Chapter I GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF CITIES IN NORTH-EASTERN RUSSIA

The Russian state, formed on the border of Europe with Asia, which reached its peak in the 10th - early 11th century, at the beginning of the 12th century broke up into many principalities. This disintegration took place under the influence of the feudal mode of production. The external defense of the Russian land was especially weakened. The princes of individual principalities pursued their own separate policy, reckoned primarily with the interests of the local feudal nobility and entered into endless internecine wars. This led to the loss of centralized control and to a strong weakening of the state as a whole.

In the XIII century. the former Kievan Rus was divided into two parts: South and North-East. The peoples of our country had to endure a hard struggle against foreign invaders. From the east, hordes of Mongol-Tatar conquerors attacked Russia, the peoples of Central Asia and the Caucasus.

The Tatar-Mongol yoke is usually called the period of time during which Russia was under the influence of the Golden Horde. The Tatar-Mongol yoke held in Russia for 240 years - almost a quarter of a millennium. During this time, many events took place that influenced Russia, so the significance of this time cannot be overestimated. The outcome of the heroic struggle against the invaders for a long time determined the historical fate of most of the peoples of our country, had a huge impact on their further economic and state-political development, led to significant changes in the ethnic and political map of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The situation in Russia before the Mongol-Tatar invasion.

In the XIII century, the Vladimir principality was part of the once powerful and united, but snatched to pieces, Kyiv principality. Pereyaslavl became an independent principality, the principalities of Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversk, Galicia-Volynsk, Smolensk also became independent. Former Kievan Rus was divided into two parts: Southern and North-Eastern.

In the North-Eastern part, the Vladimir-Suzdal land began to occupy a predominant position. A political center was formed - Vladimir, from the Wild Field and from the raids of the Polovtsy, which was guarded by impenetrable forests, swamps, rivers and the Ryazan-Murom principality. After Yuri Dolgoruky and his son Andrei Bogolyubsky, the Suzdal land began to wean itself from civil strife, but the boyar turmoil did not allow Andrei's brother Vsevolod to reign in peace. Only in 1176 did the reign of Vsevolod the Big Nest begin, accompanied by the establishment and development of the traditions of princely autocracy, laid down by Andrei Bogolyubsky. But after the death of Vsevolod, civil strife broke out again between his sons and other princely houses. Mstislav Udaloy - the son of the Smolensk prince Mstislav Rostislavich, the great-grandson of Mstislav the Great, entered into hostility with the Vsevolodovsky house, which led to the fact that in 1219 Mstislav Udaloy became the Galician prince. Prince Konstantin of Suzdal calmly handed over the principality of Vladimir to his brother Yuri before his death, and Yaroslav Vsevolodovich became governor of Novgorod.

Invasion of the Golden Horde.

In 1235, a military council (kurultai) was held at which a decision was made to invade Russian lands, the grandson of Genghis Khan, Batu, was approved as commander-in-chief.

At the end of 1236, the Mongols defeated Volga Bulgaria with a swift blow, in the spring and summer of 1237 they subjugated the Polovtsian hordes in the interfluve of the Volga and Don, seized the lands of the Burtases and Mordovians on the Middle Volga. In the autumn of 1237, the main forces of Batu concentrated in the upper reaches of the Voronezh River to invade North-Eastern Russia.

Numerical superiority became one of the decisive factors in the success of the Mongol conquests. Batu moved 120-140 thousand of his soldiers to Russia, of which there were only 40-50 thousand Mongol-Tatars. Russia, like other feudally fragmented countries of Europe and Asia of that time, could not oppose the hordes of the Mongol-Tatar cavalry, soldered iron discipline and a unified command, military forces of equal size. All of Russia could field more than 100 thousand soldiers, but the unification of the country's forces turned out to be impossible in the conditions of princely strife and strife.

In the winter of 1237, the hordes of Batu invaded the Ryazan principality. For the Ryazan princes, accustomed to the summer-autumn raids of the Polovtsy, the winter offensive of the Mongol-Tatars was unexpected. The princely squads were dispersed in the capital specific cities. The appeal of the Ryazan princes for help to the neighboring princes of Vladimir and Chernigov remained unanswered, which, however, did not shake the determination of the Ryazan people to fight for their land to the death. For five days the defenders of the city fought off a fierce assault on the successive Tumens of Batu. On the sixth day, the Mongol-Tatars broke into the city, which they plundered and burned, and killed all its inhabitants.

Leaving behind him the devastated and depopulated Ryazan land, Batu moved his forces to the Vladimir principality. Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodich used the monthly delay of the Mongol-Tatars in the Ryazan land to concentrate significant military forces near Kolomna, which covered the only convenient winter route to Vladimir along the Moscow River and Klyazma. In the "great battle" near Kolomna, almost the entire Vladimir army perished, which in fact predetermined the fate of the entire North-Eastern Russia. Stubborn resistance to the invaders was offered by the inhabitants of Moscow, a small fortress city at that time, covering the way to Vladimir from the southwest. Only on the fifth day of the assault did the Mongol-Tatars succeed in capturing Moscow and completely destroying it.

February 4, 1238 Batu besieged Vladimir. For several days Vladimirians repulsed the assault of his detachments. On February 7, the Mongols broke into the city through gaps in the fortress wall. Its last defenders died in the fire of the Assumption Cathedral set on fire by the invaders. With the capture, after a two-week siege, of the Novgorod “suburb” of Torzhok, bordering with Vladimir land, the road to Novgorod, Polotsk and other cities of North-Western Russia was opened before the invaders. However, the coming spring turned the Novgorod forests and swamps into swamps, impassable for the Mongol cavalry, burdened with countless convoys with looted booty and prisoners. In bloody battles and assaults on Russian cities, the invaders suffered huge losses, their combat power weakened. Batu began to retreat to the southern steppes to put his tumens in order.

The position of the Russian princes in relation to the Mongol-Tatar yoke.

In the policy of the Russian princes in relation to the Golden Horde, two directions can be traced: part of the Russian princes was guided by an alliance with the Mongol-Tatars, the other part was on the path of open armed resistance to them.

The difference in positions is explained by the fact that Russia in this period was "between two fires." On the one hand, the Mongol-Tatars, on the other, Catholic Europe. The Russian princes were faced with the problem of choice: with whom to fight in the first place, in whom to look for allies? These two possible lines in politics were embodied in the activities of two princes - Alexander Nevsky and Daniil Galitsky.

Historians believe that Prince Alexander was one of the first to appreciate the complexity and inconsistency of the situation, since he knew better than anyone what danger was coming from the West. History of Russia from ancient times to 1917. Seeing that the crusaders were no less destroyers for Russia than the Mongol-Tatars, he opted for an alliance with the Horde. From 1252 to 1266 being the Vladimir-Suzdal prince, he headed for submission. His policy was supported by the church, which saw a great danger in Catholic expansion, and not in the tolerant rulers of the Golden Horde.

The position of Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, who advocated peace with the Horde, did not arouse sympathy among everyone. The lower classes unanimously opposed the Horde, the princes and boyars disagreed. Numerous unrest, riots against the clerics, Baskaks, exorbitant tribute to the Horde became an expression of popular sentiment.

In politics, the line of opposition to the Horde found expression in the activities of a number of princes, primarily Daniil Romanovich Galitsky.

It is symbolic that Prince Andrei Yaroslavich, the brother of Alexander Nevsky, became the closest ally, comrade-in-arms of Prince Daniel. Sources do not make it possible to establish who was the initiator of the anti-Horde alliance that swept the Russian lands from the northeast to the southwest, Prince Daniel or Prince Andrei? It is known that the agreement was reinforced by the marriage of Andrei Yaroslavich to the daughter of Daniel of Galicia in 1251.

This union, based on the moral support of the Catholic Church, was highly undesirable and dangerous for the Horde. And as soon as Batu Khan strengthened his position, having achieved the election of his protege as the great khan, he sent another army to Russia, which is known in history as Nevryuev (1252). It is known that the Nevryu’s army appeared near Pereyaslavl, Prince Andrei went out to meet her with regiments, and a “great slaughter” took place on the Klyazma. On the side of the Vladimir-Suzdal prince, apparently, the Tverichi fought. The forces were unequal, the Russian squads were defeated, Prince Andrei fled to Novgorod, and then to Sweden.

