Golden Horde- one of the saddest pages in Russian history. Some time after the victory in battle on Kalka, the Mongols began to prepare a new invasion of Russian lands, having studied the tactics and characteristics of the future enemy.
Golden Horde.
The Golden Horde (Ulus Juni) was formed in 1224 as a result of the division Mongol Empire Genghis Khan between his sons into the western and eastern parts. The Golden Horde became the western part of the empire from 1224 to 1266. Under the new Khan, Mengu-Timur became independent in fact (though not formally) from the Mongol Empire.
Like many states of that era, in the 15th century it experienced feudal fragmentation and as a result (and there were a lot of enemies offended by the Mongols) by the 16th century it finally ceased to exist.
Islam became the state religion of the Mongol Empire in the 14th century. It is noteworthy that in the territories under their control, the Horde khans (including in Russia) did not particularly impose their religion. The concept of "Gold" among the Horde was fixed only in the 16th century because of the golden tents of its khans.
Tatar-Mongol yoke.
Tatar-Mongol yoke, as well as Mongol-Tatar yoke, - not quite true from the point of view of history. Genghis Khan considered the Tatars to be his main enemies, and destroyed most of them (almost all) of the tribes, while the rest submitted to the Mongol Empire. The number of Tatars in the Mongol troops was scanty, but due to the fact that the empire occupied all the former lands of the Tatars, the troops of Genghis Khan began to be called Tatar-Mongolian or Mongolian-Tatar conquerors. In reality, it was Mongol yoke.
So, the Mongol, or Horde, yoke is a system of political dependence of Ancient Russia on the Mongol Empire, and a little later on the Golden Horde, as a separate state. The complete elimination of the Mongol yoke occurred only by the beginning of the 15th century, although the actual one was somewhat earlier.
The Mongol invasion began after the death of Genghis Khan Batu Khan(or Batu Khan) in 1237. The main troops of the Mongols were drawn to the territories near the present Voronezh, which had previously been controlled by the Volga Bulgars, until they were almost destroyed by the Mongols.
In 1237, the Golden Horde captured Ryazan and destroyed the entire Ryazan principality, including small villages and towns.
In January-March 1238, the same fate befell the Vladimir-Suzdal principality and Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. Tver and Torzhok were taken last. There was a threat of taking the principality of Novgorod, but after the capture of Torzhok on March 5, 1238, having not reached Novgorod less than 100 km, the Mongols turned around and returned to the steppes.
Until the end of 38, the Mongols only made periodic raids, and in 1239 they moved to South Russia and on October 18, 1239 they took Chernigov. Putivl (the scene of the “Lament of Yaroslavna”), Glukhov, Rylsk and other cities on the territory of the present Sumy, Kharkov and Belgorod regions were destroyed.
This year Ogedei(the next ruler of the Mongol Empire after Genghis Khan) sent additional troops to Batu from Transcaucasia, and in the fall of 1240 Batu Khan laid siege to Kyiv, having previously plundered all the surrounding lands. Kyiv, Volyn and Galician principalities at that time ruled Danila Galitsky, the son of Roman Mstislavovich, who at that moment was in Hungary, unsuccessfully trying to conclude an alliance with the king of Hungary. Perhaps later, the Hungarians regretted their refusal to Prince Danil when the Batu Horde captured all of Poland and Hungary. Kyiv was taken by the beginning of December 1240 after several weeks of siege. The Mongols began to control most of Russia, including even those areas (on an economic and political level) that they did not capture.
Kyiv, Vladimir, Suzdal, Tver, Chernigov, Ryazan, Pereyaslavl and many other cities were completely or partially destroyed.
There was an economic and cultural decline in Russia - this explains the almost complete absence of chronicles of contemporaries, and as a result - the lack of information for today's historians.
For some time, the Mongols were distracted from Russia due to raids and invasions of Polish, Lithuanian, Hungarian and other European lands.
Although I set myself the goal of clarifying the history of the Slavs from the origins to Rurik, but along the way I received material that goes beyond the scope of the task. I cannot but use it to cover an event that turned the whole course of the history of Russia. It's about about the Tatar-Mongol invasion, i.e. about one of the main themes of Russian history, which still divides Russian society into those who recognize the yoke and those who deny it.
