See also in the Presidential Library:

Barats G. M. Critical and comparative analysis of treaties between Rus' and Byzantium. Kyiv, 1910 ;

Russian historical library, containing ancient chronicles and all sorts of notes that help explain the history and geography of Russian ancient and middle times. St. Petersburg, 1767. Part 1: [Chronicle of Nestorov with successors according to the Koenigsberg list, until 1206] ;

Russian-Byzantine Treaty was concluded after the successful campaign of the Kyiv prince Oleg and his squad against the Byzantine Empire in 907. The contract was originally drawn up for Greek, but only survived. The articles of the Russian-Byzantine treaty of 911 are devoted mainly to the consideration of various offenses and penalties for them. It's about on liability for murder, for intentional beatings, for theft and robbery; on the procedure for assisting merchants of both countries during their voyages with goods; the rules for the ransom of prisoners are regulated; there are points about allied assistance to the Greeks from Rus' and about the order of service of the Russians in the imperial army; about the procedure for returning escaped or kidnapped servants; the procedure for inheriting the property of Russians who died in Byzantium is described; regulated Russian trade in Byzantium.

Relationship with Byzantine Empire already from the 9th century. were essential element foreign policy Old Russian state. Probably already in the 30s or very early 40s. 9th century The Russian fleet raided the Byzantine city of Amastris on south coast Black Sea (modern city of Amasra in Turkey). Greek sources talk in sufficient detail about the attack of the “Rus people” on the Byzantine capital - Constantinople. In the Tale of Bygone Years, this campaign is erroneously dated to 866 and is associated with the names of semi-mythical Kyiv princes Askold and Dir.

News of the first diplomatic contacts between Rus' and its southern neighbor also date back to this time. As part of the embassy of the Byzantine emperor Theophilus (829-842), who arrived in 839 at the court of the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious, there were certain “suppliers for peace” from the “people of Ros”. They had been sent by their Khakan ruler to the Byzantine court, and were now returning to their homeland. Peaceful and even allied relations between Byzantium and Russia are attested by sources of the 2nd half of the 860s, primarily by the messages of the Patriarch of Constantinople Photius (858-867 and 877-886). During this period, through the efforts of Greek missionaries (their names have not reached us), the process of Christianization of Rus' began. However, this so-called “first baptism” of Rus' did not have significant consequences: its results were destroyed after the capture of Kyiv by the squads of Prince Oleg who came from Northern Rus'.

This event marked the consolidation under the rule of the northern, Scandinavian in origin, Rurik dynasty of lands along the transit Volkhov-Dnieper trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks.” Oleg, new ruler Rus (his name is a variant of the Old Norse Helga - sacred) primarily sought to establish its status in the confrontation with powerful neighbors - the Khazar Khaganate and the Byzantine Empire. It can be assumed that initially Oleg tried to maintain partnerships with Byzantium on the basis of a treaty in the 860s. However, his anti-Christian policies led to confrontation.

The story of Oleg's campaign against Constantinople in 907 is preserved in the Tale of Bygone Years. It contains a number of elements clearly of folkloric origin, and therefore many researchers have expressed doubts about its reliability. In addition, Greek sources report practically nothing about this military campaign. There are only isolated mentions of the “Ross” in documents from the time of Emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-912), as well as an unclear passage in the chronicle of pseudo-Simeon (late 10th century) about the participation of the “Ross” in the Byzantine war against the Arab fleet. The main argument in favor of the reality of the campaign of 907 should be considered the Russian-Byzantine treaty of 911. The authenticity of this document does not raise any doubts, and the conditions contained therein, extremely beneficial for Rus', could hardly have been achieved without military pressure on Byzantium.

In addition, the description in the Tale of Bygone Years of the negotiations between Oleg and the Byzantine emperors, co-rulers Leo and Alexander, is fully consistent with the well-known principles of Byzantine diplomatic practice. After Prince Oleg and his army appeared under the walls of Constantinople and ravaged the outskirts of the city, Emperor Leo VI and his co-ruler Alexander were forced to enter into negotiations with him. Oleg sent five ambassadors to the Byzantine emperors with his demands. The Greeks expressed their readiness to pay a one-time tribute to the Rus and allowed them duty-free trade in Constantinople. The agreement reached was secured by both parties through an oath: the emperors kissed the cross, and the Rus swore on their weapons and their deities Perun and Volos. The taking of the oath was apparently preceded by an agreement, since the oath was supposed to relate precisely to the practical articles of the contract that it was intended to confirm. We do not know what exactly the parties agreed on. It is clear, however, that the Rus demanded some kind of payments and benefits from the Greeks and that they received this in order to then leave the area of ​​​​Constantinople.

