Kievan Rus. Rise, rise and fall. Who and when built the city of Kiev? Kiev stories

History of Kiev- the largest city of Ukraine - is at least 1200 years old. According to the chronicle, Kiev was founded by three brothers: Kiem, Cheek, Khoriv and their sister Lybid and is named after Kyi, the elder brother.

prehistoric period

Archaeological excavations show that settlements on the territory of the Kiev region already existed 15 - 20 thousand years ago. Chalcolithic period(copper age) and Neolithic is represented by Trypillia culture, the monuments and periods of which researchers divide into three stages: early (4500 - 3500), middle (3500-2750) and late (2750-2000 BC).
For the south-west of the region during the Bronze Age is characterized Belogrudov culture. Zarubinets culture is typical for the north-west of the Kiev region in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. - the first half of the 1st millennium AD e.
iron age on the territory of modern Kiev and the Kiev region is represented by the Chernyakhov archaeological culture, which is also called the "Kiev culture" and which existed at the turn of the 2nd-3rd centuries. - turn of IV-V centuries. in the forest-steppe and steppe from the Lower Danube in the west to the left bank of the Dnieper and Chernihiv region in the east.

Etymology

Toponym "Kyiv" has not received an unequivocal explanation in science. According to the chronicle, the name of the city comes from the name of its founder. In the “Tale of Bygone Years” of the beginning of the 12th century, it is said that Kiev was founded by three brothers Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv and sister Lybid as the center of the Polyan tribe. Named after his older brother. The city at that time consisted of a princely court and a tower.
A variant of the same legend is given in the work of the Armenian author Zenob Glak (“History of Taron”), which speaks of the founding of Kuar (Kiev) in the country of the polun (glade) by Kuar, Mentei and Kherean.
Folk etymology explains the name of Kiev by the fact that its first inhabitants were workers (kiyans, kiyans), who served the crossing across the Dnieper. The crossing was a wooden flooring on poles (cues) driven into the bottom. Similar toponyms are also known in other Slavic lands (for example, Kijevo in Croatia, Kuyavia in Poland). Harvard scholar Omelyan Pritsak considered the origin of the toponym to be Turkic or Jewish. The idea of ​​founding the city by the Khazars was also shared by G. Vernadsky.

Early history

Kiy, Shchek, Khoriv and Lybid founded Kiev

The history of Kiev has at least 1200 years. According to the chronicle, Kiev was founded by three brothers: Kyi, Shchek, Khoriv and their sister Lybid and named after Kyi, the elder brother. The exact date of the founding of the city has not been established.
The results of archaeological excavations show that already in the 6th-7th centuries there were settlements on the right bank of the Dnieper, which some researchers interpret as urban.
Remains of fortifications, dwellings, ceramics were found VI-VII centuries, Byzantine coins of the emperors Anastasius I (491-518) and Justinian I (527-565), amphoras, numerous jewelry items.
For the most part 9th century Kiev was in the unstable zone of the Hungarian-Khazar conflict.
According to The Tale of Bygone Years, warriors reigned in Kiev in the second half of the 9th century. Varangian Rurik - Askold and Dir who liberated the meadows from the Khazar dependence.
In 879, the owner of the Novgorod land, Prince Rurik, died, and power was transferred Oleg - regent of the young son of Rurik- Igor. A chronicle document testifies that in 882 Oleg undertook a campaign against Kiev, killed Askold and seized power. Kiev became the capital of the united principality.

At the same time, there was also an increase in the scale of construction on the territory of Kiev, this is evidenced by archaeological materials found in the Upper Town, on Podil, Kirillovskaya Gora, Pechersk. The construction was due to the rapid increase in the population of the city, who arrived from different regions of Russia. During the resettlement from the Volga region to the banks of the Danube at the end of the 9th century, the Hungarians stopped on the territory of modern Kiev: “The Ugrians went past Kiev, now Ugorskoe calls the mountain, and having come to the Dnieper, standing with vezhami.”

During his reign, Oleg annexed the northerners, Drevlyans, streets, Tivertsy, dumplings of Krivichi, Radimichi and Novgorod Slavs to Russia. During the implementation of one of the many trips to neighboring territories, Prince Oleg died.

In 914 Igor undertook a campaign against the Drevlyans, who were trying to secede from Kiev. In 941, he organized a campaign against Byzantium to secure the interests of trade. Numerous and large-scale military campaigns required significant costs and resources, prompting the prince to increase tribute from the conquered lands. One of these tribute harvests in 945 led to an uprising of the Drevlyans, during which Igor was killed.

One of the first documents mentioning the name of Kiev is the Kiev letter, written in the 10th century by the local Jewish community. In Arabic writings of the same period (Ibn Haukal, Istakhri, etc.), Kiev (Kuyaba) appears as the center of one of the Rus groups, along with Novgorod (as-Slavia) and Arsania. In another part of the story, the same authors contrast Kiev with the Rus, which probably reflects an earlier state of affairs.

The capital of Russia (IX-XII centuries)

Baptism of Russia

Starting from the capture of the city by Oleg and until the second half of the 13th century, Kiev was the capital of Russia. The Kievan grand dukes traditionally had supremacy over the princes of other Russian lands, and the Kievan table was the main target in intra-dynastic rivalries. In 968, the city withstood the siege of the Pechenegs, which was due to the fortified outposts of Kiev, the largest of which was Vyshgorod.
Annalistic references to this fortified city are interrupted after the invasion of Batu in 1240.
In 988, by order of Prince Vladimir the inhabitants of the city were baptized in the Dnieper. Russia became a Christian state, the Kiev Metropolis was founded, which existed within the all-Russian borders until 1458.
In 990, the construction of the first stone church in Russia began. According to church tradition, it was built on the site of the murder of the first martyrs Theodore and his son John. The church was destroyed by the hordes of Batu Khan during a raid on Kiev in 1240.
In the IX-X centuries the city was built up with quarters of log and frame-pillar structures; the princely part also had stone houses. According to The Tale of Bygone Years, in the first half of the 10th century, a Christian temple operated on Podil - the cathedral church of the holy prophet Elijah.
During the reign of Vladimir, about a third of Kiev consisted of princely lands, on which the palace was located. The city of Vladimir was surrounded by an earthen rampart and a moat. The stone Gradsky (later - Sofia, Batyeva) gates served as the central entrance.
The territory of the city of Vladimir occupied about 10-12 hectares. The ramparts of the city of Vladimir were based wooden structures and have not survived to this day.
At that time, Kiev maintained extensive international ties: with Byzantium, the countries of the East, Scandinavia, and Western Europe. Convincing evidence of this is contained in written sources, as well as in archaeological materials: about 11 thousand Arab dirhams of the 7th-10th centuries, hundreds of Byzantine and Western European coins, Byzantine amphorae and many other artifacts of foreign origin were found on the territory of Kiev. Svyatopolk, organized the murder of Boris and the second likely heir, Gleb. However, Svyatopolk was defeated by the troops Yaroslav the Wise in the battle of Lyubech and lost the reign of Kiev. He asked the Polish King Bolesław I for help. He agreed and undertook a campaign against Kiev. Having defeated the army of Yaroslav the Wise on the banks of the Bug, Boleslav and Svyatopolk entered Kiev. But the inhabitants of Kiev did not accept the new prince. In 1018, an uprising took place, as a result of which Yaroslav was returned to the throne.
According to the German Thietmar of Merseburg, Kiev at the beginning of the 11th century was a large city, with 400 temples and 8 markets. Adam of Bremen in the early 70s of the 11th century called him a "rival of Constantinople." Kiev reached its "golden age" in the middle of the XI century under Yaroslav the Wise. The city has grown significantly in size. In addition to the princely court, on its territory were the courts of other sons of Vladimir and other dignitaries (about ten in total). There were three entrances to the city: the Golden Gate, the Lyadsky Gate, the Zhidovsky Gate. The chronicles mention the construction of the city of Yaroslav under the year 1037.
“In the summer of 6545 (1037), Yaroslav laid down the great city of Kiev, where the city is the Golden Gate; lay also the church of Saint Sophia, the metropolis, and sow the church on the Golden Gate of the Mother of God. "The Tale of Bygone Years"
The city of Yaroslav was located on an area of ​​​​more than 60 hectares, was surrounded by a moat with water 12 m deep and a high rampart 3.5 km long, 30 m wide at the base, with a total height of up to 16 m with a wooden palisade.
During the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, St. Sophia Cathedral was built with numerous frescoes and mosaics, the most famous of which is Our Lady of Oranta. In 1051, Prince Yaroslav gathered the bishops in St. Sophia Cathedral and elected a local native of Hilarion as metropolitan, thereby demonstrating confessional independence from Byzantium. In the same year, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was founded by the monk Anthony of the Caves.
The co-founder of the Caves Monastery was one of the first students of Anthony - Theodosius.
Prince Svyatoslav II Yaroslavich presented the monastery with a plateau above the caves, where stone temples, decorated with paintings, cells, fortress towers and other buildings later grew.
The names of the chronicler Nestor and the painter Alipiy are associated with the monastery.
In 1054 the Christian Church split, but Kiev managed to save a good relationship with Rome. The third in time part of the old Kiev was the so-called city of Izyaslav-Svyatopolk, the center of which was the St. Michael's Golden-domed Monastery. It was separated from the Starokievsky plateau by a ravine-beam, along which, according to one version, the annalistic vozvoz Borichev passed, where the old Russian customs once was.
In 1068, a veche performance against Izyaslav was organized after the defeat of the Russian troops in the battle with the Polovtsians on the Alta River. As a result, Izyaslav was forced to flee to Polotsk, the throne was temporarily taken by Vseslav Bryachislavich.

The collapse of the Old Russian state and feudal fragmentation (XII century - 1240)

After the death of the Kiev prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich (1113), a popular uprising took place in Kiev; the tops of Kiev society called for the reign Vladimir Monomakh(May 4, 1113). Having become the prince of Kiev, he suppressed the uprising, but at the same time he was forced to somewhat soften the position of the lower classes by legislative means.
Thus, the “Charter of Vladimir Monomakh” or the “Charter on Cuts” was created, which became part of the expanded edition of Russkaya Pravda. This charter limited the profits of usurers, determined the conditions for enslavement, and, without encroaching on the foundations of feudal relations, alleviated the position of debtors and purchases. The ancient Slavic capital during the reign of the Yaroslavichs and Vladimir Monomakh personified the absence of solidity and tightness in the building, on the contrary, only in ancient Kiev were the methods of designing streets and squares for the first time taken into account the legislative framework that regulates the aesthetic side of housing construction.
The largest district of ancient Kiev was Podil. Its area in the XII-XII centuries was 200 hectares. It was also famous for its fortifications, the so-called pillars, which are mentioned in the annals of the 12th century. In the center of Podil there was an annalistic “Torgishishche”, around which stood monumental religious buildings: the Pirogoshch church (1131-35), Borisoglebskaya and Mikhailovskaya churches. The mass building of Kiev was predominantly wooden, it was made up of quarters of log and frame-pillar buildings, mostly two-story. The layout of the city was manor-street.
The economic basis of the city was: agricultural production, crafts, and trade. On the territory where the districts of ancient Kiev were located, the remains of workshops, items made of clay, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, stone, bone, glass, wood and other materials were found. They testify that in the XII century artisans of more than 60 specialties worked in Kiev.
In Russia, the possession of the Kiev grand-princely table belonged (at least theoretically) to the eldest in the family and ensured supreme power over the specific princes. Kiev remained the real political center of the Russian land at least until the death of Vladimir Monomakh and his son Mstislav the Great (in 1132).
The rise of separate lands with their own dynasties during the 12th century undermined the political importance of the city, gradually turning it into an honorary prize for the most powerful prince and, accordingly, into a bone of contention. Unlike other lands, the Kiev principality did not develop its own dynasty. The main struggle for it was between the princes of the four Russian principalities: Vladimir-Suzdal, Volyn, Smolensk and Chernigov.
A serious blow was dealt to Kiev by the defeat of the allied army of the Russian prince Andrei Bogolyubsky in 1169.
For the first time during the period of civil strife, Kiev was taken by storm and plundered. For two days, Suzdal, Smolensk and Chernigov residents robbed and burned the city, palaces and temples. In monasteries and churches, not only jewelry was taken away, but also icons, crosses, bells, and vestments. Following that, the princes of Vladimir also began to bear the title of "great". The connection between the recognition of seniority in the princely family and the possession of Kiev from that moment became optional. Very often, the princes who took possession of Kiev preferred not to stay in it themselves, but to give it to their dependent relatives.
In 1203, Kiev was captured and burned by the Smolensk prince Rurik Rostislavovich and Rurik's allied Polovtsians.
During the internecine wars of the 1230s, the city was besieged and ruined several times, passing from hand to hand. By the time of the Mongol campaign against South Russia, the prince of Kiev was a representative of the oldest branch of the Monomakhovich family in Russia - Daniil Galitsky.

Mongol invasion and the power of the Golden Horde (1240-1362)

Destruction of Kiev by the Mongols
In December In 1240, Kiev suffered a siege by the Mongols. Then Prince Mikhail Vsevolodovich of Chernigov ruled in the city from 1241 to 1243, when during his departure to Hungary for the wedding of his son Rostislav, Kiev was captured by Yaroslav Vsevolodovich of Vladimir.
Yaroslav received a label on Kiev in the Horde and was recognized as the supreme ruler of all Russian lands, "old to all the prince in the Russian language."
In 1262, the Kiev helm book was created, which became the prototype of the Volyn, Ryazan and other helm books.
In fact, however, the defeated Kiev lost both economic and political significance, and after that its spiritual monopoly: in 1299, the Kiev metropolitan left for Vladimir, from where the metropolitan throne was then transferred to Moscow. The main core of the city (Gora and Podil) was within the traditional limits. After the construction of the wooden-earth castle, the Castle Hill turned into a citadel of the city. The main number of inhabitants at that time was concentrated in Podol, here were the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin and the city market, and later - the magistrate with the town hall.
The Mongols did not deliberately destroy the city. The main reason for the gradual death of most of the structures that survived in 1240 was that, as a result of the Mongol defeat of the ancient Russian state system and the destruction of the economic base of the city - the Middle Dnieper, as well as the establishment of the Golden Horde yoke, Kiev did not have the means to maintain a large number of stone structures. Only individual churches survived that found economic support: St. Sophia, Assumption, Vydubitsky, St. Michael's Golden-domed, St. Cyril's Cathedrals, the Church of the Assumption.
The history of the Kiev principality in the second half of the 13th - the first half of the 14th centuries is poorly known. It was ruled by local provincial princes who did not lay claim to all-Russian supremacy. In 1324, the Kiev prince Stanislav was defeated in a battle on the Irpen River by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas. Since that time, the city was in the sphere of influence of Lithuania, but the payment of tribute to the Golden Horde continued for several more decades.

