Vseslav lays siege to Pskov in 1065, but is thrown back.

The Yaroslavichi join forces and march north, coming upon Vseslav's army in the deep snow on the Niamiha River on March 3 and defeating him.

The precise course of battle is unknown, though it has become legendary as a bloodbath; The Tale of Igor's Campaign referred to "the bloody banks of the Nemiga" being sown not with blessings but with bones.

Vseslav flees back Polotsk and the Yaroslav princes do not pursue him.

However, in June, after the battle, the Yaroslav princes call for negotiations, “kiss the cross” (take an oath) and make promises of future safety; Vseslav is invited to Iziaslav's camp to celebrate the peace and is promptly arrested together with two of his sons and taken to prison in Kiev.

Vseslav pillages and burns Great Novgorod in the winter of 1066–1067, removing the bell and other religious objects from the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom and bringing them to decorate his own cathedral of the same name in Polotsk.

His attack threatens to cut off the sons of Yaroslav in the Middle Dnieper region from Scandinavia, the Baltic region, and the far north, important sources of men, trade, and income (in furs for example) for the Rus princes in the Middle Dnieper.

The attack also forces the young Mstislav, then enthroned in Novgorod, to flee back to his father, Iziaslav, in Kiev, and is thus an affront to the Kievan grand prince.

Vsevolod had tried to come back to Novgorod at the head of an army in 1137, but had instead withdrawn to Pskov, where he dies in February 1138.

He is buried according to his own wishes in the Church of St. Demetrius in Pskov.

The Order, under the leadership of Master Volkwin, is by the 1230s coping with strained financial resources, decreasing manpower, and ill repute.

The Sword-Brothers are in conflict with the papacy under Pope Gregory IX and the Holy Roman Emperor, two of its biggest supporters, over Estonia.

However, on February 19, 1236, Pope Gregory IX issues a papal bull declaring a crusade against Lithuania.

He targets Samogitia, planning to conquer the coast of the Baltic Sea and connect with the Teutonic Knights in Prussia.

The Sword-Brothers want to keep expanding along the Daugava River and are somewhat reluctant to march against Samogitia.

In fall of 1236, a party of crusaders arrives from Holstein, demanding to be led into a battle.

Volkwin gathers a large war party, which includes troops from Pskov Republic, Livonians, Latgallians, and Estonians.

The knights march southward into Samogitia, raiding and plundering local settlements, giving the locals only a few days to gather troops for defense.

On the knights' northward return, however, they encounter a determined group of Samogitians at a river crossing.

Unwilling to risk losing their horses in the swampland, the Holsteiners refuses to fight on foot, forcing the knights to camp for the night.

The next morning, on the day of Saint Maurice, the main pagan forces, likely led by Duke Vykintas, arrive at the camp.

The Lithuanian light cavalry fling javelins at short range, which are highly effective against the unwieldy Livonian heavy cavalry.

The swampy terrain is advantageous for the lightly armed pagans.

The slaughter of the Christian troops, including Volkwin, sows seeds of confusion in the Livonian ranks.

The lightly armed native forces under the command of the Brothers soon flee from the battle.

Those crusaders and knights who try to flee to Riga are allegedly killed by the Semigallians.

The defeat at the Kalka River had left the Kievan principality at the mercy of invaders, but the Mongol forces had retreated, not to reappear for thirteen years, during which time the princes of Rus' have gone on quarreling and fighting as before, until they are startled by a new and much more formidable invading force.

The main Mongol force, headed by Jochi's sons, and their cousins, Möngke Khan and Güyük Khan, arrive at Ryazan in December 1237.

Ryazan refuses to surrender, and the Mongols sack it.

The Principality is completely overrun with almost the whole princely family killed and the capital completely destroyed; it will later be moved to another location.

Batu moves into central Russia in 1238 to subdue the Western Russian principalities.

Besieging Vladimir, he finally overruns it on February 8, 1238.

A great fire destroys thirty-two limestone buildings on the first day alone, while the family of Grand Prince Yuri II perishes in a church where they had sought refuge from the flames.

The grand prince himself manages to escape.

Yuri’, after the Mongols sack his capital, flees across the Volga northward to Yaroslavl', where he hastily musters an army.

He and his brothers then turn back toward Vladimir in hopes of relieving the city before the Mongols take it, but they are too late.

Yuri sends out a force of three thousand men under Dorozh to scout out the Mongols’ position; whereupon Dorozh returns saying that Yuri and his force are already surrounded.

As he tries to muster his forces, he is attacked by the Mongol force under Burundai and flees, but is overtaken on the Sit River and dies there along with his nephew, Prince Vsevolod of Yaroslavl'.

The battle marks the end of unified resistance to the Mongols and inaugurates two centuries of the Mongol domination of modern day-Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Major cities such as Torzhok and …