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Oleg of Novgorod
Oleg the Seer
Grand Prince of Rus' Oleg of Novgorod by Viktor Vasnetsov Reign Predecessor Successor Died Burial Religion 879912 Rurik Igor 912 Kiev or Staraya Ladoga Paganism
Oleg of Novgorod (Slavic: , Old Norse: Helgi) was a Varangian prince (or konung) who ruled all or part of the Rus' people during the early 10th century. He is credited with moving the capital of Rus' from Novgorod the Great to Kiev and, in doing so, he laid the foundation of the powerful state of Kievan Rus'. He also launched at least one attack on Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. According to East Slavic chronicles, Oleg was supreme ruler of the Rus' from 882 to 912. This traditional dating has been challenged by some historians, who point out that it is inconsistent with such other sources as the Schechter Letter, which mentions the activities of certain khagan HLGW of Rus' as late the 940s, during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Romanus I. The nature of Oleg's relationship with the Rurikid ruling family of the Rus', and specifically with his successor Igor of Kiev, is a matter of much controversy among historians.
Oleg of Novgorod
2 The Primary Chronicle's brief account of Oleg's life contrasts with other early sources, specifically the Novgorod First Chronicle, which states that Oleg was not related to Rurik, and was rather a Scandinavian client-prince who served as Igor's army commander. The Novgorod First Chronicle does not give the date of the commencement of Oleg's reign, but dates his death to 922 rather than 912.[1] Scholars have contrasted this dating scheme with the "epic" reigns of roughly thirty-three years for both Oleg and Igor in the Primary Chronicle.[2] The Primary Chronicle and other Kievan sources place Oleg's grave in Kiev, while Novgorodian sources identify a funerary barrow in Ladoga as Oleg's
Reputed burial mound for Oleg of Novgorod; Volkhov River near Staraya Ladoga.
Oleg of Novgorod descendant, and that Oleg did not immediately follow Rurik, but rather that there is a lost generation between the legendary Varangian lord and his documented successors.[10] Of particular interest is the fact that the Schechter Letter account of Oleg's death (namely, that he fled to and raided FRS, tentatively identified with Persia,[11] and was slain there) bears remarkable parallels to the account of Arab historians such as Ibn Miskawayh, who described a similar Rus' attack on the Muslim state of Arran in the year 944/5.[12]
It has also been suggested that Helgu-Oleg who waged war in the 940s, was distinct from both of Rurik's successors. He could have been one of the "fair and great princes" recorded in the Russo-Byzantine treaties of 911 and 944 or one of the "archons of Rus" mentioned in De administrando imperio.[14] Regrettably, the Primary Chronicle does not specify the relations between minor Rurikid princes active during the period, although the names Rurik, Oleg, and Igor were recorded among the late-10th-century and 11th-century Rurikids. Georgy Vernadsky even identified Oleg of the Schechter Letter with Igor's otherwise anonymous eldest son, whose widow Predslava is mentioned in the Russo-Byzantine treaty of 944.[15] Alternatively, V. Ya. Petrukhin speculated that Helgu-Oleg of the 940s was one of the vernacular princes of Chernigov, whose ruling dynasty maintained especially close contacts with Khazaria, as the findings at the Black Grave, a large royal kurgan excavated near Chernigov, seem to testify.[16] Neither of these theories has been endorsed in the academic mainstream, however.
