In the mass historical consciousness, the theme of the Mongol invasion of the 13th century and subsequent relations between Russia and the Horde is one of the topics of greatest interest and strong emotional response. Traditionally, Russian-Horde relations were usually characterized through the concept of "yoke".
For a long time, this “yoke” was designated, as a rule, by the definition “Mongol-Tatar” or “Tatar-Mongolian”, but by the end of the 20th century, in order to avoid associations with modern peoples, Mongols and Tatars, the phrase “Horde yoke” was approved ", that is, by the name of the state, "Ordyn". Now the concept of "yoke" in scientific works is gradually falling out of use. Most modern researchers do not use it or use it at least in quotation marks. The fact is that this characteristic of Russian-Horde relations does not belong to the contemporaries of the events, as one might think. For the first time it is found in the Polish chronicler Jan Dlugosh under 1479 in the Latin form - "iugum", in Russia the word "yoke" to denote relations with the Horde appears only in the 17th century, that is, when these relations have already become a thing of the past. Contemporaries, the authors of the 13th, 14th, 15th centuries, have different assessments of the oppression by the Horde, and quite emotionally colored: it is, say, “fierce Besermen languor”, “violence” (“Besermen was weakened by Russia from the violence of the ”), “captivity” (“then all the princes were in Tatar captivity”), “work” (in the sense of “slavery” - “bitter work from foreigners”), but there was no universal concept. Therefore, from a scientific point of view, it is more accurate to speak of a "system of dependence of Russian lands on the Horde."
But if the term “yoke” is not found among contemporaries of events and is not suitable as a scientific concept, this does not mean, of course, that there was no phenomenon that was traditionally designated by it (as is often stated in modern pseudo-scientific journalism). The dependence of the Russian lands on the Horde, no doubt, took place and was perceived by the people of that era as a heavy dependence. The above definitions also speak of this: “languor”, “violence”, “bondage”, “slavery” - all these are indications of an extremely high degree of oppression. However, not everything is clear on this issue. In science, first of all, the political relations of the Russian lands and the Horde were studied. The system of power itself, its institutions, and the economic side have been studied much less. The reason is the relative poverty of information sources. A certain clarity exists only about one of the manifestations of dependence - the approval by the khans of Russian princes on their tables by issuing letters, labels. From 1243, when the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (father of Alexander Nevsky) was summoned to Batu’s headquarters, and until the middle of the 15th century, the sources contain a lot of news about the trips of princes to the khans in the Horde for labels for the prince, oh princely disputes over these labels, etc. As for the system of taxes, the functions of the Horde officials associated with Russia, there is little information here, and there are certain difficulties in interpretation.
In such cases, a comparative-historical approach can help. The conquests of the Mongols in the XIII century covered vast expanses, almost all of Eurasia - from Korea, China and Indo-China in the East to the Middle Danube, that is, Central Europe, and Asia Minor in the West. Information about the Mongol campaigns and their consequences for different countries was reflected in multilingual sources: Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Syrian, Georgian, Greek, Russian, Hungarian, Polish, German, Italian, English, French . Consideration of the features of Mongolian power in different regions can shed some light on the study of its nature in Russia.
The Mongol Empire used in its expansion two main models of governing the conquered territories - direct control, through the establishment of its own administration on the conquered land, and control through local rulers: when local princes are preserved, and domination is exercised through them. Both models were also applied in Eastern Europe after the invasion of Batu, which took place in 1236-1242. The steppe zone from the Ural River to the Danube came under the direct authority of the Mongols, the elite of the local nomadic population - the Polovtsy - was destroyed. The same thing happened in the Volga Bulgaria, a state that was located in the Middle Volga region, and whose population was settled, like the population of Russia. The Russian lands ended up under indirect control, with the preservation of local princes, like many other states that found themselves at the extreme limits of Mongol expansion - Korea, the countries of Southeast Asia, the states of Transcaucasia and Asia Minor, Danube Bulgaria. These countries, where local rulers were retained after the conquest, were considered by the descendants of Genghis Khan as a springboard for further conquests: Japan was to be conquered behind Korea, Syria and Egypt behind Transcaucasia and Asia Minor, Poland and Hungary behind Russia. These plans, despite the repeated invasions of the Mongol troops into the listed states, were not destined to come true, but the system of "indirect" control for countries beyond which the expansion of the Mongols did not advance became a tradition over time.
At first, the Russian lands depended both on the khans of the Jochi Ulus (Golden Horde) and on the great Mongol khans who sat in Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire, but from the 1260s, the Golden Horde actually separated from the Mongol Empire and remained only dependence of Russian lands on it. This dependence was expressed in the approval of Russian princes by khans on their tables by issuing letters of labels for reigning, in the payment of taxes (the main of which was the poll tax, called in Russia "exit") and the obligation of Russian princes to provide military assistance to the khans (though this is obliged -nost can be traced only to the middle of the XIV century, later there were no such facts). Labels for reigning were an effective means of keeping the Russian princes in subjection, because they made it possible to maintain a competitive struggle for power between them; the rulers of the Horde sought to prevent the excessive strengthening of some princes at the expense of others. The author of the hagiographic Tale of Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tverskoy, who was killed at the headquarters of Khan Uzbek in 1318, vividly expressed himself on this occasion: “The customs are not filthy to this day: hostile enmity between the brethren of the Russian princes, multiplying gifts to take” - that is, they sow enmity between the Russian princes and receive from them gifts that the princes brought to the khan's headquarters in order to earn the favor of the khan or people from his entourage and receive the desired label. To regulate the collection of taxes by the conquerors, population censuses were carried out: in South Russia already in the 1240s, shortly after the campaign of Batu, in most others - at the end of the 1250s, when such an event was held in almost all the countries conquered by the Mongol khans - from the Middle East to China. The obligation to participate in the military campaigns of the Mongols was distributed differently in different Russian lands: the princes of North-Eastern Russia were involved in such campaigns relatively infrequently, but the rulers of South-Western Russia (Galicia-Volyn land), which bordered on the states of Central Europe and Lithuania , in the second half of the XIII century, they were constantly involved in campaigns against Lithuania, Poland and Hungary.
At the same time, in different Russian lands (and Russia in the middle of the 13th century did not represent a unity, there were more than a dozen actually independent states, “lands”) in the second half of the 13th century, unequal variants of the rule of the Mongol rulers were noted. The Kyiv land was placed under the most severe conditions, since Kyiv, which retained the status of the all-Russian capital until the invasion of Batu, although nominal, was considered by the conquerors as the main city of all Russia. Here, the entire male population, regardless of age, was taxed; a Mongol official, a Baskak, was planted to control the collection of tribute in Kyiv. A slightly softer regime was established for North-Eastern Russia - Suzdal land, where the taxation of tribute affected only the adult male population, and the Basques, although they existed, were canceled quite soon, by the end of the XIII century. Relatively milder forms of dependence were distinguished by the lands located on the periphery of the territory conquered by the Mongols in Eastern Europe - Novgorod (north-west of Russia) and Galicia-Volyn (south-west of Russia). The institution of Basques was not introduced here, and tribute from the very beginning was collected by the Russian princes themselves, and not by the Horde collectors. But I must say that from the end of the 13th century such an order was established in North-Eastern Russia - there, too, the local princes themselves began to collect tribute.
