27. Ancient Rus and the Great Steppe, Gumilev
Part seven. Tokhtamysh and his time, XXVIII. Fading greatness (The first approximation is the level of superethnos), 189. IN IRAN
Let us recall that the Mongols came to Iran as defenders of the Christian faith. Nestorians and Jacobites (Monophysites) who joined them were very numerous and influential in Central Asia. In 1260 They liberated Syria from the Muslims and were not far from the walls of Jerusalem, but the betrayal of the European Crusaders and the separation of the Golden Horde, where the Muslim Berke Khan reigned, led to defeat at Ain Jalud (in Galilee), after which the Mongols rolled back over the Euphrates and went on the defensive.
They had to fight on two fronts: with the Egyptian Mamluks and with the Golden Horde, where the vast majority of the population were the same Polovtsy, so in fact the war was between the Turks and the Mongols. The Iranian Mongols could not get help, since their only ally, the great Khan Kublai, waged a forty-year war with his people, the Western Mongols, ruled by his cousin Haidu. Therefore, Iran was isolated.
The Mongolian Ilkhans held on only thanks to the support of Christians - Armenians, Aisors, Syrians - and Shiite Muslims [1] - Dalemites and Khorasans, of whom there were many in Persia. But it was weak support. The attempt of Khan Argun (1284-1291) to negotiate with the French king Philip the Beautiful [2] did not give anything, because Europe had already cooled down to the crusades. The Mongols had to rely on the local Persian population, and it was Muslim.
In the XIII century, overflowing with bloodshed, the Mongol power in Iran was melting gradually and unevenly. The adoption of Islam by Ghazan Khan and his younger brother, Oljeytu, somewhat softened the relations between the ruling dynasty and the masses of the people, but it did not eliminate the willfulness of the emirs of both Mongolian and Persian origin. The son of Oljate Khan Abu Sayd was 12 years old when he ascended the throne. Therefore, the Governor of Khorasan, Emir Choban, ruled the country on his behalf. This energetic ambitious man managed for 11 years to suppress uprisings and intrigues of emirs who envied him, but in 1327 this last Mongolian passionary in Iran was killed by his khan, who was burdened by his guardianship. Choban's fate was shared by his two sons, and the third, who managed to escape to Egypt, was killed there by Sultan Nasir at the request of Abu Sayyid, who in turn was poisoned in 1335 by his beloved wife, the daughter of the Emir Choban. The beauty wanted to take revenge on the tyrant for the death of her father and brothers. Together with her husband, she ruined the whole state, because everything became possible.
A year after the death of the ilkhan, an uprising broke out in Khorasan against the Mongols, under the slogan: "Cap ba dar" ("Let the head hang on the gate"), calling for extreme risk, and desperation.
It would be tempting to see in the Sarbadars (Serbedars) the heirs of the Persians of the Sassanid era, but if this were the case, neither the Arabs, nor the Turks, nor the Mongols would be able to capture Iran. Apparently, the Sarbadar subethnos is a new formation in the zone of Mongol-Persian contact, because for 100 years the Mongolian gene pool has been scattered among the Persians.
The Mongols could not cope with the Sarbadar republic, and finally the front Ilkhan -Tug Timur Khan, who was nomadic in Gurgan, invited the Sarbadar leaders for negotiations. Those who came to the Horde suspected treachery and decided to get ahead of the Mongols. At the feast, one sarbadar suddenly killed the khan, the others attacked the drunken Mongols and killed those who did not have time to escape. Thus, on December 13, 1353, the Mongol rule in Iran ended. The heirs of the Ilkhans, the Jelairs, although they were Mongols by origin, but not Genghisids, not defenders of Yasa (law) and not heroes. They do not deserve the attention of a historian and ethnologist.
190. IN THE FAR EAST
The liberation of China went somewhat differently. In the Yuan Empire, the Mongols were an insignificant minority, because they (together with Mongolia proper) made up less than 2% of the empire's population. With this ratio, it was possible to retain power only with the help of any groups of the local population, so the government of the Yuan Dynasty spared no money for the Buddhist community and privileges for the landowners of Northern China. However, Buddhism is not so much an organization (like Catholicism, for example) as a mindset (the way to salvation), and therefore there was a sect that was hostile to the Mongols - the White Lotus. This organization in the XII-XIII centuries merged with the secret sects of the "coming of Maitreya" (the future Buddha - deliverer). They waged a constant war against the Mongol government by organizing small uprisings, which were easily suppressed and claimed many victims. This latent period of the liberation war brought China nothing but grief and suffering. The situation changed only when the masses rose.
I must say that the descendants of Kublai did not differ in any state and military abilities. Having turned from brave khans into Chinese emperors, they lost touch with their homeland, but did not gain the sympathy of the conquered Chinese and did not adapt to their new homeland. The entourage were no better than the rulers. They did not understand what the economy of an agricultural country and the reclamation of the valley of such a formidable river as the Yellow River were. In 1334, about 13 million souls died of hunger, and the same famine was repeated in 1342.[3] In 1344, the waters of the Yellow River broke the dam and flooded the lands of three provinces. Only then did the government realize that it was necessary to repair the dam. In 1351, 150 thousand peasants were driven to land works under the escort of 20 thousand soldiers. The peasants quickly agreed among themselves[4]. And then it started!
The agents of the White Lotus announced to the mobilized diggers the good news about the "coming of Maitreya" and the "birth of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty." Those, exhausted by work and offended by the arbitrariness of the authorities, followed the initiators, tied their heads with red handkerchiefs, and one night in the whole country, Mongolian soldiers who were on duty in Chinese houses were stabbed to death. Soon the number of rebels reached 100 thousand people, electrified by fanaticism. The uprising swept all of Northern China. The rebel slogan was simple and primitive: the restoration of the Song Empire.
Every peasant war is doomed. The uprising of the "red troops" shared the fate of the Jacquerie. It proved impossible to establish discipline among the peasants. Create unity of command - too. After the first successes, the rebels turned into robbers[5], which caused resistance to them from the landowners who created the "justice" - "ibin" detachments[6], since the "reds" raged more than the Mongols. By 1363, the uprising was suppressed.
Then the southern landlords, officials and Buddhist monks came into play, who found a brilliant leader, a native of the poorest peasants, a monk and a warrior Zhu Yuanzhang. He took part in the uprising of the "reds", reached the military rank... but he promptly took his detachment to the south and there he raised an uprising among all segments of the population. A complex system is more stable than a simple one. Zhu Yuanzhang strengthened discipline, forbade looting and began to win. To feed the soldiers, he introduced a system close to military settlements - he forced the militia to work on harvesting and keep order; in relation to landowners and officials, he "observed etiquette" [7].
National consolidation immediately changed the course of the war, the success of which was already leaning towards the Mongols. For 20 years of unrest, many leaders of the "red troops" agreed with the Mongols and began to beat their own. Betrayal is a phenomenon, alas, ubiquitous. Zhu Yuanzhang had to suppress the traitors, use military conflicts among the Mongol Noyons and distribute a proclamation among the northern Chinese peasants promising to "drive away the barbarians" and "save the people from a hard fate." After these events in January 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor of the Ming dynasty, and in the spring he moved his army north and captured the Mongolian capital Dadu (Beijing), renaming it Beiping.
