Who led the Tatar army. Tatar-Mongol yoke in Rus'. Reference. Collapse of the Golden Horde

Feats, achievements and destinies from the very origins to the twentieth century

On Defender of the Fatherland Day, it is customary to remember the heroes of past years and talk about military traditions. The illustrious names of Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Pozharsky, Alexander Suvorov, Mikhail Kutuzov and Georgy Zhukov do not need any special introduction. Another thing is the commanders, military organizers and war heroes representing the Tatar people (as well as people who influenced the formation of the Tatars). Realnoe Vremya compiled their top 25, trying to make this list reflect the complex turns and contradictions of history, without keeping silent about those figures whose position does not fit into someone’s picture of the world.

The origins of the Tatar military art

• Mode (234-174 BC)

“The Xiongnu have fast and brave warriors who appear like a whirlwind and disappear like lightning; they herd cattle, which is their occupation, and hunt along the way, shooting with wooden and horn bows. Chasing wild animals and looking for good grass, they do not have a permanent residence, and therefore are difficult to control and curb. If we now allow the border districts to abandon cultivation and weaving for a long time, then we will only help the barbarians in their constant occupation and create a favorable situation for them. That is why I say that it is more profitable not to attack the Xiongnu,” - with these words the Chinese dignitary Han An-guo convinced Emperor Wudi not to quarrel with his northern neighbor. It happened in 134 BC. A series of kaganates and empires originated from the Xiongnu (Xiongnu) empire, as a result of which the Tatar people were formed in the north of the Eurasian continent. The founder and ruler of the Xiongnu empire, Mode, was a real problem for the powerful emperors of China, who, despite all the advantages, could not do anything with the steppe enemy. For the first time, he united the peoples of the Great Steppe under a single authority and forced the Middle State to speak with itself on equal terms. Some historians believe that the title "Chinggis" taken by the founder Mongol Empire Temujin is the title “Shanyu”, transformed over the centuries, which was worn by Mode.

• Kubrat (VII century)

In the 7th century, the historical ancestors of the modern Volga-Ural Tatars - the Bulgars - emerged. The Great Bulgaria tribal association in the northern Black Sea region is headed by Khan Kubrat. To survive during the era of the Great Migration of Peoples, Kubrat had to wage constant wars with the Avar Kaganate and Byzantine Empire. With the latter he managed to conclude an alliance. Only after the death of its founder does Great Bulgaria disintegrate. The Bulgars begin to settle in different countries, and one of their parts comes to the Volga. The Pereshchepinsky treasure, found in 1912, became a monument to the power of Kubrat. Among the finds is a sword that supposedly belonged to the ruler.

• Genghis Khan (1162-1227)

The personality of this commander has global significance, since he created the largest empire of antiquity and the Middle Ages. Our list will not be complete without him, because the tactics, strategy, organization, intelligence, methods of communication and weapons of Genghis Khan’s army continued their life in the Golden Horde and the Tatar states that arose after its collapse. The military art of the Tatar state influenced the army of Muscovite Rus'.

Photo by Maxim Platonov

When history and heroic epic went hand in hand

• Tokhtamysh (1342-1406)

In Russian historiography, this khan is known for the capture of Moscow on August 26, 1382. Many spears have been broken around the question of why, having defeated Mamai, Prince Dmitry Donskoy so easily capitulated to Tokhtamysh. However, the history of the khan, naturally, is much broader than this episode. He spent his youth in exile at the court of Tamerlane. In 1380, having finally defeated the dictator Mamai, he united the Golden Horde. Having turned out to be the most powerful of the descendants of Genghis Khan, he challenged Tamerlane. He made several successful campaigns in Iran and Central Asia, but then luck turned against him. In the battles of Kondurch on June 18, 1391 and on the Terek on April 15, 1395, he was defeated by Tamerlane, after which the Golden Horde was systematically defeated. He spent the last years of his life as an exile fighting for the throne. He died in Siberia fighting the troops of Idegei.

• Idegei (1352-1419)

The hero of the Tatar epic, banned under Stalin, was a real politician and a talented commander. He was not a descendant of Genghis Khan, but was the last one who could hold different parts of the Golden Horde as part of a single state. He started as Tokhtamysh's close associate, but then organized an unsuccessful conspiracy and fled to Tamerlane in Samarkand. He took part in the Battle of Kondurch on the side of Tamerlane, and after the battle he separated from the winner and disappeared with his army into the steppes. In 1396, Tamerlane, having completely ruined the Horde, went into his own possessions. Then Idegei and his army become the most powerful force in the devastated country. On August 12, 1399, Idegei won a brilliant victory over the troops of the Lithuanian princes Vitovt and Tokhtamysh in the battle on the Vorskla River. For almost 20 years he rules the empire through dummy khans, passes laws limiting slavery, and promotes the spread of Islam among nomads. The rule is hampered by constant wars with the children of Tokhtamysh, in one of which the old commander died.

• Ulu-Muhammad (d. 1445)

During the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Middle Volga region became an arena where different political entities measured their strength. The warring Horde khans used the Bulgar ulus as a springboard for the struggle for power in Sarai. Old cities were ravaged by Novgorod and Vyatka ushkuin pirates. Russian princes went to war here long before Ivan the Terrible. All this ended when Khan Ulu-Muhammad came to the Middle Volga. Having lost to other Chingizids in the struggle for power, he was forced to wander. On December 5, 1437, near Belev, Ulu-Muhammad managed to defeat the superior forces of the Russian princes Dmitry Shemyaka and Dmitry the Red. After this, the khan established himself in the Middle Volga, laying the foundation for the strong Kazan Khanate.

Photo by Maxim Platonov

• Sahib-Girey (1501-1551)

In 1521, after more than 20 years of Moscow protectorate, the Kazan Khanate regained full independence. This is due to the accession to the throne of Khan Sahib Giray from the Crimean Giray dynasty. Almost from the first days, the twenty-year-old khan had to wage war with a powerful neighbor, who saw Kasimov’s Khan Shah Ali on the Kazan throne. Under the command of Sahib-Girey, the Crimean-Kazan army reached Kolomna, where it met with the army of the Crimean Khan Mehmed-Girey, and the combined army almost approached Moscow. This forced Grand Duke Vasily III to change tactics and launch an attack on Kazan, using pre-prepared outposts. This is how Vasilsursk, the prototype of Sviyazhsk, appeared on the Sura River. In 1524, under the pressure of circumstances, Sahib-Girey was forced to leave Kazan, leaving the throne to his nephew Safa-Girey. In 1532 he became the Crimean Khan and carried out a major military reform. The army, organized on the basis of the Golden Horde, is being modernized in the Ottoman way. The Crimean Tatars have infantry armed with firearms and artillery.

• Chura Narykov (d. 1546)

Chura Narykov - interesting example politician and military leader, who is at the same time a semi-mythical hero of the folk epic “Chura Batyr”. The more famous Idegei had the same combination. Each of these two images lives an eventful life, but there are many similarities. Both the real Karachi Bey Chura Narykov from historical sources and the legendary Chura Batyr were successful warriors and great patriots. During the Kazan-Moscow war in the 1530s, the historical Chura acted at the head of a large Tatar-Mari army in the Galician and Kostroma borders. At the same time, he was in opposition to the Crimean dynasty ruling in Kazan and advocated more constructive relations with a strong Moscow. In 1546, after the overthrow of Khan, Safa-Girey joined the government and supported the compromise candidacy of Khan Shah-Ali from Kasimov. After Safa-Girey returned to the throne, he was executed. The legendary Chura Batyr himself was from the Crimea, but considered Shah Ali his sovereign. Just like the real prototype, he fought a lot with Moscow and was invincible until the enemy decided to oppose the hero with his own son. During the battle with his son, Chura-batyr drowns in the waters of Idel, leaving Kazan defenseless.

• Kuchum (d. 1601)

Khan Kuchum is well known as the antagonist of Ermak, but his image is lost somewhere in the crowd among the Tatar army in Surikov’s painting. As if he is part of the “natural chaos” that must be conquered by Russian weapons. In fact, Kuchum’s story is much more similar to the universal plot of “The Return of the King.” A representative of the Chingizid Shibanid dynasty, which ruled in Siberia until the end of the 15th century, he returned to the land of his ancestors and took power from the Taibugid family, which ruled for almost 70 years, from the point of view of Chingizid, illegally. As a legitimate khan, he does not recognize vassal dependence on the Moscow Grand Duke, who has recently called himself tsar. This is precisely what lay at the heart of the conflict. Kuchum's war against the Cossacks of Ermak did not end in 1581 with the occupation of Isker. The resistance continued for another 20 years and cost Ermak his life.

Photo by Mikhail Kozlovsky

In the service of the Russian state

• Khudai-Kul (d. 1523)

After the collapse of the Golden Horde, many Tatar aristocrats went to the service of the Grand Duke of Moscow. They often received high ranks, commanded military units and made a significant contribution to the development of Russia. The fate of the Kazan prince Khudai-Kul, who became Peter Ibrahimovich in Moscow and married Vasily III’s sister Evdokia, is very indicative. He was the son of the Kazan Khan Ibrahim and one of his wives Fatima. Paradoxically, the children of Fatima, led by Khan Ilham (Ali), were irreconcilable towards Moscow, unlike the children of Queen Nur-Sultan. This cost them the throne in Kazan and exile to the north to Beloozero. Having become part of the highest Moscow aristocracy, Khudai-Kul participated in the wars with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and commanded a large regiment in 1510, when the Pskov land was annexed to Moscow. Genghisid was the best friend of Vasily III and, since the prince did not have children for a long time, he even considered him as a possible heir. The Kazan prince was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, next to other builders of the Russian state.

• Bayush Razgildeev ( end XVI V. - beginning of the 17th century)

During the Troubles early XVII century, when Muscovite Rus' actually ceased to exist as single state, many regions of the country suffered from raids from the Nogai Horde. Territories with a Tatar population are no exception. In 1612, the Nogais made another raid on Alatyr district with a motley ethnic composition, where the Mishar Tatars, the Erzya Mordovians, and the Chuvash lived. But instead of easy profit, an unpleasant surprise awaited the steppe warriors. Murza Bayush Razgildeev gathered “the Alatyr Murzas and Mordovians and all sorts of service people” and defeated the Nogais in the battle of the Pyana River. For this, the government of Prince Pozharsky granted him the princely title. In documents of that time, the Razgildeevs are called both “Mordovian Murzas” and “Tatars” who profess the “infidel faith” (i.e. Islam), which is why every nation considers the hero to be one of their own.

