[2] Initially, the eldest son Sviatopolk succeeded him as prince, and managed to eliminate several brothers who apparently competed for the succession, including Boris and Gleb.

[4] In the battle of Liubech (Lyubeč) in 1016, Yaroslav's troops defeated the supporters of the Kievan prince, who then fled to the possessions of his father-in-law, the Polish king Bolesław the Brave.

[5] It provided the following account of the battle: [T]he two armies attacked, and the plain of the Al'ta was covered with the multitudinous soldiery of both forces.

After suffering a heavy defeat, Sviatopolk reportedly withdrew westward in fear,[4] imagining being chased all the time, even when no one was following him anymore.

[6] Using religiously loaded Christian literary devices, the Primary Chronicle claims Sviatopolk was like Cain who killed Abel in Genesis 4 for his fratricide of Boris, Gleb and Sviatoslav the Derevlian, but now defeated and haunted by the devil, and ascribes to him a stressful and painful death somewhere between Czechia (Bohemia) and Lyakh (Poland).