10. Affairs of the Horde, Rus 2 Russia
We have already mentioned that the Golden (Big) Horde, as well as the whole once united Mongol ulus, by the beginning of the XIV century began to move into a new phase of ethnogenesis - acmatic.
In the XIV century there were colossal changes in the Horde. At the moment of the phase transition, the ethnos always becomes weaker due to the loss of strength spent on structural reorganization. The Mongols were no exception. The expenditures were so great that the ethnos lost its former dominance. The first time after revolution traditional mutual relations of the Horde and Russia still were kept. His son, Janibek Khan, who had inherited the Uzbek dynasty, was already a Muslim, but he still tried to maintain the relations established under the pre-Muslim khans of the Golden Horde. In his alliance
The need for encryption is clear. It was too dangerous even in those days to write disapprovingly about Moscow and the metropolis of Moscow, and that is why scribes referred to the Tatars instead of Moscow. V. L. Komarovich also found a manuscript which does refer to Moscow, but this is rather an exception to the general rule replacing it with a new one - the confession of Islam (1312).
The coup of Uzbek in the Horde was a sign of the times. Simeon the Proud, Dzhanibek, a kind, honest and prudent man, resisted the penetration of the Genoese Catholics, allies of the Constantinople emperors, to the Volga region and the Black Sea coast.
The confrontation boiled over into open warfare after the Tatar nomads were overcome by dzhud (ice). Cattle were falling, people were starving, and, fleeing from hunger, the Tartars sold their sons and daughters to the Genoese. The Genoese were happy to buy up girls and boys, hoping for high profits. When Dzhanibek learned of this, he was terribly indignant: according to Tartar concepts, one could and should strive to obtain military spoils, but it was considered immoral to profit from a neighbor's misfortune. Dzhanibek's troops laid siege to the strong Genoese fortress of Cafa (modern Feodosia). Because the Genoese had a fleet and the Tatars did not, the fortress was virtually impregnable to them. And then Dzhanibek ordered to throw with a catapult to the fortress the corpse of a man dead of plague. The corpse flew over the wall and crashed. Naturally, the plague began in Cafa. The Genoese were forced to abandon Cafa and the surviving part of the garrison went home.
Map of the Mongol states at the end of the XIII-XIV centuries
The numbers on the map indicate:
1 - Livonian Order
2 - Moscow Principality
3 - Ottoman Empire
4 - Georgia
5 - Ulus Tokhtamysh
6 - State of Serbedars "Mongolosphere" at the end of XIV century.
On their way they left Cafa and stopped in Constantinople - the plague went to work in Constantinople and came to Europe. At the same time, there was a migration from east to west of the Asian land-dwelling pasurian rat. Since rats are the carriers of the plague, the "black death" crept across Western Europe. Then the most part of the Southern Italy, three quarters of German population died out, about 60 % of English population; through Germany and Sweden "the black death" got to Novgorod, through Novgorod and Pskov - to Moscow, where Prince Simeon the proud died of it (1354).
Despite the huge human losses during the epidemic, the Moscow principality quickly regained not only the quantitative, but most importantly - the "qualitative" composition of its population. And this is not surprising: to survive the death of their comrades-in-arms, friends and loved ones, preserving the will to live and work, it was much better for energetic, active people, able to fight in a difficult situation, that is passionarians. After the epidemic there were most favorable conditions for them, because everyone - the prince, the boyars, the Metropolitan - in the hour of ruin did not need slackers and sleazy, but clever people, who had not fallen in spirit.
