Alexander Nevski

Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (; ; monastic name: ''Aleksiy''; 13 May 1221 – 14 November 1263) was Prince of Novgorod (1236–1240; 1241–1256; 1258–1259), Grand Prince of Kiev (1249–1263), and Grand Prince of Vladimir (1252–1263).

Commonly regarded as a key figure in medieval Russian history, Alexander was a grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to legendary status on account of his military victories in northwestern Russia over Swedish invaders in the 1240 Battle of the Neva, as well as German crusaders in the 1242 Battle on the Ice. He preserved Eastern Orthodoxy, agreeing to pay tribute to the powerful Golden Horde. Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow canonized Alexander Nevsky as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547.

Early life

Born in Pereslavl-Zalessky around the year 1220, Alexander was the second son of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. His mother was , daughter of Mstislav Mstislavich The Bold. From the ''Tales of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander'' found in the '' Second Pskovian Chronicle'' () comes one of the first known references to Alexander Yaroslavich:Begunov, K., translator, ''Second Pskovian Chronicle'', ("Isbornik", Moscow, 1955) pp. 11–15.

He spent most of his youth in Pereslavl-Zalessky. Little is known about the activities of Yaroslav's children before the year 1238. Alexander's eldest brother Fyodor died in 1233 at the age of 14.

Reign

Prince of Novgorod

In 1236, Alexander was appointed by the Novgorodians to become their prince (''knyaz''), where he had already served as his father's governor in Novgorod. The Novgorod chronicle describes how Yaroslav left his son Alexander in Novgorod and took with him "senior Novgorodians" and a hundred men from Torzhok and "sat in Kiev upon the throne".

In 1237, the Swedes received papal authorization to launch a crusade, and in 1240, new campaigns began in the easternmost part of the Baltic region. The Finnish mission's eastward expansion led to a clash between Sweden and the city-state of Novgorod, since the Karelians had been allies and tributaries of Novgorod since the mid-12th century. The Swedish army was led by Birger Jarl and consisted of Norwegians and Finnish tribes. After a successful campaign into Tavastia, the Swedes advanced further east. According to Russian sources, the Swedish army landed at the confluence of the rivers Izhora and Neva, when Alexander and his small army suddenly attacked the Swedes on 15 July 1240 and defeated them in the Battle of the Neva.

The event was later depicted as being of national importance, and in the 15th century, Alexander received the sobriquet ''Nevsky'' ("of the Neva"). The Soviet-era historian Igor Shaskolsky suggested that the attack was coordinated, referring to the '' Life of Alexander Nevsky'', the only Russian source besides the '' First Novgorod Chronicle'' that mentions the battle, in which it is stated that the Swedes intended to conquer Novgorod. According to John Fennell: "there is no evidence of any coordination of action between the Swedes, the Germans and the Danes, nor is there anything to show that this was more than a continuation of the Russo-Swedish conflict for mastery over Finland and Karelia". The battle is not mentioned in Swedish sources, and so was likely part of periodic clashes between Sweden and Novgorod.

In September 1240, troops of the Bishopric of Dorpat, the Livonian Order and the exiled pretender-prince conducted a campaign in Izborsk and Pskov, successfully overthrowing the pro-Suzdal faction which had supported Alexander. Shortly thereafter, either in late 1240 or early 1241, the Novgorodians rose up against Alexander and banished him to Pereslavl-Zalessky.

That same winter, a campaign into Votia was conducted by the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, the Livonian Order, as well as Estonians ('' Chud''') with support from local Votian leaders. It is unclear whether Votia was a tributary of Novgorod at this time, or not. According to Anti Selart, the allies likely only intended to acquire pagan lands and convert them to Catholicism, rather than attacking Novgorod, which was already Christianized. On the other hand, the campaign was "a purely political undertaking which had nothing to do with conversion of pagans". Although the Northern Crusades were aimed at pagan Balts and Finns, rather than Orthodox Russians, several unsuccessful attempts were made to persuade Novgorod to convert to Catholicism, which were resisted by Alexander.

The Novgorodian authorities recalled Alexander, and in the spring of 1241, he returned from exile and assembled an army. Alexander managed to retake Pskov and Koporye from the crusaders and drive out the invaders. He then continued into Estonian-German territory. The crusaders defeated a detachment of the Novgorodian army. As a result, Alexander set up a position at Lake Peipus. Alexander and his men then faced the Livonian heavy cavalry led by Hermann of Dorpat, brother of Albert of Buxhoeveden, where they met on 5 April 1242. Alexander's army then defeated the enemy in the Battle on the Ice, halting the eastward expansion of the Teutonic Order. Later in the same year, the Germans agreed to relinquish control of any Russian territory still occupied, as well as to exchange prisoners of war. Later Russian sources would elevate the importance of the battle and portray it as one of the great Russian victories of the Middle Ages.