The ruler of the Horde, the khan, was called “tsar” in Russia - it was a title higher than that of any of the Russian princes, which corresponded to the Western European “emperor” and the Byzantine “vasileus”. The power of the Horde Khan, the king, over time began to be perceived as traditional and was considered in Russia to a certain extent legitimate, legal. Another factor also contributed to its long-term preservation: in Russia for a long time, until the middle of the 15th century, there was a fear that the Horde would decide to move away from “indirect”, with the preservation of local princes, domination, and move on to direct dominion in Russian cities. In particular, such a fear was reflected in some monuments dedicated to the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, which states that the ruler of the Horde, Mamai, then intended not only to ruin Russia, but to settle directly in it, and turn the population into the Muslim faith. The following words were put into his mouth: “I will accept the Russian land, and I will destroy the Christian churches, and I will transfer their faith to my own, and I will order them to bow to my Makhmet”. Sometimes this statement is taken at face value in journalism, but in reality, of course, Mamai had no such plans. However, this fear - that the direct rule of the Horde would be established on the territory of Russia - for some time still lived in the Russian lands.
The question of what is the role of foreign invasion and the yoke in the fate of Russia has long been one of the debatable, causing controversy in science. It is possible to single out (rather conditionally) three groups of researchers. The first is those who recognize the very significant influence of the conquerors on the development of Russia, expressed in the creation, thanks to them, of a single Russian (Moscow) state. The founder of this point of view was Nikolai Karamzin. In the 20th century, the views of the so-called “Eurasians” became a peculiar development of this approach, who believed that Russia, after the conquest, entered a special Eurasian civilization, which saved it from being absorbed by Catholic Europe. Other historians (among them Sergei Solovyov and Vasily Klyuchevsky) assessed the influence of the conquerors on the internal life of ancient Russian society as extremely insignificant, and believed that all the processes that took place in the second half of the 13th and 14th centuries either follow from the trends of the previous period , or, if they are new, then they arise independently of the Horde. Finally, many researchers are characterized to a certain extent by an “intermediate” position, according to which the influence of the conquerors is regarded as noticeable, but not decisive for the development of the country. This point of view prevailed in the national historiography of the Soviet period. The impact of the conquerors was then considered as an exclusively negative, inhibiting development of Russia, including the process of land unification; the creation of a single state, from this point of view, happened not thanks to, but in spite of the Horde.
When evaluating the impact of the conquest on Russian society, one should distinguish between immediate and long-term consequences. As for the former, then, of course, the invasion of Batu and subsequent campaigns had catastrophic consequences in the form of mass death and captivity of people, destruction of cultural values in fires - both books and monuments of painting and architecture. In the middle of the 13th century, about two-thirds of the largest cities were destroyed, and of the devastated, in turn, about the same percentage, about two-thirds either did not revive at all after the destruction, or lost their former significance. At the same time, some cities were ruined not only during the invasion of Batu, but also as a result of subsequent campaigns that began due to certain political circumstances. So, Vladimir went bankrupt three times: in addition to the destruction in 1238 during the invasion of Batu, also in 1293 and 1410. Moscow - also three times, during the campaign of Batu in 1238, and then in 1293 and 1382. And, say, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky was completely ruined five times. Of course, the taxes established by the conquerors were a heavy burden on the country. As a result, some handicraft technologies were lost, stone temple construction stopped for several decades.
A more difficult question is about the long-term consequences, about how much the changes that took place in Russian society in the 13th-15th centuries were connected precisely with the influence of the Horde. If we talk about the culture of the Russian lands, then the influence of the conquerors as a whole can be assessed as minimal. Here, the relationship was hindered by a religious barrier between Christian Russia and, first, the pagan, and then the Muslim Horde. There were also differences in the economic and economic order: in Russia, the main occupation of the population was land-de-lie, in the Horde, nomadic cattle breeding was adjacent to large trading cities. Borrowings took place in the area where these two societies constantly came into contact - in military affairs. It can, of course, be assumed that, to some extent, under the influence of the Horde in Russia, something happened that can be conditionally called “bitterness of morals”. It was during the Horde era in Russian literature that the previously existing sharply irreconcilable attitude towards murder as a means of political struggle disappears; on the other hand, in Russia the death penalty is spreading as a legal norm (which was not the case in the pre-mongol period). But it is difficult to determine the degree of this impact, because, say, the death penalty was used not only by the Mongols and then in the Horde, but also existed among the western neighbors of Russia.
As for the political structure, if on the eve of the invasion in Russia there were more than a dozen "lands" - independent political entities, then by the end of the 15th century, when the Horde's power over North-Eastern Russia ceased, in their place we actually see only two states, and very large in size: this is the Grand Duchy of Moscow (which included the northern and eastern Russian lands - Suzdal, Novgorod, part of Smolensk and Chernigov) and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which included the western and most of the southern Russian lands. If before the invasion the boundaries of the lands were stable, then in the Horde era, thus, a large-scale territorial redistribution takes place, and the map of Russian lands changes completely. Moreover, acquisitions during this territorial redistribution were made not only by Moscow and Lithuanian, but also by many other princes.
However, it does not follow from this that the formation of a single state - Moscow, which later received the name Russia - was due to the Horde. Studies show that the Horde's support for the Moscow princes was far from constant. On the contrary, the khans sought to maintain a balance, to prevent the strengthening of some Russian princes at the expense of others. In addition, there were extremely rare cases when territorial changes in Russia took place at the initiative of the rulers of the Horde - usually the initiative came from the princes themselves (Russian or Lithuanian), and the khans only supported (and sometimes did not support) her. But, of course, the very existence, since the 1240s, of a center of supreme power in Eastern Europe outside Russia created the possibility of this territorial redistribution. The applicant for this or that principality had to make a claim on him and achieve support for his claims in the Horde, and the princes, Russian and Lithuanian, began to actively use this opportunity. In the end, it was the Lithuanian and Moscow princes who most succeeded in this redistribution of territories, while others, who at times also intensified (Per-Yaslav, Smolensk, Tver, Suz-Dal-Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan), as a result, left the historical stage. It can be said that this phenomenon was undoubtedly connected with the influence of the Horde, but this influence must be recognized not as direct, but indirect.
Another indirect impact concerned the social system of Russia. In the era when the Russian lands were under the supreme authority of the Horde, the center of Russian statehood moved from the Middle Dnieper to the northeast of the East Slavic territory, to the Suzdal land. Meanwhile, in the north-east of the Russian lands, to a greater extent than in Southern Russia, the negative impact of the natural-geographical factor was felt. Local conditions caused low productivity of agriculture and, accordingly, an insufficient amount of surplus product necessary for the functioning of state structures. The situation was aggravated by the general cooling that began in the 13th century (the so-called “little glaciation”). At the same time, a significant part of the already modest surplus product now left the country in the form of the Horde tribute - “exit”. Russian statehood was thus placed in difficult economic conditions. This inevitably led to a greater “rigidity” of the structures of the state that was being formed around Moscow in the XIV-XV centuries, to a tendency to strengthen the autocracy of the ruler, the Grand Duke in it, than in the “Kyiv” era. From the point of view of foreign policy, only such a nature of the state made it possible both to free itself from the Horde dependence (which happened during the events of the 1470s) and to resist the onslaught from the west, from the strong Lithuanian state. But in the long term, it led to autocracy as a form of government and serfdom as a system of dependence of the ordinary population - these phenomena, which will take hold during the 16th-17th centuries, then, in the Modern Age, will slow down the development of the country.
