Defeated the Mongol Tatar yoke. Chronicle about the Tatar-Mongol yoke: historical fact or fiction. The overthrow of the Tatar-Mongol yoke

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 Rus') 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 Rus' 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 Rus' 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 Rus', 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 Rus' - 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 Rus' due to raids and invasions of Polish, Lithuanian, Hungarian and other European lands.

Most history textbooks say that in the XIII-XV centuries Rus' suffered from the Mongol-Tatar yoke. Recently, however, voices of those who doubt that the invasion took place at all have been heard more and more often. Did the huge hordes of nomads really flood the peaceful principalities, enslaving their inhabitants? Let's analyze historical facts, many of which may be shocking.

The yoke was invented by the Poles

The term "Mongol-Tatar yoke" itself was coined by Polish authors. The chronicler and diplomat Jan Dlugosh in 1479 called the time of the existence of the Golden Horde so. He was followed in 1517 by the historian Matvey Mekhovsky, who worked at the University of Krakow. This interpretation of the relationship between Rus' and the Mongol conquerors was quickly picked up in Western Europe, and from there it was borrowed by domestic historians.

Moreover, there were practically no Tatars in the Horde troops themselves. It’s just that in Europe they knew the name of this Asian people well, and therefore it spread to the Mongols. Meanwhile, Genghis Khan tried to exterminate the entire Tatar tribe by defeating their army in 1202.

The first census of the population of Rus'

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

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

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

Joint trips

The princely squads and the Horde warriors often made joint military campaigns, both against other Russians and against the inhabitants of Eastern Europe. So, in the period 1258-1287, the troops of the Mongols and Galician princes regularly attacked Poland, Hungary and Lithuania. And in 1277, the Russians participated in the military campaign of the Mongols in the North Caucasus, helping their allies conquer Alania.

In 1333 Muscovites stormed Novgorod, and the following year the Bryansk squad went to Smolensk. Each time, the Horde troops also participated in these internecine wars. In addition, they regularly helped the great princes of Tver, who were considered at that time the main rulers of Rus', to pacify the recalcitrant neighboring lands.

The basis of the horde was the Russians

The Arab traveler Ibn Battuta, who visited the city of Saray-Berke in 1334, wrote in his essay “A Gift to those who contemplate the wonders of cities and the wonders of wanderings” that there are many Russians in the capital of the Golden Horde. Moreover, they make up the bulk of the population: both working and armed.

This fact was also mentioned by the white émigré author Andrei Gordeev in the book “History of the Cossacks”, which was published in France in the late 20s of the twentieth century. According to the researcher, most of the Horde troops were the so-called wanderers - ethnic Slavs who inhabited the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and the Don steppes. These predecessors of the Cossacks did not want to obey the princes, so they moved south for the sake of a free life. The name of this ethno-social group probably comes from the Russian word "roam" (to wander).

As is known from chronicles, in the Battle of Kalka in 1223, roamers fought on the side of the Mongol troops, led by the voivode Ploskynya. Perhaps his knowledge of the tactics and strategy of the princely squads was of great importance for defeating the combined Russian-Polovtsian forces.

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

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

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

Caucasian Invaders

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

The Persian scholar Rashid-ad-Din in his work "Collection of Chronicles" (beginning of the 14th century) wrote that all the descendants of the great conqueror were mostly blond and gray-eyed.

This means that the elite of the Golden Horde belonged to the Caucasians. Probably, representatives of this race also predominated among other invaders.

There were few

We are accustomed to believe that in the XIII century, Rus' was filled with countless hordes of Mongol-Tatars. Some historians speak of a 500,000-strong army. However, it is not. After all, even the population of modern Mongolia barely exceeds 3 million people, and given the brutal genocide of fellow tribesmen committed by Genghis Khan on the way to power, the size of his army could not be so impressive.

It is difficult to imagine how to feed the half-million army, which also traveled on horseback. Animals simply would not have enough pasture. But each Mongolian horseman led at least three horses with him. Now imagine a herd of 1.5 million. The horses of the warriors riding in the vanguard of the army would have eaten and trampled everything they could. The rest of the horses would die of starvation.

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

Bloodless executions

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

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

The reason for the death sentence in the Golden Horde could be any crime: from desertion from the battlefield to petty theft.

The bodies of the dead were thrown into the steppes

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

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

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

In the late autumn of 1480, the Great Standing on the Ugra ended. It is believed that after that in Rus' there was no Mongol-Tatar yoke.

INSULT

The conflict between the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III and the Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat arose, according to one version, due to non-payment of tribute. But a number of historians believe that Akhmat received tribute, but went to Moscow because he did not wait for the personal presence of Ivan III, who was supposed to receive a label for a great reign. Thus, the prince did not recognize the authority and power of the khan.

