In the 12th century, the Mongols roamed Central Asia and engaged in cattle breeding. This type of activity required a constant change of habitat. To acquire new territories, it was necessary strong army which the Mongols had. It was distinguished by good organization and discipline, all of which ensured the victorious march of the Mongols.

In 1206, a congress of the Mongolian nobility - kurultai - took place, at which Khan Temuchin was elected great khan, and he received the name Chingis. At first, the Mongols were interested in vast territories in China, Siberia and Central Asia. They then headed west.

The Volga Bulgaria and Rus' were the first to stand in their way. The Russian princes "met" the Mongols in a battle that took place in 1223 on the Kalka River. The Mongols attacked the Polovtsy, and they turned to their neighbors, the Russian princes, for help. The defeat of the Russian troops on the Kalka was due to the disunity and disorganized actions of the princes. At this time, the Russian lands were significantly weakened by civil strife, and the princely squads were more busy with internal disagreements. A well-organized army of nomads won the first victory relatively easily.

P.V. Ryzhenko. Kalka

Invasion

The Kalka victory was only the beginning. In 1227, Genghis Khan died, and his grandson Batu became the head of the Mongols. In 1236, the Mongols decided to finally deal with the Polovtsy and the next year they defeated them near the Don.

Now it is the turn of the Russian principalities. Ryazan resisted for six days, but was captured and destroyed. Then came the turn of Kolomna and Moscow. In February 1238, the Mongols approached Vladimir. The siege of the city lasted four days. Neither the militias nor the princely warriors were able to defend the city. Vladimir fell, the princely family perished in a fire.

After that, the Mongols split up. One part moved to the northwest, laid siege to Torzhok. On the City River, the Russians were defeated. Not reaching a hundred kilometers to Novgorod, the Mongols stopped and moved south, ruining cities and villages along the way.

Southern Rus' felt the brunt of the invasion in the spring of 1239. The first victims were Pereyaslavl and Chernihiv. The Mongols began the siege of Kyiv in the autumn of 1240. The defenders fought back for three months. The Mongols were able to take the city only with heavy losses.

Consequences

Batu was going to continue the campaign already in Europe, but the state of the troops did not allow him to do this. They were drained of blood, and the new campaign never took place. And in Russian historiography, the period from 1240 to 1480 is known as the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Rus'.

During this period, all contacts, including trade, with the West practically ceased. The Mongol khans controlled foreign policy. The collection of tribute and the appointment of princes became obligatory. Any disobedience was severely punished.

The events of these years caused significant damage to the Russian lands, they lagged far behind the European countries. The economy was weakened, the farmers went north, trying to protect themselves from the Mongols. Many artisans fell into slavery, and some crafts simply ceased to exist. Culture suffered no less damage. Many temples were destroyed and no new ones were built for a long time.

Capture of Suzdal by the Mongols.
Miniature from the Russian chronicle

However, some historians believe that the yoke stopped the political fragmentation of the Russian lands and even gave further impetus to their unification.

Batu. Batu's invasion of Rus'

Parents: Jochi (1127+), ?;

Highlights of life:

Batu, Khan of the Golden Horde, son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. According to the division made by Temuchin in 1224, the eldest son, Jochi, got the Kipchak steppe, Khiva, part of the Caucasus, Crimea and Russia (the ulus of Jochi). Having done nothing to actually take possession of the part assigned to him, Jochi died in 1227.

At the diets (kurultais) of 1229 and 1235, it was decided to send a large army to conquer the spaces north of the Caspian and Black Seas. Khan Ogedei put Batu at the head of this campaign. Ordu, Shiban, Tangkut, Kadan, Buri and Paydar (descendants of Temujin) and commanders Subutai and Bagatur went with him.

In its movement, this invasion captured not only the Russian principalities, but also part of Western Europe. Having in mind in this latter initially only Hungary, where the Cumans (Polovtsy) left the Tatars, it also spread to Poland, the Czech Republic, Moravia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Dalmatia.

Having risen along the Volga, Batu defeated the Bulgars, then turned west, ruined Ryazan (December 1237), Moscow, Vladimir-on-Klyazma (February 1238), moved to Novgorod, but from the spring thaw went to the Polovtsian steppes, on the way having dealt with Kozelsk. In 1239, Batu conquered Pereyaslavl, Chernigov, ruined Kyiv (December 6, 1240), Kamenets, Vladimir-on-Volyn, Galich and Lodyzhin (December 1240). Here the horde of Batu was divided. A part led by Kadan and the Horde went to Poland (Sandomierz was defeated on February 13, 1241, Krakow on March 24, Opole and Breslavl), where the Polish forces suffered a terrible defeat near Liegnitz.

Meissen turned out to be the extreme western point of this movement: the Mongols did not dare to move further west. Europe was taken by surprise and offered no united and organized resistance. The Czech forces were late at Liegnitz and were sent to Lusatia to cut across the alleged path of the Mongols to the west. The turn of the latter to the south fell on defenseless Moravia, which was devastated.

Another large part, with Batu at the head, went to Hungary, where Kadan and the Horde soon joined with it. King Bela IV of Hungary was utterly defeated by Batu and fled. Batu went through Hungary, Croatia and Dalmatia, inflicting defeats everywhere. In December 1241 Khan Ogedei died; this news, received by Batu at the height of his European successes, forced him to rush to Mongolia to take part in the election of a new khan. In March 1242, the opposite, no less devastating, movement of the Mongols began through Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria.

Later, Batu did not make any attempts to fight to the west, settling with his horde on the banks of the Volga and forming the vast state of the Golden Horde.

INVASION OF BATU INTO RUSSIA.1237-1240

In 1224 an unknown people appeared; an unheard-of army came, godless Tatars, about whom no one knows very well who they are and where they came from, and what kind of language they have, and what tribe they are, and what faith they have ... The Polovtsians could not resist them and ran to the Dnieper. Their Khan Kotyan was father-in-law to Mstislav of Galicia; he came with a bow to the prince, his son-in-law, and to all the princes of Russia ... and said: The Tatars have taken our land today, and tomorrow they will take yours, so protect us; if you don’t help us, then we will be cut off today, and you will be cut off tomorrow. "" The princes thought, thought, and finally decided to help Kotyan. "The campaign was launched in April with the full flood of the rivers. Kiev prince Mstislav Romanovich and Mstislav Udaly. The Polovtsy informed the Russian princes about the deceit of the Tatars. On the 17th day of the campaign, the army stopped near Olshen, somewhere on the banks of the Ros. There it was found by the second Tatar embassy. Unlike the first, when the ambassadors were killed, these were released.Immediately after crossing the Dnieper, the Russian troops collided with the enemy's vanguard, chased him for 8 days, and on the eighth day they reached the bank of the Kalka.Here Mstislav Udaloy and some princes immediately crossed the Kalka, leaving Mstislav of Kiev on the other side.

According to the Laurentian Chronicle, the battle took place on May 31, 1223. The troops that crossed the river were almost completely destroyed, while the camp of Mstislav of Kiev, set up on the other side and heavily fortified, the troops of Jebe and Subedei stormed for 3 days and were able to take it only by cunning and deceit.

The battle of Kalka was lost not so much because of disagreements between the rival princes, but because of historical factors. Firstly, Jebe's army was tactically and positionally completely superior to the united regiments of the Russian princes, who had in their ranks for the most part princely squads, reinforced in this case by the Polovtsians. All this army did not have sufficient unity, was not trained in combat tactics, based more on the personal courage of each combatant. Secondly, such a united army also needed an autocratic commander, recognized not only by the leaders, but also by the warriors themselves, and who exercised a unified command. Thirdly, the Russian troops, mistaken in assessing the forces of the enemy, still could not choose the right place for the battle, the terrain on which was completely favorable to the Tatars. However, in fairness, it must be said that at that time, not only in Rus', but also in Europe, there would not have been an army capable of competing with the formations of Genghis Khan.

The military council of 1235 announced a general Mongol campaign to the west. Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, the son of Djuga, was chosen as the leader. all winter the Mongols gathered in the upper reaches of the Irtysh, preparing for a big campaign. In the spring of 1236, countless horsemen, innumerable herds, endless carts with military equipment and siege weapons moved west. In the autumn of 1236, their army attacked the Volga Bulgaria, having a huge superiority of forces, they broke through the defense line of the Bulgars, the cities were taken one by one. Bulgaria was terribly destroyed and burned. The second blow was taken by the Polovtsians, most of whom were killed, the rest fled to Russian lands. The Mongolian troops moved in two large arcs, using the tactics of "roundup".

One arc of Batu (along the way - Mordovians), the other arc of Guisk-Khan (Polovtsy), the ends of both arcs rested on Rus'.

