What a khan of the golden horde. Golden Horde - briefly. Decline of the Golden Horde and its collapse

In the mid-13th century, one of Genghis Khan's grandsons, Kublai Khan, moved his headquarters to Beijing, founding the Yuan dynasty. The rest of the Mongol Empire was nominally subordinate to the Great Khan in Karakorum. One of Genghis Khan's sons, Chagatai (Jaghatai), received the lands of most of Central Asia, and Genghis Khan's grandson Hulagu owned the territory of Iran, part of Western and Central Asia and Transcaucasia. This usul, allocated in 1265, is called the Hulaguid state after the name of the dynasty. Another grandson of Genghis Khan from his eldest son Jochi, Batu, founded the state of the Golden Horde. History of Russia, A.S. Orlov, V.A. Georgieva 2004 - from 56.

The Golden Horde is a medieval state in Eurasia, created by Turkic-Mongol tribes. Founded in the early 40s of the 13th century as a result of the conquered campaigns of the Mongols. The name of the state came from the magnificent tent that stood in its capital, sparkling in the sun. The Golden Horde: myths and reality. V L Egorov 1990 - from 5.

Initially, the Golden Horde was part of the huge Mongol Empire. The khans of the Golden Horde in the first decades of its existence were considered subordinate to the supreme Mongol khan in Karakorum in Mongolia. The Horde khans received a label in Mongolia for the right to reign in the Ulus of Jochi. But, starting in 1266, the Golden Horde khan Mengu-Timur for the first time ordered his name to be minted on coins instead of the name of the All-Mongol sovereign. From this time the countdown of the independent existence of the Golden Horde begins.

Batu Khan founded a powerful state, which some called the Golden Horde, and others the White Horde - the khan of this Horde was called the White Khan. The Mongols, often called Tatars, were a small minority in the Horde - and they soon dissolved among the Cuman Turks, adopting their language and giving them their name: the Cumans also began to be called Tatars. Following the example of Genghis Khan, Batu divided the Tatars into tens, hundreds and thousands; these military units corresponded to clans and tribes; a group of tribes united into a ten-thousandth corps - tumen, in Russian, “darkness” Magazine “History of the State” February 2010 No. 2 article “Golden Horde” from 22.

As for the now familiar name “Golden Horde,” it began to be used at a time when not a trace remained of the state founded by Khan Batu. This phrase first appeared in the “Kazan Chronicler”, written in the second half of the 16th century, in the form “Golden Horde” and “Great Golden Horde”. Its origin is connected with the khan's headquarters, or more precisely, with the khan's ceremonial yurt, richly decorated with gold and expensive materials. This is how a 14th century traveler describes it: “An Uzbek sits in a tent called a golden tent, decorated and outlandish. It consists of wooden rods covered with gold leaves. In the middle is a wooden throne, covered with gilded silver leaves, its legs are made of silver, and its top is strewn with precious stones.”

There is no doubt that the term “Golden Horde” was used in colloquial speech in Rus' already in the 14th century, but it never appears in the chronicles of that period. Russian chroniclers proceeded from the emotional load of the word “golden,” which was used at that time as a synonym for everything good, bright and joyful, which could not be said about the oppressor state, and even populated by “filthy ones.” That is why the name “Golden Horde” appears only after time erased all the horrors of Mongol rule. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, A M Prokhorov, Moscow, 1972 - p. 563

The Golden Horde covers a vast territory. It includes: Western Siberia, Northern Khorezm, Volga Bulgaria, Northern Caucasus, Crimea, Dasht-i-Kipchak (Kipchak steppe from the Irtysh to the Danube). The extreme southeastern limit of the Golden Horde was Southern Kazakhstan (now the city of Taraz), and the extreme northeastern limit was the cities of Tyumen and Isker in Western Siberia. From north to south, the Horde extended from the middle reaches of the river. Kama to Derbent. This entire gigantic territory was quite homogeneous in landscape terms - it was mainly steppe. The capital of the Golden Horde was the city of Sarai, located in the lower reaches of the Volga (sarai translated into Russian means palace). The city was founded by Batu Khan in 1254. Destroyed in 1395 by Tamerlane. The settlement near the village of Selitrennoye, left over from the first capital of the Golden Horde - Sarai-Batu ("city of Batu"), is striking in its size. Spread over several hillocks, it stretches along the left bank of the Akhtuba for more than 15 km. It was a state consisting of semi-independent usuls, united under the rule of the khan. They were ruled by Batu's brothers and the local aristocracy. History of Russia, A.S. Orlov, V.A. Georgieva 2004 - from 57

If we evaluate the total area, the Golden Horde was undoubtedly the largest state of the Middle Ages. Arab and Persian historians of the XIV-XV centuries. summed up its size in figures that amazed the imagination of contemporaries. One of them noted that the length of the state extends to 8, and the width to 6 months of travel. Another slightly reduced the size: up to 6 months of travel in length and 4 in width. The third relied on specific geographical landmarks and reported that this country extends “from the Sea of ​​Constantinople to the Irtysh River, 800 farsakhs in length, and in width from Babelebvab (Derbent) to the city of Bolgar, that is, approximately 600 farsakhs” Golden Horde : myths and reality. V L Egorov 1990 - from 7.

The main population of the Golden Horde were Kipchaks, Bulgars and Russians.

