The representative of the Rurik dynasty - Izyaslav Mstislavich - was the son of Mstislav the Great and grandson of Vladimir Monomakh. His father and grandfather were princes of Kiev. With direct succession, Izyaslav could also count on the throne in the Mother of Russian cities. However, he was born in 1097, and his entire adult life fell on the XII century - the era of ongoing strife and political fragmentation of his native country.
Youth
Izyaslav Mstislavich, until the end of his days, was forced to prove his right to leadership in the struggle against numerous uncles and other senior relatives from the Rurikovich dynasty. He received the first experience of reigning in Kursk, where in 1125-1129. was the governor of his father. Then Mstislav sent his son to Polotsk. This city from ancient times belonged to a separate branch of the Rurikovich, who was briefly expelled from there after a lost war.
Mstislav the Great, who ruled in Kiev, had several sons, and Izyaslav Mstislavich was the second of them. His elder brother Vsevolod received Novgorod, and the younger - Rostislav - inherited Smolensk.
There is no doubt that Mstislav wanted to transfer Kiev to one of his sons, even contrary to the established order by which the main city of Russia passed to the senior member of the entire dynasty. To this end, the monarch concluded an agreement with his younger brother Yaropolk. The agreement was as follows. After the death of Mstislav, the childless Yaropolk received Kiev and promised to transfer the throne to one of his nephews. Time has shown that such arrangements were then unsustainable.
In Novgorod
Mstislav died in 1132, and his son Izyaslav Mstislavich received from Yaropolk first Pereyaslavl, and then Turov, Pinsk and Minsk instead. However, it was not possible to stay long in a new place. Just a couple of years later, the prince was driven out by his other uncle, Vyacheslav.
Deprived of power, Izyaslav went to Novgorod to his elder brother Vsevolod. At the same time, the prince enlisted the support of the Olgovichi - the rulers of the Chernigov land. The Mstislavichs, dissatisfied with their share, demanded large unions from their uncles. Seeking to prove the seriousness of intentions, the brothers at the head of the Novgorod army invaded Northeastern Russia, which belonged to the youngest son of Monomakh Yuri Dolgoruky.
Vsevolod wanted Prince Izyaslav Mstislavich to occupy the Principality of Rostov. However, it was impossible to start a war with uncle, declaring such a goal. A good reason was found very quickly. Traditionally, the Novgorodians did not make bread, but bought it from neighbors. On the eve of the campaign of the Mstislavichi, Suzdal merchants significantly increased prices for their goods, which caused outrage of Vsevolod’s subjects.
At the end of 1134, the Novgorod army, led by the Mstislavichi, invaded the possession of Yuri Dolgoruky. The squad moved along the banks of the Dubna and Kubri rivers. Mstislavichi were going to establish control over the waterway in order to cut off the southern cities of the uncle from the northern ones.
On January 26, 1135, Izyaslav Mstislavich, the grandson of Vladimir Monomakh, led the army into the battle of Zhdanoy Mountain. The Novgorodians had an advantage - they were the first to occupy a strategically important height. To crush the Suzdal people, the squad rushed down, but at that moment it turned out that part of the army of Yuri Dolgoruky had carried out a deceitful maneuver and went behind the regiments of the Mstislavichi. Novgorodians were defeated, the color of their army and aristocracy was lost, including the thousand-strong Petrilo Mikulich and the posadnik Ivanko Pavlovich. Vsevolod subjects were accused of cowardice and flight from the battlefield. In 1136, as a result of an uprising, he lost power. Izyaslav had nothing to lose from the very beginning, and after the defeat, he continued with renewed vigor the struggle for power.
Volyn and Pereyaslavl Prince
In addition to brother Vsevolod, Chernigov's Olgovichi were allies of Izyaslav. Together with them, he returned from Northeastern Russia, went on a raid in Pereyaslav and Kiev land. This campaign turned out to be more successful than the previous one. Not wanting war, Yaropolk ceded to his nephew Vladimir-Volynsky. Izyaslav rules there in 1135-1142.
In 1139, Prince Yaropolk died. The throne of Kiev was captured by Vsevolod Olgovich, who had ruled Chernigov before. The long-standing promise of Yaropolk to Mstislav about the transfer of power to his nephew never came true. By that time, Izyaslav had become the eldest of the living sons of Mstislav. His brother, expelled from Novgorod, died shortly before Yaropolk.
