Mongol Empire- a centralized state, which won in the first half of the XIII century. vast territory of the Eurasian continent, from the Pacific Ocean to Central Europe.

In the 40s. 13th century on a vast territory from the Irtysh to the steppes of the Volga and the Danube, a state was founded, which received the name of the Golden Horde. The separation of the Horde from the empire of Genghis Khan occurred at the end of the 13th century. The Golden Horde was a feudal state.

It had the following features:

- nomadic and semi-nomadic nature of society;

- big role of tribal leaders;

- Hierarchy of nomadic agriculture.

The ruling class was the class of feudal lords (“white bone”), including the Mongol-Tatar nomadic aristocracy.

The first group of feudal lords consisted of the khan and princes from the Jochi clan, the first khan of the Golden Horde. The second group included the largest feudal lords - beks and nyons. The third group of feudal lords consisted of tarkhans - people who held low positions in the state. apparatus. The fourth group consisted of nukers - they were part of the inner circle of their master and were dependent on him.

After the adoption of Islam as a state. religion, the Muslim clergy began to play a significant role.

The feudal-dependent population was called the “black bone” and included nomadic pastoralists, farmers, and city dwellers.

The peasant population was divided into communal peasants who had their own inventory, outbuildings (sobanchi), etc. and impoverished members of the peasant community (urtakchi).

Even during his lifetime, Genghis Khan divided the empire into 4 uluses, headed by a cat. placed his sons. led the Golden Horde khan, with strong despotic power. He was elected kurultai- Congress of the Mongolian aristocracy.

The central bodies of sectoral management were sofas. Their work was coordinated vizier- Nominal head of government. The highest officials in the usuls were emirs, in the army - bacouls and temniks. Local government was carried out Baskaks and Darugs.

The military organization of the Golden Horde was based on the decimal system. The entire population was divided into dozens, hundreds, thousands and dozens; the commanders of these units were foremen, centurions, etc. The main arm of the Mongols was light and heavy cavalry.

Sources of law of the Golden Horde

Main sources of law The Golden Horde were as follows:

Collection of Mongolian laws and customs - Great Yasa of Genghis Khan;

Customary law of the Mongolian tribes;

Sharia norms;

Letters, labels, orders to local rulers, etc.;

- "secret story".

Inheritance and marriage and family relations were based on customary law and traditions. So, the custom demanded the redemption of the wife from her parents, the property after the death of the husband was managed by the main wife until the sons reach adulthood.

It is characteristic of criminal law that the laws of Yasa were extremely cruel. Their failure was often stolen by the death penalty or self-mutilation. Military crimes were punished with particular cruelty.

The trial was adversarial. In addition to testimonies, oaths, duels, torture was used, the principle of mutual responsibility and group responsibility was used.

Before considering the state structure of the Golden Horde, you need to find out the following essential point: what was the name of this state during its existence. This question arises because in no modern chronicle of the Golden Horde there is such a name for it. The well-known monograph by B. D. Grekov and A. 10. Yakubovsky also does not give an answer to it. Three aspects of the problem can be distinguished: how the Mongols themselves called their state, how it was called by those around it, its neighbors, and what name was established for it after the collapse. In all the Mongolian states that arose in the 13th century, ruling dynasties descended from Genghis Khan established themselves. The head of each of them considered the territory allocated to him or conquered not as a state, but as a family possession. The Kipchak steppes were given to the eldest son of Genghis Khan Jochi, who became the founder of the numerous Jochid family that ruled here. In full accordance with this, each of the khans who ascended the Sarai throne called their state simply “ulus”, that is, the people given to inheritance, possession. The label of Khan Tokhtamysh has been preserved, in which he calls his state the Great Ulus. Such a magnificent epithet, emphasizing the power of the state, was also used by other khans, especially in diplomatic correspondence. As for the name of the Jochid state by representatives of European and Asian powers, there was complete discord. In the Arabic chronicles, it was most often called the name of the khan who ruled at a certain moment, with the appropriate ethnic refinement: “Berke, the great king of the Tatars”, “Tokta, the king of the Tatars”. In other cases, a geographical specification was added to the name of the khan: “Uzbek, ruler of the northern countries”, “king of Tokta, owner of Saray and Kipchak lands”, “king of Desht-i-Kypchak Tokta”. Sometimes Arab and Persian chroniclers called the Golden Horde the ulus of Jochi, the ulus of Batu, the ulus of Berke, the ulus of Uzbek. Often these names were used not only directly during the reign of one or another khan, but even after their death (“King Uzbek, ruler of the Berke countries”). The European travelers P. Carpini and G. Rubruk, who traveled the entire Golden Horde, use the old terms “Country of the Komans” (i.e., Polovtsy), “Komania” to designate it, or give a too generalized name - “the power of the Tatars”. In a letter from Pope Benedict XII, the state of the Jochids is called Northern Tataria. In Russian chronicles, the new southern neighbor was first designated with the help of an ethnic term. The princes go to "Tatars to Batyev" and return "from the Tatars." And only in the last decade of the XIII century, a new and only name "Horde" appeared and firmly established, which existed until the complete collapse of the Jochid state. As for the now familiar name "Golden Horde", it began to be used at a time when there was no trace left of the state founded by Khan Batu. For the first time this phrase appeared in the "Kazan chronicler", written in the second half of the 16th century, in the form "Golden Horde" and "Great Golden Horde". Its origin is associated with the khan's headquarters, or rather, with the khan's ceremonial yurt, richly decorated with gold and expensive materials. Here is how a 14th-century traveler describes it: “Uzbek sits in a tent, called a golden tent, decorated and outlandish. It consists of wooden rods covered with gold leaves. In the middle of it is a wooden throne, overlaid with silver gilded sheets, its legs are made of silver, and the top is studded with precious stones. There is no doubt that the term "Golden Horde" existed in Russia in colloquial speech as early as the 14th century, but it never appears in the annals of that period. Russian chroniclers proceeded from the emotional load of the word “golden”, which was used at that time as a synonym for everything good, bright and joyful, which could not be said about an oppressor state, and even inhabited by “nasty ones”. That is why the name "Golden Horde" appears only after all the horrors of Mongol rule have been erased by time.

