Igor sent the imperial embassadors back to Constantinople laden with rich presents.  Elated by wealth and success, the Russian king began to impose heavier burdens of taxation upon subjugated nations.  The Drevliens resisted.  With an insufficient force Igor entered their territories.  The Drevliens, with the fury of desperation, fell upon him and he was slain, and his soldiers put to rout.  During his reign he held together the vast empire Oleg had placed in his hands, though he had not been able to extend the boundaries of his country.  It is worthy of notice, and of the highest praise, that Igor, though a pagan, imitating the example of Oleg, permitted perfect toleration throughout his realms.  The gospel of Christ was freely preached, and the Christians enjoyed entire freedom of faith and worship.  His reign continued thirty-two years.

Sviatoslaf, the son of Igor, at the time of his father’s unhappy death was in his minority.  The empire was then in great peril.  The Drevliens, one of the most numerous and warlike tribes, were in open and successful revolt.  The army accustomed to activity, and now in idleness, was very restive.  The old Norman generals, ambitious and haughty, were disposed to pay but little respect to the claims of a prince who was yet in his boyhood.  But Providence had provided for this exigence.  Olga, the mother of Sviatoslaf, assumed the regency, and developed traits of character which place her in the ranks of the most extraordinary and noble of women.  Calling to her aid two of the most influential of the nobles, one of whom was the tutor of her son and the other commander-in-chief of the army, she took the helm of state, and developed powers of wisdom and energy which have rarely been equaled and perhaps never surpassed.

She immediately sent an army into the country of the Drevliens, and punished with terrible severity the murderers of her husband.  The powerful tribe was soon brought again into subjection to the Russian crown.  As a sort of defiant parade of her power, and to overawe the turbulent Drevliens, she traversed their whole country, with her son, accompanied by a very imposing retinue of her best warriors.  Having thus brought them to subjection, she instituted over them a just and benevolent system of government, that they might have no occasion again to rise in revolt.  They soon became so warmly attached to her that they ever were foremost in support of her power.

One year had not passed ere Olga was seated as firmly upon the throne as Oleg or Igor had ever been.  She then, leaving her son Sviatoslaf at Kief, set out on a tour through her northern provinces.  Everywhere, by her wise measures and her deep interest in the welfare of her subjects, she won admiration and love.  The annals of those times are full of her praises.  The impression produced by this visit was not effaced from the popular mind for five hundred years, being handed down from father to son.  The sledge in which she traveled was for many generations preserved as a sacred relic.