The dispute about whether there was a Tatar-Mongol yoke divided Russians, Tatars and historians into two camps. Renowned historian Lev Gumilyov(1912–1992) argues that the Tatar-Mongol yoke is a myth. He believes that at that time the Russian principalities and the Tatar Horde on the Volga with its capital in Sarai, which conquered Russia, coexisted in a single state of a federal type under the common central authority of the Horde. The price of maintaining some independence within individual principalities was a tax that Alexander Nevsky undertook to pay to the khans of the Horde.
So many scientific treatises have been written on the topic of the Mongol invasion and the Tatar-Mongolian yoke, plus a number of works of art have been created, that any person who does not agree with these postulates looks, to put it mildly, abnormal. However, over the past decades, several scientific, or rather popular science, works have been presented to the readers. Their authors: A. Fomenko, A. Bushkov, A. Maksimov, G. Sidorov and some others claim the opposite: there were no Mongols as such.
Completely unreal versions
In fairness, it must be said that in addition to the works of these authors, there are versions of the history of the Tatar-Mongol invasion that do not seem worthy of serious attention, since they do not logically explain some issues and attract additional participants in the events, which contradicts the well-known rule of Occam's razor: do not complicate the general picture with superfluous characters. The authors of one of these versions are S. Valyansky and D. Kalyuzhny, who in the book “Another History of Russia” believe that under the guise of the Tatar-Mongols, in the imagination of the chroniclers of antiquity, the Bethlehem spiritual and chivalrous order appears, which arose in Palestine and after the capture in 1217 The Kingdom of Jerusalem was moved by the Turks to Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Poland and, possibly, Southwestern Russia. According to the golden cross worn by the commanders of this order, these crusaders received the name of the Golden Order in Russia, which echoes the name of the Golden Horde. This version does not explain the invasion of "Tatars" on Europe itself.
The same book presents the version of A. M. Zhabinsky, who believes that under the “Tatars” the army of the Nicaean emperor Theodore I Laskaris (in the chronicles under the name of Genghis Khan) operates under the command of his son-in-law John Duk Vatats (under the name of Batu), who attacked Russia in response to the refusal of Kievan Rus to enter into an alliance with Nicaea in its military operations in the Balkans. Chronologically, the formation and collapse of the Nicaean Empire (the successor of Byzantium defeated by the Crusaders in 1204) and the Mongol Empire coincide. But it is known from traditional historiography that in 1241 the Nicene troops were fighting in the Balkans (Bulgaria and Thessaloniki recognized the power of Vatatzes), and at the same time the tumens of the godless Khan Batu were fighting there. It is implausible that two numerous armies, acting side by side, surprisingly did not notice each other! For this reason, I do not consider these versions in detail.
Here I want to present in detail substantiated versions of three authors, who each in their own way tried to answer the question of whether there was a Mongol-Tatar yoke at all. It can be assumed that the Tatars did come to Russia, but they could be Tatars from beyond the Volga or the Caspian, old neighbors of the Slavs. There could not be only one thing: the fantastic invasion of the Mongols from Central Asia, who rode half the world with battles, because there are objective circumstances in the world that cannot be ignored.
The authors provide a significant amount of evidence to support their words. The evidence is very, very compelling. These versions are not free from some shortcomings, but they are argued much more reliably than official history, which is not able to answer a number of simple questions and often simply make ends meet. All three - Alexander Bushkov, and Albert Maximov, and Georgy Sidorov - believe that there was no yoke. At the same time, A. Bushkov and A. Maximov differ mainly only in terms of the origin of the "Mongols" and which of the Russian princes acted as Genghis Khan and Batu. It seemed to me personally that the alternative version of the history of the Tatar-Mongol invasion by Albert Maksimov was more detailed and substantiated and therefore more credible.
At the same time, G. Sidorov’s attempt to prove that in fact the “Mongols” were the ancient Indo-European population of Siberia, the so-called Scythian-Siberian Russia, which came to the aid of Eastern European Russia in difficult times of its fragmentation in the face of a real threat of conquest by the Crusaders and forced Germanization , is also not without reason and may be interesting in itself.