Akhmat should have been especially offended by the fact that when he sent ambassadors to Moscow to ask for tribute and dues for past years, the Grand Duke again did not show due respect. The Kazan History even says: “The Grand Duke was not afraid ... taking the basma, he spat, broke it, threw it to the ground and trampled it with his feet.” Of course, such behavior of the Grand Duke is hard to imagine, but the refusal to recognize the power of Akhmat followed.

Khan's pride is also confirmed in another episode. In the Ugorshchina, Akhmat, who was not in the best strategic position, demanded that Ivan III himself come to the Horde headquarters and stand at the stirrup of the lord, waiting for a decision.

WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION

But Ivan Vasilyevich was concerned about his own family. The people did not like his wife. Having panicked, the prince first of all saves his wife: “Ioann sent Grand Duchess Sophia (a Roman, as the chroniclers say), together with the treasury, to Beloozero, giving the order to go further to the sea and ocean if the khan crosses the Oka,” wrote historian Sergei Solovyov. However, the people did not rejoice at her return from Beloozero: “Grand Duchess Sophia ran from the Tatars to Beloozero, and no one drove her.”

The brothers, Andrei Galitsky and Boris Volotsky, revolted, demanding to share the inheritance of their deceased brother, Prince Yuri. Only when this conflict was settled, not without the help of his mother, Ivan III could continue the fight against the Horde. In general, "women's participation" in standing on the Ugra is great. According to Tatishchev, it was Sophia who persuaded Ivan III to make a historic decision. The victory in Standing is also attributed to the intercession of the Virgin.

By the way, the size of the required tribute was relatively low - 140,000 altyns. Khan Tokhtamysh collected about 20 times more from the Vladimir principality a century before.

They did not save even when planning defense. Ivan Vasilyevich gave the order to burn the settlements. Residents were moved inside the fortress walls.

There is a version that the prince simply paid off the khan after the Standing: he paid one part of the money on the Ugra, the second - after the retreat. Beyond the Oka, Andrey Menshoi, Ivan III's brother, did not attack the Tatars, but gave the "way out".

indecisiveness

The Grand Duke refused to take action. Subsequently, posterity approved of his defensive stance. But some contemporaries had a different opinion.

At the news of Akhmat's approach, he panicked. The people, according to the chronicle, accused the prince of endangering everyone with his indecision. Fearing assassination attempts, Ivan left for Krasnoye Selo. His heir, Ivan Molodoy, was at that time with the army, ignoring the requests and letters of his father demanding to leave the army.

The Grand Duke nevertheless left in the direction of the Ugra in early October, but did not reach the main forces. In the city of Kremenets, he waited for the brothers who had reconciled with him. And at this time there were battles on the Ugra.

WHY DID THE POLISH KING NOT HELP?

Akhmat Khan's main ally, the great Lithuanian prince and Polish king Casimir IV, never came to the rescue. The question arises: why?

Some write that the king was preoccupied with the attack of the Crimean Khan Mepgli Giray. Others point to internal strife in the Lithuanian land - "a conspiracy of princes." "Russian elements", dissatisfied with the king, sought support from Moscow, wanted to reunite with the Russian principalities. There is also an opinion that the king himself did not want conflicts with Russia. The Crimean Khan was not afraid of him: the ambassador had been negotiating in Lithuania since mid-October.

And the freezing Khan Akhmat, having waited for the frosts, and not for reinforcements, wrote to Ivan III: “And now if it’s gone from the shore, because I have people without clothes, and horses without blankets. And the heart of winter will pass for ninety days, and I will again attack you, and I have muddy water to drink.

Proud, but careless, Akhmat returned to the steppe with booty, ruining the lands of his former ally, and stayed for the winter at the mouth of the Donets. There, the Siberian Khan Ivak, three months after the "Ugorshchina", personally killed the enemy in a dream. An ambassador was sent to Moscow to announce the death of the last ruler of the Great Horde. Historian Sergei Solovyov writes about it this way: “The last formidable Khan of the Golden Horde for Moscow died from one of the descendants of Genghis Khanov; he had sons who were also destined to die from Tatar weapons.

Probably, the descendants still remained: Anna Gorenko considered Akhmat her maternal ancestor and, becoming a poetess, took a pseudonym - Akhmatova.

DISPUTES ABOUT PLACE AND TIME

Historians argue about where the Standing was on the Ugra. They also name the area under the Opakovy settlement, and the village of Gorodets, and the confluence of the Ugra with the Oka. “A land road from Vyazma stretched to the mouth of the Ugra along its right, “Lithuanian” bank, along which Lithuanian help was expected and which the Horde could use for maneuvers. Even in the middle of the XIX century. The Russian General Staff recommended this road for the movement of troops from Vyazma to Kaluga,” writes historian Vadim Kargalov.