In 1369, the Mongols were ousted from the northern provinces of China, but after that the war took on a protracted character. Raids and battles continued until 1380, when the army of the Ming Empire penetrated into the depths of Mongolia and destroyed Karakorum. The Chinese achieved final success only in 1388, when the last Mongol khan, Togus-Temur, was defeated and fell in battle. After this catastrophe, a long anarchy ensued in Mongolia, as a result of which the Oirats separated from the Mongols. The inertia of the passionate explosion of the "people of long will" had dried up, and a new period of history (1388-1688) has begun, which we will not talk about.
191. IN TRANSOXIANA AND SEMIRECHYE
It would seem that the Jagatai ulus, located in Central Asia and not in contact with hostile states and irreconcilable ethnic groups, should have been the most prosperous. However , the writer of the XIV century . Omari reports: "... in Turkestan, you can only find more or less preserved ruins; from a distance it seems that a well-maintained village surrounded by lush vegetation is just ahead; you approach in the hope of meeting people, but you find only empty houses; the only inhabitants are nomads who are not engaged in agriculture"[8].
But it was not easy for the nomads there either. For 70 years of the XIV century, about twenty khans were replaced in the Jagatai ulus, while each shift was accompanied by bloodshed. But even in this kaleidoscope of events, it is possible to outline the leading line of cause-and-effect relationships and regular breaks.
Muslims and Christians, of whom there were many in Central Asia at that time, killed each other: renounced Mongols (Jelairs and Barlas) and omongol Turks, supporters of weak khans and nukers of mighty emirs, sarbadars in Samarkand and nomadic Moguls[9], in short, every person in the Jagatai ulus had many enemies and very few faithful friends.
An attempt to restore order in the country was made by Kebek Khan (1318-1326). He moved the capital from the Steppe to the south, built for himself not a yurt, but a palace, and carried out administrative reform in favor of the settled population. He was killed by his brother, Tarmashirin, who made a predatory trip to India. But there he was defeated by the Delhi Sultan Mohammed ibn Togluk, who drove the Mongols all the way to Punjab[10].
It is curious that the settled population of Iran and Central Asia, who showed their complete inability to defend themselves from the Dalemites and Ghulams of Mahmud Ghaznevi, from the ferocious Seljuks, from the ruthless Khorezmians and even more so from the Mongols, in the XIV century showed considerable energy, belligerence and the ability to choose the principles for which people began to go to death. Why such a rush all of a sudden?
The Sarbadars of Khorasan became enemies not only of the Mongol Ilkhans, but also of the neighboring Kurts who ruled in Herat. The Sarbadars proclaimed Shiism, the Kurds adhered to Sunnism, but, of course, it was not dogmatic differences that prompted illiterate Afghans and Persians to wars equally unprofitable for both.
Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians and Tengri Turks have been living together in Central Asia for over 500 years. And for some reason in the XIV century they got into a fight with each other. Khan Tarma-shirin, who in his youth bore the Buddhist name Darmashila, converted to Islam and became known as Ala ad-Din. The nomads of Semirechye and the shores of Issyk-Kul could not stand it and killed him in 1334.
The initiators of the uprising were Nestorians who relied on the cities of Almalyk and Pishpek[11], where they made up the majority of the population. Their khan, Jenkshi, ruled in 1334-1338, his son was baptized by John, but he did not have to reign. The Muslim reaction led to bloody clashes, which ended in 1343 with the accession to the throne of Khan Kazan, a cruel tyrant who fought with the emirs[12].
In 1346 Kazan was defeated and died. Its winner, Emir Kazagan, was killed in 1358 while hunting at the instigation of the Mongol Khan Togluk-Temur, who in 1361 tried to recapture Turkestan from the rebellious emirs. The war dragged on. Upon the death of his father in 1362, Ilyas-khoja came to the throne of Mogulistan[13]... and suddenly Timur moved out!
Then it's time to pause and sort out the current situation. Moghulistan was a nomadic state, and Turkestan was a sedentary nomadic power, and most of its population consisted of Tajiks and sedentary Turks. The khans of Turkestan wanted to achieve peaceful coexistence of these peoples, but they were opposed by their own emirs, who wanted to fight freely with each other, like European feudal lords. Turkic horsemen were the mainstay of the emirs: the Khans could not oppose anyone to them. But the victory of the emirs led to anarchy and opened the way for the "jet", i.e. robbers, as the Turkestanis called the Mughals. In turn, the Mughals contemptuously called Turkestanis "Karauns", i.e. mestizos[14]. Ethnic divergence in the XIV century became obvious.
But there was also a third force - the Tajiks. When in 1365 Ilyas-khoja, having defeated the emirs Hussein and Timur, approached Samarkand, he was repelled by local sarbadars who were afraid of plundering their city. But the leaders of the Sarbadars were lured to negotiate by Emir Hussein and executed. Then it was time for a power struggle between Hussein, the emir of Balkh, and Timur, the emir of Kesh. Timur won in 1370, and Hussein, who surrendered on his word of honor, was killed.
Map ""UMongolosferaF at the end of the XIV century. (29 KB)
http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/maps/args15.gif
(Numbers are hard to see.) 1 Livonian Order 2 Moscow Principality 3 Ottoman Empire 4Georgia 5 Ulus of Toktamysh 6 State of Serbodorov (Serbedars)
In order for a rich and cultured country to turn into a bloody hell in one century, a sharp change in energy potential is needed, and not a smooth one, as in the ascent and inertia. There was a powerful and sudden surge of passionarity, which shattered the well-coordinated system and gave rise to several chimeric subethnoses.
Passionarity, as an effect of the biochemical energy of living matter, has no vector, but is directed by the dominant of the ethnos that absorbed it (the energy). Thus, the Iranians and Turks of the Muslim world under the banner of Timur, although they possessed the passionarity inherited from the Mongolian youths who scattered their gene pool from Fergana to Iraq, but most likely did not know about their origin themselves. Their great-grandfathers were conceived and born in the fire of a terrible war and could inherit the tradition from their mothers, not from random fathers. And even if they felt that they belonged to the genus (as, for example, Timur was barlas, and Edigey was kungrat, and both remembered this), then isolated cases did not matter; they were absorbed by the spontaneous flow of probability.
In other words, the Mongolian passionarity galvanized the dwindling Muslim superethnos, but did not violate its cultural uniqueness. Languages, religion, aesthetic norms have been preserved, social norms have changed less than in Ottoman Turkey, the power of which was the result of a passionate push, but the force of pressure, initiative, virulence of the Muslim world increased so that it was enough for a whole period - XIV-XVIII centuries.
In the XIV century, the passionarity of the Mongols of Iran and Central Asia fell the fastest. It burned brightly at the Sarbadars of Khorasan and Samarkand, but the Turks who settled south of the Amu Darya and the Afghans were not inferior to them. It has not faded in Daylem and Gurgan, in short, in all the territories of the former kingdom of the Ilkhans - Iran and Turkestan, as the interfluve of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya has now become known.
