The fall of two Byzantines. Byzantium: what a great empire was like Rise to successor

The time of the Macedonian dynasty, as is known, was distinguished by intense cultural work in the fields of science, literature and education. The activities of such persons as Photius in the 9th century, Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century.

Foreign policy of Byzantium in the 2nd half of the 9th - 11th centuries. characterized by constant wars with the Arabs, Slavs, and later with the Normans. In the middle of the 10th century. Byzantium conquered Upper Mesopotamia, part of Asia Minor and Syria, Crete and Cyprus from the Arabs. In 1018 V. conquered the Western Bulgarian kingdom. The Balkan Peninsula up to the Danube was subordinated to the power of Great Britain. In the 9th-11th centuries. Relations with Kievan Rus began to play a large role in the foreign policy of Byzantium. After the siege of Constantinople by the troops of the Kyiv prince Oleg (907), the Byzantines were forced to conclude a trade agreement beneficial for the Russians in 911, which contributed to the development of trade relations between Rus' and Byzantium along the great route from the “Varangians to the Greeks.”

The ninth chapter is entirely devoted to the history of ancient Rus', or “rosas” as they are called in the text itself according to the Byzantine tradition. This chapter is called: “About the dews departing with monoxides from Russia to Constantinople.” The Introduction gives an idea of ​​the era when Constantine's work was created, about the author(s), about the sources on which it was based, about the organization of work on it, about the main ideas carried out in it, and about the significance of the work as a historical source and monument literature. Of course, all these issues are covered very briefly in the Introduction. But they are touched upon many times, sometimes much more fully and specifically, in the Commentary [Konstantin Bagrnorodny // SBE, under. Red A. Prokhorova, M. Sov. Encyclopedia, 1773. - T. 13 - P. 45].

During the time of the Macedonian sovereigns, Russian-Byzantine relations developed very lively. According to our chronicle, the Russian prince Oleg in 907, i.e. During the reign of Leo VI the Wise, he stood with numerous ships under the walls of Constantinople and, having ravaged its surroundings and killed a large number of the Greek population, forced the emperor to enter into an agreement with him and conclude a treaty. Although the Byzantine, eastern and western sources known so far do not mention this campaign and do not mention Oleg’s name at all, nevertheless it must be recognized that the basis of the Russian chronicle message, which is not devoid of legendary details, is a real historical fact. It is very likely that the preliminary agreement of 907 was confirmed in 911 by a formal agreement, which, according to the same Russian chronicle, gave the Russians important trading privileges [Lev the Deacon. History. // Translation by M.M. Kopylenko, Rep. Ed. -- G.G. Litavrin. M., 1988, p. 57].

The political position of Constantine VII in relation to the countries and peoples described in the work “On the Administration of the Empire” is entirely based on the imperial ideological doctrine, in the development and propaganda of which in this era the basileus themselves, including the grandfather and father of Constantine VII, took an active part. However, it was the activity of Constantine Porphyrogenitus that was especially fruitful in this regard. The empire, in his view, is a “world ship”, the emperor is an unlimited ruler, endowed with the highest virtues (“Christ among the apostles”), Constantinople is “the queen of cities and the whole world.” The cult of service to the empire, the only and divine one, is the main moral principle that determines the behavior of the Romans, whether they are “commanders or subordinates” [Constantine Porphyrogenitus. On the management of the empire / Under. ed. G. G. Litavrina, A. P. Novoseltseva. Greek text, translation, comments. -- Ed. 2nd, corrected. - M., Nauka, 1991. - 496 p. - (Ancient sources on the history of the peoples of the USSR).]. The ideas developed by Constantine Porphyrogenitus are not only a political doctrine and the doctrine of imperial power, but also a theory of the moral values ​​of a loyal Byzantine and a catechism of his behavior. From the point of view of this doctrine, the peoples surrounding the empire are considered only as “useful” or “harmful” to the empire.

