Against this combination stood David, the new Smolensk prince. He had wished to force the battle, but Yaroslav of Chernigoff held back; he was waiting for his brother. Yaroslav occupied a strong position near the Drutcha River, and remained a whole week, warding off the enemy, who could only reach him by crossing the river. Sviatoslav of Kief now appeared, and began at once to bridge the Drutcha. David, seeing the strength of the enemy, would not risk a battle, and withdrew to Smolensk very promptly. Sviatoslav burned the Drutcha fortress, ended the expedition, and returned to his capital. Yaroslav and his cousin, Igor, went to Chernigoff.
Vsevolod of Vladimir, incensed at this Novgorod and Ryazan struggle, attacked Nova-Torg, stormed and captured the town, seized Yaropolk Bezoki, and carried him to Vladimir. Novgorod, grown weary of wrangling, dismissed Vladimir, son of Sviatoslav, and requested Vsevolod to send the prince whom he liked best. He sent one of the most obscure princes of that period, his own brother-in-law, however. Satisfied with the change in Novgorod, Vsevolod now liberated Glaib, and all were in agreement again.
The peace which followed was strengthened by two marriages. A son of Sviatoslav of Kief, that Glaib just released from prison, married Rurik’s daughter, and Mystislav, another son, married a sister-in-law of Vsevolod. So there was harmony between North and South for a season. Sviatoslav not only made peace with the Prince of Vladimir, but sent two sons to assist him in his campaign against the Silver Bulgars. “God grant us in my day to stand against pagans,” wrote Sviatoslav, and he sent one thousand men, led by Vladimir, his son, late prince in Novgorod. Forces came, too, from Ryazan and Murom, also from Pereyaslavl in the South, that place which the Polovtsi had always hit the hardest. This contingent was led by Izyaslav, the most gallant of Vsevolod’s nephews. All the forces met at Nizni-Novgorod, whence one [[124]]part of the army advanced on horseback, and the other in boats down the Volga. Vsevolod himself was with the expedition.
Never before did Russians go into an enemy’s country so deeply as this time. They gave many a defeat to the pagan Bohmitan, as Mohammedans were called at that period. But in front of a palisaded fort, to the great grief of all, the gallant Izyaslav, son of Glaib, was struck in the heart by an arrow, and brought to the Russian camp dying. The loss of this youth, loved by the army, was avenged through a crushing battle fought at the edge of the Volga. More than one thousand Bulgars were drowned with their boats. More than fifteen hundred were cut down near the river. The body of the brave Izyaslav was taken back to Vladimir, and buried there with great honor.
The Grand Prince did not wish at that time to bring Mohammedans under his rule; his only desire was to prove beyond question that Nizni-Novgorod and the places around it belonged to Vladimir, his capital. He wished to settle Russian ownership in those places, and establish moral influence over the people who lived between him and the Mohammedans, and who were still pagans.
Not fearing war when it must come, but shunning it always when possible, Vsevolod, at home again, toiled at developing the lands of Vladimir. He desired, above all, the confidence of the people, and won it through giving them safety, order, and prosperity. He was busied specially with the many towns founded by Yuri, his father. In Suzdal he built a strong fortress, and put walls around it. He also repaired the cathedral in that city. “Though old, let it be as if new,” was said of the building. Pereyaslavl, renewed, and adorned as in the old time, grew distinguished.
In Vladimir the Kremlin was enlarged with walls and towers of greater beauty and strength than even those of Suzdal. In other towns also did Vsevolod labor and erect buildings which were monuments. But the chief one, the marvel of Vsevolod’s day, and the one which, after centuries, forms in our time the glory of Vladimir, is the cathedral, which he built in honor of Dmitri, the martyr of Salonica. Not equal in size and in wealth to the church which Andrei built, it surpassed that golden-domed structure in proportions and beauty. It was noted, moreover, for a subtle variety of exterior adornment. But the God-loving church builder enriched it with relics more precious by far to believers than silver [[125]]or gold. Those treasures were a slab from the grave of Dmitri, his tunic, and some of the great martyr’s bones. Unbounded delight was felt by the men of Vladimir when those sacred relics were brought to the city.
Ryazan was a source of great anxiety to Vsevolod, for its princes were always quarreling, and they did not hesitate to openly threaten one another with destruction. The Grand Prince was forced to put an end to these disputes. To guard his own cities he must protect Ryazan regions from the Polovtsi. The insolence of those nomads increased with the quarrels of the Ryazan princes. In view of this, Vsevolod undertook a campaign against the Polovtsi, and went to the heart of the Don region. He struck at the center of the steppes occupied by the “wild” Polovtsi, those who made the Ryazan attacks. He passed quickly and assailed their winter quarters, but his agile foes slipped away at once; he merely frightened them. To defend Ryazan, it was necessary to have Ryazan itself under control.
At this period party struggles in Novgorod sometimes threatened the peace of Vladimir, but Vsevolod had no need to support princes whom by request he had sent to that city. He made no move to stop Novgorod from changing their prince. When the city complained of Yaroslav, Vsevolod replaced him by Mystislav, son of David of Smolensk, his ally in the Bulgar expedition. When Novgorod, which never liked any prince long, asked for Yaroslav a second time, it got him. More than once did those two unimportant princes rule Novgorod. Later on these words came from the city to Vsevolod: “Novgorod is the inheritance of thy father and grandfather; send thy own son to us.”
Vsevolod sent Sviatoslav, one of his younger sons, at that time a boy. Several times this son was returned to his father, and sent back each time at request of the city. Holding Novgorod in peace by commanding the roads to it, the Grand Prince was not disquieted by that city, but Ryazan affairs were involved and troublesome.