Tatar-Mongol yoke according to school history
From the school bench we know that in 1237, as a result of a foreign invasion, Russia was mired in the darkness of poverty, ignorance and violence for 300 years, falling into political and economic dependence on the Mongol khans and the rulers of the Golden Horde. The school textbook says that the Mongol-Tatar hordes are wild nomadic tribes that did not have their own written language and culture, who invaded the territory of medieval Russia from the distant borders of China on horseback, conquered it and enslaved the Russian people. It is believed that the Mongol-Tatar invasion brought with it incalculable troubles, led to huge human losses, to the plunder and destruction of material values, throwing Russia back in cultural and economic development by 3 centuries compared to Europe.
But now many people know that this myth about the Great Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan was invented by the German school of historians of the 18th century in order to somehow explain the backwardness of Russia and present in a favorable light the reigning house, which came from the seedy Tatar murzas. And the historiography of Russia, taken as a dogma, is completely false, but it is still taught in schools. Let's start with the fact that the Mongols are not mentioned even once in the annals. Contemporaries call unknown aliens whatever they like - Tatars, Pechenegs, Horde, Taurmen, but not Mongols.
As it was in fact, we are helped to understand by people who independently researched this topic and offer their versions of the history of this time.
First, let's remember what children are taught according to the school history.
Army of Genghis Khan
From the history of the Mongol Empire (the history of the creation of his empire by Genghis Khan and his early years under the real name of Temujin, see the film "Genghis Khan"), it is known that from the army of 129 thousand people available at the time of Genghis Khan's death, according to his will, 101 thousand soldiers passed to his son Tuluya, including the guards thousand bogaturs, the son of Jochi (father of Batu) received 4 thousand people, the sons of Chegotai and Ogedei - 12 thousand each.
The march to the West was led by the eldest son of Jochi Batu Khan. The army set out on a campaign in the spring of 1236 from the upper reaches of the Irtysh from the Western Altai. Actually, the Mongols were only a small part of Batu's huge army. These are the 4,000 bequeathed to his father Jochi. Basically, the army consisted of the peoples of the Turkic group who had joined the conquerors and conquered by them.
As indicated in the official history, in June 1236 the army was already on the Volga, where the Tatars conquered the Volga Bulgaria. Batu Khan with the main forces conquered the lands of the Polovtsians, Burtases, Mordovians and Circassians, having taken possession of the entire steppe space from the Caspian to the Black Sea and to the southern borders of what was then Russia by 1237. Batu Khan's army spent almost the entire year 1237 in these steppes. By the beginning of winter, the Tatars invaded the Ryazan principality, defeated the Ryazan squads and took Pronsk and Ryazan. After that, Batu went to Kolomna, and then, after 4 days of siege, he took a well-fortified Vladimir. On the Sit River, the remnants of the troops of the northeastern principalities of Russia, led by Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich of Vladimir, on March 4, 1238, were defeated and almost completely destroyed by Burundai's corps. Then Torzhok and Tver fell. Batu strove for Veliky Novgorod, but the onset of thaws and swampy terrain forced him to retreat to the south. After the conquest of northeastern Russia, he took up issues of state building and building relationships with Russian princes.
The trip to Europe continued
In 1240, Batu's army, after a short siege, took Kyiv, seized the Galician principalities and entered the foothills of the Carpathians. A military council of the Mongols was held there, where the question of the direction of further conquests in Europe was decided. Baydar's detachment on the right flank of the troops went to Poland, Silesia and Moravia, defeated the Poles, captured Krakow and crossed the Oder. After the battle on April 9, 1241 near Legnica (Silesia), where the flower of German and Polish chivalry perished, Poland and its ally, the Teutonic Order, could no longer resist the Tatar-Mongols.
The left flank moved into Transylvania. In Hungary, the Hungarian-Croatian troops were defeated and the capital Pest was taken. In pursuit of King Bella IV, Cadogan's detachment reached the shores of the Adriatic Sea, captured Serbian coastal cities, devastated part of Bosnia, and went through Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria to join the main forces of the Tatar-Mongols. One of the detachments of the main forces invaded Austria as far as the city of Neustadt and only a little did not reach Vienna, which managed to avoid the invasion. After that, the entire army crossed the Danube by the end of the winter of 1242 and went south to Bulgaria. In the Balkans, Batu Khan received news of the death of Emperor Ögedei. Batu was supposed to participate in the kurultai at the choice of the new emperor, and the entire army went back to the steppes of Desht-i-Kipchak, leaving the Nagai detachment in the Balkans to control Moldavia and Bulgaria. In 1248 Serbia also recognized Nagai's authority.
