Yaroslav relies on the Scandinavian alliance and attempts to weaken imperial influence on Kiev.

The Norwegian Viking Harald Hardrada and his men have reached the land of the Kievan Rus, where they serve in the armies of Yaroslav, whose wife Ingigerd is a distant relative of Harald.

He and Eilifr, son of that Rognvaldr, who had originally come to Novgorod with Ingigerd, have become joint chiefs of Yaroslav's bodyguard.

Harald serves a military apprenticeship in spring 1031, fighting in the Polish campaign of 1030-1031, which has as its object the recovery of territories previously lost in 1018.

Yaroslav reconquers the area later known as Red Rus', or Red Ruthenia, from the Poles and concludes an alliance with King Casimir I of Poland, sealed by the latter's marriage to Yaroslav's sister Maria.