Principality of Chernigov

The Principality of Chernigov, also called Chernihiv, was one of the largest and most powerful principalities of Kievan Rus. It lay mostly on the left bank of the Dnieper, in the basins of the Desna and Seim rivers, and at its height included lands that are now in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Its capital was Chernigov, with important centres at Novgorod-Seversky, Starodub, Trubchevsk and Kozelsk. According to the Primary Chronicle, Mstislav of Tmutarakan, son of Vladimir the Great, established his rule there in 1024 and agreed with his brother Yaroslav the Wise to divide the Dnieper as a boundary. The principality became the seat of a branch of the Rurikid dynasty and a rival of Kiev, especially in the twelfth century, when its princes intervened repeatedly in the struggle for the grand princely throne. It fragmented into appanages, suffered from Cuman raids and the Mongol invasion, and gradually came under Lithuanian and Muscovite power. Its ruling lines survived into the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but the principality's separate political existence ended when its lands were absorbed by neighbouring states.