Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky short biography for children

Alexander Yaroslavovich Nevsky, briefly, the son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and the grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest, was born in May 1221. He received his nickname "Nevsky" for the victory on the Neva River. After the death of his brother Fedor, Alexander becomes the eldest son of Yaroslav and the main heir to his possessions. In 1236, Yaroslav goes to reign in Kyiv, and leaves Alexander on the throne in Novgorod.

During his leadership of the Novgorod lands, there was an active construction of fortresses in the South-West along the Shelon River to protect against the Lithuanians. His foreign policy was built in two main directions: the stabilization of relations with the Golden Horde and the strengthening of the western borders. And if Novgorod practically did not suffer from the Mongol-Tatar invasion, since the main hostilities took place south of the Novgorod lands, then a real threat was approaching from the west. The situation in the west was very tense. The permanent territorial conflict with neighbors led to regular ruins of the Pskov-Novgorod lands.

Pope Gregory IX twice in five years proclaimed a crusade against the Finns, and in 1238 the Livonian Order, in alliance with the Danes and Swedes, with the support of the papal curia, began military operations against the Novgorod principality. Here, historians highlight several particularly important battles in which Alexander himself participated. It is worth paying attention to the military battle in July 1240 at the mouth of the Izhora River against the Danish conquerors.

Alexander acts decisively, and without waiting for reinforcements from the allied principalities, he goes to meet the enemy, as a result of this meeting, the Novgorod squad completely defeated the Danish army. In August, when the invasion began from the southwest, Alexander was in Pereyaslavl Zalessky, because due to internal turmoil Novgorodians expelled him from the city. He again takes office and begins military operations against the conquerors, when, as a result of the military campaign of the Livonian Order with allies, Novgorod was under the threat of invasion and the boyars turned to Yaroslav for help.

In 1242, he managed to recapture Pskov, and in April of the same year, a decisive battle took place on Lake Peipsi. According to legend, Alexander's squad won and drove the German knights onto the ice of Lake Peipsi, where the ice could not stand it, and most of the fugitives went under the ice. The Lithuanian army was finally defeated only in 1245 in the area of ​​Lake Zhizhitskoe. According to the results of the peace, Alexander Nevsky returned all his pre-war possessions and received part of Latgale. After the death in 1246 of Father Yaroslav, Prince of Vladimir, the issue of assigning a label to the reign of Vladimir was decided. Batu Khan intended to give the throne of Vladimir to Alexander, but according to Yaroslav's will, his brother Andrei stands at the head of the Vladimir principality, and Novgorod is assigned to Alexander.

In 1251, Prince Andrei acts as an army in alliance with his brother Yaroslav against the Tatars invading their territory, but loses the battle and flees from Vladimir. This is the first historically recorded open opposition to the Golden Horde. After Andrei's military failure, in 1252 the label for the great reign of Vladimir was given to Alexander. Alexander stood at the head of the Vladimir principality, and left his eldest son Vasily in Novgorod. This provoked the aggression of the western neighbors. Military clashes with the Lithuanians, Swedes, and the Teutons begin again. Novgorod, led by Vasily Aleksandrovich, successfully repels the enemy. In 1256, at the request of the Novgorodians, Alexander personally led a squad to defend the Novgorod lands.

In 1257, after the disruption of the Golden Horde census by Novgorod, Alexander sent Vasily to Suzdal, and here he left his second son, seven-year-old Dmitry, on the throne. In short, Alexander Nevsky, during his reign in Novgorod, and then in Vladimir, in his spring policy, adhered to the norms of the Tatar-Mongol yoke and stabilized the situation in the east, and followed a strict policy of respecting the territorial boundaries of the Russian principalities in the west. His foresight, ability to adapt to the existing political conditions, and at the same time, determination and courage in defending his vital interests allowed the Russian lands to recover from the long Tatar defeats and gain strength before the decisive battle for independence.

Alexander Nevsky - Grand Duke of Kyiv, Prince of Vladimir and Novgorod, as well as the great Russian commander.
You can talk about the personality of Alexander Nevsky for a long time, but we will consider his brief biography.
Early years.
The future prince was born in May 1221. Four years later, he was already initiated into the warriors. Alexander's independent life began when he was fifteen years old.
Alexander is a great commander.
The first military experience came to him in the war for Smolensk against the Lithuanian army, where he emerged victorious. In 1239, he married the daughter of the Polotsk prince Alexandra, and a year later he had a son.
In 1240, a large Swedish fleet came to the Neva, which threatened his state. Alexander decided to act decisively and with lightning speed. He did not even wait for reinforcements, the militia - only with the help of his squad he attacked the Swedes and was able to win a decisive victory. It was this victory that gave him the nickname - Nevsky.
At the end of 1239, the Teutonic Order began its campaign against Russian lands. They managed to capture a number of cities, but Alexander Nevsky met them at Lake Peipus. The battle took place on April 5, 1242 and went down in history as the Battle of the Ice. Alexander managed to turn the tide of the battle when his center was defeated, thanks to flank attacks, he threw back the Teutonic army. The Russian army pursued the knights running across the ice, and at the same time, many Teutons went under the ice forever. After that, peace was concluded between the Order and Novgorod.
In 1245 Alexander defeated the Lithuanian army.
Alexander is the Grand Duke.
In 1252, Alexander Nevsky became the Grand Duke, which was immediately followed by a war with the Lithuanians and the Teutons, where they were again defeated and were forced to sign a peace treaty.
During his short reign, he managed to win the respect of the Golden Horde, repel many attacks from Lithuania and the Livonian Order.
In 1262, he went with the Golden Horde in order to calm the Mongol khan, angry with the anti-Mongol uprising - he managed to do this, but Alexander fell seriously ill in the Horde and returned to Russia.
In 1263 the prince died. He was remembered as a knight who did not lose a single battle, Mongolian women frightened him with the name of their children, and Western knights admired his exploits. In addition, he was a saint of the Orthodox Church.
The majority evaluates Alexander as a Grand Duke and a warrior - this is what Russian historians, many Eastern, as well as a number of Western historians say. But many Western historians also evaluate his reign negatively, and his role in the war against the Teutonic Order is of little importance, since they did not pose a big threat and the battles were small.

Alexander Nevsky is one of those names that everyone in our Fatherland knows. The prince, covered with military glory, who was honored with a literary story about his deeds shortly after his death, was canonized by the church; a man whose name continued to inspire generations that lived many centuries later: in 1725, the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was established, and in 1942, the Soviet Order of Alexander Nevsky (the only Soviet order named after a figure from the era of the Russian Middle Ages). For most Russians, his name is associated with the image created in the film by S. Eisenstein "Alexander Nevsky" by N. Cherkasov.

Alexander was born in 1221 in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky 1. His father, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, was the third son of one of the most powerful Russian princes of the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Vsevolod the Big Nest, son of Yuri Dolgoruky, grandson of Vladimir Monomakh. Vsevolod (who died in 1212) owned North-Eastern Russia (Vladimir-Suzdal land). Yaroslav (born in 1190) received from his father the Principality of Pereyaslav, which was part of Vladimir-Suzdal. Yaroslav's first wife was Konchak's granddaughter (the daughter of his son, Yuri Konchakovich). Around 1213, Yaroslav married a second time (his first wife died or the marriage was terminated for some reason - unknown) - to Rostislav-Feodosia, the daughter of the Novgorod (later Galician) prince Mstislav Mstislavich (often referred to in the literature as "Remote" on the basis of incorrectly understood definition of the prince in the message about his death as "successful", i.e. lucky). In 1216, Yaroslav and his elder brother Yuri waged an unsuccessful war against Mstislav, were defeated, and Mstislav took his daughter from Yaroslav on the Ryazan princess - erroneously) and at the beginning of 1220 their first-born Fedor was born, and in May 1221 - Alexander 3.

In 1230, Yaroslav Vsevolodich, after a difficult struggle with the Chernigov prince Mikhail Vsevolodich (the grandson of Svyatoslav of Kyiv "The Tale of Igor's Campaign"), established himself to reign in Novgorod the Great. He himself preferred to live in his father's Pereyaslavl, and left princes Fedor and Alexander in Novgorod. In 1233, Alexander remained the eldest of the Yaroslavichs - 13-year-old Fyodor died unexpectedly on the eve of his wedding. “And who will not grant this: the wedding is built, the honey is boiled, the bride is brought, the princes are called; and there will be a place of weeping and lamentation for our sins in fun,” the Novgorod chronicler wrote on this occasion 4.

In 1236, Yaroslav Vsevolodich left Novgorod to reign in Kyiv (which continued to be considered the nominal capital of all Russia). Alexander became an independent Novgorod prince. It was in Novgorod that he was in the winter of 1237-1238, at a time when North-Eastern Russia suffered a catastrophe: the hordes of the Mongol Empire, led by the grandson of its founder Genghis Khan Batu (Batu), ravaged the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. 14 cities were taken, including the capital - Vladimir. In a battle with one of the Tatar (in Europe, including Russia, the Mongol conquerors were called "Tatars") detachments on the river. City died the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodich, the elder brother of Yaroslav 5.

After the Mongol troops returned to the Volga steppes in the spring of 1238, Yaroslav Vsevolodich came from Kyiv to the devastated Vladimir and occupied the main princely table of North-Eastern Russia. After that, in 1239, he took vigorous action to strengthen his influence in neighboring lands. Yaroslav defeated the Lithuanian troops that captured Smolensk, and planted an allied prince here; made a successful trip to South Russia 6. In line with this policy, there was also an agreement on the marriage of the eldest son Yaroslav with the daughter of the ruler of a large Western Russian center - Polotsk. In 1239, the wedding of Alexander and the daughter of the Polotsk prince Bryachislav 7 took place. And in the summer of the next, in 1240, an event took place that brought Alexander the first military glory.