• Ishak Islyamov (1865-1929)

The main merit of this Tatar naval officer can be seen on the map of Russia - this is the Franz Josef Land archipelago, which Islyamov declared Russian territory on August 29, 1914. The uninhabited Arctic islands were discovered and named after their emperor by the Austrians. In 1913, the first Russian expedition to the area disappeared. North Pole under the leadership of Georgy Sedov. The steam schooner "Gerta" under the command of Islyamov set out to search. The Sedovites could not be found on Franz Joseph Land: having suffered and buried their captain, they had already gone home. In view of the outbreak of the First World War, where Austria was an enemy of Russia, Islyamov raised the Russian tricolor over Cape Flora. Iskhak Islyamov - the highest-ranking naval officer Russian Empire of Tatar origin. He rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the hydrograph corps. Born in Kronstadt, in the family of naval non-commissioned officer Ibragim Islyamov, who presumably came from the village of Aibash, Vysokogorsk region. Ishak Ibrahimovich was a student of Admiral Makarov, took part in maritime research in the North, Far East and Caspian Sea, participated in Russian-Japanese war. After the revolution, he supported the whites and emigrated to Turkey. Cape Islyamov is located in Vladivostok on Russky Island.

In defense of the faith of our ancestors

• Kul Sharif (d. 1552)

It often happens in history that when politicians and the military cannot protect society, spiritual authorities come to the fore. That's how it was in Time of Troubles Russia, when Patriarch Hermogenes, a native of Kazan, became the generator of patriotic sentiments. This was the case during the decline of the Kazan Khanate. While various aristocratic parties weaved intrigues, carried out coups and negotiated with external players, the head of the Islamic clergy, Kul Sharif, acted as the guarantor of local interests. It was he who was the first person in the government under the last khan Yadigar-Muhammad, who came from Astrakhan, spent many years in Russian service, and, therefore, did not have such authority among Kazan residents as an Islamic scientist. In 1552, many Tatar feudal lords refused to defend their state, seeking benefits. Kul Sharif, guided by the defense of faith, went to the end and fell in battle along with his shakirds. "IN last years In the Kazan kingdom there was a learned man named Kazy Sherif-kul. When the Russians besieged Kazan, he fought a lot and finally fell dead in his madrassah and was struck by a spear,” Shigabutdin Marjani wrote about him.

Kul Sharif. Photo kazan-kremlin.ru

• Seit Yagafarov (second halfXVIIV.)

In the 17th-18th centuries, Muslims of the Volga and Urals regions had to defend not only their land, but also their religion from the government’s policy of converting all subjects to Christianity. A striking episode of Muslim resistance was the Seitov uprising of 1681-1684, which covered the territory of modern Bashkiria and the eastern regions of Tatarstan. The reason was the royal decree, according to which the Muslim aristocracy was deprived of estates and estates. Local authorities began to force Tatars and Bashkirs to be baptized, which violated the conditions for the Bashkir lands to become part of Russia. The uprising was led by Seit Yagafarov, who was proclaimed khan under the name Safar. The rebels kept Ufa and Menzelinsk under siege and attacked Samara. The government made concessions and declared an amnesty, after which some of the rebels laid down their arms. But Yagafarov continued to resist in alliance with the Kalmyks. The disturbed confessional balance was temporarily restored.

• Batyrsha (1710-1762)

Muslim theologian and imam Gabdulla Galiev, nicknamed Batyrsha, spoke out in defense of Islam at a time when the persecution of Muslims in the Russian Empire reached its peak. In 1755-1756 he led a large armed uprising in Bashkiria. Once in prison, he did not stop fighting and wrote a message “Takhrizname” addressed to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, which became a manifesto of religious and civil rights Tatars and Bashkirs. He died in the Shlisselburg fortress while trying to escape, when he managed to get an ax in his chained hands. Despite the defeat of the uprising of 1755-1756, its result was a gradual transition of the Russian Empire to a policy of religious tolerance.

On opposite sides of the barricades and the front line

• Ilyas Alkin (1895-1937)

A military and political organizer who wanted the Tatars to play an independent role in the cataclysms of the early 20th century. Born into a Tatar noble family. His father was a deputy of the State Duma, and his grandfather was the chief of police in Kazan. Like many young people of the early 20th century, he was passionate about socialist ideas. He was a member of the Menshevik Party and then the Socialist Revolutionaries. In 1915 he was drafted into the army. After the February Revolution, he initiated the creation of Muslim military units and, despite his young age, was elected chairman of the All-Russian Muslim Military Council (Harbi Shuro). He did not accept the October Revolution. At the beginning of 1918, he was the main figure in the 2nd All-Russian Muslim Congress in Kazan, where the proclamation of the Idel-Ural State was being prepared. At this time, in the Tatar part of Kazan, power structures parallel to the Bolsheviks operated, which were called the “Zabulachnaya Republic”. After the liquidation of the “Zabulachnaya Republic” and arrest, he participated in the Civil War as part of the Bashkir troops. First on the side of the Whites, and then, together with the Bashkir corps, went over to the side Soviet power. He was repeatedly arrested and executed during the Great Terror.

• Yakub Chanyshev (1892-1987)

The military biography of Lieutenant General Chanyshev is the history of the Red and Soviet army, lived as a Tatar. He came from a noble Tatar family of princes Chanyshev, in 1913 he was drafted into the army and served as an artilleryman in the First world war. Since the beginning of the revolution he supported the Muslim military organization Kharbi Shuro, but then for the rest of his life he linked his fate with the Bolshevik Party. He took part in the October battles in Kazan and in the defeat of the “Zabulachnaya Republic”, and personally arrested its leader Ilyas Alkin. Then there was Civil War against Kolchak and the fight against Basmachi in Central Asia. The career red officer did not escape the wave of repression. However, after being under investigation for a year and a half, Chanyshev was released. He met the Great Patriotic War near Kharkov in 1942 and ended it in the Reichstag, where he left his signature. After retiring, he took an active part in Tatar public life. He fought for the rehabilitation of the name of Ismail Gasprinsky and the return of Asadullaev’s house to the Tatar community of Moscow.

Yakub Chanyshev. Photo archive.gov.tatarstan.ru

• Yakub Yuzefovich (1872-1929)

Polish-Lithuanian Tatars are an ethnic group living in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. It would not be an exaggeration to say that among this people the military traditions of the Golden Horde were preserved for the longest time. Their ancestors came to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with Khan Tokhtamysh and became part of Polish gentry. From this people came a prominent military figure of the Russian imperial army and the White movement, Lieutenant General Yakov (Yakub) Yuzefovich. He was born in the Belarusian Grodno, studied at the Polotsk Cadet Corps and the Mikhailovsky Artillery School in St. Petersburg. In the Russo-Japanese War, he received the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree, for distinction in the battles near Mukden. The promising officer begins the First World War at the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, but a paper career was not to the liking of the descendant of the warlike Horde. A month later, he was transferred from Headquarters to the position of chief of staff of the Caucasian native cavalry division, which united people from different nations Caucasus and bore the unofficial name of the “Wild Division”. In battles he repeatedly risked his life and was wounded. During the Civil War, Yuzefovich was the closest ally and right hand of Baron Peter Wrangel. Fights the Bolsheviks in the Caucasus, near Kiev, near Orel and in the Crimea. After the defeat of the White Army, he lived in exile.

In the fire of mankind's greatest war

• Alexander Matrosov (1924-1943)

Shakiryan Yunusovich Mukhamedyanov - this, according to one version, was the name of Red Army soldier Alexander Matrosov, who on February 27, 1943, covered the embrasure of a German machine gun with his body and, at the cost of his life, helped his comrades complete a combat mission. The fate of Matrosov-Mukhamedyanov was reflected life path a whole generation of times of devastation. He was a homeless child (it was at this time that he took the name with which he went down in history), sat in a colony, took the outbreak of the war as a personal challenge, asked to go to the front and died a hero.

• Gani Safiullin (1905-1973)

The honored Soviet military leader was born in Zakazanye, in the village of Stary Kishit, and studied at a madrasah - a typical biography of many Tatar boys of the early 20th century. But the Civil War, famine and devastation made adjustments to this fate. Life brought Gani to the Kazakh steppes, and from there to the Cossack regiment. Once in the Red Army, Safiullin fought the Basmachi in Central Asia, guarded strategic targets, but the finest hour, where he showed his talent as a commander, was the war with Nazi Germany. His military path went through the Battle of Smolensk, an unsuccessful offensive near Kharkov in 1942, Battle of Stalingrad. In September 1943, the 25th Guards Rifle Corps under the command of Safiullin crossed the Dnieper. Reflecting numerous enemy counterattacks, the Tatar commander’s fighters expanded the bridgehead on the right bank of the river to 25 km wide and 15 km deep. A month later he was awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union. In 1945, he was appointed to command the 57th Guards Rifle Corps. From near Prague the corps was transferred to the Far East to defeat the Japanese Kwantung Army. After leaving the reserve, Lieutenant General Safiullin lived in Kazan.

• Maguba Syrtlanova (1912-1971)

The U-2 biplane, despite the nickname “maize,” was a formidable weapon in the mountains of the Great Patriotic War and was in service with the 46th Guards Taman Women’s Aviation Regiment of night bombers. Almost silent planes appeared suddenly and caused colossal damage to the enemy, for which the Germans nicknamed the pilots on the “whatnots” night witches. Maguba Syrtlanova fell ill with aviation long before the war, studied at a flight school and constantly improved her skills. In the summer of 1941, she was drafted into the air ambulance, but tried to get into the 46th regiment. Soon she became a guard senior lieutenant and deputy squadron commander. During the war, Syrtlanova made 780 combat missions and dropped 84 tons of bombs. Other pilots admired the punctuality and reliability of their combat friend. It ended the war in the skies over defeated Germany. In 1946, Syrtlanova was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Post-war years former " night witch"lived in Kazan.

Flight book of Maguba Syrtlanova

• Makhmut Gareev (born 1923)

Great Patriotic War became the first test for the honored Soviet military leader, Army General Makhmut Gareev. After studying for only five months at the Tashkent Infantry School, Gareev asked to go to the front and in 1942 he ended up in the notorious Rzhev direction. He managed to survive, but was wounded, despite which he continued to command. Like many fighters, Gareev’s war did not end in Europe, but continued in the Far East. Then the general’s record includes the position of military adviser in the United Arab Republic (which included Egypt and Syria), work under the President of Afghanistan Najibullah after the withdrawal from the country Soviet troops. But the main calling of my whole life is military science, where the theory is supported by my own combat experience.

• Gainan Kurmashev (1919-1944)

The name of Gainan Kurmashev is in the shadow of the poet-hero Musa Jalil, meanwhile, he was the head of the underground cell in the Volga-Tatar Legion, and the Nazis entitled the death sentence to the members of the organization “Kurmashev and ten others.” The future hero was born in the north of Kazakhstan in Aktyubinsk. I went to study in the Mari Republic at the Paranga Pedagogical College. The Paranginsky district is an area of ​​compact residence of Tatars, and for some time it was even officially called the Tatar district. In Paranga he worked as a teacher, but returned to Kazakhstan in 1937 so as not to fall under the machine of repression for his kulak origin. Participated in the Soviet-Finnish war. In 1942, while carrying out a reconnaissance mission on enemy territory, he was captured. Having joined the legion created by the Germans, he organized subversive work, as a result of which the 825th Tatar battalion went over to the side of the Belarusian partisans. After the organization was exposed, he was executed along with other underground fighters on August 25, 1944.

