Grand Duke Igor Olgovich was the second son of Chernigov Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich. The exact date of his birth is unknown, he was born at about the turn of the XI and XII centuries. This prince is known for his short and tragedy-stay on the Kiev throne.
early years
Like other Rurikovichs of the period of political fragmentation, Igor Olgovich spent his whole life in the strife and bloody clashes of the East Slavic princes. The first annals of him date back to 1116. Then the young Igor Olgovich participated in the campaign to Minsk, organized by Vladimir Monomakh. 13 years later, with Mstislav the Great, he went with his squad to Polotsk. The princes who ruled in the territory now belonging to sovereign Belarus belonged to the side branch of the Rurikovich and regularly clashed with their relatives, which led to frequent wars in this region.
In 1136, Igor Olgovich supported the children of Mstislav the Great in their struggle against the Yaropolk of Kiev. For this, the prince, along with his brothers, received part of the Pereyaslav land and the outskirts of Kursk. Igor belonged to the Chernihiv dynasty. In his family, he remained on the sidelines for a long time. Elder was his brother Vsevolod, to whom Chernigov belonged.
Successor to the Kiev prince
In the era in which Oleg Svyatoslavich lived, the first signs of political fragmentation in Russia appeared. Large provincial centers headed for independence from Kiev. With Oleg’s children, this process became irreversible. Together with his brothers, his second son Igor from time to time clashed with Kiev. During one of these wars, he called the Polovtsy and robbed the volosts on the banks of the Sula River. And in 1139, the eldest of the Vsevolod brothers completely captured Kiev, becoming the Grand Duke.
Igor, who helped a relative in that war, was dissatisfied with his small award. He quarreled with his brother, but again reconciled with him in 1142, when he received from Vsevolod the inheritance of Yuryev, Gorodets and Rogachev. Since then, two Olgovich acted together until the death of the eldest of them. In 1144, they declared war on Vladimir Volodariovech of Galitsky. After that campaign, Igor Olgovich was declared heir to Vsevolod, although he had his own sons.
Power transfer
Shortly before the Grand Duke of Kiev and Chernigov Vsevolod died, his son-in-law, the Polish king Vladislav, asked his father-in-law for help in the fight against his brothers. Russian squads to the west led Igor. He rescued Vladislav: he took four disputed cities from his relatives, and handed over Vizn to the Russian allies in gratitude.
Meanwhile, Vsevolod’s condition worsened. Feeling his imminent end, he urged the people of Kiev to recognize Igor as their future ruler. Residents of the city agreed (as the development of events showed, feignedly). Vsevolod died on August 1, 1146. The people of Kiev did not like the prince, they considered him a Chernigov stranger who forcibly took the city from the descendants of Vladimir Monomakh. This hostility sadly affected the fate of Igor Olgovich.
Conflict with subjects
Before entering the capital as a ruler, Igor sent his younger brother Svyatoslav there. The greatest indignation of Kiev was caused by the tyuns of Vsevolod (the annals retained the name of one of them - Ratsha). Citizens began to complain about the previous stewards and boyars. Svyatoslav, on behalf of his brother, promised that after his accession to the throne, the people of Kiev will be able to choose tiuns for themselves. News of this so excited the townspeople that they began to smash the palaces of the close associates of the deceased Vsevolod. Svyatoslav with great difficulty managed to restore order in the capital.
When Igor Prince of Kiev entered the city, he did not rush to fulfill promises. At the same time, residents of the capital began to establish a secret relationship with Izyaslav Mstislavovich (son of Mstislav the Great and grandson of Vladimir Monomakh). It was in this prince that many dissatisfied saw the lawful ruler, whose dynasty was forcibly expelled from the throne of Kiev by Vsevolod.
War is approaching
The key to the fate of the ruler was the fact that the Holy Prince Igor of Chernigov did not suit not only the inhabitants of Kiev, but also the other specific princes of Russia. His only faithful allies were only his younger brother Svyatoslav and nephew Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich. When the news came to Kiev that Izyaslav Mstislavovich was going to the city together with a loyal army, Igor actually remained isolated and helpless.
Without losing hope, Olgovich sent ambassadors to his cousins Davidovich (Izyaslav and Vladimir), who ruled in the specific cities of Chernihiv land. They agreed to help him in the approaching war in exchange for the concession of some volosts. Igor satisfied their requirements, but he did not wait for any help.
Defeat
Oleg Svyatoslavich spent his whole life in the war against the Kiev princes. Now his second son was in the exact opposite position. He himself was a Kiev prince, but almost all the other Rurikovich opposed him. Even the capital governors Ivan Voitishich and Lazarus Sakovsky, as well as the thousand Uleb, cheated on him.
Despite the desperate situation, Igor, Prince of Kiev, did not give up the fight. Together with his younger brother and nephew, he armed a small squad and, together with her, advanced against Izyaslav Mstislavovich. The regiments of the Grand Duke, due to their small numbers, were naturally broken. Scattered warriors fled. Both Svyatoslavs managed to break away from their pursuers, but Igor Olgovich’s horse got stuck in a swamp. The Grand Duke was caught and brought to the victorious Izyaslav. He ordered the enemy to be sent to a monastery in the city of Pereyaslavl near Kiev.
Sheared
The houses of Igor’s supporters in the capital were looted. The pogroms were attended by vigilantes of the alleged allies of Olgovich Princes Davidovich. The younger brother of Igor Svyatoslav tried to help out a relative. He unsuccessfully persuaded Yuri Dolgoruky to help . In the end, he, along with his wife Igor himself, had to flee from his native Seversky land.
The ousted Kiev prince, meanwhile, became seriously ill. His life was in the balance. The prisoner in the monastery asked Izyaslav permission to accept tonsure, to which he received consent. Soon Igor accepted the scheme. Moreover, he even recovered and moved to the Kiev monastery.
Death
It seemed that Igor, isolated from the outside world, would be able to live the rest of his life in the peaceful atmosphere of the monastery. However, only a few months after the adoption of the schema, he became the victim of another feud. The Davidovich brothers quarreled with Grand Duke Izyaslav and moved their squads to Kiev, announcing that they were going to free Igor.
The news of the next war infuriated the inhabitants of the capital. An angry crowd broke into the monastery at the moment when Igor was listening to the mass. The younger brother of Izyaslav, Vladimir Mstislavovich, tried to save the schemnik. He hid the monk in the house of his own mother, hoping that the instigators of violence would not dare to break into it. However, the angry citizens could not stop anything. On September 19, 1147, they broke into Igor’s last refuge and killed him.
The body of the deceased was taken to Podil and thrown out on the trading floor for reproach. Finally, the inhabitants of Kiev calmed down and nevertheless buried the remains of the prince in the church of St. Simeon. Three years later, Svyatoslav Olgovich moved the body of his brother to his native Chernigov. The martyrdom of Igor (in the last minutes of his life he prayed in front of the icon, which became a shrine) prompted the Russian Orthodox Church to canonize the prince in the guise of a martyr and the faithful.