During these years, the situation in Central Asia was both unbearable and hopeless. The descendants of Jagatai showed a complete inability to control the ethnic chimera consisting of Mongols, Turks, and Tajiks. They ruled only in the steppes of Moghulistan, i.e. in the landscape familiar to nomads. The emirs, the former princes of the tribes, were able to fight against each other, and the leaders of the Sarbadars, having expelled the Mongols from their cities, settled personal scores with their fellow citizens, which is hardly a class struggle. The country needed a firm government, and Timur created it by taking a step back.
A firm power needs a supporting force. The caliphs of Baghdad, the sultans of Ghazna and Khorezmshahs gained this power in the person of Gulyams - Turkic warriors, sometimes slaves, sometimes mercenaries. The Gulyams were not connected with the classes and estates of the countries where they lived. These were "free atoms". They willingly served the generous leader, risking their lives, performed the most difficult tasks, but, alas, they were very expensive: after all, they worked for a fee, like legionnaires of the times of the Roman emperors or "varangians" of the Komnenos and Palaiologos. In short, Timur became a "soldier's emperor" with all the ensuing consequences.
Timur considered his main enemy to be the legacy of Genghis, who united the steppe tribes into a single superethnos and relied on the masses who willingly served under his banner. Timur extracted a passionate elite from the people and paid for it with loot from Persia, Georgia, Syria, India and the cities of the Volga region. He was the last paladin of Muslim culture and extended its existence for another century, but his successes and dreams were very expensive. After Timur's victories, Iran has not recovered.
Steppe elements of the collapsed Jagatai ulus turned out to be in Semirechye (jet), Talas, in the vicinity of Issyk-Kul, on the northern slopes of the Tien Shan and in Kashtaria. Thus Moghulistan was created, with a Turkic population and a Mongol dynasty, which was suppressed in 1366, when Emir Qamar ad-Din, after the death of Khan Togluk-Temur, killed Temur’s son-heir and usurped power.
Both in Transoxiana and Moghulistan, the Mongols ceded power to the Turks, but this did not stop the brutal war that was waged between the Great Steppe and the Muslim world. The ethnicity of the Khans against the background of the clash of superethnoses no longer mattered.
It was against Qamar ad-Din that Timur made a number of raids. His ghouls ravaged defenseless encampments and drove away cattle, condemning the nomads to hunger and poverty. The third raid was especially cruel - through Talas and Tokmak to the upper reaches of the Chu and the banks of the Ili. Captured was the daughter of Qamar al-Din, whom the winner placed in his harem. But Qamar al-Din responded with a powerful counterattack, luring Timur into an ambush, from which the latter escaped "with a spear, a saber, warriors and a lasso"[15].
In response, Timur, in the fifth raid, forced Qamar ad-Din to take the battle of Issyk-Kul and drove his troops along the lake. This victory, apparently, gave little, because it took the sixth campaign in 1377, but this time Qamar ad-Din remained elusive.
But Timur was lucky in the north. In 1376, his henchman Tokhtamysh captured the White Horde and undertook a final campaign against the usurper Mamai. It seemed that Timur was about to subdue the Great Steppe…
192. GOLDEN HORDE
In 1235, having finished the war in China, the Mongols made the "Great Western Campaign" and reached the Adriatic Sea. However, in 1242, they pulled their army back and secured a foothold on the bank of the Lower Volga, having built the city of Sarai there. Hungary and Poland immediately joined the Romano-German superethnos, because the Mongols did not leave garrisons anywhere and there was no one to defend freedom for Hungarians and Poles. Russia found itself in a different position. The fate of Byzantium awaited her, captured in 1204 by the Crusaders and plundered to the skin. Organized knight armies, with armored cavalry and crossbowmen, so surpassed the fragmented squads of Russian princes that it was possible to win one or another battle, but not a long war. And such a war was inevitable because the pope declared a crusade against Orthodoxy.
In these circumstances, Prince Yaroslav of Vladimir in 1243 gathered a congress of princes and invited them to recognize "kaan" as tsar and conclude an alliance with the head of the Borjigin family - Batu. This recognition did not oblige to anything - Yaroslav simply withdrew from the war that Pope Innocent IV declared to the Mongols in 1245 at the Council of Lyon.
Yaroslav's son, Alexander Nevsky, achieved more by concluding a defensive alliance with Khan Berke. The crusade to Russia did not take place. So the Russian land became part of the ulus of Dzhuchiev, without losing autonomy and without prejudice to the culture inherited from Byzantium.
The ulus of Juchiev included three hordes: White, Blue and Gold[16], to which Great Russia joined. The same principalities that refused the alliance with the Tatars were captured by Poland and Lithuania in the XIV century. The Tatars did not force them to join.
The Mongols in this ulus were a small minority. The Juchiev Ulus was a chimeric entity to an even greater extent than Iran and Central Asia. As long as strong-willed and energetic khans ruled in Sarai, the Horde seemed to be a mighty state. The first shake-up occurred in 1312, when the population of the Volga region - Muslim, merchant and anti-nomadic - nominated Tsarevich Uzbek, who immediately executed 70 tsarevich Genghisids and all Noyons who refused to betray the faith of their fathers. The second shock was the murder of Khan Janibek by his eldest son Berdibek, and two years later, in 1359, a twenty-year civil strife began - the "great jam".
This cruel era was inevitable. Ethnic groups, "dragged" into a single system by conquest, merge only with the rise of passionate tension, and there was a decline both among the Mongols, who lost their heroes in the civil strife of the XIII century, and among the aborigines, who have already turned into relics. The only exception was Great Russia, which entered a new round of ethnogenesis and managed to use the Golden Horde to cover from an equally passionate enemy - Lithuania.
For a long time, with the exception of the wars with the Hulaguids, the foreign policy of the Golden Horde was quite peaceful. Rare skirmishes with Lithuanians, separate military expeditions to pacify the strife in the White Horde and a long senseless conflict with the Ilkhans of Iran - that's all that broke the peace. But this did not save either the dynasty or the state. In a chimeric system, the bonds are so unstable that they disintegrate from their own gravity. This is exactly what happened in the Golden Horde. And then the hero of our narrative, Khan Tokhtamysh, moved into the arena of history.
193. "THE GREAT JAM"
1359-1381
The series of murders in the Barn, which put the Golden Horde on the brink of death, was perceived by the Russian princes very painfully. In the person of Janibek, they lost a reliable ally. The padricide Berdibek was killed in 1359 by the adventurer Kulpa, posing as the son of Janibek. So the line of the khans of the house of Byty died out and the struggle for power began, which turned the strongest power in Eastern Europe into an object of seizure from the east and west.
