Day of Remembrance of Prince Igor (03/03)

Prince Igor (years of life: about 878—945, years of reign: 912—945) was the son of Rurik, after whose death Prince Oleg became Igor’s guardian. Oleg, having accepted the reign from Rurik, was for a long time the regent of the young Igor.

In 912, after the death of Prince Oleg, Igor solely occupied the Kiev throne. The Drevlyans — one of the tribal associations of the Eastern Slavs —, having learned about the change of power, were in no hurry to pay tribute to the treasury of the new ruler. Igor was forced to force the Slavs to pay tribute.

In 914, having defeated the Uglichs and pacified the Drevlyan tribes, Igor forced them to pay a greater tribute than before. In 915, one of the governors of Prince Igor moved south and, after a three-year siege, took the city of Peresechen — as a reward for the victory, he received Drevlyan tribute.

During his reign, Prince Igor called many Varangians who helped him rule the principality and fight enemies. But something did not work out in Igor’s policy with the Slavic tribes, so Igor was brutally killed by the Drevlyans. Igor was buried under a high mound near the city of Iskorosten.

The story tells that the widow of Prince Igor, Princess Olga, brutally took revenge on the Drevlyans for the death of her husband. Olga imposed the heaviest tribute on them, ordered them to exterminate many people and destroy the elders. Subsequently, in 945, Iskorosten was burned on her orders. With the support of Prince Igor's squad and boyars, Olga took control of Russia into her own hands until little Svyatoslav, the son of Igor and Olga, reached the age of government.

375