by James Millar
During the early nineteenth century, Lower Svanetia became part of Dadiani’s Mingrelia. In 1833 the Dadishkelian princes of western Upper Svanetia accepted Russian protection, governing their own affairs until the princedom was abolished in 1857. The eastern part of Upper Svanetia acknowledged no overlord, thus becoming known as “Free Svanetia.” Later in the century, Russia took control of the area through military action, completely destroying the village of Khalde, as described in a moving short story by Sergo Kldiashvili. See also: CAUCASUS; GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS; MINGRE-LIANS
1504
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
SVYATOPOLK I
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Freshfield, Douglas. (1896). The Exploration of the Caucasus. 2 vols. London: E. Arnold. Hewitt, George. (1996). A Georgian Reader: with Texts, Translation, and Vocabulary. London: SOAS. Palmaitis, Letas, and Gudjedjiani, Chato. (1985). Svan-English Dictionary. New York: Caravan Books. Phillipps-Wolley, Sir Clive. (1883). Savage Svanetia. 2 vols. London: R. Bentley and Son.
B. GEORGE HEWITT
See also: MILITARY ART; MILITARY DOCTRINE; MILITARY, SOVIET AND POST-SOVIET; TUKHACHEVSKY, MIKHAIL NIKOLAYEVICH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Naveh, Shimon. (1997). In Pursuit of Military Excellence. London: Frank Cass. Schneider, James J. (1994). The Structure of Strategic Revolution: Total War and the Roots of the Soviet Warfare State. Novato, CA: Presidio. Svechin, A. A. (1992). Strategy, ed. Kent D. Lee; introductory essays by Andrei A. Kokoshin, et. al. Minneapolis, MN: East View Publications.
JAMES J. SCHNEIDER
SVECHIN, ALEXANDER ANDREYEVICH
(1878-1938), military theorist and intellectual.
Alexander Svechin was one of the key intellectual leaders of the Red Army during the golden age of Soviet military theory (1918-1937). Svechin, an artilleryman, was a crucial figure in establishing a new and revolutionary understanding of modern war. Drawing on military thinkers of the nineteenth and late eighteenth century and his own intense study of the imperial Russian military experience, Svechin reformulated the meaning of the term strategy. Classically, strategy meant the art of conducting military campaigns. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution, war became thoroughly mechanized and industrialized-and total. Svechin was one the earliest theorists to recognize that the material and creative challenges of total war would revolutionize the very concept of strategy.
Svechin published his views in print under the title Strategy. The work was published in two editions in 1926 and 1927. Here he defined strategy as “the art of combining preparations for war and the grouping of operations for achieving the goal for the armed forces set by the war.” Through much of his professional career Svechin carried on a lengthy debate with another important Soviet theorist, Mikhail N. Tukhachevsky. Svechin’s work in Strategy and elsewhere informed his view that modern war would be characterized by attrition (izmor). Tukhachevsky argued a contrary view, that with the help of technology, states could still fight swift decisive wars of annihilation (sokrushenie). In the end, history decided the argument in Svechin’s favor.
A prolific writer, Svechin was also a brilliant teacher who educated a generation of Soviet military leaders who helped win World War II. He was executed as an enemy of the state on July 29, 1938.
SVYATOPOLK I
(c. 980-1019), grand prince of Kiev, replacing Vladimir Svyatoslavich, the Christianizer of Rus.