The “Roman” dispensation seems natural to Constantine, and therefore ideal. God himself protects the empire, and its capital is under the special protection of the Mother of God herself. The empire does not know the fragmentation of power, and therefore does not know internal strife and bloody anarchy. It is characteristic that Constantine associates unanimity and firm order within the empire with the dominance of monolingualism, i.e. The culture of the empire is thought of by him, in all likelihood, primarily as a Greek pagan culture.

The admiration and submission of foreigners to the empire is portrayed by Constantine as the norm in international relations: the empire does not enter into friendship with other countries and peoples, but grants it; he who makes peace with her thereby gains guarantees of security; all “barbarian” peoples (Christian and pagan), who ever settled on the lands of the empire with the permission of the emperor or without permission, especially those who paid the empire a “pact” (tribute) or received baptism from it, are obliged to obey it now and henceforth to be her “slaves.” This is the position of the royal author both in relation to the Armenians and Georgians, and in relation to the Serbs and Croats, even in relation to the Bulgarians, although in the memory of Constantine it was Bulgaria that threatened the very existence of the Byzantine Empire as a European power.

According to the emperor’s suggestions, ignorant “barbarians” are not only allowed, but must lie openly, claiming that the very insignia of power (crown and mantle) and the Greek fire were transferred by God through an angel directly to Constantine the Great himself, that this Equal-to-the-Apostles emperor forbade entering into kinship between members of the ruling dynasty in the empire and representatives of the families of sovereigns of other countries (both non-Christian and Christian), making an exception only for the Franks, since “he himself came from those lands” [Litavrin G.G. On the legal status of the ancient Rus in Byzantium in the 10th century (preliminary remarks) // Byzantine essays. -- M., 1991. -- P. 82-83].

As for the northern region, here Constantine, as already noted in historiography, makes his main bet on the empire's allies ("friends"), the Pechenegs, whose military power can be used against the Russians, and against the Hungarians, as well as against the Khazars and Bulgarians. According to Constantine, the empire could also send Uzes, Alans and Black Bulgars against the Khazars. Constantine also envisages the possibility of breaking the alliance with the Pechenegs. In this case, their worthy opponent could be, if not the Hungarians, then the bonds.

What is unusual in this strategic doctrine of Constantine Porphyrogenitus is the complete absence of even the slightest hint of the allied relations of the empire with Kievan Rus, while, according to Chapter 9, the agreement with them remained in force during the writing of the work “On the Administration of the Empire.”

Therefore, we can make two assumptions: either the book did not include (or was lost) another special chapter on the Russians, where appropriate recommendations were given in this regard, or the articles of the agreement on Russian military assistance to the city of Kherson were not implemented during the period described, as they turned out to be incompatible with the military agreement of the empire with the Pechenegs, whom the Byzantine government under Constantine VII preferred as allies.

The "oath treaties" concluded with the Byzantine Empire before the time of Igor must be the agreements with Oleg reported by the Russian chronicler. It is interesting to compare with the above data the news from Byzantine sources about the participation of Russians in the Byzantine troops in the form of auxiliary detachments from the beginning of the 10th century and the corresponding place in the agreement of 911 in our chronicle about allowing the Russians, if they wish, to serve in the army of the Byzantine emperor [A.A. Vasiliev. Byzantium and the Arabs. St. Petersburg, 1902, vol. 2-P. 166-167.].

During the reign of Roman Lekapin, the capital was twice attacked by the Russian prince Igor, whose name, in addition to Russian chronicles, was preserved in both Greek and Latin sources.

Igor launched his second campaign in 944 with much greater forces. According to Russian chronicles, Igor gathered a large army from “Varangians, Rus, Polyans, Slavs, Krivichi, Tiverts and Pechenegs.” The frightened emperor sent the best boyars and rich gifts to Igor and the Pechenegs and promised the first to pay the tribute that Oleg took from Byzantium. Igor, approaching the Danube and consulting with his squad, decided to accept the emperor’s conditions and returned to Kyiv. The following year, a treaty and peace that was less beneficial for the latter, in comparison with Oleg’s treaty, was concluded between the Greeks and the Russians, “until the sun shines and the whole world stands, in the present centuries and in the future” [A.A. Vasiliev. Byzantium and the Arabs. St. Petersburg, 1902, vol. 2, p. 164--167, 246--249, 255--256. ].

