780 years ago, on July 15, 1240, Alexander Yaroslavich with his squad utterly defeated the Swedish knights invading our lands. Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword!
Northwestern border of Russia
In the Baltic direction, various clashes and wars were commonplace. First, the Baltic States, Karelia were the outskirts of Russia. During the period of feudal fragmentation, this region was in the sphere of influence of the Lord of Veliky Novgorod. Novgorodians in the XI-XII centuries. actively colonized the western, northern and eastern lands. In the future Estonia, the Russians founded Kolyvan (later Revel-Tallinn). Novgorodians settled on the banks of the river. Neva river to the mouth. Most of the Finno-Ugric tribes of modern Finland and Karelia paid tribute to Novgorod.
In the same period, the expansion of the Swedes began. At first, the Swedes made episodic raids on the Novgorod lands and attacked merchant ships. The Karelians and the Russians responded in the same way. By 1160, Sweden ended the internal hush-up, the war of the feudal lords for power, the struggle between Christians and pagans. After that, the Swedes began a new stage of expansion - systematic campaigns and colonization. In particular, in 1164 the Swedish army tried to take Ladoga. Ladoga residents held out in the Kremlin and retreated to the Voronoi River (flows into Lake Ladoga), where they built a fortification. However, the Novgorod army defeated the discoverers. The Rus also struck back. In 1187 the Novgorod, Izhora and Karelian army with a sudden blow took and burned the Swedish capital Sigtuna. After this pogrom, the Swedes did not restore the old capital and erected a new one - Stockholm.
It is worth noting that Russian and Swedish (as well as Germanic, Danish) colonization were fundamentally different. Naturally, Russian colonization was not only peaceful. There were armed clashes and coercion. However, the Russians did not suppress the local tribes, did not turn the local residents into slaves, and did not consider them “subhuman”. The implementation went almost painlessly. The territory was huge, everyone had enough animals and fish. The tribute was small, the Orthodox Church acted relatively sluggishly and peacefully. The Russians were distinguished by their religious tolerance, the Novgorodians themselves at that time were pagans or dual believers - they worshiped both Christ and Perun. Therefore, the Novgorodians did not have castles and fortresses in the area of the river. Neva, in Karelia and southern Finland. As a result, all the locals became equal residents of the Russian land, they were not considered "second-class people."
The Swedes and Germans carried out colonization in Finland and the Baltic states according to a tough scenario. Lands were seized, ruined, strong points were built - castles and fortresses. Knights and their retinue lived in them. The surrounding population was enslaved, enslaved, forcibly Christianized. The natives who resisted slavery and "holy faith" were physically destroyed. They killed as hard as possible so that others would be discouraged. In particular, they burned alive. As a result, for many centuries a slave system was formed, where there are masters and “subhuman” slaves.
Threat from the West
How did the western knights end up at Pskov and Novgorod? During the time of the Russian princes Oleg the Prophet and Igor the Old, the vast territory between Novgorod and the Frankish kingdom was occupied by the Slavic-Russian (so-called. Western Slavs) and Lithuanian tribes, which had just separated from the Balto-Slavic community and worshiped Perun, had the same spiritual and material traditions as the Rus.
This war between the West and the North has practically been forgotten. A fierce and bloody struggle has been going on for several hundred years. The Roman throne directed the crusaders to the North and East. The West used the ancient divide and conquer strategy. Slavic tribes and lands were destroyed, enslaved, assimilated, Christianized and partially pushed to the east. "Slavic Atlantis" in the center of Europe was destroyed ("Slavic Atlantis" in Central Europe). Few people nowadays know that today's Germany, Austria, Denmark, Scandinavian countries, partly Northern Italy were created on Slavic bones and heritage. That today's Germans are, for the most part, assimilated Slavic Russians who have forgotten the language, traditions and culture.
