The exact year that Princess Olga of Kiev was born is disputed.
The Primary Chronicle states her birth year was 879, while other sources claim she was
born in 890 or maybe even a littler later.
Given that we know her only son was born in 942, the earlier date can be safely ruled
out, and even the later one is questionable.
There is also no solid evidence as to her place of birth, with sources placing her in
Pskov or Veshchy.
What is known about Olga is that sometime before 912, she married Prince Igor, the son
of the founder of the Rurik Dynasty of Russian tsars.
In 912, the pair took to the throne of Kievan Rus.
As previously mentioned, the pair had a son named Svyatoslav around 30 years later in
942, presumably implying she was extremely young when they were wed.
Whatever the case, three years after the birth of his son, Igor travelled to meet the Drevlyans,
a Slavic tribe who owed him tribute.
When Igor demanded more than the Drevlyans thought his rule was worth, instead of paying
him, they simply killed him.
Igor and Olga must have had a pretty happy marriage, because she did not take his death
very well.
Her three-year-old son was next in line to the throne, which meant that, as his mother,
she became regent until he was old enough to rule by himself.
While having a woman in charge of the government wasn’t exactly the norm, she had the full
support of the Rus army to back her regency.
However, the Drevlyans weren’t so keen on a female leader.
They decided to send ambassadors to negotiate a marriage between Olga and Prince Mal, their
top choice for king.
According to the Primary Chronicles, originally compiled in 1113 in Kiev, Princess Olga listened
to their proposal and then stated, “Your proposal is pleasing to me’ indeed,
my husband cannot rise again from the dead.
But I desire to honor you tomorrow in the presence of my people.
Return now to your boat, and remain there with an aspect of arrogance.
I shall send for you on the morrow, and you shall say, ‘We will not ride on horses nor
go on foot’ carry us in our boat.’
And you shall be carried in your boat.”
Next it states, “Now Olga gave command that a large deep ditch should be dug in the castle
with the hall, outside the city.
Thus, on the morrow, Olga, as she sat in the hall, sent for the strangers, and her messengers
approached them and said, "Olga summons you to great honor."
But they replied, "We will not ride on horseback nor in wagons, nor go on foot; carry us in
our boats...."
So they carried the Derevlians in their boat.
The latter sat on the cross-benches in great robes, puffed up with pride.
Thus they were borne into the court before Olga, and when the men had brought the Derevlians
in, they dropped them into the trench along with the boat.
Olga bent over and inquired whether they found the honor to their taste.
They answered that it was worse than the death of Igor'.
She then commanded that they should be buried alive, and they were thus buried.”
Not exactly living up to Leviticus 19:18 (though to be fair, she hadn’t converted yet) where
it states, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge… love your neighbor as yourself”
she would soon doubled down on this.
First insisting that the Drevlyans send her “their distinguished men… so that she
might go to their Prince with due honor,” which they agreed to do, not knowing that
she’d had the last batch murdered.
When the second group came, she had baths drawn for them, then when they were all in,
she had the doors locked and the building set on fire.
Next up she requested to be allowed to mourn her husband and the Drevlyans agreed, inviting
her over.
She then came and supposedly after everyone was properly drunk, had 5000 men killed after
a feast held in her honour.
Given her attitude over the ordeal, it seems reasonable enough to think there is a grain
of truth to this story, though it’s thought likely that the number of deaths was grossly
exaggerated in the Chronicles, especially as at this point she didn’t bring her army
with her.
Speaking of her army, as a last act of revenge, she besieged a Drevlyan city.
After a very lengthy siege, they asked to parlay and offered various goods in exchange
for their transgression, but were concerned if they surrendered she might take further
revenge on them.
She assured them she was so over the death of her husband and instead simply asked for
a final act of penance that they give her hundreds of sparrows and pigeons from the
city.
The Drevlyans agreed.
However, according to the Primary Chronicles, she then used a strategy that about 1000 years
later the U.S. military strongly considered using against Japan during WWII (but with
bats in the latter case, which we’ll discuss in the Bonus Facts in a bit)- namely, release
the animals near the city with means to set the place ablaze after they've roosted for
the night.
So how did it turn out for Olga?
“Now Olga gave to each soldier in her army a pigeon or a sparrow, and ordered them to
attach by thread to each pigeon and sparrow a piece of sulfur bound with small pieces
of cloth.
When night fell, Olga bade her soldiers release the pigeons and the sparrows.
So the birds flew to their nests, the pigeons to the cotes, and the sparrows under the eaves.
The dove-cotes, the coops, the porches, and the haymows were set on fire.
There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames,
because all the houses caught on fire at once.
The people fled from the city, and Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them.
Thus she took the city and burned it, and captured the elders of the city.
Some of the other captives she killed, while some she gave to others as slaves to her followers.
The remnant she left to pay tribute.”
Hell hath no fury and all that…
From all this, it might surprise you that this vengeful woman was made a saint in Roman
Catholocism and Russian Orthodoxy.
