How the Tatar Mongol yoke was formed. Tatar-Mongol yoke in Rus'

The Russian principalities before the Tatar-Mongol yoke and the Moscow state after gaining legal independence are, as they say, two big differences. It will not be an exaggeration that the united Russian state, the direct heir of which is modern Russia, formed during the period of the yoke and under its influence. The overthrow of the Tatar-Mongol yoke was not only the cherished goal of Russian identity during the second half of the 13th-15th centuries. It also turned out to be a means of creating a state, national mentality and cultural identity.

Approaching the Battle of Kulikovo...

Most people’s idea of ​​the process of overthrowing the Tatar-Mongol yoke comes down to a very simplified scheme, according to which, before the Battle of Kulikovo, Rus' was enslaved by the Horde and did not even think about resistance, and after the Battle of Kulikovo, the yoke lasted another hundred years simply due to a misunderstanding. In reality, everything was more complicated.

The fact that the Russian principalities, although they generally recognized their vassal position in relation to the Golden Horde, did not stop trying to resist, is evidenced by a simple historical fact. Since the establishment of the yoke and throughout its entire length, about 60 major punitive campaigns, invasions and large-scale raids of Horde troops on Rus' are known from Russian chronicles. Obviously, in the case of completely conquered lands, such efforts are not required - this means that Rus' resisted, resisted actively, for centuries.

The Horde troops suffered their first significant military defeat on the territory controlled by Rus' about a hundred years before the Battle of Kulikovo. True, this battle took place during the internecine war for the grand-ducal throne of the Vladimir principality, which flared up between the sons of Alexander Nevsky . In 1285, Andrei Alexandrovich attracted the Horde prince Eltorai to his side and with his army went against his brother Dmitry Alexandrovich, who reigned in Vladimir. As a result, Dmitry Alexandrovich won a convincing victory over the Tatar-Mongol punitive corps.

Further, individual victories in military clashes with the Horde occurred, although not too often, but with stable consistency. Distinguished by his peacefulness and penchant for political solutions to all issues, the Moscow prince Daniil Alexandrovich, the youngest son of Nevsky, defeated the Mongol detachment near Pereyaslavl-Ryazan in 1301. In 1317, Mikhail Tverskoy defeated the army of Kavgady, which was attracted to his side by Yuri of Moscow.

The closer to the Battle of Kulikovo, the more confident the Russian principalities became, and unrest and unrest were observed in the Golden Horde, which could not but affect the balance of military forces.

In 1365, the Ryazan forces defeated the Horde detachment near the Shishevsky forest; in 1367, the Suzdal army won a victory at Pyana. Finally, in 1378, Dmitry of Moscow, the future Donskoy, won his dress rehearsal in the confrontation with the Horde: on the Vozha River he defeated an army under the command of Murza Begich, a close associate of Mamai.

Overthrow of the Tatar-Mongol yoke: the great Battle of Kulikovo

It is unnecessary to talk once again about the significance of the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, as well as to retell the details of its immediate course. From childhood, everyone knows the dramatic details of how Mamai’s army pressed on the center of the Russian army and how, at the most decisive moment, the Ambush Regiment hit the Horde and their allies in the rear, turning the fate of the battle. It is also well known that for Russian self-awareness it became an event of great importance when, for the first time after the establishment of the yoke, the Russian army was able to give a large-scale battle to the invader and win. But it is worth remembering that the victory in the Battle of Kulikovo, with all its enormous moral significance, did not lead to the overthrow of the yoke.

Dmitry Donskoy managed to take advantage of the difficult political situation in the Golden Horde and embody his leadership abilities and the fighting spirit of his own army. However, just two years later, Moscow was taken by the forces of the legitimate khan of the Horde, Tokhtamysh (Temnik Mamai was a temporary usurper) and almost completely destroyed.

The young Principality of Moscow was not yet ready to fight on equal terms with the weakened but still powerful Horde. Tokhtamysh imposed an increased tribute on the principality (the previous tribute was retained in the same amount, but the population actually decreased by half; in addition, an emergency tax was introduced). Dmitry Donskoy undertook to send his eldest son Vasily to the Horde as a hostage. But the Horde had already lost political power over Moscow - Prince Dmitry Ivanovich managed to transfer power by inheritance independently, without any label from the khan. In addition, a few years later Tokhtamysh was defeated by another eastern conqueror, Timur, and for some period Rus' stopped paying tribute.

In the 15th century, tribute was generally paid with serious fluctuations, taking advantage of increasingly constant periods of internal instability in the Horde. In the 1430s - 1450s, the Horde rulers undertook several ruinous campaigns against Rus' - but in essence these were just predatory raids, and not attempts to restore political supremacy.

In fact, the yoke did not end in 1480...

In school exam papers in the history of Russia, the correct answer to the question “When and by what event did the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Rus' end?” will be considered “In 1480, Standing on the Ugra River.” In fact, this is the correct answer - but from a formal point of view, it does not correspond to historical reality.

In fact, in 1476, the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III refused to pay tribute to the Khan of the Great Horde, Akhmat. Until 1480, Akhmat dealt with his other enemy, the Crimean Khanate, after which he decided to punish the rebellious Russian ruler. The two armies met at the Ugra River in September 1380. The Horde's attempt to cross the river was stopped by Russian troops. After this, the Standing itself began, lasting until the beginning of November. As a result, Ivan III was able to force Akhmat to retreat without unnecessary loss of life. Firstly, there were strong reinforcements on the way to the Russians. Secondly, Akhmat’s cavalry began to experience a shortage of fodder, and illnesses began in the army itself. Thirdly, the Russians sent a sabotage detachment to the rear of Akhmat, which was supposed to plunder the defenseless capital of the Horde.

As a result, the khan ordered a retreat - and this ended the Tatar-Mongol yoke of almost 250 years. However, from a formal diplomatic position, Ivan III and the Moscow state remained in vassal dependence on the Great Horde for another 38 years. In 1481, Khan Akhmat was killed, and another wave of struggle for power arose in the Horde. In the difficult conditions of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, Ivan III was not sure that the Horde would not be able to mobilize its forces again and organize a new large-scale campaign against Rus'. Therefore, being in fact a sovereign ruler and no longer paying tribute to the Horde, for diplomatic reasons in 1502, he officially recognized himself as a vassal of the Great Horde. But soon the Horde was finally defeated by its eastern enemies, so that in 1518 all vassal relations, even at the formal level, between the Moscow State and the Horde were terminated.

Alexander Babitsky

MONGOL-TATAR INVASION

Formation of the Mongolian state. At the beginning of the 13th century. V Central Asia The Mongolian state was formed in the territory from Lake Baikal and the upper reaches of the Yenisei and Irtysh in the north to the southern regions of the Gobi Desert and the Great Wall of China. After the name of one of the tribes that roamed near Lake Buirnur in Mongolia, these peoples were also called Tatars. Subsequently, all the nomadic peoples with whom Rus' fought began to be called Mongol-Tatars.