• Musa Jalil (1906-1944)

The life path of Musa Jalil - the path of a poet, soldier and freedom fighter, rightfully makes him the most recognizable Tatar hero of the turbulent twentieth century. His war poetry from the “Moabit Notebook” is known better than “Idegey” and “Chura-Batyr”. He is, of course, the most prominent member of the underground group in the Volga-Tatar Legion and the voice of all prisoners of war, whose quiet heroism did not fit into the official Stalinist understanding of the war. Jalil is clearer and closer to modern man than the epic heroes of the past, but his lines sometimes sound like medieval dastans.

Photo by Dmitry Reznov

Hiking again

• Marat Akhmetshin (1980-2016)

Palmyra became the ideological stage of the Syrian war. Militants from Daesh, banned in Russia, staged demonstration executions in the ancient amphitheater. In response to the barbaric methods of terrorists, on May 5, 2016, against the backdrop of the surviving treasures of the world's architectural heritage, the orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev gave a symphony concert. And on June 3, 2016, near Palmyra, a mortally wounded officer was found holding a grenade without a pin in his hand. The earth was burning all around. This officer was 35-year-old captain Marat Akhmetshin, whose family remained in Kazan. It is known that that day he was left alone with two hundred militants and fought to the last. Akhmetshin is a third generation military man. Graduated from the Kazan Artillery School. He served in Kabardino-Balkaria and at a military base in Armenia, and visited the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict. In 2010, after the disbandment of the unit, he retired to the reserve, but was reinstated in the army six months before his death. A Russian Tatar warrior was buried in the village of Atabaevo on the Kama River. For his feat he was awarded the title of Hero of Russia.

Mark Shishkin

Rus' 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 Rus', the date of standing on the Ugra River - 1480, is perceived as the most important event in our history. Although Rus' 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.

Mongol army

In the 12th century, 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 Genghis Khan by his nobility.

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 Rus' for help.

First meeting

There were 20 or 30 thousand soldiers in the Mongol army, it is not precisely established. They were led by Jebe and Subedei. They stopped at the Dnieper. And at this time, Khotchan persuaded the Galich prince Mstislav the Udal to oppose the invasion of the terrible cavalry. He was joined by Mstislav of Kiev 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. spoke alone. He was supported only by the remnants of the Cumans, but during the battle they fled. The princes who did not support Galician still had to fight the Mongols who attacked their fortified camp.

The battle lasted three days. Only by cunning and a promise not to take anyone prisoner did the Mongols enter the camp. But they didn’t keep their words. The Mongols tied up the Russian governors and princes 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 Kiev prince and his entourage died in agony. The year was 1223. The Mongols, without going into details, went back to Asia. In thirteen years they will return. And all these years in Rus' there was a fierce squabble between the princes. It completely undermined the strength of the Southwestern principalities.

Invasion

The grandson of Genghis Khan, Batu, with a huge half-million army, having conquered the Polovtsian lands in the east and the south, approached the Russian principalities in December 1237. His tactics were not to fight a big battle, but to attack separate units, smashing everyone one by one. Approaching the southern borders of the Ryazan principality, the Tatars ultimatively demanded tribute from him: a tenth of horses, people and princes. There were barely three thousand soldiers in Ryazan. They sent for help to Vladimir, but no help came. After six days of siege, Ryazan was taken.

The inhabitants were killed and the city was destroyed. This was the beginning. The end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke will occur in two hundred and forty difficult years. Next was Kolomna. There the Russian army was almost all killed. Moscow lies in ashes. But before that, someone who dreamed of returning to their native places buried a treasure of silver jewelry. It was found by accident during construction in the Kremlin in the 90s of the 20th century. Next was Vladimir. The Mongols spared neither women nor children and destroyed the city. Then Torzhok fell. But spring was coming, and, fearing muddy roads, the Mongols moved south. Northern swampy Rus' did not interest them. But the defending tiny Kozelsk stood in the way. For almost two months the city resisted fiercely. But reinforcements came to the Mongols with battering machines, and the city was taken. All the defenders were slaughtered and no stone was left unturned from the town. So, all of North-Eastern Rus' by 1238 lay in ruins. And who can doubt whether there was a Mongol-Tatar yoke in Rus'? From brief description It follows that there were wonderful good neighborly relations, doesn’t it?

Southwestern Rus'

Her turn came in 1239. Pereyaslavl, Principality of Chernigov, Kyiv, Vladimir-Volynsky, Galich - everything was destroyed, not to mention smaller cities and villages. And how far away is the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke! How much horror and destruction its beginning brought. The Mongols entered Dalmatia and Croatia. Western Europe trembled.

However, news from distant Mongolia forced the invaders to turn back. But they didn’t have enough strength for a second campaign. Europe was saved. But our Motherland, lying in ruins and bleeding, did not know when the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke would come.

Rus' 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 forests. Townspeople? Certainly. There were 74 cities in Rus', and 49 of them were destroyed by Batu, and 14 were never restored. Craftsmen were turned into slaves and exported. There was no continuity of skills in crafts, and the craft fell into decline. They forgot how to cast glassware, boil glass to make windows, and there was no more multi-colored ceramics or jewelry with cloisonné enamel. Masons and carvers disappeared, and stone construction stopped for 50 years. But it was hardest of all for those who repelled the attack with weapons in their hands - the feudal lords and warriors. Of the 12 Ryazan princes, three remained alive, of the 3 Rostov princes - one, of the 9 Suzdal princes - 4. But no one counted the losses in the squads. And there were no less of them. Professionals in military service were replaced by other people who were accustomed to being pushed around. So the princes began to have full power. This process subsequently, 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, Rus' fell under the complete political and economic oppression of the Horde. In order for the prince to legally inherit his throne, he had to go with gifts to the “free king,” as our princes called the khans, to the capital of the Horde. I had to stay there for quite a long time. 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 slave in order to retain his possessions.

The tribute to be paid by the principality was necessarily specified. At any moment, the khan could summon the prince to the Horde and even execute anyone he disliked. The Horde pursued a special policy with the princes, diligently fanning their feuds. The disunity of the princes and their principalities was to the advantage of the Mongols. The Horde itself gradually became a colossus with feet of clay. Centrifugal sentiments intensified within her. But this will be much later. And at first its unity is strong. After the death of Alexander Nevsky, his sons fiercely hate each other and fight fiercely for the Vladimir throne. Conventionally, reigning in Vladimir gave the prince seniority over everyone else. In addition, a decent plot of land was added to those who brought money to the treasury. And for the great reign of Vladimir in the Horde, a struggle flared up between the princes, sometimes to the death. This is how Rus' lived under the Mongol-Tatar yoke. The Horde troops practically did not stand in it. But if there was disobedience, punitive troops could always come and start cutting and burning everything.

The Rise of Moscow

The bloody feuds of the Russian princes among themselves led to the fact that during the period from 1275 to 1300, Mongol troops came to Rus' 15 times. Many principalities emerged from the strife weakened, and people fled to quieter places. Little Moscow turned out to be such a quiet principality. It went to the younger Daniel. He reigned from the age of 15 and pursued a cautious policy, trying not to quarrel with his neighbors, because he was too weak. And the Horde did not pay close attention to him. Thus, an impetus was given to the development of trade and enrichment in this area.

Settlers from troubled places poured into it. Over time, Daniil managed to annex Kolomna and Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, increasing his principality. His sons after his death continued their father's relatively quiet policy. Only the Tver princes saw them as potential rivals and tried, while 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 Tverskoy 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 Daniil seemed to have no chance of winning 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, Mongol raids on Russian lands stopped. Moscow and the people in it became richer. Cities grew and their population increased. An entire generation grew up in North-Eastern Rus' and stopped trembling at the mention of the Mongols. This brought closer the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Rus'.

Dmitry Donskoy

By the birth of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich in 1350, Moscow was already turning into the center of political, cultural and religious life in the northeast. The grandson of Ivan Kalita lived a short, 39 years, 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 defeated the punitive Mongol detachment between Ryazan and Kolomna. Mamai began to prepare a new campaign against Rus'. 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 gather a people's militia. And having received the blessing of the holy elder and two monks, at the end of 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 front ranks, was wounded, and was found with difficulty. But the Mongols were defeated and fled. Dmitry returned victorious. But the time has not yet come when the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Rus' will come. History says that another hundred years will pass under the yoke.

Strengthening Rus'

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 Suzdal and the Horde weakened, and was taken into account less and less. Vasily visited the Horde only twice in his life. But there was no unity within Rus' either. Riots broke out endlessly. Even at the wedding of Prince Vasily II a scandal broke out. One of the guests was wearing the gold belt of Dmitry Donskoy. When the bride found out about this, she publicly tore it off, causing an insult. But the belt was not just a piece of jewelry. He was a symbol of the grand ducal power. During the reign of Vasily II (1425-1453), feudal wars took place. The Moscow prince was captured, blinded, his entire 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 young Ivan became his co-ruler, who, after the death of his father, would become the liberator of the country and receive the nickname the Great.

The end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Rus'

In 1462, the legitimate ruler Ivan III ascended the Moscow throne, who would become a transformer and reformer. He carefully and prudently united the Russian lands. He annexed Tver, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Perm, and even obstinate Novgorod recognized him as sovereign. He made the double-headed Byzantine eagle his coat of arms and began building the Kremlin. This is exactly how we know him. Since 1476, Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Horde. A beautiful but untrue legend tells how this happened. Having received the Horde embassy, Grand Duke trampled the Basma and sent a warning to the Horde that the same thing would happen to them if they did not leave his country alone. The enraged Khan Ahmed, having gathered a large army, moved towards Moscow, wanting to punish her for disobedience. About 150 km from Moscow, near the Ugra River on Kaluga lands, two troops stood opposite each other in the fall. The Russian was headed by Vasily's son, Ivan the Young.

Ivan III returned to Moscow and began supplying the army with food and fodder. So the troops stood opposite each other until early winter came with lack of food and buried all of Ahmed’s plans. The Mongols turned around and went to the Horde, admitting defeat. This is how the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke took place bloodlessly. Its date is 1480 - a great event in our history.

The meaning of the fall of the yoke

Having suspended the political, economic and cultural development of Rus' for a long time, the yoke pushed the country to the margins of European history. When in Western Europe The Renaissance began and flourished in all areas, when the national identities of peoples took shape, when countries became rich and flourished with trade, sent a naval fleet in search of new lands, there was darkness in Rus'. Columbus discovered America already in 1492. For Europeans, the Earth was growing rapidly. For us, the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Rus' marked the opportunity to leave the narrow medieval framework, change laws, reform the army, build cities and develop new lands. In short, Rus' gained independence and began to be called Russia.

o (Mongol-Tatar, Tatar-Mongol, Horde) - the traditional name for the system of exploitation of Russian lands by nomadic conquerors who came from the East from 1237 to 1480.

This system was aimed at carrying out mass terror and robbing the Russian people by levying cruel exactions. She acted primarily in the interests of the Mongolian nomadic military-feudal nobility (noyons), in whose favor the lion's share of the collected tribute went.

