Yaroslav the Wise: an instructive message 1,000 years later

Our readers perhaps know that Den has proclaimed 2015 the Year of Yaroslav the Wise. I am writing these lines not only to let this choice be known to those who have not yet heard of this, but also to substantiate briefly why no other than Yaroslav, the Grand Prince of Kyiv in 1015-54 (in fact from 1019), is the person to whom we will devote a considerable part of our publications in the next 12 months.

Yaroslav the Wise’s political achievements in the almost 40 years of his rule convincingly prove that his era was the golden age of our Ukrainian Empire, when Kyivan Rus’ was fully able to speak on equal terms with the most powerful Western and Eastern monarchs (sometimes having a political, cultural, and military superiority over them), such as Byzantine and German emperors, French, Hungarian, and Norwegian kings. And not only with them. This is the legitimate object of our national pride because never again did the Ukrainian state manage to achieve such a stunning might. Naturally, it did so without being haughty or blinded, without idealizing “its own” only because it was “its own.”

There are many interesting aspects here. Yaroslav was, without an exaggeration, a global-scale cultural figure (St. Sophia of Kyiv, impressive book collections, chronicles…); at the same time, he was a talented, flexible, pragmatic, and even tough diplomat; he was also a self-confident ruler (he always knew his own worth, but exercised the power he was vested with in a very cautious and “pinpoint” manner and resorted to repressions as a last-resort measure only, as he did, for example, in 1024, to suppress a pagans’ rebellion, which was, after all, typical of the 11th century). Finally, Yaroslav was a person who did not break down under the burden of enormous responsibility and managed to adequately perform his nation-building mission.

How could an earthly individual – will all his flaws, weaknesses, and errors – manage to do so? This is what we are going to discuss on Den/The Day’s pages (further developing the opinions and stories of Nestor the Chronicler, Ilarion, Ivan Kocherha, Pavlo Zahrebelny, and many others). It is necessary and interesting to understand the instructive message of Yaroslav the Wise. Please join us, Den/The Day readers!