Was there a Mongol-Tatar yoke? (Version by A. Bushkov)
From the book "The Russia That Wasn't"
We are told that a horde of rather wild nomads emerged from the desert steppes of Central Asia, conquered the Russian principalities, invaded Western Europe, and left behind plundered cities and states.
But after 300 years of domination in Russia, the Mongol Empire left practically no written monuments in the Mongolian language. However, letters and treaties of the Grand Dukes, spiritual letters, church documents of that time remained, but only in Russian. This means that Russian remained the state language in Russia during the Tatar-Mongol yoke. Not only Mongolian written, but also material monuments from the times of the Golden Horde Khanate have not been preserved.
Academician Nikolai Gromov says that if the Mongols really conquered and plundered Russia and Europe, then material values, customs, culture, and writing would remain. But these conquests and the personality of Genghis Khan himself became known to modern Mongols from Russian and Western sources. There is nothing like this in the history of Mongolia. And our school textbooks still contain information about the Tatar-Mongolian yoke, based only on medieval chronicles. But many other documents have been preserved that contradict what children are taught in school today. They testify that the Tatars were not the conquerors of Russia, but warriors in the service of the Russian Tsar.
From chronicles
Here is a quote from the book of the Habsburg ambassador to Russia, Baron Sigismund Herberstein, “Notes on Muscovite Affairs”, written by him in the 151st century: “In 1527 they (the Muscovites) again came out with the Tatars, as a result of which the well-known battle of Khanik took place.”
And in the German chronicle of 1533, it is said about Ivan the Terrible that “he and his Tatars took Kazan and Astrakhan under his kingdom.” In the view of Europeans, the Tatars are not conquerors, but warriors of the Russian tsar.
In 1252, the ambassador of King Louis IX William Rubrucus (court monk Guillaume de Rubruk) traveled from Constantinople to the headquarters of Batu Khan with his retinue, who wrote in his travel notes: clothing and lifestyle. All routes of transportation in a vast country are served by Russians; at river crossings, Russians are everywhere.
But Rubruk traveled across Russia only 15 years after the beginning of the “Tatar-Mongol yoke”. Something too quickly happened to mix the way of life of Russians with wild Mongols. Further, he writes: “The wives of the Rus, like ours, wear jewelry on their heads and trim the hem of the dress with stripes of ermine and other fur. Men wear short clothes - kaftans, chekmens and lamb hats. Women adorn their heads with headdresses similar to those worn by French women. Men wear outerwear like German. It turns out that Mongolian clothing in Russia in those days was no different from Western European. This radically changes our understanding of the wild nomadic barbarians from the distant Mongolian steppes.
Since ancient times, numerous nomads, famous for their courage and militancy, roamed the endless expanses. They did not have a single government, they did not have a commander under whose leadership they could become united and invincible. But at the beginning of the 13th century it appeared. He managed to unite under his command most of the nomadic tribes. Genghis Khan was not a well-known nomad, but ideas about world domination reigned in his soul. In order to implement them, he needed a well-trained army, ready to go even to the ends of the Earth. So he set about preparing his army. With all his might, Genghis Khan went to Central Asia, China and the Caucasus. Encountering no serious resistance on his way, he enslaved them. Now in the thoughts of the ardent Mongol-Tatar commander is the idea of eliminating Russia, which has long been famous for its wealth and beauty, from the list of its enemies.Mongol-Tatars in Russia
Taking a short break from previous battles and replenishing provisions, the Tatar horde headed for the Russian lands. The organization of the offensive was carefully thought out, providing for all the pluses and minuses that could arise in the course of its implementation. In 1223, the first armed clash of nomadic tribes with Russian warriors and Polovtsian warriors took place. The battle took place on the Kalka River. Several combat detachments under the command of the Khan's commanders Dzhebe and Subede fought for three days with a small army of Russian-Polovtsian soldiers. The Polovtsy were the first to take the blow, for which they immediately paid with their own lives. No less severe blow fell on the main Russian forces. The outcome of the battle was a foregone conclusion. The Tatars defeated the Russians.Important! In this battle, more than nine Russian princes fell, among whom were Mstislav the Old, Mstislav Udatny, Mstislav Svyatoslavich.
