Surprisingly, just today, when all the texts of the ancient Russian chronicles have been published, and besides, there is the Internet, in the textbook for the 4th grade of the secondary school "World around" A. A. Pleshakova and E. A. Kryuchkov literally wrote the following: “The battle began on April 5, 1242. Russian soldiers fought hard. It was difficult to contain the onslaught of the knights clad in heavy armor. But it turned out that the knights, having managed to crush the center of the Russian forces, themselves found themselves in a trap. Piled together, they became easy prey. Like a whirlwind, the Russian cavalry swooped down from the sides. The knights wavered and began to retreat. Many, because of their heavy armor, drowned in the lake, going under the ice with the horses. 50 captive knights were carried out in disgrace through the streets of Novgorod."
Needless to say, patriotism is a good thing, and if necessary, it is patriotism that requires a citizen to die for the Motherland, but it does not require a lie for her sake, because a lie is the very last thing. And here we meet a real lie in a textbook for fourth-graders, and, alas, everything seems to be the way it should be, because "knight-dogs" are "bad". Yes, they are bad, yes, they are invaders, but why deceive children? It would have been possible for them not to lie, and the significance of the battle would not have diminished in the least!
By the way, before writing this, they should have looked at a very interesting article in the newspaper … Pravda, April 5, 1942. Then the Great Patriotic War was going on, the battle was exactly 700 years old, the Soviet press appealed to the glorious history of our Motherland, Stalin himself proposed to be inspired by the memory of our glorious ancestors, but in the editorial of Pravda (can you imagine what the editorial of Pravda meant in those years ?!) there is not a word about the drowning of the knights in Lake Peipsi. That is, the Stalinist propagandists understood the difference between a movie and … a real story, but for some reason today's authors of school textbooks do not!
Yes, but where did these knights drowning in the lake come from, clinging to ice floes and blowing bubbles? Did S. Eisenstein come up with all this? But no, it turns out in the history of the confrontation of the Russian principalities with the expansion of the Teutonic Order to the East, such a battle in which the order's horsemen actually fell through the ice, really was, only it happened … much earlier than the Battle of the Ice!
The same old Russian chronicles tell us that in 1234, eight years before the Battle of the Ice, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich came from Pereyaslavl with the lower regiments and with the Novgorodians invaded the lands of the Order of the Swordsmen near the city of Yuryev, but did not besiege him. The knights left Yuryev, but were defeated in battle. Some of them immediately returned to the city, but another, which was pursued by Russian warriors, fell on the ice of the Emajõgi River. The ice collapsed and these warriors drowned. This battle received in history the name "Battle of Omovzha", and by the German name of the river - "Battle of Embach". Well, and the very content of the Novgorod chronicle looks like this: "The idea of prince Yaroslav on Nemtsi under Yuriev, and a hundred did not reach the city … prince Yaroslav bisha them … on the river on Omovyzh Nemtsi broke off" (that is, fell through the ice!) *
Obviously, while preparing for the filming of the film, S. Eisenstein read all the Russian chronicles of this period, and received the appropriate comments from historians who explained to him what it means "the Germans have broken off."And the fact that the image of warriors drowning in the ice-hole seemed to him extremely dramatic and very cinematically very advantageous can be considered undoubted. Here you can see, so to speak, "the hand of fate." After all, it was not for nothing that Soviet newspapers at that time almost openly reported that even nature was on the side of Soviet workers and collective farmers. After all, "in Soviet Ukraine - a rich harvest, and in Western Ukraine - an extreme crop failure" **. Only in the "Rhymed Chronicle" it is emphasized that the dead fell into the grass, but since there is no grass in April, we are talking, therefore, about the thickets of dry reeds that bordered the shores of the lake. That is, the Russian soldiers were on the shore, but the army of the order approached them on the ice of the lake. That is, the battle could not have been entirely on the ice, although the chronicles tell us that it was the ice that was filled with blood!
But the battle on ice, albeit on the ice of the sea, was also in the history of the confrontation between the Slavs and the Teutonic Order, and it is with much greater reason that it can be called the "Battle of the Ice".
