Svidrigello, at the beginning of his rule as Grand Prince, placed Yursha, his valiant assistant, in Kief. When expelled from northwestern regions by Sigismund, Svidrigello found refuge in Kief, and that city became the center of a large political division. Svidrigello, notwithstanding his official change from Orthodox faith to Latinity, was attached to his old Church. When the dignity of Grand Prince went to Yagello’s son, Kazimir, Svidrigello got Lutsk, and Ivan Gashtold, the guardian of Kazimir, thought it needful to yield to the boyars and the Russian party; hence he gave the Kief region to the son of Vladimir of Kopyl, that is, to Prince Alexander, whose surname was Olelko. Alexander, being a grandson of Olgerd, and married to the daughter of Vassili, the Grand Prince of Moscow, was a man of distinction, therefore Sigismund, the son of Keistut, thought him dangerous, and imprisoned him with his wife and two sons. He remained in prison till death removed Sigismund.
Alexander governed fifteen years in the spirit of Vladimir, his father. He died at Kief in 1455, and was buried in the Catacomb [[449]]Monastery of that city. His two sons, Simeon and Michael, thought to divide the Kief region between them, but Kazimir forbade this, adding these words: “Vladimir, your grandfather, fled to Moscow and deserted his Kief rights.” Still Kazimir gave Kief to Simeon to govern, and to Michael the younger he left Slutsk and Kopyl as a property. Simeon ruled in Kief till he died in 1471. After his death, right to Kief went to Michael, his brother, and to his son Vassili.
But the Polish king felt so strong now in Western Russia that he determined to give a blow to the system, and put an end to Kief’s separate existence. Kazimir, remembering that the Russo-Lithuanian boyars had demanded that he should live in Lithuania at all times, or send viceroys, indicating Simeon while they did so, not only refused to give Kief to any son of Alexander, but appointed a viceroy, Martin, son of Gashtold. The Kief people now refused to admit this man, but Martin brought with him an army, took Kief by assault, and seated himself in the so-called “Lithuanian castle.”
Michael, the son of Alexander, was at this time in Novgorod, whither the Boretskis had called him as Kazimir’s lieutenant. Hearing that his brother Simeon was dead, he left Novgorod quickly and went to Kief, but finding that Martin was already master there, he was forced to take Slutsk and Kopyl. This loss of a princedom offended him deeply.
Kazimir had adopted the method of Vitold, and was supplanting the princes by his own men. The princes, of course, did not yield without a struggle. A conspiracy was formed; at the head of it was Alexander’s son, Michael, and his cousin Feodor Bailski, also a grandson of Vladimir. The plans of the conspirators have not been made clear to us; according to some historians, they intended to seize Kazimir, dethrone, or kill him, and make Michael Grand Prince. According to others, they planned to take possession of certain eastern districts, and put them under the Grand Prince of Moscow.
Feodor Bailski, who was marrying a daughter of Alexander Chartoriski, had invited the king to his wedding. The king went, but the plot was discovered, and Bailski’s servant, under torture, revealed the whole secret. Bailski, learning of this in the night, jumped out of bed, and when only half dressed sprang on horseback [[450]]and galloped away toward the boundary. He reached Moscow in safety, and entered the service of the Grand Prince. Kazimir kept Bailski’s young wife in Lithuania, and Bailski found a new wife in Moscow. His associates, Prince Olshanski, and Alexander’s son, Michael, were seized, brought to trial, and received a death sentence. Straightway Kazimir confirmed the sentence, which was carried out August, 1482, in front of the “Lithuanian castle” at Kief.
Though the conspiracy is involved in deep mystery, both as to details and object, it is evident that the old order had been given a blow from which it could not recover. Some princes retained their lands, but those petty rulers, serving superior princes, were no longer dangerous to political unity. They took high offices willingly, and very gladly received the incomes going with them. The only danger was from princes whose lands bordered on Moscow, and who thus had the possibility of joining the capital. Therefore the Grand Prince of Lithuania tried to hold them by special treaties. Such treaties proved of small value, however, and toward the end of Kazimir’s reign some of those princes left Lithuania for Moscow.
Smolensk was deprived of its old princely stock, and the city was held, through commanders, as a kind of corner-stone to the Lithuanian state in northeastern regions.
In the reign of Kazimir IV took place the final separation of the Orthodox Church in Russia into two parts, the Eastern and Western. Isidor, now in Rome, but whilom metropolitan of Russia, played his part in this movement. At the wish of Callixtus III he surrendered to Gregory, his pupil and friend, his right to a part of the Russian Church, namely, nine bishoprics in Lithuania, Western Russia and Poland, and the former Patriarch, Gregory Mana, living also in Rome, ordained in 1458 this Gregory as metropolitan of Kief, Lithuania, and all Western Russia. King Kazimir protected Gregory; but the Orthodox bishops, and generally the Orthodox people, were so opposed to a metropolitan from Rome, that Gregory did not go to Kief; he lived mainly in Kazimir’s palace, and died in 1472 at Novgrodek.
Two years later the Smolensk bishop, Misail, was made metropolitan. Being opposed to church union, he received confirmation from Tsargrad, and hence was accepted by all Western Russians. [[451]]With him began the unbroken succession of Kief metropolitans, independent of Moscow. Kief for a second time became the church center of Western Russia, and through the zeal of the clergy and the people the old city gradually rose again.