The Mongol-Tatar yoke was established as a result of the invasion of Batu Khan in the 13th century. Until the early 1260s, Rus' was under the rule of the great Mongol khans, and then the khans of the Golden Horde.

The Russian principalities were not directly part of the Mongol state and retained the local princely administration, the activities of which were controlled by the Baskaks - the khan's representatives in the conquered lands. The Russian princes were tributaries of the Mongol khans and received from them labels for ownership of their principalities. Formally, the Mongol-Tatar yoke was established in 1243, when Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich received from the Mongols a label for the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. Rus', according to the label, lost the right to fight and had to regularly pay tribute to the khans twice annually (in spring and autumn).

There was no permanent Mongol-Tatar army on the territory of Rus'. The yoke was supported by punitive campaigns and repressions against rebellious princes. The regular flow of tribute from Russian lands began after the census of 1257-1259, conducted by Mongol “numerals”. The units of taxation were: in cities - yard, in rural areas - “village”, “plow”, “plough”. Only the clergy were exempt from tribute. The main “Horde burdens” were: “exit”, or “tsar’s tribute” - a tax directly for the Mongol khan; trade fees (“myt”, “tamka”); carriage duties (“pits”, “carts”); maintenance of the khan's ambassadors (“food”); various “gifts” and “honors” to the khan, his relatives and associates. Every year, a huge amount of silver left the Russian lands as tribute. Large “requests” for military and other needs were periodically collected. In addition, the Russian princes were obliged, by order of the khan, to send soldiers to participate in campaigns and in round-up hunts (“lovitva”). In the late 1250s and early 1260s, tribute was collected from the Russian principalities by Muslim merchants (“besermen”), who bought this right from the great Mongol Khan. Most of the tribute went to the Great Khan in Mongolia. During the uprisings of 1262, the “besermans” were expelled from Russian cities, and the responsibility for collecting tribute passed to the local princes.

Rus''s struggle against the yoke became increasingly widespread. In 1285, Grand Duke Dmitry Alexandrovich (son of Alexander Nevsky) defeated and expelled the army of the “Horde prince”. At the end of the 13th - first quarter of the 14th century, performances in Russian cities led to the elimination of the Baskas. With the strengthening of the Moscow principality, the Tatar yoke gradually weakened. Moscow Prince Ivan Kalita (reigned in 1325-1340) achieved the right to collect “exit” from all Russian principalities. From the middle of the 14th century, the orders of the khans of the Golden Horde, not supported by a real military threat, were no longer carried out by the Russian princes. Dmitry Donskoy (1359-1389) did not recognize the khan's labels issued to his rivals and seized the Grand Duchy of Vladimir by force. In 1378 he defeated Tatar army on the Vozha River in the Ryazan land, and in 1380 he defeated the Golden Horde ruler Mamai in the Battle of Kulikovo.

However, after Tokhtamysh’s campaign and the capture of Moscow in 1382, Rus' was forced to again recognize the power of the Golden Horde and pay tribute, but already Vasily I Dmitrievich (1389-1425) received the great reign of Vladimir without the khan’s label, as “his patrimony.” Under him, the yoke was nominal. Tribute was paid irregularly, and the Russian princes pursued independent policies. The attempt of the Golden Horde ruler Edigei (1408) to restore full power over Russia ended in failure: he failed to take Moscow. The strife that began in the Golden Horde opened up the possibility for Russia to overthrow the Tatar yoke.

However, in the middle of the 15th century, Muscovite Rus' itself experienced a period of internecine war, which weakened its military potential. During these years, the Tatar rulers organized a series of devastating invasions, but they were no longer able to bring the Russians to complete submission. The unification of Russian lands around Moscow led to the concentration in the hands of the Moscow princes of such political power that the weakening Tatar khans could not cope with. The Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III Vasilyevich (1462-1505) refused to pay tribute in 1476. In 1480, after the unsuccessful campaign of the Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat and “standing on the Ugra”, the yoke was finally overthrown.

The Mongol-Tatar yoke had negative, regressive consequences for the economic, political and cultural development of Russian lands, and was a brake on the growth of the productive forces of Rus', which were at a higher social level. economic level compared with the productive forces of the Mongolian state. It artificially preserved for a long time the purely feudal natural character of the economy. Politically, the consequences of the yoke were manifested in the violation natural process state development of Rus', in artificially maintaining its fragmentation. The Mongol-Tatar yoke, which lasted two and a half centuries, was one of the reasons for the economic, political and cultural lag of Rus' from Western European countries.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources.

Most history textbooks say that in the 13th-15th centuries Rus' suffered from the Mongol-Tatar yoke. However, in Lately More and more often are the voices of those who doubt that the invasion took place at all? Did huge hordes of nomads really surge into 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 Dlugosz in 1479 called the time of existence of the Golden Horde this way. He was followed in 1517 by the historian Matvey Miechowski, who worked at the University of Krakow. This interpretation of the relationship between Rus' 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 themselves in the Horde troops. It’s just that in Europe the name of this Asian people was well known, and therefore it spread to the Mongols. Meanwhile, Genghis Khan tried to exterminate the entire Tatar tribe, defeating their army in 1202.

The first census of Rus'

The first population census in the history of Rus' was carried out by representatives of the Horde. They had to collect accurate information about the inhabitants of each principality and their class affiliation. The main reason for such interest in statistics on the part of the Mongols was the need to calculate the amount of taxes imposed on their subjects.

In 1246, a census took place in Kyiv and Chernigov, the Ryazan principality was subjected to statistical analysis in 1257, the Novgorodians were counted two years later, and the population of the Smolensk region - in 1275.

Moreover, the inhabitants of Rus' raised popular uprisings and drove out the so-called “besermen” who were collecting tribute for the khans of Mongolia from their land. But the governors of the rulers of the Golden Horde, called Baskaks, for a long time lived and worked in the Russian principalities, sending collected taxes to Sarai-Batu, and later to Sarai-Berke.

Joint hikes

Princely squads and Horde warriors often carried out joint military campaigns, both against other Russians and against residents of Eastern Europe. Thus, in the period 1258-1287, the troops of the Mongols and Galician princes regularly attacked Poland, Hungary and Lithuania. And in 1277, the Russians took part in the Mongol military campaign in the North Caucasus, helping their allies conquer Alanya.

In 1333, Muscovites stormed Novgorod, and the next year the Bryansk squad marched on Smolensk. Each time, Horde troops also took part in these internecine battles. In addition, they regularly helped the great princes of Tver, considered at that time the main rulers of Rus', to pacify the rebellious neighboring lands.

The basis of the horde were Russians

The Arab traveler Ibn Battuta, who visited the city of Saray-Berke in 1334, wrote in his essay “A Gift to Those Contemplating the Wonders of Cities and the Wonders of Travel” 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 20th century. According to the researcher, most of the Horde troops were the so-called Brodniks - ethnic Slavs who inhabited the Azov region and the Don steppes. These predecessors of the Cossacks did not want to obey the princes, so they moved to the south for the sake of a free life. The name of this ethnosocial group probably comes from the Russian word “wander” (wander).

As is known from chronicle sources, in the Battle of Kalka in 1223, the Brodniks, led by the governor Ploskyna, fought on the side of the Mongol troops. Perhaps his knowledge of the tactics and strategy of the princely squads had great importance to defeat the united Russian-Polovtsian forces.

In addition, it was Ploskynya who, by cunning, lured out the ruler of Kyiv, Mstislav Romanovich, along with two Turov-Pinsk princes and handed them over to the Mongols for execution.

However, most historians believe that the Mongols forced Russians to serve in their army, i.e. the invaders forcibly armed representatives of the enslaved people. Although this seems implausible.

And a senior researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Marina Poluboyarinova, in the book “Russian People in the Golden Horde” (Moscow, 1978) suggested: “Probably, the forced participation of Russian soldiers in the Tatar army later ceased. There were mercenaries left who had already voluntarily joined the Tatar troops.”

Caucasian invaders

Yesugei-Baghatur, the father of Genghis Khan, was a representative of the Borjigin clan of the Mongolian Kiyat tribe. According to the descriptions of many eyewitnesses, both he and his legendary son were tall, fair-skinned people with reddish hair.

The Persian scientist Rashid ad-Din wrote in his work “Collection of Chronicles” (beginning of the 14th century) 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 Caucasians. It is likely that representatives of this race predominated among other invaders.

There weren't many of them

We are accustomed to believe that in the 13th century Rus' was invaded by countless hordes of Mongol-Tatars. Some historians talk about 500,000 troops. However, it is not. After all, even the population of modern Mongolia barely exceeds 3 million people, and if we take into account the brutal genocide of fellow tribesmen committed by Genghis Khan on his way to power, the size of his army could not be so impressive.

It is difficult to imagine how to feed an army of half a million, moreover, traveling on horses. The animals simply would not have enough pasture. But each Mongolian horseman brought with him at least three horses. Now imagine a herd of 1.5 million. The horses of the warriors riding at the forefront of the army would eat and trample everything they could. The remaining horses would have starved to death.

According to the most daring estimates, the army of Genghis Khan and Batu could not have exceeded 30 thousand horsemen. While the population Ancient Rus', according to the historian Georgy Vernadsky (1887-1973), before the invasion there were about 7.5 million people.

Bloodless executions

The Mongols, like most peoples of that time, executed people who were not noble or disrespected by cutting off their heads. However, if the condemned person enjoyed authority, then his spine was broken and left to slowly die.

The Mongols were sure that blood was the seat of the soul. To shed it means to complicate the afterlife path of the deceased to other worlds. Bloodless execution was applied to rulers, political and military figures, and shamans.

The reason for a 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 steppe

The method of burial of a Mongol also directly depended on his social status. Rich and influential people found peace in special burials, in which valuables, gold and silver jewelry, and household items were buried along with the bodies of the dead. And the poor and ordinary soldiers killed in battle were often simply left in the steppe, where their life’s journey ended.

In the alarming conditions of nomadic life, consisting of regular skirmishes with enemies, it was difficult to organize funeral rites. The Mongols often had to move on quickly, without delay.

It was believed that the corpse worthy person will be quickly eaten by scavengers and vultures. But if birds and animals did not touch the body for a long time, according to popular beliefs, this meant that the soul of the deceased had a grave sin.