Throughout the 13th century, the Caucasian border was one of the most turbulent, since the local peoples (Circassians, Alans, Lezgins) were not yet completely subjugated to the Mongols and offered stubborn resistance to the conquerors. The Tauride Peninsula also formed part of the Golden Horde from the beginning of its existence. It was after inclusion in the territory of this state that it received a new name - Crimea, after the name of the main city of this ulus. However, the Mongols themselves occupied in the 13th - 14th centuries. only the northern, steppe part of the peninsula. Its coast and mountainous regions at that time represented a number of small feudal estates, semi-dependent on the Mongols. The most important and famous among them were the Italian city-colonies of Kafa (Feodosia), Soldaya (Sudak), Chembalo (Balaclava). In the mountains of the southwest there was a small principality of Theodoro, the capital of which was the well-fortified city of Mangup. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, A. M. Prokhorov, Moscow, 1972 - p. 563.

Relations with the Mongols of the Italians and local feudal lords were maintained thanks to brisk trade. But this did not in the least prevent the Sarai khans from attacking their trading partners from time to time and treating them as their own tributaries. To the west of the Black Sea, the border of the state stretched along the Danube, without crossing it, to the Hungarian fortress of Turnu Severin, which blocked the exit from the Lower Danube Lowland. “The northern borders of the state in this area were limited by the spurs of the Carpathians and included the steppe spaces of the Prut-Dniester interfluve History of Russia 9-18 centuries, V I Moryakov higher education, Moscow, 2004- p. 95.

It was here that the border of the Golden Horde with the Russian principalities began. It passed approximately along the border between steppe and forest-steppe. The border between the Dniester and Dnieper stretched in the area of ​​modern Vinnitsa and Cherkasy regions. In the Dnieper basin, the possessions of the Russian princes ended somewhere between Kiev and Kanev. From here the border line went to the area of ​​modern Kharkov, Kursk and then went to the Ryazan borders along the left bank of the Don. To the east of the Ryazan principality, from the Moksha River to the Volga, there was a forest area inhabited by Mordovian tribes.

The Mongols had little interest in territories covered with dense forests, but despite this, the entire Mordovian population was completely under the control of the Golden Horde and constituted one of its northern uluses. This is clearly evidenced by 14th-century sources. In the Volga basin during the 13th century. the border passed north of the Sura River, and in the next century it gradually shifted to the mouth of the Sura and even south of it. The vast region of modern Chuvashia in the 13th century. was completely under Mongol rule. On the left bank of the Volga, the Golden Horde borderland stretched north of the Kama. Here were the former possessions of Volga Bulgaria, which became an integral part of the Golden Horde without any hint of autonomy. The Bashkirs who lived in the middle and southern Urals also formed part of the Mongol state. They owned in this area all the lands south of the Belaya River Golden Horde and its fall Greeks B. D. Yakubovsky A. Yu. 1998 - from 55.

The Golden Horde was one of the largest states of its time. At the beginning of the 14th century, she could field an army of 300 thousand. The heyday of the Golden Horde occurred during the reign of Khan Uzbek (1312 - 1342). In 1312, Islam became the state religion of the Golden Horde. Then, like other medieval states, the Horde experienced a period of fragmentation. Already in the 14th century, the Central Asian possessions of the Golden Horde separated, and in the 15th century, the Kazan (1438), Crimean (1443), Astrakhan (mid-15th century) and Siberian (late 15th century) khanates stood out History of Russia, A. S. Orlov, V. A. Georgieva 2004 - from 57.

Historians consider the year 1243 to be the beginning of the creation of the Golden Horde. At this time, Batu returned from his campaign of conquest in Europe. At the same time, the Russian prince Yaroslav first arrived at the court of the Mongol khan to obtain a label for reign, that is, the right to rule the Russian lands. The Golden Horde is rightfully considered one of the largest powers.

The size and military power of the Horde in those years were unparalleled. Even the rulers of distant states sought friendship with the Mongolian state.

The Golden Horde stretched for thousands of kilometers, ethnically representing a mixture of the most diverse. The state included Mongols, Volga Bulgars, Mordovians, Circassians, Georgians, and Polovtsians. The Golden Horde inherited its multinational character after the Mongols conquered many territories.

How the Golden Horde was formed

In the vast steppes of central Asia, tribes united under the common name “Mongols” roamed the vast steppes of central Asia for a long time. They had property inequality; they had their own aristocracy, which gained wealth during the seizure of pastures and lands of ordinary nomads.

There was a fierce and bloody struggle between individual tribes, which ended in the creation of a feudal state with a powerful military organization.

In the early 30s of the 13th century, a detachment of thousands of Mongol conquerors entered the Caspian steppes, where the Polovtsians roamed at that time. Having previously conquered the Bashkirs and Volga Bulgars, the Mongols began to seize Polovtsian lands. These vast territories were taken over by the eldest son of Genghis Khan, Khan Jochi. His son Batu (Batu, as he was called in Rus') finally strengthened his power over this ulus. Batu made the headquarters of his state in the Lower Volga in 1243.

The political formation headed by Batu in the historical tradition later received the name “Golden Horde”. It should be noted that this state was not called by the Mongols themselves. They called it "Ulus Jochi". The term “Golden Horde” or simply “Horde” appeared in historiography much later, around the 16th century, when nothing remained of the once powerful Mongol state.