The '' Livonian Rhymed Chronicle'' narrates the events of the battle:

After the Livonian invasion, Nevsky continued to strengthen the Republic of Novgorod. He sent his envoys to Norway and, as a result, they signed a first peace treaty between Novgorod and Norway in 1251. Alexander led his army to Finland and successfully routed the Swedes, who had made another attempt to block the Baltic Sea from the Novgorodians in 1256. In 1261, Alexander also concluded a treaty with Lithuanian king Mindaugas against the Livonian Order, but the planned attack failed as Alexander was summoned to Sarai by the khan.

Grand Prince of Vladimir

Upon the conquest of the Grand Principality of Vladimir by the Mongols in 1238, its reigning prince, Yuri II Vsevolodovich, was killed in the Battle of the Sit River; his younger brother, Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich (Alexander's father), requested and received from the Mongol khan his permission to become the new prince. As prince, he assigned Novgorod to his son Alexander. However, while traveling in 1245 to the Mongol capital Karakorum in Central Asia, Yaroslav died. When, in 1248, Alexander and his older brother Andrey II Yaroslavich also traveled to Karakorum to attend upon the Great Khan, Andrey received the title of grand prince of Vladimir and Alexander the nominal lordship of Kiev. The two returned in the autumn of 1249.

The Rurikid princes of Rus' were obliged to appear before the khans in person, pay homage to them and receive their '' jarlig'' (patent) to be affirmed in their principalities. When Möngke became the new great khan in 1251, only two years after Guyuk's death, he demanded another appearance at Sarai on the Volga, but Andrey refused to go. Thanks to his friendship with Sartaq Khan, the subsequent invasion by the Mongols, their first venture into northeastern Rus' since the initial conquest, saw Andrey exiled to Sweden and Alexander assuming the title of grand prince of Vladimir in 1252, the most senior of the princes at the time following the fall of Kiev. Alexander faithfully supported Mongol rule within his own domains. In 1259, he led an army to the city of Novgorod and forced it to pay tribute it had previously refused to the Golden Horde.

Family

In 1242, Alexander married Aleksandra, a daughter of Bryacheslav Vasilkovich, the prince of Polotsk. They had five children:

*Vasily, prince of Novgorod (c. 1239 – 1271), betrothed to Princess Kristina of Norway in 1251 before the marriage contract was broken;
*Eudoxia Alexandrovna, married Konstantin Rostislavich of Smolensk;
*Dmitry (c. 1250 – 1294), prince of Pereslavl and grand prince of Vladimir;
* Andrey of Gorodets (c. 1255 – 1304), prince of Gorodets and grand prince of Vladimir;
* Daniel of Moscow (1261–1303), prince of Moscow.

Death and burial

On 14 November 1263, while returning from Sarai on one of his frequent visits to the Horde, Alexander died in the town of Gorodets-on-the-Volga. On 23 November 1263, he was buried in the church of the Monastery of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God in Vladimir.

From the ''Second Pskovian Chronicle'':

Veneration and sainthood

The veneration of Alexander began almost immediately after his burial, when he reportedly extended his hand for the prayer of absolution. According to Orthodox tradition, Alexander foresaw his death and before this took strict Orthodox Christian monastic vows, called Great Schema, and took the name Alexey.

In 1380, Alexander's remains were uncovered in response to a vision before the Battle of Kulikovo and found to be incorrupt. The relics were then placed in a shrine in the church. Alexander was canonized as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Macarius in 1547.

In 1695, a new wooden reliquary was made in Moscow, and the relics were placed in it in 1697. By order of Peter the Great, the relics were then removed from Vladimir on 11 August 1723 and transported to Shlisselburg, arriving there on 20 September. There they were kept until 1724, when they were brought to Saint Petersburg and installed in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra on 30 August.

In 1753, a silver shrine with sarcophagus for the relics, made from 90 pounds of silver, was donated by Empress Elizabeth of Russia. With the completion of the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in 1790, the shrine and relics were translated there at its consecration on 30 August, one of the saint's feast days.

In May 1922, during the general confiscation of Russian Orthodox Church property, the sarcophagus was opened and the relics removed; and the elaborate silver shrine was transferred to the Hermitage Museum. The relics were put into storage at the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, before being returned to Holy Trinity Cathedral in 1989. On 10 May 2023, the Hermitage Museum and Alexander Nevsky Lavra signed a contract for the transfer of the shrine to Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra for a period of 49 years. On 12 September 2023, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow placed the relics back into the silver sarcophagus.

Alexander's principal feast day is 23 November. A secondary feast day was instituted on 30 August in commemoration of his relics being placed in the Annunciation Church. He is jointly commemorated with other saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl on 23 May.

In February 2024, it was announced that the memorial of Saint Alexander Nevsky had been deleted from the synaxarion of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Legacy

Some historians see Alexander's choice of subordination to the Golden Horde as an important reaffirmation of East Slavs' Orthodox orientation (which begun under Vladimir I of Kiev and his grandmother Olga). Orlando Figes mentioned that "Nevsky's collaboration was no doubt motivated by his distrust of the West, which he regarded as a greater threat to Orthodox Russia than the Golden Horde (...) But Nevsky's ''realpolitik'' caused a problem for the chroniclers, particularly after he was made a saint by the Russian Church in 1547, for in their terms he had colluded with the infidel."

