Russia under the Mongol-Tatar yoke existed extremely humiliatingly. She was completely subordinated 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 full end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke is the year 1700, when Peter the Great canceled payments to the Crimean khans.
Mongolian army
In the XII century, the Mongol nomads united under the power of the cruel and cunning ruler Temuchin. 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 his noble Genghis Khan.
Having conquered East Asia, the troops of the Mongols reached the Caucasus and Crimea. They destroyed the Alans and Polovtsy. The remnants of the Polovtsy turned to Russia for help.
First meeting
20 or 30 thousand were soldiers in the Mongolian army, it is not exactly established. They were led by Jebe and Subedeus. They stopped at the Dnieper. At this time, the Polovtsian Khan Khotyan persuaded the Galich prince Mstislav Udaloy to oppose the invasion of the terrible cavalry. He was joined by Mstislav Kievsky and Mstislav Chernihiv. According to various sources, the total Russian army numbered from 10 to 100 thousand people. A military council was held on the banks of the Kalki River. A single plan has not been worked out. Mstislav Udaloy spoke alone. He was supported only by the remnants of the Polovtsy, but during the battle they fled. The princes who did not support the Galitsky all the same had to fight with the Mongols who had attacked their fortified camp.
The battle lasted three days. Only by cunning and the promise not to take anyone prisoner, the Mongols entered the camp. But they did not keep their words. The Russian governor and the prince, the Mongols alive tied and covered with boards and sat on them and began to feast on the victory, enjoying the moans of the dying. So in pain suffered the Kiev prince and his entourage. It was 1223. The Mongols, without going into details, went back to Asia. Thirteen years later they will return. And all these years in Russia there was a fierce squabble between the princes. She completely undermined the forces of the South-Western principalities.
Invasion
The grandson of Genghis Khan 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 tactic was not to give a big battle, but to attack individual units, breaking everyone up one by one. Approaching the southern borders of the Ryazan principality, the Tatars ultimatum demanded a tribute from him: a tenth of the horses, people and princes. In Ryazan, barely recruited three thousand soldiers. They sent for help to Vladimir, but help did not come. After six days of siege, Ryazan was taken.
The inhabitants were destroyed, the city was destroyed. That was the beginning. The end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke will occur in two hundred and forty difficult years. The next was Kolomna. There, the Russian army was almost all killed. Moscow lies in the ashes. But before that, someone who dreamed of returning to their native places, buried a treasure of silver jewelry on
Borovitsky Hill . He was found by accident when construction was underway in the Kremlin in the 90s of the XX century. The next was Vladimir. The Mongols did not spare either women or children and destroyed the city. Then Torzhok fell. But spring came, and, fearing the debauchery, the Mongols moved south. Northern marsh Russia did not interest them. But on the way was the tiny Kozelsk defending itself. For almost two months the city fiercely resisted. But reinforcements with wall-beaters came to the Mongols, and the city was taken. All the defenders were slaughtered and left no stone unturned from the town. So, all of Northeast Russia by 1238 lay in ruins. And who can have doubts as to whether the Mongol-Tatar yoke was in Russia? From a brief description it follows that there were wonderful good neighborly relations, right?
Southwest Russia
It was her turn in 1239. Pereyaslavl, the Principality of Chernigov, Kiev, Vladimir-Volynsky, Galich - everything is crushed, 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 did not have enough strength for a second campaign. Europe was saved. But our Motherland, lying in ruins, bleeding, did not know when the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke would come.
Russia under the yoke
Who suffered the most from the Mongol invasion? The peasants? Yes, the Mongols did not spare them. But they could hide in the woods. Townspeople? Of course. There were 74 cities in Russia, and 49 of them were destroyed by Batu, and 14 never recovered. Artisans turned into slaves and exported. There was no continuity of skills in crafts, and the craft fell into decay. Forgotten how to pour glassware, to cook glass for the manufacture of windows, there was no multicolor ceramics and jewelry with cloisonne enamel. Masons and carvers disappeared, and construction of stone stopped for 50 years. But the hardest hit was for those who, with weapons in their hands, repelled the attack - the feudal lords and combatants. Of the 12 Ryazan princes, three remained alive, one out of 3 Rostov princes, and four out of 9 Suzdal princes. And no one counted the losses in the squads. And there were no fewer. Professionals in the military service were replaced by other people who are used to being pushed around. So the princes began to possess all power. This process subsequently, when the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke comes, will deepen and lead to unlimited power of the monarch.
Russian princes and the Golden Horde
After 1242, Russia came under the complete political and economic oppression of the Horde. So that the prince could legally inherit his throne, he had to go with gifts to the "free king", as our princes of the khans called, in the capital of the Horde. It has been a fairly long time to be there. Khan slowly considered the lowest requests. The whole procedure turned into a chain of humiliation, 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 to keep his possessions.
