The disintegration of the Kievan Rus' was the process of political fragmentation of the Kievan Rus', which in the mid-12th century divided into independent principalities. Formally, the Kievan Rus' continued to exist up to the Mongol invasion (1237–1241), with Kiev considered to be its main city.
The period from the 12th to the 16th century is traditionally known as the appanage period, or as feudal fragmentation in Soviet Marxist historiography. The boundary of the disintegration is considered to be 1132 — the year of the death of the last powerful Kievan prince Mstislav the Great. The next stage of disintegration was the liquidation of the institution of "communion in the Russian land" as a result of the Mongol invasion: the cessation of the struggle for Kiev and the Kievan volosts, collective ownership and defense of the Kievan land by princes of various branches of the Rurikids. Its final completion falls on the second half of the 13th century, when the previous structure of almost all ancient Russian lands seriously changed, the power of Lithuania and Poland began to spread to their western part, and they thereby lost their dynastic unity.
The result of the disintegration was the emergence of new political entities on the site of Kievan Rus', and the remote consequence was the formation of modern peoples: Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians.
Causes of disintegration
The period of disintegration is usually interpreted not simply as the infighting between the descendants of Rurik, but as a result of an increase in boyar landownership. Some historians believe that at the first stage (in the pre-Mongol period), fragmentation did not mean the end of the existence of the Old Russian state.
Brewing of the crisis
The first threat to the integrity of the country arose immediately before the death of Vladimir Sviatoslavich. Vladimir ruled the country by seating his 12 sons in the main cities. The eldest son Yaroslav, seated in Novgorod, refused to send tribute to Kiev even during his father's lifetime. When Vladimir died (1015), an internecine war began, ending with the death of all of Vladimir's sons, except Yaroslav and Mstislav of Tmutarakan. The two brothers divided the "Russian land", which was the core of the Rurikids' possessions, along the Dnieper. Only in 1036, after the death of Mstislav, did Yaroslav begin to rule the entire territory of Rus' alone, except for the isolated Principality of Polotsk, where the descendants of another son of Vladimir — Izyaslav — established themselves from the end of the 10th century. The Polotsk princes were later mentioned in the Russian chronicles as "Rogvolozhi vnutsi" (Rogvolod's grandchildren).
After the death of Yaroslav in 1054, Rus' was divided in accordance with his testament among his five sons. The eldest Izyaslav received Kiev and Novgorod, Sviatoslav — Chernigov, Ryazan, Murom and Tmutarakan, Vsevolod — Pereyaslav and Rostov, to the younger ones, Vyacheslav and Igor — Smolensk and Volhynia. The established order of succession to the princely thrones received the name "rota system" in modern historiography. Princes moved alternately from throne to throne in accordance with their seniority. With the death of one of the princes, the lower ones moved one step up. But, if one of the sons died before his parent and did not have time to visit his throne, then his descendants were deprived of the rights to this throne and became "izgoi" (outcasts). On the one hand, this order prevented the isolation of lands, since princes constantly moved from one throne to another, but on the other hand, it generated constant conflicts between uncles and nephews.
In 1097, on the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh, the next generation of princes gathered for a council in Liubech, where it was decided to end the internecine wars and a new principle was proclaimed: "let each hold his patrimony". Thus began the process of creating regional dynasties.
Kiev, according to the decision of the Liubech council, was recognized as the patrimony of Sviatopolk Izyaslavich (1093–1113), which meant the preservation of the tradition of inheriting the capital by the genealogically senior prince. The reign of Vladimir Monomakh (1113–1125) and his son Mstislav (1125–1132) became a period of political stabilization, and almost all parts of Rus', including the Principality of Polotsk, once again found themselves in the orbit of Kiev.
Mstislav passed the Kievan reign to his brother Yaropolk (1132–1139). The latter's intention to fulfill the plan of Vladimir Monomakh and make Mstislav's son Vsevolod his successor, bypassing the younger Monomakhovichi — the Prince of Rostov Yuri Dolgorukiy and the Prince of Volhynia Andrey — led to a general internecine war, characterizing which, the Novgorod chronicler wrote in 1134: "And the whole Russian land was torn apart".
First century of fragmentation
By the middle of the 12th century, Kievan Rus' was divided into 13 (according to other estimates from 15 to 18) principalities (according to chronicle terminology, земли, "lands"). The principalities differed both in the size of their territory and the degree of cohesion, and in the balance of power between the prince, the boyars, the emerging service nobility, and the ordinary population.
Nine principalities were ruled by their own dynasties. Their structure reproduced in miniature the system that previously existed on the scale of all Rus': local thrones were distributed among the members of the dynasty according to the rota system, the main throne went to the eldest in the clan. Princes did not strive to occupy thrones in "foreign" dynastic lands, and the external borders of this group of principalities were notable for their stability.
