This article will consider several mysterious events related to the personality and actions, as well as alleged fragments of the biography of a famous historical character. Nowadays and in our country, it is customary to call him Batu Khan, during his lifetime in the Mongol Empire, in the expanses of the Jochi ulus and in the adjacent lands, he was called Batu, after his death, some began to call him Sain Khan. After many centuries, Batu's life seems mysterious and incomprehensible.
Name
The first inconsistency is connected with the name of Batu, whom we used to call Batu. There was only one Khan in the Mongol Empire, it was actually the title of the king - the head of state. Batu himself, as you know, was never the head of the empire. During his life, the title of khan could rightfully belong to Temujin (Genghis Khan), Ogedei, Guyuk, and also Mongke. While the ulus of Jochi (or the Golden Horde) was part of the empire, during the life of Batu it was not an independent state. The Novgorod chronicle (1242) calls Batu a governor, who, in essence, he was. The royal title was assigned to Batu by the chroniclers of a later period, and so it stuck.
Inheritance of the Jochi Ulus
After the death of the elderson of Genghis Khan, the most extensive western possessions of the Mongol Empire, called the Jochi ulus after the former ruler, were inherited by one of the numerous (there were about forty) sons of the deceased - Batu. Khan Temujin personally ordered the appointment of this grandson as the heir to the Jochi ulus. Meanwhile, it is known that Batu was not the eldest son of his father, did not have a reputation as a famous warrior by that time, could not be a recognized military leader - in 1227 he was only 18 years old. It also cannot be suspected that he was the favorite grandson of his great grandfather. To explain the mystery of this appointment, the validity of which was never disputed even after the death of Genghis Khan, can only be information about the special charisma of young Batu, his ability to act as an intermediary between people and the Higher Powers.
Western Expedition Command
Batu led the march to the west by order of Khan Ogedei. Khan was forced to appoint his nephew Sain Khan (Batu) as a compromise candidate, since other Genghisids (Guyuk, Buri and Munke) also had their own ambitions for leadership in this campaign, they were not going to give in to each other. And although the plan of the campaign was developed by Subedei, the latter was an ally of Genghis Khan, but was not Genghisides. The appointment of Batu was also appropriate because he was the heir to the eldest son of Temurjin and the ruler of the Jochi ulus, the expansion of whose possessions was supposed primarily due to the western campaign. Therefore, Batu was most interested in the successful implementationmissions.
Conquest of Russia
After the conquest of the Bulgarian cities in the summer of 1237, the combined forces of the Mongol army headed north. We will not describe how Ryazan, Moscow and Vladimir were conquered. In this article, we are interested not so much in the campaign of Batu Khan itself, but in his individual moments, which are not amenable to a simple explanation, and therefore accessible only for expressing versions. One of these nuances is the fact that after the conquest of the principalities, Sain Khan left princes loyal to him in leadership positions, moreover, the religious system and that part of the clergy that did not call for the overthrow of the khan's power was left unchanged. We can assume that Batu was completely satisfied with both the state structure and the religious order of the conquered lands. This is confirmed by the regular trips of Russian princes to the Horde for labels - symbols of power granted by the khan, as well as the exemption of the clergy from taxes.
The episode of the northern campaign associated with the refusal to conquer Novgorod is puzzling.
According to the generally accepted version, in March 1238, before reaching 100 versts to Novgorod, the tumens of Batu turned south due to the beginning mudslide, in which the cavalry could get bogged down. However, there is an opinion that Batu Khan in Russia was afraid not so much of impassability and abyss as of a lack of provisions for the army and fodder for horses. His large army was cavalry. In addition to the war horse, each warrior had other horses (from 1 to 3), which were providedfodder due to the confiscation of winter supplies in the captured villages. By the beginning of spring, these stocks were already minimal. But this, of course, is one of the versions. Like everyone else, it is subject to discussion and does not claim to be the truth.
