Also known as: Aleksandr Yaroslavovich

Born: c. 1220 in Vladimir, Russia

Died: November 14, 1263
Occupation: Prince
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Russian grand duke and prince

BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Prince of Novgorod and grand duke of Vladimir, whose policy of collaboration with the Mongols resulted in the unification of Russia and forever altered its history.

One of the most significant of early Russian rulers, Alexander Nevsky became prince of Novgorod at a time of the gravest danger for Russia. When most its principalities had been overrun and destroyed by the Mongols, and the country was invaded by Lithuanians, Swedes, and German Knights, the very existence of the country was at stake. Had Russia not had a leader of his character and foresight, the country might have been permanently destroyed and the history not only of Eastern Europe but of the entire world would have been severely altered.

Alexander was born in 1219 or 1220, probably in the city of Vladimir in northern Russia where he was more than likely raised. At the age of 17, when his father went to Kiev to take over the reigns of government, Alexander was sent to Novgorod to be its prince. Thereafter, though he frequently quarrelled with the merchant elite of the city and more than once left it to live elsewhere, his fate would be linked to that of the merchant republic.

After the 11th century, the great Principality of Rus, centered at Kiev and extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and one of the most promising states of medieval Europe, broke up into a welter of warring Russian principalities each ruled by one or another branches of the House of Rurik. In 1174, the new grand prince, Vsevolod, called "Big Nest" because of his numerous children, asserted his authority over the other princes of Russia, enforcing peace between them and imposing upon the merchant republic of Novgorod such princes as he chose. When Vsevolod died, however, in 1212, a civil war broke out among the princes of his family, and the Russian state seemed likely to disintegrate again. Each prince asserted his independence in his own realm, which was then divided and subdivided among his heirs.

The success of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir-Suzdal was based, first of all, on the triumph of its princes over their boyars ("nobles"), supposedly in defense of its "little people." In place of rule by local nobles, each prince appointed trusted agents to run his realm and make periodic journeys throughout his lands to see at first hand the condition of his people. Other factors were the good soil of the region, the relatively mild climate (by Russian standards), and the location of Vladimir, Suzdal, and later Moscow at the center of the new trade routes established in the Mongol period and several river systems running in all directions. Moscow, for example, was located on a large tributary of the Oka, itself a tributary of the mighty Volga.

To the east of Vladimir lay the khanate of the Volga Bulgars, a Turkic state centered on the upper Volga. In southern Russia, the principalities were ravaged by continuous raids of the Kipchak Turks, a nomadic people of the steppes whom the Russians knew as the Polovetsians. To the west lay the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; to the northwest, the German Knights and the Danes on the Baltic coast lording it over the local Baltic and Finnish tribes; and beyond them, the kingdom of Sweden. The Germans had been active in the easternmost Baltic for close to a century, where they founded the town of Riga from where they dominated the local Latvian tribes (Letts). The Danes arrived later, founding the town of Reval in 1219 and dominating the local Estonians. Russia thus had, as yet, no outlet to the Baltic Sea and depended on the northwestern lake cities of Novgorod--a kind of Baltic Venice called "Lord Novgorod the Great" for its wealth and power--and Pskov, both of them trading republics characterized by weak princes dominated by strong municipal councils representing the merchant grandees. Located close to the Baltic and having strong ties with the other Germans, Danes, and Swedes and with the various Baltic trading cities, these republics were of the greatest economic importance to the rest of the north Russian principalities, especially Vladimir-Suzdal.

The chief difference between the republics and the other principalities of north Russia was the fact that in the republics, the veche ("town council") had maintained its traditional powers and even enhanced them at the expense of the local prince, whereas in the rest of the Russian principalities the veches had either disappeared or fallen completely under the increasingly authoritarian power of the prince. Novgorod, however, was a city beset by constant turmoil between the merchants and craftsmen, the rich and the poor, and the pro- and anti-Vladimir factions. The rich and influential classes became extremely astute in playing off one Rurikid prince against another in order to maximize their own autonomy; the poor tended to favor the rule of the princes of Vladimir. Riots and other disorders were common.