The fact that Metropolitan Alexei himself managed to establish trusting relations with Janibek and his elder wife, Taidula, contributed greatly to this. Taidula, the "first lady" of the khan's court, was a woman of rare beauty and outstanding intelligence. However, she had the misfortune to suffer from a severe eye disease (apparently trachoma). At the queen's bed visited the famous Persian and Arab doctors, steppe shamans, but in vain: the disease progressed. And only Alexei, who visited Taidula in the Horde, was able to help the Khan's wife. Taidula, a noble woman, did not forget the services and always remained a loyal friend of the Moscow metropolis, and thus of the Moscow principality. The finale of the reign of the "good tsar" Janibek was tragic. One of his many children - Berdibek - became a patricide, seized the throne and executed all his brothers in order to strengthen his right to the throne. But no one would support this patricide fiend and soon Berdibek was assassinated. After that a whole series of impostors showed up. Kulpa, Navruz and others called themselves surviving children of Janibek. All of them pretended to the throne, and no one was interested in their true origin. As a result, the stability in the Horde was lost - a few dozen khans were replaced in ten years, most of whom were purely nominal political figures. Russian chroniclers very accurately called the events that took place in the Horde "the Great Silence".
Map of the spread of plague in the 14th century.
Scandinavian and Russian armor and weapons
The "hiccup" was taken advantage of by Metropolitan Alexei. Using the needs of the next khan for Russian silver he managed to obtain in exchange for financial support a khan's charter certifying that the great reign was the hereditary right of the Moscow princes of the dynasty of Ivan Kalita. Thus, the political tradition of Kievan Rus' was finally dissolved. It was replaced by an entirely new principle of hereditary, dynastic monarchy.
The results of the Great Silence were disastrous for the Golden Horde. The Khan of the Blue Horde, Khyzr, brought his Siberian regiments and seized the entire Volga region. Our chroniclers also called Khyzr kind, gentle and humane. During his short reign he managed to carry out only one action - to charge the Russian princes to capture the Novgorod ushkui-jaks (ushkui- people). The princes gladly accomplished what they did, for the rebels-uskuniks did not arouse the slightest sympathy in anyone.
The Khans of the Blue Horde were poorly connected to Sarai. If the White Horde, which bordered on the Jagai ulus and the Muslim part of Central Asia, nevertheless converted to Islam without enthusiasm, then the Blue Horde, located, as we remember, in Western Siberia, apparently had no idea about Islam at all. The nobles surrounding the Khans were not called "emirs" but "toyaba" (the word cannot be translated, but it is clear that it refers to the military aristocracy, the army command staff, which had not been subjected to any cultural influence, neither to Christianization nor Islamization). Therefore, the territorial integrity of the Golden Horde was soon lost: the Kama Bulgars, Mordva and Oguzes, who lived on the Yaik, seceded, and the remaining territory split into two parts.
В. Vasilevsky. Metropolitan Alexis. 1753 г.
The Eastern part was ruled by the descendants of Khyzr (there were many of them, and they often changed the throne), and in the Black Sea coast came to power the dwarf Mamai. Mamai originally commanded darkness - ten thousand soldiers. He did not belong to the Genghis Khanate, but was a talented military leader and a clever politician.
The attitude of these two parts of the former Golden Horde to Russia was different. The successors of the khans of the Blue Horde - primarily Tokhtamysh - adhered to the traditional policy of an alliance with Russia that had been pursued since the time of Batyi. Mamai on the other hand relied on an alliance with the West, primarily with the Genoese colonies in the Crimea. This difference proved decisive in the further course of events.
The Blue Horde
The loss of the unity of the Golden Horde allowed the Lithuanians to make significant gains in territory that had lost the patronage of the Tatars. Kiev was increasingly becoming a Lithuanian city, and Chernigov and the land of Seversk were constantly changing hands, from Moscow to Lithuania and back again. The Lithuanian Duke Olgerd, who was not sympathetic to Orthodoxy, organized several persecutions of Christians in Polotsk and Vitebsk. This certainly did not make him popular in Russia, and Moscow was categorically against the Lithuanian policy. In addition, Olgerd had to reckon with the fact that the majority of the population in Lithuania, swollen from the conquests, were Orthodox Russians. Therefore, to ensure some loyalty, and to weaken the influence of the Moscow metropolitan, Olgerd sought to establish in Kiev a separate metropolitanate, which would be subject to the Orthodox Russians.