The choice of location for the Horde control center was made by Batu consciously. The Mongol Khan appreciated the dignity of the local steppes and meadows, which were perfectly suitable for the pastures that horses and livestock needed. The Lower Volga is a place where the paths of caravans crossed, which the Mongols could easily control.

People are legends. Middle Ages

Timur (Timur-Leng - Iron Lame), the famous conqueror of the eastern lands, whose name sounded on the lips of Europeans as Tamerlane (1336 - 1405), was born in Kesh (modern Shakhrisabz, "Green City"), fifty miles south of Samarkand in Transoxiana (the region of modern Uzbekistan between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya).

According to some assumptions, Timur's father Taragai was the leader of the Mongol-Turkic tribe of Barlas (a large clan in the Chagatai Mongol tribe) and a descendant of a certain Karachar Noyon (a large feudal landowner in Mongolia in the Middle Ages), a powerful assistant of Chagatai, the son of Genghis Khan and a distant relative of the latter . Timur's reliable Memoirs say that he led many expeditions during the unrest that followed the death of Emir Kazgan, the ruler of Mesopotamia. In 1357, after the invasion of Tughlak Timur, Khan of Kashgar (1361), and the appointment of his son Ilyas-Khoja as governor of Mesopotamia, Timur became his assistant and ruler of Kesh. But very soon he fled and joined Emir Hussein, the grandson of Kazgan, becoming his son-in-law. After many raids and adventures, they defeated the forces of Ilyas-Khoja (1364) and set off to conquer Mesopotamia. Around 1370, Timur rebelled against his ally Hussein, captured him in Balkh and announced that he was the heir of Chagatai and was going to revive the Mongol empire.

Tamerlane devoted the next ten years to the fight against the khans of Jent (East Turkestan) and Khorezm and in 1380 captured Kashgar. He then intervened in the conflict between the khans of the Golden Horde in Rus' and helped Tokhtamysh take the throne. He, with the help of Timur, defeated the ruling khan Mamai, took his place and, in order to take revenge on the Moscow prince for the defeat he inflicted on Mamai in 1380, captured Moscow in 1382.

Timur's conquest of Persia in 1381 began with the capture of Herat. The unstable political and economic situation in Persia at that time contributed to the conqueror. The revival of the country, which began during the reign of the Ilkhans, slowed down again with the death of the last representative of the Abu Said family (1335). In the absence of an heir, rival dynasties took turns taking the throne. The situation was aggravated by the clash between the Mongol Jalair dynasties ruling in Baghdad and Tabriz; the Perso-Arab family of the Muzafarids, ruling in Fars and Isfahan; Kharid-Kurtov in Herat; local religious and tribal alliances, such as the Serbedars (rebels against Mongol oppression) in Khorasan and the Afghans in Kerman, and petty princes in the border areas. All these warring principalities could not jointly and effectively resist Timur. Khorasan and all of Eastern Persia fell under his onslaught in 1382 - 1385; Fars, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Armenia were conquered in 1386-1387 and 1393-1394; Mesopotamia and Georgia came under his rule in 1394. Between conquests, Timur fought Tokhtamysh, now khan of the Golden Horde, whose troops invaded Azerbaijan in 1385 and Mesopotamia in 1388, defeating Timur's forces. In 1391, Timur, pursuing Tokhtamysh, reached the southern steppes of Rus', defeated the enemy and overthrew him from the throne. In 1395, the Horde Khan again invaded the Caucasus, but was finally defeated on the Kura River. To top it off, Timur ravaged Astrakhan and Sarai, but did not reach Moscow. The uprisings that broke out throughout Persia during this campaign demanded his immediate return. Timur suppressed them with extraordinary cruelty. Entire cities were destroyed, the inhabitants were exterminated, and their heads were walled up in the walls of the towers.

In 1399, when Timur was already in his sixties, he invaded India, angry that the Delhi Sultans were showing too much tolerance towards their subjects. On September 24, Tamerlane's troops crossed the Indus and, leaving a bloody trail behind them, entered Delhi.

Tamerlane (Indian drawing)

The army of Mahmud Tughlaq was defeated at Panipat (December 17), leaving Delhi in ruins, from which the city was reborn for more than a century. By April 1399, Timur returned to the capital, burdened with enormous booty. One of his contemporaries, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, wrote that ninety captured elephants carried stones from quarries for the construction of a mosque in Samarkand.

Having laid the stone foundation of the mosque, at the end of the same year, Timur undertook his last great expedition, the purpose of which was to punish the Egyptian Sultan Mameluke for supporting Ahmad Jalair and the Turkish Sultan Bayazet II, who had captured Eastern Anatolia. After restoring his power in Azerbaijan, Tamerlane moved to Syria. Aleppo was stormed and sacked, the Mameluke army was defeated, and Damascus was captured (1400). A crushing blow to the well-being of Egypt was that Timur sent all the craftsmen to Samarkand to build mosques and palaces. In 1401, Baghdad was stormed, twenty thousand of its inhabitants were killed, and all monuments were destroyed. Tamerlane spent the winter in Georgia, and in the spring he crossed the border of Anatolia, defeated Bayazet near Ankara (July 20, 1402) and captured Smyrna, which was owned by the Rhodian knights. Bayazet died in captivity, and the story of his imprisonment in an iron cage forever became a legend.