The main occupation of the Mongols was extensive nomadic cattle breeding, and in the north and in the taiga regions - hunting. In the 12th century The Mongols experienced a collapse of primitive communal relations. From among ordinary community herders, who were called karachu - black people, noyons (princes) - nobility - emerged; Having squads of nukers (warriors), she seized pastures for livestock and part of the young animals. The Noyons also had slaves. The rights of noyons were determined by “Yasa” - a collection of teachings and instructions.

In 1206, a congress of the Mongolian nobility took place on the Onon River - kurultai (Khural), at which one of the noyons was elected leader of the Mongolian tribes: Temujin, who received the name Genghis Khan - “great khan”, “sent by God” (1206-1227). Having defeated his opponents, he began to rule the country through his relatives and local nobility.

Mongol army. The Mongols had a well-organized army that maintained family ties. The army was divided into tens, hundreds, thousands. Ten thousand Mongol warriors were called "darkness" ("tumen").

Tumens were not only military, but also administrative units.

The main striking force of the Mongols was the cavalry. Each warrior had two or three bows, several quivers with arrows, an ax, a rope lasso, and was good with a saber. The warrior's horse was covered with skins, which protected it from arrows and enemy weapons. The head, neck and chest of the Mongol warrior were covered from enemy arrows and spears by an iron or copper helmet and leather armor. The Mongol cavalry had high mobility. On their stunted, shaggy-maned, hardy horses, they could travel up to 80 km per day, and with convoys, battering rams and flamethrowers - up to 10 km. Like other peoples, going through the stage of state formation, the Mongols were distinguished by their strength and solidity. Hence the interest in expanding pastures and organizing predatory campaigns against neighboring agricultural peoples, who were at a much higher level of development, although they were experiencing a period of fragmentation. This greatly facilitated the implementation of the Mongol-Tatars’ plans of conquest.

The defeat of Central Asia. The Mongols began their campaigns by conquering the lands of their neighbors - the Buryats, Evenks, Yakuts, Uighurs, and Yenisei Kyrgyz (by 1211). They then invaded China and took Beijing in 1215. Three years later, Korea was conquered. Having defeated China (finally conquered in 1279), the Mongols significantly strengthened their military potential. Flamethrowers, battering rams, stone-throwers, and vehicles were adopted.

In the summer of 1219, an almost 200,000-strong Mongol army led by Genghis Khan began the conquest of Central Asia. The ruler of Khorezm (a country at the mouth of the Amu Darya), Shah Mohammed, did not accept a general battle, dispersing his forces among the cities. Having suppressed the stubborn resistance of the population, the invaders stormed Otrar, Khojent, Merv, Bukhara, Urgench and other cities. The ruler of Samarkand, despite the demand of the people to defend himself, surrendered the city. Muhammad himself fled to Iran, where he soon died.

The rich, flourishing agricultural regions of Semirechye (Central Asia) turned into pastures. Irrigation systems built over centuries were destroyed. The Mongols introduced a regime of cruel exactions, artisans were taken into captivity. As a result of the Mongol conquest of Central Asia, nomadic tribes began to populate its territory. Sedentary agriculture was replaced by extensive nomadic cattle breeding, which slowed down the further development of Central Asia.

Invasion of Iran and Transcaucasia. The main force of the Mongols returned from Central Asia to Mongolia with looted booty. An army of 30,000 under the command of the best Mongol military commanders Jebe and Subedei set off on a long-distance reconnaissance campaign through Iran and Transcaucasia, to the West. Having defeated the united Armenian-Georgian troops and caused enormous damage to the economy of Transcaucasia, the invaders, however, were forced to leave the territory of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as they encountered strong resistance from the population. Past Derbent, where there was a passage along the shores of the Caspian Sea, Mongol troops entered the steppes North Caucasus. Here they defeated the Alans (Ossetians) and Cumans, after which they ravaged the city of Sudak (Surozh) in the Crimea. The Polovtsians, led by Khan Kotyan, the father-in-law of the Galician prince Mstislav the Udal, turned to the Russian princes for help.

Battle of the Kalka River. On May 31, 1223, the Mongols defeated the allied forces of the Polovtsian and Russian princes in the Azov steppes on the Kalka River. This was the last major joint military action of the Russian princes on the eve of Batu's invasion. However, the powerful Russian prince Yuri Vsevolodovich of Vladimir-Suzdal, son of Vsevolod the Big Nest, did not participate in the campaign.

Princely feuds also affected during the battle on Kalka. The Kiev prince Mstislav Romanovich, having strengthened himself with his army on the hill, did not take part in the battle. Regiments of Russian soldiers and Polovtsians, having crossed Kalka, struck the advanced detachments of the Mongol-Tatars, who retreated. The Russian and Polovtsian regiments became carried away in pursuit. The main Mongol forces that approached took the pursuing Russian and Polovtsian warriors in a pincer movement and destroyed them.

The Mongols besieged the hill where the Kyiv prince fortified himself. On the third day of the siege, Mstislav Romanovich believed the enemy’s promise to release the Russians with honor in case of voluntary surrender and laid down his arms. He and his warriors were brutally killed by the Mongols. The Mongols reached the Dnieper, but did not dare to enter the borders of Rus'. Rus' has never known a defeat equal to the Battle of the Kalka River. Only a tenth of the army returned from the Azov steppes to Rus'. In honor of their victory, the Mongols held a “feast on bones.” The captured princes were crushed under the boards on which the victors sat and feasted.

Preparations for a campaign against Rus'. Returning to the steppes, the Mongols made an unsuccessful attempt to capture Volga Bulgaria. Reconnaissance in force showed that it was possible to wage aggressive wars with Russia and its neighbors only by organizing an all-Mongol campaign. The head of this campaign was the grandson of Genghis Khan, Batu (1227-1255), who received from his grandfather all the territories in the west, “where the foot of a Mongol horse has set foot.” Subedei, who knew the theater of future military operations well, became his main military adviser.

In 1235, at a khural in the capital of Mongolia, Karakorum, a decision was made on an all-Mongol campaign to the West. In 1236, the Mongols captured Volga Bulgaria, and in 1237 they subjugated the nomadic peoples of the Steppe. In the fall of 1237, the main forces of the Mongols, having crossed the Volga, concentrated on the Voronezh River, aiming at Russian lands. In Rus' they knew about the impending menacing danger, but princely strife prevented the vultures from uniting to repel a strong and treacherous enemy. There was no unified command. City fortifications were erected for defense against neighboring Russian principalities, and not against steppe nomads. The princely cavalry squads were not inferior to the Mongol noyons and nukers in terms of armament and fighting qualities. But the bulk of the Russian army was the militia - urban and rural warriors, inferior to the Mongols in weapons and combat skills. Hence the defensive tactics, designed to deplete the enemy’s forces.

