Tradition called Olga the Cunning, the church - the Holy, history - the Wise.
Karamzin
Olga was born in the Pskov Territory (the city of Pskov was not yet there), and by life - the Pleskovskaya country. She belonged, as the Joachim Chronicle specifies, to the family of the Izborsk princes, one of the forgotten ancient Russian princely dynasties that existed in Russia in the X-XI centuries. not less than twenty, but which were all supplanted over time by the Rurikovichs.
She was born into a pagan family and was called by the Varangian name Helga, and Olga the future princess was named in honor of the Kiev prince Oleg, who raised Olga's husband Igor and arranged their marriage. According to the "Tale of Bygone Years" in 903, Olga, at less than 15 years old, was married to Prince Igor. The marriage was concluded by calculation, but the date of the marriage looks extremely doubtful, given that the son of Igor and Olga, Svyatoslav, was born in 942. It turns out that Olga was born in the 80s or at the very beginning of the 90s of the IX century. (According to other chronicles, Igor married 10-year-old Olga in 912.) However, it is known that most of the chronicle dates of our initial history were put down by the chronicler, as they say, “retroactively,” and they can only be taken conditionally. This also applies to the date of Igor's marriage and the estimated time of birth of Princess Olga.
It is difficult to say how the future relations of the spouses developed. In a number of chronicles it is reported that in addition to Olga, Igor had other wives. It is known that by the 40s. X century. Olga and Igor lived separately - Olga was the princess of Vyshgorod, and Igor remained the Kiev prince. While Igor was on campaigns, Olga was engaged in the internal politics of the Russian state. Olga even had her own squad and her own ambassador, who was the third in the list of persons who participated in negotiations with Byzantium after Igor's successful campaign.
In 945, Prince Igor was killed by the Drevlyans, who were dissatisfied with the huge tribute imposed on them. Olga's son Svyatoslav was still too young to rule the state, Olga became the ruler. First of all, Olga took revenge on the Drevlyans for the death of her husband. This revenge is almost mythical, but the story of it is impressive. It was at this time that Princess Olga's cunning was most clearly manifested. I want to believe in the love that bound Olga and Igor. I don't want to think that she began to take revenge so terribly, guided only by political considerations. It is much more romantic to see a woman blinded by grief in front of you, who, for the sake of love, sinks to revenge.
After killing Igor, the Drevlyans decided that they were now free from obligations to the Kiev dynasty. Moreover, the Drevlyans began to claim the Kiev throne - they demanded that Princess Olga marry the Drevlyane prince Mal, and sent their ambassadors to Olga.
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There was a real threat of Kiev subordination to the Drevlyans. However, relying on the support of the Kiev governors Sveneld and Asmud, Olga managed to keep in her hands (and formally in the hands of her son - baby Svyatoslav), and Kiev, and, ultimately, power over all of Russia.
Olga cunningly lured two Drevlyan embassies into traps and cruelly dealt with them. The rest is well known from The Tale of Bygone Years: “If you really ask me, then send your best husbands to marry your prince with great honor, otherwise the people of Kiev will not let me in”. The Drevlyans, hearing this, sent their best husbands to Olga. The first delegation of ambassadors was thrown into a pit and buried alive. The second delegation was burnt in the bathhouse.
Then she came to the Drevlyansky land and arranged a funeral feast at her husband's grave, to which she invited the Drevlyans: "Now I am going to you, prepare many honey near the city where my husband was killed, so I will cry at his grave and give him a funeral feast." Olga took a small squad with her and set off lightly in the Drevlyan lands. After mourning her husband at his grave, Olga ordered to fill the mound and start funeral. The feast began. The Drevlyans got drunk and, by order of Olga, her warriors hacked them with swords (The Tale of Bygone Years calls the number of those killed - 5000). Here is such a bloody feast day. It should be noted that her own squad fully approved of these actions.
In the next year, 946, Olga, together with the young Svyatoslav, went on a campaign against the Drevlyans. Thus began the long siege of Iskorosten, which lasted almost a year. Olga managed to destroy the city only by cunning. She demanded that the inhabitants of the city pay her tribute, three pigeons and three sparrows from each court, promising to leave if her demand was met. The delighted Drevlyans gathered the birds and gave them to the cunning Kiev princess. Olga ordered her soldiers to bind the smoldering tinder to each dove and sparrow and release it. Pigeons and sparrows flew to their nests, which were in the barns and hayloft in Iskorosten. The city caught fire. Panic broke out among the besieged, they rushed to flee the city. The city was destroyed, and Olga again cruelly dealt with its inhabitants - some were killed, others Olga gave into slavery to her warriors,and the third she imposed a tribute.