The exact date of the arrival of Akhamat to the Ugra is not known either. Books and chronicles agree on one thing: it happened no earlier than the beginning of October. The Vladimir chronicle, for example, is accurate up to the hour: “I came to the Ugra on October 8, a week, at 1 o’clock in the afternoon.” In the Vologda-Perm chronicle it is written: “the tsar went away from the Ugra on Thursday, the eve of Mikhailov’s days” (November 7).

The Tatar-Mongol Yoke is a concept that is truly the most grandiose falsification of our past with you, and besides, this concept is so ignorant in relation to the entire Slavic-Aryan people as a whole that, having understood all the aspects and nuances of this RELATION, I want to say ENOUGH! Stop feeding us these stupid and delusional stories, which, as if in unison, tell us about how wild and uneducated our ancestors were.

So, let's start in order. To begin with, let's refresh our memory of what the official history of the Tatar-Mongol yoke and those times tells us. Around the beginning of the XIII century from R.Kh. in the Mongolian steppes, one very outstanding character was drawn, nicknamed Genghis Khan, who stirred up almost all the wild Mongolian nomads and created from them the most powerful army of that time. After that, they set off, which means they conquer the whole world, crushing and smashing everything in their path. To begin with, they conquered and conquered all of China, and then, having gained strength and courage, they moved west. Having traveled about 5000 kilometers, the Mongols defeated the state of Khorezm, then in 1223 Georgia reached the southern borders of Rus', where they defeated the army of Russian princes in the battle on the Kalka River. And already in 1237, having gathered their courage, they simply fell with an avalanche of horses, arrows and spears on the defenseless cities and villages of the wild Slavs, burning and conquering them one by one, more and more oppressing the already backward Rusichs, and besides, even without encountering serious resistance along the way. After that, in 1241 they already invade Poland and the Czech Republic - a truly Great Army. But being afraid to leave devastated Rus' in their rear, their entire numerous horde turns back and imposes tribute on all the occupied territories. It is from this moment that the Tatar-Mongol yoke and the peak of the greatness of the Golden Horde begin.

After some time, Rus' got stronger (interestingly, under the yoke of the Golden Horde) and began to be insolent to the Tatar-Mongol representatives, some principalities even stopped paying tribute. Khan Mamai could not forgive them for this, and in 1380 he went to war against Rus', where he was defeated by the army of Dmitry Donskoy. After that, a century later, the Horde Khan Akhmat decided to take revenge, but after the so-called "Standing on the Ugra" Khan Akhmat was afraid of Ivan III's superior army and turned back, ordering to retreat to the Volga. This event is considered the decline of the Tatar-Mongol yoke and the decline of the Golden Horde as a whole.

Today, this crazy theory about the Tatar-Mongol yoke does not stand up to criticism, since a huge amount of evidence of this falsification has accumulated in our history. The main misconception of our official historians is that they consider the Tatar-Mongol to be exclusively representatives of the Mongoloid race, which is fundamentally wrong. After all, a lot of evidence indicates that the Golden Horde, or as it is more correct to call it Tartaria, consisted mainly of the Slavic-Aryan peoples and there was no smell of any Mongoloids there. Indeed, until the 17th century, no one could even imagine such a thing that everything would turn upside down and such a time would come that the greatest empire that existed during the time of our era would be called the Tatar-Mongolian. Moreover, this theory will become official and taught in schools and universities as the truth. Yes, we must pay tribute to Peter I and his Western historians, it was necessary to distort and defile our past in such a way - just trample the memory of our ancestors and everything connected with them into the mud.

By the way, if you still doubt that the "Tatar-Mongols" were precisely representatives of the Slavic-Aryan people, then we have prepared quite a few proofs for you. So let's go...

PROOF FIRST

The appearance of the representatives of the Golden Horde

This topic can even be covered in a separate article, since there is a great deal of evidence that some "Tatar-Mongols" had a Slavic appearance. Take, for example, the appearance of Genghis Khan himself, whose portrait is kept in Taiwan. He is presented as tall, long-bearded with green-yellow eyes and blond hair. In addition, this is not a purely individual opinion of the artist. This fact is also mentioned by the historian Rashidad-Did, who found the "Golden Horde" in his lifetime. So, he claims that in the family of Genghis Khan, all children were born white-skinned with light blond hair. And that's not all, G.E. Grumm-Grzhimailo preserved one ancient legend about the Mongolian people, in which there is a mention that the ancestor of Genghis Khan in the ninth tribe of Boduanchar was fair-haired and blue-eyed. Another not unimportant character of that time also looked like Batu Khan, who was a descendant of Genghis Khan.

