Borders of the Russians before the Tatar yoke. Was there a Tatar-Mongol yoke in Rus'?

Around the period Tatar- Mongol invasion There are many rumors circulating, with some historians even talking about a cover-up conspiracy that was actively promoted during Soviet times. Around 44 of the last century, for some strange and unclear reasons, research into this historical time period was completely closed to specialists, that is, it stopped completely. Many maintained the official version of history, in which the Horde period was presented as dark and troubled times, when evil invaders brutally exploited the Russian principalities, making them vassals. Meanwhile, the Golden Horde had a huge impact on the economy, as well as the culture of Rus', setting back its development by precisely the same three hundred years that it ruled and commanded. When was the Mongol-Tatar yoke finally overthrown?, the country began to live in a new way, and the Moscow Grand Duke was to blame for this, which will be discussed.

Annexation of the Novgorod Republic: liberation from the Mongol-Tatar yoke began small

It is worth saying that the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke occurred under the Moscow prince, or rather Tsar Ivan III Vasilievich, and this process, which lasted more than half a century, ended in 1480. But it was preceded by quite fascinating and amazing events. It all started with the fact that the once great empire built by Genghis Khan and gifted to his son, the Golden Horde, by the mid-fourteenth - early fifteenth centuries, simply began to fall apart, dividing into smaller khanates-uluses, after the death of Khan Janibek. His grandson Isatay tried to unite his lands, but was defeated. After this, the great Khan Tokhtamysh, who came to power, a true Chingizid by blood, put an end to the turmoil and internal strife, briefly restoring his former glory, and again began to terrorize the lands under the control of Rus'.

Interesting

In the middle of the thirteenth century, tribute was collected from Russian merchants by Muslim merchants, who were called by the beautiful word “besermen”. It is interesting that this word has firmly entered the colloquial, popular language, and a person who had a different faith, as well as exorbitant “appetites”, was called an infidel for a very long time, and even now you can hear a similar word.

The situation unfolding, meanwhile, was not at all favorable for the Horde, since from all sides the Horde was surrounded and pressed by enemies, giving neither sleep nor respite. Already in 1347, by order of the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich (Donskoy), payments to the Horde khan were completely stopped. Moreover, it was they who planned to unite the Russian lands, but Novgorod, along with its free republic, stood in the way. Moreover, the oligarchy, which established its own fairly powerful power there, tried to restrain the onslaught, both from Muscovy, and the pressure of the dissatisfied masses, the veche device began to gradually lose relevance. The end of the Mongolian Tatar yoke was already looming on the horizon, but it was still ghostly and vague.

The Great March on Novgorod: the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke is a matter of technology and time

It was because of this that the people began to increasingly look to Moscow rather than to their own rulers, and even more so to the Horde, who had weakened by that time. Moreover, the posadnik reform of 1410 became a turning point and the boyars came to power, relegating the oligarchy to the background. It is clear that the collapse was simply inevitable, and it came when, in the early seventies, part of the Novgorodians, under the leadership of Boretsky, completely came under the wing of the Lithuanian prince; this was the last point in Moscow’s patience. Ivan III there was nothing left but to annex Novgorod by force, which he successfully accomplished, gathering armies of almost all subject lands and lands under his own banners.

Moscow chroniclers, whose evidence has been preserved, considered the campaign of the Moscow Tsar against Novgorod real war for the faith, and, consequently, against people of other faiths, against the conversion of Russian lands to Catholicism, and even more so, to Islam. The key battle was fought in the lower reaches of the Sheloni River, and most of the Novgorodians, frankly speaking, fought carelessly, since they did not feel any particular need to defend the oligarchy, and did not have the desire.

Not a supporter of the Moscow principality, the Archbishop of Novgorod decided to make a knight's move. He wanted to preserve the independent position of his own lands, but he expected to come to an agreement with the Prince of Moscow, and not with the locals, and even more so, not with the Horde. Therefore, his entire regiment most of the time simply stood still and did not engage in battle. These events also played a big role in the overthrow of the Tatars. Mongol yoke, significantly bringing the end of the Golden Horde closer.

Contrary to the hopes of the archbishop, Ivan III did not want to make compromises and agreements at all, and after the establishment of Moscow power in Novgorod, he radically solved the problem - he destroyed or exiled to the central part of the country most of the disgraced boyars, and simply confiscated the lands that belonged to them. Moreover, the people of Novgorod approved such actions of the tsar, because it was precisely those boyars who were destroyed who did not give life to people, establishing their own rules and orders. In the 1470s, the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, due to the mess in Novgorod, sparkled with new colors and came too close. By 1478, the republic was completely abolished, and even the veche bell was removed from the bell tower and taken to Muscovy. Thus, Novgorod, together with all its lands, became part of Rus', but did not retain its status and liberties for some time.

Liberation of Rus' from the Horde yoke: the date is known even to children

Meanwhile, while Rus' was forcibly implanting the good and bright, which in fact was the case, the Golden Horde began to be torn apart by small khans, wanting to tear off a larger piece. Each of them, in words, wanted the reunification of the state, as well as the revival of its former glory, but in reality it turned out somewhat differently. Ahmed Khan, the undivided ruler of the Great Horde, decided to resume campaigns against Rus', force it to pay tribute again, receiving labels and letters from the Khanate for this. For this purpose, he decided to conclude a deal, in fact, enter into allied relations with Casimir IV, the King of Poland-Lithuania, which he successfully accomplished, without even imagining how it would turn out for him.

If we talk about who defeated the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Rus', then the certainly correct answer will be the Grand Duke of Moscow, who ruled at that time, as already mentioned, Ivan III. The Tatar-Mongol yoke was overthrown under his rule, and the unification of many lands under his wing Ancient Rus' also his handiwork. However, the brothers of the Prince of Moscow did not at all share his views, and in general, they believed that he did not deserve to take his place, so they only waited for him to take the wrong step.

Politically, Ivan the Third turned out to be an extremely wise ruler, and at a time when the Horde was experiencing the greatest difficulties, he decided to castling, and entered into an alliance with the Crimean Khan, named Mengli-Girey, who had his own grudge against Ahmed Khan. The thing is that in 1476, Ivan flatly refused to visit the ruler of the Great Horde, and he, as if in revenge, seized Crimea, but after only two years, Mengli-Girey managed to regain the Crimean lands and power, not without military support from Turkey. It just started from that moment overthrow of the Mongol yoke, after all, the Crimean Khan concluded an alliance with the Moscow Prince, and it was a very wise decision.

The Great Stand at Ugra: the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke and the fall of the Great Horde

As already mentioned, Ivan was a fairly advanced politician; he understood perfectly well that the fall of the Mongol-Tatar yoke was inextricably linked with the reunification of Russian lands, and for this allies were needed. Mengli-Girey could calmly help Ahmed Khan establish a new Horde and return tribute payments. Therefore, it was extremely important to enlist the support of Crimea, especially in view of the alliance of the Horde with the Lithuanians and Poles. It was Mengli-Girey who struck Casimir’s troops, preventing them from helping the Horde, but it would be better if we preserve the chronology of the events that took place then.

On a quiet and hot May day in 1480, Akhmet raised his army and set out on a campaign against Rus'; the Russians began to take positions along the Oka River. Moreover, the Horde moved up the Don, destroying quite large territories along the way that were located between Serpukhov and Kaluga. The son of Ivan the Third led his army towards the Horde, and the tsar himself went to Kolomna with a fairly large detachment. In the same time Livonian Order besieged Pskov.

Akhmad reached the Lithuanian lands on the southern side of the Ugra River and stopped, expecting that Casimir’s allied unit would join his troops. They had to wait a long time, because just then they had to repel the fierce attacks of Mengli-Girey in Podolia. That is, they had absolutely no time for some Akhmat, who with every fiber of his soul wanted only one thing - the restoration of the former glory and wealth of his own people, and maybe the state. After some time, the main forces of both armies stood on different banks of the Ugra, waiting for someone to attack first.

Not much time passed, and the Horde began to starve, and the lack of food supplies played a key role in the battle. So, to the question of who defeated the Mongol-Tatar yoke, there is another answer - famine, and it is absolutely true, although somewhat indirect, but nevertheless. At the same time, Ivan III decided to make concessions to his own brothers, and they and their squads also moved to the Ugra. We stood there for quite a long time, so much so that the river was completely frozen in ice. Akhmat was not feeling well, he was completely at a loss, and to complete his happiness, not good news came at all - a conspiracy was emerging in Sarai and a ferment of minds began among the people. In late autumn, in November of the same year, poor fellow Akhmat decided to declare a retreat. Out of impotent anger, he burned and robbed everything that came in his way, and soon after the New Year he was killed by another enemy - Ibak, Khan of Tyumen.

