St. Alexander Nevsky was born on May 30, 1219 in the inheritance of his father - Pereyaslavl Zalessky.
Father - Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, son of Vsevolod the Big Nest and grandson of Yuri Dolgoruky - was a typical Suzdal prince. A deeply believer, pious, stern and reserved, with outbursts of anger and mercy - this is how the image of Father Alexander stands before us. Very little is known about his mother, Princess Feodosia. Chronicle legends are contradictory even in the indications of whose daughter she was. Her name is occasionally and briefly mentioned in the annals, always only in connection with the name of her husband or son. She had nine children.
The life of Saint Alexander tells that as a boy he was serious, did not like games and preferred the Holy Scriptures to them. This trait remained with him for the rest of his life. Prince Alexander is a clever hunter, a brave warrior, a hero in strength and constitution. But at the same time, he has a constant turn into himself. From the words of his life, it is clear that this sharply distinguishing feature of him - the combination of two seemingly contradictory character traits - began to manifest itself in the years of early childhood.
But these childhood years in Pereyaslavl were very short. St. Alexander had to enter life early. The reason for this was his move with his father from Pereyaslavl to Novgorod. In 1222, Yaroslav with Princess Theodosia, sons Theodore and St. Alexander and a retinue came from Pereyaslavl to the Novgorod reign.
All the time of Alexander's childhood, the time of Yaroslav's strife with Novgorod, his comings and goings, was a time of disasters and signs of a new coming trouble. Especially these disasters have increased since 1230, i.e. just at the time of the second independent reign of Theodore and St. Alexander in Novgorod. In 1233, Theodore was to marry. The relatives of the bride and groom have gathered in Novgorod. But just before the wedding, Theodore fell ill. On July 10, he died and was buried in the monastery of St. George.
In the annals, the names of Theodore and Alexander are always mentioned together. They grew up and studied together, were left alone in Novgorod, fled from it, returned to it, reigned together in it during famine. So, along with the misfortunes of the whole earth, Alexandra visited the family grief for the first time in the joyful atmosphere of the upcoming wedding feast.
Two years later, in 1236, Yaroslav became the Grand Duke of Kiev, and from that year began a completely independent reign of the seventeen-year-old Alexander in Novgorod.
In 1239 Alexander married Princess Alexandra, daughter of the Polotsk prince Bryachislav. The wedding took place in Toropets. There St. Alexander arranged a wedding feast. Returning to Novgorod, he arranged a second wedding feast for Novgorodians.
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In the same year, he began to build fortifications along the banks of the Shelon. After the Tatars turned south from the Ignach Cross, St. Alexander could clearly see the whole difficulty of Novgorod's position. The long stubborn struggle was not over, it was just beginning.
In the east, there was devastated land, cities under restoration, and residents gradually returning from the forests. The severity of ruin reigned there, the oppression of the Tatar Baskaks and the constant fear of a new invasion. There could be no help from there. Each principality was too preoccupied with its own misfortune to repel invasions from others. Meanwhile, over the past decades, another enemy stood against Novgorod, whose onslaught was constantly repelled with the help of Suzdal. It was the world of Latin Catholicism, its vanguard - the Livonian Order of the Swordsmen - established on the shores of the Baltic Sea and advancing on the Novgorod and Pskov borders.
At the same time, another vanguard of Europe, the Swedes, advanced to the north, threatening Ladoga.
The struggle with the West was fought during all the first decades of the XIII century. The moment of the weakening of Russia and the loneliness of Novgorod coincided with the intensification of the onslaught from the West, and the Novgorod princes realized themselves to be the defenders of Orthodoxy and Russia. Prince Alexander had to come out for this defense in the years of the highest tension of the struggle and at the same time the greatest weakening of Russia. The entire first period of his life was spent fighting the West. And in this struggle, first of all, two features appear: tragic loneliness and ruthlessness. Despite all the horrors of the Tatar invasions, the Western war was no less fierce. And this difference between the hostile waves coming from the west and from the east explains two completely different periods of Alexander's life: the difference between his western and eastern policies.
The Tatars were found in Russia with avalanches. They heavily crushed her with extortions and arbitrariness of the khan officials. But Tatar rule did not penetrate into the life of the conquered country. The Tatar conquests were devoid of religious motives. Hence their wide religious tolerance. It was possible to wait out the Tatar yoke and survive. The Tatars did not encroach on the inner strength of the conquered people. And temporary obedience could be used to strengthen this force with the ever-growing weakening of the Tatars.
The world of Catholicism advancing from the west was quite different. The external scope of his conquests was infinitely less than the Tatar invasions. But behind them stood a single integral force. And the main motive of the struggle was religious conquest, the establishment of one's own religious outlook, from which the whole way of life and way of life grew. From the West to Novgorod were monks-knights. Their emblem was a cross and a sword. Here the attack was directed not at land or property, but at the very soul of the people - at the Orthodox Church. And the conquests of the West were true conquests. They did not pass huge spaces, but they seized the earth inch by inch, firmly, forever fortified in it, erecting castles.
