Polish Expedition to Kiev
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| Polish-Russian Wars |
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| Kiev Expedition – Muscovite-Lithuanian – Livonian – 1605–18 – Smolensk – 1654–67 – Bar Confederation – 1792 – Kościuszko Uprising – November Uprising – January Uprising – Polish-Soviet – 1939 |
The Kiev Expedition (Polish: Wyprawa kijowska) was an episode in the internal struggle for power in the state of Rus between Sviatopolk I of Kiev and his brother Yaroslav I the Wise. After having been expelled from Kiev by Yaroslav and his Novgorodian adherents, Sviatopolk withdrew to the court of his father-in-law, Boleslaus I of Poland. He persuaded the latter to support his cause and enter the conflict on his side. The army of Boleslaus, aided by German and Hungarian mercenaries, crossed the borders in 1018 and reached Kiev later the same year.
According to a chronicle by Thietmar of Merseburg, who supposedly obtained detailed information about Boleslaus' Kievan campaign from Sviatopolk himself, Boleslaus was preparing his Kievan campaign simultaneously to Yaroslav. Both armies met on the banks of the river Bug, and after a short battle the Polish prince was victorious. This paved him the way to Kiev, which was captured on August 14, 1018, after a short siege. According to Thietmar the prize taken during the campaign was given as a votive offering to Anastasius of Korsun, a dean of the Church of the Tithes, who later took these spoils with him to Poland. Boleslaus himself retained a number of notable captives, including Vladimir's widow and his daughter Predslava, whom he took as a concubine. As Gallus has it, the war started when Boleslaus was refused Predslava's hand, but this testimony is not given credit by most historians.
Modern historians sometimes dispute whether Boleslaus entered the city at all, despite several folk tales popular both in modern Ukraine and Poland. Among such legends is the history of the Polish coronation weapon, the Szczerbiec, and the tale of the Polish Gate in Kiev, on which the Szczerbiec was supposedly notched. Boleslaw broke his word given to Sviatopolk and decided to rule over Kiev himself. The citizens of Kiev, enraged by uncontrolled pillaging and robbery of Boleslaw's troops, reacted with an uprising and forced the Polish to retreat after six months. Sviatopolk lost the throne soon afterwards and his life the following year. As Boleslaus was involved in an important conflict with German emperor Henry II, he did not intervene on behalf of his son-in-law again and instead signed a pact with Yaroslav.
Although he lost control of Kiev, Boleslaus succeeded in retaining Cherven Towns, which had been captured by Vladimir the Great in 981 and retaken by Boleslaus earlier in the campaign.