Rice. 2. The only portrait of Genghis Khan
The death of Genghis Khan and the accession of Batu
During the next trip to the countries of Central Asia, Genghis Khan died. After the death of the leader, strife began between the sons, which caused a lack of autocracy. The grandson of Genghis Khan, Batu Khan, managed to reunite the power of the army again. In 1237, he decides to go to North-Eastern Russia again. In the autumn of 1237, the khan's commander sent ambassadors to the Ryazan prince Yuri demanding tribute. Answering with a proud refusal, Yuri began to prepare for battle, hoping for help from the Prince of Vladimir, but he could not provide it. In the meantime, having entered into battle with the vanguard of Ryazan, the Tatars defeated it, and already on December 16, 1237, the city was besieged. After a nine-day siege, the Mongols set in motion wall-beating machines and broke into the city, where they staged a massacre. The heroic resistance of the Russian people did not stop there.Evpaty Kolovrat appeared. He assembled a detachment of about 1,700 people from partisans and surviving people.Operating behind enemy lines, he inflicted serious damage on the attackers. The Tatars, not understanding what was happening, thought that the Russians had risen from the dead. Surrounding a handful of Russian knights, the Mongols killed them. Yevpaty Kolovrat himself also fell. Many believe that this is fiction, but in reality they are facts, as the chronicle says.Meeting of the Mongol-Tatars and combatants on the Vladimir-Suzdal land - a chronology of events
As soon as the nomads with their leader Batu entered the Vladimir-Suzdal land, Yuri II sent military regiments under the command of his son Vsevolod to meet them. Having met near Kolomna, Batu defeated them.Moscow and Vladimir
Moscow was the next stop on the way. At that time it was a capital city and was surrounded by high oak walls. The Tatars smashed everything, Moscow was destroyed, and the way to Vladimir was opened. On February 3, 1238, the grand ducal capital was besieged.Yuri Vsevolodovich decides to leave Vladimir and goes to the Sit River, where he begins to gather a new army. On February 7, infidels enter the city. Members of the princely family and bishops, trying to hide in the church, fell victim to the fire.
Suzdal, Rostov and Veliky Novgorod
While some enemies besieged Vladimir, others ravaged Suzdal. Sweeping away Pereyaslavl and Rostov along the way, the invaders split up. One part went to the river Sit, where the battle later took place. Prince Yuri II was killed, and his army was defeated. The second part went to Novgorod and Torzhok. Meanwhile, the Novgorodians were preparing for a long defense.Important! Approaching Veliky Novgorod, the Mongol-Tatar authorities make an unexpected decision to turn south, so as not to get bogged down in the spring thaw. It happened too suddenly. Only 100 miles saved the city from ruin.
Chernihiv
Now the Chernihiv lands are under attack. Having met the city of Kozelsk on their way, the conquerors lingered near it for almost two months. After this time, the city was captured and nicknamed "evil".Kyiv
The Polovtsian lands were next in line for destruction. Having made devastating raids, the next year Batu again returns to the northeast, andKyiv was captured in 1240. At this, the suffering of Russia temporarily ceased. Weakened by continuous fighting, Batu's troops withdrew to Volhynia, Poland, Galicia, and Hungary. The main burden of ruin and cruelty fell on the Russian share, but other countries received vital positions. The whole culture of Ancient Russia, all knowledge and discoveries went into oblivion for many years.What caused the rapid victory of the conquerors?
The victory of the Mongol-Tatars was not at all in the fact that they were good warriors and possessed excellent weapons, which had no equal. The fact was that each of the princes of Kievan Rus wanted to curry favor and be a hero. And so it turned out, everyone became heroes, only posthumously. The main thing was to unite forces into one whole, and with this power to deliver a decisive blow to the Golden Horde (as the troops of the great khan were called). This did not happen, total control was established. Princes were appointed only in the Horde, the Baskaks controlled their actions. They still paid tribute. For the solution of global issues, it was necessary to go to the khan. Such a life could not be called free.