Defense of Ryazan. In 1237, Ryazan was the first of the Russian lands to be attacked by invaders. Vladimirsky and Chernigov princes They refused to help Ryazan. The Mongols besieged Ryazan and sent envoys who demanded submission and one tenth of "everything." The courageous answer of the Ryazan residents followed: “If we are all gone, then everything will be yours.” On the sixth day of the siege, the city was taken, the princely family and surviving residents were killed. Ryazan was no longer revived in its old place (modern Ryazan is a new city, located 60 km from old Ryazan; it used to be called Pereyaslavl Ryazansky).

Conquest of North-Eastern Rus'. In January 1238, the Mongols moved along the Oka River to the Vladimir-Suzdal land. The battle with the Vladimir-Suzdal army took place near the city of Kolomna, on the border of the Ryazan and Vladimir-Suzdal lands. In this battle, the Vladimir army died, which actually predetermined the fate of North-Eastern Rus'.

The population of Moscow, led by governor Philip Nyanka, offered strong resistance to the enemy for 5 days. After being captured by the Mongols, Moscow was burned and its inhabitants were killed.

On February 4, 1238, Batu besieged Vladimir. His troops covered the distance from Kolomna to Vladimir (300 km) in a month. On the fourth day of the siege, the invaders broke into the city through gaps in the fortress wall next to the Golden Gate. The princely family and the remnants of the troops locked themselves in the Assumption Cathedral. The Mongols surrounded the cathedral with trees and set it on fire.

After the capture of Vladimir, the Mongols split into separate detachments and destroyed the cities of North-Eastern Rus'. Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, even before the invaders approached Vladimir, went to the north of his land to gather military forces. The hastily assembled regiments in 1238 were defeated on the Sit River (the right tributary of the Mologa River), and Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich himself died in the battle.

The Mongol hordes moved to the north-west of Rus'. Everywhere they met stubborn resistance from the Russians. For two weeks, for example, the distant suburb of Novgorod, Torzhok, defended itself. Northwestern Rus' was saved from defeat, although it paid tribute.

Having reached the stone Ignach Cross - an ancient sign-sign on the Valdai watershed (one hundred kilometers from Novgorod), the Mongols retreated south, to the steppes, to recover losses and give rest to tired troops. The withdrawal was in the nature of a "round-up". Divided into separate detachments, the invaders “combed” Russian cities. Smolensk managed to fight back, other centers were defeated. During the “raid”, Kozelsk offered the greatest resistance to the Mongols, holding out for seven weeks. The Mongols called Kozelsk an “evil city.”

Capture of Kyiv. In the spring of 1239, Batu defeated Southern Rus' (Pereyaslavl South), and in the fall - the Principality of Chernigov. In the autumn of the following 1240, Mongol troops, having crossed the Dnieper, besieged Kyiv. After a long defense, led by Voivode Dmitry, the Tatars defeated Kyiv. The following year, 1241, the Galicia-Volyn principality was attacked.

Batu's campaign against Europe. After the defeat of Rus', the Mongol hordes moved towards Europe. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and the Balkan countries were devastated. The Mongols reached the borders of the German Empire and reached the Adriatic Sea. However, at the end of 1242 they suffered a series of setbacks in the Czech Republic and Hungary. From distant Karakorum came news of the death of the great Khan Ogedei, the son of Genghis Khan. This was a convenient excuse to stop the difficult hike. Batu turned his troops back to the east.

The decisive world-historical role in saving European civilization from the Mongol hordes was played by the heroic struggle against them by the Russians and other peoples of our country, who took the first blow of the invaders. In fierce battles in Rus', the best part of the Mongol army died. The Mongols lost their offensive power. They could not help but take into account the liberation struggle that unfolded in the rear of their troops. A.S. Pushkin rightly wrote: “Russia had a great destiny: its vast plains absorbed the power of the Mongols and stopped their invasion at the very edge of Europe... the emerging enlightenment was saved by torn Russia.”

The fight against the aggression of the crusaders. The coast from the Vistula to the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea was inhabited by Slavic, Baltic (Lithuanian and Latvian) and Finno-Ugric (Estonians, Karelians, etc.) tribes. At the end of the XII - beginning of the XIII centuries. The Baltic peoples are completing the process of decomposition of the primitive communal system and the formation of an early class society and statehood. These processes occurred most intensively among the Lithuanian tribes. The Russian lands (Novgorod and Polotsk) had a significant influence on their western neighbors, who did not yet have their own developed statehood and church institutions (the Baltic peoples were pagans).

The attack on Russian lands was part of the predatory doctrine of the German knighthood “Drang nach Osten” (onset to the East). In the 12th century it began to seize lands belonging to the Slavs beyond the Oder and in the Baltic Pomerania. At the same time, an attack was carried out on the lands of the Baltic peoples. The Crusaders' invasion of the Baltic lands and North-Western Rus' was sanctioned by the Pope and German Emperor Frederick II. German, Danish, Norwegian knights and troops from other northern European countries also took part in the crusade.

Knightly orders. To conquer the lands of the Estonians and Latvians, the knightly Order of the Swordsmen was created in 1202 from the crusading detachments defeated in Asia Minor. Knights wore clothes with the image of a sword and cross. They pursued an aggressive policy under the slogan of Christianization: “Whoever does not want to be baptized must die.” Back in 1201, the knights landed at the mouth of the Western Dvina (Daugava) River and founded the city of Riga on the site of a Latvian settlement as a stronghold for the subjugation of the Baltic lands. In 1219, Danish knights captured part of the Baltic coast, founding the city of Revel (Tallinn) on the site of an Estonian settlement.

In 1224, the crusaders took Yuryev (Tartu). To conquer the lands of Lithuania (Prussians) and southern Russian lands in 1226, the knights of the Teutonic Order, founded in 1198 in Syria during the Crusades, arrived. Knights - members of the order wore white cloaks with a black cross on the left shoulder. In 1234, the Swordsmen were defeated by the Novgorod-Suzdal troops, and two years later - by the Lithuanians and Semigallians. This forced the crusaders to join forces. In 1237, the Swordsmen united with the Teutons, forming a branch of the Teutonic Order - the Livonian Order, named after the territory inhabited by the Livonian tribe, which was captured by the Crusaders.

Battle of the Neva. The offensive of the knights especially intensified due to the weakening of Rus', which was bleeding in the fight against the Mongol conquerors.

