Grand Duke Igor Olgovich was the second son of the Chernigov prince Oleg Svyatoslavich. The exact date of his birth is unknown; he was born approximately at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. This prince is known for his short and tragic tenure on the throne of Kiev.
Early years
Like other Rurikovichs of the period of political fragmentation, Igor Olgovich spent his whole life in strife and bloody clashes between East Slavic princes. The first chronicle evidence of him dates back to 1116. Then the young Igor Olgovich participated in the campaign against Minsk, organized by Vladimir Monomakh. 13 years later, under Mstislav the Great, he went with his retinue to Polotsk. Ruled over what is now sovereign Belarus, the princes belonged to a side branch of the Rurik dynasty and regularly clashed with their relatives, leading to frequent wars in the region.
In 1136, Igor Olgovich supported the children of Mstislav the Great in their struggle against Yaropolk of Kyiv. For this, the prince, together with his brothers, received part of the Pereyaslav land and the outlying city of Kursk. Igor belonged to the Chernihiv dynasty. In his family, he remained on the sidelines for a long time. His brother was the eldestVsevolod, who owned Chernihiv.
Successor of the Prince of Kyiv
In the era in which Oleg Svyatoslavich lived, the first signs of political fragmentation appeared in Russia. Large provincial centers headed for independence from Kyiv. With Oleg's children, this process became irreversible. Together with his brothers, his second son Igor clashed with Kyiv from time to time. During one of these wars, he called the Polovtsy and robbed the parishes on the banks of the Sula River. And in 1139, the eldest of the brothers Vsevolod completely captured Kyiv, becoming the Grand Duke.
Igor, who helped his relative in that war, was dissatisfied with his small reward. He quarreled with his brother, but reconciled with him again in 1142, when he received Yuryev, Gorodets and Rogachev from Vsevolod. Since then, the two Olgovichs acted together until the death of the eldest of them. In 1144 they declared war on Vladimir Volodarivech of Galicia. After that campaign, Igor Olgovich was declared the heir of Vsevolod, although he had his own sons.
Transfer of power
Shortly before the death of the Grand Duke of Kyiv and Chernigov Vsevolod, his son-in-law, the Polish King Vladislav, asked his father-in-law for help in the fight against his brothers. Igor led the Russian squads to the west. He rescued Vladislav: he took away four disputed cities from his relatives, and handed over Vizna to the Russian allies in gratitude.
Meanwhile, Vsevolod's condition worsened. Feeling his imminent end, heurged the people of Kiev to recognize Igor as their future ruler. The inhabitants of the city agreed (as the development of events showed, feignedly). Vsevolod died on August 1, 1146. The people of Kiev did not like the prince, they considered him a Chernigov stranger who forcibly took the city from the descendants of Vladimir Monomakh. This hostility sadly affected the fate of Igor Olgovich.
Conflict with subjects
Before entering the capital as a ruler, Igor sent his younger brother Svyatoslav there. The greatest indignation of the people of Kiev was caused by Vsevolod's tiuns (the chronicles preserved the name of one of them - Ratsha). The townspeople began to complain about the former managers and boyars. Svyatoslav, on behalf of his brother, promised that after his accession to the throne, the people of Kiev would be able to choose their own Tiuns. The news of this so inflamed the townspeople that they began to smash the palaces of the deceased Vsevolod's close associates. Svyatoslav with great difficulty managed to restore order in the capital.
When Prince Igor of Kyiv entered the city, he did not rush to keep his promises. At the same time, the inhabitants of the capital began to establish a secret relationship with Izyaslav Mstislavovich (son of Mstislav the Great and grandson of Vladimir Monomakh). It was in this prince that many dissatisfied saw the legitimate ruler, whose dynasty was forcibly expelled from the throne of Kyiv by Vsevolod.
War approaching
The key in the fate of the ruler was that the holy prince Igor of Chernigov did not suit not only the inhabitants of Kyiv, but also the restappanage princes of Russia. His only faithful allies were only his younger brother Svyatoslav and nephew Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich. When the news came to Kyiv that Izyaslav Mstislavovich was marching towards the city along with a loyal army, Igor actually remained isolated and helpless.
Without losing hope, Olgovich sent ambassadors to his cousins Davidoviches (Izyaslav and Vladimir), who ruled in the specific cities of the Chernihiv land. Those agreed to help him in the approaching war in exchange for the concession of some volosts. Igor complied with their demands, but he never received any help.
Defeat
All his life Oleg Svyatoslavich spent in the war against the princes of Kyiv. Now his second son was in the exact opposite position. He himself was a prince of Kyiv, but he was opposed by almost all the other Ruriks. Even the governors of the capital, Ivan Voytishich and Lazar Sakovsky, as well as the thousandth Uleb, betrayed him.
Despite the desperate situation, Igor, Prince of Kyiv, did not give up the fight. Together with his younger brother and nephew, he armed a small squad and together with it advanced against Izyaslav Mstislavovich. The regiments of the Grand Duke, due to their small numbers, were naturally defeated. The scattered warriors took to flight. Both Svyatoslavs managed to break away from their pursuers, but Igor Olgovich's horse got stuck in a swamp. The Grand Duke was caught and brought to the victorious Izyaslav. He ordered to send the enemy to a monastery in the city of Pereyaslavl not far from Kyiv.
Cut your hair
At homeIgor's supporters in the capital were looted. The combatants of the imaginary allies of Olgovich, the princes Davidovich, took part in the pogroms. Igor's younger brother Svyatoslav tried to help out a relative. He unsuccessfully persuaded Yuri Dolgoruky to help. In the end, together with Igor's wife, he himself had to flee from his native Seversk land.
The deposed prince of Kyiv meanwhile became seriously ill. His life was in the balance. A prisoner in the monastery asked Izyaslav for permission to take the tonsure, to which he received consent. Soon Igor accepted the schema. Moreover, he even recovered and moved to the Kyiv monastery.
Death
It seemed that isolated from the outside world, Igor would be able to live the rest of his life in the peaceful atmosphere of the monastery. However, just a few months after the adoption of the schema, he became the victim of another civil strife. The Davidovich brothers quarreled with the Grand Duke Izyaslav and moved their squads to Kyiv, announcing that they were going to release Igor.
The news of another war infuriated the residents of the capital. An angry mob burst into the monastery at the moment when Igor was listening to Mass. Izyaslav's younger brother Vladimir Mstislavovich tried to save the schemnik. He hid the monk in his own mother's house, hoping that the instigators of the massacre would not dare to break in there. However, nothing could stop the angry townspeople. On September 19, 1147, they broke into Igor's last refuge and killed him.
The body of the deceased was taken to Podol and thrown out on the marketplace for desecration. Finally, the inhabitants of Kyiv calmed down and nevertheless buried the remains of the prince in the church of St. Simeon. Three years later, Svyatoslav Olgovich moved the body of his brother to his native Chernihiv. The martyrdom of Igor (in the last minutes of his life he prayed before the icon, which became a shrine) prompted the Russian Orthodox Church to canonize the prince as a passion-bearer and faithful.
