The Battle of Alta River was a 1068 clash on the

Alta River Alta River ( uk, Альта, Ільтиця, Alta, Iltytsia) is a small river in Ukraine and is a right tributary of the Trubizh. The ancient town of Pereiaslav is situated between the Trubizh and Alta rivers. The river is considered the place ...

between

Cuman The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian exonym ), were a Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation. After the Mongol invasion (1237), many so ...

army on the one hand and

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...

forces of Grand Prince

Iziaslav I of Kiev Iziaslav Yaroslavich ( orv, Изѧславь Ѩрославичь; russian: Изяслав Ярославич; uk, Ізяслав Ярославич; 1024 – 3 October 1078, baptized as ''Demetrius'') was a Kniaz' ( Prince) of Turov and Gra ...

, Prince Sviatoslav of

Chernigov Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within t ...

, and Prince Vsevolod of Periaslavl on the other in which the Rus' forces were routed and fled back to Kiev and Chernigov in some disarray.Janet Martin, ''Medieval Russia 980-1584'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 49. The battle led to an uprising in Kiev that briefly deposed Grand Prince Iziaslav. That incident supposedly shows the power of the Kiev

veche Veche ( rus, вече, véče, ˈvʲet͡ɕe; pl, wiec; uk, ві́че, víče, ; be, ве́ча, viéča, ; cu, вѣще, věšte) was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries. In Novgorod and in Pskov, where the veche acquired gr ...

and how common people gathering influenced princely politics in Kievan Rus' (particularly in Kiev as well as in the

Novgorod the Great 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 ...

History

The Cumans/Polovtsy/Kipchaks were first mentioned in the ''Primary Chronicle'' as Polovtsy sometime around 1055, when Prince Vsevolod drew up a peace treaty with them. In spite of the treaty, in 1061, Kipchaks supposedly breached the earthworks and palisades constructed by Princes

Vladimir Vladimir may refer to: Names * Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name * Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name * Volodymyr for the Ukr ...

(d. 1015) and Yaroslav (d. 1054) and defeated an army led by Prince Vsevolod that had marched out to intercept them. Following the unsuccessful Battle on the Alta River near the city of Pereiaslavl, Iziaslav and Vsevolod fled back to Kiev and their unwillingness to arm the general populace to march out and fight the raiders led to an uprising in the city. A

(public assembly) was convened on unknown initiative in the marketplace and the people there demanded arms to fight the Kipchaks. When these were not forthcoming, they ransacked the house of

voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the ...

Konstantin.''Lavrent'evskaia Letopis' '' (''Povest Vremennikh Let''), in ''Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Letopisei'', Vol. 1, cols. 170-1; Boris D. Grekov, ''Kiev Rus' '' trans. by Y. Sdobnikov (Moscow, Foreign Language Publishing House. 1959), 656-7; Martin, ''Medieval Russia'', 35, 49;

Mikhail Tikhomirov Mikhail Nikolayevich Tikhomirov (russian: Михаи́л Николáевич Тихоми́ров; 31 May 1893 — 2 September 1965) was a leading Soviet specialist in medieval Russian paleography. Tikhomirov was born and spent his whole life in M ...

, ''The Towns of Ancient Rus' '', trans. by Y. Sdobnikov (Moscow, Foreign Language Publishing House. 1959), 198-199. The Kievans freed Prince

Vseslav of Polotsk Vseslav of Polotsk or Vseslav Bryachislavich ( 1029 – 24 April 1101), also known as ''Vseslav the Sorcerer'' or ''Vseslav the Seer'', was the most famous ruler of Polotsk and was briefly Grand Prince of Kiev in 1068–1069. Together with Rostis ...

, who had been imprisoned earlier by Iziaslav, Vsevolod, and Sviatoslav, and placed him on the Kievan throne in hopes that he could stop Kipchaks. Iziaslav, for his part, fled to his father-in-law, Boleslaw II of Poland, who provided him a military support with which Iziaslav returned to Kiev the following May (1069) and took back the throne. In Iziaslav's absence, Prince Sviatoslav managed to defeat a much larger Cuman army on November 1, 1068 and stem the tide of Cuman raids. A small skirmish in 1071 was the only disturbance by the Cumans for the next two decades. Thus, while the Battle of Alta River was a disgrace for Kievan Rus', Sviatoslav's victory the following year relieved the Cumans' threat to Kiev and Chernigov for a considerable period.

References

{{Reflist Alta Alta the Alta River 11th century in Kievan Rus' 1068 in Europe

History

See also

References