Tatar Mongol yoke of conquest. The Golden Horde and the Mongol Ygo in Russia

The history of Russia has always been a bit sad and turbulent due to wars, power struggles and drastic reforms. These reforms were often blamed on Russia at once, forcibly, instead of introducing them gradually, measuredly, as has often happened in history. From the time of the first mention of the princes of different cities - Vladimir, Pskov, Suzdal and Kiev - constantly fought and argued for power and control over a small semi-united state. Under the rule of Saint Vladimir (980-1015) and Yaroslav the Wise (1015-1054)

The Kiev state was at the pinnacle of prosperity and achieved a relative peace, unlike in previous years. However, as time went on, the wise rulers died, and the struggle for power began again and wars broke out.

Before his death, in 1054, Yaroslav the Wise decided to divide the principalities between his sons, and this decision determined the future of Kievan Rus for the next two hundred years. Civil wars between the brothers ruined most of the Kiev community of cities, depriving it of the necessary resources that would be very useful to it in the future. When the princes continuously fought with each other, the former Kiev state slowly disintegrated, diminished and lost its former glory. At the same time, it was weakened by the invasions of the steppe tribes - the Polovtsy (they are the Cumans or Kipchaks), and before that the Pechenegs, and in the end the Kiev state became an easy prey for more powerful invaders from distant lands.

Russia had a chance to change its fate. Around 1219, the Mongols first entered the regions near Kievan Rus, heading for, and they asked for help from the Russian princes. A council of princes gathered in Kiev to consider the request, which greatly disturbed the Mongols. According to historical sources, the Mongols stated that they were not going to attack Russian cities and lands. The Mongol envoys demanded peace with the Russian princes. However, the princes did not trust the Mongols, suspecting that they would not stop and go to Russia. Mongol ambassadors were killed, and thus the chance for peace was destroyed by the hands of the princes of the divided Kiev state.

For twenty years, Batu Khan with an army of 200 thousand people made raids. One after another, the Russian principalities - Ryazan, Moscow, Vladimir, Suzdal and Rostov - fell into bondage to Batu and his army. The Mongols plundered and destroyed the cities, the inhabitants were killed or taken prisoner. In the end, the Mongols captured, plundered and razed to the ground Kiev, the center and symbol of Kievan Rus. Only the outlying northwestern principalities such as Novgorod, Pskov and Smolensk survived the onslaught, although these cities will endure indirect subordination and become appendages of the Golden Horde. Perhaps, by concluding peace, the Russian princes could have prevented this. However, this cannot be called a miscalculation, because then Russia would forever have to change religion, art, language, system of government and geopolitics.

Orthodox Church during the Tatar-Mongol yoke

The first Mongol raids looted and destroyed many churches and monasteries, and countless priests and monks were killed. Those who survived were often captured and sent into slavery. The size and power of the Mongol army was shocking. Not only the economy and political structure of the country suffered, but also social and spiritual institutions. The Mongols claimed that they were God's punishment, and the Russians believed that all this was sent to them by God as a punishment for their sins.

The Orthodox Church will become a powerful beacon in the "dark years" of Mongol dominance. The Russian people eventually turned to the Orthodox Church, seeking consolation in their faith and guidance and support from the clergy. The raids of the steppe people caused a shock, throwing seeds on fertile soil for the development of Russian monasticism, which in turn played an important role in the formation of the worldview of neighboring Finno-Ugric and Zyrian tribes, and also led to the colonization of the northern regions of Russia.

The humiliation suffered by the princes and city authorities undermined their political authority. This allowed the church to become the embodiment of religious and national identity, filling in the lost political identity. The unique legal concept of the label, or charter of immunity, also helped strengthen the church. During the reign of Mengu-Timur in 1267, a label was issued to Metropolitan Kirill of Kiev for the Orthodox Church.

Although the church de facto came under the protection of the Mongols ten years earlier (from the 1257 census conducted by Khan Berke), this label officially recorded the inviolability of the Orthodox Church. More importantly, he officially exempted the church from any form of taxation by the Mongols or the Russians. Priests had the right not to register during censuses and were exempted from forced labor and military service.

As expected, the label issued to the Orthodox Church has taken on a lot of significance. For the first time, the church becomes less dependent on the princely will than in any other period of Russian history. The Orthodox Church was able to acquire and secure for itself significant tracts of land, which gave it an extremely strong position that continued for centuries after the Mongol conquest. The charter strictly prohibited both Mongolian and Russian tax agents from seizing church lands or demanding anything from the Orthodox Church. This was guaranteed by a simple punishment - death.

Another important reason for the rise of the church lay in its mission - to spread Christianity and to convert the village pagans to their faith. Metropolitans traveled extensively throughout the country to strengthen the internal structure of the church and to solve administrative problems and control the activities of bishops and priests. Moreover, the relative safety of the sketes (economic, military and spiritual) attracted the peasants. As the rapidly growing cities interfered with the atmosphere of goodness that the church provided, the monks began to leave for the deserts and rebuild monasteries and hermitages there. Religious settlements continued to be built and thereby strengthened the authority of the Orthodox Church.

The last significant change was the relocation of the center of the Orthodox Church. Before the Mongols invaded the Russian lands, Kiev was the church center. After the destruction of Kiev in 1299, the Holy See moved to Vladimir, and then, in 1322 to Moscow, which significantly increased the importance of Moscow.

Fine arts during the Tatar-Mongol yoke

While mass deportations of artists began in Russia, monastic revival and attention to the Orthodox Church led to an artistic revival. What brought Russians together in that difficult time, when they found themselves without a state, is their faith and ability to express their religious beliefs. During this difficult time, the great artists Theophanes the Greek and Andrei Rublev worked.

It was during the second half of Mongol rule in the mid-fourteenth century that Russian iconography and fresco painting began to flourish again. Theophanes the Greek arrived in Russia at the end of the 1300s. He painted churches in many cities, especially in Novgorod and Nizhny Novgorod. In Moscow, he painted the iconostasis for the Church of the Annunciation, and also worked on the church of the Archangel Michael. A few decades after the arrival of Theophan, the beginner Andrei Rublev became one of his best students. Iconography came to Russia from Byzantium in the 10th century, but the Mongol invasion in the 13th century cut off Russia from Byzantium.

How the language changed after the yoke

It may seem insignificant to us such an aspect as the influence of one language on another, but this information helps us to understand to what extent one nationality influenced another or a group of nationalities - on state administration, on military affairs, on trade, as well as how it was geographically spread. influence. Indeed, the linguistic and even sociolinguistic influences were great, as the Russians borrowed thousands of words, phrases, and other significant linguistic constructs from the Mongolian and Turkic languages, united into the Mongol Empire. Listed below are a few examples of words that are still used today. All borrowings came from different parts of the Horde:

• barn
• bazaar
• money
• horse
• box
• customs

One of the very important colloquial features of the Russian language of Turkic origin is the use of the word “come on”. Listed below are a few common examples that are still found in Russian.

• Let's have some tea.
• Let's have a drink!
• Let's go!

In addition, in the south of Russia there are dozens of local names of Tatar / Turkic origin for lands along the Volga, which are highlighted on the maps of these regions. Examples of such names: Penza, Alatyr, Kazan, regional names: Chuvashia and Bashkortostan.

Kievan Rus was a democratic state. The main governing body was the veche - a meeting of all free male citizens who gathered to discuss such issues as war and peace, law, invitation or expulsion of princes to the respective city; all cities in Kievan Rus had veche. It was, in fact, a forum for civil affairs, for discussing and solving problems. However, this democratic institution was severely curtailed under the rule of the Mongols.

By far the most influential gatherings were in Novgorod and Kiev. In Novgorod, a special veche bell (in other cities, church bells were usually used for this) served to summon the townspeople, and, theoretically, anyone could ring it. When the Mongols conquered most of Kievan Rus, the Veche ceased to exist in all cities except Novgorod, Pskov and several other cities in the northwest. Veche in these cities continued to work and develop until Moscow subdued them at the end of the 15th century. However, today the spirit of the veche as a public forum has been revived in several cities of Russia, including Novgorod.

The population censuses, which made it possible to collect tribute, were of great importance for the Mongol rulers. To support the censuses, the Mongols introduced a special dual system of regional administration, headed by military governors, Baskaks and / or civilian governors, Darugachs. In fact, the Baskaks were responsible for directing the activities of rulers in areas that resisted or did not accept Mongol rule. The Darugachi were civilian governors who controlled those areas of the empire that surrendered without a fight or that were considered already submissive to the Mongol forces and calm. However, the Baskaki and Darugachi sometimes performed the duties of the authorities, but did not duplicate it.

As is known from history, the ruling princes of Kievan Rus did not trust the Mongol ambassadors, who came to make peace with them in the early 1200s; the princes, sadly, betrayed Genghis Khan's ambassadors to the sword and soon paid dearly. Thus, in the 13th century, Baskaks were placed on the conquered lands to subjugate the people and control even the daily activities of the princes. In addition, in addition to conducting the census, the Baskaks provided recruiting for the local population.

Existing sources and research show that the Baskaks largely disappeared from the Russian lands by the middle of the 14th century, as Russia more or less recognized the rule of the Mongol khans. When the Baskaks left, power passed to the Darugachs. However, unlike the Baskaks, the Darugachi did not live on the territory of Russia. In fact, they were in Sarai, the old capital of the Golden Horde, located not far from present-day Volgograd. Darugachi served in the lands of Russia mainly as advisers and consulted the khan. Although the responsibility for collecting and delivering tribute and conscripts belonged to the Baskaks, with the transition from the Baskaks to the Darugachs, these responsibilities were actually transferred to the princes themselves, when the khan saw that the princes were quite coping with this.

The first census carried out by the Mongols took place in 1257, just 17 years after the conquest of Russian lands. The population was divided into dozens - the Chinese had such a system, the Mongols adopted it, using it throughout their empire. The main purpose of the census was conscription as well as taxation. Moscow continued this practice after it stopped recognizing the Horde in 1480. The practice attracted foreign visitors to Russia, for whom large-scale censuses were still unknown. One such visitor, Sigismund von Herberstein of Habsburg, noted that every two or three years the prince carried out a census all over the earth. Population census did not receive widespread in Europe until the early 19th century. One significant remark that we must make: the thoroughness with which the Russians carried out the census could not have been achieved in other parts of Europe in the era of absolutism for about 120 years. The influence of the Mongol Empire, at least in this area, was obviously deep and effective and helped to create a strong centralized government for Russia.

One of the important innovations that the Baskaks oversaw and supported were the pits (a system of posts), which were built to provide travelers with food, lodging, horses, and carts or sledges, depending on the season. Originally built by the Mongols, the yam ensured the relatively rapid movement of important dispatches between the khans and their governors, as well as the rapid dispatch of envoys, local or foreign, between the various principalities throughout the vast empire. At each post there were horses to carry authorized persons, as well as to replace tired horses on especially long journeys. Each post, as a rule, was located about a day's drive from the nearest post. Local residents were required to support the caretakers, feed the horses, and meet the needs of officials traveling on business.

The system was efficient enough. Another report by Sigismund von Herberstein of Habsburg said that the pit system allowed him to travel 500 kilometers (from Novgorod to Moscow) in 72 hours - much faster than anywhere else in Europe. The pit system helped the Mongols maintain tight control over their empire. During the gloomy years of the Mongols in Russia at the end of the 15th century, Prince Ivan III decided to continue using the idea of ​​the pit system in order to preserve the existing system of communications and intelligence. However, the idea of ​​a postal system as we know it today did not emerge until the death of Peter the Great in the early 1700s.

Some of the innovations brought to Russia by the Mongols, long time satisfied the needs of the state and continued for many centuries after the Golden Horde. This greatly expanded the development and expansion of the complex bureaucracy of later, imperial Russia.

Founded in 1147, Moscow remained an insignificant city for over a hundred years. At that time, this place lay at the crossroads of three main roads, one of which connected Moscow with Kiev. The geographical location of Moscow deserves attention, since it is located at the bend of the Moscow River, which merges with the Oka and Volga. Through the Volga, which allows you to get to the Dnieper and the Don rivers, as well as the Black and Caspian seas, there have always been huge opportunities for trade with neighboring and distant lands. With the advance of the Mongols, crowds of refugees began to arrive from the devastated southern part of Russia, mainly from Kiev. Moreover, the actions of the Moscow princes in favor of the Mongols contributed to the rise of Moscow as a center of power.

Even before the Mongols gave Moscow a label, Tver and Moscow were constantly fighting for power. A major turning point occurred in 1327, when the people of Tver began to revolt. Seeing this as an opportunity to please the khan of his Mongol overlords, Prince Ivan I of Moscow with a huge Tatar army suppressed the uprising in Tver, restoring order in this city and winning the favor of the khan. To demonstrate loyalty, Ivan I was also given a label, and thus Moscow came one step closer to fame and power. Soon the princes of Moscow took on the responsibility of collecting taxes throughout the land (including from themselves), and eventually the Mongols entrusted this task exclusively to Moscow and stopped the practice of sending their tax collectors. Nevertheless, Ivan I was more than a shrewd politician and a model of sanity: he may have been the first prince to replace the traditional horizontal line of succession with a vertical one (although it was fully achieved only by the second reign of Prince Basil in the middle of 1400). This change led to greater stability in Moscow and thus strengthened its position. As Moscow grew by collecting tribute, its power over other principalities was increasingly asserted. Moscow received land, which means it collected more tribute and got more access to resources, and therefore more power.

At a time when Moscow was becoming more and more powerful, the Golden Horde was in a state of general decay caused by riots and coups. Prince Dmitry decided to attack in 1376 and succeeded. Soon after, one of the Mongol generals Mamai tried to create his own horde in the steppes west of the Volga, and he decided to challenge the power of Prince Dmitry on the banks of the Vozha River. Dmitry defeated Mamai, which delighted the Muscovites and of course angered the Mongols. However, he collected an army of 150 thousand people. Dmitry gathered an army of comparable size, and these two armies met at the Don River on the Kulikovo field in early September 1380. The Rusichi of Dmitry, although they lost about 100,000 people, won. Tokhtamysh, one of Tamerlane's generals, soon captured and executed General Mamai. Prince Dmitry became known as Dmitry Donskoy. However, Moscow was soon plundered by Tokhtamysh and again had to pay tribute to the Mongols.

But the great battle at Kulikovo Field in 1380 was a symbolic turning point. Despite the fact that the Mongols severely avenged Moscow for its rebelliousness, the power that Moscow showed grew and its influence over other Russian principalities expanded. In 1478, Novgorod finally submitted to the future capital, and Moscow soon threw off obedience to the Mongol and Tatar khans, thus ending more than 250 years of Mongol rule.

Results of the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke

Evidence suggests that the multiple effects of the Mongol invasion extended to the political, social, and religious aspects of Rus. Some of them, for example, the growth of the Orthodox Church, had a relatively positive impact on the Russian lands, while others, for example, the loss of the veche and the centralization of power, contributed to the cessation of the spread of traditional democracy and self-government for various principalities. Due to the influence on the language and form of government, the impact of the Mongol invasion is still evident today. Perhaps thanks to the chance to experience the Renaissance, as in other Western European cultures, Russia's political, religious and social thought will be very different from political reality. today... Under the control of the Mongols, who adopted many of the ideas of government and economics from the Chinese, the Russians became, perhaps, a more Asian country in terms of administrative structure, and the deep Christian roots of the Russians established and helped maintain a connection with Europe. The Mongol invasion, perhaps more than any other historical event, determined the course of the development of the Russian state - its culture, political geography, history and national identity.

How historiography is written.

Unfortunately, there is no analytical review of the history of historiography yet. It's a pity! Then we would understand how historiography for the health of the state differs from historiography for its repose. If we want to glorify the beginning of the state, we will write that it was founded by a hardworking and independent people who enjoy the well-deserved respect of their neighbors.
If we want to sing him a requiem, then let's say that it was founded by a wild people living in dense forests and impassable swamps, and the state was created by representatives of a different ethnic group, which came here precisely because of the inability of local residents to equip an original and independent state. Then, if we sing the eulogy, we will say that the name of this ancient formation was clear to everyone, and has not changed to this day. On the contrary, if we bury our state, we will say that it was named for an unknown reason, and then changed its name. Finally, in favor of the state in the first phase of its development, there will be an assertion of its strength. And vice versa, if we want to show that the state was so-so, we must show not only that it was weak, but also that an unknown in ancient times and a very peaceful and small people could conquer it. It is on this last statement that I would like to dwell.

- This is the name of a chapter from the book of Kungurov (KUN). He writes: “The official version of ancient Russian history, composed by Germans who were discharged from abroad to St. Petersburg, is built according to the following scheme: Russian state, created by the alien Varangians, crystallizes around Kiev and the middle Dnieper region and bears the name of Kievan Rus, then evil wild nomads come from somewhere from the East, destroy the Russian state and establish an occupation regime called the "yoke". Two and a half centuries later, the Moscow princes cast off the yoke, collect the Russian lands under their rule and create a powerful Muscovy, which is the legal successor of Kievan Rus and rid the Russians of the "yoke"; for several centuries in Eastern Europe there has been an ethnically Russian Grand Duchy of Lithuania, however, it is politically dependent on the Poles, and therefore cannot be considered a Russian state, therefore, the war between Lithuania and Muscovy should be viewed not as civil strife between Russian princes, but as a struggle between Moscow and Poland for the reunification of Russian lands.

Despite the fact that this version of history is still recognized as official, only "professional" scientists can consider it reliable. A person accustomed to thinking with his head will doubt this very much, if only because the history of the Mongol invasion has been completely sucked out of his thumb. Until the 19th century, the Russians did not even suspect that they were allegedly once conquered by the Trans-Baikal savages. Indeed, the version that a highly developed state was completely crushed by some wild steppe inhabitants, unable to create an army in accordance with the technical and cultural achievements of that time, looks delusional. Moreover, such a people as the Mongols was not known to science. True, historians were not at a loss and announced that the Mongols are the small nomadic people of Khalkha living in Central Asia ”(KUN: 162).

Indeed, all the great conquerors are well known. When Spain had a powerful fleet, a great armada, Spain captured a number of lands in North and South America, and today there are two dozen Latin American states. Britain, as ruler of the seas, also has or has had many colonies. But today we do not know a single colony of Mongolia or a state dependent on it. Moreover, apart from the Buryats or Kalmyks, who are the same Mongols, not a single ethnic group of Russia speaks Mongolian.

“The Khalkhs themselves learned that they were the heirs of the great Genghis Khan only in the 19th century, but they did not object - everyone wants to have great, albeit mythical, ancestors. And in order to explain the disappearance of the Mongols after their successful conquest of half of the world, a completely artificial term "Mongolo-Tatars" is introduced into use, which means other nomadic peoples allegedly conquered by the Mongols, who joined the conquerors and formed a certain community in them. In China, foreign-speaking conquerors turn into Manchus, in India - into Mughals, and in both cases they form ruling dynasties. In the future, however, we do not observe any Tatars-nomads, but this is because, as the same historians explain, that the Mongol-Tatars settled on the lands they conquered, and partially went back to the steppe and disappeared there completely without a trace "(KUN: 162- 163).

Wikipedia about the game.

This is how Wikipedia interprets the Tatar-Mongol yoke: “The Mongol-Tatar yoke is a system of political and tributary dependence of the Russian principalities on the Mongol-Tatar khans (until the beginning of the 60s of the XIII century, the Mongol khans, after the khans of the Golden Horde) in the XIII-XV centuries. The establishment of the yoke became possible as a result of the Mongol invasion of Russia in 1237-1241 and took place for two decades after it, including in the undeveloped lands. In North-Eastern Russia it lasted until 1480. In other Russian lands, it was liquidated in the XIV century as they were absorbed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland.

The term "yoke", meaning the power of the Golden Horde over Russia, is not found in Russian chronicles. It appeared at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries in Polish historical literature. It was first used by the chronicler Jan Dlugosz ("iugum barbarum", "iugum servitutis") in 1479 and professor at the University of Krakow Matvey Mekhovsky in 1517. Literature: 1. Golden Horde // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary: In 86 volumes (82 vol. and 4 additional). - SPb .: 1890-1907.2. Malov N. M., Malyshev A. B., Rakushin A. I. "Religion in the Golden Horde". The word formation "Mongol-Tatar yoke" was first used in 1817 by H. Kruse, whose book was translated into Russian in the middle of the 19th century and published in St. Petersburg. "

So, for the first time this term was introduced by the Poles in the XV-XVI centuries, who saw in the relations of the Tatar-Mongols to other peoples a "yoke". The reason for this is explained by the second work of 3 authors: “Apparently, the Tatar yoke was first used in Polish historical literature of the late 15th - early 16th centuries. At this time, on the borders of Western Europe, the young Moscow state was pursuing an active foreign policy, liberated from the vassal dependence of the Golden Horde khans. In neighboring Poland, there is an increased interest in history, foreign policy, armed forces, national relations, internal structure, traditions and customs of Muscovy. Therefore, it is no coincidence that for the first time the phrase Tatar yoke was used in the Polish chronicle (1515-1519) by Matvey Mekhovsky, professor at the University of Krakow, court physician and astrologer of King Sigismund I. The author of various medical and historical works, spoke enthusiastically about Ivan III, who threw off the Tatar yoke considering this to be his most important merit, and, apparently, a global event of the era. "

Mention of the yoke among historians.

Poland's attitude towards Russia has always been ambiguous, and its attitude towards its own fate has always been an extremely tragic one. So they could exaggerate the dependence of some peoples on the Tatar-Mongols. And then 3 authors continue: “Later, the term Tatar yoke is also mentioned in the notes about the Moscow war of 1578-1582, compiled by the secretary of state of another king Stephen Batory - Reingold Heydenstein. Even Jacques Margeret, a French mercenary and adventurer, an officer in the Russian service and a person far from science, knew what was meant by the Tatar yoke. This term was widely used by other West European historians of the 17th-18th centuries. In particular, the Englishman John Milton and the Frenchman De Tu were familiar with him. Thus, for the first time, the term Tatar yoke was probably introduced into circulation by Polish and Western European historians, and not Russian or Russian "

For now, I will interrupt the quotation in order to draw attention to the fact that foreigners write about the "yoke" first of all, who really liked the scenario of weak Russia, which was captured by the "evil Tartars". While Russian historians did not know anything about this yet

"V. N. Tatishchev did not use this phrase, perhaps because, when writing the History of Russia, he mainly relied on early Russian chronicle terms and expressions, where it is absent. IN Boltin already used the term Tatar rule, and M., M., Shcherbatov believed that liberation from the Tatar yoke was a great achievement of Ivan III. N.M., Karamzin found in the Tatar yoke both negative - the tightening of laws and customs, a slowdown in the development of education and science, and positive aspects - the formation of autocracy, a factor in the unification of Rus. Another phrase, the Tatar-Mongol yoke, also most likely comes from the vocabulary of Western, and not domestic researchers. In 1817, Christopher Kruse published an Atlas on European History, where he first introduced the term Mongol-Tatar yoke into scientific circulation. Although, this work was translated into Russian only in 1845, but already in the 20s of the XIX century. Russian historians began to use this new scientific definition. Since that time, the terms: Mongol-Tatars, Mongol-Tatar yoke, Mongol yoke, Tatar yoke and Horde yoke have traditionally been widely used in Russian historical science. In our encyclopedic publications, under the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia in the 13th-15th centuries, we mean: the system of rule of the Mongol-Tatar feudal lords, with the help of various political, military and economic means, with the goal of regular exploitation of the conquered country. Thus, in European historical literature, the term yoke denotes domination, oppression, slavery, bondage, or the power of foreign conquerors over defeated peoples and states. It is known that the Old Russian principalities were subject to the Golden Horde economically and politically, and also paid tribute. The Golden Horde khans actively intervene in the policy of the Russian principalities, which they tried to tightly control. Sometimes, the relationship between the Golden Horde and the Russian principalities is characterized as a symbiosis, or a military alliance directed against the countries of Western Europe and some Asian states, first Muslim, and after the collapse of the Mongol Empire - Mongolian.

However, it should be noted that if theoretically the so-called symbiosis, or military alliance, could exist for some time, then it was never equal, voluntary and stable. In addition, even in the developed and late Middle Ages, short-term interstate alliances were usually formalized by contractual relations. Such, equal allied, relations between the fragmented Russian principalities and the Golden Horde could not exist, since the khans of Ulus Jochi issued the labels for the rule of the Vladimir, Tver, Moscow princes. Russian princes were obliged, at the request of the khans, to send troops to participate in the military campaigns of the Golden Horde. In addition, using the Russian princes and their army, the Mongols make punitive campaigns against other rebellious Russian principalities. The khans summoned princes to the Horde in order to issue a label to reign alone, and to execute or pardon those who were unwanted. During this period, the Russian lands were actually under the rule or yoke of Ulus Jochi. Although, sometimes the foreign policy interests of the Golden Horde khans and the Russian princes, for various reasons, could somehow coincide. The Golden Horde is a chimera state in which the elite are conquerors, and the lower strata are conquered peoples. The Mongolian Golden Horde elite established power over the Polovtsy, Alans, Circassians, Khazars, Bulgars, Finno-Ugric peoples, and also placed the Russian principalities in a rigid vassal relationship. Therefore, we can assume that the scientific term yoke is quite acceptable to denote in the historical literature the nature of the power of the Golden Horde, established not only over the Russian lands. "

Yoke as the Christianization of Rus.

