The Golden Horde is ... The liberation of Russia from the Golden Horde

In the middle of the XIII century, Rus was subjected to one of the most difficult tests for the history of its existence - the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars. The Golden Horde is a state formation created by the Mongol-Tatars, whose goal was the exploitation of the conquered peoples. But not all peoples submissively resigned themselves to a heavy yoke. The liberation of Russia from the Golden Horde will be the subject of our study.

The first meeting

The founder of the Mongol Empire was Genghis Khan. The great Mongolian managed to unite the scattered Tatar tribes into a single mighty power. Literally in a couple of decades, his state grew from a small ulus to the size of the world's largest empire. He conquered China, the state of Tangut, Khorezm and smaller tribes and peoples. The history of Genghis Khan was a series of wars and conquests, brilliant victories and great triumphs.

In 1223 the commanders of the great Khan of Subudai-bagatur and Dzheb-Noyon defeated the Russian-Polovtsian army as part of the reconnaissance battle in the Black Sea steppes on the bank of the Kalka River . But since this time the conquest of Russia was not included in the plans of the Mughals, they turned home. A large-scale campaign was planned for the next year. But the Conqueror of the Universe died suddenly, leaving the greatest empire in the world to heirs. Indeed, Genghis Khan is a great Mongol.

The campaign of Batu

Years have passed. The history of Genghis Khan, his great exploits inspired descendants. One of his grandsons was Batu Khan (Baty). It was a great warrior to match his glorious grandfather. Batu belonged to Ulus Juchi, named after his father's name, and it was he who was bequeathed by a great western expedition, which was never accomplished by Genghis Khan.

In 1235, a general Mongolian kurultai was convened in Karakorum, where it was decided to organize a grand march to the west. Jihangir, or chief commander, as expected, was elected Baty.

The Mongolian army in 1238-1240 by fire and sword passed through the lands of Russia. Specific princes, between whom there were constant strife, could not unite in a single force to rebuff the conquerors. Conquering Russia, the hordes of the Mongols rushed to central Europe, burning the villages and cities of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria on their way.

Formation of the Golden Horde

After Batu's death, the ulus Djuchi passed into the hands of his younger brother Berke. It was he who, by and large, was the real creator of the Golden Horde as a state. He laid the city of Saray, which became the capital of this nomadic empire. From here he ruled the state, went on campaigns against rebellious tribes, collected tribute.

The Golden Horde is a multinational state, with a developed apparatus of oppression, consisting of many tribes and peoples, united by the strength of Mongolian weapons.

Mongol-Tatar yoke

The lands of the Golden Horde stretched from the steppes of modern Kazakhstan to Bulgaria, but Rus did not enter directly into its composition. The Russian lands were considered vassal principalities and tributaries of the Horde power.

Among the many Russian princes there was one, whom the khans of the Golden Horde appointed great, handing him the label. This meant that this particular prince should be subordinated to petty rulers. Beginning with Ivan Kalita, the Grand Duchy was almost always in the hands of the Moscow princes.

Initially, the Mongols themselves collected tribute from the conquered Russian lands. He was in charge of the tax collection of the so-called Baskak, who was considered the head of the Mongolian administration in Russia. He had his own army, through which he asserted the power of the Golden Horde on the conquered lands. Baskak had to obey all the princes, including the great ones.

It was the times of Basque culture that were the heaviest for Russia. After all, the Mongols took not only a heavy tribute, they trampled on the hoofs of their horses the Russian land, and the rebels were killed or taken in full.

The End of Basking

But the Russians did not even think of tolerating the arbitrariness of the Mongol governors. They raised one uprising after another. The largest uprising occurred in 1327 in Tver, during which the brother of Khan Uzbek Chol Khan was killed. The Golden Horde did not forget this, and next year a punitive expedition against the Tverites was sent. Tver was plundered, but the positive moment is that, seeing the disobedience of the Russian people, the Mongolian administration was forced to abandon the institution of Basque culture. From this moment tribute to the khan was not collected by the Mongols, but by the Grand Dukes. Therefore, it is from this date that the beginning of such a process as the liberation of Rus from the power of the Golden Horde should be counted.

Great jam

Time passed, and now the khans of the Golden Horde themselves bickered each other. This period in history was called the Great Zamyatnia. In this period of time, which began in 1359, over 20 years, more than 25 khans were replaced. And some of them ruled just a few days.

This fact influenced the further weakening of the yoke. The successive khans simply had to give a label to the strongest prince, who, in gratitude for this, continued to pay tribute, although not so much as before. The strongest, as before, was the Moscow prince.

The Battle of Kulikovo

Meanwhile, the power in the Golden Horde was usurped by the Mamai temnik, who was not Genghiside by blood. The Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich considered this fact an excuse to finally throw off the Tatar yoke. He refused to pay tribute, arguing that Mamai is not a legitimate khan, but he rules the Horde through his proteges.

The enraged Mamai began to gather troops for a campaign against the disobedient prince. In his army included, in addition to the Tatars themselves, even the Crimean Genoese. In addition, the Lithuanian Prince Jagiello promised to provide assistance.