1243 - After the defeat of Northern Rus' by the Mongol-Tatars and the death of the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich (1188-1238x), Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (1190-1246+) remained the eldest in the family, who became the Grand Duke.
Returning from the western campaign, Batu summons Grand Duke Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich of Vladimir-Suzdal to the Horde and presents him at the Khan's headquarters in Sarai with a label (sign of permission) for the great reign in Rus': “You will be older than all the princes in the Russian language.”
This is how the unilateral act of vassal submission of Rus' to the Golden Horde was carried out and legally formalized.
Rus', according to the label, lost the right to fight and had to regularly pay tribute to the khans twice annually (in spring and autumn). Baskaks (governors) were sent to the Russian principalities - their capitals - to oversee the strict collection of tribute and compliance with its amounts.
1243-1252 - This decade was a time when Horde troops and officials did not bother Rus', receiving timely tribute and expressions of external submission. During this period, the Russian princes assessed the current situation and developed their own line of behavior in relation to the Horde.
Two lines of Russian policy:
1. The line of systematic partisan resistance and continuous “spot” uprisings: (“to run away, not to serve the king”) - led. book Andrey I Yaroslavich, Yaroslav III Yaroslavich and others.
2. Line of complete, unquestioning submission to the Horde (Alexander Nevsky and most other princes). Many appanage princes (Uglitsky, Yaroslavl, and especially Rostov) established relations with the Mongol khans, who left them to “rule and rule.” The princes preferred to recognize the supreme power of the Horde khan and donate part of the feudal rent collected from the dependent population to the conquerors, rather than risk losing their reigns (See “On the arrivals of Russian princes to the Horde”). The Orthodox Church pursued the same policy.
1252 Invasion of the "Nevryuev Army" The first after 1239 in North-Eastern Rus' - Reasons for the invasion: To punish Grand Duke Andrei I Yaroslavich for disobedience and to speed up the full payment of tribute.
Horde forces: Nevryu’s army had a significant number - at least 10 thousand people. and a maximum of 20-25 thousand. This indirectly follows from the title of Nevryuya (prince) and the presence in his army of two wings led by temniks - Yelabuga (Olabuga) and Kotiy, as well as from the fact that Nevryuya’s army was able to disperse throughout the Vladimir-Suzdal principality and "comb" it!
Russian forces: Consisted of regiments of the prince. Andrei (i.e. regular troops) and the squad (volunteer and security detachments) of the Tver governor Zhiroslav, sent by the Tver prince Yaroslav Yaroslavich to help his brother. These forces were an order of magnitude smaller than the Horde in number, i.e. 1.5-2 thousand people.
Progress of the invasion: Having crossed the Klyazma River near Vladimir, Nevryu’s punitive army hastily headed to Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, where the prince took refuge. Andrei, and, having overtaken the prince’s army, defeated him completely. The Horde plundered and destroyed the city, and then occupied the entire Vladimir land and, returning to the Horde, “combed” it.
Results of the invasion: The Horde army rounded up and captured tens of thousands of captive peasants (for sale in eastern markets) and hundreds of thousands of heads of livestock and took them to the Horde. Book Andrei and the remnants of his squad fled to the Novgorod Republic, which refused to give him asylum, fearing Horde reprisals. Fearing that one of his “friends” would hand him over to the Horde, Andrei fled to Sweden. Thus, the first attempt to resist the Horde failed. The Russian princes abandoned the line of resistance and leaned towards the line of obedience.
Alexander Nevsky received the label for the great reign.
1255 The first complete census of the population of North-Eastern Rus', carried out by the Horde - Accompanied by spontaneous unrest of the local population, scattered, unorganized, but united general requirement masses: “don’t give numbers to the Tatars,” i.e. do not provide them with any data that could form the basis for a fixed payment of tribute.
Other authors indicate other dates for the census (1257-1259)
1257 Attempt to conduct a census in Novgorod - In 1255, a census was not carried out in Novgorod. In 1257, this measure was accompanied by an uprising of the Novgorodians, the expulsion of the Horde “counters” from the city, which led to the complete failure of the attempt to collect tribute.
1259 Embassy of the Murzas Berke and Kasachik to Novgorod - The punitive-control army of the Horde ambassadors - the Murzas Berke and Kasachik - was sent to Novgorod to collect tribute and prevent anti-Horde protests by the population. Novgorod, as always in case of military danger, yielded to force and traditionally paid off, and also gave an obligation to pay tribute annually, without reminders or pressure, “voluntarily” determining its size, without drawing up census documents, in exchange for a guarantee of absence from the city Horde collectors.
1262 Meeting of representatives of Russian cities to discuss measures to resist the Horde - A decision was made to simultaneously expel tribute collectors - representatives of the Horde administration in the cities of Rostov the Great, Vladimir, Suzdal, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl, where anti-Horde popular protests take place. These riots were suppressed by Horde military detachments at the disposal of the Baskaks. But nevertheless, the khan’s government took into account 20 years of experience in repeating such spontaneous rebellious outbreaks and abandoned the Baskas, from now on transferring the collection of tribute into the hands of the Russian, princely administration.

Since 1263, the Russian princes themselves began to bring tribute to the Horde.
Thus, the formal moment, as in the case of Novgorod, turned out to be decisive. The Russians did not so much resist the fact of paying tribute and its size as they were offended by the foreign composition of the collectors. They were ready to pay more, but to “their” princes and their administration. The Khan's authorities quickly realized the benefits of such a decision for the Horde:
firstly, the absence of your own troubles,
secondly, a guarantee of an end to the uprisings and complete obedience of the Russians.
thirdly, the presence of specific responsible persons (princes), who could always easily, conveniently and even “legally” be brought to justice, punished for failure to pay tribute, and not have to deal with intractable spontaneous popular uprisings of thousands of people.
This is a very early manifestation of a specifically Russian social and individual psychology, for which the visible is important, not the essential, and which is always ready to make actually important, serious, substantial concessions in exchange for visible, superficial, external, “toy” and imaginary prestigious ones, will be repeated many times throughout Russian history right up to the present time.
The Russian people are easy to persuade, to appease with petty handouts, trifles, but they cannot be irritated. Then he becomes stubborn, intractable and reckless, and sometimes even angry.
But you can literally take it with your bare hands, wrap it around your finger, if you immediately give in to some trifle. The Mongols, like the first Horde khans - Batu and Berke, understood this well.

I cannot agree with V. Pokhlebkin’s unfair and humiliating generalization. You should not consider your ancestors as stupid, gullible savages and judge them from the “height” of 700 past years. There were numerous anti-Horde protests - they were suppressed, presumably, cruelly, not only by the Horde troops, but also by their own princes. But the transfer of the collection of tribute (from which it was simply impossible to free oneself in those conditions) to the Russian princes was not a “petty concession”, but an important, fundamental point. Unlike a number of other countries conquered by the Horde, North-Eastern Rus' retained its political and social system. There was never a permanent Mongol administration on Russian soil; under the painful yoke, Rus' managed to maintain the conditions for its independent development, although not without the influence of the Horde. An example of the opposite kind is the Volga Bulgaria, which, under the Horde, was ultimately unable to preserve not only its own ruling dynasty and name, but also the ethnic continuity of the population.

Later, the khan’s power itself became smaller, lost state wisdom and gradually, through its mistakes, “raised” from Rus' its enemy as insidious and prudent as itself. But in the 60s of the 13th century. this finale was still far away - two whole centuries. In the meantime, the Horde manipulated the Russian princes and, through them, all of Russia, as it wanted. (He who laughs last laughs best - isn't it?)

1272 Second Horde census in Rus' - Under the leadership and supervision of the Russian princes, the Russian local administration, it took place peacefully, calmly, without a hitch. After all, it was carried out by “Russian people”, and the population was calm.
It’s a pity that the census results were not preserved, or maybe I just don’t know?

And the fact that it was carried out according to the Khan’s orders, that the Russian princes delivered its data to the Horde and this data directly served the Horde’s economic and political interests - all this was “behind the scenes” for the people, all this “did not concern” them and did not interest them . The appearance that the census was taking place “without Tatars” was more important than the essence, i.e. the strengthening of the tax oppression that came on its basis, the impoverishment of the population, and its suffering. All this “was not visible,” and therefore, according to Russian ideas, this means that... it did not happen.
Moreover, in just three decades since enslavement, Russian society, essentially, got used to the fact of the Horde yoke, and the fact that it was isolated from direct contact with representatives of the Horde and entrusted these contacts exclusively to the princes completely satisfied him, as ordinary people, and nobles.
The proverb “out of sight, out of mind” explains this situation very accurately and correctly. As is clear from the chronicles of that time, the lives of saints and patristic and other religious literature, which was a reflection of the prevailing ideas, Russians of all classes and conditions had no desire to get to know their enslavers better, to get acquainted with “what they breathe,” what they think, how they think as they understand themselves and Rus'. They were seen as “God’s punishment” sent down to the Russian land for sins. If they had not sinned, if they had not angered God, there would not have been such disasters - this is the starting point of all explanations on the part of the authorities and the church of the then “international situation”. It is not difficult to see that this position is not only very, very passive, but that, in addition, it actually removes the blame for the enslavement of Rus' from both the Mongol-Tatars and the Russian princes who allowed such a yoke, and shifts it entirely onto the people who found themselves enslaved and suffered more than anyone else from this.
Based on the thesis of sinfulness, the churchmen called on the Russian people not to resist the invaders, but, on the contrary, to their own repentance and submission to the “Tatars”; they not only did not condemn the Horde power, but also... set it as an example to their flock. This was direct payment on the part of the Orthodox Church for the enormous privileges granted to it by the khans - exemption from taxes and levies, ceremonial receptions of metropolitans in the Horde, the establishment in 1261 of a special Sarai diocese and permission to erect Orthodox church directly opposite the Khan's Headquarters*.

*) After the collapse of the Horde, at the end of the 15th century. the entire staff of the Sarai diocese was retained and transferred to Moscow, to the Krutitsky monastery, and the Sarai bishops received the title of metropolitans of Sarai and Podonsk, and then of Krutitsky and Kolomna, i.e. formally they were equal in rank with the metropolitans of Moscow and All Rus', although they were no longer engaged in any real church-political activities. This historical and decorative post was eliminated only in late XVIII V. (1788) [Note. V. Pokhlebkina]

It should be noted that on the threshold of the 21st century. we are going through a similar situation. Modern “princes,” like the princes of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus', are trying to exploit the ignorance and slave psychology of the people and even cultivate it, not without the help of the same church.

At the end of the 70s of the 13th century. The period of temporary calm from Horde unrest in Rus' ends, explained by ten years of emphasized submission of the Russian princes and the church. The internal needs of the Horde economy, which made constant profits from the trade in slaves (captured during the war) in the eastern (Iranian, Turkish and Arab) markets, require a new influx of funds, and therefore in 1277-1278. The Horde twice makes local raids into the border Russian borders solely to remove the Polonians.
It is significant that it is not the central khan’s administration and its military forces that take part in this, but regional, ulus authorities in the peripheral areas of the Horde’s territory, solving their local, local economic problems with these raids, and therefore strictly limiting both place and time (very short, calculated in weeks) of these military actions.

1277 - A raid on the lands of the Galicia-Volyn principality is carried out by detachments from the western Dniester-Dnieper regions of the Horde, which were under the rule of the Temnik Nogai.
1278 - A similar local raid follows from the Volga region to Ryazan, and it is limited only to this principality.

During the next decade - in the 80s and early 90s of the 13th century. - new processes are taking place in Russian-Horde relations.
The Russian princes, having become accustomed to the new situation over the previous 25-30 years and essentially deprived of any control from domestic authorities, begin to settle their petty feudal scores with each other with the help of the Horde military force.
Just like in the 12th century. The Chernigov and Kyiv princes fought with each other, calling the Polovtsians to Rus', and the princes of North-Eastern Rus' fought in the 80s of the 13th century. with each other for power, relying on Horde troops, which they invite to plunder the principalities of their political opponents, i.e., in fact, they coldly call on foreign troops to devastate the areas inhabited by their Russian compatriots.