In the first half of the XIII century. Swedish feudal lords launched an offensive on the lands of the Finnish tribes and took possession of southwestern Finland. Attempts to move further to the East inevitably had to lead to a collision with Novgorod, which belonged to the mouth of the Neva and the coast of Lake Ladoga. And in 1240, for the first time since 1164, the Swedish army entered the Neva from the Gulf of Finland. He was led, perhaps, by Jarl (the second most important title in Sweden after the king) Ulf Fasi (the reliability of the information from later sources that Birger, later the actual ruler of Sweden, commanded the Swedish forces, is doubtful) 8. It is unlikely that the goal of the Swedes was a campaign against Novgorod itself; most likely, their task was to fortify at the mouth of the Neva in order to cut off the Novgorod land access to the sea and make it impossible to resist the Swedes in the struggle for eastern Finland 9. The moment for the attack was chosen well: the military forces of the princes of North-Eastern Russia, who often came to the rescue Novgorodians in external wars, were weakened as a result of heavy losses incurred during Batu's campaign of 1237-1238.

It is not known what experience of participation in military campaigns the 19-year-old Alexander had by this time. It is possible that he took part in his father's campaign of 1234 against the German crusader knights who settled in the first third of the 13th century. on the lands of the Baltic tribes - the ancestors of the Estonians and Latvians, a campaign that ended in a successful battle for the Russians on the river. Emajõgi in South-Eastern Estonia 10. It is possible that Alexander also participated in his father's actions against the Lithuanians in 1239. But, in any case, for the first time he had to act independently, make his own decisions and take the lead in military operations.

Having received news of the appearance of the Swedish army, the Novgorod prince could take a wait-and-see attitude, send a request for military assistance to his father in Vladimir, and try to gather a militia from the inhabitants of Novgorod land. But Alexander made a different decision: only with his squad and a small detachment of Novgorodians immediately attack the enemy. "God is not strong, but in truth", - said, according to the testimony of the author of the Life of Alexander, the prince, setting off on a campaign 11.

July 15, 1240, on Sunday, the Russian army suddenly attacked the numerically superior Swedes, encamped near the confluence of the Izhora River into the Neva. The enemy, taken by surprise, suffered heavy losses. The second most important Swedish military leader (called the "voivode" in the Russian chronicle) and many noble warriors perished. According to the Life of Alexander, the prince himself met in battle with a representative of the enemy army and wounded him with a spear in the face 12. The battle ended, apparently, with the onset of darkness, and the Swedes were able to bury the dead. Under the cover of night, the remnants of the enemy troops boarded the ships and sailed away 13.

At the end of the same 1240, German crusader knights began aggression against the Novgorod land. During the first third of the XIII century. Knights of the Order of the Swordsmen captured the lands of the Baltic tribes - Estonians, Livs and Latgalians. The possessions of the Order came into close contact with the borders of Russia (along the river Narva and Lake Peipsi). Since the end of the 1910s, direct clashes began. After the defeats suffered by the crusaders from Yaroslav Vsevolodich in 1234 and, especially, from the Lithuanians at Siauliai in 1236 (where almost all the sword-bearing knights died - 49 people), the Order of the Sword-bearers merged with the Teutonic Order, which settled in East Prussia (1237 .). The part of the united Order, which received reinforcements from Prussia and Germany, located on the territory of modern Estonia and Latvia, became known as the Livonian Order. Not satisfied with the conquest of the Baltic tribes, the crusaders tried to transfer the expansion to the Russian lands. As with the invasion of the Eastern Baltic, behind the back of the Order stood the papal throne in Rome. The conquest of the peoples of the Baltic states was consecrated by the idea of ​​converting them to Christianity, the war with Russia was justified by the fact that its inhabitants were, from a Catholic point of view, "schismatics" - adherents of the Eastern, Orthodox version of Christianity. At the end of 1240, the Germans captured Izborsk, a city on the western border of the Novgorod land. Then they defeated the army of the large semi-independent center of Pskov, and, thanks to the subsequent collusion with part of the Pskov boyars, they occupied the city. In the north-west of the Novgorod land, the Germans settled in the churchyard of Koporye (to the east of the Narova River near the Gulf of Finland). The entire western part of the Novgorod possessions was ruined by German detachments 14.

The situation was complicated by the fact that at the height of the German offensive, in the winter of 1240-1241. Prince Alexander quarreled with the Novgorod boyars and went to his father in Pereyaslavl together with his "court" (team) 15. The political system of Novgorod had certain specific features that were different from the system of other Russian lands. Here, the local boyars represented a significant force, which invited princes from different lands to the Novgorod table at their discretion. Often the princes, who did not get along with the local nobility, were forced to leave Novgorod 16. This also happened with Alexander (the sources do not report the reasons for the conflict).

Meanwhile, German detachments began to appear already 30 miles from the city, and the Novgorodians sent an embassy to Yaroslav Vsevolodich asking for help. Yaroslav sent to them the second oldest of his sons - Andrei. Soon, apparently, it became clear that he could not properly organize a rebuff, and a new embassy was sent to Yaroslav, headed by the Archbishop of Novgorod, with a request to send Alexander to reign in Novgorod again. And "vod Yaroslav his son Alexander again" 17.

Returning to Novgorod, Yaroslavich actively set to work. He sent the first blow (1241) to Koporye, the stronghold of the invaders. The fortress built here by the enemy was taken. Some of the captured Germans Alexander brought to Novgorod, some he released; at the same time, traitors from the Finnish-speaking tribes of Vodi and Chud who lived in the Koporye region, who had gone over to the side of the enemy, he ordered to be hanged. At the beginning of the next, in 1242, the prince with his retinue, an army of Novgorodians and a detachment led by his brother Andrei, sent by his father to help from Suzdal, moved to the lands of the Order. At the same time, he blocked the paths connecting the German possessions with Pskov, and then occupied the city with a sudden blow. The Germans who were in Pskov were captured and sent to Novgorod. Having crossed the border of the Order's possessions, Alexander sent forward a reconnaissance detachment led by the brother of the Novgorod posadnik (the highest official of Novgorod from among the local boyars). This detachment ran into the order army. In the ensuing battle, the leader of the detachment, Domash Tverdislavich, died, some of the soldiers died or were captured, others fled to Alexander. After that, the prince retreated to the ice of Lake Peipus (the natural border between the Novgorod and Order possessions) and took up a position near the eastern shore.

On April 5, 1242, on Saturday, the order army attacked the Russians. Forming a wedge (in Russian sources of that time, this formation is called a “pig”), the Germans and the Chud (Ests) managed to break through the defensive line, made up of lightly armed warriors, but were attacked from the flanks by cavalry detachments (obviously, the squads of Alexander and Andrei) and suffered a complete defeat. Alexander's soldiers pursued the fleeing enemy seven miles across the ice to the western shore of Lake 18.

According to the Novgorod chronicle, in the battle "pade Chudi beschisla" (countless), and there were 400 Germans; in addition, another 50 Germans were captured and brought to Novgorod 19. The Livonian source - "Rhyming Chronicle" - names other loss figures: 20 knights were killed and 6 prisoners 20. This discrepancy, however, is most likely not due to overestimation enemy losses in the first case and an understatement of "ours" in the second. Actually, the knights of the Order were the best equipped and trained part of the German army, but numerically very insignificant: according to the same Chronicle, during the campaign against Pskov in 1268, only one out of every hundred soldiers was a knight of the Order 21. In addition to the knights, they participated in the battle their military servants, the soldiers of the bishop of Derpt, probably detachments of German colonial townspeople. A Russian source gives an approximate total of German casualties; in Livonian, however, we are talking only about order knights. According to researchers, in 1242 there were only about a hundred knights in Livonia, while a significant part of them fought with the Baltic tribe of the Curonians 22. Thus, the loss of 26 people killed and captured was, apparently, about half of the number of knights participating in the Ice massacre, and about a quarter - of the total number of knights of the Livonian Order.

In the same year, the Germans sent an embassy to Novgorod with a request for peace: the Order renounced all claims to Russian lands and asked for an exchange of prisoners. The peace treaty was signed on 23.

While the war with the Order was going on in the North of Russia, tragic events were unfolding in the South. At the end of 1240, Batu's army invaded South Russia, captured Pereyaslavl, Chernigov, Kyiv, Galich, Vladimir-Volynsky, and many other cities. Having devastated the southern Russian lands, Batu moved to Central Europe. Hungary and Poland were devastated. Mongolian troops reached the Czech Republic and the shores of the Adriatic. Only at the end of 1242 Batu returned to the Volga region 24. Here the western ulus of the Mongol Empire was formed - the so-called. Golden Horde. As conquerors, the Mongols began to impose their suzerainty on the Russian princes. The first to be summoned to Batu's headquarters in 1243 was Alexander's father, the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yaroslav Vsevolodich, the strongest of the Russian princes at that time, who did not fight the Tatars (during their campaign against North-Eastern Russia, he was in Kyiv, and during the campaign to South Russia - in Vladimir). Batu recognized Yaroslav as the "oldest" of the Russian princes, confirming his rights to Vladimir and Kyiv, the ancient capital of Russia 25. But the Golden Horde was still part of a huge empire that stretched from the Carpathians to the Pacific Ocean. And Yaroslav was forced in 1246 to go to Mongolia, to the capital of the great khan - Karakorum - for approval.

