How long did the Tatar yoke last in Russia? Tatar-Mongol yoke: aggressive campaigns

In the late autumn of 1480, the Great Standing on the Ugra ended. It is believed that after that in Russia there was no Mongol-Tatar yoke.

INSULT

The conflict between the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III and the Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat arose, according to one version, due to non-payment of tribute. But a number of historians believe that Akhmat received tribute, but went to Moscow because he did not wait for the personal presence of Ivan III, who was supposed to receive a label for a great reign. Thus, the prince did not recognize the authority and power of the khan.

Akhmat should have been especially offended by the fact that when he sent ambassadors to Moscow to ask for tribute and dues for past years, the Grand Duke again did not show due respect. The Kazan History even says: “The Grand Duke was not afraid ... taking the basma, he spat, broke it, threw it to the ground and trampled it with his feet.” Of course, such behavior of the Grand Duke is hard to imagine, but the refusal to recognize the power of Akhmat followed.

Khan's pride is also confirmed in another episode. In the Ugorshchina, Akhmat, who was not in the best strategic position, demanded that Ivan III himself come to the Horde headquarters and stand at the stirrup of the lord, waiting for a decision.

WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION

But Ivan Vasilyevich was concerned about his own family. The people did not like his wife. Having panicked, the prince first of all saves his wife: “Ioann sent the Grand Duchess Sophia (a Roman, as the chroniclers say), together with the treasury, to Beloozero, giving the order to go further to the sea and ocean if the khan crosses the Oka,” wrote historian Sergey Solovyov. However, the people did not rejoice at her return from Beloozero: “Grand Duchess Sophia ran from the Tatars to Beloozero, and no one drove her.”

The brothers, Andrei Galitsky and Boris Volotsky, revolted, demanding to share the inheritance of their deceased brother, Prince Yuri. Only when this conflict was settled, not without the help of his mother, Ivan III could continue the fight against the Horde. In general, "women's participation" in standing on the Ugra is great. According to Tatishchev, it was Sophia who persuaded Ivan III to make a historic decision. The victory in Standing is also attributed to the intercession of the Virgin.

By the way, the size of the required tribute was relatively low - 140,000 altyns. Khan Tokhtamysh collected about 20 times more from the Vladimir principality a century before.

They did not save even when planning defense. Ivan Vasilyevich gave the order to burn the settlements. Residents were moved inside the fortress walls.

There is a version that the prince simply paid off the khan after the Standing: he paid one part of the money on the Ugra, the second - after the retreat. Beyond the Oka, Andrey Menshoi, Ivan III's brother, did not attack the Tatars, but gave the "way out".

indecisiveness

The Grand Duke refused to take action. Subsequently, posterity approved of his defensive stance. But some contemporaries had a different opinion.

At the news of Akhmat's approach, he panicked. The people, according to the chronicle, accused the prince of endangering everyone with his indecision. Fearing assassination attempts, Ivan left for Krasnoye Selo. His heir, Ivan Molodoy, was at that time with the army, ignoring the requests and letters of his father demanding to leave the army.

The Grand Duke nevertheless left in the direction of the Ugra in early October, but did not reach the main forces. In the city of Kremenets, he waited for the brothers who had reconciled with him. And at this time there were battles on the Ugra.

WHY DID THE POLISH KING NOT HELP?

Akhmat Khan's main ally, the great Lithuanian prince and Polish king Casimir IV, never came to the rescue. The question arises: why?

Some write that the king was preoccupied with the attack of the Crimean Khan Mepgli Giray. Others point to internal strife in the Lithuanian land - "a conspiracy of princes." "Russian elements", dissatisfied with the king, sought support from Moscow, wanted to reunite with the Russian principalities. There is also an opinion that the king himself did not want conflicts with Russia. The Crimean Khan was not afraid of him: the ambassador had been negotiating in Lithuania since mid-October.

And the freezing Khan Akhmat, having waited for the frosts, and not for reinforcements, wrote to Ivan III: “And now if it’s gone from the shore, because I have people without clothes, and horses without blankets. And the heart of winter will pass for ninety days, and I will again attack you, and I have muddy water to drink.

