The protracted nature and particular destructiveness of the "occupation" of Russia by the Golden Horde were caused not so much by the strength of the Horde as by the fact that they themselves were the object of manipulation by powerful financial and trading communities.
Kievan and Vladimir Rus' undermined their strength in many ways, infected with selfishness and self-interest, and this is a historical fact. And yet, thanks to the policy of Alexander Nevsky, the initial defeat could have been transferred to a mode of much more “constructive interaction” with the Golden Horde than the harmful and cruel devastation that came into our vast expanses for more than two centuries. We will tell you about why this did not happen, but for now everything is in order.
So, the appanage princes behaved like Western counts and dukes, pulling away the power. The boyars became like Western barons, trying to manipulate the princes. Blinded by strife, they forgot who were their own and who were strangers. Polovtsy, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians were brought to Russia. The Polotsk princes frivolously let the Germans into the Baltic States and could no longer send them out. The Lord sternly warned Russia about the consequences - the shameful massacre on Kalka in 1223. But the lesson did not go for the future. They cut more than ever, betrayed.
A typical example: in 1228, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich decided to strike a powerful blow against the Livonian Order, and led the Vladimir regiments to Novgorod. But the Novgorodians and Pskovs suddenly reared up, refused to fight, expelled the prince. They even decided to fight him!
The casket was easy to open. During this time, several dozen western cities formed a political and trade union, the Hansa. The top of Novgorod, Smolensk, Polotsk, Pskov "rolled their lips" to join the then "World Trade Organization", secret negotiations were underway in Riga, a representative of the Pope took part in them, persuading the Russians to convert to Catholicism. Polotsk and Smolensk entered into agreements that were most beneficial for the Germans, and the prince crossed the path to the oligarchs of Novgorod and Pskov, they entered the Hansa only in 1230 (as a result, the Germans strangled the ancient Novgorod navigation).
In 1237, the hordes of Batu flooded in. But the disunity reached such an extent that the princes did not even try to unite. Moreover, they continued to showdown with each other. The Tatar-Mongols burned Ryazan, marched on Vladimir, and the Grand Duke Yuri Vsevolodovich had no troops. A year ago, the regiments left with his brother Yaroslav to the south, to fight for Kiev and the Carpathian region.
But the West tried to take advantage of the situation. Daniil Galitsky and Mikhail Chernigovsky rushed to Poland and Hungary, asking for help. It was not so. The kings reasoned: let the Tatars grind down the Russians harder so that they could take their land into their hands. And Pope Gregory IX, having barely received news of the invasion of Batu, then, in December 1237, announced a crusade "against the pagans and the Russians." It looked like a win-win: Russia was defeated, the Livonian Order, Denmark, Sweden united, and in Pskov and Novgorod they had an influential “fifth column”.
In 1240, the invasion began simultaneously from two directions. Swedes repelled St. Alexander Nevskiy. But the traitors played along with the Germans - they surrendered Pskov. They played along in Novgorod too - they kicked out the prince who had just saved their city.
Although the traitors were wrong. The Germans felt that they could no longer flirt with the Russians. They left the seditious boyars only the role of their servants, plundered how much in vain, divided the villages. The Pope transferred the Novgorod-Pskov lands to the Ezel diocese. It was then that the Novgorodians came to their senses - again bowed to St. Alexander, he saved the remnants of Russia from Western invaders.
But the Europeans also miscalculated. Batu by no means became their ally. Following the Russians, he fell upon them. Moreover, the Tatars rated Western opponents much lower than Russia. In our country, they acted as a single army, they were divided only when the resistance was broken. When invading Europe, Batu immediately sent an army in several corps. One of them destroyed the Polish-German army at Liegnitz, and as a sign of victory, 9 bags of the right ears of the killed knights were sent to Mongolia. The Second Corps destroyed the Hungarian army at Chaillot.
But, having devastated Central and Southern Europe, the Tatars returned to the Black Sea and Volga steppes - Batu chose them for his ulus (inheritance) as part of the Mongol Empire. The Golden Horde arose. Khan's messengers galloped to the princes: they had to submit, pay tribute.
Well, the West tried to play on this too. Envoys from Rome often visited the princes. The Pope promised any help for the subordination of the Orthodox Church and the war with the Horde. Daniil Galitsky succumbed to the bait. Received a royal crown from the Vatican, conspired to unite the churches. In 1253, the Pope proclaimed another crusade against the Tatars and … Russians. The Livonian Order was advancing on one flank, Lithuania and Daniel on the other. However, the prince did not receive any real support, the Galicia-Volyn principality was completely ruined, and soon it was divided between the Lithuanians and the Poles.