The formal agreement between Rus' and Byzantium was apparently concluded in two stages: negotiations took place in 907, then the agreements reached were sealed with an oath. But the attestation of the text of the treaty was delayed in time and occurred only in 911. It is worth noting that the most beneficial articles of the treaty for the Rus - on the payment of indemnities (“ukladov”) by the Greeks and on the exemption of Russian merchants in Constantinople from paying duties - are only among the preliminary articles 907, but not in the main text of the treaty of 911. According to one version, the mention of duties was deliberately removed from the article “On Russian traders”, which was preserved only as a title. Perhaps the desire of the Byzantine rulers to conclude an agreement with Russia was also caused by the desire to gain an ally in the ongoing war against the Arabs. It is known that in the summer of the same year 911, 700 Russian soldiers took part in the Byzantine campaign against the Arab-occupied island of Crete. Perhaps they remained in the empire, enrolling there military service, after Oleg’s campaigns, and did not return to their homeland.

Detailed textual, diplomatic and legal analysis showed that the texts of the diplomatic protocol, acts and legal formulas preserved in the Old Russian text of the treaty of 911 are either translations of well-known Byzantine clerical formulas, attested in many surviving Greek authentic acts, or paraphrases of Byzantine monuments rights. Nestor included in the “Tale of Bygone Years” a Russian translation made from an authentic (that is, possessing the force of the original) copy of the act from a special copy book. Unfortunately, it has not yet been established when and by whom the translation was carried out, and under no circumstances did extracts from the copy books reach Rus'.

During the X–XI centuries. wars between Russia and Byzantium alternated with peaceful ones, and rather long pauses. These periods were marked by increased diplomatic actions between the two states - exchange of embassies, active trade. Clergymen, architects, and artists came to Rus' from Byzantium. After the Christianization of Rus', pilgrims began to travel in the opposite direction to holy places. The Tale of Bygone Years includes two more Russian-Byzantine treaties: between Prince Igor and Emperor Roman I Lekapin (944) and between Prince Svyatoslav and Emperor John I Tzimiskes (971). As with the 911 agreement, they are translations from the Greek originals. Most likely, all three texts fell into the hands of the compiler of The Tale of Bygone Years in the form of a single collection. At the same time, the text of the agreement of 1046 between Yaroslav the Wise and Emperor Constantine IX Monomakh is not in the Tale of Bygone Years.

Treaties with Byzantium are among the oldest written sources of Russian statehood. As international treaty acts, they fixed the norms of international law, as well as legal norms of the contracting parties, which thus found itself drawn into the orbit of another cultural and legal tradition.

The norms of international law include those articles of the treaty of 911 and other Russian-Byzantine agreements, analogues of which are present in the texts of a number of other treaties of Byzantium. This applies to the limitation of the period of stay of foreigners in Constantinople, as well as to the norms of coastal law reflected in the treaty of 911. An analogue of the provisions of the same text on fugitive slaves may be clauses of some Byzantine-Bulgarian agreements. Byzantine diplomatic agreements included clauses on baths similar to the corresponding terms of the treaty of 907. Documenting Russian-Byzantine treaties, as researchers have repeatedly noted, owe much to the Byzantine clerical protocol. Therefore, they reflected Greek protocol and legal norms, clerical and diplomatic stereotypes, norms, and institutions. This, in particular, is the usual mention for Byzantine acts of co-rulers along with the ruling monarch: Leo, Alexander and Constantine in the treaty of 911, Romanus, Constantine and Stephen in the treaty of 944, John Tzimiskes, Basil and Constantine in the treaty of 971. Such There were usually no mentions either in Russian chronicles or in short Byzantine chronicles; on the contrary, in the form of Byzantine official documents it was a common element. The determining influence of Byzantine norms was reflected in the use of Greek measures of weight, monetary measures, as well as the Byzantine system of chronology and dating: indicating the year from the Creation of the world and indict (the serial number of the year in a 15-year cycle tax reporting). The price of a slave in a contract like 911, as studies have shown, is close to a fork average price slave in Byzantium at that time.

It is important that the treaty of 911, as well as subsequent agreements, testified to the complete legal equality of both parties. The subjects of law were the subjects of the Russian prince and the Byzantine emperor, regardless of their place of residence, social status and religion. At the same time, the norms regulating crimes against the person were based mainly on the “Russian law”. This probably means a set of legal norms of customary law that were in force in Rus' by the beginning of the 10th century, that is, long before the adoption of Christianity.