Kulpa ruled for six months and was killed by Navruz, who also posed as Janibek's son. Apparently, Navruz sought to restore order, because Russian princes "came to Navruz and beat the tsar's forehead about the division of their principalities"[17]. Each was confirmed in his fatherland, and Dmitry Konstantinovich, Prince of Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod, in the spring of 1360, moreover, received the grand duchy [18]. It seemed that order was restored, but in the same 1360, a descendant of Sheiban (son of Jochi) Khizr (Khidyr-bek) appeared with the troops of the Blue Horde because of Yaik.
Navruz was killed, and, worse, Janibek's widow, Khansha Taydula[19], the patroness of Metropolitan Alexei, and thus of the whole of Russia, who was in great need of it, was killed. The Golden Horde turned Blue[20].
Khan Khizr, according to the Russian princes, was a ruler "meek and humble"[21]. From Russians he demanded only one thing - the extradition of Novgorod ushkuiniks, robbers on the Volga and robbed both Russians and Tatars. Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich, Andrei of Nizhny Novgorod and Konstantin of Rostov fulfilled this assignment willingly, since the robberies concerned their subjects[22]. But, unfortunately, Khizr's associates were of a different type, including his son Temir-khoja, who killed his father in 1361.
Six days later, the scoundrel was killed by the temnik Mamai, who enthroned a certain Abdallah. The frightened Russian princes fled from the Barn, Mamai and Abdallah went to the right bank of the Volga, and Ordu-Melik reigned in the Horde (now not Golden, but Blue), soon replaced by Keldi-bek, a descendant of Tuk-Temur, Batu's younger brother [23]. But the restoration attempt was unsuccessful. Khizr's brother, Murid[24], who reigned until 1364, soon took the throne. He was replaced by Sheikh Aziz, who died in 1370, when Sarai was taken for a short time by Mamai, who managed to replace Abdallah with a certain Muhammad Bulak, after which the Large Horde broke up into seven independent possessions [25].
Then came the turn of the White Horde, which, after the collapse of the Golden Horde, inherited the primacy in the steppe world. The energetic Urus Khan repelled Timur's attempts to extend his influence north from the Syr Darya. Urus Khan skillfully defended the southern border of the White Horde, but, not limited to this, he decided to attach the dying Golden Horde to his possessions in order to restore the unity of the ulus of Juchiev.
Probably, this plan could have been implemented if the ruler of Mangyshlak Tui-khoja-oglan had not refused Urus Khan military assistance. Although Tui-khoja-oglan was a descendant of the Yichen Horde, his ulus was part of the Kok-Horde (Blue Horde), and the khan was more dependent on his beks, noyons or emirs than they were on him. Nevertheless, the ruler had to pay, and with his own head[26].
The executed man's son, Tokhtamysh, ran away to Timur [27] and offered him his services. Timur accepted the tsarevich, since the collision with the united steppe did not promise him anything good. On the contrary, he tried to wage a preventive war, but individual victories in battles did not allow him to gain a foothold on a wide territory. Worse, his creature Tokhtamysh suffered crushing defeats twice. After the last battle, he ran to the shore of the Syr Darya and, throwing off his clothes, tried to swim across it, but his pursuers noticed the swimmer and shot arrows at him. One arrow pierced his shoulder, but he still crossed the river and disappeared into the reeds, where he collapsed. His chance saved him. One of Timur-bek's centurions, Edigey, found a naked and bloody fugitive, dressed him and brought him to his headquarters. There Tokhtamysh recovered, was introduced to Timur and received help from him to continue the war with Urus Khan.
In 1375 Urus Khan died, and his son and heir Toktakia died two months later. His brother Timur Malik ascended the throne, who showed an exceptional and utter incompetence and pathological laziness. He could only eat a lot and sleep for a long time, which caused the disappointment of his beks and Nukers. In 1376, Tokhtamysh again set out on a campaign and easily captured the White Horde. After that, he moved the blow to the west, to the banks of the Volga, where he had a serious struggle with Mamai, the ruler of the right bank of the Volga.
Mamai was not a descendant of Genghis and therefore could not become khan. In fact, Mamai came out of the Juchiev ulus, moreover, he became an enemy of the Genghisids. The left bank of the Volga was held by the khans of the Kok-Horde, and the other rulers did not even try to defend their principalities from these titans. Russian chroniclers aptly called this epoch the great zamyatnya.
This difficult time for the Tatars was used by the Lithuanian Prince Olgerd. In the autumn of 1362, he attacked three Tatar Murzas wandering along the Dnieper right bank, and defeated them at the Blue Waters.
Mamai reacted favorably to this - apparently, the defeated Murzas were not his supporters[28]. Using the agreement with Mamai, Algirdas (Lithuania) occupied Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversk, Trubchevsk, Putivl and Kursk[29], and in Kiev abolished local self-government and annexed the city to Lithuania.
Thus, the "Westernism" that had long existed among the Rus, was also instilled in the Tatars. It penetrated into the Steppe through "economic channels" - through the Italians, (Mamai) and politically - through the Lithuanians. The only conscious opponent of the West was the Moscow Metropolia, which ruled Russia at that time. This made Moscow a natural opponent of Mamai and, accordingly, a supporter of the khans of the Blue Horde - the Genghisids. Such was the alignment of forces before the Battle of Kulikovo.
NOTES:
[1] See: Buniyatov Z.M. The state of the Khorezmshahs - Anushteginids, 1097-1231. M., 1986. p. 137.
[2] Grousset R. L'Empire des Steppes. P. 448-451.
[3] See: Grumm-Grzhimailo G.E. Western Mongolia...p.508.
[4] See: Essays on the history of China from antiquity to the "opium Wars" /Ed. Shang Yu. M., 1959. p. 382.
[5] Ibid. p. 388.
[6] See: Borovkova L.A. On the struggle of the Chinese people against the Mongol conquerors in the middle of the XIV century.//Tatar-Mongols in Asia and Europe. p. 426.
[7] Essays on the History of China ...p. 398.
[8] Grumm-Grzhimailo G.E. Western Mongolia ...Vol. II. p.510.
[9] Mughals are the conditional name of the Turks of the Jagatai ulus, the ancestors of the Kazakhs of the Elder Jus. Mogulistan was located in the north-eastern steppes of the ulus: in Prityanshan, East Turkestan and Semirechye.
[10] Grousset R. L'Empire...P. 414.
[11] Ibid. P.414-415.
[12] Grumm-Grzhimailo G.E. Decree.op. p.515.
[13] K.E. Bosworth (Muslim dynasties. p. 197) Togluk-Temur's death was mistakenly dated 1370 r.
[14] See: Yakubovsky A. Y. History of Uzbekistan. Tashkent, 1950. p.337.
[15] Groussel R.Op.cil..P.500-501.
[16] Unfortunately, in Western historiography, the division is not into three, but only into two hordes; the Blue Horde is unreasonably omitted (see: Grousset R. Op.cit. P. 470).
[17] Instantirsky A.V. The Great and appanage princes of Northern Russia in the Tatar period from 1238 by 1505, Vol. II. St. Petersburg, 1891. p. 405.
[18] Ibid., p. 408.
[19] Ibid., p. 104.