Vladimir Grand Duke Yaroslav and his son Alexander Nevsky realized that it was impossible to resist the winners at this time. To fight meant to finally destroy Russia, and the West would reap the fruits. They did not fall for the papal persuasion and chose another path - to obey the khan. Now a fashionable theory has spread that there was no Tatar yoke, a mutually beneficial symbiosis of the Horde and Russia has developed. By the way, it would be natural. Mongol nomads in different countries adopted the higher culture of the conquered peoples - Chinese, Central Asian, Persian, and gradually drew closer to the indigenous population.
But this did not happen with the Golden Horde, and the period of more or less acceptable coexistence with Russia was rather short, during the reign of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky, Batu and his son Sartak. Then completely different processes prevailed.
To understand them, one must remember that in the 7th-10th centuries a powerful state, the Khazar Kaganate, spread in the south of present-day Russia. Its capital Itil in the lower reaches of the Volga stood at the crossroads of the most important trade routes. In Khazaria, a powerful merchant group began to rule, Judaism became the state religion, the kaganate imposed tribute on many peoples, and was the main supplier of slaves to world markets.
In 965 Svyatoslav Igorevich crushed Khazaria, wiped Itil off the face of the earth. The surviving Khazars became citizens of the Shah of Khorezm and converted to Islam. Some of the merchants nestled in the Black Sea cities under the wing of Byzantium. They continued to trade in the slave trade, buying up prisoners from the Pechenegs and Polovtsians who attacked Russia.
But Byzantium decayed, gave the cities of the Crimea and the Azov region to the Venetians and Genoese. Khorezm fell under the rule of the Golden Horde. And its capital, Saray, stood in almost the same places where Itil - at the “crossroads” of the Great Silk Road, roads along the Volga and Don.
Khorezm and Crimean merchants were drawn to the khan's headquarters. Moreover, the Italians only ruled the Black Sea cities, the merchants remained local. The Venetian plenipotentiary, who was in charge of the local colonies, bore the unambiguous title of "consul of Khazaria". And the Genoese colonies were led by a collective body "Office of Khazaria". And the Horde began to turn into a kind of Khazar Kaganate.
The merchant group gained enormous weight in Sarai. Sartak, inclined to be friends with the Russians and converted to Christianity, was poisoned. A protege of the moneybags, the Muslim Berke, ascended the khan's throne. He began to build a magnificent new capital. He was given as much money as he wanted, but it was easy to pay off - Berke began to give the collection of tribute at the mercy.
Shadow oligarchs retained considerable influence in the Horde. Khans, disagreeable to them, quickly parted with the throne and life. Tokhta, who quarreled with the Genoese and destroyed their city of Kafu (Theodosia), was killed, like his heir Ilbasmysh.
Uzbek was elevated to the throne. And he satisfied the merchants in full measure. He was a zealous Muslim, which opened the way to the markets of the East, but he also made friends with Catholics, corresponded with the Pope. During his reign, more than a dozen Latin churches and monasteries arose in Sarai.
Uzbek several times increased the tribute from Russia, sent "fierce ambassadors" to collect arrears - with detachments who robbed and recruited slaves for debts. At the slightest provocation, the khan threw punishers on the subject principalities, and more than enough live goods were brought.
The symbiosis of the Tatar khans and Western slave traders really turned out to be fruitful. The Golden Horde became the world's main supplier of slaves, and Genoese and Venetian ships briskly transported them across the seas. The great humanist Petrarch during these years wrote enthusiastically that his "heart rejoices" from the abundance of cheap Russian slaves - they say, wherever you go, "Scythian speech is heard everywhere."
But sold not only to Italy. The main centers of international trade during that era were located in the Middle East. Caravan and sea routes from China, India, Persia were taken here. The Italians were friends with the rulers of these countries, the Mamluk sultans of Egypt, kept trading posts here, and their flotillas ply in a triangle. In the Black Sea ports, full holds of slaves were recruited, in Syria and Egypt they sold, turned the proceeds into precious stones, spices, silk, and followed to Western Europe, where pepper and cloves were worth their weight in gold.
By the way, it was these profits that ensured the flourishing of the Italian Renaissance, the capital of the first large banking houses in Europe.
The son of Uzbek Dzhanibek favored Muscovite Russia, provided benefits, and made serious claims to the Genoese about their predation and fraud. He declared war, besieged Kafa. Well, he suddenly fell ill, and the courtiers suggested to his heir Berdibek that he ought to finish off his father.