The first city that stood in the way of the conquerors was Ryazan. The battle for Ryazan began on December 16, 1237. The population of the city was 25 thousand people. From three sides Ryazan was protected by well-fortified walls, from the fourth by the river (shore). But after five days of siege, the walls of the city, destroyed by powerful siege weapons, could not stand it, and on December 21 Ryazan fell. An army of nomads near Ryazan stood for ten days - they plundered the city, divided the booty, robbed neighboring villages. Further, the army of Batu moved to Kolomna. On the way, they were suddenly attacked by a detachment led by Evpaty Kolovrat, a Ryazanian. His detachment consisted of about 1700 people. Despite the numerical superiority of the Mongols, he boldly attacked the hordes of enemies and fell in battle, causing great damage to the enemy. The Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich, who did not respond to the call of the Ryazan prince to jointly oppose Batu Khan, himself was in danger. But he made good use of the time that passed between the attacks on Ryazan and Vladimir (about a month). He managed to concentrate a rather significant army on the proposed path of Batu. The city of Kolomna became the place where the Vladimir regiments gathered to repulse the Mongol-Tatars. In terms of the number of troops and the stubbornness of the battle, the battle near Kolomna can be considered one of the most significant events of the invasion. But they were defeated, thanks to the numerical superiority of the Mongol-Tatars. Having defeated the army and defeated the city, Batu went along the Moscow River to Moscow. Moscow held back the invaders' attacks for five days. The city was burned and almost all the inhabitants were killed. After that, the nomads went to Vladimir. On the way from Ryazan to Vladimir, the conquerors had to storm every city, repeatedly fight with Russian warriors in the "open field"; defend against sudden attacks from ambushes. The heroic resistance of the common Russian people held back the conquerors. On February 4, 1238, the siege of Vladimir began. Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich left part of the troops for the defense of the city, and on the other hand went to the north to collect an army. The defense of the city was led by his sons Vsevolod and Mstislav. But before that, the conquerors stormed Suzdal (30 km from Vladimir), and without much difficulty. Vladimir fell after a hard battle, causing great damage to the conqueror. The last inhabitants were burned in the Stone Cathedral. Vladimir was the last city of North-Eastern Rus', which was besieged by the combined forces of Batu Khan. The Mongol-Tatars had to make a decision so that three tasks were completed at once: cut off Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich from Novgorod, defeat the remnants of the Vladimir forces and go along all river and trade routes, destroying cities - centers of resistance. The troops of Batu were divided into three parts: to the north to Rostov and further to the Volga, to the east - to the middle Volga, to the north-west to Tver and Torzhok. Rostov surrendered without a fight, as did Uglich. As a result of the February campaigns of 1238, the Mongol-Tatars destroyed the Russian cities in the territory from the Middle Volga to Tver, only fourteen cities.

The defense of Kozelsk lasted seven weeks. Even when the Tatars broke into the city, the Kozeltsy continued to fight. They went to the invaders with knives, axes, clubs, strangled with their bare hands. Batu lost about 4 thousand soldiers. The Tatars called Kozelsk an evil city. By order of Batu, all the inhabitants of the city, down to the last baby, were destroyed, and the city was destroyed to the ground.

Batu led his heavily battered and thinned army beyond the Volga. In 1239 he resumed his campaign against Rus'. One detachment of Tatars went up the Volga, devastated the Mordovian land, the cities of Murom and Gorokhovets. Batu himself with the main forces went to the Dnieper. Bloody battles between Russians and Tatars took place everywhere. After heavy fighting, the Tatars ravaged Pereyaslavl, Chernigov and other cities. In the autumn of 1240, the Tatar hordes approached Kyiv. Batu was struck by the beauty and grandeur of the ancient Russian capital. He wanted to take Kyiv without a fight. But the people of Kiev decided to fight to the death. Prince Michael of Kiev left for Hungary. The defense of Kyiv was led by voivode Dmitry. All the inhabitants rose to the defense of their native city. Craftsmen forged weapons, sharpened axes and knives. All able to wield weapons stood on the city walls. Children and women brought them arrows, stones, ashes, sand, boiled water, and boiled resin.

December 19, 1237 - 770 years ago, the invasion of Batu Khan's troops into Rus' began

Ryazan was the first to stand in the way of the conqueror. The city courageously defended itself, however, without waiting for help, it fell on the seventh day and was practically wiped off the face of the earth.

After the death of Vladimir Monomakh, an intensive process of disintegration of the great Kievan state began. Southern Rus' was tormented by endless princely strife, in which the Polovtsian nomads actively participated as allies. Novgorod land increasingly distanced itself from distant Kyiv as a self-sufficient and independent state. And finally, the Rostov-Suzdal Principality grew out of the Slavic-Finnish wilds as an independent and ambitious force, when the son of Vladimir Monomakh, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, became its ruler. Few people know today that he was the Grand Duke of Kyiv, but he is known to the whole world for the fact that a small town of Moscow appeared on the distant outskirts of his Rostov-Suzdal fiefdom ...

In the twelfth century, the feudal fragmentation of the Russian land marked the beginning of its division into Great, Little and White Rus', which finally became a geopolitical reality only in the 20th century. The first historical collision that initiated this process was the so-called. "Tatar yoke". In the historical fate of Russia, the yoke was destined to play a key role. Questions about its origin, character and significance in the process of formation of Great Russian statehood help us to understand today who we are, where we come from and where we are going...

In the second half of the XII century, Rus', like the entire Christian world, did not know that far in the East there was a "redistribution of the world." The mighty and brave people - the Mongols, united under the rule of the great leader Genghis Khan, rushed to conquer the world, involving many peoples and tribes in their expansion Great Steppe. The most active and widely settled people among them were the Tatars. By their name, the steppe invasion of Rus' received its historical name - Tatar. It so happened that the Russians got to know him when it had not yet begun. This was in 1223. In the Mongol movement to the West, the flank of the Tatars touched the southern neighbors of Rus' - the Polovtsians. Those have long been "their", "home" nomads for the Russian people, and as "their" the South Russian princes decided to help them, stood with them against the Tatar-Mongols on the Kalka River - and suffered a catastrophic defeat. But the princes did not learn a lesson from this defeat. Carried away by their internecine strife, they did not seem to notice that a cloud hung over the Russian land, threatening to collapse with an invasion ...

By that time, Genghis Khan had created an empire that extended from the Pacific Ocean to the Volga. In 1224, shortly before his death, he divided it among the closest heirs, to whom he bequeathed to conquer the whole world to the Mongols. The task of expanding the empire to the west was entrusted to the son of Jochi - Batu (Batu), the eldest grandson of Genghis Khan.

Genghis Khan subordinated the tribal organization and daily life of the tribes subject to him to military necessity. Nomadic places for each family were strictly regulated. The place of each warrior was also strictly determined - both in civilian life, and in a campaign, and in battle. To serve the army was the duty of everyone, including the elderly, women and children. Victory in battles was invariably brought to the Mongols by the crushing pressure of horse lava, which was repeatedly strengthened by iron discipline and the organization of combat borrowed from conquered China. The actions of the cavalry masses in battle were directed by drums and flags, the traffic controllers signaled with flags on the field, and the army acted like a well-oiled mechanism. China adopted and mastered complex siege equipment.

And yet, the main "weapon of victory" of the Mongol invasion, as well as a thousand years before Genghis Khan, was an ordinary steppe warrior, a nomad cattle breeder, devoted with all his being to his family, clan and commanders, whom the great khan placed over him. The warrior perfectly owned a curved saber, hit a target with a bow at a gallop, was unpretentious in a campaign and fearless in battle. To match the warrior, a rider from an early age, was his undersized steppe horse. Unprepossessing in appearance, she was quick-footed and extremely hardy. Each warrior led several of these horses on a campaign.

In the autumn of 1237, the invading army of Batu Khan concentrated on the eastern borders of the Russian land. The first Russian principality on his way was the principality of Ryazan. The people of Ryazan asked for help from the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri, the princes of Chernigov ... In vain. The Mongols usually did not enter into negotiations: they simply demanded to lay down their arms under the threat of death. The Ryazans, who did not want to surrender, were immediately defeated in open battle, after which they shut themselves up in the city. The city was taken by storm and plundered to the ground. The princely family and many thousands of Ryazan citizens and residents of the surrounding villages perished. Batu's army continued its journey to the West, but suddenly a detachment of surviving Ryazan soldiers appeared in its rear. Hitting the rear of the invaders, they inflicted big damage and all died heroic deaths. Their leader, the boyar Yevpaty Kolovrat, also perished. The story about this has come down to us in the "Tale of the Invasion of Batu". The same legend described the death of Princess Evpraksia, who, at the news of the death of her beloved husband and his troops, threw herself from a high tower to the ground and killed herself to death ...

Further on the path of Batu was the capital of northeastern Rus' - Vladimir-on-Klyazma. The city, which rivaled Kiev in wealth and beauty, was taken by storm and burned, and the entire grand-ducal family perished. The Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich himself, who at the head of the army met Batu on the banks of the City River, suffered a crushing defeat and died. Northeastern Rus' was conquered. It was winter. It was difficult for the conquerors and deadly for the population that fell under their rule. The Russian people who survived were taken away from food supplies, and fodder, and livestock, dooming them to starvation. Along the route of the Tatar-Mongolian army, the region became depopulated.