1240, in the summertime - in the midst of the field work - news of an attack from the north came to Novgorod. The son-in-law of the Swedish king, Folkung Birger, entered the Neva on boats and landed with a large army at the mouth of the Izhora, threatening Ladoga.
An unequal struggle has begun. The enemy was already within the Novgorodian boundaries. St. Alexander Nevsky had no time either to send to his father for reinforcements, or to gather people from the far-flung Novgorodian lands. According to the chronicle, he “flared up in heart” and opposed the Swedish army only with his own squad, the regiment of the Lord and a small Novgorod militia.
Having reached Ladoga, St. Alexander joined the Ladoga militia to his army and went through the forests to the Neva against the Swedes, who were encamped by their boats at the mouth of the Izhora. The slaughter took place on July 15, on the day of commemoration of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir. The battle ended in the evening. The remnants of the Swedish army boarded the boats and went to sea at night.
According to the chronicler, the bodies of the murdered Swedes filled three boats and several large pits, and the Novgorodians lost only twenty people. One might think that the chronicler incorrectly conveys the ratio of those killed in the battle, but, in any case, his story expresses the consciousness of the great significance of this victory for Novgorod and all of Russia. The onslaught of the Swedes was repelled. The rumor of victory spread throughout the country.
Novgorod, seized by that fear and anxiety about the outcome of the unequal struggle, rejoiced. At the ringing of bells, St. Alexander returned to Novgorod. Archbishop Spiridon of Novgorod with the clergy and crowds of Novgorodians came out to meet him … Having entered the city, St. Alexander rode straight to St. Sophia, praising and glorifying the Holy Trinity for the victory won.
In the winter of the same 1240, he left with his mother, wife and the entire princely court for Suzdal, having quarreled with the Novgorodians.
Apparently, the Novgorodians did not understand that the war did not end with the Neva victory and that the Swedish offensive was only the first attack of the West, followed by others. In Alexander's attempts to strengthen his power of the prince-leader of the army, they saw the former princely Suzdal will hostile to them. The very glory of Alexander and the love of the people for him made him in the eyes of the Novgorod boyars even more dangerous for the Novgorodian liberties.
That same winter, after Alexander's departure, the sword-bearers again came to the Novgorod possessions of Chud and Vod, devastated them, imposed a tribute and erected the city of Koporye on the Novgorod land itself. From there they took Tesovo and approached Novgorod 30 versts, beating Novgorod guests along the roads. In the north, they reached Luga. At this time, Lithuanian princes attacked the Novgorod borders. Swordsmen, Chud and Lithuanians scoured the Novgorod volosts, robbing residents and taking away horses and cattle.
In this trouble, the Novgorodians sent ambassadors to Yaroslav Vsevolodovich with a request for a prince. He sent them his son Andrew, the younger brother of Alexander. But the Novgorodians did not believe that the young prince would lead them out of unprecedented troubles. They again sent Archbishop Spiridon with the boyars to Yaroslav, begging him to release Alexander to the principality.
Yaroslav agreed. In the winter of 1241, Alexander, after a year of absence, entered Novgorod again, and “Novgorodians were happy”. Common misfortunes and hardships tied Alexander tightly with Novgorod.
Upon arrival, Alexander gathered a militia of Novgorodians, Ladoga residents, Korelians and Izhorians, attacked the Koporye erected on the Novgorod land, destroyed the city to the ground, killed many of the sword-bearers, took many prisoners, and released others. In response to this attack, the order brothers, despite the winter time, attacked Pskov and, having defeated the Pskovites, put their governors in the city. Hearing about this, Alexander, at the head of the Novgorod and grassroots army with his brother Andrey, went to the order. On the way, he took Pskov by storm and sent the governors of the order to Novgorod. From near Pskov, he moved on and entered the possession of the order.
At the news of the Russian invasion, the master gathered the entire order and the tribes subordinate to him and marched to the borders. Learning that a large army was coming to him, Alexander retreated from the order's possessions, crossed over Lake Peipsi and set up his regiments on its Russian bank, on Uzmen near the Crow Stone. It was already April, but there was still snow, and the lake was covered with hard ice. A decisive battle was being prepared. The entire order went to the Novgorodians. The Germans walked “boasting”, confident of their victory. From the story of the chronicle it is clear that the entire Novgorod army was aware of the deep seriousness of the battle. In this story, in tense anticipation of the battle, there is a feeling of the Russian land lying behind the back, the fate of which depended on the outcome of the battle. Filled with a military spirit, the Novgorodians said to Alexander: “O our prince, honest and precious; now the time has come to lay down your heads for thee. "But the pinnacle of this consciousness of the decisiveness of the battle lies in the prayers of Alexander, which the chronicle cites: Alexander entered the Church of the Holy Trinity and, raising his hands and praying, said: “Judge God, and judge my words from my tongue: help the Lord, as Moiseov is ancient to Amalik and my great-grandfather, Prince Yaroslav, to the accursed Svyatopolk."
