(957 — 972)
Svyatoslav, the son of Igor and Olga, led many wars. With his harsh life from his youth he brought up a habit of work and deprivation.
Here is what the chronicle says: “He went to the enemy with the speed of a leopard; in the campaigns did not carry with him neither boilers nor carts; Eating horse meat or meat of wild animals that are on the charcoal; I was not afraid of cold or rainy weather; slept in hikes without a tent in the open air, podstlav under the horse pothole, and at the head – saddle; if he went to the enemy, he never attacked him unawares, but always warned: I’m coming at you. ”
Svyatoslav defeated the Volga Bulgarians, and then descended the river, defeated the Khazars, then went to the Caucasus, defeated the yasov and the slogans, then subdued the Vyatichi and imposed a tribute on them.
The glory of Svyatoslav spread far and, at the invitation of the Byzantine emperor Nicephorus Foki, he went against the Danube Bulgarians and conquered their land and established himself in Pereyaslavl.
During Svyatoslav’s absence, the Pechenegs invaded his domain. Svyatoslav returned from Bulgaria and drove away the Pechenegs.
After the death of his mother, Olga, he divided the Russian land between his sons Yaropolk (Kiev), Oleg (drevlyan land) and Vladimir (Novgorod) and left for Bulgaria.
But the Byzantine emperor John Tzimisces, after a stubborn struggle, forced him to retire from Bulgaria.
Returning with the remnants of his squad to Kiev, Svyatoslav was killed by the Pechenegs near the Dnieper rapids.