Thus, Russian historians really repeated the assertions of the German Christopher Kruse, while they did not subtract such a term from any chronicle. Not only Kungurov drew attention to the strangeness in the interpretation of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. This is what we read in the article (TAT): “Such a nation as the Mongolo-Tatars does not exist, and did not exist at all. The Mongols and the Tatars are related only by the fact that they roamed the Central Asian steppe, which, as we know, is large enough to accommodate any nomadic people, and at the same time give them the opportunity not to intersect on the same territory at all. The Mongol tribes lived in the southern tip of the Asian steppe and often hunted in raids on China and its provinces, which is often confirmed by the history of China. Whereas other nomadic Türkic tribes, called Bulgars (Volga Bulgaria) from the Pokonese centuries in Russia, settled in the lower reaches of the Volga River. In those days in Europe they were called Tatars, or Tat Aryans (the most powerful of the nomadic tribes, unbending and invincible). And the Tatars, the closest neighbors of the Mongols, lived in the northeastern part of modern Mongolia, mainly in the area of ​​Lake Buir-Nor and up to the borders of China. There were 70 thousand families, which made up 6 tribes: Tatars-tutukulyut, Tatars-alchi, Tatars-chagan, Tatars-Kuin, Tatars-terat, Tatars-barkui. The second parts of the names, apparently, are the self-names of these tribes. There is not a single word among them that would sound close to the Turkic language - they are more consonant with the Mongolian names. Two kindred peoples - Tatars and Mongols - fought a war with varying success for mutual extermination for a long time, until Genghis Khan seized power in all of Mongolia. The fate of the Tatars was a foregone conclusion. Since the Tatars were the murderers of Genghis Khan's father, exterminated many tribes and clans close to him, constantly supported the tribes opposing him, “then Genghis Khan (Tei-mu-Chin) ordered a general beating of the Tatars and not one left alive to that limit, which is determined by law (Yasak); to kill women and small children, and to cut the wombs of pregnant women in order to completely destroy them. ... ”. That is why such a nationality could not threaten the freedom of Russia. Moreover, many historians and cartographers of that time, especially Eastern European ones, “sinned” to name all indestructible (from the point of view of Europeans) and invincible peoples, Tat'Aryans, or simply TatArie in Latin. This can be easily traced on ancient maps, for example, Map of Russia 1594 in the Atlas of Gerhard Mercator, or Maps of Russia and TarTarius Ortelius. Below you can view these maps. So what can we see from the newfound material? And we see that this event simply could not happen, at least in the form in which it is transmitted to us. And before moving on to the narration of the truth, I propose to consider a few more discrepancies in the "historical" description of these events.

Even in the modern school curriculum, this historical moment is briefly described as follows: “At the beginning of the 13th century, Genghis Khan gathered a large army of nomadic peoples, and subjecting them to strict discipline, he decided to conquer the whole world. Having defeated China, he sent his army to Russia. In the winter of 1237, the Mongol-Tatars invaded the territory of Russia, and after defeating the Russian army on the Kalka River, they set out further, through Poland and the Czech Republic. As a result, having reached the shores of the Adriatic Sea, the army suddenly stops, and without completing its task turns back. From this period the So-called "Mongol-Tatar Yoke" over Russia begins.
But wait, they were going to conquer the whole world ... so why not move on? Historians replied that they were afraid of an attack from the back, broken and plundered, but still strong Russia. But this is just ridiculous. Plundered state, will run to defend other people's cities and villages? Rather, they will rebuild their borders, and wait for the return of the enemy troops, so that they can fight back fully armed. But the oddities don't end there. For some unimaginable reason, during the reign of the House of Romanov, dozens of chronicles describing the events of the “times of the Horde” disappear. For example, "The Lay of the Death of the Russian Land", historians believe that this is a document from which everything was carefully removed, which would testify to the Yoke. They left only fragments telling about some kind of "misfortune" that befell Russia. But there is not a word about the "Mongol invasion". There are many more oddities. In the story "About the Evil Tatars" the khan from the Golden Horde orders the execution of the Russian Christian prince ... for refusing to worship the "pagan god of the Slavs!" And some chronicles contain amazing phrases, such as: "Well, with God!" - said the khan and, crossing himself, galloped to the enemy. So what really happened? At that time, Europe was already flourishing with might and main " new faith”Namely, Faith in Christ. Catholicism was widespread everywhere, and ruled everything from the way of life and order, to the state system and legislation. At that time, the crusades against the infidels were still relevant, but along with military methods, "tactical tricks" were often used, akin to bribery of powerful persons and persuading them to their faith. And after gaining power through the purchased person, the conversion of all his "subordinates". It was precisely such a secret crusade that was then carried out to Russia. Through bribery and other promises, the ministers of the church were able to seize power over Kiev and surrounding areas. Just relatively recently, by the standards of history, the baptism of Rus took place, but history is silent about the civil war that arose on this basis immediately after the forced baptism. "

So, this author interprets the "Tatar-Mongol yoke" as a civil war imposed by the West during the real, Western baptism of Russia, which took place in the XIII-XIV centuries. This understanding of the baptism of Rus is very painful for the ROC for two reasons. The date of the baptism of Rus is considered to be 988, not 1237. Due to the shift in the date, the antiquity of Russian Christianity is reduced by 249 years, which reduces the "millennium of Orthodoxy" by almost a third. On the other hand, the source of Russian Christianity is not the activities of the Russian princes, including Vladimir, but the Western Crusades, accompanied by a massive protest of the Russian population. This raises the question of the legitimacy of the introduction of Orthodoxy in Russia. Finally, the responsibility for the "yoke" in this case is transferred from the unknown "Tatar-Mongols" to the quite real West, to Rome and Constantinople. And the official historiography on this issue turns out to be not a science, but a modern pseudo-scientific mythology. But let us return to the texts of the book by Alexei Kungurov, especially since he examines in great detail all the inconsistencies of the official version.

Lack of writing and artifacts.

“The Mongols did not have their own alphabet and did not leave a single written source” (KUN: 163). Indeed, this is extremely surprising. Generally speaking, even if the people do not have their own written language, then for state acts they use the writing of other peoples. Therefore, the complete absence of state acts in such a large state as the Mongol Khanate during its heyday causes not just bewilderment, but doubt that such a state ever existed. “If we demand to present at least some material evidence of the long existence of the Mongol empire, then archaeologists, scratching the back of their heads and chuckling, will show a couple of half-rotted sabers and several female earrings. But do not try to find out why the remains of sabers are "Mongol-Tatar" and not Cossack, for example. Nobody will explain this to you for sure. In the best case scenario, you will hear the story that the saber was dug up at the place where, according to the ancient and very reliable chronicle, there was a battle with the Mongols. Where is that chronicle? God knows her, has not reached our days, but the historian N. saw her with his own eyes, who translated it from Old Russian. Where is this historian N.? Yes, for two hundred years since he died - modern "scientists" will answer you, but they will certainly add that the works of N are considered classical and are not subject to doubt, since all subsequent generations of historians wrote their works based on his works. I am not laughing - this is approximately the case in the official historical science of Russian antiquity. Even worse - armchair scientists, creatively developing the legacy of the classics of Russian historiography, in their puffy volumes have stuck such nonsense about the Mongols, whose arrows, it turns out, pierced the armor of European knights, and battering guns, flamethrowers and even rocket artillery made it possible to take by storm for several days powerful fortresses, which raises serious doubts about their mental usefulness. It seems that they do not see any difference between a bow and a crossbow loaded with a lever ”” (KUHN: 163-164).

But where could the Mongols have encountered the armor of European knights and what do Russian sources say about this? “And Vorogi came from the Overseas, and they brought faith in alien gods. With fire and sword, they began to plant an alien faith to us, Sprinkle gold and silver on the Russian princes, bribe their will, and lead astray. They promised them an idle life, full of riches and happiness, and forgiveness of any sins, for their dashing deeds. And then Ros broke up, into different states. The Russian clan retreated to the north to the Great Asgard, And they named their state after the names of the gods of their patrons, Tarkh Dazhdbog the Great and Tara, his Sister Light-wise. (They named it the Great Tartaria). Leaving the foreigners with the princes bought in the principality of Kiev and its environs. Volga Bulgaria, too, did not bow before the enemies, and did not begin to accept their faith as hers. But the principality of Kiev did not live in peace with TarTaria. They began to conquer the Russians with the fire and sword of the earth and impose their alien faith. And then the army of war rose to a fierce battle. In order to keep their faith and win back their lands. Both old and young then went to Ratniki in order to restore order to the Russian Lands. "

So the war began, in which the Russian army, the land of Great Aria (Tat'Aria) defeated the enemy, and drove him from the lands of the primordial Slavic. It drove the alien army, with their fierce faith, from their stately lands. By the way, the word Horde, translated by the initial letters of the Old Slavic alphabet, means Order. That is, the Golden Horde is not a separate state, it is a system. "Political" system of the Golden Order. Under which Princes reigned on the ground, planted with the approval of the Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Army, or in one word they called him KHAN (our defender).
This means that there was not more than two hundred years of oppression, but there was a time of peace and prosperity for Great Aria or Tartaria. By the way, modern history also confirms this, but for some reason no one pays attention to it. But we will definitely turn it over, and very intent ...: Doesn't it seem strange to you that the battle with the Swedes takes place right in the middle of the invasion of the "Mongolo-Tatars" to Russia? Blazing in fires and plundered by the Mongols, Russia is attacked by the Swedish army, which is safely drowning in the waters of the Neva, and the Swedish crusaders never encounter the Mongols. And the Rusichi, who defeated the strong Swedish army, lose to the Mongols? In my opinion, this is just nonsense. Two huge armies at the same time are fighting on the same territory and never intersect. But if we turn to the ancient Slavic chronicle, then everything becomes clear.

Since 1237, the Host of Great TarTaria began to recapture their ancestral lands, and when the war came to an end, the representatives of the church who were losing power asked for help, and the Swedish crusaders were sent into battle. Since it was not possible to take the country by bribery, it means that they will take it by force. Just in 1240, the army of the Horde (that is, the army of Prince Alexander Yaroslavovich, one of the princes of the ancient Slavic family) faced in battle with the army of the Crusaders, which had come to the rescue of its henchmen. Having won the battle on the Neva, Alexander received the title of Nevsky prince and remained to reign Novgorod, and the army of the horde went on to expel the foe from the Russian lands completely. So she persecuted "the church and the alien faith" until she reached the Adriatic Sea, thereby restoring her original ancient borders. And having reached them, the army turned around and again left not north. By setting 300- summer period the world "(TAT).

Fantasies of historians about the power of the Mongols.

Commenting on the lines quoted above (KUN: 163), Aleksey Kungurov adds: “This is what Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Nefyodov writes:“ The main weapon of the Tatars was the Mongol bow, “saadak” - it was thanks to this New Weapon that the Mongols conquered most of the promised world. It was a complex killing machine, glued together from three layers of wood and bone and wrapped in sinews to protect it from moisture; gluing was carried out under pressure, and drying lasted for several years - the secret of making these bows was kept secret. This bow was as powerful as a musket; an arrow from it pierced any armor 300 meters away, and it was all about the ability to hit the target, because the bows did not have a sight and shooting from them required many years of training. Possessing this all-crushing weapon, the Tatars did not like to fight hand-to-hand; they preferred to fire at the enemy with bows, dodging his attacks; this shelling sometimes lasted for several days, and the Mongols took out their sabers only when the enemies were wounded and fell from exhaustion. The last, "ninth" attack was carried out by "swordsmen" - warriors armed with curved swords and, together with horses, covered with armor of thick buffalo skin. During major battles, this attack was preceded by shelling from "fire catapults" borrowed from the Chinese - these catapults fired bombs filled with gunpowder, which, exploding, "burned through the armor with sparks" (NEF). - Aleksey Kungurov comments on this passage as follows: “The funniest thing here is not that Nefyodov is a historian (this brotherhood has the wildest idea of ​​natural science), but that he is also a candidate of physical and mathematical sciences. Well this is how much it is necessary to degrade the mind in order to flog such nonsense! Yes, if a bow shot at 300 meters and at the same time pierced any armor, then a firearm simply did not have a chance to be born. The American M-16 rifle has an effective firing range of 400 meters with an initial bullet speed of 1000 meters per second. Further, the bullet quickly loses its lethality. In reality, aimed firing from the M-16 with a mechanical sight is ineffective for more than 100 meters. At 300 meters, even from a powerful rifle, only a very experienced shooter is capable of shooting accurately without an optical sight. And the scientist Nefyodov weaves nonsense about the fact that Mongolian arrows not only flew aiming at a third of a kilometer (the maximum distance at which champions-archers shoot at competitions is 90 meters), but also pierced any armor. Rave! For example, a good chain mail cannot be pierced even at close range from the most powerful bow. To defeat a soldier in chain mail, a special arrow with a needle tip was used, which did not pierce the armor, but, with a successful coincidence, passed through the rings.

In physics at school I had grades of no higher than three, but I know very well from practice that an arrow fired from a bow is imparted with the effort that the muscles of the arms develop when it is pulled. That is, with about the same success, you can take an arrow with your hand and try to pierce at least an enamel basin with it. In the absence of an arrow, use any pointed object like a half of a tailor's scissors, an awl or a knife. How is it going? Do you believe historians after that? If they write in their dissertations that small and thin Mongols pulled bows with an effort of 75 kg, then I would award the degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences only to those who can repeat this feat on defense. Though there will be fewer parasites with scientific titles. By the way, modern Mongols have no idea about any Saadaks - the superweapons of the Middle Ages. Having conquered half the world by them, for some reason they completely forgot how to do it.

It is even easier with battering machines and catapults: one has only to look at the drawings of these monsters, as it becomes clear - these multi-ton colossus cannot be moved even a meter, since they will get bogged down in the ground even during construction. But even if at that time there were asphalt roads from Transbaikalia to Kiev and Polotsk, how would the Mongols drag them thousands of kilometers, how would they ferry them across large rivers like the Volga or the Dnieper? Stone fortresses ceased to be considered impregnable only with the invention of siege artillery, and in previous times, well-fortified cities were taken only by starvation ”(KUN: 164-165). - I think this criticism is excellent. I will also add that, according to the works of Ya.A. Koestler, there were no reserves of saltpeter in China, so they had nothing to stuff the powder bombs with. In addition, gunpowder does not create a temperature of 1556 degrees, at which iron melts in order to “burn through the armor with sparks”. And if he could create such a temperature, then the "sparks" would first of all burn guns and guns at the moment of the shot. It is very funny to read that the Tatars fired and fired (the number of arrows in their quiver, apparently, was not limited), and the enemy was exhausted, and the skinny Mongolian soldiers fired the tenth and hundredth arrows with the same fresh forces as the first, without getting tired. Surprisingly, even rifle shooters get tired, shooting while standing, and the Mongol archers did not know this state.

At one time, I heard from lawyers the expression: "Lies like an eyewitness." Now, perhaps, using the example of Nefyodov, an addition should be proposed: "Lies like a professional historian."

Mongols are metallurgists.

It would seem that it is already possible to put an end here, but Kungurov wants to consider several more aspects. “I don't know much about metallurgy, but I can still very roughly estimate how many tons of iron are needed to equip at least a 10-thousandth Mongolian army” (KUN: 166). Where did the figure 10 thousand come from? - This is the minimum size of the troops with which you can go on a campaign of conquest. Gaius Julius Caesar with such a detachment could not capture Britain, but when he doubled the number, the conquest of foggy Albion was crowned with success. “Actually, such a small army could not conquer China, India, Russia and other countries in any way. Therefore, historians, without trifling, write about the 30-thousand-strong horse horde of Batu, sent to conquer Russia, but this figure seems absolutely fantastic. Even if we assume that the Mongolian warriors had leather armor, wooden shields, and stone arrowheads, then iron is still required for horseshoes, spears, knives, swords, and sabers.

Now it's worth thinking: how did the wild nomads know the high iron-making technologies at that time? After all, the ore still needs to be mined, and for this to be able to find it, that is, to understand a little about geology. Are there many ancient ore mines in the Mongolian steppes? Do archaeologists find many remains of forges there? They, of course, are still magicians - they will find anything where they need it. But in this case, nature itself made the task extremely difficult for archaeologists. Iron ore on the territory of Mongolia is not even mined today (although small deposits have recently been discovered) ”(KUN: 166). But even if the ore was found, and the furnaces for smelting existed, the labor of metallurgists would have to be paid, and they themselves had to live settled. Where are the former settlements of metallurgists? Where are the waste rock heaps (waste heaps)? Where are the remnants of finished goods warehouses? None of this has been found.

“Of course, you can buy weapons, but you need money, which the ancient Mongols did not have, at least they are completely unknown to world archeology. And they could not have, since their economy was not marketable. Weapons could be exchanged, but where, with whom, and for what? In short, if you think about such trifles, then Genghis Khan's campaign from the Manchurian steppes to China, India, Persia, the Caucasus and Europe looks like sheer fantasy ”(KUN: 166).

This is not the first time I have come across such "punctures" in mythological historiography. As a matter of fact, any historiographical myth is written in order to cover up the real fact like a smoke screen. This kind of camouflage works well in cases where secondary facts are masked. But it is impossible to disguise the advanced technologies, the highest at that time. It's like a criminal over two meters in height put on someone else's costume and mask - he is identified not by his clothes or face, but by his exorbitant height. If during the specified period, that is, in the XIII century, the best armor of iron had the Western European knights, then it will not work in any way to attribute their urban culture to the steppe nomads. In the same way, as the highest culture of Etruscan writing, where the Italic, Russian, stylized Greek alphabets and Runica were used, it is impossible to ascribe to any small people such as Albanians or Chechens, which, perhaps, did not exist at that time.

Forage for the Mongolian cavalry.

“For example, how did the Mongols cross the Volga or the Dnieper? You can't cross a two-kilometer stream by swimming, you can't wade. There is only one way out - to wait for winter to cross the ice. It was in winter, by the way, that in Russia they usually fought in the old days. But in order to make such a long transition during the winter, it is necessary to prepare an enormous amount of forage, since although the Mongolian horse is capable of finding withered grass under the snow, for this it needs to graze where there is grass. In this case, the snow cover should be small. In the Mongolian steppes, winters are just little snow, and the herbage is quite high. In Russia, the opposite is true - the grass is high only in floodplain meadows, and in all other places it is very thin. Snowdrifts are such that the horse, not only finding grass under it, will not be able to move in deep snow. Otherwise, it is not clear why the French lost all their cavalry during the retreat from Moscow. They ate it, of course, but they ate the already fallen konyazh, because if the horses were well-fed and healthy, the uninvited guests would use them in order to escape as soon as possible ”(KUN: 166-167). - Note that it is for this reason that summer campaigns have become preferable for Western Europeans.

“Oats are usually used as fodder, and a horse needs 5-6 kg per day. It turns out that the nomads, preparing in advance for a campaign beyond the distant lands, sowed oats on the steppe? Or did they carry hay with them on carts? Let's make simple arithmetic operations and calculate what preparations the nomads had to make in order to go on a long trip. Let's say that they have assembled an army of at least 10 thousand cavalry soldiers. Each warrior needs several horses - one specially trained combatant for battle, one for marching, one for a convoy - to carry food, a yurt and other supplies. This is at least, but we must also take into account that some of the horses will fall on the way, there will be combat losses, therefore a reserve is needed.

And if 10 thousand horsemen go in marching formation even across the steppe, then when the horses graze, where the soldiers will live, will they rest in the snowdrifts, or what? On a long hike, you cannot do without food, fodder and a convoy with warm yurts. You need more fuel to cook your food, but where can you find firewood in the treeless steppe? The nomads drowned their yurts, sorry, with poop, because there is nothing else. It stank, of course. But they are used to it. You can, of course, fantasize about the strategic procurement of hundreds of tons of dried shit by the Mongols, which they took with them on the road, going to conquer the world, but I will give this opportunity to the most stubborn historians.

Some clever people tried to prove to me that the Mongols did not have a wagon train at all, which is why they were able to show phenomenal maneuverability. But in this case, how did they carry the loot home - in their pockets, or what? And where were their battering tools and other engineering devices, and the same maps and food supplies, not to mention their environmentally friendly fuel? Not a single army of the world ever did without a convoy if it was going to make a transition lasting more than two days. The loss of the convoy usually meant the failure of the campaign, even if there was no battle with the enemy.

In short, according to the most modest estimates, our mini-horde should have at least 40 thousand horses at its disposal. From the experience of mass armies of the 17th-19th centuries. it is known that the daily requirement for forage of such a herd will be at least 200 tons of oats. It's just one day! And the longer the trip, the more horses should be involved in the wagon train. A medium-sized horse is capable of pulling a cart with a weight of 300 kg. This is if on the road, and off-road in packs is two times less. That is, in order to provide our 40,000-strong herd, we need 700 horses per day. A three-month hike will require a wagon train of almost 70 thousand horses. And this mob also needs oats, and in order to feed 70 thousand horses carrying fodder for 40 thousand knuckles, it will take more than 100 thousand horses with carts for the same three months, and these horses, in turn, want to eat - it turns out a vicious circle " (KUHN: 167-168). - This calculation shows that intercontinental, for example, from Asia to Europe, horseback trips with a full supply of food is fundamentally impossible. True, here are the calculations for the 3-month winter campaign. But if the campaign is carried out in the summer, and you move in the steppe zone, feeding the horses with pasture, then you can go much further.

“Even in summer, the cavalry never did without fodder, so a Mongol campaign against Russia would still require logistical support. Until the twentieth century, the maneuverability of troops was determined not by the speed of horse hooves and the strength of the soldiers' legs, but by the dependence on carts and throughput road network. The cruising speed of 20 km per day was very good even for the average division of the Second World War, and German tanks, when the paved highways allowed them to blitzkrieg, reeled on tracks for 50 km per day. But in this case, the rear inevitably lagged behind. In ancient times, in off-road conditions, such indicators would be simply fantastic. The textbook (SVI) reports that the Mongolian army passed about 100 kilometers a day! Yes, you can hardly find people who are the worst versed in history. Even in May 1945, Soviet tanks, making a march from Berlin to Prague along good European roads, could not break the "Mongol-Tatar" record "(KUHN: 168-169). - I believe that the very division of Europe into Western and Eastern was made not so much from geographical as from strategic considerations. Namely: within each of them, military campaigns, although they require supplies of fodder and horses, but within reasonable limits. And the transition to another part of Europe already requires the exertion of all state forces, so that the military campaign affects not only the army, but develops into a patriotic war, requiring the participation of the entire population.

The food problem.

“What did the riders themselves eat on the way? If you chase a herd of lambs, then you will have to move with their speed. During the winter, there is no way to get to the nearest hearth of civilization. But nomads are unpretentious people, they got by with dried meat and cottage cheese, which they soaked in hot water. Whatever one may say, a kilogram of food per day is necessary. Three months of travel - 100 kg of weight. In the future, you can slaughter the transport horses. At the same time, savings will come out on forage. But not a single convoy can move at a speed of 100 km per day, especially on impassable roads. " - It is clear that this problem mainly concerns uninhabited areas. In populous Europe, the winner can take food from the vanquished

Demographic problems.

“If we touch upon the issues of demography and try to understand how the nomads were able to field 10 thousand warriors, given the very low population density in the steppe zone, then we will bury ourselves in another insoluble riddle. Well, there is no such thing as a population density in the steppes higher than 0.2 people per square kilometer! If we take the mobilization capabilities of the Mongols as 10% of the total population (every second healthy man is from 18 to 45 years old), then to mobilize a 10-thousand horde, it will be necessary to comb an area of ​​half a million square kilometers. Or let's touch on purely organizational issues: for example, how the Mongols collected taxes on the army and recruited, how did military training take place, how was the military elite brought up? It turns out that, for purely technical reasons, the Mongol campaign against Russia, as it is described by "professional" historians, was impossible in principle.

There are examples of this from relatively recent times. In the spring of 1771, the Kalmyks, who roamed the Caspian steppes, annoyed that the tsarist administration had significantly curtailed their autonomy, together withdrew from their place and moved to their historical homeland in Dzungaria (the territory of modern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Okrug in China). Only 25 thousand Kalmyks who lived on the right bank of the Volga remained in place - they could not join the others due to the opening of the river. Out of 170 thousand nomads, only about 70 thousand reached their goal in 8 months. The rest, as you might guess, died on the way. The winter crossing would be even more disastrous. The local population greeted the settlers without enthusiasm. Who will find traces of Kalmyks in Xinjiang now? And on the right bank of the Volga today, 165 thousand Kalmyks live, who switched to a sedentary lifestyle during the period of collectivization in 1929-1940, but did not lose their original culture and religion (Buddhism) ”(KUN: 1690170). “This last example is amazing! Almost 2/3 of the population, which had good carts in the summer and slowly, perished on the way. Even if the losses of the regular army were less, say, 1/3, then instead of 10 thousand troops, less than 7 thousand people will reach the goal. It may be objected that they were driving the conquered peoples ahead of them. So I counted only those who died from the difficulties of the transition, but there were also combat losses. Defeated enemies can be driven away when the winners are at least twice the number of defeated ones. So if half of the army dies in battle (in fact, the attackers die about 6 times more than the defenders), then the surviving 3.5 thousand can drive no more than 1.5 thousand prisoners in front of them, who in the first battle will try run across to the side of the enemies, strengthening their ranks. And an army of less than 4 thousand people is hardly capable of advancing with battles further into a foreign country - it's time for him to return home.

Why do we need a myth about the Tatar-Mongol invasion?

“But the myth of the terrible Mongol invasion is cultivated for some reason. And why, it's easy to guess - virtual Mongols are needed solely to explain the disappearance of the equally phantom Kievan Rus along with its original population. Say, as a result of Batu's invasion, the Dnieper region was completely depopulated. And what for, one wonders, was it for the nomads to destroy the population? Well, they would impose a tribute, like everyone else - at least some benefit. But no, historians in chorus convince us that the Mongols completely ruined the Kiev region, burned the cities, exterminated the population or took them prisoner, and those who were lucky enough to survive, smearing their heels with lard, fled without looking back into the wild forests to the northeast, where from time created a powerful Muscovy. One way or another, but the time until the 16th century seems to drop out of the history of Southern Russia: if anything, historians mention anything about this period, it is the raids of the Crimeans. Only on whom did they raid, if the Russian lands were depopulated?

