Where was the Mongol invasion of Rus'? Mongol conquests
In the 13th century, the Mongols built an empire with the largest contiguous territory in human history. It extended from Rus' to Southeast Asia and from Korea to the Middle East. Hordes of nomads destroyed hundreds of cities and destroyed dozens of states. The very name of the Mongolian founder became a symbol of the entire Medieval era.
Jin
The first Mongol conquests affected China. The Celestial Empire did not submit to the nomads immediately. It is customary to distinguish three stages in the Mongol-Chinese wars. The first was the invasion of the state of Jin (1211-1234). That campaign was led by Genghis Khan himself. His army numbered one hundred thousand people. The Mongols were joined by the neighboring tribes of the Uyghurs and Karluks.
The city of Fuzhou in the north of Jin was the first to be captured. Not far from it, in the spring of 1211, a major battle took place near the Yehulin ridge. In this battle, the large professional Jin army was destroyed. Having won their first major victory, the Mongol army overcame the Great Wall - an ancient barrier built against the Huns. Once in China, it began to plunder Chinese cities. For the winter, the nomads retired to their steppe, but since then they have returned every spring for new attacks.
Under the blows of the steppe inhabitants, the Jin state began to collapse. Ethnic Chinese and Khitans began to rebel against the Jurchens who ruled this country. Many of them supported the Mongols, hoping with their help to achieve independence. These calculations were frivolous. Destroying the states of some peoples, the great Genghis Khan had no intention of creating states for others. For example, the Eastern Liao that broke away from Jin lasted only twenty years. The Mongols skillfully made temporary allies. By dealing with their opponents with their help, they also got rid of these “friends.”
In 1215, the Mongols captured and burned Beijing (then called Zhongdu). For several more years, the steppe inhabitants acted according to the tactics of raids. After the death of Genghis Khan, his son Ogedei became Kagan (Great Khan). He switched to tactics of conquest. Under Ogedei, the Mongols finally annexed Jin to their empire. In 1234, the last ruler of this state, Aizong, committed suicide. The Mongol invasion devastated Northern China, but the destruction of Jin was only the beginning of the triumphal march of nomads across Eurasia.
Xi Xia
The Tangut state of Xi Xia (Western Xia) was the next country to be conquered by the Mongols. Genghis Khan conquered this kingdom in 1227. Xi Xia occupied territories west of Jin. It controlled part of the Great Silk Road, which promised rich booty to the nomads. The steppe inhabitants besieged and ravaged the Tangut capital Zhongxing. Genghis Khan died returning home from this campaign. Now his heirs had to finish the work of the founder of the empire.
Southern Song
The first Mongol conquests concerned states created by non-Chinese peoples on Chinese territory. Both Jin and Xi Xia were not Celestial in the full sense of the word. Ethnic Chinese in the 13th century controlled only the southern half of China, where the Southern Song Empire existed. The war with her began in 1235.
For several years the Mongols attacked China, exhausting the country with incessant raids. In 1238, the Song agreed to pay tribute, after which punitive raids ceased. A fragile truce was established for 13 years. The history of the Mongol conquests knows more than one such case. The nomads “made peace” with one country in order to concentrate on conquering other neighbors.
In 1251, Munke became the new Great Khan. He initiated a second war with the Song. Khan's brother Kublai was placed at the head of the campaign. The war continued for many years. The Song court capitulated in 1276, although the struggle of individual groups for Chinese independence continued until 1279. Only after this the Mongol yoke was established over the entire Celestial Empire. Back in 1271, Kublai Kublai founded She ruled China until the mid-14th century, when she was overthrown as a result of the Red Turban Rebellion.
Korea and Burma
On its eastern borders, the state created during the Mongol conquests began to neighbor Korea. Military campaign against her began in 1231. A total of six invasions followed. As a result of the devastating raids, Korea began to pay tribute to the Yuan state. The Mongol yoke on the peninsula ended in 1350.
At the opposite end of Asia, nomads reached the borders of the Pagan kingdom in Burma. The first Mongol campaigns in this country date back to the 1270s. Kublai repeatedly postponed the decisive campaign against Pagan due to his own failures in neighboring Vietnam. In Southeast Asia, the Mongols had to fight not only with local peoples, but also with an unusual tropical climate. The troops suffered from malaria, which is why they regularly retreated to their native lands. Nevertheless, by 1287 the conquest of Burma was finally achieved.
Invasions of Japan and India
Not all wars of conquest that the descendants of Genghis Khan started ended successfully. Twice (the first attempt was in 1274, the second in 1281) Habilai tried to launch an invasion of Japan. For this purpose, huge flotillas were built in China, which had no analogues in the Middle Ages. The Mongols had no experience in navigation. Their armadas were defeated by Japanese ships. 100 thousand people took part in the second expedition to the island of Kyushu, but they also failed to win.
Another country not conquered by the Mongols was India. The descendants of Genghis Khan had heard about the riches of this mysterious region and dreamed of conquering it. The north of India at that time belonged to the Delhi Sultanate. The Mongols first invaded its territory in 1221. The nomads devastated some provinces (Lahore, Multan, Peshawar), but they did not reach the point of conquest. In 1235 they annexed Kashmir to their empire. At the end of the 13th century, the Mongols invaded Punjab and even reached Delhi. Despite the destructiveness of the campaigns, the nomads never managed to gain a foothold in India.
Karakat Khanate
In 1218, the hordes of Mongols, who had previously fought only in China, turned their horses to the west for the first time. Central Asia was on their way. Here, on the territory of modern Kazakhstan, was the Kara Khitai Khanate, founded by the Kara Khitans (ethnically close to the Mongols and Khitans).
This state was ruled by Genghis Khan's longtime rival Kuchluk. Preparing to fight him, the Mongols attracted some other Turkic peoples of Semirechye to their side. The nomads found support from the Karluk khan Arslan and the ruler of the city of Almalyk Buzar. In addition, they were helped by settled Muslims, whom the Mongols allowed to conduct public worship (which Kuchluk did not allow to do).
The campaign against the Karakitai Khanate was led by one of the main temniks of Genghis Khan, Jebe. He conquered all of Eastern Turkestan and Semirechye. Having been defeated, Kuchluk fled to the Pamir Mountains. There he was caught and executed.
Khorezm
The next Mongol conquest, in short, was only the first stage of the conquest of the entire Central Asia. Another large state, in addition to the Karakitai Khanate, was the Islamic kingdom of the Khorezmshahs, inhabited by Iranians and Turks. At the same time, it had nobility. In other words, Khorezm was a complex ethnic conglomerate. When conquering it, the Mongols skillfully used internal contradictions this major power.
Genghis Khan also established outwardly good neighborly relations with Khorezm. In 1215 he sent his merchants to this country. The Mongols needed peace with Khorezm to facilitate the conquest of the neighboring Karakitai Khanate. When this state was conquered, it was the turn of its neighbor.
The Mongol conquests were already known to the whole world, and in Khorezm they were wary of imaginary friendship with the nomads. The pretext for breaking off peaceful relations between the steppe inhabitants was discovered by chance. The governor of the city of Otrar suspected the Mongol merchants of espionage and executed them. After this thoughtless massacre, war became inevitable.
Genghis Khan launched a campaign against Khorezm in 1219. Emphasizing the importance of the expedition, he took all his sons with him on the journey. Ogedei and Chagatai went to besiege Otrar. Jochi led the second army, moving towards Jend and Sygnak. The third army targeted Khujand. Genghis Khan himself, together with his son Tolui, followed to the richest metropolis of the Middle Ages, Samarkand. All these cities were captured and plundered.
In Samarkand, where 400 thousand people lived, only one in eight survived. Otrar, Jend, Sygnak and many other cities of Central Asia were completely destroyed (today only archaeological ruins remain in their place). By 1223, Khorezm was conquered. The Mongol conquests covered a vast territory from the Caspian Sea to the Indus.
Having conquered Khorezm, the nomads opened up a further road to the west - on the one hand to Rus', and on the other to the Middle East. When the united Mongol Empire collapsed, the Hulaguid state arose in Central Asia, ruled by the descendants of Genghis Khan's grandson Hulagu. This kingdom lasted until 1335.
Anatolia
After the conquest of Khorezm, the Seljuk Turks became the western neighbors of the Mongols. Their state, the Konya Sultanate, was located on the territory of modern Turkey on the peninsula. This area also had another historical name - Anatolia. In addition to the Seljuk state, there were Greek kingdoms here - debris that arose after the Crusaders captured Constantinople and the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1204.
The conquest of Anatolia was undertaken by the Mongolian temnik Baiju, who was the governor in Iran. He called on the Seljuk Sultan Kay-Khosrow II to recognize himself as a tributary of the nomads. The humiliating offer was rejected. In 1241, in response to the demarche, Baiju invaded Anatolia and approached Erzurum with an army. After a two-month siege, the city fell. Its walls were destroyed by catapult fire, and many residents died or were robbed.
Kay-Khosrow II, however, was not going to give up. He enlisted the support of the Greek states (Trebizond and Nicene empires), as well as the Georgian and Armenian princes. In 1243, the army of the anti-Mongol coalition met with the interventionists in the Kese-dage mountain gorge. The nomads used their favorite tactics. The Mongols, pretending to retreat, made a feint and suddenly counterattacked their opponents. The army of the Seljuks and their allies was defeated. After this victory, the Mongols conquered Anatolia. According to the peace treaty, one half of the Konya Sultanate was annexed to their empire, and the other began to pay tribute.
Near East
In 1256, Genghis Khan's grandson Hulagu led a campaign to the Middle East. The campaign lasted 4 years. This was one of the largest campaigns of the Mongol army. The first to be attacked by the steppe inhabitants was the Nizari state in Iran. Hulagu crossed the Amu Darya and captured Muslim cities in Kuhistan.
Having won the victory against the Khizarites, the Mongol khan turned his attention to Baghdad, where Caliph Al-Musstatim ruled. The last monarch of the Abbasid dynasty did not have sufficient strength to resist the horde, but he self-confidently refused to submit peacefully to foreigners. In 1258, the Mongols laid siege to Baghdad. The invaders used siege weapons and then launched an assault. The city was completely surrounded and deprived of outside support. Two weeks later, Baghdad fell.
The capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, the pearl of the Islamic world, was completely destroyed. The Mongols showed no mercy unique monuments architecture, destroyed the academy, and threw the most valuable books into the Tigris. The plunder of Baghdad turned into a pile of smoking ruins. His fall symbolized the end of the medieval Golden Age of Islam.
After the Baghdad events began Mongol campaign to Palestine. In 1260, the Battle of Ain Jalut took place. The Egyptian Mamluks defeated the foreigners. The reason for the defeat of the Mongols was that the day before Hulagu, having learned about the death of Kagan Mongke, retreated to the Caucasus. In Palestine, he left the military commander Kitbuga with a small army, which was naturally defeated by the Arabs. The Mongols were unable to advance further into the Muslim Middle East. The border of their empire was fixed on the area between the Tigris and Euphrates.
Battle of Kalka
The first Mongol campaign in Europe began when the nomads, pursuing the fleeing ruler of Khorezm, reached the Polovtsian steppes. At the same time, Genghis Khan himself spoke about the need to conquer the Kipchaks. In 1220, an army of nomads came to Transcaucasia, from where they moved to the Old World. They devastated the lands of the Lezgin peoples on the territory of modern Dagestan. Then the Mongols first encountered the Cumans and Alans.
The Kipchaks, realizing the danger of uninvited guests, sent an embassy to the Russian lands, asking the East Slavic appanage rulers for help. Mstislav the Old (Grand Duke of Kiev), Mstislav Udatny (Prince of Galitsky), Daniil Romanovich (Prince of Volyn), Mstislav Svyatoslavich (Prince of Chernigov) and some other feudal lords responded to the call.
The year was 1223. The princes agreed to stop the Mongols even before they could attack Rus'. During the gathering of the united squad, the Mongolian embassy arrived at the Rurikovichs. The nomads suggested that the Russians not stand up for the Polovtsians. The princes ordered the ambassadors to be killed and moved into the steppe.
Soon on the territory of modern Donetsk region A tragic battle took place on Kalka. The year 1223 became a year of sadness for the entire Russian land. The coalition of princes and Polovtsians suffered a crushing defeat. The superior forces of the Mongols defeated the united squad. The Polovtsians, trembling under the onslaught, fled, leaving the Russian army without support.
At least 8 princes died in the battle, including Mstislav of Kiev and Mstislav of Chernigov. Many noble boyars lost their lives along with them. The Black Banner was the Battle of Kalka. The year 1223 could have been the year of a full-fledged invasion of the Mongols, but after a bloody victory, they decided that it was better to return to their native uluses. For several years nothing more was heard about the new formidable horde.
Volga Bulgaria
Shortly before his death, Genghis Khan divided his empire into zones of responsibility, each of which was headed by one of the sons of the conqueror. The ulus in the Polovtsian steppes went to Jochi. He died prematurely, and in 1235, by decision of the kurultai, his son Batu began organizing a campaign to Europe. The grandson of Genghis Khan gathered a gigantic army and set off to conquer countries distant to the Mongols.
The first victim of the new invasion of nomads was Volga Bulgaria. This state, on the territory of modern Tatarstan, has been waging border wars with the Mongols for several years. However, until now the steppe inhabitants were limited to only small forays. Now Batu had an army of about 120 thousand people. This colossal army easily captured the main Bulgarian cities: Bulgar, Bilyar, Dzhuketau and Suvar.
Invasion of Rus'
Having conquered Volga Bulgaria and defeated its Polovtsian allies, the aggressors moved further to the west. Thus began the Mongol conquest of Rus'. In December 1237, the nomads found themselves on the territory of the Ryazan principality. His capital was taken and mercilessly destroyed. Modern Ryazan was built several tens of kilometers from Old Ryazan, on the site of which only a medieval settlement still stands.