Daniel of Galicia found himself without an ally, but still hoped for the help of Pope Innocent IV, who called the Catholics on a crusade against Russia. The appeals of the head of the Catholic Church turned out to be fruitless, and Prince Daniel decided to fight the Horde on his own. In 1257, he expelled the Horde Baskaks and the Horde garrisons from the Galician and Volyn cities. But the Horde sent a significant army under the command of Burundai, and Prince Daniel, at his request, was forced to dismantle the fortress walls in his cities, which constituted the main military support in the fight against the Horde. The Galicia-Volyn principality did not have the strength to resist the Burunda army. So in life the political line chosen by Alexander Nevsky won. In 1262, he concluded an agreement with the Lithuanian prince Mindovg against the Order, which frightened the Horde diplomacy. Not without her participation in 1263, Mindovg was killed in a princely civil strife, and Alexander was summoned to the Horde and died on the way back under mysterious circumstances.

At this time, the Horde rati began to appear one after another in North-Eastern Russia:

1273 - the ruin of the cities of North-Eastern Russia by the "tsarist Tatars".

1275 - the Tatar army smashed the southern Russian cities on the way from Lithuania.

1281 - Kavgadai and Alche-gei came to North-Eastern Russia.

1282 - the Horde army of Turantemir and Alyn devastated the lands around Vladimir and Pereyaslavl.

1288 - army in the Ryazan, Murom and Mordovian lands.

1293 - "Dedyunev's army" devastated all major cities, up to Voloka-Lamsky.

1318 - collection of tribute to the Kopchas in Kostroma and Rostov.

1320 - Naideta came to Vladimir for tribute.

1321 - Tayangar plundered Kashin.

1322 - Akhmyl robbed Yaroslavl and other grassroots cities.

In 1327, the only uprising of the Russian people against the Horde yoke happened, the threat of a new punitive army looming over Russia. The hour of Ivan Kalita has come. Having no choice, he had to lead the Tatar army to Tver, which was then in opposition to Moscow, in order to avoid major raids from the Tatars. For this service in 1332, Ivan became the Grand Duke. Already from the time of Ivan, they began to collect surplus from the tribute and save it, although they still did not quite understand what to do with them.

During the reign of Ivan Kalita, the Lithuanian-Russian principality, which united Smolensk, Podolsk, Vitebsk, Minsk, Lithuania, and later the Middle Dnieper region, gained international political weight and began to claim the entire ancient Russian heritage. The horde encouraged and more incited contradictions between the two great principalities, alternately taking the side of one of the parties, following the policy developed under Genghis Khan.

Liberation from the yoke.

The first stone laid in the basis of the struggle of Russia for liberation from the Mongol-Tatar yoke was the Battle of Kulikovo, which took place on September 8, 1380. The horde had a numerical superiority over the Russians, but thanks to Dmitry's excellent tactical ideas, his army managed to encircle and destroy the main forces of Mamai.

The defeat of Mamai, and the ensuing turmoil of the Horde, which led to the final collapse of the predatory state, a demonstration of the superiority of Russian military art over the military art of the enemy, the strengthening of state power in Russia are noticeable consequences of the battle on Kulikovo field. At the same time, the Battle of Kulikovo marked the beginning of the revival of the national identity of the Russian people.

The Kulikovo victory created a qualitatively new political situation in Eastern Europe, in which the artificially restrained unification processes were given room for their development. The steady rise of Moscow, the capital of the Russian lands, began with the Kulikovo victory. Now there were also signs of the increased personal influence of Dmitry Donskoy.

After the Battle of Kulikovo, the Horde more than once tried to restore its weakened influence on Russia and stop the unification of the lands around Moscow that had begun.

In 1462, after the death of Vasily II, his son Ivan III ascended the throne. The era of Ivan III is the era of the most difficult work of Russian diplomacy, the era of strengthening the Russian army, necessary for the defense of the Russian state. The first conquest of Ivan III was the Kazan Khanate, followed by the annexation of Novgorod, and by 1492 Ivan III began to be officially called "the sovereign of all Russia." But as early as 1480, Ivan III began to prepare the political ground for the overthrow of the Horde yoke. As soon as Moscow received the exact news that Khan Akhmat was marching with all his strength to the Don, the Grand Duke set up regiments on the Oka. Khan Akhmat, having learned that strong regiments were posted on the Oka, went to Kaluga, to connect with Kazimir. Having determined the direction of the Horde's campaign, Ivan III intercepted it on the Ugra River. Moscow meanwhile was besieged.

Akhmat threatened to launch an offensive when the ice forge the Ugra. October 26 Ugra rose. Akhmat also stood. On November 11, Khan Akhmat, despite the fact that all crossings over the Ugra were open, turned away. He rushed to the run through the Lithuanian volosts of his ally Casimir.

November 11, 1480, the day Khan Akhmat left the banks of the Ugra, is considered to be the day of the complete liberation of the Russian land and the Russian people from the Horde yoke, from any dependence on the khans of the Golden Horde.

The influence of the Mongol-Tatar invasion on the Russian state.

Most Russians, both pre-revolutionary (S.M. Solovyov, V.O. Klyuchevsky, and modern historians (in particular, B.A. Rybakov) argue that the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia was and had the most negative impact on its development. History Russia from ancient times until 1917. A system of dependence of Russia on the Golden Horde was created

1) Russian princes fell into political - vassalage to the Mongol khans, as they were supposed to receive a label - a khan's charter for rule. The label gave the right to political and military support from the Horde. The very procedure for obtaining the label was humiliating. Many Russian princes, especially in the first years of dependence, could not come to terms with this and died in the Horde.

Under such a system, politically, the Russian principalities retained autonomy and administration. The princes, as before, ruled over the subject population, but were forced to pay taxes and submit to the representatives of the khan. The Mongol khans exercised tight control over the activities of the Russian princes, not allowing them to consolidate;

2) The economic dependence of the Russian lands was expressed in the fact that every year the Russian people had to pay tribute. Economic coercion was carried out with the help of a clear system of taxes. In rural areas, a land tax was introduced - kharaj (plowing - to file from a plow), in cities - tamga (trade duty), etc. To streamline the collection of taxes, the Mongols conducted censuses of the solvent population three times, for which numerals were sent to the Russian land. Tribute from Russia, sent to the khan, was called the Horde output.

3) In addition to tribute, the Russian princes had to supply recruits for the khan's army (1 from every 10 households). Russian soldiers were supposed to participate in the military campaigns of the Mongols.

The consequences of the Mongol-Tatar yoke for the Russian lands:

1) The Eastern political traditions of the Mongol-Tatars had a significant impact on the form of government of the centralized Russian state. Autocratic power, which subsequently established itself in Russia, largely inherited tyrannical, oriental features.

2) The Horde yoke led to a protracted economic decline and, as a result, to the enslavement of peasants who fled from feudal oppression to the outskirts of the country. As a result, the development of feudalism slowed down.

3) Russia for 240 years was separated from Europe, European culture and trade.

4) The basis of the system of Horde dominion in Russia was violence. For this, military detachments led by the Baskaks were sent to the Russian lands, who followed the princes and the preparations for the exit, and suppressed all attempts at resistance. Therefore, the Horde policy is a policy of terror. The constant military invasions of the Horde's armies (in the last quarter of the 13th century - 15 times) were disastrous for the country. Of the 74 Russian cities, 49 were destroyed, in 14 of them life did not resume, 15 became villages.

5) In an effort to strengthen the power of the Khan, the Horde constantly quarreled and pitted the Russian princes, i.e. feuds continued. The Mongol conquest preserved political fragmentation.

In general, the Horde yoke had a negative impact on the historical development of Russia.

The Mongol-Tatar invasion and the long foreign yoke that followed it caused enormous damage to the productive forces of our country, for a long time delayed its development in all areas: economic, political, cultural. The devastation of land by constant pogroms and the systematic robbery of the people with heavy payments had a detrimental effect on the economy. The craft was undermined. The Mongol-Tatar invasion mothballed subsistence farming. While the countries that were not subjected to the Mongol-Tatar pogroms were gradually moving from the feudal system to a more progressive one - capitalism, Russia retained a feudal subsistence economy. It took several centuries to overcome this backlog. No less severe were the consequences for political development. In pre-Mongol Russia, the cities increasingly expressed their influence and offered to eradicate the feudal system. The invasion cut short the progressive pushes. The Horde in every possible way prevented the political unification of the country, sowed discord among the princes.

