It is assumed that Yaroslav went to the headquarters of the great khan with two purposes: to confirm his ownership rights and as a personal representative of Batu Khan at the great kurultai, assembled for the sake of electing a new khan to replace the deceased Ogedei. In any case, Batu, who said he was sick, did not send someone else instead of himself to the kurultai, where, according to the law, all the Chinggisids were supposed to gather. His brother Berke and other Chinggisid relatives, subjects of the Jochi ulus, represented their own persons at the kurultai.
Perhaps there was also a third goal pursued by Batu, sending Yaroslav to Karakorum. Batu wanted Yaroslav to personally follow through the entire territory of the Mongol empire, see how it works, get acquainted with its achievements and become convinced, both of the futility of any resistance to such a huge and well-oiled state machine, and of the honor of serving it.
One way or another, Yaroslav set off on a long journey across the Eurasian continent. He had to overcome about 5000 km. from the lower reaches of the Volga to the "blue Kerulen" and "golden Onon". He was fifty-five years old, he did not complain about his health, he spent his entire adult life on campaigns, the long journey was not terrible for him.
The way to the Mongolian capital from the Batu headquarters took about four months. Yaroslav left at the end of April and arrived at the headquarters of the great khan at the beginning of August 1246.
Four months of uninterrupted journey through the steppes, mountains, deserts … What did the Russian Grand Duke think about, driving through destroyed cities and villages, all day, or maybe weeks, not seeing any other people except his own retinue, the Mongols accompanying him with impenetrable faces and employees post stations - pits - places where you can change tired horses and rest? Maybe he recalled his first campaign at the head of his own squad, when he, a fourteen-year-old boy, in alliance with experienced soldiers Roman Mstislavich Galitsky, the father of his current ally Daniel, and Rurik Rostislavich Kievsky, went out into the steppe against the Polovtsians, defeated them, and then his father married a swimmer princess, who died young without giving birth to his first child … Then he did not think that forty years later, on the same steppe road as then, he would go not to battle, but to bow to the steppe khan, will send him even further, a hundred days' journey to the distant "land of Mungal" where the rivers, mountains and grasses are no longer the same as in Russia … He probably remembered that, returning from that long campaign, Roman and Rurik had a falling out, Roman captivated Rurik and forcibly tonsured him a monk, and he, less than a year later, died in a minor skirmish with a Polish detachment. And Rurik's son Vladimir, who also took part in that campaign, captured at the same time by Roman and taken to Galich, ten years after that campaign, will go against him, Yaroslav to the Lipitsk field and Yaroslav runs from there, defeated and humiliated, driving horses … And then, more twenty years later, the same Vladimir, tired after a ten-year inter-princely massacre in southern Russia, from an endless and useless struggle for power, will invite him, Yaroslav, to take the golden Kiev table, which he himself had previously occupied.
A lot of things could be remembered during the long days of a monotonous journey, good and bad. And to think about a lot, to understand a lot.
What, for example, one can think about, and what to understand, looking at the endless expanses of the steppes, seemingly deserted, but divided by invisible boundaries drawn by different peoples, tribes, clans, where every bush, every well, stream, salt lake or river is then they belong and at any moment, it is worth a little distraction, from behind a hillock, a ridge of a hill or from an inconspicuous hollow, as a detachment of riders on squat horses will appear from under the ground. Wearing pointed hats, with flat-faced cheekbones and arrows ready to fly, lying on the bowstrings of short bent bows, seeing the khan's paizu, and hearing the angry guttural shout of the commander of the Mongol escorting the detachment, selected by Batu khan as escort, without saying a word, they turn around and disappear in clouds of dust, as if there were none at all. And again a long way across the endless steppe …
What can you think about seeing the impeccable organization of the postal business on this vast territory, when the orders of the khan can reach the addressee at a speed of 200 km per day, when, seeing a sign with a falcon on his chest at the approaching horseman, even the most noble noblemen-chigisids are inferior to him the road - the messenger of the imperial pit service is going.
Yes, they do not build churches and cities (but they destroy them perfectly!), Do not sow or plow (others do it for them), their craft is mostly primitive and limited to the manufacture of the simplest products. They do not write or read books (how long have the Russians themselves learned this?), They do not produce exquisite ceramics and bright fabrics, they do not even live in one place, traveling around their country for herds of horses and rams. Many of them do not even have metal weapons and armor, although they all have bows that they masterfully wield, the lassos with which they can snatch any horseman from a saddle or an infantryman out of order, a club whose blow, inflicted from a galloping horse, can crush the strongest helmet.