In July 1240, Swedish feudal lords tried to take advantage of the difficult situation in Rus'. The Swedish fleet with troops on board entered the mouth of the Neva. Having climbed the Neva until the Izhora River flows into it, the knightly cavalry landed on the shore. The Swedes wanted to capture the city of Staraya Ladoga, and then Novgorod.

Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, who was 20 years old at the time, and his squad quickly rushed to the landing site. “We are few,” he addressed his soldiers, “but God is not in power, but in truth.” Hiddenly approaching the Swedes' camp, Alexander and his warriors struck at them, and a small militia led by Novgorodian Misha cut off the Swedes' path along which they could escape to their ships.

The Russian people nicknamed Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky for his victory on the Neva. The significance of this victory is that it stopped Swedish aggression to the east for a long time and retained access to the Baltic coast for Russia. (Peter I, emphasizing Russia’s right to the Baltic coast, founded the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in the new capital on the site of the battle.)

Ice battle. In the summer of the same 1240, the Livonian Order, as well as Danish and German knights, attacked Rus' and captured the city of Izborsk. Soon, due to the betrayal of the mayor Tverdila and part of the boyars, Pskov was taken (1241). Strife and strife led to the fact that Novgorod did not help its neighbors. And the struggle between the boyars and the prince in Novgorod itself ended with the expulsion of Alexander Nevsky from the city. Under these conditions, individual detachments of the crusaders found themselves 30 km from the walls of Novgorod. At the request of the veche, Alexander Nevsky returned to the city.

Together with his squad, Alexander liberated Pskov, Izborsk and other captured cities with a sudden blow. Having received news that the main forces of the Order were coming towards him, Alexander Nevsky blocked the path of the knights, placing his troops on the ice Lake Peipsi. The Russian prince showed himself as outstanding commander. The chronicler wrote about him: “We win everywhere, but we won’t win at all.” Alexander placed his troops under the cover of a steep bank on the ice of the lake, eliminating the possibility of enemy reconnaissance of his forces and depriving the enemy of freedom of maneuver. Considering the formation of the knights in a “pig” (in the form of a trapezoid with a sharp wedge in front, which was made up of heavily armed cavalry), Alexander Nevsky arranged his regiments in the form of a triangle, with the tip resting on the shore. Before the battle, some of the Russian soldiers were equipped with special hooks to pull knights off their horses.

On April 5, 1242, a battle took place on the ice of Lake Peipsi, which became known as the Battle of the Ice. The knight's wedge pierced the center of the Russian position and buried itself in the shore. The flank attacks of the Russian regiments decided the outcome of the battle: like pincers, they crushed the knightly “pig”. The knights, unable to withstand the blow, fled in panic. The Novgorodians drove them seven miles across the ice, which by spring had become weak in many places and was collapsing under heavily armed soldiers. The Russians pursued the enemy, “flogged, rushing after him as if through the air,” the chronicler wrote. According to the Novgorod Chronicle, “400 Germans died in the battle, and 50 were taken prisoner” (German chronicles estimate the number of dead at 25 knights). The captured knights were marched in disgrace through the streets of Mister Veliky Novgorod.

The significance of this victory is that it was weakened military power Livonian Order. The response to the Battle of the Ice was the growth of the liberation struggle in the Baltic states. However, relying on the help of the Roman Catholic Church, the knights at the end of the 13th century. captured a significant part of the Baltic lands.

Russian lands under the rule of the Golden Horde. In the middle of the 13th century. one of Genghis Khan's grandsons, Khubulai, 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 Zulagu owned the territory of Iran, part of Western and Central Asia and Transcaucasia. This ulus, 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.

Golden Horde. The Golden Horde covered a vast territory from the Danube to the Irtysh (Crimea, Northern Caucasus, part of the lands of Rus' located in the steppe, former lands Volga Bulgaria and nomadic peoples, Western Siberia and part of Central Asia). 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). It was a state consisting of semi-independent uluses, united under the rule of the khan. They were ruled by Batu's brothers and the local aristocracy.

The role of a kind of aristocratic council was played by the “Divan”, where military and financial issues were resolved. Finding themselves surrounded by a Turkic-speaking population, the Mongols adopted the Turkic language. The local Turkic-speaking ethnic group assimilated the Mongol newcomers. A new people was formed - the Tatars. In the first decades of the Golden Horde's existence, its religion was paganism.

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 300,000. The heyday of the Golden Horde occurred during the reign of Khan Uzbek (1312-1342). During this era (1312), Islam became the state religion of the Golden Horde. Then, just 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.

Russian lands and the Golden Horde. The Russian lands devastated by the Mongols were forced to recognize vassal dependence on the Golden Horde. The ongoing struggle waged by the Russian people against the invaders forced the Mongol-Tatars to abandon the creation of their own administrative authorities in Rus'. Rus' retained its statehood. This was facilitated by the presence in Rus' of its own administration and church organization. In addition, the lands of Rus' were unsuitable for nomadic cattle breeding, unlike, for example, Central Asia, the Caspian region, and the Black Sea region.

In 1243, the brother of the great Vladimir prince Yuri, who was killed on the Sit River, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (1238-1246) was called to the khan's headquarters. Yaroslav recognized vassal dependence on the Golden Horde and received a label (letter) for the great reign of Vladimir and a golden tablet ("paizu"), a kind of pass through the Horde territory. Following him, other princes flocked to the Horde.

To control the Russian lands, the institution of Baskaq governors was created - leaders of military detachments of the Mongol-Tatars who monitored the activities of the Russian princes. Denunciation of the Baskaks to the Horde inevitably ended either with the prince being summoned to Sarai (often he was deprived of his label, or even his life), or with a punitive campaign in the rebellious land. Suffice it to say that only in the last quarter of the 13th century. 14 similar campaigns were organized in Russian lands.

Some Russian princes, trying to quickly get rid of vassal dependence on the Horde, took the path of open armed resistance. However, the forces to overthrow the power of the invaders were still not enough. So, for example, in 1252 the regiments of the Vladimir and Galician-Volyn princes were defeated. Alexander Nevsky, from 1252 to 1263 Grand Duke of Vladimir, understood this well. He set a course for the restoration and growth of the economy of the Russian lands. The policy of Alexander Nevsky was also supported by the Russian church, which saw the greatest danger in Catholic expansion, and not in the tolerant rulers of the Golden Horde.

In 1257, the Mongol-Tatars undertook a population census - “recording the number”. Besermen (Muslim merchants) were sent to the cities, and the collection of tribute was given to them. The size of the tribute (“exit”) was very large, only the “tsar’s tribute”, i.e. the tribute in favor of the khan, which was first collected in kind and then in money, amounted to 1,300 kg of silver per year. The constant tribute was supplemented by “requests” - one-time exactions in favor of the khan. In addition, deductions from trade duties, taxes for “feeding” the khan’s officials, etc. went to the khan’s treasury. In total there were 14 types of tribute in favor of the Tatars. Population census in the 50-60s of the 13th century. marked by numerous uprisings of Russian people against the Baskaks, Khan's ambassadors, tribute collectors, and census takers. In 1262, the inhabitants of Rostov, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Suzdal, and Ustyug dealt with the tribute collectors, the Besermen. This led to the fact that the collection of tribute from the end of the 13th century. was handed over to the Russian princes.