"Bitter year" was called in Russia the time of the invasion. Few countries have experienced this. It is hard to imagine how many more misfortunes could have been caused by the Mongol-Tatars, if not for the resistance of the Russian people, who stopped the invasion on the borders of Central Europe.

From Ryazan, Batu's army moved up the Oka and approached Kolomna, and there the Tatars were waiting for the squads of Vladimir Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich and the remnants of the Ryazan squad led by Prince Roman Ingvarevich. I note that the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich himself did not go with the army, but sent his eldest son Vsevolod with the governor Yeremey. The Tatars surrounded the Russians. In the battle, Roman Ingvarevich and the voivode Yeremey were killed with most of the troops. Yuri Vsevolodovich managed to escape to his father in Vladimir. Kolomna was taken by the Tatars and plundered.

From Kolomna, the detachments of Tsarevich Guyuk approached the city of Moscow along the ice of the Moskva River. The capture of Moscow is described in Russian sources briefly and vaguely. In any case, the wooden Kremlin was taken by storm. Voivode Philip Nyanka (Nyanko) was killed, and the young prince Vladimir Yuryevich (the third son of Yuri Vsevolodovich) was taken prisoner. Tsarevich Guyuk took with him the captured Vladimir Yurievich and the head of Philip Nyanka, who had fallen in battle, and set off for the city of Vladimir.

On February 3, 1238, the main forces of the Tatars, led by Batu, approached Vladimir. The Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich fled the capital. In Vladimir, he left his wife Agafya and two eldest sons - Vsevolod and Mstislav - with the governor Peter Oslyadyukovich and part of the squad.

Yuri, with the main army, moved northwest and, having crossed the Volga near Uglich, set up his camp on the Sit River, about 30 km west of the Volga. Together with the Grand Duke were his three nephews - the sons of Prince Konstantin Vsevolodovich Vasilko, Vsevolod and Vladimir. Calling on his brothers Yaroslav and Svyatoslav, Yuri Vsevolodovich, obviously, was going to take defensive positions with the participation of all available squads of the Suzdal land and using the Volga and Mologa rivers as natural defensive lines from the east and north.

As the Tver Chronicle says: “The lawless Tatars came to Vladimir ... They brought Vladimir Yuryevich with them to the Golden Gate, asking: “Do you recognize your prince?” His brothers, the governor Oslyadyukovich and all the people shed copious tears, seeing the bitter torment of the prince. The Tatars moved away from the city gates, went around the city, and then set up camp at a visible distance in front of the Golden Gate. Vsevolod and Mstislav Yuryevich wanted to leave the city against the Tatars, but Peter the voivode forbade them to fight, saying: “There is no courage, and reason, and strength against God's punishment for our sins.”

While part of the Tatar army surrounded Vladimir with a palisade and prepared siege engines, the rest of the army on February 5 made a lightning raid on Suzdal and burned the city on the same day.

The assault on Vladimir began on the morning of 7 February. As the same Tver chronicle says: “In the morning, princes Vsevolod and Mstislav and Bishop Mitrofan saw that the city would be taken, and, not hoping for anyone's help, they all entered the Church of the Holy Mother of God and began to repent of their sins. And those of them who wanted to accept the schema, Bishop Mitrofan tonsured all of them: princes, and Princess Yuri, and his daughter, and daughter-in-law, and pious men and women. And the Tatars began to prepare vices, and approached the city, and broke through the city wall, and filled the ditch with broken branches, and so, by sign, entered the city; so from Lybid they entered the Irinina gate, and from the Klyazma into the Copper and Volga gates, and so they took the city and set it on fire. The princes, and the bishop, and the princesses, saw that the city was set on fire and people were dying in the fire, while others were cut down with swords, and the princes fled to the Middle City. And the bishop, and the princess with their daughters-in-law, and with their daughter, Princess Theodora, and with their grandchildren, other princesses, and boyars, and many people ran into the Church of the Holy Mother of God and locked themselves in the choirs. And the Tatars also took the Middle City, and knocked out the doors of the church, and collected a lot of firewood, surrounded the church with firewood and set it on fire. And all who were there suffocated, and thus delivered their souls into the hands of the Lord; and other princes and people were cut down by the Tatars.

It should be noted that the three sons of Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich died during the siege. Vladimir Vsevolod and Mstislav are now considered local saints of the city of Vladimir.

It is quite difficult to understand the subsequent actions of the Tatars according to the Russian chronicles. So, in the Laurentian Chronicle it is said that in February 1238 six large cities of the Suzdal land were captured, after which on March 4, the army of Yuri Vsevolodovich was defeated on the Sit River. The Novgorod First Chronicle already lists eight cities of the Suzdal land (and only two of them coincide with those listed in the Laurentian Chronicle) and reports that they were taken after the Battle of the City. Nikon chronicle of the 16th century. adds two more cities to the previously mentioned cities. No details of the capture of any of the fourteen cities named in various sources are given in the annals. The story about the capture and sack of Suzdal, which has more space than all the others, is made up of fragments borrowed by the chroniclers from early texts. For example, from the description of the sack of Kyiv by the Polovtsians in 1203, and this description can hardly be trusted. There was no place even for a story about the destruction of Rostov, whose own chronicle was later included in the chronicle of Vladimir (that is, in the Lavrentiev chronicle). One gets the impression that the chroniclers of Vladimir and Novgorod simply listed the main cities of the Suzdal land without any idea which of these cities the Tatars attacked, which they plundered, and which they bypassed.

L.N. Gumilyov states: “The inhabitants of the rich commercial Uglich, for example, quickly found a common language with the Mongols. By issuing horses and provisions, the English saved their city; later, almost all Volga cities did the same. Moreover, there were Russians who replenished the ranks of the Mongol troops. The Hungarian chronicler called them "the worst Christians."

Z.Z. Miftakhov believes that "Kostroma, Tver, Yaroslavl survived - all the cities along the Volga survived precisely because they made peace with the Tatars and Mongols."

In my opinion, the question of Kostroma should be considered open, but Tver was destroyed by the Tatars, and in 1240 Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich actually founded a new city on the left bank of the Volga at the mouth of the Tvertsa River. And the old Tver was one and a half kilometers away on the right bank of the Volga at the confluence of the Tmaka River.

It should be noted here that the Tatars, after the capture of Vladimir, did not move as a single army, but as separate shock groups. Miftakhov brings some clarity. He claims that together with the army of Batu, from 11 to 12 thousand Bulgar troops moved under the command of Emir Gazi Baraj. A separate Bulgarian detachment of Boyan, the son of the Bulgarian king Altynbek, operated in the north in isolation from the Tatar forces. Boyan managed to capture the city of Ustyug. The former Nizhny Novgorod monk As-Azim, who served for some time as a priest in the city of Bilyar and was sent by Gazi Baraj on a campaign with Boyan, persuaded the local governor to surrender the city without bloodshed.

After the capture of Ryazan by the Tatars, the army of Emir Gazi Baraj moved to Nizhny Novgorod. By the time the Bulgarian troops approached, the prince was not in the city, and the Nizhny Novgorod boyars themselves opened the gates to the well-known Gazi Baraj. Miftakhov claims that about 4 thousand foot Russian soldiers from Nizhny Novgorod and Rostov joined the emir's army.

By the beginning of March 1238, the squads of several princes of North-Eastern Russia, headed by Yuri Vsevolodovich, gathered on the Sit River. Among them was his brother Prince Pereyaslavl Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich and three nephews - Vasilko, Vsevolod and Vladimir Konstantinovichi. No other prince wished to join the Grand Duke of Vladimir.

The chronicle says: Yuri "waiting for his brother Yaroslav with the regiment." But, alas, the squad of the Grand Duke of Kyiv never came to the Sit River.

Yuri Vsevolodovich turned out to be an extremely mediocre commander. It is quite possible that a panicky fear of the Tatars attacked him and his entourage. He did not even bother to organize reconnaissance and surveillance of the Tatar army. As a result, the Russian squads were suddenly surrounded by the Tatars. On March 4, during a fierce battle, the Russians were utterly defeated, and the princes Yuri Vsevolodovich and Vsevolod Konstantinovich fell in battle. As the Tver Chronicle says: “The Tatars took Vasilko Konstantinovich of Rostov prisoner and led him to the Shern forest, forcing him to live according to their custom and fight on their side. But he did not submit to them and did not take food from their hands, but spoke many blasphemous words against their king and all of them. They, cruelly torturing him, killed him on March 4, in the middle of Great Lent, and threw his body in the forest. Later, princes Yuri Vsevolodovich and Vasilko of Rostov were canonized.