And the Tatar-Mongol army itself, outwardly, was no different from the troops of Ancient Rus' and Europe, as evidenced by the paintings and icons painted by contemporaries of those events:

A strange picture is obtained, the leaders of the Tatar-Mongol, throughout the entire existence of the Golden Horde were the Slavs. Yes, and the Tatar-Mongol army consisted exclusively of the Slavic-Aryan people. No, what are you talking about, they were then wild barbarians! Where are they there, they crushed half the world under themselves? No, this cannot be. It is not sad, but this is exactly what modern historians argue.

PROOF TWO

The concept of "Tatar-Mongols"

Let's start with the fact that the very concept of "Tatar-Mongols" - DOES NOT MEET in more than one Russian chronicle, and everything that was found about the "suffering" of the Rus from the Mongols is described in just one entry from the collection of all Russian chronicles:

"Oh, bright and beautifully decorated Russian land! You are glorified by many beauties: you are famous for many lakes, locally revered rivers and springs, mountains, steep hills, high oak forests, clear fields, marvelous animals, various birds, countless great cities, glorious villages, gardens monasteries, temples of God and formidable princes, honest boyars and many nobles. You are filled with everything, the Russian land, O Orthodox Christian faith! From here to the Ugrians and to the Poles, to the Czechs, Germans to Karelians, from Karelians to Ustyug, where the filthy Toymichi live, and beyond the Breathing Sea; from the sea to the Bulgarians, from the Bulgarians to the Burtases, from the Burtases to the Cheremis, from the Cheremis to the Mordtsy - everything, with the help of God, was conquered by the Christian people, these filthy countries obeyed Grand Duke Vsevolod, his father Yuri, Prince of Kiev, his grandfather Vladimir Monomakh, with whom the Polovtsy frightened their little children. conquered, and the Germans rejoiced that they were far away - beyond the blue sea. Burtases, Cheremis, Vyads and Mordovians were beekeeping for Grand Duke Vladimir. And the emperor of Constantinople Manuel, out of fear, sent great gifts to him, so that the Grand Duke Vladimir Constantinople would not take from him.

There is one more mention, but it is not very significant, because. contains a very meager passage that does not mention any invasion, and it is very difficult to judge any events from it. This text was called as "The Word about the death of the Russian Land":

"... And in those days - from the great Yaroslav, and to Vladimir, and to the present Yaroslav, and to his brother Yuri, Prince of Vladimir, disaster befell the Christians and the filthy ones set fire to the Monastery of the Caves of the Most Holy Theotokos."

PROOF THREE

The number of troops of the Golden Horde

All official historical sources of the 19th century claimed that the number of troops invading our territory at that time was about 500,000 people. Can you imagine HALF A MILLION PEOPLE who came to conquer us, but they didn’t come on foot?! Apparently it was an incredible amount of carts and horses. Since feeding such a number of people and animals required simply titanic efforts. But after all, this theory, yes, namely THEORY, and not a historical fact, does not stand up to criticism, since not one horse will reach from Mongolia to Europe, and it was not possible to feed such a number of horses.

If we take a sensible look at this situation, then the following picture emerges:

For each "Tatar-Mongol" war, there were about 2-3 horses, plus you need to count the horses (mules, bulls, donkeys) that were in the carts. So, no grass would be enough to feed the Tatar-Mongolian cavalry stretched for tens of kilometers, since the animals that were at the forefront of this horde had to devour all the fields and leave nothing for those who follow behind. Since it was not possible to stretch a lot or go different routes, because. from this, the numerical advantage would be lost and it would be unlikely that the nomads would have even reached that same Georgia, not to mention Kievan Rus and Europe.

PROOF FOUR

The invasion of the Golden Horde into Europe

According to modern historians who adhere to the official version of events, in March 1241 from R.Kh. "Tatar-Mongols" invade Europe and capture part of the territory of Poland, namely the cities of Krakow, Sandomierz and Wroclaw, bringing with them destruction, robbery and murder.

I would also like to note a very interesting aspect of this event. Approximately in April of the same year, the road to the "Tatar-Mongolian" army was blocked by Henry II with his ten thousandth army, for which he paid with a crushing defeat. The Tatars used strange military tricks for that time against the troops of Henry II, thanks to which they won, namely, some kind of smoke and fire - "Greek fire":

"And when they saw a Tatar running out with a banner - and this banner looked like an "X", and on top of it was a head with a long beard shaking, filthy and stinking smoke from the mouth of the Poles - everyone was amazed and horrified, and rushed to run in all directions could, and so they were defeated ... "