It cannot be that for 250 years in the historical center of Russia no events have taken place at all! However, no epoch-making events have been recorded. This caused heated debate among historians when controversy was still allowed. Some put forward hypotheses about the general flight of the population to the northeast, others believed that the entire population died out, and a new one came from the Carpathians in the following centuries. Still others expressed the idea that the population did not run anywhere, and did not come from anywhere, but simply sat quietly in isolation from the outside world and did not show any political, military, economic, demographic or cultural activity. Klyuchevsky promoted the idea that the population, terrified to death by the evil Tatars, left their habitable places and went partly to Galicia, and partly to the Suzdal lands, from where they spread far to the north and east. Kiev, as a city, according to the professor, has temporarily ceased to exist, having reduced to 200 houses. Solovyov argued that Kiev was completely destroyed and for many years it was a heap of ruins where no one lived. In the Galician lands, then called Little Russia, refugees from the Dnieper, they say, slightly polonized, and after returning to their autochthonous territory as Little Russians, they brought there a peculiar dialect and customs acquired in exile ”(KUN: 170-171).

So, from the point of view of Aleksey Kungurov, the myth about the Tatar-Mongols supports another myth - about Kievan Rus. So far I am not considering this second myth, but I admit that the existence of the vast Kievan Rus is also a myth. However, let us listen to this author to the end. Perhaps he will show that the myth of the Tatar-Mongols is beneficial to historians for other reasons.

Surprisingly fast delivery of Russian cities.

“At first glance, this version looks quite logical: evil barbarians came and destroyed a flourishing civilization, everyone was killed and driven to hell. Why? But because they are barbarians. What for? But Batu was in a bad mood, maybe his wife gave him horns, maybe a stomach ulcer tortured him, so he was angry. The scientific community is quite satisfied with such answers, and since I have nothing to do with this very community, I immediately want to argue with the luminaries of historical "science".

Why, one wonders, did the Mongols totally clean up the Kiev region? It should be noted that the Kiev land is not some insignificant outskirts, but supposedly the core of the Russian state according to the version of the same Klyuchevsky. Meanwhile, Kiev in 1240 was surrendered to the enemy in a few days after the siege. Are there any similar cases in history? More often we come across opposite examples, when we gave everything to the enemy, but fought for the core to the last. Consequently, the fall of Kiev seems absolutely incredible. Before the invention of siege artillery, a well-fortified city could only be taken by starvation. And it often happened that the besiegers fizzled out faster than the besieged. History knows cases of a very long defense of the city. For example, during the Polish intervention during the Time of Troubles, the siege of Smolensk by the Poles lasted from September 21, 1609 to June 3, 1611. The defenders capitulated only when the Polish artillery pierced an impressive opening in the wall, and the besieged were exhausted to the extreme by hunger and disease.

The Polish king Sigismund, amazed at the courage of the defenders, dismissed them on their way. But why did the people of Kiev surrender so quickly to the wild Mongols, who did not spare anyone? The nomads did not have powerful siege artillery, and the battering weapons with which they allegedly destroyed fortifications were stupid inventions of historians. It was physically impossible to drag such a device to the wall, because the walls themselves always stood on a large earthen rampart, which was the basis of the city fortifications, and a moat was arranged in front of them. It is now generally accepted that the defense of Kiev lasted 93 days. The well-known writer-fiction writer Bushkov is sneering about this: “Historians are a little cunning. Ninety-three days is not a period between the beginning and the end of the assault, but the first appearance of the "Tatar" army and the capture of Kiev. First, the "Batu voivode" Mengat appeared at the Kiev walls and tried to persuade the Kiev prince to surrender the city without a fight, but the Kievites killed his ambassadors, and he retreated. And three months later "Batu" came. And in a few days he took the city. It is the interval between these events that other researchers call the "long siege" (BUSH).

Moreover, the story of the rapid fall of Kiev is by no means unique. According to historians, all other Russian cities (Ryazan, Vladimir, Galich, Moscow, Pereslavl-Zalessky, etc.) usually held out for no more than five days. Surprisingly, Torzhok defended for almost two weeks. Little Kozelsk allegedly set a record, having held out for seven weeks under siege, but fell on the third day of the assault. Who will explain to me what kind of superweapon the Mongols used to take fortresses on the move? And why was this weapon forgotten? In the Middle Ages, throwing machines - vices - were sometimes used to destroy city walls. But in Russia there was a big problem - there was nothing to throw - boulders of a suitable size would have to be dragged along.

True, the cities in Russia in most cases had wooden fortifications, and theoretically they could be burned. But in practice, in winter it was difficult to do, because the walls were watered from above with water, as a result of which an ice shell formed on them. In fact, even if a 10,000-strong nomadic army came to Russia, no catastrophe would have happened. This horde would simply melt in a couple of months, taking a dozen cities by storm. The losses of the attackers in this case will be 3-5 times higher than those of the defenders of the citadel.

According to the official version of history, the northeastern lands of Russia suffered much more from the foe, but for some reason no one thought to scatter from there. And vice versa, they fled to where the climate is colder, and the Mongols were more disgraceful. Where is the logic? And why was the "scattered" population until the 16th century paralyzed with fear and did not try to return to the fertile lands of the Dnieper region? The Mongols have long gone cold, and the frightened Russians, they say, were afraid to show their nose there. The Crimeans were not at all peaceful, but for some reason the Russians were not afraid of them - the Cossacks on their seagulls descended the Don and the Dnieper, unexpectedly attacked the Crimean cities and staged cruel pogroms there. Usually, if some places are favorable for life, then the struggle for them is especially fierce, and these lands are never empty. The conquerors are replaced by conquerors, those are displaced or assimilated by stronger neighbors - the issue here is not in disagreements on some political or religious issues, but in the possession of the territory ”(KUN: 171-173). - Indeed, the situation is completely inexplicable from the point of view of the collision of steppe dwellers and townspeople. It is very good for a slanderous version of the historiography of Russia, but it is completely illogical. While Alexey Kungurov notices all the new aspects of the completely incredible development of events from the standpoint of the Tatar-Mongol invasion.

Incomprehensible motives of the Mongols.

“Historians do not explain at all the motives of the mythical Mongols. Why did they participate in such grandiose campaigns? If in order to impose a tribute on the conquered Russians, then why the hell did the Mongols raze 49 out of 74 large Russian cities to the ground, and the population was massacred almost to the root, as historians tell about it? If they destroyed the natives because they liked the local grass and a milder climate than in the Trans-Caspian and Trans-Baikal steppes, then why did they leave for the steppe? There is no logic in the actions of the conquerors. More precisely, it is not in the nonsense composed by historians.

The primary cause of the belligerence of peoples in ancient times was the so-called crisis of nature and man. When the territory was overpopulated, society seemed to push young and energetic people outward. They will conquer those lands of their neighbors and settle there - good. They will die in the hearth - not bad either, because there will be no "extra" population. In many ways, this can explain the belligerence of the ancient Scandinavians: their meager northern lands could not feed the multiplying population and that remained to live by robbery or to be hired to serve in foreign rulers in order to engage in the same robbery. The Russians are lucky - the surplus population has been rolling back south and east for centuries up to the Pacific Ocean. In the future, the crisis of nature and man began to be overcome by qualitative change agricultural technology and industrial development.

But what could have caused the Mongols' belligerence? If the population density of the steppe dwellers exceeds the permissible limits (that is, there is a shortage of pastures), some of the shepherds will simply migrate to other, less developed steppes. If the nomads there are not happy with the guests, then a small massacre will arise, in which the strongest will win. That is, the Mongols, in order to get to Kiev, would have to master vast areas from Manchuria to the northern Black Sea region. But even in this case, the nomads did not pose a threat to the strong civilized countries, because no nomadic people ever created their own statehood and did not have an army. The maximum that the steppe inhabitants are capable of is to raid a border village with the aim of robbery.

The only analogue of the mythical warlike Mongols is the 19th century Chechen herders. This people is unique in that robbery has become the basis of its existence. The Chechens did not even have a rudimentary statehood, lived in clans (teips), did not engage in agriculture, unlike their neighbors, did not possess the secrets of metal processing, and even mastered the most primitive crafts. They posed a threat to the Russian border and communications with Georgia, which became part of Russia in 1804, only because they supplied them with weapons and supplies, and bribed the local princelings. But the Chechen robbers, despite their numerical superiority, could not oppose the Russians with anything except the tactics of raids and forest ambushes. When the latter's patience ran out, the regular army under the command of Yermolov quickly carried out a total "cleanup" of the North Caucasus, driving the abreks into the mountains and gorges.

I am ready to believe in a lot, but I categorically refuse to take the ravings about the evil nomads who destroyed Ancient Russia seriously. All the more fantastic is the theory of the three-century "yoke" of the wild steppe dwellers over the Russian principalities. Only the STATE can exercise dominion over the conquered lands. Historians generally understand this, and therefore invented a kind of fabulous Mongol Empire - the largest state in the world in the entire history of mankind, founded by Genghis Khan in 1206 and including the territory from the Danube to the Sea of ​​Japan and from Novgorod to Cambodia. All empires known to us were created for centuries and generations, and only the greatest world empire was allegedly created by an illiterate savage literally by wave of the hand "(KUN: 173-175). - So, Aleksey Kungurov comes to the conclusion that if there was a conquest of Russia, it was carried out not by the wild steppe inhabitants, but by some powerful state. But where was its capital located?

The capital of the steppe people.

“If there is an empire, then there must be a capital. The fantastic city of Karakorum was appointed to be the capital, the remains of which were explained by the ruins of the Erdeni-Dzu Buddhist monastery at the end of the 16th century in the center of modern Mongolia. On what basis? And so the historians wanted it. Schliemann dug up the ruins of a small ancient city, and announced that it was Troy ”(KUHN: 175). I showed in two articles that Schliemann dug up one of the temples of Yar and took its treasures for the trail of ancient Troy, although Troy, as shown by one of the Serbian researchers, was located on the shores of Lake Skoder (the modern city of Shkoder in Albania).

“And Nikolai Yadrintsev, who discovered an ancient settlement in the Orkhon valley, declared it Karakorum. Karakorum literally means "black stones" Since there was a mountain range not far from the place of discovery, it was given the official name Karakorum. And since the mountains are called Karakorum, then the settlement was given the same name. Here is such a compelling rationale! True, the local population had never heard of any Karakorum, but called the Muztag ridge - Ice Mountains, but this did not bother scientists at all ”(KUN: 175-176). - And rightly so, because in this case, the "scientists" were looking not for the truth, but for confirmation of their myth, and geographical renaming is very conducive to this.

Traces of a grand empire.

“The largest world empire left the least traces of itself. Or rather, none at all. She, they say, disintegrated in the XIII century into separate uluses, the largest of which was the Yuan Empire, that is, China (its capital Khanbalik, now Aekin, allegedly was at one time the capital of the entire Mongol Empire), the Ilkhan state (Iran, Transcaucasia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan), Chagataisky ulus (Central Asia) and the Golden Horde (territory from the Irtysh to the White, Baltic and Black seas). This historians cleverly came up with. Now any pieces of pottery or copper jewelry found in the vastness from Hungary to the coast of the Sea of ​​Japan can be declared traces of the great Mongol civilization. And find And announce. And they won't blink at the same time ”(KUN: 176).

As an epigraphist, I am primarily interested in written monuments. Did they exist in the Tatar-Mongol era? Here is what Nefyodov writes about this: “Having made Alexander Nevsky the Grand Duke of their own free will, the Tatars sent Baskaks and censors to Russia -“ and the cursed Tatars began to travel through the streets, rewriting Christian houses ”. It was a census that was being carried out at that time throughout the vast Mongol Empire; the members of the ranks drew up the register-defters in order to collect the taxes established by Yelyu Chu-tsai: land tax, "kalan", poll tax, "kupchur", and the tax on merchants, "tamga" "(NEF). True, in the epigraphy the word "tamga" has a different meaning, "generic signs of ownership", but this is not the point: if there were three types of taxes, drawn up in the form of lists, then something must have been preserved. - Alas, there is none of this. It is not even clear what typeface all this was written in. But if there are no such special marks, then it turns out that all these lists were written in Russian, that is, in Cyrillic. - When I tried to find articles on the Internet on the topic "Artifacts of the Tatar-Mongol yoke", I came across a judgment that I reproduce below.

Why are the chronicles silent?

“At the time of the mythical“ Tatar-Mongol yoke ”, according to official history, decline came in Russia. This, in their opinion, is confirmed by the almost complete absence of evidence of that period. Once, talking with a lover of the history of my native land, I heard from him a mention of the decline that reigned in this area during the "Tatar-Mongol yoke". As evidence, he recalled that there was once a monastery in these places. First, it should be said about the area: the river valley with hills in the immediate vicinity, there are springs - an ideal place for a settlement. And so it was. However, the annals of this monastery mention the nearest settlement only a few tens of kilometers away. Although between the lines you can read that people lived closer and closer, only "wild". Reasoning on this topic, we came to the conclusion that due to ideological motives, the monks mentioned only Christian settlements, or during the next rewriting of history, all information about non-Christian settlements was erased.

No, no, sometimes historians unearth settlements that flourished during the “Tatar-Mongol yoke”. What forced them to admit that, in fact, the Tatar-Mongols were quite tolerant of the conquered peoples ... “However, the lack of reliable sources about the general prosperity in Kievan Rus does not give rise to doubts in the official history.

In fact, apart from the sources of the Orthodox Church, we do not have reliable data about the occupation by the Tatar-Mongols. In addition, the fact of the rapid occupation of not only the steppe regions of Russia (from the point of view of the official history of the Tatar-Mongols - steppe people), but also wooded and even swampy territories is quite interesting. Of course, the history of military operations knows examples of the rapid conquest of the marshy forests of Belarus. However, the Nazis bypassed the swamps. But what about the Soviet army, which carried out a brilliant offensive operation in the swampy part of Belarus? This is so, however, the population in Belarus was needed to create a bridgehead for subsequent offensives. They simply chose to step on the least expected (and therefore guarded) area. But most importantly, the Soviet army relied on local partisans, who thoroughly knew the area even better than the Nazis. But the mythical Tatar-Mongols who have done the unthinkable, immediately conquered the swamps - they abandoned further offensives ”(STR). - Here an unknown researcher notes two curious facts: already the monastery chronicle considers as a populated area only the one where the parishioners lived, as well as the brilliant orientation of the steppe inhabitants among the swamps, which should not be characteristic of them. And the same author also notes the coincidence of the territory occupied by the Tatar-Mongols with the territory of Kievan Rus. Thus, he shows that in reality we are dealing with a territory that has undergone Christianization, regardless of whether it was in the steppe, in forests or in swamps. - But back to the texts of Kungurov.

Religion of the Mongols.

“What was the official religion of the Mongols? - Choose whichever one you like. Allegedly, Buddhist shrines were found in the Karakorum "palace" of the great khan Ugedei (the heir of Genghis Khan). In the capital of the Golden Horde, Saray-Batu, they find mainly Orthodox crosses and breast icons. Islam established itself in the Central Asian possessions of the Mongol conquerors, and Zoroastrianism continued to flourish in the South Caspian. The Khazars-Jews also felt free in the Mongol Empire. Various shamanistic beliefs have survived in Siberia. Russian historians traditionally tell tales that the Mongols were idolaters. Say, they made Russian princes a "head ax" if they, coming for a label for the right to rule in their lands, did not worship their filthy pagan idols. In short, the Mongols did not have any state religion. All empires had, but the Mongolian did not. Everyone could pray, whoever he liked ”(KUN: 176). - Note that there was no religious tolerance either before or after the Mongol invasion. Ancient Prussia with the Baltic people of Prussians inhabiting it (relatives by language to Lithuanians and Latvians) were wiped out by the German knightly orders from the face of the earth only because they were pagans. And in Russia, not only Vedists (Old Believers), but also early Christians (Old Believers) began to be persecuted as enemies after Nikon's reform. Therefore, such a combination of words as "evil Tatars" and "religious tolerance" is impossible, it is illogical. The division of the greatest empire into separate regions, each with its own religion, probably indicates the independent, independent existence of these regions, united into a gigantic empire only in the mythology of historians. As for the finds of Orthodox crosses and breast icons in the European part of the empire, this suggests that the "Tatar-Mongols" spread Christianity and eradicated paganism (Vedism), that is, there was a forced Christianization.

Cash.

“By the way, if Karakorum was the Mongolian capital, then there must have been a mint in it. It is believed that the monetary unit of the Mongol Empire was gold dinars and silver dirhams. For four years, archaeologists have been digging in the ground on Orkhon (1999-2003), but not like the mint, they did not even find a single dirham and dinar, but they dug up a lot of Chinese coins. It was this expedition that discovered traces of a Buddhist shrine under the palace of Ogedei (which turned out to be much smaller than expected). In Germany, about the results of the excavations published a solid tome "Genghis Khan and his legacy" This despite the fact that no traces of the ruler of the Mongols were found by archaeologists. However, it does not matter, everything that they found was declared the legacy of Genghis Khan. True, the publishers prudently kept silent about the Buddhist idol and about Chinese coins, but they filled most of the book with abstract arguments that were of no scientific interest ”(KUHN: 177). - A legitimate question arises: if the Mongols carried out three types of census, and they collected tribute, then where was it kept? And in what currency? Was everything translated into Chinese money? What could they buy in Europe?

Continuing the theme, Kungurov writes: “In general, ALL OVER Mongolia, only a few dirhams with Arabic inscriptions were found, which completely excludes the idea that this was the center of a certain empire. “Scientists” -historians cannot explain this, and therefore they simply do not touch upon this issue. Even if you grab the historian by the lapel of his jacket, and gaze intently into his eyes, ask about it, he will portray a fool who does not understand what this is about ”(KUHN: 177). - I will interrupt the citation here, because this is how archaeologists behaved when I made my report in the Tver Museum of Local Lore, showing that there is an INSCRIPTION on the stone-cup donated to the museum by local historians. None of the archaeologists approached the stone and felt the letters cut out there. For to come up and feel the inscription meant for them to sign a long-term lie about the lack of their own written language among the Slavs in the pre-Cyrillic era. This was the only thing they could do to protect the honor of the uniform (“I don't see anything, I don't hear anything, I won't tell anyone,” as the popular song says).

“There is no archaeological evidence of the existence of an imperial center in Mongolia, and therefore, as arguments in favor of a completely delusional version, official science can offer only a casuistic interpretation of the works of Rashid al-Din. True, they cite the latter very selectively. For example, after four years of excavations in Orkhon, historians prefer not to recall that the latter writes about the walking of dinars and dirhams in Karakorum. And Guillaume de Rubruck reports that the Mongols knew a lot about the Romans' money, which filled their budget bins. They now also have to keep quiet about this. It should also be forgotten that Plano Carpini mentioned how the ruler of Baghdad paid tribute to the Mongols in Roman gold solidi - besants. In short, all the ancient witnesses were wrong. Only modern historians know the truth ”(KUHN: 178). - As you can see, all ancient witnesses indicated that the "Mongols" used European money that circulated in Western and Eastern Europe. And they did not say anything about Chinese money from the "Mongols". Again, we are talking about the fact that the "Mongols" were Europeans, at least in economic terms. No pastoralist would dream of compiling lists of landowners that pastoralists did not have. And even more so - to create a tax on merchants who were wandering in many eastern countries. In short, all these population censuses, very expensive shares, with the aim of taking a STABLE TAX (10%), are betrayed not by greedy steppe dwellers, but by scrupulous European bankers, who, of course, collected taxes calculated in advance in European currency. They didn't need Chinese money.

"Did the Mongols have financial system, without which, as you know, no state can do? Did not have! Numismatists do not know any specific Mongolian money. But, if desired, any unidentified coins are declared as such. What was the name of the empire's currency? Yes, it was not called in any way. Where was the imperial mint, treasury? And nowhere. It seems that historians wrote something about the evil Baskaks - collectors of tribute in the Russian uluses of the Golden Horde. But today the ferocity of the Baskaks seems quite exaggerated. It seems like they collected tithes in favor of the khan (a tenth of the income), and every tenth young man was recruited into their army. The latter should be considered a gross exaggeration. After all, the service in those days lasted not a couple of years, but probably a quarter of a century. The population of Russia in the 13th century is usually estimated at at least 5 million souls. If every year 10 thousand recruits come to the army, then in 10 years it will swell to completely unimaginable sizes ”(KUHN: 178-179). - If 10 thousand people are called up annually, then in 10 years it will turn out to be 100 thousand, and in 25 years - 250 thousand. Was the state at that time able to feed such an army? “And if we take into account that the Mongols shaved into the service not only Russians, but also representatives of all other conquered peoples, then a million-strong horde would turn out, which not a single empire could feed or arm in the Middle Ages” (KUN: 179). - That's it.

“But where the tax went, how the accounting was carried out, who was in charge of the treasury, scientists cannot really explain anything. Nothing is known about the counting system, measures and weights used in the empire. It remains a mystery for what purposes the huge Golden Horde budget was spent - the conquerors did not build palaces, cities, monasteries, or navies. Although not, other storytellers claim that the Mongols had a fleet. They, they say, even conquered the island of Java, and almost captured Japan. But this is such an obvious nonsense that it makes no sense to discuss it. At least, until at least some traces of the existence of steppe pastoralists-seafarers on the earth are found ”(KUN: 179). - As Aleksey Kungurov examines various aspects of the Mongols' activities, one gets the impression that the Khalkha people, appointed by historians to the role of world conqueror, were at the very least suitable for this mission. How did the West carry out such a blunder? - The answer is simple. All Siberia and Central Asia on the European maps of that time was called Tartary (as I showed in one of my articles, it was there that the Underworld, Tartarus was moved). Accordingly, the mythical "Tatars" were located there. Their eastern wing also extended to the Khalkha people, about which few of the historians knew anything at that time, and therefore anything could be attributed to him. Of course, Western historians did not foresee that in a couple of centuries the means of communication would develop so strongly that through the Internet it would be possible to receive any latest information from archaeologists, which, after analytical processing, would be able to refute any Western myths.

The ruling layer of the Mongols.

“What was the ruling stratum in the Mongol Empire? Any state has its own military, political, economic, cultural and scientific elite. The ruling stratum in the Middle Ages is called the aristocracy, the current ruling class is usually called the vague term "elite". One way or another, but the state elite must be, otherwise there is no state. And the Mongolian invaders had a tense relationship with the elite. They conquered Russia and left the Rurik dynasty to rule it. They themselves, they say, went to the steppe. There are no such examples in history. That is, there was no state-forming aristocracy in the Mongol Empire ”(KUN: 179). - The latter is extremely surprising. Take, for example, the huge preceding empire, the Arab Caliphate. There was not only religions, Islam, but also secular literature. For example, the tales of a thousand and one nights. There was a monetary system and Arab money has long been considered the most popular currency. And where are the legends about the Mongol khans, where are the Mongolian tales of the conquests of distant Western countries?

Mongolian infrastructure.

“Even today, any state cannot be established if it does not have transport and information connectivity. In the Middle Ages, the lack of convenient means of communication absolutely ruled out the possibility of the functioning of the state. Therefore, the core of the state took shape along river, sea, and much less often land communications. And the Mongol Empire, the greatest in the history of mankind, did not have any means of communication between its parts and the center, which, by the way, did not exist either. More precisely, it seemed to be, but only in the form of a camp, where Genghis Khan left his family during the campaigns ”(KUN: 179-180). In this case, the question arises, how did the state negotiations take place at all? Where did the ambassadors of sovereign states live? Really at the military headquarters? And how could you keep up with the constant transfers of these rates during military operations? And where was the state chancellery, archives, translators, scribes, heralds, treasury, premises for stolen valuables? Did you also move along with the Khan's headquarters? - This is hard to believe. - And now Kungurov comes to a conclusion.

Did the Mongol Empire exist?

“Here it is natural to ask the question: was there even this legendary Mongol Empire? Was! - historians will shout in chorus and as evidence they will show a stone turtle of the Yuan dynasty in the vicinity of the modern Mongolian village of Karakorum or a shapeless coin of unknown origin. If this seems unconvincing to you, historians will authoritatively add a couple of clay shards dug up in the Black Sea steppes. This will surely convince the most inveterate skeptic ”(KUHN: 180). - The question of Alexei Kungurov has been asking for a long time, and the answer to it is quite natural. No Mongol Empire ever existed! - However, the author of the study is concerned not only about the Mongols, but also about the Tatars, as well as about the attitude of the Mongols to Russia, and therefore he continues his story.

“But we are interested in the great Mongol empire insofar as. Russia was allegedly conquered by Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan and the ruler of the Jochi ulus, better known as the Golden Horde. From the possessions of the Golden Horde to Russia is nevertheless closer than from Mongolia. During the winter, from the Caspian steppes you can get to Kiev, Moscow and even Vologda. But the same difficulties arise. First, horses need fodder. Horses can no longer get withered grass in the Volga steppes with a hoof from under the snow. Winters there are snowy, and therefore local nomads in their winter quarters prepared stocks of hay in order to hold out in the most difficult time. Oats are needed for the army to move in winter. No oats - no opportunity to go to Russia. Where did the nomads get their oats?

The next problem is roads. From time immemorial, frozen rivers have been used as roads in winter. But a horse needs to be shod so that it can walk on the ice. On the steppe, she can run barefoot all year round, and on ice, stone deposits or a frozen road, a bare horse, and even with a rider, cannot walk. In order to shoe the hundreds of thousands of battle horses and transport mares required for the invasion, you need more than 400 tons of iron alone! And after 2-3 months you need to shoe the horses again. And how many forests need to be cut down in order to prepare 50 thousand sledges for the convoy?

But in general, as we found out, even in the case of a successful march to Russia, the 10,000-strong army will find itself in an extremely difficult situation. Supply at the expense of the local population is practically impossible; it is absolutely unrealistic to raise reserves. We have to conduct grueling assaults of cities, fortresses and monasteries, incur irreparable losses, going deeper into enemy territory. And what is the point in this deepening, if the invaders left behind a devastated desert? What is the general purpose of the war? Every day the invaders will be weaker and weaker, and by the spring it is necessary to leave for the steppe, otherwise the opened rivers will lock the nomads in the forests, where they will die of hunger ”(KUN: 180-181). - As you can see, the problems of the Mongol Empire on a smaller scale are also manifested in the example of the Golden Horde. And further Kungurov considers a later Mongolian state - the Golden Horde.