[20] The Blue Horde, located between Tyumen and Mangyshlak, was less affected by the influence of Muslim culture than the Golden and White Hordes The warriors in it retained their ancient ferocity and acted as zealous defenders of the traditional steppe culture. The last khan of the Blue Horde was Tokhtamysh.
[21] Copy A.V. Decree. op. p. 405.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Grumm-Grzhimailo G.E. Juchida: Manuscript//GO archive.
[24] See: Instantirsky L.V. Decree.op. p.104.
[25] Pulad-Temir ruled in the land of the Kama Bulgarians; Tagai ruled in the land of Mordvins; Sheibanids ruled in Sarai; independent princes ruled in Astrakhan, Saraychik and Crimea; Mamai tried to establish contact with the West through the Genoese trading colonies in Crimea.
[26] See: Yakubovsky L.Y. Timur and his time//History of the peoples of Uzbekistan. Tashkent, 1960. p. 353.
[27] Having seized power, Emir Timur began to bear the title "His Majesty the Sultan - warrior for the faith" (Tizenhausen. Vol. II. p. 131. Note 3).
[28] See: Shabuldo F.M. Decree.op. p.66 (discrepancies in dating are analyzed).
[29] Ibid., pp. 60-62.
___________________
XXIX. The Blue Horde (The second approximation is the level of the ethnic group)
194. MAMAI AND TOKHTAMYSH
There is no doubt that Mamai was a brave commander, an able administrator and a skilled politician. Tokhtamysh is more difficult. You can consider him as the last paladin of the steppe culture, or you can consider him a pathetic epigon, an insignificant descendant of great ancestors. Both estimates seem untenable. Tokhtamysh's personal courage is beyond doubt, but the mind of a statesman and the talent of a military commander, apparently, did not correspond to the burden that he shouldered. If we take into account that both leaders of the Tatars were defeated and died, then it is obvious that the formulation of the problem is incorrect.
Let's try to give a description of ethnic systems instead of assessments, headed by Mamai and Tokhtamysh, because the ruler's environment cannot but influence his thoughts and actions, and only the latter are known and reliable.
Mamai's kingdom was inhabited by descendants of the Polovtsians, Alans, Yasov, Kasogs, Crimean Goths and Jews, and his allies were Lithuanians and Genoese; he himself was of Mongol origin. Here is a typical chimera, rich due to local resources and international trade, crowded and managed by a talented commander and diplomat Mamai. But the natural law of ethnogenesis was against Mamai's power, since the system connections in his power were artificial.
The few Mongols were in the akmatic phase, the descendants of the Polovtsians were in homeostasis, the Alans and the Crimean Goths were in deep obscuration, and the Yasi, Kasogi, like the Italians from Genoa, the Greeks from Constantinople and the Jews from Khazaria, were connected with the Mamai state not organically, but administratively. So, Mamai's power was not a continuation of Genghisov's ulus, but its antipode - an organized state based on different aborigines.
Tokhtamysh's victory over Urus Khan was not accidental. Just as Mamai relied on the Western world, receiving help from Genoese merchants with money and soldiers, Tokhtamysh found support from Timur, the defender of the merchants of Samarkand and Bukhara. Both unions were insincere. Economic and cultural contacts corroded the steppe subsistence economy, the way of life and the political system of the "Mongol sphere", as an ice block is equally destroyed by the sun's rays and warm rains. Contacts at the superethnic level act in the same way as thermal differences in thermodynamics.
The simple-minded nomads believed their khans, and the khans needed intelligent emirs; the same were connected with the urban population of commercial cities and in 100 years became sincere Muslims and, therefore, enemies of the Genghisids.
Timur turned out to be the most talented, who managed to defeat the Ak-Horde (White Horde) and Mogulistan, but the Siberian Blue Horde remained outside his influence, which was facilitated by its geographical location and the system of economy that preserved local traditions.
The Blue Horde had no definite, clear borders with other ethnic groups and cultures. It was the most backward, and, therefore, its energy potential was still preserved, whereas in the Golden and White Hordes it was largely spent by the end of the XIV century. Until this happened, the Golden Horde, and the White Horde, had an advantage over the inhabitants of Siberia and Mangyshlak. Therefore, the latter behaved quietly, but when the passionate tension on the Volga and on the Irtysh subsided, the power of the Blue Horde turned out to be much higher, which was reflected in the fact that Tokhtamysh was able to seize the left bank of the Volga. This made the conflict with Mamai inevitable.
195. LITHUANIA AND MOSCOW
All his life, Algirdas was guided by one goal: the unification of Russia under the rule of Lithuania. His opponent was Metropolitan Alexei, who defended Orthodoxy from pagans. There was no need to defend oneself from Muslims: Tatars close to Russia who converted to Islam were non-aggressive. The "First Lithuanian revolution" took place in 1368. Olgerd and Mikhail Tverskoy so ravaged the Moscow land that "such evil did not happen from the Tatars"[1].
Relations have become tense. In 1370, the metropolitan excommunicated Svyatoslav of Smolensk from the church; Prince Roman Mikhailovich of Chernigov, and with him many other southern princes defected to Moscow[2].
The next act of war was the Lithuanian invasion in April 1372, which led only to the ruin of villages. It is even surprising that so far no one has compared the number of Lithuanian and Tatar raids! In the XIV century. the war with Lithuania began to take on a national character, even if earlier it could be considered feudal. This shows that, in addition to the personal will and sympathy of the rulers, Lithuania began to be drawn into the Western European superethnos.
This was taken advantage of by Mamai, who returned to his power in 1375. Podolia and Seversk land[3], already by 1379. Dmitry Moskovsky restored Moscow's power over Kiev and Chernihiv in one campaign, putting the local Algerdovites "in a row"[4]. Mamai was not grateful to him for this. However, it was no longer important: the "rosemary" with Mamai happened in 1374.
Of course, there was no consensus in Moscow about the Horde affairs. The defense of independence - state, ideological, everyday and even creative - meant war with the aggressive West and Mamai's ethnic chimera who was allied with it. It was the presence of this union that made the situation acute. Many believed that it was much easier to obey Mamai and pay tribute to him, and not to the khans in the Barn, to let the Genoese into Russia, granting them concessions, and eventually agree with the pope on the restoration of church unity. Then a long and reliable peace would be established. It is curious that this platform was shared not only by some boyars, but also by churchmen, for example, the confessor of Prince Dmitry Mityai, who claimed the throne of the metropolitan. Mamai let Mityai pass through his possessions to Constantinople so that he would receive initiation from the patriarch. But Mityai died suddenly on the road.
The supporters of this platform were by nature calm people - reasonable townsfolk. They were opposed by a group of passionate patriots who were blessed for the war by Sergius of Radonezh.