The battle took place between the modern villages of Ignatovo and Revyakino Gorodishche, Yaroslavl Region, about 16 km upstream of the confluence of the Sit River into the Rybinsk Reservoir. Archaeologist N.P. Sabaneev discovered the graves of fallen soldiers in the area. Alas, the ungrateful descendants did not bother to erect not only a monument, but at least some sign indicating the place of the battle.

It is curious that Miftakhov claims that the Tatar-Mongols did not have to participate in the battle on the City, and the Bulgars and 4 thousand Russian infantry from Nizhny Novgorod and Rostov fought with the army of Yuri Vsevolodovich. The Grand Duke of Vladimir himself did not take part in the battle. “Back in 1229, he was “wounded in the back, which is why he has not been able to ride a horse since” [ Ghazi Baraj. Chronicle of Gazi-Baradj. 1229-1246. Bahshi Iman. Collection of Bulgarian chronicles. Volume one, Orenburg, 1993. S. 165]. Therefore, Yuri Vsevolodovich left the battlefield not on a horse, but on a wagon. He ran away on the road to Novgorod. However, it was not possible to drive far: he fell into an ambush set up by Kul Burat. The security detachment was quickly destroyed by the Bulgar archers. The Grand Duke jumped off the wagon and ran towards the forest, but got stuck in deep snow. The son of the late Tarkhan Bachman Naryk jumped up to him and cut off his head. Then Naryk planted his head on the shaft of his battle banner and sent it to Emir Gazi Baraj.

Miftakhov also cites a completely different version of the death of Prince Vasilko Konstantinovich, whom he, however, mistakenly calls the Ryazan prince. “A few days after that [the Battle of the City River. - A.Sh.] An unexpected event has occurred. On the Novgorod road, two equestrian junctions met: the junction of Kul Burat and the junction of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. This meeting was preceded by the following events.

Before leaving the city of Vladimir and his family to the mercy of fate, the Grand Duke sent the state treasury to Novgorod on 50 wagons. The convoy was accompanied by the younger brother of the Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the Ryazan prince Vasilko Konstantinovich and his son Boris. When Prince Yaroslav's cavalry ran into the junction of the Kul Burat detachment, the convoy turned south. However, it was not possible to save the state treasury: unexpectedly, the convoy stumbled upon the passing of Guyuk's detachment. The meeting was so unexpected that confusion ensued. Boris, who was riding at the end of the convoy, took advantage of this. He managed to deploy ten wagons and quietly leave the meeting place. Boris arrived at the location of the Kul Burat detachment and was escorted to Gazi Baraj. [ Ghazi Baraj. Chronicle of Gazi-Baradj. T. 1. S. 178–179].

According to Gazi Baraj, a participant in these events, Prince Yaroslav handed over 40 wagons with valuables from the treasury to Guyuk and at the same time reported that Prince Vasilko Konstantinovich sent his son Boris with 10 wagons to Gazi Baraj [ Ghazi Baraj

Historian S.M. Solovyov wrote that “the Tatars really wanted Vasilko to accept their customs and fight along with them; but the prince of Rostov did not eat, did not drink, so as not to be defiled by the food of the filthy” [ Soloviev S.M. On the history of Ancient Russia, M., 1992. S. 159]. According to Gazi Baraj, it was not at all about “the food of the filthy”, but that Prince Yaroslav “slandered the poor Vasyl, telling Guyuk that he purposely sent his son to me with ten carts out of fifty. It was a lie. But in vain Vasyl said that he knew nothing about the contents of the wagons and did not persuade Borys to escape. Guyuk tormented him with terrible tortures and, not forcing the bek to slander his son and me, killed him in a rage” [ Ghazi Baraj. Chronicle of Gazi-Baradj. T. 1. S. 179].

Disputes and strife over ten carts led to a deterioration in relations between Ghazi Baraj and the princes Guyuk and Batu. Guyuk categorically demanded that the emir extradite Boris (in Bulgarian Borys). By that time, Gazi Baraj had already sent Boris under the protection of the Naryk detachment to the Volga Bulgaria. Only the intercession of Tsarevich Munke and commander Subetai saved Gazi Baraj from misfortune. Subetai told the princes that one should not waste time on disputes and strife, but it was necessary “to fulfill the decree of the great khan as soon as possible” [ Ghazi Baraj. Chronicle of Gazi-Baradj. T. 1. S. 179]. Only after that did they begin to prepare for the continuation of the campaign.

There are several errors in Miftakhov's version and, accordingly, in the Bulgarian chronicle. The younger brother of the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yaroslav Vsevolodovich was far away - in Kyiv or in the region of Kyiv. Gazi confused him, apparently, with Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the sixth son of Vsevolod Yurievich Big Nest. Vasilko Konstantinovich, the Galician prince, really had a son, Boris, but then he was only 7 years old. Otherwise, the Bulgarian version is very similar to the truth.

While part of the Tatar (Bulgarian) troops went to the Sit River, another part laid siege to the city of Torzhok. There was neither a prince nor a princely squad in Torzhok, and the defense was headed by “Ivanko the mayor of Novotorzhsky, Yakim Vlunkovich, Gleb Borisovich, Mikhailo Moiseevich”, that is, the top of the merchant townsman population. The inhabitants of Torzhok turned in advance for help to the Lord Veliky Novgorod, who periodically was the overlord of Torzhok. I note that in Novgorod in 1237-1238. the prince was the young Alexander Yaroslavich, the future Nevsky. The Novgorod authorities and Alexander could, together or separately (in this matter they were independent of each other), help Torzhok, but they did not lift a finger.

As the Tver Chronicle says, the Tatars surrounded the entire city with a tyn, “just like other cities, they took and besieged the accursed city for two weeks. The people in the city were exhausted, and there was no help from Novgorod, because everyone was at a loss and in fear. And so the filthy took the city, killing everyone - both men and women, all priests and monks. Everything was plundered and desecrated, and in a bitter and unfortunate death they betrayed their souls into the hands of the Lord of the month of March on the fifth day, in memory of Saint Conon, on Wednesday of the fourth week of Lent. And they were killed here: Ivanko, the mayor of Novotorzhsky, Akim Vlunkovich, Gleb Borisovich, Mikhail Moiseevich. And the godless Tatars pursued other people along the Seliger route to the Ignatiev Cross and flogged all the people like grass, and did not reach Novgorod only a hundred miles. God preserved Novgorod, and the holy and great cathedral and apostolic church of Sophia, and the holy venerable Cyril, and the prayers of the holy orthodox archbishops, and the noble princes, and the venerable monks of the priestly rank.

It's funny that now supporters of the "heavenly version" have reappeared. So, Yu.V. Krivosheev writes: “... the intervention of divine forces (the Creator himself, St. Sophia, Cyril and other saints of the Orthodox Church) testifies to some reasons unknown to these forces themselves of divine origin for the Mongols not to appear under the walls of the Volkhov capital.”

I will leave this passage without comment, I will only note that the work of Krivosheev was edited by a professor and reviewed by two more professors, and in general it was published by order of the Editorial Board of St. Petersburg University.

And more pragmatically minded historians have been arguing for 200 years about who, in addition to the forces of heaven, saved Novgorod. So, S.M. Solovyov writes that the Tatars, "before reaching a hundred miles to Novgorod, stopped, fearing, according to some news, the approach of spring time, the flood of rivers, the melting of swamps, and went to the southeast to the steppe." And this cautious phrase soon turned into a canonical version and entered our school textbooks. Someone says that in the battles with the Russians the Tatars were bled dry and were afraid to go to Novgorod.

Historian V.V. Kargalov claims that the Tatars were not going to take Novgorod at all, and only a small Tatar detachment, pursuing the fugitives from Torzhok, reached the Ignatiev Cross.

The Bulgar chronicles give a very clear and unambiguous explanation. The fact is that at the end of 1237 a letter with the seal of the Great Khan was sent to Novgorod with a promise not to ruin the city if the Novgorodians did not help the Grand Duke of Vladimir. Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, the city and church authorities (three independent forces of Novgorod) agreed and really kept strict neutrality while the Tatars smashed the northeastern Russian lands.

Whether we like it or not, sooner or later we will have to admit that part of the Russian princes and cities entered into a voluntary-compulsory alliance with the Tatars. The detachments of Russian soldiers who joined Batu Khan's army were relatively small, but it was the Russian collaborators who fed Batu's horde.