In the occupied lands, Western knights and clergy carried out violent Christianization, turned previously free people into serf slaves or destroyed them. In some areas, the Slavs-Rus were exterminated without exception. They were hunted like wild animals. Many Slavs fled further east. In particular, many moved to the lands of Lithuania, and the Lithuanian tribes received a significant Slavic admixture. The remaining Slavs were resettled from the fertile, convenient lands that belonged to them, driven into swampy places where it was possible to live mainly only by fishing. Knights, large feudal lords, bishops and monasteries enslaved the Christianized Slavs. The disobedient were systematically exterminated. Developed "law-abidingness." Instead, peasants were resettled from more western territories, where the corresponding processing had taken place centuries earlier.
The Catholic Church and Germanic feudal lords persecuted the language and customs of the conquered Slavic tribes. Destroyed their culture and traditions. True, the Slavs showed colossal resistance to these destructive processes. Only in the 17th century, during the devastating Thirty Years' War, was the Slavic element finally rooted out. Only a pitiful remnant remained.
In the 12th century, the Germans began their expansion in the Baltics. First, they founded a trading post at the mouth of the Western Dvina. Then the missionaries came with the soldiers. They preached among the Baltic tribes "with fire and sword." Churches were erected on steep hills and strategic heights, and stone walls with towers were erected for their "protection". Despite this, the Livs did not want to be baptized and pay tithes to Rome. Then the Germans organized a crusade and betrayed Livonia to fire and sword. The Livs continued to resist. Then Bishop Albert founded Riga in 1200 at the mouth of the Neva. Also on his initiative, in 1202, the Order of the Knights of the Sword was created, which settled in the Wenden fortress.
Subjugating Livonia, the German knights moved to Russia. Thus, a terrible threat hung over the Russian land, which was going through a period of fragmentation. The eastern core of the Rus could repeat the fate of their brothers in Central Europe. The Polotsk princes did not realize in time the threat posed by the western knights. The crusaders moved to the east, began to take away the lower lands from the Polotsk principality. At the same time, the Westerners acted not only with a sword, but also with a carrot. They negotiated, persuaded, paid tribute to Polotsk for the Livonian lands, “helped” against Lithuania, etc. In 1213, the Germans captured the city of Bear Mountain in the Chud lands (the ancestors of today's Estonians). And the Peipsi land was part of the sphere of influence of Novgorod.
From that time, the wars of the knights began against Pskov and Novgorod. In 1224, after a long siege, the crusaders took by storm the strategic stronghold of the Russians in Estonia - Yuryev. The garrison headed by Prince Vyacheslav Borisovich and all the townspeople were killed. The Rusichi more than once harshly crushed the enemy, but in the conditions of the fragmentation of the Russian land, this struggle would sooner or later be lost. The "onslaught to the East" was planned, carried out systematically, according to a clear strategy of enslavement. The Germans, Danes, Swedes and the Roman throne made the Baltic region a battleground for eight centuries. In the Russian principalities and lands under one prince they beat the enemies, under the other - they listened, conducted a "flexible policy". The Western crusaders treated the Russian Christians in about the same way as the pagan Balts. For them, the Russians were heretics who had to be baptized into the correct faith or exterminated.
Battle of the Neva
One of the first to recognize the threat from the West was Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, son of Vsevolod the Big Nest, father of Alexander Nevsky. Its capital city was Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. In 1228, the Novgorodians invited Yaroslav to reign. He was preparing a campaign to Riga, but quarreled with the Pskov and Novgorodians. In 1234, Yaroslav defeated the Germans at Yuryev-Dorpat and pronounced Yuryev's tribute from the enemy for himself and his successors. The famous tribute that Ivan the Terrible used to start a war with the aim of returning the Baltic states to Russia.
During this time, the threat from the West increased significantly. The Order of the Swordsmen in 1237 was united with the more powerful Teutonic Order, which settled in part of the Polish lands and in Prussia. The lands of the Prussians-Porussians (Slavs-Russes) were captured, most of the population was exterminated, the rest were turned into slaves. The crusaders were preparing a blow to Russia. They hoped to take advantage of the favorable situation. In 1237-1240. Russia has undergone a terrible invasion from the East. The Horde "Mongols" came (The myth of the "Mongol-Tatar" invasion; The myth of the "Mongols from Mongolia" is the most grandiose provocation of the Vatican against Russia). Russia was devastated, its military-economic and human potential was significantly weakened. The Russian principalities fell under the rule of the Golden Horde.