Proud, but careless, Akhmat returned to the steppe with booty, ruining the lands of his former ally, and stayed for the winter at the mouth of the Donets. There, the Siberian Khan Ivak, three months after the "Ugorshchina", personally killed the enemy in a dream. An ambassador was sent to Moscow to announce the death of the last ruler of the Great Horde. Historian Sergei Solovyov writes about it this way: “The last formidable Khan of the Golden Horde for Moscow died from one of the descendants of Genghis Khanov; he had sons who were also destined to die from Tatar weapons.

Probably, the descendants still remained: Anna Gorenko considered Akhmat her maternal ancestor and, becoming a poetess, took a pseudonym - Akhmatova.

DISPUTES ABOUT PLACE AND TIME

Historians argue about where the Standing was on the Ugra. They also name the area under the Opakovy settlement, and the village of Gorodets, and the confluence of the Ugra with the Oka. “A land road from Vyazma stretched to the mouth of the Ugra along its right, “Lithuanian” bank, along which Lithuanian help was expected and which the Horde could use for maneuvers. Even in the middle of the XIX century. The Russian General Staff recommended this road for the movement of troops from Vyazma to Kaluga,” writes historian Vadim Kargalov.

The exact date of the arrival of Akhamat to the Ugra is not known either. Books and chronicles agree on one thing: it happened no earlier than the beginning of October. The Vladimir chronicle, for example, is accurate up to the hour: “I came to the Ugra on October 8, a week, at 1 o’clock in the afternoon.” In the Vologda-Perm chronicle it is written: “the tsar went away from the Ugra on Thursday, the eve of Mikhailov’s days” (November 7).