After Rus' freed itself from the Horde yoke, tribute payments under vassalage were nevertheless resumed by Ivan. He was too busy arguing with the war with Lithuania and Poland, so he easily recognized the right of Akhmed, the son of Akhmat. For two years, 1501 and 1502, tribute was regularly collected and delivered to the treasury of the Horde, which supported its livelihood. The fall of the Golden Horde led to the fact that Russian possessions began to border on the Crimean Khanate, which is why real disagreements began between the rulers, but this is not the story of the fall of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.

The Tatar-Mongol Yoke is a concept that is truly the most grandiose falsification of our past and, moreover, this concept is so ignorant in relation to the entire Slavic-Aryan people as a whole that having understood all the aspects and nuances of this nonsense, I would like to say ENOUGH! Stop feeding us these stupid and delusional stories, which in unison tell us how wild and uneducated our ancestors were.

So, let's start in order. First, let's refresh our memory about what the official history tells us about the Tatar-Mongol yoke and those times. Around the beginning of the 13th century A.D. In the Mongolian steppes, one very extraordinary character emerged, nicknamed Genghis Khan, who stirred up almost all the wild Mongolian nomads and created from them the most powerful army of that time. After which they set off, meaning they conquered the Whole World, destroying and destroying everything in their path. To begin with, they conquered and conquered all of China, and then, having gained strength and courage, they moved west. Having traveled about 5,000 kilometers, the Mongols defeated the state of Khorezm, then in Georgia in 1223 they reached the southern borders of Rus', where they defeated the army of the Russian princes in the battle on the Kalka River. And already in 1237, having gathered their courage, they simply fell with an avalanche of horses, arrows and spears on the defenseless cities and villages of the wild Slavs, burning and conquering them one by one, more and more oppressing the already backward Russians, and besides, without even encountering serious resistance along the way. After which, in 1241, they already invade Poland and the Czech Republic - truly Grand Army. But afraid to leave devastated Rus' in their rear, their entire large horde turns back and imposes tribute on all the captured territories. It is from this moment that the Tatar-Mongol yoke and the peak of the greatness of the Golden Horde begin.

After some time, Rus' grew stronger (interestingly, under the yoke of the Golden Horde) and began to defy the Tatar-Mongol representatives; some principalities even stopped paying tribute. Khan Mamai could not forgive them for this and in 1380 he went to war in Rus', where he was defeated by the army of Dmitry Donskoy. After which, a century later, the Horde Khan Akhmat decided to take revenge, but after the so-called “Standing on the Ugra” Khan Akhmat was afraid of Ivan III’s superior army and turned back, ordering a retreat to the Volga. This event is considered the decline of the Tatar-Mongol yoke and the decline of the Golden Horde as a whole.

Today, this crazy theory about the Tatar-Mongol yoke does not stand up to criticism, since a huge amount of evidence of this falsification has accumulated in our history. The main misconception of our official historians is that they consider the Tatar-Mongols to be exclusively representatives of the Mongoloid race, which is fundamentally wrong. After all, a lot of evidence indicates that the Golden Horde, or as it is more correctly called Tartary, consisted mainly of Slavic-Aryan peoples and there was no smell of any Mongoloids there. After all, until the 17th century, no one could even imagine that everything would turn upside down and the time would come that the greatest empire that existed during our era would be called the Tatar-Mongol. Moreover, this theory will become official and taught in schools and universities as truth. Yes, we must pay tribute to Peter I and his Western historians, it was necessary to distort and ruin our past so much - simply trample the memory of our ancestors and everything connected with them into the mud.

By the way, if you still doubt that the “Tatar-Mongols” were precisely representatives of the Slavic-Aryan people, then we have prepared quite a bit of evidence for you. So, let's go...

EVIDENCE ONE

Appearance of the representatives of the Golden Horde

You can even dedicate a separate article to this topic, since there is a great deal of evidence that some “Tatar-Mongols” had a Slavic appearance. Take, for example, the appearance of Genghis Khan himself, whose portrait is kept in Taiwan. He is presented as tall, long-bearded, with green-yellow eyes and brown hair. Moreover, this is not a purely individual opinion of the artist. This fact is also mentioned by the historian Rashidad-Did, who saw the “Golden Horde” in his lifetime. So, he claims that in the family of Genghis Khan, all children were born white-skinned with light brown hair. And that’s not all, G.E. Grumm-Grzhimailo saved one ancient legend about the Mongolian people, in which there is a mention that the ancestor of Genghis Khan in the ninth tribe Boduanchar was fair-haired and blue-eyed. Another quite important character of that time also looked like this: Batu Khan, who was a descendant of Genghis Khan.

And the Tatar-Mongol army itself, outwardly, was no different from the troops of Ancient Rus' and Europe; paintings and icons painted by contemporaries of those events serve as proof of this:

A strange picture emerges: the leaders of the Tatar-Mongols throughout the entire existence of the Golden Horde were the Slavs. And the Tatar-Mongol army consisted exclusively of the Slavic-Aryan people. No, what are you talking about, they were wild barbarians back then! Where are they going, they have crushed half the world under them? No, this can't happen. Sadly, this is exactly how modern historians argue.

EVIDENCE TWO

The concept of "Tatar-Mongols"

Let's start with the fact that the very concept of “Tatar-Mongols” is NOT found in more than one Russian chronicle, and everything that was found about the “suffering” of the Rus from the Mongols is described in just one entry from a collection of all Russian chronicles:

“Oh, bright and beautifully decorated Russian land! You are famous for many beauties: you are famous for many lakes, locally revered rivers and springs, mountains, steep hills, high oak groves, clean fields, wondrous animals, various birds, countless great cities, glorious villages, gardens monasteries, temples of God and formidable princes, honest boyars and many nobles, you are filled with everything, O Russian land. Orthodox faith Christian! From here to the Ugrians and to the Poles, to the Czechs, from the Czechs to the Yatvingians, from the Yatvingians to the Lithuanians, to the Germans, from the Germans to the Karelians, from the Karelians to Ustyug, where the filthy Toymichi live, and beyond the Breathing Sea; from the sea to the Bulgarians, from the Bulgarians to the Burtases, from the Burtases to the Cheremises, from the Cheremises to the Mordtsy - everything was conquered by the Christian people with the help of God, these filthy countries obeyed the Grand Duke Vsevolod, his father Yuri, the Prince of Kyiv, his grandfather Vladimir Monomakh, by whom The Polovtsians frightened their small children. But the Lithuanians did not emerge from their swamps, and the Hungarians strengthened stone walls their cities with iron gates, so that the great Vladimir would not conquer them, and the Germans would rejoice that they were far away - across the blue sea. The Burtases, Cheremises, Vyadas and Mordovians fought against Grand Duke Vladimir. And the Emperor Manuel of Constantinople, out of fear, sent great gifts to him, so that the Grand Duke Vladimir would not take Constantinople from him.”

There is one more mention, but it is not very significant, because... contains a very meager passage that does not mention any invasion, and it is very difficult to judge any events from it. This text was called “The Word about the Destruction of the Russian Land”:

"...And in those days - from the great Yaroslav, and to Vladimir, and to the present Yaroslav, and to his brother Yuri, Prince of Vladimir, misfortune fell on Christians and the Pechersk Monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos was set on fire by the filthy."

EVIDENCE THREE

The number of troops of the Golden Horde

All official historical sources of the 19th century claimed that the number of troops invading our territory at that time was about 500,000 people. Can you imagine HALF A MILLION PEOPLE who came to conquer us, but they didn’t come on foot?! Apparently it was an incredible number of carts and horses. Because feeding such a number of people and animals required simply titanic efforts. But this theory, and precisely THEORY, and not historical fact, does not stand up to any criticism, since not a single horse would reach Europe from Mongolia, and it was not possible to feed such a number of horses.

If you look at this situation sensibly, the following picture emerges:

For each Tatar-Mongol war there were approximately 2-3 horses, plus you need to count the horses (mules, bulls, donkeys) that were in the carts. So, no amount of grass would be enough to feed the Tatar-Mongol cavalry stretching for tens of kilometers, since the animals that were in the vanguard of this horde had to eat all the fields and leave nothing for those who followed behind. Since it was not possible to stretch too far or take different routes, because... this would result in a loss of numerical advantage and it would be unlikely that the nomads would even reach that same Georgia, not to mention Kievan Rus and Europe.

EVIDENCE FOUR

Invasion of the Golden Horde troops into Europe

According to modern historians who adhere to the official version of events, in March 1241 A.D. "Tatar-Mongols" invade Europe and seize part of the territory of Poland, namely the cities of Krakow, Sandomierz and Wroclaw, bringing with them destruction, robberies and murders.