Capitals of the Golden Horde.

“There are two known capitals of the Golden Horde - Saray-Batu and Saray-Berke. Even the ruins have not survived to this day. Historians found the culprit here too - Tamerlane, who came from Central Asia and destroyed these very flourishing and populated cities of the East. Today, archaeologists are excavating at the site of the supposedly great capitals of the great Eurasian empire only the remains of adobe huts and the most primitive household utensils. Everything valuable, they say, was plundered by the evil Tamerlane. Tellingly, archaeologists do not find the slightest traces of the presence of Mongolian nomads in these places.

However, this does not bother them at all. Since traces of Greeks, Russians, Italians and others were found there, it means that the matter is clear: the Mongols brought craftsmen from the conquered countries to their capital. Does anyone doubt that the Mongols conquered Italy? Read carefully the works of "scientists" - historians - it says that Batu reached the coast of the Adriatic Sea and almost as far as Vienna. Somewhere there he caught the Italians. And what does the fact that Saray-Berke is the center of the Sarsk and Podonsk Orthodox dioceses say? This, according to historians, testifies to the phenomenal religious tolerance of the Mongol conquerors. True, in this case it is not clear why the Golden Horde khans allegedly tortured several Russian princes who did not want to give up their faith. The Grand Duke of Kiev and Chernigov Mikhail Vsevolodovich was even canonized for refusing to worship the sacred fire and was killed for disobedience ”(KUN: 181). Again, we see a complete inconsistency in the official version.

What was the Golden Horde.

“The Golden Horde is the same state invented by historians as the Mongol Empire. Accordingly, the Mongol-Tatar "yoke" is also an invention. The question is who invented it. It is useless to look for references to "yoke" or mythical Mongols in Russian chronicles. "Evil Tatars" are mentioned in it quite often. The question is, who did the chroniclers mean by this name? Either it is an ethnic group, or a way of life or an estate (akin to the Cossacks), or this is the collective name of all the Turks. Perhaps the word "Tatar" means an equestrian warrior? There are a great many Tatars: Kasimov, Crimean, Lithuanian, Bordakovs (Ryazan), Belgorod, Don, Yenisei, Tula ... just listing all kinds of Tatars will take half a page. The annals mention service Tatars, baptized Tatars, godless Tatars, sovereign Tatars and Basurman Tatars. That is, this term has an extremely broad interpretation.

Tatars, as an ethnic group, appeared relatively recently, three hundred years ago. Therefore, an attempt to apply the term "Tatar-Mongols" to modern Kazan or Crimean Tatars is a fraud. There were no Kazan Tatars in the XIII century, there were Bulgars who had their own principality, which historians decided to call the Volga Bulgaria. There were no Crimean or Siberian Tatars at that time, but there were Kipchaks, they are Polovtsians, they are Nogais. But if the Mongols conquered, partially annihilated, the Kipchaks and periodically fought with the Bulgars, then where did the Mongol-Tatar symbiosis come from?

No newcomers from the Mongolian steppes were known not only in Russia, but also in Europe. The term "Tatar yoke", meaning the power of the Golden Horde over Russia, appeared at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries in Poland in propaganda literature. It is believed that it belongs to the historian and geographer Matthew Mekhovsky (1457-1523), professor at the University of Krakow ”(KUN: 181-182). - Above, we read the news about this both on Wikipedia and in works of three authors (SVI). His "Treatise on the Two Sarmatians" was considered in the West to be the first detailed geographical and ethnographic description of Eastern Europe up to the meridian of the Caspian Sea. In the preamble of this work, Mekhovsky wrote: “The southern regions and coastal peoples up to India were discovered by the king of Portugal. Let the northern lands with the peoples living near the Northern Ocean to the east, discovered by the troops of the Polish king, will now become known to the world ”(KUN: 182-183). - Very interesting! It turns out that Russia had to be discovered by someone, although this state existed for several millennia!

“How dashing! This enlightened husband equates the Russians with African blacks and American Indians, and attributes fantastic services to the Polish troops. The Poles have never reached the coast of the Arctic Ocean, long ago explored by the Russians. Only a century after the death of Mekhovsky during the Time of Troubles, some Polish detachments roamed the Vologda and Arkhangelsk regions, but these were not the troops of the Polish king, but ordinary robber bands that robbed merchants on the northern trade route. Therefore, one should not take seriously his insinuations that the backward Russians were conquered by quite wild Tatars ”(KUHN: 183) - It turns out that Mekhovsky's work was a fantasy that the West did not have the opportunity to verify.

“By the way, Tatars are the European collective name for all Eastern peoples. And in the old days it was pronounced as "tartars" from the word "tartar" - the underworld. It is quite possible that the word "Tatars" came to the Russian language from Europe. At least, when European travelers called the inhabitants of the lower Volga Tatars in the 16th century, they did not really understand the meaning of this word, and even more so they did not know that for Europeans it means “savages who escaped from hell”. The binding of the word "Tatars" of the Criminal Code to a certain ethnic group begins only in the 17th century. Finally, the term "Tatars", as a designation of the Volga-Ural and Siberian sedentary Turkic-speaking peoples, was established only in the twentieth century. The word formation "Mongol-Tatar yoke" was first used in 1817 by the German historian Hermann Kruse, whose book in the middle of the 19th century was translated into Russian and published in St. Petersburg. In 1860, the head of the Russian ecclesiastical mission in China, Archimandrite Palladiy, acquired the manuscript of The Secret Legend of the Mongols, making it public. No one was embarrassed that the "Tale" was written in Chinese. It is even very convenient, because any discrepancies can be explained by erroneous transcription from Mongolian to Chinese. Mo, Yuan is a Chinese transcription of the Chingizid dynasty. And Shutsu is Kublai Khan. With such a "creative" approach, as you might guess, any Chinese legend can be declared even the history of the Mongols, even the chronicle of the Crusades "(KUN: 183-184). - It is not for nothing that Kungurov mentions a clergyman from the Russian Orthodox Church, Archimandrite Pallady, hinting that he was interested in creating a legend about the Tatars based on Chinese chronicles. And it is not in vain that he throws the bridge to the crusades.

The legend about the Tatars and the role of Kiev in Russia.

“The beginning of the legend of Kievan Rus was laid by the Synopsis, published in 1674 - the first textbook on Russian history known to us. This book was reprinted more than once (1676, 1680, 1718 and 1810) and enjoyed great popularity until the middle of the 19th century. Its author is considered to be Innokenty Gizel (1600-1683). Born in Prussia, in his youth he came to Kiev, converted to Orthodoxy and tonsured a monk. Metropolitan Peter Mogila sent the young monk abroad, from where he returned as an educated person. He applied his scholarship in a tense ideological and political struggle against the Jesuits. He is known as a literary theologian, historiographer and theologian ”(KUN: 184). - When we talk about the fact that in the 18th century Miller, Bayer and Schloetzer became the "fathers" of Russian historiography, we forget that a century earlier, under the first Romanovs and after Nikon's reform, a new Romanov historiography under the name "Synopsis", that is, a summary, was also written by a German, so there was already a precedent. It is clear that after the eradication of the Rurik dynasty and the persecution of Old Believers and Old Believers, Muscovy needed a new historiography, whitewashing the Romanovs and denigrating the Rurikovichs. And it appeared, although it did not come from Muscovy, but from Little Russia, which since 1654 became part of Muscovy, although spiritually adjacent to Lithuania and Poland.

“Gisel should be considered not only a church figure, but also a political one, for the church Orthodox elite in the Polish-Lithuanian state was an integral part of the political elite. As a protege of Metropolitan Peter Mogila, he maintained active ties with Moscow on political and financial issues. In 1664 he visited the Russian capital as part of the Little Russian embassy of the Cossack foreman and clergy. Apparently, his works were appreciated, since in 1656 he received the rank of archimandrite and abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, keeping it until his death in 1683.

Of course, Innokenty Gizel was an ardent supporter of the annexation of Little Russia to Great Russia, otherwise it is difficult to explain why the tsars Alexei Mikhailovich, Fedor Alekseevich and the ruler Sofya Alekseevna were very fond of him, did not give him valuable gifts. So, it is "Synopsis" that begins to actively popularize the legend of Kievan Rus, the Tatar invasion and the struggle against Poland. The main stereotypes of ancient Russian history (the founding of Kiev by three brothers, the vocation of the Varangians, the legend of the baptism of Rus by Vladimir, etc.) are laid down in a slender row in the Synopsis and are accurately dated. Somewhat strange to today's reader will seem perhaps a hundred story by Gisel "On the freedom or liberty of Slavic". - “The Slavs, in their courage and courage, struggle hard day by day, fighting against the ancient Greek and Roman Caesars, and always accepting a glorious victory, in all kinds of freedom to live; I helped the great Tsar Alexander the Great and his father Philip to incite the power under the power of this Light. With the same, glorious for the sake of the deeds and labors of the military, Alexander gave the Tsar the Slav a graft or a letter on parchment in gold, written in Alexandria, liberties and the land were affirmed to them, before the Nativity of Christ the year 310; and Augustus Caesar (in his own Kingdom the King of glory Christ the Lord was born) is not daring to fight with the free and strong Slavs ”(KUN: 184-185). - I will note that if the legend about the founding of Kiev was very important for Little Russia, which, according to it, became the political center of all ancient Russia, in light of which the legend of the baptism of Kiev by Vladimir grew to the approval of the baptism of All Russia, and both legends, thus, carried a powerful the political meaning of the promotion of Little Russia to the first place in the history and religion of Russia, the quoted passage does not carry such pro-Ukrainian propaganda. Here, apparently, we have an insert of traditional views on the participation of Russian soldiers in the campaigns of Alexander the Great, for which they received a number of privileges. Here are also examples of the interaction of Russia with the politicians of late antiquity; later the historiography of all countries will remove any mention of the existence of Russia in the specified period. It is also interesting to see that the interests of Little Russia in the 17th century and now are diametrically opposed: then Gizel argued that Little Russia is the Center of Russia, and all events in it are epoch-making for Great Russia; now, on the contrary, it is being proved that the Outskirts are independent of Rus, the Outskirts are connected with Poland, and the work of the first President of the Outskirts Kravchuk was called “Outskirts - e such a state”. Allegedly independent throughout its history. And the Outskirts Ministry of Foreign Affairs asks Russians to write "In the Outskirts" and not "ON the Outskirts", distorting the Russian language. That is, at the moment the qiu power is more satisfied with the role of the Polish periphery. This example clearly shows how political interests can change the country's position by 180 degrees, and not only abandon claims to leadership, but even change the name to a completely discordant one. Modern Gisel would try to connect the three brothers who founded Kiev with Germany and the Germanic Ukrainians, who had nothing to do with Little Russia, and the conduct of Christianity in Kiev - with the general Christianization of Europe, which supposedly has nothing to do with Russia.

“When an archimandrite, treated kindly at court, undertakes to compose history, it is very difficult to consider this work a model of unbiased scientific research. Rather, it will be a propaganda treatise. And a lie is the most effective method of propaganda if a lie can be introduced into the mass consciousness.

It is "Synopsis", which was published in 1674, that the honor of becoming the first Russian MASS print edition belongs. Until the beginning of the 19th century, the book was used as a textbook on Russian history, but in total it went through 25 editions, of which the last took place in 1861 (the 26th edition was already in our century). From the point of view of propaganda, it is not important how Gisel's work corresponded to reality, it is important how firmly it was rooted in the consciousness of the educated stratum. And it is firmly rooted. Considering that "Synopsis" was actually written by order of the ruling house of the Romanovs and was officially implanted, it could not have been otherwise. Tatishchev, Karamzin, Shcherbatov, Solovyov, Kostomarov, Klyuchevsky and other historians brought up on the Gizelian concept simply could not (and hardly wanted to) critically interpret the legend of Kievan Rus ”(KUN: 185). - As we can see, the “Synopsis” of the German Gisel, who represented the interests of Little Russia, which had recently become part of Russia, which immediately began to claim the role of leader in the political and religious life of Russia, became a kind of “Short Course of the CPSU (b)” of the victorious pro-Western dynasty of the Romanovs. So to speak, out of rags - yes to riches! It was this peripheral newly acquired part of Russia as a historical leader that completely suited the Romanovs, as well as the tale that this weak state was beaten by equally peripheral steppe dwellers from the Underworld - Russian Tartaria. The meaning of these legends is obvious - Russia was allegedly flawed from the beginning!

Other Romanov historians about Kievan Rus and Tatars.

“The court historians of the 18th century, such as Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer, August Ludwig Schlözer and Gerard Friedrich Miller, did not contradict the Synopsis. So tell me, if you please, how could Bayer have been a researcher of Russian antiquities and the author of the concept of Russian history (gave rise to the Norman theory), when, in 13 years of his stay in Russia, he did not even learn Russian? The latter two were co-authors of the obscenely politicized Norman theory, proving that Russia acquired the features of a normal state only under the leadership of the true Europeans Rurik. Both of them edited and published the works of Tatishchev, after which it is difficult to say what remains of the original in his works. At least, it is known for sure that the original of Tatishchev's "History of Russia" disappeared without a trace, and Miller, according to the official version, used some "drafts", which are also unknown to us now.

Despite constant conflicts with colleagues, it was Miller who formed the academic framework of official Russian historiography. His main opponent and ruthless critic was Mikhail Lomonosov. However, Miller managed to get revenge on the great Russian scientist. And how! The “Ancient Russian History” prepared by Lomonosov for publication was never published through the efforts of his opponents. Moreover, after the death of the author, the work was confiscated and disappeared without a trace. A few years later, only the first volume of his monumental work was printed, prepared for publication, as it is believed, personally by Müller. Reading Lomonosov today, it is absolutely impossible to understand what he argued so violently with the courtiers of the Germans - his "Ancient Russian History" was sustained in the spirit of the officially approved version of history. There are absolutely no contradictions with Müller on the most controversial issue of Russian antiquity in Lomonosov's book. Therefore, we are dealing with forgery ”(KUN: 186). - Brilliant conclusion! Although another thing remains unclear: the Soviet government was no longer interested in glorifying one of the republics of the USSR, namely the Ukrainian one, and belittling the Turkic republics, which just fell under the understanding of Tartaria or Tatars. It would seem that the time was right to get rid of the forgery and show true story Rus. Why, in Soviet times, did Soviet historiography adhere to the version pleasing to the Romanovs and the Russian Orthodox Church? - The answer lies on the surface. Because the worse the history of Tsarist Russia was, the better was the history of Soviet Russia. It was then, at the time of the Rurikids, it was possible to call foreigners to rule a great power, and the country was so weak that some Tatar-Mongols could conquer it. In Soviet times, it seems that no one was called from anywhere, and Lenin and Stalin were natives of Russia (although in Soviet times no one would dare to write that Rothschild helped Trotsky with money and people, the German General Staff for Lenin, and Yakov Sverdlov was responsible for communication with European bankers). On the other hand, one of the employees of the Institute of Archeology in the 90s told me that the color of pre-revolutionary archaeological thought did not remain in Soviet Russia, archaeologists of the Soviet style were very much inferior in their professionalism to pre-revolutionary archaeologists, and they tried to destroy the pre-revolutionary archaeological archives. - I asked her in connection with the excavation of the Kamennaya Mogila caves by the archaeologist Veselovsky in Ukraine, because for some reason all the reports on his expedition were lost. It turned out that they were not lost, but deliberately destroyed. For the Stone Tomb is a Paleolithic monument in which there are Russian inscriptions in runic. And on it a completely different history of Russian culture looms. But archaeologists are part of the collective of historians of the Soviet era. And they created no less politicized historiography than the historians in the service of the Romanovs.

“It only remains to state that the editorial staff of Russian history used today was composed exclusively of foreign authors, mostly Germans. The works of Russian historians who tried to resist them were destroyed, and falsifications were published under their name. One should not expect that the gravediggers of the national historiographic school have spared the primary sources that are dangerous to them. Lomonosov was horrified when he learned that Schlötser had gained access to all the ancient Russian chronicles preserved at that time. Where are those chronicles now?

By the way, Schlötser called Lomonosov "a gross ignoramus who knew nothing but his chronicles." It is difficult to say why there is more hatred in these words - to the stubborn Russian scientist who considers the Russian people the same age as the Romans, or to the chronicles that confirmed this. But it turns out that the German historian who received the Russian chronicles at his disposal was not guided by them at all. He revered the political order above science. Mikhail Vasilyevich, when it came to the hated nemchure, was also not shy in expressions. About Schlötser, we have heard such a statement: “... what disgusting dirty tricks such a beast allowed to them will not wander in Russian antiquities” or his head, gives obscure, dark, incomprehensible and completely wild answers. "

How long will we dance to the tune of the "stoned idol priests"? " (KUHN: 186-187).

Discussion.

Although on the topic of the mythological nature of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, I read the works of L.N. Gumilyov, and A.T. Fomenko, and Valyansky and Kalyuzhny, but no one wrote so vividly, in detail and convincingly before Alexei Kungurov. And I can congratulate "our regiment" of researchers of non-politicized Russian history that it has more with one bayonet. Note that he is not only well-read, but also capable of a remarkable analysis of all the absurdities of professional historians. It is professional historiography that comes up with bows that shoot at 300 meters with the destructive power of a modern rifle bullet, it is she who calmly appoints backward pastoralists who did not have statehood, the creators of the largest state in the history of mankind, it is they who suck out of their finger huge armies of conquerors that cannot be fed nor move several thousand kilometers. The illiterate Mongols, it turns out, compiled land and capitation lists, that is, they conducted a population census on the scale of this huge country, and also kept a record of trade income even from wandering merchants. And the results of this huge work in the form of reports, lists and analytical reviews disappeared somewhere without a trace. It turned out that there is not a single archaeological confirmation of the existence of both the capital of the Mongols and the capitals of the uluses, as well as the existence of Mongolian coins. Even today, the Mongolian tugriks are an inconvertible currency.

Of course, the chapter touches upon many more problems than the reality of the existence of the Mongol-Tatars. For example, the possibility of disguise due to the Tatar-Mongol invasion of the real forced Christianization of Russia by the West. However, this problem requires much more serious argumentation, which is absent in this chapter of Alexei Kungurov's book. Therefore, I am in no hurry to draw any conclusions in this regard.

Conclusion.

Today, there is only one justification for supporting the myth of the Tatar-Mongol invasion: it not only expressed, but expresses today the point of view of the West on the history of Russia. The West is not interested in the point of view of Russian researchers. It will always be possible to find such "professionals" who, for the sake of self-interest, career or fame in the West, will support the myth generally accepted and fabricated by the West.

The traditional version of the Tatar-Mongol invasion of Russia, the "Tatar-Mongol yoke", and the liberation from it is known to the reader from school. In the account of most historians, the events looked something like this. At the beginning of the 13th century, in the steppes of the Far East, the energetic and brave tribal leader Genghis Khan gathered a huge army of nomads, welded together by iron discipline, and rushed to conquer the world - "to the last sea."

Having conquered the closest neighbors, and then China, the mighty Tatar-Mongol horde rolled westward. Having traveled about 5 thousand kilometers, the Mongols defeated Khorezm, then Georgia and in 1223 reached the southern outskirts of Russia, where they defeated the army of Russian princes in the battle on the Kalka River. In the winter of 1237, the Tatar-Mongols invaded Russia with all their countless army, burned and ravaged many Russian cities, and in 1241 they tried to conquer Western Europe by invading Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary, reached the shores of the Adriatic Sea, but turned back, therefore that they were afraid to leave in their rear the ruined, but still dangerous for them Russia. The Tatar-Mongol yoke began.

The huge Mongol power, stretching from China to the Volga, hung over Russia like an ominous shadow. The Mongol khans issued labels to the Russian princes for reigning, they attacked Russia many times in order to rob and plunder, and repeatedly killed Russian princes in their Golden Horde.

Having strengthened over time, Russia began to resist. In 1380, the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Donskoy defeated the Horde Khan Mamai, and a century later, the troops of the Grand Duke Ivan III and the Horde Khan Akhmat met in the so-called "standing on the Ugra". The opponents camped for a long time on different sides of the Ugra River, after which Khan Akhmat, finally realizing that the Russians had become strong and he had little chance of winning the battle, gave the order to retreat and took his horde to the Volga. These events are considered “the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke”.

But in recent decades, this classic version has been called into question. Geographer, ethnographer and historian Lev Gumilyov convincingly showed that relations between Russia and the Mongols were much more complicated than the usual confrontation between cruel conquerors and their unfortunate victims. Deep knowledge in the field of history and ethnography allowed the scientist to conclude that there was a kind of "complementarity" between the Mongols and the Russians, that is, compatibility, the ability to symbiosis and mutual support at the cultural and ethnic level. The writer and publicist Alexander Bushkov went even further, "twisting" Gumilyov's theory to its logical conclusion and expressing a completely original version: what is commonly called the Tatar-Mongol invasion was in fact the struggle of the descendants of Prince Vsevolod Big Nest(son of Yaroslav and grandson of Alexander Nevsky) with his rival princes for sole power over Russia. Khans Mamai and Akhmat were not alien raiders, but noble nobles who, according to the dynastic ties of the Russian-Tatar families, had legally justified rights to the great reign. Thus, the Battle of Kulikovo and the "standing on the Ugra" are not episodes of the struggle against foreign aggressors, but pages of the civil war in Russia. Moreover, this author promulgated a completely "revolutionary" idea: under the names "Genghis Khan" and "Batu" in history ... Russian princes Yaroslav and Alexander Nevsky, and Dmitry Donskoy - this is Khan Mamai himself (!).

Of course, the conclusions of the publicist are full of irony and border on postmodern "banter", but it should be noted that many facts of the history of the Tatar-Mongol invasion and the "yoke" really look too mysterious and need more close attention and unbiased research. Let's try to consider some of these mysteries.

Who were the Mongols who approached the borders of the Christian world from the east? How did the powerful Mongolian state come about? Let's make an excursion into its history, relying mainly on the works of Gumilyov.

At the beginning of the XIII century, in 1202-1203, the Mongols first defeated the Merkits, and then the Kerait. The fact is that the Kerait were divided into supporters of Genghis Khan and his opponents. The opponents of Genghis Khan were led by the son of Wang Khan, the legitimate heir to the throne - Nilha. He had reason to hate Genghis Khan: even at the time when Wang Khan was an ally of Genghis, he (the leader of the Kerait), seeing the latter's undeniable talents, wanted to transfer the Kerait throne to him, bypassing his own son. Thus, the collision of a part of the Kerait with the Mongols occurred during the life of Wang Khan. And although the Kerait were outnumbered, the Mongols defeated them, as they showed exceptional mobility and took the enemy by surprise.

In the collision with the Kerait, the character of Genghis Khan was fully manifested. When Wang Khan and his son Nilha fled from the battlefield, one of their noyons (military leaders) with a small detachment detained the Mongols, saving their leaders from captivity. This noyon was seized, brought before the eyes of Chinggis, and he asked: “Why, noyon, seeing the position of your troops, didn’t leave yourself? You had both the time and the opportunity. " He replied: "I served my khan and gave him the opportunity to escape, and my head is for you, about the victor." Genghis Khan said: “Everyone should imitate this man.

Look how brave, loyal, valiant he is. I cannot kill you, noyon, I offer you a place in my army. " Noyon became a thousand-man and, of course, faithfully served Genghis Khan, because the Kerait horde disintegrated. Wang Khan himself died while trying to escape to the Naimans. Their guards at the border, seeing the Kerait, killed him, and the severed head of the old man was brought to their khan.

In 1204, the Mongols of Genghis Khan and the powerful Naiman Khanate clashed. And again the Mongols won the victory. The defeated were included in the Chinggis horde. In the eastern steppe, there were no more tribes capable of actively resisting the new order, and in 1206, at the great kurultai, Chinggis was re-elected as a khan, but already throughout Mongolia. This is how the all-Mongolian state was born. The only hostile tribe to him remained the old enemies of the Borjigins - the Merkits, but even those by 1208 were forced out into the valley of the Irgiz River.

The growing power of Genghis Khan allowed his horde to quite easily assimilate different tribes and peoples. Because, in accordance with Mongolian stereotypes of behavior, the khan could and should have required obedience, obedience to orders, performance of duties, but forcing a person to abandon his faith or customs was considered immoral - the individual had the right to his own choice. This state of affairs was attractive to many. In 1209, the Uighur state sent ambassadors to Genghis Khan with a request to accept them into his ulus. The request, of course, was granted, and Genghis Khan gave the Uighurs huge trade privileges. A caravan route passed through the Uyguria, and the Uyghurs, being part of the Mongol state, became rich due to the fact that they sold water, fruits, meat and "pleasure" to starving caravan men at high prices. The voluntary union of the Uyguria with Mongolia turned out to be useful for the Mongols as well. With the annexation of the Uyguria, the Mongols went beyond the boundaries of their ethnic range and came into contact with other peoples of the oikumene.

In 1216, on the Irgiz River, the Mongols were attacked by the Khorezmians. Khorezm by that time was the most powerful of the states that arose after the weakening of the power of the Seljuk Turks. The rulers of Khorezm from the governors of the ruler of Urgench turned into independent sovereigns and took the title of “Khorezmshahs”. They turned out to be energetic, adventurous and belligerent. This allowed them to conquer most of Central Asia and southern Afghanistan. The Khorezmshahs created a huge state in which the main military force was made up of the Turks from the adjacent steppes.

But the state turned out to be fragile, despite the wealth, brave warriors and experienced diplomats. The military dictatorship relied on tribes alien to the local population, which had a different language, different customs and customs. The mercenaries' cruelty caused discontent among the residents of Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv and other Central Asian cities. The uprising in Samarkand led to the destruction of the Turkic garrison. Naturally, this was followed by a punitive operation by the Khorezmians, who cruelly dealt with the population of Samarkand. Other large and wealthy cities of Central Asia also suffered.