3 The emergence and development of the Old Russian state (IX - early XII century). The emergence of the Old Russian state is traditionally associated with the unification of the Ilmen and Dnieper regions as a result of a campaign against Kyiv by the Novgorod prince Oleg in 882. Having killed Askold and Dir, who reigned in Kyiv, Oleg began to rule on behalf of the young son of Prince Rurik, Igor. The formation of the state was the result of long and complex processes that took place in the vast expanses of the East European Plain in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. By the 7th century Eastern Slavic tribal unions settled in its expanses, the names and location of which are known to historians from the ancient Russian chronicle of the “Tale of Bygone Years” by St. Nestor (XI century). These are the meadows (along the western bank of the Dnieper), the Drevlyans (to the north-west of them), the Ilmen Slovenes (along the banks of Lake Ilmen and the Volkhov River), the Krivichi (in the upper reaches of the Dnieper, the Volga and the Western Dvina), the Vyatichi (along the banks of the Oka), northerners (along the Desna), etc. The Finns were the northern neighbors of the eastern Slavs, the Balts were the western ones, and the Khazars were the southeastern ones. Of great importance in their early history were trade routes, one of which connected Scandinavia and Byzantium (the path "from the Varangians to the Greeks" from the Gulf of Finland along the Neva, Lake Ladoga, Volkhov, Lake Ilmen to the Dnieper and the Black Sea), and the other connected the Volga regions with the Caspian Sea and Persia. Nestor cites a famous story about the calling of the Varangian (Scandinavian) princes Rurik, Sineus and Truvor by the Ilmen Slovenes: “Our land is great and plentiful, but there is no order in it: go reign and rule over us.” Rurik accepted the offer and in 862 he reigned in Novgorod (that is why the monument "Millennium of Russia" was erected in Novgorod in 1862). Many historians of the XVIII-XIX centuries. were inclined to understand these events as evidence that statehood was brought to Russia from outside and the Eastern Slavs could not create their own state on their own (Norman theory). Modern researchers recognize this theory as untenable. They pay attention to the following: - Nestor's story proves that among the Eastern Slavs by the middle of the 9th century. there were bodies that were the prototype of state institutions (the prince, the squad, the assembly of representatives of the tribes - the future veche); - The Varangian origin of Rurik, as well as Oleg, Igor, Olga, Askold, Dir is indisputable, but the invitation of a foreigner as a ruler is an important indicator of the maturity of the prerequisites for the formation of a state. The tribal union is aware of its common interests and is trying to resolve the contradictions between individual tribes by calling the prince who stands above local differences. The Varangian princes, surrounded by a strong and combat-ready squad, led and completed the processes leading to the formation of the state; - large tribal superunions, which included several unions of tribes, were formed among the Eastern Slavs already in the 8th-9th centuries. - around Novgorod and around Kyiv; - external factors played an important role in the formation of the Ancient T. state: threats coming from outside (Scandinavia, the Khazar Khaganate) pushed for unity; - the Varangians, having given Russia a ruling dynasty, quickly assimilated, merged with the local Slavic population; - As for the name "Rus", its origin continues to cause controversy. Some historians associate it with Scandinavia, others find its roots in the East Slavic environment (from the Ros tribe, who lived along the Dnieper). There are other opinions on this matter as well. At the end of the 9th - beginning of the 11th century. The Old Russian state was going through a period of formation. The formation of its territory and composition was actively going on. Oleg (882-912) subjugated the tribes of the Drevlyans, Northerners and Radimichi to Kyiv, Igor (912-945) successfully fought with the streets, Svyatoslav (964-972) - with the Vyatichi. During the reign of Prince Vladimir (980-1015), Volynians and Croats were subordinated, power over the Radimichi and Vyatichi was confirmed. In addition to the East Slavic tribes, the Finno-Ugric peoples (Chud, Merya, Muroma, etc.) were part of the Old Russian state. The degree of independence of the tribes from the Kyiv princes was quite high. For a long time, only the payment of tribute was an indicator of submission to the authorities of Kyiv. Until 945, it was carried out in the form of polyudya: from November to April, the prince and his squad traveled around the subject territories and collected tribute. The murder in 945 by the Drevlyans of Prince Igor, who tried to collect a second tribute that exceeded the traditional level, forced his wife, Princess Olga, to introduce lessons (the amount of tribute) and establish graveyards (places where tribute was to be brought). This was the first example known to historians of how the princely government approves new norms that are obligatory for ancient Russian society. Important functions of the Old Russian state, which it began to perform from the moment of its inception, were also protecting the territory from military raids (in the 9th - early 11th centuries, these were mainly raids by the Khazars and Pechenegs) and conducting an active foreign policy (campaigns against Byzantium in 907, 911, 944, 970, Russian-Byzantine treaties of 911 and 944, the defeat of the Khazar Khaganate in 964-965, etc.). The period of formation of the Old Russian state ended with the reign of Prince Vladimir I of the Holy, or Vladimir the Red Sun. Under him, Christianity was adopted from Byzantium (see ticket No. 3), a system of defensive fortresses was created on the southern borders of Russia, and the so-called ladder system of transfer of power finally took shape. The order of succession was determined by the principle of seniority in the princely family. Vladimir, having taken the throne of Kyiv, planted his eldest sons in the largest Russian cities. The most important after Kyiv - Novgorod - the reign was transferred to his eldest son. In the event of the death of the eldest son, his place was to be taken by the next in seniority, all other princes moved to more important thrones. During the life of the Kyiv prince, this system worked flawlessly. After his death, as a rule, there was a more or less long period of struggle of his sons for the reign of Kiev. The heyday of the Old Russian state falls on the reign of Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054) and his sons. It includes the oldest part of Russian Truth - the first monument of written law that has come down to us ("Russian Law", information about which dates back to the reign of Oleg, was not preserved either in the original or in the lists). Russian Truth regulated relations in the princely economy - the patrimony. Its analysis allows historians to talk about the established system of state administration: the Kyiv prince, like the local princes, is surrounded by a retinue, the top of which is called the boyars and with whom he confers on the most important issues (a duma, a permanent council under the prince). Of the combatants, posadniks are appointed to manage cities, governors, tributaries (collectors of land taxes), mytniki (collectors of trade duties), tiuns (managers of princely estates), etc. Russkaya Pravda contains valuable information about ancient Russian society. Its basis was the free rural and urban population (people). There were slaves (servants, serfs), farmers dependent on the prince (zakupy, ryadovichi, serfs - historians do not have a single opinion about the situation of the latter). Yaroslav the Wise pursued an energetic dynastic policy, tying his sons and daughters in marriage with the ruling clans of Hungary, Poland, France, Germany, etc. Yaroslav died in 1054, before 1074. his sons managed to coordinate their actions. At the end of the XI - beginning of the XII century. the power of the Kyiv princes weakened, individual principalities gained more and more independence, the rulers of which tried to agree with each other on cooperation in the fight against the new - Polovtsian - threat. Tendencies towards the fragmentation of the unified state intensified as its individual regions grew rich and strengthened (for more details, see below). ticket number 2). The last Kyiv prince who managed to stop the collapse of the Old Russian state was Vladimir Monomakh (1113-1125). After the death of the prince and the death of his son Mstislav the Great (1125-1132), the fragmentation of Russia became a fait accompli.