As soon as the Egyptian Sultan and John VII (later co-ruler of Manuel II Palaiologos) stopped resisting, Timur returned to Samarkand and immediately began preparing for an expedition to China. He set out at the end of December, but in Otrar on the Syr Darya River he fell ill and died on January 19, 1405. Tamerlane's body was embalmed and sent in an ebonite coffin to Samarkand, where he was buried in a magnificent mausoleum called Gur-Emir. Before his death, Timur divided his territories between his two surviving sons and grandsons. After many years of war and hostility over the will he left, the descendants of Tamerlane were united by the khan’s youngest son, Shahruk.

During Timur's life, contemporaries kept a careful chronicle of what was happening. It was supposed to serve as a basis for writing the official biography of the khan. In 1937, the works of Nizam ad-Din Shami were published in Prague. A revised version of the chronicle was prepared by Sharaf ad-Din Yazdi even earlier and in 1723 published in Petit de la Croix's translation.

Reconstruction of Tamerlane's head

The opposite point of view was reflected by another contemporary of Timur, Ibn Arabshah, who was extremely hostile towards the khan. His book was published in 1936 in Sanders' translation under the title "Tamerlane, or Timur, the Great Emir." The so-called "Memoirs" of Timur, published in 1830 in Stewart's translation, are considered a forgery, and the circumstances of their discovery and presentation to Shah Jahan in 1637 are still questioned.

Portraits of Timur made by Persian masters have survived to this day. However, they reflected an idealized idea of ​​him. They in no way correspond to the description of the khan by one of his contemporaries as a very tall man with a large head, rosy cheeks and naturally blond hair.

On the territory of Central Asia, modern Kazakhstan, Siberia and Eastern Europe in the 13th-15th centuries. The name "Golden Horde", derived from the name of the khan's ceremonial tent, as a designation of the state, first appeared in Russian writings in the 2nd half of the 16th century.

The Golden Horde began to take shape in 1224 as part of the Mongol Empire, when Genghis Khan allocated an ulus to his eldest son Jochi (the founder of the Jochid dynasty) - conquered lands in eastern Dashti-Kipchak and Khorezm. After the death of Jochi (1227), his children Ordu-Ichen and Batu took over the leadership of the Jochi Ulus, who significantly expanded its territory as a result of the Mongol-Tatar invasion of the states of Eastern Europe in the 1230s-40s. The Golden Horde became an independent state during the reign of Khan Mengu-Timur (1266-82) during the collapse of the Mongol Empire. By the 14th century, it occupied lands from the Ob in the east to the Volga region, steppe territories from the Volga to the Danube in the west, lands from the Syr Darya and the lower reaches of the Amu Darya in the south to Vyatka in the north. It bordered with the Hulaguid state, the Chagatai ulus, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Byzantine Empire.

The Russian lands found themselves under the Mongol-Tatar yoke, but the question of whether they should be considered part of the Golden Horde remains unclear. Russian princes received khan's labels for reigning, paid the Horde exit, participated in some wars of the Horde khans, etc. While maintaining loyalty to the khans, Russian princes ruled without the intervention of the Horde authorities, but otherwise their principalities were subjected to punitive campaigns of the khans of the Golden Horde (see Horde raids 13-15 centuries).

The Golden Horde was divided into two “wings” (provinces), delimited by the Yaik River (now the Ural): the western, where the descendants of Batu ruled, and the eastern, led by khans from the Ordu-Ichen clan. Within the “wings” there were uluses of numerous younger brothers Batu and Ordu-Ichen. The khans of the eastern “wing” recognized the seniority of the western khans, but they practically did not interfere in the affairs of the eastern possessions. The administrative center (the place of work of the Khan's office) in the western "wing" of the Golden Horde was first Bolgar (Bulgar), then Sarai, in the eastern "wing" - Sygnak. In historiography, it is generally accepted that under Uzbek Khan (1313-41), the second capital of the western “wing” arose - Sarai New (nowadays there is an opinion that this is one of the designations of the single metropolitan agglomeration of Sarai). Until the mid-14th century, official documents of the Golden Horde were written in Mongolian, then in Turkic.

The majority of the population of the Golden Horde were Turkic nomadic tribes (mainly descendants of the Kipchaks), who were designated in medieval sources by the general name “Tatars”. In addition to them, the Burtases, Cheremis, Mordovians, Circassians, Alans, etc. lived in the Golden Horde. In the western “wing” in the 2nd half of the 13th - 14th centuries, the Turkic tribes apparently merged into a single ethnic community. The eastern "wing" maintained a strong tribal structure.

The population of each ulus occupied a certain territory (yurt) for seasonal movements, paid taxes, and performed various duties. For the needs of taxation and military mobilization of the militia, a decimal system was introduced, characteristic of the entire Mongol Empire, that is, the division of the people into tens, hundreds, thousands and darkness, or tumens (ten thousand).