© Library Russian Academy sciences

Bibikov M.V. Rus' in Byzantine diplomacy: treaties between Rus' and the Greeks of the 10th century. // Ancient Rus'. Questions of medieval studies. 2005. No. 1 (19).

Litavrin G.G. Byzantium, Bulgaria, etc. Rus' (IX – early 12th century). St. Petersburg, 2000.

Nazarenko A.V. Ancient Rus' on international routes. M., 2001.

Novoseltsev A.P. The formation of the Old Russian state and its first ruler // The most ancient states of Eastern Europe. 1998 M., 2000.

The Tale of Bygone Years / Ed. V. P. Adrianova-Peretz. M.; L, 1950.

For the first time, the idea of ​​a national, all-Russian representation of a diplomatic mission was formulated in 911.

The chronicler noted that Oleg sent his ambassadors to Constantinople “to build peace and establish a line” between Russia and Byzantium. These words clearly define the nature of the 911 agreement: on the one hand, it is “peace”, and on the other, “a series”. These concepts are not equivalent for the chronicler. Judging by the text of the treaty, “peace” means precisely its general political part. And this is not just “stylistics”, “moral maxim”, a formal protocol, as D.M. wrote about it. Meichik and A.V. Longinov", but a reflection of existing historical realities, which were actually deposited in stereotypical protocol phrases, long ago adopted by the state diplomatic services of many countries of the early Middle Ages.

The 911 Treaty speaks of the “retention” and “notification” of the “former love” between the two states. The first article of the treaty, coming after the protocol part, is directly devoted to this general political subject: “The essence, as we have always been about God’s faith and love, the chapters are as follows: according to the first word, let us make peace with you, Greeks, let us love each other with all our hearts.” souls and wills...”, and then there is a text that says that both parties swear “to preserve other and always years”, “immutable always and throughout the years” to observe “love that is immutable and unshameable.” This political commitment is formulated precisely in the form individual chapters, one of which speaks of Rus'’s promise to preserve this world, and the other reflects the same obligation on the part of the Greeks: “In the same way, you, Greeks, may you keep the same love for our bright Russian princes...”

The Treaty of 911 again returns to the same idea that is expressed in the protocol and the first articles of the agreement - to the idea of ​​peace between the two states: “the former world was created ...”, “we swear ... not to transgress ... the established heads of peace and love,” “such writing is done... for approval and notification of the existing world between you” 3. Here the concept of “peace and love”, already formulated in a generalized form, refers to the entire agreement, to all the articles “set out” in it, regardless of whether they are they are directly related to the issue of “keeping” peace or are devoted to more specific issues.

The question naturally arises: why did both Rus' and Byzantium need to return four years later to this general political idea, expressed back in the treaty of 907?

The answer to this is contained in the treaty of 911 itself. Nowhere does it say that “love and peace” are concluded between states anew - after the peace of 907 this would be meaningless. The treaty only states that the ambassadors are aimed “to maintain and communicate” “peace and love,” i.e. to consolidate what has already been achieved. Let us remember that after the military conflicts of 941 and 970-971. “peace and love” were concluded anew and were considered as a return to the “old”, “first” world, by which we, as noted above, understand the treaty of 907.

The first article talks about the ways of dealing with various atrocities and the penalties for them; the second is about liability for murder, and in particular about property liability; the third - about liability for intentional beatings; the fourth - about responsibility for theft and the corresponding punishments for it; fifth - about responsibility for robbery; sixth - about the procedure for helping merchants of both countries during their voyage with goods, helping shipwrecked people; the seventh - about the procedure for ransoming prisoners - Russians and Greeks; the eighth - about allied assistance to the Greeks from Rus' and about the order of service of the Russians in the imperial army; the ninth is about the practice of ransoming any other captives; the tenth - about the procedure for returning escaped or kidnapped servants; the eleventh - about the practice of inheriting the property of Russians who died in Byzantium; twelfth - about the order of Russian trade in Byzantium (article lost); the thirteenth is about responsibility for the debt taken and about punishments for non-payment of the debt.

Thus, a wide range of problems regulating the relationship between the two states and their subjects in the most vital and traditional spheres for them are covered and regulated by these thirteen specific articles, which constitute the content of the word “series”.

The Russian-Byzantine treaty of 911 was neither an addition to the agreement of 907, nor a formal written act in comparison with the previous oral agreement, nor a “new” peace in relation to the peace of 907. It was a completely independent interstate equal “serial world” , which not only included the main provisions of “peace and love” proclaimed in 907, but also supplemented them with specific articles of the “series”.

