin of his wives is not specified in the chronicle. By his wives, he had Yaropolk and Oleg.[11]

By Malusha, a woman of indeterminate origins,[12] Sviatoslav had Vladimir, who would ultimately break with his father's paganism and convert Rus to Christianity. John Skylitzes reported that Vladimir had a brother named Sfengus; whether this Sfengus was a son of Sviatoslav, a son of Malusha by a prior or subsequent husband, or an unrelated Rus' nobleman is unclear.[13]

When Sviatoslav went on campaign he left his various relations as regents in the main cities of his realm: his mother Olga and later Yaropolk in Kiev, Vladimir in Novgorod, and Oleg over the Drevlians.

Eastern campaigns

Shortly after his accession to the throne, Sviatoslav began campaigning to expand the Rus control over the Volga valley and the Pontic steppe region. His greatest success was the conquest of Khazaria, which for centuries had been one of the strongest states of Eastern Europe.

The sources are not clear about the roots of the conflict between Khazaria and Rus', so several possibilities have been suggested. The Rus' had an interest in removing the Khazar hold on the Volga trade route because the Khazars collected duties from the goods transported by the Volga. Historians have suggested that the Byzantine Empire may have incited the Rus' against the Khazars, who fell out with the Byzantines after the persecutions of the Jews in the reign of Romanus I Lecapenus.[14]

Sviatoslav began by rallying the Khazars' East Slavic vassal tribes to his cause. Those who would not join him, such as the Vyatichs, were attacked and forced to pay tribute to the Kievan Rus' rather than the Khazars.[15]

According to a legend recorded in the Primary Chronicle, Sviatoslav sent a message to the Vyatich rulers, consisting of a single phrase: "I want to come at you!" (Old East Slavic: "???? ?? ?? ???")[16] This phrase is used in modern Russian (usually misquoted as "??? ?? ??" or "I'm coming to you!") to denote an unequivocal declaration of one's intentions.

Proceeding by the Oka and Volga rivers, he invaded Volga Bulgaria and exacted tribute from the local population, thus bringing under Kievan control the upper Volga River. He employed Oghuz and Pecheneg mercenaries in this campaign, perhaps to counter the Khazars' and Bulgars' superior cavalry.[17]

Sviatoslav destroyed the Khazar city of Sarkel around 965, and possibly sacked (but did not occupy) the Khazar city of Kerch on the Crimea.[18] At Sarkel he established a Rus' settlement called Belaya Vyezha ("the white tower" or "the white fortress", the East Slavic translation for "Sarkel").[19]

He subsequently (probably in 968 or 969) destroyed the Khazar capital of Atil.[20] A visitor to Atil wrote soon after Sviatoslav's campaign: "The Rus attacked, and no grape or raisin remained, not a leaf on a branch."[21]

The exact chronology of his Khazar campaign is uncertain and disputed; for example, Mikhail Artamonov and David Christian proposed that the sack of Sarkel came after the destruction of Atil.[22]

Although Ibn Haukal reports Sviatoslav's sack of Samandar in modern-day Dagestan, the Rus' leader did not bother to occupy the Khazar heartlands north of the Caucasus Mountains permanently. On his way back to Kiev, Sviatoslav chose to strike against the Ossetians and force them into subservience.[23] Therefore, Khazar successor statelets continued their precarious existence in the region.[24]

The destruction of Khazar imperial power paved the way for Kievan Rus' to dominate north-south trade routes through the steppe and across the Black Sea, routes that formerly had been a major source of revenue for the Khazars. Moreover, Sviatoslav's campaigns led to increased Slavic settlement in the region of the Saltovo-Mayaki culture, greatly changing the demographics and culture of the transitional area between the forest and the steppe.[25]

Campaigns in the Balkans

The annihilation of Khazaria was undertaken against the background of the Rus'-Byzantine alliance, concluded in the wake of Igor's Byzantine campaign in 944.[26] Close military ties between the Rus' and Byzantium are illustrated by the fact, reported by John Skylitzes, that a Rus' detachment accompanied Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus Phocas in his victorious naval expedition to Crete.