4 Mongol-Tatar yoke briefly

Mongol-Tatar yoke - the period of the capture of Russia by the Mongol-Tatars in the 13-15 centuries. The Mongol-Tatar yoke lasted for 243 years.

The truth about the Mongol-Tatar yoke

The Russian princes at that time were in a state of enmity, so they could not give a fitting rebuff to the invaders. Despite the fact that the Cumans came to the rescue, the Tatar-Mongol army quickly seized the advantage.

The first direct clash between the troops took place on the river Kalka, May 31, 1223 and was quickly lost. Even then it became clear that our army would not be able to defeat the Tatar-Mongols, but the onslaught of the enemy was held back for quite a long time.

In the winter of 1237, a targeted invasion of the main troops of the Tatar-Mongols into the territory of Russia began. This time, the enemy army was commanded by the grandson of Genghis Khan - Batu. The army of nomads managed to move quickly enough inland, plundering the principalities in turn and killing everyone who tried to resist on their way.

The main dates of the capture of Russia by the Tatar-Mongols

1223. The Tatar-Mongols approached the border of Russia;

Winter 1237. The beginning of a targeted invasion of Russia;

1237. Ryazan and Kolomna were captured. Palo Ryazan principality;

Autumn 1239. Captured Chernigov. Palo Chernihiv Principality;

1240 year. Kyiv captured. The Kiev principality fell;

1241. Palo Galicia-Volyn principality;

1480. The overthrow of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.

Causes of the fall of Russia under the onslaught of the Mongol-Tatars

the absence of a unified organization in the ranks of Russian soldiers;

numerical superiority of the enemy;

the weakness of the command of the Russian army;

poorly organized mutual assistance from scattered princes;

underestimation of the strength and number of the enemy.

Features of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia

In Russia, the establishment of the Mongol-Tatar yoke with new laws and orders began.

Vladimir became the actual center of political life, it was from there that the Tatar-Mongol Khan exercised his control.

The essence of the management of the Tatar-Mongol yoke was that the Khan handed the label to reign at his own discretion and completely controlled all the territories of the country. This increased the enmity between the princes.

The feudal fragmentation of the territories was strongly encouraged, as it reduced the likelihood of a centralized rebellion.

Tribute was regularly levied from the population, the “Horde output”. The money was collected by special officials - Baskaks, who showed extreme cruelty and did not shy away from kidnappings and murders.

Consequences of the Mongol-Tatar conquest

The consequences of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia were terrible.

Many cities and villages were destroyed, people were killed;

Agriculture, handicrafts, and the arts declined;

Feudal fragmentation increased significantly;

Significantly reduced population;

Russia began to noticeably lag behind Europe in development.

The end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke

Complete liberation from the Mongol-Tatar yoke occurred only in 1480, when the Grand Duke Ivan III refused to pay money to the horde and declared the independence of Russia.

o (Mongol-Tatar, Tatar-Mongol, Horde) - the traditional name for the system of exploitation of Russian lands by nomadic conquerors who came from the East from 1237 to 1480.

This system was aimed at the implementation of mass terror and robbery of the Russian people by levying cruel requisitions. It acted primarily in the interests of the Mongol nomadic military-feudal nobility (noyons), in whose favor the lion's share of the collected tribute came.

The Mongol-Tatar yoke was established as a result of the invasion of Batu Khan in the 13th century. Until the early 1260s, Russia was ruled by the great Mongol khans, and then by the khans of the Golden Horde.

The Russian principalities were not directly part of the Mongol state and retained the local princely administration, the activities of which were controlled by the Baskaks - representatives of the khan in the conquered lands. The Russian princes were tributaries of the Mongol khans and received from them labels for the possession of their principalities. Formally, the Mongol-Tatar yoke was established in 1243, when Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich received a label from the Mongols for the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. Russia, according to the label, lost the right to fight and had to regularly pay tribute to the khans twice a year (in spring and autumn).