Some of Alexander's policies on the Western border were continued by his grandson-in-law, Daumantas of Pskov, who was also beatified in the 16th century. In the late 13th century, a chronicle was compiled called the '' Life of Alexander Nevsky'' (Житие Александра Невского), in which he is depicted as an ideal prince-soldier and defender of Russia.

On 21 May 1725, the empress Catherine I introduced the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky as one of the highest decorations in the land. During World War II, on 29 July 1942, the Soviet authorities introduced an Order of Alexander Nevsky to revive the memory of Alexander's struggle with the Germans. There was also an earlier Bulgarian Order dedicated to Saint Alexander which was founded on 25 December 1881, which ceased to exist when the People's Republic was declared on 16 September 1946.

In 1938, Sergei Eisenstein made one of his most acclaimed films, ''Alexander Nevsky'', about Alexander's victory over the Teutonic Knights. The soundtrack for the film was written by Sergei Prokofiev, who also reworked the score into a concert cantata. Today the film is renowned for its extraordinary battle on ice sequence, which has served as inspiration for countless other films. In the picture, Nevsky used a number of Russian proverbs, tying Nevsky firmly to Russian tradition. The famous proverbial phrase (paraphrasing Matthew 26:52), "Whoever will come to us with a sword, from a sword will perish," is a phrase that is often attributed to Alexander Nevsky, though it was not in fact said by him; it comes from Eisenstein's film, where it was said by actor Nikolai Cherkasov. A Soviet evaluation presented Alexander's victories as having "saved the Russian people from sharing the fate of the Baltic tribes and the Slavs of the Elbe who were enslaved by the Germans".

During World War II, the image of Alexander Nevsky became a national symbol of the struggle against German occupation, and many Soviet historians portrayed him as a Russian bastion against both German and papal aggression. The government sought historical continuity by referring to the Soviet struggle as the Great Patriotic War. The film ''Alexander Nevsky'' was re-released in 1941 following the German invasion; Joseph Stalin used the film to mobilize feelings of Russian patriotism.

Alexander Nevsky's fame was spread wherever Imperial Russia had a strong influence; thus numerous cathedrals and churches were dedicated to him, including the Patriarchal Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria; the Cathedral church in Tallinn, Estonia; the Cathedral church in Łódź, Poland; the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Ungheni, Moldova.

There is a long tradition of Russian naval vessels bearing Nevsky's name, such as the 19th-century propeller frigate ''Alexander Nevsky'' and ''K-550'' ''Alexander Nevsky'', a nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine currently in service with the Russian Navy.

On 24 September 2008, Alexander Nevsky was declared the main hero of Russia's history by popular vote, as reported by the ''Kommersant'' newspaper. In December 2008, he was voted the greatest Russian in the '' Name of Russia'' television poll.

During the 2021 Moscow Victory Day Parade, a small historical segment of the parade featured Russian soldiers dressed in historical M1945 Red Army uniforms carrying out the Soviet combat banners which received the Order of Alexander Nevsky during the war. This segment coincided with the 800th anniversary since the birth of Alexander Nevsky in 1221.

See also

* ''Life of Alexander Nevsky'' (illuminated manuscript)
* Alexander Nevsky Cathedral – an incomplete listing of Eastern Orthodox cathedrals which bear his name
* Family tree of Russian monarchs
* Chapel of Saint Alexander Nevsky (Fergana)

Gallery

Alexander nevskiy archangelskiy sobor.jpg, Saint Alexander Nevsky, 1666 fresco in the Cathedral of the Archangel, Moscow
Alexander Nevskiy receiving papal legates by Siemiradzki (litography).jpg, ''Prince Alexander Nevsky receiving Papal legates'', painting by Henryk Siemiradzki (1870s)
Александр Невский (2010.06.26) - panoramio.jpg, A statue of Alexander Nevsky in Gorodets

Notes

References

Bibliography

Primary sources

* '' Livonian Rhymed Chronicle'' (LRC, 1290s).
** (Reprint: Hildesheim 1963). Verses 2235–2262.
**
* Synod Scroll (Older Redaction) of the ''Novgorod First Chronicle'' (NPL, 1315).
**

Literature

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Further reading

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* Isoaho, Mari. ''The Image of Aleksandr Nevskiy in Medieval Russia: Warrior and Saint (The Northern World; 21)''. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2006 (hardcover, ).
* "Tale of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander evsky in ''Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales'', ed. Serge Zenkovsky, 224–235 (New York: Meridian, 1974)

External links

Repose of Saint Alexander Nevsky
Orthodox icon and synaxarion (23 November)
Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl
(23 May)
Translation of the relics of Saint Alexander Nevsky
(30 August)

''Kommersant:'' Russia’s Hero is Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky
(24 September 2008)
Interfax news agency: Orthodox believers found heaven guardians for Russian secret service
(22 September 2008)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander Nevsky

People from Pereslavl-Zalessky
13th-century Christian saints
Grand princes of Vladimir
People of the Northern Crusades
Yurievichi family
13th-century princes from Kievan Rus'
Eastern Orthodox saints from Kievan Rus'
Princes of Novgorod
1220 births
1263 deaths