Initially, the Golden Horde was a multi-confessional state: Islam was professed by the population of the former Volga-Kama Bulgaria, Khorezm, some nomadic tribes of the eastern “wing”, Christianity was professed by the population of Alania and Crimea; There were also pagan beliefs among nomadic tribes. However, the powerful civilizational influence of Central Asia and Iran led to the strengthening of the position of Islam in the Golden Horde. Berke became the first Muslim khan in the mid-13th century, and under Uzbek in 1313 or 1314, Islam was declared the official religion of the Golden Horde, but became widespread only among the population of the Golden Horde cities; nomads adhered to pagan beliefs and rituals for a long time. With the spread of Islam, legislation and legal proceedings began to be increasingly based on Sharia, although the positions of Turkic-Mongolian customary law (adat, teryu) also remained strong. In general, the religious policy of the rulers of the Golden Horde was distinguished by religious tolerance, based on the covenants (“yasa”) of Genghis Khan. Representatives of the clergy of various denominations (including the Russian Orthodox Church) were exempt from taxes. In 1261, an Orthodox diocese arose in Sarai; Catholic missionaries were active.

At the head of the Golden Horde was a khan. The highest official after him was the backlerbek - the supreme military leader and head of the nomadic nobility class. Some of the backlerbeks (Mamai, Nogai, Edigei) achieved such influence that they appointed khans at their own discretion. The highest stratum of the ruling elite were representatives of the “golden family” (Chingisids) along the Jochi line. The economy and financial sphere were controlled by the office-divan headed by the vizier. Gradually, an extensive bureaucratic apparatus developed in the Golden Horde, using mainly management techniques borrowed from Central Asia and Iran. Direct control of the subjects was carried out by the nobility of nomadic tribes (beks, emirs), whose influence grew from the 1st half of the 14th century. The beks of the tribes gained access to the supreme government, backlerbeks began to be appointed from among them, and in the 15th century the heads of the most powerful tribes (Karachi beks) formed a permanent council under the khan. Control over cities and the peripheral settled population (including Russians) was entrusted to the Baskaks (Darugs).

The bulk of the population of the Golden Horde was engaged in nomadic cattle breeding. The Golden Horde formed its own monetary system, based on the circulation of silver dirhams, copper pools (from the 14th century) and Khorezm gold dinars. Cities played an important role in the Golden Horde. Some of them were destroyed by the Mongols during the conquest and then restored, because stood on the old trade caravan routes and provided profit to the Golden Horde treasury (Bolgar, Dzhend, Sygnak, Urgench). Others were re-founded, including in places where the winter nomadic headquarters of khans and provincial governors were located (Azak, Gulistan, Kyrym, Madjar, Saraichik, Chingi-Tura, Hadji-Tarkhan, etc.). Until the end of the 14th century, cities were not surrounded by walls, which demonstrated the safety of life in the country. Extensive archaeological excavations in the cities of the Golden Horde revealed the syncretic nature of their culture, the presence in it of Chinese as well as Muslim (mainly Iranian and Khorezm) elements in the construction and planning of buildings, craft production, and applied arts. Architecture and the production of pottery, metal and jewelry have reached a high level. Craftsmen (often slaves) of various nationalities worked in special workshops. A significant contribution to the culture of the Golden Horde was made by the poets Qutb, Rabguzi, Seif Sarai, Mahmud al-Bulgari and others, lawyers and theologians Mukhtar ibn Mahmud al-Zahidi, Sad at-Taftazani, Ibn Bazzazi and others.

The Khans of the Golden Horde pursued an active foreign policy. In order to spread their influence to neighboring countries, they made campaigns against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1275, 1277, etc.), Poland (late 1287), the countries of the Balkan Peninsula (1271, 1277, etc.), Byzantium (1265, 1270), etc. The main opponent of the Golden Horde in the 2nd half of the 13th - 1st half of the 14th century was the state of the Hulaguids, which disputed Transcaucasia with it. Heavy wars were repeatedly fought between the two states. In the fight against the Hulaguids, the khans of the Golden Horde enlisted the support of the sultans of Egypt.

Contradictions among representatives of the Jochid dynasty repeatedly led to internecine conflicts in the Golden Horde. In the 1st half - mid-14th century, during the reign of the khans Uzbek and Janibek, the Golden Horde reached its greatest prosperity and power. However, soon signs of a statehood crisis began to gradually appear. Certain areas became increasingly isolated economically, which further contributed to the development of separatism in them. The plague epidemic in the 1340s caused great damage to the state. After the assassination of Khan Berdibek (1359), a “great silence” began in the Golden Horde, when various groups of the Golden Horde nobility entered the struggle for the Sarai throne - the court nobility, provincial governors, relying on the potential of the subject regions, the Jochids of the eastern part of the Golden Horde. In the 1360s, the so-called Mamaev Horde was formed (in the territory west of the Don River), where Mamai ruled on behalf of the nominal khans, who was defeated by Russian troops in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, and then finally defeated in the same year by Khan Tokhtamysh on Kalka River. Tokhtamysh managed to reunite the state and overcome the consequences of the turmoil. However, he came into conflict with the ruler of Central Asia, Timur, who invaded the Golden Horde three times (1388, 1391, 1395). Tokhtamysh was defeated, almost all major cities were destroyed. Despite the efforts of the backlerbek Edigei to restore the state (early 15th century), the Golden Horde entered a stage of irreversible collapse. In the 15th - early 16th centuries, the Uzbek Khanate, Crimean Khanate, Kazan Khanate, Great Horde, Kazakh Khanate, Tyumen Khanate, Nogai Horde and Astrakhan Khanate were formed on its territory.

