Hello. I will tell you now about how Russia was dependent on the Golden Horde. Why the Battle of Kulikovo is so famous. And who really attacked Russia, the Mongols or the Tatars?
I'll start with what a "yoke"is. "Yoke" comes from the Latin word iugum. It meant a harness for cattle, and then became synonymous with slavery.
Who were these Mongol-Tatars? The Mongol conquerors were called Tatars, as evidenced by Russian and European chronicles. The thing is that this was the name of all the nomads from the north of the Great Wall of China. This is similar to how the ancient Romans called all strangers barbarians. Gradually, the Turkic peoples who were enslaved by the Mongols began to be called "Tatars".
The term "Mongol-Tatars" appeared in the 19th century to eliminate the discrepancy between the real conquerors " Mongols "and their name in the Russian chronicles"Tatars". Now historians have agreed to call this period "Horde rule" to avoid confusion, but "the term Mongol-Tatar yoke" is still used.
The beginning of the horde invasion.
The resistance between the Golden Horde and Russia began in the early 18th century. Then the horde was led by the grandson of the famous Genghis Khan, Khan Batu, or as the Russians called him Batu. Batu was determined, he wanted to enslave the whole world, defeating and destroying everything. The Russian princes believed that an attack on them was inevitable, and decided to attack first.
In 1223, a battle between the Russian troops of the horde took place on the Kalka River in the Azov region. The battle turned out not to be in favor of Russia, even taking into account the fact that it was only a reconnaissance on the part of Batu. In the next 14 years, Batu's army advanced closer and closer to the Russian lands.
The full-fledged offensive of the horde against Russia took place in 1237. Such cities as Kolomna, Ryazan and Moscow collapsed under the "feet" of the horde. Even the Russian winter did not stop the Mongols, in 1328 Vladimir, Tver and Torzhok were destroyed. Several principalities united to resist the khan, but were defeated. In the same year, on the Sit River, the Russian army held back Batu for seven weeks, but it could not stand it. The city of Kozelsk fell, it was completely destroyed, the inhabitants were killed.
In 1240, the city of Kiev, the capital of the Russian lands, and the most fortified city, was founded. The surviving princes bowed their heads to the horde and pledged to pay tribute. The dependence of Russia on the Golden Horde lasted for more than two centuries.
The reason for such a long dependence on the horde, and defeats on the part of Russia, are the constant conflicts between the Russian princes. Fighting among themselves, they were never able to unite in front of a common enemy. However, having united, the forces were still not equal. The number of warriors of the Golden Horde ranged from 80,000 to 150,000 people, and the warriors of Russia numbered only about 50,000 people.
During the years of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, the strife only intensified — the princes continued to feud and periodically resorted to the Mongols ' military assistance to fight against each other for the khan's label — a document confirming the prince's right to power.
After any incidents, the prince had to come to the capital of the Horde — Sarai - with a report on his actions or inaction. At the same time, the khan often demanded that the prince take with him one of the younger relatives who remained in the Horde as hostages. Not everyone returned alive. The Horde officials of the
Baskaks were engaged in collecting tribute from the inhabitants of Russia, until in the 1330s the Moscow prince Ivan Danilovich obtained from the Uzbek khan the right to collect tribute independently, for which he received the nickname Kalita ("purse"). Thanks to this, Moscow became the economic and political center of Russia. Since then, the Horde has stopped regularly raiding Russian lands.
After the death of Khan Janibek in 1359, a struggle for power began in the Horde, which the chroniclers called "The Great Zamyatnya". It weakened the Horde, while Moscow became stronger and stronger, uniting more and more Russian lands under its banners. In 1374, the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich, the grandson of Ivan Kalita, refused to pay tribute to the actual ruler of the Horde — beklarbek (adviser) Mamai.
In 1378, Mamai sent a fifty-thousand-strong army to Russia, but it was defeated by Dmitry Ivanovich's squad on the Vozha River. This was the first Russian victory over the Horde, followed by the legendary Battle of Kulikovo.
On September 8, 1380, the united Russian army met in battle with Mamai's army on the Kulikovo Field, near the confluence of the Don and Nepryadva rivers.
Despite the large number of testimonies in chronicles and works of art, little is known about this battle reliably. But one thing is absolutely certain: the soldiers of Dmitry Ivanovich inflicted a crushing defeat on the Horde and put Mamai's army to flight.
This battle did not become the final confrontation between Russia and the Horde. Two years later, the new ruler of the Horde, Khan Tokhtamysh, ruined Moscow and again forced the Russians to pay tribute. However, the influence of the Kulikovo battle on the course of history can hardly be overestimated. First, the victory united Russia: the princes were convinced that together the Horde can be defeated.
Secondly, the raids were reduced, the princes no longer needed to receive the khan's label, and the tribute was now paid irregularly. Finally, it was this famous battle that inspired Dmitry Donskoy's great-grandson, Ivan III, to oppose the Horde and rid the country of the rule of the Khans.
Overthrow of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.
100 years after the Battle of Kulikovo, in 1480, the Horde yoke came to an end. The Golden Horde broke up into several khanates, and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III refused to pay tribute. The khan of the Great Horde Akhmat equipped a campaign against Russia, but the Russian army stopped him on the Ugra River. This episode went down in history as "the great standing on the Eel". For several months, the two armies stood on opposite banks of the river, not daring to go on the offensive. With the arrival of cold weather, Akhmat decided to retreat. More Horde troops on Russian lands did not appear.
Consequences of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.
The two-century Mongol rule slowed down the development of the economy, culture and science, which is why Russia lagged far behind Western European countries.
The invasion of Batu led to huge losses of the population — hundreds of people were killed or driven into slavery, many books, monuments of painting and architecture were lost in fires. Two-thirds of Russian cities were ruined, and most of them could not be restored. The population paid extortionate taxes. Many crafts were forgotten for decades and even centuries — during the Horde rule, not a single stone temple was built.
At the same time, the confrontation with the Mongols hardened the Russian army and strengthened the centralized power. If before the invasion, Russia was a dozen scattered lands, then after the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, the whole country was united under the rule of the Moscow prince.
Thanks to this, the Russian state subsequently won many important victories and eventually conquered all the territories of the former Golden Horde.
