It should be noted that in 1240, at the same time as the Swedish invasion, the invasion of the Novgorod-Pskov lands by the knights of the Teutonic Order began. Taking advantage of the distraction of the Russian army to fight the Swedes, in 1240 they captured the cities of Izborsk and Pskov and began to advance towards Novgorod.
In 1240, the Livonian knights, at the head of military detachments from the previously subordinate Russian cities of Yuryev and Bear's Head, launched an offensive on the Pskov land. The crusaders' ally was the Russian prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich, once expelled from Pskov. First, the knights took the Pskov border fortress Izborsk. The Pskov militia hastily moved towards the enemy. However, it was broken. The Pskov voivode Gavrila Borislavich was killed, many Pskovians fell, others were taken prisoner, and still others fled. In the footsteps of the retreating Pskovites, the German knights broke into the Pskov posad, but they could not take a strong stone fortress, which more than once stopped the enemy. Then the traitors from among the boyars, headed by the mayor Tverdila Ivankovich, came to the aid of the conquerors. They let the Germans into the Pskov Krom (Kremlin) in September 1240. Some of the Pskov boyars, dissatisfied with this decision, fled with their families to Novgorod.
Thus, the quarrel with Prince Alexander Yaroslavich negatively affected the defenses of Veliky Novgorod. Having made Pskov and Izborsk their bases, the Livonian knights in the winter of 1240-1241. invaded the Novgorod possessions of Chud and Vod, devastated them, imposed tribute on the inhabitants. After the seizure of the Pskov lands, the knights-crusaders began to systematically fortify themselves in the occupied territory. This was their usual tactic: on the territory captured from a hostile people, the Western knights immediately stood outposts, fortifications, castles and fortresses, in order to rely on them to continue the offensive. On a steep and rocky mountain in the Koporye churchyard, they built an order castle with high and strong walls, which became the base for further advancement to the east. Soon after, the crusaders captured Tesovo, an important trading post in the Novgorod land, and from there it was already a stone's throw to Novgorod itself. In the north, the knights reached Luga and became insolent to the point that they robbed on the roads 30 miles from Novgorod. Simultaneously with the knights, although completely independently of them, Lithuanians began to raid the Novgorod volosts. They took advantage of the weakening of Novgorod Rus and plundered Russian lands.
It is clear that the Novgorodians were alarmed. The Order was a powerful and formidable force that inexorably devoured the eastern lands, converting the local population with fire and sword to the western version of Christianity. In the face of the impending threat, ordinary Novgorodians forced the boyar "lord" to call for help from Prince Alexander. The Novgorod ruler Spiridon himself went to him in Pereslavl, who asked the prince to forget his previous grievances and lead the Novgorod troops against the German knights. Alexander returned to Novgorod, where he was greeted with popular jubilation.
In 1241, Prince of Novgorod, Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky, with a princely squad and militia from Novgorodians, Ladoga residents, Izhora and Karelians took the Koporye fortress by storm and liberated the Vodskaya land of Veliky Novgorod from the influence of the Order on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. The fortress was torn down, the captured knights were sent hostage to Novgorod, and the traitors who served with them were hanged. Now the task arose of freeing Pskov. However, to conduct a further struggle with a strong enemy, the capabilities of the formed army were not enough, and Prince Alexander called on the brother of Prince Andrei Yaroslavich with his retinue, the residents of Vladimir and Suzdal.
The Novgorod-Vladimir army set out on a campaign to liberate Pskov in the winter of 1241-1242. Alexander Yaroslavich acted swiftly as always. The Russian army advanced on a forced march to the near approaches to the city and cut off all roads to Livonia. There was no long siege, followed by the storming of a strong fortress. The knightly garrison could not withstand the fierce onslaught of Russian soldiers and was defeated, those who survived laid down their arms. The Pskov traitorous boyars were executed. Then Izborsk was also released. Thus, the united Russian army liberated the cities of Pskov and Izborsk from the crusaders.
The fall of a powerful fortress with a strong garrison came as a great surprise to the leadership of the Livonian Order. Meanwhile, Alexander Nevsky transferred the fighting to the land of the Estonian tribe, conquered by the order brothers. The Russian commander pursued one goal - to force the enemy to go beyond the walls of knightly castles into an open field for a decisive battle. And even before the arrival of reinforcements from the German states. This calculation was justified.
