There are events that have been lost and lost in history, while others, on the contrary, are vivid and significant, the memory of which does not fade from year to year, and the importance is not lost, as if many did not want to. The author of Zadonshchina, a literary work written shortly after the events on Kulikovsky Field, writes that the glory from this victory swept across the world to Constantinople, and praise came to the princes from all sides for defeating the Tatar army. How important is it for every Russian to know and be sure when the Kulikovo battle was, what is its meaning and significance.
Feudal fragmentation weakened the country's defense, which became the main reason for the establishment of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia in 1237-1240. When
the Battle of Kulikovo took place, fragmentation had not yet completely passed, but centripetal tendencies were already evident. Moscow rose more and more, acting as the spiritual and political center of the northeastern principalities. In the Golden Horde, on the contrary, a period of struggle for power has begun. Nevertheless, Temnik Mamai was planning a new destructive campaign in Russia. Upon learning of this, Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich hastily organizes defense, and then plans to go out to meet the Mongol army in order to avoid the defeat of his lands. Having sent letters to the Russian princes, Dmitry Donskoy (he will receive this nickname after the victory) appointed a fee in Kolomna. Almost all the princes of North-Eastern Russia sent their regiments. The united army, consisting of approximately 50-60 thousand warriors, came out to meet the enemy. Mom, unprepared for this turn of events, was taken by surprise.
The two armies met on the banks of the Don, where a tributary of the Nepryadv flows into it, on
the Kulikovo field. Mamaevo hordes outnumbered the Russian army in numbers, and he was confident of victory. But on September 8, 1380, when the Battle of Kulikovo took place, Russian weapons won the first, in such power and scale, victory over the Mongol-Tatars. For centuries, the folk memory has preserved the image of the Russian hero, monk, Alexander Peresvet, who began the battle that day with the Tatar warrior Chelubey and died on the battlefield. Dmitry Ivanovich did not immediately throw the whole army into battle, leaving an ambush regiment not far from the oak grove. The reserve under the leadership of Dmitry Volynsky, who entered the battle on time, in fact, decided the outcome of the battle. Tired Tatar warriors, already feeling victory, could not withstand the onslaught of new Russian forces and fled. About half of the army of Dmitry Ivanovich remained on the battlefield.
Unfortunately, at the time of the Battle of Kulikovo, the Mongol-Tatar yoke did not end, the Russian principalities were forced to resume paying tribute to the Horde after 1382 due to the crushing campaign of Khan Tokhtamysh, but this does not detract from the significance of the feat of arms on the Kulikov field. The joint struggle rallied the Russian people, contributed to the unification of the northeastern principalities led by Moscow, and gave hope for a speedy liberation.
In recent decades, publications on the
falsification of history and revision towards the “historical truth” of various events, including the Battle of Kulikovo, have gained popularity. And the battle was, so-so, an insignificant event, and it was not in the Don, but, it turns out, in Moscow, and Mamai is a victim of the aggressiveness of the Moscow prince, and similar clarifications. A number of historians entered into polemics with such publicists, refuting their arguments with incontrovertible facts.
One can agree that the end of the 14th century is a matter of bygone days, much of the story has become legendary, and this is natural. But the main phenomenon remained unchanged, the facts of place and time, of historical significance, cannot be redone. And the pseudo-historians depriving the Russian state of heroes and victory in the pursuit of sensation, what goals do they set for themselves? Be that as it may, this leads to the erosion of the historical foundation necessary for the construction of a strong state.