And it so happened that in 1268 the Novgorodians decided to go on a campaign against Lithuania, but they argued over who should lead the campaign, which is why it never took place. But the Danish possessions were attacked, the Russians approached the castle of Rakvere (Rakovor), but they could not take it and asked for help from the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yaroslav Yaroslavich. He sent his sons and other princes, and in Novgorod they began to collect siege engines for the future assault on the city. The bishops of the Order and knights from Riga, Viljandi and St. George's arrived in Novgorod, asked for peace and promised that they would not help the Rokors, but the oath (even on the cross), but given to heretics, was not considered an oath by knights. Therefore, their army soon left Yuryev, and, joining with the Danes, stood up against the Russian troops on the left flank. The Danes were on the right flank, and in the center was the legendary German "pig". In the Novgorod Chronicle there is a story, which is not in the Chronicle, about the brutal battle of the Novgorodians with the "iron regiment" of knights, in which both the Novgorod mayor and 13 boyars, tysyatsky, were killed, and 2 boyars were missing.
In the meantime, the Russians were able to deliver a powerful counterattack to the enemy. The Livonian Chronicle reports that 5000 soldiers took part in it, but the knights managed to stop him. Our chronicle reports that the Russians won, and pursued the fleeing enemy seven miles (seven miles everywhere, isn't that surprising ?!) to Rakovor along three roads at once, since "the horses could not tread on corpses."
In the evening, another detachment of German soldiers came to the aid of the Germans, but only just plundered the Novgorod wagon train. The Russians decided to wait until morning to engage them in battle, but the Germans withdrew in time. For three days the Russian troops stood at the walls of Rakovor, but did not dare to storm the city. Meanwhile, the Pskov squad of Prince Dovmont invaded Livonia, wreaking havoc on the knights' estates and capturing prisoners. So he avenged them for the previous attacks on the lands of his principality.
In 1269, the order's troops undertook a retaliatory campaign, for 10 days they besieged Pskov to no avail, but then retreated, having learned that the Novgorod army with Prince Yuri at the head was approaching the city. Both sides agreed on peace, since after this defeat the orders could no longer threaten the strengthened principalities of North-Western Russia, and the Lithuanians began to threaten him in turn!
Lithuania was first mentioned in Russian chronicles in 1009, but it was united into a single state only around 1183. But even later, in the 13th century, both the Lithuanians and the Prussians continued to be pagans and did not want to be baptized. But freedom had to be paid for and to repel attacks from both the West and the East. But the Lithuanians fought hard for their independence and the faith of their fathers, and were baptized only in 1367. In peacetime, they lived on farming and cattle breeding, but they had enough money to buy expensive iron weapons. Often the Lithuanian horsemen also had large plots, which were leased out in parts to free peasants-communes who fought in the infantry.
The army (karias) of the Lithuanians was tribal. Moreover, the saddles of the Lithuanian horsemen were more comfortable than the knightly ones. In the summer, they often made robber raids for prey, but did not seize foreign lands. Fighting with them, the knights soon realized that it was best to fight such an enemy not in summer, but in winter, when the rivers freeze and you can walk along them like on a road.
True, the Lithuanians both went skiing like the Finns and fought on them! Men during such winter raids were usually killed so as not to drive them into the snow. But women and children were taken away with them, although because of them it was necessary to go back slowly.
The Lithuanians decided to set off on one of these trips in the winter of 1270, on the day of the winter solstice. Estonian Bishop Hermann von Buxhoden, learned about the invasion of troops from Lithuania, and immediately sent the troops of the Bishop of Tartu, Danes from northern Estonia and a detachment of knights of the Teutonic Order led by Otto von Litterburg, the master of the Order in Livonia, against them.
Ironically, the crusaders, who were marching to Lake Peipsi, were also led by the bishop of Tartu, also Hermann, and even … the uncle of this very von Buchshovden. But young German, apparently, did not know that the army of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Treydenius was approaching him, and that there were many Russian soldiers in him, veterans of past battles with the crusaders, and they were all very determined.
On February 16, 1270, the enemy troops met on the ice of the frozen Baltic Sea, and a heated battle ensued. The Lithuanians fenced themselves with sleds, and their opponents lined up in three detachments: the cavalry of the Teutonic Order in the center, the bishop stood on the left flank, and the Danes on the right. It is known that the knights in the center treated their allies with disdain and attacked the Lithuanians first, not waiting for all three detachments to march simultaneously. Before the Danes approached them, the Lithuanians apparently crippled many horses, and the knights, without the support of the infantry, could not do anything with them. Here the Lithuanians (most likely by cavalry) began to surround the Livonian infantry and the surviving Teutonic knights. But then the Danish cavalry and Bishop Herman came to their aid. In the "Livonian Rhymed Chronicle" it is written about this as follows: "It was a savage killing of horses and a massacre on both sides, Christians and pagans.