The advanced army of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality fought with the Mongols in the battle of Kolomna. One of Genghis Khan’s sons, Kulhan, died in that battle. Soon the horde was attacked by a detachment of the Ryazan hero Evpatiy Kolovrat, who became a real national hero. Despite stubborn resistance, the Mongols defeated every army and took more and more cities.
At the beginning of 1238, Moscow, Vladimir, Tver, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, and Torzhok fell. The small town of Kozelsk defended itself for so long that Batu, having razed it to the ground, nicknamed the fortress “the evil city.” In the Battle of the City River, a separate corps, commanded by Temnik Burundai, destroyed the united Russian squad led by the Vladimir prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, whose head was cut off.
Novgorod was luckier than other Russian cities. Having taken Torzhok, the Horde did not dare to go too far to the cold north and turned south. Thus, the Mongol invasion of Rus' fortunately bypassed the key commercial and cultural center of the country. Having migrated to the southern steppes, Batu took a short break. He let the horses fatten and regrouped the army. The army was divided into several detachments that solved occasional problems in the fight against the Polovtsians and Alans.
Already in 1239, the Mongols attacked Southern Rus'. Chernigov fell in October. Glukhov, Putivl, and Rylsk were devastated. In 1240, nomads besieged and took Kyiv. Soon the same fate awaited Galich. Having plundered key Russian cities, Batu made the Rurikovichs his tributaries. Thus began the period of the Golden Horde, which lasted until the 15th century. The Vladimir Principality was recognized as the eldest inheritance. Its rulers received permits from the Mongols. This humiliating order was interrupted only with the rise of Moscow.
European campaign
The devastating Mongol invasion of Rus' was not the last for the European campaign. Continuing their journey to the west, the nomads reached the borders of Hungary and Poland. Some Russian princes (like Mikhail of Chernigov) fled to these kingdoms, asking for help from the Catholic monarchs.
In 1241, the Mongols took and plundered the Polish cities of Zavikhost, Lublin, and Sandomierz. Krakow was the last to fall. Polish feudal lords were able to enlist the help of the Germans and Catholic military orders. The coalition army of these forces was defeated at the Battle of Legnica. Prince Henry II of Krakow died in the battle.
The last country to suffer from the Mongols was Hungary. Having passed through the Carpathians and Transylvania, the nomads ravaged Oradea, Temesvar and Bistrita. Another Mongol detachment swept through Wallachia with fire and sword. The third army reached the banks of the Danube and captured the fortress of Arad.
All this time, the Hungarian king Bela IV was in Pest, where he was gathering an army. An army led by Batu himself went to meet him. In April 1241, two armies clashed in the battle on the Shaino River. Béla IV was defeated. The king fled to neighboring Austria, and the Mongols continued to plunder Hungarian lands. Batu even made attempts to cross the Danube and attack the Holy Roman Empire, but ultimately abandoned this plan.
Moving west, the Mongols invaded Croatia (also part of Hungary) and sacked Zagreb. Their advanced detachments reached the shores of the Adriatic Sea. This was the limit of Mongol expansion. The nomads did not annex Central Europe to their power, content with prolonged plunder. The borders of the Golden Horde began to run along the Dniester.
The Mongol invasion of Rus' began in 1237, then, under the leadership of Khan Bataille, an army of seventy-five thousand began the invasion. This army was well trained and equipped, they had everything necessary equipment. The Khan's empire was the largest in the history of those times; it came with the goal of burning all the cities and villages that would not submit to them and at the same time killing everyone. Then introduce tribute everywhere and put your people - the Baskans - in power. The Mongol-Tatars attacked unexpectedly, but this did not decide the course of the war, although it accelerated it. There were a lot of reasons why Rus' would fall, so the Mongols were completely confident in their victory.At that time, the country was completely plundered and divided among petty princes. While the Mongol-Tatars were united and powerful, they prospered. This went on for a whole century and a half, and only after that, in 1380, Rus' blossomed a little and managed to gather an army; there was a single commander, Dmitry Ivanovich, it was he who decided the outcome of the battle on the Kulikovo field and repulsed the enemy. Then Rus' turned from a shameful nation to a militant and successful one.
At the beginning of the war, present-day Russia was not united, because of this it was weak and therefore the Mongols, the Golden Horde, ruled for a whole century and a half. This defeat was retribution for the greed of the principalities and their eternal division of lands among themselves. At the beginning of the war, Rostov was burned in December, and not even a month had passed in Kolomna. Then in the spring almost all the principalities were conquered. So they moved principality after principality and finally in 1240 they took Kyiv.
After Rus', the Mongol-Tatars did not stop and moved towards Europe. They won victories in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. However, tormented by battles, they soon returned to the Volga region, here they made their capital, as it were. For almost a century and a half, the Mongols mocked the Russian people, robbed them, culture fell into desolation, and despotism arose.
Beginning of invasion and conquest
In the twelfth century, there was still no single center in Mongolia; the union took place with the help of the leader Temujin at a general meeting, he was proclaimed a common khan. Then an empire was created, and the army began to develop a strategy. As a result, they chose the decimal principle, which is when one organization consists of ten people, and the next one adds a zero.To control the entire army, a special single guard was created, which was subordinate only to the emperor. There were no firearms right away; the Mongol cavalry was the best in its class. They won any battles, this is due to the fact that the troops were all trained and well organized.
Genghis Khan died in 1227, then his third son was chosen as khan, after which a meeting was held where it was decided to seize the western lands, then there was already a threat of the seizure of Russian lands and everyone understood this. Batu was chosen as the Great Khan-commander. Ten years later, the conquest of Rus' began. At that time, the principalities were so unorganized that they fought alone, while the horde had a large, united army.
In 1238, after the victory over Ryazan, troops burned Vladimir. The army of the horde stopped only in front of Novgorod; there was a crossroads and it was necessary to turn to the South. After a short break, the Mongols began their offensive again, destroying Chernigov and Kyiv, and local principalities along the way. Then they went to Europe, but after Poland and the Czech Republic they stopped.
When 1236 came, Batu Khan launched an attack on Volga Bulgaria, after which it was decided to go to Rus'. They captured it as a result of several campaigns.
Some details of the battle
Chronicle of events:
✔ -1238 conquest of northeast Rus'.
✔ -1240 Chernigov and Kiev principalities were conquered.
✔ defense of Ryazan.
✔ defense of Vladimir.
✔ Kozelsk was stormed for seven weeks, calling its people evil.
✔ A battle took place on the City River, where Russian troops prevented the invaders from reaching Novgorod.
✔ Kyiv fell, this is considered the final defeat and capture of Rus'.
Rus' lost the most in the battle data; if in Europe they were only defeated by invasion, then in present-day Russia a yoke was established. As a result, the lands Bataille conquered were simply stunning in size. The entire Mongol Empire covered almost all of Eurasia.
Rus' offered its first resistance with its squad in 1223. Then the yoke fell on the Polovtsians, who asked for help from the Russian princes. Then a big battle took place, but the Mongol-Tatars inflicted a crushing and humiliating defeat on all the assembled militias. Then many Russian princes and about ten thousand soldiers from the militia died.
Reasons for the defeat :
✔ Not all the princes came to the rescue, but only a part; there was no unity.
✔ They underestimated the power of the Mongol-Tatars.
✔ The battle was poorly prepared and coordinated; there was no unified formation.
Consequences of the war
Many monasteries were completely destroyed and destroyed. It was hard for the peasants; they were constantly robbed by all and sundry, even local gangs. Usually, during an invasion, all outbuildings were burned down, and livestock was taken for the needs of the invading army. As soon as the harvest was harvested, they came and robbed it. Russian peasants were put on stream and simply sold to the east into slavery.
Of course, all the precious items were used up; everything was exported from Rus'. The international position of the remaining principalities came to zero; there were no connections with other states. Some even, on the contrary, took advantage of this and also plundered Russian lands. The path to the Baltic sea was also cut off; in general, we can say that all production and trade stopped.
The yoke did not allow any development, there was not even any money, so that there was no trade turnover. At that time European states gradually moved to capitalism, but Russia, on the contrary, went down to the slave system and became dirty in feudalism. It is impossible to imagine what would have happened next if not for the resistance of the Russian people; perhaps the Mongols would have taken over the whole world.
Orthodox Church a little lucky, because the Tatars had religious tolerance. Not only did they not take everything from the churches, but sometimes they even encouraged them. Therefore, the church became not only an educator of faith in God, but also in the Russian spirit in unity and cohesion.
The main disastrous result that this invasion and despotism produced was the cutting off Eastern Rus' from Western Europe, she remained in isolation and did not develop in any way, unlike them. In Europe they didn’t even know what the Russian people had to endure and what feats they accomplished in defending themselves and stopping the attack on them on their own.
Basic Negative consequences who made Rus' the Mongol-Tatars :
✔ Rus' not only lagged behind Europe by several centuries, but after the occupation it took a long time to restore everything that was old, not to mention development.
✔ The economy was almost completely destroyed, many people died and educated people were taken away. Economic Development there were no crafts.
✔ Culture has also disappeared, not to mention development. After the occupation, no churches were built for some time, because at least agriculture had to be revived.
All contacts with Western partners and other major countries were lost. International, as well as trade relations, practically did not exist. For a long time, tribute was collected from the princes; everyone who refused to pay died and carried out punitive campaigns.
There is an opinion that although the invasion was very negative for everything as a whole. However, this helped to unite the entire Russian people with their neighbors. As a result, a powerful nation emerged, which is still united to this day.
In conclusion, it should be noted the main reasons that led to the defeat of the Russians and such a long occupation. If we consider all this, it was largely influenced by feudal fragmentation. Also, there was no center for the state, there was no joint army. In addition to the fact that there was no single army, the princes were also at enmity with each other. Even those Russian squads that existed were not properly trained and organized, unlike their rivals.
Causes:
In the 12th century, nomadic Mongol tribes occupied a significant territory in the center of Asia. In 1206, a congress of the Mongolian nobility - kurultai - proclaimed Timuchin the great Kagan and assigned him the name Genghis Khan. In 1223, the advanced troops of the Mongols, led by the commanders Jabei and Subidei, attacked the Cumans. Seeing no other way out, they decided to resort to the help of Russian princes. Having united, both of them set out towards the Mongols. The squads crossed the Dnieper and moved east. Pretending to retreat, the Mongols lured the combined army to the banks of the Kalka River.
On May 31, 1223, the decisive battle took place. The coalition troops acted separately. The princes' disputes with each other did not stop. Some of them did not take part in the battle at all. The result is complete destruction. However, then the Mongols did not go to Rus', because did not have sufficient strength. In 1227, Genghis Khan died. He bequeathed to his fellow tribesmen to conquer the whole world. In 1235, the kurultai decided to begin a new campaign in Europe. It was headed by the grandson of Genghis Khan - Batu.
Stages:
In 1236, after the destruction of Volga Bulgaria, the Mongols moved towards the Don, against the Polovtsians, defeating the latter in December 1237. Then something stood in their way Ryazan Principality. After a six-day assault, Ryazan fell. The city was destroyed. Batu's troops moved north to Vladimir, destroying Kolomna and Moscow along the way. In February 1238, Batu's troops began the siege of Vladimir. The Grand Duke tried in vain to gather a militia to decisively repel the Mongols. After a four-day siege, Vladimir was stormed and set on fire. The city's residents and the princely family, who were hiding in the Assumption Cathedral, were burned alive.
The Mongols are divided: Some of them approached the Sit River, and the second besieged Torzhok. On March 4, 1238, the Russians suffered a brutal defeat in the City, the prince died. The Mongols moved towards Novgorod, however, before reaching a hundred miles, they turned around. Ruining the cities on the way back, they met unexpectedly stubborn resistance from the city of Kozelsk, whose residents repelled Mongol attacks for seven weeks. Still, taking it by storm, the khan called Kozelsk an “evil city” and razed it to the ground.
Batu's invasion of Southern Rus' dates back to the spring of 1239. Pereslavl fell in March. In October - Chernigov. In September 1240, Batu's main forces besieged Kyiv, which at that time belonged to Daniil Romanovich Galitsky. The Kievans managed to hold back the hordes of Mongols for three whole months, and only at the cost of huge losses were they able to capture the city. By the spring of 1241, Batu’s troops were on the threshold of Europe. However, drained of blood, they were soon forced to return to the Lower Volga. The Mongols no longer decided on a new campaign. So Europe was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Consequences:
The Russian land lay in ruins. The cities were burned and plundered, the inhabitants were captured and taken to the Horde. Many cities were never rebuilt after the invasion. In 1243, Batu organized the Mongol Empire in the west Golden Horde. The captured Russian lands were not included in its composition. The dependence of these lands on the Horde was expressed in the fact that the obligation to pay annual tribute hung over them. In addition, it was the Golden Horde Khan who now approved the Russian princes to rule with his labels and charters. Thus, Horde rule was established over Russia for almost two and a half centuries.
“Modern time” in Europe as a special phase of the world-historical process.
This time is sometimes called the “time of great breakthrough”:
It was during this period that the foundations of the capitalist mode of production were laid;
The level of productive forces has increased significantly;
The forms of production organization have changed;
Thanks to the introduction of technical innovations, labor productivity has increased and the pace of economic development has accelerated.
This period was a turning point in Europe’s relations with other civilizations: Great geographical discoveries expanded the boundaries Western world, broadened the horizons of Europeans.
There have been a number of significant changes in the government structure of European countries. Absolute monarchies are almost completely disappearing. They are replaced constitutional monarchies or republics.
