Vladimir Monomakh (born on May 26, 1053 - died on May 19, 1125) Commander and statesman of Ancient Russia, Prince of Smolensk (from 1067), Chernigov (from 1078), Pereyaslavl (from 1093), the great Prince of Kiev (since 1113).
The grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, the son of Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich is one of the most prominent personalities in ancient Russian history. His mother was presumably the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Monomakh (hence his historical nickname - Monomakh, after his grandfather).
Vladimir Monomakh devoted his entire long life to uniting the Russian land and protecting it from the constant raids of the Polovtsians. Vladimir Monomakh began to fight with them when he received the border principality of Pereyaslavl, located on the edge of the Wild Field, or, as it was then called for a whole century, the Polovtsian steppe, into the specific rule.
History has brought to us the numbers: from the winter of 1061 to 1210, the Polovtsians made 46 only large raids on Russia, not counting small ones. The border region of Pereyaslavl suffered the most from them. 19 times the Polovtsian hordes rolled into this principality in a wave, which covered almost half of Russia.
According to the calculations of the historian S. M. Solovyov, during the reign of his father Vladimir Monomakh won 12 victories over the Polovtsians in battles. Almost everyone is on the steppe border of the Russian land.
During his reign in the capital city of Kiev, Vladimir Monomakh was able to unite around himself most of the Russian land. At the princely congress in the city of Lyubech, held in the fall of 1097 (according to the chronicle - "in the year 6605"), Monomakh was able to convince the largest Russian princes to unite their squads to fight the Polovtsian danger and "arrange peace" on the land of the Fatherland, ending civil strife. He was the organizer and inspirer of a number of joint campaigns of the Russian princes against the Polovtsians. The largest of them were the campaigns of 1103, 1107, 1111.
In the constant struggle against the Wild Field, Monomakh proved to be an outstanding tactician and strategist. He thoroughly studied the nature of the Polovtsian raids on Russia and came to the conclusion that these raids must be preempted. Nomads, as a rule, attacked the Russian principalities at the very beginning of summer. Monomakh, on the other hand, suggested making campaigns to the steppe in early spring, when, after the winter lack of food, the Polovtsian horses had not yet gained strength. He also proposed to smash the Polovtsians not in the border area, but on the territory of their tribal nomads.
The first large long-distance campaign of the Russian army took place in 1103 after the Dolobian council of princes. Vladimir Monomakh set out on a campaign with Prince Svyatopolk of Kiev. Their army consisted of cavalry, which advanced along the banks of the Dnieper, and foot soldiers, sailing on boats.
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In the area of the island of Khortytsya, foot warriors landed on the shore and, together with the horsemen, moved into the steppe. The Russian army covered about 100 km in 4 days. Ahead was moving a large detachment - "watchman", performing the functions of guard and reconnaissance.
When the advance of the Russian regiments became known in the Polovtsian vezhes, the khans gathered to discuss such an unprecedented matter - the enemy went deep into the Wild Field. The Khans decided to defeat the Russian army and then immediately make a big raid on Russia.
The first big battle with nomads took place in the Suteni tract. The Russian "watchman" was able to surround and destroy a large Polovtsian detachment led by Khan Altunopa. So the steppe people were first defeated on their own land.
The battle with the main forces of the Polovtsians took place on the morning of April 4 on the Molochnaya River. The chronicler describes its prologue as follows: “And the Polovtsian regiments moved like a forest, they could not see the end; and Russia went to meet them."
The battle, as expected, began with fierce attacks from the myriad Polovtsian cavalry, and the Russian ranks held out. The foot army, which made up the "chelo" (located in the center), did not allow the Polovtsian cavalry to tear itself apart and drew the main forces of the enemy to itself. The princely horse squads, standing on the flanks (wings), began to defeat the army of the khans. After a hot battle, the Polovtsians fled, the Russian cavalry pursued the enemy, whose horses after the winter lost their former agility. In that battle, 20 Polovtsian khans were killed.
From such a blow, the Polovtsian hordes were not immediately able to recover. 1107, May - the steppe people, led by the khans Bonyak and Sharukan, raided the vicinity of the border fortress city of Pereyaslavl. In August they repeated the raid and reached the Sula River near Luben. Vladimir Monomakh again raised the Russian princes on a joint campaign and unexpectedly fell upon the nomad camp. The Polovtsi did not even have time to line up for battle. Having captured a large full, the Russian squads "with a great victory" returned home.
To protect Russia from the ruinous raids of the Polovtsi, Vladimir Monomakh used not only military force, but also resorted to diplomatic methods. He married his two sons - Yuri, the future Dolgoruky, and Andrey - to the daughters of noble Polovtsian khans. Other appanage princes did the same. But even this could not keep the steppe hordes from raids on their northern neighbors.
Then Vladimir wanted to make an ultra-long march to the Polovtsian steppe, to go to the Don and there to defeat those Polovtsian vezhes (nomads) that had so far been able to avoid the blow of the Russian squads. This campaign took place in 1111, at the end of February, when the steppe was still under snow. Foot Russian warriors set out on a long journey on a sleigh. On the sled, they carried heavy weapons and food for the horses.
The path of the united army of several Russian princes ran away from the nomads closest to the borders of Russia, which ensured the secrecy of the campaign. At the end of March, the Russian army reached the banks of the Seversky Donets River and took the Polovtsian towns of Sharukan and Sugrov, freeing many prisoners here.
The appearance of a Russian army of many thousands in the very center of the Wild Field forced the Polovtsian khans to unite into one huge cavalry army. There were two big battles. One of them, which took place on March 27 on the banks of the Dnieper, was distinguished by extraordinary ferocity.
Vladimir Monomakh lined up the Russian regiments in the usual battle formation: foot soldiers stood in the center, and the prince's horse squads - on the flanks (wings). They formed one battle line. But this time Vladimir put up a second line - it was made up of the regiments of Monomakh himself and the Chernigov prince Davyd Svyatoslavich.
The entire mass of the Polovtsian cavalry attacked the first line of the Russian troops. But the tightness on the battlefield did not allow them to conduct aimed archery, and the steppe dwellers never broke through the enemy's formation. It was in vain that the khans sent their soldiers to attack over and over again. When the ancient Russian commander was convinced that the offensive ardor of the Polovtsians had dried up, he introduced the second line into the battle. The Polovtsians did not know such a big defeat from the Russians that happened on the banks of the Don.
After the defeat in 1111, the Polovtsian towers migrated across the Danube to avoid complete destruction, and up to 40,000 Polovtsian soldiers, together with their families and herds, went to Georgia, hiring for military service to King David IV the Builder.
In the last years of the reign and life of Vladimir Monomakh, nomadic hordes from the Wild Field no longer disturbed the Russian lands. Life on the borderland and trade routes along the Dnieper became safe. The line of farming has moved south.
The Grand Duke-Warrior Vladimir Monomakh made 83 large and small campaigns in his life.
A. Shishov