Golden Horde yoke
1. The system of the Horde yoke
2. Political, economic and cultural consequences of the yoke
3. The struggle of the Russian people for liberation
The power of the khans of the Golden Horde covered the territory of a significant part of modern Russia (except for Eastern Siberia, the Far East and the regions of the Far North), northern and western Kazakhstan, Eastern Ukraine, Moldova, part of Uzbekistan (Khorezm) and Turkmenistan. The city of Orda-Bazar (near the modern city of Zhezkazgan) became the first capital of the ulus under Jochi. The city of Sarai-Batu (near modern Astrakhan) became the capital of the Golden Horde under Batu; in the first half of the 14th century, the capital was moved to Saray-Berke (founded by Khan Berke (1255-1266), near present-day Volgograd). Under Khan Uzbek, Sarai-Berke was renamed Sarai Al-Dzhedid. The Golden Horde was a multinational and multiform state. Sarai-Batu, Sarai-Berke, Urgench were major centers mainly of caravan trade; in the Crimean cities of Sudak, Kaffa, Azak (Azov) on the Sea of Azov, etc., there were Genoese trading colonies. At the head of the state were the descendants of Genghis Khan - tore. In especially important cases of political life, national meetings were convened - kurultai. State affairs were led by the first minister (beklyare-bek - prince over princes), to whom the ministers - viziers were subordinate. Plenipotentiary representatives - darugs - were sent to the cities and regions subordinate to them, the main duty of which was to collect taxes and taxes. Often, along with the darugs, military leaders were appointed - Baskaks. The state structure was paramilitary in nature, since military and administrative positions, as a rule, were not separated. The most important positions were occupied by members of the ruling dynasty, princes (oglans), who owned destinies in the Golden Horde and were at the head of the army. From the environment of the begs (noyons) and tarkhans came the main command personnel of the army - temniks, thousanders, centurions, as well as bakauls (officials who distributed military maintenance, booty, etc.). Baskaks also existed in Russia, where they collected tribute, but later this function was transferred to subject Russian princes. To keep the Russian lands in obedience and for predatory purposes, the Tatar detachments made frequent punitive campaigns against Russia. Only during the second half of the XIII century there were fourteen such campaigns. In the south in Asia, the Golden Horde bordered on the Chagatai (Jagatai) ulus. Administratively, the Golden Horde was divided into the right (western) wing, which was the eldest, and the left (eastern) wing. They, in turn, could also be divided in two. The wings had color designations: one was called Ak Orda (that is, the White Horde), the other - Kok Orda (Blue Horde, the last term is also in Russian chronicles in relation to the zone east of the Volga). However, the question of which particular wing corresponds to a particular color is very confusing and is the subject of debate. The right wing covered the territory of Western Kazakhstan, the Volga region, the North Caucasus, the Don, Dnieper steppes, Crimea. Its center was in the lower reaches of the Volga and the right wing was controlled directly by the Sarai khans from the descendants of Batu. The left wing occupied the lands of Central Kazakhstan and the Syrdarya valley. Khans ruled here - the descendants of Ordu-Ichen, Batu's brother, whose headquarters was Kok Orda, located in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya. The capital of the left wing was Sygnak. In Siberia, the local dynasty, the Taibugins, ruled, subordinate to the khans of the Golden Horde. The left wing was divided into 2 uluses - Ulus Orda-Ezhena and Ulus Shiban. Under Batu Khan, the Golden Horde was divided into uluses:
Ulus Baty - the territory of the Volga region.
Ulus Berke - the territory of the North Caucasus.
· Ulus Ordu-Ichen - from the Syrdarya River to the Siberian forests.
· Ulus Shibana - western Kazakhstan and western Siberia.
Ulus of Toka-Timur - the territory of northern Khorezm, Mangystau and Ustyurt.
The trading colonies of the Genoese in the Crimea (captainship of Gothia) and at the mouth of the Don were used by the Horde to trade in cloth, fabrics and linen, weapons, women's jewelry, jewelry, precious stones, spices, incense, furs, leather, honey, wax, salt, grain , forest, fish, caviar, olive oil. The Golden Horde sold slaves and other booty captured by the Horde detachments during military campaigns to Genoese merchants. From the Crimean trading cities, trade routes began, leading both to southern Europe and to Central Asia, India and China. Trade routes leading to Central Asia and Iran passed along the Volga. Foreign and domestic trade relations were provided by the issued money of the Golden Horde: silver dirhams and copper pools.
In the early 20s. XV century, the Siberian Khanate was formed, in the 40s. - Nogai Horde, then the Kazan Khanate (1438) and the Crimean Khanate (1443), and in the 60s. - Kazakh, Uzbek khanates, as well as the Astrakhan khanate. In the XV century, the dependence of Russia on the Golden Horde significantly weakened. In 1480, Akhmat, Khan of the Great Horde, which for some time was the successor of the Golden Horde, tried to achieve obedience from Ivan III, but this attempt ended unsuccessfully and Russia finally freed itself from the “Tatar-Mongol yoke”. At the beginning of 1481 Akhmat was killed. Under his children, at the beginning of the 16th century, the Great Horde ceased to exist. The Golden Horde broke up into a number of states: Astrakhan, Kazan, Kazakh, Crimean, Siberian Khanates and the Nogai Horde.
Political, economic and cultural consequences of the yoke
The events of the invasion of Batu and the subsequent 240 years of the Horde yoke in Russia can be viewed from the point of view of those disasters and suffering for the Russian people that the conquest brought; some historians do just that. But a diametrically opposite point of view is also possible. The centuries of the Horde yoke were not only a time of oppression and predatory exploitation by the Horde khans of Russia, but also a time of the heroic struggle of the Russian people for freedom and independence, a time of great national deed, national upsurge and awareness by Russian people of the unity of the Russian land, which led to the creation of a mighty Russian state.
Most researchers of the yoke believe that the results of the Mongol-Tatar yoke for the Russian lands were destruction and regression. At present, most historians also emphasize that the yoke threw the Russian principalities back in their development and became the main reason for Russia's lagging behind the Western countries. Soviet historians noted that the yoke was a brake on the growth of the productive forces of Russia, which were at a higher socio-economic level compared to the productive forces of the Mongol-Tatars, preserved the subsistence nature of the economy for a long time, disrupted the process of state land consolidation and led to increased feudal exploitation. the Russian people, who found themselves under the double yoke of their own and the Mongol-Tatar feudal lords. Researchers note in Russia during the yoke the decline of stone construction and the disappearance of complex crafts, such as the production of glass jewelry, cloisonne enamel, niello, granulation, and polychrome glazed ceramics. “Rus was thrown back several centuries, and in those centuries when the guild industry of the West was moving to the era of primitive accumulation, the Russian handicraft industry had to pass part of the historical path that had been done before Batu for the second time.” However, even Karamzin noted that the Tatar-Mongol yoke played an important role in the evolution of Russian statehood. In addition, he also pointed to the Horde as the obvious reason for the rise of the Moscow principality. Following him, Klyuchevsky also believed that the Horde prevented exhausting internecine wars in Russia. Supporters of the ideology of Eurasianism (G. V. Vernadsky, P. N. Savitsky and others), without denying the extreme cruelty of the Mongol domination, rethought its consequences in a positive way. They highly valued the religious tolerance of the Mongols, contrasting it with the Catholic aggression of the West. They considered the Mongol Empire as the geopolitical predecessor of the Russian Empire. Later, similar views, only in a more radical version, were developed by L. N. Gumilyov. In his opinion, the decline of Russia began earlier and was associated with internal causes, and the interaction between the Horde and Russia was a beneficial political alliance, primarily for Russia. He believed that the relationship between Russia and the Horde should be called "symbiosis".
