The Mongol conquests began with the unification of the tribes, which was completely completed by Khan Temuchin, today better known as Genghis Khan. It was he who in 1206 was elected the ruler of all the Mongols.
The beginning of the Mongol conquests - Genghis Khan
Even before the Mongol conquest of Asia began, Genghis Khan conquered the surrounding tribes - Naimans, Kereites and Zhalairs, who partially fell under his rule, partially migrated.
To conquer all the lands of the world, as Genghis Khan intended, a powerful and disciplined army was required, on the creation of which he concentrated his efforts. The basis of the army was the cavalry, which allowed the army to move quickly and attack unexpectedly - this gave a significant military advantage. With his help, the southern part of Siberia and the northern part of China were conquered.
The Mongols dealt ruthlessly with those who resisted them, but in the conquered territories they showed a rare religious tolerance, allowing peoples to pray to their gods.
After Genghis Khan adopted such important inventions as gunpowder and throwing tools from the Chinese, he conquered Northern Iran and Khorezm in Central Asia.
Rice. 1. Genghis Khan.
However, he was not only a conqueror - thanks to him, the postal business developed, trade flourished. The Great Silk Road was very safe, as caravan robbers were severely punished.
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Mongol conquests - son and grandson of Genghis Khan
In 1227, the great Khan of the Mongols died, and his sons shared power over the people. The most famous among them was Ogedei, who went to conquer the west. But the grandson of Genghis Khan Batu is much more famous, who undertook a campaign against Russia in 1237-1241, almost completely conquered it, and then went to Hungary and Poland. Having defeated both the Polish and German knights, the Mongol army reached the Adriatic Sea. In Europe, his invasion was considered a harbinger of the end of the world, it was so terrible.
Rice. 2. Baty.
Having conquered so many lands and peoples, the Mongols for some reason turned to the Middle East. This fact is still a mystery to historians.
After the conquest of the Arab Caliphate, the Mongol Empire began to disintegrate. Her successor was the Golden Horde.
The end of Genghisid power: Tamerlane
After the Mongol state collapsed, Tamerlane seized power in one of its parts in 1370. He, following the example of Genghis Khan, created a strong army and also conquered the lands one by one. He conquered a significant part of the East and defeated the Khan of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh. In 1395, Tamerlane invaded Russia, but immediately withdrew his army. In 1404 he completely defeated the Turks near Ankara. The state he created occupied a vast territory.
Rice. 3. Tamerlane.
In 1405 the great Tamerlane died without fulfilling his desire to conquer China.
Positive and negative consequences of the Mongol conquests
On the one hand, the Mongols destroyed cities and drove people into slavery, their invasions caused a demographic crisis and cultural decline, as well as economic decline due to the huge tribute paid by the conquered population.
On the other hand, the Mongols patronized trade, laid the foundations of statehood in Asia.
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Chronology
- 1123 Battle of the Russians and Polovtsians with the Mongols on the Kalka River
- 1237 - 1240 The conquest of Russia by the Mongols
- 1240 The defeat of the Swedish knights on the Neva River by Prince Alexander Yaroslavovich (Battle of the Neva)
- 1242 The defeat of the Crusaders by Prince Alexander Yaroslavovich Nevsky on Lake Peipus (Battle on the Ice)
- 1380 Battle of Kulikovo
The beginning of the Mongol conquests of the Russian principalities
In the XIII century. the peoples of Russia had to endure a hard struggle with Tatar-Mongol conquerors who ruled in the Russian lands until the 15th century. (the last century in a milder form). Directly or indirectly, the Mongol invasion contributed to the fall political institutions Kiev period and the growth of absolutism.
In the XII century. there was no centralized state in Mongolia; the union of the tribes was achieved at the end of the 12th century. Temuchin, the leader of one of the clans. At a general meeting (“kurultai”) of representatives of all clans in 1206 d. he was proclaimed a great khan with the name Genghis(“Infinite Power”).
As soon as the empire was created, it began its expansion. The organization of the Mongolian army was based on the decimal principle - 10, 100, 1000, etc. The imperial guard was created, which controlled the entire army. Before the advent of firearms Mongolian cavalry took up in the steppe wars. She was better organized and trained than any nomadic army of the past. The reason for success was not only the perfection of the military organization of the Mongols, but also the unpreparedness of rivals.
At the beginning of the 13th century, having conquered part of Siberia, the Mongols in 1215 set about conquering China. They managed to capture the entire northern part of it. From China, the Mongols took out the latest for that time military equipment and specialists. In addition, they received cadres of competent and experienced officials from among the Chinese. In 1219, the troops of Genghis Khan invaded Central Asia. Following Central Asia captured Northern Iran, after which the troops of Genghis Khan made a predatory campaign in Transcaucasia. From the south they came to the Polovtsian steppes and defeated the Polovtsians.
The request of the Polovtsy to help them against a dangerous enemy was accepted by the Russian princes. The battle between the Russian-Polovtsian and Mongol troops took place on May 31, 1223 on the Kalka River in the Azov region. Not all Russian princes, who promised to participate in the battle, put up their troops. The battle ended with the defeat of the Russian-Polovtsian troops, many princes and combatants died.
In 1227, Genghis Khan died. Ogedei, his third son, was elected Great Khan. In 1235, the Kurultai met in the Mongolian capital of Karakorum, where it was decided to begin the conquest of the western lands. This intention posed a terrible threat to the Russian lands. Ogedei's nephew, Batu (Batu), became the head of the new campaign.
In 1236, the troops of Batu began a campaign against the Russian lands. Having defeated the Volga Bulgaria, they set off to conquer the Ryazan principality. The Ryazan princes, their squads and townspeople had to fight the invaders alone. The city was burned and plundered. After the capture of Ryazan, the Mongol troops moved to Kolomna. Many Russian soldiers died in the battle near Kolomna, and the battle itself ended in defeat for them. On February 3, 1238, the Mongols approached Vladimir. Having besieged the city, the invaders sent a detachment to Suzdal, who took it and burned it. The Mongols stopped only in front of Novgorod, turning south due to mudslides.
In 1240 the Mongol offensive resumed. Chernigov and Kiev were captured and destroyed. From here, the Mongol troops moved into Galicia-Volyn Rus. Having captured Vladimir-Volynsky, Galich in 1241, Batu invaded Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Moravia, and then in 1242 reached Croatia and Dalmatia. However, the Mongol troops entered Western Europe significantly weakened by the powerful resistance they met in Russia. This largely explains the fact that if the Mongols managed to establish their yoke in Russia, then Western Europe experienced only an invasion, and then on a smaller scale. This is the historical role of the heroic resistance of the Russian people to the invasion of the Mongols.
The result of the grandiose campaign of Batu was the conquest of a vast territory - the southern Russian steppes and forests of Northern Russia, the region of the Lower Danube (Bulgaria and Moldova). The Mongol Empire now included the entire Eurasian continent from the Pacific Ocean to the Balkans.
After the death of Ögedei in 1241, the majority supported the candidacy of Ögedei's son Gayuk. Batu became the head of the strongest regional khanate. He established his capital at Sarai (north of Astrakhan). His power extended to Kazakhstan, Khorezm, Western Siberia, Volga, North Caucasus, Russia. Gradually, the western part of this ulus became known as Golden Horde.
The struggle of the Russian people against Western aggression
When the Mongols occupied Russian cities, the Swedes, threatening Novgorod, appeared at the mouth of the Neva. They were defeated in July 1240 by the young prince Alexander, who received the name Nevsky for his victory.
At the same time, the Roman Church was making acquisitions in the countries of the Baltic Sea. Back in the 12th century, German chivalry began to seize the lands belonging to the Slavs beyond the Oder and in the Baltic Pomerania. At the same time, an offensive was carried out on the lands of the Baltic peoples. The Crusaders' invasion of the Baltic lands and Northwestern Russia was sanctioned by the Pope and the German Emperor Frederick II. German, Danish, Norwegian knights and hosts from other northern European countries also took part in the crusade. The attack on Russian lands was part of the doctrine of "Drang nach Osten" (pressure to the east).
Baltics in the 13th century
Together with his retinue, Alexander liberated Pskov, Izborsk and other captured cities with a sudden blow. Having received the news that the main forces of the Order were coming at him, Alexander Nevsky blocked the way for the knights, placing his troops on the ice of Lake Peipsi. The Russian prince showed himself as an outstanding commander. The chronicler wrote about him: "Winning everywhere, but we won't win at all." Alexander deployed troops under the cover of a steep bank on the ice of the lake, eliminating the possibility of enemy reconnaissance of his forces and depriving the enemy of freedom of maneuver. Taking into account the construction of the knights as a “pig” (in the form of a trapezoid with a sharp wedge in front, which was heavily armed cavalry), Alexander Nevsky arranged his regiments in the form of a triangle, with a tip resting on the shore. Before the battle, part of the Russian soldiers were equipped with special hooks to pull the knights off their horses.
