As evidenced by ancient Russian chronicles, Svyatoslav is the only son born from the union of Grand Duke Igor with Princess Olga. He spent most of his short life in combat. He was practically not interested in state affairs and domestic politics. The prince completely entrusted the solution of such issues to his wise parent. Therefore, it is rather difficult to briefly describe Svyatoslav's campaigns, because every day of his is a battle. As the chroniclers testify, the war was his meaning of life, a passion without which he could not exist.
The life of a fighter
Svyatoslav's campaigns began when the boy was four years old. It was then that his mother Olga did everything to take revenge on the Drevlyans who brutally killed her husband Igor. According to tradition, only the prince could lead the battle. And then, by the hand of her young son, a spear was thrown, giving the first order to the squad.
Having matured, Svyatoslav took the reins of government into his hands. Nevertheless, he spent most of his time in battle. He is credited with many traits characteristic of European knights.
Svyatoslav's military campaigns never started unexpectedly. The prince won only in a fair battle, alwayswarning the enemy of an attack. His squad moved extremely quickly, since the campaigns of Svyatoslav, a man who does not recognize luxury, passed without escort from convoys and tents, which could slow down the movement. The commander himself enjoyed considerable respect among the soldiers, he shared their meal and life.
Khazars
This Turkic-speaking tribe lived on the territory of modern Dagestan. It founded its own empire - the Kaganate. Like other tribes, the Khazars conquered foreign lands, regularly raiding the territories of their neighbors. The Kaganate was able to subjugate the Vyatichi and Radimichi, northerners and glades, who, after coming under his authority, were forced to pay a constant tribute. All this continued until the princes of Ancient Russia gradually began to free them.
Many of them waged a long struggle with this Turkic-speaking nomadic tribe, which took place with varying success. One of the most famous battles can be considered the campaign of Svyatoslav against the Khazars, which took place in 964.
The allies of the Russians in this campaign were the Pechenegs, with whom the Kyiv prince fought repeatedly. The Russian army, having reached the capital of the kaganate, crushed the local ruler and his large army, capturing several more large cities along the way.
The defeat of the Khazars
The idea of the prince is striking in its breadth and maturity. I must say that all the campaigns of Svyatoslav were distinguished by strategic literacy. Briefly, according to the chroniclers, they can be described as an open challenge to the enemies.
Notbecame an exception and the Khazar campaign. Svyatoslav was interested in one thing: to find the weakest link among the hostile states that surrounded Ancient Russia. It was supposed to be isolated by unfriendly neighbors and corroded by internal "rust".
The fact that it is time to knock down the Khazar castle from the direction of trade with the East has been said for a very long time. At that time, the defeat of the kaganate was simply an urgent need for Russia. The movement of the princes of Kyiv to the outskirts of the Slavic lands slowed down (they stumbled on the Vyatichi). The reason was that the latter continued to pay tribute to the Khazars. In order to spread Kyiv over them, it was first necessary to throw off the Khaganate yoke from the Vyatichi.
Svyatoslav's campaign against the Khazars was very different from the previous daring raids for booty or captives. This time, the prince approached the borders of the kaganate gradually, gathering allies at every step. This was done in order to be able to surround the enemy with troops of peoples and tribes unfriendly to them before the invasion.
Tactics
Svyatoslav's campaign against the Khazars was a grand detour. To begin with, the prince moved north, subjugating the Slavic tribes of the Vyatichi, dependent on the kaganate, and freeing them from the Khazar influence. Very quickly transferring the boats from the Desna to the banks of the Oka, the squad sailed along the Volga. Having defeated the Burtas and Volga Bulgar tribes dependent on the Khazars, Svyatoslav thereby ensured reliable security for his northern flank.
The Khazars did not expect a blow from the side at allnorth. They were disorganized by such a maneuver, and therefore they could not adequately organize the defense. Meanwhile, Svyatoslav's campaign in Khazaria continued. Having reached the capital of the kaganate - Itil, the prince attacked the army that tried to defend the settlement and defeated it in a fierce battle.
Svyatoslav's campaigns continued in the North Caucasus region. Here the Kyiv prince defeated another stronghold of this Turkic-speaking nomadic tribe - the fortress of Semender. In addition, he managed to conquer the Kasogs and establish a new principality on the Taman Peninsula with the original name - Tmutarakan, with the capital - the fortress city of Matarkha. It was founded in 965 on the site of an ancient settlement.