At the end of the 11th century, the Przemysl and Terebovlia volosts were secured for the sons of Yaroslav the Wise's eldest grandson Rostislav Vladimirovich, later merging into the Principality of Halych (which reached its peak during the reign of Yaroslav Osmomysl). In the Principality of Chernigov from 1127, the sons of Davyd and Oleg Svyatoslavich ruled (subsequently only the Olgovichi). In the Principality of Murom, which separated from it, their uncle Yaroslav Sviatoslavich ruled. Later, the Principality of Ryazan separated from the Principality of Murom. In the Suzdal land, the descendants of Vladimir Monomakh's son Yuri Dolgorukiy established themselves; the capital of the principality from 1157 was Vladimir. The Principality of Smolensk from the 1120s was secured for the line of Vladimir Monomakh's grandson Rostislav Mstislavich. In the Principality of Volhynia, the descendants of another grandson of Monomakh, Izyaslav Mstislavich, began to rule. In the second half of the 12th century, the Principality of Turov and Pinsk was secured for the descendants of Prince Sviatopolk Izyaslavich. From the second third of the 12th century, the Principality of Grodno was secured for the descendants of Vsevolodko (his patronymic is not given in the chronicles, presumably he was the grandson of Yaropolk Izyaslavich). The enclaved Principality of Tmutarakan and the city of Belaya Vezha ceased to exist at the beginning of the 12th century, falling to attacks by the Cumans.
Four principalities were not secured by any single dynasty. The Principality of Pereyaslavl did not become a patrimony, and was mostly ruled during the 12th and 13th centuries by junior representatives of the Vladimir-Suzdal Monomakhovichi, but periodically also by princes coming from other lands.
In the second half of the 12th century, the struggle for Kiev itself was mainly between the Monomakhovichi and the Olgovichi. At the same time, the area around Kiev — the so-called "Rus' land" in the narrow sense of the word — continued to be considered the common domain of the entire princely clan, and thrones in it could be occupied by representatives of several dynasties at once. For example, in 1181–1194, Kiev was in the hands of Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich of Chernigov, and the rest of the principality was ruled by Rurik Rostislavich of Smolensk.
Novgorod also remained an all-Russian throne. An extremely strong boyar class developed here, which did not allow a single princely branch to consolidate in the city. In 1136, the Monomakhovich Vsevolod Mstislavich was expelled, and power passed to the veche. Novgorod became an aristocratic republic. The boyars themselves invited princes. Their role was limited to performing some executive and judicial functions (together with the posadnik), and strengthening the Novgorod militia with princely druzhinniki. A similar order was established in Pskov, which by the middle of the 13th century became autonomous from Novgorod (finally from 1348).
After the extinction of the dynasty of the Halych Rostislavichi (1199), Halych temporarily found itself among the "unclaimed" thrones. It was seized by Roman Mstislavich of Volhynia, and as a result of the unification of the two neighboring lands, the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia emerged. However, after Roman's death (1205), the Galician boyars refused to recognize the authority of his young children, and a struggle for the Galician land unfolded among all the main princely branches, from which Roman's son Daniel emerged victorious.
In general, the political development of Rus' during this period was determined by the rivalry of the four strongest lands: Suzdal, Volhynian, Smolensk and Chernigov, ruled, respectively, by the sub-dynasties of the Yurievichi, Izyaslavichi, Rostislavichi and Olgovichi. The remaining lands depended on them in one form or another.
Decline of Kiev
The Kievan land, which had turned from a metropole into a "simple" principality, was characterized by a steady decrease in its political role. The territory of the land itself, remaining under the control of the Kievan prince, also constantly decreased. One of the economic factors that undermined the power of the city was a change in international trade communications. The "Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks", which was the core of Kievan Rus', lost its relevance after the Crusades. Europe and the East were now connected bypassing Kiev (via the Mediterranean Sea and via the Volga trade route). Constant struggle for the princely throne, political instability, and uprisings of citizens led to the fact that during the 12th century the Prince of Kiev changed 37 times; some of the princes occupied the throne for less than a year. Thus, Igor Olgovich and Gleb Yurievich were killed by Kievans less than a year into their reign, while Izyaslav Davydovich and Rostislav Mstislavich both occupied the throne three times and were overthrown twice.
In 1169, as a result of the campaign of a coalition of eleven princes acting on the initiative of the Vladimir-Suzdal prince Andrey Bogolyubsky, Kiev, for the first time in the practice of princely feuds, was taken by storm and plundered, and for the first time the prince who seized the city did not stay to reign in it, placing his protégé to reign. Andrey was recognized as the eldest, bore the title of grand prince, but made no attempts to sit in Kiev. Thereby the traditional connection between the Kievan reign and the recognition of seniority in the princely clan became optional. In 1203, Kiev suffered a second sack, this time at the hands of Rurik Rostislavich of Smolensk, who had previously become the Prince of Kiev three times.
In the summer of 1212, Kiev was occupied by the troops of the Monomakhovichi coalition, after which the struggle around it subsided for two decades. The main leaders of the campaign were Mstislav Romanovich the Old of Smolensk, Mstislav Mstislavich the Bold of Novgorod, and Ingvar Yaroslavich of Lutsk.
A terrible blow was dealt to Kiev during the Mongol invasion in 1240. At this point, the city was already governed only by a princely viceroy; in the period since the beginning of the invasion, 5 princes had changed in it. According to the testimony of Plano Carpini, who visited the city six years later, the capital of Rus' had turned into a town with no more than 200 houses. There is an opinion that a significant part of the population of the Kievan region left for the northern regions. In the second half of the 13th century, Kiev was ruled by Vladimir viceroys, and later by Horde baskaks and local provincial princes, the names of most of whom are unknown. In 1299, Kiev lost its last metropolitan attribute — the residence of the metropolitan. In 1321, in the Battle on the Irpen River, the Kievan prince Stanislav, a descendant of the Olgovichi, suffered a defeat from the Lithuanians and recognized himself as a vassal of the Lithuanian prince Gediminas, while simultaneously remaining dependent on the Horde. In 1362, the city was finally annexed to Lithuania by Prince Algirdas.