Download PDF | The Russian attack on Constantinople in 860, by Alexander A. Vasiliev, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1946.
258 Pages
FOREWORD
ONE may ask why, dealing with a single episode, the first Russian attack on Constantinople, I have not confined myself to a mere article but have instead written a book. The question is natural, and I feel that to justify writing a book on such a subject I should allege my reasons. They are as follows: First, my aim is to study this event not as a separate and isolated fact but in connection with the Viking incursions in Western Europe, in order to show that the Russian attack was one of the constituent and essential parts of general European history of the ninth century; for this purpose, I have outlined the Viking invasions in Western Europe, and particularly stressed their operations in the Mediterranean, to which I have tried to give a new interpretation. Second, I have thought it appropriate to study in detail the original sources, Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Russian, both for the West European Viking expeditions and for the Russian attack. Third, with the secondary works I have not limited myself to mere statements of titles or to a few words of summary, but I have often reproduced exact quotations, having in view that these works are not always at the disposal of the reader, and that many of them are written in Russian, a language which, unfortunately, for the time being, is not generally known.
These excerpts from the secondary works have no doubt enlarged the size of my study; but the advantages for the reader which I have just mentioned will I believe justify me. Fourth, I have had to discuss several questions which are connected with the central subject of the book only indirectly, but which contribute a great deal to our better understanding of the facts of the Russian attack; for example, I have re-examined the question whether, before the year 860, the Russians had raided Byzantine territory; and I have used new material for an adequate estimate of the importance of the reign of the Emperor Michael ITI, under whom the Russian attack took place, and whose personality has heretofore appeared in history in a very distorted and intentionally degraded form. These reasons may, I believe, justify me in writing a book on the Russian attack on Constantinople in 860-861.
Since in my study I deal in detail with the primary sources on the Russlan campaign of 860 and with secondary works on the same subject as well, and since ultimately I give my own presentation of the same event, some upavoidable repetitions are to be found in this book; and I am the first fully to recognize this particular defect of my work among many others. 7 :
First of all, I wish to express my deep gratitude to the New York Public Library and in particular to its Slavonic Room, without the use of which I could never have written this book. My grateful acknowledgments are also due the Mediaeval Academy of America, which accepted this book as an item in its Monograph Series, and to the Reisinger Fund for Slavic Studies in Harvard University which contributed substantially to its publication cost. I tender my warmest thanks to Mrs Ednah Shepard Thomas who, with remarkable conscientiousness, has revised my manuscript and corrected the inadequacies of my English.
INTRODUCTION
IF we consider the fact of the Russian attack on Constantinople in 860 as an isolated phenomenon detached from contemporary events -in other parts of Europe, it seems at first sight a very simple, even insignificant, story: the Russians attacked Constantinople and its environs, pillaged and devastated the latter, were routed, and returned home. But such an approach would be absolutely unhistorical. The attack of 860 is indissolubly connected with the general course of European events in the ninth century, and cannot be detached from the main European movement of that period. At this time Western Europe was being invaded by Scandinavian Vikings; Danes and, to some extent, Norwegians were devastating not only the sea coast but the interior of Europe.
They penetrated far up the Elbe, Rhine, Seine, Loire, and Garonne Rivers, pillaged the interior of Germany and France, landed in Britain and, rounding the Iberic Peninsula, through the Straits of Gibraltar entered the Mediterranean, invaded Spain and Italy, and in their steady drive east reached the eastern confines of the Mediterranean Sea. Terrified and exhausted Europe was driven to despair, and almost hopelessly uttered a new prayer: ‘Ab ira Normannorum libera nos, Domine!’ The Russian attack of 860, carried out by the same Scandinavian Vikings, mostly by Swedes, was the left flank of that enormous destructive avalanche from the north which swept over Europe. After the period of barbarian migrations, mostly Germanic, in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, the Slavonic penetration in the Balkans in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, and the stupendous victorious expansion of the Arabs in the seventh and eighth centuries, Scandinavian aggression in the ninth century may be regarded as the last manifestation of conquest.
In 860 Russia first became involved in world politics. Of course, from the European point of view, the connection at first sight was very slight. But in the history of the Black Sea regions and the Byzantine Empire a distinctly new page was turned in this year. In addition to the Slavs in the Balkans and those permanent foes, the Arabs, who threatened the Empire both from the east and from Sicily and South Italy in the west, Byzantium faced a new foe in the north.
The potential strength of this new enemy could not have been clearly apparent at the first aggression; but the Empire, anticipating the future, had to reconsider and rearrange its political relations with all its neighbours, especially with the Khazars in the north, who were at the same time the nearest neighbours of the young principality of Kiev. The Arabs, enemies of the Empire for the past two centuries, now became still more dangerous, because the Byzantine government and diplomacy had the new and strenuous task of protecting the Empire not only from the east and west, but also from the north.
At present the study of early Russian history is passing once more through a crucial period. A wave of hypercriticism has swept over the minds of several eminent West-European scholars. They classify Oleg as a legendary figure, waging a ‘legendary’ campaign against Constantinople. Authentic Russian history is supposed to have started only in the year 941, when the expedition of the Russian Prince Igor against Constantinople took place; everything before this date is legend, and tradition tinged with fable. I frankly confess that these statements concern me deeply, for I firmly believe in the historicity of Rurik, Askold and Dir, and Oleg. I rejoice that at least the existence of Igor and Olga, the last Russian rulers to bear Scandinavian names, has not been questioned. It is now well-established, I believe, that the Russian principality of Kiev was founded about 840; therefore we may consider 860 as an early date in Russian history, but an authentic one.
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