Necessarily stipulated a tribute, which will be paid by the principality. At any moment, the khan could summon the prince to the Horde and even execute the objectionable in it. The Horde conducted a special policy with the princes, diligently fanning their feuds. The disunity of the princes and their principalities was in the hands of the Mongols. The Horde itself gradually became a colossus on feet of clay. In it, centrifugal moods intensified. But it will be much later. And at first, her 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 everyone else. In addition, a decent allotment of land was joined with those who bring money to the treasury. And for the great reign of Vladimir in the Horde, a struggle broke out between the princes, it happened that it was death. This is how Russia lived under the Mongol-Tatar yoke. Horde troops were practically not standing in it. But with disobedience, punitive troops could always come and start cutting and burning everything.
The rise of Moscow
The bloody feuds of the Russian princes among themselves led to the fact that from 1275 to 1300 the Mongol troops came to Russia 15 times. Many principalities came out of the strife weakened, of them people fled to more peaceful places. Such a quiet principality turned out to be a small Moscow one. It was inherited by the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel. He reigned from the age of 15 and pursued a cautious policy, trying not to quarrel with his neighbors, for he was too weak. And the Horde did not pay close attention to him. Thus, an impetus was given to the development of trade and enrichment in this area.
Migrants from troubled places poured into it. Over time, Daniel managed to annex Kolomna and Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, increasing his principality. His sons after his death continued the relatively quiet policy of his father. Only the princes of Tver saw in them potential rivals and tried, fighting for the Great reign in Vladimir, to spoil Moscow’s relations with the Horde. This hatred went so far that when the Moscow prince and the Tver prince were simultaneously summoned to the Horde, Dmitry Tverskoy stabbed Yuri Moscow. 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 became rich. Cities grew, their population increased. A whole generation grew up in Northeastern Russia, which ceased to tremble at the mention of the Mongols. This brought closer the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia.
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, but bright life. He conducted it in battles, but now it is important to stop at the great battle with Mamai, which took place in 1380 on the Nepryadva River. By this time, Prince Dmitry defeated the punitive Mongol detachment between Ryazan and Kolomna. Momai began to prepare a new campaign in Russia. Dmitry, learning 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 collect 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 Mamaia.
On September 8, at dawn, a great battle took place. Dmitry fought in the forefront, was wounded, he was found with difficulty. But the Mongols were defeated and fled. Dmitry returned with a victory. But the time has not yet come when the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia will come. History says 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. The son of Dmitry, 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 principality. The horde was weakening and less and less reckoned with. Basil during his life only twice visited the Horde. But even within Russia there was no unity. Endlessly riots broke out. Even at the wedding of Prince Vasily II, a scandal erupted. On one of the guests was wearing a golden belt of Dmitry Donskoy. When the bride found out about this, she publicly thwarted him, causing an insult. But the belt was not just a jewel. He was a symbol of princely power. During the reign of Basil II (1425–1453) feudal wars were fought. The Moscow prince was captured, blinded, and his entire 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 his co-ruler was the young Ivan, who, after the death of his father, will become the liberator of the country and will be nicknamed the Great.
The end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia
In 1462, the lawful ruler Ivan III, who became a transformer and reformer, entered the Moscow throne. He carefully and prudently united the Russian lands. He annexed Tver, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Perm, and even the obstinate Novgorod recognized him as sovereign. He made the emblem of the double-headed Byzantine eagle, began to build the Kremlin. That is how we know him. Since 1476, Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Horde. A beautiful but untruthful legend tells how this happened. Having accepted the Horde Embassy, the Grand Duke trampled Basma and sent a warning to the Horde that the same would happen to them if his country was not left alone. The enraged Khan Ahmed, having gathered a large army, moved to Moscow, wanting to punish her for disobedience. About 150 km from Moscow, near the Ugra River, on the Kaluga lands in the fall, two troops began opposite. Russian was headed by the son of Vasily, Ivan Young.
Ivan III returned to Moscow and began to deliver to the army - food, fodder. So the troops stood opposite each other until the early winter approached with a nonsense and buried all Ahmed's plans. The Mongols turned and went into the Horde, admitting defeat. So the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke happened bloodlessly. Its date - 1480 - is a great event in our history.
Yoke fall value
Having long suspended the political, economic and cultural development of Russia, the yoke pushed the country into the margins of European history. When the Renaissance began and flourished in Western Europe in all areas, when the national identities of nations took shape, when countries grew rich and flourished with trade, sent the fleet in search of new lands, darkness was in Russia. Columbus discovered America in 1492. For Europeans, the Earth grew rapidly. For us, the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia marked the opportunity to get out of the narrow medieval framework, change laws, reform the army, build cities and explore new lands. In short, Russia gained independence and became known as Russia.