Yan Vyshatich (; ; – 24 June 1106) was a

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

and military commander (''

tysyatsky A tysiatskii ( rus, тысяцкий, p=ˈtɨsʲɪt͡skʲɪj, " thousandman"), sometimes translated '' dux'' or ''herzog'', was a military leader in Kievan Rus' who commanded a people's volunteer army called a ''thousand'' (). In the Novgorod Repub ...

'') in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. The last known representative of the

Dobrynya Dobrynya (, ) was Vladimir the Great's maternal uncle and tutor. He was the historical prototype of the invincible bogatyr called Dobrynya Nikitich who appears in Russian folklore ('' byliny''). Dobrynya's life and extent of his influence on Vl ...

dynasty, Yan Vyshatich was the son of

Vyshata Vyshata (; died after 1064) was the son of the posadnik of Novgorod, Ostromir. He had a son, Yan Vyshatich. Vyshata was an associate of Vladimir Yaroslavovich, the prince of Novgorod. The authors of the ''Primary Chronicle'' made use of Yan's ta ...

and a grandson of

Ostromir Ostromir (; Christian name: Joseph; died ) was the posadnik of Novgorod from 1054 to 1057. Ostromir is known from the first Russian dated book, the Ostromir Gospels (or Ostromir Codex), which he commissioned from his scribe Gregory. The chronicles ...

. Historical clues about Yan's career are scarce. In the 1070s, Yan Vyshatich collected

tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of lands which the state con ...

for Sviatoslav II near

Beloozero Belozersk (), known as Beloozero () until 1777, is a town and the administrative center of Belozersky District in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the southern bank of Lake Beloye, from which it takes the name, northwest of Vologda, the admi ...

and suppressed an uprising of

smerd A smerd () was a free peasant and later a feudal-dependent serf in the medieval Slavic states of East Europe. Sources from the 11th and 12th centuries (such as the 12th-century '' Russkaya Pravda'') mention their presence in Kievan Rus' and Po ...

s there. He took part in military campaigns against the

Polovtsy The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cumania, Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Ru ...

and internecine wars. Yan Vyshatich's tales of his and his ancestors' campaigns were Nestor's major source in compiling the

Primary Chronicle The ''Primary Chronicle'', shortened from the common ''Russian Primary Chronicle'' (, commonly transcribed ''Povest' vremennykh let'' (PVL), ), is a Rus' chronicle, chronicle of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110. It is believed to have been or ...

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vyshatich, Yan 11th-century people from Kievan Rus' 1010s births 1106 deaths