The development of trade relations deepened the process of formation of national markets, pan-European and global.
Europe became the birthplace of the first early bourgeois revolutions, in which a system of civil rights and freedoms was born, and the fundamental concept of freedom of conscience was developed.
The industrial revolution was accompanied by social revolutions - the century of formation industrial society was a century of upheaval, changes in the world map, the disappearance of entire empires and the emergence of new states. All spheres of human society have undergone changes, a new civilization has arrived - the traditional one has been replaced by an industrial civilization.
The rise of Moscow and the unification of Russian lands around Moscow
Trying to justify the rise of Moscow and its transformation into a national center, many historians cite a convenient geographical location and favorable social conditions as the most compelling argument - well-developed agriculture, many land and river routes that passed through Moscow and made it the center of trade relations. At the beginning of the Tatar-Mongol raids on Rus', Moscow was on the periphery of the state and suffered less from robberies and fires. But all these compelling arguments can only be considered favorable conditions that accompanied the success of the Moscow princes.
But in politics you cannot rely only on such an ephemeral thing as success. Politics must be skillful, insightful, far-sighted. And almost all the Moscow princes fully possessed keen business acumen, ingenuity and insight. And, which is also important for successful politics, the princes of Moscow never suffered from an excess of honesty and other moral qualities. Moscow was first mentioned in the Russian chronicle in 1147 as a small fortress, which was erected on the Moscow River by the Vladimir prince Yury Dolgoruky. Until the 13th century, the Moscow principality did not play any serious role in political life appanage principalities.
Unification of Russian lands around Moscow
Her gradual but steady rise begins with the reign of her son Alexander Nevsky, fifteen-year-old Daniel, who is considered the founder of the Moscow princely house. He begins to annex nearby lands - Kolomna and Pereyaslavl-Zalessky - to the small territory of his principality. His son Yuri annexed the Mozhaisk principality and a long and stubborn struggle for the great reign with the Tver princes began. Moreover, in this fight they do not hesitate to use any means. Everything is used - military raids, bribery, slander. The Moscow princes always knew how to use these means more skillfully than their rivals, and the next Moscow prince, Ivan Danilovich, who received the very accurate nickname Kalita, confirmed this in practice.
The Ryazan principality was destroyed first, then the Mongols plundered the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. March 4, 1238 in the battle on the City River the Russian army was defeated, he died Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich. in autumn 1239 destroyed Principality of Chernigov, V 1240- Kiev, and in 1241 - Galicia-Volyn. To govern the Russian lands, the Mongol khans (leaders) issued a label (letter) for the great reign of Vladimir. The Mongols made sure that not a single principality and not a single prince rose above the rest; this could lead to the consolidation of the forces of the Russian princes.
In the event of uprisings against the Baskaks (governors), the Mongols sent punitive detachments that went through the entire principality with fire and sword. The Mongols imposed 14 types of tribute on Rus', including “tribute of blood” (Russian soldiers were taken into the Mongol army). In general, the Mongol invasion had a negative impact on the economic, political and cultural development of Rus'. Tens of thousands of people died, many principalities fell into decay, cities were destroyed, some of them were never restored. Agricultural centers were abandoned, and some types of crafts were irretrievably lost. The payment of huge tribute slowed down the development of individual lands; The policy of transferring the label to the great reign caused disunity among the princes.
DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM
After Peasant reform of 1861. In Russia, capitalism began to establish itself as the dominant mode of production. Capitalist relations in Russia were distinguished by a number of features: the country retained landownership and the peasant community; autocracy. The economy was characterized by a multi-structure: large-scale capitalist production coexisted with patriarchal peasant farming. There were sharp disproportions among sectors of the economy: industry experienced rapid growth, while agriculture continued to remain stagnant. The process of initial capital accumulation was delayed.
This opened the way for widespread penetration of foreign investment into the Russian economy. In the main sphere of the economy - the agricultural sector - capitalist transformations occurred slowly. But the country was undergoing a process of redistribution of land property. Many landowners went bankrupt, and part of their lands were bought up by the rural bourgeoisie. Agriculture continued to develop along an extensive path. The growth of agricultural products was carried out mainly due to the expansion of sown areas and the development of new areas. But some farms mastered the basic techniques of labor intensification: they used advanced agricultural machinery and increased the agrotechnical level. This contributed to the transformation of the agricultural sector into a commodity production sector. But the incompleteness of the capitalist transformation of agriculture maintained tension between peasants and landowners. This created the preconditions for future social upheavals.
In industries, capitalism developed at an accelerated pace. The abolition of serfdom led to the emergence of a free labor force.
Played a leading role light (especially textile and food) industry. Heavy industry was also gaining momentum. New industries developed intensively - coal, oil, and chemical industries. However, domestic mechanical engineering was poorly developed. In many industries, foreign capital occupied a dominant position.
In Russia there was quite strong government intervention in the industrial sector. This served as the basis for the formation of a system of state capitalism. The industrial development of Russia was also facilitated by accelerated development transport, primarily networks railways. Their creation more closely connected various regions of the country with each other and contributed to the development of trade relations. The development of capitalist relations changed social structure and the appearance of classes, formed new social groups- bourgeoisie and proletariat.
Reign Ivana 4. From reforms to oprichnina.
In 1549 it was formed the reform party, led by the Tsar’s favorite Alexei Adashev, and called “ The chosen one is pleased" This included people close to the tsar - clerk Ivan Viskovaty, Metropolitan Macarius, priest Sylvester, A.M. Kurbsky. From this time begins the era of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, marked by successes in internal affairs and foreign policy.
Ivan IV with the Elected Rada carried out a number of reforms aimed at centralizing the Russian state. The nature of the reforms was influenced by the Moscow uprising of 1547, which showed the tsar that his power was not autocratic. The first step was the convening of the Zemsky Sobor, or Great Zemstvo Duma, in 1550. Ivan IV made it clear that the time of boyar autocracy was over, and he was taking the reins of power into his own hands. The fruit of the meeting was a new edition of the judicial code, which repeated the Code of Laws of 1477, but corrected and supplemented by various decrees and charters related to the improvement of judicial procedures. In 1551, a Church Council was convened, where the “Royal Questions” were read.
All these questions, along with the answers, were divided into one hundred chapters, which is why the entire cathedral code was called Stoglav. Stoglav has the same national significance as the Code of Laws. Church reform Ivan the Terrible concerned monastic land ownership. In May 1551, a decree was issued on the confiscation of all lands and lands transferred by the Boyar Duma to bishops and monasteries after death Vasily III. This law prohibited the church from acquiring new lands without reporting to the government. Simultaneously with the judicial reform, the Elected Rada began to streamline localism. In 1553, Ivan the Terrible introduced printing in Rus'. Printing became a new craft, headed by Ivan Fedorov.
In order to strengthen armed forces, Adashev's government began organizing a permanent streltsy army and formed a three-thousand-strong streltsy detachment for the personal protection of the tsar. Central point foreign policy Ivan the Terrible was the final crushing of the Tatar power. In 1552 Kazan was taken, and in 1556 the tsarist troops captured Astrakhan. The defeat of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates put an end to the three-century reign of the Tatars in the Volga region. Following this, the Bashkirs announced their voluntary accession to Russia, the rulers of the Great Nogai Horde and the Siberian Khanate, the princes of Pyatigorsk and Kabarda in the North Caucasus recognized themselves as vassals of the tsar.
But on the other hand, the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan strengthened the hostile attitude of the Crimean Horde towards us. At that time, Ivan IV was busy with the Livonian War that began in 1556, so he abandoned the idea of attacking Crimea. At the second stage of reforms, a unified order system emerged. Foreign relations were concentrated in the Ambassadorial Prikaz, military affairs - in the Razryadny Prikaz, land affairs - in the Local Prikaz, complaints addressed to the tsar were accepted by the Petition Prikaz. The Boyar Duma controlled the activities of the orders. The adoption of the order system led to the abolition of “feedings” in 1556. With the coming to power The chosen one is pleased Ivan the Terrible's reforms acquired a pronounced anti-boyar orientation.
Soon, Ivan IV began to become more and more burdened by his advisers, he was worried by the thought that they were leading him and did not give him free rein in anything. Therefore, in 1560, the king dispersed the Rada. This was followed by the era of executions and oprichnina.
In 1564 all royal family left the capital, taking with her the treasury and church treasures, and stopped in Alexandrovskaya Sloboda. Ivan the Terrible announced his abdication of the throne, counting on persuasion to return. In February 1565, the tsar returned to Moscow and assumed power on the terms he put forward.
Ivan the Terrible established the oprichnina with its own system of government, army and territory, and transferred the Moscow state (zemshchina) to the management of the Boyar Duma. The Tsar assumed unlimited powers to deal with “disobedient” boyars without consulting the Duma.
The oprichnina included the most economically profitable counties in the country, which served as the main source of income for the oprichnina treasury.
The Tsar insisted that the creation of the oprichnina was necessary to combat the abuse of power of the boyars and their treason. A period of bloody executions began, the beating of citizens in droves, and the barbaric destruction of cities. This period of the era of Ivan IV the Terrible was called the “Time of Troubles.”
Troubles 1598-1613. - a period in Russian history called the Time of Troubles. At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, Russia was experiencing a political and socio-economic crisis. The Livonian War and the Tatar invasion, as well as the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible, contributed to the intensification of the crisis and the growth of discontent. This was the reason for the beginning of the Time of Troubles in Russia.
First period of turmoil characterized by the struggle for the throne of various pretenders. After the death of Ivan the Terrible, his son Fedor came to power, but he turned out to be unable to rule and was actually ruled by the brother of the king’s wife - Boris Godunov. Ultimately, his policies caused discontent among the popular masses.
Troubles began with the appearance in Poland False Dmitry(in reality Grigory Otrepiev), the allegedly miraculously surviving son of Ivan the Terrible. He won over a significant part of the Russian population to his side. In 1605, False Dmitry was supported by the governors, and then Moscow. And already in June he became the legitimate king. But he acted too independently, which caused discontent among the boyars; he also supported serfdom, which caused protest from the peasants. On May 17, 1606, False Dmitry I was killed and V.I. ascended the throne. Shuisky, with the condition of limiting power. Thus, the first stage of the Troubles was marked by the reign of False Dmitry I (1605 - 1606)
Second period of troubles. In 1606, an uprising arose, the leader of which was I.I. Bolotnikov. The ranks of the militia included people from different walks of life: peasants, serfs, small and medium-sized feudal lords, servicemen, Cossacks and townspeople. They were defeated in the battle of Moscow. As a result, Bolotnikov was executed.
But dissatisfaction with the authorities continued. And soon appears False Dmitry II. In January 1608, his army headed towards Moscow. By June, False Dmitry II entered the village of Tushino near Moscow, where he settled. In Russia, 2 capitals were formed: boyars, merchants, officials worked on 2 fronts, sometimes even receiving salaries from both kings. Shuisky concluded an agreement with Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began aggressive military operations. False Dmitry II fled to Kaluga. Shuisky was tonsured a monk and taken to the Chudov Monastery. An interregnum began in Russia - the Seven Boyars (a council of 7 boyars). The Boyar Duma made a deal with the Polish interventionists and on August 17, 1610, Moscow swore allegiance to the Polish king Vladislav.
At the end of 1610, False Dmitry II was killed, but the struggle for the throne did not end there. So, the second stage has been marked uprising I.I. Bolotnikov (1606 - 1607), the reign of Vasily Shuisky (1606 - 1610), the appearance of False Dmitry II, as well as the Seven Boyars (1610).
Third period of troubles characterized by the fight against foreign invaders. After the death of False Dmitry II, the Russians united against the Poles. The war acquired a national character. In August 1612, the militia of K. Minin and D. Pozharsky reached Moscow. And already on October 26, the Polish garrison surrendered. Moscow was liberated. The time of troubles is over.
On February 21, 1613, the Zemsky Sobor appointed Mikhail Romanov as Tsar. Results of the Troubles were depressing: the country was in a terrible situation, the treasury was ruined, trade and crafts were in decline. The consequences of the Troubles for Russia were expressed in its backwardness compared to European countries. It took decades to restore the economy.
Strengthening autocratic power under Alexei Mikhailovich.
The strengthening of tsarist power largely occurred during the war with Poland. Many issues had to be resolved quickly and wisely. When Alexey Mikhailovich was in the active army, his orders concerning both the army and the internal structure of the country were also obliged to be carried out immediately and unquestioningly. there was no time to collect Zemsky Sobors. And it is no coincidence that it is during the war that they gradually die off. Competent, capable people are increasingly coming to the fore, sometimes pushing well-born, elderly, long-thinking people into the shadows.
At the same time, the tsar created the so-called nearby, or secret, Duma, where all the most important issues were resolved effectively and without delay according to the state. An important direction in strengthening the autocracy in Russia was the every possible exaltation of “His Sovereign Majesty.” It was a well thought out policy. The Tsar appeared in public extremely rarely, only on days of major state celebrations and major religious holidays. His passage through the streets of the capital or other cities of the country was accompanied by a special ritual. Everyone they met had to dismount from their horses, take off their caps and hats, and bow and stand at attention.
The tsar's appearances at meetings with foreign ambassadors, his appearance in the Boyar Duma, and his pilgrimage trips were arranged with extraordinary pomp and wealth. The king came out in luxurious attire, trimmed with gold, silver, and precious stones. A special role in the development of rituals for the king’s ceremonial appearances on the days Orthodox holidays The Church played. The Moscow patriarchs took a personal part in raising the prestige of the sovereign of all Rus'. The Tsar's appearances at ceremonial services in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin were reminiscent of the appearance of the Divine to the people.