After that, the "Tatar-Mongols" sharply deploy their offensive to the South and invade the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Dalmatia and finally break through to the Adriatic Sea. But in none of these countries the "Tatar-Mongols" try to resort to subjugation and taxation of the population. Somehow it makes no sense - why was it then to capture ?! And the answer is very simple, because. before us is a pure deceit, or rather a falsification of events. Strange as it may seem, these events coincide with the military campaign of Frederick II, Emperor of the Roman Empire. So the absurdity does not end there, then a much more interesting turn takes place. As it turns out later, the "Tatar-Mongols" turned out to be also allies with Frederick II, when he fought with the Pope - Gregory X, and Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary - defeated by wild nomads, were on the side of Pope Gregory X in that conflict. And on the departure of the "Tatar-Mongol" from Europe in 1242 AD. for some reason, the crusader troops went to war against Rus', as well as against Frederick II, whom they successfully defeated and stormed the capital Aachen to crown their emperor there. Coincidence? Don't think.

This version of events is far from believable. But if instead of the "Tatar-Mongol" Rus invaded Europe, then everything falls into place ...

And there are far from four such proofs, as we have presented to you above - there are many more of them, just if you mention each one, then this will not turn out to be an article, but a whole book.

As a result, it turns out that no Tatar-Mongols from Central Asia have ever captured or enslaved us, and the Golden Horde - Tartaria, was a huge Slavic-Aryan Empire of that time. In fact, we are the same TATARS who kept the whole of Europe in fear and horror.

We all know from the school history course that Rus' at the beginning of the 13th century was captured by the foreign army of Batu Khan. These invaders came from the steppes of modern Mongolia. Huge hordes fell upon Rus', merciless horse riders, armed with bent sabers, did not know mercy and acted equally well both in the steppes and in Russian forests, and the frozen rivers were used to quickly move along Russian impassability. They spoke in an incomprehensible language, were pagans and had a Mongoloid appearance.

Our fortresses could not resist skilful warriors armed with wall-beating machines. Terrible dark times came for Rus', when not a single prince could rule without a khan's “label”, to obtain which it was necessary to humiliatingly crawl on his knees the last kilometers to the headquarters of the chief khan of the Golden Horde. The “Mongol-Tatar” yoke existed in Rus' for about 300 years. And only after the yoke was thrown off, Rus', thrown back centuries ago, was able to continue its development.

However, there is a lot of information that makes you look at the version familiar from school differently. Moreover, we are not talking about some secret or new sources that historians simply did not take into account. We are talking about all the same chronicles and other sources of the Middle Ages, on which the supporters of the version of the “Mongol-Tatar” yoke relied. Often inconvenient facts are justified by the "mistake" of the chronicler or his "ignorance" or "interest".

1. There were no Mongols in the “Mongol-Tatar” horde

It turns out that there is no mention of warriors of the Mongoloid type in the troops of the “Tatar-Mongols”. From the very first battle of the “invaders” with the Russian troops on the Kalka, there were wanderers in the troops of the “Mongol-Tatars”. Brodniki are free Russian warriors who lived in those places (the predecessors of the Cossacks). And at the head of the wanderers in that battle was the governor Ploskin - Russian.

Official historians believe that Russian participation in the Tatar troops was forced. But they have to admit that, “probably, the forced participation of Russian soldiers in the Tatar army stopped later. There were mercenaries who had already voluntarily joined the Tatar troops” (M.D. Poluboyarinova).

Ibn-Batuta wrote: "There were many Russians in Sarai Berke." Moreover: “The bulk of the armed service and labor forces of the Golden Horde were Russian people” (A. A. Gordeev)

“Let's imagine the absurdity of the situation: the victorious Mongols for some reason transfer weapons to the “Russian slaves” they conquered, and those (being armed to the teeth) calmly serve in the conquering troops, making up the “main mass” in them! Let us recall once again that the Russians were allegedly just defeated in an open and armed struggle! Even in traditional history, ancient Rome never armed its newly conquered slaves. Throughout history, the victors have taken away weapons from the vanquished, and if they later accepted them into service, then they constituted an insignificant minority and were considered, of course, unreliable.

“But what can be said about the composition of Batu’s troops? The Hungarian king wrote to the Pope:

“When the state of Hungary from the invasion of the Mongols, as from the plague, for the most part, was turned into a desert, and like a sheepfold was surrounded by various tribes of infidels, namely: Russians, roamers from the east, Bulgarians and other heretics from the south ...”

