Monomach had eight sons, named here in the order of their ages: Mystislav the Great, who succeeded his father; Izyaslav, killed before Murom in battling against Oleg of Chernigoff; Sviatoslav, given once as a hostage to Kitan and then stolen away in the night at Pereyaslavl on the Alta; Roman, famous in nothing, married the sister of the renowned Vladimirko of Galitch; Yaropolk, [[50]]who reigned in Kief after Mystislav, and died without issue; Vyacheslav, “of scant mind and simple,” who raised Monomach’s ensign over the Polovtsi contingent at Koloksha, and thus routed Oleg; Yuri, named later on Dolgoruki, or Long-Handed (Grasping); and Andrei, who died rather early.
The two sons of Vladimir Monomach renowned in history are Mystislav the Great, and Yuri, surnamed Dolgoruki. From the first comes the elder, from the second the younger line of Monomach’s descendants. Mystislav became the ancestor of the Western Russian princes, those of Galitch (Galicia), Smolensk and Volynia. Yuri, through the founding of Moscow and the results flowing from it, became the father of that northern line of princes so famous in history. The descendants of these two brothers were often at enmity, and it was their rivalry which later on ruined Kief.
Mystislav succeeded his father in 1125 without opposition. Oleg of Chernigoff had died during Monomach’s reign, so had David, his brother. Only Yaroslav, the youngest brother, now remained. He, not greatly considered in his family, was expelled from Chernigoff by Vsevolod, his nephew, and founded in Ryazan a new principality.
Mystislav’s reign was distinguished for three things. First he brought to order those Polovtsi who would live in peace near the boundary, and crushed or expelled the others; then he seized all lands of the Polotsk princes, the descendants of Rognyeda, that unwilling wife of Vladimir (Saint Vladimir of the Orthodox Church). We have seen how those Polotsk princes, when excluded from the Kief succession, harried Smolensk and raided Novgorod, bringing ceaseless trouble and never-ending bloodshed. Later on both Pinsk and Turoff had been taken from them. This intensified resistance, and, as they would abate no claim whatever, Mystislav resolved at last to end the trouble. He captured all those princes and, putting them on a vessel, sent them to Tsargrad, where the Emperor, his friend, detained the captives. Some died; the survivors, or most of them, escaped in later days, and ruled again in parts of Polotsk, but soon were lost to fame, unless the tradition be true that Gedimin and his sons, who seized Western Russia during Mongol dominion and joined it with Poland through marriage, were descended from those Polotsk princes who returned [[51]]from Tsargrad. A third event in Mystislav’s reign was the founding of Ryazan, which happened in this way.
Oleg of Chernigoff, who died during Monomach’s reign, was succeeded by his youngest brother, Yaroslav. Of Oleg’s sons the second, Vsevolod, later on the Kief prince, was a man who in early life had planned a great career very carefully. He had married the eldest daughter of Mystislav the Great, and had thus become connected with Monomach’s descendants. When Mystislav succeeded Monomach, his father, in Kief, Vsevolod drove his uncle from the throne of Chernigoff, and seated himself there. Vsevolod was unceremonious with Yaroslav because the man was not strong, and because he himself wanted Kief when the time came to get it. To possess Kief, he must first win, or get Chernigoff, hence must drive out his uncle.
Yaroslav turned for assistance to Mystislav, who was willing to reinstate him by force even, if need be. It was the proper policy of Kief to act thus, and be the arbiter in Russia. But times had changed much, and Kief men were no longer willing to fight for helpless princes. Yaroslav, unable to fight his battles alone, and forced to withdraw from Chernigoff, settled in Ryazan, where he founded a new line of princes.
Mystislav reigned seven years and died in 1132. He was succeeded by Yaropolk, his brother, who, himself without issue, swore to provide in all fairness for Mystislav’s children. He strove to do this without offending any one, but was unable, as there were not places enough for the two lines of landless princes. The first step he took was to summon from Novgorod Vsevolod, son of the late Mystislav, and give him Pereyaslavl on the Alta. Thereupon Yuri Dolgoruki marched with astonishing swiftness from Suzdal to the Alta, fell upon Vsevolod and expelled him. His reason for this act was that for three reigns Pereyaslavl had been, as it were, the stepping-stone to Kief, the capital and first place, the transfer being made from Pereyaslavl. Dolgoruki, as uncle to Vsevolod, was his senior, and would not permit him to settle in Pereyaslavl and thus obtain the succession.
The sons of Mystislav rose up now against their uncles, and, to gain force sufficient to war with them, made a league with their cousins, David of Chernigoff and Oleg, his brother. Yaropolk, Mystislav’s brother, and brother of Yuri, moved against Chernigoff. [[52]]Mystislav’s sons helped the Chernigoff princes, and when these sons attacked their uncle, Dolgoruki, Vsevolod, son of the late Oleg the endless quarreler, went to help them. Meanwhile the condition of Kief was almost repeated in Novgorod.
When the late Prince of Kief, Mystislav the Great, was recalled from Novgorod by Monomach, his father, his brother Vsevolod was sent to replace him. During Vsevolod’s day the dignity of prince was lowered notably in Novgorod. In earlier times the posadnik had been an aid to the prince,—an assistant; he was now his associate, and at times even his superior. Vsevolod was disliked in Novgorod because, as the men there declared, he had left it for another place, that is, Pereyaslavl on the Alta. He had fought against his uncle Dolgoruki, and had fled from him. They said, too, that he cared only for falcons and hunting; that he sided with the rich, and with boyars; that he looked with contempt on poor people, and on small folk. To these words they added a deed never witnessed till that day in Novgorod. They seized Vsevolod, locked him up in a tower and set a watch around it. They sought then for a prince who might please them. Some, unwilling to offend Dolgoruki, their dangerous neighbor, thought to choose Rostislav, his son, as their ruler, but others, who were greater in number, prevailed and turned to Chernigoff. Vsevolod, son of Oleg, sent his brother, Sviatoslav, but Novgorod was no better pleased with the new than with the late prince.
Pskoff, up to this time dependent on Novgorod, resolved now to break its bonds. Vsevolod, freed from the Novgorod tower and expelled from the city, went to Pskoff and was received joyfully. Novgorod sent Sviatoslav, its new prince, with warriors to subdue the Pskoff men, but Sviatoslav, finding the task both impossible and useless, led his men back to Novgorod. The city, enraged at this failure, turned out the new prince, and sent him home to Chernigoff.