For those who doubt, I suggest recalling the fate of the armies of Charles XII in 1709 and Napoleon in 1812. Charles XII was a few miles from Smolensk, but did not go to Moscow - the goal of his campaign, but turned south, solely because of the lack of food, which Hetman Mazepa promised him. Yes, and the Great Army in 1812 died mainly from hunger.

For some reason, our historians are not at all interested in the problem of supplying the huge Tatar army in the winter of 1237/38. Well, even if the Tatars and their allies were not 500 thousand, but only 150 thousand. What did they eat? What did their horses eat? Just do not need fairy tales that the Tatar horses themselves obtained food with their hooves in the February cold from under a two-meter snowdrift somewhere near Kostroma or Ustyug.

There is a version that Tatar foragers, 10-20 people each, traveled through the villages and took away food from the peasants. This method of obtaining food by the Tatars undoubtedly took place, but it did not provide even a tenth of the total amount of food and fodder needed by the Horde. A rhetorical question, what did the peasants do when the Tatars approached? There were only two options. The first is to go into the city under siege, having previously hidden everything that cannot be taken with you. The second option is to go to the forests or remote forest villages, including to the north. Again, food was carried away, hidden, or destroyed.

Destroying a dozen or two Tatars was also not difficult. It was enough for a local tiun or even a priest to gather fifty armed peasants and set up an ambush on a forest road. Let's remember 1812, and the Tatars did not have firearms.

But the chronicles are silent about the peasants' hunting for the Tatars, as well as about the raids of small groups of Tatars on the villages. And how would the Tatars know all the local paths?

The main part of food and fodder was delivered by cities and princes who expressed their obedience.

A special conversation about the "mysterious roamers". So academician Mavrodin called them. The first mention of roamers dates back to 1147, when they, together with the Polovtsy, came to the aid of Svyatoslav Olgovich in another princely strife. “Walkers are Turkic nomads. This is evidenced, firstly, by the fact that they are Christians (their governor kisses the cross during the siege of their camp near Kaliki by the Tatars), and secondly, the name of their governor is Ploskinya, which sounds in Russian. Further, Mavrodin writes: “Rodniki were a mixed population of the Black Sea steppes, occupying almost the entire vast region from the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and Tmutarakan to the Bug region, where this kind of people had a different name - Berladnikov, vygontsev, etc. There were not so few Brodnikov, for otherwise there is nothing to explain the fame of wanderers in neighboring lands and, in particular, in Hungary, reflected in the documents.

Brodniki in their lands did not recognize the authority of either the Rurik princes or the Polovtsian khans.

“The wandering way of life associated with their semi-commercial economy made them extremely mobile, and the military nature of the wandering communities led to the appearance of wanderers as, apparently, mercenaries in the ranks of the troops of neighboring states. Bulgarians, Hungarians, Russian princes had brodniks as mercenaries until the 13th century.

In 1236–1241 hundreds, and, most likely, thousands of wanderers joined the army of Batu Khan.

The transitional element between the Brodniks and the Russian principalities were the so-called Bolokhov principalities. Our historians do not even have a single point of view where the Bolokhov principalities were located. Some place them in Podolia, while others - in the south of the Chernihiv land. These territories were ruled not by the Rurik princes, but by some Bolokhov princes unknown to historians, who, most likely, were chosen by the veche.

Part of the Bolokhov princes, when approaching the Tatars, fled to the west. But the other part, together with the majority of the population, expressed obedience to the Tatars. The Bolokhov principalities were spared, but were obliged to supply requisitions in kind - grain and cattle.

There is no exact information about the movement of the Tatar army back in the steppe either in Russian or in Eastern chronicles. In my opinion, the most reliable is the path indicated in the Atlas of the History of the Middle Ages, edited by Academician E.A. Kosminsky, (Moscow, 1955, p. 24). Apparently, the center of the army really went along the line Vyazma - Kozelsk, while whether Vyazma was ruined or surrendered to the mercy of the winners is not clear.

Some right-flank detachment of the Tatars approached Smolensk and stood 25 versts from it on Dolgomostye. Further events are known only from the life of the holy martyr Mercury of Smolensk. At night, a princely combatant named Mercury had a vision of the Virgin, who ordered him to attack the Tatars alone. That same night, Mercury mounted a horse and went to the Tatar camp in Dolgomostye. Unnoticed by anyone, he passed the guard and saw a giant among the enemy camp. Protecting himself with the sign of the cross, Mercury exclaimed: “Holy Mother of God, help me!” - and killed the proud and arrogant giant, and then destroyed many more enemies. The son of the murdered Tatar giant, wanting to avenge the death of his father, attacked Mercury from behind and dealt him a mortal blow. But suddenly, an incomprehensible horror gripped the enemies, and, throwing down their weapons, they fled from the city, driven by an unknown force from the Smolensk land.

In my opinion, truth is mixed with fiction in life. Most likely, there was a successful sortie of the Smolensk squad of Prince Svyatoslav, the son of the Smolensk prince Mstislav the Old. The Tatar detachment was defeated and went south to the steppe. It is possible that Prince Svyatoslav Mstislavovich also died in the battle, since it is known that in 1238 his younger brother Vsevolod occupied the Smolensk table instead.

For 7 weeks, stubborn resistance was put up by residents of the small town of Kozelsk on the Zhizdra River (now the city of Kozelsk, Kaluga Region). In Kozelsk, a specific prince was some kind of baby Vasily. CM. Solovyov retells the Russian chronicle in this way: “The inhabitants of Kozelsk decided not to surrender to the Tatars: “Although our prince is young,” they said, “let us lay down our lives for him; and here we will receive glory, and there we will receive heavenly crowns from Christ our God.” The Tatars finally broke the city walls and climbed the rampart, but even here they met stubborn resistance: the townspeople cut themselves with knives, while others left the city, attacked the Tatar regiments and killed 4,000 enemies, until they were all exterminated; the rest of the inhabitants, wives and babies, suffered the same fate; what happened to Prince Vasily is unknown; some say that he drowned in blood because he was still young. Since then, the chronicler adds, the Tatars did not dare to call Kozelsk by its real name, but called evil city».

According to the Bulgarian chronicle, Kozelsk held out not for 7 weeks, but for 7 days. Moreover, the assault on the fortress failed not so much because of the desperate resistance of the inhabitants, but because of the attacks of the cavalry squad, who took refuge in the forest not far from the city. As soon as the Tatars began the assault, they were attacked from the rear by a cavalry squad. On the seventh day, the cavalry squad, located in Kozelsk, went on a sortie at dawn. The Tatars overslept the attack, and most of the warriors from Kozelsk left for Chernigov. Kozelsk was taken and, by order of Batu Khan, razed to the ground. According to the Bulgarian chronicle, in the battles for Kozelsk, the Tatars lost 7 thousand soldiers killed.

Thus, the losses to the Tatars near Kozelsk were inflicted not by ordinary citizens (as Soviet historians used to say), but by strong Chernihiv and Kozel squads. According to the Bulgarian chronicle, this was the first example of tactically competent actions of the Russians in the war of 1237–1238.

After the capture of Kozelsk, the Tatar army went to the steppes, to the Polovtsian land, where Batu defeated Khan Kotyan, who, with 40 thousand of his people, went to Hungary, where he received land for settlement.

MONGOLO-TATAR INVASION

Formation of the Mongolian state. At the beginning of the XIII century. in Central Asia, on the territory from Lake Baikal and the upper reaches of the Yenisei and Irtysh in the north to the southern regions of the Gobi Desert and the Great Wall of China, the Mongolian state was formed. By the name of one of the tribes that roamed near Lake Buirnur in Mongolia, these peoples were also called Tatars. Subsequently, all the nomadic peoples with whom Russia fought began to be called Mongolo-Tatars.

The main occupation of the Mongols was extensive nomadic cattle breeding, and in the north and in the taiga regions - hunting. In the XII century. among the Mongols there was a disintegration of primitive communal relations. From the environment of ordinary community members-cattle breeders, who were called karachu - black people, noyons (princes) stood out - to know; having squads of nukers (warriors), she seized pastures for livestock and part of the young. The noyons also had slaves. The rights of the noyons were determined by "Yasa" - a collection of teachings and instructions.

In 1206, a congress of the Mongolian nobility, the kurultai (Khural), took place on the Onon River, at which one of the noyons was elected the leader of the Mongolian tribes: Temuchin, who received the name Genghis Khan - "great khan", "sent by God" (1206-1227). Having defeated his opponents, he began to rule the country through his relatives and the local nobility.

