Alexander Nevsky

Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (monastic name: Aleksiy; 13 May 1221 – 14 November 1263) was Prince of Novgorod (1236–1240; 1241–1256; 1258–1259), Grand Prince of Kiev (1246–1263) and Grand Prince of Vladimir (1252–1263).
Commonly regarded as a key figure in medieval Russian history, Alexander was a grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to legendary status on account of his military victories over Swedish invaders. He preserved separate statehood and Orthodoxy, agreeing to pay tribute to the powerful Golden Horde. Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow canonized Alexander Nevsky as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547.
Early life
From the Tales of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander found in the Second Pskovian Chronicle comes one of the first known references to Alexander Yaroslavich:
Born in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Alexander was the second son of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Feodosia Igorevna of Ryazan. His maternal grandfather was Igor Glebovich, the second son of Gleb Rostislavich, the prince of Ryazan. His maternal grandmother was Agrafena of Kiev, daughter of Rostislav I of Kiev.
Reign
Prince of Novgorod
In 1236, Alexander was appointed by the Novgorodians to become their prince (knyaz), where he had already served as his father's governor in Novgorod.
In 1237, the Swedes received papal authorization to launch a crusade, and in 1240, new campaigns began in the easternmost part of the Baltic region. According to the Novgorod First Chronicle written in the 14th century, more than a century after the events it records, the Swedish army landed at the confluence of the rivers Izhora and Neva, when Alexander and his small army suddenly attacked the Swedes on 15 July 1240 and defeated them at the Battle of the Neva. Following the battle, Alexander received the sobriquet Nevsky ("of the Neva"). This victory, coming just three years after the disastrous Mongol invasions, strengthened Alexander's political influence, but at the same time it worsened his relations with the boyars. Alexander would be banished to Pereslavl-Zalessky.
Later in 1240, crusaders from the Bishopric of Dorpat along with the forces of the exiled prince of Pskov attacked the Pskov Republic and Votia, a tributary of Novgorod. The Novgorodian authorities recalled Alexander, and in the spring of 1241, he returned from exile and assembled an army. Alexander managed to retake Pskov and Koporye from the crusaders and drive out the invaders. He then continued into Estonian-German territory. The crusaders defeated a detachment of the Novgorodian army about south of the fortress of Dorpat. As a result, Alexander set up a position at Lake Peipus. Alexander and his men then faced the Livonian heavy cavalry led by Hermann of Dorpat, brother of Albert of Buxhoeveden, where they met on 5 April 1242. Alexander's army then defeated the enemy in the Battle on the Ice, halting the eastward expansion of the Teutonic Order. Later Russian sources would elevate the importance of the battle and portray it as one of the great Russian victories of the Middle Ages.
After the Livonian invasion, Nevsky continued to strengthen the Republic of Novgorod. He sent his envoys to Norway and, as a result, they signed a first peace treaty between Novgorod 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 Novgorodians in 1256.
Grand Prince of Vladimir
Upon the conquest of the Grand Principality of Vladimir by the Mongols in 1238, its reigning prince, Yuri II Vsevolodovich, was killed in the Battle of the Sit River; his younger brother, Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich (Alexander's father), requested and received from the Mongol khan his permission to become the new prince. As prince, he assigned Novgorod to his son Alexander. However, while traveling in 1245 to the Mongol capital Karakorum in Central Asia, Yaroslav died. When in 1248 Alexander and his older brother Andrey II Yaroslavich also traveled to Karakorum to attend upon the Great Khan, Andrey returned with the award of the title of grand prince of Vladimir and Alexander the nominal lordship of Kiev.
The Rurikid princes of Rus' were obliged to appear before the khan in person to be affirmed in their principalities. When Möngke became the new great khan in 1251, only two years after Guyuk's death, he demanded another appearance at Sarai on the Volga, but Andrei refused to go. Thanks to his friendship with Sartaq Khan, the subsequent invasion by the Mongols, their first venture into northeastern Rus' since the initial conquest, saw Andrei exiled to Sweden and Alexander assuming the title of grand prince of Vladimir in 1252, the most senior of the princes at the time following the fall of Kiev. Alexander faithfully supported Mongol rule within his own domains. In 1259, he led an army to the city of Novgorod and forced it to pay tribute it had previously refused to the Golden Horde.
Some historians see Alexander's choice of subordination to the Golden Horde as an important reaffirmation of East Slavs' Orthodox orientation (which begun under Vladimir I of Kiev and his grandmother Olga). Orlando Figes mentions that "Nevsky's collaboration was no doubt motivated by his distrust of the West, which he regarded as a greater threat to Orthodox Russia than the Golden Horde".
Death and burial
On 14 November 1263, while returning from Sarai on one of his frequent visits to the Horde, Alexander died in the town of Gorodets-on-the-Volga. On 23 November 1263, he was buried in the church of the Monastery of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God in Vladimir.
From the Second Pskovian Chronicle:
Veneration and sainthood
The veneration of Alexander began almost immediately after his burial, when he reportedly extended his hand for the prayer of absolution. According to Orthodox tradition, Alexander foresaw his death and before this took strict Orthodox Christian monastic vows, called Great Schema, and took the name Alexey.
In 1380, Alexander's remains were uncovered in response to a vision before the Battle of Kulikovo and found to be incorrupt. The relics were then placed in a shrine in the church. Alexander was canonized as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Macarius in 1547.