Nothing like Russia in the first half of the 17th century. dont know. Such exaltation of the king’s personality was associated with changes in historical events in the country. The Code of 1649, as we remember, emphasized the inviolability and highest rank of royal power. The clergy had a particularly great influence in this sense, who persistently introduced among the people the idea of the God-given power of the tsar in Russia, of the Russian Tsar as the heir of the Orthodox Byzantine Empire, as the leader of the entire Orthodox world. After the devastation of the Time of Troubles, endless wars and civil strife, the people needed a ruler who would be their common intercessor and defender. This is how the appearance of the Russian monarch developed during the decades of the 17th century.
Steppe ubermensch on a tireless Mongolian horse (Mongolia, 1911)
The historiography about the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars (or Tatar-Mongols, or Tatars and Mongols, and so on, as you like) into Rus' goes back over 300 years. This invasion has become a generally accepted fact since the end of the 17th century, when one of the founders of Russian Orthodoxy, the German Innocent Gisel, wrote the first textbook on Russia - “Synopsis”. According to this book, the Russians hammered home history for the next 150 years. However, so far no historian has taken upon himself the courage to do “ road map"The campaign of Khan Batu in the winter of 1237-1238 to North-Eastern Rus'.
A little background
At the end of the 12th century, a new leader appeared among the Mongol tribes - Temujin, who managed to unite most of them around himself. In 1206 he was proclaimed at the kurultai (analogous to the Congress people's deputies USSR) by the all-Mongolian khan under the nickname Genghis Khan, who created the notorious “state of nomads”. Without wasting a minute, the Mongols began to conquer the surrounding territories. By 1223, when the Mongol detachment of commanders Jebe and Subudai clashed with the Russian-Polovtsian army on the Kalka River, the zealous nomads managed to conquer territories from Manchuria in the east to Iran, the southern Caucasus and modern western Kazakhstan, defeating the state of Khorezmshah and capturing part of northern China along the way.
In 1227, Genghis Khan died, but his heirs continued his conquests. By 1232, the Mongols reached the middle Volga, where they waged war with the nomadic Cumans and their allies - the Volga Bulgars (ancestors of the modern Volga Tatars). In 1235 (according to other sources - in 1236) at the kurultai a decision was made on a global campaign against the Kipchaks, Bulgars and Russians, as well as further to the West. The grandson of Genghis Khan, Khan Batu (Batu), had to lead this campaign. Here we need to make a digression. In 1236-1237, the Mongols, who at that time were leading fighting in vast areas from modern Ossetia (against the Alans) to the modern Volga republics, they captured Tatarstan (Volga Bulgaria) and in the fall of 1237 began concentration for a campaign against the Russian principalities.
Empire on a planetary scale
In general, why the nomads from the banks of Kerulen and Onon needed to conquer Ryazan or Hungary is not really known. All attempts by historians to laboriously justify such agility of the Mongols look rather pale. Regarding the Western campaign of the Mongols (1235-1243), they came up with a story that the attack on the Russian principalities was a measure to secure their flank and destroy potential allies of their main enemies - the Polovtsians (part of the Polovtsians went to Hungary, but the bulk of them became the ancestors of modern Kazakhs). True, neither the Ryazan principality, nor the Vladimir-Suzdal, nor the so-called. " Novgorod Republic"were never allies of either the Polovtsians or the Volga Bulgars.
Also, almost all historiography about the Mongols does not really say anything about the principles of forming their armies, the principles of managing them, and so on. At the same time, it was believed that the Mongols formed their tumens (field operational units), including from conquered peoples, the soldier was not paid anything for his service, and for any offense they were threatened with the death penalty.
Scientists tried to explain the successes of the nomads this way and that, but each time it turned out quite funny. Although, ultimately, the level of organization of the Mongol army - from intelligence to communications - could be envied by the armies of the most developed states of the 20th century (however, after the end of the era of wonderful campaigns, the Mongols - already 30 years after the death of Genghis Khan - instantly lost all their skills). For example, it is believed that the head of Mongolian intelligence, commander Subudai, maintained relations with the Pope, the German-Roman emperor, Venice, and so on.
Moreover, the Mongols, naturally, during their military campaigns acted without any radio communications, railways, road transport, and so on. IN Soviet time historians interspersed the then-traditional fantasy about steppe ubermenches who knew no fatigue, hunger, fear, etc., with a classic ritual in the field of the class-formational approach:
With a general recruitment into the army, each ten tents had to field from one to three warriors, depending on the need, and provide them with food. V Peaceful time stored in special warehouses. It was the property of the state and was issued to soldiers when they went on a campaign. Upon returning from the campaign, each warrior was obliged to surrender his weapons. The soldiers did not receive a salary, but they themselves paid the tax with horses or other livestock (one head per hundred heads). In war, each warrior had an equal right to use the spoils, a certain part of which was obliged to hand over to the khan. In the periods between campaigns, the army was sent to public works. One day a week was reserved for serving the khan.
The organization of the army was based on the decimal system. The army was divided into tens, hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands (tumyns or darkness), headed by foremen, centurions and thousands. The commanders had separate tents and a reserve of horses and weapons.
The main branch of the army was cavalry, which was divided into heavy and light. The heavy cavalry fought with the main forces of the enemy. The light cavalry carried out guard duty and conducted reconnaissance. She started a battle, disrupting the enemy ranks with arrows. The Mongols were excellent archers from horseback. Light cavalry pursued the enemy. The cavalry had a large number of factory (spare) horses, which allowed the Mongols to move very quickly over long distances. A feature of the Mongol army was the complete absence of a wheeled train. Only the tents of the khan and especially noble persons were transported on carts...
Each warrior had a file for sharpening arrows, an awl, a needle, thread and a sieve for sifting flour or straining muddy water. The rider had a small tent, two tursuks (leather bags): one for water, the other for kruta (dried sour cheese). If food supplies ran low, the Mongols bled their horses and drank it. In this way they could be content for up to 10 days.
In general, the term “Mongol-Tatars” (or Tatar-Mongols) itself is very bad. It sounds something like Croatian-Indians or Finno-Negros, if we talk about its meaning. The fact is that Russians and Poles, who encountered nomads in the 15th-17th centuries, called them the same - Tatars. Subsequently, the Russians often transferred this to other peoples who had nothing to do with the nomadic Turks in the Black Sea steppes. Europeans also made their contribution to this mess, who for a long time considered Russia (then Muscovy) Tatarstan (more precisely, Tartaria), which led to very bizarre constructions.
The French view of Russia in the mid-18th century
One way or another, society learned that the “Tatars” who attacked Rus' and Europe were also Mongols only at the beginning of the 19th century, when Christian Kruse published “Atlas and tables for reviewing the history of all European lands and states from their first population to of our times." Then Russian historians happily picked up the idiotic term.
Particular attention should also be paid to the issue of the number of conquerors. Naturally, no documentary data on the size of the Mongol army has reached us, and the most ancient source that enjoys unquestioning trust among historians is historical work a team of authors under the leadership of an official of the Iranian state, the Hulaguid Rashid ad-Din, “List of Chronicles”. It is believed that it was written at the beginning of the 14th century in Persian, however, it surfaced only at the beginning of the 19th century; the first partial edition in French was published in 1836. Until the middle of the 20th century, this source was not completely translated and published.
According to Rashid ad-Din, by 1227 (the year of Genghis Khan's death), the total army of the Mongol Empire was 129 thousand people. If you believe Plano Carpini, then 10 years later the army of phenomenal nomads consisted of 150 thousand Mongols themselves and another 450 thousand people recruited in a “voluntary-forced” manner from subject peoples. Pre-revolutionary Russian historians estimated the size of Batu's army, concentrated in the fall of 1237 near the borders of the Ryazan principality, from 300 to 600 thousand people. At the same time, it was taken for granted that each nomad had 2-3 horses.
By the standards of the Middle Ages, such armies look completely monstrous and implausible, we must admit. However, reproaching pundits for fantasy is too cruel for them. It is unlikely that any of them could even imagine even a couple of tens of thousands of mounted warriors with 50-60 thousand horses, not to mention the obvious problems with managing such a mass of people and providing them with food. Since history is an inexact science, and not a science at all, everyone can evaluate the range of fantasy researchers here. We will use the now classic estimate of the size of Batu’s army at 130-140 thousand people, which was proposed by the Soviet scientist V.V. Kargalov. His assessment (like all the others, completely sucked from thin air, to be very serious) in historiography, however, is prevalent. In particular, it is shared by the largest modern Russian researcher of the history of the Mongol Empire, R.P. Khrapachevsky.
From Ryazan to Vladimir
In the fall of 1237, Mongol troops, who fought throughout the spring and summer over vast areas from North Caucasus, the Lower Don and to the middle Volga region, were drawn to the place of general gathering - the Onuza River. It is believed that we are talking about the Tsna River in the modern Tambov region. Probably, some detachments of Mongols also gathered in the upper reaches of the Voronezh and Don rivers. There is no exact date for the start of the Mongols’ offensive against the Ryazan principality, but it can be assumed that it took place in any case no later than December 1, 1237. That is, the steppe nomads with a herd of almost half a million horses decided to go camping in winter. This is important for reconstruction.
Along the valleys of the Lesnoy and Polny Voronezh rivers, as well as the tributaries of the Pronya River, the Mongol army, moving in one or several columns, passes through the forested watershed of the Oka and Don. The embassy of the Ryazan prince Fyodor Yuryevich arrives to them, which turned out to be ineffective (the prince is killed), and somewhere in the same region the Mongols meet the Ryazan army in a field. In a fierce battle, they destroy it, and then move upstream the Prona, plundering and destroying small Ryazan cities - Izheslavets, Belgorod, Pronsk, and burning Mordovian and Russian villages.
Here we need to make a small clarification: we do not have accurate data on the number of people in the then North-Eastern Rus', but if we follow the reconstruction of modern scientists and archaeologists (V.P. Darkevich, M.N. Tikhomirov, A.V. Kuza), then it was not large and, in addition, it was characterized by low population density. For example, the largest city of the Ryazan land - Ryazan, numbered, according to V.P. Darkevich, a maximum of 6-8 thousand people, another 10-14 thousand people could live in the agricultural district of the city (within a radius of 20-30 kilometers). The remaining cities had a population of several hundred people, at best, like Murom - up to a couple of thousand. Based on this, it is unlikely that the total population of the Ryazan principality could exceed 200-250 thousand people.
Of course, for the conquest of such a “proto-state” 120-140 thousand warriors were more than an excessive number, but we will stick to the classical version.
On December 16, the Mongols, after a march of 350-400 kilometers (that is, the pace of the average daily march here is up to 18-20 kilometers), reach Ryazan and begin its siege - they build wooden fence, build stone-throwing machines with which they shell the city. In general, historians admit that the Mongols achieved incredible - by the standards of that time - success in siege warfare. For example, historian R.P. Khrapachevsky seriously believes that the Mongols were able to build any stone-throwing machines on the spot from available wood in literally a day or two:
There was everything necessary to assemble stone throwers - the united army of the Mongols had enough specialists from China and Tangut..., and Russian forests abundantly supplied the Mongols with wood for assembling siege weapons.
We also do not have any clear evidence of what the climatic conditions were in December 1239, but since the Mongols chose the ice of rivers as a method of transportation (there was no other way to pass through wooded areas, the first permanent roads in North-Eastern Russia are documented only in the 14th century). century), we can assume that it was already a normal winter with frosts, possibly snow.
An important question is also what the Mongolian horses ate during this campaign. From the works of historians and modern studies of steppe horses, it is clear that we were talking about very unpretentious, small horses - up to 110-120 centimeters tall at the withers - koniks. Their main diet is hay and grass. In their natural habitat, they are unpretentious and quite hardy, and in winter, during tebenevka, they are able to tear up snow in the steppe and eat last year’s grass.
Based on this, historians unanimously believe that thanks to these properties, the question of feeding the horses during the campaign in the winter of 1237-1238 against Rus' did not arise. Meanwhile, it is not difficult to notice that the conditions in this region (the thickness of the snow cover, the area of grass stands, as well as the general quality of phytocenoses) differ from, say, Khalkha or Turkestan. In addition, the winter training of steppe horses consists of the following: a herd of horses slowly, walking a few hundred meters a day, moves across the steppe, looking for withered grass under the snow. Animals thus save their energy costs. However, during the campaign against Rus', these horses had to walk 10-20-30 or even more kilometers a day in the cold (see below), carrying luggage or a warrior. Were horses able to replenish their energy expenditure under such conditions?
After the capture of Ryazan, the Mongols began to advance towards the Kolomna fortress, which was a kind of “gate” to the Vladimir-Suzdal land. Having walked 130 kilometers from Ryazan to Kolomna, according to Rashid ad-Din and R.P. Khrapachevsky, the Mongols were “stuck” at this fortress until January 5 or even January 10, 1238. On the other hand, a strong Vladimir army is moving towards Kolomna, which Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich probably equipped immediately after receiving news of the fall of Ryazan (he and the Chernigov prince refused to help Ryazan). The Mongols send an embassy to him with an offer to become their tributary, but the negotiations also turn out to be fruitless (according to the Laurentian Chronicle, the prince agrees to pay tribute, but still sends troops to Kolomna).
According to V.V. Kargalov and R.P. Khrapachevsky, the battle of Kolomna began no later than January 9 and lasted for 5 whole days (according to Rashid ad-Din). A logical question immediately arises here - historians are confident that the military forces of the Russian principalities as a whole were modest and corresponded to the reconstructions of that era, when an army of 1-2 thousand people was standard, and 4-5 thousand or more people seemed like a huge army. It is unlikely that Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich of Vladimir could have collected more (if we make a digression: total population The Vladimir land, according to various estimates, varied between 400-800 thousand people, but they were all scattered over a vast territory, and the population of the capital city of the earth - Vladimir, even according to the most daring reconstructions, did not exceed 15-25 thousand people). However, the Mongols were stuck near Kolomna for several days, and the intensity of the battle is shown by the fact of the death of Genghisid Kulkan, the son of Genghis Khan.
