Monomach then seated in Volynia Roman, his own son, and when this son died, Andrei, his brother. In 1120 Andrei moved against the Poles with Polovtsi forces. In the following year Yaroslav set out to attack Cherven in Galitch with Polish forces, but Monomach had the border towns well strengthened and in Cherven was Ratiborovitch, his voevoda, who drove back Yaroslav, entirely baffled.
Most dangerous to the Poles was Volodar, who had as allies tribes in Pomoria and in Prussia on the Baltic. These tribes were [[48]]hostile to the Poles. The question now was to stop Volodar. At the court of Boleslav there lived Peter Vlast, a Dane of many adventures, who advised the king not to meet Prince Volodar in battle, but to kidnap him, and promised, if permission were given, to accomplish the deed himself.
The king was pleased, and Vlast, who had gained much renown through marvelous exploits, set out with thirty men to win the confidence of Volodar and capture him. He appeared before the prince and, feigning himself an exile in deadly enmity with Boleslav, quickly won Volodar’s good-will and confidence. Some weeks later the prince took Vlast to a hunt in a great forest where, adroitly separated from his own people, Volodar was seized by Vlast’s men, who bore him beyond the boundary and never drew rein till they delivered him safely to Boleslav. The king was triumphant.
Vassilko the Blind gave all the money that he and his brother possessed to free Volodar; besides this, those two sons of Rostislav swore to act with the Poles against every enemy.
In 1123 Yaroslav, son of Sviatopolk, appeared at Vladimir with immense forces,—Cheks, Poles and Hungarians, bringing also as allies Volodar and Vassilko. Monomach’s son, Andrei, who was prince there, defended the city. Monomach sent forward Mystislav, and also hurried men from Kief, but before Mystislav could arrive the siege was well ended.
Early one Sunday morning Yaroslav rode toward the walls with two attendants, and shouted to Andrei and the citizens: “This city is mine! Open ye the gates and come out to me with homage. If not I will storm the place to-morrow and take it.”
While he was thus riding in front of the city and boasting, two Poles, employed, as is said, by Andrei, slipped out and hid near the wayside. When the prince was retiring from the walls, they sprang up and sent a spear through his body. He reached camp, barely living, and died a few hours later.
Stephen II, King of Hungary, thought to continue the siege, but the chiefs of his army were opposed to shedding blood without profit. In view of this, the allies of Yaroslav, the late prince, made peace with the Kief prince and retired each to his own land. Through Yaroslav’s death Sviatopolk’s descendants lost the Kief succession. Four years later his younger sons, Izyaslav [[49]]and Bryache, died, so that Volynia and Turoff went to Monomach’s descendants.
Monomach’s strength with the people swept all men and obstacles before it. Yaroslav, with a foreign army, failed in Volynia, because the people and the boyars would not uphold him, but stood firm for Monomach. Monomach saw the danger of Russia’s falling into a chaos of insignificant and independent principalities, therefore he strove to increase the authority of the Grand Prince, and to restrict the succession to his own descendants, with the provision that if the younger brothers died before the eldest, who was Prince of Kief, their sons were to be excluded forever from the succession.
New persons now and dramatic scenes pass before us swiftly. Vladimir Monomach, always spoken of in Russia as Monomach, died in 1125, and with him departed the prosperity of ancient Russia. He had come to the throne with thirty years of experience in statescraft. He had been the right hand of his father, and without him Sviatopolk could not have ruled at all. He was a man who worked always for what he thought to be the good of his country. Like his grandfather, he was a founder of cities and a lawgiver. There is an interesting paper still extant which he compiled for the guidance of his sons, some clauses of which I will quote: “It is neither fasting nor solitude nor monastic life that will procure you life eternal—it is well doing. Forget not the poor, but nourish them. Bury not your riches in the earth, for that is contrary to the teachings of Christianity.[3] Be a father to orphans; judge the cause of widows yourself. Put to death no human being, be he innocent or guilty, for there is nothing more sacred than the soul of a Christian. Love your wives, but beware lest they obtain power over you. When you have learned something useful, strive to retain it in your memory, and work unceasingly for knowledge.”