Metropolitan Alexei fully appreciated the danger inherent in Olgerd's plan for the power of Moscow and for the fate of Russia. Fortunately, the question of the establishment of a new metropolitan-see could only be resolved in Constantinople. In Constantinople, the Paleologues were succeeded by John Cantacuzin, a military leader who became emperor. Cantacuzin, seeing the demise of the Roman Empire, enlisted the help of the Ottoman Sultan Urhan, defeated the Paleologians, and took Constantinople. Since Kantakuzin was ideologically supported by the Athonite monks, opponents of the Western-Paleologians, his accession to power restored canonical orthodoxy and put an end to all attempts at a union with Rome.
Halberds and cleaver.
The policy of Cantacuzin, who relied on friendship with the Turks and rejected the services of knights from France, Italy, and Sicily, was naturally seen by Western Europeans and their Greek friends as high treason. This view, in French and German writings, filtered down into 19th century Russian liberal historiography, although, in fairness, it has to be recognized at least as one-sided. Indeed, Cantacuzin rendered a great service to Metropolitan Alexius in preserving the ecclesiastical unity of Russia. The emperor and his patriarch, Philotheus Kokkin, opposed the division of the Russian metropolitanate into eastern and western churches. Relying on the Russian Empire, the Russian Orthodox Church were the only ones to have the support of the emperor and the patriarch, Metropolitan Alexei managed, while in Constantinople, to get the patriarchy to reject Olgerd. After some time, Cantacuzin, abandoned by his supporters, abdicated the throne and went to Athos, where he ended his days as a monk and spiritual writer. The Paleologians returned to power, but the Russian metropolis remained united.
However, not everyone in Russia supported the anti-Lithuanian and thus anti-Western policy of Moscow. Olgerd was backed by the enemies of Moscow - the Suzdal dukes, and there was also a powerful party of Lithuanian backers in Novgorod. Similarly, two parties, as we remember, existed in the two parts of the former Golden Horde: the westernizing part was headed by the Temnik Mamay, (the dwarf) and the pro-Moscow Rus' part by the Khan Tokhtamysh.
Tokhtamysh was the son of the emir of Mangyshlak, who was killed by the ruler of the White Horde, Urus-khan. But the emirs and beks of the White Horde did not want to obey the heirs of Urus-khan, people who were petty, stupid, drunk and lazy. Without thinking twice, they summoned Tokhtamysh, the son of the victim of Urus-khan. An internal strife ensued that turned into military action. Tokhtamysh lost a decisive battle, fled to the Syr Darya, was wounded by a hail of arrows, crossed the river and made his way to the other shore. There he was picked up by the Iron Chromite's men, Timur.
They fed Tokhtamysh, bandaged his wound, dressed him, and then presented him to Timur. Timur said: "You are apparently a courageous man; go, reclaim your khanate, and you will be my friend and ally." Tokhtamysh returned with Timur's troops and seized the White Horde, and received the Blue Horde by right of succession. He then moved westward to expel the usurper Mamai from the Black Sea region.
Mamai was well aware of the danger threatening him. Mamai enlisted Yasses, Kasogs and Crimean Karaites (children of Jewish fathers and Khazar mothers who had no rights in either tribe of Khazaria, and were expelled to Crimea), to raise enough troops (the Volga Tatars were reluctant to serve Mamai, and his army consisted of few of them). The maintenance of such an army required money, and a lot of it. Mamai himself had no money and could only get financial help from his friends, the Genoese. They promised to help, but in return they demanded a concession for fur production and trade in the north of Russia, in the region of Velikiy Ustyug. Mamai tried to negotiate with Prince Dmitry of Moscow and some Russian boyars that in return for the concessions he would help arrange their personal affairs, and the young prince Dmitry would receive a yarluk to the great reign.
