Bands of barbarians invaded Russia from the distant regions of the Caspian Sea, plundering, killing and burning.  They came suddenly, like the thunder-cloud in a summer’s day, and as suddenly disappeared where no pursuit could find them.  Ambitious nobles, descendants of former kings, plied all the arts of perfidy and of assassination to get possession of different provinces of the empire, each hoping to make his province central and to extend his sway over all the rest of Russia.  The brothers of Ysiaslaf became embroiled, and drew the sword against each other.  An insurrection was excited in Kief, the populace besieged the palace, and the king saved his life only by a precipitate abandonment of his capital.  The military mob pillaged the palace and proclaimed their chieftain, Vseslaf, king.

Ysiaslaf fled to Poland.  The Polish king, Boleslas II., who was a grandson of Vlademer, and who had married a Russian princess, received the fugitive king with the utmost kindness.  With a strong Polish army, accompanied by the King of Poland, Ysiaslaf returned to Kief, to recover his capital by the sword.  The insurgent chief who had usurped the throne, in cowardly terror fled.  Ysiaslaf entered the city with the stern strides of a conqueror and wreaked horrible vengeance upon the inhabitants, making but little discrimination between the innocent and the guilty.  Seventy were put to death.  A large number had their eyes plucked out; and for a long time the city resounded with the cries of the victims, suffering under all kinds of punishments from the hands of this implacable monarch.  Thus the citizens were speedily brought into abject submission.  The Polish king, with his army, remained a long time at Kief, luxuriating in every indulgence at the expense of the inhabitants.  He then returned to his own country laden with riches.

Ysiaslaf re-ascended the throne, having been absent ten months.  Disturbances of a similar character agitated the provinces which were under the government of the brothers of Ysiaslaf, and which had assumed the authority and dignity of independent kingdoms.  Thus all Russia was but an arena of war, a volcanic crater of flame and blood.  Three years of conflict and woe passed away, when two of the brothers of Ysiaslaf united their armies and marched against him; and again he was compelled to seek a refuge in Poland.  He carried with him immense treasure, hoping thus again to engage the services of the Polish army.  But Boleslas infamously robbed him of his treasure, and then, to use an expression of Nestor, “showed him the way out of his kingdom.”

The woe-stricken exile fled to Germany, and entreated the interposition of the emperor, Henry iv., promising to reward him with immense treasure, and to hold the crown of Russia as tributary to the German empire.  The emperor was excited by the alluring offer, and sent embassadors to Sviatoslaf, now enthroned at Kief, ostensibly to propose reconciliation, but in reality to ascertain what the probability was of success in a warlike expedition to so remote a kingdom.  The embassadors returned with a very discouraging report.