In every nomad, every adult man is a warrior. There may be few of them, but if necessary, they will very quickly be able to deploy a huge army, which will have a well-formed trained command staff from ten's to thousand's managers, where each warrior will know his place in the ranks, understand and unquestioningly execute commands. The speeds with which they move to the Russians, and indeed to the Europeans, in principle, are completely inaccessible, which means that even where there are generally fewer of them, in the right place and at the right time there will be more of them.
But most of all, Yaroslav should have been impressed by their law, or rather, the Law. And even, probably, not the law itself, but the attitude of the Mongols themselves to this law. The law is written for everyone, it is sanctified and adopted, everyone, from the prince-chinggisid to the shepherd in an unknown nomad, must obey it unquestioningly, since a violation will inevitably be followed by punishment, regardless of origin and merit. And as long as this law is observed, the empire is invincible.
All this was to be seen by the Russian Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who was on his way to bow to the great Mongol khan, not yet elected, the emperor of the great empire.
He had, of course, other thoughts, more urgent and mundane. It is not known what instructions Batu provided him with for this trip, whether he dedicated Yaroslav to any political alignments of the empire, of which Yaroslav was now a part, however, by the time of his arrival in Karakorum, some of the most basic questions Yaroslav undoubtedly had for himself clarify. Surely he already knew, at least partially, the genealogy of the Mongol khans, their personal characteristics and political weight on the scale of the empire, he also knew about the conflict between Guyuk and Batu, whose claims to the throne of the emperor were legally more justified. Most likely, he also understood that, being a representative of the Batu ulus at the headquarters of the great khan, he, nevertheless, was not endowed with the immunity of an envoy, whose life, according to Mongol law, is inviolable.
Formally, the purpose of his trip was simple - to confirm with the elected great khan his ownership rights in the western ulus of the empire and to assert his seniority over all Russian princes …
A detailed description of the kurultai can be found in the work of the Franciscan monk Giovanni Plano Carpini "History of the Mongals, we call Tatars". Here we will only note that after the election of Guyuk as a great khan, Yaroslav was received both by himself and by his mother Turakina, who, until the election of the new khan, performed the functions of regent. During these receptions, Yaroslav confirmed all Batu's awards to the new Great Khan and left for his homeland. A week later, after the start of the journey, on September 30, 1246, somewhere in the steppes of Mongolia, Yaroslav died.
Death of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. Facial annalistic vault
Sometimes, and even very often, historical sources evaluate certain events differently, contradicting each other. In the case of the death of Yaroslav, all of them somehow even suspiciously unanimous, claiming that Yaroslav was poisoned, and even naming the name of the poisoner - Khatun Turakina, mother of the great Khan Guyuk. At the farewell feast, preceding Yaroslav's departure from Karakorum, Turakina personally treated Yaroslav to food and drink, which, according to Mongolian customs, was a great honor, to refuse which means to inflict an insult that was washed off only by the death of the offender. Immediately after the feast, Yaroslav felt unwell, despite this, the next morning he went back home. Every day he became worse and worse, and a week later he died, as practically all chronicles note, a "necessary" death. After death, his body turned blue in a short time, which contemporaries also attributed to the action of a certain poison.
So, contemporaries unanimously believed that Yaroslav was killed - poisoned by Khatunya Turakina. However, there is some controversy about the reasons for such an unfriendly act by the mother of the great khan.
The chronicles brought to us the meager news that Yaroslav was slandered before the khan by a certain Fyodor Yarunovich: "The great prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich was in the Horde with the Kanovichs and there was fond of Theodor Yarunovich." Who this Fyodor Yarunovich was is unknown. It is assumed that he arrived in Karakorum with Yaroslav's retinue, did not act there for some reason, contrary to his interests. In general, this may indicate that Russia already in 1246 was integrated into the global Eurasian policy of the Mongol Empire and Fyodor Yarunovich represented some forces in Russia hostile to Yaroslav and, probably, Bat, but positively disposed towards the great khan … However, it is possible that Fyodor Yarunovich made the decision to "chase" the Russian prince in front of the khan in Karakorum, proceeding from any personal considerations. One way or another, the chroniclers see a direct connection between the actions of Fedor and the death of the prince.
