Soon after, Mikhail besieged Vladimir forcing him to join Daniil, who by then had captured Galich. In 1235, when they invaded Chernigov, Mikhail defeated them with the Polovtsy. He evicted Vladimir from Kiev, but later reinstated the Rostislavich as his lieutenant. He therewith imitated Andrei Bogoliubskii who, in 1171, had appointed Roman Rostislavich, the then senior prince of the Rostislavichi, as his puppet in Kiev. After that, Mikhail seized Galich from Daniil. But unlike his father Vsevolod the Red, who had let the Igorevichi rule the town, Mikhail occupied it in person.91
His reasons for seeking control of both towns and for occupying Galich in preference to Kiev were, in the main, commercial. Merchants brought luxury goods from Lower Lotharingia, the Rhine region, Westphalia, and Lower Saxony via Galich and Kiev to Chernigov.92 Ten years later, the Franciscan monk John de Plano Carpini reported that merchants from Bratislava, Constantinople, Genoa, Venice, Pisa, Acre, Austria and the Poles were also visiting Kiev.93 While Daniil controlled Galich, he could obstruct the flow of merchandise coming through that town to Chernigov. Moreover, after forming his alliance with Vladimir, Daniil probably persuaded him to stem the flow of goods passing through Kiev to Chernigov. Mikhail could ensure that foreign wares reached Chernigov by replacing Daniil in Galich and by making Vladimir his lieutenant in Kiev.
With the support of the local boyars, bishops, the Hungarians, and the Poles, Mikhail retained control of Galich until around 1237. At that time the townsmen invited Daniil to replace Mikhail's son Rostislav while the latter was fighting the Lithuanians.94 Mikhail had returned to Kiev in the previous year
90 On the Smolensk trade agreement, see R. I. Avanesov (ed.), Smolenskiegramoty XIII-XIV vekov (Moscow: AN SSSR 1963), pp. 18-62.
91 PSRL, vol. II, cols. 773-4; Novgorodskaiapervaialetopis', pp. 74, 284-5.
92 V P. Darkevich and 1.1. Edomakha, 'Pamiatnikzapadnoevropeiskoi torevtiki XII veka', Sovetskaiaarkheologiia 3 (1964): 247-55; V P. Darkevich, 'Kistoriitorgovykh sviazeiDrevnei Rusi', Kratkie soobshcheniia o dokladakh i polevykh issledovaniiakh Instituta arkheologii 138 (1974): 93-103.
93 G. Vernadsky, The Mongols andRussia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953), pp. 62-4; C. Dawson (ed.), The Mongol Mission: Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1955), pp. 70-1; Dimnik, Mikhail, pp. 76-7.
94 PSRL, vol. II, cols. 777-8.
because Iurii and Daniil had joined forces. Fearing that Mikhail had become too powerful, they sought to deprive him of Kiev by evicting Vladimir. The task was made easier following a vicious succession war in Smolensk after which the Rostislavichi became, in effect, the vassals of Vladimir-Suzdal'. Iaroslav, Iurii's brother, left his son Aleksandr in charge of Novgorod and occupied Kiev. After the townsmen refused to support him, however, he returned to Vladimir-Suzdal'.[155] To secure his hold over Kiev, Mikhail occupied it in person.
The Tatars invaded in two phases. First, in December I237 they overran the lands of Riazan', and in the spring they devastated Vladimir-Suzdal'. Significantly, they spared Novgorod and Smolensk. Second, in I239 they razed Pereiaslavl' and Chernigov; on 6 December I240 they captured Kiev and, after that, laid waste to Galicia and Volyn'.[156]
After Baty established Sarai as the capital of the Golden Horde, he commanded every prince to visit him and obtain a patent (iarlyk) to rule his domain. In 1243 Iaroslav of Vladimir-Suzdal', who had replaced Iurii as senior prince after the Tatars killed him, was the first to kowtow to Baty. For his reward, the khan named him the senior prince of Rus' and appointed him to Kiev in place of Mikhail.[157] In 1245 Daniil obtained the iarlyk for Volyn' and Galicia.[158]The following year Mikhail journeyed to Sarai, but Baty had him put to death because he refused to worship an idol.[159] During the so-called period of the Mongol yoke that followed, the centre of power shifted from Kiev to Muscovy where the descendants of Vsevolod Big Nest, by becoming subservient vassals of the Tatars, attained supremacy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we have seen that the years 1125 to 1246 gave birth to new principalities (Smolensk, Suzdalia, Murom and Riazan') and new eparchies (Smolensk and Riazan'). They saw the political ascendancy of a number of principalities (Chernigov, Smolensk, Volyn' and Suzdalia) and the decline of others (Turov, Galich, Polotsk, Pereiaslavl', Murom and Riazan') (Map 5.1 shows the Rus'ian principalities around 1246). The princes who shared borders with the Hungarians, the Poles and the Greeks developed political, personal and cultural relations with them. Moreover, dynasties formed commercial ties
| Map 5.1. The Rus' principalities by 1246 |
with France, Bohemia, Hungary, the Poles, the Germans, the Baltic region, the Near East and Byzantium. They also had dealings, frequently hostile, with the Kama-Bulgars, the Mordva, the Polovtsy and the Lithuanians.
These years witnessed the flowering of culture, especially in ambitious building projects. Princes imported artisans from the Greeks, the West and from beyond the Caucasus. The proliferation of churches was accompanied by the growth in the number of native saints, with the concomitant growth in shrines, devotional literature, icons and other religious objects. The period also saw two singular ecclesiastical initiatives. Andrei Bogoliubskii attempted to create a metropolitan see in Vladimir, and a synod of bishops consecrated Klim Smoliatich as the second native metropolitan. Andrei's project failed and Klim's appointment was an isolated instance. Neither had a lasting effect on the organisation of the Church.
During this period Rus' witnessed fierce rivalries as dynasties fought to increase the size of their territories. The principalities of Galicia, Polotsk, Turov, Murom and Riazan' became the main victims of such appropriation. Novgorod was especially desirable for its commercial wealth and because, like Kiev, it had no resident dynasty. But winning Kiev, which enjoyed political and moral supremacy in Rus', was the main object of internecine wars. The princes descended from the powerful dynasties of the inner circle conceived by Iaroslav the Wise were the chief contenders. In their intra-dynastic and inter-dynastic rivalries they acknowledged and, for the most part, faithfully adhered to the system of genealogical seniority that dictated lateral succession.
Disagreements within a dynasty occurred when one prince attempted to debar another from succession or sought to pre-empt his claim (e.g. the Mstislavichi against their uncles). In like manner, two dynasties would go to war when one sought to deprive the other of its right to rule Kiev (e.g. Riurik Rostislavich against Iaroslav of Chernigov). When the senior princes of two dynasties challenged each other's claims, a challenger's success was usually determined by the greater manpower resources of his own dynasty, or by the greater military strength of the alliance that he had forged (e.g. Vsevolod Ol'govich against Viacheslav Vladimirovich; Iurii Dolgorukii against Rostislav Mstislavich; Andrei Bogoliubskii against Mstislav Iziaslavich; Mikhail Vsevolodovich against Vladimir Riurikovich). At times claimants from rival dynasties resolved their disputes by ruling Kiev as duumvirs (e.g. Iziaslav Mstislavich and Viacheslav Vladimirovich; Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich and Riurik Rostislavich). The instances when victorious claimants appointed their puppets to Kiev were failures (e.g. Andrei Bogoliubskii and Mikhail