I would also like to note a very interesting aspect of this event. Around April of the same year, Henry II blocked the way for the “Tatar-Mongol” army with his ten-thousandth army, for which he paid with a crushing defeat. The Tatars used strange military tricks for that time against the troops of Henry II, thanks to which they won victory, namely some kind of smoke and fire - “Greek fire”:

“And when they saw a Tatar running out with a banner - and this banner looked like an “X”, and on top of it was a head with a long shaking beard, filthy and stinking smoke from his mouth blowing towards the Poles - everyone was amazed and horrified, and rushed to run in all directions could, and so they were defeated..."

After which, the “Tatar-Mongols” sharply turn their offensive to the SOUTH and invade the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Dalmatia and finally break through to the Adriatic Sea. But in none of these countries are the “Tatar-Mongols” trying to resort to subjugation and taxation of the population. Somehow this turns out to be meaningless - why was it necessary to capture it then?! And the answer is very simple, because. What we have before us is pure deception, or rather falsification of events. Oddly enough, these events coincide with the military campaign of Frederick II, Emperor of the Roman Empire. So the absurdity does not end there; then a much more interesting turn occurs. As it turns out further, the “Tatar-Mongols” were also allies with Frederick II when he fought with Pope Gregory X, and Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, defeated by wild nomads, were on the side of Pope Gregory X in that conflict. on the departure of the “Tatar-Mongols” from Europe in 1242 AD. for some reason, the crusader troops went to war against Rus', as well as against Frederick II, whom they successfully defeated and stormed the capital of Aachen in order to crown their emperor there. Coincidence? Don't think.

This version of events is far from believable. But if instead of the “Tatar-Mongols” the Rus invaded Europe, then everything falls into place...

And such evidence, as we presented to you above, is far from four - there are many more of them, it’s just that if you mention each one, it will turn out not to be an article, but a whole book.

The result is that no Tatar-Mongols from Central Asia we were never captured or enslaved, and the Golden Horde - Tartary, was a huge Slavic-Aryan Empire of that time. In fact, we are the very TATARS who kept the whole of Europe in fear and horror.

Everyone knows about the conquest of Rus' by the Mongols. They also know that the Russian lands paid tribute to the Horde for more than two centuries. “Russian Planet” will tell you how this tribute was collected and how much it amounted to in rubles.

“And I counted the number, and began to pay tribute on them.”

The events of 1237-1240, when Batu’s troops captured most of Rus' and destroyed two-thirds of Russian cities, were simply called the “Western Campaign” in the capital of the Mongol Empire, Karakorum. Indeed, the Russian lands captured by Batu were then very modest trophies in comparison with the largest and richest cities of China, Central Asia and Persia.

If on the eve of the assault by the Mongols in 1240, Kyiv, which remained the largest city in Rus', had about 50 thousand inhabitants, then the capital of the Jin Empire located in northern China, captured by the Mongols in 1233, accommodated 400 thousand inhabitants. At least 300 thousand people lived in Samarkand, the largest city in Central Asia, captured by Genghis Khan in 1220. His grandson Batu, 17 years later, received a more modest booty - according to archaeologists, the population of Vladimir and Ryazan ranged from 15 to 25 thousand people. For consolation, we note that the main city of Poland, Krakow, captured by Batu in 1241, had less than 10 thousand inhabitants. Novgorod, which was not captured, but eventually submitted to the Mongols, was then inhabited by about 30 thousand.

The population of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality is estimated by historians at a maximum of 800 thousand people. In general, the ancient Russian lands during the period of the “Batu invasion” from Novgorod to Kyiv, from Vladimir-Volynsky in the west future Ukraine to Vladimir-Zalessky in the center of the future Muscovy, there were about 5-7 million inhabitants.

For comparison, let us give the population of other countries captured by Genghis Khan, his children and grandchildren - the state of the Khorezmshahs, which included Central Asia and modern Iran, was inhabited by about 20 million, and the population of all of China, then divided into several states and empires (Xi-Xia, Jin, Song), successively captured by the Mongols, already exceeded 100 million.

But such modesty and comparative poverty did not make it any easier for the Russian people. In the first years of the conquest, the Mongols, in addition to seizing military booty during the fighting, collected military indemnities from the conquered lands. The Moscow Chronicle tells about tithe “in everything, in princes and in people and in horses,” as a requirement of the Mongols at the very beginning of the conquest.

However, the Mongols of Genghis Khan's era were different from all other conquerors systematic approach in everything - from the organization of the army to the well-thought-out scheme of robbing the conquered. Almost immediately after the completion of the campaigns of 1237-1240, they, not limiting themselves to one-time robberies, began to introduce their own taxation system in Rus'.

“The battle between the Mongols and the Chinese in 1211” from the historical work “Jami at-tawarikh”, 1430

The beginning of the payment of regular tribute is usually dated to 1245, when a record appears in the Novgorod Chronicle about the first actions of the Mongols after the conquest: “And they counted the number, and began to pay tribute on them.” The following year, 1246, the Italian monk Plano Carpini, sent by the Pope to the Mongol emperor, passed through Kyiv and wrote in his diary that at that time “one Saracen, as they said from the Batu party,” was sent to “Russia”, who “counted everything population, according to their custom”, “that everyone, both small and large, even a one-day-old baby, or poor or rich, should pay such a tribute, namely, that he would give one bear skin, one black beaver, one black sable and one fox skin."

It is clear that in the first years after the conquest, this system was in its infancy and covered only part of the Russian lands, where the garrisons of Batu, who remained in Eastern Europe after the completion of the “Western Campaign,” settled nearby for the winter. Most of the Russian lands, having survived the raids of the steppe cavalry, avoided paying regular tribute.

In 1247, 10 years after the start of the conquest, Prince Andrei Yaroslavich, the younger brother of Alexander Nevsky, went to pay his respects to the new authorities in Mongolia. There, from the hands of the Great Khan Guyuk, he received a label to reign in Vladimir, becoming, by the will of the distant eastern overlord, the Grand Duke of Vladimir. In addition to the label for reign, Andrei received from Guyuk an order to conduct a detailed census of the population in his lands in order to impose a systematic tribute in favor of the Genghisid empire.

However, the “capital city” Vladimir was separated from the Mongol headquarters in Karakorum by almost five thousand kilometers and half a year of travel - having returned to reign with a label, Andrei Yaroslavich ignored the order to conduct a census, especially since the great Khan Guyuk died a year later. Systematic tribute from northeastern Rus' never went to Mongolia.

“Destroying the entire land of Suzhdal and Ryazan...”

This was a common phenomenon - many of the outskirts of the Mongol empire, having experienced a devastating conquest, tried to evade paying tribute after the departure of the conquering army. Therefore, the new great Khan Mongke, at the same congress-kurultai of Mongol commanders that elected him head of state, decided to conduct a general census of the empire’s population in order to create a unified tax system.

In 1250, such a census began in the part of China subject to the Mongols, in 1253 - in Iran, in 1254 - in the part of the Caucasus conquered by the Mongols. The order for a census came to Rus' in 1252 along with Berke’s “Bitekchi” detachment. “Bitekchi” (translated from Turkic as clerk) was the name of the position of the first civil officials in the empire of Genghis Khan. In Russian chronicles they were called “chislenniks”, whose task was precisely the calculation - the census of the population and property, the organization of the tax system and control over its successful activities.

Grand Duke Vladimirsky Andrei Yaroslavich, and the entire population of Rus', already knew how reverently the Mongols treated the execution of their orders - according to the laws set out in the Yas of Genghis Khan, failure to comply with orders was punishable by the death penalty. Ordinary people had their heads cut off, and nobles, such as Prince Andrei, had their backs broken. But the people who had just survived Batu’s campaign did not want and could not resist the Mongols.

Diorama “The heroic defense of Old Ryazan from the Mongol-Tatar troops in 1237” in Oleg’s palace, Ryazan. Photo: Denis Konkov / poputi.su

The “numberman” Berke was accompanied by a power resource in the form of a Mongol detachment of about a thousand horsemen under the command of the Mongol officer Nyuryn. He was the grandson of Temnik Burundai, Batu's deputy during the conquest of Rus'. It is known that in 1237-1240 Nyuryn himself took part in the assault on Rostov, Yaroslavl and Kyiv, so he knew the Russian theater of military operations well.

In Russian chronicles, Nyuryn appears as Nevryuy. Therefore, the events of 1252 in Rus' are called the “Nevryuev’s Army” - Nyuryn’s detachment accompanying the “numeral” Berke, unexpectedly for the Russians, went to Vladimir and defeated the squad of Prince Andrei. The Grand Duke of Vladimir himself hastily fled to Sweden through Novgorod. The Mongols appointed Alexander Nevsky as the new Grand Duke, and the Bitekchi-counter Berke tried to begin a population census.