From the first year of its existence, the Golden Horde was not a sovereign state, and the khan who led it was also not considered an independent ruler. This was due to the fact that the possessions of the Jochids, like other Mongol princes, legally constituted a single empire with a central government in the rakorum. The kaan who was here, according to one of the articles of the yasa (law) of Genghis Khan, had the right to a certain part of the income from all the territories conquered by the Mongols. Moreover, he had possessions in these areas that belonged to him personally. The creation of such a system of close interweaving and interpenetration was associated with an attempt to prevent the inevitable disintegration of a huge empire into separate independent parts. Only the central Karakorum government was authorized to decide the most important economic and political issues. The strength of the central government, which, due to the remoteness of its stay, rested, perhaps, only on the authority of Genghis Khan, was still so great that the khans of Batu and Berke continued to adhere to the "path of sincerity, humility, friendship and unanimity" in relation to Karakorum. But in the 60s of the XIII century, an internecine struggle flared up around the Karakoram throne between Khubilai and Arig-Buga. The victorious Khubilai transferred the capital from Karakorum to the territory of conquered China in Khanbalik (present-day Beijing). Mengu-Timur, who ruled at that time in the Golden Horde, supported Arig-Buga in the struggle for supreme power, hastened to take advantage of the opportunity that presented itself and did not recognize Khubilai's right to be the supreme ruler of the entire empire, since he left the capital of its founder and abandoned the indigenous yurt to the mercy of fate all Genghisides - Mongolia. From that moment on, the Golden Horde gained complete independence in resolving all issues of a foreign and domestic nature, and the so carefully guarded unity of the empire founded by Genghis Khan suddenly exploded, and it fell to pieces. However, by the time of the acquisition of full political sovereignty in the Golden Horde, of course, there already existed its own intrastate structure, moreover, it was sufficiently established and developed. There is nothing surprising in the fact that it basically copied the system introduced in Mongolia by Genghis Khan. The basis of this system was the army decimal calculation of the entire population of the country. In accordance with the division of the army, the entire state was divided into right and left wings. In the ulus of Jochi, the right wing constituted the possessions of Khan Batu, stretching from the Danube to the Irtysh. The left wing was under the rule of his elder brother, Khan of the Horde. It occupied lands in the south of modern Kazakhstan along the Syr Darya and to the east of it. According to the ancient Mongolian tradition, the right wing was called Ak-Orda (White Horde), and the left wing was called Kok-Orda (Blue). It follows from the foregoing that the concepts of "Golden Horde" and "ulus of Jochi" in territorial and state-legal relations are not synonymous. Ulus Jochi after 1242 divided into two wings, which made up the independent possessions of two khans - Batu and the Horde. However, the khans of Kok-Orda throughout its history maintained a certain (largely purely formal) political dependence in relation to the khans of the Golden Horde (Ak-Orda). In turn, the territory under the rule of Batu was also divided into right and left wings. In the initial period of the existence of the Golden Horde, the wings corresponded to the largest administrative units of the state. But by the end of the 13th century, they had turned from administrative into purely military concepts and were preserved only in relation to military formations. In the administrative structure of the state, the wings were replaced by a more convenient division into four main territorial units, headed by ulusbeks. These four uluses were the largest administrative divisions. They were called Sarai, Desht-i-Kypchak, Crimea, Khorezm. In the most general form, the administrative system of the Golden Horde was described as early as the 13th century. G. Rubruk, who traveled the entire state from west to east. According to his observation, the Mongols “divided among themselves Scythia, which stretches from the Danube until sunrise; and every ruler knows, according to whether he has more or less people under his authority, the boundaries of his pastures, and also where he must pasture his flocks in winter, summer, spring and autumn. It is in winter that they descend south to warmer countries, in summer they rise north to colder ones. This sketch of the traveler contains the basis of the administrative-territorial division of the Golden Horde, defined by the concept of "ulus system". Its essence was the right of nomadic feudal lords to receive from the khan himself or another large steppe aristocrat a certain inheritance - an ulus. For this, the owner of the ulus was obliged to expose, if necessary, a certain number of fully armed soldiers (depending on the size of the ulus), as well as to perform various tax and economic duties. This system was an exact copy of the structure of the Mongolian army: the entire state - the Great Ulus - was divided according to the rank of the owner (temnik, thousand's manager, centurion, ten's manager) - into destinies of certain size, and from each of them, in case of war, ten, one hundred , a thousand or ten thousand armed warriors. At the same time, uluses were not hereditary possessions that could be passed from father to son. Moreover, the khan could take away the ulus completely or replace it with another. In the initial period of the existence of the Golden Horde, there were apparently no more than 15 large uluses, and rivers most often served as the borders between them. This shows a certain primitiveness of the administrative division of the state, rooted in the old nomadic traditions. Further development of statehood, the emergence of cities, the introduction of Islam, a closer acquaintance with the Arab and Persian traditions of government led to various complications in the possessions of the Jochids with the simultaneous death of Central Asian customs dating back to the time of Genghis Khan. Instead of dividing the territory into two wings, as already mentioned, four uluses appeared, headed by ulusbeks. One of the uluses was the personal domain of the khan. He occupied the steppes of the left bank of the Volga from its mouth to the Kama, that is, including the former territory of Volga Bulgaria. Each of these four uluses was divided into a certain number of "regions", which were the uluses of the feudal lords of the next rank. In total, in the Golden Horde, the number of such "regions" in the XIV century. was about 70 in number of temniks. Simultaneously with the establishment of the administrative-territorial division, the formation of the state administration apparatus took place. The period of the reign of the khans Batu and Berke can rightfully be called organizational in the history of the Golden Horde. Batu laid down the basic foundations of the state, which were preserved under all subsequent khans. The feudal estates of the aristocracy were formalized, an apparatus of officials appeared, a capital was founded, a yam connection was organized between all uluses, taxes and duties were approved and distributed. The reign of Batu and Berke is characterized by the absolute power of the khans, whose authority was associated in the minds of their subjects with the amount of wealth they had stolen. Sources unanimously note that the khans at that time had "amazing power over everyone." Khan, who stood at the top of the pyramid of power, for most of the year was in a roaming headquarters surrounded by his wives and a huge number of courtiers. He spent only a short winter period in the capital. The moving khan's horde headquarters, as it were, emphasized that the main power of the state continued to be based on a nomadic beginning. Naturally, it was quite difficult for the Khan, who was in constant motion, to manage the affairs of the state himself. This is also emphasized by the sources, which directly report that the supreme ruler “pays attention only to the essence of the matter, without entering into the details of the circumstances, and is content with what is reported to him, but does not seek details regarding the collection and spending.” In conclusion, it should be added that the Golden Horde did not practice kuriltai, so characteristic of Mongolia, at which all representatives of the Genghisides family resolved the most important state issues. The changes that have taken place in the administrative and state structure have brought to naught the role of this traditional nomadic institution. Having a government in the stationary capital, consisting of representatives of the ruling family and the largest feudal lords, the khan no longer needed kuriltai. He could discuss the most important state issues, gathering, as needed, the highest military and civilian officials of the state. As for such an important prerogative as the approval of the heir, now it has become the exclusive competence of the khan. However, palace conspiracies and all-powerful temporary workers played a much larger role in the shifts on the throne. The first, most difficult time of the introduction of the khan's power into Russian life has passed.