Thus, Alexander recaptured the territories captured by the crusaders. However, the struggle was not over yet, as the Order retained its living force. A decisive battle lay ahead, which was to determine the outcome of the war. Both sides began to prepare for the decisive battle and announced a new gathering of troops. The Russian army gathered in the liberated Pskov, and the Teutonic and Livonian knighthood - in Derpt-Yuriev. Victory in the war decided the fate of North-Western Russia.
Battle on the Ice. Artist V. A. Serov
Battle on the Ice
The Master of the Order, the bishops of Dorpat, Riga and Ezel, united all the military forces they had for the war with Veliky Novgorod. Under their leadership, the Livonian knights and their vassals, the knights of the bishoprics and the personal detachments of the Catholic bishops of the Baltic states, the Danish knights arose. Knights-adventurers, mercenaries have arrived. Estonians, Livs and foot soldiers from other peoples enslaved by the German conquerors were forcibly recruited as auxiliary troops. In the spring of 1242, an army of knights-crusaders, consisting of knightly cavalry and infantry (knechts) from the Livs, conquered by the order of Chudi and others, moved to Russia. 12 thousand knightly army was led by the vice-master of the Teutonic Order A. von Velven. The Russian army numbered 15-17 thousand people.
It is worth remembering that the knights themselves were relatively few. But each knight led the so-called. spear "- a tactical unit, a small detachment, which consisted of the knight himself, his squires, bodyguards, swordsmen, spearmen, archers and servants. As a rule, the richer a knight was, the more soldiers his "spear" numbered.
Prince Alexander Yaroslavich led the Russian army along the coast of Lake Pskov "with care." A large patrol detachment of light cavalry was sent forward under the command of Domash Tverdislavich and the Tver governor Kerbet. It was required to find out where the main forces of the Livonian Order were and what route they would take to Novgorod. At the Estonian village of Hammast (Mooste), the Russian "watchman" clashed with the main forces of the Livonian knights. A stubborn battle took place, in which the Russian detachment was defeated and retreated to its own. Now the prince could say with certainty that the enemy would launch an invasion across the ice-bound Lake Peipsi. Alexander decided to take the battle there.
Alexander Yaroslavich decided to give a general battle in the most favorable conditions for himself. Prince Novgorodsky occupied the narrow strait between the Peipsi and Pskov lakes with his regiments. This position was very successful. The Crusaders, walking on the ice of the frozen river. Emajõgi to the lake, could then go to Novgorod bypassing Lake Peipsi to the north, or Pskov - along the western coast of Lake Pskov to the south. In each of these cases, the Russian prince could intercept the enemy, moving along the eastern coast of the lakes. If the knights decided to act directly and tried to overcome the strait in the narrowest place, which is Teploe Ozero, then they would directly face the Novgorod-Vladimir troops.
According to the classical version, the decisive battle between the Russian troops and the crusaders took place near Voroniy Kamen, adjacent to the eastern shore of the narrow southern part of Lake Peipsi. The chosen position took into account as much as possible all the favorable geographic features of the terrain and put them in the service of the Russian commander. Behind our troops was a bank overgrown with a dense forest with steep slopes, which excluded the possibility of bypassing the enemy cavalry. The right flank was protected by a zone of water called Sigovitsa. Here, due to some peculiarities of the current and a large number of springs, the ice was very fragile. Local residents knew about this and, undoubtedly, informed Alexander. Finally, the left flank was protected by a high coastal promontory, from where a wide panorama opened up to the opposite shore.
The Russian army goes to Lake Peipsi. Chronicle miniature
Considering the peculiarity of the tactics of the order troops, when the knights, relying on the invincibility of their equestrian "armored fist", usually carried out a frontal attack with a wedge, called in Russia "a pig", Alexander Nevsky stationed his army on the eastern shore of Lake Peipsi. The disposition of troops was traditional for Russia: "chelo" (middle regiment) and left and right armies. Archers (forward regiment) stood in front, who were supposed to, if possible, upset the enemy's battle formation at the beginning of the battle and weaken the very first terrible onslaught of the knights. The peculiarity was that Alexander decided to weaken the center of the combat formation of the Russian army and strengthen the regiments of the right and left hand, the prince divided the cavalry into two detachments and placed them on the flanks behind the infantry. Behind the "brow" (the regiment of the center of the battle order) there was a reserve, the prince's squad. Thus, Alexander planned to bind the enemy in battle in the center, and when the knights got bogged down, to inflict enveloping blows from the flanks and bypass from the rear.