As part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Commonwealth

In 1362 after the Battle of Blue Waters, Kiev finally became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Vladimir Olgerdovich became Prince of Kiev. The entry took place by peaceful diplomatic means. Vladimir led an independent policy, minted his own coin, which, however, led to his replacement in 1394 by Skirgail Olgerdovich, and after the death of the latter, to the establishment of the governorship. At the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century, Kiev was a political center where the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt, the King of Poland and the Supreme Duke of Lithuania Vladislav II Jagiello, the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Dmitrievich, Metropolitans Cyprian, Photius, Grigory (Tsamblak), Khan Tokhtamysh were negotiating. The city became the main base of the army of Vitovt, who launched an offensive against the Golden Horde, but was defeated in 1399 at Vorskla. Khan Timur-Kutluk then laid siege to Kiev, but did not take it, having received a ransom from the people of Kiev.
In the XIV century, a castle with wooden fortifications and towers was built in the center of Kiev, and the only tower clock in the city was located in the castle. The castle served as the residence of three Kiev princes: Vladimir Olgerdovich, his son Olelko and grandson Semyon.
In 1416 In 1915, the city (with the exception of the castle) was destroyed by the troops of the Golden Horde Emir Edigei. After the death of Vitovt in 1430, Kiev became the main base of the "Russian party" of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Svidrigail. Kievans actively participated in the struggle against the Lithuanian center. In 1436, the Kiev governor Yursha defeated the Lithuanian troops near the city.
From the end of the 14th century, the names of students from Kiev appeared in the lists of the Paris Sorbonne and other universities, under 1436 the first doctor of the “Rutenian nation from Kiev” was listed - Ivan Tinkevich.
In 1440 The Kiev principality was restored, headed by Prince Olelko Vladimirovich. In 1455-70, Semyon Olelkovich reigned in Kiev. Both princes enjoyed authority, had dynastic ties with the great Moscow and Tver princes, the Moldavian ruler Stephen III the Great. The time of their reign became a period of development for Kiev: the reconstruction of the Assumption Cathedral and other churches was carried out, stone bas-reliefs depicting Oranta were created, as well as new editions of the Patericon of the Kiev Caves and other written sources. Kiev continued to be an important center of domestic and international trade. A lot of goods from the East, Europe, Muscovy went through the city in transit. This was facilitated, in particular, by the fact that the Lithuanian authorities guaranteed the safety of caravans that moved through Ukrainian lands only if their routes passed through Kiev. Kiev was a potential center for the unification of Russian lands that were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, therefore, after the death of the Kiev prince Semyon Olelkovich, the Lithuanian authorities turned the principality into a voivodeship. An attempt by the people of Kiev to prevent the governor Martin Gashtold from entering the city, the conspiracy of the princes in 1481, led by Prince Mikhail Olelkovich, and the uprising of Prince Mikhail Glinsky in 1508 ended in failure.
After the division of the all-Russian metropolis into Moscow and Lithuanian parts in the middle of the 15th century, Kiev became the center of the latter. In 1482, the city survived the devastation by the army of the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray. In 1494-1497, Kiev received city rights (Magdeburg Law). After the Union of Lublin in 1569, it was transferred to the Polish crown lands. In 1596, the Kiev Orthodox Metropolitanate entered into union with Rome.
As part of the acute struggle between the Uniates and the Orthodox, the role of the city as the spiritual center of Orthodoxy increased again. Under Archimandrites Elisha Pletenetsky and Zechariah Kopystensky in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in Printing house founded in 1616 and the printing of liturgical and polemical books began, with this printing house in 1627 Pamvo Berynda published the "Lexicon of the Slavonic Russian Albo of Names Interpretation." Pyotr Mogila started a school here, which was later merged with a fraternal school and served as the beginning of the Kiev-Mohyla Collegium.

As part of the Russian kingdom and the Russian Empire (1654-1917)

After the Pereyaslav Rada, on the square in front of the ancient Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God Pirogoshcha, the population of Kiev took the oath to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. In Kiev, a Russian garrison of archers and a reiter was stationed, which held the city throughout all the ups and downs of the Russian-Polish war of 1654-1667. Governor Vasily Sheremetev repeatedly repulsed the attacks of Hetman Ivan Vygovsky, and after the defeat of Sheremetev near Chudnov, contrary to the agreements, Kiev refused to surrender the new governor Yuri Baryatinsky to the Poles, and the Poles could not achieve the capture of the city by force.
January 31, 1667 Andrusovo truce was concluded, under the terms of which the Commonwealth ceded Smolensk and the Left-Bank Ukraine in favor of the Russian kingdom. Kiev was ceded by Poland initially temporarily, then, according to the "Eternal Peace" of 1686 - permanently. None of the Polish-Russian treaties relating to Kiev has ever been ratified. Since 1721 - the center of the Kiev province.
At the end of the 17th century, the territory of Kiev was located only on the right bank of the Dnieper. The city was shaped along the coast. Three separate parts of the city were distinguished: the Lower City (Podil), where the academy and the fraternal church were located; Upper Town with St. Sophia Cathedral and St. Michael's Monastery; Pechersk, the eastern part of which was protected by defensive ramparts of the Lavra. Intensive urban construction was due to the patronage of Ivan Mazepa. In fact, these three separate territories united into a monolithic urban formation only in the 19th century.
18th century becomes a century of intensive development of the city and the appearance of many of its architectural masterpieces. In 1701, the central building of the Vydubytsky monastery was built in Kiev - St. George's Church, one of the prominent sights of the Ukrainian baroque. In the Elizabethan era, under the guidance of the Moscow architect Ivan Michurin, two more baroque buildings were built in Kiev according to the project of Bartolomeo Rastrelli: the Mariinsky Palace and the St. Andrew's Church.
The ancient temples and monasteries of Kievan Rus are undergoing significant restructuring in the Ukrainian Baroque style: St. Sophia Cathedral, St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. In the latter, among other things, the Assumption Cathedral was renovated, the Great Lavra Bell Tower was erected - the tallest building in the city. In 1772, according to the plan of the architect Ivan Grigorovich-Barsky, the Orthodox Intercession Church was built on Podil.

September 16, 1781 years after the abolition of the Hetmanate and its hundred-regiment structure, the Kiev governorship was formed. The territories of the Kiev, Pereyaslav, Lubensky and Mirgorod regiments were included in the vicegerency.
In 1811 one of the largest fires in the history of Kiev took place. Thanks to a combination of many circumstances, and according to some evidence, arson, an entire district of the city - Podil - was destroyed. The fire for three days (July 9-11) destroyed over 2 thousand houses, 12 churches, 3 monasteries. Podol was rebuilt according to the project of architects Andrei Melensky and William Geste.
Even after Kiev and its environs ceased to be part of Poland, Poles made up a large proportion of the city's population. V 1812 year in Kiev, there were more than 4,300 minor Polish lords. For comparison, there were approximately 1,000 Russian nobles in the city. Usually the nobles spent the winter in Kiev, where they had fun with festivities and trips to the fair. Until the middle of the 18th century, Kiev experienced a significant influence of Polish culture.
Although the Poles made up no more than ten percent of the population of Kiev, they made up 25% of the voters, since at that time there was a property qualification for voters. In the 1830s, there were quite a few Polish-medium schools in Kiev, and before the enrollment of Poles at the University of St. Vladimir was not limited in 1860, they made up the majority of the students of this institution. The abolition by the Russian government of the autonomy of the city of Kiev and its transfer to the rule of bureaucrats, which was dictated by a directive from St. Petersburg, was largely motivated by the fear of a Polish uprising in the city.
Warsaw factories and small Polish shops had their branches in Kiev. Josef Zawadzki, founder of the Kiev Stock Exchange, was mayor of the city in 1890. Kiev Poles tended to be friendly towards the Ukrainian national movement in the city, and some even took part in it.
Many poor Polish nobles became Ukrainianized in language and culture, and these Polish-born Ukrainians became an important element in the growing Ukrainian national movement. Kiev served as a kind of destination, where such activists came along with the pro-Ukrainian descendants of Cossack officers from the left bank. Many of them wanted to leave the city and move to the countryside to try to spread Ukrainian ideas among the peasants.
In 1834 as part of the fight against Polish dominance in this region in the field of education, on the initiative of Nicholas I, the Imperial University of St. Volodymyr, now known as Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. It was the second university on the territory of Little Russia after Kharkov Imperial University. In 1853, at the initiative of the emperor, who called Kiev the “Jerusalem of the Russian land” and cared a lot about its development, the Nikolaevsky chain bridge was opened.
The rapid growth of the city in the first half of the 19th century made it necessary to draw up a plan that could regulate and streamline the development. Despite the fact that one of the first master plans was drawn up as early as 1750, it basically fixed the existing situation. In fact, the first master plan, in the modern sense of the word, was drawn up by the architect Beretti and the engineer Shmigelsky (approved in 1837). According to this plan, intensive construction was carried out along the Lybed River, in Pechersk, Podol, Vladimirskaya Street, Bibikovsky (now T. Shevchenko) Boulevard, Khreshchatyk Street were laid.
To strengthen Kiev militarily, the Kiev fortress was opened in the 19th century. It was built back in 1679, when the Cossack troops under the leadership of Hetman Samoylovich united the Starokiev and Pechersk fortifications, forming one large fortress. The next period of development of the defensive structures of Kiev is determined by the construction of the Pechersk citadel under the leadership of Hetman Ivan Mazepa on the orders of Peter I.
The construction was carried out according to the plan of the French engineer Vauban. On the eve of the Patriotic War of 1812 According to the project of the military engineer Opperman, the Zverinetsky earthen fortifications were built and connected with the Pechersk citadel. Large-scale reconstructions are carried out during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, who approved a plan to expand the fortress. By the beginning of the 60s of the 19th century, it consisted of the following parts: the core - the citadel, two independent fortifications (Vasilkovsky and Hospital), supplemented by defensive barracks and towers.
During the Russian Industrial Revolution in late XIX century, Kiev became an important center of trade and transport of the Russian Empire, this economic and geographical zone specialized in sugar and grain exports by rail and along the Dnieper River. In 1900 the city became an influential industrial center with a population of 250,000. Architectural monuments of that period include the railway infrastructure, the basis of numerous educational and cultural facilities, as well as architectural monuments built mainly with the money of merchants, such as the Brodsky synagogue.
At that time, a large Jewish community arose in Kiev, which developed its own ethnic culture and interests. This was caused by the ban on Jewish settlements in Russia itself (Moscow and St. Petersburg), as well as in the Far East. Expelled from Kiev in 1654, Jews probably could not settle in the city again until the early 1790s. On December 2, 1827, Nicholas I issued a decree forbidding Jews to live permanently in Kiev. Kiev Jews were subject to eviction, and only some of their categories could come for a limited time, and two special farmsteads were appointed for their stay. V 1881 and 1905 the famous pogroms in the city led to the death of about 100 Jews. An example of the policy of anti-Semitism is also the Beilis Case, a lawsuit on charges against Mendel Beilis of murdering a religious school student. The process was accompanied by large-scale public protests. The accused was acquitted.
In the 19th century the architectural development of the city continues. In 1882, the St. Vladimir Cathedral, built in the neo-Byzantine style, was opened, in the painting of which Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Nesterov and others subsequently participated. In 1888, according to the project of the famous sculptor Mikhail Mikeshin, a monument to Bohdan Khmelnitsky was opened in Kiev. The opening of the monument, located in front of the St. Sophia Cathedral, was timed to coincide with the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Russia.
In 1902, according to the plan of the architect Vladislav Gorodetsky, the House with Chimeras was built in Kiev - the most outstanding building of the early decorative Art Nouveau in Kiev. The name is derived from concrete sculptural decorations with mythological and hunting themes.
At the beginning of the 20th century in Kiev, the housing problem has become aggravated. On March 21, 1909, the charter of the "First Kiev Society of Apartment Owners" was approved by the provincial authorities. This event was the beginning of the construction of houses on the cooperative principle, which was a convenient and easy solution to the housing problem for the "middle class". The development of aviation (both military and amateur) was another notable manifestation of progress at the beginning of the 20th century. Such outstanding aviation figures as Pyotr Nesterov (pioneer in the field of aerobatics) and Igor Sikorsky (creator of the world's first production helicopter R-4, 1942) worked in Kiev. In 1892, it was in Kiev that the first electric tram line in the Russian Empire was launched. In 1911, during a visit to the Kiev Opera, the anarchist Dmitry Bogrov was mortally wounded by Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin. Stolypin, who was buried on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, was subsequently unveiled a monument in front of the City Duma building.

Revolutionary period and Civil War

The complex interaction of multidirectional political interests, the transition to the political stage of the national liberation movement, the activation of left-wing radical political movements led to intense revolutionary upheavals of 1917-21. During the social revolution that began in February 1917 in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and quickly engulfed all the industrial centers and rural periphery of the European part of the Russian Empire, Kiev became the epicenter of the events of the first year of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917-21.
Created in the city February 1917 The Ukrainian Central Rada (Ukrainian local government headed by historian Mikhail Grushevsky) convened the first Ukrainian national government in the 20th century - the General Secretariat of the Ukrainian Central Rada, proclaimed the Ukrainian People's Republic in November 1917, and in January 1918 - independent, sovereign Ukraine. This short period of independence saw a rapid rise in the cultural and political status of Kiev. A large number of professional Ukrainian-language theaters and libraries were created.
However, the UCR did not have a strong social support in Kiev. During the Bolshevik offensive against Kiev, they relied on the support of a significant part of the Kiev workers, who organized an uprising against the Central Rada, which was suppressed by the troops of Petliura (February 4, 1918), but facilitated the subsequent capture of Kiev by Muravyov's Bolshevik 1st Army (February 8, 1918). Most of the military formations located in Kiev remained neutral, the UCR threw untrained detachments from Kiev high school students and students into battle (the so-called battle near Kruty).
The UCR, expelled from Kiev, asked for help from the countries of the Quadruple Alliance that occupied Ukraine as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and on March 1, 1918, German and Austro-Hungarian troops entered Kiev, accompanied by Petliurists. However, the leftist and nationalistic nature of the Central Rada did not suit the Germans, and on April 28, 1918 it was dispersed by a German patrol. On April 29, at the All-Ukrainian Congress of Grain Growers in the Kiev Circus, a hetmanate was proclaimed and General P. Skoropadsky was elected hetman, the military formations of the UNR in Kiev were disarmed.
Kiev became the capital of the Ukrainian state, headed by Hetman P. Skoropadsky. Among all the regimes that succeeded each other in Kiev, except for Denikin, this one was the most conservative. Under him, the Academy of Sciences was created in Kiev.
In mid-December 1918, the Germans left Kiev, the hetman was overthrown and fled, and on December 14, Petlyura's troops entered Kiev, restoring the UNR. When on January 22, 1919, the Directory of the UNR proclaimed the Act of Unification with the ZUNR, Kiev became the capital of conciliar Ukraine, but two weeks later the Directory left it under pressure from the advancing Soviet troops that entered the city on the night of February 5-6, 1919.
On April 10, 1919, the Red troops were driven out of part of Kiev (Podol, Svyatoshino, Kurenevka) for 1 day by the formation of Ataman Struk, who was operating in the Chernobyl district.
On August 31, 1919, the Soviets ceded power to Denikin's Volunteer Army (see Capture of Kiev by the Volunteer Army). Together with the troops of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia under the command of N.E. Bredov, units of the Galician Army and the UNR Army united under the command of Petlyura entered Kiev. However, after an incident in the center of Kiev, when one of the UNR soldiers tore down the Russian flag, the Ukrainian units were immediately disarmed by Denikin's troops and expelled from the city; in Ukrainian historiography, this event is called the Kiev catastrophe.
As a result of a raid by the Red Army on October 14, 1919, the Whites were briefly driven out of the city to the eastern suburbs - Darnitsa, but the next day they counterattacked and by October 18 drove the Reds back beyond Irpin. After the new occupation of Kiev, Denikin's people and local residents staged a pogrom of Jews suspected of supporting the Bolsheviks.
The Red Army returned to Kiev on December 16, 1919, having crossed the freezing Dnieper and driven out Denikin's troops.
On May 7, 1920, during the Polish-Soviet war, Kiev was occupied by Polish troops with the help of the allied UNR army. After the Polish and Petliura troops left the city (during the Kiev operation of the Red Army), Soviet power finally established itself here (June 12, 1920). Thus, from the beginning of 1917 (February Revolution) to the middle of 1920 (withdrawal of the Poles), power in Kiev changed 13 times.

