In the 10th century, a Viking ruler known as Olga of Kiev sought revenge on the men who killed her husband by burying them alive.
The Grand Prince Igor was Princess Olga’s husband and the ruler of the Kievan Rus in what is now known as Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.
Igor traveled to the edges of his empire in 945 to find out why the Drevlians, a local tribe, had stopped paying tribute. The Drevlians captured Igor and tortured him to death.
For the next 15 years, Olga of Kiev worked tirelessly to avenge her husband’s brutal murder. In 1547, the Russian Orthodox Church declared her a saint. Today, she remains the patron saint of widows and converts in Ukraine.
Olga of Kiev was born around 900 C.E. in what is now Pskov, Russia. Back then, it was part of a Viking empire called Kievan Rus. Olga was a descendant of the first Vikings who settled in the empire. She was no more than 15 years old when she married Grand Prince Igor I.
The Drevlians were the one tribe that could not be fully controlled. When Igor’s father, Prince Oleg, died in 945 C.E., the Drevlians stopped paying tribute. They murdered Igor when he came to collect the money.
At the time of his death, Olga was 20 years old. They had a three-year-old son who was too young to rule, so Olga became regent of Kievan Rus. She immediately began plotting against the Drevlians.
Prince Mal of the Drevlians soon proposed to Olga and sent 20 dignitaries to convince her to marry him. He hoped to bring Kievan Rus under Drevlian rule. Instead of rejecting the proposal right away, Olga welcomed the dignitaries in and ordered her soldiers to dig a ditch.
She led the dignitaries to the edge of the ditch and had her soldiers push them in. Then, they buried the men alive. Olga watched them slowly suffocate.
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Her next course of action was to write to Prince Mal and pretend that she was still open to marriage. She asked him to send his best men, so they could take her to see him.
Still unaware that Olga had killed 20 of his men, Mal willingly sent a group of decorated Drevlian chieftains. Olga offered to let them use her bathhouse to freshen up after a long journey. Once they were inside, she bolted the doors shut and burned down the building. No one survived the fire.
Olga quickly traveled to the Drevlian capital before word could reach Mal. When she arrived, she hosted a funeral banquet for Igor and invited the Drevlian soldiers. As soon as they got drunk enough, Olga’s soldiers proceeded to slaughter 5,000 Drevlian men.
The remaining members of the tribe begged Olga to accept their tributes and leave, but she refused. She laid siege to the capital for more than a year.
When they finally couldn’t take it anymore, she told them to bring her a peace offering: three pigeons and three sparrows from each household.
Her soldiers attached a piece of thread and sulfur wrapped in cloth to each bird. They released the birds back to their nests, where they proceeded to start fires that burned down the tribe’s homes.
The people tried to flee, but Olga had them captured. Finally, her revenge plans were over.
In 957, Olga converted to Christianity after visiting Constantinople. She encouraged her subjects to convert as well. She likely died on July 11, 969. In 1547, she officially became a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
