Everything about Alexander Nevsky totally explained
Saint
Alexander Nevsky (Алекса́ндр Яросла́вич Не́вский in
Russian; transliteration:
Aleksandr Yaroslavich Nevskij) (
May 30,
1220? –
November 14,
1263) was the Grand
Prince of Novgorod and
Vladimir during some of the most trying times in the country's history. Commonly regarded as the key figure of medieval
Russia, Alexander was the grandson of
Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to legendary status on account of his military victories over the German invaders while employing shrewd conciliatory policies towards the powerful
Golden Horde.
Great victories
From
Tales of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander found in the
Second Pskovian Chronicle, circa 1260-1280, comes one of the first known references to the Great Prince:
"By the will of God, prince Alexander was born from the
charitable, people-loving, and meek the Great Prince Yaroslav, and
his mother was Theodosia. As it was told by the prophet Isaiah:
'Thus sayest the Lord: I appoint the princes because they are
sacred and I direct them.'
"...He was taller than others and his voice reached the people
as a trumpet, and his face was like the face of Joseph, whom
the Egyptian Paroah placed as next to the king after him of
Egypt. His power was a part of the power of Samson and
God gave him the wisdom of Solomon...this Prince Alexander: he
used to defeat but was never defeated..."
Born in
Pereslavl-Zalessky, Alexander was the fourth son of Prince
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and seemed to have no chance of claiming the throne of
Vladimir. In 1236, however, he was summoned by the Novgorodians to become
kniaz' (or
prince) of
Novgorod and, as their military leader, to defend their northwest lands from
Swedish and
German invaders. After the Swedish army had landed at the confluence of the rivers
Izhora and
Neva, Alexander and his small army suddenly attacked the
Swedes on
July 15,
1240 and defeated them.
The Neva battle of 1240 saved Russia from a full-scale enemy
invasion from the North. Because of this battle, 19-year-old Alexander was given the name of "Nevsky" (which means
of Neva). This victory, coming just a year after the disastrous
Mongol invasion of Russia, strengthened Nevsky’s political influence, but at the same time it worsened his relations with the
boyars. He would soon have to leave Novgorod because of this conflict.
After Pskov had been invaded by the crusading
Livonian Knights, the
Novgorod authorities sent for Alexander. In spring of 1241 he returned from his exile, gathered an army, and drove out the invaders. Alexander and his men faced the Livonian heavy cavalry led by the
Magister of the
Order, Hermann, brother of
Albert of Buxhoeveden. Nevsky faced the enemy on the ice of the
Lake Peipus and defeated the
Livonian Knights during the
Battle of the Ice on
April 5,
1242.
Alexander’s victory was a significant event in the history of the
Middle Ages. Russian
foot soldiers had surrounded and defeated an army of
knights, mounted on horseback and clad in thick
armor, long before Western Europeans learned how foot soldiers could prevail over mounted knights. Nevsky's great victory against the Livonian Brothers apparently involved only a few knights killed rather than hundreds claimed by the Russian
chroniclers; decisive medieval and early modern battles were won and lost by smaller margins than is seen in contemporary conflicts. Strategic considerations aside, Alexander's victory was an important milestone in the development of Muscovite Russia.
Politician
After the Livonian invasion, Nevsky continued to strengthen Russia’s Northwest. He sent his envoys to
Norway and, as a result, they signed a first peace treaty between Russia 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 Russians in 1256.
(External Link
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Nevsky proved to be a cautious and far-sighted
politician. He dismissed the
Roman Curia’s attempts to cause war between Russia and the
Golden Horde, because he understood the uselessness of such war with
Tatars at that time since they were still a powerful force. Historians seem to be unsure about Alexander’s behavior when it came to his relations with
Mongols. He may have thought that
Catholicism presented a more tangible threat to Russian national identity than paying a tribute to the
Khan, who had little interest in Russian religion and culture. It is also argued that he intentionally kept Russia as a
vassal to the Mongols in order to preserve his own status and counted on the befriended Horde in case someone challenged his authority (he forced the citizens of Novgorod to pay tribute). Nevsky tried to strengthen his authority at the expense of the boyars and at the same time suppress any anti-Muscovite uprisings in the country (
Novgorod uprising of 1259).