Consequences of the Mongol conquest and the Golden Horde yoke for Rus'. The Mongol invasion and the Golden Horde yoke became one of the reasons why Russian lands lagged behind the developed countries of Western Europe. Huge damage was caused to the economic, political and cultural development of Rus'. Tens of thousands of people died in battle or were taken into slavery. A significant part of the income in the form of tribute was sent to the Horde.

The old agricultural centers and once-developed territories became desolate and fell into decay. The border of agriculture moved to the north, the southern fertile soils received the name “Wild Field”. Russian cities were subjected to massive devastation and destruction. Many crafts became simplified and sometimes disappeared, which hampered the creation of small-scale production and ultimately delayed economic development.

The Mongol conquest preserved political fragmentation. It weakened the ties between different parts of the state. Traditional political and trade ties with other countries were disrupted. The vector of Russian foreign policy, which ran along the “south-north” line (the fight against the nomadic danger, stable ties with Byzantium and through the Baltic with Europe) radically changed its focus to “west-east”. The pace of cultural development of Russian lands has slowed down.

What you need to know about these topics:

Archaeological, linguistic and written evidence about the Slavs.

Tribal unions of the Eastern Slavs in the VI-IX centuries. Territory. Classes. "The path from the Varangians to the Greeks." Social system. Paganism. Prince and squad. Campaigns against Byzantium.

Internal and external factors that prepared the emergence of statehood among the Eastern Slavs.

Socio-economic development. The formation of feudal relations.

Early feudal monarchy of the Rurikovichs. "Norman theory", its political meaning. Organization of management. Domestic and foreign policy of the first Kyiv princes (Oleg, Igor, Olga, Svyatoslav).

The rise of the Kyiv state under Vladimir I and Yaroslav the Wise. Completion of the unification of the Eastern Slavs around Kyiv. Border defense.

Legends about the spread of Christianity in Rus'. Adoption of Christianity as the state religion. The Russian Church and its role in the life of the Kyiv state. Christianity and paganism.

"Russian Truth". Confirmation of feudal relations. Organization of the ruling class. Princely and boyar patrimony. Feudal-dependent population, its categories. Serfdom. Peasant communities. City.

The struggle between the sons and descendants of Yaroslav the Wise for grand-ducal power. Tendencies towards fragmentation. Lyubech Congress of Princes.

Kievan Rus in the system international relations XI - early XII centuries. Polovtsian danger. Princely strife. Vladimir Monomakh. The final collapse of the Kyiv state at the beginning of the 12th century.

Culture of Kievan Rus. Cultural heritage Eastern Slavs. Oral folk art. Epics. The origin of Slavic writing. Cyril and Methodius. The beginning of chronicle writing. "The Tale of Bygone Years". Literature. Education in Kievan Rus. Birch bark letters. Architecture. Painting (frescoes, mosaics, icon painting).

Economic and political reasons for the feudal fragmentation of Rus'.

Feudal land tenure. Urban development. Princely power and boyars. Political system in various Russian lands and principalities.

The largest political entities on the territory of Rus'. Rostov-(Vladimir)-Suzdal, Galicia-Volyn principalities, Novgorod boyar republic. Socio-economic and internal political development of principalities and lands on the eve of the Mongol invasion.

International situation of Russian lands. Political and cultural connections between Russian lands. Feudal strife. Fighting external danger.

The rise of culture in Russian lands in the XII-XIII centuries. The idea of ​​the unity of the Russian land in cultural works. "The Tale of Igor's Campaign."

Formation of the early feudal Mongolian state. Genghis Khan and the unification of the Mongol tribes. The Mongols conquered the lands of neighboring peoples, northeastern China, Korea, and Central Asia. Invasion of Transcaucasia and the southern Russian steppes. Battle of the Kalka River.

Batu's campaigns.

Invasion of North-Eastern Rus'. The defeat of southern and southwestern Rus'. Batu's campaigns in Central Europe. Rus''s struggle for independence and its historical significance.

Aggression of German feudal lords in the Baltic states. Livonian Order. The defeat of the Swedish troops on the Neva and the German knights in the Battle of the Ice. Alexander Nevsky.

Education of the Golden Horde. Socio-economic and political system. Control system for conquered lands. The struggle of the Russian people against the Golden Horde. Consequences of the Mongol-Tatar invasion and the Golden Horde yoke for the further development of our country.

The inhibitory effect of the Mongol-Tatar conquest on the development of Russian culture. Defeat and destruction cultural values. Weakening of traditional ties with Byzantium and other Christian countries. Decline of crafts and arts. Oral folk art as a reflection of the struggle against invaders.

• Sakharov A. N., Buganov V. I. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century.

The mythical Mongol Empire has long since sunk into oblivion, but the Mongol-Tatars still do not allow some people to sleep peacefully. They were recently remembered in the Ukrainian Rada and... wrote a letter to the Mongolian parliament demanding compensation for the genocide Ukrainian people during Khan Batu's raid on Kievan Rus in the 13th century.

Ulaanbaatar responded with a willingness to compensate for this damage, but asked to clarify the addressee - in the 13th century, Ukraine did not exist. And the press attaché of the Mongolian Embassy in the Russian Federation, Lkhagvasuren Namsray, also sarcastically said: “If the Verkhovna Rada writes all the names of Ukrainian citizens who fell under the genocide, their families, we will be ready to pay... We look forward to the announcement of the full list of victims.”

Historical trick

Friends, jokes aside, but the question about the existence of the Mongol Empire itself, as well as Mongolia itself, is exactly the same as in Ukraine: was there a boy? I mean, was the mighty Ancient Mongolia present on the historical stage? Is it because Ulaanbaatar, together with Namsrai, so easily responded to the claim for compensation for damage to Ukraine, because Mongolia itself did not exist at that time, just like the Independent?

Mongolia - as a state entity - appeared only in the early 20s of the last century. The Mongolian People's Republic was founded in 1924, and for several decades after that this republic was independent state recognized only the USSR, which contributed to the emergence of the Mongolian state. It was then that the nomads learned from the Bolsheviks that they were the “descendants” of the great Mongols, and their “compatriot” had created the Great Empire in his time. The nomads were terribly surprised by this and, of course, were delighted.