The agreement - one of the earliest surviving ancient Russian diplomatic documents - was concluded after the successful campaign of the Kyiv prince Oleg and his squad against the Byzantine Empire in 907. It was originally compiled in Greek, but only the Russian translation has survived as part of “ Tales of Bygone Years" The articles of the Russian-Byzantine treaty of 911 are devoted mainly to the consideration of various offenses and penalties for them. We are talking about liability for murder, for intentional beatings, for theft and robbery; on the procedure for assisting merchants of both countries during their voyages with goods; the rules for the ransom of prisoners are regulated; there are points about allied assistance to the Greeks from Rus' and about the order of service of the Russians in the imperial army; about the procedure for returning escaped or kidnapped servants; the procedure for inheriting the property of Russians who died in Byzantium is described; regulated Russian trade in Byzantium.

Relations with the Byzantine Empire since the 9th century. constituted the most important element of the foreign policy of the Old Russian state. Probably already in the 30s or very early 40s. 9th century The Russian fleet raided the Byzantine city of Amastris on the southern Black Sea coast (modern Amasra in Turkey). Greek sources talk in sufficient detail about the attack of the “Rus people” on the Byzantine capital - Constantinople. IN " Tales of Bygone Years“This campaign is erroneously dated to 866 and is associated with the names of the semi-mythical Kyiv princes Askold and Dir.

News of the first diplomatic contacts between Rus' and its southern neighbor also date back to this time. As part of the embassy of the Byzantine emperor Theophilus (829-842), who arrived in 839 at the court of the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious, there were certain “ suppliants for peace" from " people of Ros" They had been sent by their Khakan ruler to the Byzantine court, and were now returning to their homeland. Peaceful and even allied relations between Byzantium and Russia are attested by sources of the 2nd half of the 860s, primarily by the messages of the Patriarch of Constantinople Photius (858-867 and 877-886). During this period, through the efforts of Greek missionaries (their names have not reached us), the process of Christianization of Rus' began. However, this so-called “first baptism” of Rus' did not have significant consequences: its results were destroyed after the capture of Kyiv by the squads of Prince Oleg who came from Northern Rus'.

This event marked the consolidation under the rule of the northern, Scandinavian in origin, Rurik dynasty of lands along the transit Volkhov-Dnieper trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks.” Oleg, the new ruler of Rus' (his name is a variant of the Old Norse Helga - sacred) primarily sought to establish his status in the confrontation with powerful neighbors - the Khazar Khaganate and the Byzantine Empire. It can be assumed that initially Oleg tried to maintain partnerships with Byzantium on the basis of a treaty in the 860s. However, his anti-Christian policies led to confrontation.

The story of Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople in 907 is preserved in “ Tales of Bygone Years" It contains a number of elements clearly of folkloric origin, and therefore many researchers have expressed doubts about its reliability. In addition, Greek sources report practically nothing about this military campaign. There are only isolated mentions of the “Ross” in documents from the time of Emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-912), as well as an unclear passage in the chronicle of pseudo-Simeon (late 10th century) about the participation of the “Ross” in the Byzantine war against the Arab fleet. The main argument in favor of the reality of the campaign of 907 should be considered the Russian-Byzantine treaty of 911. The authenticity of this document does not raise any doubts, and the conditions contained therein, extremely beneficial for Rus', could hardly have been achieved without military pressure on Byzantium.

(Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople, miniature from the Radziwill Chronicle)

In addition, the description in " Tales of Bygone Years"The negotiations between Oleg and the Byzantine emperors, co-rulers Leo and Alexander, are fully consistent with the well-known principles of Byzantine diplomatic practice. After Prince Oleg and his army appeared under the walls of Constantinople and ravaged the outskirts of the city, Emperor Leo VI and his co-ruler Alexander were forced to enter into negotiations with him. Oleg sent five ambassadors to the Byzantine emperors with his demands. The Greeks expressed their readiness to pay a one-time tribute to the Rus and allowed them duty-free trade in Constantinople. The agreement reached was secured by both parties through an oath: the emperors kissed the cross, and the Rus swore on their weapons and their deities Perun and Volos. The taking of the oath was apparently preceded by an agreement, since the oath was supposed to relate precisely to the practical articles of the contract that it was intended to confirm. We do not know what exactly the parties agreed on. It is clear, however, that the Rus demanded some kind of payments and benefits from the Greeks and that they received this in order to then leave the area of ​​​​Constantinople.