Vsevolod Olgovich was married to Maria Mstislavovna - the sister of Izyaslav. Allied relations between them did not work out. Nevertheless, in 1135 Izyaslav ceded to the Olgovich Vladimir-Volynsky, and in exchange received Pereyaslavl. The proximity of this city to Kiev soon played into the hands of the prince.
The beginning of the reign in Kiev
Vsevolod of Kiev died in 1146. Shortly before his death, he made Izyaslav swear that he would not take the throne from his younger brother Igor. However, as soon as Vsevolod died, riots began in Kiev. The townspeople did not like the Olgovichi and wanted the descendant of Monomakh to rule them. Soon Izyaslav took possession of the city. Igor tried to defend himself. He opposed the opponent with the army, but was defeated and caught bogged down in the swamp.
The fact that Izyaslav Mstislavich was the Grand Duke of Kiev outraged his uncles. Vyacheslav, who had once expelled his nephew from Turov, claimed his rights, but now he himself was deprived of his inheritance. Pereyaslavl, where Izyaslav ruled to Kiev, also remained under his control. In Turov, he planted the governor's son Yaroslav. Pereyaslavl received the senior heir Mstislav.
Meanwhile, drama erupted in Kiev. Deprived of power, Igor Olgovich was sent by Izyaslav to the monastery. There he became a monk and led a quiet life. But even Igor’s sincere humility did not save him from the angry crowd. In 1147, a group of Kiev residents again staged riots in the city and broke into the monastery, where the disgraced prince lived. Igor was torn to pieces and publicly abused over his body. Izyaslav was not bloodthirsty, he did not organize this brutal massacre, but it was he who had to bear responsibility for it.
Clashes approaching
The killed Igor remained brother Svyatoslav Seversky. Having received news of the terrible fate of a relative, he became the implacable enemy of the Kiev prince. Izyaslav II Mstislavich also had other opponents. The most active of them was Yuri Dolgoruky. The youngest son of Monomakh continued to rule Rostov and Suzdal. Sent to the distant northeastern Zalesye by his father, from an early age he was dissatisfied with the lost share. Yuri was annoyed at his nephew, who was next to Kiev at the moment when the Kievans rebelled against the Olgovichi.
Dolgoruky knowingly got his nickname. His ambitions from the Rostov-Suzdal land spread throughout Russia. Yuri gathered a whole coalition against Izyaslav. The alliance included the already mentioned Svyatoslav Seversky, as well as Vladimirko Galitsky (he wanted to maintain Galicia’s independence from Kiev). Finally, on the side of Dolgoruky were the Polovtsy, whose dubious services he always used without any hesitation.
Izyaslav in the approaching war was supported by his younger brother Rostislav Smolensky, Vladimir Davydovich Chernigovsky, Rostislav Yaroslavich Ryazansky and Novgorod. He was also occasionally helped by the kings of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland.
Championship War
At the first stage, civil strife swept over Chernihiv land. Davydovichi sought to deprive Svyatoslav of his inheritance. While Prince Izyaslav Mstislavich and Yuri Dolgoruky decided the fate of Kiev, the other Rurikovich also tried to act in accordance with their interests. Everyone fought with everyone. Izyaslav sent his son Mstislav with Berendey and Pereyaslavl to the besieged Davydovichi Novgorod-Seversky. It was not possible to take the fortress.
Then Izyaslav Mstislavich, the Grand Duke of Kiev, with his retinue advanced to Novgorod. Svyatoslav first retreated to Karachev, and then, together with Yuri, attacked Smolensk possessions. The turn in the war occurred after the Davydovichs reconciled with the Seversky prince. Izyaslav II Mstislavich, in short, was not enthusiastic about what happened. In 1148, he, together with the Hungarian army, invaded Chernihiv possessions. The general battle never happened. After standing near Lyubech, the Kiev prince retreated.
Defeat
In 1149, Izyaslav 2 Mstislavich reconciled with both the Davydovichs and Svyatoslav Seversky. In addition, one of the sons of Yuri Dolgoruky Rostislav came to his service, dissatisfied with the fact that his father deprived him of his inheritance. After this, Izyaslav, together with Rostislav Smolensky and Novgorod, went on a campaign in North-Eastern Russia. The coalition army robbed many of Yuri's possessions. 7 thousand people were captured.
