Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'

The Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus refers to the invasion of the Mongol Empire initiated by the army under the command of Subotai, who at the Battle of the Kalka River in 1223 faced the forces of several princes of Kievan Rus. Fifteen years later, Batu Khan carried out a full-scale invasion between 1237 and 1240. The occupation precipitated the fragmentation of Kievan Rus' and influenced the development of the later history of the East Slavic states, including the rise of the Principality of Moscow.

It is estimated that the population of Kievan Rus' fell by 500,000 inhabitants, from 7.5 million in 1200.

Context

In the course of its decline, Kievan Rus faced the unforeseen emergence of a powerful foreign enemy from the Far East.

Because of our sins, unknown nations came. No one knows their origin or where they come from, or what religion they practice. God only knows, and perhaps wise men who learned from books

The East Slavic princes first heard of Mongol warriors from the Cuman nomads, who were in the habit of plundering Russian settlers on the borders, but who now preferred to befriend them. They said: "These terrible foreigners have taken our country, and tomorrow they will take yours if you don't come and help us." In response to this call, Mstislav Mstislavich the Brave and Mstislav Romanovich the Elder created an alliance and went east to combat the adversary, but were soundly defeated at the Battle of the Kalka River (1223), a defeat that has remained in memory ever since. of the Russian people.

Now the country was at the mercy of the invaders, but instead of advancing they retreated inexplicably and did not reappear for fifteen years, during which the princes resumed their customary infighting, until they were surprised again by a much larger invasion. more formidable than the previous one.

Batú Kan

The Mongol hordes, numbering around 35,000 horse archers under Batú Khan and Subotai, crossed the Volga River and invaded Volga Bulgaria in the autumn of 1236. It took them a year to extinguish Bulgarian resistance. of Volga, Cumans and Alans.

In November 1237, Batu Khan sent his ambassadors to the court of Yuri II of Vladimir to demand his submission. A month later, the Mongols besieged Ryazan, which after six days of battle was completely annihilated, and was never rebuilt. Alarmed by the news, Yuri II sent his sons to stop the invaders, but they were defeated. Razed Kolomna and Moscow, the horde laid siege to Vladimir on February 4, 1238. Three days later, the capital of the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal was taken and burned. Crossing the Volga, the prince gathered a new army that was completely exterminated by the Mongols in the Battle of the River Sit on March 4, 1238.

Batu Khan divided his army into smaller units, which attacked fourteen cities of Kievan Rus'; The most difficult to take was the small town of Kozelsk, where a boy, Prince Vasili, son of Titus, held out for seven weeks, killing 4,000 Mongols. The only cities that escaped destruction were Novgorod and Pskov. Refugees from southern Rus fled northeast to the forested region between the Volga and the Oka.

In the summer of 1238, Batoo Khan devastated the Crimea and "pacified" Mordovia. In the winter of 1239, he sacked Chernigov and Pereslavl-Zalessky. After many days of siege, he took Kiev in December 1240. Despite fierce resistance from Prince Daniel of Galicia, Batu Khan conquered two of his cities, Halych and Volodymyr-Volinsky before invading Hungary and Poland.

The Tatar Age

The invaders decided to remain, and built a capital, called Sarai, next to the Volga River. They called the conquered territories the Golden Horde, as the western section of the Mongol Empire, under the majesty of the Khan who lived with the Great Horde in the Orkhon River valley of the Amur River. They had their headquarters in Sarai and from there they subjugated Muscovy for almost three centuries.

The term by which this era is commonly known, "Mongol yoke" or "Tatar yoke", introduced by Nikolai Karamzin, suggests the existence of great oppression, but in reality these nomadic invaders of Mongolia were not cruel or oppressive. excessively: they never settled in the country and had little direct contact with its inhabitants. In accordance with Genghis Khan's warnings to his children and grandchildren, they preserved their nomadic way of life, so that they did not disturb the city dwellers in their daily lives.

In religious matters they were extremely tolerant. When they appeared in Europe they were shamanists, and as such they did not have any religious fanaticism. After adopting Islam they remained as tolerant as before, and the khan of the Golden Horde allowed the Russians to maintain a Christian patriarch in their capital. Nogai Khan, half a century later, married the daughter of the Byzantine emperor and gave his own daughter to a Russian prince, Theodore the Black. Modern historians (the best known being Lev Gumilyov, son of Anna Akhmatova) assure even there that it was not a forced invasion: according to them, the Russian princes concluded a defensive alliance with the Horde to repel the attacks of the fanatical Teutonic knights, who posed a much greater threat to Russian religion and culture.

This is the bright side of Mongol rule. Its dark side was in the invasions that occurred every time the nomads camped on the border. Although these invasions were infrequent, when they did occur they caused an untold amount of devastation and suffering. In the intervals the people had to pay a fixed tribute, which at first was collected by Tatar collectors at random, but which in 1259 was regulated by a population census, and finally its collection was entrusted to the native princes, so that people had no direct contact with Mongolian officials.

Influence

The influence of the Mongol invasion on the territories of Kievan Rus' was uneven: centers such as kyiv never recovered from the devastation of the initial attack; Instead, the Novgorod Republic managed to thrive, and other new entities, the principalities around the cities of Moscow and Tver, began to prosper under the Mongols. Although the forces of the principalities defeated the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, Mongol rule of part of the Kiev territories, with forced payment of tribute, continued until the great battle of the Ugra River in 1480.

A significant number of Russian historians consider Kiev's oppression as the main cause of what is sometimes called "the East-West leap": approximately 200 years of delay in introducing social, political and economic reforms. important economic and scientific innovations in Russia compared to Western Europe. Some claim that the yoke had a severe destructive influence on the system of unwritten laws that regulated the daily life of society; for example, Valeriya Novodvorskaya mentions that the death penalty, long-term imprisonment, and torture had not existed in kyiv before the Mongols invaded the country. Furthermore, half of the population died during the invasion.

Historians have discussed the long-term influence of the Mongol regime on Kievan Rus' society. They have blamed the Mongols for the destruction of Kievan Rus', its disintegration into three components, and the introduction of Eastern despotism into Russia. But some historians agree that the country was not a homogeneous political, cultural, or ethnic entity and that the Mongols simply accelerated the fragmentation that had begun before the invasion. Historians also credit the Mongol regime with an important role in the emergence and development of the Moscow Principality as a state. Under Mongol occupation, for example, Muscovy developed its postal network, census, tax system, and military organization.

Certainly, the claim that without the Mongol destruction of Kiev, Moscow, the Russian Tsardom, and later the Russian Empire would not have prospered can be (and often is) disputed. Trade routes to the East, such as the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks, came through the lands of kyiv, making it a center for trade between both worlds. Mongol influence, although extremely destructive to their enemies, had a significant long-term effect on the rise of modern Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Successors of the Golden Horde

The Mongols were succeeded by the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, Crimea and Siberia, as well as the Nogai Horde, all of which were eventually conquered by the Russian Empire.

Military campaigns of Mongols and Tatars