"Horde raid on Ryazan land in 1380." Miniature from the Facial Chronicle. 2nd half of the 16th century. Russian National Library (St. Petersburg).

Source: Collection of materials related to the history of the Golden Horde / Collection. and processing V. G. Tizenhausen and others. St. Petersburg, 1884. T. 1; M.; L., 1941. T. 2.

Lit.: Nasonov A.N. Mongols and Rus'. M.; L., 1940; Safargaliev M. G. The collapse of the Golden Horde. Saransk, 1960; Spuler V. Die Goldene Horde. Die Mongolen in Russland, 1223-1502. Lpz., 1964; Fedorov-Davydov G. A. Social structure of the Golden Horde. M., 1973; aka. Golden Horde cities of the Volga region. M., 1994; Egorov V.L. Historical geography of the Golden Horde in the XIII-XIV centuries. M., 1985; Halperin Ch. J. Russia and the Golden Horde: the Mongol impact on medieval Russian history. L., 1987; Grekov B. D., Yakubovsky A. Yu. The Golden Horde and its fall. M., 1998; Malov N. M., Malyshev A. B., Rakushin A. I. Religion in the Golden Horde. Saratov, 1998; Golden Horde and its legacy. M., 2002; Source study of the history of Ulus Jochi (Golden Horde). From Kalka to Astrakhan. 1223-1556. Kazan, 2002; Gorsky A. A. Moscow and the Horde. M., 2003; Myskov E.P. Political history of the Golden Horde (1236-1313). Volgograd, 2003; Seleznev Yu. V. “And God will change the Horde...” (Russian-Horde relations at the end of the 14th - first third of the 15th century). Voronezh, 2006.

The Golden Horde has long been reliably associated with the Tatar-Mongol yoke, the invasion of nomads and a dark streak in the history of the country. But what exactly was this state entity?

Start

It is worth noting that the name familiar to us today arose much later than the very existence of the state. And what we call the Golden Horde, in its heyday, was called Ulu Ulus (Great Ulus, Great State) or (state of Jochi, people of Jochi) after the name of Khan Jochi, the eldest son of Khan Temujin, known in history as Genghis Khan.

Both names quite clearly outline both the scale and origin of the Golden Horde. These were very vast lands that belonged to the descendants of Jochi, including Batu, known in Rus' as Batu Khan. Jochi and Genghis Khan died in 1227 (possibly Jochi a year earlier), the Mongol Empire by that time included a significant part of the Caucasus, Central Asia, Southern Siberia, Rus' and Volga Bulgaria.

The lands captured by the troops of Genghis Khan, his sons and commanders, after the death of the great conqueror, were divided into four uluses (states), and it turned out to be the largest and strongest, stretching from the lands of modern Bashkiria to the Caspian Gate - Derbent. The Western campaign, led by Batu Khan, expanded the lands under his control to the west by 1242, and the Lower Volga region, rich in beautiful pastures, hunting and fishing grounds, attracted Batu as a place for residence. About 80 km from modern Astrakhan, Sarai-Batu (otherwise Sarai-Berke) grew up - the capital of Ulus Jochi.

His brother Berke, who succeeded Batu, was, as they say, an enlightened ruler, as far as the realities of that time allowed. Berke, having adopted Islam in his youth, did not spread it among the subject population, but under him diplomatic and cultural ties with a number of eastern states significantly improved. Trade routes running by water and land were actively used, which could not but have a positive impact on the development of the economy, crafts, and arts. With the approval of the khan, theologians, poets, scientists, and skilled craftsmen came here; moreover, Berke began to appoint visiting intellectuals, rather than well-born fellow tribesmen, to high government posts.

The era of the reign of the Batu and Berke khans became a very important organizational period in the history of the Golden Horde - it was during these years that the state administrative apparatus was actively formed, which remained relevant for many decades. Under Batu, simultaneously with the establishment of the administrative-territorial division, the possessions of large feudal lords took shape, a bureaucratic system was created and a fairly clear taxation was developed.

Moreover, despite the fact that the khan’s headquarters, according to the custom of their ancestors, roamed the steppes for more than half a year together with the khan, his wives, children and a huge retinue, the power of the rulers was as unshakable as ever. They, so to speak, set the main line of policy and resolved the most important, fundamental issues. And the routine and particulars were entrusted to officials and the bureaucracy.

Berke's successor, Mengu-Timur, entered into an alliance with the other two heirs of Genghis Khan's empire, and all three recognized each other as completely independent but friendly sovereigns. After his death in 1282, a political crisis arose in the Ulus of Jochi, since the heir was very young, and Nogai, one of Mengu-Timur’s main advisers, actively sought to gain, if not official, then at least actual power. For some time he succeeded, until the matured Khan Tokhta got rid of his influence, which required resorting to military force.

Rise of the Golden Horde

Ulus Jochi reached its peak in the first half of the 13th century, during the reign of Uzbek Khan and his son Janibek. Uzbek built a new capital - Saray-al-Jedid, promoted the development of trade and quite actively propagated Islam, not disdaining to punish rebellious emirs - regional governors and military leaders. It is worth noting, however, that the bulk of the population was not obliged to profess Islam; this concerned mainly high-ranking officials.