If Dmitry had agreed to this deal, Moscow Russia would have become a trading colony of the Genoese in a very short time. And while many in Moscow found the proposal advantageous, the church had its say. The Venerable Sergius of Radonezh declared that there could be no business with the Latins: foreign merchants cannot be allowed to enter the Holy Land of Russia, because it is a sin. Sergius's authority was so high that it was impossible not to reckon with him, in addition, he was supported by Metropolitan Alexei. Moscow rejected the Genoese proposal and thus demonstrated its loyalty to the alliance with Tokhtamysh, the rightful heir to the khans of the Golden Horde, who was at the head of the Volga Siberian Tatars.
Russian weapons - slingshotina and sovnya
Mongol-Tatar army. Miniature from a manuscript book. Late 19th century.
Mamai, angry at the unyielding Moscow prince, decided to suppress Moscow, to exact increased tribute from Dmitri and thus to please his Genoese friends. To this end he allied himself with Yagaylo, son of Olgerd, who, like his father, dreamed of capturing part of Russia. Mamai and Yagailo were brought together by the idea of dividing Rus', with part of its territory going to the Lithuanians, and Mamai subjugating part of it, and creating a new state on this basis.
There was no consensus in Rus about what policy to pursue with respect to Mamai. Some believed that it was necessary to come to terms with him, to agree with the Paleologians, the Genoese, and to keep the peace: there was nothing terrible in subordination, they said. Others - their opponents - understood well that behind the Muslim Mamai were Catholics and Catholics were enemies to Russia.
On the eve of decisive events, the old Metropolitan of Moscow, Alexey, died, and supporters of an alliance with the West tried to take advantage of this convenient situation. It must be said that the young prince Dimitri was greatly averse to the tutelage of Metropolitan Alexei and the influence of the Venerable Sergius, to whom Alexei wanted to transfer the metropolitan throne. Dmitri wished to have his clergyman, Mitya, as his metropolitan. Since Sergius refused to wear the metropolitan's cloak, the matter was arranged in the best possible way for the Westerners: Mityai was a loyal figure. At the Prince's order, this man was quickly tonsured a monk, given the name Michael, raised to a high rank and sent to Constantinople to receive the rank of metropolitan. But not all people are equally patriotic, unselfish and honest. Among those sent with Mityai was a certain Pimen, unprincipled ambitious, hatching far-reaching plans that proved fatal for Mityai.
Mamai, believing that Dmitry and the new metropolitan will help him satisfy the claims of the Genoese, allowed Mityai's ship, sailing along the Don. The embassy got safely to the coast of the Black Sea, and there Mityai, a perfectly healthy man, died under unspecified circumstances. Subsequent events have shown that it was primarily to Pimen's advantage. On arriving in Constantinople, he appeared before the patriarch, received his blessing, and returned to Moscow as metropolitan. But the Muscovites were not stupid either. Prince Dmitry, though he did not read detective stories, could draw conclusions. Pimen was stripped of his white klobuk and all his metropolitan regalia and sent into exile in Chulhloma.
It should be noted that the followers of the late Alexey and the Venerable Sergius proved themselves not only in exposing this dastardly affair. Bishop Dionysius of Suzdal was a staunch supporter of the war with the Tatars. Since Suzdal was a small town, essentially a fortress, Bishop Dionysius lived in the rich Nizhny Novgorod, which belonged to the Suzdal princes. And when Mamai sent an embassy there to negotiate peace and an alliance, Bishop Dionysius stirred up the people against the Tatars. Nizhni Novgorod's mob attacked the embassy. The ambassador himself, bravely defending himself, shot the bishop, but Dionysius was saved by his broad vestment - the arrow simply penetrated his dress. All the Tatars were killed in the most brutal way: they were stripped naked, released on the ice of the Volga and poisoned by dogs.