Source: L. G. Beskrovny. Atlas of maps and diagrams of Russian military history
On April 5, 1242, at sunrise, the knight's wedge launched an offensive. Russian archers met the enemy with a shower of arrows. Russian heavy bows were a formidable weapon and inflicted serious damage on the enemy. However, the knight's wedge continued its attack. Gradually, the archers backed up to the ranks of the infantry and, finally, merged with it in a single formation. The knights got into the position of the Novgorod foot army. A fierce and bloody slaughter began. After the first ramming blow with spears, swords, axes, maces, hammers, war hammers, etc. were used. The knights broke through the weakened Russian center. The chronicler says about this critical episode for the Russian troops: "Both the Germans and others pushed their way through the regiments as a pig."
The crusaders were already ready to celebrate the victory, but the Germans rejoiced early. Instead of room for maneuver, they saw before them an irresistible shore for the cavalry. And the remnants of the large regiment were dying, but they continued the fierce battle, weakening the enemy. At this time, left and right, both wings of the Russian army fell on the knight's wedge, and from the rear, having made a roundabout maneuver, the elite squad of Prince Alexander struck. "And there was that slash of evil and great by the German and the chudi, and he did not care from the spears of breaking, and the sound of the sword cut, and did not see ice, covered with blood."
The fierce battle continued. But in the battle there was a turning point in favor of the Russian army. The knightly army was surrounded, crowded and began to break its order. The Novgorodians, who were surrounded, huddled in a bunch of knights, were dragged from their horses with hooks. The horses' legs were broken, their veins were cut. The dismounted crusader, clad in heavy armor, could not resist the foot Russian soldiers. The job was completed with axes and other chopping and crushing weapons.
As a result, the battle ended with the complete victory of the Russian army. The mercenary infantry (bollards) and the surviving knights fled. Part of the knightly army was driven by Russian warriors to Sigovitsa. The fragile ice could not stand it and broke under the weight of the armored crusaders and their horses. The knights went under the ice, and there was no escape for them.
Battle on the Ice. V. M. Nazaruk
Results of the battle
So the second campaign against Russia by the crusaders suffered a severe defeat. The Livonian "Rhymed Chronicle" claims that 20 brothers-knights were killed in the Battle of the Ice and 6 were taken prisoner. The Chronicle of the Teutonic Order "Die jungere Hochmeisterchronik" reports the death of 70 knight brothers. These losses do not include the fallen secular knights and other Order warriors. In the First Novgorod Chronicle, the losses of the opponents of the Russians are presented as follows: "and … the chudi fell beschisla, and Numets 400, and 50 with the hands of a yash and brought them to Novgorod." At the solemn entry of the prince into Pskov (according to other sources in Novgorod), 50 German "deliberate governors" followed the horse of Prince Alexander Nevsky on foot. It is clear that the losses of ordinary soldiers, bollards, dependent militias from the Finnish tribes were much higher. Russian losses are unknown.
The defeat in the battle on Lake Peipsi forced the Livonian Order to ask for peace: “That we entered with the sword … we retreat from everything; How many have taken your people captive, we will exchange them: we will let yours in, and you will let ours in”. For the city of Yuryev (Dorpat), the Order pledged to pay Novgorod "Yuryev's tribute". Under a peace treaty concluded a few months later, the Order renounced all claims to Russian lands and returned the territories it had seized earlier. Thanks to decisive military victories, the crusaders suffered heavy losses, and the Order lost its striking power. For a while, the combat potential of the Order was weakened. Only 10 years later, the knights tried to re-capture Pskov.
Thus, Alexander Yaroslavich stopped the widespread crusading aggression on the western borders of Russia. The Russian prince successively defeated the Swedes and the German knights. I must say that although the war of 1240-1242. did not become the last between Novgorod and the Order, but their borders in the Baltics did not undergo noticeable changes for three centuries - until the end of the 15th century.
As noted by the historian VP Pashuto: “… The victory on Lake Peipsi - the Battle of the Ice - was of great importance for all of Russia and the peoples associated with it; she saved them from a cruel foreign yoke. For the first time, a limit was put on the predatory "onslaught on the East" of the German rulers, which lasted for more than one century."
