Malk of Lyubech, prince of the Drevlians

Note to English speakers: Mala is the genitive form of Mal in Russian. Malk is generally his accepted name (although Mal is sometimes also used).

Also, Liubech refers to a place in Ukraine (located at: 51°42'2.42"N, 30°39'49.79"E, or 140 km/86 miles north of Kiev and the present Ukrainian-Belarusian border), and not the Northern German city.

According to the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy page on Russia Rurikid:

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/RUSSIA,%20Rurik.htm

Malk of Lyubech died around 1002, and was the father of Malusha and Dobrinya.

---------------------------
From the Russian Wikipedia page on Mal (prince):

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D0%BB_(%D0%BA%D0%BD%D1%8F%D0%B7%D1%8C)

--------------------------
In his book "Lament for Jerusalem" (1999) N Kozlov writes: "The Great Prince Vladimir the Saint according to chronicles was the son of a slave named Malusha, who was a housekeeper of his grandmother Grand Duchess Olga. Malusha was the daughter of a rabbi, "Rabbi" - from Liubech also bore the Hebrew name Malk *, which is not surprising when you consider that one of the oldest Russian cities Liubech to 882 years was a vassal state of the Jewish Khazar Khanate, paid tribute to him that is confirmed, in particular, the fact of taking on the title of Grand Duke Vladimir Kagan, and chronicles recorded quite peculiar to the Slavs".

In English:

Mal (d. after 945) was a Prince of the Drevlians who led an uprising in 945, during which the prince killed Igor. Also, in the sources, he may have been named Malden. The name Mal links to the Drevlian town of Malin.

The Uprising of 945

"I sent to him saying, "Why are you going again? We've already taken all the tribute. Do not listen to them Igor. And the Drevlians came out of the city as sparrows, and Igor and the vigilantes killed them because they were little."

Mal attempted to woo the widow of Igor, the Princess Olga:

"They said the same Drevlians: 'Here we killed a Russian prince, take his wife Olga for our Prince Svyatoslav Mal and take and make him into what we want.'"

Olga twice dealt with the ambassadors of Mal and massacred the Drevlian nobility at the grave of Igor, and then went to war against the distinguished men and defeated them. The last pockets of resistance were in the city of Iskorosten. The fate of Mal in the Tale of Bygone years is left unsaid.

"And how the city burned, its elders taken prisoner, and other people killed, and the others became enslaved men, and the rest were left to pay tribute."

Possible Kinship

According to Basil Tatischev and the Ioakimovsky Chronicle, Mal was the son of Prince Niskinin of the Drevlian.

Some historians belive the children of Mal could have been Malusha, housekeeper for Princess Olga and mother of Prince Vladimir, and Dobrynya. They occupied positions in the court household with Olga and Svyatoslav. But they failed to reach considerable heights in public administration. Dobrynya became governor in Novgorod, where he, Malusha, and Vladimir were soon sent.

The Chronicle calls the father of Malusha Malk Lyubchanin. In epics, Dobrynya carries the patronym of Nikitich and is reputed to be a "country bumpkin." Given that Mal in many chronicles was called Niskinya, this may suggest that the patronym Nikitich may have been derived from the patronym Niskinich.

And from the Russian Wikipedia page for Malusha:

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%83%D1%88%D0%B0

Father of Malusha "Malk Lyubchanin"

In the Tale of Bygone years, the following is said of the origin of Malusha:

Volodymer was from Malusha, Olga's housekeeper, the same who was the sister of Dobrinja, and whose father of them both was Malak Lyubechanen.

-The Chronicle, quoted by Karpov in "St Vladimir" 1997, p. 13.

In this regard, historians have tried to identify Malk Lyubechanin. The following hypotheses have been made about his origin.

Prozorovsky in 1864 believed her to be the daughter of the Prince of the Drevlian Mal, who led a revolt in which Prince Igor was killed. This severely angered Princess Olga. Traces of Mal were lost after 945, and it is probable that he did not escape the revenge of the princess. But according to Prozorvsky, he was taken captive. The epithet for the father of Malushin Lyubchanin, he explained, was that Olga, after organizing a pogrom of the Drevlian, put him in Liubech, and his respective children were taken into slavery as prisoners.

In addition, scientists believe that the "princess" (Malusha) was not a concubine, but rather a lawful wife of Svyatoslav. This alternative is based on the recognition of Vladimir by Olga as par with the legitimate sons of Svyatoslav, as well as the inviolability of Dobrinja (also son of Malk) in Novgorod, and his successful career and universal respect, which according to scientists, are evidence of his aristocratic status and "legitimate" family connections through his sister. This alternative had been forgotten and once again revived in 1971 in the article "The Drevlian origin of Prince Vladimir," published in the Ukrainian Historical Journal, later in "Following Dobrynya".

