Princes and rulers
Sviatoslav the Brave
бл. 942–972
- Warrior prince
Son of Ihor and Olha, a prince of Kyiv who spent almost his whole life on campaign, from the Volga to the Danube. His statue stands on Peizazhna Alley.
Let us not disgrace the land of Rus’, but lay down our bones here, for the dead know no shame.
Biography
Sviatoslav was the only known son of Prince Ihor and Princess Olha; the Hypatian Chronicle says he was born in 942 (historians also suggest earlier dates). After his father was killed in 945 the boy grew up in Kyiv while his mother ruled. His own reign began in the 960s.
The chronicle portrays him as an austere warrior who slept in the open with his saddle for a pillow and warned his enemies in advance: “I am coming against you.” He subdued the Viatichi, crushed the Khazar Khaganate (965), fought in Bulgaria and even dreamed of moving his capital to Pereiaslavets on the Danube.
These distant wars nearly cost Kyiv dearly. In 968, while he was on the Danube, the Pechenegs besieged the city, and the people of Kyiv reproached him: “You, prince, seek and guard a foreign land, but have abandoned your own.” Sviatoslav returned and drove off the nomads. Before his last campaign he divided his lands among his sons, leaving Yaropolk in Kyiv. In spring 972, returning from Bulgaria after the hard siege of Dorostolon, he was killed in an ambush by the Pecheneg khan Kurya at the Dnipro Rapids.
Kyiv honours him with a statue on Peizazhna Alley (“Landscape Alley”), on the edge of Starokyivska Hill, where the ancient princely town stood.
Life timeline
- 945 Father killed The young Sviatoslav stays in Kyiv with his mother Olha.
- 965 Against the Khazars According to the chronicle, he crushes the Khazar Khaganate.
- 968 Siege of Kyiv He returns from the Danube and drives the Pechenegs from the city.
- 971 Dorostolon He withstands a Byzantine siege and makes peace.
- 972 Death He is killed in a Pecheneg ambush at the Dnipro Rapids.
Kyiv in their life
- Statue of Sviatoslav (Peizazhna Alley) — an equestrian sculpture on the edge of Starokyivska Hill. About Peizazhna Alley
- Starokyivska Hill — site of the princely court where Sviatoslav grew up and where Kyiv held out against the Pecheneg siege of 968.