Dmitry also did not lose time and, knowing that Mamai would not forgive his refusal, he collected his own army. He was joined by the Suzdal and Smolensk princes, but Ryazan prefers to sit out cowardly.

The decisive battle took place in 1380 on the Kulikovo field. Before the battle, a significant event occurred. According to the old tradition, the heroes of the opposing sides came to the field in a duel. From the Tatars came out a well-known warrior Chelubei, the Russian army represented Peresvet. The duel did not reveal the winner, as the bogatyrs simultaneously pierced each other's hearts.

Soon the battle began. The cup of the weights sloped down one or the other side, but nevertheless, as a result, Prince Dmitry won a brilliant victory, completely crushing the army Mamaia. In honor of this triumph, he was nicknamed Don.

Revenge of Tokhtamysh

At that time Khan Tokhtamysh, who was the hereditary Genghisid, was considerably strengthened in the eastern steppes with the help of the great Khromtsa Timur. He was able to gather a large enough army to finally surrender to the entire Golden Horde. The age of the Great Mystery was over.

Tokhtamish sent a message to Dmitry that he was grateful to him for the victory over the usurper Mamai and was waiting for tribute from Russia as the legitimate Khan of the Golden Horde. Of course, the Moscow prince, who had such a hard time winning the Kulikovo field, did not like this situation at all. He refused to demand the tribute.

Now Tokhtamysh gathered a huge army and moved him to Russia. Weakened after the Kulikovo battle, the Russian lands could not oppose this army. Dmitry Donskoy was forced to flee Moscow. Tokhtamish began the siege of the city and deceived him. Dmitry had no choice but to agree again on the payment of the tribute. Exemption from the Golden Horde had to be postponed indefinitely, despite a grand victory in the Kulikovo field.

Soon Tokhtamysh was proud of his victories to such an extent that he dared to go to war with his benefactor Timur. The Great Chromec broke the brazen Khan, but this fact did not absolve the Russian lands from paying tribute, since another competitor of the Golden Horde throne came to the place of Tokhtamysh.

The weakening of the Horde

The Moscow princes failed to completely throw off the Tatar yoke, but it invariably weakened as the Horde itself lost power. Of course, there were still hard times for Russia, for example, the siege of Moscow by the Tatar emir Edigey. But it often happened that the Russian princes could not pay tribute for several years, and the Khans of the Golden Horde did not have time and energy to demand it.

The Golden Horde began to fall apart before our eyes. From her pieces fell Crimean, Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian Khanate. The Golden Horde was no longer a mighty state that terrified many nations with the help of its huge army, collecting an exorbitant tribute from them. By and large, by that time it had ceased to exist, so the remnants of this once great power in modern historiography are usually called the Great Horde. The power of this education over Rus, united even then by the Moscow principality, was reduced to fiction.

Standing on the Ugra

The final liberation of Rus from the Golden Horde is usually associated with the so-called Standing on the Ugra, which occurred in 1480.

By the time of this event, Russia, united by a dynasty of Moscow princes, has become one of the most powerful states of Eastern Europe. Prince Ivan III recently annexed to his lands the recalcitrant Novgorod, and now solely ruled over all the controlled territory. In fact, he had long been a completely independent ruler, in no way inferior to European kings, but nominally remained a vassal of the Great Horde.

However, Ivan III in 1472 completely stopped the payment of the Horde exit. And after eight years, Khan Akhmat felt the strength in himself, in his opinion, to restore justice and force the disobedient prince to pay tribute.

Russian and Tatar troops came out to meet each other. They came to the opposite banks of the Ugra River, which ran straight along the border of the Horde and Rus. None of the opponents was in a hurry to cross, as he understood that the side that would risk doing this would be in a more disadvantageous situation in the upcoming battle.

After standing for more than a month, the Russian and Horde armies finally decided to disperse, never having engaged in a decisive battle.

This was the last attempt of the Horde to force Rus to pay tribute again, that's why the year 1480 is considered the date of the overthrow of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.

Conquest of the Remnants of the Horde

But this was not the last page of Russian-Tatar interstate relations.

Soon the Crimean Khan Mengli-Giray defeated the remnants of the Great Horde, after which it completely ceased to exist. But in addition to the Crimean Khanate, Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian were the heirs of the Golden Horde. Now, Russia began to treat them as subordinate territories, putting their proteges on the throne.

However, Ivan IV the Terrible, who by that time had accepted the title of tsar, decided not to play the vassal khanates anymore and, as a result of several successful campaigns, finally annexed these lands to the Russian kingdom.

The only independent heir of the Golden Horde was the Crimean Khanate. However, soon it was to recognize the vassalage from Ottoman sultans. But the Russian Empire managed to conquer the Crimea only under Empress Catherine II, who in 1783 removed the power of the last Khan Shagin-Giray.

So the remnants of the Horde were conquered by Russia, which once tolerated yoke from the Mongol-Tatars.

Results of confrontation

Thus, Russia, despite the fact that for several centuries it was forced to endure the exhausting Mongol-Tatar yoke, found the strength through the wise policy of the Moscow princes to throw off the hateful yoke. Later she herself went on the offensive and swallowed up all the remnants of the once mighty Golden Horde.

The decisive point was set in the 18th century, when the Crimean Khanate withdrew to Russia under a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire.