History is known to repeat itself. Over the past centuries, the alignment of forces on the geopolitical map has changed many times, states have arisen and disappeared, the will of the rulers of the army rushed to storm the fortresses, many thousands of unknown soldiers died in distant lands. The confrontation between Russia and the Teutonic Order can serve as an example of an attempt to expand the so-called “Western values” into the East of Europe, which ended in collapse. The question arises of how great were the chances of the chivalrous army to win.
Initial situation
At the end of the twelfth century, northwestern Russia was in a position that can be characterized by the well-known expression “between a rock and a hard place”. Batu acted in the southwest, ruining and robbing the scattered Slavic principalities. From the Baltic side, the advance of the German knights began. The strategic goal of the Christian army, announced by the Pope, was to convey Catholicism to the consciousness of the indigenous population, who at that time professed paganism. The Finno-Ugric and Baltic tribes had militarily weak resistance, and the invasion at the first stage developed quite successfully. In the period from 1184 to the end of the century, a series of victories allowed to develop success, establish a Riga fortress and gain a foothold on the bridgehead for further aggression. Actually, the European Crusade, Rome announced in 1198, it was intended to become a kind of revenge for the defeat in the Holy Land. Methods and true goals were very far from the teachings of Christ - they had a pronounced political and economic background. In other words, the crusaders came to the land of Estonians and Livs to rob and capture. At the eastern borders, the Teutonic Order and Russia at the beginning of the 13th century had a common border.
Initial military conflicts
The relations between the Teutons and Rus were complex, their character evolved from the emerging military-political realities. Trade interests prompted temporary alliances and joint operations against pagan tribes, when situations dictated certain conditions. The general Christian faith, however, did not prevent the knights from gradually pursuing a policy of catholicizing the Slavic population, which caused some concern. The year 1212 was marked by a military campaign of the combined fifteen thousandth Novgorod-Polochansky army to a number of castles. Then followed a brief truce. The Teutonic Order and Russia entered a period of conflict, which was to last decades.
13th Century Western Sanctions
The "Chronicle of Livonia" by Henry of Latvia contains information about the siege of the Venden castle by the Novgorodians in 1217. The enemies of the Germans were the Danes, who wanted to grab their piece of the Baltic pie. They founded an outpost, the Taani Linn Fortress (now Revel). This created additional difficulties, including those related to supply. In connection with these and many other circumstances, he was forced to repeatedly review his military policy and the Teutonic Order. Relations with Russia were complicated, raids on outposts continued, serious measures were required to counter it.
However, the ammunition did not quite correspond to ambitions. Pope Gregory IX simply did not have enough economic resources to conduct full-scale hostilities and, in addition to ideological measures, he could only oppose the Russian forces to the economic blockade of Novgorod, which was done in 1228. Today, these actions would be called sanctions. They did not succeed, the Scottish merchants did not sacrifice profits in the name of papal aggressive aspirations, and for the most part they ignored the calls for the blockade.
The myth of the hordes of "knight dogs"
More or less successful campaigns on the domain of the knights continued during the reign of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, a victory near Yuryev made this city a list of Novgorod tributaries (1234). In essence, the image of hordes of armored crusaders, storming Russian cities, created by cinematographers (primarily by Sergei Eisenstein), which is usual for mass consciousness , obviously did not quite correspond to historical truth. The knights rather fought a positional struggle, trying to keep the castles and fortresses they had built, occasionally venturing outings, how bold, as adventurous. The Teutonic Order and Russia in the thirties of the XIII century possessed different resource bases, and their ratio was increasingly not in favor of the German conquerors.
Alexander Nevskiy
The prince of Novgorod earned his title by victory over the Swedes, who dared to land in 1240 on Russian soil, at the mouth of the Neva. The intentions of the "landing" were not in doubt, and the young, but already experienced military leader (father's school) led his small detachment into a decisive attack. Victory was the reward for courage, and it was not the last. The next crusade against Russia of the Teutonic Order, undertaken by the knights in 1242, ended in tears for the invaders. The battle plan, later called the “Battle of the Ice”, was brilliantly thought out and successfully implemented. Prince Alexander Nevsky took into account the features of the terrain, used unconventional tactics, secured the support of the Horde, received serious military assistance from her, in general, used all available resources and won a victory that glorified his name for centuries. Significant enemy forces went to the bottom of Lake Peipsi , and the rest of the warriors were killed or captured. The year 1262 is noted in history books as the date of the conclusion of the alliance between Novgorod and the Lithuanian prince Mindovg, together with which the siege of Wenden was carried out, not entirely successful, but not unsuccessful: the combined forces caused significant damage to the enemy. After this event, the Teutonic Order and Russia almost cease mutual military activity for six years. Agreements on the division of spheres of influence favorable to Novgorod are concluded.
Conflict ending
All wars ever end. A long confrontation ended, in which the Livonian Teutonic Order and Russia converged. We can briefly mention the last significant episode of the long-standing conflict - the Battle of Rakovors, now almost forgotten. It took place in February 1268 and showed the impotence of the combined Danish-German army, which sought to reverse the general strategic situation in its favor. At the first stage, the knights managed to squeeze the positions of the warriors led by the son of Prince Alexander Nevsky Dmitry. Then came the counterattack of the five thousandth army, and the enemy fled. Formally, the battle ended in a draw: the Russian troops failed to take the fortress besieged by them (perhaps this task was not posed for fear of heavy losses), but this and other less ambitious attempts to seize the Teutonic team's initiative failed. Today, only preserved ancient castles remind of them.