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Saint Alexander Nevsky Audio|Ru-Alexander
Nevsky.ogg|listen
(Алексан
др
Ярослав&
#1080;ч
Невский
in Russian language|Russian) (May 30,
1220?–November 14, 1263) was the greatest
leader of medieval Russia who helped to preserve
its unique Eastern Orthodoxy|Orthodox identity
during the time of incessant attacks from the West
and the East. 

==Great victories==

Born in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Alexander was the
fourth son of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and
seemed to have but a little chance of claiming the
golden throne of Vladimir. In 1236, however, he
was summoned by the Novgorodians to become kniaz'
(or prince) of Novgorod and, as their military
leader, to defend their northwest lands from
Sweden|Swedish and Germany|German invaders. After
the Swedish army had landed at the confluence of
rivers Izhora and Neva, Alexander and his small
army suddenly attacked the Swedes on July 15, 1240
and completely destroyed them. The Neva battle of
1240 saved Russia from a full-scale enemy invasion
from the North. As a result of this battle,
19-year-old Alexander was given the name of
“Nevsky” (which means of Neva). This victory
strengthened Nevsky’s political influence, but
at the same time it also worsened his relations
with the boyars. Soon enough, Alexander had to
leave Novgorod because of this conflict.

After Russia had been invaded by the Teutonic
Knights, the Novgorod authorities sent for
Alexander Nevsky. In spring of 1241 he returned
from his “exile”, gathered an army in no time,
and drove out the invaders from Russian cities.
Many Russian historians consider the sieges of
Kopor’ye and Pskov as an example of a
sophisticated military art of seizing fortresses.
Alexander and his men stood up against the
Teutonic cavalry led by the Magister of the Order,
Hermann, brother of Albert of Buxhoeveden, the
Catholic Christianizer of Livonia. Nevsky faced
the enemy on the ice of the Chudskoye Lake and
crushed the Teutonic Knights during the Battle on
Lake Peipus on April 5, 1242. The German attempts
to invade Russia were effectively stopped for many
centuries to come.

Alexander’s victory was a significant event in
the history of the Middle Ages. Russian foot
soldiers had surrounded and defeated an army of
knights, mounted on horseback and clad in thick
armor, long before they learned how foot soldiers
could prevail over mounted knights in Western
Europe. Nevsky's great victory against the
Teutonic Order apparently involved only a few
knights killed rather than hundreds claimed by the
Russian chroniclers; decisive medieval and early
modern battles were won and lost with small forces
to modern eyes. The cultural value of the victory
greatly outshone its strategic value, at the time
and ever since.

==Wise politician==

After the Teutonic invasion, Nevsky continued to
strengthen Russia’s Northwest. He sent his
envoys to Norway and, as a result, they signed a
first peace treaty between Rus’ and Norway in
1251. Alexander led his army to Finland and
successfully routed the Swedes, who had made
another attempt to block the Baltic Sea from the
Russians in 1256.

Nevsky proved to be a cautious and far-sighted
politician. He dismissed Papal curia’s attempts
to cause war between Russia and the Golden Horde,
because he understood the uselessness of such war
with Tatars at that time since they were still
invincible. Historians seem to be unsure about
Alexander’s behavior when in came to his
relations with Mongols. 

Probably he understood that the Roman Catholic
assault presented a more tangible threat to
Russian national identity than paying a tribute to
the Khan, who didn't care about Russian religion
and culture. It could also be that he
intentionally kept Russia as a vassal to the
Mongols in order to preserve his own status and
count on the befriended Horde in case someone
dared to challenge his authority (he forced the
citizens of Novgorod to pay tribute to them but
this was due to prevent a possible mongol
occupation of Northern Russia). Nevsky tried to
strengthen his princely authority at the expense
of the boyars and at the same time suppress any
anti-feudal uprisings in the country (Novgorod
uprising of 1259). 

Alexander Nevsky as a major symbol of Russian
patriotism.
According to the most plausible version,
Alexander’s intentions were to prevent Russia
from ruinous invasions of the enormous Mongol
army. He is known to have gone to the Horde
himself and achieved success in exempting Russians
from fighting beside the Tatar army in its wars
with other peoples.

==Alexander's legacy==

Thanks to his friendship with the Grand Khan,
Alexander was installed as the Grand Prince of
Vladimir (i.e., the supreme Russian ruler) in
1252. A decade later, Alexander died in a town of
Gorodets-on-the-Volga on his way back from Sarai
(city)|Sarai, the capitol of the Golden Horde.  He
was buried in Vladimir and canonized by the
Russian Orthodox Church in 1547. 

In the late 13th century, they compiled a
chronicle called Alexander Nevsky’s Life
(Житие
Алексан&
#1076;ра
Невског&
#1086;), in which he is depicted as an ideal
prince-soldier and defender of Russia. By order of
Peter the Great, Nevsky’s remains were
transported to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in
Petersburg where they remain to this day. On May
21, 1725, the Tsar introduced the Order of
Alexander Nevsky as one of the highest military
decorations. During the Great Patriotic War (July
29, 1942) the Soviet Union|Soviet Order of
Alexander Nevsky was introduced to revive the
memory of Alexander's struggle with the Germans.

Sergei Eisenstein made one of his greatest movies,
Alexander Nevsky (film)|Alexander Nevsky, about
Alexander and his victory over the Teutonic
Knights. Music for the film was written by Sergei
Prokofiev, who also reworked the score into a
concert cantata. Alexander's phrase from the
movie, "Whoever will come to us with a sword, from
a sword will perish," (a paraphrasing of the
biblical phrase "He who lives by the sword, dies
by the sword") has become a slogan of Russian
patriots.

== See also == 
* Famous military commanders
succession|office=List of Russian rulers|Grand
Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir|preceded=Andrei II
of Russia|Andrew II|succeeded=Yaroslav of
Tver|Yaroslav III
lived|b=1220|d=1263|key=Nevsky, Alexander