Congresses of princes, as a form of government and a way to make important decisions and settle disputes, began to be practiced in the second half of the eleventh century. Such conventions discussed matters relating to feudal land management, relations among the princes, and united resistance against steppe nomads.
Historians consider the Liubech convention of 1097 among the most important ones. At the time, internecine strife was gnawing away at the once powerful state of Kyiv Rus’. Feudal dismemberment prevailed, with every prince coveting his neighbor’s wealth and all eager to become the grand prince of Kyiv.
Seeing this discord, the Polovtsian nomads were becoming active, raiding not only territories bordering on the steppe, but also reaching farther and farther into the depth of Rus’. Cities and villages were razed to the ground and people killed, because there was no organized resistance. Some of the princes even invited the Polovtsians to raid their neighbors.
The mounting Polovtsian threat mad e it clear that all forces of Rus’- Ukraine had to unite to beat off nomadic attacks and put an end to the feudal strife. In 1097, Grand Prince Sviatopolk Iziaslavych of Kyiv, Prince Volodymyr Monomakh then of Pereyaslav, his brother Prince Oleh Sviatoslavych of Chernihiv, Prince Davyd Ihorevych of Volodymyr- Volynsky, and Prince Vasylko Rostyslavych of Terebovl, with small troops, gathered at the city of Liubech, at the local castle, and held counsel. The initiative belonged to Volodymyr Monomakh who had volunteered to hand his Chernihiv principality over to Sviatoslav’s sons and taken the seat of Pereyaslav shortly before the convention.
The 1097 convention of Liubech was meant to stop the hostilities between the sons of Sviatoslav and the other princes, put an end to feudal strife, and unite against the steppe nomads, particularly the Polovtsians. “Why should we lay waste the land of Rus’ and fight each other, while the Polovtsians are tearing our land apart, rejoicing at our feud?” said the princes. “Let our hearts beat in unison, so we can stand as one, protecting the land of Rus’.”
One of the main reasons for the internal strife was the absence of direct inheritance of the land. Patrimonial estates were inherited not by one’s son but oldest brother, leaving the sons landless, causing endless disputes and attempts to settle them by force. Direct inheritance was proposed by Yaroslav and his party and the convention adopted it. Every prince was now master of his ancestral lands, according to the principle, “Each shall hold his patrimonial estate.” Each prince was now in full ownership of his lands under the obligation not to encroach on his neighbor’s property.
Sviatopolk was now in command of Kyiv and lands that had always belonged to the dynasty, specifically Turove. Volodymyr received all the lands of Vsevolod: Pereyaslav, Smolensk, Suzdal, Rostov, and Beloozero. Novgorod went to his son Mstislav. Sviatoslav’s sons Oleh, Davyd, and Yaroslav were now masters of the lands of Chernihiv, Riazan, and Murom. Davyd Ihorevych received the land of Volodymyr-Volynsky; Volodar Rostyslavych took possession of Peremyshl [currently Przemysl in Poland]; Vasylko Rostyslavych received Terebovl. “And we kissed the cross, pledging that, should any of us attack anyone else from now on, all of us would fight the aggressor, so help us God. And we all said, May that aggressor suffer the wrath of the Cross and of all the lands of Rus’,” reads the chronicle.
The 1097 convention of Liubech was important primarily because it was the first and largely successful attempt to prevent Kyiv Rus’ from breaking up into so many small principalities, by changing the principles of inheritance and setting the princes the common target of organizing an adequate armed resistance against Polovtsian raids to protect the lands of Rus’-Ukraine. The first convention of Liubech put an end, even if for while, to the struggle for the lands of Chernihiv and made it possible to unite the forces of the border principalities in the face of the Polovtsian threat. However, it failed to stop the feud in Red Rus’ and Carpathia. Several years later, the strife resumed in the east also.
The second convention of Liubech took place in 1135 to discuss local matters and settle disputes among princes. Its main purpose was to decide on an alliance between the princes of Chernihiv (descended from Oleh) and Mstyslav against those from Monomakh.
Shortly afterward, in 1147, during the war between the Olhovychy and Davydovychy on the one hand and Mstyslavychy on the other, Prince Rostyslav of Smolensk looted and burned Liubech. At the time the city was large and prosperous, a thriving trade venue and residence of the princes of Chernihiv. Rostyslav’s brother Iziaslav said, “We shall go to Liubech where they (the Olhovychy — Author) live and rule.” The castle was robbed of all values and burned down.
In the spring of 1148 the troops of the Mstyslavychy, Olhovychy, and Davydovychy once again met on the banks of the Dnipro, yet no battle ensued, because the ice on the river was too thin, so they just shot arrows at each other across the river.
Liubech was again burned in 1157, this time by the Polovtsians. Now its importance as a trade and crafts center had declined dramatically. In 1159, Prince Sviatoslav Olhovych complained that he had been given “Chernihiv with seven empty cities of Moroviysk, Liubech, Orhoshch, Vsevolozh...” However, in 1180 Prince Sviatoslav Vsevolodovych summoned the vassal princes to hold counsel in Liubech. The city must have been rebuilt by then and its status restored. The appanage principality of Liubech existed as part of the principality of Chernihiv.
There is no information about Liubech in the thirteenth century and no traces of Mongol ruination have been discovered by archaeologists. Nor is Liubech mentioned by chroniclers among the cities and towns seized by the troops of Batu Khan in 1239-1240 on their way to Kyiv via Chernihiv.
The notion of consolidation did not exist in Old Rus’, but the sanguinary feud, the absence of political and spiritual unity in certain parts of Old Rus’-Ukraine constituted a tragic problem at the time. Outstanding personalities of the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, among them Metropolitan Hilarion, author of the Sermon on Law and Grace, Nestor the Chronicler, Prince Volodymyr Monomakh, and the anonymous author of The Lay of the Host of Ihor, were keenly aware of it.
Not to make mountains out of molehills, ending fratricidal war, caring for younger brothers (i.e., vassals) as well as the downtrodden and long- suffering peasantry, together constituted the only way to deliver the land of Rus’ from ruin. Alas, the Mongols invaded precisely when Old Rus’ had been weakened greatly from internal strife.
Pages from the annals of Kyiv Rus’ illustrating the attempts of far-sighted politicians, primarily Volodymyr Monomakh, to unite the lands of our forefathers are especially relevant today. And the Liubech conventions, particularly the best known one of 1097, are especially interesting in this context.







