Origin
Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (born May 13, 1221 - death November 14, 1263) - the second son of Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, great-grandson of Vladimir Monomakh. Prince of Novgorod (1252), Grand Duke of Vladimir (1252–1263) Russian statesman, military leader. Holy Russian Orthodox Church. Rod: Rurikovich.
early years
Alexander spent his adolescence and youth for the most part in Novgorod, where his father put him to reign in 1828 together with his older brother Fedor (died in 1233), giving two Suzdal boyars as leaders of the young princes. 1236 - Yaroslav went to Kiev, having received a table there, and Alexander began to independently rule Novgorod.
In 1239 Alexander began building fortresses along the river. Sheloni on the western outskirts of the Novgorod possessions. Soon, Alexander will glorify his name in the fight against the Swedes, Germans and Lithuanians, who sought to take possession of Novgorod and Pskov at a time when the rest of Russia was undergoing a terrible Tatar pogrom.
Key dates
Promotional video:
• 1240 - at the Battle of the Neva
• 1242 - on Lake Peipsi - Battle on the Ice
• 1245 - repulsing the attack of the Lithuanians on Torzhok and Bezhetsk
• 1247 - Alexander, by the will of Batu, became the Grand Duke of Kiev
• 1251 - two cardinals came to Novgorod to Alexander with the proposal of the Pope to accept Catholicism, he refused.
• 1252 - he received a label for the great Vladimir reign
• 1256 - The prince led a successful campaign against the Finnish tribe Eme
• 1262 - Novgorod, Tver and allied Lithuanian regiments undertook a campaign in Livonia
Personal life
1239 - Alexander married the daughter of the Polotsk prince Bryachislav, Alexandra. The young were married in the church of St. George in Toropets. A year later, their son Vasily was born.
Later, the wife gave birth to more children to Alexander: Vasily - Prince of Novgorod; Dmitry - the future prince of Novgorod, Pereyaslavsky and Vladimir; Andrei - will become the Kostroma, Vladimir, Novgorod and Gorodets prince, Daniel - the first prince of Moscow. Also, the princely couple had a daughter, Evdokia, who married Konstantin Rostislavich Smolensky.
Neva battle
1240 - The Swedes, who challenged the possession of Finland among the Novgorodians, prompted by the papal bull to a crusade to Novgorod, entered the Neva under the command of Birger and reached the mouth of the Izhora. The news of their invasion was received in Novgorod. The prince with the Novgorodians and Ladoga residents quickly moved to meet them on the left bank of the Neva, at the confluence of the river. Izhora, on July 16, 1240, he was completely able to defeat the Swedes, while Birger himself "put a seal on his face with your sharp spear." After this battle, decorated with poetic legends (the appearance of St. Boris and Gleb), Alexander received the nickname Nevsky. In the same year, the prince left Novgorod for Pereyaslavl to his father, having quarreled with the Novgorod boyars because he wanted to rule as imperiously as his father and grandfather.
Events that preceded the Battle of the Ice
However, circumstances forced the Novgorodians to call Alexander again. The Order of the Swordsmen, shortly before that united with the Teutonic Order, and resumed the offensive movement towards Russia in Novgorod and Pskov. In the year of the Neva battle, the Germans began the conquest of the Pskov region, and in the next (1241) Pskov itself was occupied by the Germans. Encouraged by their success, the crusaders set about conquering the Novgorod volost. They imposed a tribute on the water, built a German fortress in the Koporye churchyard, took Tesov, lands along the river. Luges were subject to devastation and, finally, German troops began to plunder Novgorod merchants, 30 versts from Novgorod.
Then the Novgorodians sent to Yaroslav Vsevolodovich for the prince and he gave them a son, Andrei. However, Alexander Nevsky was needed, not Andrei. Thinking the Novgorodians sent the Vladyka with the boyars to Alexander, who in 1241 was gladly accepted by the Novgorodians and first of all conquered Koporye.
Battle on the Ice
1242 - having received the help of lower regiments (from the Suzdal land), Alexander managed to free Pskov and from here, without wasting time, he went to the borders of Livonia, and there, on April 5, 1242, he gave the knights a battle on the ice of Lake Peipsi, near the Uzmen tracts and the Crow's Stone, known as the Battle of the Ice: the crusaders were defeated on their heads.
After this defeat, the knights asked for peace, abandoned their conquests in the Russian regions. After the Swedes and Germans, the prince turned his arms to the Lithuanians and a whole series of victories (in 1242 and 1245)
Clashes with the Swedes
1256 - the Swedes tried to take away the Finnish coastal area from Novgorod again and, together with the subject Emyu, began to build a fortress on the river. Narove; but having learned about the approach of Alexander with the Suzdal and Novgorod regiments, they left. To intimidate the Swedes, Alexander Nevsky made a trip to the Swedish possessions, to the country of Emi (today Finland), having subjected it to devastation. So Alexander victoriously reflected enemies on the western border, but he had to choose a completely different policy in relation to the Tatars.
Relations with the Golden Horde
After the death of his father (died in 1246), Alexander Nevsky and his brother Andrei went for the first time (in 1247) to the Horde to worship Batu, and from here from the banks of the Volga, on the water of Batu, the Yaroslavichs had a chance to make a long journey to Mongolia to the great khan. It took them two years for this trip. They returned in 1250 with labels for reigning: Andrei, although the younger brother, received the first Vladimirsky table by the will of the khan, while Alexander - Kiev and Novgorod.