On the territory of Russia there was no permanent Mongol-Tatar army. The yoke was supported by punitive campaigns and repressions against recalcitrant princes. The regular flow of tribute from the Russian lands began after the census of 1257-1259, conducted by the Mongolian "numerals". The units of taxation were: in cities - the yard, in rural areas - "village", "plough", "plough". Only the clergy were exempt from tribute. The main "Horde hardships" were: "exit", or "Tsar's tribute" - a tax directly for the Mongol Khan; trading fees ("myt", "tamka"); transport duties ("pits", "carts"); the content of the khan's ambassadors ("fodder"); various "gifts" and "honors" to the khan, his relatives and associates. Every year, a huge amount of silver left the Russian lands in the form of tribute. Large "requests" for military and other needs were periodically collected. In addition, the Russian princes were obliged, by order of the khan, to send soldiers to participate in campaigns and in battue hunts (“catchers”). In the late 1250s and early 1260s, tribute from the Russian principalities was collected by Muslim merchants (“besermens”), who bought this right from the great Mongol khan. Most of the tribute went to the great khan in Mongolia. During the uprisings of 1262, the "besermen" from Russian cities were expelled, and the duty of collecting tribute passed to the local princes.

The struggle of Russia against the yoke was gaining more and more breadth. In 1285, Grand Duke Dmitry Alexandrovich (son of Alexander Nevsky) defeated and expelled the army of the “Horde prince”. At the end of the 13th - the first quarter of the 14th century, performances in Russian cities led to the elimination of the Basques. With the strengthening of the Moscow principality, the Tatar yoke is gradually weakening. Moscow Prince Ivan Kalita (reigned in 1325-1340) won the right to collect "exit" from all Russian principalities. From the middle of the XIV century, the orders of the khans of the Golden Horde, not supported by a real military threat, were no longer carried out by the Russian princes. Dmitry Donskoy (1359-1389) did not recognize the khan's labels issued to his rivals and seized the Grand Duchy of Vladimir by force. In 1378 he defeated the Tatar army on the Vozha River in the Ryazan land, and in 1380 he defeated the Golden Horde ruler Mamai in the Battle of Kulikovo.

However, after the campaign of Tokhtamysh and the capture of Moscow in 1382, Russia was again forced to recognize the power of the Golden Horde and pay tribute, but already Vasily I Dmitrievich (1389-1425) received the great reign of Vladimir without the khan's label, as "his fiefdom." Under him, the yoke was nominal. Tribute was paid irregularly, the Russian princes pursued an independent policy. The attempt of the Golden Horde ruler Edigey (1408) to restore full power over Russia ended in failure: he failed to take Moscow. The strife that began in the Golden Horde opened before Russia the possibility of overthrowing the Tatar yoke.

However, in the middle of the 15th century, Muscovite Russia itself experienced a period of internecine war, which weakened its military potential. During these years, the Tatar rulers organized a series of devastating invasions, but they were no longer able to bring the Russians to complete obedience. The unification of the Russian lands around Moscow led to the concentration in the hands of the Moscow princes of such political power, which the weakening Tatar khans could not cope with. The Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III Vasilyevich (1462-1505) in 1476 refused to pay tribute. In 1480, after the unsuccessful campaign of the Khan of the Great Horde Akhmat and “standing on the Ugra”, the yoke was finally overthrown.

The Mongol-Tatar yoke had negative, regressive consequences for the economic, political and cultural development of the Russian lands, was a brake on the growth of the productive forces of Russia, which were at a higher socio-economic level compared to the productive forces of the Mongol state. It artificially preserved for a long time the purely feudal natural character of the economy. Politically, the consequences of the yoke were manifested in the disruption of the natural process of the state development of Russia, in the artificial maintenance of its fragmentation. The Mongol-Tatar yoke, which lasted two and a half centuries, was one of the reasons for the economic, political and cultural backwardness of Russia from Western European countries.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources.