Rice. 4. "Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo field". O. Kiprensky. 1805
Dmitry Donskoy
But in 1359, Dmitry Ivanovich was born, who would later receive the nickname Donskoy. His father, Ivan the Red, ruled his principality wisely. He did not ask for trouble, he obediently carried out everything, regularly paid tribute to the Horde. But soon he died, and power passed to his son. However, before that, power belonged to his grandfather, Ivan Kalita, who received from the khan the right to collect tribute from all over Russia. From childhood, Dmitry Donskoy could not watch how his father was running errands for the Horde Khan and fulfilled all his requirements, made numerous censuses. The new prince revealed open disobedience to Batu, and, realizing what followed, began to gather an army. The Horde Khan, seeing that Dmitry Ivanovich was proud, decided to punish him, again plunging him into dependence. Hastily collecting a huge army, he set off on a campaign. At the same time, the Moscow prince managed to unite under his command the squads of almost all Russian princes.History says that there has never been such a force in Russia. The battle was to take place on the Kulikovo field. Before the battle, the Grand Duke turned to the monastery to Sergius of Radonezh. He blessed him and gave two monks to help him: Peresvet and Oslyabya.
Rice. 5. "Morning on the sandpiper field." A. P. Bubnov. 1943–1947
Battle on the Kulikovo field
Early in the morning September 8, 1380two armies lined up on both sides of the vast field. Before the start of the battle, two warriors fought. Russian - Peresvet and Khan's - Chelubey. Having dispersed on their horses, they pierced each other with spears and fell dead on the damp earth. This was the signal for the start of the battle. Dmitry Ivanovich, despite his age, was a fairly experienced strategist. He placed part of the army in the forest in such a way that the Horde could not see it, but in which case they could change the course of the battle. Their task was to strictly carry out the order. Not earlier, not later. This card was a trump card. And so it happened. In a fierce battle, the Tatars began to crush the Russian regiments one by one, but they steadfastly held on. Not expecting such a maneuver, the new Khan Mamai realized that he could not win a victory, and rushed away from the battlefield. The fact of the appearance of fresh forces changed everything. Left without a leader, the Mongol-Tatars were confused and, after Mamai, they rushed to run. Russian troops caught up with them and killed them. In this battle, the horde lost almost the entire army, while the Russians lost about 20 thousand people. The end of the battle marked that the main thing in the fight against the enemy is the cohesion of actions. “When we are united, we are strong,” the prince said after the battle.It is believed that it was Dmitry Donskoy who liberated the Russian lands from numerous enemy raids.For another century, the skirmishes of the Russian people and the Mongol conquerors will last, but now they will no longer bear such consequences as before.The overthrow of the Horde yoke
Soon Ivan Vasilyevich the Third reigned on the Moscow throne. He, like Dmitry Ivanovich, completely refused to pay tribute and began to prepare for the last battle. Autumn 1480two troops stood on both banks of the Ugra River. No one dared to cross the river. There were attempts by the Mongols to swim across it, but to no avail. Only occasionally shooting from guns in the direction of the enemy, the confrontation ended. It is standing on the Ugra River that is considered to be the point of liberation, when Russia regained its independence and became independent. The dominion of the Golden Horde, which lasted 2 centuries, was overthrown to the end, so this date became sacred for the Russian people. Gradually, lost skills and abilities began to return, cities were revived and fields were sown. Life started picking up its pace. No matter how much grief befalls the Russian people, they will always be able to regain their former happiness, they will go against the establishment, contrary to the system, but they will achieve their goal. We recommend watching an interesting video about the Tatar-Mongol yoke:
When historians analyze the reasons for the success of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, they name the presence of a powerful khan in power among the most important and significant reasons. Often, the khan became the personification of strength and military power, and therefore he was feared by both the Russian princes and representatives of the yoke itself. What khans left their mark on history and were considered the most powerful rulers of their people.
The most powerful khans of the Mongol yoke
During the entire existence of the Mongol Empire and the Golden Horde, many khans have changed on the throne. Especially often the rulers changed during the great zamyatne, when the crisis forced the brother to go against the brother. Various internecine wars and regular military campaigns confused the family tree of the Mongol khans a lot, but the names of the most powerful rulers are still known. So, which khans of the Mongol Empire were considered the most powerful?
- Genghis Khan because of the mass of successful campaigns and the unification of lands into one state.
- Batu, who managed to completely subjugate Ancient Russia and form the Golden Horde.
