Prince of Suzdal

The Grand Duke of Vladimir was a prince during the Kievan Rus' and after its collapse. He ruled territory approximately bounded by the Volga, Oka and Northern Dvina rivers. Its capital was Vladimir during 1157-1238. Vladimir city was founded by a Kievan prince Vladimir Monomakh in 1108 and was destroyed by a Mongol invasion in 1238. The second important city was Suzdal', also destroyed by Mongols. The Grand Duke (Velikii Kniaz, Great Prince) Yuri Dolgorukii (Yuri "Long-arms"), the seventh son of Vladimir Monomakh, began the lineage of Suzdal' and Vladimir-Suzdal' great princes. Vladimir-Suzdal' began the next consolidation of Russian lands, completed by Muscovy, which grew from within Vladimir-Suzdal.

Vladimir was founded in the 12th century. It first came into focus in 1151, when Andrei Bogolyubskiy secretly left Vyshgorod, the domain of his father in the principality of Kiev, and migrated to the newly settled land of Suzdal, where in 1157 he became grand prince of the principalities of Vladimir, Suzdal and Rostov. The principality was overrun by the Mongols under Batu Khan in 1242. He and his successors asserted suzerainty over it until 1328. During this period, Vladimir became the chief town of the Russian settlements in the basin of the Oka and it clashed with the new principality of Moscow, to which it finally succumbed in 1328. It began to decay in the 14th century.

Traditionally, Vladimir-Suzdal is perceived as a cradle of the Great Russian language and nationality and gradually evolved into the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

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