The Roman throne decided to use the weakening of the central principalities of Russia to seize the Russian North - Pskov and Novgorod. In 1237 Rome proclaimed the second crusade to Finland. In 1238 the Danish and Teutonic knights agreed on joint actions in Estonia and against Russia. The Swedish feudal lords also joined the union. In the summer of 1240, large Swedish feudal lords Jarl Birger and Ulf Fasi gathered an army (according to various sources, from 1 to 5 thousand soldiers) and landed at the mouth of the Neva. The bishops arrived with the army. The Swedes planned to subjugate the Izhora and Voda lands, where the Vod and Izhora tribes lived, which were part of the Novgorod land. Establish a fortress at the mouth of the Neva, and then strike at Novgorod. At the same time, a crusader strike was being prepared from the west, and the Swedes knew about it.
Since 1236, the young prince Alexander Yaroslavich served (was the head of the army) in Novgorod. The enemy was discovered by the Novgorod "sea guard" - Izhora, headed by the elder Pelugiy (Pelgusiy). Izhora discovered the appearance of the Swedes and reported to Novgorod. Obviously, then there was a system of operational communications from the mouth of the Neva to Novgorod (signal lights on the hills, possibly a horse relay race). Then the brave Izhora guards watched the landed enemy. Prince Alexander did not wait for the gathering of the Novgorod army, gathered a personal squad and set off on horseback and on boats along the Volkhov. A detachment of Novgorod volunteers also spoke with him. A local squad joined in Ladoga. As a result, Alexander had about 300 professional fighters - vigilantes and about 1000 thousand warriors. A total of 1300-1400 warriors.
The Swedes did not know about the approach of the enemy. They were confident in their strength and settled down to rest on the southern bank of the Neva, near the confluence of the Izhora River. On July 15, 1240, the Russians attacked the enemy. The attack was sudden. The Swedes controlled the waterway, but they did not expect an attack from land. Foot warriors attacked along the coast to cut off the enemy from the ships, the cavalry struck the center of the camp to close the encirclement. Prince Alexander personally wounded Jarl Birger with a spear. Sources described the exploits of several soldiers: Gavrilo Oleksich, riding a horse on an enemy ship, chopped down the Swedes. He was thrown into the water, but he survived and again entered the battle, defeated one of the enemy commanders. Misha from Novgorod with his detachment attacked Swedish ships and captured three of them. Druzhinnik Savva broke into the tent of the Swedish commander and hooked up the support pillar. The fall of the golden-domed tent of the Swedish leader inspired the Russian warriors. The Novgorodian Sbyslav Yakunovich cut down many enemies with an ax. Ratmir, close to Alexander, fought several enemies at once and died a heroic death.
Stunned by the sudden attack and injury of the leader, the Swedes wavered and fled. With the onset of darkness, the Swedish squadron went to sea. By order of Alexander, two captured ships (augers) were loaded with the bodies of the killed Swedes, they were allowed to follow the river and "drowned in the sea." The rest of the killed, apparently simple warriors and servants from the Finnish tribes, sum and em, were buried "throwing them into nudes without number." Officially, the Russian army lost 20 soldiers. The loss of 20 professional vigilantes in a surprise attack is serious. In addition, Izhor warriors took part in the battle. They were pagans and burned the bodies of their fallen fellow tribesmen. Therefore, their losses were hardly noted in the sources.
The battle of the Neva became a good lesson for the Swedish feudal lords. At the moment of a terrible threat to Russia, the people saw their defender in the young prince. "God is not able, but in truth!" True, it was difficult with the freedom-loving Novgorodians. Soon Novgorod quarreled with the prince, and he went to his inheritance - Pereslavl-Zalessky. But the Novgorodians chose the time for the swara unsuccessfully. In the same year 1240, the crusaders launched a major offensive against Russia. The swordsmen took Izborsk, defeated the Pskov army and captured Pskov. Great danger loomed over Novgorod itself.