However, here the census encountered sabotage not by the Russians, but by the Mongols - Batu Khan, who ruled the western outskirts of the empire, clearly did not want taxes from Rus' to go past him to distant Mongolia. Batu was much more satisfied with receiving a non-fixed tribute to his personal treasury directly from the Russian princes than with creating a general imperial tax system, which was controlled not by him, but by the headquarters of the Great Khan in Karakorum.

As a result, Batu and the enumerator Berke never conducted a census in Rus' in 1252, which aroused the anger of the disciplined Nyuryn, who went to Mongolia with a complaint against Batu. In the future, this man, known to Russian chronicles as “Nevryuy”, will become well known to the chroniclers of China - it is he who will command the Mongol corps that will finally conquer the south of the Celestial Empire. This, by the way, well illustrates the scope of the Mongol Empire, whose commanders operated throughout Eurasia, from Poland to Korea, from the Caucasus to Vietnam.

The headquarters of the Great Khan in Mongolia was able to organize a census of Russian tributaries only after the death of the too independent Batu. In 1257, the same number-bitekchi Berke again appeared in Rus', but this time accompanied by a controller sent from Mongolia, who appointed a “daruga” (authorized representative) named Kitai or Kitat, a distant relative of the Genghis Khan family. Russian chronicles call this pair of Mongolian tax officials “raw food eaters Berkai and Kasachik.” Medieval Chinese chronicles call the second one - “Kitat, the son of Kaan Lachin’s son-in-law, darug for pacification and maintaining order among the Russians.”

The most complete story about the census in North-Eastern Rus' was preserved as part of the Laurentian Chronicle in the records for 1257: “The same winter, a number of people arrived, exhausted the entire land of Suzhal and Ryazan, and Murom, and installed foremen, and centurions, and thousanders, and temniks. There’s nothing like abbots, cherntsovs, priests...”

Mongolian tax officials introduced a general imperial taxation system in Rus', developed by Yelu Chutsai, the first civilian official of Genghis Khan. Born in the north of modern China, this son of a Mongol father and a Chinese mother served as secretary to the governor of Beijing on the eve of the conquest of the city by the troops of Genghis Khan. It was Yelu, based on the experience of the great Chinese empires of the past (Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song), who developed for the Mongols the entire system of taxation and civil administration in their vast empire. In the winter of 1257-1258, the Mongols forcibly transferred this Chinese experience to Russian lands.

“We are darkness, and darkness...”

The words of the chronicle “stavisha tens, and centurions, and thousand, and temniks” means that the mechanism of accounting and collection of tribute was based on the decimal system. The unit of taxation became the peasant farm, the yard (in the Russian terminology of that time, “smoke” or “plow”). Ten peasant farms were united into a dozen under the control of a foreman, and then this simple but effective system grew upward - a hundred, a thousand and “darkness” (ten thousand), existing parallel to the princely power and the previous divisions into cities, lands, clans and communities.

“Feud of Russian princes in the Golden Horde over the label for the great reign”, Boris Chorikov, 1836

Teners, centurions and thousanders were appointed from the local population. At the head of the thousand and the “darkness” were placed Mongolian officials, authorized darugs (“darug” in literal translation - “presser of the seal”, “official who puts a seal on documents”). Russian chronicles call such commissioners “baskaks” - a Turkic term literally corresponding to the Mongolian “daruga”.

Since it was the “darugs” (in the writing of some ancient Russian documents - “roads”) that ensured the creation and functioning of the “Yamskaya chase”, horse relay races, a permanent system of transport and communication, from the city of Vladimir to the capital in Khanbalyk (Beijing), a number of researchers believe that that the term “road” itself, meaning a roadway, took root in the Russian language in this meaning precisely because of the Mongolian “darugs” and the routes organized by them.

The chief tax inspector, responsible for the entire Grand Duchy of Vladimir, is called “the great Baskak” in Russian chronicles; his residence was located in Murom. Each Baskak, in order to maintain order and discipline in his area, had a detachment of troops made up of Mongolian, Turkic and Russian soldiers. It is known from the chronicles that in 1283 there were “more than 30 people” in the detachment of the Kursk Baskak Akhmad. In fact, Baskak combined in one person the functions of a tax inspector, head of the state post office and military commissar - according to orders from the headquarters of the Great Khan, he was responsible for sending auxiliary Russian detachments to the Mongol troops.

Baskak, his officials and security forces were housed in separate farmsteads, some of which eventually became settlements, preserved to this day. On the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Vladimir, today there are almost two dozen villages called Baskakovo or Baskaki.

The Ustyug chronicle even contains the romantic story of the Baskak Buga and the Russian girl Maria, whom he made his concubine, taking as tribute from his peasant father (“by violence for yasak,” as the chronicler says). The girl converted the Mongol pagan Bugu to Christianity, telling him that the order had come from the prince to kill all the Tatars. As a result, the baptized Buga took the name Ivan, married Mary, became a righteous Christian and built a temple of John the Baptist in the city of Ustyug. Later, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized this married couple as saints - “ righteous John and Maria Ustyugsky." So Russian Christianity even has one holy tax collector, the Mongolian Baskak.

In total, on the territory of Rus' by the end of the 13th century there were 43 tax “darknesses” - 16 in Western Rus' and 27 in Eastern Russia. Western Rus', according to the Mongolian division, consisted of the following “topics” (the plural declension of the term “darkness” accepted in historical science): Kyiv, Vladimir-Volynsky, Lutsk, Sokal (now a regional center in the Lviv region), three “darknesses” in Podolia in the south -west of modern Ukraine, Chernigov, Kursk, the so-called “Darkness of Egoldey” south of the Kursk region, Lyubutsk (now a village in the west of the Kaluga region), Ohura (in the area of ​​​​modern Kharkov), Smolensk and the Principality of Galicia in the very west of modern Ukraine as part of three "themes".

According to the results of the Mongol tax reform, Eastern Rus' included 15 “topics” in the Vladimir Principality, five “topics” each in the Novgorod Land and the Tver Principality, and two “topics” that made up the Ryazan Principality. The concept and division into “darkness” during the period of Mongol rule was so ingrained in Russian society that the name of the Novgorod land as “pyatitem” or “pyatem” appears even two centuries later in the official documents of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. For example, the “five items of Novgorod” are used in the agreement between the Moscow prince Dmitry Shemyaka and the Suzdal princes in the middle of the 15th century, in that era when the Baskaks had long been forgotten and stopped paying regular tribute to the Horde.

“And the priests were granted from us according to the previous charter...”

The establishment of the Mongolian tax system in Rus' took several years. The Novgorod Chronicle describes the beginning of 1258 as follows: “And more and more people drove through the streets, writing about peasant houses...” Novgorod responded to the attempt at a census with an uprising, which was suppressed by Alexander Nevsky.

“Baskaki”, Sergei Ivanov, 1909

In the west of Rus', in Galich and Volyn, a census was carried out only in 1260 after the punitive expedition of Temnik-General Burundai (grandfather of the above-mentioned Nevryuy, who at that time was already fighting in southern China). In 1274-1275, a repeat census was carried out in Eastern Rus', and also for the first time in the Smolensk principality.

These were the first capitation censuses in Rus'. And also for the first time in the history of Russian civilization, all people and all categories of the population were included in the tax system, with one single exception. Previously, before the Mongol conquest, the obligation to pay direct taxes, designated by the universal term “tribute,” extended only to certain categories of personally dependent peasants and artisans. The bulk of the population of Ancient Rus' entered into financial relations with the state indirectly, through indirect taxes and communal authorities. Since 1258, the situation has changed fundamentally - so the income tax that all citizens now pay Russian Federation, can be safely considered a legacy of the Tatar-Mongol yoke.

An exception in Genghis Khan's tax system was provided only for priests and church property: they were exempt from any extortions and taxes, they were granted protection and immunity in exchange for the only duty - to officially and publicly pray for the Mongol leader and his power. This was a completely conscious policy of Genghis and his descendants - religious structures in all countries conquered by the Mongols, be they Buddhists, Muslims or Orthodox, with this approach became not inspirers of resistance, but completely loyal intermediaries between the Mongol authorities and the conquered peoples.

