Andrey's coalition Кiev and allies Reinforcements: Yurievichi (Suzdalia):Yury Bogolyubsky[2]Mikhalko YurievichVsevolod "the Big Nest" Olgovichi (Chernigov):Sviatoslav Vsevolodich[2] Rostislavichi (Smolensk):Mstislav RostislavichRurik RostislavichDavyd Rostislavich Iziaslavichi (Volyn/Lutsk):Yaroslav Iziaslavich The battle and siege of Vyshgorod (modern Vyshhorod) took place in late 1173, during the 1171–1173 Kievan succession crisis.

[1] Commanding another broad coalition army, prince Andrey Bogolyubsky of Vladimir-Suzdal launched a second campaign against Kiev (modern Kyiv), capital city of Kievan Rus'.

After the conquest and sack of Kiev in March 1169 by an earlier coalition assembled by Andrey, his brother Gleb of Pereyaslavl had been installed as the new grand prince, only to die under suspicious circumstances in January 1171.

A series of princes briefly reigned in Kiev thereafter, with Andrey usually managing to put his preferred candidates on its throne, until his brother Vsevolod "the Big Nest" was driven out by the Rostislavichi of Smolensk in April 1172, enthroning Rurik Rostislavich.

The conflict established a new balance of power, definitively breaking the short-lived Kievan overlordship (March 1169 – January 1171) of Andrey,[8][9] who was assassinated by his own courtiers the next year.

[9] After the death of Yuri Dolgoruky in 1157, Andrey Bogolyubsky ousted his younger brothers Mikhail "Mikhalko" Yurievich and Vsevolod "the Big Nest" from Rostov and Suzdal in 1162, thus uniting his father's patrimony in Vladimir-Suzdal under his sole rule (samovlastets).

[10] He made the city of Vladimir on the Klyazma his capital, fortifying, beautifying and expanding it, while taking up residence in a castle in the nearby village of Bogolyubovo;[c] hence his nickname "Bogolyubsky".

[11] Andrey's long-standing rivalry with his Mstislavichi cousins reached its peak when Mstislav Iziaslavich, the son of Iziaslav Mstislavich, his father's long-time enemy, was elected prince in Kiev.

[13] While some scholars have interpreted these events as signifying that Andrey put a weak puppet in Kiev and made it a vassal of Vladimir-Suzdal, other scholars observed that Gleb's position as prince of Pereyaslavl' meant that he was heir apparent to the throne of Kiev, as well as the most senior Yurievichi prince, thereby restoring the order of succession by agnatic seniority that had been disturbed by Mstislav Iziaslavich.

[1] In History of Ukraine-Rusʹ Volume 2 (1899), Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky tentatively reconstructed the events of the Kiev campaign of 1173 in the Kievan Chronicle, remarking that it had 'an epic tone and a pompous, rhetorical style.

[f] On the one hand, the editor(s) of the Kievan Chronicle apparently had no issues with including ideologically contradictory narratives in its compilation – blaming the 1169 Sack of Kiev ordered by Andrey on the city's inhabitants' own "sins", and glorifying Andrey's piety after his assassination in 1174, but virulently rebuking him for his 1173 Kiev campaign and siege of Vyshgorod – as long as it gave an inclusive history of all of Kievan Rus'.

[20] On the other hand, Pelenski argued that the compilers of the Suzdalian Chronicle were much more selective, usually limiting themselves to events concerning Vladimir-Suzdal, and giving them their own political and ideological twists as needed.

[g] The Kievan and Suzdalian chronicles agree that the coalition army of Andrey included at least twenty princes, led by his son Yury Bogolyubsky and voivode Boris Zhidislavich.

Both Kievan and Suzdalian chronicles state that, when it became known that the enemy army was approaching Kiev, Mstislav decided not to defend the capital, but instead the princely troops locked themselves in neighbouring towns and cities.

[4][b] On the night of 18 to 19 December,[3] near Vyshgorod, Bogolyubsky's coalition army was completely defeated by Kievans, Volhynians and perhaps Galicians under the command of Mstislav Rostislavich and Yaroslav Iziaslavich.

[1][7] Unity on the defenders' side did not last long either; once Yaroslav Iziaslavich of Lutsk had been enthroned, he refused to honour his agreement with Sviatoslav Vsevolodich of Chernigov by compensating him with territory.