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Europe · High and late Middle Ages
Principality of Chernigov
drawn on the map 1056–1240
Seat of the Olgovichi branch of the Rurikids, descendants of Oleg Svyatoslavich. One of the largest and richest principalities, controlling the Desna basin and extending influence toward the Vyatichi lands.
- Shown on the map
- 1056–1240
- Peak area
- 265k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
Seat of the Olgovichi branch of the Rurikids, descendants of Oleg Svyatoslavich. One of the largest and richest principalities, controlling the Desna basin and extending influence toward the Vyatichi lands. Its most famous prince, Igor Svyatoslavich (of the Novgorod-Seversk cadet line), led the disastrous 1185 campaign against the Cumans (Polovtsy) that became the subject of the Tale of Igor's Campaign (Slovo o polku Igoreve) — a masterpiece of medieval Slavic literature. Its authenticity was long debated but is now generally accepted following the Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak's 2004 study, which concluded that the forgery hypothesis is "virtually impossible"; the current scholarly consensus is that the poem is authentic and dates to the late 12th century. Chernigov was destroyed by the Mongols in 1239. Its lands fragmented into numerous minor principalities (the "Verkhovsky principalities") that later passed between Lithuania and Moscow.
Common questions
- What was the Principality of Chernigov?
- Seat of the Olgovichi branch of the Rurikids, descendants of Oleg Svyatoslavich. One of the largest and richest principalities, controlling the Desna basin and extending influence toward the Vyatichi lands.
- When is the Principality of Chernigov shown on the map?
- The border data draws the Principality of Chernigov 1056–1240. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
- How large was the Principality of Chernigov?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Principality of Chernigov covered about 265,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each territory as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, academic works (John Fine on the Balkans, Halperin and Martin on Muscovy, Rady and Veszprémy on Hungary) and, for a few entries, the medieval Livonian Chronicle of Henry itself. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Principality of Chernigov en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Chernigov
This entry was last updated .
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
Further reading in Knowledge
- Sources & Evidence · Principality of Chernigov The Tale of Igor's Campaign: The 1185 Raid, the Lost Manuscript and the Forgery Debate The Tale of Igor's Campaign and the failed raid of 1185: what the chronicles say, how the only manuscript was lost, and why scholars think it genuine.
- People · Kievan Rus' Vladimir Monomakh: The Prince Who Held Rus' Together Vladimir Monomakh, grand prince of Kyiv from 1113 to 1125: his wars against the Polovtsians, the councils that kept Rus' together, his Instruction, and the cap.
- War & Warriors · Kievan Rus' The Mongol Invasion of Rus' (1237–1240): How the Cities Fell How the Mongols conquered Rus' in 1237–1240, city by city from Ryazan and Vladimir to Kyiv, what chronicles and graves show, and where the "Tatar yoke" began.
- People · Mongol Empire Batu Khan: Genghis Khan's Grandson and the Conquest of Rus' Who Batu Khan was, how he led the Mongol conquest of Rus' and the invasion of Hungary, why he turned back in 1242, and what eyewitnesses saw at his court.
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