810 years ago, in the spring of 1206, at the headwaters of the Onon River at the kurultai, Temuchin was proclaimed a great khan over all the tribes and received the title "kagan", taking the name Chingis. Scattered and warring "Mongol" tribes united into a single state.
780 years ago, in the spring of 1236, the "Mongol" army set out to conquer Eastern Europe. A large army, which was replenished on the way with more and more detachments, reached the Volga in a few months and there united with the forces of the "Ulas Jochi". In the late autumn of 1236, the combined "Mongol" forces attacked the Volga Bulgaria. This is the official version of the history of the "Mongol" empire and the conquests of the "Mongol-Tatars".
Official version
According to the version included in the history textbooks, “Mongolian” feudal lords-princes (noyons) with their squads from all over the vast region of Central Asia gathered on the banks of the Onon River. Here in the spring of 1206, at a congress of representatives of the largest tribes and clans, Temuchin was proclaimed by the great khan as the supreme ruler of the "Mongols". It was a tough and successful one of the "Mongolian" clans, who was able to defeat rivals during bloody internecine quarrels. He adopted a new name - Genghis Khan, and his family was declared the eldest of all generations. Previously independent tribes and clans of the great steppe united into a single state entity.
The unification of tribes into a single state was a progressive phenomenon. The internecine wars are over. The prerequisites for the development of economy and culture appeared. A new law came into force - Yasa Genghis Khan. In Yasa, the main place was occupied by articles on mutual assistance in the campaign and the prohibition of deceiving the person who confided in him. Those who violated these regulations were executed, and the enemy of the "Mongols", who remained loyal to their ruler, was spared and accepted into their army. Faithfulness and courage were considered good, and cowardice and betrayal were considered evil. Genghis Khan divided the entire population into tens, hundreds, thousands and tumens-darkness (ten thousand), thereby mixing tribes and clans and appointing commanders over them specially selected people from close associates and nuker-vigilantes. All adult and healthy men were considered warriors who ran their household in peacetime, and took up arms in wartime. Many young, unmarried women could also carry out military service (an ancient tradition of the Amazons and Polians). Genghis Khan created a network of communication lines, courier communications on a large scale for military and administrative purposes, organized intelligence, including economic. No one dared to attack the merchants, which led to the development of trade.
In 1207, the "Mongol-Tatars" began to conquer the tribes that lived north of the Selenga River and in the Yenisei Valley. As a result, areas that were rich in iron-making industries were captured, which was of great importance for equipping the new large army. In the same year, 1207, the "Mongols" subdued the Tangut kingdom of Xi-Xia. The ruler of the Tanguts became a tributary of Genghis Khan.
In 1209, the conquerors invaded the Uighur country (East Turkestan). After a bloody war, the Uighurs were defeated. In 1211, the "Mongol" army invaded China. The troops of Genghis Khan defeated the army of the Jin Empire, and the conquest of huge China began. In 1215, the "Mongol" army took the capital of the country - Zhongdu (Beijing). In the future, the campaign against China was continued by the commander Mukhali.
After the conquest of the main part of the Jin Empire, the "Mongols" began a war against the Kara-Khitan Khanate, defeating which they established the border with Khorezm. Khorezmshah ruled a huge Muslim Khorezm state that stretched from North India to the Caspian and Aral Seas, as well as from modern Iran to Kashgar. In 1219-1221. "Mongols" defeated Khorezm and took the main cities of the kingdom. Then the detachments of Jebe and Subedei devastated northern Iran and, moving further to the north-west, ravaged the Transcaucasus, and reached the North Caucasus. Here they faced the combined forces of the Alans and Polovtsians. The "Mongols" failed to defeat the united Alano-Polovtsian army. The "Mongols" managed to defeat the Alans by bribing their allies - the Polovtsian khans. The Polovtsy left and the "Mongols" defeated the Alans and fell upon the Polovtsians. The Polovtsi could not join forces and were defeated. Having relatives in Russia, the Polovtsians turned to the Russian princes for help. The Russian princes of Kiev, Chernigov and Galich and other lands united their efforts to jointly repel the aggression. On May 31, 1223, on the Kalka River, Subedey defeated the much superior forces of the Russian-Polovtsian troops due to the inconsistency of the actions of the Russian and Polovtsian squads. The Grand Duke of Kiev Mstislav Romanovich the Old and the prince of Chernigov Mstislav Svyatoslavich died, like many other princes, governors and heroes, and the Galician prince Mstislav Udatny, famous for his victories, fled. However, on the way back, the "Mongol" army was defeated by the Volga Bulgars. After a four-year campaign, Subedey's troops returned.
