Battle on the river Nemiga was a
combatCombat, or fighting, is purposeful violent conflict intended to establish dominance over the opposition.The term "combat" typically refers to armed conflict between military forces in warfare, whereas the more general term "fighting" can refer to any violent conflict...
of the
RussianRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
feudal period that occurred on March 3 1067 on the river
NemigaNiamiha is a river in Minsk. Today it is contained within a fabricated culvert.The first mention of the river in historical chronicles is connected with a disastrous Battle on the river Nemiga, which took place here in 1067, when the forces of the prince of Kyivan Rus' defeated the forces of...
. The description of the battle is the first reference to
MinskMinsk is the capital and largest city in Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Niamiha rivers. Minsk is also a headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States . As the national capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is also the administrative centre of Minsk...
in the chronicles of Russian history.
At the end of the tenth century Prince
Vladimir SvyatoslavichVladimir Svyatoslavich the Great, also sometimes spelled Volodymer Old East Slavic: Володимеръ Святославичь was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988, and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus'...
, then ruling over Novgorod the Great, proposed a marriage between himself and the daughter of the prince of Polotsk,
RogvolodRogvolod was first chronicled prince of Polatsk . In the Russian Primary Chronicle, he is known as Рогъволодъ, probably a slavicized version of the Old Norse name Ragnvald. He came from overseas and established himself at Polatsk in the mid-10th century...
, who had rebuffed him, saying she did not want to take off a slave's son's shoes.
Battle on the river Nemiga was a
combatCombat, or fighting, is purposeful violent conflict intended to establish dominance over the opposition.The term "combat" typically refers to armed conflict between military forces in warfare, whereas the more general term "fighting" can refer to any violent conflict...
of the
RussianRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
feudal period that occurred on March 3 1067 on the river
NemigaNiamiha is a river in Minsk. Today it is contained within a fabricated culvert.The first mention of the river in historical chronicles is connected with a disastrous Battle on the river Nemiga, which took place here in 1067, when the forces of the prince of Kyivan Rus' defeated the forces of...
. The description of the battle is the first reference to
MinskMinsk is the capital and largest city in Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Niamiha rivers. Minsk is also a headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States . As the national capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is also the administrative centre of Minsk...
in the chronicles of Russian history.
Background of the battle
At the end of the tenth century Prince
Vladimir SvyatoslavichVladimir Svyatoslavich the Great, also sometimes spelled Volodymer Old East Slavic: Володимеръ Святославичь was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988, and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus'...
, then ruling over Novgorod the Great, proposed a marriage between himself and the daughter of the prince of Polotsk,
RogvolodRogvolod was first chronicled prince of Polatsk . In the Russian Primary Chronicle, he is known as Рогъволодъ, probably a slavicized version of the Old Norse name Ragnvald. He came from overseas and established himself at Polatsk in the mid-10th century...
, who had rebuffed him, saying she did not want to take off a slave's son's shoes. . In retaliation, Vladimir attacked and pillaged Polotsk, killed Rogvolod, and took his daughter,
RognedaRogneda of Polotsk is the Slavic name for Ragnhild, whose father Ragnvald came from overseas and established himself at Polatsk in the mid-10th century....
by force, adding the city to his territorial possessions. He placed his son, Iziaslav, in Polotsk. Iziaslav's son,
Bryachislav of PolotskBryachislav Izyaslavich was the prince of Polatsk between 1001 and 1044. He was the oldest of the two sons of Izyaslav Vladimirovich....
, succeeded his father in 1001.
By 1021 Bryacheslav set his sights on Novgorod; he attacked and ransacked the city, but on the journey home, he was overtaken by the Vladimir's son
Yaroslav I the WiseYaroslav I the Wise was thrice Grand Prince of Novgorod and Kiev, uniting the two principalities for a time under his rule...
, then ruling in Novgorod, on the banks of the
Sudoma RiverThe Sudoma river is a tributary of the river Shelon, with its course located in the Sudoma uplands in the Pskov Oblast of Russia, that is part of the Lake Peipus drainage basin....
; he was defeated and fled, leaving behind his Novgorodian captives and loot.Yaroslav pursued him and forced Bryachislav to make peace the following year, after which the Polotsk prince settled down. ON his death in 1044, his son,
VseslavVseslav of Polotsk or Vseslav Bryachislavich, also known as Vseslav the Sorcerer or Vseslav the Seer , was the most famous ruler of Polotsk and was briefly Grand Prince of Kiev in 1068–1069...
succeeded him as Prince of Polotsk. While his father had been an irritant to the Rus princes in the Middle Dmieper region, Vseslav's campaigns in the north were much more serious. He unscuccessfully besieged
PskovPskov is an ancient city located in the north-west of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. The city of Pskov serves as the administrative center of Pskov Oblast...
in 1065, but the following year he drove out the young Novgoroidan prince Mstislav Izyaslavich, son of the Grand Prince of Kiev, Izyaslav Yaroslavich) and pillaged Novgorod again. The seizure of Novgorod not only was a personal insult to the grand prince, whose son fled back to Kiev, but it threatened the Middle Dnieper princes' ties to the north - to Scandinavia, the Baltic, and tribute from the north. It also threatened the political power of the Yaroslavichi, the sons of Yaroslav the Wise, who had to that point been preeminent.
Progress of the battle
The three sons of Yaroslav, Iziaslav, Vsevolod, and Sviatoslav joined forces and marched north through the winter of 1067. They burned Minsk, then held by Polotsk, and as this is the first reference to Minsk in the chronicles, it is celebrated as the founding date of the city. The Yaroslavichi army came upon Vseslav's army in the deep snow on the
NemigaNiamiha is a river in Minsk. Today it is contained within a fabricated culvert.The first mention of the river in historical chronicles is connected with a disastrous Battle on the river Nemiga, which took place here in 1067, when the forces of the prince of Kyivan Rus' defeated the forces of...
River on March 3 and defeated him The precise course of battle is unknown, though it has become legendary as a bloodbath;
The Tale of Igor's CampaignThe Tale of Igor's Campaign is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language and tentatively dated to the end of 12th century.It is also occasionally translated as The Song of Igor's Campaign, The...
referred to "the bloody banks of the Nemiga" being sown not with blessings but with bones.
Aftermath
Vseslav fled back Polotsk and the Yaroslav princes did not pursue him. However, in the June after the battle the Yaroslav princes called for negotiations, “kissed the cross” (took an oath) and made promises of future safety; Vseslav was invited to Iziaslav's camp to celebrate the peace and was promplty arrested together with two of his sons and taken to prison in Kiev .