- Khan Uzbek, under whom the Golden Horde reached its greatest power.
- Mamai, who managed to unite the troops during the great memorial.
- Khan Tokhtamysh, who made successful campaigns against Moscow, and returned Ancient Russia to the slave territories.
Each ruler deserves special attention, because his contribution to the history of the development of the Tatar-Mongol yoke is huge. However, it is much more interesting to tell about all the rulers of the yoke, trying to restore the family tree of the khans.
Tatar-Mongol khans and their role in the history of the yoke
The name and years of the reign of the Khan | His role in history |
|---|---|
Genghis Khan (1206-1227) | And before Genghis Khan, the Mongol yoke had its own rulers, but it was this khan who managed to unite all the lands and make surprisingly successful campaigns against China, North Asia and against the Tatars. |
Ogedei (1229-1241) | Genghis Khan tried to give all his sons the opportunity to rule, so he divided the empire between them, but it was Ogedei who was his main heir. The ruler continued his expansion into Central Asia and Northern China, strengthening his position in Europe as well. |
Batu (1227-1255) | Batu was only the ruler of the ulus of Jochi, which later received the name of the Golden Horde. However, the successful Western campaign, the expansion of Ancient Russia and Poland, made Batu a national hero. Soon he began to spread his sphere of influence over the entire territory of the Mongolian state, becoming an increasingly authoritative ruler. |
Berke (1257-1266) | It was during the reign of Berke that the Golden Horde almost completely separated from the Mongol Empire. The ruler focused on urban planning, improving the social status of citizens. |
Mengu-Timur (1266-1282), Tuda-Mengu (1282-1287), Tula-Bugi (1287-1291) | These rulers did not leave a big mark on history, but they were able to isolate the Golden Horde even more and defend its rights to freedom from the Mongol Empire. The basis of the economy of the Golden Horde was a tribute from the princes of Ancient Russia. |
Khan Uzbek (1312-1341) and Khan Janibek (1342-1357) | Under Khan Uzbek and his son Dzhanibek, the Golden Horde flourished. The offerings of the Russian princes were regularly increased, urban planning continued, and the inhabitants of Sarai-Batu adored their khan and literally worshiped him. |
Mamai (1359-1381) | Mamai had nothing to do with the legitimate rulers of the Golden Horde and had no connection with them. He seized power in the country by force, seeking new economic reforms and military victories. Despite the fact that Mamai's power was growing stronger every day, problems in the state were growing due to conflicts on the throne. As a result, in 1380 Mamai suffered a crushing defeat from the Russian troops on the Kulikovo field, and in 1381 he was overthrown by the legitimate ruler Tokhtamysh. |
Tokhtamysh (1380-1395) | Perhaps the last great khan of the Golden Horde. After the crushing defeat of Mamai, he managed to regain his status in Ancient Russia. After the march on Moscow in 1382, tribute payments resumed, and Tokhtamysh proved his superiority in power. |
Kadir Berdi (1419), Hadji-Muhammed (1420-1427), Ulu-Muhammed (1428-1432), Kichi-Muhammed (1432-1459) | All these rulers tried to establish their power during the period of the state collapse of the Golden Horde. After the beginning of the internal political crisis, many rulers changed, and this also affected the deterioration of the country's situation. As a result, in 1480, Ivan III managed to achieve the independence of Ancient Russia, throwing off the shackles of centuries of tribute. |
As often happens, a great state falls apart due to a dynastic crisis. A few decades after the liberation of Ancient Russia from the hegemony of the Mongol yoke, the Russian rulers also had to go through their dynastic crisis, but that's a completely different story.
o (Mongol-Tatar, Tatar-Mongolian, Horde) - the traditional name for the system of exploitation of Russian lands by nomadic conquerors who came from the East from 1237 to 1480.
This system was aimed at the implementation of mass terror and robbery of the Russian people by levying cruel requisitions. It acted primarily in the interests of the Mongol nomadic military-feudal nobility (noyons), in whose favor the lion's share of the collected tribute came.
The Mongol-Tatar yoke was established as a result of the invasion of Batu Khan in the 13th century. Until the early 1260s, Russia was ruled by the great Mongol khans, and then by the khans of the Golden Horde.