Before the conquest by the Mongols, the development of Kievan Rus was on a par with European countries. It was a culturally and economically developed state for those times. Being under the rule of the Golden Horde, the Russian princes not only did not rally together, but even more moved away from each other. Feudal fragmentation only worsened. The Russian state was thrown back. Russia turned into a strongly economically and culturally lagging state. Moreover, many elements of the Asian mode of production were "woven" into its economy, which affected the path of the country's historical development. After the Mongols occupied the southern and southeastern steppes, the Western Russian principalities went to Lithuania. As a result, Russia seemed to be cordoned off from all sides. She was cut off from the outside world. The foreign economic and political relations of Russia with the more enlightened Western countries and Greece were disrupted, cultural ties were interrupted. Russia, surrounded by uneducated invaders, gradually grew wild. Therefore, there was such a backwardness from other states and the coarsening of the people, and the country itself stalled in its development. However, this did not affect some northern lands, such as Novgorod, which continued trade and economic relations with the West. Surrounded by dense forests and swamps, Novgorod, Pskov received natural protection from the invasion of the Mongols, whose cavalry was not adapted to wage war in such conditions. In these city-republics, for a long time, according to the old established custom, the power belonged to the veche, and the prince was invited to reign, who was elected by the whole society. If the prince's rule was not liked, then he could also be expelled from the city with the help of the veche. Thus, the influence of the yoke had a huge negative impact on Kievan Rus, which not only became impoverished, but also, as a result of the increased fragmentation of the principalities between the heirs, gradually moved its center from Kyiv to Moscow, which was getting richer and gaining power (thanks to its active rulers).
Culture of Russia during the Tatar yoke Oriental customs spread uncontrollably in Russia during the time of the Mongols, bringing with them a new culture. Clothing changed in a general way: from white long Slavic shirts, long trousers, they switched to golden caftans, to colored trousers, to morocco boots. A great change in life made that time in the position of women: the domestic life of a Russian woman came from the East. In addition to these major features of everyday Russian life of that time, abacus, felt boots, coffee, dumplings, the uniformity of Russian and Asian carpentry and joinery tools, the similarity of the walls of the Kremlin of Beijing and Moscow, all this is the influence of the East. Church bells, this is a specific Russian feature, came from Asia, from there and pit bells. Before the Mongols, churches and monasteries did not use bells, but beat and riveted. The foundry art was then developed in China, and bells could come from there. The influence of the Mongol conquest on cultural development is traditionally defined in historical writings as negative. According to many historians, cultural stagnation set in in Russia, expressed in the cessation of chronicle writing, stone construction, etc. While recognizing the existence of these and other negative consequences, it should be noted that there are other consequences that cannot always be assessed from a negative point of view. In order to understand the consequences of the beneficial influence of Mongol rule on Russian culture, it is necessary to abandon the view of the Mongol state as a state entity. It owes its origin and existence to the brute and unbridled power of a numerous and wild horde, whose leaders had the only method of governing the conquered peoples was the most severe terror. If we talk about the notorious cruelty of the Mongols, it should be noted that among the successors of Genghis Khan on the imperial throne, there were undoubtedly enlightened and humane monarchs.
1. The struggle of the Russian people for liberation
Attempts to free themselves from the power of the Horde Khan began shortly after the invasion of Batu. The most striking figure of the liberation movement, singled out by the author, is the son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, Grand Duke Andrei. In the middle of the 13th century, a military-political union of the two strongest Russian principalities began to form. The anti-Horde nature of the emerging alliance is beyond doubt. The Laurentian Chronicle notes that Grand Duke Andrei preferred “to run away with his boyars rather than serve as the king,” and the Nikon Chronicle cites the proud words of the Grand Duke that it is better to flee to foreign lands than to serve the Horde. One can argue how real in those historical conditions was an attempt to immediately free oneself from the Horde dependence; the generally accepted opinion in the historical literature that the only correct course was towards peaceful relations with the Horde, which was pursued by the next Grand Duke - Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky, casts doubt on this very possibility. However, Grand Duke Andrei Yaroslavich had some grounds for speaking out against the Horde. In the decade and a half that have passed since the "Batu pogrom", the dispersed population mostly returned to their former places, cities were restored, the army was re-created. In 1252, almost only the army of Andrei Yaroslavich participated in the battle against the Mongols. The forces turned out to be unequal, the army of Andrei and his few associates perished. Andrei fled from Russia. Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky becomes the new Grand Duke. In 1262, a series of urban uprisings swept through Russia, which had very important consequences. Popular uprisings led to the expulsion of tribute collectors sent directly from the Horde. Gradually, the collection of the "Horde output" began to pass to the Russian princes, which increased the independence of Russia. The next series of urban uprisings at the end of the 13th - the first quarter of the 14th century led to the elimination of the Basques in Russia; under the pressure of the anti-Horde speeches of the Russian vechniks, the khan made a serious concession, which objectively weakened his power over Russia. Thus, it was the actions of the masses that opened the national liberation struggle of Russia against the conquerors, swept away the “besermen” and Baskaks from the Russian land. By the same time, speeches against the khan's power of individual Russian princes belong. However, the episodic resistance of the princes against the Horde armies and individual private successes could not seriously weaken the Horde. To overthrow the yoke, an all-Russian struggle against the conquerors was necessary. But in Russia there was still no center around which Russian forces could rally for a decisive battle with the Horde. Such a center begins to take shape only with the rise of Moscow. In the second half of the 60-70s of the XIII century, Horde campaigns against Russian possessions became more frequent. The border Russian principalities were ruined. The Ryazan and Nizhny Novgorod principalities suffered the most from the raids. The strengthening of the Horde military pressure was associated with the temporary cessation of the "hush" in the Horde. Power was seized by Temnik Mamai, who managed to unite most of the territory of the Golden Horde. In 1378 he sent a large army under the command of Begich and several other murzas to Russia. The power of the Tatar-Mongol yoke over Russia was shaken. To restore it, it was necessary to organize a new big campaign. But the increased forces of Russia forced Mamai to be careful. It took the ruler of the Golden Horde two years to prepare for this campaign. Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich was also preparing, strengthening the unity of the country, gathering an all-Russian army. Under Dmitry Ivanovich, the permanent core of the Russian army - the "yard" - significantly increased. The number of military servants of the Grand Duke increased, detachments of "service princes" joined them. In the course of the liberation struggle against the Horde yoke, the character of the army changed, the medieval caste system of the military organization was gradually violated, and democratic elements, people from the lower classes, gained access to the army. The Russian army acquired a national character. It was an armed organization of the emerging Great Russian people. The organization of the troops improved significantly, which was reflected both in a single command and in the conduct of all-Russian mobilizations in the event of a major war. The successful implementation of the all-Russian mobilization of military forces was the most important prerequisite for victory in the Battle of Kulikovo. Significant changes have also taken place in the tactics of the Russian troops. It was divided into regiments, which facilitated control during the battle, made it possible to maneuver forces, use various formations, and concentrate strike groups on decisive directions. The regiments were commanded by the best, most experienced governors, who were appointed by the Grand Duke; even if the specific prince remained at the head of the regiment, then grand princely governors were appointed to help him. Military historians also unanimously point to a significant increase in the individual training of Russian soldiers. It should also be noted that the defensive armament of Russian soldiers has also improved a lot. The use of sabers in the Russian cavalry was also new. In general, the Russian army was better armed than the Horde cavalry (especially in defensive weapons). Preparing for war and Mamai. He managed to unite the forces of almost the entire Golden Horde for the invasion and gathered a huge army for that time. For the campaign, strong detachments of mercenaries were specially hired, who were supposed to make up for the lack of infantry in the Horde army. At the same time, Mamai agreed on joint actions against Russia with Lithuania and Ryazan. Thus, a whole coalition was formed against the Grand Duchy of Dmitry Ivanovich. Mamai's campaign began in June or early July 1380. On July 23, 1380, news was received in Moscow about Mamai's campaign. Kolomna, a fortress near the mouth of the Moscow River, on the shortest road from the border to the capital, was appointed the place of concentration of the main forces of the Russian army. Mamai hesitated, waiting for the Lithuanian army, which was supposed to join him for a joint attack on Russia. Meanwhile, Russian regiments were already gathering in Moscow. Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich had two options: to defend with all his might the line of the “shore” of the Oka, or to march “in the field” towards the Horde. Defensive tactics in this case were strategically disadvantageous. Having lost the initiative, the Grand Duke would have to deal with the combined Horde-Lithuanian forces. The offensive operation made it possible to smash one by one, but it seemed difficult and dangerous. The Russian army during the campaign of Mamai could have been subjected to flank attacks from the allies of the horde - Lithuania or Ryazan. Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich decided on active offensive operations. So the campaign "to the Donurek" was conceived, which led the Russian army to the Kulikovo field.
