Battle of Liubech


The Battle of Liubech was a clash between the troops of Sviatopolk and his brother Yaroslav near the town of Liubech. It was part of the Kievan succession crisis of 1015–1019 that broke out between the brothers after the death of prince Volodimer I of Kiev.

In Rus' chronicles

The most extensive narrative of the battle is found in the Primary Chronicle ''sub anno 6524. Similar but divergent narratives are found in the Older and Younger Editions of the Novgorod First Chronicle.
Initially, the eldest son Sviatopolk took the throne of Kiev, and in an attempt to get rid of other contenders for princely power, killed his brothers Boris, Gleb, and Sviatoslav the Derevlian. Sviatopolk was opposed by Yaroslav, who gathered a large army in Novgorod and then marched south. The two armies met near Liubech and reportedly did not dare to start fighting for three months.
Eventually, in late 1016, a decisive battle took place at Liubech. The main textual witnesses of the Primary Chronicle provide conflicting accounts on details (in lines 141.17–142.22) of the battle, with additional variants in the Novgorod First Chronicle.
Sviatopolk's army was defeated, and he fled to his father-in-law, the Polish duke Bolesław I the Brave. Yaroslav entered Kiev and for the first time became prince of Kiev.
Researcher Donald Ostrowski reasoned that the majority reading in the Hypatian, Radziwiłł, and Academic manuscripts represent the original text; the ice neither weakened nor broke in the original story. Nevertheless, Ostrowski comments that the later texts may well have influenced Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 historical drama film Alexander Nevsky'', detailing the events of the Battle on the Ice in 1242. Rather than simply taking place "on the ice", Eisenstein's film depicts the popular misconception of the ice breaking and many Teutonic Knights drowning, differing from any of the primary sources describing the battle.

In the ''Chronicon Thietmari'' and the ''Eymund Saga''

At the same time, the literature suggests that Yaroslav's opponent in the battle of Lyubech might not have been Sviatopolk, who, according to Thietmar of Merseburg fled to Poland immediately after Volodimer's death, and Mstislav the Brave or Sviatoslav the Derevlian.
According to certain scholarly interpretations of the Eymundar þáttr hrings saga, the Varangian chief Eymund may have participated in this battle with Varangian mercenaries on Yaroslav's side, but this is contested.

Primary sources

Primary Chronicle.
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  • – digitised 1950 Nauka edition of the Novgorod First Chronicle, including both the Synodal or "Older Edition" and the mid-15th-century Archaeographic Commission's edition or "Younger Edition"
  • Thietmar of Merseburg, Chronicon Thietmari.
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Literature

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