The friendly relations formalized by this treaty became even more definite under Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, in 957, when the Russian Grand Duchess Olga arrived in Constantinople, where she was received with great triumph by the emperor, empress and heir. There is an official contemporary record of Olga’s reception in Constantinople in the famous 10th-century collection “On the Ceremonies of the Byzantine Court” [Constanine Porphyrogenitus. De Cerimoniis aulae byzantinae, Bonn. ed., pp. 594--598.].

In the first half of the 10th century, Byzantium finally became widespread throughout the empire, the femme military-administrative system of governing the provinces, which ensured more advanced organization of the collection of state taxes, the defense of the country and the recruitment of femme peasant militia. At the head of each theme was a strateg appointed by the emperor, who had full military and civil power. The emperor relied on a powerful, extensive bureaucratic system of power. The empire was dominated by high-ranking, mostly civilian nobility, to which the ruling Macedonian dynasty at that time also belonged. But at the same time, a landowning provincial aristocracy, which traditionally played a major role in the Byzantine army, was emerging and quickly strengthening.

Byzantium viewed the Pechenegs as one of its most important northern neighbors, who served as the basis for maintaining balance in the north in the empire's relations with Rus', the Magyars and the Bulgarians. In the 10th century, Konstantin Porphyrogenitus, in his work “On the Administration of the Empire,” dedicated to his son and heir to the throne Roman, devotes a lot of space to the Pechenegs. First of all, the royal writer advises, for the benefit of the state, to live in peace with the Pechenegs and have friendly relations with them; if the empire lives in peace with the Pechenegs, then neither the Russians, nor the Magyars, nor the Bulgarians can open hostile actions against the empire. From the same work it is clear that the Pechenegs served as intermediaries in trade relations between the Byzantine possessions in Crimea, i.e. themes of Kherson, with Russia, Khazaria and other neighboring countries [Constantini Porphyrogeniti. De administrano imperio, cap. 37--40. (Konstantin Bagryanorodny. On the management of the empire. Text, translation, commentary edited by G.G. Litavrin and A.P. Novoseltsev. M., 1989, pp. 154--167. Links from A.A. Vasiliev himself to other publications of this essays excluded. - Scientific ed.)]. Obviously, for Byzantium the Pechenegs in the 10th century were extremely important both politically and economically.

From handwritten sources it is known that in the last third of the 10th century. Byzantium entered into a fight with Russia for Bulgaria; Despite the initial successes of the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav Igorevich, Byzantium won. An alliance was concluded between Byzantium and Russia under the Kiev prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, the Russians helped the Byzantine emperor Vasily II suppress the feudal rebellion of Phocas Vardas (987-989), and Vasily II was forced to agree to the marriage of his sister Anna with the Kyiv prince Vladimir, which contributed to rapprochement Byzantium with Russia. At the end of the 10th century. Christianity was adopted in Rus' from Byzantium (according to the Orthodox rite).

It occurs already at the turn of the 8th-9th centuries. Having united with the Varangian squads, the Eastern Slavs raided Byzantine possessions in the Crimea, on the southern coast of the Black Sea, and in 860 they besieged Constantinople, both from land and sea. This armed confrontation ended with a mutually beneficial peace agreement and indemnity (military tribute). Strong ties were established between the alliances of the Eastern Slavic tribes and the empire along the trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks.”

In 907, the squads of the ruler of the Old Russian state, Oleg, made a well-prepared campaign against Constantinople. The capital of the empire was besieged, its surroundings were devastated. The empire was forced to conclude an agreement with the young East Slavic state on friendly relations, norms of international trade and navigation.

In 911, the second treaty between Rus' and Byzantium was concluded. In many respects it was even more beneficial to the Old Russian state. One of his articles talked about the establishment of a military-political alliance between Byzantium and Russia. Russian squads strengthened the Byzantine army.