“Let us ask a simple question: where are the Mongols here? Russians, wanderers, Bulgarians are mentioned - that is, Slavic tribes. Translating the word “Mongol” from the king’s letter, we get simply that “great (= megalion) peoples invaded”, namely: Russians, wanderers from the east, Bulgarians, etc. Therefore, our recommendation: it is useful every time to replace the Greek word “Mongol = megalion” by its translation = “great”. As a result, a completely meaningful text will be obtained, for the understanding of which one does not need to involve some distant people from the borders of China (there is not a word about China, by the way, in all these reports).” (With)

2. It is not clear how many “Mongol-Tatars” were

And how many Mongols were at the beginning of the Batu campaign? Opinions on this matter vary. There are no exact data, so there are only estimates of historians. In early historical writings, it was assumed that the army of the Mongols was about 500 thousand horsemen. But the more modern the historical work, the smaller the army of Genghis Khan becomes. The problem is that for each rider you need 3 horses, and a herd of 1.5 million horses cannot move, since the front horses will eat all the pasture and the rear ones will simply starve to death. Gradually, historians agreed that the “Tatar-Mongol” army did not exceed 30 thousand, which, in turn, was not enough to capture all of Russia and enslave it (not to mention the other conquests in Asia and Europe).

By the way, the population of modern Mongolia is a little more than 1 million, while even 1000 years before the conquest of China by the Mongols, there were already more than 50 million there. And the population of Rus' already in the 10th century was about 1 million. At the same time, nothing is known about targeted genocide in Mongolia. That is, it is not clear how such a small state could conquer such large ones?

3. There were no Mongolian horses in the Mongolian troops

It is believed that the secret of the Mongolian cavalry was a special breed of Mongolian horses - hardy and unpretentious, capable of independently obtaining food even in winter. But it is in their own steppe that they can break the crust with their hooves and profit from grass when they graze, and what can they get in the Russian winter, when everything is swept up by a meter layer of snow, and you also need to carry a rider. It is known that in the Middle Ages there was a small ice age (that is, the climate was harsher than now). In addition, experts in horse breeding, based on miniatures and other sources, almost unanimously assert that the Mongol cavalry fought on Turkmen women - horses of a completely different breed that cannot feed themselves without human help in winter.

4. The Mongols were engaged in the unification of Russian lands

It is known that Batu invaded Rus' at the moment of permanent internecine struggle. In addition, the question of succession to the throne was acute. All these civil strife were accompanied by pogroms, ruin, murders and violence. For example, Roman Galitsky buried alive in the ground and burned his recalcitrant boyars at the stake, chopped “on the joints”, tore off the skin from the living. A gang of Prince Vladimir, expelled from the Galician table for drunkenness and debauchery, walked around Rus'. As the chronicles testify, this daring freewoman “dragged girls and married women for fornication, killed priests during worship, and put horses in the church. That is, there was an ordinary civil strife with a normal medieval level of atrocities, the same as in the West at that time.

And, suddenly, “Mongol-Tatars” appear, who rapidly begin to restore order: a strict mechanism of succession to the throne with a label appears, a clear vertical of power is built. Separatist encroachments are now nipped in the bud. It is interesting that nowhere, except for Rus', the Mongols do not show such preoccupation with restoring order. But according to the classical version, half of the then civilized world is in the Mongol empire. For example, during its western campaign, the horde burns, kills, robs, but does not impose tribute, does not try to build a vertical of power, as in Rus'.

5. Thanks to the “Mongol-Tatar” yoke, Rus' experienced a cultural upsurge

With the advent of the “Mongol-Tatar invaders” in Rus', the Orthodox Church began to flourish: many churches were erected, including in the horde itself, church ranks were elevated, and the church received many benefits.

It is interesting that the written Russian language during the “yoke” brings to a new level. Here is what Karamzin writes:

“Our language,” writes Karamzin, “from the 13th to the 15th centuries acquired more purity and correctness.” Further, according to Karamzin, under the Tatar-Mongols, instead of the former “Russian, uneducated dialect, writers more carefully adhered to the grammar of church books or ancient Serbian, which they followed not only in declensions and conjugations, but also in pronunciation.”

So, in the West, classical Latin appears, and in our country, the Church Slavonic language in its correct classical forms. Applying the same standards as for the West, we must recognize that the Mongol conquest was the heyday of Russian culture. Mongols were strange conquerors!

Interestingly, not everywhere the "invaders" were so indulgent towards the church. In the Polish chronicles there is information about the massacre perpetrated by the Tatars among Catholic priests and monks. Moreover, they were killed after the capture of the city (that is, not in the heat of battle, but intentionally). This is strange, since the classical version tells us about the exceptional religious tolerance of the Mongols. But in the Russian lands, the Mongols tried to rely on the clergy, providing the church with significant concessions, up to complete exemption from taxes. It is interesting that the Russian Church itself showed amazing loyalty to the “foreign invaders”.

