Bitter allure of power

Prince Roman Mstyslavych was rightly considered the most outstanding prince of Ukraine- Rus’ at the turn of the 13th century. A chronicler extolled the prince as a “memorable sovereign of all Rus’,” who “suppressed all the pagan peoples thanks to his intellect and courage, and behaved in accordance with the Lord’s law. He attacked the wicked like a lion, was ferocious as a lynx, destroyed them like a crocodile, crossed their lands like an eagle, and was bold as an auroch. He took after his grandfather Monomakh, who wiped out the bad Ismailitians, the so-called Polovtsians.”

Even taking into account the fact that many chroniclers of this era were inclined to exaggerate, there is no denying that Prince Roman Mstyslavych was truly an extraordinary figure, a brilliant and strong leader who left a deep and inimitable imprint on the history of the Galician-Volhynian Principality — in the creation of which he played a key role — and Ukraine- Rus’. This explains why he and his deeds were always mentioned with sincere gratitude in written sources and oral folk poetry.

The life path of a human against the backdrop of history (even in general outlines) usually allows one to better understand the logic of his actions and the nature of his character building. Here I will give a brief account of the well-known facts of Roman Mstyslavych’s biography. He was the son of the Volhynian Prince Mstyslav Iziaslavych and Agnieszka, daughter of the Polish prince Boleslaw Krzywousty. The exact birth date of the future great statesman and general is not known. Legend has it that in his youth Roman often traveled to Poland and Germany, and his sojourns in these countries enabled him to better grasp the secrets of Western European politics.

After ascending the throne of the Grand Prince of Kyiv in 1167, Mstyslav Iziaslavych (grandson of Volodymyr Monomakh) appointed his son Roman prince of Novhorod. But after Kyiv was invaded by the joint forces of a princely “coalition” led by Andrei Bogoliubsky, Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal, razed to the ground in 1169 and our hero’s father, Prince Mstyslav, and Roman lost their lands, Mstyslav Iziaslavych was forced retake the princely throne in Volodymyr-Volynsky. After his father died (presumably in 1173), Roman became the prince of Volhynia.

Historians are correct in claiming that Roman Mstyslavych’s lifelong goal was to unite the Volhynian and Galician principalities into one strong political entity embracing the Ukrainian lands from the Carpathians to the Dnipro River. It took the prominent statesman decades to achieve this goal. The first attempt “to find the key” to power in Halych (in 1188, after the death of the famous Galician ruler Yaroslav Osmomysl) failed not in the least because of foreign interference, first by Hungarian King Bela III and then the Poles. Prince Roman managed to realize his far-reaching plans only in 1199, after the death of Volodymyr Yaroslavych of Galicia, and he immediately became the strongest political force in Ukraine.

The last six years of his life were Roman Mstyslavych’s finest hour, when, to quote Mykhailo Hrushevsky, “this glory aroused the hope, the last hope, in Ukraine that Roman might be the very person who would establish order in Ukraine, take hold of the princes, put an end to the interference in Ukrainian affairs of foreign intriguers, such as Vsevolod of Vladimir-Suzdal, curb the Cumans and other enemies, correct and streamline the utterly destabilized Ukrainian life.” These were the complex problems that Prince Roman, whose contemporaries respectfully called him the “Autocrat of all Rus’,” had to tackle. For example, the Polish chronicler Kadlubek wrote that “within a short period of time [Roman] rose so immeasurably that he ruled almost all the lands and princes of Rus’.”

It is difficult to understand the prince’s policies without considering the specifics and nature of the state that Roman was destined to head. Orest Subtelny, the well- known Ukrainian Canadian historian and overseas member of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences, points out that “Galician boyars were the most wayward, rich, and powerful in all the Rus’ lands. This aristocracy wielded such all-pervading influence that Galicia is often considered the ideal model of oligarchic rule in Rus’. Unlike the boyars in other principalities, where most of them were drawn from the prince’s personal guards, the Galician aristocracy obviously developed primarily from the local clan nobility. They did not receive their estates from the prince, as was the usual case, but seized communal lands. The first Riurikids who came here (as well as their descendant Prince Roman) encountered an already- established aristocracy that was ready to defend its own interests.”

