Yaropolk I Sviatoslavych

Yaropolk I Sviatoslavych [Jaropolk Svjatoslavyč], b ca 958–60, d 980 (possibly 11 June). Grand prince of Kyivan Rus’; eldest son of Sviatoslav I Ihorovych. He ruled the Kyiv principality from 970, and when his father died in 972 he became ruler of all Rus’. He maintained ties with Western Europe and with Emperor Otto I the Great. In 973 his emissaries participated in the parliament in Quedlinburg, and in 979 he received a papal delegation in Kyiv. He took a Greek wife and had good relations with Byzantium. Yaropolk's wish to unite all of Rus’ under his rule gave rise to conflicts with his brothers, Oleh Sviatoslavych and Volodymyr the Great. In 977, when Oleh Sviatoslavych murdered the son of Yaropolk's voivode Svineld, Yaropolk killed Oleh in a battle near Ovruch, and thus gained control of the Derevlianian territories. He captured Novgorod the Great in 980 and drove out Volodymyr, who enlisted the aid of the Varangians, regained Novgorod in the same year, and took over Kyiv soon thereafter. Yaropolk fled to Roden, where he was murdered at Volodymyr the Great's behest. In 1044 Yaroslav the Wise transferred Yaropolk I Sviatoslavych's remains (and those of Oleh Sviatoslavych), having baptized them, to the Church of the Tithes in Kyiv.