The stormy events that took place on the Ugra in the autumn of 1480 can be called the "confrontation" of two huge armies - the Russian and the Horde. The first, Russian, fought for the future, for the independence of their native land, for the possibility of independent historical development; the second, Horde, was mined for a historically unrealistic goal - to restore a heavy yoke over a vast country in which a powerful centralized state was already taking shape. On the autumn banks of the Ugra, the dispute was finally resolved. Ahmed Khan's intentions are beyond doubt; he wanted to immediately cross the Ugra and move on to Moscow. Near the mouth of the Ugra, where large forces of the Russian army were concentrated in advance, Ahmed Khan tried to break through the defensive line of Ivan III. The battle lasted for four days, ending with the defeat of the Horde: they never managed to break through the Ugra. The offensive of Ahmed Khan was everywhere repelled by the Russian governors. Having suffered serious losses, he was forced to move away from the coast and postpone attempts to force the Ugra for a while. The Russian population of the “Verkhovsky principalities” also contributed to the all-Russian struggle to overthrow the Horde yoke by organizing anti-Horde uprisings at the time of the battles on the Ugra. Ahmed Khan was forced to turn his cavalry detachments to pacify the "Verkhovsky principalities", as a result of which Ivan III received a respite, which he used to the maximum. Apparently, after the battle at the mouth of the Ugra, when the whole difficulty of breaking through into the depths of the Russian lands was revealed, some kind of negotiations took place between Ahmad and Ivan III. However, despite the willing response of the Russian ruler to the proposal of the Horde Khan, the negotiations reached an impasse. But there could be no other outcome: Ivan III was not going to make any serious concessions to the Horde. In general, participation in negotiations with Ahmed Khan was conditioned only by the fact that it corresponded to the general strategic line of the Russian side to delay the invasion of the Horde troops into Russia and gain time. With the onset of winter, Ahmed Khan retreated. This was due to a number of reasons: Casimir did not come to the rescue, severe Russian frosts broke out, and the army was “undressed”, and, finally, the circumstances that mainly prompted the khan to attack Russia, namely Ivan’s civil strife with his brothers, now no longer existed. The withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ugra began immediately after the freeze-up, that is, from October 26th. Recognizing the great importance of the diplomatic art of Ivan III, in the first place when describing the events of the autumn of 1480, one should still put his activity as a military leader and organizer of the war. In fact, the fate of the country was a foregone conclusion in a stubborn four-day battle at the crossings over the Ugra, which stopped the advance of Ahmed Khan. In a difficult international and domestic situation, Ivan III adopted a defensive "most reliable" war plan - in full accordance with the laws of military art.
On December 28, 1480, Grand Duke Ivan III returned with victory to Moscow. The war for the liberation of Russia from the Horde yoke was over. However, for more than two decades, Russia's relations with the Great Horde were often regulated by military actions of a fairly large size. Diplomatic maneuvers, which Ivan III still skillfully used, were successful only because they were reinforced by successful military operations against the Great Horde. From the mid-80s to the beginning of the 16th century, the Great Horde, led by the "Ahmed Children", again increased the pressure on Russian lands. However, with the support of the Crimean Khanate, by July 1502 the Great Horde was completely defeated. Mortally wounded on the Ugra River, pressed by the Crimean Khanate, living in the past years from the Russian borders and wasting the last strength in this hopeless attempt, the Great Horde finally crumbled. The struggle of the Russian people for their national liberation has come to a logical conclusion.
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The Mongol-Tatar yoke is the dependent position of the Russian principalities on the states of the Mongol-Tatars for two hundred years from the beginning of the Mongol-Tatar invasion in 1237 to 1480. It was expressed in the political and economic subordination of the Russian princes from the rulers of the first Mongol Empire, and after its collapse - the Golden Horde.Mongolo-Tatars are all nomadic peoples living in the Trans-Volga region and further to the East, with whom Russia fought in the 13th-15th centuries. Named after one of the tribes
“In 1224 an unknown people appeared; an unheard-of army came, godless Tatars, about whom no one knows very well who they are and where they came from, and what kind of language they have, and what tribe they are, and what faith they have ... "
(I. Brekov “The World of History: Russian Lands in the 13th-15th Centuries”)
Mongol-Tatar invasion
- 1206 - Congress of the Mongol nobility (kurultai), at which Temujin was elected leader of the Mongol tribes, who received the name Genghis Khan (Great Khan)
- 1219 - The beginning of the three-year conquest campaign of Genghis Khan in Central Asia
- 1223, May 31 - The first battle of the Mongols and the combined Russian-Polovtsian army near the borders of Kievan Rus, on the Kalka River, near the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov
- 1227 - Death of Genghis Khan. Power in the Mongolian state passed to his grandson Batu (Batu Khan)
- 1237 - The beginning of the Mongol-Tatar invasion. The Batu army crossed the Volga in its middle course and invaded the borders of North-Eastern Russia
- 1237, December 21 - Ryazan is taken by the Tatars
- 1238, January - Kolomna is taken
- February 7, 1238 - Vladimir is taken
- February 8, 1238 - Suzdal is taken
- 1238, March 4 - Pal Torzhok
- 1238, March 5 - The battle of the squad of Moscow Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich with the Tatars near the Sit River. The death of Prince Yuri
- 1238, May - Capture of Kozelsk
- 1239-1240 - Batu's army encamped in the Don steppe
- 1240 - Devastation by the Mongols of Pereyaslavl, Chernigov
- 1240, December 6 - Kyiv destroyed
- 1240, end of December - The Russian principalities of Volhynia and Galicia are destroyed
- 1241 - Batu's army returned to Mongolia
- 1243 - Formation of the Golden Horde, the state from the Danube to the Irtysh, with the capital Saray in the lower reaches of the Volga
The Russian principalities retained statehood, but were subject to tribute. In total, there were 14 types of tribute, including directly in favor of the Khan - 1300 kg of silver per year. In addition, the khans of the Golden Horde reserved the right to appoint or overthrow the princes of Moscow, who were supposed to receive a label in Sarai for a great reign. The power of the Horde over Russia lasted more than two centuries. It was a time of complex political games, when the Russian princes either united among themselves for the sake of some momentary benefits, or were at enmity, while at the same time attracting the Mongol detachments as allies with might and main. A significant role in the politics of that time was played by the Polish-Lithuanian state that arose near the western borders of Russia, Sweden, the German knightly orders in the Baltic states, and the free republics of Novgorod and Pskov. Creating alliances with each other and against each other, with the Russian principalities, the Golden Horde, they waged endless wars
In the first decades of the fourteenth century, the rise of the Moscow principality began, which gradually became the political center and collector of Russian lands.