Mongolian army. The Mongols had a well-organized army that maintained tribal ties. The army was divided into tens, hundreds, thousands. Ten thousand Mongol warriors were called "darkness" ("tumen").

Tumens were not only military, but also administrative units.

The main striking force of the Mongols was the cavalry. Each warrior had two or three bows, several quivers with arrows, an ax, a rope lasso, and was proficient with a saber. The warrior's horse was covered with skins, which protected it from the arrows and weapons of the enemy. The head, neck and chest of the Mongol warrior from enemy arrows and spears were covered with an iron or copper helmet, leather armor. The Mongolian cavalry had high mobility. On their undersized, shaggy-maned, hardy horses, they could travel up to 80 km per day, and up to 10 km with carts, wall-beating and flamethrower guns. Like other peoples, passing through the stage of state formation, the Mongols were distinguished by their strength and solidity. Hence the interest in expanding pastures and in organizing predatory campaigns against neighboring agricultural peoples, who were at a much higher level of development, although they experienced a period of fragmentation. This greatly facilitated the implementation of the conquest plans of the Mongol-Tatars.

Defeat of Central Asia. The Mongols began their campaigns with the conquest of the lands of their neighbors - Buryats, Evenks, Yakuts, Uighurs, Yenisei Kirghiz (by 1211). Then they invaded China and in 1215 took Beijing. Three years later, Korea was conquered. Having defeated China (finally conquered in 1279), the Mongols significantly increased their military potential. Flamethrowers, wall-beaters, stone-throwing tools, vehicles were taken into service.

In the summer of 1219, almost 200,000 Mongol troops led by Genghis Khan began the conquest of Central Asia. The ruler of Khorezm (a country at the mouth of the Amu Darya), Shah Mohammed, did not accept a general battle, dispersing his forces over the cities. Having suppressed the stubborn resistance of the population, the invaders stormed Otrar, Khojent, Merv, Bukhara, Urgench and other cities. The ruler of Samarkand, despite the demand of the people to defend himself, surrendered the city. Mohammed himself fled to Iran, where he soon died.

The rich, flourishing agricultural regions of Semirechye (Central Asia) turned into pastures. Irrigation systems built up over centuries were destroyed. The Mongols introduced a regime of cruel requisitions, artisans were taken into captivity. As a result of the conquest of Central Asia by the Mongols, nomadic tribes began to inhabit its territory. Sedentary agriculture was supplanted by extensive nomadic pastoralism, which slowed down the further development of Central Asia.

Invasion of Iran and Transcaucasia. The main force of the Mongols with the loot returned from Central Asia to Mongolia. The 30,000-strong army under the command of the best Mongol commanders Jebe and Subedei set off on a long-range reconnaissance campaign through Iran and Transcaucasia, to the West. Having defeated the united Armenian-Georgian troops and causing enormous damage to the economy of Transcaucasia, the invaders, however, were forced to leave the territory of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as they met with strong resistance from the population. Past Derbent, where there was a passage along the coast of the Caspian Sea, the Mongolian troops entered the steppes of the North Caucasus. Here they defeated the Alans (Ossetians) and Polovtsy, after which they ravaged the city of Sudak (Surozh) in the Crimea. The Polovtsy, led by Khan Kotyan, the father-in-law of the Galician prince Mstislav Udaly, turned to the Russian princes for help.

Battle on the Kalka River. On May 31, 1223, the Mongols defeated the allied forces of the Polovtsian and Russian princes in the Azov steppes on the Kalka River. This was the last major joint military action of the Russian princes on the eve of the invasion of Batu. However, the powerful Russian prince Yuri Vsevolodovich of Vladimir-Suzdal, the son of Vsevolod the Big Nest, did not participate in the campaign.

Princely strife also affected during the battle on the Kalka. The Kyiv prince Mstislav Romanovich, having fortified himself with his army on a hill, did not take part in the battle. Regiments of Russian soldiers and Polovtsy, having crossed the Kalka, struck at the advanced detachments of the Mongol-Tatars, who retreated. The Russian and Polovtsian regiments were carried away by the persecution. The main Mongol forces that approached, took the pursuing Russian and Polovtsian warriors in pincers and destroyed them.

The Mongols laid siege to the hill, where the prince of Kyiv fortified. On the third day of the siege, Mstislav Romanovich believed the promise of the enemy to honorably release the Russians in the event of a voluntary surrender and laid down his arms. He and his warriors were brutally killed by the Mongols. The Mongols reached the Dnieper, but did not dare to enter the borders of Russia. Russia has not yet known a defeat equal to the battle on the Kalka River. Only a tenth of the troops returned from the Azov steppes to Russia. In honor of their victory, the Mongols held a "feast on the bones". The captured princes were crushed with boards on which the victors sat and feasted.

Preparation of a campaign to Russia. Returning to the steppes, the Mongols made an unsuccessful attempt to capture Volga Bulgaria. Reconnaissance in force showed that wars of conquest against Russia and its neighbors could be waged only by organizing a general Mongol campaign. At the head of this campaign was the grandson of Genghis Khan - Batu (1227-1255), who inherited from his grandfather all the territories in the west, "where the foot of the Mongol horse sets foot." His main military adviser was Subedei, who knew the theater of future military operations well.

In 1235, at the Khural in the capital of Mongolia, Karakorum, a decision was made on a general Mongol campaign to the West. In 1236 the Mongols captured the Volga Bulgaria, and in 1237 they subjugated the nomadic peoples of the Steppe. In the autumn of 1237, the main forces of the Mongols, having crossed the Volga, concentrated on the Voronezh River, aiming at the Russian lands. In Russia, they knew about the impending formidable danger, but the princely feuds prevented the sips from uniting to repel a strong and treacherous enemy. There was no unified command. Fortifications of cities were erected for defense against neighboring Russian principalities, and not from steppe nomads. The princely cavalry squads were not inferior to the Mongol noyons and nukers in terms of armament and fighting qualities. But the bulk of the Russian army was made up of the militia - urban and rural warriors, inferior to the Mongols in weapons and combat skills. Hence the defensive tactics, designed to deplete the enemy's forces.

Defense of Ryazan. In 1237, Ryazan was the first of the Russian lands to be attacked by invaders. The Princes of Vladimir and Chernigov refused to help Ryazan. The Mongols laid siege to Ryazan and sent envoys who demanded obedience and one-tenth "in everything." The courageous answer of the people of Ryazan followed: "If we are all gone, then everything will be yours." On the sixth day of the siege, the city was taken, the princely family and the surviving inhabitants were killed. In the old place, Ryazan was no longer revived (modern Ryazan is a new city located 60 km from the old Ryazan, it used to be called Pereyaslavl Ryazansky).

Conquest of North-Eastern Russia. In January 1238, the Mongols moved along the Oka River to the Vladimir-Suzdal land. The battle with the Vladimir-Suzdal army took place near the city of Kolomna, on the border of the Ryazan and Vladimir-Suzdal lands. In this battle, the Vladimir army died, which actually predetermined the fate of North-Eastern Russia.

Strong resistance to the enemy for 5 days was provided by the population of Moscow, led by the governor Philip Nyanka. After the capture by the Mongols, Moscow was burned, and its inhabitants were killed.

February 4, 1238 Batu besieged Vladimir. The distance from Kolomna to Vladimir (300 km) was covered by his troops in a month. On the fourth day of the siege, the invaders broke into the city through gaps in the fortress wall near the Golden Gate. The princely family and the remnants of the troops closed in the Assumption Cathedral. The Mongols surrounded the cathedral with trees and set it on fire.

After the capture of Vladimir, the Mongols broke into separate detachments and crushed the cities of North-Eastern Russia. Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, even before the approach of the invaders to Vladimir, went to the north of his land to gather military forces. Hastily assembled regiments in 1238 were defeated on the Sit River (the right tributary of the Mologa River), and Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich himself died in the battle.

The Mongol hordes moved to the north-west of Russia. Everywhere they met stubborn resistance from the Russians. For two weeks, for example, a distant suburb of Novgorod, Torzhok, defended itself. North-Western Russia was saved from defeat, although it paid tribute.