Interwar period

In October 1921, in Kiev, supporters of the ideas of an autocephalous church convened the "All-Ukrainian Council of the Clergy and Laity", in which none of the bishops of the Orthodox Russian Church took part. At the council, it was decided on their own, without the participation of the bishops, to perform consecration, which was soon carried out. The GPU-supported Renovation movement in the Russian Church at the Council in 1923 recognized the autocephaly of the Church in the Ukrainian SSR. However, in 1930, due to new political realities, the UAOC decided to dissolve itself. The clergy of the UAOC was almost completely liquidated.
In 1922, the Berezil creative association was founded in Kiev on the basis of one of the groups of the Young Theater team. The first performance of "October" (the text of the creative production team) took place on November 7, 1922. He worked as a state theater from 1922 to 1926 in Kiev, and from 1926 - in Kharkov (the then capital of Soviet Ukraine). The period of life and formation of the theater in Kiev is considered to be a "political" period, and the Kharkov period - a philosophical one.
On May 17, 1924, the first Kindergarten Kiev "Eaglet". In the 1930s, a specialized building was built for it, which subsequently received many awards for its style.
In 1930, the film "Earth" by Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko was filmed in Kiev. According to Sight & Sound magazine, the film is one of the best examples of Soviet silent cinema. At the World's Fair in Brussels, the movie "Earth" was ranked tenth among the 12 best films in the history of cinema.
In social terms, this period was accompanied by repressions against many representatives of creative professions (for these events there is a term "executed revival"). In addition, the process of destruction of churches and monuments, which began in the 1920s, reached its climax. Examples of this are the demolition of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery and the confiscation of property near the Hagia Sophia.
The urban population continued to grow mainly due to migrants. The migration changed the city's ethnic demographics from Russian-Ukrainian to predominantly Ukrainian-Russian, although Russian remained the dominant language. Kievans also suffered from the volatile Soviet politics of the time. Calling on Ukrainians to make a career and develop their culture (Ukrainization), the Soviet government soon launched a fight against "nationalism". Political processes were organized in the city to clear it of "Western spies", "Ukrainian nationalists", opponents of Joseph Stalin and the CPSU (b).
At the end of this period, secret mass executions began in Kiev. Kiev intelligentsia, clergy and party activists were arrested, shot and buried in mass graves. The main places of action were Babi Yar and Bykovnyansky forests. At the same time, the city's economy continued to grow thanks to the industrialization course proclaimed as early as 1927. In 1932, the building of the central railway station was built in the Ukrainian baroque style with elements of constructivism.
In 1932-33, the population of the city, like in most other cities of the USSR (Kazakhstan, the Volga region, the North Caucasus and Ukraine), suffered from famine (Holodomor). In Kiev, bread and other foodstuffs were distributed to people on food cards in accordance with the daily allowance, but bread was in short supply, and citizens stood in line all night to get it. The victims of the Holodomor in Kiev can be divided into three parts: victims from among the residents of Kiev itself; victims of the suburbs of Kiev; peasants who reached the city in different ways in the hope of surviving and died already in Kiev. If we proceed from the fact that as of the autumn of 1931 the population of Kiev was 586 thousand people, and at the beginning of 1934 - 510 thousand, then taking into account the birth rate during this period, the loss of Kiev amounted to more than 100 thousand people. Historian Sergei Belokon gives the number of 54,150 victims in 1933.
In 1934, the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was moved from Kharkov to Kiev. This was Stalin's plan. The expansion of the city through new buildings was suspended. The population was influenced by the Soviet social policy, which was achieved through repression, coercion and a rapid movement towards totalitarianism, in which dissent and non-communist organizations are not allowed. Tens of thousands of people were sent to the Gulag camps.
In 1937, the first Art School in the Ukrainian Republic (named after T. Shevchenko) was built in Kiev. The building now houses the Museum of History.
From 1928 to 1942, three five-year plans passed (the last was disrupted by the war), during which about 2 thousand industrial facilities were built on the territory of Ukraine, specifically in Kiev, such “giants” as Kryvorizhstal or KhTZ were not built, but this did not interfere carry out industrialization in the city: make roads, electrify areas remote from the center, and so on. In 1935, the first trolleybus was launched in Kiev, following the route Lev Tolstoy Square - Zagorodnaya Street.

The Great Patriotic War

The war turned into a series of tragic events for Kiev, significant human losses and material damage. Already at dawn on June 22, 1941, Kiev was bombed by German aircraft, and on July 11, German troops approached Kiev. The Kiev defensive operation lasted 78 days. Having crossed the Dnieper in the Kremenchug region, German troops surrounded Kiev, and on September 19 the city was taken. At the same time, more than 665 thousand soldiers and commanders were captured, 884 armored vehicles, 3718 guns and much more were captured.
On September 24, NKVD saboteurs carried out a series of explosions in the city, which started a big fire on Khreshchatyk and in the surrounding areas. On September 29 and 30, Nazis and Ukrainian collaborators shot Jews at Babi Yar, during these 2 days alone more than 33 thousand people died. In total, according to scientists of Ukraine, in Babi Yar the number of Jews shot was 150 thousand (residents of Kiev, as well as other cities of Ukraine, and this number does not include young children under 3 years old, who were also killed, but were not counted). The most famous collaborators of the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine were the burgomasters of Kiev Alexander Ogloblin and Vladimir Bagaziy. It is also worth noting that a number of nationalist figures saw in the occupation an opportunity to start a cultural revival, freeing themselves from Bolshevism.
On November 3, the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was blown up (according to one of the versions, by pre-laid Soviet radio-controlled land mines). On the territory of the city, Darnitsa and Syretsky concentration camps were created, where 68 and 25 thousand prisoners died, respectively. In the summer of 1942, a football match was held in occupied Kiev between the Start team and the national team of German combat units. Subsequently, many Kiev football players were arrested, some of them died in a concentration camp in 1943. This event was called the "Death Match". Over 100,000 young people were sent to Germany from Kiev for forced labor. By the end of 1943, the city's population had dropped to 180,000.
During the German occupation, the Kiev City Council operated in the city.
In early November 1943, on the eve of the retreat, the German invaders began to burn Kiev. On the night of November 6, 1943, the advanced units of the Red Army, overcoming insignificant resistance from the remnants of the German army, entered the almost empty burning city. At the same time, there is a version that Stalin's desire to be in time for the Soviet holiday date of November 7 led to large-scale human losses: the liberation of Kiev cost the lives of 6491 soldiers and commanders of the Red Army.
Later, during the Kiev defensive operation, an attempt by the Nazi troops to recapture Kiev was repelled (December 23, 1943, the Wehrmacht, having stopped offensive attempts, went on the defensive)
In total, during the hostilities in Kiev, 940 buildings of state and public institutions with an area of ​​over 1 million m², 1,742 communal houses with a living area of ​​more than 1 million m², 3,600 private houses with an area of ​​up to half a million m² were destroyed; all bridges across the Dnieper were destroyed, the water supply, sewerage, transport facilities were disabled.
For the heroism shown during the defense, Kiev was awarded the title of Hero City (Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 21, 1961; approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, May 8, 1965).

Post-war recovery

The first post-war years were marked by intensive restoration of the destroyed city. In January 1944, leading state and party institutions returned to the capital of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1948, the construction of the Dashava-Kyiv gas pipeline was completed, in 1949 the Darnitsa railway bridge and the Patona bridge were built, and the construction of the subway began. The industrial and scientific potential of the city developed, it was in Kiev in 1950 that the first computer in the USSR and continental Europe - MESM was created, and in 1951 the first television center in Ukraine began broadcasting.
After the war, it was decided to rebuild Khreshchatyk, retaining the configuration of the streets, but the buildings were built completely new, in the style of "Stalin's Empire". The street is built up as a single architectural ensemble. The width of Khreshchatyk has been increased to 75 meters. The street profile has become asymmetrical: the roadway is 24 meters, two sidewalks of 14 meters each, separated from the roadway by a row of trees, and a chestnut boulevard with right side, which separates the residential area from the roadway.
Kiev remained the center of development of Ukrainian national culture. However, already in 1946, the Moscow authorities began a new wave of ideological purges, found a response in the Decrees of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, the directives “On distortion and errors in covering the history of Ukrainian literature”, “On the journal of satire and humor “Pepper””, “On the repertoire of drama theaters and measures for its improvement" and others.

Kiev during the reign of N. S. Khrushchev

Death of Stalin in 1953 year and the coming to power of Khrushchev were marked by the beginning of the "thaw" period. In the wake of the nuclear missile race and chemicalization of the national economy, the research institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR were rapidly developing. In 1957, the Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR was founded; in 1960, an atomic reactor was launched at the Institute of Physics. In the same year, the first section of the subway was put into operation, and the population of the city exceeded one million inhabitants.
The weakening of ideological pressure contributed to increased creative activity. Writers Ivan Drach, Vitaly Korotich, Lina Kostenko debuted in Kiev; composers Valentin Silvestrov and Leonid Grabovsky; at the film studio A. Dovzhenko created such films as "Chasing Two Hares" (Viktor Ivanov, 1961), "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" (Sergey Parajanov, 1964). However, the process of Russification began
tion: in 1959, the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR approved a law that gave parents the right to choose the language of instruction for their children.
At the same time, another atheistic campaign led to the closure of a number of churches that resumed their activities during the war, the demolition of some places of worship, the desecration of historical graves (the Lukyanovka Jewish and Karaite cemetery with an area of ​​over 25 hectares was destroyed). Negligent attitude to technological requirements led to a large-scale Kurenevskaya tragedy, which was hushed up by the authorities for a long time. On May 24, 1964, under unclear circumstances, unique materials from the funds of the State Public Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR were destroyed by fire.
In the 1960s urbanization processes accelerated sharply, due to which from 1959 to 1979 the total number of permanent residents of Kiev increased from 1.09 to 2.12 million people. During these years, new residential areas were built on the left bank of the Dnieper: Rusanovka, Bereznyaki, Voskresenka, Levoberezhny, Komsomolsky, Lesnoy, Raduzhny; later: Vigurovshchina-Troyeshchyna, Kharkiv, Osokorki and Poznyaki. Multi-storey hotels were built: "Lybid" (17 floors, 1971), "Slavutich" (16 floors, 1972), "Kiev" (20 floors, 1973), "Rus" (21 floor, 1979), "Tourist "(26 floors, 1980).
The network of higher educational institutions grew, new cultural centers were created (in particular, the Drama and Comedy Theater, the Youth Theater), museums, including the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Ukrainian SSR, the Museum of the History of Kiev and the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War with a 62-meter statue of the Motherland - mother.

Kiev during the reign of L. I. Brezhnev

At the same time, since the mid-1960s, the ideological dictatorship has resumed, and Kiev has become one of the centers of the dissident movement. In fact, there were two main directions of dissident opposition to the regime. The first of them focused on support from outside the USSR, the second - on the use of the protest moods of the population within the country. The activity was based on an appeal to foreign public opinion, the use of the Western press, non-governmental organizations, foundations, connections with political and state figures of the West.
Dissidents sent open letters to the central newspapers and the Central Committee of the CPSU, produced and distributed samizdat, and staged demonstrations. The beginning of a broad dissident movement is associated with the process of Daniel and Sinyavsky (1965), as well as with the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia (1968). In 1976, the Ukrainian Helsinki Group was founded in Kiev, which stood up for the protection of human rights in accordance with the Helsinki Agreement, signed by the USSR a year earlier.
In the field of education, there was an intensive publication of textbooks, a ten-year education system was returned. However, a demographic crisis set in, the growth of the urban population continued only due to migration and urbanization processes.
Kiev did not bypass the process of stagnation in the economy: the pace of production fell, the competitiveness of goods decreased. The urban population received insufficient food, despite significant investment in agriculture. There was a personnel stagnation, city officials, due to their old age, could no longer cope with their duties, which also had a negative impact on the well-being of the city.

perestroika

Despite the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, festive celebrations and demonstrations dedicated to May Day were held in Kiev. Information about the incident was withheld so that there was no panic among the population. The accident caused a significant deterioration of the ecological situation in Kiev, the health of the city's inhabitants deteriorated noticeably, many food products subject to radioactive contamination were initially carefully checked by radiometers.
In 1987, Oles Shevchenko founded the Ukrainian Cultural Club in Kiev. The club began its activity with public discussions. Later they began to resort to public actions. A demonstration was held on the anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, there were also plans to collect signatures to justify political prisoners, but the event was disrupted. The date of completion of the club's activities is considered to be the date of the funeral of V. Stus.

From October 2 to October 17, 1990 there was a hunger strike of students on October Revolution Square (now Maidan Nezalezhnosti) and mass protests in Kiev, in which students and students of technical schools and vocational schools played the main role. The government was forced to satisfy part of the demands of the protesters, which concerned military service, holding new elections, nationalization of property and the resignation of the Head of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR.
On August 24, 1991, in Kiev, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR approved the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.

