Ostromir (''Остромир'' in
Russian;
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 nam ...
- 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 ...
,
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 ...
of
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 ...
in 1054-1057 and probably for some decades previous.
Ostromir is known from the first Russian dated book, the
Ostromir Gospels (or Ostromir Codex), which he commissioned from his scribe Gregory. The chronicles record that Ostromir was the father of
Vyshata 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 and
Vladimir the Great. 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, th ...
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
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