The identity of Svyatopolk’s father is uncertain. Around 980, after Vladimir had his half-brother Yaropolk killed, he slept with Yaropolk’s Greek wife, a former nun, and she gave birth to Svyatopolk. Because he was born of adultery, the chronicler explains, Svyatopolk (“the Cursed,” by which appellation he came to be known) was stigmatized for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, Vladimir treated him as his son. Before 988, it appears, he gave Svyatopolk the town of Turov. While there, Svyatopolk established friendly relations with the Poles and, around 1013, married the daughter of Boleslaw I and accepted Latin Christianity. Later he plotted with the Poles against Vladimir, and the latter imprisoned him. After Vladimir died in 1015, Svyatopolk, allegedly his eldest surviving son, bribed the Kievans to accept him as their prince, even though many preferred his half-brother Boris, perhaps in keeping with Vladimir’s wish. Because Svyatopolk’s succession was challenged, he initiated a fierce campaign to eradicate his half-brothers, who posed a threat to his rule. Thus he had Boris, Gleb, and Svyatoslav killed. In 1016, however, Yaroslav of Novgorod and his Varangians defeated Svyatopolk and his Pechenegs near Lyubech. Svyatopolk fled to the Poles, where Boleslaw I joined him; together they evicted Yaroslav from Kiev in July 1018. In 1019, after the king departed, Yaroslav attacked Svyatopolk and defeated him. As Svyatopolk fled, his reason and strength failed him, and he died somewhere between the Polish and the Czech lands.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
1505
SVYATOPOLK II
See also: GRAND PRINCE; KIEVAN RUS; VLADIMIR, ST.; YAROSLAV VLADIMIROVICH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dimnik, Martin. (1996). “Succession and Inheritance in Rus’ before 1054.” Mediaeval Studies 58:87-117. Franklin, Simon, and Shepard, Jonathan. (1996). The Emergence of Rus 750-1200. London: Longman.
MARTIN DIMNIK
SVYATOPOLK II
(1050-1113), prince of Polotsk, Novgorod, and his patrimony of Turov, and grand prince of Kiev.
Svyatopolk, son of Izyaslav and grandson of Yaroslav Vladimirovich (the Wise), became grand prince in 1093 after the death of his uncle Vsevolod. He and his cousin Vladimir Vsevolodovich (Mono-makh) of Pereyaslavl sought to unite the princes of Rus against the nomads, but their cousin Oleg Svy-atoslavich of Chernigov refused to cooperate. In response, they evicted Oleg from Chernigov and, in 1097, forced him to accept their terms at a congress of princes at Lyubech. They all pledged loyalty to each other and agreed that each one would retain the patrimony of his father. Soon after, Svyatopolk broke his pledge by ordering the blinding of Vasilko Rostislavich of Terebovl, whom David Igorevich falsely accused of plotting against Svyatopolk. When Monomakh and Oleg waged war against Svyatopolk, he promised to punish David, but instead attempted to seize Galician towns from Vasilko and his brother. When the latter cut off the wheat and salt supply to Kiev, Svyatopolk confiscated salt from the Caves Monastery and sold it at inflated prices. In 1100, at Vitichev (Uvetichi), he concluded peace with Monomakh and Oleg, and punished David by appropriating his patrimony of Vladimir in Volyn. After that, he and his cousins campaigned against the Polovtsy in 1103, 1107, and 1111. Their resounding victories forced the nomads to stop their incursions for over a decade. Svyatopolk died on April 16, 1113, and was buried in the Church of St. Mkhail in Kiev, which he had built. See also: CAVES MONASTERY; GRAND PRINCE; KIEVAN RUS; NOVGOROD THE GREAT; VLADIMIR MONOMAKH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dimnik, Martin. (1994). The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1054-1146. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.
MARTIN DIMNIK
SVYATOSLAV I
(c. 942-972), son of Igor and Olga; nominal grand prince of Kiev.
Svyatoslav I Igorevich became the nominal grand prince of Kiev in 945, after his father Igor’s death. He expanded Kievan Rus to its furthest limits, but overreached himself and failed to consolidate his rule. Svyatoslav was the first prince with a Slavic name, but he remained a Varangian at heart and refused to adopt Christianity.