Capital of Ukraine

In 1991, Kiev became the capital of independent Ukraine, but it was rather difficult for positive changes to take place in the city: a nationwide socio-economic crisis was growing, which led to an increase in unemployment and a reduction in production. Back in the 1980s, with the development of commercial relations, new organized bandit groups appeared, the so-called rackets. After that, skirmishes began to occur in the city due to the distribution of spheres of influence. This form of organized crime existed en masse until the mid-1990s.
In 1999, the Mikhailovsky Golden-Domed Monastery, destroyed by the Bolsheviks, was restored. A year later, the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was restored, and five years later, the Church of the Nativity of Christ. Simultaneously with the Assumption Cathedral, the first Kiev mosque Ar-Rahma was built in the historical center of the city.
The metro line to Lukyanovka and Kharkiv Massif was completed, and the Singing Field was opened. The South Station, built in 2001, has become an attraction of the capital's transport infrastructure. The building is decorated in Romanesque style near a newly planned square. Its construction helped relieve the building of the Central Station, built back in 1932.
In Kiev, shopping and entertainment centers are being actively built, part of the building of which is located underground. Popular since the 1970s, glass and concrete buildings are being reconstructed and turned into modern office centers. Restoration of old houses of the 19th - early 20th centuries is also being carried out in the central part of the city, the development of which is planned to be banned. Regarding the development of urban infrastructure, the priority is the expansion and renewal of the public transport fleet, the replacement and repair of communications, the construction of new metro stations and road junctions, and the creation of an effective system for cleaning the city from garbage. An important aspect is also the attraction of investments, the construction of headquarters of international companies and new business centers in Kiev. In addition, it is planned to solve the problem of infill development.
In 2001 All-Ukrainian population census was carried out. According to its results, the population of Kiev amounted to more than 2.6 million people. The percentage of Ukrainians in the city was 82.2%.
November 22 - December 26, 2004- the time of the Orange Revolution on the Independence Square against the falsification of the results of the presidential elections. Thanks to the action, Viktor Yushchenko became the President of Ukraine.
On July 1, 2012, the final of the 2012 European Football Championship took place in Kiev at the NSC Olympiyskiy stadium, in which Spain defeated Italy.

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FOUNDATION OF KIEV

On the lands of the future southern Ukraine in the III century. happened gothic kingdom led by King Ermanaric. His power extended far to the north, up to the Baltic. From 239 to 269 this union made a number of crushing predatory campaigns, which led to the death of many ancient centers on the coast of the sea, the Scythian kingdom in the Crimea, the late Scythian Lower Dnieper settlements, and the cessation of minting coins in Olbia and Tire.

The Huns, who came from the Urals, were taken by the Rus for the wondrous people, sealed in the old years by Svarog in the Ural Mountains, who appeared when the End of the Old Kolo Svarog came. The most ancient texts of the "Book of Veles" (Troyan SH 3, 2) are filled with the expectation of this time: "And we are waiting for This Time, when the Wheels of Svarog are turning. This Time will come according to the song of Mother Swa."
And now this time has come. And by many it was taken for the End of the World. But then the prince of the Rus, Kiy himself, said: "We must go to the army of yasuns in order to protect the country from enemy raids. And the Last Times will be later" (Bus IV, 4:2).

From the Elbrus region then the clans of Belogors, Beloyars and Novoyars (those that survived after the wars with the Goths and Huns) moved to the Dnieper. Prince Kiy, according to the "Book of Veles" (Bus IV, 1:2), led the Russians to the Dnieper from Cap-town or Belaya Vezha (later this city or its successor on the Don was named Sarkel). Prince Kiy was the successor of Bus Beloyar.
Thus, in the Dnieper region and along the banks of the Ros, Skuf Kievskaya was born. Kiy built a city on the site of an ancient settlement Kiev-on-Dnieper, the basis of which is the Novgorod Chronicle from the collection of E.V. Barsova (copy of the 17th century) dates back to 430, which coincides with the dating of the "Book of Veles", which refers to the founding of Kiev-on-the-Dnieper in the time of Attila.

In the first two decades of the 5th c. the Huns advanced along the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region. Apparently, they could not overcome the "Serpent Shafts" and left the Rus of Golun alone. According to the "Book of Veles" (Bus IV, 5), Golun is taken not by the Huns, but by Prince Kiy himself, "having left the Don lands."
At first, Prince Kiy went from the Don to the Huns-Bulgarians (Bus IV, 5). The Nikon chronicle tells about the same campaign. According to the "Book of Veles", after a campaign against the Bulgarians, Kyi went to Voronezh, where he attached glade warriors to his army. Then he found Golun and took the future Kiev.

Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv in the Radzivilov Chronicle

"The brothers Kyi, Schek and Khoriv, ​​with their sister Lybid, lived between glades on three mountains, of which two are known by the name of two younger brothers, Shchekovitsa and Khorivitsa; and the elder lived where now (XI century) Zborichev vzvoz. They were knowing and sensible men... built a city and named it after their elder brother Kiev."
The history of the founding of Kiev in the Primary Chronicle is as follows: “Everyone lived with his family, in their own places and sides, each owning his own family. And there were three brothers: one was named Kyi (Kiy), the second was named Shchek, the third was named Khoriv, ​​and their sister was Lybid. And Kiy sat on the mountain, where Borichev is now taking away, and was with his family. And his brother Shchek is on another mountain, from him Shchekovitsa was nicknamed. And the third Horeb, from him Horivitsa was nicknamed. And they created a city in the name of their elder brother and called the name Kiev (Kiev). And there was a forest and a great forest near them, and they caught the beast. And there were wise and clever men, they called the clearing, and to this day, according to them, the Kiyans are the clearing; were filthy, sacrificing to lakes and springs, and groves, like other filthy ones.
Archaeological research carried out on Castle Hill, convincingly confirmed the reality of the events described in the annals. In addition, the coins of the Byzantine emperors Anastasius I (491 - 518) and Justinian I (527 - 565) found here date back to the end. V - beginning. V І centuries. testify to the emergence of Kiev in this period or a little earlier. Probably, the residence of Kiy was located here before the fortified settlement was built on the Starokievskaya mountain - the forerunner of the city of Kiev.
As a center of their kind, the brothers establish near the yard of Kiya, on Starokievskaya mountain, where in the X century. led from the river Borichev Uvoz, a small "town". He received the name Kiev. Using the natural conditions (Starokievskaya Gora has steep, impregnable slopes on three sides), the glade built a high earthen rampart with a palisade on the north side and dug a deep ditch. In the middle of the settlement there was a pagan temple, explored in 1908 by Vikenty Khvoyko.
The hitherto scattered clans united around him and received from them a common name "clearing", but also "Kiyane"- people of Kiev, "people of Kiya". Princely hunting in the “great forest and forest” near the city, an important part of the ancient Slavic visitation, is also mentioned again.

Academician B.A. Rybakov writes: "The pronounced possessive form of the name of the city of Kiev ("Kiya city", "Kiev city") makes it possible to admit the existence of a person named Kiy, who owned this city or built it." The story about the founding of Kiev is repeated almost without changes in two chronicles - Kiev, known as "The Tale of Bygone Years", and Novgorod. The only difference is the date.
The Kiev chronicler Nestor relates the time of the foundation of the city to the 7th century, and the Novgorod chronicler - to the 9th century.
Kiev and Novgorod have long competed with each other. Therefore, the Novgorod chronicler indicates a later date, not wanting to admit that Kiev is older than Novgorod. In addition, he does not recognize Kiy as a prince, but calls him a boatman who kept a ferry across the Dnieper.
Nestor enters into a controversy with the Novgorod chronicler and includes an additional explanation in his chronicle: “Others, who are not leading, say that Kiy was a carrier. After all, Kiev had a transfer then from the other side of the Dnieper. That's why they said: "for transportation to Kiev." But if there was a Kiy carrier, then he would not go to Tsaryugorod. But this Kiy reigned in his generation, and he came to an unknown king, but we only know about that, as they say, that he received great honor from a king whom we do not know and under whom the king came. When he was going back, he came to the Danube, and loved the place, and cut down a small town, and wanted to sit down with his family, and those who lived near there did not give him. That is why the Danubians still call the settlement Kievets. According to Nestor, there was a town of Kievets on the Danube, the construction of which was also attributed to Kiy during his campaign to Constantinople, where he was received with honor.
In this explanation, Nestor reports new, very important information: the capital of Byzantium, Constantinople, was then called Tsar-grad in Russia, and the Byzantine emperor was called the king, which means that Kiy visited Byzantium and was honorably received by the emperor. B.A. Rybakov, comparing this information with other chronicle data, put forward a convincing hypothesis about the time to which Kyi's activities belong. Rybakov writes: "This legend (...) fits very well into the historical reality of the 6th century." The name Kiy may mean "blacksmith". Researchers of Slavic mythology V.V. Ivanov and V.N. Toporov identify Kiy with the hero of the ancient legend about the creation Serpent Shafts- earthen fortifications stretching along the Dnieper for hundreds of kilometers. Their origin and time of erection have not been established. Serpent and Troyanov ramparts are located along the border. In the era of Kievan Rus, they served as a defensive line against the Pechenegs.
The legend says that in ancient times a winged serpent flew in from the sea and began to devour people. People died, "like grass under the feet of cattle, like millet in the sun." The blacksmith - "God's forger" - defeated the snake, harnessed it to the plow - and plowed a furrow to the sea. The furrow filled with water became the Dnieper, and the uprooted land became the Serpentine Walls, which still exist today.
This is a variant of the common Slavic myth about the divine blacksmith Svarog, the winner of the Trojan Serpent, the ancestor of the power of the Slavic princes. So, the Polyansky Kiy is another hypostasis of this ancestor deity. Moreover, it retained one of its original mythological names.
Polyansky and Seversky myth about Koval coincides mainly with Volyn, tied to the name of the local legendary prince Radar. According to the legends of the Dnieper region, Koval is the winner of the monstrous Serpent. The serpent attacked the lands in which Koval settled, ruined them, devoured people. Koval built himself a huge stone smithy behind three iron doors, and in it he forged the first gigantic plow with an iron plowshare. When the Serpent again flew in for prey, the blacksmith dragged him in pursuit of himself, lured him to the forge and promised that if he licked through all the iron doors with his tongue, he would be allowed to be eaten. The serpent succumbed to the trick and, having licked through three barriers, penetrated into the forge with his tongue. Koval was waiting for this. He grabbed the serpent's tongue with pincers and beat the Serpent on the head with a many-pound hammer, while the people who came running harnessed the captured monster to the plow. Finally, the Serpent was restrained and surrendered. Koval ordered him to plow between the sea - between the lands of the Slavic people and the enemy, "snake" region. The serpent was forced to submit, and Koval himself went after the plow. So the Slavic land was separated from the enemy by a deep river, and high ramparts were erected along its banks, a trace of the heroic plowing of God Koval. These are the Serpent Shafts along the banks of the Dnieper, on the border with the steppe. At the mouth of the Dnieper, the Serpent burst after drinking sea water. In ancient times, the Zmiev ramparts were called Troyan. This means that the Serpent, the enemy of Svarog, is the three-headed god of the underworld Troyan, known to the eastern and southern Slavs.
Mythological legends about Koval existed as early as the 19th century, including in the very vicinity of Kiev. Should have told about the battle of Kiy with the Serpent-Trojan in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, this purely mythological "layer" of the legend about Kyi was not reflected in the annals. No wonder - at the time of the fierce struggle with the remnants of paganism, he seemed out of place. Yes, the chroniclers, unlike the "double believers", did not believe in either Svarog, or Troyan, or other ancient gods. Kiy for them made sense only as the historical founder of Kiev, and not as a mythical hero. Moreover, then the original identity of the founder of princely power, the blacksmith - the “creator of lightning” Kiya-Svarog, with the supreme god Perun, was hardly forgotten. And Troyan - with his opponent, the serpent god Veles. There was no place left for either one or the other in real history after the baptism of Russia. The Christian chronicler rethought the inherited tradition from the point of view of reasonable reliability. This led to a dual result. On the one hand, a "historical" basis was singled out from the pagan tradition. On the other hand, this was done simply by eliminating the “mythological”. The path to rational scientific knowledge was paved centuries before the comprehension of his method.

On the grounds of "unreliability" from a scientific Christian point of view, the legend of Lybid. The origin of the name of the river "Lybed" is unclear. A convincing version was put forward and substantiated. The name of the river comes from a personal female name"Smile". Lybid is one of the names of the goddess Alive.
Cm.

Lybid is the goddess Alive.

Official Ukrainian date of foundation of Kiev - 482.

430-460 years. governing body kiya .
For all their “wisdom,” the brothers remained pagans. The chronicler emphasizes this as a lesson to his contemporaries, who, sharing the superstitions of their ancestors, often yielded to them in valor. Nestor immediately corrects his predecessor: “The glades lived especially in these mountains, because even now the brothers were glades ...” It turns out that the brothers were not glades, but only assimilated the old population. The name "meadow" appeared even before the cue. Only the name "Kiyane" appeared from the time of Kyy, as the chronicler emphasizes.

Polyansky tribal union was formed on the basis of two tribal groups - came from the west, sloven-dulebs, and local, . The heritage of both was preserved in the early Middle Ages of Russia. The foundation of the fortified "city" of Kiev is connected with the invasion of the "Volyntsev" tribes of the Left Bank0000==. As a result, there were three tribal groups - dulebs, antes, including the newcomer north, and the nomads who came with it. The presence of "Saltovtsy" (see) in Kiev in the 8th century. no doubt. Power in such a tribal association could be trial. Each of the co-ruling "kinds" corresponded to a special tribal component of the union. Were the historical prototypes of Kyi, Shchek and Khoriv "brothers" in the literal sense, from the very beginning? In any case, they became such, having founded a common city and created a single polyansky tribal union. Later, as the chronicles testify, this union was jointly ruled by their "kinds". The triple co-government persisted until the 9th century. inclusive. It was the essence of the treaty concluded during the invasion of the north. Kiy in this scenario is the leader of the ant invasion. It is in this sense that he turns out to be a "carrier" "from the other side of the Dnieper." “Kiev transport” is not a humiliation of the dignity of the Polyansky prince, as the chronicler of the 12th century believed, but a memory of the crossing of him and his people.
It was from the Ants that the myth of Kie-Svarog and related ideas about princely power spread. The Volyntsev aristocracy, in whose veins the blood of Antes also flowed, restored them to a new "principality" on the Left Bank. Its leaders, like the Croatian princes in the Czech Republic and Poland, adopted one of the names of the ancestor god as a title. The supreme princes of Kiev were considered earthly manifestations or descendants of a deity.

Initially Volintsev tribes forced to recognize dependence on the erected in the Steppe Khazar Khaganate. The Khazars settled in the Left Bank, and the Alano-Bulgarian "Saltovtsy" submitted to the kagan. Without an alliance with the kaganate, it would have been impossible for the Volyntsev tribes to settle eastward, to the Seversky Donets and Don. And the Volintsevites who settled on the Don were allies and tributaries of the kaganate. However, as the Slavic beginning strengthened, dependence on the alien Steppe became more and more painful. Moreover, Khazaria already in the VIII century. hit by several crises. The Arabs sought the adoption of Islam from the Khazars who disturbed them with raids - and once they were even able to impose it. But the Khazar kagans themselves, and especially their military co-rulers-beks, tended to Judaism. Such an unexpected, at first glance, choice made it possible to assert its independence from both the Caliphate and Byzantium. The adoption of Judaism, which took place in two steps during the 8th century, contributed to the flourishing of urban life and trade in the centers of the khanate. But it also led to a hopeless separation of the ruling elite from the multi-tribal nomadic mass.

