I am sure many, having read the title, immediately remembered the words of Pushkin:
"How the prophetic Oleg is now getting ready / To take revenge on the unreasonable khozars …", and how it all ended: "Like a black ribbon, wrapped around his legs, / and suddenly cried out the stung prince." Or another version, by Vysotsky: "An evil viper bit him, and he accepted death from his horse." At the same time, few people know that the merit of the legendary Prophetic Oleg to the Fatherland is not at all that he tragically died at the bones of his beloved horse.
Do you want to know what? Read on.
The Legend of Prophetic Oleg
Acting Prince
The hero of our past story about the rulers of Russia was the founder of the first Russian state, Prince Rurik - the Varangians summoned from across the sea. He died in 879. But since his heir Igor was still an infant at that time, before his death, the Grand Duke chose his brother-in-law Oleg as his successor and ordered him to rule the lands until the legitimate ruler grew up. Having headed Russia, Oleg did not sit idly by, but immediately set about continuing the work of his predecessor - the unification of tribes and the expansion of state borders. Less than three years after the death of Rurik, Prince Oleg gathered a mighty army and, taking with him little Igor, set off on a military campaign.
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First of all, he went to Smolensk, captured it and put his man to rule there. Then he visited Lyubech in the same way. Then he sent his boats down the Dnieper and reached Kiev. But a surprise awaited him there.
Varangians-impostors
As it turned out, the city is already ruled by the Vikings - the brothers Askold and Dir. Moreover, they were once in the same squad with Oleg and, like him, arrived in Russia along with Rurik. Askold and Dir were noble warriors who once asked Rurik for a campaign against Constantinople (Constantinople). He let them go, giving a squad. When, moving along the Dnieper, the brothers saw Kiev towering on a hill, they asked the residents: "Whose town is this?" They answered: “There were three brothers - Kiy, Schek and Khoriv, who built this town and disappeared. And we sit here, their descendants, and pay tribute to the Khazars. " And then Askold and Dir decided not to return to Rurik, but to remain in Kiev, declaring themselves to be his princes. According to the laws of that time, they had no right to do this, since they were noble, but not of a princely family.
Oleg did not like that Askold and Dir refused to annex the Kiev lands to the possessions of their prince. But he also understood that now the brothers would not give up power so easily. And then I decided to go for a trick. Leaving behind most of his army, Oleg approached the city on several boats and sent a messenger to the impostors to report that merchants had arrived, coming to the Greeks from Novgorod: “Come to us, to your relatives”. Unsuspecting Askold and Dir came to the banks of the Dnieper.
But instead of the merchants, Oleg came out to meet them with the little prince Igor in his arms. “You are not princes and not a princely family, but I am a princely family,” he announced and pointed to Igor. - And this is the son of Rurik! And the brothers were immediately surrounded by soldiers who were hiding in the boats all this time. The impostors were not spared.
Mother of Russian cities
Oleg liked Kiev, and he decided to make it the capital instead of Novgorod.
"May this be a mother to Russian cities!" - the chroniclers wrote down the words of the prince. This is how the great ancient Russian state was formed, which in history received the name Kievan Rus. In the new place, Oleg did not stay long either. Having ordered all the cities under his control to carry tribute to the new capital, he himself equipped an army for further conquests. The very next year, the prince got involved in an armed conflict with the Drevlyans, conquered them and, imposing levies on them, annexed the conquered lands to Russia. A year later, the Russian army moved to the northerners, who were under the rule of the Khazars. Oleg told them: "I am an enemy of the Khazars and you don't have to pay them." The northerners voluntarily agreed to become part of Russia, and the prince demanded a tribute from them much less than the nomads demanded. In the same way, in 885, the territory of the Radimichi was transferred to the Russian state. Upon learning that they are paying the Khazars,Oleg sent an ambassador to them and convinced them to join. The streets and Tivertsy turned out to be less accommodating - Oleg fought with them for a long time before their lands became part of Kievan Rus.
According to the Hungarian chronicle, only once during the reign of Oleg did the Rusichs suffer a major defeat - when nomadic Hungarians migrating to the west passed through their lands. They defeated the Polovtsians and laid siege to Kiev. The chronicle is silent about whether Prince Oleg was in the city at that moment. Perhaps he and his retinue were on some regular campaign.
