Did Alexander Nevsky ever utter the phrase about the fate of those who come to us with the sword?

He never lost a single battle in his life. In 1240, at the confluence of the Izhora and Neva rivers, he battled Swedish troops. Without waiting for help and relying only on his retinue and militia, he managed to defeat the enemy. Two years later, on the ice of Chudskoye Lake, he routed the warriors of the Livonian Order. History has recognized the prince as a true defender of the Russian lands: In 1724, by order of Peter the Great, his relics were transferred to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The image of the saint again became relevant shortly before the Great Patriotic War.

In 1937, ‘Battleship Potemkin’ (1925) director Sergei Eisenstein was offered the chance to make a movie about Alexander Nevsky. Stalin is believed to have personally overseen the creation of this epic movie and his resolution, "Such a good prince cannot die", forced Eisenstein to change the movie's ending. In the original script, the protagonist dies from poison administered by the Golden Horde. But, after the leader's intervention, the movie ended with the victory over the German knights. While liberating the Teutons from captivity, Alexander Nevsky says: "Go and tell everyone in foreign lands that Rus' is alive. Let them visit us without fear, but whoever comes to us with the sword, will die by the sword. That is the foundation and the foundation of the Russian land."

Stalin approved the movie and ‘Alexander Nevsky’ was shown regularly for almost a year, but disappeared after the signing of the Non-Aggression Pact between the USSR and Germany. It was remembered in 1941 and then the words "whoever comes to us with the sword will die by the sword" took on new life. Although the real prince never actually uttered them, this promise of retribution became widely known as his quote.