Kiev

Who holds it

Name

Rurik Rostislavich

Title

Prince of Kiev

Since

1194

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

Rurik Rostislavich, prince of Kiev, in person; the tysyatsky (commander of the town host) for him (not named for 1200)

How things stand that morning

Rurik's; the town is quiet that winter. The Kievans' loyalty is the open question for 1200-1201.

Charter

No charter: Rus' towns of this age had no written privileges. The prince's governor or steward judges and collects; the townsmen meet in assembly (veche) at need.

Council

The town assembly (veche), meeting by St Sophia or in the Podil; the boyars and leading merchants; the metropolitan as mediator (he counselled Rurik in 1195). The Kievans received Rurik in 1194 and will open the Podil gates to Roman in 1201.

Communities

Greeks: merchants and clergy (the metropolitan is usually a Greek sent from Constantinople). Jews: a Jewish quarter in Yaroslav's town with its own gate (the Jewish Gate, named in the chronicle in the 1140s); Rabbi Moses of Kiev corresponded with Western Jewish scholars in the later 12th century. Armenians: present as merchants and physicians from the 11th century (thin evidence for 1200). Latins: merchants from Regensburg and other German towns trade here, and the Irish monks of the Regensburg Schottenkloster kept a house in Kiev (dates thin).

Poles and Hungarians come with princely marriages and alliances; Cumans and Black Hoods come to trade and serve.

Fairs and markets

No fair with a fixed date is recorded. Daily markets: the Torg on the Podil and the Babin Torzhok on the Mountain.

Militia

The Kiev town host, organised by thousands and hundreds under the tysyatsky; with the prince's retinue and the Black Hoods it is the core of the Kievan army.

Walls and castle

Earth ramparts with timber walls round the upper towns (Vladimir's, Yaroslav's and the Iziaslav-Sviatopolk town), with the stone Golden Gate and its gate church of the Annunciation, the Lyadsky Gate and the Jewish Gate; the Podil walled in timber. Stone churches by the dozen. The fortified Caves monastery stands apart to the south.

Trade and crafts

The Dnieper route to Constantinople (the 'Greek route'), whose convoys the princes escorted past the rapids against the Cumans; the salt route from the Crimea; the trade with the Cumans in horses, cattle and captives; the overland road west through Vladimir-Volynsky to Cracow, Prague and Regensburg; the upriver trade in furs, wax and honey with Chernigov, Smolensk and Novgorod. Imports: silk, wine and oil in amphorae, spices, glass, church plate and icons. Crafts: cloisonne enamel, gold and silver work, glass bracelets and beads, icons, bone carving, building in brick and stone.

Tolls (myto) on the river and the markets. No mint.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 1200 or 1201The Kievans open the gates of the Podil to Roman Mstislavich; Rurik withdraws to Ovruch.Depends on: Roman's march on Kiev. Stopped by: Reconciliation or a stronger defence by Rurik.

Later, on the likely course

1. Later: 2 January 1203Rurik, the Olgovichi and the Cumans take and sack Kiev, including the Podil, St Sophia and the Tithe Church (given for orientation).Depends on: Rurik's loss of Kiev. Stopped by: Rurik keeping Kiev.

Places of note

• St Sophia: The metropolitan's cathedral
• Vydubychi monastery: Rurik's wall of 1199

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Kiev's layout and trade are well known from the chronicles and archaeology; the officers and merchant communities of 1200 are not named.

Primary sources for Kiev (Rurik Rostislavich)

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
• The Laurentian Chronicle (the Suzdal continuation kept in the late 12th and 13th centuries; manuscript 1377). The court record of Vsevolod III of Vladimir. 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