Moscow occupied a geographical position much less advantageous than Tver, Uglich or Nizhny Novgorod, past which the easiest and safest way along the Volga went. And Moscow has not accumulated such combat skills as Smolensk or Ryazan. And there was not as much wealth in it as in Novgorod, and such cultural traditions as in Rostov and Suzdal. But Moscow seized the initiative of the "unification", because it was there that passionate, energetic, indomitable people accumulated. They gave birth to children and grandchildren who knew no other fatherland than Moscow, because their mothers and grandmothers were Russian. And they did not seek to protect their rights, which they did not have, but to receive duties for which the "sovereign's salary" was due. Thus, using the need of the state for their services, they could defend their ideal and not worry about their rights; after all, if the Grand Duke had not paid his salary on time, the serving people would have gone to forage, and the sovereign would have been left without assistants and would have suffered himself.
This original system of relations between power and subordinates, unusual for the West, was so attractive that Tatars who did not want to convert to Islam under threat of execution, and Lithuanians who did not sympathize with Catholicism, and baptized Polovtsians, and Meryans, and Murom, and even Mordvins flocked to Russia. There were a lot of girls in Moscow, it was easy to get service, food was cheap, thieves and robbers were brought out by Ivan Kalita... But in order for this crowd of people living in peace and harmony to become a single ethnic group, one detail was missing - a common historical destiny, which is embodied in a collective feat, in an accomplishment that requires overstrain. It is these acts that mark the end of the incubation period and the beginning of the stage of the historical development of the ethnos - the phase of ascent.
When the purpose of protecting not just the territory became clear to the people, but the principle on which it was necessary to build a way of life and ethics, worldview and aesthetics - in short, everything that is now called the original cultural type, then everyone who had access to it took up arms and went to fight with the gentiles: Polovtsy, Lithuanians, Kasogs, Genoese (whose faith was considered non-Orthodox) - and with apostates - Western Russians who served Litvin Yagailo. Only the Novgorodians evaded participation in the all-Russian cause.
They valued profitable deals and contacts with the Hansa more, despite the fact that the Germans did not recognize Novgorodians as equal members of this corporation. By this act Novgorod distinguished itself from the Russian land and after 100 years was conquered as a hostile state. But let's be consistent: Novgorod retained the cultural traits inherent in ancient Russian cities, and, like them, fell victim to a practiced short-sighted egoism. And Russia, transformed and capable of feats, gathered around Moscow. Thanks to these qualities, Moscow resisted the diverse crowds of Mamai and Yagailo.
Let us note the fundamental difference between the ethnic diversity in Moscow and the mosaic of the Mamai state. It was not ethnic groups that came to Moscow, but individual people, "free atoms" who broke away from their former ethnic groups, where Uzbek Khan encroached on their conscience (the faith of their fathers). They were courageous warriors who could pull a long bow to the ear and cut with a saber from shoulder to waist. Their inclusion in the Moscow army immediately pushed it to the level of world standards, and the grandchildren of these steppe braves, who became Russians thanks to their grandmothers and mothers, did not forget the combat training of their fathers and grandfathers, as the attack of the ambush regiment showed. And Mamai had a conglomerate of diverse ethnic groups, alien to each other, not united by anything except the orders of the prisoner. Therefore, one lost battle could topple Mamai's power like a house of cards.
196. DIPLOMACY AND ITS CAPABILITIES
Superethnic conflicts themselves are visible only from afar. The observer of the XIV century saw not even principalities and hordes, but kings and khans, and even then not directly, but through the actions of their boyars, alpauts, counts and ambassadors. Nevertheless, he was able to make primary generalizations, explaining the actions of the rulers with the advice of their confidants. Thus, at the scientific level of the XIV century, the motives of the catastrophe that befell both Tatars and Russians in 1380 were explained. The situation at that time was really acute.
Lithuania seized almost the entire territory of Ancient Russia, and Moscow tried to return the occupied lands to Russia. In 1378-1379, the Moscow voivodes conquered the cities of Trubchevsk and Starodub, and Prince Dmitry Olgerdovich Trubchevsky did not defend his cities, "but with great humility" went over to the side of Moscow, where he was received "with great honor and love"[5]. Before that, Yagailo's cousin, Vitovt, escaped from prison to the Germans. Jagiello's throne shook.
"The wicked and proud Prince of the Volga Horde Mamai owned the entire Horde. He destroyed many kings and princes and voluntarily kept the king for himself. But even so, he did not feel confident, and no one trusted him. And again he destroyed many princes and Alpauts in his Horde. Finally, he killed his king himself, who was only the name of the king in his Horde, but owned everything and did everything by Mamai himself. After all, he realized that the Tatars love their tsar, and was afraid that he would not take away his power and will, and therefore killed the tsar and all those loyal to him and loving him." [6]
It was not easier in Russia. Oleg Ivanovich, Prince of Ryazan, offered Mamai submission (Mamai's army had just robbed the Ryazan Principality) and sent an ambassador to Yagailo with these words: "I am informing you of the good news, Grand Duke Yagailo of Lithuania! I know that you have long planned to expel Prince Dmitry of Moscow and take possession of Moscow. Now our time has come: after all, the great tsar Mamai is coming to him with a huge army. Let's join him"[7]. Jagiello agreed.
The Allies assumed that one military demonstration would be enough for Dmitry to escape to Novgorod or the Dvina, and they would divide the Russian land, capturing Moscow and Vladimir without a fight. They calculated that neither the Tver nor the Suzdal princes would go to the rescue of Dmitry. But, not knowing the theory of ethnogenesis, they forgot about the people.
The western regions of Kievan Rus, which had fallen into a deep old age, reluctantly submitted to the Lithuanian conquerors, but the inhabitants of the former "Zalessky Ukraine", which turned into Great Russia, ignored the mutual antipathies of their princes. The armies came from the banks of the Upper Volga to defend the Orthodox faith, because the consciousness of unity has already entered the souls and hearts thanks to the activities of Metropolitans Peter, Feognost, Alexei and Abbot of Radonezh - Sergius. Monolithic ethnic integrity opposed chimeric formations, just as the peripheral Blue Horde seized the initiative from its Volga and Irtysh tribesmen beyond the Urals. The collision occurred not because of the machinations of diplomats, but as an electric discharge, which can neither be prevented nor suspended.
197. COLLISION
And so these two forces moved towards each other. Lithuanian-Russian troops of Yagailo rushed to help Mamai, the legitimate khan of the Blue Horde Tokhtamysh led the ancestors of future Uzbeks and Kazakhs to rescue Dmitry. And everyone knew why they were going into battle.
The forces of the opponents were equal. Tokhtamysh's alliance with Timur was as unreliable as Mamai's alliance with Yagailo: after all, shortly before that, Algirdas conquered the lower reaches of the Dniester and Bug, and Timur struck at the nomads of Mogulistan. The accession of Tokhtamysh, as an ally of Timur, was accepted in the White Horde without enthusiasm. Moreover, in 1376, Prince Arab Shah led a large detachment beyond the Volga and submitted to Mamai. Both pretenders to the throne needed allies. But finding them is a complicated matter.
In 1371, Mamai met with the young Moscow Prince Dmitry and handed him a label for the grand duchy. Then, in 1372-1373, Muscovites and Tatars devastated the Ryazan land with a combined blow. But already in 1374 the union was destroyed by the clever Archbishop Dionysius of Suzdal.