After the victory at Kolomna, either in a three- or five-day battle, the Mongols cheerfully moved along the ice of the Moscow River towards the future Russian capital. They cover a distance of 100 kilometers in literally 3-4 days (the pace of an average daily march is 25-30 kilometers): according to R.P. Khrapachevsky’s siege of Moscow by the nomads began on January 15 (according to N.M. Karamzin - January 20). The nimble Mongols took the Muscovites by surprise - they did not even know about the results of the battle of Kolomna, and after a five-day siege, Moscow shared the fate of Ryazan: the city was burned, all its inhabitants were exterminated or taken prisoner.
It is worth noting here that all historians recognize the fact that the Mongol-Tatars moved without a convoy. They say that the unpretentious nomads did not need it. Then it remains not entirely clear how and on what the Mongols moved their stone-throwing machines, shells for them, forges (for repairing weapons, replenishing lost arrowheads, etc.), and how they drove away prisoners. Since during the entire period of archaeological excavations on the territory of North-Eastern Rus' not a single burial of “Mongol-Tatars” was found, some historians even agreed to the version that the nomads took their dead back to the steppes (V.P. Darkevich, V. .V. Kargalov). Of course, it’s not even worth raising the question of the fate of the wounded or sick in this light (otherwise our historians will come up with the fact that they were eaten, a joke)...
However, after spending about a week in the vicinity of Moscow and plundering its agricultural contado, the Mongols moved along the ice of the Klyazma River (crossing the forest watershed between this river and the Moscow River) to Vladimir. Having covered over 140 kilometers in 7 days (the pace of an average daily march is about 20 kilometers), on February 2, 1238, the nomads began the siege of the capital of the Vladimir land. By the way, it was at this transition that the Mongol army of 120-140 thousand people was “caught” by a tiny detachment of the Ryazan boyar Evpatiy Kolovrat of either 700 or 1700 people, against whom the Mongols - out of powerlessness - were forced to use stone-throwing machines in order to defeat him ( It is worth considering that the legend of Kolovrat was recorded, according to historians, only in the 15th century, so... it is difficult to consider it completely documentary).
Let’s ask an academic question: what is an army of 120-140 thousand people with almost 400 thousand horses (and it’s not clear if there is a convoy?) moving on the ice of some Oka or Moscow river? The simplest calculations show that even moving with a front of 2 kilometers (in reality, the width of these rivers is significantly less), such an army under the most ideal conditions (everyone moves at the same speed, maintaining a minimum distance) stretches at least 30-40 kilometers. It is interesting that none of the Russian scientists over the past 200 years have even asked such a question, believing that giant cavalry armies fly literally through the air.
In general, at the first stage of Batu Khan’s invasion of North-Eastern Rus' - from December 1, 1237 to February 2, 1238, a conventional Mongolian horse covered about 750 kilometers, which gives an average daily rate of movement of 12 kilometers. But if we exclude from the calculations at least 15 days of standing in the Oka floodplain (after the capture of Ryazan on December 21 and the battle of Kolomna), as well as a week of rest and looting near Moscow, the pace of the average daily march of the Mongol cavalry will seriously improve - up to 17 kilometers per day.
It cannot be said that these are some kind of record paces of march (the Russian army during the war with Napoleon, for example, made 30-40-kilometer daily marches), the interesting thing here is that all this happened in the dead of winter, and such paces were maintained for quite a long time.
From Vladimir to Kozelsk
On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War XIII century
Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich of Vladimir, having learned about the approach of the Mongols, left Vladimir, leaving with a small squad for the Trans-Volga region - there, among the windbreaks on the Sit River, he set up a camp and awaited the arrival of reinforcements from his brothers - Yaroslav (father of Alexander Nevsky) and Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich. There were very few warriors left in the city, led by Yuri’s sons - Vsevolod and Mstislav. Despite this, the Mongols spent 5 days with the city, shelling it with stone throwers, taking it only after the assault on February 7th. But before this, a small detachment of nomads led by Subudai managed to burn Suzdal.
After the capture of Vladimir, the Mongol army is divided into three parts. The first and largest unit under the command of Batu goes from Vladimir to the northwest through the impassable forests of the Klyazma and Volga watershed. The first march is from Vladimir to Yuryev-Polsky (about 60-65 kilometers). Then the army is divided - part goes exactly northwest to Pereyaslavl (about 60 kilometers), after a five-day siege this city fell, then the Mongols go to Ksnyatin (about another 100 kilometers), to Kashin (30 kilometers), then turn west and along the ice of the Volga they move towards Tver (from Ksnyatin in a straight line it’s a little more than 110 kilometers, but they go along the Volga, there it turns out to be all 250-300 kilometers).
The second part goes through the dense forests of the Volga, Oka and Klyazma watershed from Yuryev-Polsky to Dmitrov (about 170 kilometers in a straight line), then after its capture - to Volok-Lamsky (130-140 kilometers), from there to Tver (about 120 kilometers) , after the capture of Tver - to Torzhok (together with the detachments of the first part) - in a straight line it is about 60 kilometers, but, apparently, they walked along the river, so it will be at least 100 kilometers. The Mongols reached Torzhok on February 21 - 14 days after leaving Vladimir.
Thus, the first part of the Batu detachment travels at least 500-550 kilometers in 15 days through dense forests and along the Volga. True, from here you need to throw out several days of siege of cities and it turns out about 10 days of march. For each of which, nomads pass through forests 50-55 kilometers a day! The second part of his detachment covers a total distance of less than 600 kilometers, which gives an average daily march pace of up to 40 kilometers. Taking into account a couple of days for sieges of cities - up to 50 kilometers per day.
Near Torzhok, a rather modest city by the standards of that time, the Mongols were stuck for at least 12 days and took it only on March 5 (V.V. Kargalov). After the capture of Torzhok, one of the Mongol detachments advanced towards Novgorod another 150 kilometers, but then turned back.
The second detachment of the Mongol army under the command of Kadan and Buri left Vladimir to the east, moving along the ice of the Klyazma River. Having walked 120 kilometers to Starodub, the Mongols burned this city, and then “cut off” the forested watershed between the lower Oka and middle Volga, reaching Gorodets (this is about another 170-180 kilometers, if the crow flies). Further, the Mongolian troops along the ice of the Volga reached Kostoroma (this is another 350-400 kilometers), separate units even reached Galich Mersky. From Kostroma, the Mongols of Buri and Kadan went to join the third detachment under the command of Burundai to the west - to Uglich. Most likely, the nomads moved on the ice of the rivers (in any case, let us remind you once again, this is the custom in Russian historiography), which gives about another 300-330 kilometers of travel.
In early March, Kadan and Buri were already near Uglich, having covered a little over three weeks to 1000-1100 kilometers. The average daily pace of the march was about 45-50 kilometers for the nomads, which is close to the performance of the Batu detachment.
The third detachment of Mongols under the command of Burundai turned out to be the “slowest” - after the capture of Vladimir, he set out for Rostov (170 kilometers in a straight line), then covered another 100 kilometers to Uglich. Part of Burundai's forces made a forced march to Yaroslavl (about 70 kilometers) from Uglich. At the beginning of March, Burundai unmistakably found the camp of Yuri Vsevolodovich in the Trans-Volga forests, whom he defeated in the battle on the Sit River on March 4. The transition from Uglich to the City and back is about 130 kilometers. In total, Burundai's troops covered about 470 kilometers in 25 days - this gives us only 19 kilometers of the average daily march.
In general, the conditional average Mongolian horse clocked up “on the speedometer” from December 1, 1237 to March 4, 1238 (94 days) from 1200 (the minimum estimate, suitable only for a small part of the Mongol army) to 1800 kilometers. The conditional daily journey ranges from 12-13 to 20 kilometers. In reality, if we throw out standing in the floodplain of the Oka River (about 15 days), 5 days of the assault on Moscow and 7 days of rest after its capture, the five-day siege of Vladimir, as well as another 6-7 days for the sieges of Russian cities in the second half of February, it turns out that Mongolian horses covered an average of 25-30 kilometers for each of their 55 days of movement. These are excellent results for horses, taking into account the fact that all this happened in the cold, in the middle of forests and snowdrifts, with a clear lack of feed (it is unlikely that the Mongols could requisition a lot of feed from the peasants for their horses, especially since the steppe horses did not eat practically grain) and hard work.
After the capture of Torzhok, the main part of the Mongol army concentrated on the upper Volga in the Tver region. They then moved in the first half of March 1238 on a broad front south into the steppe. The left wing, under the command of Kadan and Buri, passed through the forests of the Klyazma and Volga watershed, then went to the upper reaches of the Moscow River and descended along it to the Oka. In a straight line it is about 400 kilometers, taking into account the average pace of movement of fast-moving nomads - this is about 15-20 days of travel for them. So, apparently, already in the first half of April this part of the Mongol army entered the steppe. We have no information about how the melting of snow and ice on the rivers affected the movement of this detachment (the Ipatiev Chronicle only reports that the steppe inhabitants moved very quickly). What did this squad do? next month After leaving the steppe, there is also no information, it is only known that in May Kadan and Buri came to the rescue of Batu, who by that time was stuck near Kozelsk.
Small Mongol detachments, probably, as V.V. believes. Kargalov and R.P. Khrapachevsky, remained on the middle Volga, plundering and burning Russian settlements. It is not known how they came out into the steppe in the spring of 1238.
Most of the Mongol army under the command of Batu and Burundai, instead of taking the shortest route to the steppe, which the detachments of Kadan and Buri took, chose a very intricate route:
More is known about Batu’s route - from Torzhok he moved along the Volga and Vazuza (a tributary of the Volga) to the interfluve of the Dnieper, and from there through the Smolensk lands to the Chernigov city of Vshchizh, which lies on the banks of the Desna, writes Khrapachevsky. Having made a detour along the upper reaches of the Volga to the west and northwest, the Mongols turned south and, crossing watersheds, went to the steppes. Probably some detachments were marching in the center, through Volok-Lamsky (through the forests). Approximately, the left edge of Batu covered about 700-800 kilometers during this time, other detachments a little less. By April 1, the Mongols reached Serensk, and Kozelsk (the chronicle Kozelesk, to be precise) - on April 3-4 (according to other information - already on March 25). On average, this gives us about 35-40 more kilometers of daily march.
Near Kozelsk, where ice drift on Zhizdra and melting of snow in its floodplain could already begin, Batu was stuck for almost 2 months (more precisely, for 7 weeks - 49 days - until May 23-25, maybe later, if we count from April 3, according to Rashid ad-Din - for 8 weeks). Why the Mongols necessarily needed to besiege an insignificant town, even by medieval Russian standards, is not entirely clear. For example, the neighboring towns of Krom, Spat, Mtsensk, Domagoshch, Devyagorsk, Dedoslavl, Kursk were not even touched by the nomads.
Historians are still arguing on this topic; no sane argument has been given. The funniest version was proposed by the folk historian of the “Eurasian persuasion” L.N. Gumilev, who suggested that the Mongols took revenge on the grandson of the Chernigov prince Mstislav, who ruled in Kozelsk, for the murder of ambassadors on the Kalka River in 1223. It’s funny that the Smolensk prince Mstislav the Old was also involved in the murder of the ambassadors. But the Mongols did not touch Smolensk...
Logically, Batu had to quickly leave for the steppes, since the spring thaw and lack of food threatened him with the complete loss of, at a minimum, “transport” - that is, horses.
None of the historians was puzzled by the question of what the horses and the Mongols themselves ate while besieging Kozelsk for almost two months (using standard stone-throwing machines). Finally, it is simply difficult to believe that a town with a population of several hundred people, a huge army of the Mongols, numbering tens of thousands of soldiers, could not take 7 weeks...
As a result, the Mongols lost up to 4,000 people near Kozelsk, and only the arrival of Buri and Kadan’s troops from the steppes in May 1238 saved the situation - the town was captured and destroyed. For the sake of humor, it is worth saying that former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in honor of the services of the population of Kozelsk to Russia, awarded the settlement the title of “City of Military Glory.” The trouble was that archaeologists, after almost 15 years of searching, were unable to find unambiguous evidence of the existence of Kozelsk destroyed by Batu. You can read about the passions that were boiling over this issue in the scientific and bureaucratic community of Kozelsk here.
If we summarize the estimated data in a first and very rough approximation, it turns out that from December 1, 1237 to April 3, 1238 (the beginning of the siege of Kozelsk), a conventional Mongol horse traveled on average from 1,700 to 2,800 kilometers. In terms of 120 days, this gives an average daily journey ranging from 15 to 23-odd kilometers. Since periods of time are known when the Mongols did not move (sieges, etc., and this is about 45 days in total), the scope of their average daily actual march spreads from 23 to 38 kilometers per day.
Simply put, this means more than intense stress on the horses. The question is how many of them survived after such transitions in rather harsh climatic conditions and the obvious shortage of feed is not even discussed by Russian historians. As well as the question of the Mongolian losses themselves.
For example, R.P. Khrapachevsky generally believes that during the entire Western campaign of the Mongols in 1235-1242, their losses amounted to only about 15% of their original number, while historian V.B. Koshcheev counted up to 50 thousand sanitary losses during the campaign against North-Eastern Rus'. However, all these losses - both in people and horses, the brilliant Mongols quickly made up for at the expense of... the conquered peoples themselves. Therefore, already in the summer of 1238, Batu’s armies continued the war in the steppes against the Kipchaks, and in 1241 Europe was invaded by who knows what army - for example, Thomas of Splitsky reports that there were a huge number of... Russians, Kipchaks, Bulgars, etc. in it. peoples It is not really clear how many of them there were “Mongols” themselves.