Having reached the stone Ignach Cross - an ancient sign on the Valdai watershed (one hundred kilometers from Novgorod), the Mongols retreated south, to the steppe, in order to restore losses and give rest to tired troops. The retreat was in the nature of a "raid". Divided into separate detachments, the invaders "combed" the Russian cities. Smolensk managed to fight back, other centers were defeated. Kozelsk, which held out for seven weeks, offered the greatest resistance to the Mongols during the "raid". The Mongols called Kozelsk an "evil city".

Capture of Kyiv. In the spring of 1239, Batu defeated South Russia (Pereyaslavl South), in the fall - the Chernigov principality. In the autumn of the next 1240, the Mongol troops crossed the Dnieper and laid siege to Kyiv. After a long defense, led by the governor Dmitr, the Tatars defeated Kyiv. In the next 1241, the Galicia-Volyn principality was attacked.

Batu's campaign against Europe. After the defeat of Russia, the Mongol hordes moved to Europe. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and the Balkan countries were devastated. The Mongols reached the borders of the German Empire, reached the Adriatic Sea. However, at the end of 1242 they suffered a series of setbacks in Bohemia and Hungary. From distant Karakorum came the news of the death of the great Khan Ogedei - the son of Genghis Khan. It was a convenient excuse to stop the difficult campaign. Batu turned his troops back to the east.

A decisive world-historical role in saving European civilization from the Mongol hordes was played by the heroic struggle against them by the Russians and other peoples of our country, who took the first blow from the invaders. In fierce battles in Russia, the best part of the Mongol army perished. The Mongols lost their offensive power. They could not but reckon with the liberation struggle unfolding in the rear of their troops. A.S. Pushkin rightly wrote: "Russia was determined to have a great destiny: its boundless plains absorbed the power of the Mongols and stopped their invasion on the very edge of Europe ... the emerging enlightenment was saved by torn to pieces by Russia."

Fight against the aggression of the crusaders. The coast from the Vistula to the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea was inhabited by Slavic, Baltic (Lithuanian and Latvian) and Finno-Ugric (Ests, Karelians, etc.) tribes. At the end of the XII - beginning of the XIII centuries. the peoples of the Baltic states are completing the process of disintegration of the primitive communal system and the formation of an early class society and statehood. These processes were most intense among the Lithuanian tribes. The Russian lands (Novgorod and Polotsk) exerted a significant influence on their western neighbors, who did not yet have a developed state of their own and church institutions (the peoples of the Baltic were pagans).

The attack on Russian lands was part of the predatory doctrine of the German chivalry "Drang nach Osten" (onslaught to the East). In the XII century. it began the seizure of lands belonging to the Slavs beyond the Oder and in the Baltic Pomerania. At the same time, an offensive was carried out on the lands of the Baltic peoples. The Crusaders' invasion of the Baltic lands and North-Western Russia was sanctioned by the Pope and the German Emperor Frederick II. German, Danish, Norwegian knights and troops from other northern European countries also took part in the crusade.

Knightly orders. In order to conquer the lands of the Estonians and Latvians, the knightly Order of the Sword-bearers was created in 1202 from the Crusaders defeated in Asia Minor. The knights wore clothes with the image of a sword and a cross. They pursued an aggressive policy under the slogan of Christianization: "Whoever does not want to be baptized must die." Back in 1201, the knights landed at the mouth of the Western Dvina (Daugava) River and founded the city of Riga on the site of the Latvian settlement as a stronghold for subjugating the Baltic lands. In 1219, the Danish knights captured part of the Baltic coast, founding the city of Revel (Tallinn) on the site of an Estonian settlement.

In 1224 the crusaders took Yuriev (Tartu). To conquer the lands of Lithuania (Prussians) and the southern Russian lands in 1226, the knights of the Teutonic Order, founded in 1198 in Syria during the Crusades, arrived. Knights - members of the order wore white cloaks with a black cross on the left shoulder. In 1234, the Swordsmen were defeated by the Novgorod-Suzdal troops, and two years later, by the Lithuanians and Semigallians. This forced the crusaders to join forces. In 1237, the swordsmen united with the Teutons, forming a branch of the Teutonic Order - the Livonian Order, named after the territory inhabited by the Liv tribe, which was captured by the crusaders.

Neva battle. The offensive of the knights especially intensified due to the weakening of Russia, which bled in the fight against the Mongol conquerors.

In July 1240, the Swedish feudal lords tried to take advantage of the plight of Russia. The Swedish fleet with an army on board entered the mouth of the Neva. Having risen along the Neva to the confluence of the Izhora River, the knightly cavalry landed on the shore. The Swedes wanted to capture the city of Staraya Ladoga, and then Novgorod.

Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, who was 20 years old at that time, with his retinue quickly rushed to the landing site. "We are few," he turned to his soldiers, "but God is not in power, but in truth." Covertly approaching the Swedes' camp, Alexander and his warriors struck at them, and a small militia led by Misha from Novgorod cut off the Swedes' path along which they could flee to their ships.

Alexander Yaroslavich was nicknamed Nevsky by the Russian people for the victory on the Neva. The significance of this victory is that it stopped the Swedish aggression to the east for a long time, retained Russia's access to the Baltic coast. (Peter I, emphasizing the right of Russia to the Baltic coast, founded the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in the new capital on the site of the battle.)

Battle on the Ice. In the summer of the same 1240, the Livonian Order, as well as Danish and German knights, attacked Russia and captured the city of Izborsk. Soon, due to the betrayal of the posadnik Tverdila and part of the boyars, Pskov was taken (1241). Strife and strife led to the fact that Novgorod did not help its neighbors. And the struggle between the boyars and the prince in Novgorod itself ended with the expulsion of Alexander Nevsky from the city. Under these conditions, individual detachments of the crusaders found themselves 30 km from the walls of Novgorod. At the request of the veche, Alexander Nevsky returned to the city.

Together with his retinue, Alexander liberated Pskov, Izborsk and other captured cities with a sudden blow. Having received the news that the main forces of the Order were coming at him, Alexander Nevsky blocked the way for the knights, placing his troops on the ice of Lake Peipus. The Russian prince showed himself as an outstanding commander. The chronicler wrote about him: "Winning everywhere, but we won't win at all." Alexander deployed troops under the cover of a steep bank on the ice of the lake, eliminating the possibility of enemy reconnaissance of his forces and depriving the enemy of freedom of maneuver. Taking into account the construction of the knights as a "pig" (in the form of a trapezoid with a sharp wedge in front, which was heavily armed cavalry), Alexander Nevsky arranged his regiments in the form of a triangle, with a tip resting on the shore. Before the battle, part of the Russian soldiers were equipped with special hooks to pull the knights off their horses.

On April 5, 1242, a battle took place on the ice of Lake Peipsi, which was called the Battle of the Ice. The knight's wedge broke through the center of the Russian position and hit the shore. The flank strikes of the Russian regiments decided the outcome of the battle: like pincers, they crushed the knightly "pig". The knights, unable to withstand the blow, fled in panic. The Novgorodians drove them for seven versts across the ice, which by the spring had become weak in many places and collapsed under heavily armed soldiers. The Russians pursued the enemy, "flashed, rushing after him, as if through air," the chronicler wrote. According to the Novgorod chronicle, "400 Germans died in the battle, and 50 were taken prisoner" (German chronicles estimate the death toll at 25 knights). The captured knights were led in disgrace through the streets of the Lord Veliky Novgorod.

The significance of this victory lies in the fact that the military power of the Livonian Order was weakened. The response to the Battle of the Ice was the growth of the liberation struggle in the Baltic states. However, relying on the help of the Roman Catholic Church, the knights at the end of the XIII century. captured a significant part of the Baltic lands.

Russian lands under the rule of the Golden Horde. In the middle of the XIII century. one of the grandsons of Genghis Khan, Khubulai moved his headquarters to Beijing, founding the Yuan dynasty. The rest of the Mongol state was nominally subordinate to the great khan in Karakorum. One of the sons of Genghis Khan - Chagatai (Jagatai) received the lands of most of Central Asia, and the grandson of Genghis Khan Zulagu owned the territory of Iran, part of Western and Central Asia and Transcaucasia. This ulus, isolated in 1265, is called the Hulaguid state after the name of the dynasty. Another grandson of Genghis Khan from his eldest son Jochi - Batu founded the state of the Golden Horde.

Golden Horde. The Golden Horde covered a vast territory from the Danube to the Irtysh (Crimea, the North Caucasus, part of the lands of Russia located in the steppes, the former lands of Volga Bulgaria and nomadic peoples, Western Siberia and part of Central Asia). The capital of the Golden Horde was the city of Sarai, located in the lower reaches of the Volga (a shed in Russian means a palace). It was a state consisting of semi-independent uluses, united under the rule of the khan. They were ruled by the Batu brothers and the local aristocracy.

