Vyachko of Koknese - Vetseke and The Defense of Tartu

Vetseke and The Defense of Tartu

In 1223 there was a general anti-Christian uprising in all of Estonia. Germans and Danes were put to the sword and some priests ritually sacrificed to pagan gods. After the German garrisons had been killed the Estonians occupied all the fortresses. In order to secure their initial military success, mercenary Russian troops were invited from Novgorod and Pskov and stationed in several key fortresses such as Viljandi and Tartu.

Vetseke, who had lost his earlier dominions to the crusader and Livonian army, was given money and two hundred men by the Novgorod Republic so that he could establish himself in Tarbatu (present-day Tartu) or any other place "that he could conquer for himself". In Russian historiography this payment for military help had traditionally been presented as the Estonians subjugating themselves to Vetseke and paying him tax. Soviet historiography, on the other hand, interpreted the Russian-Estonian cooperation in the defense of Tartu as a sign of friendship between the two brotherly nations against a common enemy – the German colonizers.

By 1224 Tartu remained the last center of anti-Christian resistance in South-Estonia. In addition to the local Ugandi, many freedom fighters from Sakala and other neighboring provinces had gathered there ("vicinas omnes provincias"). After Easter the crusaders laid siege to Tartu but were forced to leave after only five days of fighting. The bishops sent a delegation to Vetseke and asked him to give up the "heathen rebels" in the fortress and leave, but he chose to stay because "the Novgorodians and Russian princes had promised him the fortress and the surrounding lands" if he could conquer them for himself.

On August 15, 1224, the crusader army, reinforced with a large number of Christian Latvian and Livonian troops, returned with all its might to Tarbatu. The second siege of Tartu in 1224 lasted many days and nights. Vetseke and his 200 Christian Russians were again offered free passage through the crusader camp, but Vetseke, expecting a relief army from Novgorod, refused. When the fortress finally fell, all the defenders of Tarbatu, including women, were killed in the final onslaught. According to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia Vetseke along with the Russians tried to put up resistance in one of the fortifications, but were all dragged out and killed. Of all the defenders of Tarbatu, only one Russian from Suzdal was left alive. He was given clothes and a good horse and sent back to Novgorod. The relief troops from Novgorod had already reached Pskov when they received the news from Tartu whereupon they decided to cancel the expedition and make peace with the Germans.