As for the Kiya brothers, they correspond with Dulebskaya and nomadic constituents of the union.
On Shchekavitsa since the 8th century. there was a court or settlement - as well as on other Kiev mountains, Kiselevka and Detinka. Of these, Kiselevka (Castle), which previously housed the city of Ants, is closer to Starokievskaya and could be Khorivitsa.
The question of the origin of the name "Horivitsa" is ambiguous. It is clearly non-Slavic. It is difficult not to see the reflection of the name of the Old Testament Mount Horeb in it. Then this is a trace of the presence of the Khazars in Kiev.
Around 730, part of the Khazar nobility converted to Judaism, marking the beginning of the conversion of fellow tribesmen. At the same time, earlier the Khazars were inclined towards Christianity - so they were familiar with biblical imagery even before the Jewish mentors.
So, the name comes directly from the biblical mountain, and “Khoriv” is a derivative of it, the Slavic nickname of the Khazar leader who sat on the mountain. The "brother" Khoriv, ​​who came with Kiy, led the nomads. The glorified "clan of Horeb" ruled in Kiev together with two other "clan". Its alien origin - like the root of the name - was forgotten. There is no need to talk about any permanent presence of Khazar-Jews in Kiev in that century.
It is less likely to see Bald Mountain in Horivitsa, Yurkovitsa, on which the oldest Kiev temple was located (“Bald” mountain means “sacred”). Unless the pagan Slavs set up a temple on Horivitsa intentionally, for purifying reasons. It is curious that Bald, nevertheless, turns out to be connected with the Khazar "Jewish" beginning in Ancient Kiev. In the tenth century it housed the riverside fortress of Samvatas, whose name comes from the legendary river Sambation. Behind this river, at the end of the world, the “lost” ten tribes of Israel seemed to live.
As such, the newly converted Khazars who lived east of the Dnieper imagined themselves to be. The name "Samvatas", however, like the city itself on Bald Mountain, which controlled the wintering pier on the Pochaina River, appears much later than Kiev.
The desire of the Khazars for "Sambation" had both religious and tangible economic reasons. On the one hand, inspired by the Dagestan Jews who converted them, the nomads strove to meet their lost "kindred" - Western European and Balkan Jews. On the other hand, already in the IX century. A trade route passed through the Dnieper region, linking the Volga and Caucasian Jews with their Western relatives. He played a significant role in the economic development of Khazaria and neighboring lands. Searches in this direction could have been conducted since the 8th century. Just in the middle of the VIII century. connections of the Polyana land with the Avar Middle Danube or Slavic Moravia were established.

As for Lysaya Gora, the associations with the Kiev Temple, on the site of which it was erected in the 10th century. Samvatas, turn out to be much more convincing than the search for Khorivitsy here. On the sacred for pagans, "Bald" mountain in the late Middle Ages was placed - probably not without reason - the place of the witches' sabbath. Was it not left no noticeable traces, which died by the beginning of the tenth century. The temple is a place of worship for Mother Earth? Then the sanctuary of witches on Bald Mountain enters into a kind of roll call with the court of Lybid on Devich-mountain. Lybid-Smile stubbornly refused marriage. This is how a witch should behave, a priestess of a female deity. Is this not yet another trace of the resistance of the witches to the patriarchal order advancing on them?

After Kiya and Khoriv Shchek, only glades-dulebs “remain”. His name most likely comes from Shchekavytsy, adjacent to Starokievskaya Mountain. The name of this mountain is Slavic and quite transparent. But it appeared just when the main city arose on Starokievskaya. On Shchekavitsa stood the court of the leader of the local dulebs, who made an alliance with the newcomers. If we want to see the "brothers" come together "from the wild fields" of the "other side", then another option is possible. One of the leaders of the invasion, a Slav, entered into property with the local nobility and undertook to represent their interests before his fellow tribesmen. One way or another, Schek correlates with the Duleb beginning in the union. His name, by the way, can also be a very real nickname. historical person. Just as Shchekavitsa was located on the side of ancient Kiev, so its ruler was on the side of the supreme prince of the Fields, Kyi.

POLYANA

On the site of Kiev lived a Slavic tribe - a glade.
The initial chronicler paints a picture of the unification of previously disparate "clans" around the built tribal center into a single community - the Polyan Union. From his words it follows that the people of Kiev were called "glades" in the second half of the 11th century. He associates the origin of the very name "meadow" with Kiy and the "brothers". Later, Nestor refutes this, confirming, however, the very fact of unification. Indeed, the name "Polyane" must be older than Kiev.
Judging by the chronicles and the latest archaeological research, the territory of the land of the glades (poly) before the Christian era was limited to the course of the Dnieper, Ros and Irpen, in the west it was adjacent to the Diversky land, in the northwest - to the southern settlements of the Dregovichi, in the southwest - to Tivertsy, in the south - to the streets. Calling the Slavs who settled here glades, the chronicler adds: “outside in the field, gray-haired.”
The meadows, according to the chronicler Nestor, sharply differed from the neighboring Slavic tribes both in moral properties and in the forms of social life: “The meadows for their father, the customs of the name are quiet and meek, and ashamed of their daughters-in-law and sisters and mothers ... having marriage customs”, while the Drevlyans, Radimichi and Vyatichi lived in the forests, “like animals”, and they did not have marriages. This description is clearly embellished by Nestor, as a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
History finds the glades already at a rather late stage of political development: social order is composed of two elements - communal and princely-druzhina, the former being strongly suppressed by the latter. With the usual and ancient occupations of the Slavs - hunting, fishing and beekeeping - cattle breeding, agriculture, "woodworking" and trade were more common among the glades than among other Slavs. There are various theories about its vastness and contacts with other peoples. Academician Pyotr Tolochko concludes from the coin hoards that trade with the East began as early as the 8th century. - It stopped during the strife of the specific princes. However, the historian E. Mühle objects that these coins fell into the ground no earlier than the 10th century. - that is, after the establishment of Varangian power in Kiev, as additional evidence, points to the numismatic research of V. L. Yanin. First, about half of the eighth century. they paid tribute to the Khazars.

Slavs and their neighbors in the 7th-8th centuries.

After Kiy (430-460), his son ruled Lebedyan, who was also called Slaver. He, as the "Book of Veles" says (Bus IV, 5), "sat at the city of Kiev near the mountain, and was reasonable, and ruled from the temple." He ruled for twenty years (460-480). He was the governor of Torchins (or Torks, Tivertsy-Taurians, they are then Turovites, Tveryaks).
Then the throne of Kiev passed to the prince Verena, invited from Velikograd: that is, from Velegrad, the future capital of Moravia, or from Obodrite Velikograd-Mecklenburg (unlikely). According to the "Book of Veles", the lands of the Schek clan (and hence the city of the Czechs Velegrad) in those years were part of Kievan Rus, because the Czechs had just moved from Kiev and occupied those lands. Verenus also ruled Kievan Rus for twenty years (480-500).
After Veren, the prince ruled for ten years Serezhen(500-510), but nothing more is known about him.
The last of the Kievichi was the prince Svyatoyar(assumed to be 510-543). He was elected prince at a veche by the united Borussia and Ruskolan (obviously, in 510).

In con. 5th century under the emperor of Byzantium Aspar, who had a Goth-Alanian origin, an alliance of Byzantium and Antia was formed. Aspar surrounded himself with ants (his commander was ant Anagast). At the same time, Byzantium settled the Antes in the lower Danube. But then, under the emperors Zeno and Anastasia, the attitude of Byzantium towards the Antes began to change. Thracians and Antes rebelled against the power of the empire. These uprisings (essentially a civil war for power within the empire) were led by Vitalian. There are reasons to consider him the grandson of Emperor Aspar, and even a Slav.
Vitalian, at the head of the soldiers, among whom were the Goths, Huns and Scythians (that is, the Antes Slavs), besieged Constantinople three times. Twice he received what was required (governorship in Thrace and a ransom), and on the third time, in 516, he was defeated by the commander Justin. In 517, numerous tribes of the Slavs (whom the Byzantines called "Getae", but the Antes-Slavs had long settled in the Geto-Thracian lands) invaded Illyria and Macedonia. Then Justin became emperor (517-527) and drove the Slavs and Thracians across the Danube. The onslaught of the Slavs especially intensified under Emperor Justinian. After the ascension of the emperor to the throne, in 527, he began a war on all the borders of his empire, seeking to resurrect the power and greatness of ancient Rome. But his belligerence was limited in the north.
Under Justinian (and during the reign of Svyatoyar), the Slavs destroyed the defenses on the Danube many times and invaded Thrace, Macedonia and Northern Greece, exterminating and driving out the Byzantines. And then they settled on the deserted lands. This is how the southern branch of the Slavic peoples was born: Serbs, Slovenes, Croats, Bulgarians.
The historian Procopius wrote in his "Secret History" about the invasions of the 20s and 30s: "Illyria and Thrace completely, covering the entire territory from the Ionian Gulf to the outskirts of Byzantium, including Greece and the Thracian Chersonese, were overwhelmed almost every year by the Huns, Sclavens and Antes from the time of Justinian's accession to the Roman Empire, and they created terrible chaos among the inhabitants of the region. During each invasion, more than two hundred thousand Romans, it seems to me, were destroyed and enslaved ... "
Emperor Justinian had no choice but to recognize the Antes as his subjects (in doing so, he hoped to divide and quarrel the Slavic-Ant tribes). Since then, the Antes themselves began to protect the borders of the empire from new raids, both by their fellow tribesmen and by the Bulgarians, Utigurs and Kutigurs. But they defended the borders of the empire reluctantly, the invasions continued.
Byzantium, in turn, began to strengthen the Ostrogoths living in the mountains of Taurida, who had a long-standing enmity towards the Slavs. Since the interests of the Goths and Byzantium coincided, the Goths recognized the dominance of the emperor and gave an obligation to supply, at his request, three thousand soldiers to the troops of the empire (Procopius. "On Buildings", III, 7-14).
Also among the Goths of Tauris during the reign of Justinian, the empire intensively spread Christianity of the Byzantine rite (as opposed to the Arianism that existed among the Goths). This was greatly hindered by the absence of cities among the Goths, for they preferred rural life. Justinian sent engineers and architects to Gothia to build fortresses on the northern slopes of the Crimean Mountains, as well as to erect walls and churches in the emerging Gothic city of Dora (Doras).
Justinian also strengthened the Taman Goths (a bishop was sent to them in 547).
About the main events of those years, about the Goth-Slavic war, the scarce Byzantine sources that have come down to us from that era do not report absolutely anything. All the more priceless is the information that the tablets of the Novgorod Magi brought to us.

According to the "Book of Veles" (Lut I, 4:2 and 2:1), at first "the Goths strengthened" near Voronezh. In Voronezh, then there was a small detachment of the boyar Pride, which took an unequal battle. It was a glorious battle: "And from this Voronezh, glory flows through Russia, and Svarog has it!" In the "Book of Veles" the date of this battle is named: "one hundred and thirteen years from the Carpathian exodus." That is, we are talking about 543 AD.
Then the warriors of Pride defeated the Goths, and their feat was compared with the feat of Segeni and Bolorev, who defeated the son of Germanarekh and the lad Gularech under the walls of Voronezh seventy years ago. However, after the battle, the city was left ashes. A handful of Russian warriors, both undefeated, left him. Before leaving, the soldiers swore an oath not to forget their homeland and to liberate the "blessed Russian land".
In the same year, the Goths, led by King Theodoric III (Theudis), attacked Golun and Kiev. "And many Russians laid down their bones at Golun" (Lut I, 4). And then in Kiev the Goths hanged Svyatoyar (Lut I, 1:1). Thus ended the Kievichi dynasty. The last prince of this dynasty, Svyatoyar, ruled Russia from 510 to 543 (if he began to rule immediately after Veren).
Then "a small part of the people" who had gathered in the "Ilmer forests" left Kiev. And then Great Russia began to be created from the north, for "we had no other possibility." Then they were joined by the Slovenes, who fled from the Avars, the Rus, who fled from the Khazars, and the Wends, who fled from the Germans. The Novgorod chronicles add that in Novgorod in the same years the clan Vladimir the Ancient(From the Russian epic, Attila, who lost the war in the 5th century. He reigned - nine knees before.).
The Kievans fled not just to the forest, but to the settlements of the Novgorodians-Slovenes ("hunters and fishermen"), who had lived here since time immemorial.
A further description of the events in the "Book of Veles" allows us to conclude that part of the Ruskolans then fled to the Don and Kuban, under the protection of the Don Russ and Ases (the wars with the Goths and Khazars on the Don are described in the tablets).
The "Book of Veles" mentions Beloyar Kryvorog, a contemporary of Skoten and Beloyar Pride (the Prince of Novgorod is mentioned in 543).
Many ancient sources report about Russ and Ases of the Don region. So, in the Syrian chronicle of Zacharias of Miletus, written in 555, among the peoples living near the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, the following is mentioned: cannot carry horses because of their limbs." We are talking, obviously, about the great growth of the Rus, the ancestors of the Don Cossacks.
It is also known that in 5th century in addition to the Goths, Utigurs and Kasogs (Circassians), Alano-Rus ("Rukhs-Ases", that is, "bright aces", they are also Ants) lived on Taman and at the mouth of the Don. The place of their settlement is called the Taman city or the island of Rus (an anonymous geographer of the 7th century from Ravvena indicates that the city of Mal-i-Ros was located at the mouth of the Kuban (Rav. An. IV, 3). Prince Sarosy ruled the Taman aces (according to Menander Protector). The prince's name may simply be the title "king of the Ases", "sar-i-os" (compare with Sarus-Bus) Sarosius maintained diplomatic relations with the Byzantine court.
In those same years, Christianity continued to strengthen among the Rus, Alans, and Goths of Taman. The first Christian communities here were founded by the Apostle Andrew. It is known that in the 4th c. these lands were part of the Bosporan diocese (Bishop Cadmus of Bosporus participated in the Council of Nicaea). There were also Scythian bishops at subsequent councils. And under Justinian in 547, a separate episcopal see was approved in the land of the Taman Goths and Chigs (that is, Charkas), and hence the Taman Rus.
And I must say that not all Russ and Ases and neighboring tribes welcomed the spread of Byzantine influence. In 550, an uprising broke out here against the government of the Goths and the emperor Justinian. First of all, the "Abasgians" revolted, that is, the Abkhazians (according to Procopius of Caesarea, VI century), as well as "aces", "Haskuns" (according to Dzhuanshen Dzhuansheriani, XI century). The uprising was suppressed by Emperor Justinian himself, who devastated the country of Ases and Russ. Procopius of Caesarea wrote: "The Romans took captive the wives of the chiefs with all their offspring, they destroyed the fortification walls to the ground and devastated the whole country cruelly."
After the pogrom of 550, Byzantium-friendly power was established on the land of Ases and Chigs. Apparently, then King Sarosius became the king of the Alans and Rus. Nevertheless, the answer to the Caucasian campaign of Justinian was already given in the next 551. Having passed the Antian lands without obstacles, the Kutigurs, who came from Taman and the Black Sea steppes, then broke into Thrace.
The invasion was repelled. The Byzantines increased their pressure on the peoples of the North Caucasus. At the Council of Constantinople in 553, the "bishop of the Chig people" Dometian was present. However, the war on the Slavic-Antian borders did not stop.
In 558, the Bulgars and Slavs, led by Khan Zabergan, once again plundered Thrace and Macedonia. Then the Slavs from Zabergan's army attacked Constantinople from the sea, and the Bulgars from the land. Retreat, having previously accepted a rich tribute, Zabergan was forced by the news that a new horde had appeared in the Don steppes, which threatened to strike at the Bulgars from the rear.
These were the Avars of Khan Bayan (Bayan), who came from beyond the Caspian and Volga, from the Turkic and Mongolian deserts. In the 540s. the Altai Turks expelled them (and partly exterminated them). The remnants of the defeated hordes then fled to the west and by 558 had reached the North Caucasus.
The Alanian king Sarosius, a protege of Byzantium, informed the emperor Justinian about the appearance of the Avars, and then he also ordered to guard the ambassadors of Byzantium, who were going to the Avars. Byzantium decided to use the Avar horde against the Huns and Slavs, who were harassing the empire.
The Alano-Rus also let the Avars through their lands to Voronezh, captured by the Goths, and then into the land of the Huns (Utigurs and Kutigurs) of their enemies.
Judging by the "Book of Veles", the Alano-Rus squads (I believe, led by Pride) then joined the Avars. Avars in 559 passed through the lands of the northerners (Sabirs) to Voronezh. According to the "Book of Veles" II 46 (Lut I, 1:3), "one hundred thousand of the most selective cavalry" of Khan Bayan (Bayan) approached the walls of the city occupied by the Goths. "And there was an evil slaughter, and blood flowed like surina-honey, and by the evening Bayan struck the Goths."
In 560, the Avars invaded the country of the Utigurs in the east of the Sea of ​​Azov, and then defeated the Kutigurs on the Don. The Khan of the Kutigurs (probably Zabergan, who besieged Constantinople in 558) became a tributary of Bayan. Then Bayan took the title of kagan. And then, in 561, the Avaro-Kutigur horde flowed to the Dniester River, to Antia.
None of the ancient sources reported on the wars of the Avars in the Dnieper region. The Avars, like the Huns before, did not dare to overcome the "Snake Walls". Russian squads then went to Kiev and Golun pride and Alan-Iron squads Skotenya. And then Pride again "struck the Goths", and expelled them from Kievan Rus. The power of the Slavic-Alanian dynasty was established in Kiev Skotenya .
Then Kievan Rus entered into Alanian kingdom(named again Ruskolan). In the "Book of Veles" it is reported that "the Irons (Alans) from ancient times did not take tribute from us and allowed the Russians to live in Russian", as well as the fact that the prince himself "boyar Skoten" "lived by his own labor", that is, he did not take Rugu-tribute due to the prince (Lut II, 3).