Mamai, taken aback by this, sent to the tsarevitch Arapshakh to the city, who left the Volga left bank. (Apparently, not everything was going well for Tokhtamysh, who stood on the left bank of the Volga, and not everyone supported him, since Arapshakh decided to change the service of the Khan to the service of the dwarf Mamai). The Suzdal princes were taken by surprise, and at the river Pyane (curiously enough, many Suzdal dukes were really drunk at that time) their troops were knocked out by the soldiers of Arapshakh. After this Nizhni Novgorod was taken and a massacre was committed there. It seems that Bishop Dionysius simply sacrificed the flock entrusted to him to please his ambition.
Then Mamai moved his troops further to finally crush the Russians, but on the river Vorskla the Moscow army had a complete victory over Begich Murza, who commanded Mamai's troops. In open combat, the Moscow army broke the resistance of the Tatars and showed that it was not inferior to the Tatar army in fighting ability.
Russian battle with the Horde on the river Vozhe in 1378. 16th century miniature.
Conversation of St. Alexius with the Venerable Sergius. Stamp of the XV century icon.
After all that had happened, a clash between the Russians and Mamai was inevitable. Understanding this, Prince Dmitry was forced to use the all-Russian authority of Sergius of Radonezh. The Reverend blessed this war, and therefore all Orthodox believers felt it their duty to rise in defense of the Russian land against the Bashurmans and Latins. Russian troops marched toward Mamai.
On the Kulikovo field
The total number of Russian troops, gathered under the banners of Dmitry of Moscow, was estimated at 150 thousand men. This army consisted of the princes' mounted and foot cohorts, as well as the militia, armed with lances, slingshaws and axes. Cavalry (about 20 thousand men of arms) has been generated from baptized Tatars, Lithuanians who have run over and Russians trained to fight in the Tatar horse formation. Mamay's troops included Genoese infantry, as well as Alans (Ossetians), Kasogs (Circassians) and Polovtsians mobilized for Genoese money. The total number of an army of the formidable temnik made approximately 200 thousand people.
Both Mamai, and Russians had allies. The Lithuanian prince Jagaila moved to the aid of the Temnik. Naturally, the ally of Dmitry Ivanovich was Tokhtamysh Khan supported by Moscow. Since Tokhtamysh with an army of Siberian Tatars was moving toward Sarai, Mamai first planned to defeat Dmitry, having previously linked up with Yagayla's troops. In contrast, Prince Dmitry decided to go out to meet Mamai and prevent him from joining the Lithuanians.
Grand Duke Dmitry Ioannovich Donskoy. Titulary of 1672.
The meeting of the armies of Dmitry and Mamai took place at the place where the Nepryadva river flows into the Don. At night the Russians forced the Don and thus cut off all retreat options: they could either win or die. All of the Russian infantry was positioned in deep chains, so that each soldier felt a comrade behind his back, and a cavalry detachment was advanced. The Russians also resorted to a typical Tatar trick: a ten-thousand-man ambush regiment of cavalry was hidden behind a small grove.
On the morning the Tatars went on the attack. The Russian advance regiment was overwhelmed and was soon completely routed. The Tartars ran at full gallop into the dense chains of the Muscovites with their spears out. Tatar horses swung over spears, Tatars were cutting right and left with their crooked sabers, and, as the chronicler writes, "Muscovites, as if unaccustomed to combat, fled". It seemed that the battle had already been lost. True, some brave men stood with their backs to one another, put up spears (it was called "hedgehogs") and fought back, but the Tatars, without coming close to them, shot them with long bows. The defeat of the Russian army was at hand. At this moment the ambush regiment - 10 thousand fresh fighters, who hurriedly attacked the already dishevelled Tatar cavalry - went in full swing. The strike of the ambush regiment caused panic in the ranks of the enemy; the Tatars turned to flight, and for 20 versts the Russians pursued them and cut them down, giving no mercy to anyone.