The Golden Horde was a feudal state of the developed Middle Ages. The supreme power in the country belonged to the khan, and this title of head of state in the history of the entire Tatar people is associated mainly with the period of the Golden Horde. If the entire Mongol Empire was ruled by the dynasty of Genghis Khan (Chingizids), then the Golden Horde was ruled by the dynasty of his eldest son Jochi (Jochids). In the 60s of the XIII century, the empire was actually divided into independent states, but legally they were considered uluses of Genghis Khan. Therefore, the system of government, laid down under him, practically remained until the end of the existence of these states. Moreover, this tradition continued in the political and socio-economic life of those Tatar khanates that formed after the fall of the Golden Horde. Naturally, some transformations, reforms were carried out, some new state and military posts appeared, but the entire state and social system as a whole remained stable.

The Golden Horde was ruled by the descendants of the four sons of Jochi. At the same time, in other parts of the Golden Horde, the descendants of other sons of Jochi - Shayban in Western Siberia and Horde-Ichen in the Blue Horde ruled; from the latter came a number of rulers of Belaya, i.e. actually the Golden Horde after the reign of Berdibek. In the same White Horde and in its western part, in the Crimea, in the second half of the 14th - early 15th centuries, khans ruled from the line of the last son of Jochi - Tukay-Timur, among them such famous sovereigns as Tokhtamysh, Ulu-Muhammed. No other outstanding personality, not being a Jochid (for the entire Mongol Empire - Chingizid) had the right to be and never was a khan, although these historical figures sometimes ruled the state, changing obedient khans at their discretion (Idegei, Mamai, some other emirs - temniks).

Below the princes were those who can be called Mongol and Turkic nobles: originally called noyons (Mongolian term), and later - beks (Turkic term); as well as senior management and judicial officials. Often, the khan gave the nobleman a label of immunity, freeing him and the people assigned to the land allotment from taxes and public service. The owner of such an allotment was called a darkkhan. Often the term was applied to smaller landowners, since it was assumed that the nobles enjoyed immunity in any case. As a result of this policy, by the middle of the 15th century, the "feudal" sector expanded much more than the "state" sector. This factor played a huge role in the collapse of the Horde.

A label is a khan's letter or decree giving the right to state administration in certain uluses of the Golden Horde or its subordinate states (for example, labels for reigning Russian princes), the right to conduct diplomatic missions, other responsible state affairs abroad and within the country and, of course , to the right of land ownership by feudal lords of various ranks. In the Golden Horde, and then in the Kazan, Crimean and other Tatar khanates, there was a system of soyurgals - a military fief right to own land. A person who received a soyurgal from the khan had the right to levy in his favor those taxes that used to go to the state treasury. According to Soyurgal, land was considered hereditary. Naturally, such great privileges were not given just like that. The feudal lord, who received the soyurgal right, had to provide the army in wartime with the appropriate amount of cavalry, weapons, horse-drawn transport, provisions, etc.

