Battle of the Black Forest (1168)

The Battle of the Black Forest Berestuvatoe lake.JPG Lake Berestuvatoe date March 1168

A place Black forest

The result Victory of the Russian troops

Opponents • Kievan principality • Chernigov principality • Volyn principality • Pereyaslav princedom • Turov principality • Gorodenskoye princedom

• The Polovtsi

Commanders • Mstislav Izyaslavich • Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich • Yaroslav Vsevolodovich • Oleg Svyatoslavich • Vsevolod Svyatoslavich • Yaroslav Izyaslavich • Svyatopolk Yuryevich • Gleb Yuryevich • Mikhail Yuryevich • Mstislav Vsevolodovich

unknown

[ show ] Russian - Polovtsian battles [ show ] The campaigns of Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich (1168-1185)

The battle of the Black Forest is a general battle in the military campaign ( 1166 -1168) of the South Russian princes to ensure the safety of trade routes in the Northern Black Sea Coast (part of the route " From the Varangians to the Greeks ", Zaloznyi Shlyakh and Salt Shlyakh ), which occurred in March 1168 between the troops all South Russian principalities and Polovtsi, won by the Russian princes.

Background
Offensive actions against the Polovtsians were not undertaken since the beginning of the 1150s, the Kiev prince Izyaslav Mstislavich, the father of Mstislav.

In the summer of 1166, Rostislav Mstislavich of Kiev, with the participation of Volhynian troops Mstislav, Yaroslav (with his son Ivan ), Yaropolk Izyaslavich and Vladimir Andreevich, Vladimir Mstislavich Trypilsky , Gleb Yuryevich Pereyaslavsky, Rurik, Davyd and Mstislav Rostislavich, Gleb Gorodensky and Galichans stood for a long time on the border of the steppe at Kanev , to provide free transportation of merchants ( Greeks and zaloznikami ) of their goods up the Dnieper. News of the Polovtsian attacks and clashes of Russian troops with them are absent.

The battle
A noteworthy circumstance in the collection of troops Mstislavom mentions the chronicle: were then the Olgovichi in the will of Mstislav. Davyd Rostislavich did not take part in the campaign due to illness, sending his regiment, however, and Mstislav Yaropolk's brother fell ill and died at the very beginning of the campaign. Mstislav received this news, already being behind Kanev, returned to Kiev, where he buried his brother's body. Then on the ninth day of the movement of troops from Kiev, the Polovtsians learned of their approach and fled. The Russian princes immediately organized their persecution, leaving the convoy under the protection of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich from the Chernigov-Severny princes. The chronicle reports the persecution of the Polovtsians and the routing of their nomadic tribes with localization along the rivers of the left bank of the Dnieper ( Orel [1], Snapper , and evenfor Oskol ), but the main forces of the Polovtsians were pushed back to the Black Forest on the right bank of the Dnieper, where they were forced to play the decisive battle. Details of it have not reached us. The Russians lost by name only two men killed and one taken prisoner, [2] while capturing a huge number of prisoners, property, livestock for all the soldiers, and also liberated a large number of Christians who were in Polovtsian captivity.

Aftermaths
After the success of the main campaign, in the summer of 1168, Mstislav, fearing revenge on the part of the Polovtsi, merchants who walked along the northern Black Sea routes, organized their protection, settling near Kanev with his brother Yaroslav, Vladimir Andreevich, Rurik and Davyd Rostislavich and Ivan Yurievich Turovsky.

Notes