Mstislav I Vladimirovich Monomakh (Old East Slavic: Мьстиславъ Володимѣровичъ Мономахъ, romanized: Mĭstislavŭ Volodiměrovičŭ Monomakhŭ;[a]Christian name: Fedor;[1][2] February 1076 – 14 April 1132), also known as Mstislav the Great, was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1125 until his death in 1132. After his death, the state began to quickly disintegrate into rival principalities.
Mstislav was born in Turov. As his father's future successor, he reigned in Novgorod from 1088 to 1093 and (after a brief stint at Rostov) from 1095 to 1117. Thereafter, he was Monomakh's co-ruler in Belgorod Kievsky, and inherited the Kievan throne after his death. He built numerous churches in Novgorod, of which St. Nicholas Cathedral (1113),[4] and the cathedral of St Anthony Cloister (1117) survive to the present day. Later, he would also erect important churches in Kiev, notably his family sepulchreatBerestovo and the church of the Assumption of the Mother of God in Podol.[5]
St Nicholas Cathedral, built by Mstislav I near his palace at Yaroslav's Court, Novgorod, contains 12th-century frescoes depicting his illustrious family
Mstislav's life was spent in constant warfare with the Cumans (1093; 1107; 1111; 1129), Estonians (1111; 1113; 1116; 1130), Lithuanians (1131), and the princedom of Polotsk (1127; 1129). In 1096, he defeated his uncle Oleg of Chernigov on the Koloksha River, thereby laying foundation for the centuries of enmity between his and Oleg's descendants. Mstislav was the last ruler of the united state of Rus', and upon his death, as the chronicler put it, "the land of Rus was torn apart". He died in Kiev, aged 55. He is a canonised saint of the Orthodox Church as St. Mstislav Theodore, prince of Kiev (1132), and is commemorated on April 15.
After his death, the state began to quickly disintegrate.[6] At the time of Monomakhs's death, there had been only two main groups in the princely family, the Monomakhovichi and Olgovichi, but as the family proliferated, it broke up into a number of local branches and sub-branches.[7]
Christine died on January 18, 1122; later that year Mstislav married again, to Liubava Dmitrievna Zavidich, the daughter of Dmitry Saviditsch, a nobleman of Novgorod. Their children were:
^Litvina, A. F.; Uspensky, F. B. (2006). Выбор имени у русских князей в X—XVI вв. Династическая история сквозь призму антропонимики. Indrik. p. 581. ISBN5-85759-339-5.
^Philip Line, Kingship and State Formation in Sweden 1130-1290, (Brill, 2007), 597.
^George Heard Hamilton, The Art and Architecture of Russia, (Yale University Press, 1983), 43.
^Dimnik, Martin (1994). The dynasty of Chernigov. 1054-1146. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. p. 389. ISBN0888441169.
