Vladimirko went from his camp and bowed down before Vsevolod. He, “the cunning-minded and word-rich,” as people called him, brought Vsevolod to think it far better for him not to weaken Galitch too greatly, so Vsevolod, after taking an oath from Vladimirko, and a large ransom, restored all the towns which he had captured, and returned to his capital.
Vladimirko’s enemies now grew more defiant, and the citizens of Galitch installed in that city his nephew, Ivan, surnamed later Berladnik. Vladimirko hastened with forces to Galitch, and besieged [[61]]it for three weeks unsuccessfully, till Ivan made a night attack, went too far out, and was cut off from his capital. Unable to return, he broke through the investing lines, made his way to the Danube, and through steppe regions to Kief, where Vsevolod received him with kindness. Vladimirko entered Galitch, and there met his opponents without mercy.
Vsevolod’s reception of Ivan was, beyond doubt, the cause of a second war with Vladimirko. In 1146 Vsevolod led to Galitch large forces, among which were Poles, men of Novgorod, and Polovtsi. Siege was laid to Zvenigorod. When some of the citizens wished to surrender Vladimirko’s commander slew three of their leaders, cut each of the bodies in two, and hurled the six halves from the walls of the city. After that, those inside fought with valor. Vsevolod, who tried to storm the place, fought from daylight till evening. He fired the town in three places, but the people extinguished the fires, and resisted with desperation. The Kief prince at last raised the siege and returned home, forced mainly by an illness of which he died somewhat later.
The position of Novgorod in Vsevolod’s day was most difficult; when this prince drove Vyacheslav from Kief, Yuri Dolgoruki asked aid of Novgorod against the usurper, but the city refused to help him. He immediately recalled his son, who was then prince in Novgorod, and, seizing Torjok, stopped Novgorod’s provisions. The city sent then to Vsevolod for a prince, and was forced to accept from him Sviatoslav, his brother, a second time. A riot was kindled by Monomach’s partisans, and it was raging fiercely when the new prince arrived. Sviatoslav, deposed recently for his failure at Pskoff, remembered his enemies and punished them. They resented this, and soon the position presented a deadlock. “It is grievous for me to be here with these people,” wrote the prince to his brother. “I cannot endure them.”
To weaken the Monomach party, and smooth Sviatoslav’s way for him, Vsevolod induced the city to send him seven of its best men. Upon their arrival he threw them all into prison. This measure roused Novgorod greatly. Sviatoslav’s partisans were beaten at assemblies, and he himself, learning that he might be seized, fled in the night out of Novgorod, the posadnik, Yakun, going with him. Yakun was captured on the road and brought back to the city, with Prokop, his brother. Beaten by the people [[62]]till almost insensible, these two men were stripped of their clothing, and hurled from the bridge into the Volkov. Wading out, they were seized again, but not beaten. Yakun was fined one thousand silver grievens, and Prokop one hundred. Then the hands of both men were tied to their necks and they were cast into prison. After a time, however, they escaped to Yuri of Suzdal, who treated them kindly.
Meanwhile the Bishop of Novgorod went to Kief with a number of notables, and said to Vsevolod: “Give us thy son; we want not thy brother.” Vsevolod consented, and sent his son, Sviatoslav. While the young prince was traveling toward Novgorod, people sent secondly to Vsevolod: “We want neither thy son, nor any man of thy family. Give us a son of Mystislav.” Hereupon Vsevolod detained the bishop and notables, and, not wishing to see a man of Monomach’s line prince in Novgorod, summoned his wife’s brothers, Sviatopolk and Vladimir, and gave them the Brest principality. “Think not of Novgorod,” said he, “let it have whatever prince pleases it.” After that, Novgorod was nine months without a prince, which for that proud city was unendurable. Grain was stopped by Yuri of Suzdal, and the price of food was enormous. The party hostile to Kief, which found favor with Yuri, rose in strength and increased greatly. They invited Yuri to Novgorod. He was not willing to go himself, but he sent his son, Rotislav.
Vsevolod saw now that he had erred in not sending a brother-in-law, hence he vented his rage against Yuri. He took possession of Gorodok, Yuri’s capital, and seized his herds in southern regions. That did not settle the Novgorod question, however. Izyaslav, brother of Vsevolod’s wife, and prince now in Pereyaslavl, sent to his sister a message, which contained these words: “Get Novgorod for Sviatopolk, thy brother.” She set to work, and finally Vsevolod consented. He saw, of course, without any advice, that for him his wife’s brother in Novgorod was better than a son of Prince Yuri. Besides, the expulsion of Yuri’s son in favor of one of his nephews would widen the breach between Yuri and all his near relatives, a thing most desirable for Vsevolod.
When men heard in Novgorod that Sviatopolk was coming, and with him the bishop and notables, the opponents of Yuri rose in power again, for the city must choose to retain Yuri’s son, [[63]]and be hostile to Vsevolod and all his adherents, or receive Sviatopolk and have Yuri alone as an enemy. Sviatopolk was installed, and Rostislav sent away to his father. Thus was the question decided.
Vsevolod, double-dealing and shifty at all times, had promised the succession of Kief both to Igor, his own brother, and also to his wife’s brother, Izyaslav, who, as if selected for the place, had Pereyaslavl for his portion. Igor had the promise renewed in Galitch, when he made peace between the Kief prince and Vladimirko, the latter guaranteeing his aid to obtain the position.
In 1145 Vsevolod, in presence of his cousins and brothers—Izyaslav also was in the assembly—declared Igor to be his successor. “Vladimir Monomach,” said the prince, “placed Mystislav, his son, on the Kief throne. Mystislav gave Kief to Yaropolk, his brother. Whenever God calls for me, Kief will go to Igor.”