Tmutarakan 'Rus, Principality of

Nestor the Chronicler and later Russian historians, leaving aside the legitimacy of the claims Yarolsav of I the Wise to the Kievan throne and his postulated guilt in the murder of his brothers, often present him as a model of virtue, styling him "the Wise".

A less appealing side of his personality is revealed by his having imprisoned his younger brother Sudislav for life.

Yet another brother, Mstislav of Tmutarakan, whose distant realm borders the Northern Caucasus and the Black Sea, hastens to Kiev and, despite reinforcements led by Yaroslav's brother-in-law King Anund Jacob of Sweden (as Jakun—"blind and dressed in a gold suit") inflicts a heavy defeat on Yaroslav in 1024.

Yaroslav and Mstislav then divide Kievan Rus' between them: the area stretching left from the Dnieper, with the capital at Chernihiv, is ceded to Mstislav until his death in 1036.

The civil war among the Rus', which had begun in 1015, results in 1024 in the breakup of Russia into three principalities.

Most of Russia falls under the control of Novgorod-Kiev; ...

...the other two principalities are Chernigov (with Tmutarakan) in the southeast, and …

…Polatsk in the northeast.

Yaroslav relies on the Scandinavian alliance and attempts to weaken imperial influence on Kiev.

The Norwegian Viking Harald Hardrada and his men have reached the land of the Kievan Rus, where they serve in the armies of Yaroslav, whose wife Ingigerd is a distant relative of Harald.

He and Eilifr, son of that Rognvaldr, who had originally come to Novgorod with Ingigerd, have become joint chiefs of Yaroslav's bodyguard.

Harald serves a military apprenticeship in spring 1031, fighting in the Polish campaign of 1030-1031, which has as its object the recovery of territories previously lost in 1018.

Yaroslav reconquers the area later known as Red Rus', or Red Ruthenia, from the Poles and concludes an alliance with King Casimir I of Poland, sealed by the latter's marriage to Yaroslav's sister Maria.

Kievan Rus', a union of all the eastern Slavs and several non-Slavic tribes, is Europe’s largest federation by the mid-eleventh century.

Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi, which is to play a significant role in the history of Ukraine, is mentioned for the first time in the text of the Rus' treaty with Constantinople (911) as Pereyaslav-Ruskyi, to distinguish it from Pereyaslavets in Bulgaria.

Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev, had built a large fortress here in 992 to protect the southern limits of Kievan Rus' from raids of nomads from steppes of present southern Ukraine.

The Cumans, as Constantinople calls the non-Moslem, northern Oghuz Turks, had first encountered the Rus' in 1055, which had resulted in a peace agreement.

In 1061, however, the Cumans invade and devastate the Pereiaslav principality, supposedly breaching the earthworks and palisades that had been constructed by Princes Vladimir (d. 1015) and Yaroslav (d. 1054).

Vselav, the son of Bryachislav Izyaslavich, Prince of Polotsk and Vitebsk, and thus the great-grandson of Vladimir I of Kiev and Rogneda of Polotsk, was born between about 1030 to 1039 in Polotsk (with Vasilii as his baptismal name) and had married around 1060.

He had taken the throne of Polotsk in 1044 upon his father's death, and although he is the senior member of the Rurik Dynasty for his generation, since his father had not been prince in Kiev, Vseslav is excluded (izgoi) from the grand princely succession.

He is the only major prince in Rus not descended from Yaroslav.

Unable to secure the capital, which is held by Yaroslav's three sons, Vseslav starts pillaging the northern areas of Kievan Rus.

Vseslav lays siege to Pskov in 1065, but is thrown back.

The Greek colony of Hermonassa was located a few miles west of Phanagoria and Panticapaeum, major trade centers for what was to become the Bosporan Kingdom.

After a long period as a Roman client state, the kingdom succumbed to the Huns, who defeated the nearby Alans in 375/376.

With the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the late fifth century, the area passed within the Roman sphere once again but was taken by the Bulgars in the sixth century.

Following the fall of the city to the Khazars in the late seventh century, it was rebuilt as a fortress town and renamed Tamatarkha.

Arabic sources refer to it as Samkarsh al-Yahud (i.e., "Samkarsh the Jewish") in reference to the fact that the bulk of the trading there was handled by Jews.

Other variants of the city's name are "Samkersh" and "Samkush".

Fortified with a strong brick wall and boasting a fine harbor, Tamatarkha was a large city of merchants.

It controlled much of the Northern European trade with the Byzantine Empire and Northern Caucasus.

There were also trade routes leading southeast to Armenia and the Muslim domains, as well as others connecting with the Silk Road to the east.

The inhabitants included Greeks, Armenians, Russians, Jews, Ossetians, Lezgins, Georgians, and Circassians.

After the destruction of the Khazar empire by Svyatoslav of Rus in the mid-tenth century, Khazars continued to inhabit the region.

The Mandgelis Document, a Hebrew letter dated AM 4746 (985–986) refers to "our lord David, the Khazar prince" who lived in Taman and who was visited by envoys from Kievan Rus to ask about religious matters.

Although the exact date and circumstances of Tmutarakan's takeover by the Kievan Rus are uncertain, the Hypatian Codex mentions Tmutarakan as one of the towns that Vladimir the Great gave to his sons, which implies that Russian control over the city was established in the late tenth century and certainly before Vladimir's death in 1015.

Bronze and silver imitations of imperial Greek coinage had been struck by the new rulers during this period.

Vladimir's son Mstislav of Chernigov was the prince of Tmutarakan at the start of the eleventh century.

During his reign, a first stone church was dedicated to the Mother of God (Theotokos).

The excavated site suggests that it was built by Byzantine workmen and has similarities with the church Mstislav went on to commission in Chernigov.

After his death, he was followed by a succession of short-lived petty dynasts.

Gleb Svyatoslavich had been given command of the city by his father, Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, but in 1064 he had been displaced by the rival Russian prince Rostislav Vladimirovich, who in his turn had been forced to flee the city when Gleb approached with an army led by his father.

Once Svyatoslav left, however, Rostislav had expelled Gleb once again.

During his brief rule, he subdues the local Circassians (also known as Kasogi) and other indigenous tribes, but his success provokes the suspicion of neighboring Greek Chersonesos in the Crimea, whose imperial envoy poisons him on February 3, 1066.

Afterwards, command of Tmutarakan returns to the prince of Chernigov and then to the Grand Prince of Kiev, Vsevolod Yaroslavich.

The Yaroslavichi join forces and march north, coming upon Vseslav's army in the deep snow on the Niamiha River on March 3 and defeating him.

The precise course of battle is unknown, though it has become legendary as a bloodbath; The Tale of Igor's Campaign referred to "the bloody banks of the Nemiga" being sown not with blessings but with bones.

Vseslav flees back Polotsk and the Yaroslav princes do not pursue him.

However, in June, after the battle, the Yaroslav princes call for negotiations, “kiss the cross” (take an oath) and make promises of future safety; Vseslav is invited to Iziaslav's camp to celebrate the peace and is promptly arrested together with two of his sons and taken to prison in Kiev.