In the middle of the 13th century, Russia underwent one of the most difficult trials in the history of its existence - the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars. The Golden Horde is a state formation created by the Mongol-Tatars, the purpose of which was the exploitation of the conquered peoples. But not all nations meekly resigned themselves to the heavy yoke. The liberation of Russia from the Golden Horde will be the subject of our study.
First meeting
The founder of the Mongol Empire was Genghis Khan. The great Mongol managed to rally the scattered Tatar tribes into a single mighty state. In just a couple of decades, his state has grown from a small ulus to the size of the largest empire in the world. He conquered China, the Tangut state, Khorezm and smaller tribes and peoples. The history of Genghis Khan was a series of wars and conquests, brilliant victories and great triumphs.
In 1223, the commanders of the Great Khan Subudai-Bagatur and Jebe-Noyon, as part of reconnaissance in battle in the Black Sea steppes on the banks of the Kalka River, utterly defeated the Russian-Polovtsian army. But since this time the conquest of Russia was not included in the plans of the Mughals, theyreturned home. A large-scale campaign was planned for next year. But the Conqueror of the Universe suddenly died, leaving the greatest empire in the world to his heirs. Indeed, Genghis Khan is a great Mongol.
Batu Campaign
Years have passed. The history of Genghis Khan, his great deeds inspired descendants. One of his grandsons was Batu Khan (Batu). He was a great warrior to match his glorious grandfather. Batu belonged to the Ulus of Jochi, named after his father, and it was to him that the great western campaign was bequeathed, which Genghis Khan never managed to complete.
In 1235, a pan-Mongol kurultai was convened in Karakorum, at which it was decided to organize a great campaign to the west. As expected, Batu was elected as Jihangir, or chief commander.
The Mongol army in 1238-1240 marched through the lands of Russia with fire and sword. The specific princes, between whom there were constant strife, could not rally into a single force to repulse the conquerors. Having conquered Russia, the hordes of the Mongols rushed to central Europe, burning villages and cities in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria on their way.
Formation of the Golden Horde
After the death of Batu, the ulus of Jochi passed into the hands of his younger brother Berke. It was he, by and large, who was the real creator of the Golden Horde as a state. He founded the city of Sarai, which became the capital of this nomadic empire. From here he ruled the state, went on campaigns against recalcitrant tribes, collected tribute.
The Golden Horde is a multinational state, with a developed apparatus of oppression, consisting of many tribes and peoples, who were united by the power of Mongolian weapons.
Mongol-Tatar yoke
The lands of the Golden Horde stretched from the steppes of modern Kazakhstan to Bulgaria, but Russia was not directly part of it. Russian lands were considered vassal principalities and tributaries of the Horde state.
Among the many Russian princes, there was one whom the khans of the Golden Horde appointed great, handing him a label. This meant that it was to this prince that small appanage rulers should obey. Starting with Ivan Kalita, the great reign was almost always in the hands of the Moscow princes.
Initially, the Mongols themselves collected tribute from the conquered Russian lands. The so-called Baskak, who was considered the head of the Mongol administration in Russia, was in charge of collecting taxes. He had his own army, through which he asserted the power of the Golden Horde in the conquered lands. Baskak had to obey all the princes, including the great one.
It was the times of the Basques that were the most difficult for Russia. After all, the Mongols took not only a heavy tribute, they trampled the Russian land with the hooves of their horses, and killed the recalcitrant or took them in full.
The end of the Basque style
But the Russians did not even think to endure the arbitrariness of the Mongol governors. They raised one rebellion after another. The largest uprising took place in 1327 in Tver, during which the brother of Uzbek Khan Chol Khan was killed. The Golden Horde did not forget this, and already inThe following year, a punitive campaign against the Tverites was sent. Tver was plundered, but the positive thing is that, seeing the rebelliousness of the Russian people, the Mongolian administration was forced to abandon the institution of Basqueism. From that moment on, tribute to the khan was collected not by the Mongols, but by the great princes. Therefore, it is from this date that the beginning of such a process as the liberation of Russia from the power of the Golden Horde should be counted.
The Great Jam
Time passed, and now the khans of the Golden Horde themselves started a squabble among themselves. This period in history is called the Great Jam. During this period of time, which began in 1359, more than 25 khans were replaced in 20 years. Moreover, some of them ruled for only a few days.
This fact influenced the further weakening of the yoke. The successive khans were simply forced to give a label to the strongest prince, who, in gratitude for this, continued to send tribute, although not in the same amount as before. The strongest, as before, remained the Moscow prince.
Battle of Kulikovo
Meanwhile, power in the Golden Horde was usurped by Temnik Mamai, who was not Genghisides by blood. Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich considered this fact an occasion to finally throw off the Tatar yoke. He refused to pay tribute, citing the fact that Mamai is not a legitimate khan, but controls the Horde through his henchmen.
Angry Mamai began to gather an army to march on the recalcitrant prince. In addition to the Tatars themselves, his army also included Crimean Genoese. In addition, he promised helpgrant the Lithuanian prince Jagiello.
Dmitry also did not waste time and, knowing that Mamai would not forgive his refusal, he gathered his own army. The Suzdal and Smolensk princes joined him, but the Ryazan prince preferred to cowardly sit out.