6. Nothing left after the great empire

Classical history tells us that the "Mongol-Tatars" managed to build a huge centralized state. However, this state disappeared and left no traces behind. In 1480, Rus' finally threw off the yoke, but already in the second half of the 16th century, Russians began to move eastward - beyond the Urals, to Siberia. And they did not meet any traces of the former empire, although only 200 years had passed. There are no large cities and villages, there is no Yamsky tract thousands of kilometers long. The names of Genghis Khan and Batu are not familiar to anyone. There is only a rare nomadic population, engaged in cattle breeding, fishing, and primitive agriculture. And no legends about great conquests. By the way, the great Karakoram was never found by archaeologists. But it was a huge city, where thousands and tens of thousands of artisans and gardeners were taken away (by the way, it’s interesting how they were driven through the steppes for 4-5 thousand km).

There are also no written sources left after the Mongols. In the Russian archives, no “Mongolian” labels for reigning were found, which should have been many, but there are many documents of that time in Russian. Several labels were found but already in the 19th century:

Two or three labels found in the 19th century And not in state archives, but in the papers of historians. For example, the famous label of Tokhtamysh, according to Prince M.A. were in the hands of the Polish historian Narushevich” Regarding this label, Obolensky wrote: “He (Tokhtamysh’s label - Auth) positively resolves the question in what language and what letters were written the ancient khan’s labels to the Russian Grand Dukes From the acts hitherto known to us, this is the second diploma” It turns out , further, that this label “is written in diverse Mongolian scripts, infinitely different, not in the least similar to the label of Timur-Kutluy already printed by Mr. Hammer in 1397”

7. Russian and Tatar names are difficult to distinguish

Old Russian names and nicknames did not always resemble our modern ones. These are the old Russian names and nicknames that can be mistaken for Tatar ones: Murza, Saltanko, Tatarinko, Sutorma, Eyancha, Vandysh, Smoga, Sugonai, Saltyr, Suleisha, Sumgur, Sunbul, Suryan, Tashlyk, Temir, Tenbyak, Tursulok, Shaban, Kudiyar , Murad, Nevruy. These names were borne by Russian people. But, for example, the Tatar prince Oleks Nevruy has a Slavic name.

8. Mongol khans fraternized with the Russian nobility

It is often mentioned that Russian princes and “Mongol khans” became brothers, relatives, sons-in-law and father-in-law, went on joint military campaigns. Interestingly, in no other country defeated or captured by them, the Tatars did not behave like this.

Here is another example of the amazing closeness of ours and the Mongol nobility. The capital of the great nomadic empire was in Karakorum. After the death of the Great Khan, the time comes for the election of a new ruler, in which Batu must also take part. But Batu himself does not go to Karakorum, but sends Yaroslav Vsevolodovich there to represent his person. It would seem that a more important reason to go to the capital of the empire could not be imagined. Instead, Batu sends a prince from the occupied lands. Marvelous.

9. Super-Mongol-Tatars

Now let's talk about the capabilities of the "Mongol-Tatars", about their uniqueness in history.

The stumbling block for all nomads was the capture of cities and fortresses. There is only one exception - the army of Genghis Khan. The answer of historians is simple: after the capture of the Chinese Empire, Batu's army took possession of the machines themselves and the technique of using them (or captured specialists).

It is surprising that the nomads managed to create a strong centralized state. The fact is that, unlike the farmer, nomads are not tied to the land. Therefore, with any dissatisfaction, they can simply pick up and leave. For example, when in 1916 the tsarist officials did something to the Kazakh nomads, they took and migrated to neighboring China. But we are told that the Mongols succeeded at the end of the XII century.

It is not clear how Genghis Khan could persuade his fellow tribesmen to go on a trip “to the last sea”, not knowing the maps and nothing at all about those who would have to fight along the way. This is not a raid on neighbors you know well.

All adult and healthy men among the Mongols were considered warriors. In peacetime, they ran their household, and in wartime, they took up arms. But who did the "Mongol-Tatars" leave at home after they went on campaigns for decades? Who tends their flocks? Old people and children? It turns out that in the rear of this army there was no strong economy. Then it is not clear who ensured the uninterrupted supply of food and weapons to the army of the Mongols. This is a difficult task even for large centralized states, not to mention the state of nomads with a weak economy. In addition, the scope of the Mongol conquests is comparable to the theater of operations of World War II (and taking into account the battles with Japan, and not just Germany). The supply of weapons and provisions is simply impossible.