The oldest of the khan's labels that have come down to us on the exemption of the Orthodox Church from taxes dates back to August 1267 and was issued by Khan Mengu-Timur, the grandson of Batu. The document was preserved translated from Mongolian into Russian in a 15th-century manuscript: “Tsar Genghis decreed that if there is tribute or food, then let them not touch church people, may they pray to God with sincere hearts for us and for our tribe and bless us... And subsequent kings granted priests in the same way... And we, praying to God, did not change their letters... Whatever the tribute, but not they demand and do not give; or if anything belongs to the church - land, water, vegetable gardens, mills, winter huts, summer huts - let them not cover it up. And if they took it, then let them give it back. And don’t let them take away the church masters—falconers, pardus makers—whoever they are. Or that according to the law, they - books or anything else - should not be taken away, captured, torn apart, or damaged. And whoever blasphemes their faith, that person will be guilty and die... And the priests were granted from us according to the previous charter, so that they would pray to God and bless them. And if anyone prays for us with an insincere heart, that sin will be on you...”

As for the rest of the population, they had to pay tribute in full. At the same time, the tax structure was thoughtful and varied. The main direct tax, yasak, was collected from rural population, initially it amounted to a tenth of “everything” and was paid in kind, including deliveries of living goods and people to Mongol property. Over time, this tithe was regularized, and tribute was paid on the annual harvest either in silver or in specially specified goods. For example, in the Novgorod land of the 14th century, such tribute was called “black forest”, since it was originally paid with the skins of black martens. In contrast to such “black” payments, payments in silver were called “white”.

In addition to this main tax, there was a whole group of emergency and special taxes. So in 1259, the Novgorod chronicler wrote: “And there was great confusion in Novgorod, when the damned Tatars gathered a tuska and caused a lot of evil to people in rural areas" The term “Tuska” comes from the Turkic concept tuzghu, which meant “gifts to visiting rulers or envoys.” The Novgorod “tuska” became a fine for the rebellion of the townspeople during the 1258 census.

“The Murder of the First Grand Duke of Moscow Yuri Danilovich in the Horde” by an unknown artist, second half of the 19th century

The Mongols also levied a special tax on the maintenance of horse-drawn postal stations, a structure that would later be called the “Yamsk service” in the Moscow state. This tax was called “yam”. There was an emergency war tax, “kulush”, it was collected in those years when recruits were not taken into the Horde

The main tax from cities was called “tamga”, it was paid by merchants and merchants. In both Mongolian and Turkic languages, the term “tamga” originally denoted the clan emblem, the family mark used to mark horses and other types of property belonging to the clan. Later, with the emergence of a state among the Mongols, “tamga” became a mark, a seal that marked goods received as tribute.

“Tamga” was paid annually, either from the amount of capital or from turnover. It is known that in the first case the tax rate was approximately 0.4% of capital. For example, Persian and Central Asian merchants annually paid one dinar out of every 240 dinars of their capital into the Mongol treasury. In the case of payment of “tamga” from turnover, the amount of tax in different cities varied from 3 to 5%. It is known that in the cities of Crimea, merchants paid 3%, and in the city of Tana (modern Azov at the mouth of the Don) “tamga” was 5%.

Unfortunately, the exact rates of the “tamga” tax for different Russian cities are unknown, but it is unlikely that they were higher than the Crimean or Asian ones. But it is known that from the Hanseatic merchants who purchased raw skins in Novgorod, the Mongols collected a tax (now they would say excise tax) of 40%, but when supplying European goods to the Volga region, the Hanseatic merchants were exempted by the Mongol authorities from paying taxes and travel fees.

“Tamga” was paid in gold, or at least counted in gold. The richest merchants (in Russian - “guests”) were taxed individually, while simpler merchants united in associations that collectively paid “tamga”. In modern Russian, the term “customs” comes precisely from the word “tamga”.

The stolen tribute and the mare of Deacon Dudko

At the end of the 13th century, the Mongols, trying to save on the tax apparatus and obtain precious coins in bulk, practiced transferring the collection of taxes from Rus' to wealthy Muslim merchants from large cities in Central Asia. As the Russian chronicler writes: “Take away tribute from the Tatars.” Tax farmers paid tax amounts in advance to the Mongolian treasury, after which they received the right to collect tribute from certain regions of Rus' in their favor.

Although such a system was extremely cheap for the conquerors, it gave rise to constant problems - tax farmers sought to collect as much taxes as possible, receiving in response riots of the local population. As a result, by the beginning of the 14th century, the authorities of the Golden Horde gradually moved from the direct collection of tribute by the Baskaks and the practice of farming out to the simplest, most convenient and cheapest scheme - from now on, the tribute to the conquerors, the “Horde exit”, was collected by the Russian princes themselves. The size of the tribute received with this approach decreased, control became nominal (“per capita” censuses were no longer carried out), but this method of receiving tribute did not require any costs from the Horde.

Among other things, a banal shortage of personnel affected this - in constant conquests throughout Eurasia and in several internal wars, the Mongols by the 14th century undermined their mobilization potential; there were barely enough people to control China and Central Asia, on the distant and relatively poor northwestern outskirts of the empire they were no longer enough. At the same time, such a transfer of tribute collection into the hands of the Russian princes allowed the latter to accumulate considerable funds, which ultimately led to the strengthening of Moscow and the emergence in the future of a centralized Russian state.

In the west of Rus', direct collection of tribute continued somewhat longer. It is known that the Horde Baskak and his detachment sat in Kyiv until 1362.

The rise of Moscow was precisely facilitated by the last major incident with the Horde Baskak in eastern Rus'. In 1327 (that is, exactly a century after the start of the Mongol conquest of the Russian principalities), Chol Khan, a cousin of the Golden Horde Khan Uzbek, arrived in Tver to collect tribute. Chol Khan (in Russian chronicles “Shevkal” or even “Schelkan”) settled in the palace of the Tver prince and began to extort tax arrears from the population. In response, on August 15, 1327, an uprising broke out in Tver, the Horde tax officer was burned with his guards and retinue right along with the princely palace. The reason for the uprising was an attempt by the Tatars from Chol Khan’s retinue to take away a mare from a certain Tver deacon Dudko...

The harsh actions of Chol Khan, which provoked this uprising, were in turn provoked by the corruption machinations of the Tver and Moscow princes around the Horde tribute. The fact is that in 1321, the Tver prince Dmitry transferred the Horde tribute from the entire Tver principality to the Moscow prince Yuri, who at that time had a label for the “great reign” and was therefore responsible for delivering the tribute to the Horde. But Yuri, instead of sending the Tver tribute to its destination, took it to Novgorod and, through intermediary merchants, put the amount intended for the Horde Khan into circulation at interest. The size of this amount is known - 2000 rubles in silver (approximately 200 kilograms of the precious metal).

The showdown between Tver Dmitry, Moscow Yuri and Horde Uzbek over tribute went on for several years - the matter was complicated by the fact that Yuri was a relative of Khan Uzbek, the husband of his younger sister. Without waiting for the investigation into the issue of tribute to be completed, at a meeting in Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde, in 1325 the Tver prince hacked to death the Moscow prince. And although the Horde khan morally approved the murder of the financial schemer from Moscow, he acted according to the law and executed the Tver prince “for arbitrariness,” and sent his cousin to Tver for a new tribute. It was there that the story happened with Deacon Dudko’s mare, which ultimately sent the entire history of the country in a new direction...

The younger brother of the murdered Moscow prince Yuri, Ivan Kalita, also a financial schemer, but unlike his brother, was more careful and subtle, took advantage of the events. He quickly received from the enraged Uzbek Khan a label for a great reign and, with the help of Horde troops, defeated the Tver Principality, which had previously competed with Moscow for leadership in the northeast of Rus'. From that time on, Tver never recovered and Moscow’s influence began to gradually grow throughout the region.

In many ways, this growth of the future capital was ensured precisely by the central role of Moscow in collecting the “Horde exit”, tribute to the Horde. For example, in 1330, Moscow troops, on the orders of Khan Uzbek, extracted tax arrears from the Rostov principality - as a result, the Muscovites not only collected the Horde tribute and hanged the main boyar Averky among the Rostovites, but also annexed half of the Rostov lands to Moscow. Part of the funds collected for the Horde imperceptibly but constantly ended up in the bins of Ivan Kalita. It is no coincidence that his nickname “Kalita”, from the Turkic “kalta”, meant pocket or wallet in the Russian language of that century.

“And give them Novgorodians 2000 silver...”

So how much did Rus' pay to the Horde? According to the results of the last Horde census in the north-east of Rus', held in 1275, the tribute amounted to “half a hryvnia per plow”. Based standard weight ancient Russian silver hryvnia of 150-200 grams, historians have calculated that in that year Vladimir-Suzdal Rus' paid the Horde about one and a half tons of silver. The amount for a country that did not have its own silver mines is very impressive, even huge, but not fantastic.