In addition to labels, there was a system for issuing so-called paizi.

Paiza is a gold, silver, bronze, cast-iron, or even just a wooden tablet, also issued on behalf of the khan as a kind of mandate. A person who presented such a mandate on the ground was provided with the necessary services during his movements and trips - escorts, horses, carts, premises, food. It goes without saying that a golden paizu was received by a person who was higher in his position in society, a wooden one - by a simpler one. There is information about the presence of paizi in the Golden Horde in written sources, they are also known as archaeological finds from the excavations of Saray-Berke, one of the capitals of the Golden Horde.

In the Ulus of Jochi there was a special position of a military bukaul, which was engaged in the distribution of troops, the dispatch of detachments; he was also responsible for military maintenance and allowances. Even the ulus emirs - in wartime temniks - were subordinate to Bukaulu. In addition to the main bukaul, there were bukauls of separate regions.

The army itself is divided into dozens, at the head of which stands a foreman, at the head of ten tenants - one centurion, at the head of ten centurions - a thousandman, at the head of ten thousanders - "one, and this number they call darkness." The discipline in the Mongol army was at the highest level. No one dared to disobey the order of the commander. Military affairs among the Tatar-Mongols is very well developed.

Priests and, in general, representatives of the clergy in the Golden Horde, according to the records of labels and Arab-Persian historical geography, were represented by such persons: mufti - head of the clergy; sheikh - spiritual leader and mentor, aksakal; sufi - a pious, pious, free from evil deeds person or ascetic; qadi - a judge who decides cases according to Sharia, that is, according to the code of Muslim laws. During the reign of Mengu-Timur, Mongolian officials were forbidden, under pain of death, to take away church lands or demand the performance of any service from church people. Anyone guilty of slander and defamation of the Greek Orthodox faith was also sentenced to death. To enhance the impact of the charter, the name of Genghis Khan was placed at the beginning of it. As gratitude for the granted privileges, Russian priests and monks were expected to pray to God for Mengu-Timur, his family and heirs. It was especially emphasized that their prayers and blessings should be zealous and sincere. "And if one of the clergy prays with a hidden thought, then he will commit a sin."

At the same time, there were civil judges - yarguchi, who decided their court cases according to the Great Yasa - the code of laws of Genghis Khan. Researchers believe that the court's decision was formalized by a special letter "yargu-name"; in addition to ordinary yarguchi, there was also an emir-yargu - the chief judge of the state at the vizier.

A number of civilian officials assisted in the collection of taxes and other purposes of the military administration. Tax collectors, messengers, horse-post operators, boatmen, bridge officials, and market police. An important official was the state customs inspector, who was called "daruga"

The entire system of administration and taxation was controlled by central boards (divans). In each of them, in fact, the secretary (bitikchi) conducted the business. The chief bitikchi was in charge of the khan's archive. Sometimes the khan entrusted the general supervision of the internal administration to a special official, whom Arab and Persian sources, speaking of the Golden Horde, call the "vizier".

In the system of state officials there were a number of other officials who are known mainly by the khan's labels. These are: "ilche" (envoy), "tamgachy" (customs officer), "tartanakchy" (tax collector or weigher), "totkaul" (outpost), "guard" (watch), "yamchy" (postal), "koshchy" (falconer), "barschy" (barsnik), "kimeche" (rook or shipman), "bazaar da torganl[n]ar" (guardians of order in the bazaar). These positions are known from the labels of Tokhtamysh of 1391 and Timur-Kutluk of 1398. Most of these civil servants also existed during the periods of the Kazan, Crimean and other Tatar khanates.

There were also various types of duties that were levied on the nomadic and sedentary population, as well as various border duties: "salyg" (poll tax), "kalan" (tire), "yasak" (tribute), "kharaj" ("kharaj "- an Arabic word meaning a 10% tax on Muslim peoples), "burych" (debt, arrears), "chygysh" (exit, expense), "yndyr khaky" (fee for the barn), "barn small" (granary duty ), "burla tamgasy" (wheat tamga), "yul khaky" (road fee), "karaullyk" (guard fee), "tartanak" (by weight, as well as tax on import and export), "tamga" (there- govt duty).

All of the above testifies to the well-coordinated state mechanism of the Golden Horde with all the attributes that are necessary for the existence and development of a large medieval state: central and local government, the judicial and tax system, the customs service and a strong army. All this testifies, finally, to a rather high level of development of the social system of the Jochi Ulus.

State structure of the Golden Horde

Before considering the state structure of the Golden Horde, you need to find out the following essential point: what was the name of this state during its existence. This question arises because in no modern chronicle of the Golden Horde there is such a name for it. The well-known monograph by B. D. Grekov and A. Yu. Yakubovsky also does not give an answer to it. Three aspects of the problem can be distinguished: how the Mongols themselves called their state, how the surrounding neighbors called it, and what name was established for it after the collapse.

In all the Mongolian states that arose in the 13th century, ruling dynasties descended from Genghis Khan established themselves. The head of each of them considered the territory allocated to him or conquered not as a state, but as a family possession. The Kipchak steppes were given to the eldest son of Genghis Khan Jochi, who became the founder of the numerous Jochid family that ruled here. In full accordance with this, each of the khans who ascended the Sarai throne called their state simply “ulus”, that is, the people given to inheritance, possession. The label of Khan Tokhtamysh has been preserved, in which he calls his state the Great Ulus. Such a magnificent epithet, emphasizing the power of the state, was also used by other khans, especially in diplomatic correspondence.

