The fields and the public places were covered with putrefying corpses which the living had not strength to bury.

A fetid miasma, ascending from this cause, added pestilence to famine, and woes ensued too awful to be described.
Immediately after the death of Mstislaf, the inhabitants of Kief assembled and invited his brother Vladimirovitch to assume the crown.
This prince then resided at Novgorod, which city he at once left for the capital.

He proved to be a feeble prince, and the lords of the remote principalities, assuming independence, bade defiance to his authority.

There was no longer any central power, and Russia, instead of being a united kingdom, became a conglomeration of antagonistic states; every feudal lord marshaling his serfs in warfare against his neighbor.

In the midst of this state of universal anarchy, caused by the weakness of a virtuous prince who had not sufficient energy to reign, Vladimirovitch died in 1139.
The death of the king was a signal for a general outbreak--a multitude of princes rushing to seize the crown.