On April 5, 1242, a battle took place on the ice of Lake Peipsi, which was called the Battle of the Ice. The knight's wedge broke through the center of the Russian position and hit the shore. The flank attacks of the Russian regiments decided the outcome of the battle: like pincers, they crushed the knightly “pig”. The knights, unable to withstand the blow, fled in panic. The Russians pursued the enemy, “flashed, rushing after him, as if through air,” the chronicler wrote. According to the Novgorod Chronicle, in the battle “400 and 50 Germans were taken prisoner”
Stubbornly resisting the western enemies, Alexander was extremely patient with the eastern onslaught. Recognition of the sovereignty of the khan freed his hands to repel the Teutonic crusade.
Tatar-Mongol yoke
While persistently resisting the Western enemies, Alexander was extremely patient with the Eastern onslaught. The Mongols did not interfere in the religious affairs of their subjects, while the Germans tried to impose their faith on the conquered peoples. They pursued an aggressive policy under the slogan "Who does not want to be baptized must die!". Recognition of the Khan's sovereignty freed forces to repel the Teutonic crusade. But it turned out that the "Mongol flood" is not easy to get rid of. RRussian lands despoiled by the Mongols were forced to recognize vassal dependence on the Golden Horde.
In the first period of Mongol rule, the collection of taxes and the mobilization of Russians into the Mongol troops was carried out on the orders of the great khan. Both money and recruits went to the capital. Under Gauk, Russian princes traveled to Mongolia to receive a label to reign. Later, a trip to Saray was enough.
The incessant struggle waged by the Russian people against the invaders forced the Mongol-Tatars to abandon the creation of their own administrative authorities in Russia. Russia retained its statehood. This was facilitated by the presence in Russia of its own administration and church organization.
To control the Russian lands, the institution of Baskak governors was created - the leaders of the military detachments of the Mongol-Tatars, who monitored the activities of the Russian princes. The denunciation of the Baskaks to the Horde inevitably ended either with the summoning of the prince to Sarai (often he lost his label, and even his life), or with a punitive campaign in the unruly land. Suffice it to say that only in the last quarter of the XIII century. 14 similar campaigns were organized in Russian lands.
In 1257, the Mongol-Tatars undertook a census of the population - "recording in number." Besermen (Muslim merchants) were sent to the cities, to whom the collection of tribute was given. The size of the tribute (“exit”) was very large, only the “royal tribute”, i.e. tribute in favor of the khan, which was first collected in kind, and then in money, amounted to 1300 kg of silver per year. The constant tribute was supplemented by "requests" - one-time requisitions in favor of the khan. In addition, deductions from trade duties, taxes for “feeding” khan officials, etc. went to the khan's treasury. In total there were 14 types of tributes in favor of the Tatars.
The Horde yoke slowed down for a long time economic development Russia, destroyed it Agriculture undermined the culture. Mongol invasion led to a decline in the role of cities in the political and economic life Russia, urban construction was suspended, fine and applied arts fell into decay. A severe consequence of the yoke was the deepening of the disunity of Russia and the isolation of its individual parts. The weakened country was unable to defend a number of western and southern regions, later captured by the Lithuanian and Polish feudal lords. The trade ties of Russia with the West were dealt a blow: trade ties with foreign countries survived only near Novgorod, Pskov, Polotsk, Vitebsk and Smolensk.
The turning point was 1380, when Mamai's army of thousands was defeated on the Kulikovo field.
Battle of Kulikovo 1380
Russia began to grow stronger, its dependence on the Horde weakened more and more. The final liberation took place in 1480 under Tsar Ivan III. By this time, the period was over, the collection of Russian lands around Moscow and was ending.
The wars of the Mongol khans, aimed first at creating a world empire, and later, after the collapse of a single Mongol state, at expanding and holding the territory of the Mongol states formed in various regions of the world.
At the beginning of the XIII century, the tribes of modern Mongolia were united by Genghis Khan (Temuchin) into a single state. In 1206, the kurultai (council of khans) proclaimed Temujin Genghis Khan (ruler of the strong).
The Mongols were pastoral nomads. Almost the entire adult population was not only shepherds, but also horsemen. All Mongols were personally free. They made up an army of up to 120 thousand people. The light and heavy Mongol cavalry was supplemented by infantry, recruited from conquered and allied peoples. Every 10 wagons of the Mongols were supposed to put up from 1 to 3 warriors. Several families of 10 wagons were supposed to field 10 warriors. Warriors did not receive salaries, but lived solely at the expense of booty. The army was divided into tens, hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands (tumens). The main weapon of the Mongols was the bow, each of which had several quivers of arrows. The warriors also had spears with iron hooks, which could be used to pull enemy riders off their horses, curved sabers, leather helmets (the nobility had iron ones), lassoes and light long pikes.
Between 1194 and 1206, the Mongols conquered Manchuria, northern China, and southern Siberia. In 1206, 1207 and 1209 the Mongols were at war with the Tangut kingdom in Northwestern China. In 1211, Genghis Khan started a war with China and in 1215 stormed and sacked Beijing.
In 1218, the kurultai decided to go to war with Khorezm, the largest state in Central Asia. On the way to Khorezm, a 20,000-strong detachment under the command of Chebe conquered the Kara-Chinese Empire. Another detachment of the Mongol army headed for the Khorezm city of Otrar near the Syr Darya River. The Khorezm sultan (Khorezmshah) Muhammad with a strong army came out to meet this detachment. A battle took place north of Samarkand, which did not lead to decisive results. The Mongols defeated the left wing and the center of the enemy, but their left wing, in turn, was defeated by the right wing of the Khorezmians, led by the Sultan's son Jalal-ed-Din.
With the onset of darkness, both armies withdrew from the battlefield. Mohammed returned to Bukhara, and the Mongols - to meet the army of Genghis Khan, who set out on a campaign at the end of 1218. Muhammad did not dare to engage in battle with the main forces of the Mongols and retreated to Samarkand, leaving strong garrisons in a number of fortresses. Genghis Khan with the bulk of the army moved to Bukhara, detaching his son Jochi to the Seyhun River and the city of Dzhendu, and the other two sons, Chagatai and Oktay, to Otrar.
In March 1220, Bukhara was taken and plundered, and the 20,000-strong garrison was almost completely killed. The same fate befell Samarkand with a garrison of 40,000. Mohammed's army gradually dispersed. Its remnants retreated to Iran. On May 24, 1220, the 30,000-strong Mongol corps under the command of Jebe and Subede cut off the retreat of the Khorezm army, occupying Nishapur on May 24. Muhammad's 30,000-strong army dispersed without accepting battle.
Meanwhile, Jochi, after a seven-month siege, occupied the Khorezm capital of Urgench. Historians claim that the Mongols destroyed 2,400 thousand inhabitants of the city, but this figure is exaggerated to the point of absurdity: it is unlikely that the entire population of the cities of Khorezm much exceeded this value.
Genghis Khan's army took Balkh and Talekan. Genghis Khan's son Tului besieged Merv for half a year, which he took in April 1221 with the help of 3 thousand ballistas, 300 catapults, 700 machines for throwing oil bombs and 4 thousand assault ladders.
Shortly after the fall of Merv, Mohammed died, and his son Jalal-ed-Din continued the fight against the Mongols. He managed to gather a large army and defeat the 30,000-strong detachment of the Mongols near Kabul. Genghis Khan moved against Jalal-ed-Din with the main forces. On December 9, 1221, a battle took place between them on the banks of the Indus River. The Mongols defeated the flanks of the Khorezmians and pressed their center to the Indus. Jalal-ed-Din with four thousand surviving soldiers escaped by swimming.
In subsequent years, the Mongols completed the conquest of Khorezm and invaded Tibet. In 1225, Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia with rich booty.
The detachment of Subede (Subedei), passing through Northern Iran, invaded the Caucasus in 1222, defeated the army of the Georgian king, took Derbent and entered the Polovtsian steppes through the Shirvan gorge. The Mongols defeated the army of the Polovtsy, Lezgins, Circassians and Alans, and at the beginning of 1223 they raided the Crimea, where they captured Surozh (Sudak). In the spring they returned to the Polovtsian steppes and drove the Polovtsians to the Dnieper.
The Polovtsian Khan Kotyan asked his son-in-law, the Galician prince Mstislav, for help. He gathered in Kiev a council of South Russian princes, at which it was decided to put up a united army against the Mongols. Together with the Polovtsians, it concentrated on the right bank of the Dnieper near Oleshya.