As for the name of the Jochid state by representatives of European and Asian powers, there was complete discord. In the Arabic chronicles, it was most often called the name of the khan who ruled at a certain moment, with the appropriate ethnic refinement: “Berke, the great king of the Tatars”, “Tokta, the king of the Tatars”. In other cases, a geographical specification was added to the name of the khan: “Uzbek, ruler of the northern countries”, “king of Tokta, owner of Saray and Kipchak lands”, “king of Desht-i-Kypchak Tokta”. Sometimes Arab and Persian chroniclers called the Golden Horde the ulus of Jochi, the ulus of Batu, the ulus of Berke, the ulus of Uzbek. Often these names were used not only directly during the reign of one or another khan, but even after their death (“King Uzbek, ruler of the Berke countries”).

The European travelers P. Carpini and G. Rubruk, who traveled the entire Golden Horde, use the old terms “Country of the Komans” (i.e., Polovtsy), “Komania” to designate it, or give a too generalized name - “the power of the Tatars”. In a letter from Pope Benedict XII, the state of the Jochids is called Northern Tataria.

In Russian chronicles, the new southern neighbor was first designated with the help of an ethnic term. The princes go to "Tatars to Batyev" and return "is Tatars." And only in the last decade of the XIII century. the new and only name "Horde" appears and is firmly established, which lasted until the complete collapse of the Jochid state. As for the now familiar name "Golden Horde", it began to be used at a time when there was no trace left of the state founded by Khan Batu. For the first time this phrase appeared in the "Kazan chronicler", written in the second half of the 16th century, in the form "Golden Horde" and "Great Golden Horde". Its origin is associated with the khan's headquarters, or rather, with the khan's ceremonial yurt, richly decorated with gold and expensive materials. Here is how a 14th-century traveler describes it: “Uzbek sits in a tent, called a golden tent, decorated and outlandish. It consists of wooden rods covered with gold leaves. In the middle of it is a wooden throne, overlaid with silver gilded leaves, its legs are made of silver, and the top is studded with precious stones. Such a rate is also mentioned in a Russian folk song of the 14th century. about Click:

And it worked in the Horde,

Changed to a big one.

On a chair of gold

On dug velvet,

On a worm rock

King Azvyak is sitting here,

Azvyak Tavrulovich ...

There is no doubt that the term "Golden Horde" existed in Russia in colloquial speech as early as the 14th century, but it never appears in the annals of that period. Russian chroniclers proceeded from the emotional load of the word “golden”, which was used at that time as a synonym for everything good, bright and joyful, which could not be said about an oppressor state, and even inhabited by “nasty ones”. That is why the name "Golden Horde" appears only after all the horrors of Mongol rule have been erased by time.

From the first year of its existence, the Golden Horde was not a sovereign state, and the khan who led it was also not considered an independent ruler. This was due to the fact that the possessions of the Jochids, like other Mongol princes, legally constituted a single empire with a central government in Karakorum. The kaan who was here, according to one of the articles of the yasa (law) of Genghis Khan, had the right to a certain part of the income from all the territories conquered by the Mongols. Moreover, he had possessions in these areas that belonged to him personally. The creation of such a system of close interweaving and interpenetration was associated with an attempt to prevent the inevitable disintegration of a huge empire into separate independent parts. Only the central Karakorum government was authorized to decide the most important economic and political issues. The strength of the central government, which, due to the remoteness of its stay, rested, perhaps, only on the authority of Genghis Khan, was still so great that the khans of Batu and Berke continued to follow in relation to Karakorum “the path of sincerity, humility, friendship and unanimity” .

But in the 60s of the XIII century. around the Karakorum throne, an internecine struggle broke out between Khubilai and Arig-Buga. The victorious Khubilai transferred the capital from Karakorum to the territory of conquered China in Khanbalik (present-day Beijing). Mengu-Timur, who ruled at that time in the Golden Horde, supported Arig-Buga in the struggle for supreme power, hastened to take advantage of the opportunity that presented itself and did not recognize Khubilai's right to be the supreme ruler of the entire empire, since he left the capital of its founder and abandoned the indigenous yurt to the mercy of fate all Genghisides - Mongolia. From that moment on, the Golden Horde gained complete independence in resolving all issues of a foreign and domestic nature, and the so carefully guarded unity of the empire founded by Genghis Khan suddenly exploded, and it fell to pieces.

However, by the time of the acquisition of full political sovereignty in the Golden Horde, of course, there already existed its own intrastate structure, moreover, it was sufficiently established and developed. There is nothing surprising in the fact that it basically copied the system introduced in Mongolia by Genghis Khan. The basis of this system was the army decimal calculation of the entire population of the country. In accordance with the division of the army, the entire state was divided into right and left wings. In the ulus of Jochi, the right wing constituted the possessions of Khan Batu, stretching from the Danube to the Irtysh. The left wing was under the rule of his elder brother, Khan of the Horde. It occupied lands in the south of modern Kazakhstan along the Syr Darya and to the east of it. According to the ancient Mongolian tradition, the right wing was called Ak-Orda (White Horde), and the left - Kok-Orda (Blue). It follows from the foregoing that the concepts of "Golden Horde" and "ulus of Jochi" in territorial and state-legal relations are not synonymous. The ulus of Jochi after 1242 was divided into two wings, which made up the independent possessions of two khans - Batu and the Horde. However, the khans of Kok-Orda throughout its history maintained a certain (largely purely formal) political dependence in relation to the khans of the Golden Horde (Ak-Orda).

