Ostromir (''Остромир'' in

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

;

Christian name A Christian name, sometimes referred to as a baptismal name, is a religious personal name given on the occasion of a Christian baptism, though now most often assigned by parents at birth. In English-speaking cultures, a person's Christian name ...

- Joseph) (died c. 1057) was a

statesman A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level. Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States * ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...

, voivod and

posadnik Posadnik (Cyrillic: посадник, (literally: по-садник - ''pre-sident'') was the mayor in some East Slavic cities or towns. Most notably, the posadnik (equivalent to a stadtholder, burgomeister, or podestà in the medieval west) was ...

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...

in 1054-1057 and probably for some decades previous. Ostromir is known from the first Russian dated book, the

Ostromir Gospels The Ostromir Gospels (Ukrainian: Остромирове Євангеліє, Russian: Остромирово Евангелие) is the oldest dated East Slavic book. (Archeologists have dated the Novgorod Codex, a wax writing tablet with excerpt ...

(or Ostromir Codex), which he commissioned from his scribe Gregory. The chronicles record that Ostromir was the father of

Vyshata Vyshata was a Novgorodian general and voivode, whose father is supposed to have been posadnik Ostromir and whose son was Yan Vyshatich. Vyshata was an associate of Vladimir Yaroslavovich while the last ruled in Novgorod. The authors of the Primar ...

and the grandfather of

Yan Vyshatich Yan Vyshatich (''Ян Вышатич'' in Russian) (c. 1016 – June 24, 1106) was a Rus' nobleman and military commander (tysyatsky). The last known representative of the Dobrynya dynasty, Yan Vyshatich was the son of Vyshata and grandson of Ostr ...

. The Ostromir Gospels names his wife as Theophana, viewed by Andrzej Poppe as a daughter of

Anna Porphyrogeneta Anna Porphyrogenita ( grc-x-medieval, Ἄννα Πορφυρογεννήτη, translit=Anna Porphyrogennētē, rus, Анна Византийская, uk, Анна Порфірогенета; 13 March 963 – 1011) was a Grand Princess consort ...

and

Vladimir the Great Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych ( orv, Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь, ''Volodiměrъ Svętoslavičь'';, ''Uladzimir'', russian: Владимир, ''Vladimir'', uk, Володимир, ''Volodymyr''. Se ...

. Another popular speculation posits

Konstantin Dobrynich Konstantin Dobrynich (died 1022) was an 11th-century posadnik of Novgorod. According to the Novgorod chronicles, he was the son of Dobrynya and wielded great influence at the court of his own cousin, Yaroslav the Wise. The time at which he became ...

as the father of Ostromir.Прозоровский Д.И. ''О родстве св. Владимира по матери''. // Записки Академии Наук, т. 5, 1864. According to the First Sophia Chronicle, Ostromir died in 1056 during his military campaign against the

Chud Chud or Chude ( orv, чудь, in Finnic languages: tšuudi, čuđit) is a term historically applied in the early East Slavic annals to several Finnic peoples in the area of what is now Estonia, Karelia and Northwestern Russia. Arguably, the ...

es. It is highly unlikely, however, since the afterword to the Ostromir Codex clearly states that he was still alive in 1057.

Notes

11th-century Rus' people Posadniks of Novgorod 1057 deaths Year of birth unknown {{Ukraine-bio-stubs