The role of a kind of aristocratic council was played by the "Divan", where military and financial issues were resolved. Being surrounded by the Turkic-speaking population, the Mongols adopted the Turkic language. The local Turkic-speaking ethnic group assimilated the newcomers-Mongols. A new people was formed - the Tatars. In the first decades of the existence of the Golden Horde, its religion was paganism.

The Golden Horde was one of the largest states of its time. At the beginning of the XIV century, she could put up a 300,000th army. The heyday of the Golden Horde falls on the reign of Khan Uzbek (1312-1342). In this era (1312), Islam became the state religion of the Golden Horde. Then, just like other medieval states, the Horde experienced a period of fragmentation. Already in the XIV century. the Central Asian possessions of the Golden Horde separated, and in the 15th century. the Kazan (1438), Crimean (1443), Astrakhan (mid-15th century) and Siberian (end of the 15th century) khanates stood out.

Russian lands and the Golden Horde. The Russian lands devastated by the Mongols were forced to recognize vassal dependence on the Golden Horde. The unceasing struggle waged by the Russian people against the invaders forced the Mongol-Tatars to abandon the creation of their own administrative authorities in Russia. Russia retained its statehood. This was facilitated by the presence in Russia of its own administration and church organization. In addition, the lands of Russia were unsuitable for nomadic cattle breeding, in contrast, for example, to Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, and the Black Sea region.

In 1243, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (1238-1246), the brother of the Grand Duke of Vladimir, who was killed on the Sit River, was called to the Khan's headquarters. Yaroslav recognized vassal dependence on the Golden Horde and received a label (letter) for the great reign of Vladimir and a golden plaque ("paydzu"), a kind of pass through the Horde territory. Following him, other princes reached out to the Horde.

To control the Russian lands, the institution of Baskak governors was created - the leaders of the military detachments of the Mongol-Tatars, who monitored the activities of the Russian princes. The denunciation of the Baskaks to the Horde inevitably ended either with the summoning of the prince to Sarai (often he lost his label, and even his life), or with a punitive campaign in the unruly land. Suffice it to say that only in the last quarter of the XIII century. 14 similar campaigns were organized in Russian lands.

Some Russian princes, in an effort to quickly get rid of vassal dependence on the Horde, took the path of open armed resistance. However, the forces to overthrow the power of the invaders were still not enough. So, for example, in 1252 the regiments of the Vladimir and Galician-Volyn princes were defeated. This was well understood by Alexander Nevsky, from 1252 to 1263 the Grand Duke of Vladimir. He set a course for the restoration and recovery of the economy of the Russian lands. The policy of Alexander Nevsky was also supported by the Russian Church, which saw a great danger in Catholic expansion, and not in the tolerant rulers of the Golden Horde.

In 1257, the Mongol-Tatars undertook a census of the population - "recording the number." Besermens (Muslim merchants) were sent to the cities, and the collection of tribute was paid off. The size of the tribute ("exit") was very large, only the "royal tribute", i.e. tribute in favor of the khan, which was first collected in kind, and then in money, amounted to 1300 kg of silver per year. The constant tribute was supplemented by "requests" - one-time extortions in favor of the khan. In addition, deductions from trade duties, taxes for "feeding" the khan's officials, etc. went to the khan's treasury. In total there were 14 types of tributes in favor of the Tatars. Census of the population in the 50-60s of the XIII century. marked by numerous uprisings of Russian people against the Baskaks, Khan's ambassadors, tribute collectors, scribes. In 1262, the inhabitants of Rostov, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Suzdal, and Ustyug dealt with the tribute collectors, the Besermen. This led to the fact that the collection of tribute from the end of the XIII century. was handed over to the Russian princes.

The consequences of the Mongol conquest and the Golden Horde yoke for Russia. The Mongol invasion and the Golden Horde yoke became one of the reasons for the Russian lands lagging behind the developed countries of Western Europe. Huge damage was done to the economic, political and cultural development of Russia. Tens of thousands of people died in battle or were driven into slavery. A significant part of the income in the form of tribute went to the Horde.

The old agricultural centers and the once developed territories were abandoned and fell into decay. The border of agriculture moved to the north, the southern fertile soils were called the "Wild Field". Russian cities were subjected to mass ruin and destruction. Many handicrafts were simplified and sometimes disappeared, which hampered the creation of small-scale production and ultimately delayed economic development.

The Mongol conquest preserved political fragmentation. It weakened the ties between the various parts of the state. Traditional political and trade ties with other countries were disrupted. The vector of Russian foreign policy, passing along the "south - north" line (the fight against the nomadic danger, stable ties with Byzantium and through the Baltic with Europe) radically changed its direction to the "west - east". The pace of cultural development of the Russian lands slowed down.

What you need to know about these topics:

Archaeological, linguistic and written evidence about the Slavs.

Tribal unions of the Eastern Slavs in the VI-IX centuries. Territory. Lessons. "The Way from the Varangians to the Greeks". Social system. Paganism. Prince and squad. Campaigns to Byzantium.

Internal and external factors that prepared the emergence of statehood among the Eastern Slavs.

Socio-economic development. Formation of feudal relations.

Early feudal monarchy of the Rurikids. "Norman theory", its political meaning. Management organization. Domestic and foreign policy of the first Kyiv princes (Oleg, Igor, Olga, Svyatoslav).

The heyday of the Kievan state under Vladimir I and Yaroslav the Wise. Completion of the unification of the Eastern Slavs around Kyiv. Border defense.

Legends about the spread of Christianity in Russia. Adoption of Christianity as the state religion. The Russian Church and its role in the life of the Kyiv state. Christianity and paganism.

"Russian Truth". The establishment of feudal relations. organization of the ruling class. Princely and boyar estates. Feudal-dependent population, its categories. Serfdom. Peasant communities. City.

The struggle between the sons and descendants of Yaroslav the Wise for the grand ducal power. fragmentation tendencies. Lyubech Congress of Princes.

Kievan Rus in the system of international relations in the 11th - early 12th centuries. Polovtsian danger. Princely feuds. Vladimir Monomakh. The final collapse of the Kievan state at the beginning of the XII century.

Culture of Kievan Rus. Cultural heritage of the Eastern Slavs. Folklore. Epics. The origin of Slavic writing. Cyril and Methodius. Beginning of chronicle. "The Tale of Bygone Years". Literature. Education in Kievan Rus. Birch letters. Architecture. Painting (frescoes, mosaics, iconography).

Economic and political reasons for the feudal fragmentation of Russia.

feudal landownership. Urban development. Princely power and boyars. The political system in various Russian lands and principalities.

The largest political formations on the territory of Russia. Rostov-(Vladimir)-Suzdal, Galicia-Volyn principality, Novgorod boyar republic. Socio-economic and internal political development of principalities and lands on the eve of the Mongol invasion.

International position of Russian lands. Political and cultural ties between Russian lands. Feudal strife. Fighting external danger.

The rise of culture in the Russian lands in the XII-XIII centuries. The idea of ​​the unity of the Russian land in the works of culture. "The Tale of Igor's Campaign".

Formation of the early feudal Mongolian state. Genghis Khan and the unification of the Mongol tribes. The conquest by the Mongols of the lands of neighboring peoples, northeastern China, Korea, Central Asia. Invasion of Transcaucasia and South Russian steppes. Battle on the Kalka River.

Campaigns of Batu.

Invasion of North-Eastern Russia. The defeat of southern and southwestern Russia. Campaigns of Batu in Central Europe. Russia's struggle for independence and its historical significance.

Aggression of the German feudal lords in the Baltic. Livonian order. The defeat of the Swedish troops on the Neva and the German knights in the Battle of the Ice. Alexander Nevskiy.

Formation of the Golden Horde. Socio-economic and political system. Control system for conquered lands. The struggle of the Russian people against the Golden Horde. The consequences of the Mongol-Tatar invasion and the Golden Horde yoke for the further development of our country.

The inhibitory effect of the Mongol-Tatar conquest on the development of Russian culture. Destruction and destruction of cultural property. Weakening of traditional ties with Byzantium and other Christian countries. Decline of crafts and arts. Oral folk art as a reflection of the struggle against the invaders.

• Sakharov A.N., Buganov V.I. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century.