Editing Yaroslav the Wise (section)

==Reign==

===Power struggles between siblings===
Leaving aside the legitimacy of Yaroslav's claims to the Kievan throne and his postulated guilt in the murder of his brothers, [[Nestor the Chronicler]] and later Russian historians often presented him as a model of virtue, styling him "the Wise".{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} A less appealing side of his personality is revealed by his having imprisoned his youngest brother [[Sudislav]] for life. In response, another brother, [[Mstislav of Chernigov]], whose distant realm bordered the [[North Caucasus]] and the [[Black Sea]], hastened to Kiev.

Despite reinforcements led by Yaroslav's brother-in-law King [[Anund Jacob]] of Sweden (as ''[[Yakun]]'' - "blind and dressed in a gold suit"<ref>''Uplysning uti konung Anund Jacobs Historia utur Ryska Handlingar'' in Kongl. Vitterhets Historie och Antiquitets Akademiens Handlingar, Stockholm 1802 p. 61</ref> or "handsome and dressed in a gold suit")<ref name="pritsak412">Pritsak, O. (1981). The origin of Rus'. Cambridge, Mass.: Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. p. 412</ref> Mstislav inflicted a heavy defeat on Yaroslav in 1024. Yaroslav and Mstislav then divided Kievan Rus' between them: the area stretched east from the [[Dnieper River]], with the capital at [[Chernigov]], was ceded to Mstislav until his death in 1036.

===Allies along the Baltic coast===
In his foreign policy, Yaroslav relied on a Scandinavian alliance and attempted to weaken the Byzantine influence on Kiev. According to ''Heimskringla'', Olaf the Swede made an alliance with Yaroslav, even though the alliance was not liked in Sweden, in order to declare war against [[Olaf II of Norway]]. This was sealed in 1019 when King Olof of Sweden married his daughter to Yaroslav instead of the Norwegian king. That led to protests in Sweden because the Swedes wanted to reestablish control over their lost eastern territories and bring in tribute from Kievan Rus', as his father [[Eric the Victorious]] had, but after years of war against Norway, Sweden no longer had the power to collect regular tributes from Kievan Rus', according to ''Heimskringla''. In 1022 Olaf was deposed and forced to give power to his son [[Anund Jakob]].<ref name="Snorre Sturluson 1992, pp. 89-95">Snorre Sturluson, Nordiska kungasagor. Vol. II. Stockholm: Fabel, 1992, pp. 89-95 (Olav den heliges saga, Chapters 72-80).</ref>

He{{Clarify|reason=Who—Yaroslav or Anund Jakob?|date=September 2024}} defended the Eastern countries from invaders, ensuring Swedish military interests.<ref name="Snorre Sturluson 1992, pp. 89-95"/>

In a successful military raid in 1030, he captured [[Tartu]], [[Estonia]] and renamed it Yuryev<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tvauri|first1=Andres|title=The Migration Period, Pre-Viking Age, and Viking Age in Estonia|date=2012|pages=33, 59, 60|url=https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Publications/Display/b80b6f11-43ed-4b8c-b616-48ac53b70ec5?language=ENG|access-date=27 December 2016}}</ref> (named after Yury, Yaroslav's [[patron saint]]) and forced the surrounding [[Ugandi County]] to pay annual tribute.

In 1031, he conquered [[Cherven cities]] from the Poles followed by the construction of [[Sutiejsk]] to guard the newly acquired lands. In c.1034 Yaroslav concluded an alliance with [[Kings of Poland|Polish King]] [[Casimir I the Restorer]], sealed by the latter's marriage to Yaroslav's sister, Maria.