Early in the 13th century, the nomadic Mongol tribes, a people living to the north of China, were united under a ruler known to history as Genghis Khan. Under his dynamic leadership China was conquered in 1215 and then Turkestan (Central Asia), after which the Mongols passed north of the Caspian Sea into the Crimean Peninsula attacking the Polovetsians whose khan ("chief"), Kotyan, appealed for aid to the Russian princes. Although the prince of Vladimir-Suzdal declined to help the enemies of south Russia, other princes rode out to meet the Mongols (or Tatars as the Russians called them). After an initial victory, the princes were defeated on the River Kalka in 1223, after which the Mongols withdrew as suddenly as they had arrived.

Genghis died in 1227 and was succeeded by his son Ugeday, who launched a massive invasion of the neighboring lands in three different directions. His nephew Batu was sent to conquer the northwest. The invasion began in 1237 with a crushing defeat of the Volga Bulgars, leaving the Russian principalities wide open to the invaders. Divided and unprepared, the Russians were able to offer virtually no resistance. Ryazan was the first city to fall, then the army of Vladimir-Suzdal was destroyed, after which Vladimir itself was overwhelmed, and then the principality of Tver.

The Mongols conquered by commanding their enemies to surrender, thereby preserving their lives and property; if the enemies resisted, the Mongols destroyed cities and murdered every man, woman, and child they could lay their hands on. Their chief strength lay in their numbers and their method of attack. Traveling en masse with horses, camels, and wagons, the Mongols would surround a city and drive as many people as possible within the walls. Bringing up siege engines, including battering rams and enormous catapults, they would then build a palisade, or fence of stakes, around the exterior wall to prevent anyone from escaping. Secure in their numbers, the Mongols would send wave after wave of attackers, wearing down the exhausted defenders until the city fell. Seizing everything of value, they would then slaughter the entire population. Sparing neither age, rank, nor gender, they would carry their fury into the countryside destroying every village, monastery, and country retreat in their range, taking what sustenance they needed, burning the rest of the crops, and slaying the cattle. The survivors, who fled to forests and caves, frequently perished of hunger and exposure.

The Russian prince Yuri went out to meet the Mongols with a number of other princes but was slain in battle on the River Sit. Batu, having destroyed Vladimir and Moscow both, was marching on Novgorod when suddenly he turned south either because of the forests that impeded his advance or perhaps because of the spring thaw which turned much of the low-lying region into a vast swamp. Making his base at a vast encampment (Mongol: orda; Engl.: horde) called Sarai on the lower Volga north of its entry into the Caspian sea, Batu gathered his strength for a fresh campaign. In 1240, the Mongols were on the march again with a force said to have been 500,000 strong. Kiev was taken and sacked, after which they poured into Poland defeating a combined Polish and German force and moving toward Western Europe. Batu had conquered Hungary, and the Mongols were advancing near Vienna, when news of the death of his uncle Ugeday reached him. Immediately, he turned eastward with his army, hurrying to Mongolia to protect his inheritance. Batu received as his share of the Mongol Empire, Khazakhstan and Khorezm east of the Caspian Sea and all that he had conquered for himself to the west of it, with his capital at the encampment at Sarai. Batu's empire came to be known as the "Golden Horde," a tribute to its great wealth. His sons, however, retained only the northwestern sector of the original share, from the River Yaik (now the Ural) to the Danube.

With the first withdrawal of the Mongols, Yaroslav II succeeded to the Grand Ducal throne in 1238 in place of his brother Yuri who had been killed in battle on the River Sit. Turning his attention to the west, where Russia's enemies were gathering their strength, Yaroslav protected Smolensk from the Lithuanians, placing a prince of his own choice on its throne (1239). Thereafter, he placed the defense of the western frontiers of his realm under the command of his son, Alexander, who built a new town on the Shelon River, apparently as part of a new defensive system. Journeying to Batu's camp on the Volga, Yaroslav was confirmed as prince over Russia.

Mongol rule in Russia was based on the simplest of premises: the Mongols owned everything in the country and held the power of life and death over everyone from the Grand Prince downward. Taxes were imposed, a tenth of all crops and a tenth of all other gains, plus such manpower as the Horde chose to conscript for its armies wherever they were to be sent. The princely administration was left intact in the Russian principalities and the princely feuds were allowed to continue and even encouraged by the khans to their own benefit.