In this situation, Khorezmshah Muhammad decided to confirm his title “ghazi” - “conqueror of the infidels” - and become famous for another victory over them. The opportunity presented itself to him in the same year 1216, when the Mongols, fighting with the Merkits, reached Irgiz. Upon learning of the arrival of the Mongols, Muhammad sent an army against them on the grounds that the steppe inhabitants should be converted to Islam.

The Khorezm army attacked the Mongols, but in the rearguard battle they themselves went on the offensive and severely wounded the Khorezmians. Only the attack of the left wing, commanded by the son of the Khorezmshah, the talented commander Jalal-ad-Din, straightened the situation. After that, the Khorezmians withdrew, and the Mongols returned home: they were not going to fight with Khorezm, on the contrary, Genghis Khan wanted to establish contacts with the Khorezmshah. After all, the Great Caravan Route went through Central Asia and all the owners of the lands along which it ran got rich at the expense of the duties paid by merchants. Merchants willingly paid duties, because they passed their expenses on to consumers, while losing nothing. Wishing to preserve all the advantages associated with the existence of caravan routes, the Mongols strove for peace and tranquility on their borders. The difference of faith, in their opinion, did not give a pretext for war and could not justify the bloodshed. Probably, the Khorezmshah himself understood the episodic nature of the clash on the Irgiz. In 1218, Muhammad sent a trade caravan to Mongolia. Peace was restored, especially since the Mongols were not up to Khorezm: shortly before that, the Naiman prince Kuchluk began a new war with the Mongols.

The Mongol-Khorezm relations were again violated by the Khorezmshah himself and his officials. In 1219, a rich caravan from the lands of Genghis Khan approached the Khorezm city of Otrar. The merchants went to the city to replenish food supplies and bathe in the bathhouse. There the merchants met two acquaintances, one of whom informed the governor of the city that these merchants were spies. He immediately realized that there was a great reason to rob the travelers. The merchants were killed, their property was confiscated. The ruler of Otrar sent half of the loot to Khorezm, and Muhammad took the spoil, which means he shared responsibility for what he had done.

Genghis Khan sent ambassadors to find out what caused the incident. Muhammad was angry when he saw the infidels, and ordered some of the ambassadors to kill, and some, stripping naked, drive them out to certain death in the steppe. Two or three Mongols finally got home and talked about what had happened. Genghis Khan's anger had no limits. From the Mongolian point of view, there were two most terrible crimes: deceiving those who confided in and killing guests. According to custom, Genghis Khan could not leave unavenged neither the merchants who were killed in Otrar, nor the ambassadors whom the Khorezmshah insulted and killed. The khan had to fight, otherwise his fellow tribesmen would simply refuse to trust him.

In Central Asia, the Khorezmshah had at their disposal a regular army of four hundred thousand. And the Mongols, as the famous Russian orientalist V.V.Bartold believed, had no more than 200 thousand. Genghis Khan demanded military assistance from all allies. Warriors came from the Turks and Kara-Kitays, the Uighurs sent a detachment of 5 thousand people, only the Tangut ambassador boldly replied: "If you do not have enough troops, do not fight." Genghis Khan considered the answer an insult and said: "Only dead could I bear such an insult."

Genghis Khan threw the assembled Mongol, Uyghur, Turkic and Kara-Chinese troops on Khorezm. Khorezmshah, having quarreled with his mother Turkan-Khatun, did not trust the military leaders who were related to her. He was afraid to gather them into a fist in order to repel the onslaught of the Mongols, and scattered the army across the garrisons. The best generals of the shah were his own unloved son Jalal-ad-Din and the commandant of the Khujand fortress Timur-Melik. The Mongols took the fortresses one after another, but in Khojent, even taking the fortress, they could not capture the garrison. Timur-Melik put his soldiers on rafts and escaped pursuit along the wide Syr Darya. Scattered garrisons could not hold back the advance of Genghis Khan's troops. Soon all the major cities of the Sultanate - Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv, Herat - were captured by the Mongols.

Regarding the capture of Central Asian cities by the Mongols, there is a well-established version: "Wild nomads destroyed the cultural oases of agricultural peoples." Is it so? This version, as shown by L. N. Gumilev, is based on the legends of the court Muslim historians. For example, the fall of Herat was reported by Islamic historians as a disaster in which the entire population was exterminated in the city, except for a few men who managed to escape in the mosque. They hid there, afraid to take to the streets littered with corpses. Only wild beasts roamed the city and tormented the dead. After sitting out for some time and coming to their senses, these "heroes" went to distant lands to rob caravans in order to regain their lost wealth.

But is it possible? If the entire population of a large city was exterminated and lay on the streets, then inside the city, in particular in the mosque, the air would be full of cadaveric miasma, and those who were hiding there would simply die. No predators, except jackals, live near the city, and they very rarely enter the city. It was simply impossible for exhausted people to move to rob caravans several hundred kilometers from Herat, because they would have to walk, carrying heavy loads - water and provisions. Such a "robber", having met a caravan, could no longer rob it ...

Even more surprising is the information reported by historians about Merv. The Mongols took it in 1219 and also supposedly exterminated all the inhabitants there. But already in 1229 Merv revolted, and the Mongols had to take the city again. And finally, two years later, Merv sent a detachment of 10 thousand people to fight the Mongols.

We see that the fruits of fantasy and religious hatred gave rise to the legends of Mongol atrocities. If we take into account the degree of reliability of the sources and ask simple but inevitable questions, it is easy to separate the historical truth from literary fiction.

The Mongols occupied Persia almost without a fight, driving out the son of the Khorezmshah Jelal ad-Din to northern India. Muhammad II Gazi himself, broken by struggle and constant defeats, died in a leper colony on an island in the Caspian Sea (1221). The Mongols made peace with the Shiite population of Iran, which was constantly offended by the Sunnis in power, in particular the Baghdad Caliph and Jalal ad-Din himself. As a result, the Shiite population of Persia suffered significantly less than the Sunnis of Central Asia. Be that as it may, in 1221 the state of the Khorezmshahs was finished. Under one ruler - Muhammad II Gazi - this state reached its highest power and perished. As a result, Khorezm, Northern Iran, and Khorasan were annexed to the Mongol empire.

In 1226 the hour of the Tangut state struck, which at the decisive moment of the war with Khorezm refused to help Genghis Khan. The Mongols rightly viewed this move as a betrayal, which, according to Yasa, required revenge. The capital of Tangut was the city of Zhongxing. It was besieged by Genghis Khan in 1227, defeating the Tangut troops in the previous battles.

During the siege of Zhongsin, Genghis Khan died, but the Mongol noyons, on the orders of their leader, concealed his death. The fortress was taken, and the population of the "evil" city, on which the collective guilt for betrayal fell, was subjected to execution. The Tangut state disappeared, leaving behind only written evidence of the past culture, but the city survived and lived until 1405, when it was destroyed by the Chinese of the Ming dynasty.

From the capital of the Tanguts, the Mongols took the body of their great ruler to their native steppes. The funeral ceremony was as follows: the remains of Genghis Khan were lowered into the dug grave, along with many valuable things, and all the slaves who performed the funeral work were killed. According to custom, exactly one year later, it was required to celebrate the commemoration. In order to find the burial place later, the Mongols did the following. At the grave, they sacrificed a little camel just taken from the mother. And a year later, the camel herself found in the boundless steppe a place where her cub was killed. Having killed this she-camel, the Mongols performed the prescribed ceremony of commemoration and then left the grave forever. Since then, no one knows where Genghis Khan is buried.

In the last years of his life, he was extremely concerned about the fate of his state. The khan had four sons from his beloved wife Borte and many children from other wives, who, although they were considered legitimate children, did not have the right to the father's throne. Sons from Borte differed in inclinations and character. The eldest son, Jochi, was born shortly after the Merkit captivity of Borte, and therefore not only evil tongues, but also the younger brother Chagatai called him a “Merkit geek”. Although Borte invariably defended Jochi, and Genghis Khan himself always recognized him as his son, the shadow of his mother's merkit captivity fell on Jochi with the burden of suspicion of illegitimacy. Once, in the presence of his father, Chagatai openly called Jochi illegitimate, and the case almost ended in a fight between the brothers.

It is curious, but according to the testimony of contemporaries, there were some persistent stereotypes in Jochi's behavior that greatly distinguished him from Chinggis. If for Genghis Khan there was no concept of "mercy" in relation to enemies (he left life only to young children, who were adopted by his mother Hoelun, and to the valiant Bagatura who passed on to the Mongol service), then Jochi was distinguished by his humanity and kindness. So, during the siege of Gurganj, the Khorezmians, completely exhausted by the war, asked to accept the surrender, that is, in other words, to spare them. Jochi spoke in favor of showing mercy, but Genghis Khan categorically rejected the request for mercy, and as a result, the garrison of Gurganj was partially cut, and the city itself was flooded by the waters of the Amu Darya. The misunderstanding between the father and the eldest son, constantly fueled by the intrigues and slander of relatives, deepened over time and turned into the sovereign's distrust of his heir. Genghis Khan suspected that Jochi wanted to gain popularity among the conquered peoples and secede from Mongolia. It is unlikely that this was so, but the fact remains: at the beginning of 1227, Jochi, hunting in the steppe, was found dead - his spine was broken. The details of the incident were kept secret, but, without a doubt, Genghis Khan was a man interested in the death of Jochi and quite capable of ending his son's life.

In contrast to Jochi, the second son of Genghis Khan, Chaga-tai, was a strict, executive and even cruel man. Therefore, he was promoted to the "keeper of the Yasa" (something like the attorney general or the supreme judge). Chagatai strictly observed the law and treated its violators without mercy.

The third son of the great khan, Ogedei, like Jochi, was distinguished by kindness and tolerance towards people. The character of Ogedei is best illustrated by the following incident: once, on a joint trip, the brothers saw a Muslim washing himself by the water. According to Muslim custom, every believer is obliged to perform namaz and ritual ablution several times a day. Mongolian tradition, on the other hand, forbade a person to bathe during the entire summer. The Mongols believed that washing in a river or lake causes a thunderstorm, and a thunderstorm in the steppe is very dangerous for travelers, and therefore "calling a thunderstorm" was considered an attempt on people's lives. The nukers-vigilantes of the ruthless adherent of the Chagatai law seized a Muslim. Anticipating a bloody denouement - the unfortunate man was threatened with cutting off his head - Ogedei sent his man to tell the Muslim to answer that he had dropped the gold one into the water and was just looking for it there. The Muslim said so to Chagatay. He ordered to look for a coin, and during this time Ogedei's vigilante threw a gold coin into the water. The found coin was returned to the "rightful owner". At parting, Ogedei, taking out a handful of coins from his pocket, handed them to the rescued person and said: "The next time you drop a gold coin into the water, don't go after it, don't break the law."

The youngest of the sons of Chinggis, Tului, was born in 1193. Since then Genghis Khan was in captivity, this time Borte's infidelity was quite obvious, but Genghis Khan and Tuluya recognized as his legitimate son, although outwardly he did not resemble his father.

Of the four sons of Genghis Khan, the youngest had the greatest talents and showed the greatest moral dignity. A good commander and an outstanding administrator, Tului was also a loving husband and distinguished for his nobility. He married the daughter of the deceased head of the Kerait, Wang Khan, who was a devout Christian. Tului himself had no right to accept the Christian faith: like Chinggisid, he had to profess the Bon religion (paganism). But the son of the khan allowed his wife not only to perform all Christian rituals in a luxurious "church" yurt, but also to have priests with them and receive monks. The death of Tului can be called heroic without any exaggeration. When Ogedei fell ill, Tului voluntarily took a strong shamanic potion, trying to "attract" the disease to himself, and died saving his brother.

All four sons had the right to inherit Genghis Khan. After the elimination of Jochi, three heirs remained, and when Chinggis was gone, and the new khan had not yet been elected, Tului ruled the ulus. But at the kurultai of 1229, the gentle and tolerant Ogedei was chosen as the great khan, in accordance with the will of Chinggis. Ogedei, as we have already mentioned, had a kind soul, but the kindness of the sovereign is often not good for the state and subjects. Under him, the administration of the ulus was mainly due to the strictness of Chagatai and the diplomatic and administrative skills of Tului. The great khan himself preferred nomadic wanderings and feasts in Western Mongolia to state concerns.

Genghis Khan's grandchildren were allocated various areas of the ulus or high positions. The eldest son of Jochi, Orda-Ichen, received the White Horde, located between the Irtysh and the Tarbagatai ridge (the area of ​​present-day Semipalatinsk). The second son, Batu, began to own the Golden (big) Horde on the Volga. The third son, Sheibani, went to the Blue Horde, roaming from Tyumen to the Aral Sea. At the same time, the three brothers - the rulers of the uluses - were allocated only one to two thousand Mongolian soldiers each, while the total number of the Mongol army reached 130 thousand people.

The children of Chagatai also received a thousand warriors, and the descendants of Tului, being at the court, owned all of their grandfather's and paternal ulus. So the Mongols established a system of inheritance, called a minorat, in which the youngest son inherited all the rights of his father, and the older brothers - only a share in the common inheritance.

The great khan Ogedei also had a son - Guyuk, who claimed the inheritance. The increase in the clan during the lifetime of Chinggis's children caused the division of the inheritance and enormous difficulties in managing the ulus, stretching from the Black to the Yellow Sea. These difficulties and family accounts concealed the seeds of future strife, which destroyed the state created by Genghis Khan and his associates.

How many Tatar-Mongols came to Russia? Let's try to deal with this issue.

Russian pre-revolutionary historians mention the "half-million Mongolian army." V. Yan, the author of the famous trilogy "Genghis Khan", "Batu" and "To the Last Sea", calls the number four hundred thousand. However, it is known that a warrior of a nomadic tribe sets out on a campaign with three horses (at least two). One carries luggage ("dry rations", horseshoes, spare harness, arrows, armor), and the third one needs to change from time to time so that one horse can rest if he suddenly has to engage in battle.

Simple calculations show that for an army of half a million or four hundred thousand fighters, at least one and a half million horses are needed. Such a herd is unlikely to be able to effectively advance on long distance, because the leading horses will instantly consume the grass over a huge area, and the hind horses will die from lack of food.

All the main invasions of the Tatar-Mongols into Russia took place in winter, when the remaining grass is hidden under the snow, and you cannot take a lot of forage with you ... The Mongolian horse really knows how to get food from under the snow, but ancient sources do not mention the Mongolian horses that were "In service" of the horde. Horse-breeding experts prove that the Tatar-Mongolian horde rode the Turkmens, and this is a completely different breed, and looks different, and is unable to feed itself in winter without human help ...

In addition, the difference between a horse that was allowed to roam in winter without any work, and a horse forced to make long journeys under a rider, and also participate in battles, is not taken into account. But they, in addition to the horsemen, had to carry also heavy prey! Convoys followed the troops. The cattle that pulls the carts also need to be fed ... The picture of a huge mass of people moving in the rearguard of a half-million army with carts, wives and children seems rather fantastic.

The temptation for the historian to explain the campaigns of the Mongols of the 13th century by "migrations" is great. But modern researchers show that the Mongol campaigns were not directly related to the displacement of huge masses of the population. Victories were won not by hordes of nomads, but by small, well-organized mobile detachments, returning to their native steppes after campaigns. And the khans of the Jochi branch - Batu, Horde and Sheibani - received, according to the will of Chinggis, only 4 thousand horsemen, that is, about 12 thousand people who settled in the territory from the Carpathians to Altai.

In the end, historians settled on thirty thousand warriors. But even here unanswered questions arise. And the first among them will be this: is it not enough? Despite the disunity of the Russian principalities, thirty thousand horsemen is too small a figure to arrange “fire and ruin” all over Russia! After all, they (even the supporters of the "classical" version admit it) did not move in a compact mass. Several detachments scattered in different directions, and this reduces the number of "innumerable Tatar hordes" to the limit, beyond which begins an elementary distrust: could such a number of aggressors conquer Russia?

It turns out to be a vicious circle: for purely physical reasons, a huge Tatar-Mongol army could hardly have retained its combat capability in order to move quickly and deliver the notorious "indestructible blows." A small army would hardly have been able to establish control over most of the territory of Russia. To get out of this vicious circle, one has to admit: the invasion of the Tatar-Mongols was actually just an episode of the bloody civil war going on in Russia. The forces of the opponents were relatively small, they relied on their own stocks of fodder accumulated in the cities. And the Tatar-Mongols became an additional external factor used in the internal struggle in the same way as the troops of the Pechenegs and Polovtsians were previously used.

The chronicles that have come down to us about the military campaigns of 1237-1238 paint the classically Russian style of these battles - battles take place in winter, and the Mongols - steppe people - operate with amazing skill in the forests (for example, the encirclement and subsequent complete destruction of the Russian detachment on the City River under the command of the great Prince Vladimirsky Yuri Vsevolodovich).

Having cast a general glance at the history of the creation of a huge Mongolian state, we must return to Russia. Let us take a closer look at the situation with the battle of the Kalka River, which is not fully understood by historians.

At the turn of the 11th – 12th centuries, it was not the steppe inhabitants that represented the main danger for Kievan Rus. Our ancestors were friends with the Polovtsian khans, married the “red Polovtsian girls”, accepted the baptized Polovtsians into their midst, and the descendants of the latter became Zaporozhye and Slobod Cossacks, not without reason in their nicknames the traditional Slavic suffix of belonging “ov” (Ivanov) was replaced by the Turkic one - “ Enko "(Ivanenko).

At this time, a more formidable phenomenon emerged - a fall in morals, a rejection of traditional Russian ethics and morality. In 1097, a princely congress took place in Lyubech, which marked the beginning of a new political form of the country's existence. There it was decided that "let everyone keep his fatherland." Russia began to turn into a confederation of independent states. The princes vowed to keep the proclaimed inviolably and in that they kissed the cross. But after the death of Mstislav, the Kiev state began to quickly disintegrate. Polotsk was the first to postpone. Then the Novgorod "republic" stopped sending money to Kiev.

A striking example of the loss of moral values ​​and patriotic feelings was the act of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky. In 1169, having seized Kiev, Andrew gave the city to his warriors for a three-day plunder. Until that moment, it was customary in Russia to do this only with foreign cities. Under no civil strife, this practice has never been extended to Russian cities.

Igor Svyatoslavich, a descendant of Prince Oleg, the hero of The Lay of Igor's Regiment, who became Prince of Chernigov in 1198, set himself the goal of cracking down on Kiev, a city where rivals of his dynasty were constantly strengthening. He agreed with the Smolensk prince Rurik Rostislavich and called for the help of the Polovtsi. In defense of Kiev - “the mother of Russian cities” - the prince Roman Volynskiy came forward, relying on the Tork troops allied to him.

The plan of the Chernigov prince was implemented after his death (1202). Rurik, prince of Smolensk, and the Olgovichi with the Polovtsy in January 1203, in a battle that went mainly between the Polovtsy and the torques of Roman Volynsky, prevailed. Having captured Kiev, Rurik Rostislavich subjected the city to a terrible defeat. The Church of the Tithes and the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra were destroyed, and the city itself was burned. “They did a great evil, which was not from baptism in the Russian land,” the chronicler left a message.

After the fateful year 1203, Kiev has not recovered.

According to L. N. Gumilyov, by this time the ancient Russians had lost their passionarity, that is, their cultural and energetic "charge". In such conditions, a clash with a strong adversary could not but become tragic for the country.

Meanwhile, the Mongol regiments were approaching the Russian borders. At that time, the main enemy of the Mongols in the west was the Polovtsy. Their enmity began in 1216, when the Polovtsians accepted Chingis' blood enemies - the Merkits. The Polovtsians actively pursued the anti-Mongol policy, constantly supporting the Finno-Ugric tribes hostile to the Mongols. At the same time, the steppe-Polovtsians were as mobile as the Mongols themselves. Seeing the futility of cavalry clashes with the Polovtsy, the Mongols sent an expeditionary corps to the rear of the enemy.

The talented commanders Subatei and Jebe led a corps of three tumens across the Caucasus. The Georgian king George Lasha tried to attack them, but was destroyed along with the army. The Mongols managed to capture the guides who showed the way through the Darial Gorge. So they went to the upper reaches of the Kuban, to the rear of the Polovtsy. Those, finding the enemy in their rear, retreated to the Russian border and asked for help from the Russian princes.

It should be noted that the relationship between Russia and the Polovtsians does not fit into the scheme of irreconcilable confrontation "sedentary - nomads". In 1223 the Russian princes became the allies of the Polovtsians. The three strongest princes of Russia - Mstislav Udaloy from Galich, Mstislav of Kiev and Mstislav of Chernigov - gathered troops and tried to protect them.

The collision on Kalka in 1223 is described in some detail in the annals; in addition, there is another source - "The Tale of the Battle of Kalka, and about the Russian princes, and about seventy heroes." However, the abundance of information does not always clarify ...

Historical science has not denied for a long time the fact that the events on Kalka were not the aggression of evil aliens, but an attack from the Russians. The Mongols themselves did not strive for a war with Russia. The ambassadors who arrived to the Russian princes quite friendly asked the Russians not to interfere in their relations with the Polovtsy. But, true to allied commitments, the Russian princes rejected the peace proposals. In doing so, they made a fatal mistake that had bitter consequences. All the ambassadors were killed (according to some sources, they were not even simply killed, but "tortured"). At all times, the murder of an ambassador, a parliamentarian was considered a grave crime; according to the Mongolian law, the deceit of the trusting person was an unforgivable crime.

Following this, the Russian army sets out on a long campaign. Having left the borders of Russia, it was the first to attack the Tatar camp, take prey, steal cattle, after which it moves out of its territory for another eight days. A decisive battle takes place on the Kalka River: an 80,000-strong Russian-Polovtsian army fell on a 20,000th (!) Detachment of Mongols. This battle was lost by the Allies due to the inability to coordinate actions. The Polovtsi left the battlefield in panic. Mstislav Udaloy and his "younger" prince Daniel fled across the Dnieper; they were the first to reach the shore and managed to jump into the boats. At the same time, the prince chopped up the rest of the boats, fearing that the Tatars would be able to cross after them, "and, fearful, he made his way to Galich." Thus, he doomed to death his comrades-in-arms, whose horses were worse than the prince's. The enemies killed everyone they overtook.

The other princes are left alone with the enemy, they beat off his attacks for three days, after which, believing the assurances of the Tatars, they surrender. Another mystery lurks here. It turns out that the princes surrendered after a certain Rusich named Ploskinya, who was in the enemy's battle formations, solemnly kissed the pectoral cross that the Russians would be spared and not shed their blood. The Mongols, according to their custom, kept their word: having tied the captives, they laid them on the ground, covered them with a deck of planks and sat down to feast on the bodies. Not a drop of blood was really spilled! And the latter, according to Mongolian views, was considered extremely important. (By the way, the fact that the captive princes were put under the boards is reported only by “The Tale of the Battle of Kalka.” Other sources write that the princes were simply killed without mockery, and still others - that they were “taken prisoner.” So the story with a feast on bodies is just one of the versions.)

Different peoples have different perceptions of the rule of law and the concept of honesty. The Rusichi believed that the Mongols, having killed the captives, had broken their oath. But from the point of view of the Mongols, they kept the oath, and execution was the highest justice, because the princes committed the terrible sin of murdering the one who trusted. Therefore, it is not a matter of treachery (history gives a lot of evidence of how the Russian princes themselves violated the "kiss of the cross"), but in the personality of Ploskini himself - a Russian Christian who somehow mysteriously found himself among the soldiers of the "unknown people".

Why did the Russian princes surrender after listening to the persuasions of Ploskini? "The Tale of the Battle of Kalka" writes: "There were also the Rogues along with the Tatars, and Ploskinya was their commander." Brodniks are Russian free warriors who lived in those places, the predecessors of the Cossacks. However, the establishment of Ploskini's social position only confuses the matter. It turns out that the roaming people in a short time managed to come to an agreement with the "unknown peoples" and became so close to them that they jointly struck at their brothers in blood and faith? One thing can be stated with certainty: part of the army with which the Russian princes were fighting on Kalka was Slavic, Christian.

Russian princes in this whole story do not look the best. But back to our riddles. The Tale of the Battle of Kalka, which we have mentioned, for some reason is not able to definitely name the enemy of the Russians! Here is a quote: “... Because of our sins, unknown nations came, godless Moabites [symbolic name from the Bible], about whom no one knows exactly who they are and where they came from, and what their language is, and what kind of tribe they are, and what faith. And they call them Tatars, and some say - Taurmen, and others - Pechenegs. "

Amazing lines! They were written much later than the events described, when it seemed like it was supposed to know exactly with whom the Russian princes fought on Kalka. After all, part of the army (albeit a small one) nevertheless returned from Kalka. Moreover, the victors, in pursuit of the defeated Russian regiments, chased them to Novgorod-Svyatopolch (on the Dnieper), where they attacked the civilian population, so that among the townspeople there should have been witnesses who had seen the enemy with their own eyes. And yet he remains "unknown"! This statement further confuses the matter. After all, by the time described in Russia they knew the Polovtsians very well - they lived side by side for many years, fought, then became related ... The Taurmen - a nomadic Turkic tribe that lived in the Northern Black Sea region - was again well known to the Russians. It is curious that in the "Lay of Igor's Regiment" some "Tartars" are mentioned among the nomadic Türks who served the Chernigov prince.

One gets the impression that the chronicler is hiding something. For some reason unknown to us, he does not want to directly name the enemy of the Russians in that battle. Perhaps the battle on Kalka was not a clash with unknown peoples at all, but one of the episodes of the internecine war waged between Russian Christians, Polovtsian Christians and the Tatars who got involved in the cause?

After the battle on Kalka, part of the Mongols turned their horses eastward, trying to report on the fulfillment of the assigned task - on the victory over the Polovtsians. But on the banks of the Volga, the army was ambushed by the Volga Bulgars. Muslims, who hated the Mongols as pagans, unexpectedly attacked them during the crossing. Here the victors at Kalka were defeated and many people lost. Those who managed to cross the Volga left the steppes to the east and united with the main forces of Genghis Khan. Thus ended the first meeting of the Mongols and the Russians.