Svyatoslav's Army
There are very few chronicle works describing the biographical details of this Grand Duke. But the fact that the military campaigns of Svyatoslav significantly strengthened Kievan Rus is beyond doubt. During his reign, the unification of the Slavic lands continued.
Svyatoslav Igorevich's campaigns were characterized by swiftness and characteristic combination. He tried to destroy the enemy forces piecemeal - in two or three battles, punctuating the battles with quick maneuvers of his forces. The Kyiv prince skillfully used the strife and disagreements between Byzantium and the nomadic tribes subject to it. He entered into temporary alliances with the latter in order to have time to defeat the troops of his main enemy.
Svyatoslav's campaigns were necessarily preceded by a study of the situation by a detachment of scouts. Their task includedduties not only to conduct surveillance, but also to take prisoners or local residents, as well as to send scouts to the enemy detachment to obtain the most useful information. When the army stopped to rest, watchmen were posted around the camp.
Prince Svyatoslav's campaigns, as a rule, began in early spring, when the rivers and lakes were already opened from the ice. They continued until autumn. The infantry moved along the water in boats, while the cavalry moved along the coast, on land.
Svyatoslav's retinues were commanded by Igor Sveneld, invited by his father, who also led his own detachments from the Varangians. The prince himself, as the chroniclers testify, having taken command of the Kyiv army, never wanted to hire the Varangians, although he favored them. And this became a fateful factor for him: it was from their hands that he died.
Armament troops
Offensive tactics and strategy were developed by the prince himself. He skillfully combined the use of numerous troops with maneuverable and lightning-fast pinpoint actions of the cavalry squad. We can say that it was the campaigns of Svyatoslav that laid the foundation for the strategy to beat the enemy on his own land.
Kyiv warriors were armed with spears, double-edged swords and battle axes. The first were of two types - combat, with heavy leaf-shaped metal tips mounted on a long shaft; and throwing - sulits, which were noticeably lighter in weight. They were thrown by approaching enemy infantry or cavalry.
Were also armed with axes and sabers, maces,clubs bound with iron, and knives. So that warriors from afar could recognize each other, the shields of the warriors were painted red.
Danube Campaign
The campaigns of Prince Svyatoslav ruined and erased from the map the huge Khazar empire. Trade routes in the East were cleared, the unification of the East Slavic tribes into a common Old Russian state was completed.
Having strengthened and secured his borders in this direction, Svyatoslav shifted his attention to the West. Here was the so-called Rusev Island, formed by the Danube delta and a bend, a huge defensive Trojan rampart with a moat filled with water. According to historical data, it was formed by Danubian settlers. The trade of Kievan Rus with Bulgaria and Byzantium brought it closer to the coastal peoples. And these ties were especially strongly strengthened in the era of Svyatoslav.
During the three-year eastern campaign, the commander captured vast territories: from the Oka forests to the North Caucasus. The Byzantine Empire at that time kept silent, since the military Russian-Byzantine alliance was still in effect.
But now, when the northern giant began to put pressure on the Crimean possessions, signs of anxiety began to show in Constantinople. A messenger was urgently sent to Kyiv to resolve relations.
Already at that time, Svyatoslav's campaign against Bulgaria was brewing in Kyiv. The prince's plan for the invasion of the Danube to annex the mouth of the Danube to Russia had been brewing for a long time. However, these lands belonged to Bulgaria, so he secured a promise from Byzantium to preserveneutrality. For Constantinople not to interfere in Svyatoslav's campaigns on the Danube, he was promised a retreat from the Crimean possessions. It was subtle diplomacy that affected the interests of Russia both in the East and in the West.
Advance on Bulgaria
In the summer of 967, the Russian troops, led by Svyatoslav, moved south. The Russian army was supported by the Hungarian troops. Bulgaria, in turn, relied on Yases and Kasogs hostile to the Rus, as well as on a few Khazar tribes.
As the chroniclers say, both sides fought to the death. Svyatoslav managed to defeat the Bulgarians and capture about eighty cities along the banks of the Danube.
Svyatoslav's campaign in the Balkans was completed very quickly. True to his habit of carrying out lightning-fast combat operations, the prince, breaking through the Bulgarian outposts, defeated the army of Tsar Peter in an open field. The enemy had to conclude a forced peace, according to which the lower reaches of the Danube with a very strong fortress city of Pereyaslavets went to Russia.