There were no troops or fortified cities on Batu's way to Novgorod, but dense forests and rivers that overflowed in the spring made the campaign against Novgorod impossible, and Batu led his army back to the Volga steppes. In the rear, the ruined and, it seemed, conquered northeastern Rus' remained, but suddenly Batu's army met the small town of Kozelsk, whose resistance forced the invaders to linger for seven weeks. The inhabitants of Kozelsk decided: "Although our prince is young, let us lay down our lives for him, and here we will receive glory, and there we will receive heavenly crowns from Christ God." Everyone fought to the last - from young to old, made desperate sorties in which they destroyed siege engines. The invaders killed everyone - even those who could not resist, down to babies. They called Kozelsk "an evil city".

The invasion of Batu into Rus' in 1237-1238. had all the signs of a raid. It was thought that it was similar to the Polovtsian raids on southern Rus' and differed from them only on a larger scale, but this was a delusion. Batu really did not seek to seize and occupy Russian lands: his goal was to make the Russian princes his vassals and build the robbery of Rus' into a system that works "on a permanent basis."

Intending to conquer the Russian principalities, Batu acted for sure, despite the fact that his army was by no means overwhelming in numbers. It numbered not hundreds, but tens of thousands, and the Russian forces were quite comparable in number to it, but they were poorly organized and fragmented. Batu had a superbly organized and monolithic army. Even if the united Russian princes had defeated Batu, they would not have been able to defend the independence of Rus' under those conditions. Behind Batu were colossal reserves.

In 1238-1239. The horde rested, replenished its ranks with the conquered Polovtsians and again rushed to Rus'. This time the goal was Kyiv, Chernihiv, Galich, Volyn. Mongolian horse lava, sweeping away everything, raced through the southern Russian steppes. Kyiv fell, holding out for almost three months, was completely plundered and destroyed. Southern Rus' was turned into a desert. The surviving residents fled to the less affected regions of North-Eastern Rus' and even further, to the Novgorod lands. In 1241, the Mongols passed through Hungary, reached Croatia and Dalmatia and reached the Adriatic Sea. The other wing of the invasion made its way through Poland, and at the turn of Western Europe was stopped by the Germans and Czechs; then Batu received news of the death of the great Khan Ogedei and hurried to his native steppes. Its reverse movement swept in a devastating whirlwind through Serbia, Bosnia and Bulgaria. Batu's raid on central Europe ended in 1242.

The power of Batu Khan, called the Golden Horde, stretched from the Ural River to the lower reaches of the Danube. The conquered Russian lands became part of it. Within the limits of North-Eastern Rus', the Tatar yoke was carried out through heavy tribute, tough vassal duties of Russian princes and punitive expeditions. The Russian princes retained power over their lands as servants and tributaries of the khan. This yoke differed from the Turkish yoke established a century and a half later in the countries of South-Eastern Europe, primarily by the absence of direct occupation. The conquerors did not live on the lands of the conquered people. Russian people who lived under the yoke usually did not meet a Tatar in their entire life. Only rare merchants who came to the Horde came into contact with the conquerors. The situation on the territory of Southern Rus' was different. Its depopulated steppes occupied for a long time the Tatar-Mongolian and Polovtsian nomad camps with numerous Slavic slaves...

Being in the mass pagans, the Mongol conquerors were afraid of the wrath of alien spirits and gods and did not offend the faith of the peoples they conquered. They treated the Russian faith with special respect. Among the Mongolian nobility were Nestorian Christians. There were especially many of them among the Uighurs, who, as carriers of Chinese education, occupied a high position in the civil administration of the empire of Genghis Khan. The first century of the Tatar yoke, the most difficult for Rus', became a century of strengthening the authority of the Church and the power of the great princes. Under the strict protectorate of the Horde, the Church and the Grand Duke could strengthen the unity of Rus' and "for the sake of the Horde" build Russian statehood. The iconic figure of this period of Russian history was Prince Alexander Nevsky. The military leader who stopped the German invasion in the Russian north-west, he was called upon to decide the question of the historical fate of the Russian people - whether they should die as the vanguard of Europe, fighting the Asian East, or recognize its power for the sake of preserving faith and national identity. Time has shown that the choice he made was the only right one. This great man under the yoke of the Horde marked the path of development Russian statehood, and the Moscow state built by his descendants became the cradle of Great Russia.

XIV. MONGOLO-TATARS. – GOLDEN HORDE

(continuation)

Growth of the Mongol-Tatar Empire. - Campaign of Batu to Eastern Europe. - The military structure of the Tatars. - Invasion of the Ryazan land. - The ruin of the Suzdal land and the capital city. - Defeat and death of Yuri II. - The reverse movement to the steppe and the ruin of Southern Rus'. - The fall of Kyiv. – A trip to Poland and Hungary.

For the invasion of the Tatars into Northern Rus', the Lavrentiev (Suzdal) and Novgorod chronicles serve, and for the invasion of the South - Ipatiev (Volyn). The latter is told very inconsequentially; so that we have the scariest news about the actions of the Tatars in the Kyiv, Volyn and Galician lands. We meet some details in the later vaults, Voskresensky, Tver and Nikonovsky. In addition, there was a special legend about Batu's invasion of the Ryazan land; but printed in Vremennik Ob. I. and Dr. No. 15. (About him, in general about the ruin of the Ryazan land, see my "History of the Ryazan principality", chapter IV.) Rashid Eddin's news about Batu's campaigns was translated by Berezin and supplemented with notes (Journal M.N. Pr. 1855. No. 5 ). G. Berezin also developed the idea of ​​the Tatar method of operating in a round-up.

For the Tatar invasion of Poland and Hungary, see the Polish-Latin chronicles of Bogufal and Dlugosh. Ropel Geschichte Polens. I.Th. Palatsky D jiny narodu c "eskeho I. His own Einfal der Mongolen. Prag. 1842. Mailat Ceschichte der Magyaren. I. Hammer-Purgsthal Geschichte der Goldenen Horde. Wolf in his Geschichte der Mongolen oder Tataren, by the way (ch. VI) , critically reviews the stories of these historians about the invasion of the Mongols; in particular, he tries to refute the presentation of Palacky in relation to the mode of action of the Czech king Wenzel, as well as in relation to the well-known legend about the victory of Yaroslav Sternberk over the Tatars near Olomouc.

Mongol-Tatar Empire after Genghis Khan

Meanwhile, from the east, from Asia, a menacing cloud moved in. Genghis Khan appointed Kipchak and the entire side to the north and west of the Aral-Caspian to his eldest son Jochi, who was supposed to complete the conquest of this side, begun by Jebe and Subudai. But the attention of the Mongols was still diverted by the stubborn struggle in the east of Asia with two strong kingdoms: the Niuchi empire and the Tangut state neighboring with it. These wars delayed the defeat of Eastern Europe by more than ten years. Besides, Jochi is dead; and Temuchin [Genghis Khan] himself (1227) soon followed him, having managed to personally destroy the kingdom of Tangut before his death. Three sons survived after him: Jagatai, Ogodai and Tului. He appointed Ogodai as his successor, or supreme khan, as the most intelligent among the brothers; Jagatai was given Bukharia and eastern Turkestan, Tuluy - Iran and Persia; and Kipchak was to come into the possession of the sons of Jochi. Temujin bequeathed to his descendants to continue the conquests and even outlined a general plan of action for them. The great kurultai, assembled in his homeland, that is, on the banks of the Kerulen, confirmed his orders. Ogodai, who had commanded the Chinese War even under his father, tirelessly continued this war until he completely destroyed the Niuchi empire and established his dominion there (1234). Only then did he pay attention to other countries and, among other things, began to prepare a great campaign against Eastern Europe.

During this time, the Tatar temniki, who commanded in the Caspian countries, did not remain inactive; but they tried to keep in subjection the nomads conquered by Jebe Subudai. In 1228, according to the Russian chronicle, “from below” (from the Volga) the Saksins (a tribe unknown to us) and the Polovtsy, pressed by the Tatars, ran to the Bulgarians; Bulgarian guard detachments, defeated by them, also came running from the country of Priyaitskaya. Around the same time, in all likelihood, the Bashkirs, tribesmen of the Ugric peoples, were conquered. Three years later, the Tatars undertook an exploratory campaign deep into Kama Bulgaria and wintered in it somewhere before reaching the Great City. The Polovtsy, for their part, apparently used the circumstances to defend their independence with weapons. At least their chief khan Kotyan subsequently, when he sought refuge in Ugria, told the Ugric king that he had defeated the Tatars twice.