1281 - The son of Alexander Nevsky, Andrei II Alexandrovich, Prince Gorodetsky, invites the Horde army against his brother led. Dmitry I Alexandrovich and his allies. This army is organized by Khan Tuda-Mengu, who simultaneously gives Andrew II the label for the great reign, even before the outcome of the military clash.
Dmitry I, fleeing from the Khan's troops, fled first to Tver, then to Novgorod, and from there to his possession on Novgorod land - Koporye. But the Novgorodians, declaring themselves loyal to the Horde, do not allow Dmitry to enter his estate and, taking advantage of its location inside the Novgorod lands, force the prince to tear down all its fortifications and ultimately force Dmitry I to flee from Rus' to Sweden, threatening to hand him over to the Tatars.
The Horde army (Kavgadai and Alchegey), under the pretext of persecuting Dmitry I, relying on the permission of Andrew II, passes through and devastates several Russian principalities - Vladimir, Tver, Suzdal, Rostov, Murom, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky and their capitals. The Horde reached Torzhok, practically occupying all of North-Eastern Rus' to the borders of the Novgorod Republic.
The length of the entire territory from Murom to Torzhok (from east to west) was 450 km, and from south to north - 250-280 km, i.e. almost 120 thousand square kilometers that were devastated by military operations. This turns the Russian population of the devastated principalities against Andrew II, and his formal “reign” after the flight of Dmitry I does not bring peace.
Dmitry I returns to Pereyaslavl and prepares for revenge, Andrei II goes to the Horde with a request for help, and his allies - Svyatoslav Yaroslavich Tverskoy, Daniil Alexandrovich Moskovsky and the Novgorodians - go to Dmitry I and make peace with him.
1282 - Andrew II comes from the Horde with Tatar regiments led by Turai-Temir and Ali, reaches Pereyaslavl and again expels Dmitry, who flees this time to the Black Sea, into the possession of Temnik Nogai (who at that time was the de facto ruler of the Golden Horde) , and, playing on the contradictions between Nogai and the Sarai khans, brings the troops given by Nogai to Rus' and forces Andrei II to return the great reign to him.
The price of this “restoration of justice” is very high: Nogai officials are left to collect tribute in Kursk, Lipetsk, Rylsk; Rostov and Murom are again being ruined. The conflict between the two princes (and the allies who joined them) continues throughout the 80s and early 90s.
1285 - Andrew II again travels to the Horde and brings from there a new punitive detachment of the Horde, led by one of the khan’s sons. However, Dmitry I manages to successfully and quickly defeat this detachment.

Thus, the first victory of Russian troops over the regular Horde troops was won in 1285, and not in 1378, on the Vozha River, as is usually believed.
It is not surprising that Andrew II stopped turning to the Horde for help in subsequent years.
The Horde themselves sent small predatory expeditions to Rus' in the late 80s:

1287 - Raid on Vladimir.
1288 - Raid on Ryazan and Murom and Mordovian lands. These two raids (short-term) were of a specific, local nature and were aimed at plundering property and capturing polyanyans. They were provoked by a denunciation or complaint from the Russian princes.
1292 - “Dedeneva’s army” to the Vladimir land Andrei Gorodetsky, together with princes Dmitry Borisovich Rostovsky, Konstantin Borisovich Uglitsky, Mikhail Glebovich Belozersky, Fyodor Yaroslavsky and Bishop Tarasius, went to the Horde to complain about Dmitry I Alexandrovich.
Khan Tokhta, having listened to the complainants, dispatched a significant army under the leadership of his brother Tudan (in Russian chronicles - Deden) to conduct a punitive expedition.
"Dedeneva's army" marched throughout Vladimir Rus', ravaging the capital of Vladimir and 14 other cities: Murom, Suzdal, Gorokhovets, Starodub, Bogolyubov, Yuryev-Polsky, Gorodets, Uglechepol (Uglich), Yaroslavl, Nerekhta, Ksnyatin, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky , Rostov, Dmitrov.
In addition to them, only 7 cities that lay outside the route of movement of Tudan’s detachments remained untouched by the invasion: Kostroma, Tver, Zubtsov, Moscow, Galich Mersky, Unzha, Nizhny Novgorod.
On the approach to Moscow (or near Moscow), Tudan’s army divided into two detachments, one of which headed to Kolomna, i.e. to the south, and the other to the west: to Zvenigorod, Mozhaisk, Volokolamsk.
In Volokolamsk, the Horde army received gifts from the Novgorodians, who hastened to bring and present gifts to the khan’s brother far from their lands. Tudan did not go to Tver, but returned to Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, which was made a base where all the looted booty was brought and prisoners were concentrated.
This campaign was a significant pogrom of Rus'. It is possible that Tudan and his army also passed through Klin, Serpukhov, and Zvenigorod, which were not named in the chronicles. Thus, its area of ​​​​operation covered about two dozen cities.
1293 - In winter, a new Horde detachment appeared near Tver under the leadership of Toktemir, who came with punitive purposes at the request of one of the princes to restore order in feudal strife. He had limited goals, and the chronicles do not describe his route and time of stay on Russian territory.
In any case, the entire year of 1293 passed under the sign of another Horde pogrom, the cause of which was exclusively the feudal rivalry of the princes. They were the main reason for the Horde repressions that fell on the Russian people.

1294-1315 Two decades pass without any Horde invasions.
The princes regularly pay tribute, the people, frightened and impoverished from previous robberies, are slowly healing from economic and human losses. Only the accession to the throne of the extremely powerful and active Uzbek Khan opens a new period of pressure on Rus'
The main idea of ​​Uzbek is to achieve complete disunity of the Russian princes and turn them into continuously warring factions. Hence his plan - the transfer of the great reign to the weakest and most unwarlike prince - Moscow (under Khan Uzbek, the Moscow prince was Yuri Danilovich, who challenged the great reign from Mikhail Yaroslavich Tver) and the weakening of the former rulers of the "strong principalities" - Rostov, Vladimir, Tver.
To ensure the collection of tribute, Uzbek Khan practices sending, together with the prince, who received instructions in the Horde, special envoys-ambassadors, accompanied by military detachments numbering several thousand people (sometimes there were up to 5 temniks!). Each prince collects tribute on the territory of a rival principality.
From 1315 to 1327, i.e. over 12 years, Uzbek sent 9 military “embassies”. Their functions were not diplomatic, but military-punitive (police) and partly military-political (pressure on princes).

1315 - “Ambassadors” of Uzbek accompany Grand Duke Mikhail of Tverskoy (see Table of Ambassadors), and their detachments plunder Rostov and Torzhok, near which they defeat detachments of Novgorodians.
1317 - Horde punitive detachments accompany Yuri of Moscow and plunder Kostroma, and then try to rob Tver, but suffer a severe defeat.
1319 - Kostroma and Rostov are robbed again.
1320 - Rostov becomes a victim of robbery for the third time, but Vladimir is mostly destroyed.
1321 - Tribute is extorted from Kashin and the Kashin principality.
1322 - Yaroslavl and the cities of the Nizhny Novgorod principality are subjected to a punitive action to collect tribute.
1327 “Shchelkanov’s Army” - Novgorodians, frightened by the Horde’s activity, “voluntarily” pay a tribute of 2,000 rubles in silver to the Horde.
The famous attack of Chelkan’s (Cholpan’s) detachment on Tver takes place, known in the chronicles as the “Shchelkanov invasion”, or “Shchelkanov’s army”. It causes an unprecedentedly decisive uprising of the townspeople and the destruction of the “ambassador” and his detachment. “Schelkan” himself is burned in the hut.
1328 - A special punitive expedition follows against Tver under the leadership of three ambassadors - Turalyk, Syuga and Fedorok - and with 5 temniks, i.e. an entire army, which the chronicle defines as a “great army.” Along with the 50,000-strong Horde army, Moscow princely detachments also took part in the destruction of Tver.

From 1328 to 1367, “great silence” sets in for 40 years.
It is a direct result of three circumstances:
1. Complete defeat of the Tver principality as a rival of Moscow and thereby eliminating the causes of military-political rivalry in Rus'.
2. Timely collection of tribute by Ivan Kalita, who in the eyes of the khans becomes an exemplary executor of the Horde’s fiscal orders and, in addition, expresses exceptional political obedience to it, and, finally
3. The result of the understanding by the Horde rulers that the Russian population had matured in its determination to fight the enslavers and therefore it was necessary to apply other forms of pressure and consolidation of the dependence of Rus', other than punitive ones.
As for the use of some princes against others, this measure no longer seems universal in the face of possible popular uprisings uncontrolled by the “tame princes.” A turning point is coming in Russian-Horde relations.
Punitive campaigns (invasions) into the central regions of North-Eastern Rus' with the inevitable ruin of its population have since ceased.
At the same time, short-term raids with predatory (but not ruinous) purposes on peripheral areas of Russian territory, raids on local, limited areas continue to take place and are preserved as the most favorite and safest for the Horde, one-sided short-term military-economic action.

A new phenomenon in the period from 1360 to 1375 were retaliatory raids, or more precisely, campaigns of Russian armed detachments in peripheral lands dependent on the Horde, bordering with Russia - mainly in the Bulgars.