He also very strictly controlled the Russian principalities that were then subject to the Golden Horde - according to the Litsevoy chronicle, nine Russian princes were killed in the Horde during his reign. So the custom of princes summoned to the khan’s headquarters for proceedings to leave a will gained even more solid ground.

Uzbek Khan continued to develop diplomatic ties with the most powerful states at that time, acting, among other things, in the traditional way of monarchs - establishing family ties. He married the daughter of the Byzantine emperor, gave his own daughter to the Moscow prince Yuri Danilovich, and his niece to the Egyptian sultan.

At that time, not only the descendants of the soldiers of the Mongol Empire lived on the territory of the Golden Horde, but also representatives of the conquered peoples - Bulgars, Cumans, Russians, as well as people from the Caucasus, Greeks, etc.

If the beginning of the formation of the Mongol Empire and the Golden Horde in particular went mainly through an aggressive path, then by this period the Ulus of Jochi had turned into an almost completely sedentary state, which had extended its influence over a significant part of the European and Asian parts of the mainland. Peaceful crafts and arts, trade, the development of sciences and theology, a well-functioning bureaucratic apparatus were one side of statehood, and the troops of the khans and the emirs under their control were another, no less important. Moreover, the warlike Genghisids and the top of the nobility continually conflicted with each other, forming alliances and conspiracies. Moreover, holding conquered lands and maintaining the respect of neighbors required a constant display of military force.

Khans of the Golden Horde

The ruling elite of the Golden Horde consisted mainly of Mongols and partly Kipchaks, although in some periods educated people from Arab states and Iran found themselves in administrative positions. As for the supreme rulers - khans - almost all holders of this title or applicants for it either belonged to the clan of Genghisids (descendants of Genghis Khan), or were connected with this very extensive clan through marriage. According to custom, only the descendants of Genghis Khan could be khans, but ambitious and power-hungry emirs and temniks (military leaders close in position to the general) continually sought to advance to the throne in order to place their protégé on it and rule on his behalf. However, after the murder in 1359 of the last of the direct descendants of Batu Khan - Berdibek - taking advantage of the disputes and infighting of the rival forces, an impostor named Kulpa managed to seize power for six months, posing as the brother of the late khan. He was exposed (however, the whistleblowers were also interested in power, for example, the son-in-law and first adviser of the late Berdibek, Temnik Mamai) and killed along with his sons - apparently, to intimidate possible challengers.

Separated from the Ulus of Jochi during the reign of Janibek, the Ulus of Shibana (west of Kazakhstan and Siberia) tried to consolidate its positions in Saray-al-Jedid. More distant relatives of the Golden Horde khans from among the eastern Jochids (descendants of Jochi) were also actively engaged in this. The result of this was a period of turmoil, called the Great Rebellion in Russian chronicles. Khans and pretenders replaced each other one after another until 1380, when Khan Tokhtamysh came to power.

He descended in a direct line from Genghis Khan and therefore had legitimate rights to the title of ruler of the Golden Horde, and in order to back up his right with force, he entered into an alliance with one of the Central Asian rulers - the “Iron Lame” Tamerlane, famous in the history of conquests. But Tokhtamysh did not take into account that a strong ally could become a most dangerous enemy, and after his accession to the throne and a successful campaign against Moscow, he opposed his former ally. This became a fatal mistake - Tamerlane, in response, defeated the Golden Horde army, captured the largest cities of Ulus-Juchi, including Sarai-Berke, walked with an “iron heel” through the Crimean possessions of the Golden Horde and, as a result, caused such military and economic damage that became the beginning the decline of a hitherto strong state.

Capital of the Golden Horde and trade

As already mentioned, the location of the capital of the Golden Horde was very favorable in terms of trade. The Crimean possessions of the Golden Horde provided mutually beneficial shelter for the Genoese trading colonies, and maritime trade routes from China, India, Central Asian states and southern Europe also led there. From the Black Sea coast it was possible to get along the Don to the Volgodonsk portage, and there by land - to the Volga coast. Well, the Volga in those days, as many centuries later, remained an excellent waterway for merchant ships to Iran and the continental regions of Central Asia.

Partial list of goods transported through the possessions of the Golden Horde:

• fabrics – silk, canvas, cloth
• wood
• weapons from Europe and Central Asia
• corn
• jewelry and precious stones
• furs and leather
• olive oil
• fish and caviar
• incense
• spices

Decay

The central government, weakened during the years of unrest and after the defeat of Tokhtamysh, could no longer achieve the complete subjugation of all previously subject lands. The governors ruling in remote destinies grasped the opportunity to get out from under the hands of the Ulus-Juchi government almost painlessly. Even at the height of the Great Jam in 1361, the eastern Ulus of Orda-Ezhena, also known as the Blue Horde, separated, and in 1380 it was followed by the Ulus of Shibana.

In the twenties of the 15th century, the process of disintegration became even more intense - the Siberian Khanate was formed in the east of the former Golden Horde, a few years later in 1428 - the Uzbek Khanate, ten years later the Kazan Khanate separated. Somewhere between 1440 and 1450 - the Nogai Horde, in 1441 - the Crimean Khanate, and last of all, in 1465 - the Kazakh Khanate.

The last khan of the Golden Horde was Kichi Mukhamed, who ruled until his death in 1459. His son Akhmat took the reins of government already in the Great Horde - in fact, only a small part remaining from the huge state of the Chingizids.