As to why, before she came into power, Kievan Rus was a pagan society, but Olga changed
all of that by eventually converting to Christianity.
She was baptized sometime around the 950s.
Her son did not approve of his mother’s conversion.
He believed that Christianity wasn’t a very “tough” religion and by switching she
would lose the respect of the military, who had stood by her even after her husband’s
death.
Indeed, when Svyatoslav was finally old enough to take control of his realm, he mostly focused
on trying to improve the military and was more or less uninvolved in other aspects of
running the country.
While he was off on military campaigns, he left his son, Vladimir the Great, home with
Olga to raise him and otherwise run the little empire.
Despite her son’s objections, Olga continued on trying to spread Christianity and went
so far as to request archbishops and priests appointed to her country, but because her
son—a pagan—was technically in charge at the time, the Holy Roman Emperor was hesitant.
Not helping matters, one archbishop also claimed that it was impossible to convert the people
of Keivan Rus.
When he tried, he was expelled by Svyatsolav’s allies and his fellow travellers were killed.
The Church thus clearly thought that they would be sending their priests to their deaths.
However, it’s entirely possible that Olga’s intentions were pure.
Her side of that particular story was never told.
To lend credence to her innocent intentions, before she died in 969, Olga secretly kept
a Catholic priest near her at all times.
Her son disapproved of her Christian ways, but with the priest, she was able to get her
last rites, and her son did allow a Christian burial rather than the pagan celebration.
Things changed markedly on that front in the nation after Svyatoslav’s reign when his
son Vladimir, no doubt thanks to the influence of his grandmother before her death, made
Christianity the official religion of the nation in the 980s.
Despite her previous bloody revenge on the Drevlyans, Olga was made a saint in 1547 because
of her efforts to create a Christian nation, and her subsequent success via converting
her grandson.
Bonus Fact: Bat Bombs were an experimental weapon considered
by the U.S. during World War II, at the suggestion of a Dentist, Dr. Lytle Adams who was a friend
of the First Lady.
These bombs consisted of a bomb-shaped casing with several compartments inside.
Each compartment housed a Mexican Free-tailed bat.
Each bat had a small incendiary device attached to it.
The casings were refrigerated in order to lower the bat’s body temperature and force
them into hibernation until they were dropped from a plane shortly before dawn.
A parachute would slow the descent and eventually the casing would be triggered to open and
release the bats.
As bats in sunlight would seek roosts in dark places like attics, when they were released
and the Sun came out, they'd seek such places.
The hope was that with the incendiaries timed to go off all at once, this would start fires
in places that were hard to access to fight a fire.
Further, in many cases, the fire's existence wouldn't be noticed until it had well established
itself.
It was thought that bat bombs would be particularly effective in Japan where buildings were made
largely of wood and paper.
Release several hundred thousand of these bats in major Japanese cities and the towns
would go up in flames while resulting in much smaller losses of life than by carpet bombing
or a (later) nuclear strike.
Essentially, it would help take out the infrastructure while minimizing civilian casualties.
Sort of win/win.
While on the surface this plan may seem farfetched, the U.S. agreed to develop the Bat Bomb for
four reasons: bats are available in large numbers (four caves in New Mexico alone are
each believed to be the home to millions of bats); bats can carry more than their own
weight in flight (up to three times their weight); bats can hibernate for extended periods
without need of food or water; and finally, bats fly in the dark, then find secluded places
to hide at sunrise.
The program was actually mildly successful in a bad way.
During testing, some of the bats with incendiary devices attached escaped, resulting in a large
part of the base they were being tested at, Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air Base,
burning down.
The results in the controlled testing were also extremely promising and it seemed like
this would actually work well.
In fact, it was estimated that while standard incendiary bombs would probably start about
167-400 fires per bomb load in a major Japanese city, based on the testing, the bat bombs
would probably produce about 3,625-4,748 fires per load.
Further, just ten B-24 bombers could carry an astounding 1,040,000 bats strapped with
the 17-28 gram incendiary devices.
However, the program was cancelled, as with the pigeons not because it didn't work, but
for other reasons.
In this case, it was estimated that the bats would not be ready for deployment until mid-1945.
Despite the promising results in testing, the program was considered to be moving too
slowly, and, with an estimated $2 million invested in it (about $25.7 million today),
too expensively.
Instead, the Manhattan Project was deemed a more likely candidate for ending the war
sooner, as it was thought to be progressing quicker and certainly would have a more dramatic
effect if it was ultimately successful.
Both for the historical novelty of ending WWII with literal bat bombs and for avoiding
having to use a nuclear weapon in war and the massive loss of life that ensued, I think
we can all, except for maybe the bats, agree that it's too bad the timetable on the bat
bomb project was considered too long.
For reference, Little Boy and Fat Man were deployed on August sixth and ninth of 1945
respectively.
So at the original timetable, the bats would have been ready sooner, and for cheaper, had
the project continued to be funded.