The oldest literary and historical monument of the ancient Mongols is considered to be “The Secret Legend of the Mongols” - “The Ancient Mongol Legend of Genghis Khan”, compiled in 1240 by an unknown author. Strangely, only a single Mongolian-Chinese manuscript has been preserved, and it was acquired in 1872 in the Beijing palace library by the head of the Russian spiritual mission in China, Archimandrite Palladius. It was during this period that the compilation, or rather the falsified rewriting of the history of the World and, as part of it, the history of Rus'-Russia was completed.

Why this was done has already been written and rewritten. Then the European dwarfs, deprived of a glorious historical past, understood the banal truth: if there is no great historical past, it needs to be created. And the alchemists of history, taking as the basis of their activity the principle “who controls the past, controls the present and the future,” rolled up their sleeves.

It was at this time that the “Secret Legend of the Mongols” miraculously emerges from oblivion - the cornerstone of the historical version of the birth of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan. Where and how the manuscript appeared in the Beijing palace library is a mystery shrouded in darkness. It is likely that this “historical document” appeared, like most of the “ancient” and “early medieval chronicles and works” of philosophers, historians, and scientists, precisely during the period of active writing of World History - in the 17th-18th centuries. And “The Secret History of the Mongols” was discovered in the Beijing library exactly after the end of the Second Opium War, when committing a forgery was only a matter of technique.

But God bless him - let's talk about more practical subjects. For example, about the Mongol army. The system of its organization - universal military conscription, a clear structure (tumens, thousands, hundreds and tens), strict discipline - does not raise any big questions. These are all easily implementable things under a dictatorial form of government. However, for the army to truly become powerful and combat-ready, it needs to be equipped in accordance with the requirements of the current time. First of all, we are interested in equipping the troops with weapons and protective equipment.

According to historical research The Mongol army itself, with which Genghis Khan went to conquer the world, amounted to 95 thousand people. It was armed with metal (iron) weapons (sabers, knives, spearheads, arrows, etc.). Plus, there were metal parts in the armor of warriors (helmets, plates, armor, etc.). Later, chain mail appeared. Now think about what is required to produce metal products on such a scale as equipping an army of almost a hundred thousand? At a minimum, wild nomads had to have the necessary resources, technologies, and production capacities.

What do we have from this set?

As they say, the entire periodic table is buried in the lands of Mongolia. Of the mineral resources, there is especially a lot of copper, coal, molybdenum, tin, tungsten, gold, but iron ores God offended. Not only are they as big as they come, but they also have a low iron content - from 30 to 45%. According to experts, the practical significance of these deposits is minimal. This is the first thing.

Secondly, researchers, no matter how hard they try, cannot find ancient metal production centers in Mongolia. One of the latest studies was carried out by Hokkaido University professor Isao Usuki, who worked for several years in Mongolia, studying the metallurgy of the Hunnic period (from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD). And the result is the same - zero. And if we think sensibly, how could metallurgical centers appear among nomads? The very specifics of metal production presuppose a sedentary lifestyle.

It can be assumed that the ancient Mongols imported metal products that were of strategic importance at that time. But to carry out long-term military campaigns, during which the Mongol-Tatar army increased significantly - according to various estimates, the size of the army ranged from 120 to 600 thousand people, a lot of iron was required, in ever-increasing quantities, and it had to be supplied to the Horde regularly. Meanwhile, the story about the Mongolian iron rivers also remains silent.

A logical question arises: how, in the era of dominance of iron weapons on the battlefield, the small people of the Mongols - without any serious metallurgical production - were able to create the largest continental empire in the history of mankind?

Doesn't this seem like a fairy tale or a historical fantasy to you, composed in one of the European falsification centers?

What was this intended for? Here we encounter another oddity. The Mongols conquered half the world, and their yoke lasted three hundred years only over Russia. Not over the Poles, Hungarians, Uzbeks, Kalmyks or the same Tatars, namely over Russia. Why? With only one goal - to create an inferiority complex among the East Slavic peoples with a fictitious phenomenon called the "Mongol-Tatar yoke".

The term “yoke” does not appear in Russian chronicles. As expected, he comes from enlightened Europe. Its first traces are found at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries in Polish historical literature. In Russian sources, the phrase “Tatar yoke” appears much later - in the 1660s. And the publisher of the Atlas on the European history Christian Kruse. Kruse's book was translated into Russian only in the middle of the 19th century. It turns out that the peoples of Rus'-Russia learned about some cruel “Mongol-Tatar yoke” several centuries after its fall. Such a historical trick is nonsense!

Igo, ayy, where are you?

Let's return to the starting point of the "yoke". The first reconnaissance expedition towards Rus' was made by a Mongol detachment under the leadership of Jebe and Subudai in 1223. The Battle of Kalka on the last day of spring ended with the defeat of the united Russian-Polovtsian army.

The Mongols under the leadership of Batu carried out a full-fledged invasion 14 years later in the winter. Here the first discrepancy arises. The reconnaissance was carried out in the spring, and the military campaign in the winter. Winter, objectively, for many reasons, is not the best time for military campaigns. Remember Hitler's plan "Barbarossa", the war began on June 22 and the blitzkrieg against the USSR was supposed to be completed by September 30. Even before the autumn thaw, not to mention the bitter Russian frosts. What destroyed Napoleon's Grand Army in Russia? General Winter!

One can be ironic that Batu in 1237 was still unaware of this tragic experience. But the Russian winter was still the Russian winter in the 13th century, only perhaps even cooler.

So, the Mongols attacked Rus' in winter, according to researchers, no later than December 1. What was Batu's army like?

Regarding the number of conquerors, historians range from 120 to 600 thousand people. The most realistic figure is 130-140 thousand. According to the regulations of Genghis Khan, each warrior was required to have at least 5 horses. In fact, during Batu’s campaign, according to researchers, each nomad had 2-3 horses. And so all this mass of horsemen marched in the winter with small stops to sieges cities for 120 days - from December 1, 1237 to April 3, 1238 (the beginning of the siege of Kozelsk) - on average from 1700 to 2800 kilometers (we remember, yes, that the army Batu was divided into two detachments and the length of their route turned out to be different). Per day - from 15 to 23 kilometers. And minus the “siege” stops - even more: from 23 to 38 kilometers per day.

Now answer a simple question: where and how did this huge mass of equestrian people find food in winter(!)? Especially the steppe Mongolian horses, accustomed to eating mainly grass or hay.

IN winter period unpretentious Mongolian horses forage in the steppe, tearing off last year's grass under the snow. But this is under the conditions of an ordinary wild cat, when the animal calmly, slowly, meter by meter explores the ground in search of food. Horses find themselves in a completely different situation on a march while performing a combat mission.

The natural question of feeding the Mongol army, and, first of all, its horse part, is practically not discussed by numerous researchers. Why?

