The year 1015 A.D. was a year of mourning for the entire Russian land. And not only because the beloved Prince Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko passed away. Russia, which barely understood the meaning of the Gospel word, was shocked by an unheard-of sacrilege: a brother raised his hand against his brothers, shed the blood of innocent people who believed in him and trusted him. After experiencing all this, the consciousness of the Russian people has changed significantly. It cursed the murderer forever, calling him Cursed. It also glorified the two brothers who had suffered innocently for the Truth and Faith, and who had made their way to the end of the cross, and canonized them as saints. This happened fifty years after the adoption of Christianity. This fact is another explanation for why Christian ideals so quickly captured the hearts of Russians...

After the death of Prince Vladimir, his sons remained. Vladimir's favorite characters were Boris and little Gleb. His eldest son and legitimate heir Svyatopolk, he could not stand. Svyatopolk was called " the son of two fathers." Vladimir captured and married his Greek mother, who was pregnant by another prince.

Svyatopolk actively established contacts with both the Pechenegs and the Poles. Perhaps this was the first Russian "zapadnik". Being married to the daughter of the Polish King Boleslaw the Brave, Svyatopolk chose Bishop Reinbern of Koloberezha as his spiritual father, which ended badly for both of them.

Vladimir put both the German and the prince in prison, suspecting them of helping the Polish crown and seeking to make a split in the affairs of the faith. It should be clarified that at this time the divergence between the two branches of Christianity - the Latin West and the Orthodox East-reached its apogee. The struggle between Orthodoxy and Catholicism was beginning to shift from the realm of theological differences to the realm of politics. The German emperor Otto II at the imperial diet of 983 in Verona even achieved a decision on the war against the "Greeks and Saracens". Naturally, wise in worldly and state experience, Vladimir feared the aggressive claims of Rome. But he didn't have long to live. With the death of the Grand Duke, things in the state took a different turn.

When Vladimir died, Boris led the squad to repel the Pechenegs ' attack. Taking advantage of the absence of Boris and the right of the elder, Svyatopolk took the "golden Kiev table". He began to distribute rich gifts to the people of Kiev in order to attract them to his side. "They took it, but their heart did not lie to him," the chronicler writes. The fact is that even during Vladimir's lifetime, his princely retinue, boyars and Kievans saw in Boris a direct heir: he was handsome, slender and, according to the chronicler, "shone like a king." Even from a young age, he was drawn to literacy, quickly learned to read and write. The young prince's reference book was the Gospel, the teachings of which Saint Vladimir persistently spread among the Russian people, and above all to children. But the same Gospel compares the word of God to seeds that fall on different soil. Another seed will spring up wonderfully, another will wither away... So it turned out with the children of Vladimir. Since childhood, Svyatopolk enjoyed the harp and wine, and Boris and his little half-brother Gleb were engaged in reading and prayers. Hence such a different attitude to life, its fundamental values. As the poet figuratively put it: "The whole other world is his and mine." Svyatopolk and Boris were not only different in blood, their moral potential was also not the same. And the older the princes became, the more different they became from each other. That is why, when his father died suddenly, Boris did not face the problem of choice. Yes, his father's squad stood up for him like a mountain, and the people of Kiev called them "volodet and reign". But is this fraternal, much less Christian? After all, Svyatopolk is older, which means that he will rule in Kiev.

"Don't be tempted by power, silver and gold," Boris reasoned to himself. "Isn't that what the wise Solomon says,' Vanity of vanities is all vanity.' Good only comes from good deeds, from faithfulness, and from unfeigned love."

If only Svyatopolk thought so too... But, according to the chronicler, Satan entered into his heart, as in the heart of Cain, and began to incite fratricide. The tragedy took place on the Alta River, near Kiev. Here, in Vyshegorod, Boris stopped with the remnants of his squad. He sent almost eight thousand military men to Kiev, thereby making it clear to Svyatopolk that he fully trusts him as a brother and legal successor of the Grand ducal power. At the same time, the assassins were already approaching the tents of Boris's small squad. On the night from Saturday to Sunday, the young prince, tormented by uneasy forebodings, could not sleep for a long time. Then he broke down and said to his presbyter:

"Rise and begin matins."

Boris prayed fervently, as if he foresaw what cup he was about to drink.

The assassins attacked suddenly... Boris's favorite servant, the Hungarian George, covered the prince with himself and was the first to fall, pierced by a spear. Boris bravely accepted death, looking her straight in the eye. The chronicle preserved the names of the murderers: Putsha, Talets, Elovich, Lyashko. "And the father of them all is Satan," the chronicler concluded.

Svyatopolk understood that the evil he had done would not go unpunished. In a hurry to kill the brothers, he sent a letter to Gleb with the words: "Come immediately. Your father is calling you, and he is very sick." Gleb - then just a boy-under the supervision of the boyars reigned in the city of Murom. He immediately left for Kiev in a hurry, with a small squad. It seemed that fate wanted to warn Gleb about the impending disaster: his horse injured his leg and could not move on. Then they moved to the boats and sailed down the Dnieper. Yaroslav (the Wise), who is in Novgorod, warned the prince in a letter: "Do not go, brother! Your father is dead, and your brother was killed by Svyatopolk!" The news of the death of his father and beloved Boris so shocked Gleb that he burst into tears in front of the servants. "Alas for me, O Lord! "I would rather die than live in this deceptive world." But it was a shame to turn back, and Gleb decided to go the planned way. When the assassins surrounded him, they were taken aback at first. "Do not be children of the mind: be children of evil" - these wise words of the young prince so struck the mercenaries that they were ready to throw down their weapons. But even among them there was a "beast of beasts" - a cook named Torchin. He stabbed Gleb with a knife. The news of this unheard-of crime spread like thunder through Kievan Rus ' and filled many people with horror. Everyone was waiting to see what would happen next. And Svyatopolk broke up in earnest. He sent another brother, Svyatoslav, to be killed. Svyatoslav wanted to escape to Hungary, but he was caught up on the road and killed.

