Prince of Novgorod (1236-1263) and grand prince of Vladimir (1252-1263); renowned for resisting the attacks of German and Swedish crusaders against northwestern Russia.
Alexander Yaroslavich belonged to the Vladimir-Suz-dalian branch of the Ryurikid dynasty, and was the second son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, prince of Novgorod (later grand prince of Vladimir). He had already served as his father’s governor in Novgorod before becoming prince in 1236. The byname Nevskii (attested from the fifteenth century) derives from his great victory at the river Neva, when, thanks to Alexander’s tactics, the outnumbered Novgoro-dian host smashed an invading Swedish army (15 July 1240).
At the end of 1240 Alexander left Novgorod after having quarreled with its citizens, and only returned a year later, when a great part of the Novgorodian state, including Pskov, had been occupied by the Teutonic Knights of Livonia and their allies. In the winter of 1241-1242, the Novgorodian troops with Alexander at their head expelled the crusaders from the land of the Votians, and in March 1242 they liberated Pskov and invaded the bishopric of Dorpat in Livonia. On 5 April 1242, the Novgorodians overcame the crusaders on the ice of Lake Peipus, after which the Livonians asked
Prince Alexander Yaroslavich of Novgorod, from the film Alexander Nevsky, by Sergei Eisenstein (1938). (Mosfilm/The Kobal Collection)
For peace and renounced all their claims to Russian lands. Alexander resisted the attempts of the pope and the archbishop of Riga to persuade him to accept the Latin form of Christianity, and he succeeded in avoiding war on two fronts, by keeping peace with the Mongol Great Khan and the khan of the Golden Horde.
In 1252 Alexander became grand prince of Vladimir, while remaining prince of Novgorod. In 1256 he was able to prevent the Swedes from building a fortress on the right bank of the river Narva. Alexander concluded a treaty against the Teutonic Order with Mindaugas, king of Lithuania, in 1261, but a planned joint attack on Livonia the next year failed, as Alexander was obliged to journey to the Golden
Horde; there he fell ill, and he died while returning to Vladimir. He was the subject of a memorable Russian film made in 1938 by Sergei Eisenstein.
-Evgeniya L. Nazarova
See also: Novgorod; Pskov; Neva, Battle on the (1240);
Peipus, Battle of Lake (1242); Russia (Rus’)
Bibliography
Ammann, Albert M., Kirchenpolitische Wandlungen im Ostbaltikum bis zum Tode Alexander Newskis: Studien zum Werden der russischen Orthodoxie (Roma: Pontificium Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1936).
Fennell, John, The Crisis of Medieval Russia, 1200-1304 (London: Longman, 1993).
Kuchkin, Vladimir A., “AaeKcaeflp HeBCKaa—
RocyflapcTBeHHHH fleaxeab 0 noaKOBOfleq cpeflHeBeKOBoe Pyc0,” OTeHecTBeenaa ecTopea 5 (1996), 18-33.
Pashuto, Vladimir T., AaeKcaHqp HeBCKee (Moskva: Molodaya Gvardiya, 1974).
World History