To make the Hungarians leave Kiev alone, the townspeople paid a large sum - 10 thousand in silver, and also gave a thousand horses. By the way, in the Russian chronicles there is not a word about the siege of Kiev, but only it is mentioned that the Hungarians (Ugrians) passed by the city. So, according to some historians, it might not have existed.
In the steppe under sail
Prince Oleg lived in Kiev for 25 years, expanding the borders of Rus, conquering and annexing the neighboring peoples to his state. During this time, Igor matured and became a co-ruler of the prince, as it is written in the annals, "accompanied Oleg and listened to him." My uncle personally picked up a bride for his nephew - Olga is from Pskov.
And now the time has come when the Russians have healed, "having peace with all countries."
But the Varangian blood called for new exploits, and in 907, Oleg conceived a grandiose campaign - he decided to conquer the Byzantine Empire itself. The prince gathered a large army, loaded it into two thousand boats and, leaving Igor in charge of everything in Kiev, moved along the Dnieper towards Constantinople. Seeing the Russian army, the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Philosopher did not dare to give her a battle, preferring to lock himself in the city and let the invaders ravage its lands. And to prevent the boats from approaching the Byzantine capital, the Greeks blocked the harbor with chains. But it was not enough for Oleg to simply plunder the suburbs of Constantinople, he wanted to conquer the famous Byzantium.
And then the prince struck the Greeks with an unpredictable assault, ordering to put the boats on wheels. Catching a fair wind, under sail, right across the field, Oleg rushed the fleet to Constantinople. The Greeks were so impressed by this maneuver that they surrendered without a fight. Emperor Leo VI sent envoys to Oleg so that they could agree on peace, with the request: "Do not destroy the city, we will give you the tribute you want," and brought gifts to the Russian soldiers - numerous food and wine. But the prince, sensing that something was wrong, forbade to touch these gifts. And not in vain. It turned out that the Greeks decided to defeat the Russians, if not by force, then by cunning: food and wine were poisoned. Realizing that the Russian prince was not so easy to deceive, Leo VI finally surrendered and agreed to any conditions of the winners. First of all, Oleg ordered the Greeks to give each of his soldiers 12 hryvnias as compensation for the campaign. The amount came out huge, considering that one boat could accommodate about 40 people, and in the Russian army there were two thousand such boats. Secondly, Byzantium undertook to pay tribute to Kievan Rus. In commemoration of the victory, the prince nailed his shield to the gates of Constantinople and set off for Kiev with boats full of Byzantine goodness. It was for the sagacity and ingenuity shown in this campaign that Oleg was nicknamed the Prophetic. It was for the sagacity and ingenuity shown in this campaign that Oleg was nicknamed the Prophetic. It was for the sagacity and ingenuity shown in this campaign that Oleg was nicknamed the Prophetic.
In Kiev or Ladoga?
At the very beginning, we already casually mentioned how the legendary prince died. At least this is how the Tale of Bygone Years describes his death.
Even before the campaign against Byzantium, Oleg asked the Magi: "Why am I going to die?"
They answered: “Prince! From your beloved horse, which you ride. From it you and die! . To avoid such a fate, Oleg decided that he would never sit on his pet again.
The sovereign ordered to take the animal away, feed it well and never show it to it. But when, four years after his return from Constantinople, the prince learned that his horse had been dead for a long time, he cried out: “The wise men speak incorrectly, but everything is a lie! The horse is dead, and I am alive! " - and wished to see the remains of a friend he had once rejected. Arriving at the bones, Oleg said: "Should I accept death from this skull?" - and stepped on him. At that moment, a snake appeared among the bones and stung the prince in the leg. So the prophecy of the Magi came true, and Prophetic Oleg died. It happened in 912.
About the same place where the legendary ruler of Russia is buried, the information of the chroniclers differs. Near Staraya Ladoga there is a burial mound called the tomb of Prophetic Oleg - according to the Novgorod Chronicle, the prince lies there. Nestor points out a different place: according to The Tale of Bygone Years, Oleg was buried on Mount Schekovitsa in Kiev - the capital of Kievan Rus, which he once founded.
Oleg GOROSOV