Zaporozhye land is rich in great historical events. We will dwell on one of them in detail. This is the first battle of Russian soldiers with the Tatar-Mongols. The year of the battle on the Kalka River is 1223, the month is May. It is impossible to consider exactly the place where it occurred. It is only known from the chronicles that this is the Kalka River.
But where should one look for this river, a rocky place where the military camp of Mstislav Romanovich, Prince of Kyiv, was located? Such Zaporizhia local historians as Arkhipkin and Shovkun are persistently looking for an answer to this question. The results of the research were the conclusions and assumptions summarized in this article. After reading it, you will find out where the Kalka River is, according to these researchers.
Summary of events leading up to the battle
Russian princes, as they say in the annals, helped the Polovtsy in their fight against the Tatars, gathered their forces on the Dnieper, at the ford of Protolche, near the island of Khortitsa. Smashing inthis place the main detachments of the Tatar-Mongols, Russian regiments went to the steppe, pursuing the retreating. Eight days later they reached the place where the river Kalka flowed. At that time, the main forces of the Tatar-Mongols were here. It was in this place (Kalka River) that the famous battle took place.
Unexpected Mongol invasion
Judging by the fourth Novgorod and Laurentian chronicles, the invasion of Russia by the Mongols was unexpected. Russian chroniclers simply did not know at that time that 30 thousand people of Genghis Khan (the troops of Subede-Bagatur and Jebe-Noyon) bypassed the Caspian Sea from the south, destroyed the city of Shemakha, took the city of Derbent.
Moving then to the northwest, they defeated the joint forces of the Polovtsians and Alans. The Polovtsian army under the command of Konchak's son, Khan Yuri, was forced to retreat to the Dnieper along the Sea of Azov. Part of it crossed to the right bank, into the possessions of Kotyan, the Polovtsian Khan. Another part rushed to the Crimea, to its eastern regions, where the Tatar-Mongols penetrated after the Polovtsians. Here in 1223, in January, they ravaged the Surozh fortress (today Sudak).
The strategic decision of the Russian princes
In the same year, in early spring, Kotyan rushed to Mstislav the Udalny in Galich for help. Russian princes, on the initiative of Mstislav, gathered in Kyiv for advice. It was decided to go down the Dnieper, along its right bank, bypassing the left-bank rivers, which were filled at that time with spring waters, which made movement very difficult. Then, with a quick march, move along the dried-up southern steppes, get toPolovtsian rampart (that is, digging), where to give battle to the Tatar-Mongols on a foreign land.
An unexpected meeting
But there was no single leadership due to feudal strife in the Polovtsian and Russian troops. They moved to the island of Khortytsya separately. Spring impassability delayed the troops of the northern princes. The Ruses at Khortitsa, having met the ambassadors of the Tatars, killed the latter and moved along the right bank down the river. However, they could only reach Oleshya, where the Tatar-Mongols were already waiting for them.
In the south, the land dried up faster, which gave the enemy troops the opportunity to leave the Crimea, and then advance through the Polovtsian steppe to the north and place the main forces before the arrival of the Russian troops on the right bank of the Kalka. The plan adopted at the council of princes (to fight in a foreign land) was thus thwarted.
Mstislav Udaloy, the Galich prince, without warning the others about his speech, crossed the Kalka River together with the Polovtsy and began the battle with the Tatars. Overturned by the onslaught of the enemy, the Polovtsians retreated.
Repelling an attack by the troops of Mstislav Romanovich
The squads of Mstislav Romanovich hastily had to build a fortification around their camp and fought off the enemy's attack for three days. Armed with melee weapons (clubs and axes), Russian soldiers inflicted heavy losses on the Tatar-Mongols. Was killed, in particular, Tossuk, the eldest son of Genghis Khan (the image of the latter is presented below), the father of Batu.
Part of the Mongols remain on the Kalka
Tatars on the third day of an unsuccessful battle offered the Russians to make peace, but they themselveshe was violated. Having given the opportunity, according to the agreement, to the Russian troops to go to Russia, they attacked the squads retreating to the Dnieper, and beat many. Mstislav Udaloy, having crossed the river with the remnants of his troops, ordered the boats to be burned. Leaving a camp with goods looted in the Crimea, as well as sick and wounded nukers on Kalka near the battlefield, the Tatars went north in three thinned tumens along the left bank of the Dnieper River.
Kalka - a river where part of the Russian army also remained, which took refuge in thickets of floodplains, impassable for cavalry. Bearing heavy losses when meeting fierce resistance, the Tatars were still able to get to Pereyaslav. However, they suddenly turned back when Kyiv, the main goal, was within easy reach.
Opinions about where Kalka was located
It is widely believed that the battle on the Kalka River took place in the area of the so-called Stone Graves. It is located on the territory of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, 5 kilometers south of Rozovka. Also, many believe that the Kalka is a river, today known as a tributary of the Kalmius (Kalchik River).