On August 11, 1378, the Moscow army of Prince Dmitry defeated the Mongols in the battle on the Vazha River On September 8, 1380, the Moscow army of Prince Dmitry defeated the Mongols in the battle on the Kulikovo field. And although in 1382 the Mongol Khan Tokhtamysh plundered and burned Moscow, the myth of the invincibility of the Tatars collapsed. Gradually, the state of the Golden Horde itself fell into decay. It split into the khanates of Siberia, Uzbek, Kazan (1438), Crimean (1443), Kazakh, Astrakhan (1459), Nogai Horde. Of all the tributaries, only Russia remained with the Tatars, but she also periodically rebelled. In 1408, the Moscow Prince Vasily I refused to pay tribute to the Golden Horde, after which Khan Edigey made a devastating campaign, robbing Pereyaslavl, Rostov, Dmitrov, Serpukhov, Nizhny Novgorod. In 1451, Moscow Prince Vasily the Dark again refuses to pay. The raids of the Tatars are fruitless. Finally, in 1480, Prince Ivan III officially refused to submit to the Horde. The Mongol-Tatar yoke ended.
Lev Gumilyov about the Tatar-Mongol yoke
- “The army of Batu, who opposed the Polovtsy, with whom the Mongols had been at war since 1216, in 1237-1238 passed through Russia to the rear of the Polovtsy, and forced them to flee to Hungary. At the same time, Ryazan and fourteen cities in the Vladimir principality were destroyed. In total, there were about three hundred cities there at that time. The Mongols did not leave garrisons anywhere, they did not impose tribute on anyone, being content with indemnities, horses and food, which was done in those days by any army during the offensive "
- (As a result) “Great Russia, then called Zalessky Ukraine, voluntarily united with the Horde, thanks to the efforts of Alexander Nevsky, who became the adopted son of Batu. And the primordial Ancient Russia - Belarus, Kiev region, Galicia with Volhynia - almost without resistance submitted to Lithuania and Poland. And now, around Moscow - the "golden belt" of ancient cities, which remained intact under the "yoke", and in Belarus and Galicia there were not even traces of Russian culture left. Novgorod was defended from the German knights by Tatar help in 1269. And where the Tatar help was neglected, everyone lost. In the place of Yuryev - Derpt, now Tartu, in the place of Kolyvan - Revol, now Tallinn; Riga closed the river route along the Dvina for Russian trade; Berdichev and Bratslav - Polish castles - blocked the roads to the "Wild Field", once the fatherland of Russian princes, thereby taking control of Ukraine. In 1340 Russia disappeared from the political map of Europe. It was revived in 1480 in Moscow, on the eastern outskirts of former Russia. And its core, ancient Kievan Rus, captured by Poland and oppressed, had to be saved in the 18th century.
- “I believe that Batu’s“ invasion ”was actually a big raid, a cavalry raid, and further events have only an indirect connection with this campaign. In ancient Russia, the word "yoke" meant something that fastens something, a bridle or collar. It also existed in the meaning of a burden, that is, something that is carried. The word “yoke” in the meaning of “domination”, “oppression” was first recorded only under Peter I. The Union of Moscow and the Horde was kept as long as it was mutually beneficial”
The term "Tatar yoke" originates in Russian historiography, as well as the position of his overthrow by Ivan III, from Nikolai Karamzin, who used it as an artistic epithet in the original meaning of "a collar worn around the neck" ("they bowed the neck under the yoke of the barbarians" ), possibly borrowing the term from the 16th-century Polish author Maciej Miechowski
Russia under the Mongol-Tatar yoke existed in an extremely humiliating way. She was completely subjugated both politically and economically. Therefore, the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia, the date of standing on the Ugra River - 1480, is perceived as the most important event in our history. Although Russia became politically independent, the payment of tribute in a smaller amount continued until the time of Peter the Great. The complete end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke is the year 1700, when Peter the Great canceled payments to the Crimean khans.
Mongolian army
In the XII century, the Mongol nomads united under the rule of the cruel and cunning ruler Temujin. He mercilessly suppressed all obstacles to unlimited power and created a unique army that won victory after victory. He, creating a great empire, was called by his nobility Genghis Khan.
Having conquered East Asia, the Mongol troops reached the Caucasus and Crimea. They destroyed the Alans and Polovtsians. The remnants of the Polovtsians turned to Russia for help.
First meeting
There were 20 or 30 thousand soldiers in the Mongol army, it has not been precisely established. They were led by Jebe and Subedei. They stopped at the Dnieper. Meanwhile, Khotyan was persuading the Galich prince Mstislav Udaly to oppose the invasion of the terrible cavalry. He was joined by Mstislav of Kyiv and Mstislav of Chernigov. According to various sources, the total Russian army numbered from 10 to 100 thousand people. The military council took place on the banks of the Kalka River. A unified plan was not developed. performed alone. He was supported only by the remnants of the Polovtsy, but during the battle they fled. The princes of Galicia who did not support the princes still had to fight the Mongols who attacked their fortified camp.
The battle lasted for three days. Only by cunning and a promise not to take anyone prisoner did the Mongols enter the camp. But they did not keep their words. The Mongols tied the Russian governor and the prince alive and covered them with boards and sat on them and began to feast on the victory, enjoying the groans of the dying. So the Kyiv prince and his entourage perished in agony. The year was 1223. The Mongols, without going into details, went back to Asia. They will return in thirteen years. And all these years in Russia there was a fierce squabble between the princes. It completely undermined the forces of the Southwestern Principalities.
Invasion
The grandson of Genghis Khan, Batu, with a huge army of half a million, having conquered the Polovtsian lands in the south in the east, approached the Russian principalities in December 1237. His tactic was not to give a big battle, but to attack individual units, breaking them all one by one. Approaching the southern borders of the Ryazan principality, the Tatars demanded tribute from him in an ultimatum: a tenth of the horses, people and princes. In Ryazan, three thousand soldiers were barely recruited. They sent for help to Vladimir, but no help came. After six days of siege, Ryazan was taken.
The inhabitants were destroyed, the city was destroyed. It was the beginning. The end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke will take place in two hundred and forty difficult years. Kolomna was next. There, the Russian army was almost all killed. Moscow lies in ashes. But before that, someone who dreamed of returning to his native places buried it in a treasure trove of silver jewelry. It was found by chance when construction was underway in the Kremlin in the 90s of the XX century. Vladimir was next. The Mongols spared neither women nor children and destroyed the city. Then Torzhok fell. But spring came, and, fearing a mudslide, the Mongols moved south. Northern swampy Russia did not interest them. But the defending tiny Kozelsk stood in the way. For nearly two months, the city resisted fiercely. But reinforcements came to the Mongols with wall-beating machines, and the city was taken. All the defenders were cut out and left no stone unturned from the town. So, the whole North-Eastern Russia by 1238 lay in ruins. And who can doubt whether there was a Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia? From the brief description it follows that there were wonderful good neighborly relations, right?