The Mongol invasion of Russia provided her western neighbors with an unexpected opportunity to expand eastward at Russian expense, using as their excuse the "heresy" of the Orthodox Church. Urged on by Pope Gregory IX, the Swedes--led by Jarl Birger--were the first to launch a serious attack, hoping to capture the Neva River and Lake Ladoga, and perhaps even having designs on Novgorod itself. They were met, however, by Alexander, who, though scarcely 16 years of age, was familiar with Western military techniques and strategies. Alexander defeated the enemy on the banks of the Neva with a very small force on July 15, 1236. In spite of his later perhaps more impressive and decisive victories, he was thereafter known to Russia and to world history as Alexander "of the Neva"--in Russian: Aleksandr Nevsky.


The Battle on the Ice

The German settlers in the Baltic, spearheaded by the military religious order, the Livonian Knights, and then by another, the German Teutonic Knights that had absorbed the Livonians in 1237, now took Izborsk and Pskov (1241) at which point the citizens of Novgorod called upon Alexander to take command of their troops. In the winter of 1242, Alexander, together with his brother Andrew and the forces of Novgorod, marched against the German invaders and their allies drawn from the local Baltic tribes. Occupying all the roads to Pskov, they liberated the city and then went out to meet a German force sent against them. The two armies joined in battle on the frozen surface of Lake Chudskoe (now Lake Peipus) on Saturday, April 5, 1242. The Germans and their Finnish allies the Chud, forming an "iron wedge," advanced, thrusting through the center of the Russian forces; the Russians, however, by prior plan, closed around them in a great double-flanking movement and attacked the enemy from the rear, driving them five miles across the frozen lake. Hundreds of Germans were killed in this famed "Battle on the Ice," while others perished by falling through the ice and drowning. Some 50 German commanders were captured and taken to Novgorod in chains. The Germans then sent envoys to Novgorod suing for peace and surrendering all their conquests in Russia. Two years later, Alexander drove off Lithuanian raiders from Torzhok, defeating them twice, again with only a small force.

The defense of Novgorod and the recovery of Pskov were not acts of altruism. Rather, they were part of the earlier policy of the Grand Dukes of Vladimir which was to strengthen their hold on the two republics, and we are told that Alexander left Novgorod only after he had "come to terms" with the city-state. Now totally dependent upon Vladimir for their safety, the merchant grandees sent to Yaroslav asking for another of his sons to replace the departed Alexander. Yaroslav sent them his son Andrew but, in short order, the Novgorodians, faced with renewed threats from the West and knowing the military prowess of Alexander, sent again to Yaroslav requesting that Nevsky be sent back to them to be their prince.


Alexander Rules Russia

Alexander's decision to accept Mongol overlordship in spite of their terrorism, bloodthirsty massacres, and ruthless destruction of property, may have been based on his belief that the Mongols were less of a threat to Russia than her more traditional enemies in the West. But it seems very likely that the willingness of the still pagan but highly superstitious Mongols to leave the Russian Church in peace and to grant it tax exemption in return for praying for the Khan and his family may have played a prominent role. Russia's most dangerous enemies, the Swedes and the German Knights, were determined to reestablish Catholicism in Russia and this of course boded ill for the Orthodox Church, which had a great influence on the devout Nevsky. While some nationalist historians in Russia have been embarrassed by Alexander's refusal to take up arms against the Mongols, George Vernadsky is convinced that he saved Russia from Roman Catholic aggression, noting that Alexander had saved the lives of his people by submitting his own pride to Mongol rule while other princes, too proud to submit, allowed their subjects to pay for their pride with their lives. Alexander Nevsky thus became the leading member of the pro-Mongol faction among the Russian princes, whereas Prince Daniel of Galicia in southern Poland became the most prominent of the anti-Mongol faction, which for a time included Alexander's brother Andrew, who had fled to Poland. Their father Yaroslav II died in 1246, a victim of poisoning at the rumored hand of Batu Khan's mother.