According to the Primary Chronicle, he assumed power between 956 and 964 when his mother, the regent, was deposed. Around 963 he attacked the Khazars on the lower Don and eventually destroyed their state and opened the steppe to other nomads. He also defeated the Vyatichi and the Volga Bulgars in the northeast, and the Yasians (Ossetians) and Kasogians (Cherkasses) in the Kuban region. His southeastern campaigns took him to the Caspian Sea. He thus secured control of all the trade routes between the Dnieper and the Volga. In 967 he captured northern Bulgaria and made Pereyaslavets his headquarters. The Pechenegs attacked Kiev in 968, forcing him to return home an
d drive them into the steppe. At that time he partitioned Rus between his sons: Yaropolk received Kiev, Oleg the Derevlyane, and Vladimir Novgorod. He then returned to Pereyaslavets, which he proposed to make his capital. He campaigned against the Greeks in Bulgaria and Thrace until 971, when Emperor John I Tzimisces forced him to accept humiliating peace terms. While Svyatoslav was returning to Kiev in 972, the Pechenegs attacked and killed him. They used his skull as a drinking cup. See also: KIEVAN RUS; PECHENEGS; PRIMARY CHRONICLE; RURIKID DYNASTY; VLADIMIR, ST.; YAROPOLK I
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Vernadsky, George. (1948). Kievan Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
MARTIN DIMNIK
1506
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
SWEDEN, RELATIONS WITH
SVYATOSLAV II
(1027-1076), grand prince of Kiev and progenitor of the dynasties of Chernigov, Murom, and Ryazan.
Before Svyatoslav’s father Yaroslav Vladimiro-vich the Wise died in 1054, he gave Svyatoslav Yaroslavich the patrimony of Chernigov, including Murom, Ryazan, and Tmutarakan. After his father’s death, Svyatoslav and his brothers Izyaslav and Vsevolod ruled as a triumvirate for some twenty years. They asserted their authority over all the other princes and defended Rus against the nomads, primarily the Polovtsy (Cumans). In 1068 Svyatoslav scored a great victory over the Polovtsy, after which he formed alliances with them. The following year the Kievans invited him to replace Izyaslav as prince, but he refused to depose his brother. Svyatoslav became the most powerful prince in the land. In addition to his patrimonial lands, he established his rule over the Beloozero region and Novgorod. In 1072, when the brothers translated the relics of Saints Boris and Gleb in Vyshgorod and issued the Law Code of Yaroslav’s Sons (Pravda Yaroslavichey), he expressed solidarity with Izyaslav for the last time. The following year he evicted Izyaslav from Kiev and therewith disobeyed his father’s directive to live at peace with his brothers. By doing so, however, he gave his heirs the right to rule Kiev after him. Four years later, in 1076, he died in Kiev. Svyatoslav was a patron of culture, learning, and the Church. He commissioned two miscellanies and founded monasteries in Chernigov and Kiev. He probably completed building the Cathedral of St. Savior in Chernigov where he was buried. See also: IZYASLAV I; KIEVAN RUS; VSEVELOD I; YAROSLAV VLADIMIROVICH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dimnik, Martin. (1994). The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1054-1146. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.
MARTIN DIMNIK
SWEDEN, RELATIONS WITH
The establishment, starting in the late eighth century, of a number of Swedish settlements in the eastern Baltic led to regular interaction with Eastern Slavs. Staraya Ladoga (Aldeigjuborg) became an important Scandinavian center on the southeastern shore of Lake Ladoga, but the Varangians gradually extended their operations southeastward along the Novgorod-Kiev axis. Many of them served in Gardariki (the “land of towns”) territory as dukes, merchants, and mercenaries and were collectively known as Rus (the basis for the word Russia). The local princes, starting with Rurik (R?rik) who became the ruler of Novgorod (Holmgard), had exclusively Scandinavian names.
Even as the Scandinavian elite became Slavicized by the tenth century, a special relationship-in the form of dynastic marriages and joint military campaigns-continued into the early twelfth century. However, almost endemic conflict soon followed as Finland became a focus of the expansionist impulses of Sweden and the Grand Duchy of Novgorod alike. The Karelian tribes were baptized by Novgorod, whereas Swedish crusades into southwestern Finland began in the 1150s. By the late thirteenth century, the Swedes reached Karelia and established the fortress of Viborg (Vyborg in Russian), as well as Landskrona in the Neva estuary. The 1323 Treaty of Orekhovets/N?teborg between the two rivals drew a border stretching across central Finland to the Viborg district, but did little to stall Swedish expansionism into northern Finland. A century and a half of relative calm was followed by renewed warfare in the late fifteenth century, but protracted peace negotiations with the newly independent Vasa Sweden and a growth of trade led to a gradual normalization of relations after the 1520s.