Alexander, meanwhile, continued to reign in Novgorod. In 1245, Novgorod land was raided by Lithuanians who reached Torzhok and Bezhichi. The prince chased them and defeated them in several battles - at Toropets, Zhizhitsy and Usvyat (within the Smolensk and Vitebsk principalities); many Lithuanian "princes" were killed 26.

On September 30, 1246, Yaroslav Vsevolodich, Alexander's father, died in distant Mongolia. He was poisoned by the mother of the great Mongol Khan Guyuk Turakina, who was hostile to Batu, whose protege in the eyes of the Karakorum court was Yaroslav. After that, Turakina sent an ambassador to Alexander with a demand to come to Karakorum. But Alexander refused.

In 1247, Svyatoslav Vsevolodich, the younger brother of Yaroslav, became the Grand Duke of Vladimir (in accordance with the ancient Russian tradition of inheriting princely power, according to which brothers were given preference over sons). Alexander, according to the redistribution of tables, got Tver in North-Eastern Russia (while he retained the reign of Novgorod) 28. But at the end of that year, the prince, together with his brother Andrei, went to Batu. Obviously, the Yaroslavichi appealed to the act of the khan’s grant to their father, which gave the sons priority rights over their uncle to the great reign of Vladimir (later, only the descendants of Yaroslav Vsevolodich claimed it). From Batu, both went to Karakorum, from where they returned to Russia only at the end of 1249. 29

While Alexander was in the steppes, two messages were sent to him by Pope Innocent IV. First, his father met in Karakorum with the Pope's ambassador, Plano Carpini, and agreed, according to the latter, to accept the patronage of the Roman Church. Secondly, from Plano Carpini, the pope learned of Alexander's refusal to submit to the great khansha. In his letter to the prince dated January 22, 1248, the pope insisted that he follow the example of his father and asked, in the event of a Tatar offensive, to notify about him “the brothers of the Teutonic Order, who are in Livonia, so that as soon as this (the news) reaches through the brothers thereof to our knowledge, we could immediately think about how, with the help of God, these Tatars could offer courageous resistance" 31.

The papal bull, apparently, managed to be delivered to Alexander while he was at Batu's headquarters in the lower reaches of the Volga. The prince of Novgorod gave an answer, the text of which has not come down to us, but, judging by the content of the next message of the pope (dated September 15, 1248), this answer was evasive or even mostly positive in regard to accepting the patronage of the Roman Church 32. Apparently, being in an uncertain position at the court of Batu, the prince wanted to retain the possibility of choice, depending on the results of his trip. In the second message, Innocent IV gave a positive response to Alexander's proposal to build a Catholic cathedral in Pskov and asked to receive his ambassador, the Archbishop of Prussia. But the bull did not have time to reach the addressee - he was already on his way to Karakorum 33.

The new ruler Ogul-Gamish (Guyuk's widow) recognized (in 1249) Alexander as the "oldest" among the Russian princes: he received Kyiv. But at the same time, Andrei got Vladimir. Thus, the legacy of Yaroslav Vsevolodich was divided into two parts. Alexander chose not to go to distant Kyiv, which had suffered greatly from the Tatar defeat in 1240, and continued to reign in Novgorod. Meanwhile, ambassadors from the pope came to him for a final answer to the proposal to convert to Catholicism. The prince answered with a decisive refusal.

Andrei Yaroslavich, having settled in Vladimir, entered into an alliance with the strongest prince of Southern Russia, Daniil Romanovich Galitsky, marrying his daughter, and tried to conduct (like his father-in-law at that time) a policy independent of the Golden Horde. Such an opportunity was given to him, apparently, by the granting of the reign of Vladimir by the Karakorum court, hostile to Batu. But in 1251, Batu's friend and henchman Munke became the great khan. This untied the hands of the Golden Horde Khan, and the following year he organized military actions against Andrei and Daniel. Batu sent the army of Kurimsa to the Galician prince, which did not achieve success, and to Andrey - Nevryuy, who devastated the environs of Pereyaslavl. The Prince of Vladimir fled, finding refuge in Sweden (later he returned to Russia and reigned in Suzdal). In the same year, even before the campaign of Nevryuy, Alexander went to Batu, received a label for the great reign of Vladimir, and upon his return (already after the expulsion of Andrei) sat down in Vladimir 35.

From 1252 until his death in 1263, Alexander Yaroslavich was the Grand Duke of Vladimir. Having settled here, he took steps to secure his rights to Novgorod. Previously, the Novgorod boyars could invite princes from various Russian lands - Vladimir-Suzdal, Smolensk, Chernigov. Since the time of Alexander, a new order has been established: Novgorod recognized as its prince the one who occupied the grand prince's table in Vladimir. Thus, having become the Grand Duke of Vladimir, Alexander retained the reign of Novgorod. There he left his eldest son Vasily, but not as an independent prince, but as his governor 36.

The Novgorod boyars did not immediately accept the new order. In 1255, supporters of an independent Novgorod princedom expelled Vasily Alexandrovich from the city and invited Alexander's younger brother Yaroslav (in 1252, Andrei's former ally, who fled to Pskov and reigned there until 1255). Alexander moved to Novgorod by war, but did not storm the city, but preferred the path of negotiations. At first, he demanded that his opponents be handed over from among the Novgorod nobility (Yaroslav fled the city when Alexander approached). Novgorodians agreed to recognize Alexander as their prince, but on the condition that they forgive the leaders of the rebellion. Finally, the prince softened the demands, limiting them to the removal of an objectionable posadnik; this was done, Alexander entered the city, and peace was restored 37.

In the next year, 1256, the Swedes tried to build a city on the eastern, Russian bank of the river. Narova. Alexander was then in Vladimir, and the Novgorodians sent to him for help. Having heard about the collection of Russian troops, the Swedes abandoned their idea and sailed away "over the sea." The prince, having arrived in Novgorod, went on a campaign, and at first he did not tell the Novgorodians who went with him what his goal was. It turned out that he planned to strike at southeastern Finland captured by the Swedes in 1250. The campaign turned out to be generally successful: the strongholds of the Swedes in the land of the Finnish tribe Em were destroyed. But it was not possible to eliminate the power of Sweden over this part of Finland for a long time - after the departure of the Russian troops, the Swedish administration restored its rule 38.

In 1257, the Mongol Empire conducted a population census in North-Eastern Russia to streamline the system of taxation. Alexander Yaroslavich, who then made a trip to the Horde, was forced to agree to a census, maintaining his line on peaceful relations with the Tatars and recognition of the supreme suzerainty of the ruler of the Golden Horde and the great Mongol Khan. From the Suzdal land, the Tatar "numerals" went to Novgorod. The prince accompanied them with a military detachment. In the city, at the news of the Tatar demands for the payment of tribute, a rebellion began, supported by Vasily Alexandrovich, who was still governor there. The Novgorodians did not give "tithes and tamgas" to the Tatar ambassadors, limiting themselves to gifts to the "Caesar" (Great Khan). Alexander, with his detachment, dealt with the rebels: he drove Vasily out of Pskov (where he fled when his father approached) and sent him to Suzdal, and those who incited him to disobedience "cut off their noses, and vyimash eyes to others." In 1259, the Novgorodians, fearing a Tatar invasion, nevertheless agreed to the Horde census. But when the Tatar ambassadors, accompanied by Alexander, began to collect tribute, a rebellion rose up again in Novgorod. After a long confrontation, the Novgorodians nevertheless lost. Following the Tatars, Alexander also left the city, leaving his second son Dmitry 39 as governor.

In 1262, in several cities of North-Eastern Russia - Rostov, Vladimir, Suzdal, Yaroslavl - an uprising broke out, as a result of which the tribute collectors sent by the great khan were killed or expelled. There was no punitive campaign from the Golden Horde: its Khan Berke at that time sought independence from the Great Khan's throne, and the expulsion of the Great Khan's officials from Russia was in his interests. But in the same year, Berke started a war against the Mongol ruler of Iran, Hulagu, and began to demand that Russian troops be sent to help him. Alexander went to the Horde in order to "pray the people from that misfortune" 40. Before leaving, he organized a large campaign against the Livonian Order.

After the Battle of the Ice in 1242, the crusaders did not disturb the Russian lands for 11 years. But in 1253 they violated the peace treaty and approached Pskov, but were repulsed by the Pskovites and the Novgorodians who came to the rescue 41. In subsequent years, the knights tried to increase the pressure on Lithuania, but failed: with its ruler, Mindovg, inflicted a crushing defeat on the combined forces of the Teutonic and Livonian orders (only 150 knights died). The defeat of the crusaders caused a series of uprisings of the Baltic peoples conquered by them. Under these conditions, Alexander entered into an alliance with Mindovg, and the two winners of the Order began to prepare a joint attack on Livonia from two sides: Russian troops were to move on Yuryev (formerly an ancient Russian city set by Yaroslav the Wise in the land of the Estonians; captured by the crusaders in 1234 and named Derpt; now Tartu), and Lithuanian - to Venden (now Cesis).

In the autumn of 1262, Russian troops set out on a campaign. They were commanded by the son of Alexander Yaroslavich Dmitry and brother Yaroslav (who had reconciled by that time with Alexander and reigned in Tver). Together with the Russian forces, the army of the Lithuanian prince Tovtivil, who reigned at that time in Polotsk, went. Yuriev was taken by storm. But a coordinated campaign did not work out: the Lithuanian troops set out earlier and had already retreated from Vendel when the Russians approached Yuryev. Having learned about this after the capture of the city, the Russian troops returned to their land. Nevertheless, the campaign once again demonstrated the strength of the two opponents of the Order - Northern Russia and Lithuania 42.