Alexander Nevsky ruled Russia as Grand Prince of Vladimir for 11 years. Khan Sartak, son of Batu, had by now been killed and his uncle Berke ruled in his place. Alexander and his brother Andrew, who craved a return from his exile, sent emissaries to Sarai to plead for Alexander's recognition as Grand Prince and for Andrew's pardon but, although these favors were granted, Alexander and Andrew had to go to Sarai in person for their confirmation. Ruling from Vladimir, Alexander now appointed his son Basil, a mere boy, as Prince of Novgorod, but in one of the typical Novgorod tumults Basil was driven out and Alexander's brother Yaroslav III called in to take his place. Nevsky now intervened and, as he approached the city, Yaroslav was driven out, Novgorod capitulated on Alexander's terms, and Basil was reinstated as prince. Thereupon, Nevsky was forced to go out once again to fight the Germans, Swedes, and Lithuanians, imposing a crushing defeat on the latter that forever after defined the Russian frontier with Finland.

Throughout his reign, Alexander used his influence at Sarai to protect his people. He obtained forgiveness for Yaroslav's rebellion against Basil, got the Russians an exemption from the conscription for an army to fight in North Caucasia, and struggled to get the heavy Mongol imposts reduced. In time, however, the Mongols announced a census to enable them to impose a head tax on their subjects. Unable to get Russia exempted, Alexander aided the Mongols in the two-year survey the census required, and when Novgorod resisted he captured the rebellious leaders and executed them in what was perhaps the only brutal act of his reign, thus bringing Novgorod within the Mongol fold.

In the year 1262, Alexander made his fourth and last visit to his Mongol overlords at Sarai, trying to avert the punishment due the recalcitrance of Novgorod and trying to get the Mongols to relent on certain additional imposts. There, coolly received, he was forced to spend several months, but on becoming ill, he was allowed to return home. On the way, he grew worse and died at the town of Gorodets on the Volga on November 14, 1263, while scarcely in the prime of his life. His body was taken to Vladimir where it was buried in the Monastery of the Mother of God. Alexander was succeeded by his brother Andrew, who died the following year, and then by another son, also named Yaroslav, Prince of Tver, who ruled as Grand Duke of Vladimir and Novgorod until 1272. Of his other sons, Daniel (Dantilo) "the Holy," scarcely two years old, was granted the town of Moscow as his domain. There he founded the line of the princes of Muscovy, who were eventually to unite all Russia, become its first tsars, and rule until 1598. Alexander was a brilliant and undefeated commander and, as ruler, made a profound impression on all who met him. In his private life, he was known for his wisdom, justice, humility, and sobriety and for his devotion to the Greek Orthodox faith.

The death of Alexander at so early an age--scarcely 42 or 43--has been called a national calamity. None of the princes was more devoted to Russia, and no other was so respected. Through his efforts he was the savior of Russia from her enemies on the east and west, and his humiliating but ultimately wise and farsighted policies preserved the Russian state until better times would come. In spite of his subservience to the Mongol invaders, the traditional Russian attitude towards Alexander Nevsky has been very positive, and he has become both a national hero and a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church. The subject of a hagiographical ("idealized") biography, his feast is celebrated on November 23.

When Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg at the mouth of the Neva, he had the relics of Alexander Nevsky brought to the new capital and interred in the newly founded Monastery of St. Alexander Nevsky, where they remain to this day. The 600th anniversary of the Battle of the Neva was commemorated by the erection of a triumphal arch in St. Petersburg in 1836 and by the naming of the principal street in the city as the Alexander Nevsky Prospect, a name which it retained throughout the Soviet period. In 1937, with the threat of imminent war with Germany, the famed Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein was given the task of making a film on the subject of Alexander, which was both blatantly anti-German and an obvious warning of what would happen if the Germans were to dare attack Russia again. The film, with a magnificent choral score by Prokofiev, was much esteemed by critics, especially those on the Left, before and immediately after the Second World War, but now seems embarrassingly unsubtle and somewhat less impressive than when it first appeared.

FURTHER READINGS


Curtin, Jeremiah. The Mongols in Russia. Little, Brown, 1908.

Halperin, Charles J. Russia and the Golden Horde. Indiana University Press, 1985.

Riasanovsky, Nicholas. A History of Russia. 3rd ed. New York, 1977.

Vernadsky, George. The Mongols and Russia. Yale University Press, 1953.

Zenkovsky, S. A., ed. The Nikonian Chronicle. Vol. III. Translated by S. A. and B. J. Zenkovsky. Kingston Press, 1986.