Iurii Dmitrievich

Born Nov. 26, 1374, in what is now Pereslavl’-Zalésskii; died June 5, 1434, in Moscow. Prince of Zvenigorod Galitskii from 1389. Second son of Dmitrii lvanovich Donskoi.

According to his father’s will, Iurii Dmitrievich was to become grand prince after the death of his brother Vasilii I Dmitrievich. Iurii Dmitrievich led campaigns into the Novgorod lands and against the princes of the Suzdal’–Nizhny Novgorod Principality and the detachments of the Golden Horde. In 1425 he entered into a struggle with Vasilii II Vasil’evich for the grand prince’s throne (seeFEUDAL WAR IN RUSSIA IN THE SECOND QUARTER OF THE 15TH CENTURY).

On the initiative of Iurii Dmitrievich, a number of important cathedrals were built—the Uspenskii Cathedral in Zvenigorod, the Rozhdestvenskii Cathedral of the Savvino-Storozhevskii Monastery (Zvenigorod), and the Troitskii Cathedral of the St. Sergius Trinity Monastery (present-day Zagorsk).