A small land of forts and farming villages south of the Khomora, on the upper Sluch and its tributaries and on the Buzhok and the upper Southern Bug, round a town called Bolokhovo whose site is lost.
Its princes act together as a group (the 'Bolokhovian princes') when the chronicle first names them in 1231, and its fortified towns (among them Derevich, Gubin, Kudin and Bozhsky) were dug out by Daniel's army in 1241. Its material culture is that of western Rus'. Whether it already acted as one body under its own princes on 1 January 1200 is not pinned: the only earlier notice is the town of Bolokhovo about 1150.
It is drawn here as a community of princes apart from Roman, with the realm of the Volhynian princes as the nearest fit.
Who holds it
- Name
- No prince is named for 1200; the princes appear as a group in the chronicle from 1231
- Title
- The Bolokhovian princes (Bolokhovskie knyazi)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not pinned
- Family
- Unknown. Mikhail of Chernigov and Izyaslav of Novgorod-Seversky called them 'brothers' in the 1230s, and they had family ties with Galician boyars (Spinei); whether they were Rurikids is disputed.
- Confidence
- low
The town of Bolokhovo is named in the Hypatian codex about 1150 (and perhaps as Borokhov in 1172); the 'Bolokhovian princes' are first named in 1231, fighting with the Hungarians against Daniel. Daniel destroyed their towns in 1241 (Dimnik 1981; Spinei 1986; Kotlyar 2003, via en.wikipedia).
Overlord
Not pinned for 1200. In the 1230s they were nobody's men and fought Daniel; in 1200 the land lies between the Kiev land, the Lutsk branch's Pogorynia and Roman's Ponyzia.
What it holds
- Bolokhovo (site unknown)
- The forts later named Derevich, Gubin, Kudin and Bozhsky (on the Sluch and the Buzhok; destroyed 1241)
Allies and rivals
In the 1230s: allies of the Galician boyars, of Hungary and of the Olgovichi against Daniel. For 1200: not pinned.
How things stand that morning
Not pinned. Drawn as a self-governing land of local princes on the edge of Roman's, the Lutsk branch's and the Kiev land; across it lie the Kiev land to the north-east (kie), the Lutsk branch to the north-west, Roman's Terebovl land and Ponyzia to the west and south-west, and the steppe edge to the south-east.
Wealth
Farming on the forest-steppe black earth; local trade.
Military
Small forts with earth-and-timber walls; no figures.
Threats
- Roman's expansion; Cuman raids from the south-east
Where the sources disagree
- Romanian scholars (Boldur) place the Bolokhovians between the Dniester and the Dnieper south-east of Ushytsia and read them as Vlachs; Kotlyar and Dimnik place them on the upper Sluch and the Buzhok, as drawn here.
Evidence: No source between about 1150 and 1231 mentions the land or its princes.
On the map: Outline from the 13th-century evidence projected back with low confidence.
Primary sources for The Volhynian princes apart from Roman
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Hypatian Chronicle (the Kievan Chronicle compiled about 1200 at the Vydubichi monastery; the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle in the 13th century). The southern record. Read online
- Chronicle of the Poles, by Master Vincent (Wincenty Kadłubek), Wincenty Kadłubek (about 1190 to 1208). Book 4 is a contemporary's account of the fight for the senior throne of Kraków. Read online
- The Tale of Igor's Campaign (about 1187 to 1200 (disputed)). A poem on Igor Sviatoslavich's defeat by the Polovtsians in 1185 that addresses the princes of the day by name: Vsevolod of Vladimir, Rurik and David Rostislavich, Yaroslav of Galich, Roman of Volhynia and the Olgovichi of Chernigov, of whom Igor himself was prince from 1198. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.