Domestic policy of Igor Rurikovich
912-945

The domestic policy of Prince Igor Rurikovich was less eventful than that of his predecessor and mentor, Oleg the Prophet. The prince tried to maintain his power and, if possible, expand his influence over neighboring tribes.

After Oleg’s death in 912, the Drevlyans refused to pay tribute, but already the next year Igor led a campaign against them and forced them to submit. Then, at his order, the voivode Sveneld fought with the Ulichians for three years and, after a long siege, took their main city of Peresechen, receiving the right to collect tribute from the Ulichians and Drevlyans as a reward.

After the death of Prince Oleg, the Drevlyans “closed themselves off,” that is, they stopped sending the required tribute to Kiev and did not allow Igor’s people into their cities.

In 914, Igor Rurikovich led a campaign against them and, according to chronicles, imposed a higher tribute than Oleg had previously appointed.

The Drevlyans were a freedom-loving tribe, resisting the expansion of Oleg the Prophet and trying to restore independence after his death, but under the pressure of the warlike Varangians, they were forced to yield once again.

In the year 940, the first Novgorod chronicle^[1]Novgorod First Chronicle mentions a three-year siege of the main city of the Ulichi tribe, Pereyaslav, ordered by Prince Igor. Following the example of Oleg the Prophet, Igor sought to expand his influence over the nearby Slavic tribes living around Kiev and sent his commander Sveneld to conquer the tribes that had not submitted to his predecessor.

As a result, the Ulichi were forced to pay tribute similar to that paid by the Drevlyans, and Sveneld was ordered to collect the tribute from them (presumably for successfully carrying out the order).

In 942, Igor also handed over the collection of tribute from the Drevlyans to Sveneld, but the chronicles do not elaborate on the reasons for the prince’s favoritism.

In 945, Igor Rurikovich and his warriors went on a raid to collect tribute from the Drevlyans. The chronicles separately note the violent actions towards the Drevlyans:

And Igor listened to them, went to the Drevlyans for tribute, added a new one to the old, and his men acted violently against them.^[3]“The Tale of Bygone Years”

After collecting tribute, Igor decided to send most of his accompanying warriors home and to collect tribute once again with a small retinue:

«Go home with the tribute, and I will return and collect more».^[4]Ibid

Upon learning of Igor’s return, the Drevlyan prince Mal decided to offer decisive resistance to the greedy prince:

Upon learning about her husband’s death, Princess Olga decided to avenge to the free-spirited Drevlyans and for several years carried out military actions against them. First, Drevlyan envoys who came to propose marriage between their prince, Mal, and Olga were buried alive. Then, the next delegation from the Drevlyans was burned alive in a bathhouse. For the third time, Olga ordered the killing of the Drevlyans at a funeral feast for Igor. Finally, during the unsuccessful siege of Iskorosten, Olga resorted to trickery. She asked the Drevlyans to send her birds from the besieged city, and then tied burning bundles of straw to them and burned the city, killing most of its inhabitants.

Nevertheless, Olga understood the reasons for the rebellion and decided to change the rules of tribute collection to prevent possible future uprisings.