Battle of the Salnitsa River (1111)

The Battle of Salnica is the main battle in the final phase of the great campaign of the South Russian princes against the Polovtsy in March 1111. In this battle, the Polovtsian army was utterly defeated by the Russian princes, led by the Grand Duke of Kiev Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, the Chernigov Prince Davyd Svyatoslavich and the Prince of the Southern Pereyaslavl Vladimir Monomakh.

Background
In 1103, the Russian princes after the Dolob Congress held the first-ever campaign against the Polovtsians in the steppes, in 1107 they crushed Bonyak and Sharukan near Lubin on Sula, after which they did not meet with news. In 1109, the Kiev voivod Dmitry Ivorovich freely ruined the Polovtsian nomads near Donets, who were under the rule of the sons of Sharukan, Syrchan and Atrak.

The battle
On February 26, 1111 (2nd Resurrection of Great Lent), the Russian army, led by a coalition of princes (Svyatopolk with son Yaroslav, Davyd with son, Vladimir and his sons), marched to the town of Sharukan, accompanied by priests with crosses singing chants (in In this connection, the researchers [2] [3] say that the campaign was in the nature of the cross ).

The place where the Russian army gathered was Dolobskoye Lake. His path passed through the rivers Sula (5th day), Khorol (6th day), Psyol (7th day), Golty, Vorskla (10th day), after which they reached the banks of the Seversky Donets (23rd th day).

Sharukan surrendered without a fight on the 5th day of the siege. It is noteworthy that the townspeople offered the winners fish and wine, which characterizes the settled life of its inhabitants. In parallel, the Russian Sugrov was burned. Both cities were named after the Khans, who were defeated in Sula in 1107 (Sharukan fled then, and Sugra was captured).

On March 24, the first fierce battle took place near the Donets, in which the Russian soldiers gained the upper hand. On the morning of March 27 [4] at the full moon on the river Salnice, the second major battle began.

The Polovtsians had such a numerical superiority that the Russian troops were surrounded, but the Polovtsians did not withstand their coordinated direct strike. The Russians made a large number of prisoners and loot.

Consequences
After 1111, the Polovtsians only once approached the borders of Russia, in the year of Svyatopolk's death (1113), but reconciled with Vladimir who took the throne. In 1116, Yaropolk Vladimirovich with Kiev regiments and the son of Davyd and ]Chernigov again invaded the Polovtsian steppes in the upper reaches of the Donets and took three cities. After that, 45,000 Polovtsy with Khan Atrak went to the service of the Georgian king David the Builder, and when a few years later Monomakh sent Yaropolk for the Don against the Polovtsians, he did not find them there.