Alexander arrived in the Horde for almost a year. His mission, apparently, was a success: there is no information about the participation of Russian troops in the wars of the Golden Horde against Hulagu. On the way back to Russia in the autumn of 1263, the 42-year-old Grand Duke fell ill and died on November 14, 1263 in Gorodets on the Volga, having taken monastic vows before his death. On November 23, Alexander's body was buried in the monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin in Vladimir. In his funeral speech, Metropolitan of All Russia Kirill said: "My child, understand that the sun of the land of Suzdal has already set!" 43

In the literature, one can come across the assumption that Alexander, like his father, was poisoned by the Tatars 44. In the sources, however, such a version of his death is not found. In principle, there is nothing surprising in the fact that a long stay in unusual climatic conditions could affect the health of an already elderly person by the standards of that time. In addition, Alexander, apparently, did not differ in iron health: in 1251, the chronicle mentions a serious illness that almost brought him to the grave at the age of thirty 45.

After the death of Alexander, his younger brother Yaroslav became the Grand Duke of Vladimir. The sons of Alexander received: Dmitry - Pereyaslavl, Andrey - Gorodets 46. The younger, Daniel (born in 1261) became after some time the first Moscow prince and the dynasty of Moscow grand dukes and tsars went from him.

If the official (secular and ecclesiastical) assessment of the personality of Alexander Nevsky has always been panegyric, then in historical science his activities were interpreted ambiguously. And this ambiguity naturally follows from the apparent contradiction in the image of Alexander. Indeed: on the one hand, this is undoubtedly an outstanding commander who won all the battles in which he participated, combined decisiveness with prudence, a man of great personal courage; on the other hand, this is a prince who was forced to recognize the supreme power of a foreign ruler, who did not try to organize resistance to the Mongols, undoubtedly the most dangerous enemy of Russia of that era, moreover, he helped them in establishing a system for the exploitation of Russian lands.

One of the extreme points of view on the activities of Alexander, formulated in the 1920s by the Russian émigré historian G.V. Vernadsky 47 and recently largely repeated by L.N. choice between orienting to the East and orienting to the West. Having entered into an alliance with the Horde, he prevented the absorption of Northern Russia by Catholic Europe and, thereby, saved Russian Orthodoxy - the basis of identity. According to another point of view, defended by the English historian J. Fennell and supported by the Russian researcher I.N. Danilevsky, it was Alexander's "collaborationism" in relation to the Mongols, his betrayal of the brothers Andrei and Yaroslav in 1252 that caused the establishment of the yoke of the Golden Horde in Russia 49 .

So was Alexander really made a historical choice and can one and the same person be both a hero and a collaborator-traitor?

Given the mentality of the era and the characteristics of Alexander's personal biography, both of these points of view look far-fetched. The suzerainty of the Horde immediately acquired a certain semblance of legitimacy in the worldview of the Russian people; its ruler was called in Russia by a higher title than any of the Russian princes - the title "tsar" 50. The dependence of the Russian lands on the Horde in its main features (including the collection of tribute) began to take shape as early as the 40s of the 13th century. 51 (at the time when Alexander reigned in Novgorod and did not directly influence Russian-Tatar relations); in the 1950s there was only a streamlining of the system of economic exploitation. After the death of his father in 1246, when Alexander became the strongest prince in Northern Russia, he really faced a choice: to maintain peaceful relations with the Horde, recognizing the supreme suzerainty of the khans over Russia (already recognized by this time by all significant princes of both Northern and Southern Russia) and resist the Order, or start resisting the Tatars by entering into an alliance with the Order and the religious head of Catholic Europe behind it - the pope (the prospect of a war on two fronts to the prince, who spent most of his life in Novgorod, near the Horde border, should have seemed unacceptable, and quite fair). Alexander hesitated until returning from a trip to Karakoram and firmly chose the first option only in 1250. What was the reason for the decision of the prince?

Of course, one should take into account the general wary attitude towards Catholicism and the personal experience of Alexander, who in 1241-1242, at the age of twenty, had to repel the advance of German crusaders supported by Rome on the Novgorod land. But these factors also acted in 1248, however, then the prince's response to the pope's message was different. Consequently, something that appeared later tipped the scales against the pope's proposal. It can be assumed that four factors had an impact:

1) During his two-year trip across the steppes (1247 - 1249), Alexander was able, on the one hand, to be convinced of the military power of the Mongol Empire, and on the other hand, to understand that the Mongol-Tatars do not claim to directly seize Russian lands, being content with recognition vassalage and tribute, and also differ in religious tolerance and are not going to encroach on the Orthodox faith. This should have favorably distinguished them in the eyes of the prince from the crusaders, whose actions were characterized by the direct seizure of territory and the forcible conversion of the population to Catholicism.

2) After Alexander's return to Russia at the end of 1249, information should have reached him that the rapprochement with Rome of the strongest prince of Southern Russia, Daniil Romanovich Galitsky, turned out to be useless for the defense against the Tatars: the anti-Tatar crusade promised by the pope did not take place 52.

3) In 1249, the de facto ruler of Sweden, Jarl Birger, began the final conquest of the land of emi (Central Finland), and this was done with the blessing of the papal legate 53. to him an act on the part of the curia.

4) The mention in the bull of September 15, 1248 of the possibility of establishing a Catholic episcopal see in Pskov 54 inevitably had to cause negative emotions in Alexander, because. earlier, a bishopric was established in Yuryev, captured by the Germans, and therefore the proposal to establish one in Pskov was associated with the annexationist aspirations of the Order, recalling the more than a year stay of Pskov in 1240-1242. in the hands of the crusaders. Thus, the decision of the prince to stop contacts with Innocent IV was associated with the realization of the futility of rapprochement with Rome to oppose the Horde and with obvious manifestations of selfish motives in the policy of the pope.

But what happened in 1252? According to the information of the early chronicles and the life of Alexander, this year the Novgorod prince went to the Horde. After that, Batu sent an army under the command of Nevryuy to Andrei Yaroslavich; Andrei fled from Vladimir, first to Pereyaslavl, where his ally, the younger brother of Alexander and Andrei, Yaroslav Yaroslavich, reigned. The Tatars, who approached Pereyaslavl, killed Yaroslav's wife, captured his children "and the people were helpless"; Andrei and Yaroslav managed to escape. After the departure of Nevruy, Alexander arrived from the Horde and settled in Vladimir 55.

In historiography, the following interpretation of these events has become widespread: Alexander went to the Horde on his own initiative with a complaint about his brother, and Nevruy’s campaign was the result of this complaint. these facts, while J. Fennell interpreted the events of 1252 without any constraint: "Alexander betrayed his brothers" 57. objectivity) from the recognition that it was Alexander who was to blame for the ruin of the earth and the death of people, incl. his daughter-in-law; however, no reference to higher political considerations can serve as a serious justification. If the given interpretation of the events of 1252 is correct, Alexander Yaroslavich appears as an unprincipled person, ready to do anything to increase his power. But is it true?

Alexander's complaint against his brother is not mentioned in any medieval source. There is a message about it only in the "History of the Russian" by V.N. Tatishchev, it was from there that it passed into the works of later researchers. According to Tatishchev, "Alexander complained about his brother, Grand Duke Andrei, as if he had solicited the khan, taking the great reign under him, as if he were the oldest, and he caught his father's city, and he did not pay the khan's exits and tamgas in full" 58. In this case, an uncritical judgment is unlawful, that Tatishchev quotes, "apparently, an early source that did not get into the annals" 59. The use of sources that have not come down to us in the Russian History is likely, but refers to other periods (primarily the 12th century). At the same time, there are many additions in Tatishchev’s work, which are research reconstructions, attempts to restore what the source “did not finish”: unlike later historiography, where the text of the source is separated from the judgments of the researcher, they are not delimited in Russian History , which often gives rise to the illusion of mentioning unknown facts where there is a guess (often plausible) of the scientist. Such is the case under consideration 60. The article of 1252 by Tatishchev as a whole repeats verbatim one of the sources he had - the Nikon Chronicle 61. The exception is the passage cited above. It is a completely logical reconstruction: since Nevruy's campaign took place after Alexander's arrival in the Horde, and after the campaign he took the table that belonged to Andrei, it means that the campaign was caused by Alexander's complaint against his brother; analogies of such a development of events are found in the activities of the princes of North-Eastern Russia of a later time 62. Thus, we are not talking about the source’s message, but about the researcher’s guess, uncritically perceived by subsequent historiography, and the question is whether the sources give grounds for such an interpretation of events .

Andrei Yaroslavich, apparently, really pursued a policy independent of Batu, however, in his actions he relied on such a weighty support as a label for the reign of Vladimir, received in 1249 in Karakorum from Khansha Ogul-Gamish, hostile to Batu, 63. But in 1251 Batu managed to put his henchman Munke on the Karakorum throne and the next year he organized two campaigns at the same time - Nevruy against Andrey Yaroslavich and Kuremsy against Daniil Romanovich. Thus, the campaign of Nevruy was clearly a planned action as part of actions against the princes who did not obey Batu, and not a reaction to Alexander's complaint. But, if we consider the latter a myth, then for what purpose did Alexander go to the Horde?

