Togo – 2011 – 500 francs – She-Warriors SAINT OLGA (PROOF)

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Description

Metal: Silver .925
Quality: PROOF
Diameter: 35 mm
Weight: 1/2 oz
Mintage: 1000 pcs

Olga was a Pskov woman of Varangian extraction who married the future Igor of Kiev, arguably in 903. The Primary Chronicle gives 879 as her date of birth, which is rather unlikely, given the fact that her only son was probably born some 65 years after that date. After Igor’s death, she ruled Kievan Rus as regent (945-c. 963) for their son, Svyatoslav. t the start of her son’s reign, Olga spent great effort to avenge her husband’s death at the hands of the Drevlians, and succeeded in slaughtering many of them and interring some in a ship burial, while still alive. She is reputed to have scalded captives to death and another, probably apocryphal, story tells of how she destroyed a town hostile to her. She asked that each household present her with a dove as a gift, then tied burning papers to the legs of each dove which she then released to fly back to their homes. Each avian incendiary set fire to the thatched roof of their respective home and the town was destroyed. More importantly in the long term, Olga changed the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in what may be regarded as the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe.