on the people of Novgorod. "Send him along," said they, "if he has a
head to spare!" Usually the duke was glad to leave Novgorod, if he
could secure another dukedom. In 1132, Vsevolod Gabriel left Novgorod
to become Duke of Pereiaslaf, hoping to succeed as Grand Duke of Kief.
Seeing no way to attain the coveted dignity, he signified his wish to
return to the people of Novgorod. "You have forgotten your oath to die
with us," they replied; "you have sought another dukedom; now you may
go where you please." In this case, however, the people changed their
mind, and did take him back; but four years afterwards they expelled
him, declaring that "he took no care of the poor people; he desired to
establish himself at Pereiaslaf; at the battle of Mount Idanof against
the men of Souzdal, he and his drujina were the first to leave the (p. 054)
battlefield; he was fickle in the quarrels of the dukes, sometimes
joining one party and sometimes the other."

So long as the descendants of Rurik remained satisfied with their
position, Novgorod had enough men and resources to maintain its
independence; but more than that was required after the dukes had
tasted of the sweets of unlimited power.

George Dolgorouki had established colonies in Souzdal. The land was
his, the colonists were his subjects. He was no longer merely the
defender, he was the owner, not the duke, but the prince. There was no
vetche or popular assembly in his possessions. His son, Andrew
Bogolioubski, was brought up and educated amid these conditions, more
in conformity with those prevailing in Greece and other parts of
Europe, where the people were supposed to exist for the sole benefit
of their prince. It was he who ruined Kief, and the fall of that city
foretold the doom of Novgorod. "The fall of Kief," says a Russian
author,[2] "seemed to foreshadow the loss of Novgorod liberty; it was
the same army, and it was the same prince who commanded it. But the
people of Kief, accustomed to change their masters,--to sacrifice the
vanquished to the victors,--only fought for the honor of their dukes,
while those of Novgorod were to shed their blood for the defense of
the laws and institutions established by their ancestors."

[Footnote 2: Karamsin.]

During his father's life, Andrew left his castle on the Dnieper, and
moved northward to Vladimir which town he enlarged, and where he founded
a quarter named Bogolioubovo, whence his name of Bogolioubski.