Coins of the Golden Horde

Having become a sedentary and very large state, the Golden Horde could not do without its own currency. The state's economy was based on a hundred (according to some sources, one and a half hundred) cities, not counting many small villages and nomadic camps. For external and internal trade relations, copper coins - pulas and silver coins - dirhams were issued.

Today, Horde dirhams are of considerable value for collectors and historians, since almost every reign was accompanied by the release of new coins. By the type of dirham, experts can determine when it was minted. Pools were valued relatively low, moreover, they were sometimes subject to a so-called forced exchange rate, when the coin was worth less than the metal used for it. Therefore, the number of pools found by archaeologists is large, but their value is relatively small.

During the reign of the khans of the Golden Horde, the circulation of their own, local funds in the occupied territories quickly disappeared, and their place was taken by Horde money. Moreover, even in Rus', which paid tribute to the Horde but was not part of it, pools were minted, although they differed in appearance and cost from those of the Horde. Sumy was also used as a means of payment - silver ingots, or more precisely, pieces cut from a silver rod. By the way, the first Russian rubles were made in exactly the same way.

Army and troops

The main strength of the Ulus-Juchi army, as before the creation of the Mongol Empire, was the cavalry, “light in march, heavy in attack,” according to contemporaries. The nobility, who had the means to be well equipped, formed heavily armed units. Lightly armed units used the fighting technique of horse archers - after inflicting significant damage with a volley of arrows, they approached and fought with spears and blades. However, impact and crushing weapons were also quite common - maces, flails, poles, etc.

Unlike their ancestors, who made do with leather armor, at best reinforced with metal plaques, the warriors of Ulus Jochi for the most part wore metal armor, which speaks of the wealth of the Golden Horde - only the army of a strong and financially stable state could arm itself in this way. At the end of the 14th century, the Horde army even began to acquire its own artillery, something that very few armies could boast of at that time.

Culture

The era of the Golden Horde did not leave any special cultural achievements for humanity. Nevertheless, this state originated as the seizure of sedentary peoples by nomads. The own cultural values ​​of any nomadic people are relatively simple and pragmatic, since there is no possibility of building schools, creating paintings, inventing a method of making porcelain, or erecting majestic buildings. But having largely switched to a settled way of life, the conquerors adopted many of the inventions of civilization, including architecture, theology, writing (in particular, the Uyghur writing for documents), and the more subtle development of many crafts.

Russia and the Golden Horde

The first serious clashes between Russian troops and Horde troops date back approximately to the beginning of the existence of the Golden Horde as an independent state. At first, Russian troops tried to support the Polovtsians against a common enemy - the Horde. The Battle of the Kalka River in the summer of 1223 brought defeat to the poorly coordinated squads of Russian princes. And in December 1237, the Horde entered the lands of the Ryazan region. Then Ryazan fell, followed by Kolomna and Moscow. Russian frosts did not stop the nomads, hardened in campaigns, and at the beginning of 1238 Vladimir, Torzhok and Tver were captured, there was a defeat on the Sit River and a seven-day siege of Kozelsk, which ended with its complete destruction - along with its inhabitants. In 1240, the campaign against Kievan Rus began.

The result was that the remaining Russian princes on the throne (and alive) recognized the need to pay tribute to the Horde in exchange for a relatively quiet existence. However, it was not truly calm - the princes, who intrigued against each other and, of course, against the invaders, in the event of any incidents, were forced to appear at the khan’s headquarters to report to the khan about their actions or inactions. By order of the khan, the princes had to bring their sons or brothers with them as additional hostages of loyalty. And not all princes and their relatives returned to their homeland alive.

It should be noted that the rapid seizure of Russian lands and the inability to overthrow the yoke of the invaders was largely due to the disunity of the principalities. Moreover, some princes managed to take advantage of this situation to fight their rivals. For example, the Principality of Moscow strengthened by annexing the lands of two other principalities as a result of the intrigues of Ivan Kalita, Prince of Moscow. But before this, the Tver princes sought the right to a great reign by all means, including the murder of the previous Moscow prince right at the khan's headquarters.

And when, after the Great Jame, internal turmoil began to increasingly distract the disintegrating Golden Horde from pacifying the rebellious principalities, the Russian lands, in particular, the Moscow Principality, which had strengthened over the past century, began to increasingly resist the influence of the invaders, refusing to pay tribute. And what is especially important is to act together.

At the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, the united Russian forces won a decisive victory over the army of the Golden Horde led by Temnik Mamai, sometimes mistakenly called the khan. And although two years later Moscow was captured and burned by the Horde, the rule of the Golden Horde over Russia came to an end. And at the beginning of the 15th century, the Great Horde also ceased to exist.

Epilogue

To summarize, we can say that the Golden Horde was one of the largest states of its era, born thanks to the militancy of nomadic tribes, and then disintegrated due to their desire for independence. Its growth and flourishing occurred during the reign of strong military leaders and wise politicians, but, like most aggressive states, it lasted relatively short-lived.

According to a number of historians, the Golden Horde not only had a negative impact on the life of the Russian people, but also unwittingly helped the development of Russian statehood. Under the influence of the culture of rule brought by the Horde, and then to counteract the Golden Horde, the Russian principalities merged together, forming a strong state, which later turned into the Russian Empire.