"...As the Seljuks weakened and lost control over Greece and westernmost Anatolia, border principalities were re-founded. One of them was headed by Miloslav Monomach, heir to the Despot of Constantinople. This talented and consummate warrior would learn much from his youth on the tough Turkish frontier and apply it in action in the largest-ever campaign the Empire ever fought in Rus. After initiating extensive army reform, he methodically tested it in battle against the Baltic tribes, the Venetians and the Northern Crusaders, recovering the great cities of Chernigov, Kiev, Polotsk and Pskov. However, it is not his conquests that historians and laymen chiefly remember him by; his Russian sobriquet, “Nemilostiviy” – Unmerciful – attests to him executing three of his five sons, and assassinat