Prince Roman must have been well aware that establishing a more or less strong state would remain a pipe dream unless he crushed the resistance of this omnipotent boyar oligarchy. A chronicler quotes the prince’s favorite saying that he would repeat almost every day: “You can’t enjoy the honey without killing the bees; a root will not smell before you grind it.” Roman had no scruples about ways to overcome the resistance of the Galician nobles: this autocrat put some boyars to death (there is some evidence, perhaps not altogether reliable, that he ordered some of them to be buried alive) and drove others out of the country.

The outstanding Ukrainian historian, Prof. Ivan Krypiakevych, emphasized that “in the struggle against the boyars, ordinary burghers and peasants would side with the prince; ‘the best men’ of Volodymyr-Volynsky recalled, when Roman’s grandson was in power, that Roman protected them from all kinds of injustices, and, what is also an indication of Roman’s popularity among the masses, fragments of songs, including ‘hahilky,’ are still sung by the people.”

One of the most important problems that Roman faced was “the Kyiv question.” In contrast with earlier times, when, to quote Hrushevsky, “the Galician-Volhynian princes stood aside, kept other princes from intervening, and did not interfere in other lands,” now, in the last third of the 12th century and the early part of the 13th, such Western Ukrainian princes as Yaroslav Osmomysl, and especially Roman Mstyslavych, pursued a qualitatively different policy. Observing the obvious weakening of the Kyiv-based princely government, Hrushevsky noted bitterly: “Kyiv’s glory was now becoming more of a bane. Princes changed not only every year but even once every few months or weeks. And every new ruler would bring in troops, who would occupy the land, destroy the economy, plunder the burghers and merchants, and disrupt trade.”

Roman decided to take control of the “mother of Rus’ cities.” In 1201-03 the prince twice ousted his father-in-law Riurik Rostyslavych from Kyiv (he finally forced him to take monastic vows), but Roman chose not to ascend the Kyivan throne and “appointed” Riurik’s son Rostyslav, who completely depended on him. Both chroniclers and later historians agree that the Kyivites fully supported the actions of the resolute Galician-Volhynian prince. To this end they even flouted their own rule: “We should meddle as little as possible into princely wars and disputes — let them squabble and leave us alone” (Hrushevsky).

In principle, this was the same goal — strengthening the authority of the prince and the prestige of the state as a whole — which Roman Mstyslavych pursued in his foreign policy. The Byzantine chronicler Nicetas Choniates noted that Roman’s expeditions against the Cumans greatly helped his country avert the real danger represented by the nomads, who were approaching Constantinople, the capital of the empire. A mutually advantageous alliance with Byzantium also helped Roman counter the Hungarian kings’ increasingly persistent claims to Galicia. The situation here changed significantly after the Crusaders sacked the Byzantine capital in 1204.

There is a very interesting translation of a chronicle (although few historians consider it authentic) that says that Pope Innocent III, who was both the spiritual and temporal ruler of a large part of Europe and dreamed of worldwide supremacy, respected the power of Roman, the Prince of Galicia- Volhynia, and suggested that he convert to Catholicism and be proclaimed King of Rus’. The prince allegedly told the papal envoys, “As long as I have a sword, I will be buying lands at a different price — only with blood, as our fathers and forefathers did to enlarge the Rus’ land!” The royal crown was proposed again five decades later, in 1253, to Roman’s son, the glorious Danylo of Galicia.

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The violent death of a human, especially an outstanding historical figure, is always senseless. Prince Roman Mstyslavych, on whom the common people of Ukraine-Rus’ were pinning so much hope, was killed in the summer of 1205 in the Battle of Zawichost (Eastern Poland, near Lublin), when he intervened in an internecine dispute that had flared up among the Polish princes. It was his son Danylo (four years old at the time) who had to overcome “the three main woes that in the long run shattered the state” (Subtelny), namely, the wrangles among the princes, boyar intrigues, and foreign intervention.