Zabić księcia! „Oprawcy” księcia Andrzeja Bogolubskiego w świetle ruskiej tradycji historiograficznej XII–XV w.

Abstract

The article was devoted to the circumstances of the murder of Andrei I Yuryevich, Grand Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal. In the presented text, the attention is put on the reasons for the murder of the prince and on his assassins, who in the literature on the subject were said to have a different social status and ethnic origins. After the analysis of the oldest chronicle and epigraphic records concerning the events of June 29, 1174, a hypothesis appeared that the motives for the murder of the prince can be found not only in the context of social conflicts, but also complex ethnic relations that probably took place during the period of intense colonization between the Volga and the Oka rivers. The motifs taken from previously written stories and hagiographic works about the torment of other Ruthenian rulers ( Lives of Boris and Gleb , the story of the torment of Wasylek Trembowelski) played a significant role in the arrangement of events presented in the texts about the murder of Prince Andrei I Yuryevich. They influenced the way of presenting the „tormentors of the prince”, among whom a special role was assigned to „foreigners” – coming from outside the „Ruthenian World” – Ossetian, Ambał, or Bulgarian, the prince's wife, while the other participants of the murder identified with people of low social status.