References
[1] A. N. Nasonov, Novgorodskaia Pervaia Letopis Starshego i Mladshego Izvodov, (Moscow and Leningrad: ANSSR, 1950),109. cf. Kloss 337-343. [2] Shahmatov xxxii-xxxiii. [3] The earliest and most believable version seems to have been preserved in the Novgorod First Chronicle, which says that Oleg departed "overseas" (i.e., to Scandinavia) and was buried there. [4] Leningrad, Aurora Art Publishers, 1991. [5] The text of the Schechter Letter is given at Golb 106-121. It is cited herein by folio and line (e.g. SL Fol. x:x) [6] SL Fol. 2r, 15-16; 17. The author of the letter describes Khazaria as "our land". SL Fol. 1r:19, 2v:15,20. [7] No less a personage than Mikhail Artamonov declared the manuscripts' authenticity beyond question. Artamonov 12. Nonetheless, other scholars expressed scepticism about its account, due in large part to its contradiction of the Primary Chronicle. E.g., Gregoire 242-248, 255-266; Dunlop 161. Anatoli Novoseltsev, noting the discrepancy, admits the document's authenticity but declares that the author "displaces the real historical facts rather freely." Novoseltsev 216-218. Brutskus asserted that HLGW was in fact another name for Igor. Brutskus 30-31. Mosin proposed that HLGW was a different person from Oleg and was an independent prince in Tmutarakan; the existence of an independent Rus' state in Tmutarakan in the first half of the tenth century is rejected by virtually all modern scholars. Mosin 309-325; cf. Zuckerman 258. [8] Zuckerman 257-268. Zuckerman cites, inter alia, to the Novgorod First Chronicle. Cf., e.g., Christian 341-345. [9] Pritsak 60-71; Shahmatov xxxii-xxxiii; [10] Pritsak 60-71. Pritsak placed the "lost generation" between Oleg and Igor. Zuckerman dismisses this as "outright speculation"; and places both as contemporaries in the early to mid tenth century.
Oleg of Novgorod
[11] Pavel Kokovtsov, when publishing a Russian translation of the letter in 1932, argued that FRS may refer to Thrace, where the Rus' forces were defeated by the armies of Lecapenus ( online (http:/ / gumilevica. kulichki. net/ Rest/ rest0505. htm)). [12] Miskawaihi 67-74; cf. SL Fol. 2v:3 et seq. [13] Parkhomenko 24 et seq. [14] Brook 154. [15] Vernadsky 41 et seq. [16] Petrukhin 226-228.
Sources
Artamonov, Mikhail. Istoriya Khazar. Leningrad, 1962. Brutskus, Julius D. Pismo Hazarskogo Evreja Ol X Veka. Berlin 1924. Christian, David. A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Vol. 1. Blackwell, 1998. Dunlop, D.M.. History of the Jewish Khazars. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1954. Gregoire, H. 'Le "Glozel' khazare." Revue des tudes Byzantines 12, 1937. Golb, Norman and Omeljan Pritsak. Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982. [Note:as each author was responsible for separate sections of the work, they are referenced separately above.]
Kloss, B.M. "Letopis' Novgorodskaja pervaja". Slovar' Kniznikov i Knizhnosti Drevnej Rusi, vol. 1. Leningrad 1987. Kokovtsov P.S. - X . Leningrad 1932. al-Miskawaihi. The Eclipse of the 'Abbasid Caliphate. D. S. Margoliouth, trans. Oxford 1921. Mosin, V. "Les Khazars et les Byzantins d'apres l'Anonyme de Cambridge." Revue des tudes Byzantines 6 (1931): 309-325. Nasonov, A.N., ed. Novgorodskaja Pervaja Letopis Starshego i Mladshego Izvodov. Moscow, 1950. Novoseltsev, Anatoli P. Hazarskoe Gosudarstvo i Ego Rol' v Istorii Vostochnoj Evropy i Kavkaza. Moscow 1990. Parkomenko V.A. . Leningrad, 1924. Petrukhin V.Ya. " , ". . 1998. .. . Moscow, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000: 222-230. Pushkin, Alexander. The Song of the Wise Oleg. Leningrad, Aurora Art Publishers, 1991. Shahmatov, A.A. Ocherk Drevnejshego Perioda Istorii Russkogo Jazyka. Petrograd, 1915 (reprinted Paris 1967). Zuckerman, Constantine. "On the Date of the Khazars Conversion to Judaism and the Chronology of the Kings of the Rus' Oleg and Igor." Revue des tudes Byzantines 53 (1995): 237-270. Vernadsky, Georgy. Kievan Rus. Moscow, 1996.
Precededby Rurik Precededby Askold and Dir Prince of Novgorod 879912 Prince of Kiev 882912 Succeededby Igor
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