Yaropolk I of Kiev

In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Sviatoslavich.

Yaropolk I Sviatoslavich (also translitered as Iaropolk Svyatoslavich; Old East Slavic: Ꙗрополкъ Свѧтославичъ;^[a][1] 952 – 11 June 978) was Prince of Kiev from 972 to 978.^[2] He was the oldest son of Sviatoslav I. Some modern sources suggest that his mother was Malusha, who was a steward in the household of his grandmother, Olga of Kiev.^[3][4] However, primary chronicles such as the Primary Chronicle do not name his mother, and this identification remains unconfirmed by early sources.^[5][6]

Yaropolk I
Prince Yaropolk at the head of his cavalry
Prince of Kiev
Reign	972–978
Predecessor	Sviatoslav I
Successor	Vladimir I
Born	c. 958
Died	(978-06-11)11 June 978 Kanev
Burial	Church of the Tithes, Kiev
Spouse	Greek nun
Issue	possibly Sviatopolk the Accursed
Names Yaropolk Sviatoslavovich
Dynasty	Rurik
Father	Sviatoslav I
Mother	Malusha

Life

Further information: Feud of the Sviatoslavichi

Yaropolk was given Kiev by his father Sviatoslav I, who left on a military campaign against the Danube Bulgars. Soon after Sviatoslav's death, however, civil war began between Yaropolk and his brothers. According to one chronicle, Yaropolk's brother Oleg killed Lyut, the son of Yaropolk's chief adviser and military commander Sveneld. Alternatively, Sveneld is identical to Sviatoslav, as Sveinald/Sveneld is the Norse rendition of the Slavic name. In an act of revenge and at Sveneld's insistence, Yaropolk went to war against his brother and killed him. Yaropolk then sent his men to Novgorod, from which his other brother Vladimir had fled upon receiving news of Oleg's death. Yaropolk became the sole ruler of Rus'.

Murder of Yaropolk

In 980, Vladimir returned with the Varangian mercenaries and attacked Yaropolk. On his way to Kiev, Vladimir seized Polotsk because Rogneda, daughter of the Polotsk prince Rogvolod, had chosen Yaropolk over him. Vladimir forced Rogneda to marry him. Then, Vladimir seized Kiev with assistance from a boyar, Blud, who had become Yaropolk's chief adviser upon the death of Sveneld. Blud betrayed Yaropolk by advising him to flee from Kiev to the town of Rodnya at the mouth of the Ros' River. Vladimir besieged Rodnya and starved Yaropolk into negotiations. Yaropolk trusted Blud's and his brother's promises of peace and left for Vladimir's headquarters, where he was killed in an ambush by two Varangians.

Purported baptism

As for contemporary foreign sources, Lambert of Hersfeld records that, on the Easter of 973, the Holy Roman Emperor was visited by envoys from Rus' (legati gentium Ruscorum). In later centuries it was said that Yaropolk also exchanged ambassadors with the Pope. The Chronicon of Adémar de Chabannes and the life of St. Romuald (by Pietro Damiani) document how St. Bruno of Querfurt was sent to Rus' (Latin: Russia) and succeeded in converting a local king (one of three brothers who ruled the land) to Christianity. As both texts are rife with anachronisms, Vladimir Parkhomenko reasons that Bruno's deeds were conflated with those of his predecessors, Adalbert of Prague and several anonymous missionaries active in Eastern Europe during Otto II's reign.^[7]

Following this line of thought, Alexander Nazarenko suggests that Yaropolk went through some preliminary rites of baptism, but was murdered by his pagan half-brother (whose own rights to the throne were questionable) before he could be formally received in the Christian faith. Any information on Yaropolk's baptism according to the Latin rite would be suppressed by later Orthodox chroniclers, zealous to keep Vladimir's image of the Russian Apostle untarnished for succeeding generations.^[8] It is known that Vladimir's son Yaroslav had Yaropolk's bones exhumed, christened and interred in the Church of the Tithes.^[9]

Marriage and issue

It is known that Yaropolk was married to a Greek nun. She gave birth to one son of disputed paternity:

• Sviatopolk I of Kiev (c. 980 – 1019)

Notes

1. Russian: Ярополк Святославич; Ukrainian: Ярополк Святославич, romanized: Yaropolk Sviatoslavych