Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold, Just Ask Olga of Kiev

A venerated saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Olga of Kiev also led one of history's greatest examples of retribution

Olga of Kiev is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as a saint for her efforts to spread Christianity in Kievan Rus. She carries the epithet “Equal to the Apostles” and there is feast day in her honor every July 11th. However, Olga is also known for her ruthless time as ruler of Kievan Rus and retribution for the death of her husband at the hand of the Drevilans.

Wife to Igor of Rurik, Olga watched as her husband created a tribal federation known as Kievan Rus which featured a capital in Kiev and consisted of territory that spanned modern day Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. A complex relationship with a neighboring tribe, the Drevlians, became strained when the Drevilians withheld payment of tribute to Igor. Igor set out to force the Drevlians to reinstate tribute payments, but met his gruesome death at the hands of their former ally tribe.

Now widowed with their three-year-old son Sviatoslav, Olga assumed the throne of Kievan Rus in 945 AD. With a widowed female rule, the Drevlians recognized an opportunity to expand their territory. It is here that Olga’s opportunities to seek revenge begin. 

Drevlian negotiators reached out to Olga with an offer to join the man who murdered her husband, Prince Mal, in marriage. Twenty negotiators sailed to Kiev to pass along the message and obtain Olga’s agreement. Unbeknownst to them, Olga had set a trap and encouraged the negotiators to return in their boat the next day for a proper ceremony of honor in front of her people. 

When they arrived, the Kievan crowds picked up the Drevlians in their boats and began carrying them to Olga’s court. Mistaking the gesture as one of honor, the Drevlians relished in what they believed a ceremonious welcome. When they arrived to the court, they were tossed into a large trench that had been dug. The Kievan people began burying the negotiators alive. It is rumored that Olga bent over the trench as it was being filled and asked the Drevlians if “they found the honor to their taste.” 

Shortly after, Olga sent word to the Drevlians requesting they send their finest men to escort her with honor to her soon to be Drevlian husband. The fate of the former negotiators still unbeknownst to the Drevlians, they quickly gathered another group of their finest men and sent them to Olga. 

Upon arriving in Kiev, Olga requested they bath before presenting themselves to her. As the Drevlian men bathed in the Kievan bathhouse, Olga had the doors barred and set fire to the bathhouse. The second party of Drevlian men burned to death. 

But Olga’s revenge on the Drevlian people was only just beginning. She would shortly after the bathhouse incident request a banquet to mourn her late husband in Iskorosten, the city of his death. Again, the Drevlian’s acquiesced to the request. That night at the banquet, the Drevlian’s over-indulged and Olga’s signal, the attending Kievans attacked the drunken Drevlians. It is believed they successfully murdered 5,000 Drevlians before returning to Kiev.

When Olga returned, she gathered an army to finish off the rival tribe. Despite early successes, Olga’s forces found difficulty advancing past Iskorosten. Unable to siege the city and run the Drevlians out, Olga sent message to people in the city requesting a return to tribute payments and an end to their hold out. 

Having seen Olga’s ferocity, the Drevlians agreed to pay tribute, but refused to relinquish their city to her for fear her vengeful appetite was not satiated. Claiming she intended no more harm, she offered a final, odd request. Asking for three pigeons and three sparrows from each household, surprise and relief appeared to wash over the Drevlians.

The birds were delivered to Olga and the Drevlians believed the siege of their city to be over. However, Olga had one more acrimonious trick up her sleeve. As night fell, she commanded her soldiers to tie pieces of sulphur to the birds and light them on fire before setting them free.

As carrier pigeons and sparrows naturally do, they returned home to their nests. Littered across the city, the nests sparked a great fire. It is said that no house escaped the flames and the fire was so large it was impossible to extinguish. As residents of the city fled, Olga instructed her army to capture them. Some were killed while others became slaves to the Kievan people. 

Satisfied with the retribution, Olga would return to Kiev to continue her reign. Following her revenge on the Drevlians, Olga would bring about a centralized state of rule to Kievan Rus. She would also seek to spread Christianity across the empire, despite constant hostility to the religion throughout the region until her death in 969. 

And while her commitment to Christianity lives on, so too does the story of her remarkable and merciless pursuit of revenge against the Drevlians for the murder of her husband.