LN Gumilev has collected a huge amount of material that clearly indicates that the relationship between Russia and the Horde CAN be designated by the word "symbiosis". After Gumilyov, they write especially a lot and often about how Russian princes and "Mongol khans" became brothers-in-arms, relatives, sons-in-law and father-in-law, how they went on joint military campaigns, how (let's call things by their proper names) they were friends. Relations of this kind are unique in their own way - in no other country they conquered did the Tatars behave like that. This symbiosis, brotherhood in arms leads to such an interweaving of names and events that sometimes it is even difficult to understand where the Russians end and the Tatars begin ...

Therefore, the question of whether there was a Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia (in the classical sense of this term) remains open. This topic is waiting for its researchers.

When it comes to "standing on the Ugra", we again encounter omissions and omissions. As those diligently studying the school or university course of history remember, in 1480 the troops of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III, the first "sovereign of all Russia" (ruler of the united state) and the hordes of the Tatar Khan Akhmat stood on opposite banks of the Ugra River. After a long "standing" the Tatars fled for some reason, and this event was the end of the Horde yoke in Russia.

There are many dark places in this story. Let's start with the fact that the famous painting that even got into school textbooks - "Ivan III tramples the Khan's Basma" - was written on the basis of a legend composed 70 years after "standing on the Ugra". In fact, the khan's ambassadors did not come to Ivan and he did not solemnly tore up any Basma letter in their presence.

But here again an enemy, a non-believer, is coming to Russia, threatening, according to his contemporaries, the very existence of Russia. Well, all in one impulse are preparing to repulse the adversary? No! We are faced with a strange passivity and confusion of opinion. At the news of the approach of Akhmat, something happens in Russia, for which there is still no explanation. It is possible to reconstruct these events only on the basis of scanty, fragmentary data.

It turns out that Ivan III does not at all seek to fight the enemy. Khan Akhmat is far away, hundreds of kilometers away, and Ivan's wife, Grand Duchess Sophia, flees Moscow, for which she is rewarded with accusatory epithets from the chronicler. Moreover, at the same time, some strange events are unfolding in the principality. "The Tale of Standing on the Ugra" tells about it this way: "In the same winter, the Grand Duchess Sofia returned from her escape, for she ran to Beloozero from the Tatars, although no one was chasing her." And further - even more mysterious words about these events, in fact, the only mention of them: “And those lands in which she wandered, it became worse than from the Tatars, from the boyar slaves, from the Christian bloodsuckers. Give them back, Lord, according to the deceit of their deeds, according to the works of their hands, give them, for they loved more wives than the Orthodox Christian faith and the holy churches, and they agreed to betray Christianity, for their malice blinded them. "

What is it about? What was happening in the country? What actions of the boyars brought accusations of "bloodsucking" and apostasy from the faith on them? We practically do not know what it was about. A little light is shed by reports about the "evil advisers" of the Grand Duke, who advised not to fight the Tatars, but to "run away" (?!). Even the names of the “advisers” are known - Ivan Vasilyevich Oschera Sorokoumov-Glebov and Grigory Andreevich Mamon. The most curious thing is that the Grand Duke himself does not see anything reprehensible in the behavior of his fellow boyars, and subsequently there is no shadow of disgrace on them: after "standing on the Ugra", both remain in favor until their death, receiving new awards and positions.

What's the matter? It is all too dull, vaguely reported that Oshchera and Mamon, defending their point of view, mentioned the need to observe some kind of "antiquity". In other words, the Grand Duke must give up resistance to Akhmat in order to observe some ancient traditions! It turns out that Ivan breaks some traditions, deciding to resist, and Akhmat, accordingly, acts in his own right? Otherwise, this riddle cannot be explained.

Some scholars have suggested: maybe we are facing a purely dynastic dispute? Once again, two are claiming the Moscow throne - representatives of the relatively young North and the more ancient South, and Akhmat, it seems, has no less rights than his rival!

And here the Rostov bishop Vassian Rylo intervenes in the situation. It is his efforts that turn the tide, it is he who pushes the Grand Duke on the campaign. Bishop Vassian begs, insists, appeals to the prince's conscience, gives historical examples, hints that the Orthodox Church may turn its back on Ivan. This wave of eloquence, logic and emotion is aimed at persuading the Grand Duke to come out to defend his country! What the Grand Duke for some reason stubbornly refuses to do ...

The Russian army, for the triumph of Bishop Vassian, goes to Ugra. Ahead - a long, for several months, "standing". Again, something strange happens. First, negotiations begin between the Russians and Akhmat. The negotiations are rather unusual. Akhmat wants to do business with the Grand Duke himself - the Russians refuse. Akhmat makes a concession: he asks for a brother or son of the Grand Duke to arrive - the Russians refuse. Akhmat again concedes: now he agrees to speak with a "simple" ambassador, but for some reason Nikifor Fedorovich Basenkov must become this ambassador. (Why exactly he? A riddle.) The Russians refuse again.

It turns out that for some reason they are not interested in negotiations. Akhmat makes concessions, for some reason he needs to come to an agreement, but the Russians reject all of his proposals. Modern historians explain it this way: Akhmat "intended to demand tribute." But if Akhmat was only interested in tribute, why so long negotiations? It was enough to send some baskak. No, everything indicates that we have before us some great and dark secret that does not fit into the usual schemes.

Finally, about the riddle of the retreat of the "Tatars" from the Ugra. Today in historical science there are three versions of not even a retreat - a hasty flight of Akhmat from Ugra.

1. A series of "fierce battles" undermined the fighting spirit of the Tatars.

(Most historians reject this, rightly stating that there were no battles. There were only minor skirmishes, clashes of small detachments "on a no-man's land".)

2. The Russians used firearms, which caused the Tatars to panic.

(It is unlikely: by this time the Tatars already had firearms. The Russian chronicler, describing the capture of the Bulgar city by the Moscow army in 1378, mentions that the inhabitants “thundered from the walls.”)

3. Akhmat was "afraid" of a decisive battle.

But here's another version. It is taken from a historical work of the 17th century, penned by Andrei Lyzlov.

“The lawless king [Akhmat], unable to endure his shame, in the summer of the 1480s gathered considerable strength: princes, and ulan, and murz, and princes, and quickly came to the Russian borders. In the Horde, he left only those who could not own weapons. The Grand Duke, after consulting with the boyars, decided to do a good deed. Knowing that in the Great Horde, where the king came from, there were no troops left at all, he secretly sent his numerous army to the Great Horde, to the dwellings of the rotten. At the head were the serving tsar Urodovlet Gorodetsky and Prince Gvozdev, the governor of Zvenigorod. The king did not know about that.

Having sailed to the Horde in boats along the Volga, they saw that there were no military people there, but only the female sex, old men and youths. And they undertook to capture and devastate, unmercifully betraying wives and children of the filthy to death, setting fire to their dwellings. And, of course, we could have killed every one.

But Murza Oblaz the Strong, a servant of Gorodetsky, whispered to his king, saying: “O king! It would be absurd to devastate and destroy this great kingdom to the end, because from here you yourself are from, and we are all, and here is our homeland. Let us go away from here, and without that they have done enough ruin, and God can be angry with us. "

So the glorious Orthodox army returned from the Horde and came to Moscow with a great victory, having with them a lot of booty and a great deal. The king, having learned about all this, at the same hour departed from Ugra and fled to the Horde. "

Does it not follow from this that the Russian side deliberately dragged out the negotiations - while Akhmat was trying to achieve his vague goals for a long time, making concession after concession, Russian troops sailed along the Volga to the capital of Akhmat and chopped down women, children and the elderly there, until the commanders woke up that something like a conscience! Please note: it is not said that the governor Gvozdev opposed the decision of Urodovlet and Oblaz to stop the massacre. Apparently, he was also fed up with blood. Naturally, Akhmat, having learned about the defeat of his capital, retreated from Ugra, hurrying home with all possible speed. So what is next?

A year later, the "Horde" is attacked with an army by a "Nogai Khan" named ... Ivan! Akhmat was killed, his troops were defeated. Another evidence of the deep symbiosis and fusion of Russians and Tatars ... The sources also contain another version of Akhmat's death. According to him, a certain close to Akhmat by the name of Temir, having received rich gifts from the Grand Duke of Moscow, killed Akhmat. This version is of Russian origin.

It is interesting that the army of the Tsar Urodovlet, who staged a pogrom in the Horde, is called an "Orthodox" historian. It seems that we have before us another argument in favor of the version that the Horde who served the Moscow princes were by no means Muslims, but Orthodox.

And one more aspect is of interest. Akhmat, according to Lyzlov, and Urodovlet are "tsars". And Ivan III is only the "Grand Duke". Writer's inaccuracy? But at the time when Lyzlov was writing his history, the title "Tsar" was already firmly entrenched for the Russian autocrats, had a specific "tie" and precise meaning. Further, in all other cases Lyzlov does not allow himself such "liberties". Western European kings are "kings" for him, Turkish sultans - "sultans", padishah - "padishah", cardinal - "cardinal". Perhaps the title of Archduke was given by Lyzlov in the translation “prince of arts”. But this is a translation, not a mistake.

Thus, in the late Middle Ages, there was a system of titles that reflected certain political realities, and today we are well aware of this system. But it is not clear why two seemingly identical Horde nobles are called one "Tsarevich" and the other "Murza", why "Tatar Prince" and "Tatar Khan" are not the same thing. Why among the Tatars there are so many holders of the title "Tsar", and the Moscow sovereigns are persistently called "Grand Dukes"? It was only in 1547 that Ivan the Terrible for the first time in Russia took the title "Tsar" - and, as the Russian chronicles say at length, he did this only after much persuasion from the patriarch.

Are not the campaigns of Mamai and Akhmat on Moscow explained by the fact that according to some perfectly understandable rules of the contemporaries, the “tsar” was taller than the “grand duke” and had more rights to the throne? What did some dynastic system, now forgotten, declare about itself here?

It is interesting that in 1501, the Crimean king Chess, having suffered defeat in an internecine war, for some reason expected that the Kiev prince Dmitry Putyatich would take his side, probably due to some special political and dynastic relations between Russians and Tatars. Which ones are not exactly known.

And finally, one of the mysteries of Russian history. In 1574, Ivan the Terrible divides the Russian kingdom into two halves; one is ruled by himself, and the other is transferred to the Kasimov Tsar Simeon Bekbulatovich - along with the titles of "Tsar and Grand Duke of Moscow"!

Historians still do not have a generally accepted convincing explanation for this fact. Some say that Grozny, as usual, mocked the people and those close to him, others believe that Ivan IV thus "transferred" his own debts, blunders and obligations to the new tsar. Couldn't we be talking about joint rule, which had to be resorted to due to the same tangled old dynastic relations? Perhaps the last time in Russian history, these systems declared themselves.

Simeon was not, as many historians previously believed, a "weak-willed puppet" of Grozny - on the contrary, he is one of the largest statesmen and military leaders of that time. And after the two kingdoms were once again united into one, Grozny by no means "exiled" Simeon to Tver. Simeon was granted to the Grand Dukes of Tver. But Tver at the time of Ivan the Terrible was recently a pacified hotbed of separatism, which required special supervision, and the one who ruled Tver must certainly have been a confidant of Grozny.

And finally, strange troubles befell Simeon after the death of Ivan the Terrible. With the accession of Fyodor Ioannovich, Simeon was "brought down" from the Tver reign, blinded (a measure that in Russia from time immemorial was applied exclusively to the sovereign persons who had the right to the table!), Forcibly tonsured into monks of the Kirillov Monastery (also a traditional way to eliminate a competitor to the secular throne! ). But even this is not enough: I. V. Shuisky sends a blind elderly monk to Solovki. One gets the impression that the Moscow tsar in this way got rid of a dangerous competitor who had weighty rights. A pretender to the throne? Was Simeon's right to the throne not inferior to the rights of the Rurikovichs? (It is interesting that Elder Simeon survived his tormentors. Returned from Solovetsky exile by order of Prince Pozharsky, he died only in 1616, when neither Fyodor Ioannovich, nor False Dmitry I, nor Shuisky were alive.)

So, all these stories - Mamai, Akhmat and Simeon - are more like episodes of the struggle for the throne, and not like a war with foreign conquerors, and in this respect they resemble similar intrigues around this or that throne in Western Europe. And those whom we have been accustomed to considering from childhood as “deliverers of the Russian land,” perhaps, actually solved their dynastic problems and eliminated rivals?

Many members of the editorial board are personally acquainted with the inhabitants of Mongolia, who were surprised to learn about their supposedly 300-year rule over Russia.Of course, this news filled the Mongols with feeling national pride, but at the same time they asked: "Who is Genghis Khan"?

from the magazine "Vedic Culture No. 2"

In the annals of the Pravo-Glorious Old Believers about the "Tatar-Mongol yoke" it is said unequivocally: "Fedot was, but not that one." Let's turn to the Old Slovenian language. Having adapted the runic images to modern perception, we get: thief - an enemy, a robber; mogul-powerful; yoke - order. It turns out that "tati Arias" (from the point of view of the Christian flock), with the light hand of the chroniclers, were called "Tartars" 1, (There is one more meaning: "Tata" is a father. the older ones) the Aryans) the mighty - the Mongols, and the yoke - the 300-year-old order in the State, which ended the bloody civil war that broke out on the basis of the forcible baptism of Russia - "holy martyrdom". Horde is a derivative of the word Order, where "Or" is strength, and day is daylight hours, or simply "light". Accordingly, the "Order" is the Power of Light, and the "Horde" is the Light Forces. So these Light Forces of the Slavs and Aryans, led by our Gods and Ancestors: Rod, Svarog, Sventovit, Perun, stopped the civil war in Russia on the basis of violent Christianization and kept order in the State for 300 years. And were there dark-haired, stocky, dark-skinned, hunch-nosed, narrow-eyed, bow-legged and very evil warriors in the Horde? Were. Detachments of mercenaries of different nationalities, who, like in any other army, were driven in the forefront, keeping the main Slavic-Aryan Troops from losses on the front line.

It's hard to believe? Take a look at the "Map of Russia 1594" in the "Atlas of Gerhard Mercator-Country". All the countries of Scandinavia and Denmark were part of Russia, which extended only to the mountains, and the principality of Muscovy is shown as an independent state that is not part of Russia. In the east, beyond the Urals, are depicted the principalities of Obdora, Siberia, Yugoria, Grustin, Lukomorye, Belovodye, which were part of the Ancient State of the Slavs and Aryans - Great (Grand) Tartary (Tartaria - lands under the auspices of God Tarkh Perunovich and Goddess Tara Perunovna - Son and Daughter of the Highest God Perun - the ancestor of the Slavs and Aryans).

Does it take a lot of intelligence to draw an analogy: Great (Grand) Tartary = Mogolo + Tartary = "Mongol-Tartary"? We do not have a high-quality image of the named painting, there is only "Map of Asia 1754". But it's even better! See for yourself. Not only in the 13th, but until the 18th century, Grand (Mogolo) Tartary existed as real as the faceless RF is now.

"Pisarchuk from history" not all were able to distort and hide from the people. Their many times darned and patched "Trishkin caftan", covering the Truth, now and then burst at the seams. Through the gaps Truth bit by bit reaches the consciousness of our contemporaries. They do not have truthful information, therefore they are often mistaken in the interpretation of certain factors, but the general conclusion they make is correct: what school teachers taught to several dozen generations of Russians is deception, slander, falsehood.

Published article from S.M. “There was no Tatar-Mongol invasion” is a vivid example of the above. Commentary on it by E.A. Gladilin, a member of our editorial board. will help you, dear readers, to dot the i's.
Violetta Basha,
All-Russian newspaper "My family",
No. 3, January 2003. p. 26

The main source by which we can judge the history of Ancient Rus is considered to be the Radziwill manuscript: "The Tale of Bygone Years". The story about the vocation of the Varangians to rule in Russia is taken from it. But can you trust her? A copy of it was brought at the beginning of the 18th century by Peter the Great from Konigsberg, then its original turned up in Russia. This manuscript has now been proven to be forged. Thus, it is not known for certain what happened in Russia until the beginning of the 17th century, that is, before the accession to the throne of the Romanov dynasty. But why did the house of the Romanovs need to rewrite our history? Was it then, to prove to the Russians that they were subordinate to the Horde for a long time and were not capable of independence, that their lot is drunkenness and obedience?

Strange behavior of the princes

The classic version of the "Mongol-Tatar invasion of Russia" is known to many since school. It looks like this. At the beginning of the 13th century, in the Mongol steppes, Genghis Khan gathered from the nomads a huge army, subject to iron discipline, and planned to conquer the whole world. Having defeated China, the army of Genghis Khan rushed to the west, and in 1223 went to the south of Russia, where it defeated the squads of Russian princes on the Kalka River. In the winter of 1237, the Tatar-Mongols invaded Russia, burned many cities, then invaded Poland, the Czech Republic and reached the shores of the Adriatic Sea, but suddenly turned back, because they were afraid to leave the ruined, but still dangerous for them, Russia in the rear. The Tatar-Mongol yoke began in Russia. The huge Golden Horde had borders from Beijing to the Volga and collected tribute from the Russian princes. The khans issued labels to the Russian princes for reign and terrorized the population with atrocities and plunder.

Even the official version says that there were many Christians among the Mongols and some Russian princes established very warm relations with the Horde khans. Another oddity: with the help of the Horde troops, some of the princes were kept on the throne. The princes were very close people to the khans. And in some cases the Russians fought on the side of the Horde. Aren't there a lot of oddities? Is that how the Russians should have treated the invaders?

Having strengthened, Russia began to resist, and in 1380 Dmitry Donskoy defeated the Horde Khan Mamai on the Kulikovo Field, and a century later the troops of the Grand Duke Ivan III and the Horde Khan Akhmat met. The opponents camped for a long time on different sides of the Ugra River, after which the khan realized that he had no chance, gave the order to retreat and left for the Volga. These events are considered the end of the “Tatar-Mongol yoke”.

Secrets of the disappeared chronicles

When studying the chronicles of the Horde times, scientists had many questions. Why did dozens of chronicles disappear without a trace during the reign of the Romanov dynasty? For example, "The Lay of the Death of the Russian Land", according to historians, resembles a document from which everything was carefully removed, which would testify to the yoke. They left only fragments telling about a certain "misfortune" that befell Russia. But there is not a word about the "Mongol invasion".

There are many more oddities. In the story "About the Evil Tatars" the khan from the Golden Horde orders the execution of the Russian Christian prince ... for refusing to worship the "pagan god of the Slavs!" And some chronicles contain amazing phrases, such as: "Well, with God!" - said the khan and, crossing himself, galloped to the enemy.

Why are there suspiciously many Christians among the Tatar-Mongols? And the descriptions of princes and warriors look unusual: the chronicles claim that most of them were of the Caucasian type, had not narrow, but large gray or blue eyes and light brown hair.

Another paradox: why suddenly Russian princes in the battle on Kalka surrender "on parole" to a representative of foreigners named Ploskinya, and he ... kisses his pectoral cross ?! This means that Ploskinya was his own, Orthodox and Russian, and besides, of a noble family!

Not to mention the fact that the number of "war horses", and hence the soldiers of the Horde army, at first, with the light hand of the historians of the Romanov dynasty, was estimated at three hundred or four hundred thousand. Such a number of horses could neither hide in the copses, nor feed themselves in the conditions of a long winter! Over the past century, historians have been constantly reducing the number of the Mongol army and reached thirty thousand. But such an army could not keep all peoples from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in subjection! But it could easily perform the functions of collecting taxes and restoring order, that is, serve as something like a police force.

There was no invasion!

A number of scientists, including Academician Anatoly Fomenko, made a sensational conclusion based on a mathematical analysis of the manuscripts: there was no invasion from the territory of modern Mongolia! And there was a civil war in Russia, the princes fought with each other. No representatives of the Mongoloid race who came to Russia did not exist at all. Yes, there were some Tatars in the army, but not newcomers, but the inhabitants of the Volga region, who lived in the neighborhood with the Russians long before the notorious "invasion".

What is commonly called the "Tatar-Mongol invasion" was actually the struggle of the descendants of Prince Vsevolod "Big Nest" with their rivals for sole power over Russia. The fact of the war between the princes is generally recognized, unfortunately, Russia was not united at once, and rather strong rulers fought among themselves.

But with whom did Dmitry Donskoy fight? In other words, who is Mamai?

Horde - the name of the Russian army

The era of the Golden Horde was distinguished by the fact that, along with the secular power, there was a strong military power. There were two rulers: a secular one who was called a prince, and a military man, it was he who was called the khan, i.e. "Warlord". In the annals, you can find the following record: "There were also roamers with the Tatars, and they had such and such a governor," that is, the troops of the Horde were headed by the governors! And the Brodniks are Russian free warriors, the predecessors of the Cossacks.

Authoritative scholars have concluded that the Horde is the name of the Russian regular army (like the "Red Army"). And Tataro-Mongolia itself Great Russia... It turns out that no "Mongols", but the Russians, conquered a vast territory from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Arctic to the Indian. It was our troops who made Europe tremble. Most likely, it was precisely the fear of powerful Russians that became the reason that the Germans rewrote Russian history and turned their national humiliation into ours.

By the way, the German word "ordnung" ("order") most likely comes from the word "horde". The word "Mongol" probably comes from the Latin "megalion", that is, "great." Tartary from the word "tartar" ("hell, horror"). And Mongolo-Tataria (or "Megalion-Tartaria") can be translated as "Great Horror".

A few more words about names. Most people of that time had two names: one in the world, and the other received at baptism or a military nickname. According to the scientists who proposed this version, under the names of Genghis Khan and Batu are Prince Yaroslav and his son Alexander Nevsky. Ancient sources paint Genghis Khan as tall, with a luxurious long beard, with "lynx", green-yellow eyes. Note that people of the Mongoloid race do not have a beard at all. Persian historian of the time of the Horde Rashid adDin writes that in the family of Genghis Khan, children "were born mostly with gray eyes and blond".

Genghis Khan, according to scientists, is Prince Yaroslav. He just had a middle name - Chingis with the prefix "khan", which meant "military leader." Batu is his son Alexander (Nevsky). In the manuscripts you can find the following phrase: "Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky, nicknamed Batu." By the way, according to the description of his contemporaries, Batu was fair-haired, light-bearded and light-eyed! It turns out that the Horde Khan defeated the crusaders on Lake Peipsi!

Having studied the chronicles, scientists discovered that Mamai and Akhmat were also noble nobles, according to the dynastic ties of the Russian-Tatar families, who had the right to a great reign. Accordingly, "Mamayevo's massacre" and "standing on the Ugra" are episodes of the civil war in Russia, the struggle of the princely families for power.

Which Rus did the Horde go to?

The annals do say; "The Horde went to Russia." But in the XII-XIII centuries, Rus was called a relatively small territory around Kiev, Chernigov, Kursk, an area near the Ros river, Severskaya land. But Muscovites or, say, Novgorodians were already northern inhabitants, who, according to the same ancient chronicles, often “went to Russia” from Novgorod or Vladimir! That is, for example, to Kiev.

Therefore, when the Moscow prince was about to go on a campaign against his southern neighbor, it could be called the "invasion of Russia" by his "horde" (troops). No wonder that on Western European maps, for a very long time, Russian lands were divided into "Muscovy" (north) and "Russia" (south).

Grandiose falsification

At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter the Great founded the Russian Academy of Sciences. During the 120 years of its existence, the historical department of the Academy of Sciences has had 33 academic historians. Of these, only three are Russians, including M.V. Lomonosov, the rest are Germans. The history of Ancient Russia until the beginning of the 17th century was written by the Germans, and some of them did not even know the Russian language! This fact is well known to professional historians, but they make no effort to look closely at what history the Germans wrote.

It is known that M.V. Lomonosov wrote the history of Rus and that he had constant disputes with German academicians. After Lomonosov's death, his archives disappeared without a trace. However, his works on the history of Russia were published, but under the editorship of Miller. Meanwhile, it was Miller who arranged the persecution of M.V. Lomonosov during his lifetime! Lomonosov's works on the history of Russia published by Miller are falsifications, as shown by computer analysis. Little is left of Lomonosov in them.

As a result, we don't know our history. The Germans of the Romanovs' house hammered into our heads that the Russian peasant is not good for anything. That “he does not know how to work, that he is a drunkard and an eternal slave.

There are many rumors around the period of the Tatar-Mongol invasion, and some historians even speak of a conspiracy of silence, which was actively promoted in Soviet times. Around 44 of the last century, for some strange and incomprehensible reason, the studies of this historical time period were completely closed to specialists, that is, they completely stopped. Many retained the official version of history, in which the Horde period was presented as dark and troubled times, when evil invaders brutally exploited the Russian principalities, placing them in vassal dependence. Meanwhile, the Golden Horde had a huge impact on the economy, as well as the culture of Russia, setting aside its development just for the very three hundred years that it ruled and commanded. When the Mongol-Tatar yoke was finally overthrown, the country healed in a new way, and the cause of that was the Grand Duke of Moscow, which will be discussed.

The annexation of the Novgorod Republic: liberation from the Mongol-Tatar yoke began with a small

It is worth saying that the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke took place under the Moscow prince, or rather Tsar Ivan III Vasilievich, and this process, which lasted more than half a century, ended in 1480. But it was preceded by quite fascinating and amazing events. It all began with the fact that there was no time great empire built by Genghis Khan and presented to his son, the Golden Horde by the middle of the fourteenth - early fifteenth centuries, began to simply fall apart, dividing into smaller khanates-uluses, after the death of Khan Janibek. His grandson Isataya tried to unite his lands, but was defeated. The great Khan Tokhtamysh, who came to power after that, a real Chingizid by blood, stopped the turmoil and internal strife, briefly restored its former glory, and again began to terrify the controlled lands of Russia.