Alexander did not go to Kiev, which had lost all importance after the Tatar devastation, but settled in Novgorod, waiting for a turn of events in his favor. Andrei Yaroslavich could not get along with the Tatars, and therefore he reigned in Vladimir for a week: in 1252, the Tatar hordes under the command of Tsarevich Nevryuya were moved against him. Andreevo's army was defeated, he fled first to Novgorod, and from there to Sweden.
Prince Vladimir
During the Nevryuev invasion, Nevsky was in the Horde and from the son of Batu, Sartak, who ruled the Horde for the decrepitude of his father, received a label for the great reign of Vladimir. Alexander sat down in Vladimir, and since then has become the same defender of the Russian land from the Tatars, as before from the Swedes and the Germans, but began to act in a different way, applying to the circumstances, namely: on the one hand, he held back the senseless uprisings of his subjects against the Tatars, with the other tried to obey the khan to deliver possible benefits to the Russian lands.
Alexander gave a lot of gold and silver to the Horde to ransom the prisoners. Andrei Yaroslavich soon returned to Russia and sat down to reign in Suzdal, through Alexander receiving forgiveness from the khan. Alexander was disturbed by the affairs of Novgorod, where his son Vasily reigned.
"Alexander Nevsky receives papal legates." 1876 g.
Riots in Novgorod
1255 - the Novgorodians, having expelled Vasily, invited the brother of Alexander, Yaroslav, the prince of Tver, to reign. However, Alexander wanted to keep Novgorod behind him, went with his army to Novgorod and forced the Novgorodians to accept the reign of Vasily without a battle. 1257 - unrest in Novgorod resumed due to rumors about the Tatars' intention to carry out there the same census for taxing residents with a universal tribute, which was carried out by the Tatar census in the lands of Suzdal, Murom and Ryazan.
Prince Vasily himself was on the side of the Novgorodians, who did not want to pay tamgas and tithes. For this, Alexander Nevsky sent Vasily to the Suzdal lands, and the advisers who pushed the young prince to resist the Tatars were severely punished. 1258 - Alexander went to the horde to "honor" Ulavchiy, an influential khan dignitary. Only in 1259, Alexander's mediation and rumors about the movement of the Tatar army to Novgorod forced the Novgorodians to agree to a census.
Last years. Death
1262 - an uprising broke out against the Tatars in Vladimir, Rostov, Suzdal, Pereyaslavl and Yaroslavl, caused by heavy oppression from the Tatar tax farmers. The Tatar army was already ready to advance to the Russian lands. Then Alexander Nevsky hastened to the Horde to the Khan (for the 4th time) to ward off trouble from the people. He stayed there all winter and not only managed to ward off the Tatar pogroms, but was also able to procure from the Khan the release of the Russian land from the obligation to send military detachments for the Tatars.
This was the last deed of Alexander Nevsky: he went sick from the Horde and on the road, in Gorodets Volzhsky, died on November 14, 1263, according to the chronicler, “having worked hard for the Russian land, for Novgorod and for Pskov, for all the great reign he gave his belly and for the faithful faith. " Metropolitan Kirill announced to the people in Vladimir about the death of the Grand Duke with the words: "My dear chadaa, understand that the sun of the Russian land is behind us," and everyone exclaimed: "We are already perishing!"
Holy noble Prince Alexander Nevsky and a silver sarcophagus.
Board results
XIII century - Russia was hit from three sides - the Catholic West, the Mongol-Tatars and Lithuania. Alexander showed the talent of a commander and diplomat, making peace with the most dangerous and powerful (but at the same time more tolerant) enemy - the Golden Horde - and repelling the attack of the Germans, he was able to protect Orthodoxy from Catholic expansion.
There is also a more moderate interpretation of this point of view. So, according to our contemporary historian A. Gorsky, in the actions of the Grand Duke “one should not look for some conscious fateful choice … Nevsky was a pragmatist … he chose the path that seemed more beneficial to him to strengthen his land and for him personally … when it was necessary give a decisive battle, he gave battle, when an agreement seemed more useful, he went to an agreement."
A special legend "On the life and courage of the blessed Grand Duke Alexander" serves as a sign of memory and glory, the most complete text of which is in the 2nd Pskov Chronicle. For the feat of endurance and patience, Alexander Nevsky was canonized in 1549, and the Alexander Nevsky Lavra was founded in 1710 in his honor. His relics, discovered in 1380, were transferred to 1724 by order of Emperor Peter I.. from Vladimir to St. Petersburg to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where they repose to this day in the Trinity Church in a silver reliquary donated by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.
Interesting Facts
• The Grand Duke won the main military victories in his youth. At the time of the Battle of the Neva, he was 20 years old, and during the Battle of the Ice, the commander was 22 years old. Alexander was a politician and diplomat, but more of a military leader.
• Throughout his life, the Grand Duke did not lose a single battle.
• Prince Alexander is the only secular Orthodox ruler in all of Europe and Russia who did not compromise with the Catholic Church in order to preserve power.
• 2008 - the "Name of Russia" competition was held. The event was organized by representatives of the state TV channel "Russia" together with the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Public Opinion Foundation.
Internet users chose "The Name of Russia" from a ready-made list of "500 great figures of the country." As a result, the competition almost ended in a scandal, because Joseph Stalin took the leading position. The organizers said that “numerous spammers” voted for Stalin. As a result, Alexander Nevsky was named the official winner.