Princes Daniil Volynsky and Mstislav of Galicia with a thousand horsemen crossed the Dnieper and defeated the advance detachment of the Mongols. However, this success ruined the Russian-Polovtsian army. Not having a clear idea of the enemy's forces, it moved beyond the Dnieper to the Polovtsian steppes.
Nine days later, the Allies approached the Kalka (Kalets) River. Here the rivalry between the two most powerful princes, Mstislav of Kiev and Mstislav of Galicia, manifested itself. The Kiev prince offered to defend himself on the right bank of the Kalka, and the Galician prince, along with most of the other princes and the Polovtsians, crossed the river on May 31, 1223. The advance detachment of Daniil Volynsky and the Polovtsian commander Yarun suddenly stumbled upon the main forces of Subede and was put to flight. The fugitives mixed the ranks of the squad of Mstislav Galitsky. Following them, the Mongol cavalry broke into the location of the main forces of the Russian army. The Russian squads fled in disarray for the Kalka and further to the Dnieper. Only Mstislav of Galicia and Daniil Volynsky managed to escape with the remnants of their squads. Six princes, including Mstislav Chernigov, died.
The Mongols besieged the camp of Mstislav of Kiev. His squad managed to repulse several attacks. Then Subede promised to release Mstislav with the soldiers back home for a ransom. However, when the Russians left the camp, the Mongols captured them, and Mstislav of Kiev and two of his allied princes were executed by a terrible death. Boards were placed on the unfortunate, and feasting Mongol commanders sat on them.
The defeat of the Russian troops was caused by the disagreements of the Russian princes and the higher combat effectiveness of the Mongolian light cavalry. In addition, the army of Subede and Jebe got the opportunity to beat the enemy in parts. The Mongol army in the battle on Kalka numbered up to 30 thousand people. There is no data on the size of the Russian-Polovtsian army, but it was probably approximately equal to the Mongol one.
After the victory at Kalka, Chebe and Subede moved to the middle Volga. Here the Mongols could not break the resistance of the Volga Bulgars and returned to Asia by the Caspian steppes, where in 1225 they joined the army of Genghis Khan.
Genghis Khan and his eldest son Jochi died in 1227. The second son of Genghis Khan Ogedei (Oktay) became the Great Khan. After the death of Genghis Khan, the Mongol Empire was divided among his sons into four khanates. The Great Khan himself ruled in the Eastern Khanate, which included Mongolia, northern China, Manchuria and part of India. His brother Jagatai received Central Asia and the upper reaches of the Ob and Irtysh. The ulus of Jochi, which included a vast territory from northern Turkestan to the lower reaches of the Danube, was headed by his son Batu (Batu). The Persian Khanate, which included Persia proper and Afghanistan, was headed by Hulagu.
In 1234, the conquest of the Jurchen state of Jin in the territory of Northeast China was completed. In this war, they were short-sightedly assisted by the troops of the southern Chinese state of Song, which itself soon became a victim of Mongol aggression. In 1235, Oktai convened a kurultai, at which it was decided to undertake campaigns in Korea, South China, India and Europe. The campaign against European countries was led by the son of Jochi Batu (Batu) and Subede.
In February 1236, they concentrated an army in the upper reaches of the Irtysh and headed for the middle Volga. Here the Mongols conquered the state of the Volga Bulgars, and then moved to Russia. In the same year, the conquest of Armenia and Georgia was completed, weakened by the war with the Khorezmshah Jalal-ed-Din, who in 1226 captured and plundered Tbilisi.
In 1237, the Mongol army invaded the Ryazan principality. The Tatars (as the Mongols were called in Russia) defeated the advance detachment of the Ryazanians on the Voronezh River. The Ryazan prince and his vassals, the princes of Murom and Pronsky, turned to the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich for help, but his army did not have time to prevent the fall of Ryazan. The city was taken on December 25 after a 9-day siege. The small Ryazan squad could not resist the more than 60,000-strong Mongol army.
Batu moved through Kolomna to Moscow. Near Kolomna, the Mongols defeated the army of the Vladimir prince (the prince himself with his retinue was not in his ranks) Batu burned Moscow and went to Vladimir. On February 7, 1238, the city was taken after a four-day siege.
Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich tried to gather the forces of the northeastern Russian principalities. He stood with his army on the City River, not far from the fork in the road to Novgorod and Beloozersk. On March 4, 1238, the Mongols suddenly appeared, passing through Tver and Yaroslavl, and hit the Vladimir prince's army on the flank. Yuri Vladimirovich was killed, and his army was scattered.
The further path of the Mongols lay in the direction of Novgorod. Batu's army took Torzhok. But at the tract Ignach Krest, 200 km from Novgorod, the Mongol army suddenly turned back. The reasons for this turn are not entirely clear today.
In the winter of 1239, Batu's army began a large campaign in Southwestern Russia and Central Europe. From the Polovtsian steppes, the Mongols marched to Chernigov, which was taken and burned without much difficulty. Then Batu went to Kiev. The Kiev princes, who fought for the throne of the grand duke, left the city, withdrawing their squads. The city was defended by a small detachment led by Tysyatsky Dmitry with the support of the city militia. With the help of siege weapons, the Mongols destroyed the walls. In 1240 Kiev fell.
In January 1241, Batu divided his army into three detachments. One detachment invaded Poland, another - into Silesia and Moravia, the third - into Hungary and Transylvania. The first two detachments took Sandomierz together, and then split up. One took Lenchica, and the other defeated the Polish army at Shidlovice on March 18, 1241, and then unsuccessfully besieged Breslau. Near Liegnitz, both detachments again connected and were able to defeat the combined army of German and Polish knights. This battle took place on April 9 near the village of Wahlstedt.
Then the Mongols moved into Moravia. Here, the Bohemian boyar Yaroslav managed to defeat the detachment of the Mongol commander Peta near Olmutz. In the Czech Republic, the Mongols met the combined troops of the Czech king and the dukes of Austria and Carinthia. Petya had to retreat.
The main forces of the Mongols, led by Batu, advanced in Hungary. On March 12, 1241, they managed to defeat the Hungarian detachments defending the Carpathian passes near the cities of Ungvar and Munkács. King Bela IV of Hungary with his army was in Pest. Meanwhile, detachments of the Mongols from all over Europe flocked to Hungary, since there was an abundance of grass for their horses on the Hungarian plain. At the end of June, Subede's detachment from Poland and Peta's detachment from Moravia arrived here. On March 16, 1241, the Mongol vanguards appeared at Pest. Here they were confronted by a united army of Hungarians, Croats, Austrians and French knights. Batu besieged Pest for two months, but did not dare to storm a strong fortress defended by a numerous garrison, and retreated from the city.
The Hungarians and their allies pursued the Mongols for 6 days and reached the Shaio River. At night, the Mongol army suddenly crossed the river, pushing back the Hungarian detachment guarding the bridge. In the morning, the allies saw a large mass of Mongol cavalry on the coastal hills. The knights attacked the Mongols, but were repelled by mounted archers backed up by stone-throwing machines. One of the Hungarian detachments was lured into ravines by a feigned retreat and destroyed there. Then the Mongols surrounded the camp of the allied troops and began to fire at it. The army of King Bela began to retreat to the Danube. The Mongols organized a parallel pursuit. The Hungarians and their allies suffered heavy losses. The Mongols destroyed the stragglers and single knights. On the shoulders of the retreating Batu troops broke into Pest. The Mongols pursued the remnants of the Hungarian army in Croatia and Dalmatia.
King Bela took refuge on one of the islands near the Adriatic coast. The Mongols were unable to take the heavily fortified ports of Split and Dubrovnik and turned back. Batu, at the head of the bulk of the troops along the Danube valley and the Black Sea coast, returned to the lower reaches of the Volga. The formal reason for the return was the need to take part in the kurultai, convened after the death of the great Khan Udegei (he died on November 11, 1241). However, the real reason was the impossibility to keep the conquests in Central and Eastern Europe. Batu failed to take many fortresses and defeat the main forces of the European sovereigns, who were able to unite in the face of the Mongol danger. In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, this was easier to do, since here the population density was much higher than in Russia, and, accordingly, the troops of individual feudal lords needed to travel much shorter distances to connect with each other. In addition, in Southwestern Europe there were strong stone fortresses that the Mongols were unable to take. In Russia, most of the fortresses were wooden and, with rare exceptions, like Kozelsk, Batu's army did not spend much time besieging them.
In 1243, the Mongol troops, whose allies were Georgians and Armenians, defeated the army of the Seljuk Turks led by the Sultan of Rum. In 1245, the Mongols reached Damascus, and in 1258 captured Baghdad. a state virtually independent of the Karakorum.