After the reprisal against the Drevlyans, Olga begins to actively engage in the internal politics of the ancient Russian state. Instead of a polyudya, the princess established clear-cut tribute for the lands that were under the rule of Kiev: statutes, lessons and churchyards. Pogosty - places of collecting tribute, as it were, became small centers of princely power. Later, when Olga became a Christian, the first churches began to be erected around the churchyards; from the time of the baptism of Rus under Vladimir, the churchyard and the church (parish) became inseparable concepts (only later, from the cemeteries that existed near the churches, the word usage “churchyard” in the sense of a cemetery began to be used).
The rationing of duties led to the strengthening of the power of the princess herself and the weakening of the tribal power. For a long time, Olga put this reform into action, honing its mechanisms. It is undeserved that the work did not bring her glory, did not overgrow with legends, because it was of great importance in the formation of the Russian state. Now the state itself already had an administrative and economic system.
Russia grew and strengthened, new cities were built. The princess herself, not wishing to share power with anyone anymore, refused to marry, still lived in Vyshgorod or, as it was then called, Olga's town, surrounded by a squad. Two-thirds of the collected tribute, according to the chronicler, went at the disposal of the Kiev veche, the third - for military purposes. The establishment of the first state borders of Kievan Rus dates back to the reign of Olga. The heroic epic outposts began with Olga's decrees. Foreigners rushed to Gardarica, as they called Russia, with goods. Scandinavians, Germans willingly entered the Russian army. It was under Olga that Russia became a strong power.
There was a lull in foreign policy during Olga's reign. There were no major campaigns, Russian blood was not shed anywhere. After completing domestic affairs, Olga turned her gaze to the external borders of Russia. And, if Olga's predecessors: Rurik, Oleg, and Igor gained prestige for Russia with the help of force, military campaigns, then Olga, as a true woman, preferred diplomacy to everything. And here it is impossible not to remember that Princess Olga wrote a special page in the history of Christianity.
Only two European states in those years could compete with Russia in meaning and power: in the east of Europe - the Byzantine Empire, in the west - the kingdom of the Saxons, and since the princess was also a cunning politician, it would have been very far-sighted, but how?
Proud Byzantium looked with undisguised irritation at the new "half-savage" people who dared to cause her trouble and who, in the imperial court's view, stood at the lowest level of the diplomatic hierarchy of states and peoples. To fight off, to buy off him, or even better to turn him into an obedient servant - this is the main line of Byzantium's attitude to the young state of the Russians. But Russia had no intention of bowing its head under the yoke of the Eastern Empire. Russia tried, and to defend its independence, and to establish the closest alliance with Byzantium, but one in which it would take an equal position. Then Byzantium did not know that Russia would achieve its goal.
Recognition of Rus, an increase in its status in the hierarchy of Byzantium's allies, and, consequently, an increase in prestige in the eyes of the rest of the world - that was what was especially important for the wise Olga. But this could only be achieved by adopting Christianity, because in those days, trust between the states of Europe was established on the basis of religious community.
Taking with her especially noble men and merchants, Princess Olga in the summer of 957 set off with a large fleet to Constantinople.
It was a peaceful campaign, but political considerations demanded that it simultaneously become a manifestation of the military power of Russia in the Black Sea, which would remind the proud "Romans" of the victorious campaigns of the princes Askold and Oleg, who in 907 nailed his shield "at the gates of Constantinople."
And the result has been achieved. The appearance of the Russian fleet on the Bosphorus created the necessary prerequisites for the development of a friendly Russian-Byzantine dialogue.
The Russian princess was received with great honor by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-959) and Patriarch Theophylact (933-956).
The princess converted to Christianity in the Church of St. Sophia - the main cathedral church of the Ecumenical Church of that time. At the same time, she received, as it were, a blessing for the apostolic mission in her land. The sacrament of her baptism was performed by the Patriarch of Constantinople Theophylact, and the emperor of Byzantium Constantine Porphyrogenitus became her godfather. In baptism, Olga took the name Helena in honor of the mother of the emperor Constantine; the princess also received the title of "daughter" from the emperor, placing Russia in the highest rank of the diplomatic hierarchy of states after Byzantium itself. Olga brilliantly achieved the task, and it was not easy to force such a hater of the Russians as Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus to become the godfather of the Russian princess. Was the adoption of the new faith a "call of the soul"? Or was it politics? Now it is difficult to judge, but Olga achieved her goal.
