The Russian prince Yaroslav the Wise earned such a flattering nickname for a reason. His policy was distinguished by foresight and balanced decisions, and he significantly strengthened the position of Rus. From childhood he was brought up to once lead the people, he justified all the hopes placed on him and went down in history as one of the most prominent rulers of Ancient Russia.
He was descended from Rurik himself. In 2004 he was canonized. The path of Yaroslav the Wise to power was difficult, and was accompanied by a long struggle with the brothers. Yaroslav was a prince of Novgorod, and Kiev. The prince loved to read. His semi-legendary library is still wanted by historians and archaeologists. Yaroslav the Wise considered dynastic marriages very useful for foreign policy. He had ten children, and after years he became the father and grandfather of many European rulers. In the last century, the prince’s ashes disappeared from his sarcophagus, and it is still unknown where he is now.
Yaroslav the Wise had a hand in the compilation of the first in the Old Russia set of laws, “Russian Truth”. One of the prince’s grandchildren was Vladimir Monomakh. It is authentically known that Yaroslav the Wise limped. Perhaps it was because of the inability to personally shine on the battlefield, he developed his mind and will. And judging by the fact that the people called him “Wise”, very successfully. When he was a prince of Novgorod, he actively attracted to the military service of the Vikings, whom he paid well. The troops of the northerners were a formidable military force.
The daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Anna, became the wife of the French king Henry the First. The princess’s wife was a Swedish princess, who later founded the first convent in Kiev. One of the state awards of Ukraine is called the “Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise.” The daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, by the name of Elizabeth, who was called “Elysif” by the Vikings, became the wife of one of the kings of Norway first and then the king of Denmark. A distant descendant of the Grand Duke is the American President Donald Trump. His family tree is drawn from the French royal dynasty, which, in turn, is associated with Anna Yaroslavna.
Two cities founded by Yaroslav the Wise are his name – Yaroslavl in Russia and the city of the same name in Poland. He laid the foundation for the practice of translating foreign manuscripts and books into the Old Russian language. In the era of Yaroslav the Wise, Kiev became one of the largest and most developed European cities. It was this prince who laid the foundation for the prerequisites for the unification of the Russian principalities into an integral state, which happened after centuries.