In turn, the territory under the rule of Batu was also divided into right and left wings. In the initial period of the existence of the Golden Horde, the wings corresponded to the largest administrative units of the state. But by the end of the thirteenth century they turned from administrative into purely military concepts and were preserved only in relation to military formations. In the administrative structure of the state, the wings were replaced by a more convenient division into four main territorial units, headed by ulusbeks. These four uluses were the largest administrative divisions. They were called Sarai, Desht-i-Kypchak, Crimea, Khorezm.

In the most general form, the administrative system of the Golden Horde was described as early as the 13th century. G. Rubruk, who traveled the entire state from west to east. According to his observation, the Mongols “divided among themselves Scythia, which stretches from the Danube until sunrise; and every ruler knows, according to whether he has more or less people under his authority, the boundaries of his pastures, and also where he must pasture his flocks in winter, summer, spring and autumn. It is in winter that they descend south to warmer countries, in summer they rise north to colder ones.

This sketch of the traveler contains the basis of the administrative-territorial division of the Golden Horde, defined by the concept of "ulus system". Its essence was the right of nomadic feudal lords to receive from the khan himself or another large steppe aristocrat a certain inheritance - an ulus. For this, the owner of the ulus was obliged to expose, if necessary, a certain number of fully armed soldiers (depending on the size of the ulus), as well as to perform various tax and economic duties. This system was an exact copy of the structure of the Mongolian army: the entire state - the Great Ulus - was divided according to the rank of the owner (temnik, thousand's manager, centurion, foreman) into destinies of certain size, and from each of them, in case of war, ten, one hundred, a thousand or ten thousand armed warriors. At the same time, uluses were not hereditary possessions that could be passed from father to son. Moreover, the khan could take away the ulus completely or replace it with another.

In the initial period of the existence of the Golden Horde, there were apparently no more than 15 large uluses, and rivers most often served as the borders between them. This shows a certain primitiveness of the administrative division of the state, rooted in the old nomadic traditions. The further development of statehood, the emergence of cities, the introduction of Islam, a closer acquaintance with the Arab and Persian traditions of government led to various complications in the possessions of the Jochids with the simultaneous death of Central Asian customs dating back to the time of Genghis Khan. Instead of dividing the territory into two wings, as already mentioned, four uluses appeared, headed by ulusbeks. One of the uluses was the personal domain of the khan. He occupied the steppes of the left bank of the Volga from its mouth to the Kama, that is, including the former territory of Volga Bulgaria. Each of these four uluses was divided into a certain number of "regions", which were the uluses of the feudal lords of the next rank. In total, in the Golden Horde, the number of such "regions" in the XIV century. was about 70 in number of temniks.

Simultaneously with the establishment of the administrative-territorial division, the formation of the state administration apparatus took place. The period of the reign of the khans Batu and Berke can rightfully be called organizational in the history of the Golden Horde. Batu laid down the basic foundations of the state, which were preserved under all subsequent khans. The feudal estates of the aristocracy were formalized, an apparatus of officials appeared, a capital was founded, a yam connection was organized between all uluses, taxes and duties were approved and distributed. The reign of Batu and Berke is characterized by the absolute power of the khans, whose authority was associated in the minds of their subjects with the amount of wealth they had stolen. Sources unanimously note that the khans at that time had "amazing power over everyone."

Khan, who stood at the top of the pyramid of power, spent most of the year wandering the steppes, surrounded by his wives and a huge number of courtiers. He spent only a short winter period in the capital. The moving khan's horde-headquarters, as it were, emphasized that the main power of the state continued to be based on a nomadic beginning. Naturally, it was quite difficult for the Khan, who was in constant motion, to manage the affairs of the state himself. This is also emphasized by sources that directly report that the supreme ruler "pays attention only to the essence of affairs, without entering into the details of the circumstances, and is content with what is reported to him, but does not seek details regarding the collection and spending" .

Particulars were to be handled by numerous officials. Usually in the states of nomads there are not many of them, which cannot be said about the Golden Horde. The khan's labels list many officials involved in all aspects of both the nomadic and settled life of the state. For their direct leadership in the Golden Horde, two highest state positions were established: beklyaribek (bek over the beks, or in Russian the grand duke) and the vizier. Both dignitaries were almost at the same level of the feudal hierarchy, however, the beklyaribek played the leading role in the state apparatus. Huge power was concentrated in his hands, he was the commander-in-chief of the entire army, was in charge of diplomatic relations with other states, had the prerogative of the highest court, and had a serious influence on religious affairs. Such a concentration in the hands of the beklyaribeks of so many important state duties often led to the fact that they became the actual rulers of the Golden Horde, dictating their will to the Jochids sitting on the throne. The most striking examples in this regard were Nogai and Mamai.

The supreme executive power was concentrated in the hands of the vizier, the central body of which was called the divan. It consisted of several chambers headed by secretaries, in charge of certain areas of the financial, tax, commercial and domestic political life of the state. The vizier was usually titled "sovereign" and "adviser of kings and sultans", which well reflects the range of his duties. His influence on interstate relations and the foreign policy of the Golden Horde was not as significant as the beklyaribek, so the vizier was ranked lower in diplomatic correspondence. However, in the internal life of the country, his role was enormous, since the main side of his activity was the collection of taxes and tribute from the conquered peoples. That is why one of the Arabic manuscripts indicates that the vizier is “a real sultan, who has sole control over the monetary part, management and displacement.”

