Rus under the Mongol-Tatar yoke existed in an extremely humiliating way. She was completely subjugated both politically and economically. Therefore, the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia, the date of standing on the Ugra River - 1480, is perceived as the most important event in our history. Although Russia became politically independent, the payment of tribute in a smaller amount continued until the time of Peter the Great. The complete end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke is the year 1700, when Peter the Great canceled payments to the Crimean khans.
Mongolian army
In the 12th century, Mongolian nomads united under the rule of the cruel and cunning ruler Temujin. He mercilessly suppressed all obstacles to unlimited power and created a unique army that won victory after victory. He, creating a great empire, was called by his nobility Genghis Khan.
Having conquered East Asia, the Mongol troops reached the Caucasus and Crimea. They destroyed the Alans and Polovtsians. The remnants of the Polovtsy turned to Russia for help.
Firstmeeting
There were 20 or 30 thousand soldiers in the Mongol army, it has not been precisely established. They were led by Jebe and Subedei. They stopped at the Dnieper. Meanwhile, the Polovtsian Khan Khotyan persuaded the Galich prince Mstislav Udaly to oppose the invasion of the terrible cavalry. He was joined by Mstislav of Kyiv and Mstislav of Chernigov. According to various sources, the total Russian army numbered from 10 to 100 thousand people. The military council took place on the banks of the Kalka River. A unified plan was not developed. Mstislav Udaloy spoke alone. He was supported only by the remnants of the Polovtsy, but during the battle they fled. Those who did not support the Galician princes still had to fight the Mongols who attacked their fortified camp.
The battle lasted for three days. Only by cunning and a promise not to take anyone prisoner did the Mongols enter the camp. But they did not keep their words. The Mongols tied the Russian governor and the prince alive and covered them with boards and sat on them and began to feast on the victory, enjoying the groans of the dying. So the Kyiv prince and his entourage perished in agony. The year was 1223. The Mongols, without going into details, went back to Asia. They will return in thirteen years. And all these years in Russia there was a fierce squabble between the princes. She completely undermined the strength of the Southwestern Principalities.
Invasion
Genghis Khan's grandson Batu with a huge half-million army, having conquered the Volga Bulgaria in the east and the Polovtsian lands in the south, approached the Russian principalities in December 1237. His tactics were not to give a big battle, butin an attack on separate units, breaking everyone one by one. Approaching the southern borders of the Ryazan principality, the Tatars demanded tribute from him in an ultimatum: a tenth of the horses, people and princes. In Ryazan, three thousand soldiers were barely recruited. They sent for help to Vladimir, but no help came. After six days of siege, Ryazan was taken.
Inhabitants were destroyed, the city was destroyed. It was the beginning. The end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke will take place in two hundred and forty difficult years. Kolomna was next. There, the Russian army was almost all killed. Moscow lies in ashes. But before that, someone who dreamed of returning to his native places buried a treasure of silver jewelry on Borovitsky Hill. It was found by chance when construction was underway in the Kremlin in the 90s of the XX century. Vladimir was next. The Mongols spared neither women nor children and destroyed the city. Then Torzhok fell. But spring came, and, fearing a mudslide, the Mongols moved south. Northern swampy Russia did not interest them. But the defending tiny Kozelsk stood in the way. For nearly two months, the city resisted fiercely. But reinforcements came to the Mongols with wall-beating machines, and the city was taken. All the defenders were cut out and left no stone unturned from the town. So, the whole North-Eastern Russia by 1238 lay in ruins. And who can doubt whether there was a Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia? From the brief description it follows that there were wonderful good neighborly relations, right?
South-Western Russia
It was her turn in 1239. Pereyaslavl,The Principality of Chernihiv, Kyiv, Vladimir-Volynsky, Galich - everything is destroyed, not to mention smaller cities and villages and villages. And how far is the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke! How much horror and destruction brought its beginning. The Mongols went to Dalmatia and Croatia. Western Europe trembled.