In 1235, the Mongols began raiding the Sung state. In 1251, when Mongke became the Great Khan of the Mongols, military operations in South China intensified. In 1252-1253, the state of Nanzhao, neighboring the Song, was conquered in the territory of modern Yun'an province. In 1257, the Mongol troops occupied North Vietnam and the following year launched an offensive against the Chinese city of Changsha, which was approached from the north by the army of the future Great Khan Kublai. But they failed to take Changsha, and the siege had to be lifted in 1260. Mongke, with the main forces of the Mongols, captured the rich province of Sichuan in the spring of 1258. The following year, he besieged the city of Hezhou, but died suddenly during the siege. On May 5, 1260, Kublai Khan was proclaimed great khan, but the Hulaguids and the Golden Horde did not recognize his suzerainty. During the subsequent civil war, the united Mongolian state actually collapsed, although the rivals formally recognized the supremacy of Khubilai. He retained control over Mongolia, northern and central China. Civil strife distracted the Mongols from the war with the Suns. Only in 1267 did Khubilai resume raids on South China, and at the end of 1271 he proclaimed himself emperor of the new Chinese Yuan dynasty.
In 1273, the Mongol troops managed to capture the fortresses of Fancheng and Xianyang in Hubei province. In January 1275, they were able to cross to the south bank of the Yangtze River and capture the provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Zhejiang. The Sung infantry could not withstand the onslaught of the Mongol cavalry. On February 21, 1276, the last Sung emperor, a four-year-old boy Gong Di, abdicated in favor of Khubilai in the enemy-encircled capital Ling'an. Three years later, the resistance of the last Chinese detachments in the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi was crushed.
Khubilai moved the capital of the empire to Khanbaliq (Beijing). He also tried to conquer Korea, Vietnam and Burma. In 1282-1283, the Mongol troops, supported by Chinese troops, captured Burma and placed garrisons in the country. The Yuan Empire retained some degree of control over Burma until the 1330s. But the Mongols failed to establish dominance in Vietnam for a long time. In the spring of 1287, under the onslaught of a 70,000-strong Mongol-Chinese army and a fleet of 500 ships, the Vietnamese troops left Hanoi, but soon defeated the invaders and drove them out of the country. This was facilitated by the victory of the Vietnamese fleet. The Chinese fleet hastily dumped provisions into the sea and sailed to the island of Hai-nan. The Mongolian army, left without supplies, was forced to withdraw from Indochina.
In 1292-1293 an attempt was made to conquer Java. A 20,000th expeditionary force arrived here on a thousand ships. He easily coped with the troops of the Javanese princes, who were at enmity with each other. But started guerrilla war forced the Yunan troops to retreat to the coast, and then sail home with not too rich booty for half a million copper coins. Earlier, in 1274 and 1281, sea expeditions against the Japanese islands failed due to typhoons.
In China, the Mongols were only a small part of the population. In 1290, there were 58,835 thousand people in the Yuan Empire, of which there were no more than 2.5 million Mongols. In the time of Genghis Khan, according to some estimates, there were no more than one million Mongols. The bulk of the Chinese, as well as ordinary community members - the Mongols, lived in extreme poverty. The dominant position was occupied by the Mongolian and the Chinese aristocracy, which became close to it, as well as Muslim merchants - Uyghurs, Persians and Arabs. In 1351, an uprising of Chinese peasants and feudal lords, known as the "Red Turban Rebellion", began in Northern China. At the same time, the ideological inspirer of the uprising, Han Shan-tung, was proclaimed a descendant of the emperors of the Song dynasty, and the commander of the army, Liu Fu-tong, was proclaimed a descendant of one of the Sung commanders. In his manifesto, Han Shan-tung stated: “I hid the jasper seal (one of the symbols of imperial power. - Author) behind the eastern sea, gathered a select army in Japan, since poverty is extreme in Jingnan (China), and all wealth has accumulated to the north from the Great Wall (i.e. in Mongolia. - Auth.)”.
In 1355, the rebels revived the Song state. A significant part of the northern Chinese feudal lords opposed the Sung state and in 1357, with the support of the Mongols, created an army led by the Khitan commander Chahan Temur and the Chinese commander Li Si-chi. In 1358, when Liu Fu-tong's army laid siege to the Mongol capital of Dadu, it was the Chinese troops who saved the Mongols. But instead of Dadu, the rebels took the city of Bianliang, formerly Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin Empire, and made it their capital. However, by 1363, by the joint actions of the Mongol and those northern Chinese troops that remained loyal to the Yuan dynasty, the uprising was crushed.
In the same 1351, another uprising broke out in South China, prepared by the secret society of the White Lotus. They did not put forward the slogan of restoring the Song dynasty to power, but created their own state of Tianwan in the Yangtze Valley. In 1360, one of the leaders of the uprising, Chen Yu-liang, instead of Tianwan, founded the new state of Han, which inherited the name of the ancient Chinese empire. In Central China, an uprising broke out in 1352 near the city of Haozhou and was also led by the White Lotus Society. Among the rebels here, the former Buddhist monk Zhu Yuan-zhang quickly stood out. Soon the detachment, which he led together with his father-in-law, the merchant Guo Zi-hsin, already numbered 30,000 people.
Unlike peasant detachments, the army of Zhu Yuan-zhang did not rob the population, and representatives of all classes of society willingly joined it. In April 1356, the army of Zhu Yuan-chang (Guo Zi-hsing had died by that time) captured Jiqing (Nanjing). Then she began to destroy or annex other rebel detachments of South and Central China and oust the troops of the Mongol Yuan dynasty from there. Formally, Zhu Yuan-chang, like other participants in the uprising, recognized the emperor of the state of Song Han Lin-er, the son of Han Shan-tung, who died at the very beginning of the struggle, and received the title of commander-in-chief from him. In 1363 Zhu Yuan-chang's troops rescued Emperor Lin-er of Han from Anfyn besieged by the Mongols (Liu Fu-tong died during the siege). He moved his headquarters to the city of Chuzhou, which was under the control of Zhu Yuanzhang.
The civil strife that began in 1362 among the generals of the Yuan dynasty made it easier for the rebels. In 1367, the army of Chahan Temur and Li Si-ji was defeated by the troops of Zhu Yuan-zhang. Having lost their Chinese allies, the Mongols were forced to withdraw from China. The Mongol Yuan dynasty in China was replaced by the Chinese Ming dynasty proper, whose first emperor in 1368 was Zhu Yuan-zhang. Exemption from Mongolian yoke was the result of the creation of a unified Chinese state.
The 14th century was the century of the decline of the Mongolian states, which were increasingly fragmented and weakened in military and economic terms. The Hulaguids were defeated by the Egyptian Mamluks in Syria at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 and at Albistan in 1277. The new campaign of the Khulaguid Ilkhan Ghazan Khan, who converted to Islam, did not lead to the conquest of Syria. The Mamluks defeated the Mongols at Marj al-Suffar in 1303. The state of the Ilkhans was forced to abandon external expansion. His fall took place in 1353. The Hulaguid state, after an 18-year civil war, broke up into many small states with dynasties of Mongol, Turkic or Iranian origin. Most of the Mongols outside of Mongolia and China converted to Islam in the 14th century and became close to the Turkic peoples.
In the XIV century, the Golden Horde also weakened, in vassal dependence on which the Russian principalities were. By that time, the Mongols here mixed with the Kipchaks (Polovtsians). In Russia, as in the vast majority of other countries, the Mongols were called "Tatars". In the 1350s, the power of the khans in the Golden Horde acquired a largely nominal character. Khan Birdibek could no longer hold the north of Iran and the steppe regions of Azerbaijan. After his death, the Golden Horde began a "great jam", as the Russian chronicles called it: in 20 years, 20 khans came forward as pretenders to the throne. In the course of this civil strife, the temnik Mamai, who was married to the daughter of Birdibek, but did not himself belong to the Chingisids, came to the fore. The Golden Horde itself in 1361 actually broke up into two warring halves. Mamai retained control over the territories on the right bank of the Volga, and his opponents were the Mongolian nobility of the capital of the Golden Horde, Saray al-Jedid, on the left bank, where the puppet khans changed especially often.
In the same 1361, one of the richest uluses, Khorezm, finally seceded from the Golden Horde. It was becoming more and more difficult for the weakening state to maintain control over the lands in the East of Europe. In 1363, the Lithuanian prince Olgerd defeated the Tatar-Mongolian army in the battle on the Blue Waters (a tributary of the Southern Bug). After that, the Lithuanian lands between the Dniester and the Dnieper were freed from the Golden Horde tribute.