The formal agreement between Rus' and Byzantium was apparently concluded in two stages: negotiations took place in 907, then the agreements reached were sealed with an oath. But the attestation of the text of the treaty was delayed in time and occurred only in 911. It is worth noting that the most beneficial articles of the treaty for the Rus - on the payment of indemnities (“ukladov”) by the Greeks and on the exemption of Russian merchants in Constantinople from paying duties - are only among the preliminary articles 907, but not in the main text of the treaty of 911. According to one version, the mention of duties was deliberately removed from the article “On Russian traders”, which was preserved only as a title. Perhaps the desire of the Byzantine rulers to conclude an agreement with Russia was also caused by the desire to gain an ally in the ongoing war against the Arabs. It is known that in the summer of the same year 911, 700 Russian soldiers took part in the Byzantine campaign against the Arab-occupied island of Crete. Perhaps they remained in the empire, entering military service there, after Oleg’s campaigns, and did not return to their homeland.

Detailed textual, diplomatic and legal analysis showed that the texts of the diplomatic protocol, acts and legal formulas preserved in the Old Russian text of the treaty of 911 are either translations of well-known Byzantine clerical formulas, attested in many surviving Greek authentic acts, or paraphrases of Byzantine monuments rights. Nestor included in the “Tale of Bygone Years” a Russian translation made from an authentic (that is, possessing the force of the original) copy of the act from a special copy book. Unfortunately, it has not yet been established when and by whom the translation was carried out, and under no circumstances did extracts from the copy books reach Rus'.

During the X–XI centuries. wars between Russia and Byzantium alternated with peaceful ones, and rather long pauses. These periods were marked by increased diplomatic actions between the two states - exchange of embassies, active trade. Clergymen, architects, and artists came to Rus' from Byzantium. After the Christianization of Rus', pilgrims began to travel in the opposite direction to holy places. IN " The Tale of Bygone Years» two more Russian-Byzantine treaties are included: between Prince Igor and Emperor Roman I Lekapin (944) and between Prince Svyatoslav and Emperor John I Tzimiskes (971). As with the 911 agreement, they are translations from the Greek originals. Most likely, all three texts fell into the hands of the compiler “ Tales of Bygone Years» in the form of a single collection. At the same time, the text of the agreement of 1046 between Yaroslav the Wise and Emperor Constantine IX Monomakh in “ Tales of Bygone Years" No.

Treaties with Byzantium are among the oldest written sources of Russian statehood. As international treaty acts, they fixed the norms of international law, as well as the legal norms of the contracting parties, which, thus, was drawn into the orbit of another cultural and legal tradition.

The norms of international law include those articles of the treaty of 911 and other Russian-Byzantine agreements, analogues of which are present in the texts of a number of other treaties of Byzantium. This applies to the limitation of the period of stay of foreigners in Constantinople, as well as to the norms of coastal law reflected in the treaty of 911. An analogue of the provisions of the same text on fugitive slaves may be clauses of some Byzantine-Bulgarian agreements. Byzantine diplomatic agreements included clauses on baths, similar to the corresponding terms of the treaty of 907. The documentation of Russian-Byzantine treaties, as researchers have repeatedly noted, owes much to the Byzantine clerical protocol. Therefore, they reflected Greek protocol and legal norms, clerical and diplomatic stereotypes, norms, and institutions. This, in particular, is the usual mention for Byzantine acts of co-rulers along with the ruling monarch: Leo, Alexander and Constantine in the treaty of 911, Romanus, Constantine and Stephen in the treaty of 944, John Tzimiskes, Basil and Constantine in the treaty of 971. Such There were usually no mentions either in Russian chronicles or in short Byzantine chronicles; on the contrary, in the form of Byzantine official documents it was a common element. The determining influence of Byzantine norms was reflected in the use of Greek weights, monetary measures, as well as the Byzantine system of chronology and dating: indicating the year from the Creation of the world and the indict (the serial number of the year in the 15-year tax reporting cycle). The price of a slave in the contract of 911, as studies have shown, is close to the average price of a slave in Byzantium at that time.

It is important that the treaty of 911, as well as subsequent agreements, testified to the complete legal equality of both parties. The subjects of law were the subjects of the Russian prince and the Byzantine emperor, regardless of their place of residence, social status and religion. At the same time, the norms regulating crimes against the person were based mainly on the “Russian law”. This probably means a set of legal norms of customary law that were in force in Rus' by the beginning of the 10th century, that is, long before the adoption of Christianity.
(based on materials.