Following the example of Prince Oleg, in 941, Prince Igor, the son of Rurik, the founder of the dynasty of ancient Russian great princes, led a huge army to Constantinople. His task was to encourage the empire to follow the previously signed treaty. However, on the approaches to the capital, Igor’s fleet was practically destroyed by “Greek fire.”

In 944, Prince Igor made a more successful campaign. Both countries restored peaceful alliance relations. It is noteworthy that the Orthodox empire conducted diplomacy with the “barbarians” on equal terms!

In 957, Princess Olga, Igor's widow, went to Constantinople. The Russian princess and her retinue were received by the empress. Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus gave a dinner in her honor. In Constantinople, Princess Olga converted to the Orthodox faith (under the name Elena). The ceremony was performed in the main temple of the empire - Hagia Sophia.

An embassy was sent from Constantinople to the son of Princess Olga, Grand Duke Svyatoslav, who remained a pagan, in order to confirm the peaceful relations of Rus' with Byzantium. However, Prince Svyatoslav, in order to strengthen his power, chose to intervene in the Byzantine-Bulgarian war. In 971, Emperor John I Tzimiskes managed to stop the advance of Svyatoslav’s squad and restore peace with Russia.

Svyatoslav's son, Grand Duke Vladimir, repeatedly provided military assistance to the Byzantine Emperor Vasily II. Wanting to become related to the imperial house (to marry Vasily II’s sister Anna) and seeing that the emperor began to hesitate with the dynastic marriage, the Russian prince besieged and in 988 captured the Byzantine city on the southern coast of Crimea - Korsun, forcing the emperor to hurry with the wedding. In the same year, he adopted Christianity according to the Byzantine model, and then, with his grand-ducal will, baptized the population of the Old Russian state. The first metropolitan was sent to Kyiv by the Patriarch of Constantinople. The baptism of Rus' was a great diplomatic victory for Byzantium. At the same time, it opened up brilliant development prospects for the Old Russian state. Material from the site

The last military campaign against Constantinople was carried out by Russian troops and a fleet led by Prince Vladimir Yaroslavich, the son of Yaroslav the Wise, and governor Vyshata in 1043. It was caused by the empire’s violation of trade agreements with Russia.

Near the western shores of the Black Sea, the Russian fleet was caught in a severe storm. Some of the ships sank, the rest moved back. They were pursued by Greek ships. A battle ensued in which the Greeks were defeated. However, several thousand Russian soldiers who landed on the shore were defeated by the Greek army. The captured warriors were blinded, their right hands were cut off so that they would never raise a sword against Byzantium.

In 1046, the Old Russian state and the Byzantine Empire concluded a new peace. The daughter of Emperor Constantine IX was given in marriage to Prince Vsevolod, another son of Yaroslav the Wise. From this time on, spiritual, cultural and trade relations between Russia and Byzantium were not interrupted until the death of the empire in 1453.

In the 3rd-4th centuries, due to the general crisis of the slaveholding formation and its gradual replacement by feudal relations, the Roman Empire experienced a deep economic and political crisis. In fact, the empire broke up into a number of independent states (Eastern, Western parts, Africa, Gaul, etc.).
In the 60-70s of the 4th century, the problem of the Goths became particularly acute.

During the reign of Emperor Theodosius (379-395), the last, essentially ephemeral, unification of the empire was achieved. After his death, the final political division of the Roman Empire into 2 states took place: the Western Roman Empire (capital - Ravenna) and the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium, capital - Constantinople).
In the West, the most important feature was the weakening of the central imperial power and the gradual formation of independent political formations - barbarian kingdoms - on the territory of the Western Empire.
In the Eastern Roman Empire, the processes of feudalization retained the features of greater continuity of old social structures, proceeded more slowly, and were carried out while maintaining the strong central power of the emperor.

Constantinople. Temple of St. Sophia. Modern look. Rebuilt by the Turks into a mosque after the capture of Constantinople.

For more than a thousand years, Byzantium was a link between East and West. Originating at the end of antiquity, it existed until the end of the European Middle Ages. Until it fell to the Ottomans in 1453.