This state of affairs sharply increased the prestige of Kiev and elevated the princess among other representatives of other states. It is worth a lot to get the godchild of the Byzantine Emperor. The patriarch presented the princess with the life-giving Cross of the Lord. Many years later, this cross was erected in the Kiev Sophia Cathedral. He had the following inscription: "The Russian land was renewed for life in God through holy baptism, which was accepted by the noble Grand Duchess Olga."
Be that as it may, Olga went to Kiev with a firm determination to convert her people to Christianity.
She erected the church of St. Nicholas over the grave of Askold - the first Kiev prince - Christian and laid a wooden cathedral in the name of St. Sophia. With a preaching of faith, Olga went to her native North. At the Velikaya River, she had a vision: as if “three bright rays” were descending from the sky, after which Olga ordered to build a church in the name of the Holy Trinity in this place (by the way, special veneration of the Trinity in Russia comes with the light hand of Olga). The foundation of the new city of Rus - Pskov took place.
It turned out to be much easier to convert dependent people into your faith - acting wherever by conviction, where by threats - than to influence your own son. Svyatoslav has long been "not a boy, but a husband." In his person Olga met an insurmountable obstacle to the spread of Christianity in Russia. Outwardly, he respectfully listened to his mother's admiring stories about the splendor of the Tsargrad palace, about the honor shown to the Russian embassy, about the wisdom and righteous life of Patriarch Theophylact, but such "babe" nonsense was of little interest to him. Svyatoslav grew up as a good warrior and was concerned about feats of arms. Was it worth the effort to waste on trifles to which his mother inclined. Moreover, most of the warriors would not have supported Svyatoslav if he had decided to change his faith, and the prince did not want to be at enmity with his own comrades in a constant war. Therefore, Svyatoslav also avoided a profitable marriage with a Byzantine princess and refused to his mother in restoring the metropolitanate that existed under Askold in Kiev.
And yet Olga tried to impose her will on her son. She turned to the king of the Saxons Otto (a curtsey to a possible alliance), the future founder of the Holy Roman Empire, with a request to send a bishop and priests (at the time of Olga, the final division of the Christian churches into Latin and Greek doctrines had not yet taken place). Otto sent Adalbert of Trier to be Bishop of Russia, but this holy father did not last long in Kiev, seeing that all his efforts to convert the Russian pagans were in vain, his preaching mission failed. This is how, thanks to the persistence of Svyatoslav, the failure of the holy bishops to protect Russia subsequently from Catholic influence. Russia did not become a Catholic country and did not know the horror of the fires of the Inquisition in the future, or maybe there is little accidental in history?
Disputes over faith did not interfere with the mother-son relationship. As before, Olga was considered in public affairs, they turned to her in case of important decisions. Svyatoslav was an excellent warrior and very successful in campaigns: the Khazar Kaganate, the Volga Bulgaria, the Danube campaigns are the victories of his squads.
In the last years of her life, Olga found joy in raising her grandchildren. During his military campaigns, Svyatoslav long ago abandoned raising children, choosing Pereyavlavets-on-Danube as his city, but in vain … he forgot, forgot his grown-up son that his mother was revered not only as a wise, but also as a very cunning woman. Grandma Olga, with all her wisdom, poured Christian oil into the ears of her beloved grandson Vladimir.
In 968, Kiev was besieged by the Pechenegs, Olga and the young prince were in mortal danger, but there is no silver lining. To help from Pereyaslavets on the Danube, the son hastened. The Pechenegs were put to flight, and the seriously ill Olga persuaded her son not to leave Kiev anymore until her death.
In 969, Princess Olga died. Svyatoslav fulfilled his filial duty to the end. He not only remained at the bedside of the dying woman, but buried her according to the Christian tradition - as Olga asked.
Olga's baptism did not entail the introduction of Christianity in Russia, but her grandson, Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, will continue the work of his grandmother.
In 1000, Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich ordered to transfer the remains of Princess Olga to the Tithe Church and put it in a stone sarcophagus.
In 1547 Olga was canonized. Only six women in Christian history have received this honor - the face of the Equal to the Apostles. And among them she is the only Russian - Princess Olga. The first Russian saint.
It remains to say about the fate of the relics of Princess Olga. Alas, they shared the tragic fate of the Kiev Tithe Church. During the invasion of the Tatars to Kiev in 1240, the relics were hidden hidden in the church itself, and then, in the 17th century, according to legend, they were rediscovered by the famous Kiev Metropolitan Peter Mohyla, who excavated the Tithe Church and built a small temple in its place. They rested in it until the beginning of the 18th century, when, for some unknown reason, they were finally lost.
Tradition called Olga the Tricky, the church - Holy, and history - the Wise.