Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych

Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych [Святополк Ізяславич; Svjatopolk Izjaslavyč], b 8 November 1050, d 16 April 1113 near Vyshhorod, north of Kyiv. Kyivan Rus’ prince of Polatsk (1069–71), Novgorod the Great (1078–88), and Turiv (1088–93) and grand prince of Kyiv (1093–1113); grandson of Yaroslav the Wise. His reign was marked by feuding with the Chernihiv princes, sons of Sviatoslav II Yaroslavych (allied with Khan Boniak), and by devastating attacks by the Cumans (which he tried to allay, to no avail, by marrying Khan Tugorkan's daughter in 1094), particularly in 1093 and 1096, when they reached the outskirts of Kyiv. Sviatopolk participated in the Liubech congress of princes in 1097, after which he and Davyd Ihorovych of Volodymyr (in Volhynia) captured Vasylko Rostyslavych of Terebovlia and blinded him. Sviatopolk was then pressured into leading a punitive campaign against Davyd, who was expelled from the Volodymyr principality in 1099. After the Vytychiv congress of princes in 1100, Sviatopolk accompanied Volodymyr Monomakh on a series of successful campaigns against the Cumans (1103, 1107, and 1111). He was a benefactor of the Kyivan Cave Monastery and commissioned the construction of a church dedicated to his patron, the Saint Michael the Archangel (see Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery). His oppressive administrative policies, however, sparked the Kyiv Uprising of 1113 after his death.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]