Did the Byzantines know that they were Byzantines?

Officially, the year of the “birth” of Byzantium is considered to be 395, when the Roman Empire was divided into two parts. The western part fell in 476. Eastern - with its capital in Constantinople, existed until 1453.

It is important that it was called “Byzantium” only later. The inhabitants of the empire themselves and the surrounding peoples called it “Roman”. And they had every right to do so - after all, the capital was moved from Rome to Constantinople in 330, during the time of the unified Roman Empire.

After the loss of the western territories, the empire continued to exist in a reduced form with the same capital. Considering that the Roman Empire was born in 753 BC, and died under the roar of Turkish cannons in 1453 AD, it existed for 2206 years.

Shield of Europe

Byzantium was in a permanent state of war: in any century of Byzantine history, 100 years will hardly have 20 years without war, and sometimes there will not even be 10 years of peace.

Often Byzantium fought on two fronts, and sometimes enemies pressed it from all four corners of the world. And if the rest of the European countries fought mainly with an enemy that was more or less known and understandable, that is, with each other, then Byzantium was often the first in Europe to meet unknown conquerors, wild nomads who destroyed everything in their path.

The Slavs who came to the Balkans in the 6th century so exterminated the local population that only a small part remained of it - modern Albanians.

For many centuries, Byzantine Anatolia (the territory of modern Turkey) supplied the empire with warriors and food in abundance. In the 11th century, the invading Turks devastated this flourishing region, and when the Byzantines managed to recapture part of the territory, they could not gather any soldiers or food there - Anatolia turned into a desert.

Many invasions from the east crashed against Byzantium, this eastern bastion of Europe, the most powerful of which was the Arab one in the 7th century. If the “Byzantine shield” had not withstood the blow, prayer, as the 18th-century British historian Gibbon noted, would now be heard over the sleeping spiers of Oxford.

Byzantine Crusade

Religious war is by no means an invention of the Arabs with their jihad or the Catholics with their Crusades. At the beginning of the 7th century, Byzantium stood on the brink of destruction - enemies were pressing in from all sides, and the most formidable of them was Iran.

At the most critical moment - when enemies approached the capital from both sides - the Byzantine emperor Heraclius makes an extraordinary move: he proclaims a holy war for the Christian faith, for the return of the True Cross and other relics captured by Iranian troops in Jerusalem (in the pre-Islamic era, the state religion in Iran there was Zoroastrianism).

The Church donated its treasures to the holy war, thousands of volunteers were equipped and trained with church money. For the first time, the Byzantine army marched against the Persians, carrying icons in front. In a difficult struggle, Iran was defeated, Christian relics returned to Jerusalem, and Heraclius turned into a legendary hero, who was remembered even in the 12th century as his great predecessor by the crusaders.

Double headed eagle

Contrary to popular belief, the double-headed eagle, which became the coat of arms of Russia, was by no means the coat of arms of Byzantium - it was the emblem of the last Byzantine dynasty of the Palaiologos. The niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Sophia, having married the Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III, transferred only the family coat of arms, not the state coat of arms.

It is also important to know that many European states (Balkan, Italian, Austria, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire) considered themselves heirs of Byzantium for one reason or another, and had a double-headed eagle on their coats of arms and flags.[

For the first time, the symbol of the double-headed eagle appeared long before Byzantium and the Palaiologos - in the 4th millennium BC, in the first civilization on Earth, Sumer. Images of a double-headed eagle are also found among the Hittites, an Indo-European people who lived in the 2nd millennium BC in Asia Minor.

Is Russia the successor of Byzantium?

After the fall of Byzantium, the overwhelming majority of the Byzantines - from aristocrats and scientists to artisans and warriors - fled from the Turks not to their co-religionists, to Orthodox Rus', but to Catholic Italy.

Centuries-old ties between Mediterranean peoples turned out to be stronger than religious differences. And if Byzantine scientists filled the universities of Italy, and partly even France and England, then in Rus' there was nothing for Greek scientists to fill - there were no universities there.