The beginning of the Batu invasion

Having finished with the empire of Niuchey, Ogodai moved the main forces of the Mongol-Tatars to conquer South China, North India and the rest of Iran; and for the conquest of Eastern Europe he separated 300,000, the command over which he handed over to his young nephew Batu, the son of Dzhuchiev, who had already distinguished himself in the Asian wars. His uncle appointed the well-known Subudai-Bagadur as his leader, who, after the Kalka victory, together with Ogodai, completed the conquest of Northern China. The Great Khan gave Batu and other experienced commanders, including Burundai. Many young Genghisids also took part in this campaign, among other things, the son of Ogodai Gayuk and the son of Tului Mengu, the future successors of the great khan. From the upper reaches of the Irtysh, the horde moved to the west, along the nomad camps of various Turkish hordes, gradually annexing significant parts of them; so that it crossed the Yaik River in the amount of half a million warriors at least. One of the Muslim historians, speaking of this campaign, adds: "From the multitude of warriors the earth groaned; from the bulk of the troops went mad wild animals and night birds. "It was no longer the elite cavalry that made the first raid and fought on the Kalka; now a huge horde was slowly moving with its families, wagons and herds. She constantly migrated, stopping where she found sufficient pastures for her horses and other livestock Having entered the Volga steppes, Batu himself continued to move to the lands of the Mordva and Polovtsy, and to the north he separated part of the troops from Subudai-Bagadur to conquer Kama Bulgaria, which the latter accomplished in the autumn of 1236. This conquest, according to Tatar custom, was accompanied by a terrible devastation of the land and beating the inhabitants; by the way, the Great City was taken and put to the flames.

Khan Baty. Chinese drawing from the 14th century

By all indications, the movement of Batu was carried out according to a premeditated method of action, based on preliminary intelligence about those lands and peoples that it was decided to conquer. At least this can be said about the winter campaign in Northern Rus'. Obviously, the Tatar military leaders already had accurate information about what time of the year is most favorable for military operations in this wooded side, replete with rivers and swamps; in the midst of them the movement of the Tatar cavalry would be very difficult at any other time, except in winter, when all the waters are frozen in ice, strong enough to endure horse hordes.

Military organization of the Mongol-Tatars

Only the invention of European firearms and the organization of large standing armies made a revolution in the attitude of the settled and agricultural peoples to the nomadic, pastoral peoples. Before this invention, the advantage in the struggle was often on the side of the latter; which is very natural. Nomadic hordes are almost always on the move; parts of them always more or less stick together and act as a dense mass. Nomads have no distinction in occupations and habits; they are all warriors. If the will of the energetic Khan or circumstances combined a large number of hordes into one mass and rushed them to settled neighbors, then it was difficult for the latter to successfully resist the destructive desire, especially where nature was of a flat character. The agricultural people scattered throughout their country, accustomed to peaceful pursuits, could not soon gather into a large militia; and even this militia, if it managed to advance in time, was far inferior to its opponents in speed of movement, in the habit of owning weapons, in the ability to act in unison and onslaught, in military experience and resourcefulness, as well as in a warlike spirit.

All these qualities were possessed to a high degree by the Mongol-Tatars when they came to Europe. Temujin [Genghis Khan] gave them the main instrument of conquest: the unity of power and will. While the nomadic peoples are divided into special hordes, or clans, the power of their khans has, of course, the patriarchal nature of the ancestor and is far from unlimited. But when, by force of arms, one person subjugates entire tribes and peoples, then, naturally, it rises to a height inaccessible to a mere mortal. The old customs still live among this people and, as it were, limit the power of the supreme khan; the guardians of such customs among the Mongols are kurultai and noble influential families; but in the hands of the cunning, energetic khan, many means are already concentrated to become an unlimited despot. Having communicated unity to the nomadic hordes, Temujin further strengthened their power by introducing a monotonous and well-adapted military organization. The troops deployed by these hordes were arranged on the basis of a strictly decimal division. Dozens united into hundreds, the last into thousands, with foremen, centurions and thousanders at the head. Ten thousand made up the largest department called "fog" and were under the command of the temnik. Strict military discipline took the place of the former more or less free relations with the leaders. Disobedience or premature removal from the battlefield was punishable by death. In case of indignation, not only its participants were executed, but their entire family was condemned to extermination. Although Temuchin published the so-called Yasa (a kind of code of laws), although it was based on old Mongolian customs, it significantly increased their severity in relation to various actions and was truly draconian or bloody in nature.

The uninterrupted and long series of wars started by Temujin developed among the Mongols remarkable strategic and tactical methods for that time, i.e. general art of war. Where the terrain and circumstances did not interfere, the Mongols acted in enemy land in a round-up, in which they are especially familiar; since in this way the khan's hunt for wild animals usually took place. The hordes were divided into parts, went in girth and then approached the pre-designated main point, devastating the country with fire and sword, taking captives and all booty. Thanks to their steppe, undersized, but strong horses, the Mongols could make unusually fast and large transitions without rest, without stopping. Their horses were hardened and trained to endure hunger and thirst just like their riders. Moreover, the latter usually had several spare horses with them on campaigns, on which they transplanted as needed. Their enemies were often struck by the appearance of barbarians at a time when they considered them still at a far distance from themselves. Thanks to such cavalry, the reconnaissance unit of the Mongols was at a remarkable level of development. Any movement of the main forces was preceded by small detachments scattered in front and from the sides, as if in a fan; observation detachments also followed behind; so that the main forces were secured against any accident and surprise.

Regarding weapons, the Mongols, although they had spears and curved sabers, were predominantly archers (some sources, for example, Armenian chroniclers, call them "the people of archers"); they acted with such force and skill from a bow that their long arrows, equipped with an iron tip, pierced hard shells. As a rule, the Mongols first tried to weaken and upset the enemy with a cloud of arrows, and then they rushed at him hand-to-hand. If at the same time they met a courageous rebuff, then they turned into a feigned flight; as soon as the enemy started to pursue them and thus upset his battle formation, they deftly turned their horses and again made a friendly onslaught from as far as possible from all sides. Their closure consisted of shields woven from reeds and covered with leather, helmets and shells, also made of thick leather, while others were covered with iron scales. In addition, wars with more educated and wealthy peoples delivered to them a considerable amount of iron chain mail, helmets and all kinds of weapons, in which their governors and noble people put on. The tails of horses and wild buffalo fluttered on the banners of their chiefs. The chiefs usually did not enter the battle themselves and did not risk their lives (which could cause confusion), but directed the battle, being somewhere on a hill, surrounded by their neighbors, servants and wives, of course, all on horseback.

The nomadic cavalry, having a decisive advantage over the settled peoples in the open field, met, however, an important obstacle for itself in the form of well-fortified cities. But the Mongols were already accustomed to cope with this obstacle, having learned the art of taking cities in the Chinese and Khovarezm empires. They also got wall-beating machines. They surrounded the usually besieged city with a rampart; and where there was a forest at hand, they fenced it with a fence, thus stopping the very possibility of communication between the city and its surroundings. Then they set up wall-beating machines, from which they threw large stones and logs, and sometimes incendiary substances; thus they produced fire and destruction in the city; they showered the defenders with a cloud of arrows or put up ladders and climbed the walls. In order to tire the garrison, they carried out attacks continuously day and night, for which fresh detachments constantly alternated with each other. If the barbarians learned to take large Asian cities, fortified with stone and clay walls, the easier they could destroy or burn the wooden walls of Russian cities. Crossing over big rivers did not particularly hamper the Mongols. For this, large leather bags served them; they were tightly stuffed with a dress and other light things, tightly pulled together and, tied to the tail of the horses, were thus transported. One Persian historian of the 13th century, describing the Mongols, says: "They had the courage of a lion, the patience of a dog, the foresight of a crane, the cunning of a fox, the farsightedness of a crow, the rapacity of a wolf, the fighting heat of a rooster, the guardianship of a hen about its neighbors, the sensitivity of a cat and the violence of a boar when attacked" .

Rus' before the Mongol-Tatar invasion

What could the ancient fragmented Rus' oppose to this huge concentrated force?

The fight against nomads of Turkish-Tatar roots was already a common thing for her. After the first onslaughts of both the Pechenegs and the Polovtsy, the fragmented Rus' then gradually got used to these enemies and gained the upper hand over them. However, she did not have time to throw them back to Asia or to subdue herself and return her former limits; although these nomads were also fragmented and also did not obey one authority, one will. What was the inequality in forces with the now approaching formidable Mongol-Tatar cloud!

In military courage and combat courage, the Russian squads, of course, were not inferior to the Mongol-Tatars; and in bodily strength they were undoubtedly superior. Moreover, Rus', no doubt, was better armed; its full armament of that time was not much different from the armament of the German and Western European in general. Between neighbors, she was even famous for her fight. So, regarding the campaign of Daniil Romanovich to help Konrad Mazovetsky against Vladislav the Old in 1229, the Volyn chronicler notes that Konrad "loved the Russian battle" and relied on Russian help more than on his Poles. But the princely squads, which constituted the military estate of Ancient Rus', were too few in number to repulse new enemies now pressing from the east; and the common people, if necessary, were recruited into the militia directly from the plow or from their crafts, and although they were distinguished by their stamina, common to the entire Russian tribe, they did not have great skill in wielding weapons or making friendly, quick movements. One can, of course, blame our old princes for not understanding all the danger and all the disasters that threatened then from new enemies, and for not joining their forces for a united rebuff. But, on the other hand, we must not forget that where there was a long period of all sorts of disunity, rivalry and the development of regional isolation, there no human will, no genius could bring about a quick unification and concentration of people's forces. Such blessing comes only through the long and constant efforts of entire generations under circumstances that awaken in the people the consciousness of their national unity and the desire for their concentration. Ancient Rus' did what was in its means and methods. Every land, almost every significant city, met the barbarians courageously and defended itself desperately, with hardly any hope of victory. It couldn't be otherwise. A great historical people does not yield to an external enemy without courageous resistance, even under the most unfavorable circumstances.