It is difficult to say what prompted Vladyka Dionysius to commit homicide. Was there a political or just a personal calculation or some kind of internal church intrigue? But one way or another, the war was provoked, and events rolled like an avalanche.
Mamai returned the blow with a blow. In 1377, the Arab Shah attacked Russia, defeated a Russian detachment not ready for battle on the Pyane River, took Nizhny Novgorod and burned it. But another army of Mamai, under the command of Murza Begich, in 1378 was completely defeated by Dmitry of Moscow on the Vozha River. Thus, Moscow 's position was determined: she became an ally of Khan Tokhtamysh, probably not because of his merits, but because of the "power of things", or the logic of events.
The fate of the war in 1380, more than ever, was determined by the consistency of maneuvers. In May 1380, Jagiello concluded a peace treaty with the Livonian order to free up all his troops for a campaign on the Don. With this agreement, he betrayed Keystut, who heroically defended Zhmud[8]. But he had to go through Kiev, Chernigov and Seversk land, which a year before had been liberated by Prince Dmitry of Moscow from both Tatars and Lithuanians. The resistance of the population of these lands delayed the advance of the Lithuanian army[9]. It was one transition late... and it saved Russia.
The rest is known. On Kulikovo Field, Russian valor crushed Mamai's diverse army. Only those who had fleet-footed and unsteady horses escaped (however, apparently there were a lot of them, because at the beginning of 1381 Mamai again stood at the head of a strong army and tried to stop the advance of Tokhtamysh, who most likely crossed the Volga (on ice).
The Russian army suffered huge losses, especially wounded. They were taken home on carts, and fresh Lithuanian warriors (Kievans and Belarusians) and Ryazan pursued the stragglers, robbed them and finished off the defenseless wounded [10]. The bitterness grew, which indicates the impossibility of the Russian-Lithuanian union, which Algirdas and Keistut dreamed of.
Ethnogenesis is an element that people have not learned to fight.
In Lithuania, not everyone approved of the reprisals committed by Jagiello. Keistut, a consistent opponent of the Germans, relying on the Russians, in 1381 removed his nephew from power and concluded an alliance with Moscow. However, Jagiello, who returned the Seversky land to Lithuania, planted his supporter Dmitry Koribut in Novgorod-Seversky. Keistut moved an army against him, but it did not reach its goal. Soon Yagailo killed his uncle and imprisoned his cousin Vitovt[11].
Vytautas was saved by a brave Litvinka who brought him food. She allowed the prince to change into her dress and escape, for which she paid with her life.
This romantic novel says a lot. It is known that there was a strong Russophile party in Lithuania that sought to unite Lithuania and Russia on the basis of Orthodoxy. The Moscow government was ready to make a rapprochement, but made submission to the Tsar of Moscow a condition, which seemed offensive to the Lithuanians. Therefore, the Polonophile party won, which registered the marriage of the Polish queen Jadwiga with Jagiello in 1336.
The fact that the illiterate Litvin became the king of Poland did not bother the Polish magnates. They perfectly understood that in their country the king should obey the nobility, and not vice versa. But the Catholic Church acquired a large and important diocese, and the border of the Romano-German superethnos shifted from the Vistula to the Dnieper. Catholic Europe advanced to the east, and Russia retreated. The uprising of Prince Andrei of Polotsk in 1386-1387 was defeated[12].
Most likely, Mamai, who rode away from Kulikov Field, was no more upset than Napoleon, who crossed the Berezina. The losses were great, but the mercenaries recruited from Genoese, i.e. foreign money died. His horde was intact. It was only necessary to wait for the Lithuanians to throw off the Keystute and return Jagiello to start the war all over again. There was hope for success: after all, Moscow has lost many of its best fighters, which means it has weakened.
But then the unexpected began. When Mamai met Tokhtamysh on the bank of the Kalka River (near Sovr. Mariupol), his soldiers dismounted and took the oath to the legitimate Khan Genghisid [13]. They did not capture and did not betray their leader, Mamai, which according to their views, would be a betrayal. They allowed him to leave for the Crimea, where Mamai was killed by his Genoese allies, enlightened Italians who believed that a wild Tatar could not be reckoned with.
Mamai's son, Mansur, chose another way of salvation. He fled to Lithuania, was accepted there and lived on the southern outskirts, without losing touch with the Steppe and his relatives. His descendants were waiting for a luxurious fate: not only did they become princes, one of them, named Ivan, was destined not only to the royal crown, but also a long, albeit unkind, memory.
And for Tokhtamysh, this bloodless victory turned out to be his finest hour. He united the Juchi ulus, however, for only 18 years; later he did not show any special talents, but retained popularity among his people until the end of his life, like Louis XIV or Queen Victoria. And if there were no special circumstances, maybe he would have ended his life on the throne, because a mediocre khan is kind to most of his subjects; but when trouble comes, mediocrity breeds disaster.
198. SCOUNDRELS
The "Great Zamyatnya" (Jam) of 1359-1381 showed that the most loyal to the Golden Horde and the dynasty was the Russian Ulus. This is unexpected, but understandable. Kama Bulgarians, Mordvins, Khazars of the Volga Delta, Trans-Volga Nogais and Cumans of the steppe Crimea, gaining freedom, did not lose anything, since none of their neighbors threatened them. And the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, with its capital in Moscow, bordered on belligerent Lithuania, held on to an alliance with the Horde, which was a counterweight to Lithuania. It was not worth any Russian principality to abandon the alliance with the Tatars - it immediately became the prey of the Lithuanians or Poles, like, for example, Galicia in 1339. Therefore, 20 years of "jamming" were perceived in Moscow very painfully. It is always unpleasant to lose an ally, but something even more terrible has happened…
Not everyone liked the military-monastic appearance acquired by Moscow during the reign of Metropolitan Alexei. The rich merchant cities on the Volga - Tver, Yaroslavl, Uglich, Gorodets and especially Nizhny Novgorod - preferred a different model of social structure, which would be more like a cheerful, abundant antiquity [14]. They were rich and could afford to choose princes to their liking. Their sympathies were on the side of the Suzdal princes because they were rivals of Moscow. Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal even fought with Moscow in 1364, but conceded the Grand duchy and sealed the peace with the marriage of his daughter and the young Prince of Moscow Dmitry. The rebellious Nizhny Novgorod residents were forced to submit not by the Moscow army, but by Sergius of Radonezh, who in 1365 excommunicated the Nizhny Novgorod people from the church and closed the temples, after which the rebellion subsided. But after the death of Dmitry Konstantinovich, his brother Boris used the mood of the minds in order to postpone Moscow. Of course, he was overthrown by his nephews, Vasily and Semyon, who received the support of Moscow, but both brothers had to reckon with the sympathies of their subjects, and they demanded a break with Moscow. The princes, who turned into condottieri [15], were forced to look for a way to please the citizens and not lose their heads. And they found this way, because historical fate smiled on them.