Genghis Khan himself, having completed the conquest of Central Asia, attacked the previously allied Tanguts. Their kingdom was destroyed. Thus, by the end of Genghis Khan's life (he died in 1227), a huge empire was created from the Pacific Ocean and North China in the East to the Caspian Sea in the West.
The successes of the "Mongol-Tatars" are explained by:
- their "chosenness and invincibility" ("The Secret Legend"). That is, their morale was much higher than that of the enemy;
- the weakness of neighboring states, which were going through a period of feudal fragmentation, were split into state formations, tribes little connected with each other, where elite groups fought among themselves and vied with each other to offer their services to the conquerors. The masses, exhausted by internecine wars and bloody feuds of their rulers and feudal lords, as well as by heavy tax oppression, found it difficult to unite to repel the invaders, often they even saw the liberators in the "Mongols", under whom life would be better, therefore they were surrendered cities, fortresses, the masses were passive, waiting for someone to win;
- the reforms of Genghis Khan, who created a powerful shock equestrian fist with iron discipline. At the same time, the "Mongol" army used offensive tactics and retained its strategic initiative (Suvorov's eye, speed and onslaught). The "Mongols" sought to inflict surprise strikes at the enemy taken by surprise ("like snow on the head"), disorganize the enemy, and beat him in parts. The "Mongolian" army skillfully concentrated its forces, delivering powerful and crushing blows with superior forces in the main directions and decisive sectors. Small professional squads and poorly trained armed militias or loose huge Chinese armies could not withstand such an army;
- using the achievements of the military thought of neighboring peoples, such as the Chinese siege technique. In their campaigns, the "Mongols" massively used a variety of siege equipment of that time: battering rams, battering and throwing machines, assault ladders. For example, during the siege of the city of Nishabura in Central Asia, the "Mongol" army was armed with 3,000 ballistae, 300 catapults, 700 machines for throwing pots of burning oil, 4,000 assault ladders. 2,500 carts with stones were brought to the city, which they brought down on the besieged;
- thorough strategic and economic intelligence and diplomatic training. Genghis Khan thoroughly knew the enemy, his strengths and weaknesses. They tried to isolate the enemy from possible allies, inflate internal strife and conflicts. One of the sources of information were merchants who visited the countries of interest to the conquerors. It is known that in Central Asia and Transcaucasia, the "Mongols" quite successfully attracted rich merchants to their side, which conducted international trade. In particular, trade caravans from Central Asia regularly went to the Volga Bulgaria, and through it to the Russian principalities, delivering valuable information. An effective method of reconnaissance was the reconnaissance campaigns of individual detachments, which went very far from the main forces. So, for 14 years of Batu's invasion far to the west, right up to the Dnieper, a detachment of Subedei and Jebe penetrated, which went a long way and collected valuable information about the countries and tribes that were going to conquer. A lot of information was also collected by the "Mongol" embassies, which the khans sent to neighboring countries under the pretext of negotiations on trade or alliance.
Empire of Genghis Khan at the time of his death
The beginning of the Western campaign
The plans of a march to the West were formed by the "Mongol" leadership long before Batu's campaign. Back in 1207, Genghis Khan sent his eldest son Jochi to conquer the tribes that lived in the Irtysh river valley and further to the west. Moreover, the "ulus of Jochi" already then included the lands of Eastern Europe, which were to be conquered. The Persian historian Rashid ad-Din wrote in his Collection of Chronicles: “Jochi, on the basis of the greatest command of Genghis Khan, had to go with an army to conquer all regions of the north, that is, Ibir-Siberia, Bular, Desht-i-Kipchak (Polovtsian steppes), Bashkir, Rus and Cherkas to the Khazar Derbent, and subordinate them to your power."
However, this broad program of conquest was not carried out. The main forces of the "Mongol" army were linked by battles in the Celestial Empire, Central and Central Asia. In the 1220s, only a reconnaissance campaign was undertaken by Subedei and Jebe. This campaign made it possible to study information about the internal situation of states and tribes, communication routes, the capabilities of the enemy's military forces, etc. Deep strategic reconnaissance of the countries of Eastern Europe was carried out.