The invasion of the Mongol-Tatars in the Ryazan principality

At the beginning of the winter of 1237, the Tatars passed through the Mordovian forests and encamped on the banks of some river Onuza. From here, Batu sent to the Ryazan princes, according to the chronicle, "a sorceress wife" (probably a shaman) and with her two husbands, who demanded from the princes part of their estate in people and horses.

The senior prince, Yuri Igorevich, hastened to convene his relatives, the specific princes of Ryazan, Pronsk and Murom, to the diet. In the first burst of courage, the princes decided to defend themselves, and gave a noble answer to the ambassadors: "When we do not stay alive, then everything will be yours." From Ryazan, the Tatar ambassadors went to Vladimir with the same demands. Seeing that the Ryazan forces were too insignificant to fight the Mongols, Yuri Igorevich ordered this: he sent one of his nephews to the Grand Duke of Vladimir with a request to unite against common enemies; and sent another with the same request to Chernigov. Then the united Ryazan militia moved to the banks of Voronezh towards the enemy; but avoided the battle in anticipation of help. Yuri tried to resort to negotiations and sent his only son Theodore at the head of a solemn embassy to Batu with gifts and with a plea not to fight the Ryazan land. All these orders were unsuccessful. Theodore died in the Tatar camp: according to legend, he refused Batu's demand to bring him his beautiful wife Eupraxia and was killed on his orders. Help didn't come from anywhere. The princes of Chernigov-Seversky refused to come on the grounds that the Ryazan princes were not on the Kalka when they were also asked for help; probably, the people of Chernigov thought that the storm would not reach them, or that it was still very far from them. But the sluggish Yuri Vsevolodovich Vladimirsky hesitated and was also late with his help, as in the Kalki massacre. Seeing the impossibility of fighting the Tatars in the open field, the Ryazan princes hastened to retreat and took refuge with their squads behind the fortifications of the cities.

Following them, hordes of barbarians poured into the Ryazan land, and, according to their custom, engulfing it in a wide roundup, began to burn, destroy, rob, beat, capture, and desecrate women. There is no need to describe all the horrors of ruin. Suffice it to say that many villages and cities were completely wiped off the face of the earth; some famous names they are no longer found in history after that. By the way, after a century and a half, travelers sailing along the upper reaches of the Don, on its hilly banks, saw only ruins and deserted places where once flourishing cities and villages stood. The devastation of the Ryazan land was carried out with particular ferocity and ruthlessness, also because it was the first Russian region in this respect: the barbarians appeared in it, full of wild, unbridled energy, not yet satiated with Russian blood, not tired of destruction, not reduced in number. after countless battles. On December 16, the Tatars surrounded the capital city of Ryazan and surrounded it with a fence. The retinue and citizens, encouraged by the prince, repulsed the attacks for five days. They stood on the walls, not changing and not letting go of their weapons; finally they began to fail, while the enemy constantly acted with fresh forces. On the sixth day the Tatars made a general attack; threw fire on the roofs, smashed the walls with logs from their battering rams, and finally broke into the city. The usual beating of the inhabitants followed. Yuri Igorevich was among those killed. His wife and her relatives searched in vain for salvation in the cathedral church of Borisoglebsk. What could not be plundered became a victim of the flames. Ryazan legends adorn the stories of these disasters with some poetic details. So, Princess Evpraksia, having heard about the death of her husband Feodor Yuryevich, rushed from the high tower together with her little son to the ground and killed herself to death. And one of the Ryazan boyars named Evpatiy Kolovrat was on Chernigov land when the news of the Tatar pogrom came to him. He hurries to the fatherland, sees the ashes of his native city and is ignited by a thirst for revenge. Having gathered 1700 warriors, Evpaty attacks the rear detachments of the Tatars, overthrows their hero Tavrul, and finally, crushed by the crowd, dies with all his comrades. Batu and his soldiers are surprised at the extraordinary courage of the Ryazan knight. (With such stories, of course, the people consoled themselves in past disasters and defeats.) But next to examples of valor and love for the motherland, there were examples of treason and cowardice among the Ryazan boyars. The same legends point to a boyar who betrayed his homeland and turned himself over to his enemies. In each country, the Tatar military leaders were able, first of all, to find traitors; especially those were among the people captured, frightened by threats or seduced by caresses. From noble and ignoble traitors, the Tatars learned everything they needed about the state of the land, about its weaknesses, properties of rulers, etc. These traitors also served as the best guides for the barbarians when moving in countries hitherto unknown to them.

Tatar invasion of Suzdal

The capture of Vladimir by the Mongol-Tatars. Russian chronicle miniature

From the Ryazan land, the barbarians moved to Suzdal, again in the same murderous order, enveloping this land in a round-up. Their main forces took the usual Suzdal-Ryazan route to Kolomna and Moscow. Only then did the Suzdal army meet them, going to the aid of the Ryazan people, under the command of the young prince Vsevolod Yuryevich and the old governor Yeremey Glebovich. Near Kolomna, the Grand Duke's army was utterly defeated; Vsevolod fled with the remnants of the Vladimir squad; and Yeremey Glebovich fell in battle. Kolomna was taken and destroyed. Then the barbarians burned Moscow, the first Suzdal city from this side. Another son of the Grand Duke, Vladimir, and the governor Philip Nyanka were in charge here. The latter also fell in battle, and the young prince was captured. With what speed the barbarians acted during their invasion, with the same slowness military gatherings took place in Northern Rus' at that time. At modern weapons Yuri Vsevolodovich could have put into the field all the forces of Suzdal and Novgorod in conjunction with Muromo-Ryazan. There would be enough time for these preparations. For more than a year, fugitives from Kama Bulgaria found refuge with him, who brought news of the devastation of their land and the movement of terrible Tatar hordes. But instead of modern preparations, we see that the barbarians were already moving to the capital itself, when Yuri, having lost the best part troops, broken in parts, went further north to collect the Zemstvo army and call for help from the brothers. In the capital, the Grand Duke left his sons, Vsevolod and Mstislav, with the governor Peter Oslyadyukovich; and he left with a small squad. On the way, he attached to himself three nephews of Konstantinovich, the specific princes of Rostov, with their militia. With the army that he managed to gather, Yuri settled down behind the Volga almost on the border of his possessions, on the banks of the City, the right tributary of the Mologa, where he began to wait for his brothers, Svyatoslav Yuryevsky and Yaroslav Pereyaslavsky. The first actually managed to come to him; and the second did not appear; Yes, he could hardly have appeared on time: we know that at that time he occupied the great Kiev table.

In early February, the main Tatar army surrounded capital Vladimir. A crowd of barbarians approached the Golden Gate; the citizens met them with arrows. "Do not shoot!" shouted the Tatars. Several horsemen rode up to the very gates with a prisoner, and asked: "Do you recognize your prince Vladimir?" Vsevolod and Mstislav, who were standing on the Golden Gate, together with those around them, immediately recognized their brother, captured in Moscow, and were stricken with grief at the sight of his pale, dejected face. They were eager to free him, and only the old governor Pyotr Oslyadyukovich kept them from a useless desperate sortie. Having placed their main camp against the Golden Gate, the barbarians cut down trees in the neighboring groves and surrounded the whole city with a fence; then they installed their "vices", or wall-beating machines, and began to smash the fortifications. The princes, princesses and some boyars, no longer hoping for salvation, accepted monastic vows from Bishop Mitrofan and prepared for death. On February 8, the day of the martyr Theodore Stratilates, the Tatars made a decisive attack. According to a sign, or brushwood thrown into the ditch, they climbed the city rampart at the Golden Gate and entered the new, or outer, city. At the same time, from the side of Lybid, they broke into it through the Copper and Irininsky gates, and from the Klyazma through the Volga. The outer city was taken and set on fire. Princes Vsevolod and Mstislav with a retinue retired to the Cave City, i.e. to the Kremlin. And Bishop Mitrofan with the Grand Duchess, her daughters, daughters-in-law, grandchildren and many boyars locked themselves in the cathedral church of the Mother of God on the shelves, or choirs. When the remnants of the squad with both princes died and the Kremlin was taken, the Tatars broke down the doors of the cathedral church, plundered it, took away expensive vessels, crosses, robes on icons, salaries on books; then they dragged wood into the church and near the church, and set it on fire. The bishop and the entire princely family, who had hidden in the choir stalls, perished in smoke and flames. Other temples and monasteries in Vladimir were also looted and partly burned; many residents were beaten.

