Information about Igor comes mostly from the
Primary Chronicle, which states that Igor was the son of
Rurik: 6378–6387 (870–879). On his deathbed,
Rurik bequeathed his realm to Oleg, who belonged to his kin, and entrusted to Oleg's hands his son Igor', for he was very young. 6388–6390 (880–882). Oleg set forth, taking with him many warriors from among the Varangians, the
Chuds, the Slavs, the
Merians and all the
Krivichians. He thus arrived with his Krivichians before
Smolensk, captured the city, and set up a garrison there. Thence he went on and captured
Lyubech, where he also set up a garrison. He then came to the hills of Kiev, and saw how
Askold and Dir reigned there. He hid his warriors in the boats, left some others behind, and went forward himself bearing the child Igor'. He thus came to the foot of the Hungarian hill, and after concealing his troops, he sent messengers to Askold and Dir, representing himself as a stranger on his way to Greece on an errand for Oleg and for Igor', the prince's son, and requesting that they should come forth to greet them as members of their race. Askold and Dir straightway came forth. Then all the soldiery jumped out of the boats, and Oleg said to Askold and Dir, "You are not princes nor even of princely stock, but I am of princely birth." Igor' was then brought forward, and Oleg announced that he was the son of Rurik. They killed Askold and Dir, and after carrying them to the hill, they buried them there, on the hill now known as Hungarian, where the castle of Ol'ma now stands. Little is known about him between the years 912 and 941 due to a gap in the chronicle record. Igor
twice besieged Constantinople, in 941 and 944, and although
Greek fire destroyed part of his fleet, he concluded
a favourable treaty with the
Byzantine Emperor
Constantine VII (945), the text of which the chronicle has preserved. In 913 and 944, the
Rus' plundered the
Arabs in the
Caspian Sea during the
Caspian expeditions of the Rus', but it remains unclear whether Igor had anything to do with these campaigns. '', by
Klavdiy Lebedev (1852–1916). Igor was killed while collecting
tribute from the
Drevlians in 945. The Byzantine historian and chronicler
Leo the Deacon (born ) describes
how Igor met his death: "They had bent down two
birch trees to the prince's feet and tied them to his legs; then they let the trees straighten again, thus tearing the prince's body apart." Igor's widow
Olga avenged his death by punishing the Drevlians. The
Primary Chronicle blames his death on his own excessive greed, indicating that he tried to collect tribute for a second time in a month. As a result, Olga changed the system of tribute gathering (
poliudie) in what may be regarded as the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe. ==Historiography==