Case file · Witch trials
The volkhvs of Suzdal and the famine
During a famine in the Suzdal land, pagan sorcerers (volkhvs) stirred up the people to kill 'the old ones', claiming they held back the harvest; Prince Yaroslav came, seized the volkhvs and executed or exiled them.
1024 CE · 56.42, 40.45 · status: account
The account
The Primary Chronicle's entry is the first recorded witch-hunt-like episode in Rus'. The victims were probably well-off elders or women believed to hoard grain magically. Yaroslav told the people that God sends famine for sins and that men cannot cause it. The episode shows how pagan ideas of harvest magic survived in the north-east decades after the official conversion.
The sceptical view
Known only from the chronicle, which presents it as a lesson against paganism.