Volyn principality

In the meantime, bypassing the "Snake Walls" from the south, the Avars and Kutigurs of Khan Bayan invaded the lands of the Dulebs and Ants, to Volyn. Volyn itself was located at the source of the Bug, Pripyat and Dniester. Antia, partly part of the Volyn principality, adjoined the shores of the Black Sea.
Dulebs lived in the Volyn principality - one of the oldest Slavic families. They became famous for repulsing the attack of Emperor Trajan. Enemies could never subdue them and force them to pay tribute.
In the 4th century, after the fall of Ruskolani, the Dulebs accepted into their lands the Antes and Mosks (Mosokhs), who fled from the Huns from the Caucasus. And the land of the Dulebs began to be called Volyn in honor of the goddess of the Ants and Muscovites of Volyn, the wife of the Sun and the mistress of the Volyn (Caspian) Sea.
For two centuries the Volhynians fought against the Goths and the Huns and did not submit to either one or the other. Their lands were never included in the empires of Germanareh and Attila.
All R. 6th century The Volyn principality was ruled by a prince Mesamir. The "Book of Veles" (Lut I, 4) says that he first fought with the Goths, defeated and "scattered them in all directions." Then the warriors of Mazamir had to repel the invasion of the Huns (obviously, the Bulgars of Zabergan). And then the Antes fought with the combined forces of the Huns and Goths. And again, the opponents were defeated, thanks to the Berendeys, who arrived in time to help the Rus.
And at this time, when the Antes were weakened by long and bloody wars, a fresh army of Khan Bayan came from the east. This is also reported by the "Book of Veles" (Lut I, 3): "These are the obry (Avars), who were like the sand of the sea, decided to enslave Russia. And we stopped the obry and fought with them, but there was no harmony in Russia, and therefore the aberrations have won."
The Avars won victories because in these years, because of the policy of Byzantium, the Antes began to fight among themselves ("there was no harmony"). The Rus-Antes, who settled on the right bank of the Danube, fought on the side of Byzantium against their own relatives who came from behind the Danube (this was the case during the invasion of Byzantium by Khan Zabergan and the Antes).
Mezamir and Pride with Skotich could not help, and not because for some time they were allies of Bayan (thanks to this alliance, they defeated the Goths in Voronezh and Kiev), but because they continued to fight with the Crimean Goths.

The dynasty of Svyatoyar then was not suppressed, for his sons Pirogoshch, Radogoshch and mosca reigned in the lands of the Danube and Carpathian Rus, that is, in Volhynia.
Subsequently, Pirogoshch became the ancestor of the princes of the southern Slavs (Serbs and Croats).

Having rounded the Carpathians from the south, large masses of the Slavic population - carriers of the Prague-Korchak (Sclavinian) and Penkov cultures - penetrate into the 6th century. in the lower Danube and the interfluve of the Danube and the Dniester. Having mixed with the local Daco-Romanesque population, they formed the Ipoteshti-Kyndesht culture. Here the Slavs clashed with the Byzantine Empire and since that time they have continuously appeared in the texts of Byzantine historians.
Ipotesti-Kyndeshti culture- archaeological culture of the early Slavs of the 5th-7th centuries. in the Lower Danube, on the territory of modern Romania and Moldova.
The Ipoteshti-Kyndesht culture was formed by the Ants-bearers, together with the local Romanized population and the Slavs of the Prague-Korchak group who infiltrated into the region of the lower Danube.
In the presence of structural similarity and individual forms of pots, the culture of Ipoteshti-Kyndeshti-Churel is difficult to classify as one or another of the early Slavic cultures, which, however, does not remove the possibility of Slavic attribution of the monuments of this culture. On the territory of modern Romania, the traditions of the Late Roman-Early Byzantine period turned out to be quite stable. Continued, albeit on a greatly reduced scale, the production of circle kitchen utensils, the forms of which were often reproduced in vessels made by hand. As a result, the ethnic specificity of the forms of the pots was lost here. Based on this, Romanian archaeologists see in the monuments of the cultures of Ipotesti-Kyndeshti-Churel and Kostisha-Botosana not Slavic, but autochthonous Romanized population, into which the Slavs later joined. Among Romanian researchers, there is a hypothesis that after the movement of part of the Slavs to the southern bank of the Danube, these cultures continued to develop, as a result of which to the end. 7th century the Hlinch culture arose in Moldova, and by the beginning. 8th century Dridu culture in Muntenia.
In the 8th century Great Bulgaria was created on the territory of the Ipoteshti-Kyndesht culture.
The Byzantine historian Theophylact Simokatta also wrote about the princes Radogoshche and Moska, he called them Ardagast and Musoky. According to Theophylact's "History", Radogoshch (Ardagast) was mortally wounded in 597 during the war of the Slavs with the Byzantine troops led by the strategist Prisk. His death was mourned by his brother Moska (Musoky). Prisk took advantage of the fact that the Slavs were celebrating a feast on Ardagast (Radogoshch) and were drunk. After the memorial feast and feast, the Romans attacked the Musokia-Mosca camp and "continued the memorial feast, making libation with blood." The next day, having sobered up, the Slavs repaid the raid and freed the prisoners. The “Book of Veles” (Lut II, 6) also speaks of this: “And so he (Mosk) drank about his dead brother, who had gone to the Gods. And he was killed by Volohs, for that Radogoshch was Svyatoyarich. And after the feast, we were not supposed to sleep, but fell asleep. And then the Volokhi warriors attacked us, and we could not resist. And so they retreated. And then they returned. And they decided: the Volokhi eat and drink a lot, and for this we will also come and drink brotherly wine ... And so the Romans were repaid for their evil. After these events, Moska Svyatoyarich was elected "a single prince" (Lut II, 6:2) and began to take care of the unity of the Slavs. And it was in 597. This is the year of the beginning of the reign of Prince Mosk and the year of the exodus of the Slavs from the Danube. Cm.

The Legend of Kya

A well-known legend, which "The Tale of Bygone Years" precedes the story of the beginning of the Russian land, says that the glades, "living individuals and owning their families in their places," had three brothers - Kyi, Shchek and Khoriv, ​​and their sister was called Lybid. At first, Kiy sat on the mountain, where Borichev vzvoz later arose, Shchek on the mountain, which was called Shchekovitsa, and Khoriv on the third mountain, which was nicknamed Horivitsa after him. Then the younger brothers erected a city in the name of their elder brother and called his name Kiev.

There was a forest around the city and a large forest, with hunting grounds. Neveglasy (ignorant people), the chronicler notes, say that Kiy was not of a princely family, but was a simple carrier on the Dnieper. But this is not so: if Kiy was a carrier, he would not have gone with the army to Constantinople, and yet he stood up for many countries and signed a peace treaty with the Constantinople king and received great honor from him and from everyone. He also went to the Danube to the Bulgarians and loved these places and cut down the city, wanting to sit there with his family. The local military people drove him away, but that town is still called Kievets of the Danube. After that, Kiy went to the Kama Bulgarians, defeated them, and returning to Kiev, he died; at the same time his brothers Shchek and Khoriv and their sister Lybid died.

This legend has been studied many times from a variety of positions. First of all, historians were interested in the names of the founding brothers. The Slavic origin of the name of the eldest of the brothers, Kiya, is established with a sufficient degree of obviousness. One of the meanings of the old Russian word "cue" (in the archetype it sounded like "kuv") is a club, a hammer * - indicates its connection with blacksmithing, the secrets of which, in the concept of people of archaic societies, were owned by gods, heroes and magicians. It is no coincidence that subsequently in Ukraine there was a legend about a blacksmith-serpent fighter who defeated a snake that imposed requisitions on the country, harnessed it to a plow and plowed the land; from the furrows arose the Dnieper, the Dnieper rapids and ramparts along the Dnieper (Zmiev ramparts) [ Ivanov V. V., Toporov V. N. Slavic mythology: Encyclopedic Dictionary. M., 1995. S. 222].

*B. A. Rybakov notes that “... in this sense, the name of the founder of Kiev resembles the name of the emperor (more correctly, the king. - S. Ts.) Charles Martell - Karl the Hammer (Rybakov B. A. Ancient Russia: Tales. Epics. Chronicles. M. , 1963, p. 25).

With regard to Shchek, V.K. Bylinin proposed a Turkic etymology: “The name Shchek, Shcheka, perhaps, is the Slavicized pronunciation of the Turkic lexeme “cheka”, “chekan” (battle ax, ax) ...” [ Bylinin V.K. On the issue of the genesis and historical context of the annalistic "Tale of the Foundation of Kiev" // Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature of the 10th - 16th centuries. M., 1992. Sat. 3. p. 18]. Indeed, the Bulgarian nobleman Chok, who lived at the beginning of the 9th century, is known. The name Shock (Saac) is also found in the Hungarian chronicles. But even more likely is the origin of the "mountain" Shchekovitsa from the Slavic word cheeks meaning "steep, mountainous banks of the river."

Finally, linguists associate Khoriv with the Iranian-Avestan word huare - the sun [ Danilevsky I. N. Ancient Russia through the eyes of contemporaries and descendants (IX-XII centuries). M. 1999. S. 70]. A biblical interpretation of this name is also proposed - after the name of Mount Horeb in the Arabian Desert, whose eastern ridge is Sinai. However, this option is unlikely, since it implies a completely different cultural and religious subtext.

This is the "etymological" reading of the legend about the founding of Kiev.

However, it is hardly possible to speak about the true historicity of these characters, especially the brothers and sisters of Kiya, who do not play any independent role and die en masse immediately after the death of their elder brother. Most likely, we are dealing with a typical case of "folk etymology" - the desire to explain the origin of Kiev, local tracts (Schekovitsy, Khorivitsy) and the Lybid River by creating the corresponding mythological heroes.

The “History of Taron” (Taron is the historical region of Greater Armenia, on the territory of the modern Turkish vilayet Mush) also points to the legendary roots of the story of Kyi. -Karapet. There is also a tradition about three brothers, two of whom will seem strangely familiar to us.

So, the semi-legendary king Valarshak (from the Parthian family of the Arshakids, the governor of the province of Armenia, who lived at the turn of the 3rd-2nd centuries BC) sheltered in his possessions two brothers - Gisaneus and Demeter, princes of the Indus, expelled by enemies from their country. But fifteen years later, Valarshak himself executed them for some offense. The slain brothers were succeeded by their sons - Kuar, Meltey (Meldes) and Horean. " Kuar, - it is said on the pages of the "History of Taron", - he built the city of Kuars, and it was called by the Kuars after his name, and Meltey built his city on that field and named it after Meltey; and the Horean built his city in the region of Palun and named it after the name of the Horean. And after a time, after consulting, Kuar and Meltey and Horean climbed Mount Karkeya and found there a beautiful place with good air, since there was room for hunting and coolness, as well as an abundance of grass and trees. And they built a village there…”

It is remarkable that the chronicle legend not only preserves in a recognizable form the names of the two brothers from the Armenian legend, but, along with this, accurately reproduces the stages of the construction activity of the Armenian trinity (Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv also at first “sit” each in their own “city”, and then they build a common one - in honor of the older brother, Kyi) and even copies the natural conditions, among which the fourth, main city arises, and the economic activities of its inhabitants - "the forest and forest is great" around Kiev, where Kyi, Shchek and Khoriv "byakhu catching the beast ".