However, such an interpretation of events runs counter to the usual behavior of the Mongols in cases of exposing one of the subjects of treason or other grave misconduct. In such cases, the perpetrators were subjected to public execution, this even applied to the Chinggisid nobles, and they did not particularly stand on ceremony with the Russian princes. If Yaroslav, thanks to Fedor's testimony, had been caught in any crime before the khan, he would have been executed there, at the kurultai, as the enemies of Turakina and Guyuk, accused of treason after the election of the latter, were executed. In the case of Yaroslav, we are not dealing with execution, but with murder, and murder is both secret and demonstrative. "Cuddling", that is, slandering the prince before the great khan in this case is hardly the reason for such an act.
Some researchers believe that the cause of Yaroslav's death was his contacts with the Catholic priest Plano Carpini, who was at that time at the court of the great khan. However, this point of view also seems somewhat far-fetched. Karpini arrived at the khan's court officially with a friendly embassy mission from the papal court, not before, not after him, the pope never showed any hostile intentions towards the Mongol empire, therefore the representative of the Catholic pontiff could not be perceived at the khan's rate as a representative of a hostile power and contacts with they could not compromise anyone. And even more so, they could not compromise Yaroslav, who devoted most of his life to the fight against Catholics.
As the second possible reason for the murder of Yaroslav, some researchers put forward disagreements in policy regarding the Juchi ulus between Turakina and Guyuk. In this case, the reconstruction of events is done as follows. Yaroslav arrives at the kurultai, expresses his loyal feelings to Guyuk on his own behalf and on behalf of Batu. Fyodor Yarunovich “cuddles” Yaroslav and Batu in front of the khan, but Guyuk, considering it premature to enter open confrontation with Batu, does not take any hostile actions against Yaroslav, letting him go back and begins to prepare for difficult but necessary negotiations with Batu himself. Turakina, being a supporter of the immediate outbreak of war, presents the Russian prince with poison in such a way that he would die outside the khan's headquarters, not allowing Batu, on the one hand, to accuse Guyuk of hostile actions, but clearly showing him his hostile intentions. A sort of "dead messenger". Simply put, Guyuk is trying to preserve the integrity of the empire by agreeing with Batu about peace, Turakina is trying, without damaging Guyuk's reputation, to provoke an armed conflict between the Jochi ulus and the empire, during which Batu will certainly be destroyed.
Guyuk died in 1248 a week before meeting with Batu. It is believed that he was poisoned by the agents of Batu himself, who, after the death of Guyuk, managed to "promote" his protege to the throne of the great khan - Khan Mengu (Mongke).
The companions took Yaroslav's body to Vladimir, where he was buried in the Assumption Cathedral, next to his father and elder brother.
However, there is one more circumstance from the life of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, sufficiently studied by historians, but insufficiently known to history buffs.
This refers to a letter from Pope Innocent IV addressed to Yaroslav's eldest son, Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, the content of which turned out to be simply sensational. This letter was first published and introduced into scientific circulation in the 20th century, and the overwhelming majority of researchers recognize its authenticity. I will not refrain from citing the first paragraph of this letter with insignificant exceptions:
“To the noble husband Alexander, Duke of Suzdal, Innocent Bishop, the slave of God's servants. Father of the coming century … The Lord Jesus Christ sprinkled the dew of his blessing on the spirit of your parent, the blessed memory of Yaroslav … For, as we learned from the message of his beloved son, brother John de Plano Carpini from the Order of Minorites, our attorney, sent to the Tatar people, your father, passionately longing to turn into a new man, humbly and piously he gave himself up to the obedience of the Roman Church, his mother, through this brother, in the presence of Emer, the military adviser. And soon all people would know about it, if death so unexpectedly and happily wrested him from life."
It is no more, no less than the acceptance of Catholicism by Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, because otherwise it is simply impossible to understand the written text with all the will. Further, the letter contains calls to Alexander to follow the example of his father, the last paragraph is devoted to the request to inform the Teutonic Order about the movements of the Mongol troops, so that “we can immediately think about how, with the help of God, these Tatars can be courageously resisted”.
However, given the uniqueness of the news of Yaroslav's conversion to Catholicism before his death, most researchers, without questioning the authenticity of the papal message, subject it to a rather harsh and, it seems, reasonable criticism of its content.