In fact, this problem raises a big question not only about the viability of Batu’s campaign against Rus' in 1237-1238, but also about the fact of its existence in general.

And if there was no first Batu invasion, then where could several subsequent ones come from - up to 1242, which ended in Europe?

But - if there was no Mongol invasion, where could the Mongol-Tatar yoke come from?

There are two main scenario versions on this matter. Let's call them this: Western and domestic. I will outline them schematically.
Let's start with the "Western". In the Eurasian space, the state formation of Tartary was alive and well, uniting many dozens of peoples. The state-forming peoples were the East Slavic peoples. The state was governed by two people - the Khan and the Prince. The prince ruled the state in peacetime.

Khan (Supreme Commander-in-Chief) in peacetime was responsible for the formation and maintenance of the combat effectiveness of the army (Horde) and became the head of state in wartime. Europe at that time was a province of Tartary, which the latter kept with a tight grip. Of course, Europe paid tribute to Tartaria; in case of disobedience or rebellion, the Horde quickly and harshly restored order.

As you know, any empire goes through three stages in its life: formation, prosperity and decline. When Tartary entered the third stage of its development, aggravated by internal turmoil - civil strife, religious civil war, Europe at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries gradually freed itself from the influence of its powerful neighbor. And then in Europe they began to compose historical fairy tales in which everything was turned upside down. At first, for Europeans, these fantasies served as auto-training, with the help of which they tried to get rid of the inferiority complex, the horror of memories of existence under a foreign heel. And when they realized that the Eurasian bear was no longer so scary and formidable, they moved on. And in the end they came to the same formula that was already mentioned above: whoever controls the past controls the present and the future. And it was no longer Europe that languished for centuries under a powerful bear paw, and Rus' - the core of Tartary - was under the Mongol-Tatar yoke for three hundred years.

In the “domestic” version there is no trace of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, but the Horde is present in almost the same capacity. The key point in this version, there was a period when the Grand Duke of Kievan Rus Vladimir I Svyatoslavovich was convinced to abandon the faith of his ancestors - the Vedic traditions, and was persuaded to accept the "Greek religion". Vladimir was baptized himself and organized mass baptism of the population of Kievan Rus. It is no longer a secret that during 12 years of forced Christianization, a huge number of people were killed. Everyone who refused to accept the new “faith” was killed.

In the eastern lands it was possible to preserve Vedic traditions. Thus, dual faith was established in one state. This repeatedly led to military clashes. It was these that foreign chronographs qualified as a confrontation between Rus' and the Horde. Ultimately, baptized Rus', which by that time had fallen under the influence of the West and with its powerful support, prevailed over the Vedic East and subjugated most of the territory of Tartaria. And then in Rus', which by that time had been transformed into Russia, a hard time began when, with the destruction of ancient Russian chronicles, a global rewriting of the history of Rus' began with the help of German professors Millers, Bayers, and Schlözers.

Each of these versions has its supporters and opponents. And the front line between adherents of the “European” version and the “domestic” one is drawn at the ideological level. Therefore, everyone must decide for themselves which side they are on.

how long did the Tatar-Mongol yoke last in Rus'!! ! definitely necessary

1. there was no yoke
2. thank you very much for the answers
3. they bullied Russians for their sweet souls....
4. there were no Mongol mengu manga from the Turkic eternal glorious manga Tatars
5. from 1243 to 1480
6. 1243-1480 Under Yaroslav Vsevolodovich it is considered to have begun when he received a label from the khans. And it ended in 1480, it is believed. The Kulikovo field took place in 1380, but then the Horde took Moscow with the support of the Poles and Lithuanians.
7. 238 years (from 1242 to 1480)
8. judging by the numerous facts that there were inconsistencies with history, everything is possible. For example, it was possible to hire the nomadic “Tatars” to any prince, and it seems that the “yoke” is nothing more than an army hired by the Kyiv prince to change the Orthodox faith to Christian... it did work out.
9. from 1243 to 1480
10. There was no yoke; under this they covered up the civil war between Novgorod and Moscow. This has been proven
11. from 1243 to 1480
12. from 1243 to 1480
13. MONGOL-TATAR IGO in Rus' (1243-1480), the traditional name for the system of exploitation of Russian lands by Mongol-Tatar conquerors. Established as a result of Batu's invasion. After the Battle of Kulikovo (1380) it was nominal in nature. Finally overthrown by Ivan III in 1480.

    In the spring of 1238, the Tatar-Mongol army of Khan Batu, which had been ravaging Rus' for many months, ended up on Kaluga land under the walls of Kozelsk. According to the Nikon Chronicle, the formidable conqueror of Rus' demanded the surrender of the city, but the Kozel residents refused, deciding to “lay down their heads for the Christian faith.” The siege lasted for seven weeks and only after the destruction of the wall with battering guns did the enemy manage to climb onto the rampart, where “there was a great battle and a slaughter of evil.” Some of the defenders went beyond the walls of the city and died in an unequal battle, destroying up to 4 thousand Tatar-Mongol warriors. Having burst into Kozelsk, Batu ordered to destroy all the inhabitants, “sucking milk until they were children,” and ordered the city to be called “Evil City.” The feat of the Kozel residents, who despised death and did not submit to the strongest enemy, became one of the bright pages of the heroic past of our Fatherland.

    In the 1240s. Russian princes found themselves politically dependent on the Golden Horde. The period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke began. At the same time, in the 13th century. under the rule of the Lithuanian princes, a state began to take shape, which included Russian lands, including part of the “Kaluga” lands. The border between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Principality of Moscow was established along the Oka and Ugra rivers.

    In the XIV century. The territory of the Kaluga region became a place of constant confrontation between Lithuania and Moscow. In 1371 Lithuanian prince Olgerd, in his complaint to the Patriarch of Constantinople Philotheus against the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus' Alexei, among the cities taken from him by Moscow “against the kiss of the cross”, for the first time names Kaluga (in domestic sources, Kaluga is first mentioned in the will of Dmitry Donskoy, who died in 1389). It is traditionally believed that Kaluga arose as a border fortress to protect the Moscow Principality from attack from Lithuania.

    The Kaluga cities of Tarusa, Obolensk, Borovsk and others took part in the struggle of Dmitry Ivanovich (Donskoy) against the Golden Horde. Their squads took part in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. The famous commander Vladimir Andreevich Brave (appanage prince of Serpukhov and Borovsk) played a significant role in the victory over the enemy. The Tarusa princes Fyodor and Mstislav died in the Battle of Kulikovo.