It is known that the Golden Horde (aka “Ulus of Jochi”), as part of the Mongol Empire, for some time received tribute not only from the principalities of Rus', but also from three distant provinces in the north of modern China: Jinzhou, Pingyang-fu, Yongzhou. Every year, 4.5 tons of silver were sent from the banks of the Yellow River to the banks of the Volga. The Song Empire, not yet conquered by the Mongols, occupied southern half China, bought off the Mongol raids with an annual tribute of 7.5 tons of silver, not counting large volumes of silk. Therefore, one and a half Russian tons do not look extremely huge against this background. However, judging by available sources, in other years the tribute was less and was paid with greater delays.

As already mentioned, the territory of Rus' according to the Mongolian tax system was divided into “darkness” tax districts. And on average, each such “darkness” in the north-east of Rus' in the middle of the 14th century paid 400 rubles in tribute, the “Horde exit”. So the Tver Principality and the Novgorod Land were each divided into five such tax districts and paid 2,000 rubles in tribute. The above-mentioned machinations of the Moscow princes with 2000 Tver rubles in 1321 were recorded for history by the Moscow chronicle. The Novgorod Chronicle for 1328 writes: “And the Tatars sent ambassadors to Novgorod, and the Novgorodians gave them 2000 silver and sent their ambassadors with them with many gifts.”

By the way, it was the need to pay Mongol tribute that prompted the Novgorodians and Vladimir-Suzdal residents to begin expansion to the northeast, into forest lands, in the 13th-14th centuries White Sea and the Urals, to “Biarmia” and “Perm the Great”, in order to compensate for the tax oppression of the Horde by imposing fur taxes on the aborigines. Later, after the collapse of the Horde yoke, it was this movement to the northeast that would develop into the conquest of Siberia...

The amounts of tribute from various appanages of North-Eastern Rus' during the reign of Dmitry Donskoy are known in relatively detail. The tribute from the Grand Duchy of Vladimir was 5,000 rubles. During the same period, the Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal principality paid 1,500 rubles. The tribute from the territories of the Moscow Principality proper was 1,280 rubles.

For comparison, only one city, Khadzhitarkhan (Astrakhan), through which large transit trade took place in those centuries, gave 60 thousand altyn (1800 rubles) taxes annually to the treasury of the Golden Horde.

The city of Galich, now the regional center of the Kostroma region, and then “Galich Mersky”, the center of a fairly large principality with rich salt mines by the standards of Vladimir Rus', paid 525 rubles in tribute. The city of Kolomna with its surroundings paid 342 rubles, Zvenigorod with its surroundings - 272 rubles, Mozhaisk - 167 rubles.

The city of Serpukhov, or rather the small Principality of Serpukhov, paid 320 rubles, and the very small Principality of Gorodets paid 160 rubles in tribute. The city of Dmitrov paid 111 rubles, and Vyatka “from cities and volosts” 128 rubles.

According to historians, all of North-Eastern Rus' during this period paid about 12-14 thousand rubles to the Horde. Most historians believe that the silver ruble was then equal to half the “Novgorod hryvnia” and contained 100 grams of silver. In general, the same one and a half tons of precious metal are obtained.

However, the frequency of such tribute is not clear from the surviving chronicles. Theoretically, it should have been paid annually, but in practice, especially during the period of civil strife between Russian princes or Horde khans, it was not paid or was paid partially. Again, for comparison, we point out that at the heyday of the Mongol Empire, when the descendants of Genghis Khan owned all of China, only tax collections from Chinese cities gave ten times more silver to the Mongol treasury than all the tribute from northeastern Rus'.

After the battle on the Kulikovo Field, the “exit” of tribute to the Horde continued, but on a smaller scale. Dmitry Donskoy and his heirs paid no more than 10 thousand rubles. At the beginning of the 15th century, one could buy 100 pounds of rye for a Moscow ruble. That is, the entire “Horde output” in the last century of the Tatar-Mongol yoke cost as much as 16 thousand tons of rye - at modern prices, such a volume of rye would cost a ridiculous sum on a state scale, no more than 100 million rubles. But six centuries ago these were completely different prices and different conditions: then 16 thousand tons of rye could feed approximately 100 thousand peasants or a substantial medieval army of 10-15 thousand horsemen for a year.

Studying the history of monetary relations between Rus' and the Horde, we can conclude that the Horde tribute was a well-thought-out financial measure of the conquerors. The tribute was not monstrous and completely ruinous, but over the centuries it regularly washed away the funds necessary for development from the country and its economy.

The history of Russia has always been a little sad and turbulent due to wars, power struggles and drastic reforms. These reforms were often dumped on Russia at once, forcibly, instead of introducing them gradually, measuredly, as most often happened in history. From the time of the first mentions, the princes of different cities - Vladimir, Pskov, Suzdal and Kyiv - constantly fought and argued for power and control over the small semi-unified state. Under the rule of Saint Vladimir (980-1015) and Yaroslav the Wise (1015-1054)

The Kiev state was at the height of its prosperity and had achieved relative peace, unlike in previous years. However, time passed, the wise rulers died, and the struggle for power began again and wars broke out.

Before his death, in 1054, Yaroslav the Wise decided to divide the principalities between his sons, and this decision determined the future of Kievan Rus for the next two hundred years. Civil wars between brothers devastated most of the Kyiv Commonwealth of Cities, depriving it of the necessary resources that would be very useful to it in the future. As the princes continuously fought with each other, the former Kiev state slowly decayed, diminished and lost its former glory. At the same time, it was weakened by the invasions of the steppe tribes - the Cumans (aka Cumans or Kipchaks), and before that the Pechenegs, and in the end the Kiev state became easy prey for more powerful invaders from distant lands.

Rus' had a chance to change its destiny. Around 1219, the Mongols first entered the areas near Kievan Rus, heading to Russia, and they asked for help from the Russian princes. A council of princes met in Kyiv to consider the request, which greatly worried the Mongols. According to historical sources, the Mongols stated that they were not going to attack Russian cities and lands. Mongol envoys demanded peace with the Russian princes. However, the princes did not trust the Mongols, suspecting that they would not stop and would go to Rus'. The Mongol ambassadors were killed, and thus the chance for peace was destroyed at the hands of the princes of the disunited Kyiv state.

For twenty years, Batu Khan, with an army of 200 thousand people, carried out raids. One after another, the Russian principalities - Ryazan, Moscow, Vladimir, Suzdal and Rostov - fell into bondage to Batu and his army. The Mongols plundered and destroyed the cities, killing the inhabitants or taking them captive. The Mongols eventually captured, plundered and razed Kyiv, the center and symbol of Kievan Rus. Only the outlying northwestern principalities such as Novgorod, Pskov and Smolensk survived the onslaught, although these cities would endure indirect subjugation and become appendages of the Golden Horde. Perhaps the Russian princes could prevent this by concluding peace. However, this cannot be called a miscalculation, because then Rus' would forever have to change religion, art, language, system of government and geopolitics.

The Orthodox Church during the Tatar-Mongol yoke

The first Mongol raids sacked and destroyed many churches and monasteries, and countless priests and monks were killed. Those who survived were often captured and sent into slavery. The size and power of the Mongol army was shocking. Not only the economy and political structure of the country suffered, but also social and spiritual institutions. The Mongols claimed that they were God's punishment, and the Russians believed that all this was sent to them by God as punishment for their sins.

The Orthodox Church will become a powerful beacon in the “dark years” of Mongol dominance. The Russian people eventually turned to the Orthodox Church, seeking consolation in their faith and guidance and support in the clergy. The raids of the steppe people caused a shock, throwing seeds on fertile soil for the development of Russian monasticism, which in turn played an important role in the formation of the worldview of the neighboring tribes of the Finno-Ugrians and Zyryans, and also led to colonization northern regions Russia.

The humiliation suffered by the princes and city authorities undermined their political authority. This allowed the church to embody religious and national identity, filling the lost political identity. Also helping to strengthen the church was the unique legal concept of labeling, or the immunity charter. During the reign of Mengu-Timur in 1267, the label was issued to Metropolitan Kirill of Kyiv for the Orthodox Church.

Although the church had come under de facto Mongol protection ten years earlier (from the 1257 census taken by Khan Berke), this label officially sealed the sanctity of the Orthodox Church. More importantly, it officially exempted the church from any form of taxation by the Mongols or Russians. Priests had the right not to be registered during censuses and were exempt from forced labor and military service.

As expected, the label issued to the Orthodox Church had great significance. For the first time, the church becomes less dependent on the princely will than in any other period of Russian history. The Orthodox Church was able to acquire and secure significant tracts of land, giving it an extremely powerful position that continued for centuries after the Mongol takeover. The charter strictly prohibited both Mongolian and Russian tax agents from seizing church lands or demanding anything from the Orthodox Church. This was guaranteed by a simple punishment - death.