In the 16th century, the “conquest” of Siberia by the Cossacks began, which was not an easy task: it took about 50 years to fight several thousand kilometers to Baikal, leaving behind a chain of fortified fortresses. However, the Cossacks had a strong state in the rear, from where they could draw resources. And the military training of the peoples who lived in those places could not be compared with the Cossack. However, the “Mongol-Tatars” managed to cover twice as much distance in the opposite direction in a couple of decades, conquering states with developed economies. Sounds fantastic. There were other examples as well. For example, in the 19th century, it took Americans about 50 years to travel a distance of 3-4 thousand km: the Indian wars were fierce and the losses of the US army were significant despite the gigantic technical superiority. Similar problems faced European colonizers in Africa in the 19th century. Only the “Mongol-Tatars” succeeded easily and quickly.

Interestingly, all the major campaigns of the Mongols in Rus' were winter. This is not typical for nomadic peoples. Historians tell us that this allowed them to move quickly across frozen rivers, but this, in turn, requires a good knowledge of the terrain, which the alien conquerors cannot boast of. They fought equally successfully in the forests, which is also strange for the steppes.

There is evidence that the Horde distributed fake letters on behalf of the Hungarian king Bela IV, which caused great confusion in the camp of the enemy. Not bad for the steppes?

10. Tatars looked like Europeans

A contemporary of the Mongol wars, the Persian historian Rashid-ad-Din writes that in the family of Genghis Khan, children "were born mostly with gray eyes and blond." Chroniclers describe the appearance of Batu in similar expressions: fair-haired, light-bearded, light-eyed. By the way, the title "Genghis" is translated, according to some sources, as "sea" or "ocean". Perhaps this is due to the color of his eyes (in general, it is strange that the Mongolian language of the 13th century has the word “ocean”).

In the Battle of Liegnitz, in the midst of a skirmish, the Polish troops panic, and they take to flight. According to some sources, this panic was provoked by the cunning Mongols, who wormed their way into the battle formations of the Polish squads. It turns out that the “Mongols” looked like Europeans.

And here is what Rubricus, a contemporary of those events, writes:

“In 1252-1253, from Constantinople through the Crimea to the headquarters of Batu and further to Mongolia, the ambassador of King Louis IX, William Rubrikus, traveled with his retinue, who, driving along the lower reaches of the Don, wrote: “Everywhere among the Tatars settlements of the Rus are scattered; Russians mixed with the Tatars ... learned their customs, as well as clothes and lifestyle - Women decorate their heads with headdresses similar to the headdresses of French women, the bottom of the dress is trimmed with furs, otters, squirrels and ermine. Men wear short clothes; caftans, chekminis and lambskin hats… All routes of transportation in the vast country are served by the Rus; at the crossings of the rivers - everywhere the Rus"

Rubricus travels through Rus' only 15 years after its conquest by the Mongols. Didn't the Russians mix with the wild Mongols too quickly, adopted their clothes, preserving it until the beginning of the 20th century, as well as their customs and way of life?

On the image in the tomb of Henry II the Pious with the comment: “The figure of a Tatar under the feet of Henry II, Duke of Silesia, Krakow and Poland, placed on the grave in Breslau of this prince, who was killed in the battle with the Tatars at Lingnitz on April 9, 1241,” we see Tatar, no different from Russian:

And here's another example. On the miniatures from the 16th century Facial Code, it is impossible to distinguish a Tatar from a Russian:

Other interesting information

A few more interesting points that are worth paying attention to, but which I did not figure out in which section to include.

At that time, not all of Russia was called “Rus”, but only: Kiev, Pereyaslav and Chernigov principalities. Often there were references to trips from Novgorod or Vladimir to “Rus”. For example, the Smolensk cities were no longer considered "Rus".

The word “horde” is often mentioned not in relation to the “Mongol-Tatars”, but simply to the troops: “Swedish horde”, “German horde”, “Zalesian horde”, “Land of the Cossack Horde”. That is, it simply means - an army and there is no “Mongolian” color in it. By the way, in modern Kazakh “Kzyl-Orda” is translated as “Red Army”.

In 1376, Russian troops entered the Volga Bulgaria, besieged one of its cities and forced the inhabitants to swear allegiance. Russian officials were planted in the city. According to the traditional story, it turned out that Rus', being a vassal and tributary of the “Golden Horde”, organizes a military campaign on the territory of the state that is part of this “Golden Horde” and forces it to take its vassal oath. As for written sources from China. For example, in the period 1774-1782 in China, seizures were made 34 times. A collection of all printed books ever published in China was undertaken. This was due to the political vision of history by the ruling dynasty. By the way, we also had a change of the Rurik dynasty to the Romanovs, so the historical order is quite probable. It is interesting that the theory of the "Mongol-Tatar" enslavement of Rus' was born not in Russia, but among German historians much later than the alleged "yoke".

Conclusion

Historical science has a huge number of conflicting sources. Therefore, one way or another, historians have to discard some of the information in order to get a whole version of events. What was presented to us in the school history course was just one of the versions, of which there are many. And, as we can see, it has many contradictions.