Battle on the Ice. Miniature of the Obverse Chronicle Arch, mid-16th century
In the Russian Federation, the date of victory in the Battle of the Ice is immortalized as the Day of Military Glory of Russia - the Day of the victory of Russian soldiers of Prince Alexander Nevsky over the German knights on Lake Peipsi. In the Federal Law of March 13, 1995 No. 32-FZ "On the days of military glory (victory days) of Russia", 13 days are added to the real day of the battle on April 5 and the date is indicated on April 18, 1242. That is, the day of victory on Lake Peipsi is 5 April according to the old style, celebrated on April 18, corresponding to it according to the new style at the present time (XX-XXI centuries). Although the difference between the old (Julian) and new (Gregorian) style in the XIII century would be 7 days.
In 1992, on the territory of the village of Kobylye Gorodische of the Gdovsk region, in a place as close as possible to the proposed site of the Battle on the Ice, a bronze monument to Alexander Nevsky was erected near the Church of the Archangel Michael. The monument to the squads of Alexander Nevsky was erected in 1993 on Mount Sokolikha in Pskov.
Painting by V. A. Serov "Entry of Alexander Nevsky to Pskov"
Alexander defeats Lithuania
In subsequent years, peace and calm reigned in the Swedish-Novgorod and Novgorod-order relations. Swedish and German knights licked their wounds. But the Lithuanian tribes, still scattered, but realized their strength after 1236, when on September 22, at the battle of Saule (Siauliai), the swordsmen were defeated by the Lithuanians (in this battle, Magister Volguin von Namburgh (Folquin von Winterstatt) and most of the knight brothers fell), intensified their raids on all the lands adjacent to them, including the Novgorod borders. These raids pursued purely predatory goals and aroused natural hatred. Russian princes responded with retaliatory punitive campaigns.
Soon after the Battle of the Ice, the victor of the Western chivalry had to march again. Horse detachments of Lithuanians began to "fight" the Novgorod volosts, devastating the border countryside. Prince Alexander Yaroslavich immediately gathered his army and with swift blows smashed seven Lithuanian detachments on the borderlands. The fight against the raiders was carried out with great skill - "many Lithuanian princes were beaten or taken prisoner."
At the end of 1245, the army, led by eight Lithuanian princes, marched to Bezhetsk and Torzhok. The inhabitants of Torzhok, led by Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich, opposed Lithuania, but were defeated. The Lithuanians, capturing a large full and other booty, turned home. However, the militias of the north-western regions of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality - Tverichi and Dmitrovites defeated the Lithuanians near Toropets. The Lithuanians shut themselves up in the city. Prince Alexander Nevsky came here with the Novgorodians. Toropets was taken by storm, and all Lithuanians, including the princes, were exterminated. All Russian prisoners were released.
Under the walls of Toropets, Alexander again parted with the Novgorodians in assessing further actions. He offered to continue the campaign and punish the find. The Novgorod militia with the mayor and the tysyatskiy, the Vladyka's regiment, headed by the archbishop, went home. Alexander and his retinue at the beginning of 1246 went through the Smolensk land to the Lithuanian borders, attacked the Lithuanian detachments near Zizhich and defeated them.
As a result, the Lithuanian princes calmed down for a while. Over the next few years, the Lithuanians did not dare to attack the possessions of Alexander. Thus, Alexander Yaroslavich victoriously won the "small defensive war" with neighboring Lithuania, without waging wars of conquest. There was a lull on the borders of the Novgorod and Pskov lands.