Upon returning to Kiev, Izyaslav quarreled with Rostislav Yurievich, accusing him of treason and depriving him of his inheritance. Dolgoruky took advantage of the fact that his son fell into disgrace and, having received another fair reason for an enemy attack, set off on a campaign south. In the decisive battle near Pereyaslavl in August 1149, the Kiev prince was defeated. Yuri Dolgoruky fulfilled his old dream and took possession of the ancient capital. It seemed that Izyaslav Mstislavich (1146-1149) would no longer regain control of Kiev, but he did not think to give up.
Volyn campaign
Having lost Kiev, Izyaslav retained Volyn. It was there that the internecine war moved . Here, in the west of Russia, the support of the kings of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary was especially useful to him. The army of Yuri besieged the fortress of Lutsk, the defense of which was headed by Vladimir Mstislavich.
Izyaslav, together with his Western allies, came to the rescue of the city when there was already a shortage of water in it. The battle, however, did not happen. Opponents agreed that Izyaslav would give up claims to the throne of Kiev, and Yuri would give him the selected Novgorod tribute. As usual in that turbulent era, these agreements were never de facto implemented.
Return to Kiev
In 1151, Izyaslav, to which the Hungarian detachment sent by King Geza II joined, again occupied Kiev. During this campaign, the main threat to him was Vladimirko Galitsky, from whom he managed to break away with the help of a deceitful maneuver. Yuri left Kiev, actually surrendering it without any struggle. Vladimirko Galitsky, angered by the inaction of the allies, also ended the war.
So, in Kiev, the years of the reign of Izyaslav Mstislavich (1151-1154) continued again. This time he compromised and invited Vyacheslav, with whom he since then formally reigned together. Relations between uncle and nephew can not be called good: they suffered many quarrels and mutual insults. Now the princes are finally reconciled. As a symbolic gesture, the nephew ceded the palace to his uncle and treated him like his father. Moreover, virtually all decisions were made by Izyaslav Mstislavich. The prince's domestic and foreign policy depended entirely on the war. For all the time of his reign there was not a single long period of peace.
Yuri Dolgoruky, who returned to the Rostov-Suzdal land, was not going to give up his own ambitions. In 1151, he again went south with the squad. Yuri was supported by the Chernigov princes and Polovtsians. To attack Kiev, it was first necessary to force the Dnieper. The first crossing attempt took place near Vyshgorod. Izyaslav prevented her, sending there a fleet of many boats.
The team of the Suzdal prince did not retreat and again tried their luck in another section of the river. Having crossed the Zarubinsky ford, she approached Kiev. The advanced detachment, consisting mainly of Polovtsy, was destroyed in the vicinity of the city. Khan Bonyak died in the battle. Yuri Dolgoruky, hoping for the help of Vladimir Galitsky, retreated to the west, but was soon defeated in a battle on the Ruta River. The battle cost the life of Prince Chernigov Vladimir Davydovich. Izyaslav could triumph. Yuri Dolgoruky in the south of Russia left only Kursk.
Last years
Civil strife prevented the princes from fighting the real threat - the Polovtsians. After gaining a foothold in Kiev, Izyaslav twice sent his sons and squads to the steppe. Campaigns were successful. Kiev land for several years forgot about the destructive invasions. In 1152, the allied Izyaslav Mstislavich Izyaslav Davydovich was besieged by Dolgoruky in Chernigov. The Kiev prince at the head of the army went to his rescue. Yuri had to retreat.
Ilyaslav's opponent also remained Vladimirko Galitsky. In 1152, the Hungarians defeated him on the river Sanaa. Then Izyaslav himself went to Galicia. Vladimirko made peace with him and soon died. His son and heir, Yaroslav Osmomysl, recognized Izyaslav as a senior, but in fact pursued an independent policy, which led to an armed conflict. The prince of Kiev defeated him at Terebovlem. This was the last major battle of the commander.
Izyaslav Mstislavich (or Vladimirovich, or rather, Monomashevich - that is, the grandson of Vladimir Monomakh) died in 1154 in Kiev. His death caused great sorrow among the townspeople. Izyaslav liked folk love, he regularly feasted with commoners and spoke at a general veche like his glorious ancestor Yaroslav the Wise. The prince was buried in the monastery of St. Theodore, built by his father Mstislav the Great.
After the death of Izyaslav, a long internecine war did not stop. Kiev passed from hand to hand. In 1169, he was burned and plundered by the heir of Yuri Dolgoruky, Andrei Bogolyubsky, after which he lost the significance of the key political center of Russia. Descendants of Izyaslav entrenched in Volyn. His grandson Danil Romanovich united the whole of South-Western Russia and even bore the title of King of Russia.