Genghis Khan handed over the "country of the Kipchaks" (Polovtsians) to his son Jochi for management and instructed him to take care of the expansion of possessions, including at the expense of lands in the west. After the death of Jochi in 1227, the lands of his ulus passed to his son Batu. Genghis Khan's son Ogedei became the great khan. Persian historian Rashid ad-Din writes that Ogedei "in accordance with the decree given by Genghis Khan to Jochi, entrusted the conquest of the Northern countries to members of his house."
In 1229, having ascended the throne, Ogedei sent two corps to the west. The first, led by Chormagan, was sent south of the Caspian Sea against the last Khorezm Shah Jalal ad-Din (defeated and died in 1231), to Khorasan and Iraq. The second corps, led by Subedey and Kokoshai, moved north of the Caspian Sea against the Polovtsy and Volga Bulgars. It was no longer a reconnaissance campaign. Subedey conquered the tribes, prepared the way and the springboard for the invasion. Subedey's detachments pushed the Saksin and Polovtsians in the Caspian steppes, destroyed the Bulgarian "watchmen" (outposts) on the Yaik River and began to conquer the Bashkir lands. However, Subedei could not advance further. Much greater forces were required to advance further westward.
After the kurultai of 1229, the great khan Ogedei moved the troops of the “ulus of Jochi” to help Subedei. That is, the trip to the west was not yet common. The main place in the policy of the empire was occupied by the war in China. At the beginning of 1230, the troops of the "ulus Jochi" appeared in the Caspian steppes, strengthening the corps of Subedei. "Mongols" broke through the river Yaik and broke into the possession of the Polovtsy between Yaik and the Volga. At the same time, the "Mongols" continued to put pressure on the lands of the Bashkir tribes. Since 1232, the "Mongol" troops increased the pressure on the Volga Bulgaria.
However, the forces of the "ulus of Jochi" were not enough to conquer Eastern Europe. The Bashkir tribes stubbornly resisted, and it took several more years for their complete submission. The Volga Bulgaria also withstood the first blow. This state had a serious military potential, rich cities, a developed economy and a large population. The threat of an external invasion forced the Bulgar feudal lords to unite their squads and resources. On the southern borders of the state, on the border of the forest and the steppe, powerful defensive lines were built to defend against the steppe inhabitants. Huge shafts stretched for tens of kilometers. On these fortified line, the Bulgars-Volgars were able to hold back the onslaught of the "Mongol" army. The "Mongols" had to spend the winter in the steppes, they could not break through to the rich cities of the Bulgars. Only in the steppe zone, the "Mongol" detachments were able to advance quite far to the west, reaching the lands of the Alans.
At the council, which met in 1235, the question of the conquest of the countries of Eastern Europe was again discussed. It became clear that the forces of only the western regions of the empire - the "ulus of Jochi", could not cope with this task. The peoples and tribes of Eastern Europe fiercely and skillfully fought back. The Persian historian Juvaini, a contemporary of the "Mongol" conquests, wrote that the kurultai of 1235 "made a decision to seize the countries of the Bulgars, Ases and Rus, which were with the encampments of Batu, were not yet conquered and were proud of their large numbers."
The assembly of the "Mongol" nobility in 1235 announced a general march to the west. Troops from Central Asia and most of the khans, descendants of Genghis Khan (Chingizids), were sent to help and reinforce Batu. Initially, Ogedei himself planned to lead the Kipchak campaign, but Munke dissuaded him. The following Chingizids took part in the campaign: the sons of Jochi - Batu, Orda-Ezhen, Shiban, Tangkut and Berke, the grandson of Chagatai - Buri and the son of Chagatai - Baydar, the sons of Ogedei - Guyuk and Kadan, the sons of Tolui - Munke and Buchek, the son of Genghis Khan - Kulkhan (Kulkan), the grandson of Genghis Khan's brother - Argasun. One of the best generals of Genghis Khan, Subedei, was summoned from Kitavi. Messengers were sent to all ends of the empire with the order for families, tribes and nationalities subject to the great khan to get ready for a campaign.