The question of why the Kievan and Armenian chroniclers, separated by thousands of miles and several centuries, told the same story almost word for word, does not have a clear answer. Of course, there is no need to talk about the borrowing of ancient Russian tradition by Armenian chroniclers. The legend set forth in the "History of Taron" is quite original, since it has undeniable local roots. Already in the pantheon of the Kingdom of Van (another name is the state of Urartu, IX-VI centuries BC), the deity Kuera / Kuar is known, apparently associated with the cult of thunderstorms and fertility [ Arutyunova-Fedonyan V. A. The deity of thunder in Taron // Bulletin of PSTGU III: Philology 2008. Issue. 4 (14). pp. 16, 17, 20 - 22; Eremyan S.T. About some historical and geographical parallels in the "Tale of Bygone Years" and "History of Taron" by John Mamikonyan // Historical ties and friendship of the Ukrainian and Armenian peoples. Kiev, 1965. S. 151 - 160]. The onomastics of the Near East has also retained consonant names: Melde (now the village of Mehdi in Western Armenia), Hariv (Herat), Horean / Hoarena (in Media), the cities of Melitta and Kavar, the biblical city of Harran and the people of the Horites, the theophore name Malkatu (daughter of the Assyrian god Bel-Harran), finally, the Armenian princely family of Paluni and the historical region of the same name in Greater Armenia.

However, the opposite assumption looks just as unlikely - about the transfer of the legend from Armenia to ancient Russia, in favor of which there is absolutely no historical evidence. And most importantly, the toponym "Kiev" and the names derived from it do not belong to one Old Russian, but to the all-Slavic onomasticon. Indeed, in addition to Kiev on the Dnieper in the X - XIII centuries. in the lands of the southern, western and eastern Slavs, more than seven dozen Kievs, Kievtsy, Kievichi, Kievishchi, etc. arose. [ Kovachev N.P. The medieval settlement of Kievo, the anthroponyms Kiy and reflected in the Belarusian and Slavic toponyms // News of the Institute for Bulgarian Ezik. Book. XVI. Sofia, 1968].

Therefore, it is necessary either to recognize the belonging of the legend about Kuar / Kyi to the common Indo-European mythological fund, or to look for cultural mediators who could contribute to the spread of the legend in Armenia and among the Slavs. For this role, for example, venets are suitable. Strabo not only mentions the western direction of the migration of the Veneti from Paphlagonia to Europe, but also writes about the movement of part of the Venetian tribes to the east. His gaze traces their path up to Cappadocia, beyond which in the XIII - VII centuries. BC e. the area occupied by the Urartian tribes began. In this regard, attention is drawn to the fathers of Kuar, Meltey and Khorean from the Armenian legend - the Indus princes, who remind of the Indus merchants, who, according to Roman writers, sail in the European north along the " Indian Ocean"(" to the Venedian Sea "). Perhaps in both cases we are talking about Windows, Venets.

If the legend we are interested in was part of the Venetian epic, then the Slavs could get acquainted with it during the period of Venetian domination in the Polish Pomerania (by the way, it is possible that the connection of the city of Kuara / Kiya with the land of Palun / Polyany refers to the archetype of the legend - another reason for the appearance of chronicles "glades" in the Kiev "mountains", among the "boron and forest"). Having become a part of Slavic legends, the legend of the three brothers was subsequently rethought in relation to the history of ancient Russia: the replacement of Meltey with Schek certifies this later “historicization” of it. However, this is all hypothetical.

The connection of the ancient Russian Kiya with the Danube is also interesting (campaigns against Constantinople, the foundation of the Kievets of the Danube). Byzantine monument of the 7th century. "The Miracles of Demetrius of Thessalonica" knows Prince Kuver, the prince of the Slavic region of Srem (Syrmius) in Croatia, where he was forced to move from the Northern Carpathian region. Being a subject of the Avar Khagan, Kuver rebelled against the Avars, inflicted several defeats on them and tried to establish a principality in the Byzantine Balkans in the Thessaloniki (Thessalonica) region, but failed.

Thus, it seems that the creators of the ancient Russian legend about Kyi used fragments of the epic of the Danube Slavs about Prince Kuver, a possible candidate for the role of the founder of the Kievets of the Danube mentioned in the annals. However, attempts to localize this toponym were not successful. It should be noted that the medieval Danube and its tributaries were full of "Kievs", only in the area between the cities of Veliko Tarnovo and Ruse there were several of them.

The emergence of Kiev according to archaeological data

The archeology of ancient Kiev also sheds very little light on its origin, due to the fact that the historical interpretation of most of the finds causes ongoing controversy.

The historical core of Kiev consists of several cultural layers, the direct continuity between which, however, is not traced. This indicates that for a significant part of its early history the city existed as a pre-Slavic settlement belonging to an unknown ethnic group (or groups).

The oldest finds on the territory of Kiev date back to Roman times (Zarubinets culture). But it is hardly possible to start counting the history of the city from them. In the historical part of Kiev, they are practically absent; in addition, among them there is no evidence of the presence of urban life forms. Apparently, in the area of ​​​​the future city there was an unfortified settlement, the inhabitants of which in the II - III centuries. engaged in transportation across the Dnieper and trade with Roman Tauris. With the beginning of the Great Migration of Nations, life in the settlement gradually died out.

The next stage in the formation of Kiev was associated with a settlement on the Castle Hill - an impregnable cliff that rose 70 meters above the level of the Dnieper. In the VI-VIII centuries. this place was inhabited by a few Slavic families originating from different areas of the Slavic area, which is confirmed by the mass finds of Slavic ceramics. However, the first attempt of the Slavs to gain a foothold on Castle Hill was not successful. The oldest inhabitants of the local settlement did not consider it necessary to build fortifications and eventually left it - excavations revealed a sterile layer of clay separating the settlement of the 6th-8th centuries. from the cultural layers of a later era.

However, already in the IX century. the northwestern part of the Castle Hill is again settled by Slavic settlers who combined farming, hunting and fishing with handicraft activities.

Since that time, the active settlement of the surrounding hills begins. On the neighboring Starokievskaya mountain, located south of Zamkova, another settlement appears with an area of ​​approximately 2 hectares. Reliably protected from three sides by steep slopes, it is protected from the south by an artificial defensive structure - a rampart and a four-meter-deep ditch. The remains of a mysterious stone structure, usually interpreted as a pagan temple, were also found here.

Approximately at the same time, an ancient settlement appeared on Lysaya Gora, surrounded by a moat and an earthen rampart. The appearance of a number of small estates and individual yards on the Detinka and Shchekavitsa mountains is not excluded.

From Constantine Porphyrogenitus it is known that even in the middle of the tenth century. one of these fortified settlements still had a separate name - Samvatos, probably formed from a Slavic personal name (a tombstone was found near Constantinople, dated 559, with the inscription: "Khilbudius, son of Samvatas"; Procopius of Caesarea mentions a Slavic (Antian) leader Khilbudiya, due to which it can be assumed that the name Samvatas also belonged to the Slavic nomenclature).

Thus, archaeological research suggests that the pre-urban stage in the development of Kiev continued at least until the last quarter of the 9th century. But even for this time, the available materials still give a picture of small, topographically isolated settlements, whose character and functions remain unclear.

The results of archaeological excavations show that already in the VI-VII centuries. there were settlements on the right bank of the Dnieper, which some researchers interpret as urban. The first dated mention in Russian chronicles refers to 860 - in connection with the description of the Rus' campaign against Byzantium. By the VIII-IX centuries. include: 2 settlements - on Starokievsky Hill (area 1.5 ha, moat width 12-13 m, depth - 5 m) and on Castle Hill (area 2.5 ha); settlements - on the mountains Detinka and Vzdykhalnitsa, as well as in the historical district of Kudryavets.

Foundation of Kiev.

In the initial, undated part of The Tale of Bygone Years, there is a legend about the founding of Kiev by three brothers Kiy, Schek and Khoriv. In accordance with the legend of the three brothers, there were several (at least three) “independent settlements of the 8th-10th centuries” on the territory of the city. According to legend, the residence of Kiy, together with the town, was located in the area of ​​​​Starokievskaya Gora (another name for the Upper City). This refers not only to the remains of ancient fortifications, but also to a stone pagan temple, dwellings of the end of the 5th-8th centuries, jewelry of this time. On the temple there were idols made of wood with gilding. After the adoption of the Christian faith by Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, the idols were thrown into the Dnieper. The chronicler calls Kiev of that time not even a city, but a town (“gradok”), thus emphasizing its small size.

Castle Hill (Khorivitsa, Kiselevka, Florovskaya or Frolovskaya Mountain) is a remnant of the right high bank of the Dnieper with steep slopes. It is located between Starokievskaya Gora, Shchekavitsa and the Gonchary-Kozhemyaki tract on one side and Kiev Podil on the other. In the IX-X centuries. on the mountain there was a country princely palace.

Kiev hem as a concentration of crafts and trade arose, judging by archaeological data, in the 9th century, possibly at the end of this century. The emergence of Podil was closely connected with the development of handicrafts and Kiev bargaining. Podol became the center of the merchant and artisan population, which often raised uprisings against the Mountain, that is, the "city" in the proper sense of the word. Thus, along with Detinets, inhabited by princely servants and dependent people, a new quarter arose in Kiev - artisans and merchants. It is on Podil that one should look for the concentration of the handicraft and trading life of Kiev in the days of its prosperity.

According to "" in the second half of the 9th century. in Kiev, the warriors of the Varangian Rurik, Askold and Dir, who liberated the glades from the Khazar dependence, reigned. At this time, Kiev is described as the main city of the land of the glades, the center of the "Polish land". In 882, Prince Oleg takes possession of Kiev, and it becomes the capital of the Old Russian state. The chronicler calls Kiev no longer a town, but a "hail". At the same time, there was also an increase in the scale of construction on the territory of Kiev, this is evidenced by archaeological materials found in the Upper Town, on Podil, Kirillovskaya Gora, Pechersk. Brief, fragmentary and intricate chronicle evidence about Kiev in the 9th-10th centuries. supplemented by materials from the extensive Kiev necropolis. The earliest date of the Kiev barrows is considered to be the 9th century.

City of Vladimir.

Small independent settlements around Kiev only at the end of the 10th century. merged into one city. Separate remarks from the chronicle relating to the topography of Kiev in the 10th century leave no doubt that the city at that time was located on the heights above the Dnieper and did not yet have a coastal quarter - Podil.

During the reign of Kiev, about a third consisted of princely lands, on which the palace was located. The city of Vladimir was surrounded by an earthen rampart and a moat. From the annals, it becomes quite clear that the fortified place, or the “city” itself, occupied a very insignificant territory. The stone Gradsky (later - Sofia, Batyeva) gates served as the central entrance. The territory of the city of Vladimir occupied about 10-12 hectares. The ramparts of the city of Vladimir were based on wooden structures.

Tithe Church.

It is not known exactly when the construction of the first stone church in Kievan Rus began, but it is known that construction was completed in 996. The church was built as a cathedral not far from the princely tower - a stone northeastern palace building, the excavated part of which is located at a distance of 60 meters from the foundations Tithe Church. According to church tradition, it was built on the site of the murder of the Christian first martyrs Theodore and his son John.

The church was consecrated twice: upon completion of construction and in 1039 at. In the Church of the Tithes there was a princely tomb, where the Christian wife of Vladimir, the Byzantine princess Anna, who died in 1011, was buried, and then Vladimir himself. Also, the remains of Princess Olga were transferred here from Vyshgorod. In 1044, Yaroslav the Wise buried the posthumously "baptized" brothers Vladimir, Yaropolk and Oleg Drevlyansky, in the Church of the Tithes. During the invasion of the Mongols, the princely relics were hidden. In 1240, the troops of Batu Khan, having taken Kiev, destroyed the church.

The heyday of Kiev under Yaroslavl the Wise.

Kiev reached its "golden age" in the middle of the XI century under Yaroslav the Wise. The city has grown significantly in size. It was located on an area of ​​​​more than 60 hectares, was surrounded by a moat with water 12 m deep and a high rampart 3.5 km long, 30 m wide at the base, with a total height of up to 16 m with a wooden palisade. Vladimir and other high-ranking officials (about ten in total). There were three entrances to the city: the Golden Gate, the Lyadsky Gate, the Zhidovsky Gate. It is believed that the population in Kiev during its heyday was considered to be in the tens of thousands. It was one of the largest European cities of its time.

Sophia Cathedral.

There are still disputes about the dating of the cathedral. Various chronicles (all of them created later than the construction of the cathedral) call the date of laying the cathedral in 1017 or 1037. Sophia Cathedral was a five-nave cross-domed church with 13 domes. The cathedral was built by architects from Constantinople, so such an excellent architectural solution had its own symbolism. The central high dome of the temple has always reminded of Christ, the Head of the Church, in Byzantine architecture. The twelve smaller domes of the cathedral were associated with the apostles, and four of them with the evangelists, through whom Christianity was preached to all ends of the earth. The interior of the cathedral has preserved the world's largest ensemble of original mosaics and frescoes of the first half of the 11th century, made by Byzantine masters. On the walls and numerous pillars of the cathedral are images of saints that make up a huge Christian pantheon (over 500 characters).

Kiev in the XII-XIII centuries.

The ancient Slavic capital of the reign of the Yaroslavichs personified the absence of solidity and crowding in the building, on the contrary, for the first time, the methods of designing streets and squares were applied, taking into account the legislative framework that regulates the aesthetic side of housing construction. The largest district of Kiev at that time was Podil. Its area was 200 hectares. It was also famous for its fortifications, the so-called pillars, which are mentioned in the annals of the 12th century. In the center of Podil there was an annalistic “Torgishishche”, and on the Hill there was Babin Torzhok, the second place of bargaining. This second, purely common name, perhaps, is fraught with the characteristics of trade at Babin Torzhok as a secondary Kiev market. There were monumental places of worship on Podil: Pirogoshch Church (1131-35), Borisoglebskaya and Mikhailovskaya churches.

But Kiev was famous not only for Podol, but also for its monasteries and churches. There were 17 monasteries in Kiev, of which the largest was founded around the middle of the 11th century. Most Kiev monasteries were founded by princes and boyars. The Kiev-Pechersky Monastery, which arose in close proximity to the beloved princely village of Berestov, became like this.

According to the fire in 1124, about 600 (“nearly 6 hundred”) churches on Gora and Podil were damaged. Such a figure seems almost unbelievable for one city, but it must be borne in mind that it includes numerous monastic and small private churches, as well as numerous thrones in the side chapels, etc. Most princes, princesses, boyars had their own personal worshipers - goddesses. The number of churches is most likely an exaggeration, but the number of churches was supposedly more than a hundred.

Kiev after the Mongol-Tatar invasion.

