Mstislav I of Kiev

Kievan Rus' sees a final resurgence under the rule of Vladimir II Monomakh (1113–1125) and his son Mstislav (1125–1132), but the thirteenth century Mongol invasion devastates the region, and Kiev is totally destroyed in 1240.

Mstislav, the eldest son of Vladimir II Monomakh by Gytha of Wessex, figures prominently in the Norse Sagas under the name Harald, taken to allude to his grandfather, Harold II of England, slain in 1066 at the Batttle of Hastings.

According to Saxo Grammaticus, two of Harold's sons and a daughter escaped the Norman Conquest to the court of their uncle, king Sweyn Estridsson of Denmark.

They were treated by Sweyn with hospitality, while their sister was married to Waldemar, king of Ruthenia, i.e.

Vladimir II Monomakh.

(The pateric of St. Pantaleon Cloister in Cologne says that "Gytha the Queen" died as a nun on March 10.

It is assumed that she followed Godfrey of Bouillon in the first Crusade and died in Palestine, most likely in 1098, as a year later Vladimir Monomakh married a noblewoman of Constantinople, by whom he had Yuri Dolgoruki, the future founder of Moscow, and two daughters: Eufemia, who married King Coloman of Hungary, and Maria, married to the pretender to the throne of Constantinople who called himself Leon Diogenes.)

As his father's future successor, Mstislav has reigned in Novgorod from 1088-93 and (after a brief stint at Rostov) from 1095-1117, building numerous churches in Novgorod, of which St. Nicholas Cathedral (1113) and the cathedral of St. Anthony Cloister (1117) survive to the present day.

Mstislav's life thus far has been spent in constant warfare with Cumans (1093, 1107, 1111) and Estonians (1111, 1113, 1116).

In 1096, he had defeated his uncle Oleg of Chernigov on the Koloksha River, thereby laying the foundation for the centuries of enmity between his and Oleg's descendants.

(Mstislav will be the last ruler of united Rus, and upon his death, as the chronicler put it, "the land of Rus was torn apart".)

Mstislav is from 1118 Monomakh's co-ruler in Belgorod-on-the-Dnieper; he is to inherit the Kievan throne after his death.

Kievan Rus' had successfully secured its frontier against the Cumans, but the last ruler to maintain some sort of united state is Mstislav I the Great.

After his death in 1132, the Kievan Rus falls into recession and a rapid decline, and Mstislav's successor Yaropolk II of Kiev, instead of focusing on the external threat of the Cumans, is embroiled in conflicts with the growing power of the Novgorod Republic.

Yaropolk has to deal with the many interests of his family, most of all his powerful half brother Yuri Dolgoruki.

Yaropolk had appointed Vsevolod Mstislavich to succeed him in Pereyaslav but Yuri Dolgoruki, with the consent of the Novgorodians, had soon driven out his nephew.

Yaropolk had appointed another son of Mstislav I: Iziaslav Mstislavich to Pereyaslav, who also received Turov.

He is replaced soon thereafter by Yaropolk's brother Viacheslav Vladimirovich.

The peace doesn't last.

Iziaslav has to transfer Turov to his uncle Viacheslav in 1134 to let him rule the principality once again.

Pereyaslav will come to Yuri Dolgoruki on the condition that Iziaslav is allowed to rule Rostov although Yuri keeps a large part of the principality under his influence.

Iziaslav also receives the rule over Volyn; another half brother of Yaropolk, Andrey Vladimirovich, is to rule Pereyaslav.

Vsevolod Olgovich, at this time Prince of Chernigov, the Cumans, and his allies who are invited by Iziaslav to make his point against Viacheslav, continue their war against Yaropolk and cross the Dnieper to loot the Kiev region.

After a decisive battle in 1135, Yaropolk has to cede the towns of Kursk and …

…Posechenoye, gained only seventeen years earlier.

Vsevolod is on May 28, 1136, confined in the Archbishop's courtyard (compound) in the Detinets along with his wife and family, guarded by thirty men so as not to escape.

He is allowed to leave Novgorod in mid-July, going to his uncle in Kiev.

The Novgorodans replace him with the brother of the Chernigov prince, Sviatoslav Olgovich.

They will soon be convinced convinced to replace Sviatoslav with Rostislav Yuryevich, the eldest son of Yuri Dolgoruki.

Vsevolod's dismissal from Novgorod has traditionally been seen as the end of Kievan power in the north and the beginning of the Republic of Novgorod.

After him, a number of princes will be invited in or dismissed over the next two centuries, although only a few, like Aleksandr Nevsky, will be able to assert themselves in the city for a prolonged period.

Sviatoslav continues the war against Yaropolk with Yaropolk's old enemies, the Cumans, on his side.

He soon meets before the gates of Chernigov the combined troops of Kiev, Pereyaslav, Rostov, Polotsk, Smolensk, parts of Halych and thirty thousand Hungarians, sent by the Hungarian king Bela II.

He is forced to make peace in 1139.

Yaropolk, just before his death, assists Bela II in facing internal enemies; dying in 1139, Yaropolk is buried in the church of St. Andrey.

His brother, Vyacheslav I, succeeds him but is soon driven out by Vsevolod II.

The Russian principality fractures into eight parts, following the example set by Poland in the previous year.