"Lazy war" in Volyn (1228-1229)

Nicholas Zharkikh

Shortened text of the section. Full text in ukrainian version.

We know about the next campaign of Michael Vsevolodovich (roughly – in the winter of 1228 / 1229) only from a very confused and unclear story of the Romanovychs’ chronicler.

Finally:

1. We do not know the reasons for this "lazy war". I consider the talk about the aggrieved Rostislav and the fact that someone once cut someone’s hair there to be successful disinformation, which hid the true motives from us. In the end, Rostislav, who was allegedly the cause of the war, did not achieve anything, and there is not even a mention of him anymore.

2. We do not know the goal(s) of the war, and we only see that no one achieved anything, all the princes remained in their possessions. The winners were only the Polovtsy, who looted some lands of the Galician principality. From this whole story, one can write a good comedy on the immortal theme "Where two quarrel, the third takes advantage."

3. It is significant for the Chernihiv principality that Michael Vsevolodovich first came into contact with representatives of Hungary and showed his interest in expansion to the west, which was stopped in 1211. The importance of this direction of politics for Michael will continue to grow.