After the Battle of Kulikovo, in which Tver and Suzdal warriors participated, but not the princes [16], the Moscow government wasted no time in inviting Metropolitan Cyprian of Kiev to Moscow, thereby limiting the influence of the pagan prince Yagailo, because his Orthodox subjects began to obey Moscow in matters of faith. The Suzdal princes presented this subtle and clever act to Khan Tokhtamysh as a collusion between Moscow and Lithuania, an ally of his enemy, Mamai[17].
An intelligent and educated politician would easily have seen a provocation in such a primitive denunciation, but Tokhtamysh was a simple-minded and trusting Siberian, and therefore the slander was a success. However, for the sake of credibility, Oleg Ryazansky was also mentioned in the denunciation, who, saving his land, did not join Mamai's opponents. He was also accused of sympathizing with Lithuania and thereby doomed the surviving Ryazan residents to death, although they were opponents of Moscow.
Tokhtamysh believed everything, despite the obvious absurdity of the denunciation. He was used to fighting, not thinking, and there were no experienced and reasonable emirs among his entourage who all died during the "jam". Therefore, he raised an army on horses, crossed the Volga, confiscated merchant ships, since merchants could send news to Russia, took the Suzdal princes with him as guides and went on a raid "rogue", i.e. at a trot and without a wagon train, rounded the Ryazan land from the south and went to the Oka, where Oleg allegedly showed him the fords. On August 12, 1382, Tatar troops approached unsuspecting Moscow. That's what the power of lies and the hunt for homicide can do.
199. WEAKNESS OF SPIRIT
Further events went quickly and tragically. The Grand Duke went to Pereyaslavl, and from there to Kostroma to "gather troops." In Moscow, he left Metropolitan Cyprian in charge of himself, entrusting him with the city and his entire family. Apparently, the prince was sure that the stone fortress, equipped with all the novelties of the then military equipment, was impregnable for light cavalry. In Moscow, there were already long-range crossbows and "mattresses" [18] - firearms suitable for repelling an enemy climbing the fortress wall. Food supplies were also sufficient. One thing was missing - the strength of the military spirit, because the heroes of Kulikov Field were resting in their native villages, and few courtiers with numerous servants and artisans of the Moscow posad lived in the capital. This mass was by no means suitable for military operations and had no idea about military discipline. But the propensity for robbery and arbitrariness, as well as complete irresponsibility, dominated their poor consciousness, as always happens with sub-passionaries.
Instead of organizing the defense of the walls, "the civilians were outraged and stirred up, like they were drunk, and having created a veche, ringing all the bells, and standing up in the evening, the people are rebels, unkind people, people of sedition: those who want to come out of the hail are not only not a push, but also a rake... standing on all the gates of the city, shibakhu stones on top, and below, on the ground, with slingshots and sulits and with naked weapons standing, not letting them get out of the hail"[19]. It should be added to this that all these "defenders" of Moscow were drunk, because they destroyed the boyar basements where barrels of honey and beer were stored.
But at the same time, the Moscow people were inconsistent. They released Vladyka Cyprian and the Grand Duchess from the city... after their luggage was looted. Obviously, the Tatars did not besiege or even block Moscow, but they could not take the capital. Their patrols circled around Moscow and plundered the surrounding villages. Meanwhile, the boyars gathered veterans and prepared to repel the enemy. The earth began to burn under the hooves of the Tatar horses.
And then the Suzdal princes took the initiative again. They entered into negotiations with the Muscovites, offered them an honorable peace on condition that they let the Tatar embassy into the fortress. It was super stupid to believe the notorious traitors, but what does a drunken crowd understand?! The gates were unlocked without providing them with protection; the Tatar ambassadors entered the city, and their army fell in behind them, and the massacre began. Upon subsequent calculation, it turned out that 24 thousand Muscovites were killed [20] and a church filled to the brim with ancient manuscripts burned down.
To feed his army, Tokhtamysh scattered it throughout the territory of the principality, forbidding only to enter the Tver land. Therefore, crowds of fugitives, ragged and hungry, rushed to Tver. But the hero of the Kulikovo battle, Vladimir Andreevich the Brave, with a hastily assembled detachment, defeated a group of Tatar robbers. This was enough for Tokhtamysh to hastily leave the borders of Great Russia. His return journey passed through Ryazan, which again experienced the horror of the violence of the ferocious hungry soldiers.
Now let's ask ourselves: who benefited from this crazy escapade or, more precisely, who needed it? This is a question so essential for both Russian and Tatar history that a special section should be devoted to it, and moving away from the traditional historical narrative, the problem should be presented in the form of an analysis of the correlation of superethnic integrity and ideological systems that existed then in the form of faiths.
But confession is also an insufficient indicator. In the XIV century. Catholics - the British and the French - cut each other mercilessly. The Muslims - Timur and Bayezid - fought each other to the death. The Orthodox Ryazan residents "looted and caught" the retreating Muscovites [21], and the Kievans and Belarusians from the Yagailo army overtook the wagons with the wounded on the Kulikovo field and finished off the defenseless.
No, it is necessary not to stop the research, but to look for the causes of these phenomena in the nuances of ethnogenesis: a combination of phases and ethnopsychological dominants. And for this, it is necessary to go down one more step - to the sub-ethnic level, where the role of individuals is especially pronounced.
NOTES:
[1] PSRL. Vol.XV. pp.89-90.
[2] See: Shabuldo F.M.Decree.op.C.107.
[3] See: ibid.pp.105--106.
[4] See: ibid., p. 115.
[5] The Tale of the Battle of Kulikovo //Edited by D.S. Likhachev, per. O.P. Likhacheva. L., 1980. p. 9.
[6] Ibid. p. 12.
[7] Ibid. p. 26.
[8] See: Shabuldo F.M. Decree. op. p. 134.
[9] See: ibid., p. 129.
[10] See: Yu.K. Begunov. About the historical basis of the "Tales of the Mamaev Massacre" // The Word about Igor's regiment and the monuments of the Kulikovo cycle. M.; L., 1966. pp.506-509; Copy L.N. Decree. op. T.II. pp.586-587.
[11] See: Shabuldo F.M. Decree. op. p. 132.
[12] Ibid.
[13] PSRL. Vol. 15. Issue 1.Stb. 141.
[14] See: Komarovich V.L. Kitezhskaya legend. M.; L., 1936. P.83 et seq.
[15] See: ibid. p. 84.
[16] See; Instantirsky A.V. Decree. op. Vol. II. p. 415.
[17] See: ibid. p. 588, with reference to V. Tatishchev.
[18] "Mattress" - from the Persian word "tupapg" (tube) - an iron barrel sealed from the breech; it was charged from the muzzle with a powder charge, which was filled with fragments of iron. It contained up to five charges, through which a fuse was passed, ignited from the muzzle and fired sequentially 5 times, like buckshot. The range of defeat was small, but enough for close combat. The mattress was supplanted by a cannon (garmata) in 1389.
[19] Cit. by: Pokrovsky M.N. Decree. Op. T. I. S. 177.
[20] Ibid. Decree. Op. T. I. S. 176.
[21] See: Copy A.V. Decree. OP. T.II. pp.586-587.
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