However, it is hard to believe that having left the Crimea and moving north at the same time, the Tatar-Mongols from Oleshya turned into the Polovtsian steppe, devastated by them, in order to settle down for a battle with the Russian troops near a drying up steppe river. It is also unlikely that, going down the Dnieper with the right bank down, the Russian army crossed at Oleshya to the left and moved without a wagon train to the steppe on foot.
In addition, the analysis of the ancient names of various rivers led to the idea thatKalka (river) is an ancient Slavic transcription of the name Kalkan-Su (Polovtsian), meaning "water shield" in translation. It was also called Iol-kinsu in Tatar, which means "horse water".
Yuan Shi, a Chinese chronicler of the 13th century, wrote that the battle with the Tatar-Mongols of the Russian army took place near the A-li-gi river. Literally translated, it means "horse watering place". That is, it can be assumed that the current Konka is that mysterious Kalka, the river near which the famous battle took place. And the hill that rises on its right bank, two kilometers from the village of Yulyevka, is the very "stony place".
Findings indicating that the battle on the Kalka could have been near the village of Yulyevka
It was impossible to imagine a better place for Mstislav Romanovich's camp. On the top of the hill, at a narrow entrance, mountains of stones were found - the remains of fortifications. Perhaps this is evidence that the battle on the Kalka River took place in this place.
Interestingly, it is a pear-shaped mountain that is over 40 meters high and 160 meters wide at its widest point. "Pear" is connected to the mainland "tail". Its width is only 8-10 meters. This is a small peninsula, washed from the south and east by the waters of the Konka River, and from the west surrounded by impassable and swampy Gorodysskaya beam. Local old-timers call this hill Saur-Mogila. Arrowheads, pieces of rusty iron are often found near it, and once an iron anchor was dug up on the shore. 12 meters from the foot, on the southern slope of Saur-Mogila, was foundsword hilt, as well as several arrows and a bronze lion seal.
Today, a small group of islands can be seen in the Kakhovka Sea, to the west of the railway bridge across the Konka. They are the remains of the Great Kuchugurs, which were flooded by the reservoir.
Traces of the medieval city are preserved on almost all of them. Different names give it different sources. During the Battle of the Kalka, it was called Samys (a Turkic-Polovtsian name), and the Slavs called the population of these places Bulgarians. Here, along with many silver and copper coins of various periods, arrowheads, keys, locks, stirrups, fragments of chain mail, breast bronze images (icons), a neck hryvnia, the remains of a horse harness and other items from the times of Kievan Rus were found.
Found also military and household items: fragments of arrowheads, daggers, sabers from the Golden Horde. All this suggests that the city was connected with the battle that took place on the Kalka.
Bulgarians in chronicles
In the thickets of floodplains, inaccessible to the cavalry of the Tatars, the remnants of the Russian troops gathered. When, after the battle, the horde moved north, together with the Bulgarians, the inhabitants of Samys, they attacked the camp left by the Mongol-Tatars and destroyed it. On the way to the city of Pereyaslav, the Tatars received news of this from messengers.
Realizing that Kyiv cannot be taken by weakened tumens, the temniki decided to return to Kalka in order to avengea daring raid by the Russians and take away from them the goods stolen in the Crimea. The annals tell that, having turned back, the Tatars attacked the Bulgarians (1223, Kalka River). This people was taken in later studies for the Volga Bulgarians.
Today the battle on the Kalka River (1223) is considered by historians as a strategic reconnaissance in force. However, it was also a battle in which the brotherhood of various peoples of Ancient Russia was held together with blood.
Found burials
The presence of graves can indicate where the Kalka River is located, as well as where the exact place of the battle of the Polovtsy and Mstislav Udaly was. On the way to Komishuvakha, 7 km from Savur-mogila, there are many humps on the slopes, the origin of which is unknown. Perhaps this is the clue…
The corpses of the Tatars were burned, according to custom. The remains of three furnaces have been preserved at a nearby site. These are pits with burnt walls, up to 3 meters in diameter, and up to 4 meters deep. Several pieces of bronze were found in the ashes. Perhaps they were belt buckles or arrows stuck in the body.
Conclusion
So, the battle on the Kalka River took place in 1223. Unfortunately, historians have not yet been able to prove its exact location. However, a comparison of written sources, weapons, as well as the alleged place where the battle took place, gives reason to believe that the battle on the Kalka is an event that took place on the banks of the Konka in the camp, the remains of which are today in the Zaporozhye region, near the village of Yulyevka.
Battle on the Kalkaended with the defeat of the Russian troops. Managed to escape Mstislav Udaly. There were many wounded and killed in this battle, only a tenth of the army survived. And the Tatar-Mongols marched throughout the Chernigov land to Novgorod-Seversky. The cruel people of Subedei and Jebe commanded these regiments. They hated the Russians and destroyed everything in their path, sowing destruction and death around. People hid in the forests, afraid of these attacks, in order to save at least their lives.