XIV. MONGOL-TATARS. – GOLDEN HORDE
(continuation)
The rise of the Mongol-Tatar Empire. – Batu’s campaign against Eastern Europe. – Military structure of the Tatars. - Invasion of Ryazan land. - Devastation of Suzdal land and the capital city. – Defeat and death of Yuri II. – Reverse movement to the steppe and the ruin of Southern Rus'. - Fall of Kyiv. – Trip to Poland and Hungary.
For the invasion of the Tatars into Northern Rus', the Lavrentievsky (Suzdal) and Novgorod chronicles are used, and for the invasion of Southern Russia - the Ipatievsky (Volynsky). The latter is told in a very incomplete manner; so we have the most scant news about the actions of the Tatars in the Kyiv, Volyn and Galician lands. We find some details in later vaults, Voskresensky, Tverskoy and Nikonovsky. In addition, there was a special legend about Batu’s invasion of Ryazan land; but published in Vremennik Ob. I. and Dr. No. 15. (About him, in general about the devastation of the Ryazan land, see my “History of the Ryazan Principality,” Chapter IV.) Rashid Eddin’s news about Batu’s campaigns was translated by Berezin and supplemented with notes (Journal of M.N. Pr. 1855. No. 5 ). G. Berezin also developed the idea of the Tatar method of operating by raid.
For the Tatar invasion of Poland and Hungary, see the Polish-Latin chronicles of Bogufal and Dlugosz. Ropel Geschichte Polens. I. Th. Palatsky D jiny narodu c "eskeho I. His Einfal der Mongolen. Prag. 1842. Mailata Ceschichte der Magyaren. I. Hammer-Purgstal Geschichte der Goldenen Horde. Wolf in his Geschichte der Mongolen oder Tataren, by the way (chap. VI) , critically reviews the stories of the named historians about the Mongol invasion; in particular tries to refute Palacki’s presentation in relation to the modus operandi of the Czech king Wenzel, as well as in relation to the well-known legend about the victory of Jaroslav Sternberk over the Tatars at Olomouc.
Mongol-Tatar Empire after Genghis Khan
Meanwhile, a menacing cloud moved in from the east, from Asia. Genghis Khan assigned the Kipchak and the entire side to the north and west of the Aral-Caspian to his eldest son Jochi, who was to complete the conquest of this side begun by Jebe and Subudai. But the attention of the Mongols was still diverted by the stubborn struggle in eastern Asia with two strong kingdoms: the Niuchi empire and the neighboring Tangut power. These wars delayed the defeat for more than ten years of Eastern Europe. Moreover, Jochi died; and he was soon followed by Temujin [Genghis Khan] himself (1227), having managed to personally destroy the Tangut kingdom before his death. Three sons survived after him: Jagatai, Ogodai and Tului. He appointed Ogodai as his successor, or supreme khan, as the most intelligent among the brothers; Jagatai was given Bukharia and eastern Turkestan, Tula - Iran and Persia; and Kipchak was to come into the possession of the sons of Jochi. Temujin bequeathed to his descendants to continue the conquests and even outlined a general plan of action for them. The Great Kurultai, assembled in his homeland, that is, on the banks of Kerulen, confirmed his orders. Ogodai, who was still in charge of the Chinese War under his father, tirelessly continued this war until he completely destroyed the Niuchi empire and established his rule there (1234). Only then did he turn his attention to other countries and, among other things, began to prepare a great campaign against Eastern Europe.
During this time, the Tatar temniks, who commanded the Caspian countries, did not remain inactive; and tried to keep the nomads subdued by Jebe Subudai in subjection. In 1228, according to the Russian chronicle, “from below” (from the Volga) the Saksins (a tribe unknown to us) and Polovtsi, pressed by the Tatars, ran into the borders of the Bulgarians; The Bulgarian guard detachments they had defeated also came running from the country of Priyaitskaya. Around the same time, in all likelihood, the Bashkirs, fellow tribesmen of the Ugrians, were conquered. Three years later, the Tatars undertook a reconnaissance campaign deep into Kama Bulgaria and spent the winter there somewhere short of the Great City. The Polovtsians, for their part, apparently took advantage of the circumstances to defend their independence with weapons. At least their main khan Kotyan later, when he sought refuge in Ugria, told the Ugric king that he had defeated the Tatars twice.
Beginning of Batu's invasion
Having put an end to the Niuchi Empire, Ogodai moved the main forces of the Mongol-Tatars to conquer Southern China, Northern India and the rest of Iran; and for the conquest of Eastern Europe he allocated 300,000, the leadership of which he entrusted to his young nephew Batu, the son of Dzhuchiev, who had already distinguished himself in the Asian wars. His uncle appointed the famous Subudai-Bagadur as his leader, who, after the Kalka victory, together with Ogodai, completed the conquest of Northern China. Great Khan gave Batu and other proven commanders, including Burundai. Many young Genghisids also took part in this campaign, by the way, the son of Ogodai Gayuk and the son of Tului Mengu, the future successors of the Great Khan. From the upper reaches of the Irtysh, the horde moved westward, along the nomadic camps of various Turkish hordes, gradually annexing significant parts of them; so that at least half a million warriors crossed the Yaik River. One of the Muslim historians, speaking about this campaign, adds: “The earth groaned from the multitude of warriors; wild animals and night birds went mad from the enormity of the army.” It was no longer the selected cavalry that launched the first raid and fought on Kalka; now a huge horde with its families, wagons and herds was slowly moving. She constantly migrated, stopping where she found sufficient pasture for her horses and other livestock. Having entered the Volga steppes, Batu himself continued to move to the lands of the Mordovians and Polovtsians; and to the north he separated part of the troops with Subudai-Bagadur for the conquest of Kama Bulgaria, which the latter accomplished in the fall of 1236. This conquest, according to Tatar custom, was accompanied by a terrible devastation of the land and the massacre of the inhabitants; by the way, the Great City was taken and set on fire.
Khan Batu. Chinese drawing from the 14th century
By all indications, Batu’s movement was carried out according to a premeditated method of action, based on preliminary intelligence about those lands and peoples that it was decided to conquer. At least this can be said about the winter campaign in Northern Rus'. Obviously, the Tatar military leaders already had accurate information about what time of year is most favorable for military operations in this wooded area, replete with rivers and swamps; among them, the movement of the Tatar cavalry would be very difficult at any other time, with the exception of winter, when all the waters are covered with ice, strong enough to endure horse hordes.
Military organization of the Mongol-Tatars
Only the invention of European firearms and the establishment of large standing armies brought about a revolution in the attitude of sedentary and agricultural peoples to nomadic and pastoral peoples. Before this invention, the advantage in the fight was often on the side of the latter; which is very natural. Nomadic hordes are almost always on the move; their parts always more or less stick together and act as a dense mass. Nomads have no differences in occupations and habits; they are all warriors. If the will of an energetic khan or circumstances united a large number of hordes into one mass and directed them towards sedentary neighbors, then it was difficult for the latter to successfully resist the destructive impulse, especially where the nature was flat. The agricultural people, scattered throughout their country, accustomed to peaceful occupations, could not soon gather into a large militia; and even this militia, if it managed to set out on time, was far inferior to its opponents in speed of movement, in the habit of wielding weapons, in the ability to act in harmony and onslaught, in military experience and resourcefulness, as well as in a warlike spirit.
The Mongol-Tatars possessed all such qualities to a high degree when they came to Europe. Temujin [Genghis Khan] gave them the main weapon of conquest: unity of power and will. While nomadic peoples are divided into special hordes, or clans, the power of their khans, of course, has the patriarchal character of the ancestor and is far from unlimited. But when, by force of arms, one person subjugates entire tribes and peoples, then, naturally, he rises to a height unattainable for a mere mortal. Old customs still live among these people and seem to limit the power of the Supreme Khan; The guardians of such customs among the Mongols are kurultai and noble influential families; but in the hands of the clever, energetic khan many resources have already been concentrated to become a limitless despot. Having imparted unity to the nomadic hordes, Temujin further strengthened their power by introducing a uniform and well-adapted military organization. The troops deployed by these hordes were organized on the basis of strictly decimal division. The tens united into hundreds, the latter into thousands, with tens, hundreds and thousands at the head. Ten thousand made up the largest department called “fogs” and were under the command of the temnik. The place of the previous more or less free relations with the leaders was replaced by strict military discipline. Disobedience or premature removal from the battlefield was punishable by death. In case of indignation, not only the participants were executed, but their entire family was condemned to extermination. The so-called Yasa (a type of code of laws) published by Temuchin, although it was based on old Mongolian customs, but significantly increased their severity in relation to various actions and was truly draconian or bloody in nature.
The continuous and long series of wars started by Temujin developed among the Mongols strategic and tactical techniques that were remarkable for that time, i.e. generally the art of war. Where terrain and circumstances did not interfere, the Mongols operated in enemy soil by round-up, in which they are especially accustomed; since in this way the Khan usually hunted wild animals. The hordes were divided into parts, marched in encirclement and then approached the pre-designated main point, devastating the country with fire and sword, taking prisoners and all kinds of booty. Thanks to their steppe, short, but strong horses, the Mongols were able to make unusually fast and long marches without rest, without stopping. Their horses were hardened and accustomed to endure hunger and thirst just like their riders. Moreover, the latter usually had several spare horses with them on campaigns, which they transferred to as needed. Their enemies were often amazed by the appearance of barbarians at a time when they considered them to be still far away from them. Thanks to such cavalry, the Mongols' reconnaissance unit was at a remarkable stage of development. Any movement of the main forces was preceded by small detachments, scattered in front and on the sides, as if in a fan; Observation detachments also followed behind; so that the main forces were secured against any chance or surprise.
Regarding weapons, although the Mongols had spears and curved sabers, they were predominantly riflemen (some sources, for example, Armenian chroniclers, call them “the people of riflemen”); They used bows with such strength and skill that their long arrows, tipped with an iron tip, pierced hard shells. Usually the Mongols first tried to weaken and frustrate the enemy with a cloud of arrows, and then rushed at him hand-to-hand. If at the same time they met a courageous resistance, they turned to feigned flight; As soon as the enemy began to pursue them and thereby upset their battle formation, they deftly turned their horses and again made a united attack, as far as possible from all sides. They were covered with shields woven from reeds and covered with leather, helmets and armor, also made of thick leather, some even covered with iron scales. In addition, wars with more educated and rich peoples brought them a considerable amount of iron chain mail, helmets and all kinds of weapons in which their commanders and noble people. The tails of horses and wild buffalos fluttered on the banners of their leaders. The commanders usually did not enter the battle themselves and did not risk their lives (which could cause confusion), but controlled the battle, being somewhere on a hill, surrounded by their neighbors, servants and wives, of course, all on horseback.
The nomadic cavalry, having a decisive advantage over sedentary peoples in the open field, however, encountered an important obstacle in the form of well-fortified cities. But the Mongols were already accustomed to dealing with this obstacle, having learned the art of taking cities in the Chinese and Khovarezm empires. They also started up battering machines. They usually surrounded a besieged city with a rampart; and where the forest was at hand, they fenced it off with a tine, thus stopping the very possibility of communication between the city and the surrounding area. Then they set up battering machines, from which they threw large stones and logs, and sometimes incendiary substances; in this way they caused fire and destruction in the city; They showered the defenders with a cloud of arrows or put up ladders and climbed onto the walls. In order to tire out the garrison, they carried out attacks continuously day and night, for which fresh detachments constantly alternated with each other. If the barbarians learned to take large Asian cities, fortified with stone and clay walls, the easier they could destroy or burn the wooden walls of Russian cities. Crossing large rivers did not make it particularly difficult for the Mongols. For this purpose they used large leather bags; they were stuffed tightly with clothes and other light things, tied tightly and tied to the tail of the horses, and thus transported. One Persian historian of the 13th century, describing the Mongols, says: “They had the courage of a lion, the patience of a dog, the foresight of a crane, the cunning of a fox, the farsightedness of a crow, the rapacity of a wolf, the battle heat of a rooster, the care of a hen for its neighbors, the sensitivity of a cat and the violence of a boar when attacked.” .
Rus' before the Mongol-Tatar invasion
What could ancient, fragmented Rus' oppose to this enormous concentrated force?
The fight against nomads of Turkish-Tatar origin was already a familiar thing for her. After the first onslaughts of both the Pechenegs and the Polovtsians, fragmented Rus' then gradually became accustomed to these enemies and gained the upper hand over them. However, she did not have time to throw them back to Asia or to subjugate them and return to their former borders; although these nomads were also fragmented and also did not submit to one power, one will. What a disparity in strength there was with the menacing Mongol-Tatar cloud now approaching!
In military courage and combat courage, the Russian squads, of course, were not inferior to the Mongol-Tatars; and they were undoubtedly superior in bodily strength. Moreover, Rus' was undoubtedly better armed; its complete armament of that time was not much different from the armament of the German and Western European armaments in general. Among her neighbors she was even famous for her fighting. Thus, regarding Daniil Romanovich’s campaign to help Konrad of Mazovia against Vladislav the Old in 1229, the Volyn chronicler notes that Konrad “loved Russian battle” and relied on Russian help more than on his Poles. But the princely squads that made up the military class of Ancient Rus' were too few in number to repel the new enemies now pressing from the east; and the common people, if necessary, were recruited into the militia directly from the plow or from their crafts, and although they were distinguished by the stamina common to the entire Russian tribe, they did not have much skill in wielding weapons or making friendly, quick movements. One can, of course, blame our old princes for not understanding all the dangers and all the disasters that were then threatening from new enemies, and not joining their forces for a united rebuff. But, on the other hand, we must not forget that where there was a long period of all kinds of disunity, rivalry and the development of regional isolation, no human will, no genius could achieve rapid unification and concentration. popular forces. Such a benefit can only be achieved through the long and constant efforts of entire generations under circumstances that awaken in the people the consciousness of their national unity and the desire for their concentration. Ancient Rus' did what was in her means and ways. Every land, almost every significant city bravely met the barbarians and desperately defended themselves, hardly having any hope of winning. It couldn't be otherwise. A great historical people does not yield to an external enemy without courageous resistance, even under the most unfavorable circumstances.