In the Laurentian Chronicle (the oldest containing a story about the events of 1252), the facts are presented in the following sequence: first it says that "Ide Oleksandr, Prince of Novgorod and Yaroslavich, to the Tatars and let him go and with great honor, giving him the eldership in all his brothers", then it tells about the Tatar campaign against Andrei, after which it tells about the arrival of Alexander from the Horde to Vladimir 64. Since he returned to Russia undoubtedly after the "Nevryuev rati", the words "let go and with honor", etc. should be attributed to the same time. Before telling about the Tatar campaign, the chronicler says: “Prince Yaroslavich and his boyars are thinking of running away rather than serve as a tsar.” but "fight or flight"), as before. Most likely, Andrei's "thought" with the boyars took place after the Vladimir prince received a demand to come to the Horde. Batu, having finished with internal Mongol affairs, was going to reconsider the decision on the distribution of the main tables in Russia, adopted in 1249 by the former, hostile to him, the Karakorum court, and summoned both Alexander and Andrei to him. The first obeyed the Khan's demand. Andrei, after consulting with his boyars, decided not to go (perhaps he did not count on a successful outcome of the trip because of the favor shown to him in 1249 by the government of the now overthrown and murdered great khansha). After that, Batu decided to send a military expedition against Andrei, as well as another prince who did not obey him - Daniil of Galitsky, and give Alexander a label for the great reign of Vladimir. It should be noted that the campaign of Nevruy was a much more "local" enterprise than the campaigns against the princes who did not obey Sarai in the early 80s. 13th century and in 1293 ("Dyudenev's army"): only the environs of Pereyaslavl and, possibly, Vladimir were devastated. 66. It is possible that such "limitation" was the result of Alexander's diplomatic efforts.

In general, it can be stated that in the actions of Alexander Yaroslavich there is no reason to look for some kind of conscious fateful choice. He was a man of his era, acted in accordance with the worldview of that time and personal experience. Alexander was, in modern terms, a "pragmatist": he chose the path that seemed to him more profitable for strengthening his land and for himself personally. When it was a decisive battle, he fought; when an agreement with one of the enemies of Russia seemed most useful, he went to an agreement. As a result, during the period of the great reign of Alexander (1252 - 1263) there were no Tatar raids on Suzdal land and only two attempts to attack Russia from the West (Germans in 1253 and Swedes in 1256), quickly suppressed. Alexander achieved recognition by Novgorod of the suzerainty of the Grand Duke of Vladimir (which was one of the factors due to which it was North-Eastern Russia that later turned into the core of the new, Russian state). His preference for the Vladimir table over Kyiv was a decisive event in the process of moving the nominal capital of Russia from Kyiv to Vladimir (because it turned out that it was Vladimir who was chosen as the capital by the prince, recognized as the "oldest" in Russia) 67. But these long-term consequences of Alexander's policy Nevsky were not the result of a change in the objective course of events. On the contrary, Alexander acted in accordance with the objective circumstances of his era, acted prudently and energetically.

The name of this man sounded quite loudly in the history of Russia. Alexander Nevsky was a politician and diplomat, but contemporaries considered him more of a commander, thanks to the famous battles in which victories were won.

What was the fate and personality of this man, and how did he become famous in generations? Let's talk about the biography of the Grand Duke.

The boy was born in the family of the Pereyaslav prince and the Toropet princess - Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Rostislava Mstislavna.

My father ruled first in Pereyaslavl itself, then became the head of one of the richest cities in Russia at that time - Novgorod, and even later took the throne of Kyiv.

Observing what his father did in his life, Alexander Nevsky learned diplomacy from him, and very early this science had to be applied.

The future famous commander had eight brothers and two sisters. In terms of seniority, the future ruler was the second and was born on May 30, 1221 in Pereslavl-Zalessky.

Already at the age of four, the father christened the eldest sons - Alexander and Fedor warriors, with the help of tonsure. From about the same time, boys began to be trained in military affairs.

Board history

The life of Alexander Nevsky was glorified by the administration of various regions of Russia, and after that by the throne of Kyiv. The chronology of the reign is as follows:

1. In 1228, at the age of seven, he was left by his father to reign together with his elder brother Fyodor in Novgorod, under the supervision of the boyar Fyodor Danilovich. Despite the nominality of such a power, during the year the local population forced the princes to flee the land of this region under the threat of death.
2. In 1230, Yaroslav restored his power in Novgorod, and in 1236 he left to rule in Kyiv. The young prince, not yet being nicknamed Nevsky, becomes the head of the city for four years. A few months after the victory on the Neva, he is expelled by local boyars.
3. During the next year, the region is besieged by the Germans, and the Novgorodians demand from Yaroslav to return the young commander to the city. After some thought, Yaroslav nevertheless decides to send his second son there, although according to his original plan, Andrei was supposed to defend Novgorod. This time, Alexander will remain Prince of Novgorod until 1252. During this period, the secret will be revealed why Alexander Nevsky is named that way.
4. In 1246 he became the Prince of Pereslavl-Zalessky concurrently.
5. In 1249, by order of the Mongol Khan, he became the prince of Kyiv, despite disputes with his brother Andrei.
6. In 1252, after the punitive campaign of the Mongol army against Russia, Kyiv loses its importance, and Alexander begins to reign in Vladimir.
7. In 1957, he again ascends the throne of Novgorod in order to force the region to take a population census and pay tribute to the horde. In 1259 he succeeded and left the city.

In 1962, an uprising of the people takes place on Russian soil, which kills Mongolian subjects who collect tribute from them. Khan Berke, who sensed a threat from a neighbor, plans to recruit soldiers in the controlled Slavic territories. At this time, Alexander is going to the horde, planning to dissuade the khan from this undertaking.

Monument to Alexander Nevsky

After staying there for a whole year, the prince calmed the khan and dissuaded him from such a campaign. At the same time, the strong-willed character of Prince Alexander Nevsky does not save him from illness, and the ruler returns to his homeland already quite weakened. In 1263, on November 14, the ruler dies, having previously accepted the schema.

Interesting to know! A schema is an Orthodox oath, which implies a person's renunciation of worldly affairs and complete obedience and rapprochement with God. People who have accepted the great schema are exempted from all work and duties, positions and power, and are obliged to minimize contacts with other people, even with ministers of the Orthodox faith.

There are two options, according to which Alexander Nevsky could die either in Gorodets Volzhsky or in Gorodets Meshchersky. The exact place of Alexander's death has not been established so far.

The prince was buried in the Nativity Monastery, but during the reign of Peter I, his remains were transferred to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.

Great battles

Prince Alexander Nevsky is a commander who has never lost a single battle in his entire life. At the same time, there are two major victories, which are known to everyone who is at least a little familiar with the history of the Russian land.

Neva battle

At the beginning of the 13th century, the peoples of the Baltic, Swedish, Karelian and Finnish tribes, whose territories were located nearby, constantly made mutual raids on each other for the purpose of robbery.

At this time, Sweden tried to impose its faith on the surrounding region and made attempts to seize power, especially on the economically significant banks of the Neva.

Against this background, in July 1240, the Swedes landed from ships at the place where the Izhora flows into the Neva. The sentinels who noticed this hurried to report the information to Alexander, who immediately stepped out in the direction of the enemy.

According to the chronicles, he did not ask for reinforcements from his father, Prince Yaroslav, but went with a small squad, which was within walking distance. On the way they were joined by part of the garrison from the fortress on Ladoga.

The army, rapidly moving on horseback, quickly overtook the Swedes and, thanks to the valor of the soldiers themselves, defeated the Swedes, who had not yet had time to gain a foothold on the ground.

According to ancient sources, Alexander personally struck at the leader of the Swedish army, Jarl Birger, leaving a noticeable scar on his face from his spear.

After this battle, legends began to be composed about Alexander Nevsky with just such an epithet. The commander received it after his brilliant victory on the Neva, in which he showed himself to be a talented commander and a brave warrior.

Battle on the Ice

After the announcement by the Pope in 1237 of a crusade against Finland, a year later, the Danish king and the head of the Teutonic Order decided to start hostilities on the territory of Russia.

After the defeat of the Swedes in the 40th year in the same year, the united army entered the lands of the Novgorod principality.

The boyars of this rather wealthy region at the same time managed to expel Nevsky Alexander.

The invader's army took Izborsk quite easily, laid siege to it, and eventually took Pskov in a week, then Koporye and the lands of the Vozhan, coming close to Novgorod. Influential boyars asked Yaroslav for help. He, in turn, wanted to send Andrei to command the army, but the Novgorodians demanded Alexander.

Arriving in Novgorod in 1241, the prince took Koporye, demonstratively killed the garrison, and executed the Chud captives. In 1242, having waited for the arrival of Andrei with the princely army, he recaptured Pskov. As a result, the enemy forces were concentrated in the Derpt bishopric.

There, the commander lost several advanced detachments during the assault, but quickly retreated to the ice of Lake Peipus, forcing the enemy to attack on his own. The nature of Alexander Nevsky allowed him to withstand a frontal attack calmly and let the enemy close enough.

The forces of the Catholic army crashed into the ranks of the Slavs in a special formation - a pig, immediately moving significantly deeper. At this time, the cavalry of Prince Alexander attacked from the flanks, blocking the retreat. Once in the ring, the army lost many soldiers, the rest began to retreat across the ice of Lake Peipsi.

It is noteworthy that not a single chronicle, even briefly, mentions that the soldiers of the order and the Danish king drowned and fell under the ice. Mentions of this appear in much later sources written by chroniclers following the example of other battles.