In 967 or 968[27] Nicephorus sent to Sviatoslav his agent, Kalokyros, with the task of talking Sviatoslav into assisting him in a war against Bulgaria.[28] Sviatoslav was paid 15,000 pounds of gold and set sail with an army of 60,000 men, including thousands of Pecheneg mercenaries.[29][30]

Sviatoslav defeated the Bulgarian ruler Boris II [31] and proceeded to occupy the whole of northern Bulgaria. Meanwhile, the Byzantines bribed the Pechenegs to attack and besiege Kiev, where Olga stayed with Sviatoslav's son Vladimir.

The siege was relieved by the druzhina of Pretich, and immediately following the Pecheneg retreat, Olga sent a reproachful letter to Sviatoslav. He promptly returned and defeated the Pechenegs, who continued to threaten Kiev.

Sviatoslav refused to turn his Balkan conquests over to the Byzantines, and the parties fell out as a result. To the chagrin of his boyars and mother (who died within three days after learning about his decision), Sviatoslav decided to move his capital to Pereyaslavets in the mouth of the Danube due to the great potential of that location as a commercial hub.

In the Primary Chronicle record for 969, Sviatoslav explains that it is to Pereyaslavets, the centre of his lands, "all the riches flow: gold, silks, wine, and various fruits from Greece, silver and horses from Hungary and Bohemia, and from Rus furs, wax, honey, and slaves".

In summer 969, Sviatoslav left Rus' again, dividing his dominion into three parts, each under a nominal rule of one of his sons. At the head of an army that included Pecheneg and Magyar auxiliary troops, he invaded Bulgaria again, devastating Thrace, capturing the city of Philippopolis, and massacring its inhabitants.

Nicephorus responded by fortifying the defenses of Constantinople and raising new squadrons of armored cavalry. In the midst of his preparations, Nicephorus was overthrown and killed by John Tzimiskes, who thus became the new Byzantine emperor.[32]

John Tzimiskes first attempted to persuade Sviatoslav into leaving Bulgaria, but was unsuccessful. Challenging the Byzantine authority, Sviatoslav crossed the Danube and laid siege to Adrianople, causing panic on the streets of Constantinople in summer 970.[33]

Later that year, the Byzantines launched a counteroffensive. Being occupied with suppressing a revolt of Bardas Phocas in Asia Minor, John Tzimiskes sent his commander-in-chief, Bardas Sklerus, who defeated the coalition of Rus', Pechenegs, Magyars, and Bulgarians in the Battle of Arcadiopolis.[34]

John, after having quelled the revolt of Bardas Phocas, came to the Balkans with a large army, and promoting himself as the liberator of Bulgaria from Sviatoslav, penetrated the impracticable mountain passes and shortly thereafter captured Marcianopolis, where the Rus were holding a number of Bulgar princes hostage.

Sviatoslav retreated to Dorostol, which the Byzantine armies besieged for 65 days. Cut off and surrounded, Sviatoslav came to terms with John and agreed to abandon the Balkans, renounce his claims to the southern Crimea and return west of the Dnieper River. In return, the Byzantine emperor supplied the Rus' with food and safe passage home.

Sviatoslav and his men set sail and landed on Berezan Island at the mouth of the Dnieper, where they made camp for the winter. Several months later, their camp was devastated by famine, so that even a horse's head could not be bought for less than a half-grivna, reports the Kievan chronicler of the Primary Chronicle.[35]

While Sviatoslav's campaign brought no tangible results for the Rus', it weakened the Bulgarian statehood and left it vulnerable to the attacks of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer four decades later.

Death and aftermath

Fearing that the peace with Sviatoslav would not endure, the Byzantine emperor induced the Pecheneg khan Kurya to kill Sviatoslav before he reached Kiev. This was in line with the policy outlined by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in De Administrando Imperio of fomenting strife between the Rus' and the Pechenegs.[36]

According to the Slavic chronicle, Sveneld attempted to warn Sviatoslav to avoid the Dnieper cataracts, but the prince slighted his wise advice and was ambushed and slain by the Pechenegs when he tried to cross the cataracts near Khortitsa early in 972. The Primary Chronicle reports that his skull was made into a chalice by the Pecheneg khan, Kurya.[37]

Following Sviatoslav's death, tensions between his sons grew. A war broke out between Sviatoslav's legitimate sons, Oleg and Yaropolk, in 976, at the conclusion of which Oleg was killed.