Yaroslav's eldest son, [[Vladimir of Novgorod|Vladimir]], ruled in Novgorod from 1034 and supervised relations in the north.<ref name="martin"/>

Later in Yaroslav's reign, around c.1035, [[Ingvar the Far-Travelled]], [[Anund Jakob]]'s jarl, sent Swedish soldiers into Kievan Rus due to Olof's son wanting to assist his father's ally Yaroslav in his wars against the Pechenegs and Byzantines. Later, in c.1041 Anund Jakob tried to reestablish [[Sweden|Swedish]] control over the Eastern trade routes and reopen them.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://viking-nevo.narod.ru/eng/expeditions/2004-vittfarne.html|title=Vittfarne expedition - Viking-Nevo}}</ref> The Georgian annals report 1000 men coming into [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] but the original force was likely much larger, around 3,000 men.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.georgianjournal.ge/discover-georgia/29710-vikings-in-georgia.html|title = Vikings… in Georgia?}}</ref>

Ingvar's fate is unknown, but he was likely captured in battle during the Byzantine campaigns or killed, supposedly in 1041. Only one ship returned to Sweden, according to the legend.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.snerpa.is/net/forn/yngvar.htm|title = Yngvars saga víðförla}}</ref>

===Campaign against Byzantium===
{{main article|Rus'–Byzantine War (1043)}}
Yaroslav presented his second direct challenge to Constantinople in 1043, when a Rus' flotilla headed by one of his sons appeared near Constantinople and demanded money, threatening to attack the city otherwise. Whatever the reason, the Byzantines refused to pay and preferred to fight. The Rus' flotilla defeated the Byzantine fleet but was almost destroyed by a storm and came back to Kiev empty-handed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Plokhy |title=The gates of Europe : a history of Ukraine |date=December 2015 |isbn=978-0-465-05091-8 |pages=37–38|publisher=Basic Books }}</ref>[[File:Daughters of Yaroslav the Wise.jpg|thumb|right|11th-century fresco of [[Saint Sophia's Cathedral, Kiev]], representing the daughters of Yaroslav I, with [[Anne of Kiev|Anne]] probably being the youngest. Other daughters were [[Anastasia of Kiev|Anastasia]], wife of [[Andrew I of Hungary]]; Elizabeth, wife of [[Harald Hardrada]]; and possibly [[Agatha, wife of Edward the Exile]]]]

===Protecting the inhabitants of the Dnieper from the Pechenegs===

To defend his state from the [[Pechenegs]] and other nomadic tribes threatening it from the south he constructed a line of forts, composed of [[Bila Tserkva|Yuriev]], [[Bohuslav]], [[Kaniv]], [[Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi|Korsun]], and [[Pereiaslav|Pereyaslavl]]. To celebrate his decisive victory over the [[Pechenegs]] in 1036, who thereafter were never a threat to Kiev, he sponsored the construction of the [[Saint Sophia's Cathedral, Kiev|Saint Sophia Cathedral]] in 1037.<ref>{{Citation | title=Saint Sophia's Cathedral: Sarcophagus of Prince Yaroslav the Wise | url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sarcophagus-of-prince-yaroslav-the-wise-at-saint-sophias-cathedral |website=Atlas Obscura | access-date=10 December 2022}}
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In 1037 the [[:UK:Ірининський собор (Київ)|monasteries of Saint George and Saint Irene]] were built, named after patron saints of Yaroslav and his wife. Some mentioned and other celebrated monuments of his reign such as the [[Golden Gate, Kiev|Golden Gate of Kiev]] were destroyed during the [[Mongol invasion of Rus']], but later restored.

===Establishment of law===
[[File:Ярослав Мудрый.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Portrait in the ''[[Tsarsky titulyarnik]]'' (1672)]]
Yaroslav was a notable patron of literary culture and learning. In 1051, he had a Slavic monk, [[Hilarion of Kiev]], proclaimed the [[metropolitan bishop]] of Kiev, thus challenging the Byzantine tradition of placing [[Greeks]] on the episcopal sees. Hilarion's discourse on Yaroslav and his father Vladimir is frequently cited as the first work of [[Old East Slavic]] literature.