The decisive battle took place in 1380 on the Kulikovo field. Before the battle, a significant event took place. According to the old tradition, the heroes of the opposing sides met in a duel in the field. From the Tatars came the famous warrior Chelubey, the Russian army was represented by Peresvet. The duel did not reveal the winner, as the heroes simultaneously pierced each other's hearts.
Soon the battle began. The scales tilted first to one side, then to the other, but nevertheless, in the end, Prince Dmitry won a brilliant victory, completely defeating Mamai's army. In honor of this triumph, he was nicknamed Donskoy.
Tokhtamysh's revenge
At this time, in the eastern steppes, with the help of the great Lame Timur, Khan Tokhtamysh, who was a hereditary Chingizid, significantly strengthened. He was able to gather a large enough army to finally submit to him the entire Golden Horde. The age of the Great Memory was over.
Tokhtamysh sent a message to Dmitry that he is grateful to him for the victory over the usurper Mamai and is waiting for tribute from Russia as the legitimate khan of the Golden Horde. Of course, the Moscow prince, who won the victory on the Kulikovo field with such difficulty, did not like this state of affairs at all. He refused the demand for tribute.
Now Tokhtamyshgathered a huge army and moved it to Russia. Weakened after the battle of Kulikovo, the Russian lands could not oppose this army. Dmitry Donskoy was forced to flee from Moscow. Tokhtamysh began the siege of the city and took it by deceit. Dmitry had no choice but to agree to pay tribute again. The liberation from the Golden Horde had to be postponed indefinitely, despite the grandiose victory at the Kulikovo field.
Soon Tokhtamysh became proud of his victories to such an extent that he dared to go to war against his benefactor Timur. The Great Khromets utterly defeated the presumptuous khan, but this fact did not free the Russian lands from paying tribute, since another candidate for the Golden Horde throne came to replace Tokhtamysh.
Weakening the Horde
The Moscow princes failed to completely throw off the Tatar yoke, but it invariably weakened as the Horde itself lost strength. Of course, there were still difficult times for Russia, for example, the siege of Moscow by the Tatar Emir Edigey. But it often happened that the Russian princes could not pay tribute for several years, and the khans of the Golden Horde did not have the time and strength to demand it.
The Golden Horde began to fall apart before our eyes. The Crimean, Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian khanates fell away from it in pieces. The Golden Horde was no longer that powerful state that terrified many peoples with the help of its huge army, collecting exorbitant tribute from them. By and large, by that time it had ceased to exist, so the remnants of this once great power in the modernHistoriography is usually called the Great Horde. The power of this formation over Russia, united even then by the Moscow principality, was reduced to fiction.
Standing on the Eel
The final liberation of Russia from the Golden Horde is usually associated with the so-called Standing on the Ugra, which took place in 1480.
By the time of this event, Russia, united by the dynasty of Moscow princes, had become one of the most powerful states in Eastern Europe. Prince Ivan III recently annexed the recalcitrant Novgorod to his lands, and now he ruled with autocratic rule over the entire territory under his control. In fact, he had long been a completely independent ruler, in no way inferior to European kings, but nominally remained a vassal of the Great Horde.
However, back in 1472 Ivan III completely stopped paying the Horde output. And now, eight years later, Khan Akhmat felt the strength in himself to, in his opinion, restore justice and force the recalcitrant prince to pay tribute.
Russian and Tatar troops went out to meet each other. They went to the opposite banks of the Ugra River, which ran right along the border of the Horde and Russia. None of the opponents was in a hurry to cross, as they understood that the side that dared to do this would be in a more disadvantageous situation in the upcoming battle.
Having stood like this for more than a month, the Russian and Horde armies finally decided to disperse without starting a decisive battle.
This was the Horde's last attempt to force Russia to pay tribute again, that's why it was 1480the year is considered the date of the overthrow of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.
Conquer the remnants of the Horde
But this was not the last page of Russian-Tatar interstate relations.
Soon the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey defeated the remnants of the Great Horde, after which it completely ceased to exist. But besides the Crimean Khanate itself, Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberia acted as the heirs of the Golden Horde. Now Russia has begun to treat them as subordinate territories, putting its proteges on the throne.
However, Ivan IV the Terrible, who by that time had taken the title of tsar, decided not to play vassal khanates anymore and, as a result of several successful campaigns, finally annexed these lands to the Russian kingdom.
The only independent heir to the Golden Horde was only the Crimean Khanate. However, soon it had to recognize vassalage from the Ottoman sultans. But the Russian Empire managed to conquer the Crimea only under Empress Catherine II, who in 1783 removed the last khan Shahin Giray from power.
So the remnants of the Horde were conquered by Russia, which once suffered the yoke from the Mongol-Tatars.
Results of confrontation
Thus, Russia, despite the fact that for several centuries it had to endure the debilitating Mongol-Tatar yoke, found the strength to throw off the hated yoke with the help of the wise policy of the Moscow princes. Later, she herself went on the offensive and swallowed up all the remnants of the once powerful Golden Horde.
The decisive point was set in the 18th century, when Russia, under a peace treaty withThe Ottoman Empire ceded the Crimean Khanate.