Interesting

In the middle of the thirteenth century, Muslim merchants, who were called the beautiful word "desermen", levied tribute from Russian merchants. It is interesting that this word has firmly entered the spoken, folk language, and a person who had a different faith, as well as exorbitant "appetites", was called a Basurman for a very long time, and even now you can hear a similar word.

The situation, meanwhile, was not at all favorable for the Horde, since the Horde was surrounded and pressed by enemies from all sides, giving no sleep or breath. Already in 1347, by order of the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich (Donskoy), payments to the Horde Khan were completely stopped. Moreover, it was they who conceived to unite the Russian lands, but Novgorod stood in the way, together with its free republic. Moreover, the oligarchy, which established its own powerful enough power there, tried to restrain the onslaught, both from Muscovy and the pressure of the dissatisfied popular masses, the veche device began to gradually lose its relevance. The end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke was already looming on the horizon, but it was still ghostly and vague.

A long campaign to Novgorod: the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke is a matter of technology and time

It is because of this that the people began to look more and more at Moscow than at their own rulers, and even more so at the Horde who had become weakened by that time. Moreover, the posadnichy reform of 1410 became a turning point and the boyars came to power, pushing the oligarchy into the background. It is clear that the collapse was simply inevitable, and it came when in the early seventies part of the Novgorodians, under the leadership of Boretsky, completely passed under the wing of the Lithuanian prince, this was the last point in Moscow's cup of patience. Ivan III had no choice but to annex Novgorod by force, which he successfully did, gathering under his own banners the army of almost all the lands and lands under his control.

Moscow chroniclers, whose testimonies have survived, considered the campaign of the Moscow tsar to Novgorod a real war for the faith, and, consequently, against the infidels, against the conversion of the Russian lands to Catholicism, and even more so to Islam. The key battle was fought in the lower reaches of the Sheloni River, and most of the Novgorodians, frankly speaking, fought carelessly, since they did not feel much need to defend the oligarchy, and they had no desire.

The archbishop of Novgorod, not an adherent of the Moscow principality, decided to make a knight's move. He wanted to preserve the independent position of his own lands, but hoped to come to an agreement with the Prince of Moscow, and not with the locals, and even more so, not with the Horde. Therefore, his entire regiment most of the time simply stood still, and did not enter the battle. These events also played a large role in the overthrow of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, significantly bringing the end of the Golden Horde closer.

Contrary to the hopes of the archbishop, Ivan III did not want to make compromises and agreements at all, and after the establishment of Moscow power in Novgorod, he radically solved the problem - he destroyed or exiled most of the disgraced boyars to the central part of the country, and simply seized the lands that belonged to them. Moreover, the people of Novgorod approved such actions of the tsar, because it was precisely those boyars who did not give life to people that were destroyed, establishing their own rules and orders. In the 1470s, the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, due to the turmoil in Novgorod, sparkled with new colors and approached excessively. By 1478 the republic was completely abolished, and even the veche bell was removed from the bell tower and taken to Muscovy. Thus, Novgorod, together with all its lands, became part of Russia, but for some time retained its status and liberties.

Liberation of Russia from the Horde yoke: the date is known even to children

In the meantime, while Russia was forcibly implanting good and light, which in fact was so, the Golden Horde began to be torn apart by petty khans, wanting to tear off a larger piece. Each of them, in words, wanted the reunification of the state, as well as the revival of its former glory, but in reality it turned out somewhat differently. Akhmed Khan, the undivided ruler of the Great Horde, decided to resume campaigns against Russia, to force her to pay tribute again, receiving labels and letters from the khanate for this. For this purpose, he decided to conclude a deal, in fact, to enter into an allied relationship with Casimir IV, king of the Polish-Lithuanian Empire, which he successfully pulled off, without even realizing what it would turn out to be for him.

If we talk about who defeated the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia, then the surely correct answer would be the Grand Duke of Moscow, who ruled at that time, as already mentioned, Ivan III. The Tatar-Mongol yoke was overthrown under him, and the unification of many lands under the wing of Ancient Russia was also his work. However, the brothers of the Prince of Moscow did not at all share his views, and in general, they believed that he did not deserve his place at all, therefore they were just waiting for him to take the wrong step.

Politically, Ivan the Third turned out to be an extremely wise ruler, and at a time when the Horde was experiencing the greatest difficulties, he decided to castling, and made an alliance with the Crimean Khan, named Mengli-Girey, who had his own grudge against Ahmed Khan. The thing is that in 1476, Ivan flatly refused to visit the sovereign of the Great Horde, and he, as if in revenge, captured the Crimea, but after only two years, Mengli-Girey managed to regain the Crimean lands and power, not without military support from Turkey. From this moment it just began overthrow of the Mongol yoke, because the Crimean Khan concluded an alliance with the Moscow prince, and it was a very wise decision.

The Great Stand at Ugra: the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke and the fall of the Great Horde

As already mentioned, Ivan was a rather advanced politician, he understood perfectly well that the fall of the Mongol-Tatar yoke was inextricably linked with the reunification of Russian lands, and for this allies were needed. Mengli-Girey could calmly help Ahmed Khan establish a new Horde, and return the tribute payments. Therefore, it was extremely important to enlist the support of the Crimea, especially in view of the alliance of the Horde with the Lithuanians and Poles. It was Mengli-Girey who struck the troops of Casimir, preventing them from helping the Horde, but it would be better if we keep the chronology of the events that took place then.

On a quiet and hot May day in 1480, Akhmet raised his army and set out on a campaign against Russia, the Russians began to occupy positions at the Oka River. Moreover, the Horde moved up the Don, destroying quite large territories along the road that were located between Serpukhov and Kaluga. The son of Ivan the Third led his army to meet the Horde, and the tsar himself went to Kolomna with a rather large detachment. At the same time, the Livonian Order was besieging Pskov.

Akhmad reached the Lithuanian lands on the southern side of the Ugra River and stopped, expecting that Casimir's allied unit would join his troops. They had to wait a long time, because just then they had to repel the furious attacks of Mengli-Giray in Podillya. That is, they were absolutely not up to some kind of Akhmat, who with all the fibers of his soul wanted only one thing - the renewal of the former glory and wealth of his own people, or maybe the state. After some time, the main forces of both armies stood on different banks of the Ugra, waiting for someone to attack first.

It didn't take long for the Horde to starve, and the lack of food supplies played a key role in the battle. So, to the question of who defeated the Mongol-Tatar yoke, there is one more answer - hunger, and it is completely correct, though somewhat indirect, and nevertheless. At the same time, Ivan III decided to make concessions to his own brothers, and those with their squads also pulled themselves up to the Ugra. They stood for quite a long time, so much so that the river was completely covered with ice. Akhmat was unwell, he was in complete confusion, and for the fullness of happiness, not at all good news came at all - a conspiracy was planned in Sarai and a ferment of minds began among the people. In late autumn, in November of the same year, poor fellow Akhmat decided to declare a retreat. Out of impotent anger, he burned and plundered everything that came his way, and soon after the New Year he was killed by another enemy - Ibak, the Khan of Tyumen.

After Russia freed itself from the Horde yoke, payments of tribute for vassal dependence were nevertheless renewed by Ivan. He was very busy with the war with Lithuania and Poland in order to argue, therefore he easily recognized the right of Ahmed, the son of Akhmat. For two years, 1501 and 1502, the tribute was regularly collected and delivered to the treasury of the Horde, which supported its life. The fall of the Golden Horde led to the fact that the Russian possessions began to border on the Crimean Khanate, because of which real disagreements began between the rulers, but this is not a story at all of the fall of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.

1243 - After the defeat of Northern Russia by the Mongol-Tatars and the death of the great Vladimir prince Yuri Vsevolodovich (1188-1238x), Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (1190-1246 +) remained the eldest in the family, who became the Grand Duke.
Returning from the western campaign, Batu summons the Grand Duke Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich Vladimir-Suzdalsky to the Horde and gives him a label (permission sign) for the great reign in Russia at the khan's headquarters in Sarai: "You will be older than all the princes in the Russian language."
This is how the unilateral act of vassal subordination of Russia to the Golden Horde was carried out and legally formalized.
Russia, according to the label, lost the right to fight and had to pay tribute to the khans regularly twice (in spring and autumn). Baskaks (governors) were sent to the Russian principalities - their capitals - to monitor the rigorous collection of tribute and the observance of its size.
1243-1252 - This decade was a time when the Horde troops and officials did not bother Russia, receiving timely tribute and expressions of external obedience. Russian princes during this period assessed the current situation and developed their own line of conduct in relation to the Horde.
Two lines of Russian politics:
1. The line of systematic partisan resistance and continuous "pinpoint" uprisings: ("to run, not serve the king") - led. book Andrey I Yaroslavich, Yaroslav III Yaroslavich and others.
2. The line of complete, unquestioning submission to the Horde (Alexander Nevsky and most of the other princes). Many appanage princes (Uglitsk, Yaroslavl, and especially Rostov) established relations with the Mongol khans, who left them to "reign and rule." The princes preferred to recognize the supreme power of the Horde Khan and donate to the conquerors part of the feudal rent collected from the dependent population, rather than risk losing their reigns (see "On the Arrivals of Russian Princes to the Horde"). The Orthodox Church pursued the same policy.
1252 Invasion of "Nevruyeva rati" The first after 1239 in North-Eastern Russia - Reasons for the invasion: Punish for the disobedience of Grand Duke Andrei I Yaroslavich and accelerate the full payment of the tribute.
Horde forces: The Nevryu army had a significant number - at least 10 thousand people. and a maximum of 20-25 thousand.This indirectly follows from the title of Nevryuya (prince) and the presence in his army of two wings, headed by the temniks - Elabuga (Olabuga) and Kotiy, as well as from the fact that the army of Nevryuya was able to disperse across the Vladimir-Suzdal principality and "comb" it!
Russian forces: Consisted of the regiments of Prince. Andrey (i.e. regular troops) and the squads (volunteer and security detachments) of the Tver governor Zhiroslav, sent by the Tver prince Yaroslav Yaroslavich to help his brother. These forces were an order of magnitude smaller than the Horde forces in terms of their numbers, i.e. 1.5-2 thousand people
The course of the invasion: Crossing the Klyazma River near Vladimir, the punitive army of Nevryuya hastily headed for Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, where Prince. Andrew, and, overtaking the army of the prince, defeated him utterly. The Horde plundered and ravaged the city, and then occupied the entire Vladimir land and, returning to the Horde, "combed" it.
Results of the invasion: The Horde army rounded up and captured tens of thousands of captive peasants (for sale in the eastern markets) and hundreds of thousands of cattle and took them to the Horde. Book. Andrei with the remnants of his squad fled to the Novgorod Republic, which refused to give him asylum, fearing the Horde's repressions. Fearing that one of his "friends" would hand him over to the Horde, Andrei fled to Sweden. Thus, the first attempt to resist the Horde failed. Russian princes abandoned the line of resistance and bowed to the line of obedience.
Alexander Nevsky received the label for the great reign.
1255 The first complete census of the population of North-Eastern Russia, carried out by the Horde - Was accompanied by spontaneous unrest of the local population, scattered, unorganized, but united by the general demand of the masses: "do not give a number to the Tatars", i.e. not provide them with any data that could become the basis for a fixed payment of tribute.
Other authors indicate different dates for the census (1257-1259)
1257 Attempt to conduct a census in Novgorod - In 1255 no census was carried out in Novgorod. In 1257, this measure was accompanied by an uprising of the Novgorodians, the expulsion of the Horde "counters" from the city, which led to a complete failure of the attempt to collect tribute.
1259 The embassy of Murz Berke and Kasachik to Novgorod - The punitive control army of the Horde ambassadors - Murz Berke and Kasachik - was sent to Novgorod to collect tribute and prevent anti-Horde uprisings of the population. Novgorod, as always in the event of a military threat, yielded to force and traditionally bought off, and also made an obligation itself, without reminders or pressure, to regularly pay tribute annually, "voluntarily" determining its size, without drawing up census documents, in exchange for a guarantee of absence from the city Horde collectors.
1262 Meeting of representatives of Russian cities to discuss measures to resist the Horde - A decision was made to simultaneously expel tribute collectors - representatives of the Horde administration in the cities of Rostov the Great, Vladimir, Suzdal, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl, where anti-Horde people's demonstrations take place. These riots were suppressed by the Horde military units at the disposal of the Baskaks. But nevertheless, the khan's power took into account already 20 years of experience of repeating such spontaneous rebellious outbreaks and abandoned Basque, transferring from that time the collection of tribute into the hands of the Russian, princely administration.

From 1263 the Russian princes began to bring tribute to the Horde themselves.
Thus, the formal moment, as in the case of Novgorod, turned out to be decisive. The Russians did not so much resist the fact of payment of the tribute and its size, as they were offended by the foreign, foreign composition of the collectors. They were ready to pay more, but to "their" princes and their administration. The Khan authorities quickly realized the full benefits of such a decision for the Horde:
firstly, the lack of your own troubles,
secondly, the guarantee of the end of the uprisings and the complete obedience of the Russians.
third, the presence of specific responsible persons (princes), whom it was always easy, convenient and even "legal" to prosecute, punish for not paying tribute, and not deal with the insurmountable spontaneous popular uprisings of thousands of people.
This is a very early manifestation of a specifically Russian social and individual psychology, for which the visible is important, not the essential, and which is always ready to make actually important, serious, significant concessions in exchange for visible, superficial, external, "toy" and supposedly prestigious, will be repeated many times throughout Russian history up to the present time.
It is easy to persuade the Russian people, to cajole with a petty handout, a trifle, but they cannot be annoyed. Then he becomes stubborn, intractable and reckless, and sometimes even angry.
But you can literally take it with your bare hands, twist it around your finger, if you immediately give in in some trifle. This was well understood by the Mongols, who were the first Horde khans - Batu and Berke.

I cannot agree with the unfair and humiliating generalization of V. Pokhlebkin. You should not consider your ancestors stupid, gullible savages and judge them from the "height" of the past 700 years. There were numerous anti-Horde demonstrations - they were suppressed, presumably, brutally, not only by the Horde troops, but also by their own princes. But the transfer of the collection of tribute (from which it was simply impossible to free oneself in those conditions) to the Russian princes was not a "petty concession", but an important, principled moment. Unlike a number of other countries conquered by the Horde, Northeastern Russia retained its political and social system. There has never been a permanent Mongol administration on Russian soil; under the onerous yoke, Russia managed to maintain the conditions for its independent development, although not without the influence of the Horde. An example of the opposite kind is the Volga Bulgaria, which, under the Horde, as a result could not preserve not only its own ruling dynasty and name, but also the ethnic continuity of the population.

Later, the khan's power itself crumbled, lost its statesmanship, and gradually by its mistakes "brought up" from Russia its equally insidious and prudent enemy as it was itself. But in the 60s of the XIII century. this final was still a long way off - two whole centuries. In the meantime, the Horde spun the Russian princes and through them all of Russia, as it wanted. (It will be good to be confused by the one who will be the last to be confused - isn't that so?)

1272 The second Horde census in Russia - Under the leadership and supervision of the Russian princes, the Russian local administration, it passed peacefully, calmly, without a hitch, without a hitch. After all, it was carried out by the "Russian people", and the population was calm.
It's a shame that the census results weren't saved, or maybe I just don't know?

And the fact that it was carried out according to the khan's orders, that the Russian princes delivered her data to the Horde and this data directly served the Horde's economic and political interests - all this was for the people "behind the scenes", all this did not concern him and did not interest ... The appearance that the census was taking place "without Tatars" was more important than the essence, i.e. the strengthening of the tax oppression that has come on its basis, the impoverishment of the population, its suffering. All this "was not visible", and therefore, according to Russian ideas, this means that ... was not.
Moreover, in just three decades that have elapsed since the moment of enslavement, Russian society, in fact, has become accustomed to the fact of the Horde yoke, and the fact that it was isolated from direct contact with representatives of the Horde and entrusted these contacts exclusively to the princes completely satisfied it, how ordinary people, and noble ones.
The proverb "out of sight - out of mind" very accurately and correctly explains this situation. As is clear from the chronicles of that time, the lives of the saints and the patristic and other religious literature, which was a reflection of the dominant ideas, Russians of all estates and states had no desire to get to know their enslavers better, to get to know what they breathe, what they think, how think, as they understand themselves and Russia. They saw "God's punishment" sent down to the Russian land for sins. If they had not sinned, had not angered God, there would not have been such calamities, - here the starting point all explanations from the authorities and the church of the then "international situation". It is not difficult to see that this position is not only very, very passive, but that, in addition, it actually removes the blame for the enslavement of Rus both from the Mongol-Tatars and from the Russian princes who made such a yoke, and shifts it entirely onto the people who found themselves enslaved and suffered from it more than anyone.
Proceeding from the thesis of sinfulness, the churchmen called on the Russian people not to resist the invaders, but, on the contrary, to their own repentance and obedience to the "Tatars", not only did not condemn the Horde power, but also ... set it up as an example for their flock. This was a direct payment on the part of the Orthodox Church for the enormous privileges granted to it by the khans - exemption from taxes and extortions, solemn receptions of metropolitans in the Horde, the establishment in 1261 of a special Sarai diocese and permission to erect an Orthodox church directly opposite the khan's headquarters *.

*) After the collapse of the Horde, at the end of the 15th century. the entire staff of the Sarai diocese was retained and transferred to Moscow, to the Krutitsky monastery, and the Sarai bishops received the title of metropolitans of Sarai and Podonsky, and then of Krutitsky and Kolomna, i.e. they were formally equalized in rank with the metropolitans of Moscow and All Russia, although they were no longer engaged in any real central political activity. This historical and decorative post was abolished only at the end of the 18th century. (1788) [Approx. V.Pokhlebkin]

It should be noted that on the threshold of the XXI century. we are experiencing a similar situation. Modern "princes", like the princes of Vladimir-Suzdal Russia, are trying to exploit the ignorance and slavish psychology of the people and even cultivate it, not without the help of the same church.

At the end of the 70s of the XIII century. the period of temporary lull from the Horde troubles in Russia is coming to an end, which can be explained by the ten-year underlined obedience of the Russian princes and the church. The internal needs of the Horde economy, which made a constant profit from the trade of slaves (captured during the war) in the eastern (Iranian, Turkish and Arab) markets, require a new influx of funds, and therefore in 1277-1278. The Horde twice makes local raids into the border Russian borders exclusively for the removal of the polonyanniki.
It is significant that not the central khan administration and its military forces are involved in this, but the regional, ulus authorities in the peripheral areas of the Horde's territory, solving their local, local economic problems with these raids, and therefore strictly limiting both the place and the time (very short, calculated in weeks) of these military actions.

1277- The raid on the lands of the Galicia-Volyn principality is carried out by detachments from the western Dniester-Dnieper regions of the Horde, which were under the rule of Temnik Nogai.
1278 - A similar local raid follows from the Volga region to Ryazan, and it is limited only to this principality.

During the next decade - in the 80s and early 90s of the XIII century. - new processes are taking place in Russian-Horde relations.
The Russian princes, who have gotten used to the new situation in the previous 25-30 years and have essentially been deprived of any control from the side of domestic bodies, begin to settle their petty feudal scores with each other with the help of the Horde military force.
Just like in the XII century. Chernigov and Kiev princes fought with each other, calling Polovtsy to Russia, and the princes of North-Eastern Russia are fighting in the 80s of the XIII century. with each other for power, relying on the Horde detachments, which they invite to plunder the principalities of their political opponents, i.e., in fact, cold-bloodedly call on foreign troops to devastate the regions inhabited by their Russian compatriots.

1281 - The son of Alexander Nevsky, Andrei II Alexandrovich, Prince Gorodetsky, invites the Horde army against his brother led. Dmitry I Alexandrovich and his allies. This army is organized by Khan Tuda-Mengu, who at the same time gives Andrew II a label for the great reign, even before the outcome of the military clash.
Dmitry I, fleeing from the khan's troops, fled first to Tver, then to Novgorod, and from there to his possession on the Novgorod land - Koporye. But the Novgorodians, declaring themselves loyal to the Horde, do not let Dmitry into his patrimony and, taking advantage of its location inside the Novgorod lands, force the prince to tear down all its fortifications and finally force Dmitry I to flee from Russia to Sweden, threatening to hand him over to the Tatars.
The Horde army (Kavgadai and Alchegei), under the pretext of persecuting Dmitry I, relying on the permission of Andrei II, passes and devastates several Russian principalities - Vladimir, Tver, Suzdal, Rostov, Murom, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky and their capitals. The Horde reaches Torzhok, practically occupying the entire North-Eastern Russia up to the borders of the Novgorod Republic.
The length of the entire territory from Murom to Torzhok (from east to west) was 450 km, and from south to north - 250-280 km, i.e. almost 120 thousand square kilometers, which were devastated by the hostilities. This restores the Russian population of the ruined principalities against Andrey II, and his formal "accession" after the flight of Dmitry I does not bring peace.
Dmitry I returns to Pereyaslavl and prepares for revenge, Andrei II leaves for the Horde with a request for help, and his allies - Svyatoslav Yaroslavich Tverskoy, Daniil Alexandrovich Moskovsky and Novgorodians - go to Dmitry I and make peace with him.
1282 - Andrei II comes from the Horde with Tatar regiments under the leadership of Turai-Temir and Ali, reaches Pereyaslavl and again expels Dmitry, who this time flees to the Black Sea, to the possession of Temnik Nogai (who at that time was the actual ruler of the Golden Horde) , and, playing on the contradictions between Nogai and the Sarai khans, brings the troops given by Nogai to Russia and forces Andrei II to return the great reign to him.
The cost of this "restoration of justice" is very high: the Nogai officials are given the responsibility of collecting tribute in Kursk, Lipetsk, Rylsk; Rostov and Murom are again subjected to ruin. The conflict between the two princes (and the allies who joined them) continues throughout the 80s and early 90s.
1285 - Andrei II again goes to the Horde and brings from there a new punitive detachment of the Horde, led by one of the khan's sons. However, Dmitry I succeeds in successfully and quickly defeating this detachment.

Thus, the first victory of the Russian troops over the regular Horde troops was won in 1285, and not in 1378, on the river Voshe, as is usually believed.
It is not surprising that Andrew II in the following years stopped turning to the Horde for help.
At the end of the 80s, the Horde sent small plundering expeditions to Russia themselves:

1287 - Raid to Vladimir.
1288 - The raid on Ryazan and Murom and the Mordovian lands These two raids (short-term) were of a specific, local nature and were aimed at robbing property and capturing the polonyans. They were provoked by the denunciation or complaint of the Russian princes.
1292 - "Dedenev's army" to Vladimir land Andrei Gorodetsky, together with princes Dmitry Borisovich Rostovsky, Konstantin Borisovich Uglitsky, Mikhail Glebovich Belozersky, Fyodor Yaroslavsky and Bishop Tarasiy went to the Horde to complain about Dmitry I Alexandrovich.
Khan Tokhta, after listening to the complainants, dispatched a significant army under the leadership of his brother Tudan (in Russian chronicles - Deden) to conduct a punitive expedition.
"Dedenev's army" passed through all Vladimir Rus, having ruined the capital of Vladimir and 14 more cities: Murom, Suzdal, Gorokhovets, Starodub, Bogolyubov, Yuryev-Polsky, Gorodets, Uglechepole (Uglich), Yaroslavl, Nerekhta, Ksnyatin, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky , Rostov, Dmitrov.
In addition to them, only 7 cities remained untouched by the invasion, which lay outside the route of the Tudan troops: Kostroma, Tver, Zubtsov, Moscow, Galich Mersky, Unzha, Nizhny Novgorod.
On the way to Moscow (or near Moscow), Tudan's army was divided into two detachments, one of which went to Kolomna, i.e. to the south, and the other to the west: to Zvenigorod, Mozhaisk, Volokolamsk.
In Volokolamsk, the Horde army received gifts from the Novgorodians, who hastened to bring and present gifts to the khan's brother far from their lands. Tudan did not go to Tver, but returned to Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, made the base where all the loot was taken and the prisoners were concentrated.
This campaign was a significant pogrom of Russia. It is possible that Tudan with his army also passed Klin, Serpukhov, Zvenigorod, not named in the annals. Thus, the area of ​​his operations covered about two dozen cities.
1293 - In winter, a new Horde detachment under the leadership of Toktemir appeared near Tver, which came with punitive purposes at the request of one of the princes to restore order in the feudal strife. He had limited goals, and the chronicles do not describe his route and time spent on Russian territory.
In any case, the whole of 1293 passed under the sign of another Horde pogrom, the cause of which was exclusively the feudal rivalry of the princes. It was they who were the main reason for the Horde repressions that fell on the Russian people.

1294-1315 biennium Two decades pass without any Horde invasions.
The princes regularly pay tribute, the people, frightened and impoverished from previous robberies, slowly heal economic and human losses. Only the accession to the throne of the extremely powerful and active Khan Uzbek opens a new period of pressure on Russia
The main idea of ​​Uzbek is to achieve complete disunity of the Russian princes and their transformation into continuously warring groups. Hence his plan - the transfer of the great reign to the weakest and most non-military prince - Moscow (under Khan Uzbek, the Moscow prince was Yuri Danilovich, who challenged the great reign with Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver) and the weakening of the former rulers of the "strong principalities" - Rostov, Vladimir, Tver.
Khan Uzbek practices to ensure the collection of tribute by sending, together with the prince, who received instructions from the Horde, special commissioners-ambassadors, accompanied by military detachments of several thousand people (sometimes there were up to 5 temniks!). Each prince collects tribute on the territory of a rival principality.
From 1315 to 1327, i.e. over 12 years, Uzbek has sent 9 military "embassies". Their functions were not diplomatic, but military-punitive (police) and partly - military-political (pressure on the princes).