Politics with West and East

The policy of Nevsky causes a lot of controversy and doubts to this day. On the one hand, Alexander courageously fought against Western invaders who tried to impose Catholicism on the population of Russia, eradicating Orthodoxy with fire and sword.

Interesting Facts:

• At the moment, Western historians believe that the threat from the Teutonic Order and the leadership of the Catholic Church was greatly exaggerated.
• Some Russian historians support pro-Western sentiments, and some adhere to the traditional history of the Slavic region.
• The Russian Orthodox Church also positions Nevsky as a great personality, considering him the defender of the faith.
• In 2008, the Russians elected him the man of the year and the symbol of their people.

On the other hand, Alexander Nevsky all his life sought a compromise with the Tatar-Mongol horde and suppressed any attempts to rebel against, urged the population to pay tribute and conduct censuses.

The prince repeatedly went to the horde, bowing to Batu, despite the fact that he poisoned his father and, as a result of the uprising, destroyed his brother.

Icon in honor of Alexander Nevsky

The time in which this man ruled was really difficult - the triple threat to Russia, constant raids and conquests, the influence of the Tatar-Mongol yoke - all this tore and destroyed Russia from the inside. The figure of the prince in political terms can be viewed from two angles:

1. The defender of the Orthodox land, who realized that it was impossible to repel the attacks of all the enemy at once and chose to preserve his faith, and not the territory, fighting off Catholicism and submitting to the horde.
2. A traitor to the Russian land, who strengthened his power with the help of the horde, got rid of his brother-heir to the throne and began to rule the Kyiv principality.

This person can be viewed in different ways, but this person managed to maintain the integrity of the state, repel multiple raids and stabilize the situation inside the country.

Wikipedia mentions the dual perception of the personality of Prince Nevsky by some historians, but no one has been able to change the traditional history of Russia at the state level.

For certain people, even the answer to the question of why Alexander Nevsky is named that way is doubtful - some historians believe that such a battle did not exist at all.

Character and description of personality

The years of Nevsky's life are known thanks to his biography, which was written only a hundred years after his death, in the monastery in which the prince himself was buried.

Prior to this, only a short biography of the prince was passed from mouth to mouth.

He was a strong-willed man with a tough, military-like character, was capable of well-thought-out adventures, and actively developed politically.

All his life, the character of Alexander Nevsky was hated by the Novgorod boyars, since he led the principality harshly and at his own discretion, not wanting to please the political elites. For this he was repeatedly expelled from Novgorod.

Nevsky's contemporaries, despite all his merits, considered him first of all a great commander, and then a leader or politician. This is clearly evidenced by the request of the boyars to Yaroslav that he sent him to protect the Novgorod lands from the Teutonic Order.

The prince at an early age married Alexandra, the daughter of the prince of Vitebsk and Polotsk Bryacheslav. After there is evidence that he was married to a certain Vassa, however, there are opinions that this is the same woman, just under a church name.

Interesting! The prince and his wife had five children - four boys and one girl. All of them lived a relatively long life and were princes of various regions in Russia. The daughter married the prince of Smolensk Konstantin Rostislavovich.

Useful video

Summing up

The bright historical personality of Alexander left an imprint in the history of the Slavic region. There is a lot of controversy about him, which in turn only confirms the importance of this figure.

THE HOLY BELIEVE PRINCE ALEXANDER NEVSKY (†1263)

Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky born May 30, 1220 in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. His father, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (+ 1246), was the youngest son of Vsevolod III the Big Nest (+ 1212). The mother of St. Alexander, Theodosia Igorevna, the Ryazan princess, was the third wife of Yaroslav. The eldest son was the holy noble prince Theodore (+ 1233), who reposed in the Lord at the age of 15. Saint Alexander was their second son.

Origin of Alexander Nevsky (geneological tree)

Alexander's maternal and paternal ancestor was a glorious warrior and wise ruler Vladimir Monomakh . His son Yuri, nicknamed Dolgoruky, became famous not only for military prowess, but also for cruelty. From 1176 to 1212, Vsevolod, the youngest son of Yuri Dolgorukov, was Prince of Vladimir. Vsevolod was nicknamed the Big Nest because he had many sons. After his death, the sons divided the principality into parts and waged fierce strife. One of them was Yaroslav Prince Pereslavl - Zalesky father of Alexander Nevsky.

The first years of the young prince were spent in Pereslavl, where his father reigned. When Alexander was 5 years old, Prince Yaroslav inflicted on his son a "princely tonsure", after which an experienced voivode, boyar Fyodor Danilovich, began to teach him military affairs.

Alexander studied the rules of etiquette, writing and reading, the history of great ancestors. In Novgorod, under his father, he was trained in internal and external diplomacy, comprehended the art of subordinating the boyars and commanding the crowd, changeable and formidable. He learned this by being present at the veche, sometimes at the council, listening to his father's conversations. But a special place in the training and education of the prince was given to military affairs. Alexander learned to wield a horse, defensive and offensive weapons, to be a tournament knight and to know the foot and horse formation, the tactics of a field battle and the siege of a fortress.

Increasingly, the young prince traveled with his father's retinue to distant and nearby cities, to hunt, took part in the collection of princely tribute, and most importantly, in military battles. With the upbringing of that time, strong characters developed in the princely environment very early. The political situation of the early Middle Ages assumed frequent hostilities and violent internal intrigues. This, in turn, was a good "visual aid" for the emerging commander. An example of ancestors obliged to be a hero.

At the age of 14 in 1234. the first campaign of Alexander (under his father's banner) against the Livonian Germans took place (the battle on the river Emajygi (in present-day Estonia)).

In 1227, Prince Yaroslav, at the request of the people of Novgorod, was sent by his brother, the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri, to reign in Novgorod the Great. He took with him his sons, Saints Theodore and Alexander.

The daughter of St. Michael of Chernigov (+ 1246; Comm. 20 September), Theodulia, became engaged to St. Theodore, the elder brother of St. Alexander. But after the death of the groom in 1233, the young princess went to the monastery and became famous in the monastic feat as Saint Euphrosyne of Suzdal (+ 1250) .

In 1236, Yaroslav left to reign in Kyiv and Alexander, who was already 16 years old, began to independently rule in Novgorod. Novgorodians were proud of their prince. He acted as a defender of orphans, widows, and was an assistant to the starving. The prince from his youth honored the priesthood and monasticism, i.e. was a prince from God and obedient to God. In the first years of his reign, he had to deal with the fortification of Novgorod, since the Mongols-Tatars threatened from the east. Alexander built several fortresses on the Sheloni River.

In 1239, Saint Alexander entered into marriage, taking as his wife the daughter of Prince Bryachislav of Polotsk.

Some historians say that the princess in holy Baptism was the namesake of her holy husband and bore the name of Alexander. Father, Yaroslav, blessed them at the wedding with a holy miraculous icon Feodorovskaya Mother of God (in Baptism, the father's name was Theodore). This icon was then constantly with St. Alexander, as his prayer image, and then in memory of him was taken from the Gorodetsky monastery, where he died, by his brother, Vasily Yaroslavich Kostroma (+ 1276), and transferred to Kostroma.

The historical situation at the time of the beginning of the reign of Alexander Nevsky

Map 1239-1245

The reign of Alexander Nevsky (1236-1263) coincided with one of the most difficult and tragic periods in Russian history: the Mongol hordes were coming from the east, the knightly hordes of "crusaders" (Swedes and German knights of the Livonian Order) were advancing from the west.The horror of this situation was expressed in the fact that, on the one hand, the threat of an invasion of the steppe nomads, the Mongols, loomed over the Russian lands, which certainly led to enslavement, at best, and destruction at worst. On the other hand, on the Baltic side, the best option promised the Russian people to renounce the Christian faith and kneel before the banners of Western Catholicism.

In addition, the XII - XIII century - a period of feudal fragmentation. Russia was weakened by the internecine wars that overwhelmed her. Each principality tried to exist in its own way. Brother went to brother. Everything was used: murder, entering into family ties with authoritative foreign families, incest, intrigues, flirting and simultaneous cruelty with the townspeople. The historical conditions of that period, in which the princes were placed, pushed them to certain actions.

The noble prince Alexander Nevsky became the central figure of the new one, reborn from the ruins of the petty princely appanages of Russia, and it was to him that the eyes were turned as to the defender and unifier of the lands in the face of the Golden Horde threat.

Neva battle (1240)

The victory won by him on the banks of the Neva, near Lake Ladoga on July 15, 1240 over the Swedes, who, according to legend, was commanded by the future ruler of Sweden, Jarl Birger, brought universal fame to the young prince.

Alexander personally participated in the battle. It is believed that it was for this victory that the prince began to be calledNevsky . The battle itself has been called by historians.

Taking advantage of the invasion of Batu, the defeat of Russian cities, the confusion and grief of the people, the death of his best sons and leaders, the hordes of crusaders invaded the Fatherland.

Saint Alexander, he was not yet 20 years old, prayed for a long time in the church of Hagia Sophia, the Wisdom of God. Coming out of the temple, Saint Alexander strengthened the retinue with faith-filled words: "God is not in power, but in truth. Some with weapons, others on horses, but we will call on the Name of the Lord our God! They wavered and fell, but we rose and were firm."

With a small retinue, relying on the Holy Trinity, the prince hurried to the enemies - there was no time to wait for help from his father, who did not yet know about the attack of the enemies. Novgorod was left to itself. Russia, defeated by the Tatars, could not provide him with any support.