OUR C A L E N D A R

November 24, 1480 - the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia

Ipatiev Chronicle under. 1240 describes the storming of the city as follows: “Obstupisha (“Tatars” - B.S.) the city of Chernigov is heavy in strength .. Prince Mikhail Glebovich came to foreigners with his own, and the battle was fierce at Chernigov ... But Mstislav was defeated and a multitude of howls (warriors - B.S.) were beaten by him. And they took the hail and lit it with fire ... ". Our excavations have confirmed the accuracy of the chronicle record. The city was devastated and burned to the ground. A ten-centimeter layer of ash covered the entire area of ​​one of the richest cities of Ancient Russia. Fierce battles went on for every house. The roofs of houses often bore traces of heavy stones from Tatar catapults, the weight of which reached 120-150 kg (In the annals it is noted that four strong people could hardly lift these stones.) The inhabitants were either killed or taken prisoner. The ashes of the burnt city were mixed with the bones of thousands of dead people.

After graduating from graduate school, already as a museum researcher, I worked on the creation of a permanent exhibition “Russian culture of the 6th-13th centuries.” In the process of preparing the exposition, special attention was paid to the fate of a small ancient Russian fortified city, erected in the 12th century. on the southern borders of Ancient Russia, near the modern city of Berdichev, now called Rayki. To some extent, its fate is close to the fate of the world-famous ancient Italian city of Pompeii, destroyed in 79 AD. during the eruption of Vesuvius.

But the Rayki were completely destroyed not by the forces of the raging elements, but by the hordes of Batu Khan. The study of material material stored in the State Hermitage Museum and written reports on the excavations made it possible to reconstruct the terrible picture of the death of the city. It reminded me of pictures of Belarusian villages and towns burned down by invaders, seen by the author during our offensive during the Great Patriotic War, in which the author took part. The inhabitants of the city desperately resisted and all died in an unequal struggle. Residential buildings were excavated, on the thresholds of which lay two bones each - a Tatar and a Russian, killed with a sword in his hand. There were terrible scenes - the skeleton of a woman covering a child with her body. A Tatar arrow stuck in her vertebrae. After the defeat, the city did not come to life, and everything remained in the same form as the enemy left it.

The tragic fate of Raikov and Chernigov was shared by hundreds of Russian cities.

Tatars destroyed about a third of the entire population of Ancient Russia. Considering that at that time about 6 - 8,000,000 people lived in Russia, at least 2,000,000 - 2,500,000 were killed. Foreigners passing through the southern regions of the country wrote that Russia had practically been turned into a dead desert, and such a state was on the map Europe is no more. In Russian chronicles and literary sources, such as "The Word of the Destruction of the Russian Land", "The Tale of the Devastation of Ryazan" and others, the horrors of the Tatar-Mongol invasion are described in detail. The tragic consequences of Batu's campaigns were largely multiplied by the establishment of an occupation regime, which not only led to the total plunder of Russia, but dried up the soul of the people. He delayed the forward movement of our Motherland for more than 200 years.

The Great Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 inflicted a decisive defeat on the Golden Horde, but could not completely destroy the yoke of the Tatar khans. The Grand Dukes of Moscow were faced with the task of completely, legally eliminating the dependence of Russia on the Horde.

November 24 of the new style (11 of the old style) marks a remarkable date in the history of our Motherland on the church calendar. 581 years ago, in 1480, “Standing on the Ugra” ended. The Golden Horde Khan Akhma (? - 1481) turned his tumens from the borders of the Grand Duchy of Moscow and was soon killed.

This was the legal end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. Russia became a fully sovereign state.

Unfortunately, neither the media, nor in the minds of the general public, this date was not reflected. Meanwhile, it is quite obvious that on that day the dark page of our history was turned, and a new stage in the independent development of the Fatherland began.

It is necessary, at least briefly, to recall the development of events of those years.

Although the last khan of the Great Horde stubbornly continued to consider the Grand Duke of Moscow his tributary, in fact, Ivan Sh Vasilyevich (reigned 1462 - 1505) was actually independent of the khan. Instead of regular tribute, he sent insignificant gifts to the Horde, the size and regularity of which he determined himself. In the Horde, they began to understand that the times of Batu were gone forever. The Grand Duke of Moscow became a formidable adversary, not a silent slave.

In 1472, the Khan of the Great (Golden) Horde, at the suggestion of the Polish king Casimir IV, who promised him support, undertook a campaign against Moscow that was common for the Tatars. However, it ended in complete failure for the Horde. They could not even force the Oka, which was the traditional defensive line of the capital.

