THE TALE OF NEVSKY
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The irony could not have been lost on Peter the Great that he founded St. Petersburg as his “Window to the West” on the banks of the same river where nearly 500 years before, Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky’s victory signaled Russia’s turn to the East.
Nevsky (1220-63) is one of Russia’s most revered figures and he has had a lasting impact on the development of Russia and Russian culture. St. Alexander Nevsky Monastery is St. Petersburg’s holiest place while Nevsky Prospekt and the Neva River, from which he took his name, are reminders of the hero.
Nevsky was born during the time of the Mongol Invasions, one of Russia’s most turbulent periods. Despite the threat posed by the Golden Horde, Nevsky came to fame not for fighting them but for fighting Western foes.
In 1236, Nevsky was invited by the Novgorod Veche, the city’s legislative body, to become prince of the wealthy trading center and the city’s military leader. Novgorod faced threats not only from the Mongols but from within Rus as well as from the Teutonic Knights and various religious orders to the west.
In the late 1230s, the young prince fought in a series of wars, including a campaign to retake Smolensk from the Livonian Order. In 1240, a combined force of Germans and Swedes invaded Rus with the intention of establishing an outpost on Lake Ladoga, which would give them access to one of the key trade routes of the period. Nevsky, only 19 at the time, refused to wait for reinforcements and marched to meet the enemy with the men he had. Little is known about the July 15 battle but the young prince was victorious, boosting his reputation throughout Rus.
Nevsky went into voluntary exile after a falling out with the Novgorod nobility until they called upon him to protect the city from an invasion by the Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights. After raising an army, Nevsky liberated Pskov in early 1242 before concluding the campaign with the famous Battle on the Ice on Apr. 5, 1242. Nevsky’s infantry succeeded in resisting cavalry attacks before driving the knights into the center of the lake, where, according to legend, the weight of their horses and armor cracked the ice, plunging invading soldiers into the lake’s frigid depths. Due to his victory on Lake Peipus, also known as Chudskoe Lake, the Narva River, which flows from the lake, is considered Russia’s border with Estonia.
Nevsky fought several more campaigns against the Livonian Order but he is most venerated for his defense of the Orthodox faith and his refusal to convert to Catholicism. However, his conflicts with the Livonian Order forced him to make peace with the Golden Horde and he became a Mongol vassal.
By paying tribute, he protected his territories from further invasions but was involved in repressing the Russians himself, including suppressing a revolt by Novgorod in 1259.