Invasion of the Mongol-Tatars into the Ryazan Principality
At the beginning of the winter of 1237, the Tatars passed through the Mordovian forests and camped on the banks of some river Onuza. From here Batu sent to the Ryazan princes, according to the chronicle, a “sorceress wife” (probably a shaman) and with her two husbands, who demanded from the princes part of their estate in people and horses.
The eldest prince, Yuri Igorevich, hastened to convene his relatives, the appanage princes of Ryazan, Pron and Murom, to the Diet. In the first impulse of courage, the princes decided to defend themselves, and gave a noble answer to the ambassadors: “When we do not survive, then everything will be yours.” From Ryazan, Tatar ambassadors went to Vladimir with the same demands. Seeing that the Ryazan forces were too insignificant to fight the Mongols, Yuri Igorevich ordered this: he sent one of his nephews to the Grand Duke of Vladimir with a request to unite against common enemies; and sent another with the same request to Chernigov. Then the united Ryazan militia moved to the shores of Voronezh to meet the enemy; but avoided battle while waiting for help. Yuri tried to resort to negotiations and sent his only son Theodore at the head of a ceremonial embassy to Batu with gifts and a plea not to fight the Ryazan land. All these orders were unsuccessful. Theodore died in the Tatar camp: according to legend, he refused Batu’s demand to bring him his beautiful wife Eupraxia and was killed on his orders. Help didn't come from anywhere. The princes of Chernigovo-Seversky refused to come on the grounds that the Ryazan princes were not on Kalka when they were also asked for help; probably the Chernigov residents thought that the thunderstorm would not reach them or was still very far from them. And the slow Yuri Vsevolodovich Vladimirsky hesitated and was just as late with his help, as in the Kalka massacre. Seeing the impossibility of fighting the Tatars in an open field, the Ryazan princes hastened to retreat and took refuge with their squads behind the fortifications of the cities.
Following them, hordes of barbarians poured into the Ryazan land, and, according to their custom, engulfing it in a wide raid, began to burn, destroy, rob, beat, captivate, and commit desecration of women. There is no need to describe all the horrors of ruin. Suffice it to say that many villages and cities were completely wiped off the face of the earth; some of their famous names are no longer found in history after that. By the way, a century and a half later, travelers sailing along the upper reaches of the Don saw only ruins and deserted places on its hilly banks where once flourishing cities and villages stood. The devastation of the Ryazan land was carried out with particular ferocity and mercilessness also because it was in this regard the first Russian region: the barbarians came to it, full of wild, unbridled energy, not yet satiated with Russian blood, not tired of destruction, not reduced in number after countless battles. On December 16, the Tatars surrounded the capital city of Ryazan and surrounded it with a tyn. The squad and citizens, encouraged by the prince, repelled the attacks for five days. They stood on the walls, without changing their positions and without letting go of their weapons; Finally they began to grow exhausted, while the enemy constantly acted with fresh forces. On the sixth day the Tatars made a general attack; They threw fire on the roofs, smashed the walls with logs from their battering guns and finally broke into the city. The usual beating of residents followed. Among those killed was Yuri Igorevich. His wife and her relatives sought salvation in vain in the cathedral church of Boris and Gleb. What could not be plundered became a victim of the flames. Ryazan legends decorate the stories about these disasters with some poetic details. So, Princess Eupraxia, hearing about the death of her husband Feodor Yuryevich, threw herself from the high tower together with her little son to the ground and killed herself to death. And one of the Ryazan boyars named Evpatiy Kolovrat was on Chernigov land when the news of the Tatar pogrom came to him. He hurries to his fatherland, sees ashes hometown and is inflamed with a thirst for revenge. Having gathered 1,700 warriors, Evpatiy attacks the rear detachments of the Tatars, overthrows their hero Tavrul and finally, suppressed by the crowd, perishes with all his comrades. Batu and his soldiers are surprised at the extraordinary courage of the Ryazan knight. (The people, of course, consoled themselves with such stories in past disasters and defeats.) But along with examples of valor and love for the homeland, among the Ryazan boyars there were examples of betrayal and cowardice. The same legends point to a boyar who betrayed his homeland and handed himself over to his enemies. In each country, Tatar military leaders knew how to first of all find traitors; especially those were among the people captured, frightened by threats or seduced by caresses. From noble and ignorant traitors, the Tatars learned everything they needed about the state of the land, its weaknesses, the properties of the rulers, etc. These traitors also served as the best guides for the barbarians when moving into countries hitherto unknown to them.
Tatar invasion of Suzdal land
Capture of Vladimir by the Mongol-Tatars. Russian chronicle miniature
From the Ryazan land the barbarians moved to Suzdal, again in the same murderous order, sweeping this land in a raid. Their main forces went the usual Suzdal-Ryazan route to Kolomna and Moscow. Just then they were met by the Suzdal army, going to the aid of the Ryazan people, under the command of the young prince Vsevolod Yuryevich and the old governor Eremey Glebovich. Near Kolomna, the grand ducal army was completely defeated; Vsevolod escaped with the remnants of the Vladimir squad; and Eremey Glebovich fell in battle. Kolomna was taken and destroyed. Then the barbarians burned Moscow, the first Suzdal city on this side. Another son of the Grand Duke, Vladimir, and the governor Philip Nyanka were in charge here. The latter also fell in battle, and the young prince was captured. With how quickly the barbarians acted during their invasion, with the same slowness military gatherings took place in Northern Rus' at that time. With modern weapons, Yuri Vsevolodovich could put all the forces of Suzdal and Novgorod in the field in conjunction with the Murom-Ryazan forces. There would be enough time for these preparations. For more than a year, fugitives from Kama Bulgaria found refuge with him, bringing news of the devastation of their land and the movement of the terrible Tatar hordes. But instead of modern preparations, we see that the barbarians were already moving towards the capital itself, when Yuri, having lost the best part The army, defeated in parts, went further to the north to gather the zemstvo army and call for help from the brothers. In the capital, the Grand Duke left his sons, Vsevolod and Mstislav, with the governor Peter Oslyadyukovich; and he drove off with a small squad. On the way, he annexed three nephews of the Konstantinovichs, appanage princes of Rostov, with their militia. With the army that he managed to gather, Yuri settled down beyond the Volga almost on the border of his possessions, on the banks of the City, the right tributary of the Mologa, where he began to wait for the brothers, Svyatoslav Yuryevsky and Yaroslav Pereyaslavsky. The first one actually managed to come to him; but the second one did not appear; Yes, he could hardly have appeared on time: we know that at that time he occupied the great Kiev table.
At the beginning of February, the main Tatar army surrounded the capital Vladimir. A crowd of barbarians approached the Golden Gate; the citizens greeted them with arrows. "Do not shoot!" - the Tatars shouted. Several horsemen rode up to the very gate with the prisoner and asked: “Do you recognize your prince Vladimir?” Vsevolod and Mstislav, standing on the Golden Gate, together with those around them, immediately recognized their brother, captured in Moscow, and were struck with grief at the sight of his pale, sad face. They were eager to free him, and only the old governor Pyotr Oslyadyukovich kept them from a useless desperate sortie. Having located their main camp opposite the Golden Gate, the barbarians cut down trees in the neighboring groves and surrounded the entire city with a fence; then they installed their “vices”, or battering machines, and began to destroy the fortifications. The princes, princesses and some boyars, no longer hoping for salvation, accepted monastic vows from Bishop Mitrofan and prepared for death. On February 8, the day of the martyr Theodore Stratilates, the Tatars made a decisive attack. Following a sign, or brushwood thrown into the ditch, they climbed onto the city rampart at the Golden Gate and entered the new, or outer, city. At the same time, from the side of Lybid they broke into it through the Copper and Irininsky gates, and from Klyazma - through the Volzhsky. The outer city was taken and set on fire. Princes Vsevolod and Mstislav with their retinue retired to the Pecherny city, i.e. to the Kremlin. And Bishop Mitrofan with the Grand Duchess, her daughters, daughters-in-law, grandchildren and many noblewomen locked themselves in the cathedral church of the Mother of God in the tents, or choirs. When the remnants of the squad with both princes died and the Kremlin was taken, the Tatars broke down the doors of the cathedral church, plundered it, took away expensive vessels, crosses, vestments on icons, frames on books; then they dragged the forest into the church and around the church, and lit it. The bishop and the entire princely family, hiding in the choir, died in smoke and flames. Other churches and monasteries in Vladimir were also plundered and partly burned; many residents were beaten.
Already during the siege of Vladimir, the Tatars took and burned Suzdal. Then their detachments scattered throughout the Suzdal land. Some went north, took Yaroslavl and captured the Volga region all the way to Galich Mersky; others plundered Yuryev, Dmitrov, Pereyaslavl, Rostov, Volokolamsk, Tver; During February, up to 14 cities were taken, in addition to many “settlements and graveyards.”
Battle of the City River
Meanwhile, Georgy [Yuri] Vsevolodovich still stood on the City and waited for his brother Yaroslav. Then terrible news came to him about the destruction of the capital and the death of the princely family, about the capture of other cities and the approach of Tatar hordes. He sent a detachment of three thousand for reconnaissance. But the scouts soon came running back with the news that the Tatars were already bypassing the Russian army. As soon as the Grand Duke, his brothers Ivan and Svyatoslav and his nephews mounted their horses and began to organize regiments, the Tatars, led by Burundai, attacked Rus' from different sides, on March 4, 1238. The battle was brutal; but the majority of the Russian army, recruited from farmers and artisans unaccustomed to battle, soon mixed up and fled. Here Georgy Vsevolodovich himself fell; his brothers fled, his nephews also, with the exception of the eldest, Vasilko Konstantinovich of Rostov. He was captured. The Tatar military leaders persuaded him to accept their customs and fight the Russian land together with them. The prince firmly refused to be a traitor. The Tatars killed him and threw him into some Sherensky forest, near which they temporarily camped. The northern chronicler showers Vasilko with praise on this occasion; says that he was handsome in face, intelligent, courageous and very kind-hearted (“he is light at heart”). “Whoever served him, ate his bread and drank his cup, could no longer be in the service of another prince,” the chronicler adds. Bishop Kirill of Rostov, who escaped during the invasion of the remote city of his diocese, Belozersk, returned and found the body of the Grand Duke, deprived of his head; then he took Vasilko’s body, brought it to Rostov and laid it in the cathedral church of the Mother of God. Subsequently, they also found the head of George and placed him in his coffin.
Batu's movement to Novgorod
While one part of the Tatars was moving to Sit against the Grand Duke, the other reached the Novgorod suburb of Torzhok and besieged it. The citizens, led by their mayor Ivank, courageously defended themselves; For two whole weeks the barbarians shook the walls with their guns and made constant attacks. The novotors waited in vain for help from Novgorod; at last they were exhausted; On March 5, the Tatars took the city and terribly devastated it. From here their hordes moved further and went to Veliky Novgorod along the famous Seliger route, devastating the country right and left. They had already reached the “Ignach-cross” (Kresttsy?) and were only a hundred miles from Novgorod, when they suddenly turned south. This sudden retreat, however, was very natural under the circumstances of that time. Having grown up on the high planes and mountain plains of Central Asia, characterized by a harsh climate and variable weather, the Mongol-Tatars were accustomed to cold and snow and could quite easily endure the Northern Russian winter. But also accustomed to a dry climate, they were afraid of dampness and soon fell ill from it; their horses, for all their hardiness, after the dry steppes of Asia, also had difficulty withstanding swampy countries and wet food. Spring was approaching in Northern Russia with all its predecessors, i.e. melting snow and overflowing rivers and swamps. Along with disease and horse death, a terrible thaw threatened; the hordes caught by it could find themselves in a very difficult situation; the beginning of the thaw could clearly show them what awaited them. Perhaps they also found out about the preparations of the Novgorodians for a desperate defense; the siege could be delayed for several more weeks. There is, in addition, an opinion, not without probability, that there was a raid here, and Batu recently found it inconvenient to make a new one.
Temporary retreat of the Mongol-Tatars to the Polovtsian steppe
During the return movement to the steppe, the Tatars devastated eastern part Smolensk land and the Vyatichi region. Of the cities they devastated at the same time, the chronicles mention only one Kozelsk, due to its heroic defense. The appanage prince here was one of the Chernigov Olgovichs, young Vasily. His warriors, together with the citizens, decided to defend themselves to the last man and did not give in to any flattering persuasion of the barbarians.