Southwestern Russia
Her turn came in 1239. Pereyaslavl, the Principality of Chernigov, Kyiv, Vladimir-Volynsky, Galich - everything was destroyed, not to mention smaller cities and villages and villages. And how far is the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke! How much horror and destruction brought its beginning. The Mongols went to Dalmatia and Croatia. Western Europe trembled.
However, news from distant Mongolia forced the invaders to turn back. And they didn’t have enough strength to go back. Europe was saved. But our Motherland, lying in ruins, bleeding, did not know when the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke would come.
Russia under the yoke
Who suffered the most from the Mongol invasion? Peasants? Yes, the Mongols did not spare them. But they could hide in the woods. Townspeople? Certainly. There were 74 cities in Russia, and 49 of them were destroyed by Batu, and 14 were never restored. Artisans were turned into slaves and exported. There was no continuity of skills in crafts, and the craft fell into decay. They forgot how to pour dishes from glass, cook glass for making windows, there were no multi-colored ceramics and decorations with cloisonne enamel. Stonemasons and carvers disappeared, and stone construction was suspended for 50 years. But it was hardest of all for those who repelled the attack with weapons in their hands - the feudal lords and combatants. Of the 12 princes of Ryazan, three survived, of the 3 of Rostov - one, of the 9 of Suzdal - 4. And no one counted the losses in the squads. And there were no less of them. Professionals in military service have been replaced by other people who are used to being pushed around. So the princes began to have full power. This process later, when the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke comes, will deepen and lead to the unlimited power of the monarch.
Russian princes and the Golden Horde
After 1242, Russia fell under the complete political and economic oppression of the Horde. So that the prince could legally inherit his throne, he had to go with gifts to the "free king", as our princes of khans called it, in the capital of the Horde. It took quite a long time to be there. Khan slowly considered the lowest requests. The whole procedure turned into a chain of humiliations, and after much deliberation, sometimes many months, the khan gave a "label", that is, permission to reign. So, one of our princes, having come to Batu, called himself a serf in order to keep his possessions.
It was necessary to stipulate the tribute that the principality would pay. At any moment, the khan could summon the prince to the Horde and even execute the objectionable in it. The Horde pursued a special policy with the princes, diligently inflating their strife. The disunity of the princes and their principalities played into the hands of the Mongols. The Horde itself gradually became a colossus with feet of clay. Centrifugal moods intensified in her. But that will be much later. And in the beginning its unity is strong. After the death of Alexander Nevsky, his sons fiercely hate each other and fiercely fight for the throne of Vladimir. Conditionally reigning in Vladimir gave the prince seniority over all the others. In addition, a decent allotment of land was attached to those who bring money to the treasury. And for the great reign of Vladimir in the Horde, a struggle flared up between the princes, it happened to the death. This is how Russia lived under the Mongol-Tatar yoke. The troops of the Horde practically did not stand in it. But in case of disobedience, punitive troops could always come and start cutting and burning everything.
Rise of Moscow
The bloody strife of the Russian princes among themselves led to the fact that the period from 1275 to 1300 Mongol troops came to Russia 15 times. Many principalities emerged from the strife weakened, people fled from them to more peaceful places. Such a quiet principality turned out to be a small Moscow. It went to the inheritance of the younger Daniel. He reigned from the age of 15 and led a cautious policy, trying not to quarrel with his neighbors, because he was too weak. And the Horde didn't pay close attention to him. Thus, an impetus was given to the development of trade and enrichment in this lot.
Immigrants from troubled places poured into it. Daniel eventually managed to annex Kolomna and Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, increasing his principality. His sons, after his death, continued the relatively quiet policy of their father. Only the princes of Tver saw them as potential rivals and tried, fighting for the Great reign in Vladimir, to spoil Moscow's relations with the Horde. This hatred reached the point that when the Moscow prince and the prince of Tver were simultaneously summoned to the Horde, Dmitry of Tver stabbed Yuri of Moscow to death. For such arbitrariness, he was executed by the Horde.
Ivan Kalita and "great silence"
The fourth son of Prince Daniel, it seemed, had no chance of the Moscow throne. But his older brothers died, and he began to reign in Moscow. By the will of fate, he also became the Grand Duke of Vladimir. Under him and his sons, the Mongol raids on Russian lands stopped. Moscow and the people in it grew rich. Cities grew, their population increased. In North-Eastern Russia, a whole generation has grown up that has ceased to tremble at the mention of the Mongols. This brought the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia closer.
Dmitry Donskoy
By the time of the birth of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich in 1350, Moscow was already turning into the center of the political, cultural and religious life of the northeast. The grandson of Ivan Kalita lived a short, 39 years old, but bright life. He spent it in battles, but now it is important to dwell on the great battle with Mamai, which took place in 1380 on the Nepryadva River. By this time, Prince Dmitry had defeated the punitive Mongol detachment between Ryazan and Kolomna. Mamai began to prepare a new campaign against Russia. Dmitry, having learned about this, in turn began to gather strength to fight back. Not all princes responded to his call. The prince had to turn to Sergius of Radonezh for help in order to assemble the people's militia. And having received the blessing of the holy elder and two monks, at the end of the summer he gathered a militia and moved towards the huge army of Mamai.
On September 8, at dawn, a great battle took place. Dmitry fought in the forefront, was wounded, he was found with difficulty. But the Mongols were defeated and fled. Dmitry returned with a victory. But the time has not yet come when the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia will come. History says that another hundred years will pass under the yoke.
Strengthening Russia
Moscow became the center of the unification of Russian lands, but not all princes agreed to accept this fact. Dmitry's son, Vasily I, ruled for a long time, 36 years, and relatively calmly. He defended the Russian lands from the encroachments of the Lithuanians, annexed the Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod principalities. The Horde was weakening, and it was considered less and less. Vasily visited the Horde only twice in his life. But even within Russia there was no unity. Riots broke out without end. Even at the wedding of Prince Vasily II, a scandal erupted. One of the guests was wearing Dmitry Donskoy's golden belt. When the bride found out about this, she publicly tore it off, causing an insult. But the belt was not just a jewel. He was a symbol of the great princely power. During the reign of Vasily II (1425-1453) there were feudal wars. The prince of Moscow was captured, blinded, his whole face was wounded, and for the rest of his life he wore a bandage on his face and received the nickname "Dark". However, this strong-willed prince was released, and the young Ivan became his co-ruler, who, after the death of his father, would become the liberator of the country and receive the nickname Great.
The end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia
In 1462, the legitimate ruler Ivan III took the throne of Moscow, who would become a reformer and reformer. He carefully and prudently united the Russian lands. He annexed Tver, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Perm, and even the obstinate Novgorod recognized him as sovereign. He made the emblem of the double-headed Byzantine eagle, began to build the Kremlin. That is how we know him. From 1476, Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Horde. A beautiful but untruthful legend tells how it happened. Having received the Horde embassy, the Grand Duke trampled on the Basma and sent a warning to the Horde that the same would happen to them if they did not leave his country alone. Enraged Khan Ahmed, having gathered a large army, moved to Moscow, wanting to punish her for her disobedience. Approximately 150 km from Moscow, near the Ugra River on the Kaluga lands, two troops stood opposite in autumn. Russian was headed by the son of Vasily, Ivan Molodoy.