1347 - A raid is made on the city of Aleksin, a border town on the Moscow-Horde border along the Oka
1360 - The first raid is made by Novgorod ushkuiniki on the city of Zhukotin.
1365 - The Horde prince Tagai raids the Ryazan principality.
1367 - The troops of Prince Temir-Bulat invade the Nizhny Novgorod principality with a raid, especially intensively in the border strip along the Piana River.
1370 - A new Horde raid follows on the Ryazan principality in the area of ​​the Moscow-Ryazan border. But the Horde troops stationed there were not allowed to cross the Oka River by Prince Dmitry IV Ivanovich. And the Horde, in turn, noticing the resistance, did not strive to overcome it and limited themselves to reconnaissance.
The raid-invasion is carried out by Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Nizhny Novgorod on the lands of the “parallel” khan of Bulgaria - Bulat-Temir;
1374 Anti-Horde uprising in Novgorod - The reason was the arrival of Horde ambassadors, accompanied by a large armed retinue of 1000 people. This is common at the beginning of the 14th century. the escort was, however, regarded in the last quarter of the same century as a dangerous threat and provoked an armed attack by the Novgorodians on the “embassy”, during which both the “ambassadors” and their guards were completely destroyed.
A new raid by the Ushkuiniks, who rob not only the city of Bulgar, but are not afraid to penetrate to Astrakhan.
1375 - Horde raid on the city of Kashin, brief and local.
1376 2nd campaign against the Bulgars - The combined Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod army prepared and carried out the 2nd campaign against the Bulgars, and took an indemnity of 5,000 silver rubles from the city. This attack, unheard of in 130 years of Russian-Horde relations, by Russians on a territory dependent on the Horde, naturally provokes a retaliatory military action.
1377 Massacre on the Pyana River - On the border Russian-Horde territory, on the Pyana River, where Nizhny Novgorod princes They were preparing a new raid on the Mordovian lands that lay across the river, dependent on the Horde, they were attacked by a detachment of Prince Arapsha (Arab Shah, Khan of the Blue Horde) and suffered a crushing defeat.
On August 2, 1377, the united militia of the princes of Suzdal, Pereyaslavl, Yaroslavl, Yuryevsky, Murom and Nizhny Novgorod was completely killed, and the “commander-in-chief” Prince Ivan Dmitrievich of Nizhny Novgorod drowned in the river, trying to escape, along with his personal squad and his “headquarters” . This defeat of the Russian army was explained to a large extent by their loss of vigilance due to many days of drunkenness.
Having destroyed the Russian army, the troops of Tsarevich Arapsha raided the capitals of the unlucky warrior princes - Nizhny Novgorod, Murom and Ryazan - and subjected them to complete plunder and burning to the ground.
1378 Battle of the Vozha River - In the 13th century. after such a defeat, the Russians usually lost any desire to resist the Horde troops for 10-20 years, but at the end of the 14th century. The situation has completely changed:
already in 1378, the ally of the princes defeated in the battle on the Pyana River, Moscow Grand Duke Dmitry IV Ivanovich, having learned that the Horde troops who had burned Nizhny Novgorod intended to go to Moscow under the command of Murza Begich, decided to meet them on the border of his principality on the Oka and not allow to the capital.
On August 11, 1378, a battle took place on the bank of the right tributary of the Oka, the Vozha River, in the Ryazan principality. Dmitry divided his army into three parts and, at the head of the main regiment, attacked the Horde army from the front, while Prince Daniil Pronsky and Okolnichy Timofey Vasilyevich attacked the Tatars from the flanks, in the girth. The Horde were completely defeated and fled across the Vozha River, losing many killed and carts, which Russian troops captured the next day, rushing to pursue the Tatars.
The Battle of the Vozha River had enormous moral and military significance as a dress rehearsal for the Battle of Kulikovo, which followed two years later.
1380 Battle of Kulikovo - The Battle of Kulikovo was the first serious, specially prepared battle in advance, and not random and improvised, like all previous military clashes between Russian and Horde troops.
1382 Tokhtamysh's invasion of Moscow - The defeat of Mamai's army on the Kulikovo field and his flight to Kafa and death in 1381 allowed the energetic Khan Tokhtamysh to end the power of the Temniks in the Horde and reunite it into a single state, eliminating the "parallel khans" in the regions.
Tokhtamysh identified as his main military-political task the restoration of the military and foreign policy prestige of the Horde and the preparation of a revanchist campaign against Moscow.

Results of Tokhtamysh’s campaign:
Returning to Moscow in early September 1382, Dmitry Donskoy saw the ashes and ordered the immediate restoration of devastated Moscow, at least with temporary wooden buildings, before the onset of frost.
Thus, the military, political and economic achievements of the Battle of Kulikovo were completely eliminated by the Horde two years later:
1. The tribute was not only restored, but actually doubled, because the population decreased, but the size of the tribute remained the same. In addition, the people had to pay the Grand Duke a special emergency tax to replenish the princely treasury taken away by the Horde.
2. Politically, vassalage increased sharply, even formally. In 1384, Dmitry Donskoy was forced for the first time to send his son, the heir to the throne, the future Grand Duke Vasily II Dmitrievich, who was 12 years old, to the Horde as a hostage (According to the generally accepted account, this is Vasily I. V.V. Pokhlebkin, apparently, believes 1 -m Vasily Yaroslavich Kostromsky). Relations with neighbors worsened - the Tver, Suzdal, Ryazan principalities, which were specially supported by the Horde to create a political and military counterbalance to Moscow.

The situation was really difficult; in 1383, Dmitry Donskoy had to “compete” in the Horde for the great reign, to which Mikhail Alexandrovich Tverskoy again made his claims. The reign was left to Dmitry, but his son Vasily was taken hostage into the Horde. The “fierce” ambassador Adash appeared in Vladimir (1383, see “Golden Horde Ambassadors in Rus'”). In 1384, it was necessary to collect a heavy tribute (half a ruble per village) from the entire Russian land, and from Novgorod - Black Forest. The Novgorodians began looting along the Volga and Kama and refused to pay tribute. In 1385, they had to show unprecedented leniency towards the Ryazan prince, who decided to attack Kolomna (annexed to Moscow back in 1300) and defeated the troops of the Moscow prince.

Thus, Rus' was actually thrown back to the situation in 1313, under the Uzbek Khan, i.e. practically, the achievements of the Battle of Kulikovo were completely erased. Both in military-political and economic terms, the Moscow principality was thrown back 75-100 years. The prospects for relations with the Horde, therefore, were extremely gloomy for Moscow and Rus' as a whole. One could have assumed that the Horde yoke would be secured forever (well, nothing lasts forever!), if a new historical accident had not occurred:
The period of wars between the Horde and the empire of Tamerlane and the complete defeat of the Horde during these two wars, the violation of all economic, administrative, political life in the Horde, the death of the Horde army, the ruin of both of its capitals - Sarai I and Sarai II, the beginning of a new unrest, the struggle for power of several khans in the period from 1391-1396. - all this led to an unprecedented weakening of the Horde in all areas and made it necessary for the Horde khans to focus on the turn of the 14th century. and XV century exclusively on internal problems, temporarily neglect external ones and, in particular, weaken control over Russia.
It was this unexpected situation that helped the Moscow principality gain significant respite and restore its strength - economic, military and political.

Here, perhaps, we should pause and make a few notes. I do not believe in historical accidents of this magnitude, and there is no need to explain the further relations of Muscovite Rus' with the Horde as an unexpected happy accident. Without going into details, we note that by the early 90s of the 14th century. Moscow somehow solved the economic and political problems that arose. The Moscow-Lithuanian Treaty concluded in 1384 removed the Principality of Tver from the influence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Mikhail Alexandrovich Tverskoy, having lost support both in the Horde and in Lithuania, recognized the primacy of Moscow. In 1385, the son of Dmitry Donskoy, Vasily Dmitrievich, was released from the Horde. In 1386, a reconciliation between Dmitry Donskoy and Oleg Ivanovich Ryazansky took place, which in 1387 was sealed by the marriage of their children (Fyodor Olegovich and Sofia Dmitrievna). In the same 1386, Dmitry managed to restore his influence there with a large military demonstration under the Novgorod walls, take the black forest in the volosts and 8,000 rubles in Novgorod. In 1388, Dmitry faced discontent cousin and comrade-in-arms Vladimir Andreevich, who had to be brought by force “to his will”, forced to recognize the political seniority of his eldest son Vasily. Dmitry managed to make peace with Vladimir two months before his death (1389). In his spiritual will, Dmitry blessed (for the first time) his eldest son Vasily “with his fatherland with his great reign.” And finally, in the summer of 1390, in a solemn atmosphere, the marriage of Vasily and Sophia, the daughter of the Lithuanian prince Vitovt, took place. In Eastern Europe, Vasily I Dmitrievich and Cyprian, who became metropolitan on October 1, 1389, are trying to prevent the strengthening of the Lithuanian-Polish dynastic union and replace the Polish-Catholic colonization of Lithuanian and Russian lands with the consolidation of Russian forces around Moscow. An alliance with Vytautas, who was against the Catholicization of the Russian lands that were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was important for Moscow, but could not be durable, since Vytautas, naturally, had his own goals and his own vision of what center the Russians should gather around lands.
New stage in the history of the Golden Horde coincided with the death of Dmitry. It was then that Tokhtamysh came out of the reconciliation with Tamerlane and began to lay claim to the territories under his control. A confrontation began. Under these conditions, Tokhtamysh, immediately after the death of Dmitry Donskoy, issued a label for the reign of Vladimir to his son, Vasily I, and strengthened it, transferring to him the Nizhny Novgorod principality and a number of cities. In 1395, Tamerlane's troops defeated Tokhtamysh on the Terek River.

At the same time, Tamerlane, having destroyed the power of the Horde, did not carry out his campaign against Rus'. Having reached Yelets without fighting or looting, he unexpectedly turned back and returned to Central Asia. Thus, Tamerlane’s actions at the end of the 14th century. became a historical factor that helped Rus' survive in the fight against the Horde.

1405 - In 1405, based on the situation in the Horde, the Grand Duke of Moscow officially announced for the first time that he refused to pay tribute to the Horde. During 1405-1407 The Horde did not react in any way to this demarche, but then Edigei’s campaign against Moscow followed.
Only 13 years after Tokhtamysh’s campaign (Apparently, there is a typo in the book - 13 years have passed since Tamerlane’s campaign) could the Horde authorities again remember the vassal dependence of Moscow and gather forces for a new campaign in order to restore the flow of tribute, which had ceased since 1395.
1408 Edigei's campaign against Moscow - December 1, 1408, a huge army of Edigei's temnik approached Moscow along the winter sled road and besieged the Kremlin.
On the Russian side, the situation during Tokhtamysh’s campaign in 1382 was repeated in detail.
1. Grand Duke Vasily II Dmitrievich, hearing about the danger, like his father, fled to Kostroma (supposedly to gather an army).
2. In Moscow, Vladimir Andreevich Brave, Prince Serpukhovsky, a participant in the Battle of Kulikovo, remained as the head of the garrison.
3. The Moscow suburb was burned out again, i.e. all wooden Moscow around the Kremlin, for a mile in all directions.
4. Edigei, approaching Moscow, set up his camp in Kolomenskoye, and sent a notice to the Kremlin that he would stand all winter and starve out the Kremlin without losing a single fighter.
5. The memory of Tokhtamysh’s invasion was still so fresh among Muscovites that it was decided to fulfill any demands of Edigei, so that only he would leave without hostilities.
6. Edigei demanded to collect 3,000 rubles in two weeks. silver, which was done. In addition, Edigei's troops, scattered throughout the principality and its cities, began to gather Polonyanniks for capture (several tens of thousands of people). Some cities were severely devastated, for example Mozhaisk was completely burned.
7. On December 20, 1408, having received everything that was required, Edigei’s army left Moscow without being attacked or pursued by Russian forces.
8. The damage caused by Edigei’s campaign was less than the damage caused by Tokhtamysh’s invasion, but it also fell heavily on the shoulders of the population
The restoration of Moscow's tributary dependence on the Horde lasted from then on for almost another 60 years (until 1474)
1412 - Payment of tribute to the Horde became regular. To ensure this regularity, the Horde forces from time to time made frighteningly reminiscent raids on Rus'.
1415 - Ruin of the Yelets (border, buffer) land by the Horde.
1427 - Raid of Horde troops on Ryazan.
1428 - Raid of the Horde army on the Kostroma lands - Galich Mersky, destruction and robbery of Kostroma, Ples and Lukh.
1437 - Battle of Belevskaya Campaign of Ulu-Muhammad to the Trans-Oka lands. Battle of Belev on December 5, 1437 (defeat of the Moscow army) due to the reluctance of the Yuryevich brothers - Shemyaka and Krasny - to allow the army of Ulu-Muhammad to settle in Belev and make peace. Due to the betrayal of the Lithuanian governor of Mtsensk, Grigory Protasyev, who went over to the side of the Tatars, Ulu-Mukhammed won the Battle of Belev, after which he went east to Kazan, where he founded the Kazan Khanate.