Alexander had only his small retinue and a detachment of Novgorod warriors. The lack of forces had to be made up for by a surprise attack on the Swedish camp.

The Swedes, tired of the sea passage, arranged for themselves a rest. Ordinary warriors rested on ships. The servants set up tents for the chiefs and knights on the shore.On the morning of July 15, 1240, he attacked the Swedes. The Swedes who were on the ships could not come to the aid of those who were on the shore. The enemy was divided into two parts. The squad, led by Alexander himself, dealt the main blow to the Swedes. A fierce battle ensued.

The small Russian army completely defeated the vastly superior enemy forces. Neither numerical superiority, nor military skill, nor the magic spells of the Swedish bishops could save the enemy from complete defeat. The leader of the invasion, Jarl Birger, was dealt a heavy blow to the face by Alexander with his spear.

The victory in the eyes of his contemporaries put him on a pedestal of great glory. The impression of the victory was all the stronger because it happened in a difficult time of adversity in the rest of Russia. In the eyes of the people on Alexander and Novgorod land, the special grace of God was manifested.

Nevertheless, the Novgorodians, always jealous of their liberties, in the same year managed to quarrel with Alexander, and he retired to his father, who gave him Pereslavl-Zalessky.

Novgorod especially stood out from the Russian cities of that time and occupied one of the dominant positions. It was independent of Kievan Rus.

Map of the Russian principalities at the beginning of the XIII century.

Back in 1136, it was established in the Novgorod land Republican government. According to the form of government, it was a feudal democratic republic with elements of an oligarchy. The upper class were the boyars, who owned land and capital and lent money to merchants. The institution of state administration was the Veche, which called for and approved Novgorod princes from nearby principalities (as a rule, from the Vladimir-Suzdal principality).The figure of the prince in Novgorod was not so authoritative, he had to swear allegiance to the Novgorod Republic. The functions of the prince were civil court and defense, during the war he was also the chief military leader. The inhabitants of the city had the right to accept or not accept the prince. The opinion of the townspeople influenced certain political decisions. Naturally, the assessment of the significance of these decisions for the state was not always adequate. Their view proceeded from the problems of the present, everyday existence, as if from their own “everyday bell tower”. There was also the danger of a riot. Often there were conflicts between the boyars and the common people. A particular aggravation of contradictions was observed at economically unstable and politically disturbing moments. The reason could be a crop failure or the danger of military intervention by foreigners. Alexander Nevsky's father, Yaroslav, quarreled with Novgorodians all his life, then again got along with them. Several times the Novgorodians drove him away for his tough temper and violence, and several times they invited him again, as if they were not able to do without him. To please the Novgorodians meant to raise their authority among the entire Russian people.

Battle on the Ice on Lake Peipsi (1242)

Battle on the Ice

In 1240, while Alexander was fighting the Swedes, the German crusaders began to conquer the Pskov region, and in the next 1241, the Germans took Pskov itself. In 1242, encouraged by the successes, the Livonian Order, having gathered the German crusaders of the Baltic states, the Danish knights from Reval, enlisting the support of the papal curia and the old rivals of the Novgorodians of Pskov, invaded the Novgorod lands.

Novgorodians turned first to Yaroslav, and then asked Alexander to protect them. Since the danger threatened not only Novgorod, but the whole Russian land, Alexander, forgetting for a while about past grievances, immediately set off to clear the Novgorod lands from German invaders.

In 1241, Alexander appeared in Novgorod and cleared his region of enemies, and the next year, together with his brother Andrei, he moved to the aid of Pskov, where the German governors were sitting.

Alexander liberated Pskov and from here, without wasting time, moved to the border of the Livonian Order, which passed along Lake Peipsi.

Both sides began to prepare for a decisive battle. It happened on the ice of Lake Peipus, near the Raven Stone 5 April 1242 and went down in history as Battle on the Ice . The German knights were defeated. The Livonian Order was faced with the need to make peace, according to which the crusaders renounced their claims to Russian lands, and also transferred part of Latgale.

They say that then Alexander uttered the words that became prophetic on Russian soil:"Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword!"

After the Swedes and the Germans, Alexander turned his weapons on the Lithuanians and with a series of victories (in 1242 and 1245) showed them that it was impossible to raid Russian lands with impunity. According to the chroniclers, Alexander Nevsky instilled such fear in the Livonians that they began to "observe his name." So, in 1256, the Swedes tried again to take away the Finnish coast from Novgorod and, together with the subject Emyu, began to build a fortress on the river. Narova; but at one rumor about the approach of Alexander with the Suzdal and Novgorod regiments, they left. To frighten the Swedes, Alexander made a trip to the Swedish possessions, to the country of Emi (present-day Finland), subjecting it to devastation.

Around this time, in 1251. Pope Innocent IV sent an embassy to Alexander Nevsky with a proposal to accept Catholicism, allegedly in exchange for his help in the joint struggle against the Mongols. This proposal was rejected by Alexander in the most categorical form.

The fight against the Livonians and the Swedes was, in essence, a fight between the Orthodox East and the Catholic West. In the conditions of terrible trials that hit the Russian lands, Alexander Nevsky managed to find the strength to resist the Western conquerors, gaining fame as a great Russian commander.

The successful military actions of Alexander Nevsky ensured the security of the western borders of Russia for a long time, but in the east the Russian princes had to bow their heads before a much stronger enemy - the Mongol-Tatars.

Relations with the Golden Horde

Map of the Golden Horde in the XIII century.

Golden Horde - a medieval state in Eurasia, formed as a result of the division of the empire of Genghis Khan between his sons. Founded in 1243 by Batu Khan. Geographically, the Golden Horde occupied most of the forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia, the flat part of the Caspian and Turan lowlands, the Crimea, as well as the Eastern European steppes up to the Danube. The core of the state was the Kypchak steppe. The Russian lands were not included in the Golden Horde, but fell into vassalage - the population paid tribute and obeyed the orders of the khans. The capital of the Golden Horde was the city of Sarai, or Sarai-Batu, founded near the current Astrakhan.
In the period from 1224 to 1266, the Golden Horde was part of the Mongol Empire.

Khan's rate

Numerous raids of the Mongol-Tatars on Russian lands in 1227-1241. did not entail the immediate establishment of foreign domination. The Mongol-Tatar yoke, which lasted until 1480, began only in 1242. (since the Russian princes began to pay tribute).

In 1266, under Khan Mengu-Timur, it gained complete independence, retaining only a formal dependence on the imperial center. In the 13th century, paganism was the state religion, and for a part of the population, Orthodoxy. Since 1312, Islam has become the dominant and only religion.
By the middle of the 15th century, the Golden Horde had split into several independent khanates; its central part, which nominally continued to be considered supreme - the Great Horde, ceased to exist at the beginning of the 16th century.

In 1243 Batu Khan (grandson of Genghis Khan), the ruler of the western part of the Mongol state - the Golden Horde, handed the label of the Grand Duke of Vladimir to control the conquered Russian lands to Alexander's father - Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. The Great Khan of the Mongols Guyuk called the Grand Duke to his capital Karakorum, where on September 30, 1246 Yaroslav died unexpectedly (according to the generally accepted version, he was poisoned). Then, in 1247, at the request of Batu, his sons Alexander and Andrei were summoned to the capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai-Batu. Batu sent them to worship the great Khan Gayuk in Mongolia (Korakorum). While the Yaroslavichs were getting to Mongolia, Khan Guyuk himself died, and the new mistress of Karakorum Khansha Ogul-Gamish decided to appoint Andrei Grand Duke of Vladimir (Vladimir at that time was the largest political center of all Russian lands). It should be noted that Andrei did not come to the supreme power by seniority, bypassing several applicants to whom the grand-ducal throne belonged by right. Alexander received control of southern Russia (Kyiv) and Novgorod, devastated as a result of raids. Kyiv after the Tatar ruin lost all significance; so Alexander settled in Novgorod.

Alexander Nevsky clearly understood that it was possible to keep the northwestern borders of Russia intact, as well as to keep the exit to the Baltic Sea open only if there were peaceful relations with the Golden Horde - Russia then had no strength to fight against two powerful enemies. The second half of the life of the famous commander was famous not for military victories, but for diplomatic victories, no less necessary than military ones.

With the then small number and fragmentation of the Russian population in the eastern lands, it was impossible to even think about liberation from the power of the Tatars. Ruined and mired in poverty and feudal fragmentation, it was almost impossible for the Russian princes to muster any army to offer worthy resistance to the Tatar-Mongols. Under these conditions, Alexander decided to get along with the Tatars at all costs. It was all the easier because the Mongols, ruthlessly exterminating all who resisted them, were quite generous and indulgent towards the submissive peoples and their religious beliefs.

Not all Russian princes shared the views of Saint Alexander Nevsky. Among them were both supporters of the Horde and supporters of the West, who were inclined to introduce Catholicism in Russia and submit to Rome. Supporters of the pro-Western course of development in the fight against the Tatar yoke hoped for help from Europe. Negotiations with the Pope were conducted by St. Michael of Chernigov, Prince Daniel of Galicia, brother of St. Alexander, Andrew. But Saint Alexander knew well the fate of Constantinople, captured and destroyed in 1204 by the Crusaders. And his own experience taught him not to trust the West. Daniil of Galicia paid for the union with the pope, which gave him nothing, by betraying Orthodoxy - by union with Rome. Saint Alexander did not want this for his native Church. Catholicism was unacceptable for the Russian Church, the union meant the rejection of Orthodoxy, the rejection of the source of spiritual life, the rejection of the historical future ordained by God, the doom of oneself to spiritual death.