In conclusion, it should be added that the Golden Horde did not practice kuriltai, so characteristic of Mongolia, at which all representatives of the Genghisides family resolved the most important state issues. The changes that have taken place in the administrative and state structure have brought to naught the role of this traditional nomadic institution. Having a government in the stationary capital, consisting of representatives of the ruling family and the largest feudal lords, the khan no longer needed kuriltai. He could discuss the most important state issues, gathering, as needed, the highest military and civilian officials of the state. As for such an important prerogative as the approval of the heir, now it has become the exclusive competence of the khan. However, palace conspiracies and all-powerful temporary workers played a much larger role in the shifts on the throne.

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The Golden Horde had no clearly defined borders. Its power extended not so much to the territory, but to the peoples and tribes that were at different stages of socio-economic and cultural development, professing different religions. The Mongols themselves among the conquered peoples received a double name - the Mongol-Tatars (from the name of one of the most numerous Mongolian tribes - the Tatars).

Political system:

Supreme, despotic power belonged to the Khan enthroned kurultai. They became the eldest son of the previous khan or another closest relative of the Genghisids. Khan was the supreme owner and manager of all lands in the state, which he distributed to relatives and officials. He was the head of the armed forces, made appointments and removals of all senior officials. The khan himself or on his behalf carried out foreign policy actions, including the declaration of war and the conclusion of peace. He was the supreme judge, his will was considered law.

Collegial body - kurultai, which was attended by the sons of the khan, his closest relatives (princes), widows of khans, emirs, noyons, temniks, etc. At the kurultai, the issue of war and peace was resolved, the most important disputes and feuds between representatives of the feudal elite, the decisions of the khan were announced. The will of the khan, his decision at the kurultai were undeniable. Kurultai were convened episodically and were held in a solemn atmosphere.

In the Golden Horde, a peculiar system of central government bodies developed, many features were borrowed from the eastern despotic states (China, Persia, the Central Asian khanates). At the end of the XIII century. appeared sofas (offices) for conducting business in various branches of government. The sofas were subordinate to the highest officials appointed by the khan, carried out their instructions, gave them various information about the state of affairs in the branches of government or in the field. There was no clear delimitation of the competence of sofas by branches of management.

Vizier: the highest official, in his charge were the khan's treasury and the general management of state affairs on behalf and on behalf of the khan.

Beklyari-bek - military administration in the state, directed the military activities of emirs, temniks and thousanders. Beklyari-bek in the sources is often called the senior, chief emir under the khan.

Bukaul, who was in charge of the supply, armament, allowances for military units and garrisons, accounting for military booty, its delivery and distribution according to the instructions of the khan and senior officials.

The military organization of the ZO was the basis of its statehood. Many holders of state power were commanders of the respective military units. Numerous cavalry, consisting of the Mongol-Tatars, Kypchaks and other nomadic tribes and peoples.

Temniki, thousanders - the highest command staff, consisted of representatives of the family of Jochid princes and noble noyons. All commanders were connected with each other by peculiar seigneur-vassal relations. Genghis Khan organized an intelligence service. Subsequently, the secret service was established for its own state apparatus, it covered significant sections of the population, including the feudal elite.

The judiciary was not separated from the administrative.Khan, other state bodies themselves administered justice in all cases - criminal, civil, etc. However, in connection with the steady Islamization of the Golden Horde in the late XIII - early XIV centuries. Qadi Islamic courts were established, headed by the supreme qadi of the state. These courts dealt mainly with cases related to the violation of the requirements of the Qur'an, i.e. religious and marriage and family. In addition, special yarguchi judges were appointed in the cities to deal with civil cases. The nomadic peoples of the WA had traditional courts of tribal elders-biys. Judicial and administrative arbitrariness, extrajudicial reprisals were characteristic features of the judicial system of the military-feudal state of the Golden Horde.

Right.

The source of law in the Horde - The Great Yasa of Genghis Khan, compiled in 1206 as an edification to his successors, consisting of 33 fragments and 13 sayings of the Khan himself. Yasa contained mainly the rules of the military organization of the Mongolian army and the norms of criminal law. It was distinguished by the unprecedented cruelty of punishments not only for crimes, but also for misdemeanors. The norms of customary law of nomadic peoples were also sources of law. With the Islamization of the Golden Horde, Sharia began to operate in it. It was used mainly in cities and areas with a settled population.

Oral and written orders and instructions of the khans were for the subjects, including the feudal nobility, the highest law, subject to immediate and unquestioning execution. They were used in the practice of state bodies of the Golden Horde and the highest officials of the state.

The law of the Zoo is characterized by extreme cruelty, legalized arbitrariness of feudal lords and state officials, archaism and formal uncertainty. Even the Yasa of Genghis Khan became known to us not as a single written act, but from individual references and excerpts contained in various non-legal sources. Only the norms of Shariah were written and in this respect favorably differed from other legal sources.

Property relations The Golden Horde were governed by customary law and were very confused. This applies especially to land relations - the basis of feudal society. The ownership of the land, the entire territory of the state belonged to the ruling khan family of the Jochids. In the conditions of a nomadic economy, the inheritance of land was difficult. Therefore, it took place mainly in agricultural areas.