In 977 Vladimir fled Novgorod to escape Oleg's fate and went to Scandinavia, where he raised an army of Varangians and returned in 980. Yaropolk was killed and Vladimir became the sole ruler of Kievan Rus'.

In art and literature

Sviatoslav has long been a hero of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian patriots due to his great military successes. His figure first attracted attention of Russian artists and poets during the Russo-Turkish War, 1768–1774, which provided obvious parallels with Sviatoslav's push towards Constaninople. Russia's southward expansion and Catherine II's imperialistic ventures in the Balkans seemed to have been legitimized by Sviatoslav's campaigns eight centuries earlier.

Among the works created during the war was Yakov Knyazhnin's tragedy Olga (1772). The Russian playwright chose to introduce Sviatoslav as his protagonist, although his active participation in the events following Igor's death is out of sync with the traditional chronology. Knyazhnin's rival Nikolai Nikolev (1758–1815) also wrote a play on the subject of Sviatoslav's life.

Ivan Akimov's painting Sviatoslav's Return from the Danube to Kiev (1773) explores the conflict between military honour and family attachment. It is a vivid example of Poussinesque rendering of early medieval subject matter.

In the 19th century, interest in Sviatoslav's career waned. Klavdiy Lebedev depicted an episode of Sviatoslav's meeting with Emperor John in his well-known painting, while Eugene Lanceray sculpted an equestrian statue of Sviatoslav in the early 20th century.[38]

Sviatoslav appears in the Slavophile poems of Velimir Khlebnikov as an epitome of militant Slavdom:

Pouring the famed juice of the Danube

Into the depth of my head,

I shall drink and remember

The cry of the bright ones: "I come at you!" [39]

He is the villain of Samuel Gordon's novel The Lost Kingdom, or the Passing of the Khazars,[40] a fictionalized account of the destruction of Khazaria by the Rus'. The Slavic warrior figures in a more positive context in the story "Chernye Strely Vyaticha" by Vadim Viktorovich Kargalov; the story is included in his book Istoricheskie povesti.[41]

In 2005, reports circulated that a village in the Belgorod region had erected a monument to Sviatoslav's victory over the Khazars by the Russian sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov. The reports described the 13-meter tall statue as depicting a Rus' cavalryman trampling a supine Khazar bearing a Star of David.

This created an outcry within the Jewish community of Russia. The controversy was further exacerbated by Klykov's connections with Pamyat and other anti-Semitic organizations, as well as by his involvement in the "letter of 500", a controversial appeal to the Prosecutor General to review all Jewish organizations in Russia for extremism.[42]

The Press Center of the Belgorod Regional Administration responded by stating that a planned monument to Sviatoslav had not yet been constructed, but would show "respect towards representatives of all nationalities and religions."[43] When the statue was unveiled, the shield bore a twelve-pointed star.

Notes

1. E.g. in the Primary Chronicle under year 970 http://litopys.org.ua/ipatlet/ipat04.htm

2. ?.?. ???????, ?.?. ?????????. ????? ????? ? ??????? ?????? X-XVI ??. [Choice of personal names for the Russian princes of the 10th-16th centuries.] Moscow: Indrik, 2006. ISBN 5-85759-339-5. Page 43.

4. If Olga was indeed born in 879, as the Primary Chronicle seems to imply, she should have been about 65 at the time of Sviatoslav's birth. There are clearly some problems with chronology.

5. Primary Chronicle entry for 968

6. Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Primary Chronicle, p. 84.

7. Vernadsky 276–277. The sidelock is reminiscent of Turkic hairstyles and practices and was later mimicked by Cossacks.

8. For the alternative translations of the same passage of the Greek original that say that Sviatoslav may have not shaven but wispy beard and not one but two sidelocks on each side of his head, see eg. Ian Heath "The Vikings (Elite 3)", Osprey Publishing 1985; ISBN 9780850455656, p.60 or David Nicolle "Armies of Medieval Russia 750–1250 (Men-at-Arms 333)" Osprey Publishing 1999; ISBN 9781855328488, p.44

9. Based on his analysis of De Ceremoniis Alexander Nazarenko hypothesizes that Olga hoped to orchestrate a marriage between Sviatoslav and a Byzantine princess. If her proposal was peremptorily declined (as it most certainly would have been), it is hardly surprising that Sviatoslav would look at Byzantium and her Christian culture with suspicion. Nazarenko 302.