Shakhmatov believes that her father was Mstisha-Lyut Sveneldich, whose name he believes evolved into Malk. Sveneld was probably a prince and a distinguished man who was captured. His descendants included Dobrynya, Vyshata, and Jan Vyshatich, as written in the Primary Chronicle about a century after the death of Igor on information about their ancestors (Sveneld, Mstisha-Lyut, Dobrynya, Kosnyatine, Ostromir) coming from oral family traditions. Shakhmatov also demonstrated by analyzing the compound name what happened to the imposition of Lyuta Sveneldich on Mstislav Vladimirovich Lyuty, Prince of Tmutarakan, who lived a half-century later. Malk himself, in this viewpoint, was "mutated" by the epics to a character named "Nikita Zaleshanin." In the dictionary under the editorship of Yoannina in the article where Dobrynya appaered the suggestion "son of Malk Lyubechanin, Msishi-Lyuta (or Mstislav) Sveneldich.

Grushevsky reacted negatively to both findings.

Currently, the Shakhmatova hypothesis has been refuted. It is based on the Chronicle, and Jan Dlugosh did not come down to our time through the Russian Chronicles. His name as Prince of Drevlyane reads "Miskin," and Shakhmatov decided that it was a derivative of Mistinya and then brought them closer to Mistisha (Mstislav). However, in the original, the Dlugosh name read as Nishkina (Polish Niszkina), which makes the construction of Shakhmatov all wrong. It also makes identification of Mistishi and Lyuta Sveneldichey unlikely. The most thorough critique is given in the words of historians Solovyov and Poppe.

The hypothesis of Prozorovsky that Malak Lyubechanin as Prince of the Drevlian to prince Mal, is also rejected by many historians (e.g., Rybakov, Poppe, Karpov). However, this hypothesis remains quite popular and prevalent in today's published genealogical compilations.

Мал (? — 945) — древлянский князь, возглавивший восстание 945 года, в ходе которого был убит князь Игорь. Также в источниках носит имя Малдит. С именем Мала связывают название древлянского города Малин.

Восстание 945 года

Послали к нему, говоря: «Зачем идёшь опять? Забрал уже всю дань». И не послушал их Игорь; и древляне, выйдя из города Искоростеня, убили Игоря и дружинников его, так как было их мало.

Мал предпринял попытку посвататься к вдове Игоря, княгине Ольге.

Сказали же древляне: «Вот убили мы князя русского; возьмём жену его Ольгу за князя нашего Мала и Святослава возьмём и сделаем ему, что захотим».

Ольга дважды расправилась с послами Мала и устроила резню древлянской знати на могиле Игоря, а затем пошла войной на древлян и разгромила их. Последним очагом сопротивления был город Искоростень. О судьбе Мала в «Повести временных лет» ничего не сказано.

А как взяла город и сожгла его, городских же старейшин забрала в плен, а прочих людей убила, а иных отдала в рабство мужам своим, а остальных оставила платить дань.

Возможные родственные связи

Согласно Василию Татищеву, в Иоакимовской летописи[1] о Мале говорится, что он «князь древлянский, сын Нискинин».

Некоторые историки полагают, что детьми Мала могли быть Малуша, ключница княгини Ольги и мать князя Владимира, и Добрыня. Они занимали положение придворной челяди при Ольге и Святославе, но затем смогли достичь значительных высот в государственном управлении. Добрыня стал наместником в Новгороде, куда вскоре был отправлен и Владимир с Малушей. Летопись называет отцом Малуши Малка Любчанина. В былинах Добрыня носит отчество Никитич и слывёт «деревенщиной». Учитывая, что Мал в некоторых летописях именуется «Нискиня», предполагают отчество Никитич поздним переосмыслением отчества Нискинич.

Примечания

1.↑ 1 2 В.Н. Татищев / ИСТОРИЯ РОССИЙСКАЯ / ЧАСТЬ ПЕРВАЯ / ГЛАВА ЧЕТВЕРТАЯ / ОБ ИСТОРИИ ИОАКИМА, ЕПИСКОПА НОВОГОРОДСКОГО. zhurnal.ru. Проверено 19 июля 2010.

Ссылки

В.Н. Татищев / ИСТОРИЯ РОССИЙСКАЯ / ЧАСТЬ ПЕРВАЯ / ГЛАВА ЧЕТВЕРТАЯ / ОБ ИСТОРИИ ИОАКИМА, ЕПИСКОПА НОВОГОРОДСКОГО. zhurnal.ru. Проверено 19 июля 2010.

Коростень в Истории

При написании этой статьи использовался материал из Энциклопедического словаря Брокгауза и Ефрона (1890—1907).

Володимер был от Малуши, ключницы Ольгиной, та же была сестра Добрыне; отец же им был Малък Любечанин

—Повесть временных лет, Цитата по: Карпов А. Ю. Владимир Святой — 1997. — С. 13