In 1240 Kiev was taken by troops. By that time, the city had already been repeatedly conquered and ruined during internecine wars between Russian princes. In 1169 the city was taken by Andrey Bogolyubsky. In 1203, Kiev was captured and burned by the Smolensk prince Rurik Rostislavovich. Also during the wars of the 1230s, the city was besieged and ruined several times, passing from hand to hand.

The main core of the city (Gora and Podil) at that time was within the established boundaries. After the construction of a wooden palisade, the Castle Hill turned into a citadel of the city. During the capture of Kiev by Batu Khan, it was one of the strongholds of resistance to the Mongol-Tatar troops. At the foot of the mountain, in a defensive moat, a lot of broad-finned arrows were found, used since the time of the Golden Horde. Castle Hill in mid. 13th century becomes the center of the revived city. The main number of inhabitants at that time was concentrated in Podil, where the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin and the city market were located.

Podol also did not lose its territory. As before, Kiev actively traded, artisans lived in it. In the late Middle Ages, it even became, to some extent, a synonym for Kiev. In the documents of that time, it is called either the “lower city”, or the “new city”, or simply Kievpodil. Of the three Podolsk churches known from the annals, two continued to exist after 1240. The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Pirogoshcha stood at the market place, it was the city cathedral, the city archive was stored here.

The Borisoglebsk church was devastated in 1482, its books and among them the church commemorative were burned, and the priest was captured, from which he escaped a few days later and restored the commemoration from memory. But the church itself was not completely rebuilt after that. At the beginning of the XVII century. its remains were dismantled.

Ancient Kiev stone structures were not destroyed in 1240 (except for the Church of the Tithes). They were destroyed for quite a long time due to the lack of sufficient economic resources, funds necessary to maintain the existence of any monument. Such destruction from dilapidation or some kind of construction errors were not uncommon. For example, in 1105, "the top of St. Andrew fell off" - the church, founded only in 1086 by Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich.

The Golden Gate was also not destroyed by Batu Khan. They remained the main entrance to Kiev in the middle of the 17th century. The time of the destruction of the gate church of the Annunciation remains unclear.

Throughout the thirteenth century Kiev continued to be the traditional ecclesiastical and administrative center of Russia, and, consequently, continued to influence the political and ideological life of the country. Bishops were consecrated in Kiev to various principalities of Russia. So, in 1273, Archimandrite Serapion was appointed Bishop of Vladimir. In 1289 Bishop Andrey came from Tver to Kiev for ordination. In 1288-1289. in the Sophia Cathedral, Metropolitan Maxim ordained Bishops Jacob and Roman, respectively, in Vladimir and Rostov. Only in 1299 did the metropolitan transfer his see to Vladimir.

First settlements

Kiev. The first settlements on the territory of modern Kiev arose from 15 to 20 thousand years ago. According to legend, at the end of the 5th-beginning of the 6th c. AD, the brothers Kyi, Shchek and Khoriv and their sister Lybid chose a place on the slopes of the Dnieper and founded a city on the steep right bank and named it, in honor of their elder brother, Kiev. The place for the city was chosen well - the high slopes of the Dnieper served as a good defense against the raids of nomadic tribes. The princes of Kiev, for greater security, erected their palaces and churches on the high Starokievsky mountain. Merchants and artisans lived near the Dnieper, where the current Podil is located. At the end of the ninth century n. e., when the Kiev princes finally managed to unite the scattered and disparate tribes under their rule, Kiev became the political and cultural center of the Eastern Slavs, the capital of Kievan Rus - the ancient Russian centralized state. Due to its location on the trade routes "from the Varangians to the Greeks", Kiev has long maintained strong political and economic ties with the countries of Central and Western Europe.

Rapid development

Kiev begins to develop especially rapidly during the reign of Vladimir the Great (980 - 1015), who in 988 baptized Russia. Under Volodymyr the Great, the first stone church was built in Kiev - the Church of the Tithes. In the 11th century, under the rule of Yaroslav the Wise, Kiev became one of the largest centers of civilization in the Christian world. St. Sophia Cathedral and the first library in Russia were built. In addition, at that time the city had about 400 churches, 8 markets and more than 50,000 inhabitants. (For comparison: at the same time in Novgorod, the second largest city in Russia, there were 30,000 inhabitants; in London, Hamburg and Gdansk - 20,000 each). Kiev was among the most prosperous craft and trade centers in Europe. However, after the death of Prince Vladimir Monomakh (1125), the process of fragmentation of the unified Kiev state began. By the middle of the XII century. Kievan Rus breaks up into many independent principalities. External enemies were not slow to take advantage of the situation. In the autumn of 1240, countless hordes of Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, appeared under the Kiev walls. The Mongol-Tatars managed to take the city after a protracted and bloody battle. The siege lasted 10 weeks and 4 days. In the end, the Tatar-Mongols found a weak spot in the fortification system - the Lyadsky Gate (they were located in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe modern Independence Square). But, even breaking into the city, the Horde did not immediately manage to capture Kiev - the city had more than one line of fortifications. The resistance of the inhabitants was so stubborn that the khan was forced to give his troops a break. But on December 4, 1240 Kiev fell.

The times of the Tatar-Mongol yoke and the expansion of Lithuania

Enraged by the unprecedented rebuff, the Tatar-Mongols killed more than half of the civilian population, almost all the artisans were driven into slavery. The scale of the tragedy is confirmed by archaeological excavations, as a result of which there are both single skeletons and huge mass graves numbering more than one thousand skeletons. Of the fifty thousandth population, after the Batu pogrom, no more than 2 thousand inhabitants remained in the city. The city itself suffered no less damage. The Assumption Cathedral, St. Sophia Cathedral, the Trinity Gate Church (now the main entrance to the Lavra) were damaged, the Church of the Savior on Berestovo, the Irininsky Church, and almost all Kiev gates were destroyed. Kiev practically ceased to exist. At the end of the XIII - beginning of the XIV centuries. there is little information about Kiev, it is only known that the city was gradually reviving. At that time, life from the Upper City moved to the craft areas - Podil and Pechersk. At the beginning of the XV century. Lithuania begins an offensive against Orthodoxy, which is increasingly inclined towards Catholicism under the influence of Poland. From now on, only Catholics can hold important government posts, they are granted broad privileges, and fundraising for the construction of a Catholic monastery begins. During the XV century. the situation between the ruling class and ordinary people is becoming more and more aggravated. More and more people go fishing in the lower reaches of the Dnieper in summer, returning only in winter. Soon such people stood out in a special class, and began to be called Cossacks. In the middle of the XV century. the governor forbids the Kiev Cossacks to live within the city, so they build their dwellings - kurens in a free area located not far from the city. Until now, this area is called Kurenevka.

Especially violent protest of the population was caused by the so-called "dark law" forbidding citizens to light their houses after dark, adopted under the pretext of frequent fires in Kiev (at that time the city practically did not have stone, residential buildings and even the prince's castle was wooden).

There were huge fines for violations. The meaning of the law was extremely simple: to prevent Podil's artisans from working after dark. As a result of the armed conflict, the decree was canceled. Lithuanian and Polish magnates are buying up more and more Kievan lands. One of the largest landowners in Kiev was Biskup. In 1506 The Podolsk burghers protected Biskupshchina from their territories with a high earthen rampart in order to protect their lands from the encroachments of strangers. This shaft was located between the modern streets of the Lower and Upper Val. In the XV century. Kiev was granted the Magdeburg Law, which ensured a much greater independence of the city in matters of international trade and significantly expanded the rights of urban estates - artisans, merchants and philistines. In 1569, after the signing of the Union of Lublin, Poland and Lithuania united into one state, known in history as the Commonwealth, and gradually established their dominance over Ukraine. The cruelty and arbitrariness of foreigners, Poles, Lithuanians and Jews led to numerous uprisings of the Ukrainian people.

In the XVI-XVII centuries. The city's population is growing rapidly. According to the census of 1571. in Kiev there are already 40 thousand. houses. The territory of the city is also increasing, but Kiev still remained divided into three historical parts: the Upper City, Podil and Pechersk. The most actively populated area at this time is Pechersk, especially the regions adjacent to the Pechersk Monastery. Trade turnover is increasing, the number of specialties is growing, of which there are already about a hundred. In the first half of the XVII century. active rebuilding of the Upper City begins. Many churches and monasteries that were destroyed during the Tatar-Mongol invasion are being restored. An outstanding role in the cultural upsurge of Kiev in the first half of the XVII century. played by Metropolitan Petro Mohyla of Kiev. It was he who initiated the restoration of St. Sophia and Assumption Cathedrals, the Church of the Savior on Berestovo - the most ancient monuments of Kiev. It was he who founded the first higher educational institution in the city - now it is the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, located on Podil. In 1648, the inhabitants of Ukraine began an armed struggle against foreign enslavers. The hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, became the head of the uprising. Soon most of Ukraine and Kiev were liberated. Faced with the need to fight on several fronts - with the Polish and Lithuanian knights in the west, the Crimean Khan and the Turkish Sultan in the south, Khmelnitsky perspicaciously remembered that he belongs to the triune Russian people of Great Russians, Little Russians and Belarusians and turned to the Russian for military help. king. The help of fellow believers and half-brethren was not long in coming, the Poles, Tatars and Jews were beaten and fled. An agreement on the reunification of Russian lands was concluded in 1654 in Pereyaslav (Pereyaslav Rada).

heyday time

After the reunification for Kiev, it's time to flourish. The city is growing. Building begins in the Lukyanovka Side. Kirillovskaya street is being laid (now Frunze street). At the end of the XVII early XVIII centuries a new surge of church building begins. They were built mainly with the money of rich Cossacks. The architectural style of these buildings began to be called "Cossack Baroque". Civil construction is also developing, private estates of Hetman Mazepa are being built. After the hetman's betrayal of the all-Russian cause, his defection to the side of the Swedes and the subsequent defeat of the Swedes and traitors, Mazepa's possessions in Kiev were demolished by Peter the Great. The reign of Peter was a milestone for Kiev. At this time, there is a sharp economic recovery, an increase in military power states. Peter considered Kiev the most important strategic point, therefore, in 1707, with his direct participation, the Pechersk fortress was laid. Already in 1709 there were up to 5 thousand troops. In the same year, the Kiev troops, which consisted mainly of Cossacks, are ordered to prepare for defense against the Swedes, but the latter bypass the city. In the 18th century, the long-awaited unification of two parts of Kiev took place: Pechersk and the rest of the city. Lipki is being built up. From the end of the 18th century to this day, this area is considered elite. In 1797, the first building appeared on Khreshchatyk. Since the middle of the 19th century, it has been the central street of the city. In the 19th century. the territorial and economic growth of the city continues. New houses are being built, streets are being laid. The territories adjacent to Khreshchatyk are especially rapidly populated. As an elite district, Lipki is finally taking shape. There is a significant increase in production. One of the troubles of Kiev are frequent fires. Especially often they occur in Podil, Pechersk. These areas are easy prey for fire - they are mostly wooden areas where the houses are not separated from each other, but stand wall to wall. The last of the largest fires in Kiev happened in 1811. Podil burned for three days, thick smoke was visible at a distance of 130 km from the city. After the fire in Podil, only two streets remained that were not affected by the fire - Voloshskaya and Mezhigorskaya. Despite this, the area quickly recovered. After the social reforms of 1861 and the abolition of serfdom, there were further improvements in the cultural and economic life of Kiev. The number of hospitals, almshouses, educational institutions. After construction in the 1860s. Odessa-Kursk railway line, with developed by that time navigation along the Dnieper, Kiev becomes a major transport and trade center. Trading on the Kiev grain and sugar exchanges determined the world prices for these products. The first in Russia (and the second in Europe) electric tram was put into operation in Kiev in 1892 along the route connecting Podol and the Upper Town and passing along the current Vladimirsky Spusk. Domestic and foreign industrialists invested heavily in the city. The infrastructure of Kiev developed rapidly. In 1871, the first permanent chain bridge across the Dnieper was opened, the longest in Europe at that time, a permanent building for the circus appeared (on Gorodetsky Street). The governors constantly baked about the dignified appearance of the city. At the end of XIX - beginning of XX centuries. Kiev was one of the most beautiful and comfortable cities in Europe - "a pearl in the setting of the royal crown."

20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century, the situation in Kiev escalated. At that time, the entire Russian Empire was experiencing an acute economic crisis associated with the Russo-Japanese war and crop failures in 1902-03. But Kiev, compared with Moscow and St. Petersburg, feels more relaxed. Unrest among the workers was in Kiev, but their scale was much smaller than in the capitals. During the revolution of 1917 and the civil war of 1918-1922, the power in the city changed with kaleidoscopic speed. The government of the Central Rada was knocked out by Red Guard detachments, after them hetman Skoropadsky came, who was replaced by the Directory, Petlyura, White Guards, Germans, White Poles, and Old Man Makhno. During 1920-21 Kiev passed from hand to hand dozens of times. Pogroms in the city became commonplace. Depending on their views, the armies slaughtered that part of the population of Kiev that they especially did not like, Jewish pogroms were especially frequent. Kiev throughout its history was familiar with this phenomenon - the first Jewish pogroms were noted under Vladimir Monomakh in 1113. The establishment of Soviet power in Kiev, the formation of the USSR opened a new page in the life of the city. Large-scale industrial construction partly changed the face of the city, according to the master plan for the reconstruction of 1936, the voids in the central streets were built up, new quarters were built. During the years of the Stalinist five-year plans, many new factories and factories were built in the city, and old ones were reconstructed. Kiev became the center of medium and precision engineering, light industry. In the city, river and sea vessels were built and equipped, electric cables, photoreagents, and scientific instruments were produced. On June 22, 1941, German planes bombed the city. “Kiev was bombed, they announced to us, so the war began” - the words of a famous Soviet song. During the battles of 1941, which lasted 72 days, the city was seriously damaged. The Nazis established a regime of bloody terror, however, during the occupation, several underground groups still operated in the city. One hundred thousand Kievans were driven away to work in Germany. The rapid offensive of the Soviet troops in November 1943 did not allow the Nazis to completely destroy the city, although they managed to dismantle more than 60 kilometers of tram tracks and many stone buildings for their needs. As a result of the fighting, the main thoroughfare of the city, Khreshchatyk, was almost completely destroyed. After the Victory, the city restores the damage caused by the war and becomes the third most important among the cities of the USSR. Kiev was awarded the title of Hero City for the courage that its inhabitants showed during the war.

Modern Kiev

After the war, housing construction was widely deployed in Kiev, and in fifteen years several new microdistricts were erected - Pervomaisky, Otradnoye, Nivok. In 1960, the third Kiev water pipeline was put into operation, the city funicular was reconstructed, a metro was built, seven bridges were thrown over the Dnieper. Today Kiev is the largest and most beautiful city, with a population of more than two and a half million people. Half of the city's territory falls on reservoirs and green areas, which makes Kiev unusually cozy and fresh. The city has two airports, a railway station, three dozen museums and the same number of theaters. Kiev is a major scientific center; tourism is well developed in the city.