10. Primary Chronicle _____.

11. Whether Yaropolk and Oleg were whole or half brothers, and who their mother or mothers were, is a matter hotly debated by historians.

12. She is traditionally identified in Russian historiography as Dobrynya's sister; for other theories on her identity, see here.

13. Indeed, Franklin and Shepard advanced the hypothesis that Sfengus was identical with Mstislav of Tmutarakan. Franklin and Shepard 200-201.

14. "Rus", Encyclopaedia of Islam

15. Christian 345. It is disputed whether Sviatoslav invaded the land of Vyatichs that year. The only campaign against the Vyatichs explicitly mentioned in the Primary Chronicle is dated to 966.

16. Russian Primary Chronicle (????. — ?. 2. ??????????? ????????. — ???., 1908, http://litopys.org.ua/ipatlet/ipat03.htm ) for year 6472. The chronicler may have wished to contrast Sviatoslav's open declaration of war to stealthy tactics employed by many other early medieval conquerors.

17. For Sviatoslav's reliance on nomad cavalry, see, e.g., Franklin and Shepard 149; Christian 298; Pletneva 18.

18. Christian 298. The Primary Chronicle is very succinct about the whole campaign against Khazars, saying only that Sviatoslav "took their city and Belaya Vezha".

19. The town was an important trade center located near the portage between the Volga and Don Rivers. By the early 12th century, however, it had been destroyed by the Kipchaks.

20. See, generally Christian 297–298; Dunlop passim.

21. Logan (1992), p. 202

22. Artamonov 428; Christian 298.

23. The campaign against Ossetians is attested in the Primary Chronicle. The Novgorod First Chronicle specifies that Sviatoslav resettled the Ossetians near Kiev, but Sakharov finds this claim dubitable.

24. The Mandgelis Document refers to a Khazar potentate in the Taman Peninsula around 985, long after Sviatoslav's death. Kedrenos reported that the Byzantines and Rus' collaborated in the conquest of a Khazar kingdom in the Crimea in 1016 and still later, Ibn al-Athir reported an unsuccessful attack by al-Fadl ibn Muhammad against the Khazars in the Caucasus in 1030. For more information on these and other references, see Khazars#Late references to the Khazars.

25. Christian 298.

26. Most historians believe the Greeks were interested in the destruction of Khazaria. Another school of thought essentializes Yahya of Antioch's report that, prior to the Danube campaign, the Byzantines and the Rus' were at war. See Sakharov, chapter I.

27. The exact date of Sviatoslav's Bulgarian campaign, which likely did not commence until the conclusion of his Khazar campaign, is unknown.

28. Mikhail Tikhomirov and Vladimir Pashuto, among others, assume that the Emperor was interested primarily in diverting Sviatoslav's attention from Chersonesos, a Byzantine possession in the Crimea. Indeed, Leo the Deacon three times mentions that Sviatoslav and his father Igor controlled Cimmerian Bosporus. If so, a conflict of interests in the Crimea was inevitable. The Suzdal Chronicle, though a rather late source, also mentions Sviatoslav's war against Chersonesos. In the peace treaty of 971, Sviatoslav promised not to wage wars against either Constantinople or Chersonesos. Byzantine sources also report that Kalokyros attempted to persuade Sviatoslav to support Kalokyros in a coup against the reigning Byzantine emperor. As a remuneration for his help, Sviatoslav was supposed to retain a permanent hold on Bulgaria. Modern historians, however, assign little historical importance to this story. Kendrick 157.

29. All figures in this article, including the numbers of Sviatoslav's troops, are based on the reports of Byzantine sources, which may differ from those of the Slavonic chronicles. Greek sources report Khazars and "Turks" in Sviatoslav's army as well as Pechenegs. As used in such Byzantine writings as Constantine Porphyrogenitus' De Administrando Imperio, "Turks" refers to Magyars. The Rus'-Magyar alliance resulted in the Hungarian expedition against the second largest city of the empire, Thessalonica, in 968.

30. W. Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society, 509

31. Boris II was captured by the Byzantines in 971 and carried off to Constantinople as a prisoner.

32. Kendrick 158

33. Simultaneously, Otto I attacked Byzantine possessions in the south of Italy. This remarkable coincidence may be interpreted as an evidence of the anti-Byzantine German-Russian alliance. See: Manteuffel 41.