Over the Volga Bulgaria, Mamai was able to regain his control only in 1370, when, with the assistance of Russian troops, he planted his protege Muhammad Sultan there. During civil wars he captured Saray al-Jedid several times, but failed to keep it. In 1375, Khan Tokhtamysh, who came from Kok-Orda, who occupied the territory near the Syr Darya River, joined the struggle for the Golden Horde throne. In 1375, he captured Saray al-Jedid and held it until 1378, when he transferred power to Prince Arabshah, who came with him from Kok-Orda.
On August 2, 1377, Arabshah (Arapsha in Russian chronicles) defeated the Russian army on the Pyan River. It was commanded by the son of the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod prince Dmitry Konstantinovich, Prince Ivan Konstantinovich. Arapsha secretly approached the Russian camp when a feast was in full swing there. Prince Ivan and his men thought that the enemy was far away, and took off their chain mail and helmets in order to properly relax. They did not have time to get to the weapons lying on the carts and were almost all killed or, together with the prince, drowned in the river. After this victory, the Tatars plundered Nizhny Novgorod and the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan principalities.
In the winter of 1377/78, the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich, son-in-law of Dmitry Konstantinovich, made a campaign against the Mordovian princes, who were suspected of letting Arapsha through their lands to Pyana. This already affected the territory subject to Mamai. In the summer of 1378, he sent an army to Russia under the command of Murza Begich. On the territory of the Ryazan Principality near the Vozha River, on August 11, 1378, the army of the Moscow prince, reinforced by the squads of the Pronsk, Ryazan and Polotsk princes, destroyed Begich's army, and Murza himself died. After that, a clash with the main forces of Mamai became inevitable.
Historians have long noticed that the beginning of the Battle of Kulikovo is described in sufficient detail in the surviving sources, but its culmination and finale are drawn in purely folklore colors, so it is not possible to establish the real course of events from these sources. No wonder the most famous literary work of the Kulikovo cycle "Zadonshchina" basically repeats the more ancient epic "The Tale of Igor's Campaign". And in some ways the course of the Battle of Kulikovo, both in chronicles and in epic legends, resembles the course of the battle that took place on the shores of Lake Peipsi between the army of Prince Alexander Nevsky and the Livonian knights. In the Battle of the Ice, a strong detachment of Russian troops also hit the rear of the enemy and turned them into a disorderly flight. Then the Russians got not only rich booty, but also a considerable number of prisoners: 50 eminent knights, “deliberate governors”, and an even greater number of less noble knights and ordinary warriors, knechts. The number of participants in the Battle of Kulikovo was many times greater than the number of troops in the battle on Lake Peipus. This means that the Russian prisoners during the defeat of Mamai should have captured not tens and hundreds, but thousands. After all, Mamaev’s troops included a lot of infantry, which, in the event of a defeat, had no chance of escaping from the Russian cavalry. The chronicles say that the infantry at Mamai was made up of "Besermens, and Armens, and Fryazis, Cherkassy, and Yasy, and Bourtases."
We will not now understand what kind of peoples are meant by the Cherkasy, Yasy and Burtases. In this case, we are interested in the Fryazi - the Genoese, because their participation in the battle is directly related to the further fate of the Tatar leader. As Karamzin notes, some peoples served Mamai "as subjects, others as mercenaries." The Genoese, for example, had a long-standing agreement with the Golden Horde, according to which, in exchange for military assistance, the Genoese colonists and merchants were guaranteed the right to free trade in the Crimea and personal security. But it is hard to imagine that both mercenaries and vassal subjects would fight for Mamai to the last drop of blood. Moreover, we remember how easily the Mamaev army left the unsuccessful commander and went over to Tokhtamysh. And what was the reason for the same Genoese to be afraid of Russian captivity and prefer death on the battlefield to him? After all, they could well count on a ransom from their rich compatriots. And what was the reason for Dmitry's soldiers not to take prisoners? After all, prisoners could be paid a considerable ransom or, having been turned into slaves, sold in slave markets. And someone and accept the Russian service. However, not only chronicles and legends are silent about the prisoners, although the booty captured from the Tatars is listed in detail there. None of the known Russian pedigrees goes back to people who could be considered captives of the Kulikovo field. Although the same Tatar murzas, immigrants from the Caucasus and the Genoese, both before 1380 and after, often entered the Russian service, and this was reflected in the genealogies of the Russian nobility. Therefore, there were no prisoners in the Battle of Kulikovo? Why?
I think this is the only plausible explanation. In fact, the Battle of Kulikovo took place as follows. At first, the Tatar army went on the attack and pressed the Russian regiments. However, at the height of the battle, Mamai received news of the appearance in his possessions of the army of Tokhtamysh, who had previously subjugated the eastern half of the Golden Horde. The chronicler of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery knows about the arrival of Tokhtamysh already at the end of September 1380. It is likely that this disturbing news reached Mamaia even earlier, right on the day of the Battle of Kulikovo, September 8th. If my assumption is correct, then everything falls into place. The movement of Tokhtamysh to the western, Mamaev part of the Golden Horde made it meaningless for Mamai to continue the Battle of Kulikovo. Even a victory over the Russian army would lead to heavy losses of Mamaev's army and would make it powerless to repel Tokhtamysh's attack. There was no need to think about a campaign against Russia. Mamai saw the only way out in withdrawing the bulk of his troops from the battle as soon as possible and turning them against a formidable opponent. But getting out of the fight is not an easy task. The retreat of the main forces had to be covered by the rearguard. As such a rearguard, Mamai left all his infantry, which still had little chance of getting away from the Russian pursuit. And so that the mercenary infantrymen would not be tempted to surrender ahead of time, when they realize the hopelessness of their situation, the commander gave them a fairly large detachment of cavalry. The presence of Tatar cavalry supported the illusion among the Genoese infantrymen that the battle was continuing according to the previous plan. The Tatars, on the other hand, did not allow the infantry to surrender and did not surrender themselves, hoping to break through in the cavalry at the end of the battle. When all the infantry died, the rearguard cavalry partly died during the breakthrough, partly managed to escape. That is why there were no prisoners on the Kulikovo field.
True, for Dmitry Donskoy this victory turned out to be pyrrhic. According to the most reliable data of the "first Russian historian" V.N. Tatishchev, the number of Russian rati on the Kulikovo field was about 60 thousand people. The number of Mamai's troops can be determined based on the following considerations. In 1385, Tokhtamysh gathered an army of 90 thousand people from all over the territory of the Golden Horde to march on Tabriz. Mamai, who dominated only in the western half of the state, obviously could mobilize about half as many people - up to 45 thousand soldiers. If we assume that in the Battle of Kulikovo both sides lost, say, 15 thousand each, then Dmitry should have had 45 thousand fighters left, while Tokhtamysh, who had annexed Mamai's army, had up to 75 thousand troops. That is why the Khan succeeded two years later with comparative ease in defeating the Russians and burning down Moscow. In addition to the numerical superiority, it must be taken into account that the militia warriors were inferior in combat experience to the professional warriors of the Horde.
It was necessary to somehow explain the miraculous retreat of Mamai from the battlefield. So the legend of the ambush regiment appeared in the annals, as if deciding the outcome of the Battle of Kulikovo.
But the fate of Mamai was already predetermined. The army that remained with him preferred to go to the more successful Tokhtamysh. Mamai had no choice but to seek refuge in the Genoese Café. Here he really had to hide his name. However, the Genoese of Mamai recognized and stabbed him in revenge for the senseless death of his compatriots on the Kulikovo field. And don't feel too sorry for him. The "evil end" of Mamai was predetermined by his whole life. After all, the mighty temnik did nothing good. There was nothing in his life except predatory campaigns. Sooner or later, Mamai had to die from the opponent's sword, from the dagger of one of his victims or offended accomplices.
