The date of the beginning of the collapse of the Old Russian state, historians consider the year of death of the Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise, who ruled the Kiev throne from 1016 to 1054.
Of course, centrifugal forces in the Russian state began to operate even under Vladimir the Baptist: Yaroslav the Wise himself opposed his father, refusing to pay tribute to Kiev in 2,000 hryvnias.
Strife
Discord between the sons of Vladimir arose immediately after his death. Its result, at first, almost became the capture of Kiev by the Pechenegs, who were summoned by the son of Vladimir Yaropolk, and then the Polish king Boleslav the Brave almost ascended the throne of Kiev. And only the indignant population of Kiev managed to save the situation: the people of Kiev began to slaughter the Poles, and the king and his army were forced to leave the city.
Strife between 12 sons of Vladimir led to the fact that everyone died, except for Yaroslav and Mstislav. And after the death of Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise, who did a lot to strengthen the Old Russian state, Russia, according to the historian Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, "buried its power and prosperity."
Two forces
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The Soviet historian Boris Dmitrievich Grekov noted in his writings that the Old Russian state collapsed under the influence of two forces: the strength of the Grand Duke of Kiev, striving to assert his dominance in the lands of Rus, and the strength of the appanage princes, each of whom denied the right of Kiev to dispose of all the land and sought to assert its sovereignty …
Many conflicts arose because of the order of applicants for the princely tables. Power was transferred by seniority - from a smaller table to a larger one, which caused controversy.
New principle of continuity
After the death of Yaroslav, the struggle for Kiev and their sovereignty was continued by his sons, and then by his grandchildren. Although one of them - Vladimir Monomakh - in 1097 tried to end the strife by gathering all the princes in the city of Lyubech, where a new principle of the continuity of princely power was proclaimed. From now on, each prince with his offspring kept his fiefdom, not claiming foreign cities. And although the feuds have subsided, in fact, this has only increased the disunity of the lands.
At the princely council, Kiev remained the patrimony of Yaroslav the Wise grandson Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, after which Vladimir Monomakh himself ascended the grand princely throne. The time of his reign and the reign of his son, Mstislav, became a period of relative stability in Russia. But later Mstislav handed over the reign to his brother Yaropolk, who decided to fulfill the will of his father - Vladmir Monomakh - and put the eldest son of his brother Mstislav, his nephew Vsevolod-Gabriel, Prince of Novgorod, to rule in Kiev. This angered other sons of Monomakh, among whom was Yuri Dolgoruky, who owned Rostov, and led to a general war, about which the Novgorod chronicle says the following: "… And the whole Russian land was ripped off …"
13 lands
Closer to the middle of the XII century, Ancient Russia actually disintegrated into 13 lands of different size and composition of population.
Nine princely "patriarchs" remained the mainstay of the state.
Gorodenskoe principality (the city of Gorodno), which later disintegrated into parishes and came under the rule of Lithuania.
Turovo-Pinsk principality, located in Polesie and in the lower reaches of the Pripyat River, with the cities of Turov and Pinsk. Two centuries later, it fell under the rule of the Lithuanian princes.
Volyn-Vladimir principality headed by the city of Vladimir, which included the smaller cities of Lutsk, Izyaslavl, Dorogobuzh, Shumsk and others.
Smolensk principality with the center in Smolensk, which was located in the upper reaches of the Volga and Northern Dvina rivers and included no less than 18 cities and settlements, including Mozhaisk, Orsha, Rzhev, Toropets and Rostislavl.
The Principality of Suzdal (Rostov-Suzdal, and in the XII century - Vladimir-Suzdal), which was located in the north-east of Russia and stretched far to the north.
The Murom principality, headed by the city of Murom, for a long time was part of the Kiev patrimony, but separated at the beginning of the 13th century and existed until the invasion of the Horde.
Around 1160 the Ryazan principality with the center in Ryazan separated from the Murom principality. True, historians often consider these lands as one whole.
In the south of Russia, the Chernigov principality and the Galician principality continued to exist.
The principality of Kiev was still considered the center of the Old Russian land, although the power of Kiev was nominal and rested on the authority of ancestors and tradition.
Four more "lands" did not have princely power over them. It was Novgorod with the surrounding territories, in which a strong local elite was formed and power belonged to the veche. Later, Pskov broke away from the Novgorod lands, which was also ruled by the people's assembly. Pereyaslavl lands did not have their own princes, but invited rulers to reign from outside. The city of Galich remained a draw for a long time (later it became part of the Galicia-Volyn principality).
The internal and foreign policy of the state was outstripped by the four most powerful principalities - Suzdal, Volyn, Smolensk and Chernigov.
Known until the 12th century, the principality of Tmutarkan and the city of Belaya Vezha at the very beginning of the century fell under the onslaught of the Kipchaks (Polovtsians) and ceased to exist.
Russia is united
However, the idea of the unity of the Russian land did not disappear, as before, Kiev remained a "capital city", and the Kiev prince was called "the prince of all Russia", although the title "Grand Duke" then had the right to be borne by the Vladimir princes.
Before the conquest of the southern territories by Lithuania, all Russian lands were, in essence, in the possession of one princely clan - the Rurik clan, which united at the time of the greatest danger to the homeland. So, for example, almost all the princes took part in the campaign against the Mongol army in 1233.
The Orthodox faith played a huge role in the unification of the lands. The church was one and was headed at first by the Kiev metropolitan. At the end of the 13th century, the metropolitan's residence was moved to Vladimir, and then to Moscow.
In addition to these factors, there was a historically established cultural and linguistic community, which did not allow the Old Russian state to finally disintegrate and sink into oblivion.
Maya Novik