Already during the siege of Vladimir, the Tatars took and burned Suzdal. Then their detachments scattered across the Suzdal land. Some went north, took Yaroslavl and captivated the Volga region to the very Galich Mersky; others plundered Yuriev, Dmitrov, Pereyaslavl, Rostov, Volokolamsk, Tver; during February, up to 14 cities were taken, in addition to many "settlements and graveyards".

Battle of the River City

Meanwhile, Georgy [Yuri] Vsevolodovich was still standing in the City and waiting for his brother Yaroslav. Then terrible news came to him about the ruin of the capital and the death of the princely family, about the capture of other cities and the approach of the Tatar hordes. He sent a detachment of three thousand men for reconnaissance. But the scouts soon ran back with the news that the Tatars were already bypassing the Russian army. As soon as the Grand Duke, his brothers Ivan and Svyatoslav and nephews mounted their horses and began to organize regiments, the Tatars, led by Burundai, hit Rus' from different sides, on March 4, 1238. The battle was cruel; but the majority of the Russian army, recruited from farmers and artisans unaccustomed to battle, soon mixed up and fled. Here Georgy Vsevolodovich himself fell; his brothers fled, and his nephews also, with the exception of the eldest, Vasilko Konstantinovich of Rostov. He was taken prisoner. Tatar military leaders persuaded him to accept their customs and fight the Russian land along with them. The prince firmly refused to be a traitor. The Tatars killed him and left him in some Sherensky forest, near which they temporarily encamped. On this occasion, the northern chronicler showers praises on Vasilko; says that he was handsome in face, smart, courageous and very kind-hearted ("light in heart"). “Whoever served him, ate his bread and drank his cup, could no longer be in the service of another prince,” adds the chronicler. Bishop Kirill of Rostov, who escaped during the invasion to the remote city of his diocese, Belozersk, on his return, found the body of the Grand Duke, deprived of his head; then he took the body of Vasilko, brought it to Rostov and laid it in the cathedral church of the Virgin. Subsequently, the head of George was also found and placed in his coffin.

Batu's movement towards Novgorod

While one part of the Tatars moved to the Sit against the Grand Duke, the other reached the Novgorod suburb of Torzhok and laid siege to it. The citizens, led by their posadnik Ivank, courageously defended themselves; for a whole two weeks the barbarians shook the walls with their weapons and made constant attacks. In vain the innovators waited for help from Novgorod; at last they were exhausted; On March 5, the Tatars took the city and devastated it terribly. From here, their hordes moved on and went to Veliky Novgorod by the famous Seliger route, devastating the country to the right and left. They had already reached the "Ignach Cross" (Kresttsy?) and were only a hundred miles from Novgorod, when they suddenly turned south. This sudden retreat, however, was quite natural under the circumstances of the time. Having grown up on high planes and on the mountain plains of Central Asia, characterized by a harsh climate and inconstancy of weather, the Mongol-Tatars were accustomed to cold and snow and could quite easily endure the northern Russian winter. But accustomed also to a dry climate, they were afraid of dampness and soon fell ill from it; their horses, for all their hardiness, after the dry steppes of Asia, also had difficulty enduring swampy countries and wet food. Spring was approaching in Northern Russia with all its predecessors, i.e. snowmelt and flooding of rivers and swamps. Along with diseases and horse death, a terrible mudslide threatened; the hordes overtaken by her could find themselves in a very difficult position; the beginning of the thaw could clearly show them what awaited them. Perhaps they also found out about the preparations of the Novgorodians for a desperate defense; the siege could delay another few weeks. There is, in addition, an opinion, not devoid of the possibility that a round-up took place here, and Batu for lately found it inconvenient to make a new one.

Temporary retreat of the Mongol-Tatars to the Polovtsian steppe

During the return movement to the steppe, the Tatars devastated the eastern part of the Smolensk land and the Vyatichi region. Of the cities they devastated at the same time, the chronicles mention only one Kozelsk, because of its heroic defense. The specific prince here was one of the Chernigov Olgovichi, the young Vasily. His warriors, together with the citizens, decided to defend themselves to the last man and did not give in to any flattering persuasion of the barbarians.

Batu, according to the chronicle, stood under this city for seven weeks and lost many killed. Finally, the Tatars smashed the wall with their cars and broke into the city; and here the citizens continued to defend themselves desperately and cut themselves with knives until they were all beaten, and their young prince seemed to have drowned in blood. For such a defense, the Tatars, as usual, called Kozelsk "an evil city." Then Batu completed the enslavement of the Polovtsian hordes. Their chief khan Kotyan, with part of the people, retired to Hungary, and there he received land for settlement from King Bela IV, under the condition of baptism of the Polovtsians. Those who remained in the steppes were to unconditionally submit to the Mongols and increase their hordes. From the Polovtsian steppes, Batu sent detachments, on the one hand, to conquer the Azov and Caucasian countries, and on the other, to enslave Chernigov-Severskaya Rus. By the way, the Tatars took South Pereyaslavl, plundered and destroyed the cathedral church of Michael there and killed Bishop Simeon. Then they went to Chernigov. Mstislav Glebovich Rylsky, a cousin of Mikhail Vsevolodovich, came to the aid of the latter and courageously defended the city. The Tatars placed throwing weapons from the walls at a distance of one and a half flights of arrows and threw such stones that four people could hardly lift. Chernigov was taken, plundered and burned. Bishop Porfiry, who was captured, was left alive and set free. In the winter of the following year, 1239, Batu sent detachments to the north in order to complete the conquest of the Mordovian land. From here they went to the Murom region and burned Murom. Then they fought again on the Volga and Klyazma; on the first one they took Gorodets Radilov, and on the second - the city of Gorokhovets, which, as you know, was the property of the Assumption Vladimir Cathedral. This new invasion caused a terrible commotion throughout the entire Suzdal land. The survivors of the previous pogrom abandoned their houses and ran wherever their eyes looked; mostly fled to the forests.

Mongol-Tatar invasion of South Rus'

Having finished with the strongest part of Rus', i.e. with the great reign of Vladimir, having rested in the steppes and fattened their horses, the Tatars now turned to Southwestern, Zadneprovskaya Rus', and from here they decided to go further, to Hungary and Poland.

Already during the ruin of Pereyaslavl Russian and Chernigov, one of the Tatar detachments, led by Batu's cousin, Mengu Khan, approached Kiev in order to find out about its position and means of defense. Stopping on the left side of the Dnieper, in the town of Pesochny, Mengu, according to the legend of our chronicle, admired the beauty and grandeur of the ancient Russian capital, which picturesquely towered on the coastal hills, shining with white walls and gilded domes of its temples. The Mongol prince tried to persuade the citizens to surrender; but they did not want to hear about it and even killed the messengers. At that time, Mikhail Vsevolodovich Chernigovskiy owned Kiev. Although Mengu is gone; but there was no doubt that he would return with great strength. Mikhail did not consider it convenient for himself to wait for the Tatar thunderstorm, cowardly left Kyiv and retired to Ugria. Soon after, the capital city passed into the hands of Daniil Romanovich Volynsky and Galitsky. However, this famous prince, with all his courage and the vastness of his possessions, did not appear for the personal defense of Kyiv from the barbarians, but entrusted it to the thousandth Demetrius.

In the winter of 1240, an innumerable Tatar force crossed the Dnieper, surrounded Kyiv and fenced it in. Here was Batu himself with his brothers, relatives and cousins, as well as his best governors Subudai-Bagadur and Burundai. The Russian chronicler clearly depicts the vastness of the Tatar hordes, saying that the inhabitants of the city could not hear each other from the creak of their carts, the roar of camels and the neighing of horses. The Tatars focused their main attacks on that part that had the least strong position, i.e. on the western side, from which some jungle and almost flat fields adjoined the city. Wall-beating guns, especially concentrated against the Lyadsky Gate, beat the wall day and night until they made a breach. The most stubborn slaughter took place, "spear crowbar and shield skepanie"; clouds of arrows darkened the light. The enemies finally broke into the city. The people of Kiev, with a heroic, albeit hopeless defense, supported ancient glory capital city of Russia. They gathered around the Church of the Tithes of the Mother of God and then at night hastily fenced off with fortifications. The next day, this last stronghold also fell. Many citizens with families and property sought salvation in the choirs of the temple; the choirs could not bear the weight and collapsed. This capture of Kyiv took place on December 6, on Nikolin's very day. Desperate defense hardened the barbarians; sword and fire spared nothing; the inhabitants are mostly beaten up, and the majestic city has turned into one huge heap of ruins. Thousand Dimitry, captured wounded, Batu, however, left alive "for the sake of his courage."

Having devastated the Kyiv land, the Tatars moved to Volyn and Galicia, took and ruined many cities, including the capitals of Vladimir and Galich. Only some places, perfectly fortified by nature and people, they could not take in battle, for example, Kolodyazhen and Kremenets; but they still took possession of the first, persuading the inhabitants to surrender with flattering promises; and then treacherously beat them. During this invasion, part of the population of Southern Rus' fled to distant countries; many took refuge in caves, forests and wilds.