In 1381 Tokhtamysh made a campaign against Iran, and in 1382 he decided to deal with Dmitry Donskoy. Khan demanded to pay tribute in the amount in which it existed before the start of the "great jam". Having been refused, the Tatars invaded the Russian lands and went to Moscow. Prince Dmitry, realizing the overwhelming superiority of the enemy forces, did not dare to fight Tokhtamysh in an open field or sit down with the main forces in a siege in Moscow. The conqueror of Mamai retreated to Kostroma, retaining a faint hope that, relying on stone walls, the Moscow garrison would withstand the siege. But Tokhtamysh captured Moscow in just four days, either by attack or by deceit. According to the chronicles, the Muscovites allegedly believed the promises of the khan, backed up by the assurances of the Suzdal princes who were under Tokhtamysh, that he would limit himself to only a small tribute, and would not touch the city. Such naivety of the inhabitants of Moscow seems completely unrealistic. In Russia, it was too well known what happens to the city, where the Tatars entered. Rather, it should be assumed that the attack undertaken by Tokhtamysh, which, according to the chroniclers, was unsuccessful, actually ended in the capture of the city. The Tatars drove the defenders off the walls with a hail of arrows, and the garrison was probably too small to protect the city walls around the perimeter. In total, in Moscow, during the massacre organized by the Tatars, from 12 to 24 thousand people died, and thousands more Muscovites were taken into slavery. Then the army of Tokht-mysh captured and plundered Vladimir, Pereyaslavl, Yuryev, Zvenigorod and Mozhaisk. On the way back to the Horde, the Tatars heavily devastated the lands of the Ryazan principality. Prince Dmitry was forced to agree to pay tribute in the same amount and went to the Khan's headquarters to receive a label for a great reign.
Tokhtamysh temporarily strengthened the Golden Horde. But in 1391, Tamerlane (Timur) defeated the Golden Horde army in the battle for the Volga south of the Kama. In 1395, Tokhtamysh suffered an even more severe defeat from the Iron Lame. Timur's army invaded the possessions of Tokhtamysh's ally, Prince Vasily I of Moscow, laid siege to Yelets, but then, for some unknown reason, turned back. Vasily continued to collect Russian lands, and after the defeat of Tokhtamysh, civil strife arose in the Horde, until at the very end of the 14th century the uluses were again united under the rule of Timur's protege Khan Shadibek. At the same time, the actual power belonged to the temnik Edigei. In 1408 he made a campaign against Moscow, which stopped paying tribute after the defeat of Tokhtamysh. The Tatars did not take the capitals, having received the required payoff, but limited themselves to the ruin of Vladimir and some other cities. Then a new civil strife began in the Horde, which ended with the death of Edigei in 1420. After that, the Golden Horde was no longer reborn as a single state. The Siberian, Kazan, Crimean and Astrakhan khanates and the Nogai Horde emerged from it.
The successor of the Golden Horde in relation to Russia was the Great Horde, which occupied the territory between the Volga and the Dniester, as well as part North Caucasus. The complete liberation of Russia from Horde dependence was delayed by an internecine war between the successors of Prince Vasily I, who died in 1425. His son Vasily II, on the one hand, and the Zvenigorod-Galician prince Yuri Dmitrievich and his sons, on the other, fought for the grand-ducal table.
On July 7, 1445, the sons of Kazan Khan Ulu-Mukhammed Mumutyak and Yegup destroyed the army of Vasily II in the battle near Suzdal. Myself Grand Duke was captured, from where he was released for a gigantic ransom of 200 thousand rubles at that time. This ransom also covered tribute arrears from previous years. Vasily II was forced to agree to the further payment of tribute. The following year, 1446, Prince Dmitry Shemyaka, the son of Yuri Dmitrievich, captured Moscow and blinded Vasily. Later, however, Shemyaka was defeated, and Vasily II the Dark in 1447 again became the Grand Duke. Civil strife in Russia ended only with the death in 1453 of Dmitry Shemyaka, from whom the synonym for judicial arbitrariness remained in Russian - Shemyakin Court.
During the civil strife, Russia repeatedly fell victim to raids by various heirs of the Golden Horde. So, on July 2, 1451, the army of the Nogai prince Mazovsha burned most Moscow, but never managed to capture the Kremlin. Soon after the end of the internecine war, the Tver, Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan principalities recognized their dependence on Moscow.
By the end of 1477, the son of Vasily II, Ivan III, as a result of several campaigns, subjugated Novgorod the Great to Moscow. In the 1470s, he no longer paid the “exit” (tribute) to the Tatars, which caused in 1480 a campaign against Russia by Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat. On October 8, 1480, Akhmat's army came to the banks of the Ugra River. On the other side stood the army of Ivan III. The Tatars made an attempt to cross, but were repelled. However, the big battle did not take place. Akhmat expected the approach of his ally - the Lithuanian prince and the Polish king Casimir IV, but at that time he was forced to repel the attack on his possessions by the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray. Having stood at the Ugra until November 11 and severely suffering from frost and lack of fodder and food, the Horde army retreated home. At the beginning of 1481, Akhmat died in a battle with the Nogais.
The Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia was finally eliminated. This happened later than in all other countries captured by the Mongols. The reason for this delay lay in the relatively late acquisition of state unity by Russia around Moscow. The process of unification of Russian lands went in parallel with the collapse of the Golden Horde. Both of these processes reached a critical point and became irreversible only in the last quarter of the 15th century. Then there was an almost bloodless fall of the yoke
If all lies are removed from history, this does not mean at all that only the truth will remain - as a result, nothing may remain at all.
Stanislav Jerzy Lec
The Tatar-Mongol invasion began in 1237 with the invasion of Batu's cavalry into the Ryazan lands, and ended in 1242. The result of these events was a two-century yoke. So they say in the textbooks, but in fact the relationship between the Horde and Russia was much more complicated. In particular, the famous historian Gumilyov speaks about this. In this material, we will briefly consider the issues of the invasion of the Mongol-Tatar army from the point of view of the generally accepted interpretation, and also consider the controversial issues of this interpretation. Our task is not to offer for the thousandth time a fantasy about medieval society, but to provide our readers with facts. Conclusions are everyone's business.
The beginning of the invasion and background
For the first time, the troops of Russia and the Horde met on May 31, 1223 in the battle on Kalka. Russian troops led Kiev prince Mstislav, and Subedei and Juba opposed them. Russian army was not only defeated, it was actually destroyed. There are many reasons for this, but all of them are discussed in the article about the battle on Kalka. Returning to the first invasion, it took place in two stages:
- 1237-1238 - a campaign against the eastern and northern lands of Russia.
- 1239-1242 - a campaign in the southern lands, which led to the establishment of a yoke.
Invasion of 1237-1238
In 1236, the Mongols launched another campaign against the Polovtsy. In this campaign, they achieved great success and in the second half of 1237 approached the borders of the Ryazan principality. The commander of the Asian cavalry was Batu Khan (Batu Khan), the grandson of Genghis Khan. He had 150,000 people under him. Subedey, who was familiar with the Russians from previous clashes, participated in the campaign with him.
Map of the Tatar-Mongol invasion
The invasion took place at the beginning of the winter of 1237. It is impossible to establish the exact date here, since it is unknown. Moreover, some historians say that the invasion did not take place in the winter, but in the late autumn of the same year. With great speed, the Mongols' cavalry moved around the country, conquering one city after another:
- Ryazan - fell at the end of December 1237. The siege lasted 6 days.
- Moscow - fell in January 1238. The siege lasted 4 days. This event was preceded by the Battle of Kolomna, where Yuri Vsevolodovich with his army tried to stop the enemy, but was defeated.
- Vladimir - fell in February 1238. The siege lasted 8 days.
After the capture of Vladimir, virtually all the eastern and northern lands were in the hands of Batu. He conquered one city after another (Tver, Yuriev, Suzdal, Pereslavl, Dmitrov). In early March, Torzhok fell, thus opening the way for the Mongol army to the north, to Novgorod. But Batu made a different maneuver and instead of marching on Novgorod, he deployed his troops and went to storm Kozelsk. The siege went on for 7 weeks, ending only when the Mongols went to the trick. They announced that they would accept the surrender of the Kozelsk garrison and let everyone go alive. People believed and opened the gates of the fortress. Batu did not keep his word and gave the order to kill everyone. Thus ended the first campaign and the first invasion of the Tatar-Mongolian army into Russia.
Invasion of 1239-1242
After a break of a year and a half, in 1239 a new invasion of Russia by the troops of Batu Khan began. This year based events took place in Pereyaslav and Chernihiv. The sluggishness of Batu's offensive is due to the fact that at that time he was actively fighting the Polovtsy, in particular in the Crimea.
In the autumn of 1240, Batu led his army under the walls of Kiev. The ancient capital of Russia could not resist for a long time. The city fell on December 6, 1240. Historians note the special brutality with which the invaders behaved. Kiev was almost completely destroyed. There is nothing left of the city. The Kiev that we know today has nothing in common with the ancient capital (except geographical location). After these events, the invading army split up:
- Part went to Vladimir-Volynsky.
- Part went to Galich.
Having captured these cities, the Mongols went on a European campaign, but we are of little interest in it.
The consequences of the Tatar-Mongol invasion of Russia
The consequences of the invasion of the Asian army in Russia are described by historians unambiguously:
- The country was cut, and became completely dependent on the Golden Horde.
- Russia began to pay tribute to the winners every year (in money and people).
- The country fell into a stupor in terms of progress and development due to an unbearable yoke.
