Sviatoslav: the last migration
Sometime in the mid-960s Sviatoslav forged an alliance with a group of nomads, the Oghuz, and launched a joint attack on the Khazars. Sviatoslav's aggression was reportedly triggered by his discovery that the Viatichi were paying tribute in 'shillings' to the Khazars.21 This vignette illustrates the lucrative involvement of the Slavs with the trading nexus; the long reach of the Khazars;
and, more generally, the many compass-bearings of the Rus'. In laying waste to the Khazar capital of Itil, Sviatoslav destroyed a rival power intruding into his own sphere, and in attacking the Volga Bulgars and the Burtas he was perhaps seeking unhindered access to the Samanid realm, the main source of Rus' silver. Sviatoslav did not, however, try and base himself on the lower Volga or at the Straits of Kerch, where his forces sacked the Khazar fortress of S-m-k-r-ts. In fact the influx of silver from Samanid mints began to falter from around this time. Instead he opted for Pereiaslavets on the lower Danube. This, he determined, would be 'the centre of my land, for there all good things flow: gold from the Greeks, precious cloths, wines and fruit of many kinds; silver and horses from the Czechs and Hungarians; and from the Rus' furs, wax, honey and slaves'.[16] The immediate reason for Sviatoslav's intervention in the Balkans in 968 was fortuitous. The Byzantine emperor, Nicephorus II, incited him to raid Bulgaria, offering gold as an inducement. Byzantine sources portray the Rus' as marvelling at the fertility of the region, and the emissary delivering the gold is said to have urged Sviatoslav to stay there, furthering his own ambitions for the imperial throne. But Sviatoslav probably needed little prompting to stay on in the south. He had already shown impatience with the status quo in shattering the Khazar hegemony and, as stressed above, the Rus' on the middle Dnieper were hemmed in by many constraints. The Pechenegs were incited by the emperor to attack Kiev, once Sviatoslav showed signs of overstepping his brief, and the town came close to surrendering. But Sviatoslav proved able to come to terms with the nomads and many Pech- enegs accompanied him back to the Balkans in, probably, the autumn of 969. Hungarians, too, joined in and with their help Sviatoslav ranged as far south as Arcadiopolis, impaling prisoners en masse. The atrocities were not entirely random. Sviatoslav seems to have envisaged a commonwealth spanning several cultures and climate zones: his young sons Iaropolk, Oleg and Vladimir were respectively assigned to Kiev, the Derevlian land and Novgorod, while Sviatoslav ensconced himself near the Danube's mouth. The Bulgarian Tsar Boris was left in his capital, Preslav. Rus' garrisons were installed there and in Danubian towns. Sviatoslav's underlying aim was probably to foster trade along and between major riverways, employing nomads to police the steppes and keep the peace. His base had the advantage of proximity to the markets of both 'the Greeks' and Central Europe, where Saxon silver was beginning to be mined. Sviatoslav was not the first Rus' leader to have a keen eye for commercial openings.
Sviatoslav overestimated the Byzantines' willingness to accept him as a new neighbour. In April 971 Nicephorus' successor, John I Tzimisces, led a surprise offensive through the Haemus mountain passes and soon Sviatoslav was holed up at Dorostolon. Retreat down the Danube was barred by the imperial fleet, while most of the nomads were won over by imperial bribery. In late July, after ferocious fighting, a deal was struck. The Rus' received grain, safe-conduct and confirmation of the right to trade at Constantinople in return for Sviatoslav's written oath never again to attack imperial territory or Bulgaria. His ambitions had canniness. While reputedly adopting the nomads' lifestyle, with a saddle for pillow,[17] Sviatoslav seems to have determined that the best prospects for commercial growth lay with Byzantine and Western European markets rather than - as traditionally - the East. Had Byzantine forces not then been in peak condition, a Danubian Rus' might have formed. As it was, the outcome of the campaigning was uncertain only days before Sviatoslav proposed terms: he did not actually surrender nor does he seem to have given up his captives or his loot. These spoils and putative slaves were his undoing. Concern for shipping them back to Rus' slowed down withdrawal, and Sviatoslav and his men were ambushed by Pechenegs at the Dnieper Rapids early in 972. Few escaped and Sviatoslav's own skull became a plated drinking cup, a use to which steppe peoples put the heads of enemies.
972-C.978 Fragmentation
Sviatoslav's demise brought instability to the princely dynasty and allowed outsiders to set themselves up near the 'way from the Varangians to the Greeks'. His two eldest sons, Iaropolk and Oleg, fell out after a clash between hunting parties which cost Liut, the son of Iaropolk's military commander, his life. Iaropolkthen attacked and defeated his brother, and Oleg perished in the crush of fugitives. Vladimir fled 'beyond the sea'. The Primary Chronicle's account is laconic, a tale of the commander's vengeance for Liut. Nonetheless its intimations of quarrels over resources involving princely retainers may not be sheer fiction. There had been problems with satisfying retainers after Igor' 's disastrous expedition to Byzantium; on that occasion the Derevlians themselves had been involved. Both episodes imply reduced princely circumstances after defeat by the Byzantines and probable dislocation of trade. There are hints that Iaropolk attempted a rapprochement with Emperor Otto I, in that Rus' envoys were among those at Otto's court in March 973. An attempt to step up exports of furs and slaves to silver-rich Central European markets through amity with their chief protector would be quite understandable, a substitute for Byzantine and oriental outlets. Taking advantage of the political disarray, figures with Scandinavian names such as Rogvolod (*Ragnvaldr in Old Norse) and Tury reportedly set themselves up at, respectively, Polotsk and Turov. These strongholds could give access to the West but lay near 'the way from the Varangians to the Greeks'. This route had not lost its magnetism and drew Vladimir Sviatoslavich back. Having lodged at some Scandinavian court or courts, he mustered a company of retainers and led them to Rus'. He enjoyed advantages over other power holders or seekers, being a son of Sviatoslav and acquainted with leading figures of Gorodishche-Novgorod. Dobrynia, his mother's brother, had in effect been his guardian there and was probably still with him. Vladimir was thus better able to enlist many citizens, Finns as well as 'Slovenes', and although they may have been inexpert fighters, their numbers together with the 'Varangians' proved more than a match for Rogvolod. Vladimir's personal qualities also gave him a head start. Ruthless and shrewd, he put to death Rogvolod, reportedly a 'prince',24 and also Rogvolod's sons. But he took Rogvolod's daughter to wife and led his Novgorodians and retainers to Kiev. There he suborned the commander of Iaropolk's defence force and invited his half-brother to parley in their father's old stone hall. As Iaropolk entered, 'two Varangians stabbed him in the chest with their swords'.25 Thus Vladimir gained the throne city of Kiev around 978.