The victory was won, but the Russian losses were very high: from 150 thousand men in the ranks remained 30 thousand, 120 thousand were killed or wounded. However, these sacrifices were not in vain. The ethnic significance of the events of 1380 at Kulikovo Pole was enormous. Suzdal, Vladimir, Rostov, Pskov inhabitants went to fight at the Kulikovo field as representatives of their principalities, but returned from there as Russians, even though they lived in different cities. That is why in the ethnic history of our country the battle of Kulikovo is considered as the event after which a new ethnic community - Moscow Rus' - became a reality, a fact of world-historical significance.
Blessing of Dmitry Donskoy by Sergius. Miniature from the "Life of St. Sergius of Radonezh". The end of the 16th century.
Without diminishing the heroism of Russia on the Kulikovo Pole, let us note that the absence of eighty thousand Lithuanian army in the battle was important for the victory. Jagaila was late for the battle only one day's march. And this was not by chance. It turns out that Oleg Ryazan, who was accused of treason and betrayal, with five thousand troops managed, skillfully maneuvering, to delay the Lithuanians. When the Lithuanians drove Oleg back, the battle was already over. Then Jagailo's warriors attacked Russian convoys and slaughtered the wounded.
As we can see, the war took an exterminatory character, which is characteristic of conflicts on a super-ethnic level. If we consider that the majority in Yagaylo's army were Russians from near Minsk, Polotsk, and Grodno, it is easy to understand what the unity of the once mighty Kievan Rus was like at that time. By 1380. Ancient Russia had "dissolved" into Lithuania and Moscow Russia. Further events only confirmed this thesis.
The Lithuanian duke Keistut, angered by the massacre of the wounded, deposed Yagaila. He declared himself Grand Duke of Lithuania and attempted to establish friendship with the principality of Moscow and Dmitri, who was nicknamed Donskoy. Thus, Keistut turned Lithuanian politics 180 degrees. But (Y)Jagailo, with the help of the Germans and papal agents, managed to lure Keistut to a feast, where he was murdered. Keistut's son, Vitovt, was captured and imprisoned.
This example clearly shows the changes that took place in the Lithuanian stereotype of behavior with the growth of their passionarity. To kill one's own uncle at a feast and arrest one's cousin, condemning him to death, is a betrayal of the worst kind. And Vitovt himself, an energetic and courageous man, was no longer as principled as his father and uncle. Vitovt's life, by a strange whim of fate, was saved by the same growth of Lithuanian passionarity. The girl who carried Vitovt's food took pity on the unfortunate man and, sacrificing herself, exchanged her clothes with him - Vitovt left the prison in a woman's dress and fled to the Germans. In doing so, he broke the tradition of his father, an irreconcilable fighter against the Order.
After eliminating his rivals, Jagaila concluded an alliance with Poland and the pope and ordered his subjects to adopt Catholicism. Thus, a unified Lithuanian-Polish kingdom emerged, where Jagiello's descendants - the Jagiellons - ruled until an era changed and the kingdom became a republic - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
А. Novoskoltsev. Dmitry Donskoy at St. Sergius (before the Battle of Kulikovo)
А. P. Bubnov. Morning at Kulikovo Pole
Meanwhile in Russia, despite the victory at the Kulikovo Pole, not all were yet supporters of the unification of the country under the auspices of Moscow. Ancient rivals of the Moscow princely house - the Suzdal princes - would not give up their positions, although many Suzdal dukes died in battle with Mamai for Russian unity.
The brother of the Suzdal prince Dmitry Konstantinovich, Boris, and his nephews Vasily and Semyon did their best to avoid their hated submission to Moscow. To do this they used very ancient and quite effective methods: slander and provocation. Boris and his nephews sought to quarrel with the Khan Tokhtamysh by making a cunning denunciation that Moscow and Ryazan wanted to go over to the side of Lithuania - the principal adversary of the Tatars. Tokhtamysh believed the denunciation: it had never occurred to the Siberian that he was being deceived. And it was not only the naivety of a man unfamiliar with lies.
