Graffiti of “Olisava Group” and the Autograph of the King of Norway Hakon Eiriksson in St. Sophia of Kyiv: Comprehension of History

The article is devoted to the graffiti inscription on the pillar of the northern choirs of St. Sophia of Kyiv, determined in science as an autograph of the unknown Varangian Yakun. The graffiti is a part of the integrated cycle of eight inscriptions. The head inscription among them is the one made by the Rus princess Olisava, who was not mentioned in the sources. She was traditionally identified in science as the mother of Svyatopolk II (1096‒1113). The scientists’ conclusions were based on dating the creation of the cathedral no earlier than the reign of Yaroslav the Wise (1016‒1054) in Kyiv Rus. The dating of St. Sophia construction to the years of 1011‒1018, which was introduced into science by the author, made it possible to revise the identification of Olisava and date these graffiti to 1019. The author proves that Olisava was the daughter of the Bulgarian tsar Peter I. She was brought to Kyiv from Bulgaria in 970 by Kyivan Prince Svyatoslav the Brave for his son Yaropolk. After the murder of Yaropolk in 980, Olisava, pregnant by him, became the wife of Volodymyr the Great – a grand prince of Kyiv Rus ‒ and gave birth to Svyatopolk (Peter), whom Volodymyr recognized as his son. During the feud between the sons of Volodymyr in 1015‒1019, Svyatopolk, together with his father-in-law, the Polish prince Boleslaw the Brave, took Kyiv and reigned in it in 1018/19. The graffiti records the end of the feud and names the ruling elite of Rus, which included the Varangian Yakun as a tutor of Prince Mykhailo ‒ the youngest unmarried son of Svyatopolk from the daughter of the Polish prince Boleslaw the Brave. Yakun’s inscription was for the first time identified as an autograph of the Norwegian king Hakon Eiriksson, who ruled Norway in 1014‒1015 and 1028‒1030. He was expelled from Norway by King Olav the Holy. During the exile Hakon served Boleslav and Svyatopolk, and after the death of the latter ‒ Yaroslav. According to the chronicle, in 1024 the “Varangian prince” Yakun (Hakon) together with Yaroslav was defeated in the Battle of Lystven, fled to Scandinavia, and in 1028 returned to Norway and ruled it until his death.