In 1695, a new wooden reliquary was made in Moscow in 1695 and the relics placed in it in 1697. By order of Peter the Great the relics were then removed from Vladimir on 11 August 1723 and transported to Shlisselburg, arriving there on 20 September. There they were kept until 1724, when they were brought to Saint Petersburg and installed in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra on 30 August.
In 1753, a silver shrine with sarcophagus for the relics, made with 90 pounds of silver, was donated by Empress Elizabeth of Russia. With the completion of the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in 1790, the shrine and relics were transferred there at its consecration on 30 August, one of the saint's feast days.
In May 1922, during the general confiscation of Russian Orthodox Church property, the sarcophagus was opened and the relics removed; and the elaborate silver shrine was transferred to the Hermitage Museum. The relics were put into storage at the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, before being returned to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in 1989. On 10 May 2023, the Hermitage Museum and Alexander Nevsky Lavra signed a contract for the transfer of the shrine to Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra for a period of 49 years. On 12 September 2023, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow placed the relics back into the silver sarcophagus.
Alexander's principal feast day is 23 November. A second feast day was instituted on 30 August in commemoration of the placing of his relics in the Annunciation Church. He is also commemorated in common with other saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl on 23 May.
Marriage and children
According to the Novgorod First Chronicle, Alexander married first a daughter of Bryacheslav Vasilkovich, Prince of Polotsk and Vitebsk, in 1239. Her name is not given in the chronicle. Genealogies name her as Paraskeviya or Alexandra (possibly birth and marital names respectively). They had five children:
Vasily Alexandrovich, Prince of Novgorod (c. 1239–1271). He was betrothed to Princess Kristina of Norway in 1251. The marriage contract was broken. Kristina went on to marry Felipe of Castile, a son of Ferdinand III of Castile and Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen.
Eudoxia Alexandrovna. Married Konstantin Rostislavich, Prince of Smolensk.
Dmitry of Pereslavl (c. 1250–1294).
Andrey of Gorodets (c. 1255 – 27 July 1304).
He married a second wife named Vasilisa or Vassa shortly before his death. They had one son.
Daniel of Moscow (1261 – 4 March/5 March 1303).
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 is depicted as an ideal prince-soldier and defender of Russia.
On 21 May 1725, the empress Catherine I introduced the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky as one of the highest decorations in the land. During World War II, on 29 July 1942, the Soviet authorities introduced an Order of Alexander Nevsky to revive the memory of Alexander's struggle with the Germans. There was also an earlier Bulgarian Order dedicated to Saint Alexander which was founded on 25 December 1881, which ceased to exist when the People's Republic was declared on 16 September 1946.
In 1938, Sergei Eisenstein made one of his most acclaimed films, Alexander Nevsky, about Alexander's victory over the Teutonic Knights. The soundtrack for the film was written by Sergei Prokofiev, who also reworked the score into a concert cantata. Today the film is renowned for its extraordinary battle on ice sequence, which has served as inspiration for countless other films. In the picture, Nevsky used a number of Russian proverbs, tying Nevsky firmly to Russian tradition. The famous proverbial phrase (paraphrasing Matthew 26:52), "Whoever will come to us with a sword, from a sword will perish," is a phrase that is often attributed to Alexander Nevsky, though it was not in fact said by him; it comes from Eisenstein's film, where it was said by actor Nikolai Cherkasov.
There is a long tradition of Russian naval vessels bearing Nevsky's name, such as the 19th-century propeller frigate Alexander Nevsky and K-550 Alexander Nevsky, a nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine currently in service with the Russian Navy.
Alexander Nevsky's fame has spread beyond the borders of Russia, and numerous cathedrals and churches are dedicated to him, including the Patriarchal Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria; the Cathedral church in Tallinn, Estonia; the Cathedral church in Łódź, Poland; the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Ungheni, Moldova.
On 24 September 2008, Alexander Nevsky was declared the main hero of Russia's history by popular vote, as reported by the Kommersant newspaper. In December 2008, he was voted the greatest Russian in the Name of Russia television poll.
During the 2021 Moscow Victory Day Parade, a small historical segment of the parade featured Russian soldiers dressed in historical M1945 Red Army uniforms carrying out the Soviet combat banners which received the Order of Alexander Nevsky during the war. This segment coincided with the 800th anniversary since the birth of Alexander Nevsky in 1221 AD.
See also
Life of Alexander Nevsky (illuminated manuscript)
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral – an incomplete listing of Eastern Orthodox cathedrals which bear his name
Family tree of Russian monarchs
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Isoaho, Mari. The Image of Aleksandr Nevskiy in Medieval Russia: Warrior and Saint (The Northern World; 21). Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2006 (hardcover).
"Tale of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander [Nevsky]" in Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales, ed. Serge Zenkovsky, 224–235 (New York: Meridian, 1974)
External links
Repose of Saint Alexander Nevsky Orthodox icon and synaxarion (23 November)
Alexander Nevsky: politics under Mongol domination.
Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl (23 May)
Translation of the relics of Saint Alexander Nevsky (30 August)
Saint Alexander on Nevsky Prospekt.
Kommersant: Russia’s Hero is Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky (24 September 2008)
Interfax news agency: Orthodox believers found heaven guardians for Russian secret service (22 September 2008)
People from Pereslavl-Zalessky
13th-century Christian saints
Grand Princes of Vladimir
People of the Northern Crusades
Yurievichi family
13th-century princes from Kievan Rus'
Eastern Orthodox royal saints
Princes of Novgorod
Russian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church
1220 births
1263 deaths