In 1476, the Khan of the Great Horde sent an embassy to Moscow, headed by Ahmed Sadyk, with a formidable demand to fully restore tributary relations. In Russian written sources, in which legends and reports of true facts are intricately intertwined, the negotiations were of a complex nature. During the first stage, Ivan III, in the presence of the Boyar Duma, played for time, realizing that a negative answer meant war. It is likely that Ivan III made the final decision under the influence of his wife Sofya Fominichna Paleolog, a proud Byzantine princess, who allegedly declared to her husband with anger: “I married the Grand Duke of Russia, and not a serf of the Horde.” At the next meeting with the ambassadors, Ivan III changed tactics. He tore up the khan's letter and trampled on the basma with his feet (basma or paiza-box filled with wax with an imprint of the khan's heel was issued to the ambassadors as a credential). And the ambassadors themselves were expelled from Moscow. Both in the Horde and in Moscow, it became clear that a large-scale war was inevitable.

But Akhmat did not immediately move to action. In the early eighties, Casimir IV began to prepare for war with Moscow. There has been a traditional alliance of the Horde and the Polish crown against Russia. The situation in Moscow itself escalated. At the end of 1479 there was a quarrel between the Grand Duke and his brothers Boris and Andrei Bolshoi. They rose from their destinies with their families and "yards" and headed through the Novgorod lands to the Lithuanian border. There was a real threat of uniting the internal separatist opposition with the attack of external enemies - Poland and the Horde.

Given this circumstance, Khan Akhmat decided that the time had come to deliver a decisive blow, which should be supported by the invasion of the Russian borders of the Polish-Lithuanian troops. Having gathered a huge army, the Khan of the Great Horde at the end of the spring of 1480, when the grass needed to feed his cavalry turned green, moved to Moscow. But not directly to the North, but bypassing the capital, from the southwest, to the upper reaches of the Oka, towards the Lithuanian border to connect with Casimir IV. In the summer, the Tatar hordes reached the right bank of the Ugra River, not far from its confluence with the Oka (Modern Kaluga Region). Moscow was about 150 km away.

For his part, Ivan III took drastic measures to strengthen his position. His secret services established contact with the enemy of the Great Horde, the Crimean Khan Mengly Giray, who attacked the southern regions of Lithuania and thus prevented Casimir IV from coming to the aid of Akhmat. Towards the Horde, Ivan III moved his main forces, which approached the northern left bank of the Ugra, covering the capital.

In addition, the Grand Duke sent an auxiliary corps along the Volga to the capital of the Horde - the city of Saray. Taking advantage of the fact that the main forces of the Horde were on the banks of the Ugra, the Russian landing defeated it, and, according to legend, plowed up the ruins of the city, as a sign that the threat to Russia would never come from this place (Now the village of Selitryany is located on this place) .

Two huge armies converged on the banks of a small river. The so-called “Standing on the Ugra” began, when both sides did not dare to start a general battle. Akhmat waited in vain for Casimir's help, and Ivan had to deal with his brothers. As an extremely cautious person, the Grand Duke took decisive action only in those cases when he was sure of victory.

Several times the Tatars tried to cross the Ugra, but met with powerful fire from Russian artillery, commanded by the famous Italian architect Aristotle Fiorovanti, the builder of the Assumption Cathedral in 1479, were forced to retreat.

At this time, Ivan III, having abandoned his troops, returned to Moscow, which caused excitement in the capital, since the threat of a breakthrough by the Tatar troops had not been eliminated. The inhabitants of the capital demanded action, accusing the Grand Duke of indecision.

Rostov Archbishop Vassian in the famous “Message to the Ugra” called the Grand Duke “a runner” and urged him to “harrow his fatherland”. But Ivan's caution is understandable. He could not start a general battle without a reliable rear. In Moscow, with the assistance of church hierarchs, on October 6, he made peace with his brothers, and their squads joined the grand duke's army.