Five years later, in 1252, in Karakorum, Ogul-Gamish was overthrown by the new great khan Mongke (Mengke). Taking advantage of this circumstance and deciding to remove Andrei Yaroslavich from the great reign, Batu handed the label of the Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, who was urgently summoned to Saray-Batu, the capital of the Golden Horde.

But Alexander's younger brother, Andrei Yaroslavich, supported by his brother Prince Yaroslav of Tver and Prince Daniel Romanovich of Galicia, refused to obey the decision of Batu and even stopped paying tribute to the Horde. But, the time has not yet come to repulse the Horde - there were not enough forces for this in the Russian lands.

To punish the recalcitrant princes, Batu sends the Mongol cavalry under the command of Nevruy. It was a terrible, bloody campaign, which remained in the annals as "Nevryuev's army" . Andrei, in alliance with his brother, Yaroslav of Tver, fought the Tatars, but was defeated and fled to Sweden through Novgorod to seek help from those whom, with the help of God, his great brother had smashed on the Neva. This was the first attempt to openly resist the Tatars in northern Russia. During the invasion of the "Nevryuev rati" Alexander Nevsky was in the Horde.

After the flight of Andrei, the great Vladimir principality, by the will of the khan, passed to Alexander Nevsky. He accepted this post from the hands of Sartak, the son of Batu, with whom he made friends during his first visit to the Horde. Sartak was a Nestorian Christian. Saint Alexander became the sole Grand Duke of all Russia: Vladimir, Kyiv and Novgorod, and retained this title for 10 years, until his death.

F.A. Moskvitin. Alexander Nevsky and Sartak in the Horde.

In 1256, Alexander's ally Batu Khan died, and in the same year Batu's son Sartak was poisoned because of his sympathy for Christianity.

Then Alexander again went to Saray to confirm the peaceful relations of Russia and the Horde with the new Khan Berke.

The new khan (Berke), for a more accurate taxation of the population with tribute, ordered a second census in Russia (the first census was made under Yaroslav Vsevolodovich). Alexander was able to negotiate the payment of tribute in exchange for military assistance. The treaty with the Mongols can be called Alexander's first diplomatic victory. L. N. Gumilyov sees the significance of this treaty for the Russian princes in that they retained great freedom of action, that is, they could solve internal problems at their own discretion. At the same time, "Alexander was interested in the prospect of receiving military assistance from the Mongols to counter the pressure of the West and internal opposition."

But it was the treaty that gave rise to a riot in Novgorod.Novgorod was not, like other Russian cities, conquered by Tatar weapons, and the Novgorodians did not think that they would have to voluntarily pay a shameful tribute.

During the Mongol invasion of Russia and subsequent Mongol and Horde campaigns, Novgorod managed to avoid ruin due to the remote location of the republic. But the southeastern cities of the Novgorod possessions (Torzhok, Volok, Vologda, Bezhetsk) were plundered and devastated.

In 1259, an uprising began in Novgorod, which lasted about a year and a half, during which the Novgorodians did not submit to the Mongols. Even the son of Alexander, Prince Vasily, turned out to be on the side of the townspeople. The situation was very dangerous. The very existence of Russia was threatened again.

Alexander knew that he must force the Novgorodians to come to terms with the census. At the same time, the prince did not want to bring the matter to an armed clash with the Novgorodians, to shed Russian blood. The task facing Alexander as a commander and politician was extremely difficult: the proud Novgorodians swore to die rather than recognize the power of the “nasty” over themselves. It seemed that nothing could undermine their resolve. However, the prince knew these people well - as brave as frivolous, impressionable. Fast to the word, the Novgorodians were, in a peasant way, not hasty in deeds. Moreover, their resolve to fight was by no means unanimous. Boyars, merchants, wealthy artisans - although they did not dare to openly call for prudence, but in their hearts they were ready to pay off the Tatars.

Realizing that the obstinacy of the Novgorodians could cause the khan's wrath and a new invasion of Russia, Alexander personally put things in order by executing the most active participants in the unrest and obtained from the Novgorodians consent to the census for a general tribute. Novgorod was broken and obeyed the order to send tribute to the Golden Horde. Few understood then that severe necessity forced Alexander to act in such a way that, had he acted differently, a new terrible Tatar pogrom would have fallen on the unfortunate Russian land.

In his desire to establish peaceful relations with the Horde, Alexander was not a traitor to the interests of Russia. He acted as his common sense told him to. An experienced politician of the Suzdal-Novgorod school, he was able to see the line between the possible and the impossible. Submitting to circumstances, maneuvering among them, he followed the path of the least evil. He was, first of all, a good owner and most of all cared about the well-being of his land.

Historian G.V. Vernadsky wrote: "... Two feats of Alexander Nevsky - the feat of war in the West and the feat of humility in the East - had a single goal - the preservation of Orthodoxy as a source of moral and political strength of the Russian people."

Death of Alexander Nevsky

In 1262 unrest broke out in Vladimir, Suzdal, Rostov, Pereyaslavl, Yaroslavl and other cities, where the Khan's Baskaks were killed and the Tatar tax-farmers were expelled. The Tatar regiments were already ready to move on Russia.

To appease the Golden Horde Khan Berke, Alexander Nevsky personally went with gifts to the Horde. He managed to avert trouble and even achieved benefits for the Russians in the delivery of military detachments for the Tatars.

Khan kept the prince at his side all winter and summer; only in the autumn did Alexander get the opportunity to return to Vladimir, but on the wayfell ill and fell ill in Gorodets on the Volga, where he received monastic tonsure and a schema with the name of Alexy. Alexander wanted to accept the great schema - the most complete form of monastic vows. Of course, he tonsured a dying man, and even to the highest monastic degree! - contradicted the very idea of ​​monasticism. However, an exception was made for Alexander. Later, following his example, many Russian princes accepted the schema before their death. It has become a kind of custom. Alexander Nevskiy died November 14, 1263 . He was only 43 years old.

G. Semiradsky. Death of Alexander Nevsky

His body was buried in the Vladimir Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin. Numerous healings were noted during the burial.

"The Life of Alexander Nevsky" is remarkable in that it was written at the end of the 13th century. a contemporary of events, a person who personally knew the prince,and therefore, it is of great importance for understanding how the personality of Alexander Nevsky was assessed in those distant times, and what was the significance of those events in which he was a participant.

Veneration and canonization

The people glorified Alexander Nevsky long before his canonization by the Church. Already in the 1280s, the veneration of Alexander Nevsky as a saint began in Vladimir.

The general church glorification of St. Alexander Nevsky took place under Metropolitan Macarius at the Moscow Council of 1547. Alexander Nevsky was the only Orthodox secular ruler not only in Russia, but throughout Europe, who did not compromise with the Catholic Church in order to maintain power.

History with the relics of Alexander Nevsky

In 1380, the imperishable relics of Alexander Nevsky were discovered in Vladimir and laid in a shrine on top of the earth. In 1697, Metropolitan Hilarion of Suzdal placed the relics in a new reliquary, decorated with carvings and covered with a precious cover.

Moskvitin Philip Alexandrovich. The transfer of the relics of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky by Emperor Peter I to St. Petersburg.

In 1724, by order of Peter I, the relics were transferred to St. Petersburg to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where they still rest in the Trinity Church.

I.A. Ivanov. "Alexander Nevsky Lavra from the Neva" (1815).

In the middle of the 18th century, by order of Peter's daughter, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, a heavy silver reliquary was made for the relics. The first silver from the Kolyvan factories in Siberia was granted to the cancer. Raku was made at the St. Petersburg Mint by outstanding court masters of that time, it became the most striking work of art of that time and was mentioned in many literary works and travel notes of foreigners. Cancer was placed in a huge multi-tiered sarcophagus made of pure silver with a total weight of almost one and a half tons - nowhere in the world is there such a grandiose structure made of this precious metal. Chasing and cast medallions depicting the life and deeds of Alexander Nevsky were used in the ornament of the sarcophagus.

In 1922, during the period of fierce expropriation of church wealth, the relics of the prince, enclosed in a many-pound silver sarcophagus, were removed from the cathedral and for a long time were kept in the Museum of Religion and Atheism. And the whole point was precisely in this sarcophagus, in which the Bolsheviks saw a large piece of precious silver - 89 pounds 22 pounds 1 with 1/3 of the spool. In May 1922, a group of working comrades mercilessly rolled this shrine off the pedestal. The autopsy was more like a public desecration...

The looting of the tomb of Alexander Nevsky by the Bolsheviks

She, like the priceless iconostasis of the Kazan Cathedral, was destined to be melted down. But the then director of the Hermitage, Alexander Benois, sent a desperate telegram to Moscow with a request to transfer the piece of jewelry art to the People's Museum. The iconostasis of the Kazan Cathedral then, alas, could not be defended, and the shrine was transferred to the Hermitage. For almost 20 years, she stood in the silver gallery, haunting many senior officials of the state apparatus. How - almost one and a half tons of silver are in vain in the halls! Letters from both business executives and defenders of the sarcophagus were periodically sent to Moscow. True, the ashes of Alexander had already been removed from him, he was moved to the Kazan Cathedral.

In June 1989, the relics of the Grand Duke were returned to the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Today they are available for worship and are kept in a modest copper sarcophagus.

The story with the relics and shrine of the Grand Duke is not over yet. Prominent church figures repeatedly appealed to the Russian government to transfer the silver shrine to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in order to place the relics of the holy prince there again.

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK

for the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Sparrow Hills