This list can be continued, but, in general, it all comes down to the fact that all the problems that were in Russia at that time were written off as a yoke.
This is how, briefly, the Tatar-Mongol invasion appears from the point of view of official history and what we are told in textbooks. In contrast, we will consider Gumilyov's arguments, and also ask a number of simple, but very important questions for understanding the current issues and the fact that with the yoke, as well as with relations between Russia and the Horde, everything is much more complex than it is customary to say.
For example, it is absolutely incomprehensible and inexplicable how a nomadic people, who several decades ago still lived in a tribal system, created a huge empire and conquered half the world. After all, considering the invasion of Russia, we are considering only the tip of the iceberg. The empire of the Golden Horde was much larger: from the Pacific to the Adriatic, from Vladimir to Burma. giant countries were conquered: Russia, China, India ... Neither before nor after no one was able to create war machine, which could conquer so many countries. And the Mongols could ...
To understand how difficult it was (if not to say that it was impossible), let's look at the situation with China (so as not to be accused of looking for a conspiracy around Russia). The population of China at the time of Genghis Khan was approximately 50 million people. No one conducted a census of the Mongols, but, for example, today this nation has 2 million people. If we take into account that the number of all the peoples of the Middle Ages is increasing by now, then the Mongols were less than 2 million people (including women, the elderly and children). How did they manage to conquer China of 50 million inhabitants? And then also India and Russia ...
The strangeness of the geography of movement of Batu
Let's return to the Mongol-Tatar invasion of Russia. What were the goals of this trip? Historians talk about the desire to plunder the country and subdue it. It also states that all these goals have been achieved. But this is not entirely true, because in ancient Russia There were 3 richest cities:
- Kiev is one of the largest cities in Europe and the ancient capital of Russia. The city was conquered by the Mongols and destroyed.
- Novgorod is the largest trading city and the richest in the country (hence its special status). Generally not affected by the invasion.
- Smolensk, also a trading city, was considered equal in wealth to Kiev. The city also did not see the Mongol-Tatar army.
So it turns out that 2 of the 3 largest cities did not suffer from the invasion at all. Moreover, if we consider plunder as a key aspect of Batu's invasion of Russia, then the logic is not traced at all. Judge for yourself, Batu takes Torzhok (he spends 2 weeks on the assault). This is the poorest city, whose task is to protect Novgorod. But after that, the Mongols do not go to the North, which would be logical, but turn to the south. Why was it necessary to spend 2 weeks on Torzhok, which no one needs, just to turn south? Historians give two explanations, logical at first glance:
- Near Torzhok, Batu lost many soldiers and was afraid to go to Novgorod. This explanation could well be considered logical if not for one "but". Since Batu lost a lot of his army, then he needs to leave Russia to replenish his troops or take a break. But instead, the khan rushes to storm Kozelsk. Here, by the way, the losses were huge and as a result, the Mongols hastily left Russia. But why they did not go to Novgorod is not clear.
- The Tatar-Mongols were afraid of the spring flood of the rivers (it was in March). Even in modern conditions, March in the north of Russia is not distinguished by a mild climate and you can safely move around there. And if we talk about 1238, then that era is called by climatologists the Little Ice Age, when winters were much more severe than modern ones and in general the temperature is much lower (this is easy to check). That is, it turns out that in the era of global warming in March, you can get to Novgorod, and in the era ice age everyone was afraid of the flood of the rivers.
With Smolensk, the situation is also paradoxical and inexplicable. Having taken Torzhok, Batu set off to storm Kozelsk. This is a simple fortress, a small and very poor city. The Mongols stormed it for 7 weeks, lost thousands of people killed. What was it for? There was no benefit from the capture of Kozelsk - there is no money in the city, there are no food depots either. Why such sacrifices? But just 24 hours of cavalry movement from Kozelsk is Smolensk - the richest city in Russia, but the Mongols do not even think of moving towards it.
Surprisingly, all these logical questions official historians are simply ignored. Standard excuses are given, they say, who knows these savages, that's how they decided for themselves. But such an explanation does not stand up to scrutiny.
Nomads never howl in winter
There is another remarkable fact that the official history simply bypasses, because. it is impossible to explain it. Both Tatar-Mongol invasions were committed to Russia in winter (or started in late autumn). But these are nomads, and nomads start fighting only in the spring to finish the battles before winter. After all, they move on horses that need to be fed. Can you imagine how you can feed the many thousands of Mongolian army in snowy Russia? Historians, of course, say that this is a trifle and you should not even consider such issues, but the success of any operation directly depends on the provision:
- Charles 12 was unable to organize the provision of his army - he lost Poltava and the Northern War.
- Napoleon was unable to establish security and left Russia with a half-starved army, which was absolutely incapable of combat.
- Hitler, according to many historians, managed to establish security for only 60-70% - he lost the Second World War.
And now, understanding all this, let's see what the Mongol army was like. It is noteworthy, but there is no definite figure for its quantitative composition. Historians give figures from 50 thousand to 400 thousand horsemen. For example, Karamzin speaks of the 300,000th army of Batu. Let's look at the provision of the army using this figure as an example. As you know, the Mongols always went on military campaigns with three horses: riding (the rider moved on it), pack (carried the rider's personal belongings and weapons) and combat (went empty so that at any moment she could fresh into battle). That is, 300 thousand people is 900 thousand horses. Add to this the horses that carried the ram guns (it is known for certain that the Mongols brought the guns assembled), the horses that carried food for the army, carried additional weapons, etc. It turns out, according to the most conservative estimates, 1.1 million horses! Now imagine how to feed such a herd in a foreign country in a snowy winter (during the Little Ice Age)? The answer is no, because it can't be done.
So how many armies did Dad have?
It is noteworthy, but the closer to our time there is a study of the invasion of the Tatar-Mongolian army, the smaller the number is obtained. For example, the historian Vladimir Chivilikhin speaks of 30 thousand who moved separately, because they could not feed themselves in a single army. Some historians lower this figure even lower - up to 15 thousand. And here we come across an insoluble contradiction:
- If there really were so many Mongols (200-400 thousand), then how could they feed themselves and their horses in the harsh Russian winter? The cities did not surrender to them in peace in order to take provisions from them, most of the fortresses were burned.
- If the Mongols were really only 30-50 thousand, then how did they manage to conquer Russia? After all, each principality fielded an army in the region of 50 thousand against Batu. If there were really so few Mongols and if they acted independently, the remnants of the horde and Batu himself would have been buried near Vladimir. But in reality, everything was different.
We invite the reader to look for conclusions and answers to these questions on their own. For our part, we did the main thing - we pointed out the facts that completely refute the official version of the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars. At the end of the article, I want to note another important fact that the whole world has recognized, including official history, but this fact is hushed up and published in few places. The main document, according to which the yoke and invasion were studied for many years, is the Laurentian Chronicle. But, as it turned out, the truth of this document raises big questions. official history admitted that 3 pages of the annals (which speak of the beginning of the yoke and the beginning of the Mongol invasion of Russia) have been changed and are not original. I wonder how many more pages from the history of Russia have been changed in other chronicles, and what actually happened? But it's almost impossible to answer this question...
MONGOLIAN CONQUESTS 13th c.
major hikes from the Center. Asia to the countries of Asia and Europe, organized by Mong. feudal lords in order to subjugate and rob peoples. Decomposition of the primitive communal system among the nomadic (partly hunting) Mong. tribes led to the con. 12th c. to the allocation of large nobility, who owned cattle, pastures, slaves and subjugated the mass of ordinary pastoralists, hunters and fishermen. There was a fierce struggle between the tribal unions that arose, in which Temujin moved forward, uniting the Mongols under his rule and recognized in 1200 at the congress of the nobility as the leader of the Mong. tribes (under the name of Genghis Khan). Mong aspiration. nobility to enrich at the expense of the military. booty and tribute, the acquisition of vast territories for pastures, as well as the need to consolidate power over the mass of the population led to the transformation of the Mong. society in a huge military. organization and to big wins. campaigns, in which all the people took part. In mong. The army, divided into "darkness" (tens of thousands), "thousands", "hundreds" and "tens", was dominated by the strictest discipline, to maintain which the death penalty even for insignificant. misdemeanors. There was a special "next guard", that is, the personal guard of Genghis Khan, used to support his despotism. authorities. M. h. carefully prepared in the military. relation: information was collected about the countries and peoples chosen as the object of campaigns, technical equipment was used. achievements of other countries (for example, wall-beating machines), etc. Strong military. the organization of the Mongols, the experience and art of the Mongo. generals, incitement and use of internecine conflicts among the enemy allowed the mong. conquerors to make a number of major campaigns and subjugate a vast territory to their power.