Firstly, Plano Carpini himself, who left us detailed memoirs about his trip to Karakorum, where he describes, among other things, his contacts with Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, does not mention a word about Yaroslav's conversion to Catholicism. If such a fact took place in reality, the clergyman thinks about his victory, compiling a report for the pope about his trip, which became the basis for his "History of the Mongols", would not fail to mention.
Secondly, with the arrival of Yaroslav's body to his homeland, all the necessary Orthodox rituals were performed over him and he was buried in an Orthodox church, which is impossible for a Catholic. Considering how seriously people took issues of religion in the 13th century, this can only testify to Yaroslav's belonging to the Orthodox confession and no other.
Thirdly, Yaroslav, as an experienced politician in his sixth decade, of course, perfectly understood what consequences his act could have, including for his family and heirs. He could make a decision to change his confession only if there were the most significant reasons for this, lying in the field of politics, which we certainly do not observe.
Fourthly, in the very text of the Pope's letter there is one circumstance, verified by sources, and not confirmed by them, namely, an indication of a certain "Emer, military adviser", allegedly able to testify to Yaroslav's appeal. However, in the memoirs of Plano Carpini, Emer (or Temer) is mentioned only as a translator, and he transferred to the service from Yaroslav to Karpini himself. He could not be a "military adviser", because in order to occupy such a high post under the prince, a noble origin is required, and persons of noble origin could not be simple interpreters. Such an inaccuracy in the pope's letter may indicate his poor knowledge of the issues to which this letter was devoted, thus undermining the credibility of the source as a whole.
It is also likely that this letter should be viewed in a general context with another letter from the Pope addressed to Alexander Yaroslavich, in which the Pope is already happy about Alexander's decision to convert to Catholicism and allows him, at his request, to build a Catholic cathedral in Pskov. As we know, no Catholic cathedral was built in Pskov, and Alexander Yaroslavich lived and died as an Orthodox prince and was even numbered among the Orthodox saints. In no other sources, except for the papal letters, the conversion of Yaroslav and Alexander to Catholicism is not something that is not confirmed, but is not even mentioned. History has not left us any even circumstantial evidence that could confirm the reality of this assumption.
It is likely that Innocent IV, who was an outstanding politician, energetic and intelligent, writing or signing letters to Alexander Yaroslavich, was incorrectly informed by his office about the real state of affairs in the eastern outskirts of Europe, especially since he was not primarily interested in affairs in Russia.
* * *
Summing up the life and work of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, I would like to say a few kind words.
Born during the "golden" Vladimir Rus, he lived a long and vibrant life, most of which he spent in military campaigns and "distant business trips" to Pereyaslavl-Yuzhny, Ryazan, Novgorod, Kiev. He was an active and energetic prince, warlike and decisive. To his credit, it must be said that, in general, he demonstrated his activity and belligerence against the external enemies of Russia, outside its borders, since he clearly adhered to the point of view according to which "the best defense is an attack." On his conscience, in comparison with many other princes, there is very little shed Russian blood. Even while destroying the city of Serensk, the possession of his most principled enemy among the Russian princes, Mikhail Vsevolodovich of Chernigov, Yaroslav, before burning this city, took all its inhabitants out of its borders, which was not always done by other participants in the strife.
It was Yaroslav who determined the directions of the policy that brought unprecedented glory to his son Alexander Nevsky - cooperation with the Mongols and irreconcilable opposition to the Catholic West. In fact, Alexander in his foreign, domestic policy and military activities simply copied his father - the battle on ice is actually a copy of the Battle of Omovzha in 1234, Alexander's campaigns against Lithuania exactly repeat the campaigns of his father, even the places of battles with the Lithuanians coincide, like a blueprint from Yaroslav's campaign in 1228, carried out in 1256 - 1257. winter hike across the Gulf of Finland against Emi. Everything that Alexander did, and that brought him great posthumous fame and the love of his descendants (completely deserved), all these things began to be done by his father.
It is a special merit to Yaroslav that, faced with the hurricane of the Mongol invasion, he did not lose his head, did not allow anarchy and anarchy on his land. His works aimed at the restoration and revival of the Vladimir-Suzdal land have not been fully appreciated by descendants, and it was from this land that modern Russia was later born and grew up.