Among the owners of South-Western Rus' there were those who, at the very appearance of the Tatars, submitted to them in order to save their destinies from ruin. This is what the Bolohovskys did. It is curious that Batu spared their land on the condition that its inhabitants sow wheat and millet for the Tatar army. It is also remarkable that Southern Rus', compared with Northern Russia, offered much weaker resistance to the barbarians. In the north, the senior princes, Ryazan and Vladimir, having gathered the forces of their land, bravely entered into unequal struggle with the Tatars and died with weapons in their hands. And in the south, where the princes have long been famous for their military prowess, we see a different course of action. The senior princes, Mikhail Vsevolodovich, Daniil and Vasilko Romanovich, with the approach of the Tatars, leave their lands to seek refuge either in Ugria or in Poland. As if the princes of Southern Rus' only had the determination to fight back only at the first invasion of the Tatars, and the Battle of Kalka instilled such fear in them that its participants, then still young princes, and now older ones, are afraid of a new meeting with wild barbarians; they leave their cities to defend themselves alone and perish in an unbearable struggle. It is also remarkable that these senior South Russian princes continue their feuds and settlements for volosts at the very time when the barbarians are already advancing on their ancestral lands.

Tatar campaign in Poland

After South-Western Rus' came the turn of neighboring Western countries, Poland and Ugria [Hungary]. Already during his stay in Volhynia and Galicia, Batu, as usual, sent detachments to Poland and the Carpathians, wanting to explore the paths and position of those countries. According to the legend of our chronicle, the aforementioned governor Dimitry, in order to save South-Western Rus' from complete devastation, tried to speed up the further campaign of the Tatars and said to Batu: “Do not delay long in this land; it is already time for you to go to the Ugrians; and if you delay, then there they will have time to gather strength and will not let you into their lands." And without that, the Tatar leaders had the custom not only to obtain all the necessary information before the campaign, but also to prevent any concentration of large forces with quick, cunningly conceived movements.

The same Dimitry and other South Russian boyars could tell Batu a lot about the political state of their western neighbors, whom they often visited together with their princes, who were often related to both Polish and Ugric sovereigns. And this state was likened to fragmented Rus' and was very conducive to the successful invasion of the barbarians. In Italy and Germany at that time, the struggle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines was in full swing. On the throne of the Holy Roman Empire sat the famous grandson of Barbarossa, Frederick II. The aforementioned struggle completely diverted his attention, and in the very era of the Tatar invasion, he was diligently engaged in military operations in Italy against the supporters of Pope Gregory IX. Poland, being fragmented into specific principalities, just like Rus', could not act unanimously and present serious resistance to the impending horde. In this era, we see here the two oldest and most powerful princes, namely, Konrad of Mazovia and Henry the Pious, ruler of Lower Silesia. They were on hostile terms with each other; moreover, Conrad, already known for his short-sighted policy (especially for calling the Germans to defend his land from the Prussians), was the least capable of a friendly, energetic course of action. Henry the Pious was in a family relationship with the Czech king Wenceslas I and with the Ugric Bela IV. In view of the impending danger, he invited the Czech king joint forces meet enemies; but did not receive timely help from him. In the same way, Daniil Romanovich had long persuaded the Ugric king to unite with Russia to repulse the barbarians, and also unsuccessfully. The Kingdom of Hungary at that time was one of the most powerful and richest states in the whole of Europe; his possessions stretched from the Carpathians to the Adriatic Sea. The conquest of such a kingdom should have been especially attractive to the Tatar leaders. They say that even during his stay in Russia, Batu sent ambassadors to the Ugric king demanding tribute and obedience and with reproaches for accepting the Kotyan Polovtsy, whom the Tatars considered their fugitive slaves. But the arrogant Magyars either did not believe in the invasion of their land, or considered themselves strong enough to repel this invasion. With his own sluggish, inactive character, Bela IV was distracted by other inconveniences of his state, especially feuds with recalcitrant magnates. These latter, by the way, were dissatisfied with the establishment of the Polovtsy, who carried out robberies and violence, and did not even think of leaving their steppe habits.

At the end of 1240 and the beginning of 1241, the Tatar hordes left Southwestern Rus' and moved on. The campaign was maturely thought out and arranged. Batu himself led the main forces through the Carpathian passages directly to Hungary, which now constituted his immediate goal. On both sides, special armies were sent in advance to cover Ugria with a huge avalanche and cut off all help from its neighbors. By left hand In order to get around it from the south, the son of Ogodai Kadan and the governor Subudai-Bagadur went by different roads through Sedmigradia and Wallachia. And by right hand moved another cousin of Batu, Baidar, the son of Jagatai. He went along Lesser Poland and Silesia and began to burn their cities and villages. In vain some Polish princes and governors tried to resist in the open field; they suffered defeat in an unequal battle; and for the most part died the death of the brave. Among the devastated cities were Sudomir, Krakow and Breslavl. At the same time, separate Tatar detachments spread their devastation far into the depths of Mazovia and Greater Poland. Henry the Pious managed to prepare a significant army; received the help of the Teutonic, or Prussian, knights and waited for the Tatars near the city of Liegnitz. Baidarkhan gathered his scattered detachments and attacked this army. The battle was very hard; unable to break the Polish and German knights, the Tatars, according to the chroniclers, resorted to cunning and embarrassed the enemies with a cunning call through their ranks: "Run, run!" The Christians were defeated, and Henry himself died a heroic death. From Silesia Baydar went through Moravia to Hungary to connect with Batu. Moravia was then part of the Czech kingdom, and Wenceslas entrusted the defense of it to the courageous governor Yaroslav from Sternberk. Ruining everything in their path, the Tatars, among other things, laid siege to the city of Olomouc, where Yaroslav himself locked himself; but here they failed; the governor even managed to make a happy sortie and inflict some damage on the barbarians. But this failure could not have had a significant impact on the overall course of events.

Mongol-Tatar invasion of Hungary

Meanwhile, the main Tatar forces were moving through the Carpathians. Detachments with axes sent forward partly cut down, partly burned those forest notches, with which Bela IV ordered to block the passages; their little military cover was dispersed. Having crossed the Carpathians, the Tatar horde poured into the plains of Hungary and began to brutally devastate them; and the Ugrian king was still sitting at the diet in Buda, where he conferred with his obstinate nobles about measures of defense. Having dissolved the Sejm, he now only began to gather an army, with which he locked himself in Pest adjacent to Buda. After a vain siege of this city, Batu retreated. Bela followed him with an army that had risen to 100,000 men. In addition to some magnates and bishops, his younger brother Koloman, the ruler of Slavonia and Croatia (the same one who reigned in Galich in his youth, from where he was expelled by Mstislav the Udaly), came to his aid. This army was carelessly stationed on the banks of the Shaio River, and here it was unexpectedly surrounded by the hordes of Batu. The Magyars succumbed to panic and crowded in confusion in their cramped camp, not daring to join the battle. Only a few brave leaders, including Koloman, left the camp with their detachments and, after a desperate fight, managed to break through. All the rest of the army is destroyed; the king was among those who managed to escape. After that, the Tatars unhindered the whole summer of 1241 raged in Eastern Hungary; and with the onset of winter they crossed over to the other side of the Danube and devastated its western part. At the same time, special Tatar detachments also actively pursued the Ugric king Bela, as before the Sultan of Khorezm Mohammed. Fleeing from them from one region to another, Bela reached the extreme limits of the Ugric possessions, i.e. to the shores of the Adriatic Sea and, like Mahomet, also escaped from his pursuers to one of the islands closest to the coast, where he remained until the storm passed. For more than a year, the Tatars stayed in the Kingdom of Hungary, devastating it up and down, beating the inhabitants, turning them into slavery.

Finally, in July 1242, Batu gathered his scattered detachments, burdened with innumerable booty, and, leaving Hungary, sent his way back along the Danube valley through Bulgaria and Wallachia to the southern Russian steppes. The main reason for the return campaign was the news of the death of Ogodai and the accession to the supreme khan's throne of his son Gayuk. This latter left the hordes of Batu even earlier and was not on friendly terms with him at all. It was necessary to provide for their family those countries that fell to the lot of Jochi under the partition of Genghis Khan. But besides being too far away from their steppes and threatening disagreements between the Genghisides, there were, of course, other reasons that prompted the Tatars to return to the east, without consolidating the subjugation of Poland and Ugria. With all their successes, the Tatar commanders realized that their further stay in Hungary or the movement to the west was not safe. Although the emperor Frederick II was still fond of the struggle against the papacy in Italy, however, in Germany, a crusade against the Tatars was preached everywhere; German princes made military preparations everywhere and actively fortified their cities and castles. These stone fortifications were no longer as easy to take as the wooden cities of Eastern Europe. The Western European chivalry, clad in iron, experienced in military affairs, also did not promise an easy victory. Already during their stay in Hungary, the Tatars more than once suffered various setbacks and, in order to defeat the enemies, they often had to resort to their military tricks, which are: a false retreat from a besieged city or a feigned flight in an open battle, false agreements and promises, even fake letters, addressed to the inhabitants as if on behalf of the Ugric king, etc. During the siege of cities and castles in Ugria, the Tatars spared their own forces very much; and more used by the crowds of captured Russians, Polovtsy and the Hungarians themselves, who, under the threat of beatings, were sent to fill up ditches, make tunnels, go on an attack. Finally and most neighboring countries, with the exception of the Middle Danube Plain, due to the mountainous, rugged nature of their surface, they already presented little convenience for the steppe cavalry.