Appendix 1. Novgorod's first chronicle of the older and younger versions. M.-L., 1950
About 6750 [1242]. Prince Oleksandr will go from Novgorod and his brother Andr'em and from the nizovtsi to the Chyud land to N'mtsi and go all the way to Plyskov; and drive out Prince Plskov, confiscating N'mtsi and Chyud, and pinning the streams to Novgorod, and you yourself will go to Chyud. And as if you were on the ground, let the regiment go into prosperity; and Domash Tverdislavich and Kerbet were in the rostrum, and I used to be Nimtsi and Chyud at the bridge, and bish that; and killing that Domash, the brother of the posadnich, her husband is honest, and in the same way she beat him up, and in the hands of seized him, and in the prince arrived in the regiment, the prince went back to the lake, N'mtsi and Chyud went along them. But Prince Oleksandr and the Novgorodians, setting up a regiment on the Chyudskoye lakes, on Uzmen, at Voron's stones; and hit the regiment of N'mtsi and Chyud and the pig went through the regiment, and byst that great N'mtsem and Chyudi. God, both Saint Sophia and the holy martyr Boris and Gl'ba, shed your blood for the sake of Novgorodians, God help Prince Alexander with great prayers; and N'mtsi is that padosha, and Chyud dasha is splashing; and, rushing, bish them 7 miles along the ice to the Subolichi coast; and Chyudi was beshisla, and N'mets 400, and 50 with the hands of Yasha and brought him to Novgorod. And there will be a month of April at 5, in memory of the holy martyr Claudius, in praise of the holy Mother of God, on Saturday. The same Lita N'mtsi sent with a bow: “without the prince that we have entered Vod, Luga, Plyskov, Lotygol's sword, we are retreating; and what the esma seized your men, and then we put yours in: we let yours in, and you let ours in”; and Tal Pskov wasted and resigned. The same prince Yaroslav Vsevolodich was summoned to the Tsarem of the Tatar Batu, to go to him in the Horde.
Appendix 2. Konstantin Simonov. Battle on the ice (excerpt from the poem)
On blue and wet
Peipsi cracked ice
At six thousand seven hundred and fifty
From the creation year, Saturday 5th April
Damp at dawn at times
Advanced reviewed
The marching Germans are in a dark formation.
On hats - feathers of funny birds, The helmets have ponytails.
Above them on the shafts of heavy
Black crosses swung.
Squires behind proudly
They brought family shields, They bear the coats of arms of bear muzzles, Weapons, towers and flowers …
… the Prince in front of the Russian regiments
I turned my horse from flight, With your hands chained in steel
I poked angrily under the clouds.
“May God judge us with the Germans
Without delay here on the ice
We have swords with us, and come what may, Let's help God's judgment!"
The prince galloped to the coastal rocks.
Climbing them with difficulty, He found a high ledge, From where you can see everything around.
And he looked back. Somewhere in the back
Among trees and stones
His regiments are in ambush
Keeping horses on a leash.
And ahead, along the ringing ice floes
Rattling with heavy scales
The Livonians are riding in a formidable wedge -
An iron pig's head.
The first onslaught of the Germans was terrible.
Into the Russian infantry corner, Two rows of horse towers
They got it right.
Like angry lambs in a storm, Among the German shishaks
White shirts flashed
Lamb hats of men.
In washed underwear shirts, Throwing sheepskin coats to the ground, They threw themselves into a deadly battle, Throwing wide the collar.
It's easier to hit the enemy in a big way, And if you have to die, It's better to have a clean shirt
To smear with your blood.
They are with open eyes
They walked on the Germans with their bare breasts, Cutting your fingers to the bone
They bowed their spears to the ground.
And where the spears bent
They're in desperate carnage
Through the line the German cut through
Shoulder to shoulder, back to back …
… Already mixed people, horses, Swords, poleaxes, axes, And the prince is still calm
I watched the battle from the mountain …
… And, just after waiting for the Livonians, Mixing the ranks, we got involved in the battle, He, blazing with a sword in the sun, He led the squad behind him.
Raising swords from Russian steel, Bending down the spear shafts, They flew out of the forest screaming
Novgorod regiments.
They flew on the ice with a clang, with thunder, Leaning towards shaggy manes;
And the first on a huge horse
The prince was cut into the German system.
And, retreating before the prince, Throwing spears and shields
The Germans fell from their horses to the ground, Lifting up iron fingers.
The brown horses were hot
Dust heaved from under the hooves, Bodies dragged through the snow, Tied up in narrow stirrups.
There was a harsh mess
Iron, blood and water.
In place of knightly troops
Bloody footprints have formed.
Some lay drowning
In bloody ice water
Others raced away, hunched over, A cowardly spur of horses.
Horses were drowning under them, Ice stood on end under them, Their stirrups pulled to the bottom, The shell did not allow them to float.
Wandered under oblique gazes
Many caught gentlemen
For the first time with bare heels
Diligently slapping on the ice.
And the prince, barely cooled from the landfill, I already watched from under my arm, Like fugitives the remnant is pitiful
He went to the Livonian lands.