In addition, the heir to the Byzantine crown was not the Byzantine princess Sophia, the wife of the Moscow prince, but the nephew of the last emperor, Andrei. He sold his title to the Spanish monarch Ferdinand - the same one for whom Columbus discovered America.
Russia can be considered the successor of Byzantium only in the religious aspect - after all, after the fall of the latter, our country became the main stronghold of Orthodoxy.

Influence of Byzantium on the European Renaissance

Hundreds of Byzantine scholars who fled from the Turks who conquered their homeland, taking with them their libraries and works of art, breathed new energy into the European Renaissance.

Unlike Western Europe, in Byzantium the study of the ancient tradition was never interrupted. And the Byzantines brought all this heritage of their Greek civilization, much larger and better preserved, to Western Europe.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that without the Byzantine emigrants the Renaissance would not have been so powerful and vibrant. Byzantine scholarship even influenced the Reformation: the original Greek text of the New Testament, promoted by the humanists Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus of Rotterdam, had a great influence on the ideas of Protestantism.

Abundant Byzantium

The wealth of Byzantium is a fairly well-known fact. But few people know how rich the empire was. Just one example: the size of the tribute to the formidable Attila, who held most of Eurasia in fear, was equal to the annual income of just a couple of Byzantine villas.

Sometimes a bribe in Byzantium was equal to a quarter of the payments to Attila. Sometimes it was more profitable for the Byzantines to pay off the invasion of barbarians unspoiled by luxury than to equip an expensive professional army and rely on the unknown outcome of the military campaign.

Yes, there were difficult times in the empire, but Byzantine “gold” was always valued. Even on the distant island of Taprobana (modern Sri Lanka), Byzantine gold coins were appreciated by local rulers and merchants. A treasure with Byzantine coins was found even on the Indonesian island of Bali.

And the subsequent spread of Orthodoxy in Rus'. According to another version, the capture of Korsun in 989 occurred after the baptism of Vladimir in 987 as a means of putting pressure on Byzantium in order to force it to fulfill its obligations.

The fall of Korsun is reflected only in ancient Russian sources, with the exception of the only mention of this event by a contemporary, the Byzantine historian Leo the Deacon.

Background to the conflict

Vladimir was baptized in 987, as his earliest Life, compiled by the monk Jacob, reports that " Blessed Prince Vladimir lived 28 years after holy baptism" , and " Prince Vladimir was baptized in the tenth year after the murder of his brother Yaropolk". A later source, “The Tale of Bygone Years,” connects the baptism of Vladimir with the baptism of all Rus' and the campaign against Korsun.

Hike to Korsun

Chronology of the campaign

The reasons and date of Prince Vladimir's campaign against the Greek city of Korsun in Crimea remain unclear [ ] . The Tale of Bygone Years dates the campaign to the spring-summer of 988, which generally does not contradict the eastern evidence of the conclusion of the Russian-Byzantine alliance.

However, the Byzantine historian Leo Deacon, the only Greek to mention the capture of Chersonesos (Korsun) by the “Tavro-Scythians,” timed this event to coincide with a comet observed in July-August 989. The “Life” of the monk Jacob reports: “ The next summer after baptism I went to the rapids, the third summer Korsun took the city" That is, the capture of the city took place in 989.

In this case, the question arises of the participation of a large Russian formation in the Byzantine army at a time when Vladimir is besieging the Greek city. Historians put forward various versions explaining Vladimir’s campaign against Korsun. According to the most common version, Byzantium, having received a Russian detachment of six thousand, was in no hurry to fulfill a humiliating agreement from its point of view: to marry the emperor’s own sister to a “barbarian” who was baptized without the participation of the Byzantine church. The capture of Korsun and the threat to go to Constantinople became the means that forced Vasily II to fulfill his obligations to intermarry with the “Tavro-Scythians”. Another version was put forward that the city broke away from the empire, joining the rebellion of Bardas Phocas, and Vladimir acted against him as an ally of Vasily.

According to various medieval sources, the siege of Korsun took from 6 to 9 months, which allows for the possibility of the siege beginning in the fall of 988 (after sending a military detachment to help Vasily II), and the fall of Korsun in the summer of 989.