But the Horde has been sucking the juices from the surrounding peoples for more than a century, cultivating cruelty, greed, and unscrupulousness. Now the abscess has broken through. The example of the coup became contagious, there were others who wanted to.
The "great blight" burst out. The relatives, the Tatars of the Blue and White hordes, intervened. The Golden Hordes were spoiled, decayed, and the Blue Hordes and White Hordes wandered in the steppes of Siberia and the Aral region, remained harsh and unpretentious shepherds and warriors. They despised the Golden Horde, but envied their wealth.
The Tatar state split. This opened up opportunities for the liberation of Rus. In the XIII-XIV centuries, the biblical story of the Babylonian captivity was popular in our country. The Lord punished Judah for the sins, gave under the authority of the wicked king. And the prophets warned that it is impossible to resist God's punishment, it must be accepted with humility. But captivity is not eternal, you just need to overcome your own sins. The measure of evil will be fulfilled, and the Babylonian kingdom will fall.
It seemed that these predictions were coming true. The Moscow government, headed by Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich and St. Alexis, gradually but steadily got rid of dependence.
And the Golden Horde people were united around him by the temnik Mamai - he installed and changed puppet khans himself. The Sarai merchant group and the Horde's longtime partners, the Genoese, became its support. They fiercely competed with the Venetians, feuded, and Mamai took part in their showdown: he captured Venetian Tana (Azov) for Genoa. And it was the merchants who pushed Mamai to Russia - the flow of live goods decreased, Moscow paid only a symbolic tribute, or even did not pay at all.
The almighty temporary worker was set up to really squeeze the Russians. But punitive expeditions were no longer enough - they were crushed. Russia had to be conquered anew, as under Batu. Merchants gave money for this, allowing them to hire a myriad of troops, Mamai was provided with the Genoese infantry, which was considered the best in Europe. The expenses were supposed to pay for themselves with slaves, booty, the khan would pay off the creditors with farms, and the Genoese rolled their lips to get a monopoly on the trade in Russian furs and wax.
But for the Russians, the Kulikovo field became a difficult and terrible feat of repentance. The ancestors divided, destroyed the state and gave it to foreigners. The descendants united and atoned for their sin with their torment and blood, overturned the enemy.
Mamai also lost to his opponent, Khan of the Blue and White Hordes, Tokhtamysh. The Golden Hordes are already accustomed to betraying, sided with the strongest. Temnik fled to his Genoese friends, but who needed a loser, an insolvent debtor? The merchants were required to build bridges with the winner - now supplies of slaves were expected from him. And Mamai was easily sacrificed, killed.
The same trade group began to rule at the court of Tokhtamysh: it took control of it through the Murza and nobles. And she aimed to do what Mamai did not succeed in: in 1382 to burn down Moscow, to bring Russia to submission. But the same group destroyed the Horde. She quarreled with the Khan with his old benefactor and patron - the ruler of Central Asia Timur Tamerlane …
This conqueror was creating a new great power. Desert steppes were not necessary to him, Tamerlane did not claim them. It was only important for him that the nomads did not raid his cities. Therefore, in the Tatar strife, he supported Tokhtamysh - he provided him with funds, troops. If a friend reigns among the steppe people, the northern border will become calm, it will be possible to concentrate forces to conquer other states. Timur was the last who tried to revive the greatness of the Islamic world, mired in vices and falling into decay. Severely pursued heresies, sexual perversion, brought firm order.
But during the period of the Horde strife, trade routes shifted, passed through the state of Tamerlane, Bukhara and Samarkand. The Sarai and Italian groupings dreamed of getting the tracks back on track. And for this it was necessary to destroy the Central Asian cities. In addition, during the hush-up, Timur took Khorezm under his rule. Local merchants really did not like the order in his power, they wanted to return to the Horde.
In 1383, the city revolted, killed the soldiers of Tamerlane and handed over to Tokhtamysh. Khan, under the influence of his entourage, did not refuse, accepted. Moreover, he began raids on the Transcaucasus, which belonged to Timur, and in 1387 Tokhtamysh's army, "countless as raindrops," invaded Central Asia.
Khorezm greeted her with enthusiasm, the Tatars rushed to Samarkand and Bukhara. But the cities with stone walls survived, Tamerlane arrived from Persia with an army and brutally defeated the uninvited guests. He took the capital of Khorezm, Urgench, by storm and ordered it to be razed to the ground, and the place was plowed up and sown with barley so that there would be no memory of the city.