Other important reason The rise of the church lay in its mission - to spread Christianity and convert village pagans to their faith. Metropolitans traveled widely throughout the country to strengthen the internal structure of the church and to solve administrative problems and supervise the activities of bishops and priests. Moreover, the relative security of the monasteries (economic, military and spiritual) attracted peasants. Since the rapidly growing cities interfered with the atmosphere of goodness that the church provided, the monks began to go into the desert and rebuild monasteries and monasteries there. Religious settlements continued to be built and thereby strengthened the authority of the Orthodox Church.

The last significant change was the relocation of the center of the Orthodox Church. Before the Mongols invaded Russian lands, the church center was Kyiv. After the destruction of Kyiv in 1299, the Holy See moved to Vladimir, and then, in 1322, to Moscow, which significantly increased the importance of Moscow.

Fine arts during the Tatar-Mongol yoke

While mass deportations of artists began in Rus', a monastic revival and attention to the Orthodox Church led to an artistic revival. What brought Russians together during those difficult times when they found themselves without a state was their faith and ability to express their religious beliefs. During this difficult time, the great artists Theophanes the Greek and Andrei Rublev worked.

It was during the second half of Mongol rule in the mid-fourteenth century that Russian iconography and fresco painting began to flourish again. Theophanes the Greek arrived in Rus' in the late 1300s. He painted churches in many cities, especially in Novgorod and Nizhny Novgorod. In Moscow, he painted the iconostasis for the Church of the Annunciation, and also worked on the Church of the Archangel Michael. A few decades after Feofan's arrival, the novice Andrei Rublev became one of his best students. Icon painting came to Rus' from Byzantium in the 10th century, but the Mongol invasion in the 13th century cut off Rus' from Byzantium.

How the language changed after the yoke

Such an aspect as the influence of one language on another may seem unimportant to us, but this information helps us understand to what extent one nationality influenced another or groups of nationalities - on government, on military affairs, on trade, and also how this spread geographically influence. Indeed, the linguistic and even sociolinguistic influences were great, as the Russians borrowed thousands of words, phrases, and other significant linguistic structures from the Mongolian and Turkic languages ​​united in the Mongol Empire. Below are some examples of words that are still used today. All borrowings came from different parts of the Horde:

• barn
• bazaar
• money
• horse
• box
• customs

One of the very important colloquial features of the Russian language of Turkic origin is the use of the word “come on”. Listed below are a few common examples that are still found in Russian.

• Let's have some tea.
• Let's have a drink!
• Let's go!

In addition, in southern Russia there are dozens of local names of Tatar/Turkic origin for lands along the Volga, which are highlighted on maps of these areas. Examples of such names: Penza, Alatyr, Kazan, names of regions: Chuvashia and Bashkortostan.

Kievan Rus was a democratic state. The main governing body was the veche - a meeting of all free male citizens who gathered to discuss issues such as war and peace, law, invitation or expulsion of princes to the corresponding city; all cities in Kievan Rus had a veche. It was essentially a forum for civil affairs, for discussion and problem solving. However, this democratic institution suffered severe curtailment under Mongol rule.

Of course, the most influential meetings were in Novgorod and Kyiv. In Novgorod, a special veche bell (in other cities church bells were usually used for this) served to convene the townspeople, and, theoretically, anyone could ring it. When the Mongols conquered most of Kievan Rus, the veche ceased to exist in all cities except Novgorod, Pskov and several other cities in the northwest. The veche in these cities continued to work and develop until Moscow subjugated them at the end of the 15th century. However, today the spirit of the veche as a public forum has been revived in several Russian cities, including Novgorod.

Population censuses, which made it possible to collect tribute, were of great importance to the Mongol rulers. To support censuses, the Mongols introduced a special dual system of regional administration, headed by military governors, the Baskaks, and/or civilian governors, the Darugachs. Essentially, the Baskaks were responsible for directing the activities of rulers in areas that resisted or did not accept Mongol rule. Darugachs were civilian governors who controlled those areas of the empire that had surrendered without a fight or that were considered to have already submitted to the Mongol troops and were calm. However, the Baskaks and Darugachs sometimes performed the duties of the authorities, but did not duplicate it.

As is known from history, ruling princes Kievan Rus' was distrusted by the Mongol ambassadors who came to make peace with them in the early 1200s; The princes, regrettably, put Genghis Khan's ambassadors to the sword and soon paid dearly. Thus, in the 13th century, Baskaks were installed in the conquered lands to subjugate the people and control even the daily activities of the princes. In addition, in addition to conducting the census, the Baskaks provided recruitment for the local population.

Existing sources and research indicate that the Baskaks largely disappeared from Russian lands by the mid-14th century, as Rus' more or less accepted the authority of the Mongol khans. When the Baskaks left, power passed to the Darugachi. However, unlike the Baskaks, the Darugachis did not live on the territory of Rus'. In fact, they were located in Sarai, the old capital of the Golden Horde, located near modern Volgograd. Darugachi served on the lands of Rus' mainly as advisers and advised the khan. Although the responsibility for collecting and delivering tribute and conscripts belonged to the Baskaks, with the transition from the Baskaks to the Darugachs, these responsibilities were actually transferred to the princes themselves, when the Khan saw that the princes could handle it quite well.

The first census conducted by the Mongols took place in 1257, just 17 years after the conquest of Russian lands. The population was divided into dozens - the Chinese had such a system, the Mongols adopted it, using it throughout their entire empire. The main purpose of the census was conscription as well as taxation. Moscow continued this practice even after it stopped recognizing the Horde in 1480. The practice attracted the interest of foreign visitors to Russia, for whom large-scale censuses were still unknown. One such visitor, Sigismund von Herberstein of Habsburg, noted that every two or three years the prince conducted a census of the entire land. The population census did not become widespread in Europe until the early 19th century. One significant remark that we must make: the thoroughness with which the Russians carried out the census could not be achieved in other parts of Europe during the era of absolutism for about 120 years. The influence of the Mongol Empire, at least in this area, was apparently deep and effective and helped create a strong centralized government for the Rus.

One of the important innovations that the Baskaks oversaw and supported was the pits (post system), which were built to provide travelers with food, lodging, horses, and carts or sleighs, depending on the time of year. Originally built by the Mongols, the yam allowed for the relatively rapid movement of important dispatches between the khans and their governors, as well as the rapid dispatch of envoys, local or foreign, between the various principalities throughout the vast empire. At each post there were horses to carry authorized persons, as well as to replace tired horses on particularly long trips. Each post was usually about a day's drive from the nearest post. Local residents were required to support caretakers, feed horses, and meet the needs of officials traveling on official business.

The system was quite effective. Another report by Sigismund von Herberstein of the Habsburg stated that the pit system allowed him to travel 500 kilometers (from Novgorod to Moscow) in 72 hours - much faster than anywhere else in Europe. The yam system helped the Mongols maintain tight control over their empire. During the dark years of the Mongols' presence in Rus' at the end of the 15th century, Prince Ivan III decided to continue using the idea of ​​the yam system in order to preserve the established communications and intelligence system. However, the idea of ​​a postal system as we know it today would not emerge until the death of Peter the Great in the early 1700s.

Some of the innovations brought to Rus' by the Mongols satisfied the needs of the state for a long time and continued for many centuries after the Golden Horde. This greatly enhanced the development and expansion of the complex bureaucracy of later, imperial Russia.

Founded in 1147, Moscow remained an insignificant city for more than a hundred years. At that time, this place lay at the crossroads of three main roads, one of which connected Moscow with Kiev. The geographical location of Moscow deserves attention, since it is located on the bend of the Moscow River, which merges with the Oka and Volga. Through the Volga, which allows access to the Dnieper and Don rivers, as well as the Black and Caspian seas, there have always been enormous opportunities for trade with neighbors and distant lands. With the advance of the Mongols, crowds of refugees began to arrive from the devastated southern part of Rus', mainly from Kyiv. Moreover, the actions of the Moscow princes in favor of the Mongols contributed to the rise of Moscow as a center of power.

Even before the Mongols granted Moscow the label, Tver and Moscow were constantly fighting for power. The main turning point occurred in 1327, when the population of Tver began to rebel. Seeing this as an opportunity to please the khan of his Mongol overlords, Prince Ivan I of Moscow with a huge Tatar army suppressed the uprising in Tver, restoring order in that city and winning the favor of the khan. To demonstrate loyalty, Ivan I was also given a label, and thus Moscow moved one step closer to fame and power. Soon the princes of Moscow took on the responsibility of collecting taxes throughout the land (including themselves), and eventually the Mongols assigned this task solely to Moscow and stopped the practice of sending their own tax collectors. However, Ivan I was more than a shrewd politician and a model of common sense: he was perhaps the first prince to replace the traditional horizontal succession scheme with a vertical one (although this was only fully achieved by the second reign of Prince Vasily in the middle of 1400). This change led to greater stability in Moscow and thus strengthened its position. As Moscow grew thanks to the collection of tribute, its power over other principalities became more and more established. Moscow received land, which meant it collected more tribute and gained greater access to resources, and therefore more power.