This is the result of changes in the level of passionarity in the Horde, because its best part, the most intellectual and experienced, perished during the "Great Silence", exterminated by the infighting of the same Siberian Tatars, and there was no one to give the Khan good advice. But Tokhtas, Uzbeks or Janibek and their advisers would never have allowed themselves to be deceived so primitively.
In 1382 Tokhtamysh organized a raid on Moscow. Having crossed the Volga and Oka, the Tatars suddenly appeared under the walls of the city. Most of Moscow's boyars, clergy, and soldiers, as they always do in the summer, left Moscow for the surrounding villages. Only the Grand Duchess and Metropolitan Cyprian remained in Moscow. Ciprian was charged with defending the city, but not being a military man, the metropolitan was unable to organize the defense. Therefore, the Tartars managed to surround Moscow, but they could not take it. Moscow by then already had high stone walls on which stood firearms, called in Russian "Tyufyak" (from the Persian word "tupang" - tube). Tyufyak was loaded with gunpowder and buckshot and could fire up to five shots. Though the shooting range was small, such guns were very convenient for guarding the fortress. When attackers approached, cartridge volleys prevented them from reaching the walls.
This raid of Tokhtamysh would not have been so terrible, had it not been for the character of the population which had settled in Moscow during several previous quiet decades. What did the posad people want? To drink and to party. The population of Moscow, the ordinary people of Moscow, having sat in a siege, first of all went to the cellars of the boyars, knocked down the locks, took out barrels of honey, beer and wine, and got thoroughly drunk. Then, showing their "fearlessness", they went to the walls and swore at the Tatars, accompanying the scolding with appropriate gestures. The Tatars, especially Siberians, are a very touchy people, and they became very angry with the Moscovites for their behaviour. The Metropolitan could do nothing - nobody listened to him, and when the bishop wanted to leave Moscow (the siege was not complete, and anyone could leave the city), he, as well as the Grand Duchess, were robbed to the bone by the posadetskie.
The Battle of Kulikovo. Peresvet's duel with Chelubei
Н. Nekrasov. The Battle of Kulikovo
After Kiprian's departure the people continued to party and drink away their own and other people's property. After some time, when all the alcohol had been drunk, the Muscovites decided to come to terms with the Tatars: the Tatars were invited to state their terms of peace, for which the besieged assembled to let an embassy into the city. But when the gates were opened, none of the representatives of the "masses of the people" thought of putting up a reliable guard to let only the ambassadors through. The posadski simply opened the gates and the Tatars burst into the city and carried out a massacre. Almost the entire population of Moscow was killed and the city was ravaged.
The Battle of Kulikovo. Miniature from the Tale of the Battle of Mama. The 17th century.
Word of Tokhtamysh's treacherous attack quickly reached the outskirts of the Moscow lands. Those who could not fight left for the Tver principality, as Tokhtamysh categorically forbade his armies to attack the Tver lands. The Moscow boyars, having quickly gathered their comrades-in-arms, began attacking the Tatar detachments, which were scattered in the volosts. Tokhtamysh, seeing that they had to fight in earnest, immediately withdrew, abandoned seized Moscow, crossed the Oka to the Ryazan principality, robbed it and then left on their own.
It is easy to see that only the traitors - the Suzdal princes - benefited from Tokhtamysh's raid. But everything connected with the raid had far-reaching and profound consequences. The capture of Moscow spoiled the close friendly relations that had previously existed between the Horde and the principality of Moscow. Nevertheless, Moscow did not start a war with the Horde, because Dmitry's close boyars understood perfectly well what the matter was. Moscow diplomats were by no means mistaken about the true culprits of the tragedy that took place. And they didn't consider it necessary to go to war with Tokhtamysh, who was just a tool of evil, deceit and manslaughter. But sympathy for the Horde had irreversibly disappeared. In the next century, this emotional gap significantly affected both the history of Russia and the history of the Horde.
The front side. Second half of the 18th century. Medallist I. Vechter.
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