Batu, according to the chronicle, stood near this city for seven weeks and lost many killed. Finally, the Tatars smashed the wall with their cars and burst into the city; Even here, the citizens continued to desperately defend themselves and cut themselves with knives until they were all beaten, and their young prince seemed to have drowned in blood. For such defense, the Tatars, as usual, nicknamed Kozelsk “the evil city.” Then Batu completed the enslavement of the Polovtsian hordes. Their main khan, Kotyan, with part of the people, retired to Hungary, and there he received land for settlement from King Bela IV, under the condition of the baptism of the Polovtsians. Those who remained in the steppes had to unconditionally submit to the Mongols and increase their hordes. From the Polovtsian steppes, Batu sent out detachments, on the one hand, to conquer the Azov and Caucasian countries, and on the other, to enslave Chernigov-Northern Rus'. By the way, the Tatars took Southern Pereyaslavl, plundered and destroyed the cathedral church of Michael there and killed Bishop Simeon. Then they went to Chernigov. Mstislav Glebovich Rylsky, Mikhail Vsevolodovich’s cousin, came to the aid of the latter and courageously defended the city. The Tatars placed throwing weapons from the walls at a distance of one and a half arrow flights and threw such stones that four people could hardly lift them. Chernigov was taken, plundered and burned. Bishop Porfiry, who was captured, was left alive and released. In the winter of the following 1239, Batu sent troops north to complete the conquest of the Mordovian land. From here they went to the Murom region and burned Murom. Then they fought again on the Volga and Klyazma; on the first they took Gorodets Radilov, and on the second - the city of Gorokhovets, which, as you know, was the possession of the Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir. This new invasion caused a terrible commotion throughout the entire Suzdal land. The residents who survived the previous pogrom abandoned their homes and ran wherever they could; mostly fled to the forests.
Mongol-Tatar invasion of Southern Rus'
Having finished with the strongest part of Rus', i.e. with the great reign of Vladimir, having rested in the steppe and fattened their horses, the Tatars now turned to Southwestern, Trans-Dnieper Rus', and from here they decided to go further to Hungary and Poland.
Already during the devastation of Pereyaslavl Russky and Chernigov, one of the Tatar detachments, led by Batu’s cousin, Mengu Khan, approached Kiev to scout out its position and means of defense. Stopping on the left side of the Dnieper, in the town of Pesochny, Mengu, according to the legend of our chronicle, admired the beauty and grandeur of the ancient Russian capital, which picturesquely rose on the coastal hills, shining with white walls and gilded domes of its temples. The Mongol prince tried to persuade the citizens to surrender; but they did not want to hear about her and even killed the messengers. At that time, Kiev was owned by Mikhail Vsevolodovich Chernigovsky. Although Menggu left; but there was no doubt that he would return with greater forces. Mikhail did not consider it convenient for himself to wait for the Tatar thunderstorm, he cowardly left Kyiv and retired to Ugria. Soon afterwards the capital city passed into the hands of Daniil Romanovich of Volyn and Galitsky. However, this famous prince, with all his courage and the vastness of his possessions, did not appear for the personal defense of Kyiv from the barbarians, but entrusted it to the thousandth Demetrius.
In the winter of 1240, a countless Tatar force crossed the Dnieper, surrounded Kyiv and fenced it off with a fence. Batu himself was there with his brothers, relatives and cousins, as well as his best commanders Subudai-Bagadur and Burundai. The Russian chronicler clearly depicts the enormity of the Tatar hordes, saying that the inhabitants of the city could not hear each other due to the creaking of their carts, the roar of camels and the neighing of horses. The Tatars directed their main attacks on that part that had the least strong position, i.e. to the western side, from which some wilds and almost flat fields adjoined the city. The battering guns, especially concentrated against the Lyadsky Gate, beat the wall day and night until they made a breach. The most persistent slaughter took place, “spear breaking and shields clumping together”; clouds of arrows darkened the light. The enemies finally broke into the city. The people of Kiev, with a heroic, albeit hopeless defense, supported the ancient glory of the first throne of the Russian city. They gathered around the Tithe Church of the Virgin Mary and then at night hastily fenced themselves off with fortifications. The next day this last stronghold also fell. Many citizens with families and property sought salvation in the choirs of the temple; the choirs could not withstand the weight and collapsed. This capture of Kyiv took place on December 6, on St. Nicholas’ day. The desperate defense embittered the barbarians; sword and fire spared nothing; the inhabitants were mostly beaten, and the majestic city was reduced to one huge heap of ruins. Tysyatsky Dimitri, captured wounded, Batu, however, left alive “for the sake of his courage.”
Having devastated the Kyiv land, the Tatars moved to Volyn and Galicia, took and destroyed many cities, including the capital Vladimir and Galich. Only some places, well fortified by nature and people, they could not take in battle, for example, Kolodyazhen and Kremenets; but they still took possession of the first, persuading the inhabitants to surrender with flattering promises; and then they were treacherously beaten. During this invasion, part of the population of Southern Rus' fled to distant countries; many took refuge in caves, forests and wilds.
Among the owners of South-Western Rus' there were those who, at the very appearance of the Tatars, submitted to them in order to save their inheritance from ruin. This is what the Bolokhovskys did. It is curious that Batu spared their land on the condition that its inhabitants sow wheat and millet for the Tatar army. It is also remarkable that Southern Rus', compared to Northern Russia, offered much weaker resistance to the barbarians. In the north, the senior princes, Ryazan and Vladimir, having gathered the forces of their land, bravely entered into unequal struggle with the Tatars and died with weapons in their hands. And in the south, where the princes have long been famous for their military prowess, we see a different course of action. The senior princes, Mikhail Vsevolodovich, Daniil and Vasilko Romanovich, with the approach of the Tatars, left their lands to seek refuge either in Ugria or in Poland. It’s as if the princes of Southern Rus' had enough determination for a general resistance only during the first invasion of the Tatars, and the Kalka massacre brought such fear into them that its participants, then young princes, and now older ones, are afraid of another meeting with wild barbarians; they leave their cities to defend themselves alone and perish in an overwhelming struggle. It is also remarkable that these senior southern Russian princes continue their feuds and scores for the volosts at the very time when the barbarians are already advancing on their ancestral lands.
Campaign of the Tatars to Poland
After Southwestern Rus', it was the turn of the neighboring Western countries, Poland and Ugria [Hungary]. Already during his stay in Volyn and Galicia, Batu, as usual, sent detachments to Poland and the Carpathians, wanting to scout out the routes and position of those countries. According to the legend of our chronicle, the aforementioned governor Dimitri, in order to save South-Western Rus' from complete devastation, tried to speed up the further campaign of the Tatars and told Batu: “Don’t hesitate long in this land; it’s time for you to go to the Ugrians; and if you hesitate, then there They will have time to gather strength and will not let you into their lands." Even without this, the Tatar leaders had the custom of not only obtaining all the necessary information before a campaign, but also with quick, cunningly planned movements to prevent any concentration of large forces.
The same Dimitri and other southern Russian boyars could tell Batu a lot about the political state of their western neighbors, whom they often visited together with their princes, who were often related to both the Polish and Ugric sovereigns. And this state was likened to fragmented Rus' and was very favorable for the successful invasion of the barbarians. In Italy and Germany at that time, the struggle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines was in full swing. The famous grandson of Barbarossa, Frederick II, sat on the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. The aforementioned struggle completely distracted his attention, and in the very era of the Tatar invasion, he was diligently engaged in military operations in Italy against the supporters of Pope Gregory IX. Poland, being fragmented into appanage principalities, just like Rus', could not act unanimously and present serious resistance to the advancing horde. In this era we see here the two eldest and most powerful princes, namely, Konrad of Mazovia and Henry the Pious, ruler of Lower Silesia. They were on hostile terms with each other; moreover, Conrad, already known for his short-sighted policy (especially calling on the Germans to defend their land from the Prussians), was least capable of a friendly, energetic course of action. Henry the Pious was related to the Czech king Wenceslaus I and the Ugric Bela IV. In view of the threatening danger, he invited the Czech king to meet the enemies with joint forces; but did not receive timely help from him. In the same way, Daniil Romanovich had long been convincing the Ugric king to unite with Russia to repel the barbarians, and also to no avail. The Kingdom of Hungary at that time was one of the strongest and richest states in all of Europe; his possessions extended from the Carpathians to the Adriatic Sea. The conquest of such a kingdom should have especially attracted the Tatar leaders. They say that Batu, while still in Russia, sent envoys to the Ugric king demanding tribute and submission and reproaches for accepting the Kotyanov Polovtsians, whom the Tatars considered their runaway slaves. But the arrogant Magyars either did not believe in the invasion of their land, or considered themselves strong enough to repel this invasion. With his own sluggish, inactive character, Bela IV was distracted by various disorders of his state, especially feuds with rebellious magnates. These latter, by the way, were dissatisfied with the installation of the Polovtsians, who carried out robberies and violence, and did not even think of leaving their steppe habits.
At the end of 1240 and the beginning of 1241, the Tatar hordes left Southwestern Rus' and moved on. The campaign was maturely thought out and organized. Batu himself led the main forces through the Carpathian passes directly to Hungary, which was now his immediate goal. Special armies were sent in advance on both sides to engulf Ugria in a huge avalanche and cut off all help from its neighbors. By left hand In order to get around it from the south, the son of Ogodai Kadan and the governor Subudai-Bagadur took different roads through Sedmigradia and Wallachia. And on the right hand moved another cousin of Batu, Baydar, the son of Jagatai. He headed along Lesser Poland and Silesia and began to burn their cities and villages. In vain, some Polish princes and commanders tried to resist in the open field; they suffered defeats in unequal battles; and most of them died the death of the brave. Among the devastated cities were Sudomir, Krakow and Breslau. At the same time, individual Tatar detachments spread their devastation far into the depths of Mazovia and Greater Poland. Henry the Pious managed to prepare a significant army; received the help of Teutonic, or Prussian, knights and waited for the Tatars near the city of Liegnitz. Baidarkhan gathered his scattered troops and attacked this army. The battle was very stubborn; Unable to break the Polish and German knights, the Tatars, according to the chroniclers, resorted to cunning and confused the enemies with a deft cry fired through their ranks: “Run, run!” The Christians were defeated, and Henry himself died a heroic death. From Silesia, Baydar went through Moravia to Hungary to connect with Batu. Moravia was then part of the Czech kingdom, and Wenceslaus entrusted its defense to the courageous governor Yaroslav from Sternberk. Ruining everything in their path, the Tatars, among other things, besieged the city of Olomouc, where Yaroslav himself locked himself up; but here they failed; the governor even managed to make a lucky sortie and inflict some damage on the barbarians. But this failure could not have a significant impact on the general course of events.
Mongol-Tatar invasion of Hungary
Meanwhile, the main Tatar forces were moving through the Carpathians. The detachments sent forward with axes partly chopped up, partly burned out those forest axes with which Bela IV ordered to block the passages; their small military coverings were scattered. Having crossed the Carpathians, the Tatar horde poured onto the plains of Hungary and began to brutally devastate them; and the Ugric king was still sitting at the Diet in Buda, where he consulted with his obstinate nobles about defense measures. Having dissolved the Diet, he now only began to gather an army, with which he locked himself in Pest, adjacent to Buda. After a futile siege of this city, Batu retreated. Bela followed him with an army, the number of which had grown to 100,000 people. In addition to some magnates and bishops, his younger brother Coloman, the ruler of Slavonia and Croatia (the same one who in his youth reigned in Galich, from where he was expelled by Mstislav the Udal), also came to his aid. This army carelessly settled down on the banks of the Shayo River, and here it was unexpectedly surrounded by the hordes of Batu. The Magyars succumbed to panic and crowded in disorder in their cramped camp, not daring to join the battle. Only a few brave leaders, including Koloman, left the camp with their troops and, after a desperate battle, managed to break through. The rest of the army was destroyed; the king was among those who managed to escape. After that, the Tatars raged unhindered in Eastern Hungary for the whole summer of 1241; and with the onset of winter they crossed to the other side of the Danube and devastated its western part. At the same time, special Tatar detachments also actively pursued the Ugric king Bela, as before the Sultan of Khorezm Mohammed. Fleeing from them from one region to another, Bela reached the extreme limits of the Ugric possessions, i.e. to the shores of the Adriatic Sea and, like Mohammed, also escaped from his pursuers to one of the islands closest to the shore, where he remained until the storm passed. For more than a year, the Tatars stayed in the Hungarian kingdom, devastating it far and wide, beating the inhabitants, turning them into slavery.
Finally, in July 1242, Batu gathered his scattered troops, burdened with countless booty, and, leaving Hungary, headed back through the Danube valley through Bulgaria and Wallachia to the southern Russian steppes. The main reason for the return campaign was the news of the death of Ogodai and the accession of his son Gayuk to the supreme khan throne. This latter had left Batu’s hordes earlier and was not on friendly terms with him at all. It was necessary to provide for his family in those countries that fell to Jochi’s share in the division of Genghis Khan. But besides the too great distance from their steppes and the threatening disagreements between the Genghisids, there were, of course, other reasons that prompted the Tatars to return to the east without consolidating the subordination of Poland and Ugria. For all their successes, the Tatar military leaders realized that further stay in Hungary or movement to the west was unsafe. Although Emperor Frederick II was still keen on the fight against the papacy in Italy, a crusade against the Tatars was preached everywhere in Germany; The German princes made military preparations everywhere and actively fortified their cities and castles. These stone fortifications were no longer as easy to take as the wooden cities of Eastern Europe. The iron-clad, military-experienced Western European knighthood also did not promise an easy victory. Already during their stay in Hungary, the Tatars more than once suffered various setbacks and, in order to defeat their enemies, often had to resort to their military tricks, such as: a false retreat from a besieged city or a feigned flight in an open battle, false treaties and promises, even forged letters, addressed to the residents as if on behalf of the Ugric king, etc. During the siege of cities and castles in Ugria, the Tatars very sparingly spared their own forces; and more they took advantage of the crowds of captured Russians, Polovtsians and the Hungarians themselves, who, under the threat of beating, were sent to fill up ditches, make tunnels, and go on an attack. Finally, the most neighboring countries, with the exception of the Middle Danube Plain, due to the mountainous, rugged nature of their surface, already provided little convenience for the steppe cavalry.
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