Скачать или смотреть Olga of Kyiv’s Revenge Story of Her Husband

Olga’s husband, Ihor, the ruler, was collecting tribute in the form of furs, hides, honey, wax, and other produce from the Derevlians. Together with his army, he was returning to Kyiv when he decided to take even more. He ordered his wife to transport the tribute to Kyiv, while he himself returned to the Derevlians. The Derevlians, learning of his return, feared that he would destroy them, so they ambushed him near Korosten and brutally killed the prince. The Byzantine chronicler Leo the Deacon described that they tied him to the trunks of two trees and then released the trees, tearing him apart.

The Derevlians’ leader, Mal, then sent envoys to Olga to propose marriage to her. This is why she planned her revenge. Left alone with her young son Sviatoslav, who would later be known as “the Brave,” Olga carried out her vengeance in four stages:

1.She buried the first envoys alive.

2.She burned envoys from the most noble families in a bathhouse while they were bathing.

3.She went to Korosten to mourn her husband and conduct funeral rites, which at the time involved drinking, feasting, and fighting customs that in Ukraine persist in funerals today (though now without fighting). She got the Derevlians drunk, after which her forces killed five thousand people, according to the chronicle.

She ordered that from each yard, three pigeons and a sparrow be sent, tied flammable substances to their legs, and released them. The birds, returning to their nests, caused a fire throughout the city. She then entered Korosten herself.

Later in her reign, she was baptized in Byzantium and eventually became a saint. However, her son Sviatoslav remained a devout pagan until his death, and only after him did his son, Volodymyr, adopt Christianity.