However, news from distant Mongolia forced the invaders to turn back. And they didn’t have enough strength to go back. Europe was saved. But our Motherland, lying in ruins, bleeding, did not know when the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke would come.
Rus under the yoke
Who suffered the most from the Mongol invasion? Peasants? Yes, the Mongols did not spare them. But they could hide in the woods. Townspeople? Certainly. There were 74 cities in Russia, and 49 of them were destroyed by Batu, and 14 were never restored. Artisans were turned into slaves and exported. There was no continuity of skills in crafts, and the craft fell into decay. They forgot how to pour dishes from glass, cook glass for making windows, there were no multi-colored ceramics and decorations with cloisonne enamel. Stonemasons and carvers disappeared, and stone construction was suspended for 50 years. But it was hardest of all for those who repulsed the attack with weapons in their hands - the feudal lords and combatants. Of the 12 princes of Ryazan, three survived, of the 3 of Rostov - one, of the 9 of Suzdal - 4. And no one counted the losses in the squads. And there were no less of them. Professionals in military service have been replaced by other people who are used to being pushed around. So the princes began to possess allthe fullness of power. This process subsequently, when the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke comes, will deepen and lead to the unlimited power of the monarch.
Russian princes and the Golden Horde
After 1242, Russia fell under the complete political and economic oppression of the Horde. In order for the prince to legally inherit his throne, he had to go with gifts to the "free king", as our princes of khans called it, in the capital of the Horde. It took quite a long time to be there. Khan slowly considered the lowest requests. The whole procedure turned into a chain of humiliations, and after much deliberation, sometimes many months, the khan gave a "label", that is, permission to reign. So, one of our princes, having come to Batu, called himself a serf in order to keep his possessions.
The tribute that the principality would pay was obligatorily stipulated. At any moment, the khan could summon the prince to the Horde and even execute the objectionable in it. The Horde pursued a special policy with the princes, diligently inflating their strife. The disunity of the princes and their principalities played into the hands of the Mongols. The Horde itself gradually became a colossus with feet of clay. Centrifugal moods intensified in her. But that will be much later. And in the beginning its unity is strong. After the death of Alexander Nevsky, his sons fiercely hate each other and fiercely fight for the throne of Vladimir. Conditionally reigning in Vladimir gave the prince seniority over all the others. In addition, a decent allotment of land was attached to those who bring money to the treasury. And for the greatthe reign of Vladimir in the Horde, a struggle flared up between the princes, it happened that even to death. This is how Russia lived under the Mongol-Tatar yoke. The troops of the Horde practically did not stand in it. But in case of disobedience, punitive troops could always come and start cutting and burning everything.
Rise of Moscow
The bloody feuds of the Russian princes among themselves led to the fact that the period from 1275 to 1300, Mongol troops came to Russia 15 times. Many principalities emerged from the strife weakened, people fled from them to more peaceful places. Such a quiet principality turned out to be a small Moscow. It went to the inheritance of the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky Daniel. He reigned from the age of 15 and led a cautious policy, trying not to quarrel with his neighbors, because he was too weak. And the Horde didn't pay close attention to him. Thus, an impetus was given to the development of trade and enrichment in this lot.
It was filled with settlers from troubled places. Daniel eventually managed to annex Kolomna and Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, increasing his principality. His sons, after his death, continued the relatively quiet policy of their father. Only the princes of Tver saw potential rivals in them and tried, fighting for the Great reign in Vladimir, to spoil Moscow's relations with the Horde. This hatred reached the point that when the Moscow prince and the prince of Tver were simultaneously summoned to the Horde, Dmitry of Tverskoy stabbed Yuri of Moscow to death. For such arbitrariness, he was executed by the Horde.
Ivan Kalita and "great silence"
The fourth son of Prince Daniel seemed to have no chance of the Moscow throne. But his older brothers died, and he began to reign in Moscow. By the will of fate, he also became the Grand Duke of Vladimir. Under him and his sons, the Mongol raids on Russian lands stopped. Moscow and the people in it grew rich. Cities grew, their population increased. A whole generation grew up in North-Eastern Russia, which ceased to tremble at the mention of the Mongols. This brought the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia closer.