Ivan III returned to Moscow and began to carry out deliveries for the army - food, fodder. So the troops stood opposite each other until the early winter approached with starvation and buried all the plans of Ahmed. The Mongols turned around and left for the Horde, admitting defeat. So the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke happened bloodlessly. Its date - 1480 - is a great event in our history.
The meaning of the fall of the yoke
Having suspended the political, economic and cultural development of Russia for a long time, the yoke pushed the country to the margins of European history. When the Renaissance began and flourished in Western Europe in all areas, when national self-consciousness of peoples took shape, when countries grew rich and flourished in trade, sent a fleet in search of new lands, there was darkness in Russia. Columbus discovered America in 1492. For Europeans, the Earth grew rapidly. For us, the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia marked the opportunity to get out of the narrow medieval framework, change laws, reform the army, build cities and develop new lands. And in short, Russia gained independence and began to be called Russia.
Most history textbooks say that in the XIII-XV centuries Russia suffered from the Mongol-Tatar yoke. Recently, however, voices of those who doubt that the invasion took place at all have been heard more and more often. Did the huge hordes of nomads really flood the peaceful principalities, enslaving their inhabitants? Let's analyze historical facts, many of which may be shocking.
The yoke was invented by the Poles
The term "Mongol-Tatar yoke" itself was coined by Polish authors. The chronicler and diplomat Jan Dlugosh in 1479 called the time of the existence of the Golden Horde so. He was followed in 1517 by the historian Matvey Mekhovsky, who worked at the University of Krakow. This interpretation of the relationship between Russia and the Mongol conquerors was quickly picked up in Western Europe, and from there it was borrowed by domestic historians.
Moreover, there were practically no Tatars in the Horde troops themselves. It’s just that in Europe they knew the name of this Asian people well, and therefore it spread to the Mongols. Meanwhile, Genghis Khan tried to exterminate the entire Tatar tribe by defeating their army in 1202.
The first census of the population of Russia
The first census in the history of Russia was carried out by representatives of the Horde. They had to collect accurate information about the inhabitants of each principality, about their class affiliation. The main reason for such an interest in statistics on the part of the Mongols was the need to calculate the amount of taxes that were levied on subjects.
In 1246, the census took place in Kyiv and Chernigov, the Ryazan principality was subjected to statistical analysis in 1257, the Novgorodians were counted two more years later, and the population of the Smolensk region in 1275.
Moreover, the inhabitants of Russia raised popular uprisings and drove out from their land the so-called "besermen", who collected tribute for the khans of Mongolia. But the governors of the rulers of the Golden Horde, called Baskaks, lived and worked in the Russian principalities for a long time, sending the collected taxes to Sarai-Batu, and later to Sarai-Berka.
Joint trips
The princely squads and the Horde warriors often made joint military campaigns, both against other Russians and against the inhabitants of Eastern Europe. So, in the period 1258-1287, the troops of the Mongols and Galician princes regularly attacked Poland, Hungary and Lithuania. And in 1277, the Russians participated in the military campaign of the Mongols in the North Caucasus, helping their allies conquer Alania.
In 1333 Muscovites stormed Novgorod, and the following year the Bryansk squad went to Smolensk. Each time, the Horde troops also participated in these internecine wars. In addition, they regularly helped the great princes of Tver, who were considered at that time the main rulers of Russia, to pacify the recalcitrant neighboring lands.
The basis of the horde was the Russians
The Arab traveler Ibn Battuta, who visited the city of Sarai-Berke in 1334, wrote in his essay “A Gift to those who contemplate the wonders of cities and the wonders of wanderings” that there are many Russians in the capital of the Golden Horde. Moreover, they make up the bulk of the population: both working and armed.
This fact was also mentioned by the white émigré author Andrei Gordeev in the book “History of the Cossacks”, which was published in France in the late 20s of the twentieth century. According to the researcher, most of the Horde troops were the so-called wanderers - ethnic Slavs who inhabited the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov and the Don steppes. These predecessors of the Cossacks did not want to obey the princes, so they moved south for the sake of a free life. The name of this ethno-social group probably comes from the Russian word "roam" (to wander).
As is known from chronicles, in the Battle of Kalka in 1223, roamers fought on the side of the Mongol troops, led by the voivode Ploskynya. Perhaps his knowledge of the tactics and strategy of the princely squads was of great importance for defeating the combined Russian-Polovtsian forces.
In addition, it was Ploskinya who lured the ruler of Kyiv, Mstislav Romanovich, along with two Turov-Pinsk princes, by cunning, and handed them over to the Mongols for execution.
However, most historians believe that the Mongols forced the Russians to serve in their army, i.e. the invaders forcibly armed the representatives of the enslaved people. Although this seems unlikely.
And Marina Poluboyarinova, a senior researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in her book “Russian People in the Golden Horde” (Moscow, 1978) suggested: “Probably, the forced participation of Russian soldiers in the Tatar army stopped later. There were mercenaries who had already voluntarily joined the Tatar troops.”
Caucasian Invaders
Yesugei-bagatur, the father of Genghis Khan, was a representative of the Borjigin clan of the Mongolian tribe Kiyat. According to the descriptions of many eyewitnesses, both he himself and his legendary son were tall fair-skinned people with reddish hair.
The Persian scholar Rashid-ad-Din in his work "Collection of Chronicles" (beginning of the 14th century) wrote that all the descendants of the great conqueror were mostly blond and gray-eyed.
This means that the elite of the Golden Horde belonged to the Caucasians. Probably, representatives of this race also predominated among other invaders.
There were few
We are accustomed to believe that in the XIII century, Russia was filled with countless hordes of Mongol-Tatars. Some historians speak of a 500,000-strong army. However, it is not. After all, even the population of modern Mongolia barely exceeds 3 million people, and given the brutal genocide of fellow tribesmen committed by Genghis Khan on the way to power, the size of his army could not be so impressive.
It is difficult to imagine how to feed the half-million army, which also traveled on horseback. Animals simply would not have enough pasture. But each Mongolian horseman led at least three horses with him. Now imagine a herd of 1.5 million. The horses of the warriors riding in the vanguard of the army would have eaten and trampled everything they could. The rest of the horses would die of starvation.
According to the most daring estimates, the army of Genghis Khan and Batu could not exceed 30 thousand horsemen. While the population of Ancient Russia, according to the historian Georgy Vernadsky (1887-1973), before the start of the invasion was about 7.5 million people.
Bloodless executions
The Mongols, like most peoples of that time, executed people who were not noble or respected by cutting off their heads. However, if the sentenced person enjoyed authority, then his spine was broken and left to die slowly.
The Mongols were sure that blood is the seat of the soul. Shedding it means complicating the afterlife of the deceased to other worlds. Bloodless execution was applied to rulers, political and military figures, shamans.
The reason for the death sentence in the Golden Horde could be any crime: from desertion from the battlefield to petty theft.
The bodies of the dead were thrown into the steppes
The method of burial of the Mongol also directly depended on his social status. Rich and influential people found peace in special burials, in which valuables, gold and silver jewelry, household items were buried along with the bodies of the dead. And the poor and ordinary soldiers who died in battle were often simply left in the steppe, where their life path ended.
In the disturbing conditions of a nomadic life, consisting of regular skirmishes with enemies, it was difficult to arrange funeral rites. The Mongols often had to move on quickly, without delay.
It was believed that the corpse of a worthy person would be quickly eaten by scavengers and vultures. But if the birds and animals did not touch the body for a long time, according to popular beliefs, this meant that a serious sin was registered behind the soul of the deceased.