The weakening of the Livonian Order created a power vacuum in the eastern Baltic and the basis for renewed conflict between Sweden and Muscovy. Gustav Vasa’s 1555 attack on Russia marked the beginning of Swedish aspirations for regional hegemony. The “Great Eastern Program” was designed to turn Sweden into a pan-Baltic power that could enrich itself by taxing the rapidly growing trade flows between Eastern and Western Europe. The Livonian War of 1533-1584 ultimately left Sweden in control of the northern coast of Estonia, while Muscovy gained temporary control of Narva, which became the country’s leading export port. The Teusina/Tiavzino peace (1595) formally recognized Swedish control of Finland.
Sweden intervened during the Russian Time of Troubles, initially in support of the Moscow government but soon as a conqueror of the Novgorod region (in 1611-1612). Following the failure of
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
1507
SWEDEN, RELATIONS WITH
efforts to place a Swedish candidate on the Russian throne, Gustav Adolf (Gustavus Adolphus) sought to force a union between Novgorod and Sweden and directed his expansionist attention at the Kola and White Sea coast, albeit unsuccessfully. The 1617 treaty of Stolbovo marked the peak of Swedish expansion into Russia, leaving the country in control of Ingria (Ingermanland; roughly today’s St. Petersburg region) and the Western half of Lake Ladoga. Novgorod was returned to Russia.
Russian-Swedish relations were strong after the war, and the new Romanov rulers subsidized Swedish involvement in the Thirty Years’ War in 1630-1634, among other things. In spite of a steady expansion of trade, political ties deteriorated under Queen Christina. Russia renewed its attempts to gain access to the Baltic in the 1650s and attacked Sweden in 1658. In spite of some initial territorial gains, the Peace of Kardis in 1661 ratified the prewar status quo. The closing decades of the century saw a steady expansion in Russian trade via Swedish possessions, even in the face of periodic diplomatic disputes. Tsar Peter I (the Great) in the late 1690s managed to assemble an international alliance designed to challenge Swedish supremacy in the Baltic region. The Great Northern War of 1700-1721 led to the Swedish loss of its Baltic provinces and the establishment of Russian hegemony in the region.
Russia in the eighteenth century took an active interest in Sweden’s internal affairs. Although Russian engagement on the Ottoman front led to alliance treaties with Sweden, Swedish revanchism triumphed at home, and a campaign against Russia from 1741 to 1743 sought to regain the lost eastern territories. The catastrophic war was followed by the loss of southeastern Finland to Russia. A defensive alliance was signed between the two countries, and the absolutist regime of Gustav(us) III in the 1770s sought Russian support for a Swedish conquest of Norway. A lack of success eventually led to another war against Russia from 1788 to 1790. The Peace of V?r?l? reaffimed the prewar status quo, while Gustav crowned his career by establishing an alliance with Russia.
Sweden and Russia were allies against Napoleon until the French managed to use the Treaty of Tilsit to induce Alexander I to conquer Finland in the last Russo-Swedish war of 1808-1809 (Treaty of Fredrikshamn). Royal attempts to continue the war were made impossible by a bourgeois revolution in Sweden. The French Marshall Jean Baptiste Berna-dotte (Karl Johan) was elected Swedish heir to the
1508
throne in 1810 in order to gain Napoleon’s support for the reconquest of Finland. However, he instead turned to France’s opponents in order to make possible a Swedish takeover of Norway. In 1812, Sweden declared itself neutral in European conflicts, but a secret alliance was signed with Russia.
Popular Russophobia increased in the 1830s and 1840s, and Oskar I began to pursue closer ties with Great Britain and Denmark. A border dispute with Russia in the 1850s led Sweden to seek British-French guarantees. The two powers in 1856 forced Russia to demilitarize the ?land Islands. Anti-Russian
sentiment was further boosted by the Polish uprisings and the Russification measures adopted in Finland toward the end of the century. In spite of this, the government defined its neutrality even more strictly in 1885. Nonetheless, Russia’s recognition of Norwegian independence in 1905 was caused by suspicions of pan-Nordic union and Sweden’s pro-German stance.