perhaps, a friendly story, written about Vladimir’s acquisition of a beautiful woman, without resistance, about his attempts to get into this marriage, and about his victory over that beautiful woman. All this. It’s so similar to the epic motif that appears in our epics, and in the sfver sagas, and in the Lambarl cycle, say, and so on. The idea of Vladimir’s assertion about this could have been formed from the previous one in the era of the fierce struggle of Monomakh and his son Mstislav with the Polotsk princes, when the warriors tried in every possible way to find out for themselves the reasons why “Rogvolozhi vnutsi take the sword” to the Iroslavovo tribe, when the princes tried to establish, if possible, the legality of the unusual reprisal against the Polotsk princes. All this makes us treat what is said in our chronicle with great caution. But for now, the question remains unexplained, and it can only be clarified when researchers of the folk epic give solid grounds for how much a well-known historical event influenced the written poetry and, conversely, which of the evidence in our chronicles can be taken as a legend that turned into lPhotopis from epic 23).
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
That's when the war began between Yaropolk and Vladimir Svyatoslavich because of the Kevsk princess, 201804005 became in a very advantageous position relative to both arguing princes. Owning a vast and strong principality, which, moreover, was located almost on the road from Novgorod to Kev, with his participation in wars he could significantly increase the strength of his ally and weaken the enemy. The young princes understood this and both began to strive to conclude an early alliance with Rogvolod before the start of the war. The most natural conclusion of a political union was
23) Researchers of our epic poetry have made some indications of connections between the matchmaking of Vladimir on Apraxi in the epics with the episode about Rogied®. See Orest Miller, Ilya Muromets and Bogatyrstvo of Klevskoe, b. r. 17, 329, 369, 310, 372—3, Halanek, Velikorusskaya Byliny r. 25., Rovinsky, Russyuya Folk Pictures, vol. [U, r. 62. Kirpichnikov, Poems of the Lombard Cycle, M. 1873. p. 108, etc. But not a single investigator raised the question directly.
of course, kinship. Therefore, both princes, Yaropolk and Vladimir, wished to marry the young and beautiful Rognda, daughter of Rogvolod,
The young princes proposed marriage to Rotvolod almost at the same time. The latter, obviously not hesitating with whom it would be advantageous for him to enter into an alliance, turned to his daughter with the question of which of the two wooing princes she wanted to choose as her husband. The proud princess, knowing that Vladimir Svyatoslavich had a slave mother, Olga’s housekeeper, rejected the young prince’s proposal, saying: “I don’t want to take off the slave’s shoes, but I’m going for Yaropolk!” Such a decision, perhaps, was fully consistent with the plans of the father, who, by conveying his daughter’s refusal to Vladimir, could hope to weaken his revenge.
Yaropolk's marriage with Rogneda was equal to his alliance with Rogvolod, which should have significantly increased his strength. Therefore, Vladimir, with his uncle Dobrynya, immediately decided to warn them of the danger that threatened them from this alliance, and in 980 they moved with the Novgorod and Varangian troops to Polotsk. The city was taken and plundered, Rogvolod and his two sons were killed, and Vladimir took RognEda as his wife.
Having finished with Polotsk, Vladimir went to Yuev, where he besieged Yaropolk. Then, having lured him to the Relatives, he killed his brother with the help of the traitor Blud ^).
Vladimir had 4 sons from Rognfda: Izyaslav, Yaroslav, Mstislav, Vsevolod and 2 daughters *).
Vladimir Svyatoslavich completely allocated the Polotsk region to Izyaslav and his descendants, so that it subsequently constituted a completely separate independent principality. Prince Izyaslav lived in Polotsk until 1001, and survived his mother by only one year. The sources have not preserved for us any information about his own life during his reign. However, under him, one of the most important events in the history of Rus' took place—the adoption of Christianity. We do not know how Christianity spread in the Polotsk region. But judging by the fact that there is much accepted by Rognfda,
34) In. 51. 25) Novgorod flight. published in 1888, b. 80.
T. KRIVICHSKAYA AND LREGOVICHSKAYA LANDS TO THE BEGINNING. HIT ST. 75