On Saturday (April 5), at sunrise, a host of swordsmen in white cloaks thrown over their armor, with a red cross and a sword sewn on them, moved across the ice of the lake to the Novgorodians. Constructing like a wedge - a "pig" - and closing their shields, they crashed into the Russian army and made their way through it. Confusion began among the Novgorodians. Then St. Alexander with a reserve regiment struck behind enemy lines. A slaughter began, "evil and great … and a coward from the mines, breaking and the sound of the sword section … and you don't see the lake, and everything is covered with blood." Chud, who was walking with the order, could not resist, ran, overturning the sword-bearers. The Novgorodians drove them along the lake for seven miles, to the other side of the lake, called Suplichsky. In the wide ice space, the fugitives had nowhere to hide. In the battle, 500 swordsmen and many Chudi fell. Fifty knights were taken prisoner and brought to Novgorod. Many drowned in the lake, falling into open holes, and many wounded hid in the forests.
The struggle against the West did not end with the Neva and Peipsi battles. It, renewed during the life of St. Alexander, continued for several centuries. But the Battle of the Ice broke the enemy wave at a time when it was especially strong and when, thanks to the weakening of Russia, the success of the order would have been decisive and final. On Lake Peipsi and on the Neva, St. Alexander defended the originality of Russia from the West in the most difficult time of the Tatar flood.
On September 30, 1246, Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich died in distant Mongolia as a "necessary", that is, a violent death.
The death of Yaroslav freed the Grand Ducal throne in Russia. Yaroslav's brother, Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, temporarily became the Grand Duke. The change in the great reign caused displacements on other tables. The transfer also affected St. Alexander, as the eldest son of the deceased Grand Duke. The occupation of the new table depended on the Tatars. To obtain the principalities, St. Alexander and his brother Andrew had to go to the Horde for a shortcut.
“That same summer, Prince Andrey Yaroslavich went to the Horde to Batuvi. Tsar Batu sent his ambassadors to Alexander Yaroelavich, saying: "God conquered many languages to me, are you the only one who wants to submit to my druzhva, but if you want to keep your land now, then come to me" - this is how the life and the chronicle tell about it …
Alexander Nevsky monument The Kipchatsk khans from their headquarters followed Russia. The name of Alexander was already glorified throughout Russia. His victories over the Swedes, the sword-bearers and Lithuania made him a national hero, the defender of Russia from foreigners. He was a prince in Novgorod - the only region of Russia, where the Tatars did not reach. And, probably, many Russians at that time had a hope that this prince, who was defeating foreign armies with a small militia, would free Russia from the Tatars. This suspicion should have arisen at the khan's headquarters. Therefore, Batu's order to appear in the Horde is quite understandable.
Equally understandable is the hesitation of St. Alexander - his unwillingness to go to the Horde. This was the most decisive and tragic moment in the life of St. Alexander. There were two paths before him. One of them had to stand. The decision predetermined his future life.
This step was full of great hesitation. A trip to the Horde - it was the threat of an inglorious death - the princes went there, almost as if to death, leaving, left their wills - surrender to the mercy of the enemy in the distant steppes and, after the glory of the Nevsky and Peipsi massacres, humiliation before idolaters, “filthy, who left true God, creatures worship."
It would seem that both glory and honor and the good of Russia demanded a refusal - war. We can firmly say that Russia and, especially, Novgorod, expected disobedience to the will of the khan. Countless uprisings bear witness to this. Before Alexander was the path of direct heroic struggle, the hope of victory or heroic death. But he rejected this path. He went to see the khan.
Here his realism affected. If he had the strength, he would go to the khan, as he went to the Swedes. But with a firm and free look, he saw and knew that there was no strength and there was no way to win. And he resigned himself. And in this humiliation of oneself, bowing before the force of life, there was a greater feat than a glorious death. The people with a special instinct, perhaps not immediately and not suddenly, understood the Saint. Alexandra. He glorified him long before canonization, and it is difficult to say what attracted the love of the people to him more: victories on the Neva, or this trip to humiliation.