All winter 1235-1236. "Mongolian" gathered in the upper reaches of the Irtysh and the steppes of the Northern Altai, preparing for a big campaign. In the spring of 1236, the army set out on a campaign. Previously, they wrote about hundreds of thousands of "fierce" warriors. In modern historical literature, the total number of "Mongolian" troops in the western campaign is estimated at 120-150 thousand people. According to some estimates, the army initially numbered 30-40 thousand soldiers, but then it was reinforced by the inflowing allied and subdued tribes, which put up auxiliary contingents.
A large army, which was replenished on the way with more and more detachments, reached the Volga in a few months and there united with the forces of the "ulus of Jochi". In the late autumn of 1236, the combined "Mongol" forces attacked the Volga Bulgaria.
Source: V. V. Kargalov. Mongol-Tatar invasion of Russia
The defeat of the neighbors of Russia
This time the Volga Bulgaria could not resist. First, the conquerors increased their military power. Secondly, the "Mongols" neutralized the neighbors of Bulgaria, with whom the Bulgars interacted in the fight against the invaders. At the very beginning of 1236, the Eastern Cumans, allied to the Bulgars, were defeated. Some of them, led by Khan Kotyan, left the Volga region and migrated to the west, where they asked for protection from Hungary. The rest submitted to Batu and, along with the military contingents of other Volga peoples, later joined his army. The "Mongols" managed to come to an agreement with the Bashkirs and part of the Mordovians.
As a result, the Volga Bulgaria was doomed. The conquerors broke through the defensive lines of the Bulgars and invaded the country. The Bulgar cities, fortified with ramparts and oak walls, fell one after another. The capital of the state - the city of Bulgar was taken by storm, the inhabitants were killed. The Russian chronicler wrote: "The godless Tatars came from the Eastern countries to the Bulgarian land, and took the glorious and great Bulgarian city, and beat them with weapons from an old man to a youth and a baby, and took a lot of goods, and burned the city with fire and captured the whole land." Volga Bulgaria was terribly devastated. The cities of Bulgar, Kernek, Zhukotin, Suvar and others were turned into ruins. The countryside was also severely devastated. Many Bulgars fled to the north. Other refugees were received by the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich and resettled them in the Volga cities. After the formation of the Golden Horde, the territory of the Volga Bulgaria became part of it and the Volga Bulgarians (Bulgars) became one of the main components in the ethnogenesis of the modern Kazan Tatars and Chuvashes.
By the spring of 1237, the conquest of Volga Bulgaria was completed. Moving northward, the "Mongols" reached the Kama River. The "Mongol" command was preparing for the next stage of the campaign - the invasion of the Polovtsian steppes.
Polovtsi. As is known from written sources, the “disappeared” Pechenegs were replaced in the 11th century by the Torks (according to the classical version, the southern branch of the Seljuk Türks), then the Polovtsy. But for two decades of staying in the southern Russian steppes, the Torks did not leave any archaeological monuments (S. Pletneva. Polovtsian land. Old Russian principalities of the 10th - 13th centuries). In the XI-XII centuries, the Polovtsians, the direct descendants of the Siberian Scythians, known to the Chinese as dinlins, advanced to the steppe zone of European Russia south of southern Siberia. They, like the Pechenegs, had a "Scythian" anthropological appearance - they were fair-haired Caucasians. The paganism of the Polovtsians practically did not differ from the Slavic: they worshiped the father-heaven and mother-earth, the cult of ancestors was developed, the wolf enjoyed great respect (remember Russian fairy tales). The main difference between the Polovtsians and the Russes of Kiev or Chernigov, who led a completely sedentary life of farmers, was paganism and a semi-nomadic lifestyle.
In the Ural steppes, the Polovtsians became entrenched in the middle of the 11th century, and this is the reason for their mention in Russian chronicles. Although not a single 11th century burial ground has been identified in the steppe zone of South Russia. This suggests that initially military detachments, and not the nationality, went to the borders of Russia. A little later, the traces of the Polovtsians will be clearly visible. In the 1060s, military clashes between the Russians and the Polovtsy took on a regular character, although the Polovtsians often appear in alliance with one of the Russian princes. In 1116, the Polovtsians won up over the Yases and occupied Belaya Vezha, since that time their archaeological traces - "stone women" - appear on the Don and Donets. It was in the Don steppes that the earliest Polovtsian "women" were discovered (this is how the images of "ancestors", "grandfathers" were called). It should be noted that this custom also has a connection with the Scythian era and the early Bronze Age. Later Polovtsian statues appear in the Dnieper, Azov and Ciscaucasia. It is noted that the sculptures of Polovtsian women have a number of "Slavic" signs - these are temporal rings (a distinctive tradition of the Russian ethnos), many have multi-rayed stars and crosses in a circle on their chest and belts, these amulets meant that their mistress was patronized by the Mother Goddess.
