that they would submit to tribute but that they were afraid she was still intent on avenging her husband. Olga answered that the murder of the messengers sent to Kyiv, as well as the events of the feast night, had been enough for her. She then asked them for a small request: “Give me three pigeons...and three sparrows from each house.” The Drevlians rejoiced at the prospect of the siege ending for so small a price and did as she asked. Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds. They returned to their nests within the city, which subsequently set the city ablaze. As the Primary Chronicle tells it: “There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames because all the houses caught fire at once.” As the people fled the burning city, Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them, killing some of them and giving the others as slaves to her followers. She left the remnant to pay tribute. As a result of this Olga changed the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in what may be regarded as the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe. In 968 the nomadic Pechenegs attacked outlying regions of the Rus and then besieged the city. The Middle Ages After the partition of Rus in 1097, Iskorosten remained under the jurisdiction of the Kyivan princes. In December 1240, the Mongol invasion of Rus', led by Batu Khan, sacked and burned many cities and settlements in the region of Iskorosten. From 1243, the Mongol-Tatars, in the form of the Golden Horde (the western section of the Mongol empire), ruled. After victories over the Tatars at the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362 (or 1363) the Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas annexed these lands to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Later he presented them to one of his knights Terekha from Bryansk for faithful service. From 1385, after the formation of the Union of Krewo, this territory came under the influence of Poland. Early Modern Period In 1586, a powerful Polish magnate, Prokop Mrzewicki, married one of Terekh's heiresses and became the owner of Iskorosten. He managed to persuade the Polish king to grant this small walled settlement the status