34. Grekov 445–446. The Byzantine sources report the enemy casualties to be as high as 20,000, the figure modern historians find to be highly improbable.

35. Franklin and Shepard 149–150

36. Constantine VII pointed out that, by virtue of their controlling the Dnieper cataracts, the Pechenegs may easily attack and destroy the Rus' vessels sailing along the river.

37. The use of a defeated enemy's skull as a drinking vessel is reported by numerous authors through history among various steppe peoples, such as the Scythians. Kurya likely intended this as a compliment to Sviatoslav; sources report that Kurya and his wife drank from the skull and prayed for a son as brave as the deceased Rus' warlord. Christian 344; Pletneva 19; Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor 90.

38. E. A Lanceray. "Sviatoslav on the way to Tsargrad.", The Russian History in the Mirror of the Fine Arts (Russian)

39. Cooke, Raymond Cooke. Velimir Khlebnikov: A Critical Study. Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pages 122–123

40. London: Shapiro, Vallentine, 1926

41. (Moscow: Det. lit., 1989).

42. Alexander Verkhovsky. Anti-Semitism in Russia: 2005. Key Developments and New Trends

43. "The Federation of Jewish Communities protests against the presence of a Star of David in a new sculpture in Belgorod", Interfax, November 21, 2005; Kozhevnikova, Galina, "Radical nationalism and efforts to oppose it in Russia in 2005"; "FJC Russia Appeal Clarifies Situation Over Potentially Anti-Semitic Monument" (Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS Press Release), November 23, 2005; Dahan, David, "Jews protest trampled Star of David statue", European Jewish Press, November 22, 2005

References

Artamonov, Mikhail Istoriya Khazar. Leningrad, 1962.

Barthold, W.. "Khazar". Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill Online). Eds.: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 1996.

Chertkov A. D. Opisanie voin velikago kniazya Svyatoslava Igorevicha. Moscow, 1843.

Chlenov, A.M. (?.?. ??????.) "K Voprosu ob Imeni Sviatoslava." Lichnye Imena v proshlom, Nastoyaschem i Buduschem Antroponomiki ("? ??????? ?? ????? ??????????". ?????? ????? ? ???????, ????????? ? ???????: ???????? ?????????????) (Moscow, 1970).

Christian, David. A History of Russia, Mongolia and Central Asia. Blackwell, 1999.

Cross, S. H., and O.P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor. The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text. Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1953.

Dunlop, D.M. History of the Jewish Khazars. Princeton Univ. Press, 1954.

Franklin, Simon and Jonathan Shepard. The Emergence of Rus 750-1200. London: Longman, 1996. ISBN 0-582-49091-X.

Golden, P.B. "Rus." Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill Online). Eds.: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2006.

Grekov, Boris. Kiev Rus. tr. Sdobnikov, Y., ed. Ogden, Denis. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1959

Hanak, Walter K. (1995), "The Infamous Svjatoslav: Master of Duplicity in War and Peace?", in Miller, Timothy S.; Nesbitt, John, Peace and War in Byzantium: Essays in Honor of George T. Dennis, S.J., The Catholic University of America Press, ISBN 9780813208053

Kendrick, Thomas D. A History of the Vikings. Courier Dover Publications, 2004. ISBN 0-486-43396-X

Logan, Donald F. The Vikings in History 2nd ed. Routledge, 1992. ISBN 0-415-08396-6

Manteuffel Th. "Les tentatives d'entrainement de la Russie de Kiev dans la sphere d'influence latin". Acta Poloniae Historica. Warsaw, t. 22, 1970.

Nazarenko, A.N. (?.?. ?????????). Drevniaya Rus' na Mezhdunarodnykh Putiakh (??????? ???? ?? ????????????? ?????). Moscow, Russian Academy of Sciences, World History Institute, 2001. ISBN 5-7859-0085-8.

Pletneva, Svetlana. Polovtsy Moscow: Nauka, 1990.

Sakharov, Andrey. The Diplomacy of Svyatoslav. Moscow: Nauka, 1982. (http://www.hrono.ru/libris/saharov00.html)

Subtelny, Orest. Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988. ISBN 0-8020-5808-6

Vernadsky, G.V. The Origins of Russia. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959.