For a long time it was believed that the Polovtsians were almost Mongoloids in appearance, and Türks in language. However, in terms of their anthropology, the Polovtsians are typical northern Caucasians. This is also confirmed by statues, where images of male faces are always with a mustache and even a beard. The Türkic-speaking of the Polovtsians has not been confirmed. The situation with the Polovtsian language resembles the Scythian one - with regard to the Scythians, they accepted the version (unconfirmed) that they were Iranian-speaking. Almost no traces of the Polovtsian language, like the Scythian, remain. An interesting question is, where did he disappear in such a relatively short period of time? For analysis, there are only a few names of the Polovtsian nobility. However, their names are not Turkic! There are no Türkic analogues, but there is consonance with the Scythian names. Bunyak, Konchak sound the same as the Scythian Taksak, Palak, Spartak, etc. Names similar to the Polovtsian ones are also found in the Sanskrit tradition - Gzak and Gozaka are noted in the Rajatorongini (Kashmir chronicle in Sanskrit). According to the "classical" (Western European) tradition, everyone who lived in the steppes to the east and south of the state of Rurikovich was called "Turks" and "Tatars".
Anthropologically and linguistically, the Polovtsians were the same Scythian-Sarmatians as the inhabitants of the Don region, the Azov region, on whose lands they came. The formation of the Polovtsian principalities in the southern Russian steppes of the 12th century should be considered as a result of the migration of Siberian Scythians (Rus, according to Yu. D. Petukhov and a number of other researchers) under pressure from the Turks to the west, to the lands of the related Volga-Don Yases and Pechenegs.
Why did kindred peoples fight each other? It is enough to recall the bloody feudal wars of the Russian princes or look at the current relations between Ukraine and Russia (two Russian states) to understand the answer. The ruling factions fought for power. There was also a religious split - between pagans and Christians, Islam had already penetrated somewhere.
Archaeological data confirm this opinion about the origin of the Polovtsians, as the heirs of the Scythian-Sarmatian civilization. There is no big gap between the Sarmatian-Alan cultural period and the "Polovtsian" one. Moreover, the cultures of the “Polovtsian field” reveal a kinship with the northern, Russians. In particular, only Russian ceramics were found in the Polovtsian settlements on the Don. This proves that in the XII century, the bulk of the population of the "Polovtsian field" was still made up of direct descendants of the Scythian-Sarmatians (Rus), and not the "Turks". The written sources of the XV-XVII centuries that have not been destroyed and which have come down to us confirm this. Polish researchers Martin Belsky and Matvey Stryjkovsky report on the kinship of the Khazars, Pechenegs and Polovtsians with the Slavs. The Russian nobleman Andrei Lyzlov, the author of "Scythian history", as well as the Croatian historian Mavro Orbini in the book "Slavic Kingdom" asserted that the "Polovtsians" are related to the "Goths" who stormed the borders of the Roman Empire in the 4th-5th centuries, and "Goths", in turn, are Scythians-Sarmatians. Thus, the sources that have survived after the total "cleansing" of the 18th century (carried out in the interests of the West) speak of the kinship of the Scythians, Polovtsians and Russians. Russian researchers of the 18th - early 20th centuries wrote about the same, who opposed the "classical" version of the history of Russia, composed by the "Germans" and their Russian singers.
The Polovtsi were not also the "wild nomads" they like to be portrayed as. They had their own cities. The Polovtsian cities of Sugrov, Sharukan and Balin are known to Russian chronicles, which contradicts the concept of the "Wild Field" in the Polovtsian period. The famous Arab geographer and traveler Al-Idrisi (1100-1165, according to other sources 1161) reports about six fortresses on the Don: Luka, Astarkuz, Barun, Busar, Sarada and Abkada. It is believed that Baruna corresponds to Voronezh. And the word "Baruna" has a Sanskrit root: "Varuna" in the Vedic tradition, and "Svarog" in the Slavonic Russian (God "cooked", "bungled", who created our planet).