And the blood of people from both armies was spilled on the ice.
It was a fierce battle in which many human heads were chopped off.
The best (Master Otto) and 52 good warrior monks were killed in battle."
Christian sources report that the crusaders lost six hundred and the Lithuanians lost 1600! Therefore, the "battlefield", if I may say so about the surface of the frozen sea, remained with the knights, but their losses were so great that the victory was felt by them not at all as complete as they would have liked. It should be noted here that this battle helped the Lithuanians to gain national unity. But the Prussians failed on this path, and soon only one name remained of them.
Interestingly, it was David Nicole who wrote about the Lithuanian military affairs of the 13th century 20 years ago. a very interesting article giving many interesting details. For example, the battles between the fighting units of the Lithuanian tribes usually took place in the form of a group duel. The warriors fought on foot, and in case of defeat, they retreated to the horses, and sought salvation in flight. The main thing was to attack the enemy unexpectedly, toss him with darts at a gallop and immediately retreat - these are the methods of attack used by the Estonians, Lithuanians and Balts, and used the saddles of a suitable device with a shallow rear bow ***.
Their main weapon was a sword, mostly made in Germany, but the hilt was of local production. Found handles made of iron and bronze with overlaid silver ornaments. Moreover, metallographic analysis showed that spearheads and darts were imported to Lithuania from Scandinavia, but some were also made by local blacksmiths. They were even made of Damascus steel. That is, the technology of welding damascus was familiar to Lithuanian blacksmiths.
The main armor was chain mail, which was worn under and over warm outerwear. Helmets are sphero-conical, typical of the Eastern European design. Shields are of a traditional, common European form. As for the famous "Lithuanian pavese" - that is, a shield with a gutter for the hand protruding in the middle, then the Lithuanians did not have it yet. The Lithuanians borrowed this shield from the northeastern regions of Poland, where it became known in the middle of the 13th century. It should be emphasized that the Lithuanian cavalry played a very important role in the historic battle of Grunwald, when the military power of the Teutonic Order was greatly undermined!
So, most likely, the concept of the film "Alexander Nevsky" directed by S. Eisenstein was based on the history of all these three battles in a correspondingly revised and ideologically adjusted form. Well, his talent did its job, and as a result, all his fictional fiction was preserved even in school textbooks of 2014! And, of course, very few people notice that from a historical point of view, there are many historical inconsistencies in this film. Some of his characters are dressed in the wrong costumes, in which they should be dressed. The traitor kept repeating for some reason he was dressed up in a cuirass, but they were not yet worn at that time. The cross-shaped slots on the helmets of the "knight-dogs" do not really occur. There was a T-shaped slot on the knight's helmets, but in the shape of a cross - a clear author's fiction. Yes, and tophel helmets were assembled from 5 parts, and yet they did not look so much like buckets!
By the way, this film found its adherents even in other countries, national directors, began to shoot historical films similar to it in design. The second after “Alexander Nevsky” was the film “Kaloyan” filmed in Bulgaria in 1963. Its plot is as follows: the Bulgarian king Kaloyan is fighting the Byzantines, the traitorous Bulgarians, and smashing the Western European crusaders, who have bucket-shaped helmets on their heads. Moreover, the events of this film date back to 1205, when these helmets had not yet entered the military "fashion"! But, what won't you go for for a beautiful myth and an impressive shot? Therefore, the gilded "buckets" of the knights, and the solid-forged shell and bascinet helmet on Tsar Kaloyan (which appeared two centuries later) are such "trifles" that they do not even deserve attention!
It should be noted that the nickname - "knight-dogs" of the Teutonic Order in Russia received only six centuries later, and then because of an incorrect translation of the works of Karl Marx into Russian. The founder of the communist doctrine used the noun "monk" in relation to these knights, which they were, but in German it turned out to be consonant with the word "dog"!
By the way, it is hardly worth attributing to Alexander Nevsky the phrase about the death of the enemies of the Russian land by the sword. That is, of course, he could well have said something - why not, but in fact this is a phrase from the Bible, altered by S. Eisenstein. And, again, from the point of view of art, the fact that he invented it is very good, therefore, this once again emphasizes the erudition and education ("bookishness") of the legendary prince! Thus, there is not the slightest humiliation of our military glory in reading the chronicles and following the facts that are known to historical science today. Don't underestimate anything, but don't exaggerate anything either!