The Russian principalities were not directly part of the Mongol state and retained the local princely administration, the activities of which were controlled by the Baskaks - representatives of the khan in the conquered lands. The Russian princes were tributaries of the Mongol khans and received from them labels for the possession of their principalities. Formally, the Mongol-Tatar yoke was established in 1243, when Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich received a label from the Mongols for the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. Russia, according to the label, lost the right to fight and had to regularly pay tribute to the khans twice a year (in spring and autumn).
On the territory of Russia there was no permanent Mongol-Tatar army. The yoke was supported by punitive campaigns and repressions against recalcitrant princes. The regular flow of tribute from the Russian lands began after the census of 1257-1259, conducted by the Mongolian "numerals". The units of taxation were: in cities - the yard, in rural areas - "village", "plough", "plough". Only the clergy were exempt from tribute. The main "Horde hardships" were: "exit", or "Tsar's tribute" - a tax directly for the Mongol Khan; trading fees ("myt", "tamka"); transport duties ("pits", "carts"); the content of the khan's ambassadors ("fodder"); various "gifts" and "honors" to the khan, his relatives and associates. Every year, a huge amount of silver left the Russian lands in the form of tribute. Large "requests" for military and other needs were periodically collected. In addition, the Russian princes were obliged, by order of the khan, to send soldiers to participate in campaigns and in battue hunts (“catchers”). In the late 1250s and early 1260s, tribute from the Russian principalities was collected by Muslim merchants (“besermens”), who bought this right from the great Mongol khan. Most of the tribute went to the great khan in Mongolia. During the uprisings of 1262, the "besermen" from Russian cities were expelled, and the duty of collecting tribute passed to the local princes.
The struggle of Russia against the yoke was gaining more and more breadth. In 1285, Grand Duke Dmitry Alexandrovich (son of Alexander Nevsky) defeated and expelled the army of the “Horde prince”. At the end of the 13th - the first quarter of the 14th century, performances in Russian cities led to the elimination of the Basques. With the strengthening of the Moscow principality, the Tatar yoke is gradually weakening. Moscow Prince Ivan Kalita (reigned in 1325-1340) won the right to collect "exit" from all Russian principalities. From the middle of the XIV century, the orders of the khans of the Golden Horde, not supported by a real military threat, were no longer carried out by the Russian princes. Dmitry Donskoy (1359-1389) did not recognize the khan's labels issued to his rivals and seized the Grand Duchy of Vladimir by force. In 1378 he defeated the Tatar army on the Vozha River in the Ryazan land, and in 1380 he defeated the Golden Horde ruler Mamai in the Battle of Kulikovo.
However, after the campaign of Tokhtamysh and the capture of Moscow in 1382, Russia was again forced to recognize the power of the Golden Horde and pay tribute, but already Vasily I Dmitrievich (1389-1425) received the great reign of Vladimir without a khan's label, as "his fiefdom." Under him, the yoke was nominal. Tribute was paid irregularly, the Russian princes pursued an independent policy. The attempt of the Golden Horde ruler Edigey (1408) to restore full power over Russia ended in failure: he failed to take Moscow. The strife that began in the Golden Horde opened before Russia the possibility of overthrowing the Tatar yoke.
However, in the middle of the 15th century, Muscovite Russia itself experienced a period of internecine war, which weakened its military potential. During these years, the Tatar rulers organized a series of devastating invasions, but they were no longer able to bring the Russians to complete obedience. The unification of the Russian lands around Moscow led to the concentration in the hands of the Moscow princes of such political power, which the weakening Tatar khans could not cope with. The Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III Vasilyevich (1462-1505) in 1476 refused to pay tribute. In 1480, after the unsuccessful campaign of the Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat and “standing on the Ugra”, the yoke was finally overthrown.
The Mongol-Tatar yoke had negative, regressive consequences for the economic, political and cultural development of the Russian lands, was a brake on the growth of the productive forces of Russia, which were at a higher socio-economic level compared to the productive forces of the Mongol state. It artificially preserved for a long time the purely feudal natural character of the economy. Politically, the consequences of the yoke were manifested in the disruption of the natural process of the state development of Russia, in the artificial maintenance of its fragmentation. The Mongol-Tatar yoke, which lasted two and a half centuries, was one of the reasons for the economic, political and cultural backwardness of Russia from Western European countries.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources.