Dmitry Donskoy
Moscow by the birth of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich in 1350 is already turning into the center of the political, cultural and religious life of the northeast. The grandson of Ivan Kalita lived a short, 39 years old, but bright life. He spent it in battles, but now it is important to dwell on the great battle with Mamai, which took place in 1380 on the Nepryadva River. By this time, Prince Dmitry had defeated the punitive Mongol detachment between Ryazan and Kolomna. Mamai began to prepare a new campaign against Russia. Dmitry, having learned about this, in turn began to gather strength to fight back. Not all princes responded to his call. The prince had to turn to Sergius of Radonezh for help in order to assemble the people's militia. And having received the blessing of the holy elder and two monks, at the end of the summer he gathered a militia and moved towards the huge army of Mamai.
A great battle took place at dawn on September 8th. Dmitry fought in the forefront, was wounded, he was found with difficulty. But the Mongols were defeated and fled. Dmitry returned with a victory. Butthe time has not yet come when the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia will come. History says that another hundred years will pass under the yoke.
Strengthening Russia
Moscow became the center of the unification of Russian lands, but not all princes agreed to accept this fact. Dmitry's son, Vasily I, ruled for a long time, 36 years, and relatively calmly. He defended the Russian lands from the encroachments of the Lithuanians, annexed the Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod principalities. The Horde was weakening, and it was considered less and less. Vasily visited the Horde only twice in his life. But even within Russia there was no unity. Riots broke out without end. Even at the wedding of Prince Vasily II, a scandal erupted. One of the guests was wearing Dmitry Donskoy's golden belt. When the bride found out about this, she publicly tore it off, causing an insult. But the belt was not just a jewel. He was a symbol of the great princely power. During the reign of Vasily II (1425-1453) there were feudal wars. The prince of Moscow was captured, blinded, his whole face was wounded, and for the rest of his life he wore a bandage on his face and received the nickname "Dark". However, this strong-willed prince was released, and the young Ivan became his co-ruler, who, after the death of his father, would become the liberator of the country and receive the nickname Great.
The end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia
In 1462, the legitimate ruler Ivan III came to the throne of Moscow, who will become a reformer and a reformer. He carefully and prudently united the Russian lands. He annexed Tver, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Perm, and even the obstinate Novgorod recognized him as sovereign. He didemblem of the double-headed Byzantine eagle, began to build the Kremlin. That is how we know him. From 1476, Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Horde. A beautiful but untruthful legend tells how it happened. Having received the Horde embassy, the Grand Duke trampled on the Basma and sent a warning to the Horde that the same would happen to them if they did not leave his country alone. Enraged Khan Ahmed, having gathered a large army, moved to Moscow, wanting to punish her for her disobedience. Approximately 150 km from Moscow, near the Ugra River on the Kaluga lands, two troops stood opposite in autumn. The Russian was headed by the son of Vasily, Ivan Molodoy.
Ivan III returned to Moscow and began to carry out deliveries for the army - food, fodder. So the troops stood opposite each other until the early winter approached with starvation and buried all the plans of Ahmed. The Mongols turned around and left for the Horde, admitting defeat. So the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke happened bloodlessly. Its date is 1480, a great event in our history.
Meaning of falling yoke
Having suspended the political, economic and cultural development of Russia for a long time, the yoke pushed the country to the margins of European history. When the Renaissance began and flourished in Western Europe in all areas, when national self-consciousness of peoples took shape, when countries grew rich and flourished in trade, sent a fleet in search of new lands, there was darkness in Russia. Columbus discovered America in 1492. For Europeans, the Earth grew rapidly. For us, the end of the Mongol-Tatar yokein Russia marked the opportunity to get out of the narrow medieval framework, change laws, reform the army, build cities and develop new lands. In short, Russia gained independence and became known as Russia.