Svyatopolk was triumphant... He now reigned supreme in the cities of Kievan Rus, with the exception of Novgorod. It remains to deal only with my brother Yaroslav. But then, as they say, I found a scythe on a stone. The prophecy of the Prophet David, spoken almost two thousand years before the events described above, was fully fulfilled: "The wicked draw their sword and draw their bow to pierce those who go straight. Their sword will enter into their own hearts, and their bows will be broken."

Wise words full of mystical mystery... How many times have they been repeated in history? Cain, who killed Abel's brother, wandered the earth all his life, cursed and lost. Judas, who earned thirty pieces of silver on the betrayal of Jesus Christ, could not breathe the same air with people and strangled himself on his belt in the toilet.

These are all phenomena of the same order. Just as the laws of nature cannot be abolished, so the laws of morality cannot be violated with impunity. In Indian philosophy, this is called karmic dependence, in China, the principles of Tao, in ancient Greece, the harmony of the cosmos. The Bible gave man to know the ten commandments, one of which reads:: "Thou shalt not kill."

Svyatopolk was not fazed by this, and without any effort, he killed three brothers one by one. But his time has come, or rather the Moment of Truth. Outraged by the murder of his brothers, Yaroslav and his squad twice fought Svyatopolk. The first time I won, the second time I retreated. It was fated that the third and decisive battle should take place between them on the very river Alta and near the very spot where Prince Boris was viciously killed. And this, according to the chronicle, was the Ultimate Meaning.

Even more precisely, eight centuries later, the remarkable Russian religious philosopher, publicist and founder of Slavophilism Ivan Petrovich Kireevsky expressed himself: "Under the loud movement of social wheels, there is always an inaudible movement of the moral spring on which everything depends."

And indeed, in the summer of 1019, the moral spring straightened out with such force that only close servants remained from Svyatopolk's army, which entered into an "evil sich" with the subjects of Prince Yaroslav.

But at the beginning of the battle, Yaroslav, standing on the spot where Boris was killed, raised his hands to the sky and said:

"Behold, my brother's blood cries out to You, O Master, like the blood of Abel. Avenge him on Svyatopolk as You did on the fratricide Cain, on whom You laid groaning and trembling. I pray You, Lord, may Svyatopolk receive the same.

Then, having prayed, Yaroslav said::

"Oh, my brothers, Boris and Gleb, if you have died in the body, you are alive by grace and stand before God. Help me through prayer.

As mentioned above, the subjects of Svyatopolk were completely defeated. But in this story, it is not so much the fate of the army that is remarkable, as its leader. This is what the ancient author tells us:

"The damned Svyatopolk fled. And a demon fell upon him, and his bones became so weak that he could not sit on the horse, and they carried him on a stretcher. So they carried him to Berestye. He kept repeating it:

Run, here they are chasing us! "We sent them out against the chase, but they didn't find anyone. Lying in infirmity, Svyatopolk kept jumping up and saying:

"Run, run, they're chasing again. Oh me!

The earth itself seemed to burn Svyatopolk's heels. And he died of fear, somewhere in the land of Moravia, tormented by conscience and terrible visions.

Having taken the throne of Kiev, Yaroslav proved to be a caring prince, a self-contained and prudent politician. It is not by chance that he received the nickname Wise among the people. First of all, Yaroslav ordered the construction of a five-domed church, where the incorruptible relics of the passion-bearing princes Boris and Gleb were transferred. Later, when the church fell into disrepair, another transfer of the relics of the faithful took place. Now Yaroslav's son, Izyaslav. Since then, on the second day of May (old style) in 1072, a holiday was established in Russia in honor and glory of the holy martyrs Princes Boris and Gleb. They became the first heavenly patrons of the Russian state. At crucial moments in history, when the fate of the people and their troops was being decided, they helped the princes-commanders to survive and win. For example, in 1240, the voivode of Alexander Nevsky, Philip, at sunrise, saw the holy martyrs Boris and Gleb in the boat. The strength of the Swedes was broken, and their leader Birger received the "seal" from the sword of Alexander. So it was a hundred and forty years later, when Dmitry Donskoy was the first to risk an open battle with the hitherto invincible Mongol-Tatar force. From the south, according to the chronicler, two holy youths appeared before the eyes of the Russians, holding candles and fiery swords in their hands...

What can I add here? Perhaps Shakespeare was right when he wrote in a moment of inspiration: "There are many things in the world, friend Horatio, that our sages do not know."

Centuries passed, but they did not erase the names of the righteous and martyrs Boris and Gleb from the people's memory.

In 1997, with the active participation of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, the Chapel of Saints and Pious Princes was restored on Arbat Square. People come here to pray and light candles... They believe that the heavenly patrons Boris and Gleb will not leave Russia in troubled times.

Permanent link to this publication: