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Grand Prince of Kiev

Grand Prince of Kiev (sometimes Grand Duke of Kiev) was the title of the Kievan prince and the ruler of Kievan Rus in the 9th–12th centuries.

Rurik (or Ryurik), a semi-legendary Scandinavian Varangian, was at the roots of Kievan Rus'.^[1] He founded the Rurikovich dynasty that would rule Kievan Rus', Rus' principalities and early Russian Tsardom for the next 700 years. Rurik's capital was the northern city of Novgorod. His successor Oleg relocated the capital to Kiev at around 880, thus laying the foundation of what has become known as Kievan Rus'.^[2]

While the early rulers of Rus' were Scandinavians, they gradually merged into the local Slavic population. Still, in the 11th century, Yaroslav, (called Jarisleif in Scandinavian chronicles) maintained the dynastic links, married a Swedish princess, and gave asylum to king Olaf II of Norway.

The movement of nobility also went in the opposite direction. According to Adam of Bremen, Anund Gårdske, a man from Kievan Rus' was elected king of Sweden, ca 1070. As he was a Christian, however, he refused to sacrifice to the Aesir at the Temple at Uppsala and he was deposed by popular vote.

The unity of Kievan Rus' gradually declined, and was all but gone by 1136. After that period Kievan Rus' shattered into a number of smaller states, southern of which contested for the throne of Kiev.

Kievan Rus' was finally destroyed by the Mongols in 1237,^[3] but the Riurikovich line persisted and continued to rule Rus' principalities.

Rulers of Kievan Rus' held the titles Kniaz and later Velikiy Kniaz, traditionally translated as Grand Prince or Grand Duke.^[3]

List of rulers of Kievan Rus

Rulers of Kiev

• Askold and Dir (860?–882?), supposedly, killed by Oleg

Rulers of Kievan Rus'

• Oleg (882–912)
• Igor (912–945)
• Olga (Regent, 945–962)
• Svyatoslav I (962–972)
• Yaropolk I (972–980)
• Vladimir I (980–1015)
• Svyatopolk I (1015–1019)
• Yaroslav I (1019–1054)
• Izyaslav I (1054–1073) (first time)
• Vseslav (1068–1069)
• Svyatoslav II (1073–1076)
• Izyaslav I (1076–1078) (second time)
• Vsevolod I (1078–1093)
• Svyatopolk II (1093–1113)
• Vladimir II Monomakh (1113–1125)
• Mstislav I (1125–1132)
• Mstislav I was the last Kievan ruler recognized by all principalities. After his death in 1132 Polotsk proclaimed independence, four years later Novgorod followed.
• Yaropolk II (1132–1139)
• Vyacheslav I (1139) (first time)
• Vsevolod II (1139–1146)
• Igor II (1146)
• Izyaslav II (1146-1149) (first time)
• George I (1149–1151) (first time)
• Vyacheslav I (1151–1155) (second time)
• Izyaslav II (1151-1154) (second time)
• Rostislav I (1154) (first time)
• Izyaslav III (1154-1155) (first time)
• George I (1155–1157) (second time)
• Izyaslav III (1157–1158) (second time)
• Rostislav I (1159-1167) (second time)
• Izyaslav III (1162) (third time)
• Mstislav II (1167–1169) (first time)
• In 1169 Kiev was captured by Andrey Yurievich Bogolyubsky, prince of Vladimir. However, he returned to his northern domain leaving his brother Gleb as a Kievan Grand prince. Strongest North-eastern princes never again pretended to Kiev, the stance of the former capital was cut down into local political center of southern lands.
• Gleb I (1169) (first time)
• Mstislav II (1170) (second time)
• Gleb I (1170–1171) (Second time)
• Vladimir (1171)
• Mikhail I (1171)
• Roman I (1171–1173) (first time)
• Vsevolod III (1173)
• Ryurik (1173) (first time)
• Svyatoslav III (1174) (first time)
• Yaroslav II (1174–1175) (first time)
• Roman I (1175–1177) (second time)
• Svyatoslav III (1177–1180) (second time)
• Yaroslav II (1180) (second time)
• Ryurik (1180-1182) (second time)
• Svyatoslav III (1182–1194) (third time)
• Ryurik (1194-1202) (third time)
• Ingvar I (1202)
• Ryurik (1203-1205) (fourth time)
• Roman II (1203-1205)
• Rostislav II (1204–1206)
• Ryurik (1206) (fifth time)
• Vsevolod IV (1206–1207) (first time)
• Ryurik (1207-10) (sixth time)
• Vsevolod IV (1210–1214) (second time)
• Ingvar I (1214)
• Mstislav III (1214–1223)
• Vladimir III (1223–1235)
• Izyaslav IV (1235–1236)
• Yaroslav III (1236–1238) (first time)
• Mikhail II (1238–1239) (first time)
• Rostislav III (1239)
• Daniil I (1239–1240)

See also

• List of Russian rulers
• List of rulers of Galicia and Volhynia
• Genealogy of early Russian princes

References