1315 - Uzbek "ambassadors" accompany the Grand Duke Mikhail of Tver (see the Table of Ambassadors), and their detachments rob Rostov and Torzhok, near which they defeat the detachments of Novgorodians.
1317 - Horde punitive detachments accompany Yuri of Moscow and rob Kostroma, and then try to rob Tver, but suffer a severe defeat.
1319 - The robbery of Kostroma and Rostov is committed again.
1320 - Rostov falls victim to a robbery for the third time, but Vladimir is mostly ruined.
1321 - Tribute is knocked out of Kashin and the Kashin principality.
1322 - Yaroslavl and the cities of the Nizhny Novgorod principality are subjected to a punitive action to collect tribute.
1327 "Shchelkanov's Host" - The Novgorodians, frightened by the Horde's activity, "voluntarily" pay the Horde a tribute of 2000 rubles in silver.
The famous attack of the Chelkan (Cholpan) detachment on Tver, known in the annals as the "Shchelkanov invasion" or "Shchelkanov army", took place. It provokes an unprecedentedly decisive uprising of the townspeople and the destruction of the "ambassador" and his detachment. Himself "Shchelkan" burned in the hut.
1328 - A special punitive expedition follows against Tver under the leadership of three ambassadors - Turalyk, Syuga and Fedorok - and with 5 temniks, i.e. a whole army, which the chronicle defines as a "great army". In the devastation of Tver, along with the 50-thousandth Horde army, Moscow princely detachments also participate.

From 1328 to 1367 - there comes a "great silence" for as long as 40 years.
It is a direct result of three things:
1. Complete defeat of the Tver principality as a rival of Moscow and thereby eliminating the cause of military-political rivalry in Russia.
2. Timely collection of tribute by Ivan Kalita, who, in the eyes of the khans, becomes an exemplary executor of the Horde's fiscal instructions and expresses to her, in addition, exceptional political obedience, and, finally
3. As a result of the understanding by the Horde rulers that the Russian population has matured the determination to fight the oppressors and therefore it is necessary to apply other forms of pressure and consolidation of the dependence of Russia, except for punitive ones.
As for the use of some princes against others, this measure no longer seems to be universal in the face of possible popular uprisings uncontrolled by "tame princes". A turning point is coming in Russian-Horde relations.
Punitive campaigns (invasions) to the central regions of North-Eastern Russia, with the inevitable ruin of its population, have ceased since then.
At the same time, short-term raids with predatory (but not devastating) goals on the peripheral areas of Russian territory, raids on local, limited areas continue to take place and remain as the most favorite and safest for the Horde, one-sided-short-term military-economic action.

A new phenomenon in the period from 1360 to 1375 is the retaliatory raids, or, more precisely, the campaigns of the Russian armed detachments in the peripheral lands, dependent on the Horde, bordering with Russia, - mainly in the Bulgars.

1347 - A raid is made on Aleksin, a border town on the Moscow-Horde border along the Oka
1360 - The Novgorod ushkuyniki make the first raid on the town of Zhukotin.
1365 - The Horde prince Tagay raided the Ryazan principality.
1367 - Detachments of Prince Temir-Bulat invade the principality of Nizhny Novgorod with a raid, especially intensively in the border zone along the Pyana river.
1370 - A new Horde raid follows on the Ryazan principality in the area of ​​the Moscow-Ryazan border. But through the Oka the Horde people were not allowed to stand there by the guard regiments of Prince Dmitry IV Ivanovich. And the Horde, in turn, noticing resistance, did not seek to overcome it and limited themselves to reconnaissance.
Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Nizhegorodsky makes an invasion raid on the lands of the "parallel" Khan of Bulgaria - Bulat-Temir;
1374 Anti-Horde uprising in Novgorod - The occasion was the arrival of the Horde ambassadors, accompanied by a large armed retinue of 1000 people. This is common for the beginning of the XIV century. accompaniment was, however, regarded in the last quarter of the same century as dangerous threat and provoked an armed attack by the Novgorodians on the "embassy", during which both the "ambassadors" and their guards were completely destroyed.
A new raid of the Ushkuyniks, who rob not only the Bulgar city, but are not afraid to penetrate as far as Astrakhan.
1375 - Horde raid on the city of Kashin, short and local.
1376 2nd campaign against the Bulgars - the United Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod army prepared and carried out the 2nd campaign against the Bulgars, and took from the city an indemnity of 5000 rubles in silver. This attack by the Russians on the territory dependent on the Horde, unheard of in 130 years of Russian-Horde relations, naturally triggers a retaliatory military action.
1377 Massacre on the Pyane River - On the border Russian-Horde territory, on the Pyane River, where the Nizhny Novgorod princes were preparing a new raid on the Mordovian lands lying across the river, dependent on the Horde, they were attacked by a detachment of Tsarevich Arapsha (Arab Shah, Khan of the Blue Horde ) and suffered a crushing defeat.
On August 2, 1377, the united militia of the princes of Suzdal, Pereyaslavsky, Yaroslavsky, Yuryevsky, Murom and Nizhny Novgorod was completely killed, and the "commander-in-chief" himself, Prince Ivan Dmitrievich of Nizhny Novgorod, drowned in the river, trying to escape, together with his personal squad and his "headquarters" ... This defeat of the Russian army was largely due to their loss of vigilance due to many days of drunkenness.
Having destroyed the Russian army, the detachments of Tsarevich Arapsha raided the capitals of the hapless warrior princes - Nizhny Novgorod, Murom and Ryazan - and subjected them to complete looting and burning to the ground.
1378 Battle on the river Vozha - In the XIII century. after such a defeat, the Russians usually lost any desire to resist the Horde troops for 10-20 years, but at the end of the XIV century. the setting has completely changed:
Already in 1378, the ally of the princes defeated in the battle on the Pyane River, the Moscow Grand Duke Dmitry IV Ivanovich, having learned that the Horde troops who had burned down Nizhny Novgorod intend to go to Moscow under the command of Murza Begich, decided to meet them on the border of his principality on the Oka River and not allow to the capital.
On August 11, 1378, a battle took place on the bank of the right tributary of the Oka, the Vozha River, in the Ryazan principality. Dmitry divided his army into three parts and, at the head of the main regiment, attacked the Horde army from the front, while Prince Daniel Pronsky and the okolnichy Timofey Vasilyevich attacked the Tatars from the flanks, in a girth. The Horde was utterly defeated and fled across the river Vozhu, having lost many killed and carts, which the Russian troops captured the next day, rushing to pursue the Tatars.
The battle on the River Vozha had enormous moral and military significance as a dress rehearsal for the Battle of Kulikovo, which followed two years later.
1380 Battle of Kulikovo - The battle of Kulikovo was the first serious, specially prepared battle in advance, and not accidental and improvised, like all previous military clashes between the Russian and Horde troops.
1382 Tokhtamysh's invasion of Moscow - The defeat of Mamai's troops on the Kulikovo field and his flight to Kafa and his death in 1381 allowed the energetic Khan Tokhtamysh to end the Temniks' power in the Horde and reunite it into a single state, eliminating the "parallel khans" in the regions.
Tokhtamysh identified the restoration of the military and foreign policy prestige of the Horde and the preparation of a revanchist campaign against Moscow as his main military-political task.

Results of Tokhtamysh's campaign:
Returning to Moscow in early September 1382, Dmitry Donskoy saw the ashes and ordered to immediately restore the devastated Moscow at least with temporary wooden buildings before the onset of frost.
Thus, the military, political and economic achievements of the Battle of Kulikovo were completely eliminated by the Horde after two years:
1. The tribute was not only restored, but actually doubled, for the population decreased, but the size of the tribute remained the same. In addition, the people had to pay the Grand Duke a special extraordinary tax to replenish the princely treasury taken away by the Horde.
2. Politically, vassal dependence has increased sharply, even formally. In 1384, Dmitry Donskoy was forced to send his son, the heir to the throne, the future Grand Duke Vasily II Dmitrievich, who was 12 years old, to the Horde for the first time (According to the generally accepted account, this is Vasily I. V.V. Pokhlebkin, apparently, considers 1 -m of Vasily Yaroslavich Kostromsky). Relations with the neighbors - the Tver, Suzdal, Ryazan principalities, which were specially supported by the Horde to create a political and military counterbalance to Moscow, became aggravated.

The situation was really difficult, in 1383 Dmitry Donskoy had to "compete" in the Horde for the great reign, to which Mikhail Alexandrovich Tverskoy again presented his claims. The reign was left to Dmitry, but his son Vasily was taken hostage to the Horde. The "fierce" ambassador Adash (1383, see "Golden Horde ambassadors in Russia") appeared in Vladimir. In 1384 he had to collect a heavy tribute (a half from the village) from all over the Russian land, and from Novgorod - a black forest. Novgorodians opened robberies along the Volga and Kama and refused to pay tribute. In 1385, he had to show unprecedented condescension to the Ryazan prince, who decided to attack Kolomna (annexed to Moscow back in 1300) and defeated the troops of the Moscow prince.

Thus, Russia was actually thrown back into the position of 1313, during the reign of Khan Uzbek, i.e. practically the achievements of the Battle of Kulikovo were completely erased. Both politically and economically, the Moscow principality was thrown back 75-100 years ago. The prospects for relations with the Horde, therefore, were extremely grim for Moscow and Russia as a whole. It could be assumed that the Horde yoke would be fixed forever (well, nothing is eternal!), If a new historical accident did not occur:
The period of the Horde's wars with the empire of Tamerlane and the complete defeat of the Horde during these two wars, the violation of the entire economic, administrative, political life in the Horde, the death of the Horde army, the devastation of both of its capitals - Sarai I and Saray II, the beginning of a new turmoil, the struggle for power of several khans in the period from 1391-1396. - all this led to an unparalleled weakening of the Horde in all spheres and made it necessary for the Horde khans to focus on the turn in the XIV century. and XV century. exclusively on internal problems, temporarily neglect external ones and, in particular, weaken control over Russia.
It was this unexpected situation that helped the Moscow principality get a significant respite and restore its strength - economic, military and political.

Here, perhaps, we should stop and make a few notes. I don’t believe in historical accidents of this magnitude, and there is no need to explain the further relations of Muscovite Rus with the Horde by an unexpectedly happened happy accident. Without going into details, we note that by the beginning of the 90s of the XIV century. Moscow has somehow solved the economic and political problems that have arisen. The Moscow-Lithuanian treaty concluded in 1384 deduced Tver principality from under the influence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Mikhail Alexandrovich Tverskoy, having lost support both in the Horde and in Lithuania, recognized the primacy of Moscow. In 1385, the son of Dmitry Donskoy, Vasily Dmitrievich, was released from the Horde. In 1386, Dmitry Donskoy reconciled with Oleg Ivanovich Ryazansky, which in 1387 was sealed by the marriage of their children (Fedor Olegovich and Sofia Dmitrievna). In the same 1386, Dmitry succeeded in restoring his influence there with a large military demonstration under the Novgorod walls, taking the black forest in the volosts and 8,000 rubles in Novgorod. In 1388, Dmitry also faced the discontent of his cousin and comrade-in-arms, Vladimir Andreevich, who had to be brought "into his will" by force, forced to recognize the political seniority of his eldest son Vasily. Dmitry managed to make up on this with Vladimir two months before his death (1389). In his spiritual testament, Dmitry blessed (for the first time) his eldest son Vasily "with his father's great reign". And finally, in the summer of 1390, the wedding of Vasily and Sophia, the daughter of the Lithuanian prince Vitovt, took place in a solemn atmosphere. In Eastern Europe, Vasily I Dmitrievich and Cyprian, who became Metropolitan on October 1, 1389, are trying to prevent the consolidation of the Lithuanian-Polish dynastic union and replace the Polish-Catholic colonization of the Lithuanian and Russian lands with the consolidation of Russian forces around Moscow. An alliance with Vitovt, who was against the Catholicization of the Russian lands that were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was important for Moscow, but could not be lasting, since Vitovt, naturally, had his own goals and his own vision of around which center the gathering of Russians should take place. lands.
A new stage in the history of the Golden Horde coincided with the death of Dmitry. It was then that Tokhtamysh came out of reconciliation with Tamerlane and began to lay claim to the territories under his control. The confrontation began. Under these conditions, Tokhtamysh immediately after the death of Dmitry Donskoy issued a label for the reign of Vladimir to his son, Vasily I, and strengthened it by transferring to him the principality of Nizhny Novgorod and a number of cities. In 1395, Tamerlane's troops defeated Tokhtamysh on the Terek River.

At the same time, Tamerlane, having destroyed the power of the Horde, did not carry out his campaign against Russia. Having reached Yelets without fighting and robbery, he suddenly turned back and returned to Central Asia. Thus, the actions of Tamerlane at the end of the XIV century. became a historical factor that helped Russia survive in the fight against the Horde.

1405 - In 1405, based on the situation in the Horde, the Grand Duke of Moscow officially announced for the first time that he refused to pay tribute to the Horde. During 1405-1407. The Horde did not react in any way to this demarche, but then Edigei's campaign against Moscow followed.
Only 13 years after Tokhtamysh's campaign (Apparently, there is a typo in the book - 13 years have passed since the campaign of Tamerlane) the Horde authorities could again recall the vassal dependence of Moscow and gather forces for a new campaign to restore the flow of tribute, which had been stopped since 1395.
1408 Yedigei's campaign to Moscow - December 1, 1408, a huge army of the temnik Edigei approached Moscow along a winter sled route and laid siege to the Kremlin.
On the Russian side, the situation was repeated in detail during the campaign of Tokhtamysh in 1382.
1. Grand Duke Vasily II Dmitrievich, hearing about the danger, like his father, fled to Kostroma (supposedly to collect an army).
2. In Moscow, Vladimir Andreevich the Brave, Prince Serpukhovsky, a participant in the Battle of Kulikovo, remained for the head of the garrison.
3. The posad of Moscow was again burnt out, i.e. all wooden Moscow around the Kremlin, a mile in all directions.
4. Edigei, approaching Moscow, set up his camp in Kolomenskoye, and sent a notice to the Kremlin that he would stand all winter and starve out the Kremlin without losing a single soldier.
5. The memory of the invasion of Tokhtamysh was still so fresh among the Muscovites that it was decided to fulfill any demands of Edigei, so that only he would leave without hostilities.
6. Edigei demanded to collect 3000 rubles in two weeks. silver, which was done. In addition, the troops of Edigei, scattered throughout the principality and its cities, began to collect polonyanniki for captivity (several tens of thousands of people). Some cities were severely devastated, for example, Mozhaisk was completely burned down.
7. On December 20, 1408, having received everything that was required, the army of Edigei left Moscow, without being attacked or pursued by the Russian forces.
8. The damage inflicted by Edigei's campaign was less than the damage from the invasion of Tokhtamysh, but it also laid a heavy burden on the shoulders of the population
The restoration of Moscow's tributary dependence on the Horde lasted from then on for almost another 60 years (until 1474).
1412 - Payment of tribute to the Horde becomes regular. To ensure this regularity, the Horde forces from time to time made eerily-reminiscent raids on Russia.
1415 - The destruction of the Elets (border, buffer) land by the Horde.
1427 - Horde troops raid Ryazan.
1428 - The raid of the Horde troops on the Kostroma lands - Galich Mersky, the ruin and plunder of Kostroma, Plyos and Lukh.
1437 - Battle of Belevskaya Ulu-Muhammad's campaign to the Zaoksky lands. Belevskaya battle on December 5, 1437 (defeat of the Moscow army) because of the unwillingness of the Yuryevich brothers - Shemyaka and Krasny - to allow the army of Ulu-Muhammad to settle in Belev and make peace. As a result of the betrayal of the Lithuanian governor of Mtsensk Grigory Protasyev, who went over to the side of the Tatars, Ulu-Muhammad won the Battle of Belev, after which he went east to Kazan, where he founded the Kazan Khanate.

Actually, from this moment, a long struggle between the Russian state and the Kazan Khanate begins, which Russia had to wage in parallel with the heiress of the Golden Horde - the Great Horde and which only Ivan IV the Terrible managed to complete. The first trip of the Kazan Tatars to Moscow took place already in 1439. Moscow was burned, but the Kremlin was not taken. The second campaign of the Kazan people (1444-1445) led to the catastrophic defeat of the Russian troops, the capture of the Moscow prince Vasily II the Dark, humiliating peace and ultimately the blinding of Vasily II. Further, the raids of the Kazan Tatars to Russia and the Russian retaliatory actions (1461, 1467-1469, 1478) are not indicated in the table, but they should be borne in mind (see "Kazan Khanate");
1451 - Campaign of Makhmut, son of Kichi-Muhammad, to Moscow. He burned down the townships, but the Kremlin did not take it.
1462 - Ivan III stopped issuing Russian coins with the name of the Horde Khan. Ivan III's statement about the rejection of the khan's label for the great reign.
1468 - Campaign of Khan Akhmat to Ryazan
1471 - Hike of the Horde to the Moscow borders in the Zaoksky strip
1472 - The Horde army approached the city of Aleksin, but did not cross the Oka. The Russian army set out for Kolomna. There was no clash between the two forces. Both sides feared that the outcome of the battle would not be in their favor. Caution in conflicts with the Horde is a characteristic feature of the policies of Ivan III. He didn't want to risk it.
1474 - Khan Akhmat again approaches the Zaok region, on the border with the Moscow Grand Duchy. A peace, or, more precisely, an armistice, is concluded on the terms of payment by the Moscow prince of an indemnity of 140 thousand altyns in two terms: in the spring - 80 thousand, in the fall - 60 thousand. Ivan III again avoids a military clash.
1480 Great standing on the river Ugra - Akhmat demands that Ivan III pay tribute for 7 years, during which Moscow stopped paying it. Goes on a campaign to Moscow. Ivan III sets out with an army to meet the khan.

We end the history of Russian-Horde relations formally in 1481 as the date of death of the last khan of the Horde - Akhmat, who was killed a year after the Great Standing on the Ugra, since the Horde really ceased to exist as a state organism and administration, and even as a certain territory to which jurisdiction and real the power of this once unified administration.
Formally and in fact, on the former territory of the Golden Horde, new Tatar states were formed, much smaller in size, but controlled and relatively consolidated. Of course, the practically disappearance of a huge empire could not happen overnight and it could not "evaporate" completely without a trace.
People, peoples, the population of the Horde continued to live their former life and, sensing that catastrophic changes had taken place, nevertheless did not realize them as a complete collapse, as an absolute disappearance from the face of the earth of their former state.
In fact, the process of the collapse of the Horde, especially at the lowest social level, continued for another three to four decades during the first quarter of the 16th century.
But the international consequences of the disintegration and disappearance of the Horde, on the contrary, showed themselves quite quickly and quite clearly, distinctly. The liquidation of the gigantic empire that controlled and influenced events from Siberia to Balakan and from Egypt to the Middle Urals for two and a half centuries, led to a complete change in the international situation not only in this space, but also radically changed the general international position of the Russian state and its military-political plans and actions in relations with the East as a whole.
Moscow was able to quickly, within one decade, radically restructure the strategy and tactics of its eastern foreign policy.
The statement seems to me too categorical: it should be borne in mind that the process of crushing the Golden Horde was not an instantaneous act, but took place throughout the 15th century. The policy of the Russian state also changed accordingly. An example is the relationship between Moscow and the Kazan Khanate, which separated from the Horde in 1438 and tried to pursue the same policy. After two successful campaigns to Moscow (1439, 1444-1445) Kazan began to experience more and more stubborn and powerful pressure from the Russian state, which was formally still in vassal dependence on the Great Horde (in the period under review, these were the campaigns of 1461, 1467-1469, 1478. ).
First, an active, offensive line was chosen against both the rudiments and the quite viable heirs of the Horde. The Russian tsars decided not to let them come to their senses, to finish off the already half-defeated enemy, and not at all to rest on the laurels of the victors.
Secondly, inciting one Tatar grouping against another was used as a new tactical technique that gives the most useful military-political effect. Significant Tatar formations began to be included in the Russian armed forces to deliver joint attacks on other Tatar military formations, and primarily on the remnants of the Horde.
So, in 1485, 1487 and 1491. Ivan III sent military detachments to strike at the troops of the Great Horde, who were attacking Moscow's ally at that time - the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey.
Particularly indicative in the military-political sense was the so-called. spring campaign in 1491 in the "Wild Field" in converging directions.

1491 Hike to the "Wild Field" - 1. The Horde khans Seid-Akhmet and Shig-Akhmet in May 1491 laid siege to Crimea. Ivan III dispatched a huge army of 60 thousand people to help his ally Mengli-Girey. under the leadership of the following military leaders:
a) Prince Peter Nikitich Obolensky;
b) Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Repni-Obolensky;
c) Kasimov prince Satilgan Merdzhulatovich.
2. These independent detachments went to the Crimea so that they had to approach from three sides in converging directions to the rear of the Horde troops in order to pinch them in pincers, while the troops of Mengli-Girey would attack them from the front.
3. In addition, on June 3 and 8, 1491, the Allies were mobilized to strike from the flanks. These were again both Russian and Tatar troops:
a) Kazan Khan Mohammed-Emin and his governors Abash-Ulan and Burash-Seid;
b) Brothers of Ivan III, appanage princes Andrei Vasilievich Bolshoi and Boris Vasilievich with their detachments.

Another new tactical technique introduced since the 90s of the 15th century. Ivan III in his military policy regarding the Tatar attacks is a systematic organization of the pursuit of the Tatar raids that have invaded Russia, which has never been done before.

1492 - The chase of the troops of two governors - Fyodor Koltovsky and Goryain Sidorov - and their battle with the Tatars in the interfluve of Bystraya Sosna and Trudy;
1499 - The chase after the Tatars' raid on Kozelsk, which recaptured from the enemy all the "full" and cattle that he had taken away;
1500 (summer) - Army of Khan Shig-Ahmed (Big Horde) of 20 thousand people. got up at the mouth of the Tikhaya Sosna River, but did not dare to go further towards the Moscow border;
1500 (autumn) - A new campaign by an even more numerous army of Shig-Ahmed, but further from the Zaokskaya side, i.e. the territory of the north of the Oryol region, it did not dare to go;
1501 - On August 30, the 20-thousandth army of the Great Horde began the devastation of the Kursk land, approaching Rylsk, and by November it reached the Bryansk and Novgorod-Seversky lands. The Tatars captured the city of Novgorod-Seversky, but further, to the Moscow lands, and this army of the Great Horde did not go.

In 1501, a coalition of Lithuania, Livonia and the Great Horde was formed, directed against the alliance of Moscow, Kazan and Crimea. This campaign was part of the war between Muscovy Rus and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for the Verkhovsk principalities (1500-1503). It is wrong to talk about the seizure of the Novgorod-Seversky lands by the Tatars, which were part of their ally - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and were captured by Moscow in 1500. By the armistice of 1503, almost all of these lands were transferred to Moscow.
1502 Liquidation of the Great Horde - The Army of the Great Horde was left to spend the winter at the mouth of the Seim River and near Belgorod. Ivan III then agreed with Mengli-Girey that he would send his troops to drive out the troops of Shig-Akhmed from this territory. Mengli-Girey fulfilled this request by inflicting a strong blow on the Great Horde in February 1502.
In May 1502 Mengli-Girey inflicted a second defeat on the troops of Shig-Akhmed at the mouth of the Sula River, where they migrated to spring pastures. This battle actually put an end to the remnants of the Great Horde.

So Ivan III made short work at the beginning of the 16th century. with the Tatar states by the hands of the Tatars themselves.
Thus, from the beginning of the XVI century. the last remnants of the Golden Horde have disappeared from the historical arena. And the point was not only that this completely removed from the Moscow state any threat of invasion from the East, seriously strengthened its security, - the main, significant result was a sharp change in the formal and actual international legal position of the Russian state, which manifested itself in a change in its international - legal relations with the Tatar states - "heirs" of the Golden Horde.
This was the main historical meaning, the main historical meaning liberation of Russia from the Horde dependence.
For the Muscovite state, vassal relations ceased, it became a sovereign state, a subject of international relations. This completely changed his position both among the Russian lands and in Europe as a whole.
Until then, for 250 years, the Grand Duke received labels only unilaterally from the Horde khans, i.e. permission to own his own fiefdom (principality), or, in other words, the consent of the khan to continue trusting his tenant and vassal, to the fact that he will not be temporarily moved from this post, if he fulfills a number of conditions: pay tribute, conduct a loyal khan politics, send "gifts", participate, if necessary, in military activities of the Horde.
With the collapse of the Horde and with the emergence of new khanates on its ruins - Kazan, Astrakhan, Crimean, Siberian - a completely new situation arose: the institution of vassal subordination of Russia disappeared and ceased. This was expressed in the fact that all relations with the new Tatar states began to take place on a bilateral basis. Began the conclusion of bilateral treaties on political issues, at the end of wars and at the conclusion of peace. And this was the main and important change.
Outwardly, especially in the first decades, there were no noticeable changes in relations between Russia and the khanates:
The Moscow princes continued to occasionally pay tribute to the Tatar khans, continued to send them gifts, and the khans of the new Tatar states, in turn, continued to preserve the old forms of relations with the Grand Duchy of Moscow, i.e. sometimes they organized, like the Horde, campaigns against Moscow right up to the walls of the Kremlin, resorted to devastating raids after the polonyanniki, stole cattle and plundered the property of the Grand Duke's subjects, demanded that he pay an indemnity, etc. etc.
But after the end of hostilities, the parties began to summarize the legal results - i.e. record their victories and defeats in bilateral documents, conclude peace or truce agreements, sign written commitments. And it was this that significantly changed their true relationship, led to the fact that, in fact, the entire relationship of the forces of both sides changed significantly.
That is why it became possible for the Muscovite state to purposefully work to change this balance of forces in its favor and to eventually achieve the weakening and liquidation of the new khanates that arose on the ruins of the Golden Horde, not within two and a half centuries, but much faster - in less than 75 years old, in the second half of the 16th century.

"From Ancient Rus to the Russian Empire". Shishkin Sergey Petrovich, Ufa.
VVPokhlebkin "Tatars and Russia. 360 years of relations in 1238-1598." (M. "International Relations" 2000).
Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary. Publishing house 4th, M. 1987.