During the fragmentation of Russia, the Polovtsians actively participated in the showdown of the princes of Rurikovich, in Russian strife. It should be noted that the Polovtsian princes-khans regularly entered into dynastic alliances with the princes of Russia, and became related. In particular, the Kiev prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich married the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan Tugorkan; Yuri Vladimirovich (Dolgoruky) married the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan Aepa; Volyn prince Andrei Vladimirovich married Tugorkan's granddaughter; Mstislav Udaloy was married to the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan Kotyan, etc.
The Polovtsians suffered a strong defeat from Vladimir Monomakh (Kargalov V., Sakharov A. Generals of Ancient Russia). Some of the Polovtsians left for the Transcaucasus, the other for Europe. The remaining Polovtsians reduced their activity. In 1223, the Polovtsians were twice defeated by the "Mongol" troops - in alliance with the Yasi-Alans and with the Russians. In 1236-1337. Polovtsy took the first blow of Batu's army and put up stubborn resistance, which was finally broken only after several years of brutal war. Polovtsi made up the majority of the population of the Golden Horde, and after its disintegration and absorption by the Russian state, their descendants became Russians. As already noted in anthropological and cultural terms, they were descendants of the Scythians, like the Rus of the Old Russian state, so everything returned to normal.
Thus, the Polovtsians, contrary to the opinion of Western historians, were not Turks or Mongoloids. The Polovtsi were light-eyed and fair-haired Indo-Europeans (Aryans), pagans. They led a semi-nomadic ("Cossack") way of life, settled in vezhes (remember Aryan Vezhi - vezhi-vezi of the Aryans), if necessary, fought with the Russes of Kiev, Chernigov, and the Turks, or made friends, became related and fraternized. They had a common Scythian-Aryan origin with the Rus of the Russian principalities, a similar language, cultural traditions and customs.
According to the historian Yu. D. Petukhov: “Most likely, the Polovtsians were not some kind of separate ethnic group. Their constant accompaniment to the Pechenegs suggests that they and others were one people, more precisely. A nation that could not be nailed to either the Russians of Kievan Rus Christianized by that time, or the pagan Russians of the Scythian Siberian world. The Polovtsi were between two huge ethno-cultural and linguistic nuclei of the super-ethnos of the Rus. But they were not included in any "core". … Not entering any of the gigantic ethnic masses and decided the fate of both the Pechenegs and the Polovtsians. " When the two parts, the two cores of the superethnos collided, the Polovtsians left the historical arena, were absorbed by the two massifs of the Rus.
The Polovtsi were among the first to receive the blows of the next wave of the Scythian-Siberian Rus, which, according to Western tradition, are called "Tatar-Mongols". Why? In order to reduce the civilizational, historical and living space of the super ethnos of the Russians - Russians, to solve the "Russian question", deleting the Russian people from history.
Polovtsian steppe
In the spring of 1237, the "Mongols" attacked the Polovtsy and Alans. From the Lower Volga, the "Mongol" army moved westward, using the "round-up" tactics against its weakened enemies. The left flank of the roundabout arc, which ran along the Caspian Sea and further along the steppes of the North Caucasus, to the mouth of the Don, was made up of the corps of Guyuk-khan and Munke. The right flank, which moved to the north, along the Polovtsian steppes, were the troops of Mengu Khan. To the aid of the khans, who fought a stubborn struggle with the Polovtsy and Alans, they later nominated Subedey (he was in Bulgaria).
The "Mongolian" troops crossed the Caspian steppes on a wide front. Polovtsi and Alans suffered a heavy defeat. Many died in fierce battles, the remaining forces retreated beyond the Don. However, the Polovtsians and Alans, the same courageous warriors as the "Mongols" (heirs of the northern Scythian tradition), continued to resist.
Almost simultaneously with the war in the Polovtsian direction, fighting took place in the north. In the summer of 1237, the "Mongols" attacked the lands of the Burtases, Moksha and Mordovians, these tribes occupied vast territories on the right bank of the Middle Volga. The corps of Batu himself and several other khans - the Horde, Berke, Buri and Kulkan - fought against these tribes. The lands of Burtases, Moksha and muzzles were relatively easily conquered by the "Mongols". They had a hollow advantage over the tribal militias. In the fall of 1237, the "Mongols" began to prepare for a campaign against Russia.