The true intentions of the Russians
It was then that the real plans of Svyatoslav, which the prince cherished for a very long time, came to light. He moved his residence to Pereyaslavets, declaring, as the chroniclers write, that he did not like to sit in Kyiv. Tributes and blessings began to flow into the "middle" of the Kievan land. The Greeks brought here gold and precious fabrics, wines and many outlandish fruits for those times, silver and excellent horses were delivered from the Czech Republic and Hungary, and honey, wax fur and slaves from Russia.
In August 968, his troops had already reached the borders of Bulgaria. According to chroniclers, in particular, the Byzantine Leo the Deacon, Svyatoslav led an army of 60,000.
However, according to some reports, this was too great an exaggeration, since the Kyiv prince never accepted tribal militias under his banners. Only his squad, "hunters"-volunteers and several detachments of Pechenegs and Hungarians fought for him.
Russian boats freely entered the mouth of the Danube and began to quickly rise upstream. The appearance of such a large army came as a surprise to the Bulgarians. The fighters quickly jumped out of the boats and, covering themselves with shields, rushed to the attack. The Bulgarians, unable to stand it, fled from the battlefield and took refuge in the Dorostol fortress.
Prerequisites for the Byzantine campaign
The hopes of the Romans that the Russians would get bogged down in this war did not justify themselves. After the first battles, the Bulgarian army was defeated. Russian troops, having destroyed its entire defensive system in the eastern direction, opened the way to the borders with Byzantium. In Constantinople, they saw a real threat to their empire also because such a victorious march of the Kyiv army through the occupied Bulgarian lands did not end with robberies and the destruction of cities and settlements, there was also no violence against the locals, which was characteristic of the previous wars of the Romans. The Russians saw them as blood brothers. In addition, although Christianity was established in Bulgaria, the common people did not forget their traditions.
That is why the sympathies of the ignoble Bulgarians and some of the local feudal lords immediately turned to the Russian prince. Russian troops began to be replenished with volunteers living on the banks of the Danube. In addition, some feudal lords wanted to swear allegiance to Svyatoslav, since the main part of the Bulgarian elite did not accept Tsar Peter with his provisional policy.
All this could lead the Byzantine Empire to a political and military disaster. In addition, the Bulgarians, led by their overly determined leader Simeon, almost took Constantinople on their own.
Confrontation with Byzantium
Svyatoslav's attempt to turn Pereyaslavets into the capital of his new state, and perhaps the entire Old Russian state, was unsuccessful. This could not be allowed by Byzantium, which saw a mortal threat to itself in this neighborhood. Svyatoslav Igorevich, initially following the points of the treaty concluded with Constantinople, did not invade deep into the Bulgarian state. As soon as he occupied the lands along the Danube and the fortress city of Pereyaslavets, the prince suspended hostilities.
The appearance of Svyatoslav on the Danube and the defeat of the Bulgarians greatly alarmed Byzantium. After all, next to her, a merciless and more successful opponent was raising her head. The attempt made by Byzantine diplomacy to pit Bulgaria against Russia, thereby weakening both sides, was defeated. Therefore, Constantinople began to hastily transfer its troops from Asia Minor. In the spring of 970, Svyatoslav attacked the Thracian lands of Byzantium. His army reached Arcadiopol and stopped a hundred and twenty kilometers from Constantinople. Here the general battle took place.
From the writings of the Byzantine chroniclers, one can learn that all the Pechenegs were killed in the encirclement, in addition, they defeated the main forces of Svyatoslav Igorevich. However, ancient Russian historians describe events differently. According to their reports, Svyatoslav, having come close to Constantinople, nevertheless retreated. However, in return, he took a rather large tribute, including on his dead warriors.
One way or another, Svyatoslav's largest campaign against Byzantium ended in the summer of that year. In April of the following year, the Byzantine ruler John I Tzimiskes personally opposed the Rus, sending a fleet of three hundred ships to the Danube to cut off their retreat. In July, another big battle took place, in which Svyatoslav was wounded. The battle ended inconclusively, but after it the Russians entered into peace negotiations.
Death of Svyatoslav
After the armistice, the prince safely reached the mouth of the Dnieper, heading on the boats to the rapids. His faithful voivode Sveneld urged to go around them on horseback so as not to stumble upon the Pechenegs, but he did not listen. Svyatoslav's attempt in 971 to climb up the Dnieper was not successful, so he had to spend the winter at the mouth in order to repeat the campaign in the spring. But the Pechenegs were still waiting for the Rus. And in an unequal fight, Svyatoslav's life ended…
