Igor of Kiev is killed while collecting tribute from the Drevlyans in 945.
The Byzantine historian and chronicler, Leo the Deacon (born around 950), describes how Igor met his death: "They had bent down two birch trees to the prince’s feet and tied them to his legs; then they let the trees straighten again, thus tearing the prince’s body apart.")
He is avenged by his wife, Olga of Kiev.
The Primary Chronicle blames his death on his own excessive greed, indicating that he was attempting to collect tribute a second time in a month.
As a result, Olga changes the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in what may be regarded as the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe.
Constantine Zuckerman, drastically revising the chronology of the Primary Chronicle, argues that Igor actually reigned for three years, between summer 941 and his death in early 945.
He explains the epic thirty-three-year span of his reign in the chronicle by its author's faulty interpretation of Byzantine sources.
Indeed, none of Igor's activity are recorded in the chronicle prior to 941.
Sviatoslav, a member of the Varangian Rurik dynasty, succeeds his father as duke of Kiev; his mother, Olga, rules as regent.
Virtually nothing is known about Sviatoslav's childhood and youth, which he spent reigning in Novgorod.
Sviatoslav was tutored by a Varangian named Asmud (meaning "quick as a leopard").
The tradition of employing Varangian tutors for the sons of ruling princes will survive well into the eleventh century.