Prins (knjaz) Svjatoslav I av Kiev (omkring 942 – 972) var en varjagisk eller östslavisk krigare som utvidgade Kievriket till det för den tiden största i Europa. Han flyttade rikets huvudstad till Perejaslavets i Bulgarien år 969. Svjatoslav hade för avsikt att göra Bulgarien till ett centrum för hans imperium. Han tvingades att ge upp Balkanländerna 971 i kriget mot den byzantinske härskaren Johannes I Tzimiskes. Vid återresan från det misslyckade fälttåget mot Bysans blev Svjatoslav år 972 dödad medelst armborstpil av petjeneger.

Det finns inget nedtecknat om Svyatoslavs barn- och ungdomsperiod i Novgorod. Hans mor, S:t Olga, var härskarinna av Kiev fram till Svjatoslav blev myndig, omkring 963. Sviatoslav var en notorisk och hårdnackad hedning som förnekade kristendomen, till skillnad från hans mor som döptes omkring 957.

Storfyrste Svjatoslav I av Kiev. Født omkring 942. Død 972. Han var sønn av Storfyrste Igor I av Kiev. Født 875. Død 945, og Fyrstinne Olga den Hellige av Pskov. Født 890. Død 969.

Svjatoslav hadde sammen med frillen Matuscha ???, sønnen:

1. Storfyrste Vladimir den Hellige av Novgorod. Død 15.07.1015.

Svjatoslav var Storfyrste av Kiev 962 - 972.

Svjatoslav ble drept i 972 av Petschengerne. 1)

1). Mogens Bugge: Våre forfedre, nr. 146. Bent og Vidar Billing Hansen: Rosensverdslektens forfedre, side 90

From the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy page on Russia Rurikid:

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/RUSSIA,%20Rurik.htm

SVIATOSLAV, son of IGOR [Ingvar] of Kiev & his wife Olga --- ([935/40]-killed in battle [Mar/May] 972).

The De administrando imperio names "Sphendosthlabus Ingor Russiæ principis filius"[45]. The Primary Chronicle names Svyatoslav as son of Olga[46].

His birth date is estimated on the assumption that he was a young adult when the De administrando imperio was compiled, before the death of Emperor Konstantinos VII in 959. According to the Primary Chronicle he "was but a child" in 946[47].

At an early age, Sviatoslav´s father appears to have established him in the northern town of Gorodishche, which seems to indicate that a claim to the overlordship of the northern Scandinavian settlements. The place is called "Nemogardas" in the De administrando imperio[48], which could be a corruption of Novgorod.

He succeeded his father as SVIATOSLAV I Grand Prince of Kiev, under the regency of his mother.

Kiev was besieged by the Pechenegs in 962[49]. Ruling alone by the mid-960s, Prince Sviatoslav launched a major attack against the Khazars in 965, using the Pechenegs as allies[50]. He conquered the entire middle Volga area and took control of the commercial centres of Sarkel and Ityl[51].

Sviatoslav invaded the territory of the Bulgars along the Danube in 967, having been invited to do so by Emperor Nikephoros Phokas, and established a base at Pereiaslavets on the Danube delta[52]. It is not clear whether Pereiaslavets was the same place as Preslava, the Bulgarian capital, as Franklin & Shepherd appear to assume[53] or different, which appears to be the basis on which Fine writes[54]. Faced with the perceived threat of invasion by Sviatoslav, Emperor Ioannes Tzimisces marched into Bulgaria, captured the capital, and negotiated Sviatoslav's withdrawal.

During Sviatoslav's absence in Bulgaria, the Pechenegs raided as far as Kiev. Fine points out that according to the Primary Chronicle the Bulgarians summoned the Pechenegs to attack Kiev, without help from Byzantium[55]. On Sviatoslav´s return journey to Kiev while crossing the Dnieper river in Spring 972, he was attacked and killed by the Pecheneg leader Kuria who reputedly made his skull into a ceremonial cup covered with gold[56]. This represents a curious echo of the report in Paulus Diaconus according to which the skull of Alboin King of the Lombards in Pannonia was allegedly made into a drinking cup after he was defeated and killed by Cunimund King of the Gepids in 567[57].

m (before [960]) --- [of Hungary], daughter of [TORMAS Prince of Hungary & his wife ---].

