Page "Yaropolk I of Kiev" Paragraph 1

Yaropolk was given Kiev by his father Svyatoslav I, who left on a military campaign against the Danube Bulgars.

Soon after Svyatoslav's death, however, civil war began between Yaropolk and his brothers.

According to one chronicle, Yaropolk's brother Oleg killed Lyut, the son of Yaropolk's chief adviser and military commander Sveneld.

In an act of revenge and at the insistence of Sveneld, Yaropolk went to war against his brother and killed him.

Then, Yaropolk sent his men to Novgorod, from which his other brother Vladimir had fled on receiving the news about Oleg's death.

Yaropolk became the sole ruler of Rus '.