Meanwhile, the favorable situation for Akhmat changed dramatically. Occupied with the defense of the southern borders, the Polish-Lithuanian troops did not come to the aid of Akhmat. Strategically, the khan had already lost the failed battle. Time passed towards autumn. Winter was approaching, the Ugra river was frozen, which gave the Tatars the opportunity to easily cross to the other side. Accustomed to warm winters on the shores of the Black and Azov Seas, the Tatars endured the cold weather worse than the Russians.

In mid-November, Ivan III gave the command to retreat to winter quarters to Borovsk, located 75 km from Moscow. On the banks of the Ugra, he left a "watchman" to watch the Tatars. Further events developed according to a scenario that no one in the Russian camp could have foreseen. On the morning of November 11, old style - 24 new, the guards unexpectedly saw that the right bank of the Ugra was empty. The Tatars secretly withdrew from their positions at night and went south. The swiftness and well-camouflaged retreat of the Khan's troops were perceived by the Russians as a flight that they did not expect.

Ivan III Vasilyevich, Grand Duke of Moscow and All Russia, returned to Moscow as a victor.

Khan Akhmat, who had no reason to return to the burned Saray, went to the lower reaches of the Volga, where on January 6, 1481 he was killed by the Nogai Tatars.

Thus the Tatar-Mongolian yoke was liquidated, which brought innumerable disasters to our people.

November 24 of the new style is one of the most significant dates in Russian history, the memory of which cannot be dissolved for centuries.

At the beginning of the XIII century, good relations existed between Russia and the Polovtsian principality. Therefore, in 1223, having been attacked by the Mongol Empire, the Polovtsy turned to their Russian neighbors for help, and they did not refuse the request.

The first battle between the Mongol-Tatars and the Russians took place on the Kalka River. The Russian army did not expect to meet such a serious opponent, besides, the Polovtsians fled at the very beginning of the battle - and the Mongols won, brutally executing the Russian princes.

Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia.

Different historical sources give different names. The Mongol-Tatar yoke or the Tatar-Mongolian yoke is not so important. The essence of the Tatar-Mongol yoke was the same - the seizure of territories and the collection of tribute.

Batu invasion.

After the battle on Kalka, the Tatar-Mongols did not go further. However, in 1237 they returned to Russia under the leadership of Batu Khan and in three years defeated almost the entire country. Only distant Novgorod escaped the sad fate - having decided that one uncaptured city would no longer make “weather”, Batu retreated, preferring to keep the thinned army.

The Mongols established tribute for Russia and for the first decade they independently ruled the occupied territories. Then, at the suggestion of Alexander Nevsky, the system changed - the Russian princes ruled on their own land, but they received the label for reigning in the Horde and brought the collected tribute there.

It was a humiliating option, but in this way Russia managed to preserve its faith, traditions and begin to restore the devastated lands.

The overthrow of the Tatar-Mongol yoke.

Battle of Kulikovo and its aftermath.

At the end of the XIV century, the Golden Horde began to weaken from within, and Prince Dmitry Donskoy, catching the changes, decided to fight back. Refusing to pay tribute, he clashed with the army of Mamai on the Kulikovo field and won.

Thus, Russia managed to win back some part of its independence, but two years later the Mongols returned - under the leadership of Tokhtamysh, who made cruel raids on Russian cities. The princes again began to pay tribute - however, in the Battle of Kulikovo there was a "psychological turning point", and now liberation from the yoke has become a matter of time.

Standing on the Ugra.

Exactly one hundred years after the Battle of Kulikovo, in 1480, Moscow Prince Ivan III again, like his grandfather, refused to pay tribute to the Horde. And again, the Mongol Khan, Ahmed, sent troops to Russia to punish the recalcitrant - but this time nothing came of it.

Mongolian and Russian forces turned out to be equal, and for almost a year - from spring to late autumn - the troops simply stood on different banks of the river, not daring to go on the offensive. And with the approach of winter, Ahmed simply withdrew the troops back to the Horde. The yoke that had weighed on Russia for more than 200 years was thrown off.

Years of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia: 1223 -1480

Was there a Tatar-Mongol yoke?

In recent years, many argue that the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia did not exist at all - they say, labels for reigning, trips of princes to the Horde and generally restrained relations between states speak rather of a kind of alliance.

However, the official position of historians does not change: the Tatar-Mongolian yoke existed, and it is not the last reason why the historical and economic development of Russia lags far behind the development of European countries.