Actually, from this moment begins the long struggle of the Russian state with the Kazan Khanate, which Rus' had to wage in parallel with the heir of the Golden Horde - the Great Horde and which only Ivan IV the Terrible managed to complete. The first campaign of the Kazan Tatars against Moscow took place already in 1439. Moscow was burned, but the Kremlin was not taken. The second campaign of the Kazan people (1444-1445) led to the catastrophic defeat of the Russian troops, the capture of the Moscow prince Vasily II the Dark, a humiliating peace and the eventual blinding of Vasily II. Further, the raids of the Kazan Tatars on Rus' and the retaliatory Russian actions (1461, 1467-1469, 1478) are not indicated in the table, but they should be kept in mind (See "Kazan Khanate");
1451 - Campaign of Mahmut, son of Kichi-Muhammad, to Moscow. He burned the settlements, but the Kremlin did not take them.
1462 - Ivan III stopped issuing Russian coins with the name of the Khan of the Horde. Statement by Ivan III on the renunciation of the khan's label for the great reign.
1468 - Khan Akhmat's campaign against Ryazan
1471 - Campaign of the Horde to the Moscow borders in the Trans-Oka region
1472 - The Horde army approached the city of Aleksin, but did not cross the Oka. The Russian army marched to Kolomna. There was no clash between the two forces. Both sides feared that the outcome of the battle would not be in their favor. Caution in conflicts with the Horde - characteristic policies of Ivan III. He didn't want to take any risks.
1474 - Khan Akhmat again approaches the Zaoksk region, on the border with the Moscow Grand Duchy. Peace, or, more precisely, a truce, is concluded on the terms of the Moscow prince paying an indemnity of 140 thousand altyns in two terms: in the spring - 80 thousand, in the fall - 60 thousand. Ivan III again avoids a military conflict.
1480 Great Standing on the Ugra River - Akhmat demands that Ivan III pay tribute for 7 years, during which Moscow stopped paying it. Goes on a campaign against Moscow. Ivan III advances with his army to meet the Khan.

We formally end the history of Russian-Horde relations with the year 1481 as the date of death of the last khan of the Horde - Akhmat, who was killed a year after the Great Standing on the Ugra, since the Horde really ceased to exist as a state organism and administration and even as a certain territory to which jurisdiction and real the power of this once unified administration.
Formally and in fact, new Tatar states were formed on the former territory of the Golden Horde, much smaller in size, but manageable and relatively consolidated. Of course, the virtual disappearance of a huge empire could not happen overnight and it could not “evaporate” completely without a trace.
People, peoples, the population of the Horde continued to live their former lives and, feeling that catastrophic changes had occurred, nevertheless did not realize them as a complete collapse, as the absolute disappearance from the face of the earth of their former state.
In fact, the process of the collapse of the Horde, especially at the lower social level, continued for another three to four decades during the first quarter of the 16th century.
But the international consequences of the collapse and disappearance of the Horde, on the contrary, affected themselves quite quickly and quite clearly, distinctly. The liquidation of the gigantic empire, which controlled and influenced events from Siberia to the Balakans and from Egypt to the Middle Urals for two and a half centuries, led to a complete change in the international situation not only in this area, but also radically changed the general international position of the Russian state and its military-political plans and actions in relations with the East as a whole.
Moscow was able to quickly, within one decade, radically restructure the strategy and tactics of its eastern foreign policy.
The statement seems too categorical to me: it should be taken into account that the process of fragmentation of the Golden Horde was not a one-time act, but occurred throughout the entire 15th century. The policy of the Russian state changed accordingly. An example is the relationship between Moscow and the Kazan Khanate, which separated from the Horde in 1438 and tried to pursue the same policy. After two successful campaigns against Moscow (1439, 1444-1445), Kazan began to experience increasingly persistent and powerful pressure from the Russian state, which was formally still in vassal dependence on the Great Horde (in the period under review these were the campaigns of 1461, 1467-1469, 1478). ).
Firstly, an active, offensive line was chosen in relation to both rudiments and completely viable heirs of the Horde. The Russian tsars decided not to let them come to their senses, to finish off the already half-defeated enemy, and not to rest on the laurels of the victors.
Secondly, pitting one Tatar group against another was used as a new tactical technique that gave the most useful military-political effect. Significant Tatar formations began to be included in the Russian armed forces to carry out joint attacks on other Tatar military formations, and primarily on the remnants of the Horde.
So, in 1485, 1487 and 1491. Ivan III sent military detachments to strike the troops of the Great Horde, who were attacking Moscow's ally at that time - the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey.
Particularly significant in military-political terms was the so-called. spring campaign of 1491 to the “Wild Field” along converging directions.

1491 Campaign to the “Wild Field” - 1. The Horde khans Seid-Akhmet and Shig-Akhmet besieged Crimea in May 1491. Ivan III dispatched a huge army of 60 thousand people to help his ally Mengli-Girey. under the leadership of the following military leaders:
a) Prince Peter Nikitich Obolensky;
b) Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Repni-Obolensky;
c) Kasimov prince Satilgan Merdzhulatovich.
2. These independent detachments headed for the Crimea in such a way that they had to approach the rear of the Horde troops from three sides in converging directions in order to squeeze them into pincers, while they would be attacked from the front by the troops of Mengli-Girey.
3. In addition, on June 3 and 8, 1491, the allies were mobilized to attack from the flanks. These were again both Russian and Tatar troops:
a) Kazan Khan Muhammad-Emin and his governors Abash-Ulan and Burash-Seyid;
b) Ivan III's brothers appanage princes Andrei Vasilyevich Bolshoi and Boris Vasilyevich with their troops.

Another new tactical technique introduced in the 90s of the 15th century. Ivan III in his military policy regarding Tatar attacks is a systematic organization of pursuit of Tatar raids invading Russia, which has never been done before.

1492 - The pursuit of the troops of two governors - Fyodor Koltovsky and Goryain Sidorov - and their battle with the Tatars in the area between the Bystraya Sosna and Trudy rivers;
1499 - Pursuit after the Tatars’ raid on Kozelsk, which recaptured from the enemy all the “full” and cattle he had taken away;
1500 (summer) - The army of Khan Shig-Ahmed (Great Horde) of 20 thousand people. stood at the mouth of the Tikhaya Sosna River, but did not dare to go further towards the Moscow border;
1500 (autumn) - A new campaign of an even more numerous army of Shig-Akhmed, but further than the Zaokskaya side, i.e. territory of the north of the Oryol region, it did not dare to go;
1501 - On August 30, the 20,000-strong army of the Great Horde began the devastation of the Kursk land, approaching Rylsk, and by November it reached the Bryansk and Novgorod-Seversk lands. The Tatars captured the city of Novgorod-Seversky, but this army of the Great Horde did not go further to the Moscow lands.

In 1501, a coalition of Lithuania, Livonia and the Great Horde was formed, directed against the union of Moscow, Kazan and Crimea. This campaign was part of the war between Muscovite Rus' and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for the Verkhovsky principalities (1500-1503). It is incorrect to talk about the Tatars seizing the Novgorod-Seversky lands, which were part of their ally - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and were captured by Moscow in 1500. According to the truce of 1503, almost all of these lands went to Moscow.
1502 Liquidation of the Great Horde - The army of the Great Horde remained to winter at the mouth of the Seim River and near Belgorod. Ivan III then agreed with Mengli-Girey that he would send his troops to expel Shig-Akhmed’s troops from this territory. Mengli-Girey fulfilled this request, inflicting a strong blow on the Great Horde in February 1502.
In May 1502, Mengli-Girey defeated the troops of Shig-Akhmed for the second time at the mouth of the Sula River, where they migrated to spring pastures. This battle effectively ended the remnants of the Great Horde.

This is how Ivan III dealt with it at the beginning of the 16th century. with the Tatar states through the hands of the Tatars themselves.
Thus, from the beginning of the 16th century. the last remnants of the Golden Horde disappeared from the historical arena. And the point was not only that this completely removed from the Moscow state any threat of invasion from the East, seriously strengthened its security - the main, significant result was sudden change formal and actual international legal status of the Russian state, which manifested itself in changes in its international legal relations with the Tatar states - the “successors” of the Golden Horde.
This was precisely the main historical meaning, the main historical meaning liberation of Russia from Horde dependence.
For the Moscow state they stopped vassal relations, it became a sovereign state, a subject of international relations. This completely changed his position both among the Russian lands and in Europe as a whole.
Until then, for 250 years, the Grand Duke received only unilateral labels from the Horde khans, i.e. permission to own his own fiefdom (principality), or, in other words, the khan’s consent to continue to trust his tenant and vassal, to the fact that he will temporarily not be touched from this post if he fulfills a number of conditions: pay tribute, conduct loyalty to the khan politics, send “gifts,” and participate, if necessary, in the military activities of the Horde.
With the collapse of the Horde and the emergence of new khanates on its ruins - Kazan, Astrakhan, Crimean, Siberian - a completely new situation arose: the institution of vassal submission to Rus' disappeared and ceased. This was expressed in the fact that all relations with the new Tatar states began to occur on a bilateral basis. The conclusion of bilateral treaties on political issues began at the end of wars and at the conclusion of peace. And this was precisely the main and important change.
Outwardly, especially in the first decades, there were no noticeable changes in the relations between Russia and the khanates:
The Moscow princes continued to occasionally pay tribute to the Tatar khans, continued to send them gifts, and the khans of the new Tatar states, in turn, continued to maintain the old forms of relations with the Moscow Grand Duchy, i.e. Sometimes, like the Horde, they organized campaigns against Moscow right up to the walls of the Kremlin, resorted to devastating raids for the meadows, stole cattle and plundered the property of the Grand Duke’s subjects, demanded that he pay indemnity, etc. and so on.
But after the end of hostilities, the parties began to draw legal conclusions - i.e. record their victories and defeats in bilateral documents, conclude peace or truce treaties, sign written obligations. And it was precisely this that significantly changed their true relations, leading to the fact that the entire relationship of forces on both sides actually changed significantly.
That is why it became possible for the Moscow state to purposefully work to change this balance of forces in its favor and ultimately achieve the weakening and liquidation of the new khanates that arose on the ruins of the Golden Horde, not within two and a half centuries, but much faster - in less than 75 years old, in the second half of the 16th century.

"From Ancient Rus' to the Russian Empire." Shishkin Sergey Petrovich, Ufa.
V.V. Pokhlebkina "Tatars and Rus'. 360 years of relations in 1238-1598." (M. " International relationships" 2000).
Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary. 4th edition, M. 1987.