At a time when Moscow was becoming more and more powerful, the Golden Horde was in a state of general disintegration caused by riots and coups. Prince Dmitry decided to attack in 1376 and succeeded. Soon after, one of the Mongol generals, Mamai, attempted to create his own horde in the steppes west of the Volga, and he decided to challenge the authority of Prince Dmitry on the banks of the Vozha River. Dmitry defeated Mamai, which delighted the Muscovites and of course angered the Mongols. However, he gathered an army of 150 thousand people. Dmitry assembled an army of comparable size, and the two armies met near the Don River on the Kulikovo Field in early September 1380. Dmitry's Russians, although they lost about 100,000 people, won. Tokhtamysh, one of Tamerlane's generals, soon captured and executed General Mamai. Prince Dmitry became known as Dmitry Donskoy. However, Moscow was soon sacked by Tokhtamysh and again had to pay tribute to the Mongols.

But the great Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 was a symbolic turning point. Even though the Mongols took brutal revenge on Moscow for its insubordination, the power that Moscow showed grew and its influence over other Russian principalities expanded. In 1478, Novgorod finally submitted to the future capital, and Moscow soon abandoned its submission to the Mongol and Tatar khans, thus ending more than 250 years of Mongol rule.

Results of the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke

Evidence suggests that the many consequences of the Mongol invasion extended to the political, social and religious aspects of Rus'. Some of them, such as the growth of the Orthodox Church, had a relatively positive impact on the Russian lands, while others, such as the loss of the veche and the centralization of power, contributed to the end of the spread of traditional democracy and self-government for the various principalities. Because of its influence on language and government, the impact of the Mongol invasion is still evident today. Perhaps with the chance to experience the Renaissance, as in other Western European cultures, Russia's political, religious and social thought will be very different from the political reality of today. Under the control of the Mongols, who adopted many of the ideas of government and economics from the Chinese, the Russians became perhaps a more Asian country in terms of administrative structure, and the deep Christian roots of the Russians established and helped maintain connections with Europe. Mongol invasion, perhaps larger than any other historical event, determined the course of development of the Russian state - its culture, political geography, history and national identity.

Nowadays, there are several alternative versions of the medieval history of Rus' (Kyiv, Rostov-Suzdal, Moscow). Each of them has the right to exist, since the official course of history is not confirmed by practically anything other than “copies” of once existing documents. One such event in Russian history is the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Rus'. Let's try to consider what it is Tatar-Mongol yoke - historical fact or fiction.

The Tatar-Mongol yoke was

The generally accepted and literally laid out version, known to everyone from school textbooks and which is the truth for the whole world, is “Rus' was under the rule of wild tribes for 250 years. Rus' is backward and weak - it could not cope with the savages for so many years.”

The concept of “yoke” appeared during the time of Rus'’s entry into the European path of development. In order to become an equal partner for the countries of Europe, it was necessary to prove one’s “Europeanism” and not “wild Siberian orientality”, while recognizing one’s backwardness and the formation of the state only in the 9th century with the help of the European Rurik.

The version of the existence of the Tatar-Mongol yoke is confirmed only by numerous fiction and popular literature, including “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev” and all the works of the Kulikovo cycle based on it, which have many variants.

One of these works - “The Word about the Destruction of the Russian Land” - belongs to the Kulikovo cycle, does not contain the words “Mongol”, “Tatar”, “yoke”, “invasion”, there is only a story about “trouble” for the Russian land.

The most amazing thing is that the later a historical “document” is written, the more details it acquires. The fewer living witnesses, the more little details are described.

There is no factual material that one hundred percent confirms the existence of the Tatar-Mongol yoke.

There was no Tatar-Mongol yoke

This development of events is not recognized by official historians not only throughout the world, but also in Russia and throughout the post-Soviet space. The factors that researchers who disagree with the existence of the yoke rely on are the following:

• the version of the presence of the Tatar-Mongol yoke appeared in the 18th century and, despite numerous studies by many generations of historians, did not undergo significant changes. It is illogical, in everything there must be development and movement forward - with the development of the capabilities of researchers, the factual material must change;
• There are no Mongolian words in the Russian language - many studies have been carried out, including by Professor V.A. Chudinov;
• Almost nothing was found on the Kulikovo field after many decades of searching. The location of the battle itself is not clearly established;
• the complete absence of folklore about the heroic past and the great Genghis Khan in modern Mongolia. Everything that has been written in our time is based on information from Soviet history textbooks;
• Great in the past, Mongolia is still a pastoral country that has practically stopped in its development;
• the complete absence in Mongolia of a gigantic amount of trophies from most of the “conquered” Eurasia;
• even those sources recognized by official historians describe Genghis Khan as “a tall warrior, with white skin and blue eyes, a thick beard and reddish hair” - a clear description of a Slav;
• the word “horde”, if read in Old Slavic letters, means “order”;
• Genghis Khan - rank of commander of the troops of Tartary;
• "khan" - protector;
• prince - a governor appointed by the khan in the province;
• tribute - ordinary taxation, as in any state in our time;
• in the images of all icons and engravings related to the fight against the Tatar-Mongol yoke, the opposing warriors are depicted identically. Even their banners are similar. This speaks more of a civil war within one state than of a war between states with different culture and, accordingly, differently armed warriors;
• numerous genetic examinations and visual appearance they talk about the complete absence of Mongolian blood in Russian people. It is obvious that Rus' was captured for 250 - 300 years by a horde of thousands of castrated monks, who also took a vow of celibacy;

• There are no handwritten confirmations of the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in the languages ​​of the invaders. Everything that is considered documents of this period is written in Russian;

• For the rapid movement of an army of 500 thousand people (the figure of traditional historians), spare (clockwork) horses are needed, on which riders are transferred at least once a day. Each simple rider should have from 2 to 3 wind-up horses. For the rich, the number of horses is calculated in herds. In addition, many thousands of convoy horses with food for people and weapons, bivouac equipment (yurts, cauldrons, and many others). To simultaneously feed such a number of animals, there is not enough grass in the steppes for hundreds of kilometers in radius. For a given area, such a number of horses is comparable to an invasion of locusts, which leaves behind a void. And the horses still need to be watered somewhere, every day. To feed the warriors, many thousands of sheep are needed, which move much slower than horses, but eat the grass to the ground. All this accumulation of animals will sooner or later begin to die out from hunger. An invasion of mounted troops from the regions of Mongolia into Rus' on such a scale is simply impossible.

What happened

To figure out what the Tatar-Mongol yoke is - is it a historical fact or fiction, researchers are forced to look for miraculously preserved sources of alternative information about the history of Rus'. The remaining, inconvenient artifacts indicate the following:

• through bribery and various promises, including unlimited power, the Western “baptists” achieved the consent of the ruling circles of Kievan Rus to introduce Christianity;
• the destruction of the Vedic worldview and the baptism of Kievan Rus (a province that broke away from Great Tartary) “with fire and sword” (one of crusades, supposedly to Palestine) - “Vladimir baptized with the sword, and Dobrynya with fire” - 9 million people out of 12 who lived at that time in the territory of the principality (almost the entire adult population) died. Of the 300 cities, 30 remain;
• all destruction and victims of baptism are attributed to the Tatar-Mongols;
• everything that is called the “Tatar-Mongol yoke” is the response of the Slavic-Aryan Empire (Great Tartaria - Mogul (Grand) Tartarus) to return provinces that were invaded and Christianized;
• the period of time during which the “Tatar-Mongol yoke” occurred was a period of peace and prosperity of Rus';
• destruction by all available methods of chronicles and other documents dating back to the Middle Ages throughout the world and, in particular, in Russia: libraries with original documents burned, “copies” were preserved. In Russia, several times, on the orders of the Romanovs and their “historiographers,” chronicles were collected “for rewriting” and then disappeared;
• all geographical maps published before 1772 and not subject to correction call the western part of Russia Muscovy or Moscow Tartaria. The rest of the former Soviet Union (excluding Ukraine and Belarus) is called Tartaria or the Russian Empire;
• 1771 - the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica: “Tartary, a huge country in the northern part of Asia...”. This phrase was removed from subsequent editions of the encyclopedia.

In the century information technologies It’s not easy to hide data. Official history does not recognize fundamental changes, therefore, what the Tatar-Mongol yoke is - historical fact or fiction, which version of history to believe in - you need to determine for yourself independently. We must not forget that history is written by the winner.