- Yaropolk I of Kiev
Yaropolk I Svyatoslavich (c 958-
960 -11 June ? 980) (East Slavic: Ярополк I Святославич, sometimes transliterated as "Iaropolk") was a young and rather enigmatic ruler ofKiev between 972 and 980. His royal title is traditionally translated as "Prince".Life
Yaropolk was given
Kiev by his father Svyatoslav I, who left on a military campaign against theDanube Bulgars . Soon after Svyatoslav's death, however, civil war began between Yaropolk and his brothers. According to onechronicle , Yaropolk's brother Oleg killed Lyut, the son of Yaropolk's chief adviser and military commanderSveneld . In an act of revenge and at the insistence of Sveneld, Yaropolk went to war against his brother and killed him. Then, Yaropolk sent his men toNovgorod , from which his other brother Vladimir had fled on receiving the news about Oleg's death. Yaropolk became the sole ruler of Rus'.In 980, Vladimir returned with the
Varangian mercenaries and attacked Yaropolk. On his way to Kiev, Vladimir seizedPolotsk due to the fact that Rogneda, daughter of the Polotsk princeRogvolod , had chosen Yaropolk over him. Vladimir forced Rogneda to marry him. Then, Vladimir seized Kiev with the assistance from a boyar Blud, who had become Yaropolk's chief adviser upon the death of Sveneld. Blud betrayed Yaropolk by advising him to flee from Kiev and go into retreat in a town ofRodnya at the mouth of the Ros' River. Vladimir besieged Rodnya and starved Yaropolk into negotiations. Yaropolk trusted Blud and his brother's promises of peace and left for Vladimir'sheadquarters , where he would be killed in an ambush by two Varangians.Purported baptism
As for contemporary foreign sources,
Lambert of Hersfeld records that, on theEaster of 973, theHoly Roman Emperor was visited by envoys from Rus' ("legati gentium Ruscorum"). In later centuries it was said that Yaropolk also exchanged ambassadors with thePope . The "Chronicon" ofAdémar de Chabannes and the life of St. Romuald (byPietro Damiani ) document how St.Bruno of Querfurt was sent to Rus (Latin: "Russia") and succeeded in converting a local king (one of three brothers who ruled the land) toChristianity . As both texts are rife with anachronisms,Vladimir Parkhomenko reasons that Bruno's deeds were conflated with those of his predecessors,Adalbert of Prague and several anonymous missionaries active in Eastern Europe duringOtto II 's reign. [Parkhomenko V. "Nachalo khristianstva na Rusi: Ocherki iz istorii Rusi IX-X vekov". Poltava, 1913. Page 162.]Following this line of thought,
Alexander Nazarenko suggests that Yaropolk went through some preliminary rites ofbaptism , but was murdered by his pagan half-brother (whose own rights to the throne were questionable) before he could be formally received in the Christian faith. Any information on Yaropolk's baptism according to the Latin rite would be suppressed by later Orthodox chroniclers, zealous to keep Vladimir's image of the Russian Apostle untarnished for succeeding generations. [cite book|last=Nazarenko|first=A. V.|title=Drevniaia Rus’ na mezhdunarodnykh putiakh: mezhdistsiplinarnye ocherki kul’turnykh, torgovykh, politicheskikh sviazei IX-XII vekov|year=2001|publisher=Russian History Institute|location=Moscow|id=ISBN 5-7859-0085-8|language=Russian Pages 339-391.] It is known that Vladimir's son Yaroslav had Yaropolk's bones exhumed and christened; he also named his grandson after Yaropolk.References
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