In 1207, having subjugated the tribes to the north from the river. Selenga and in the upper reaches of the river. Yenisei, and in 1209 - the Uighurs in Vost. Turkestan, the Mongols began to conquer big. hiking. In 1211, Genghis Khan invaded the North through the Gobi desert. China and in 1215 captured Beijing (Yanjing). It was destroyed approx. 90 cities, almost all of their population was exterminated, rich booty was captured. In China, the Mongols met with some technical. achievements. These achievements, as well as admin forms. and owner The Mongols used the control of China to strengthen their dominance in the conquered countries. In the autumn of 1218 from the banks of the river. Irtysh offensive began on Wed. Asia. Heroic the resistance of the defenders of Bukhara, Samarkand, Merv, Urgench, Khorezm was broken, the rich material and spiritual culture perished. Asia. Mongolian group. troops, pursuing the son of Khorezmshah Muhammad - Jalal-ad-din, penetrated into the North-West. India, but was stopped on the river. Ind. Conquest Wed. Asia was completed in 1221. Mong. troops led by Jebe and Subedey invaded in 1220 in the North. Iran, then, having bypassed the Caspian Sea from the south, penetrated into Transcaucasia and further (in 1222) to the North. The Caucasus and the Crimea, producing everywhere will devastate. destruction. In 1223 the Mongols defeated the river. Kalke, the scattered troops of the Polovtsians and Russians. princes. They set off to conquer the Volga Bulgarians, but, having been defeated, they turned back. In 1226-27 Genghis Khan destroyed the Xi-Xia Tangut state. After the death of Genghis Khan (1227), the Khural elected led. Khan of his third son Ogedei. Dr. the sons of Genghis Khan were given special uluses. At the Khural, it was decided to continue the conquests, starting with the conquest of the state of Jurchzhzpei (the state of Jin). In 1231 Mong. troops led by Ogedei and Tolui again invaded the North. China, but met with stubborn resistance. The Mongols managed to conquer the state of the Jurchens in 1234 with the help of the imp. The South Sung dynasty, which ruled in the South. China.
After careful preparation, the Mongols, led by Genghis Khan's grandson Batu, in 1236 began new campaign to the west, to the east. Europe. Having captured the Volga Bulgaria, the Mongols in the con. 1237 approached the Ryazan Prince. Dec 16 1237 Batu began the assault on Ryazan (now Old Ryazan). After a six-day assault, Ryazan was taken and completely destroyed. There are legends about the heroic. exploits of the defender of the Ryazan land Evpaty Kolovrat. Then the Mongols, having defeated the army of the Vladimir, Ryazan and Chernigov princes, took Kolomna, Moscow, and on February 7. 1238 - the capital city of the great reign of Vladimir; Suzdal was taken at the same time, March 4, 1238 in the battle on the river. City was defeated by the united army of the Vladimir-Suzdal princes, led by led. Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, who fell in this battle. After the victory, the Mongols occupied and destroyed at least 14 cities of the North-East. Russia. An attempt to move to Novgorod was unsuccessful. On the way back, Batu's movement was heroically delayed. defense of the city of Kozelsk, which resisted the invaders for 7 weeks. In the same year 1238 a devastation was committed. invasion of the Caucasus. In 1239 ch. Batu's blow was directed to the South-Russian. land (at the same time, in the winter of 1239/40, part of the forces subjected the North-East Russia to a second attack). Having captured Pereyaslavl and Chernigov, the Mongols laid siege to Kiev. After a stubborn battle that continued on the streets of the city, Kiev was taken to the horse. 1240. Then, continuing to move to the west, the Mongols invaded Hungary, and in 1241 defeated the Polsk. and German. princes. Encountering Czech resistance. and German. forces near Olomouc and not risking leaving the conquered Russians in the rear. land, Batu returned to Nizh. Volga. The extreme point of his advance to the west was the Adriatic. m. Russian wrestling and other peoples exposed to mong. invasion, saved the peoples of the Center. and Zap. Europe from a devastating invasion. The death of Ogedei, and soon his successor Guyuk (1246-48) and the ensuing struggle for the khan's throne, interrupted for a while M. z. They resumed under Mongke Khan (1251-59). His brother Hulagu led the conquests in the west. The Mongols invaded Iran, and then into Mesopotamia, in 1258 Baghdad, the capital of the Arabs, fell. Caliphate. The advance of the Mongols in this direction was stopped in 1260 when they were defeated by the Egyptians. troops. The conquests in the East were led by Möngke's other brother, Khubilai. The Mongols invaded Sichuan, then Dali; The Mongols also conquered the province of Hubei. By 1279 they had completed the conquest of the South Sung Empire. The attempt of the Mongols to invade Japan (1281) ended in failure, the Mongols did not strengthen in Indochina either.
M. h. 13th c. led to the formation of a huge Mongol feudal empire, which occupied most of Asia and means. part of the East. Europe. Largest sizes its territory reached in the 50s of the 13th century.
M. h. were the largest catastrophe for the peoples of Asia and East. Europe. These conquests and the rule of the Golden Horde and other states established as a result of them. formations that inherited the empire of Genghis Khan, for a long time delayed the economic. and the cultural development of the countries subject to the Mongols, led to the death of huge material and spiritual values, the destruction and enslavement of hundreds of thousands of people.
Lit .: Vladimirtsov B. Ya., Society. formation of the Mongols. Mongolian nomadic feudalism, L., 1934; Bartold V.V., Turkestan in the era of the Mong. invasions, Soch., vol. 1, M., 1963; Nasonov A. N., Mongols and Russia, M.-L., 1940; Petrushevsky I.P., From the heroic. the struggle of the Azerbaijani people in the XIII-XIV centuries, Baku, 1941; Grekov V. D., Yakubovsky A. Yu., Golden Horde and its fall, M.-L., 1950; Maisky I.M., Genghis Khan, "VI", 1962, No 5; Merpert N. Ya., Pashuto V. T., Cherepnin L. V., Genghis Khan and his legacy, "ISSSR", 1962, No 5; Strakosch-Grassmann G., Der Einfall der Mongolen in Mitteleuropa in den Jahren 1241 and 1242 Innsbruck, 1893. See also lit. under the article Mongolian People's Republic.
A. M. Sakharov. Moscow.
Mongol conquests of the 13th century.
Soviet historical encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ed. E. M. Zhukova. 1973-1982 .
See what the "MONGOLIAN CONQUESTS of the 13th century" are. in other dictionaries:
V., a series of major wars of conquest and individual campaigns organized by the Mongol feudal lords with the aim of seizing military booty, enslaving and robbing the peoples of Asia and East. Europe. Mongolian feudal lords, having created military organization, involved ... ...
MONGOLIAN CONQUESTS, wars and campaigns of the armies of Genghis Khan and his descendants in the 13th century. in Asia and Eastern Europe. In 1207 11 many peoples of Siberia and East Turkestan were subjugated. In 1211 34 Northern China was conquered, in 1215 Semirechie, in 1219 21 Middle ... ... Modern Encyclopedia
Wars and campaigns of the armies of Genghis Khan and his descendants in the 13th century. in Asia and Eastern Europe. In 1207 11 many peoples of Siberia and East Turkestan are subordinated. In 1211 34 years. Northern China was conquered, in 1215 Semirechie, in 121921. Middle Asia. In 1222 ... Historical dictionary
Mongol conquests- The siege of the Mongol Tatar troops of Kozelsk. 1237. Miniature of the facial vault. 16th century MONGOLIAN CONQUESTS, wars and campaigns of the armies of Genghis Khan and his descendants in the 13th century. in Asia and Eastern Europe. In 1207 11 many peoples of Siberia and the East were subordinated ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Mongol conquests- The siege of the Mongol Tatar troops of Kozelsk. 1237. Miniature of the facial vault. 16th century The siege of the Mongol Tatar troops of the city of Kozelsk. 1237. Miniature of the facial vault. 16th century Mongol conquests of the war and campaigns of the armies of Genghis Khan and his descendants in the XIII ... Encyclopedic Dictionary " The World History»
A series of major wars of conquest and separate campaigns organized by the Mongol feudal lords with the aim of capturing military booty, enslaving and robbing the peoples of Asia and East. Europe. Mongolian feudal lords, having created a military organization, ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Mongol Empire Mongol Ezent Guren 1206 1368 ... Wikipedia
The formation of the Mongol state and the Mongol conquests- At the beginning of the XIII century. in the steppes of Central Asia, a strong Mongol state was formed, with the formation of which a period of Mongol conquests began. This had consequences that had worldwide historical meaning. Affecting all countries ... ... The World History. Encyclopedia
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