According to the most plausible version, Alexander’s intentions were to prevent scattered principalities of what would become Russia from repeated invasions by the Mongol army. He is known to have gone to the Horde himself and achieved success in exempting Russians from fighting beside the Tatar army in its wars with other peoples. The fact that the Muscovite state was still no match for the Army of the Golden Horde (Mongols) must be considered when Alexander's actions vis-vis the Horde are considered.
Grand Prince of Vladimir
Thanks to his friendship with
Sartaq Khan, Alexander was installed as the
Grand Prince of
Vladimir (for example, the supreme Russian ruler) in
1252. A decade later, Alexander died in the town of
Gorodets-on-the-
Volga on his way back from
Sarai, the capital of the
Golden Horde. Prior to his death, he took
monastic vows and was given the
religious name of Alexis.
From the
Second Pskovian Chronicle:
"Returning from the Golden Horde, the Great Prince Alexander,
reached the city of Nizhney Novgorod, and remained there
for several days in good health, but when he reached the
city of Gorodets he fell ill...
Great Prince Alexander,who was always firm in his faith in
God, gave up this worldly kingdom...And then he gave up
his soul to God and died in peace on November 12, [1263] on
the day when the Holy Apostle Philip is remembered...
At this burial Metropolitan Archbishop Cyril said, 'My
children, you should know that the sun of the Suzdalian land
has set. There will never be another prince like him in the
Suzdalian land.'
And the priests and deacons and monks, the poor and
the wealthy, and all the people said: 'It is our end.' "
Though he died in Gorodents, Alexander was laid to rest in the city of Vladimir, in the Great Abbey at The Church of the Navitity of the Holy Mother of God.
Marriage and children
According to the
Novgorod First Chronicle, Alexander married first a daughter of Bryacheslav Vasilkovich, Prince of
Polatsk and
Vitebsk, in 1239. Her name isn't given in the chronicle. Genealogies name her as Paraskeviya or Alexandra. Possibly birth and marital names respectively. They had at least five children:
He married a second wife named Vasilisa shortly before his death. They had no known children.
Alexander's legacy
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's depicted as an ideal prince-soldier and defender of Russia.
Veneration of Alexander Nevsky as a
saint began soon after his death. The remains of prince were uncovered in response to a
vision, before the
Battle of Kulikovo in the year
1380, and found to be
incorrupt. He was
glorified (canonized) by the
Russian Orthodox Church in
1547. His principal
feast day is
November 23. By order of
Peter the Great, Nevsky’s
relics were transported to the
Alexander Nevsky Lavra in
St. Petersburg where they remain to this day. A second feast day was instituted on
August 30 in commemoration of this event. He is also commemorated in common with other saints of
Rostov and
Yaroslavl on
May 23.
On
May 21,
1725, the empress
Catherine I introduced the
Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky as one of the highest
decorations in the land. During the
Great Patriotic War (
July 29,
1942) the
Soviet authorities introduced an
Order of Alexander Nevsky to revive the memory of Alexander's struggle with the Germans. There was also a
Bulgarian Order dedicated to Saint Alexander which was founded on 25th December, 1881 and then ceased to exist when a
People's Republic was declared on 16th September, 1946.
In 1938,
Sergei Eisenstein made one of his most acclaimed films,
Alexander Nevsky, on Alexander's victory over the Teutonic Knights. Music for the film was written by
Sergei Prokofiev, who also reworked the score into a concert
cantata. At
Stalin's insistence, the film was rushed into theaters and the resulting sound recording was notably disappointing, while the visual images were quite impressive, especially in the spectacular battle on the ice.
Alexander's phrase "Whoever will come to us with a sword, from a sword will perish," (a paraphrasing of the biblical phrase "He who lives by the sword, shall perish by the sword"—) has become a slogan of Russian patriots. There is a long tradition of Russian naval vessels bearing Nevsky's name, such as the nineteenth century screw frigate
Alexander Neuski and a
nuclear submarine currently being built for the
Russian Navy.
Alexander Nevsky's fame has spread beyond the borders of Russia, and numerous churches are dedicted to him, including the
Patriarchal Cathedral at
Sofia,
Bulgaria; the
Cathedral church in
Tallinn,
Estonia; and a church in
Tbilisi,
Georgia.
Further Information
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