In the khanate power was a special object of inheritance, moreover, political power was combined with the right of ownership of the land of the ulus. The youngest son was considered the heir.

Family and marriage rights were regulated ancient customs and, to a lesser extent, sharia. The head of the patriarchal polygamous family was the father. He was the owner of all the property of the family, disposed of the fate of the family members subject to him. Thus, the father of an impoverished family had the right to give his children for debts into service and even sell them into slavery. The number of wives was not limited (Muslims could have no more than four legal wives). The children of wives and concubines were legally in an equal position, with some advantages of sons from older wives and legal wives among Muslims. The power of a husband over his wife was established by marriage, one of the forms of which was the actual or ritual kidnapping of the bride.

Criminal law was different exceptional cruelty. Cruelty, organized terror were one of the conditions for establishing and maintaining long-term domination over the conquered peoples. According to the Great Yasa, the death penalty was relied upon for treason, disobedience to the khan and other feudal lords, unauthorized transfer from one military unit to another, failure to provide assistance in battle, compassion for the captive in the form of helping him with food and clothing, lying to elders in court, appropriation of someone else's slave or an escaped prisoner, in some cases. for murder, property crimes, adultery, bestiality, spying on the behavior of others and especially the nobility and superiors, magic, even those who choked on a bone at a feast were executed. The death penalty, as a rule, was carried out publicly and in ways characteristic of a nomadic lifestyle - by strangling on a rope suspended from the neck of a camel or horse, dragging by horses.

For domestic murder, a ransom was allowed in favor of the relatives of the victim. The amount of the ransom was determined by the social status of the victim.

15. State and rights of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Head of the Lithuanian state there was a grand duke (ruler), whose relations with other feudal lords were built on the basis of vassalage.

The power of the ruler for the most important state. issues (in particular, in the field of legislation and justice) was limited to the council of pans (pany-rada), in which, after the Union of Krevo (an agreement of 1385 on a dynastic union between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), in addition to the largest vassals of the ruler (magnates), were included Catholic bishops, major voivodes and senior officials of the central government.

All members of the pan-rada and the gentry made up the Great Wall Sejm, which was convened at least once every two years.

To the places (in voivodships and starostvos) the ruler appointed voivode and elders, respectively, who carried out all the functions of administrative, military and judicial power.

A number of Lithuanian cities (in particular, Vilnius and Kaunas) had self-government, the city administration was headed by elected bodies co-opted from among wealthy citizens.

Among the sources of law of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a special place is occupied by Russkaya Pravda and Pomeranskaya Pravda (a collection of Prussian customary law), as well as local ancient Lithuanian customary law. Later, the Lithuanian rulers (beginning with Casimir IV) also took up lawmaking, together with the Pan-Rada.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was formed in the XII - XIII centuries. as a result of the Belarusian-Lithuanian social synthesis. The main driving force behind the unification of the Western Russian (Belarusian) and Lithuanian principalities into one large state was the development of productive forces and economic ties between individual principalities. This process was accelerated by the need to unite military forces in the fight against the Teutonic and Livonian orders, as well as the invasion of the Tatars. Over time, Ukrainian and some Russian principalities were annexed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Its territory at the beginning of the XV century. was over 900 thousand km2 and stretched from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea. The first capital of the state was the city of Novogorodok (Novogrudok), and from the XIV century. - Vilna.

In 1385, representatives of Poland arrived at the castle of Krevo (near Minsk) and offered Grand Duke Jagaila - Yakov, son of Grand Duke Olgerd (half-Russian), to marry the Polish Queen Jadwiga, become King of Poland and thereby consolidate the union of both states, prevent complete the transition of Poland into the hands of the Germans, since Jadwiga, as a child, was betrothed to Wilhelm Habsburg of Austria. Jagiello, seeking to break Poland's alliance with the Teutonic Order, accepted the proposal of the Polish ambassadors and undertook to begin the spread of Catholicism in Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine. Leaving for Poland, Jagiello transferred power in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to his brother Skirgail (Ivan), and then in 1392 he appointed Vitovt, his cousin, the Grand Duke of Lithuania.

The personal union with Poland was maintained until the death of Jagiello in 1434. In 1447, the union was renewed after the election of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir, the son of Jagiello, as the king of Poland. The union of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with Poland contributed to the defeat of the Teutonic Order and the suspension of the Germanization of Poland. The negative consequences of the union were expressed in the strengthening of feudal oppression and the spread of Catholicism in Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine.

In 1569, the Polish feudal lords succeeded, taking advantage of the Livonian War, to seize Ukraine and Podlasie from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and force the representatives of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to agree to the signing of the act of the Union of Lublin. As a result of this union, a state was formed - the Commonwealth. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and as part of the Commonwealth retained a certain isolation. It had its own territory, its own authorities and administration, finances, army and legislation. At the end of the XVIII century. an attempt was made to turn the Commonwealth into a single unitary state. This process was not completed, since Belarus and Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire.

social order

The social composition of the population was characterized by the presence of two main classes: feudal lords and feudally dependent peasants. In legal terms, the entire population was divided into estates: the gentry, the clergy, the burghers and ordinary people. Within each estate there was also a division into certain groups. The feudal class, which constituted a small part of the population, occupied a dominant position in the economic, political and ideological life of society. All feudal lords were part of the privileged class of the gentry or the clergy. But not all the gentry were feudal lords, since many of them did not have people dependent on themselves or even did not have land holdings and were forced to be hired into the service of large feudal lords.