Korsun Fortress

The defensive system in the Middle Ages was a powerful fortress wall along the entire perimeter, including from the sea. The total length of the walls is 2.9-3.5 km, thickness up to 4 m. 32 towers, 7 battle gates and 6 gates have been opened. The height of the walls reached 8-10 m, the height of the towers 10-12 m. The lower outer part of the walls was made of large, carefully hewn and fitted limestone blocks. Above, smaller blocks with lime mortar were used for laying.

In the most threatened southern section (farthest from the sea), a lower auxiliary wall (proteichisma) was built in front of the main wall, making the approach to the walls very difficult.

Behind Pesochnaya Bay to the west is Streletskaya Bay, where, according to historians, Vladimir and his army landed.

The Tale of Bygone Years

The earliest ancient Russian chronicle that has survived to this day, “The Tale of Bygone Years,” describes the siege and capture of Korsun as follows:

According to him, at first Vladimir asked his daughter for himself “ Prince of Korsun City“, but he contemptuously refused the pagan. Then the offended Vladimir gathered an army from “ Varangians, Slovenians, Krivichi, Bulgarians with black people" and moved to punish the offender. During the siege, a certain Varangian from Korsun named Zhdbern (or Izhbern) sent an arrow into the camp of his fellow Varangians and shouted: “ Bring this arrow to Prince Vladimir!"Attached to the arrow was a note with the message: " If you stand under the city with force for a year, or two, or three, you will not be able to take Korsun. The shipmen come along the earthen route with food and drink to the city.“Vladimir ordered to dig up an earthen path and after 3 months he took the city.

“And he caught the prince of Korsun and the princess, and took their daughter to his tent, and tied the prince and princess to the tent plow and committed lawlessness with their daughter before them. And in three days he ordered the prince and princess to be killed, and gave their daughter to the boyar Izhbern with many estates, and made him governor in Korsun ... "

Perhaps in this episode the author of the Life wanted to emphasize the barbarity of the Russian prince, who enlightened in spirit only after baptism, but in this case Vladimir copied the image of his previous actions in relation to the Polotsk prince Rogvolod and his daughter Rogneda. Having captured Korsun, Vladimir sent an embassy to Constantinople led by the military leader Oleg and the Varangian Zhdbern. These characters are not known from other sources.

Thus, “Life of a Special Composition,” despite contradictions with other sources, conveys the story of the fall of Korsun more realistically and with greater detail than “PVL”. However, historians are alarmed by the unclear version of the “earth route” along which water and food were delivered to the city by ship crews. The “PVL” version with a dug up water supply system is obvious, although the dependence of a large, well-fortified fortress on an external water supply system, the location of which could not be kept secret from the enemy for long, is not entirely clear.

Historians do not exclude that both stories of the capture of Korsun have a real basis, and along with the historically reliable Anastas, who gained confidence in Vladimir after the fall of the city, the Varangian Zhdbern acted at the same time, for whom it was more convenient to shoot an arrow towards the besiegers and talk with them on one language.

After the hike

Until at least 1000, the Russian contingent sent by Vladimir to help Byzantium fought in different parts of the vast empire. It is known about the Russes as part of the Greek army later, but these were already purely mercenary detachments similar to the Varangians.

After the capture of Korsun, the next Russian-Byzantine war occurred 55 years later in 1043 under Vladimir's son, Prince of Kiev Yaroslav. Around 1024, during a troubled time of struggle for power in Rus', a raid by Russian freemen on the Byzantine islands in the Aegean Sea was noted, but all 800 Russian soldiers were killed on Lemnos.

The city of Korsun after the Russian raid continued to live and maintain connections with Kievan Rus, but gradually faded away with the weakening of the Byzantine Empire. In the 12th century, trade on the Black Sea was captured by the Italian republics of Venice and Genoa, and in 1399 the city was once again destroyed by the Tatars, after which it never recovered. After the annexation of Crimea to Russia, near the ruins of ancient Chersonesus in 1783, it was founded