The primary source which confirms her parentage and marriage has not yet been identified. She was known as PREDSLAVA in Russia. Europäische Stammtafeln[58] suggests that Predslava was the possible daughter of Tormas but the basis for this speculation is not known. Her marriage date is estimated from the estimated date of birth of her son.

Mistress (1): ESFIR, daughter of ---.

She is named as Sviatoslav´s mistress in Europäische Stammtafeln[59]. The primary source which confirms her parentage and relationship with Sviatoslav has not yet been identified.

Mistress (2): MALUSHA [Malfred], sister of DOBRINYA (Ben notes: Dobrinya is a male), daughter of MALK of Lyubech & his wife --- (-1002).

The Primary Chronicle names Malusha, stewardess of Olga and sister of Dobrinya (naming their father Malk of Lyubech), as mother of Svyatoslav's son Vladimir[60].

Grand Prince Sviatoslav & his wife had one child:

1. Yaropolk Sviatoslavich (b. c.960, d. 980, murdered in Kiev, Grand Prince of Kiev)

Grand Prince Sviatoslav had one illegitimate child by Mistress (1):

1. Oleg Sviatoslavich (d. 976/977, killed, buried in Vruchiy, Prince of Dereva)

Grand Prince Sviatoslav had one illegitimate child by Mistress (2):

1. Vladimir Sviatoslavich (b. c.960, d. 15 July 1015 in Berestove, Grand Prince of Kiev as Vladimir The Great, OUR ANCESTOR)

From the Russian Wikipedia page on Svyatoslav Igorevich:

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2_%D0%98% D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sviatoslav_I_of_Kiev

Wikipedia:
Prins (knjaz) Svjatoslav I av Kiev (omkring 945 – 972) var en varjagisk eller östslavisk krigare som utvidgade Kievriket till det för den tiden största i Europa. Han flyttade rikets huvudstad till Perejaslavets i Bulgarien år 969. Svjatoslav hade för avsikt att göra Bulgarien till ett centrum för sitt imperium. Han tvingades att ge upp Balkanländerna 971 i kriget mot den byzantinske härskaren Johannes I Tzimiskes. Vid återresan från det misslyckade fälttåget mot Bysans blev Svjatoslav år 972 dödad medelst armborstpil av petjeneger.

Det finns inget nedtecknat om Svjatoslavs barn- och ungdomsperiod i Novgorod. Hans mor, S:t Olga, var härskarinna av Kiev fram till Svjatoslav blev myndig, omkring 963. Svjatoslav var en notorisk och hårdnackad hedning som förnekade kristendomen, till skillnad från hans mor som döptes omkring 957.

Den bysantinske historieskrivaren Leo Diakonos berskriver honom så här: Han var av medellängd, varken för lång eller för kort, han hade täta ögonbryn, blå ögon, platt näsa; han rakade skägget på hakan, men täta hår hängde ned från överläppen. Hans huvud var helt kalt - bara på den ena sidan hängde en hårlock som tecken på släktens förnämhet. Halsen var tjock, skuldrorna breda och hela gestalten ganska välskapt. Han verkade dyster och vild...[1]

Svjatoslavs mer slaviska än nordiska uppenbarelse, som dessutom piffades upp av en guldring i örat med inlagda pärlor, visar symboliskt hur ruserna vid det här laget hade assimilerats i Rutenien. [2]

Sviatoslav (Svatislav) I IGORJEWITSCH
aka Svjatoslav I Velikij Knjas KIJEVSKIJ; aka Swjatoslav I `the Warlike' von KIEW; RURIKOVICH; Grand Prince of KIEV
Born: abt. 915 Died: 972
poss. Wives/Partners: Fredslava (ARPAD ?) ; Malousha the Slav' de LUBECH ; Fredslava (ARPAD ?)

Children: Yaropolk I SVYATOSLAVICH ; Vladimir (I; Saint; Grand Prince) of KIEV
Furthermore: http://fabpedigree.com/s036/f070081.htm

Gift med
Malusha Malkovna, född cirka 944 i Chernihivskaya Oblast, Ryssland, död cirka 1002 i Kiev, Ukraina.

Barn:
Vladimir I "the Great, Grand Prince of Kiev" Sviatoslavich, född cirka 957, död 1015-07-15