Painting of Alexander in full battle armor.
Picture of Alexander from the movie
"Alexander Nevsky".
Director Sergei Eisenstein's epic features some of the most beautiful imagery
ever put on film, a majestic music score by Prokofiev and a dazzling, climactic
battle on a frozen lake. This movie is considered one of the greatest
achievements in film making history. Prokofiev's score for the musical epic is
considered one of the greatest pieces of the classical repertoire.
Here in another scene from the movie, Alexander is shown in personal combat
with the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.
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The tomb of Alexander Nevsky in St. Petersburg.
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Duke of
Novgorod (1236-52) and of Kiev (1246-52) and grand duke of Vladimir (1252-63),
Alexander halted the eastward drive of the Germans and Swedes but collaborated
with the Mongols in imposing their rule on Russia. Alexander was the son of
Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich, grand duke of Vladimir, the foremost among the
Russian rulers. In 1236 Alexander was elected prince of the city of Novgorod. In
1239 he married the daughter of the duke of Polotsk. By defeating a Swedish
invasion force at the confluence of the Rivers Izhora and Neva (1240), he won
the nickname Nevsky, "of the Neva." His standing enhanced by his
victory, he apparently began to intervene in the affairs of the city and was
expelled a few months later. When, urged by Pope Gregory IX to "Christianize"
the Baltic region, the Teutonic Knights shortly thereafter invaded Russia,
Novgorod invited Alexander to return. After a number of battles, Alexander
decisively defeated the German knights in the famous "massacre on the ice"
on April 5, 1242 on a narrow channel between Lakes Chud (Peipus) and Pskov.
Alexander, who continued to fight both the Swedes and Germans and eventually
stopped their eastward expansion, also won many victories over the pagan
Lithuanians and the Finnic peoples. In the east, however, Mongol armies were
conquering most of the politically fragmented Russian lands. Alexander's father,
agreed to serve the new rulers of Russia but died in September 1246 of poisoning
after his return from a visit to the Great Khan in Mongolia. When, in the
ensuing struggle for the grand princely throne, Alexander and his younger
brother Andrew appealed to Khan Batu of the Golden Horde. Violating Russian
customs of seniority, the Great Khan appointed Andrew grand duke of Vladimir and
Alexander duke of Kiev--probably because Alexander was Batu's favourite and Batu
was in disfavour with the Great Khan. When Andrew began to conspire against the
Mongol overlords with other Russian princes and western nations, Alexander went
to Sari on the Volga and denounced his brother to Sartak, Batu's son, who sent
an army to depose Andrew and installed Alexander as grand duke. Alexander
proceeded to restore Russia by building fortifications and churches and
promulgating laws. As grand duke, he continued to rule Novgorod through his son
Vasily, thus changing the constitutional basis of rule in Novgorod from personal
sovereignty by election to institutional sovereignty by the principal Russian
ruler. When, in 1255, Novgorod, tiring of grand princely rule, expelled Vasily
and invited an opponent of Mongol hegemony, Alexander assembled an army and
reinstalled his son. In 1257 the Mongols, in order to levy taxes, took a census
in most of Russia. It encountered little opposition, but when news of the
impending enumeration reached Novgorod an uprising broke out. In 1258 Alexander,
fearing that the Mongols would punish all of Russia for the Novgorodian revolt,
helped force Novgorod to submit to the census and to Mongol taxation. This
completed the process of imposing the Mongol yoke on northern Russia. In 1262
uprisings broke out in many cities against the Mongol tax and Alexander made a
fourth journey to Sari to avert reprisals. He succeeded in his mission, as well
as in obtaining exemption for Russians from a draft of men for a planned
invasion of Iran. Returning home, Alexander died on Nov. 14, 1263, in Gorodets
on the Volga. After his death Russia once more disintegrated into many feuding
principalities. His personal power, based upon support of the princes, nobles,
and clergy, as well as the fear of Mongols, could not be transmitted to any
other man, including his weak sons. Whether Alexander was a quisling in his
dealings with the Mongol conquerors is a question seldom posed by Russian
historians, because some Russian princes had for centuries concluded alliances
with Turkic steppe nomads in order to gain advantage in domestic rivalries.
Because Alexander was a willing collaborator, he may have reduced the common
people's suffering by interceding for them with the Khan. He was supported by
the church, which thrived under Mongol protection and tax exemption and feared
the anti-Mongol princes who negotiated with the Pope. For these reasons,
Alexander by 1381 was elevated to the status of a local saint and was canonized
by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547. Alexander's son Daniel founded the
principality of Moscow, which subsequently reunited the northern Russian lands. |