Batu's order found Saint Alexander in Vladimir. All those who went to the Horde were especially embarrassed by the Tatars' demand to bow to idols and go through the fire. Alexander also had this alarm, and with it he went to Metropolitan Kirill of Kiev, who lived in Vladimir at that time. “The Holy One (Alexander), hearing this from the sent ones, was sad, the velma ached in his soul and wondered what to do about this. And the saint went to tell the bishop his thought. " Metropolitan Kirill said to him: "Let no drink enter your mouth, and do not forsake God who created you, as if you did something else, but guard for Christ, as a good warrior of Christ."
Alexander promised to fulfill this instruction. Tatar officials sent to tell Batu about the prince's disobedience. St. Alexander stood by the fires, waiting for the decision of the khan, like the year before St. Michael of Chernigov. Ambassador Batu brought the order to bring St. Alexander to him, not forcing him to pass between the fires. The khan's officials took him to the tent and searched him, looking for weapons hidden in his clothes. Khan's secretary proclaimed his name and ordered to enter, without stepping on the threshold, through the eastern doors of the tent, because only the Khan himself entered through the western doors.
Entering the tent, Alexander approached Batu, who was sitting on an ivory table decorated with golden leaves, bowed to him according to the Tatar custom, i.e. four times fell to his knees, then prostrating on the ground, and said: "King, I worship you, God has honored you with a kingdom, but I do not worship creatures: that was created for man's sake, but I worship only God, I serve and honor Him." Batu listened to these words and pardoned Alexander.
In the winter of 1250, after more than three years of absence, Alexander returned to Russia. The principality of Kiev, to which he received the label, was devastated. In 1252 St. Alexander moved to Vladimir, the patrimony of his fathers and grandfathers. Since that time, his life has been associated with Vladimir. From here he ruled all of Russia, Vladimir became his permanent residence.
The Vladimir period shows in Alexander new features of a prince - a peaceful builder and ruler of the land. These features could not manifest themselves in the Novgorod reign. There he was only a warrior prince who defended the Russian borders. His attempts to get closer to land management provoked strife with the Novgorodians. Only here, in Suzdal Rus, he is fully the prince, whose work in the minds of princes and the people is inseparable from the very concept of princely service. From the time of Alexander's reign in Vladimir, his close and lasting friendship with Metropolitan Kirill began until the end of his life.
His activity went in two directions. On the one hand, by peaceful construction and ordering of the land, he strengthened Russia, supported its inner essence, accumulated strength for future open struggle. This is the essence of all his long-term, persistent works on the management of Suzdal Rus. On the other hand, by obeying the khans and fulfilling their orders, he prevented invasions, outwardly protected the restored power of Russia.
Only from this point of view the whole work of Alexander Nevsky's life is clear. Before him lay the difficult task of containing an outraged and embittered people. All his long-term labors built a building on the sand. One outrage could destroy the fruits of many years. Therefore, at times, by force and coercion, he forced the people to humble themselves under the Tatar yoke, constantly realizing that the people could get out of his power and incur the khan's wrath. This external difficulty was compounded by the internal difficulty. The Russian prince stood as if on the side of the khan. He became an assistant to the Khan Baskaks against the Russian people. Alexander had to carry out the khan's orders, which he condemned as harmful. But in order to preserve the general main line of salvation for Russia, he also accepted these orders. This tragedy of the situation between the Tatars and Russia makes St. Alexander a martyr. With the crown of martyrdom, he enters into the Russian Church, and into Russian history, and into the consciousness of the people.
In the fall of 1263, Alexander felt the approach of death. Summoning the igumen, he began to ask for monastic tonsure, saying: "Father, behold, I am sick of the great … I do not have tea for my belly and I ask to be tonsured." This request caused despair of the boyars and servants who were with him. The ceremony of tonsure began. Alexander was tonsured into the schema with the name Alexis. A cockle and monastic dress were placed on him. Then he again called his boyars and servants to him and began to say goodbye to them, asking everyone for forgiveness. Then he received the Holy Mysteries and quietly reposed. It was November 14, 1263.
Metropolitan Kirill was serving mass in the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, when a messenger who entered the altar informed him of the death of the prince. Going out to the people, the Metropolitan said: “My children! Understand, as if the sun of the Suzdal land has already set. " And the whole cathedral - boyars, priests, deacons, monks and beggars - responded with sobs and shouts: "We are already perishing."
The burial took place in the Church of the Holy Mother of God in Vladimir on November 23. The Life tells that when Metropolitan Economist Sevast'yan approached the coffin to put the authorization letter into the deceased's hand, the prince's hand stretched out and took the letter itself and clenched again.
“And so horror is seized,” says the chronicle, “of those who saw that, and it was preached to everyone from Metropolitan Cyril and from the icon of Sevastian. Behold, having heard, brothers, who will not be amazed at how soullessly dry my body, brought from distant places during the winter? So God, glorify your saint, who work a lot for the Russian land, and for Novgorod, and for Pskov, and for the whole Russian land, laying down your glorious Christianity for the right."