In 1227, the founder of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan, died, having bequeathed to his descendants to continue his work and conquer the whole land, up to the "Sea of ​​Franks" known to the Mongols in the west. The huge power of Genghis Khan was divided, as already noted, into uluses. The ulus of the eldest son Jochi, who died in the same year as his father, went to the conqueror's grandson Batu Khan (Batu). It was this ulus, located to the west of the Irtysh, that was to become the main springboard for the aggressive campaign to the West. In 1235, at the kurultai of the Mongol nobility in Karakorum, a decision was made on a general Mongol campaign against Europe. The forces of one ulus of Jochi were clearly not enough. In this regard, troops of other Chingizids were sent to help Batu. Batu himself was put at the head of the campaign, and the experienced commander Subedei was appointed adviser.

The offensive began in the autumn of 1236, and a year later the Mongol conquerors conquered the Volga Bulgaria, the lands of the Burtases and Mordovians on the Middle Volga, as well as the Polovtsian hordes that roamed between the Volga and Don rivers. In the late autumn of 1237, the main forces of Batu concentrated in the upper reaches of the Voronezh River (the left tributary of the Don) to invade northeastern Rus'. In addition to the significant numerical superiority of the Mongol Tumei, the fragmentation of the Russian principalities, which opposed the enemy invasion one by one, played a negative role. The first principality to undergo ruthless ruin was the Ryazan land. In the winter of 1237, the hordes of Batu invaded its borders, destroying everything in their path. After a six-day siege, and without waiting for help, Ryazan fell on December 21. The city was burned, and all the inhabitants were exterminated.

Having devastated the Ryazan land, in January 1238 the Mongol invaders defeated the Grand Duke's guard regiment of the Vladimir-Suzdal land near Kolomna, headed by the Grand Duke's son Vsevolod Yurievich. Moving then along the frozen rivers, the Mongols captured Moscow, Suzdal and a number of other cities. On February 7, after the siege, the capital of the principality Vladimir fell, where the family of the Grand Duke also died. After the capture of Vladimir, the hordes of conquerors scattered throughout the Vladimir-Suzdal land, plundering and destroying it (14 cities were devastated).

On March 4, 1238, across the Volga, a battle took place on the City River between the main forces of northeastern Rus', led by the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich, and the Mongol invaders. The Russian army was defeated in this battle, and the Grand Duke himself died. After the capture of the "suburb" of the Novgorod land - Torzhok, the road to northwestern Rus' was opened before the conquerors. However, the approach of spring thaw and significant human losses forced the Mongols, not reaching about 100 miles to Veliky Novgorod, to turn back to the Polovtsian steppes. On the way, they defeated Kursk and the small town of Kozelsk on the Zhizdra River. The defenders of Kozelsk put up fierce resistance to the enemy, they defended for seven weeks. After its capture in May 1238, Batu ordered this "evil city" to be wiped off the face of the earth, and the remaining inhabitants to be exterminated without exception.

Batu spent the summer of 1238 in the Don steppes, restoring the strength of his troops. In autumn, his detachments again devastated the Ryazan land, which had not yet recovered from the defeat, capturing Gorokhovets, Murom and several other cities. In the spring of 1239, Batu's detachments defeated the Principality of Pereyaslavl, and in the autumn Chernigov-Seversk land was devastated.

In the autumn of 1240, the Mongol army moved through southern Rus' to conquer Western Europe. In September they crossed the Dnieper and surrounded Kyiv. After a long siege on December 6, 1240, the city fell. In the winter of 1240/41, the Mongols captured almost all the cities of southern Rus'. In the spring of 1241, the Mongol troops, having passed "with fire and sword" through Galicia-Volyn Rus and capturing Vladimir-Volynsky and Galich, attacked Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Moravia, and by the summer of 1242 they reached the borders of Northern Italy and Germany. However, without receiving reinforcements and suffering heavy losses in the unfamiliar mountainous terrain, the conquerors, bloodless by the protracted campaign, were forced to turn back from Central Europe to the steppes of the Lower Volga region. Another, and perhaps the most significant reason for the retreat of the Mongol hordes from Europe was the news of the death of the great Khan Ogedei in Karakorum, and Batu hastened to take part in the election of a new ruler of the Mongol Empire.

The results of the Mongol conquest for Rus' were extremely difficult.

In terms of their scale of destruction and casualties as a result of the invasion, they could not be compared with the losses brought by the raids of nomads and princely civil strife. First of all, the Mongol invasion caused enormous damage to all lands at the same time. According to archaeologists, out of 74 cities that existed in Rus' in the pre-Mongol era, 49 were completely destroyed by the hordes of Batu. At the same time, a third of them became depopulated forever, and 15 former cities turned into villages. Only Veliky Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, Polotsk and the Turov-Pinsk principality did not suffer, because the Mongol hordes bypassed them. The population of the Russian lands also sharply decreased. Most of the townspeople either died in battles, or were taken away by the conquerors to "full" (slavery). Handicraft production was particularly affected. After the invasion, some handicraft specialties disappeared in Rus', the construction of stone buildings ceased, the secrets of making glassware, cloisonne enamel, multi-colored ceramics, etc. were lost. Huge losses were among professional Russian soldiers - princely warriors, many princes died in battles with the enemy. Only half a century later, in Rus', the service class began to revive and, accordingly, the structure of the patrimonial and emerging landlord economy was recreated. Apparently, only the most massive category - the rural population suffered somewhat less from the invasion, but severe trials fell to its lot.

However, the main consequence of the Mongol invasion of Rus' and the establishment of Horde dominion from the middle of the XIII century. was the strengthening of the isolation of the Russian lands, the disappearance of the old political and legal system and the structure of power, once characteristic of the Old Russian state. The conglomerate of different-sized Russian lands-principalities found itself under the influence of centrifugal geopolitical processes that became irreversible as a result of the Mongol expansion. The collapse of the political unity of Ancient Rus' also marked the beginning of the disappearance of the ancient Russian people, which became the progenitor of the three currently existing East Slavic peoples: from the 14th century. in the northeast and northwest of Rus', the Russian (Great Russian) nationality is formed, and on the lands that became part of Lithuania and Poland, the Ukrainian and Belarusian nationalities.

After the invasion of Batu over Russia, the so-called Mongol-Tatar dominion was established - a complex of economic and political methods that ensured the dominance of the Golden Horde over that part of the territory of Rus', which was under the control (suzerainty) of its khans. The main among these methods was the collection of various tributes and duties: “service”, trade duty “tamga”, food for the Tatar ambassadors - “honor”, ​​etc. The most difficult of them was the Horde “exit” - a tribute in silver, which began to be collected in 1240- e gg. Since 1257, on the orders of Khan Berke, the Mongols carried out a census of the population of northeastern Rus' ("recording in a number"), setting a fixed amount of fees. Only the clergy were exempted from paying the "exit" (before the adoption of Islam by the Horde at the beginning of the 14th century, the Mongols were distinguished by religious tolerance). To control the collection of tribute, representatives of the khan, the Baskaks, were sent to Rus'. Tribute was collected by tax-farmers - besermens (Central Asian merchants). This is where the Russian word "busurmanin" came from. By the end of the XIII - the beginning of the XIV century. the institution of the Basques in connection with the active opposition of the Russian population (constant unrest of the rural population and urban performances) was canceled. Since that time, the princes of the Russian lands themselves began to collect the Horde tribute. In case of disobedience, punitive Horde campaigns-raids followed. As the domination of the Golden Horde strengthened, punitive expeditions were replaced by repressions against individual princes.

The Russian principalities that became dependent on the Horde lost their sovereignty. Getting the princely table depended on the will of the khan, who issued labels (letters) for reigning. The dominance of the Golden Horde over Russia was expressed, among other things, in the issuance of labels (letters) for the great reign of Vladimir. The one who received such a label attached the Vladimir principality to his possessions and became the most powerful among the Russian princes. He had to maintain order, stop strife and ensure the uninterrupted flow of tribute. The Horde rulers did not allow a significant increase in the power of any of the Russian princes and, consequently, a long stay on the grand prince's throne. In addition, having taken away the label from the next Grand Duke, they gave it to the rival prince, which led to princely strife and the struggle for the Vladimir reign at the Khai court. A well-thought-out system of measures provided the Horde with firm control over the Russian lands.

Separation of South Rus'. In the second half of the XIII century. in fact, the division of Ancient Rus' into northeastern and southwestern parts was completed. In southwestern Rus', the process of state fragmentation reached its climax by the time of the Horde conquest. The Grand Duchy of Kiev lost its political significance. The Chernigov and Pereyaslav principalities weakened and fragmented.