In 1391, Timur fully made up for the invasion - he himself set out to the north. It was then that Tokhtamysh had to pay for the burning of Moscow. He summoned all his subjects to the ranks, together with the Russians, his army was to double.
Grand Duke Vasily I proceeded in a disciplined manner on the orders of the khan. But … was it worth rushing the horses? We were a little late. In the battle on the Volga tributary, the Kondurcha River, the Horde army was crushed and scattered.
It would seem that now Tokhtamysh, twice beaten, should calm down and sit quietly. Tamerlane had no doubt about it. Without fear, he transferred troops to other directions. Conquered Georgia, Armenia, aimed at the Middle East.
But there were the main crossroads and markets for international trade! They had to be saved, to distract Timur. The merchant and financial grouping at the khan's court developed extraordinary activity. She persuaded Tokhtamysh to fight. So she convinced him that he understood: you can't refuse. The merchants also acted as diplomats, an alliance was concluded with the Mamluk sultans of Egypt.
Tatar Tumens broke into Transcaucasia again. Tamerlane was simply amazed, Tokhtamysh's behavior looked stupid and ridiculous. Timur wrote to him: "With what intention did you, Kipchak Khan, ruled by the demon of pride, take up arms again?" He recalled that even in his own kingdom, he could not hide from retaliation. Nevertheless, Timur gave him a choice: "Do you want peace, do you want war?" But he warned that he could choose for the last time: "This time you will not be spared."
Tokhtamysh hesitated, hesitated. Indeed, what was the war for? But such sentiments were suppressed by his own emirs, "resisted, brought confusion to this matter." The one who paid the order ordered the music, and the emirs executed the order.
Could the khan oppose the entire Horde elite? He not only refused, but "wrote rude expressions."
Well, the order was completed. Timur was distracted from Syria and Egypt. But he turned the armies north. In 1395 Tokhtamysh was smashed to smithereens on the Terek. And now Tamerlane was not content with this. He decided to devastate the entire power of the enemy.
His hordes, sweeping away everything in their path, marched from the Caucasus to the Dnieper. Then they turned northeast. They destroyed Kursk, Lipetsk, Yelets - after all, the Russians were considered vassals of the Horde. Tamerlane did not go to Moscow. According to legend, Russia was saved by a miracle - ardent prayers in front of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, brought at that time to the capital.
Timur turned south, and the Holy Mother of God did not take the local cities under protection. The multi-tribal merchant colony of Tana-Azov - Genoese, Venetians, Jews, Arabs - bowed to Tamerlane, presented the richest gifts. But he knew who was setting the Tatars against him. The city was captured and destroyed to the ground. They ravaged the Crimea, swept across the North Caucasus, and finally Timur sent troops to plunder and destroy Sarai and Astrakhan.
The conqueror was not going to hold the local lands. He only punished his enemies. The border was approved along the Caucasian ridge, and for the Tatars he began to appoint new khans, the princes who defected to his side - the Horde-polygamists always had enough of them.
Tokhtamysh also tried to revive the state, to collect subjects. But he had no money - Russia stopped paying tribute. And yesterday's friends the Genoese turned their backs on him. The same as in due time from Mamai.
Now their business interests required building bridges with Tamerlane's henchmen - Khan Temir-Kutlug and the commander Edigey.
Tokhtamysh was offended. He thought that the merchants owed him! He faithfully followed their instructions, because of this he suffered - and what did he receive instead of gratitude? In 1397, an angry Khan laid siege to Kafa.
But the Genoese quickly sent in a fleet of reinforcements. The news was also sent to Sarai. Those who changed the murzas suggested to Temir-Kutlug and Edigei - Kafa needs to be rescued, the whole Horde lives by trade through her. The new rulers rushed to the Crimea, smashed Tokhtamysh to smithereens. He fled to Lithuania, tried to fight for power with its help, but his song was sung.
And Edigei tried to play the role of Mamai. He relied on the Italians, changed obedient khans. But the Horde did not recover from the pogrom, it began to fall apart. She still strongly annoyed the Russians - the Tatars were already accustomed to living by hunting for slaves and reselling them to Europeans. But in 1475 the Genoese colonies in the Crimea were captured by the Turks. And in 1480, while standing on the Ugra, Russia finally stopped the attempts of the khans to restore dominion over our people.
However, slave traders revived their craft under the auspices of the Ottoman Empire, in the Crimean Khanate. The khans, nobles and warriors depended on them. For almost three more centuries, raids on Russia, Ukraine, Moldavia, the Caucasus spilled out. Business is business.
It was only under Catherine the Great that slave markets were ordered to live long. There was no khanate or slave traders.