    A hundred years later, the Kaluga land became the place where the events that put an end to the Tatar-Mongol yoke took place. Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilievich, who during the years of his reign had transformed from a Moscow appanage prince into a sovereign-autocrat of all Rus', in 1476 stopped paying the Horde the annual monetary “exit” collected from Russian lands since the time of Batu. In response, in 1480, Khan Akhmat, in alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir IV, set out on a campaign against Russian soil. Akhmat's troops moved through Mtsensk, Odoev and Lyubutsk to Vorotynsk. Here the khan expected help from Casimir IV, but he never received it. The Crimean Tatars, allies of Ivan III, distracted the Lithuanian troops by attacking the Podolsk land.

    Having not received the promised help, Akhmat went to the Ugra and, standing on the bank opposite the Russian regiments that Ivan III had concentrated here in advance, attempted to cross the river. Several times Akhmat tried to break through to the other side of the Ugra, but all his attempts were stopped by Russian troops. Soon the river began to freeze. Ivan III ordered all troops to be withdrawn to Kremenets, and then to Borovsk. But Akhmat did not dare to pursue the Russian troops and on November 11 retreated from Ugra. The last campaign of the Golden Horde against Rus' ended in complete failure. The successors of the formidable Batu turned out to be powerless before the state united around Moscow.

Although I set myself the goal of clarifying the history of the Slavs from their origins to Rurik, I simultaneously received material that went beyond the scope of the task. I can’t help but use it to highlight an event that changed the entire course of Russian history. It's about about the Tatar-Mongol invasion, i.e. about one of the main topics Russian history, which still divides Russian society into those who recognize the yoke and those who deny it.

The dispute over whether there was a Tatar-Mongol yoke divided Russians, Tatars and historians into two camps. Famous historian Lev Gumilev(1912–1992) gives his arguments that the Tatar-Mongol yoke is a myth. He believes that at this time the Russian principalities and the Tatar Horde on the Volga with its capital in Sarai, which conquered Rus', coexisted in a single federal-type state under the common central authority of the Horde. The price for maintaining some independence within the individual principalities was the tax that Alexander Nevsky undertook to pay to the khans of the Horde.

So many scientific treatises have been written on the topic of the Mongol invasion and the Tatar-Mongol yoke, plus a number of works of art have been created that any person who does not agree with these postulates looks, to put it mildly, abnormal. However, over the past decades, several scientific, or rather popular science, works have been presented to readers. Their authors: A. Fomenko, A. Bushkov, A. Maksimov, G. Sidorov and some others claim the opposite: there were no Mongols as such.

Completely unrealistic versions

In fairness, it must be said that in addition to the works of these authors, there are versions of the history of the Tatar-Mongol invasion, which do not seem worth serious attention, since they do not logically explain some issues and involve additional participants in the events, which contradicts well-known rule“Occam’s razors”: do not complicate the overall picture with unnecessary characters. The authors of one of these versions are S. Valyansky and D. Kalyuzhny, who in the book “Another History of Rus'” believe that under the guise of the Tatar-Mongols in the imagination of the chroniclers of antiquity, the Bethlehem spiritual-knightly order appears, which arose in Palestine and after the capture in 1217 . Kingdom of Jerusalem by the Turks moved to Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Poland and, possibly, Southwestern Rus'. Based on the golden cross worn by the commanders of this order, these crusaders received the name of the Golden Order in Rus', which echoes the name Golden Horde. This version does not explain the invasion of the “Tatars” into Europe itself.

The same book sets out the version of A. M. Zhabinsky, who believes that the army of the Nicaean Emperor Theodore I Laskaris (in the chronicles under the name Genghis Khan) under the command of his son-in-law Ioann Dukas Vatatz (under the name Batu) is operating under the “Tatars”, who attacked Rus' in response to Kievan Rus' refusal to ally with Nicaea in its military operations in the Balkans. Chronologically, the formation and collapse of the Nicene Empire (the successor to Byzantium, defeated by the crusaders in 1204) and the Mongol Empire coincide. But from traditional historiography it is known that in 1241 Nicene troops fought in the Balkans (Bulgaria and Thessaloniki recognized the power of Vatatz), and at the same time the tumens of the godless Khan Batu were fighting there. It is incredible that two large armies, operating side by side, would miraculously not notice each other! For this reason, I do not consider these versions in detail.

Here I would like to present detailed substantiated versions of three authors, who each in their own way tried to answer the question of whether there was a Mongol-Tatar yoke at all. It can be assumed that the Tatars did come to Rus', but these could have been Tatars from across the Volga or Caspian Sea, long-time neighbors of the Slavs. There could only be one thing: a fantastic invasion of the Mongols from Central Asia, who rode fighting halfway around the world, because there are objective circumstances in the world that cannot be ignored.

The authors provide a significant amount of evidence to support their words. The evidence is very, very convincing. These versions are not free from some shortcomings, but they are argued much more reliably than the official history, which is not able to answer a number of simple questions and often simply make ends meet. All three - Alexander Bushkov, Albert Maksimov, and Georgy Sidorov believe that there was no yoke. At the same time, A. Bushkov and A. Maksimov disagree mainly only regarding the origin of the “Mongols” and which of the Russian princes acted as Genghis Khan and Batu. It seemed to me personally that Albert Maximov’s alternative version of the history of the Tatar-Mongol invasion was more detailed and substantiated and therefore arouses greater confidence.

At the same time, G. Sidorov’s attempt to prove that in fact the “Mongols” were the ancient Indo-European population of Siberia, the so-called Scythian-Siberian Rus', which came to the aid of Eastern European Rus' in difficult times of its fragmentation before the real threat of conquest by the Crusaders and forced Germanization , is also not without reason and may be interesting in itself.

Tatar-Mongol yoke according to school history

From school we know that in 1237, as a result of a foreign invasion, Rus' was mired in the darkness of poverty, ignorance and violence for 300 years, falling into political and economic dependence on the Mongol khans and rulers of the Golden Horde. The school textbook says that the Mongol-Tatar hordes are wild nomadic tribes that did not have their own written language and culture, who invaded the territory of medieval Rus' on horseback from the distant borders of China, conquered it and enslaved the Russian people. It is believed that the Mongol-Tatar invasion brought with it innumerable troubles, led to enormous casualties, theft and destruction of material assets, throwing Rus' back in cultural and economic development by 3 centuries compared to Europe.

But now many people know that this myth about the Great Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan was invented by the German school of historians of the 18th century in order to somehow explain the backwardness of Russia and present in a favorable light the reigning house, which came from the seedy Tatar Murzas. And the historiography of Russia, accepted as dogma, is completely false, but it is still taught in schools. Let's start with the fact that the Mongols are not mentioned even once in the chronicles. Contemporaries call the unknown aliens whatever they like - Tatars, Pechenegs, Horde, Taurmen, but not Mongols.

How it really was, we are helped to understand by people who independently researched this topic and offer their versions of the history of this time.

First, let's remember what children are taught according to school history.

Army of Genghis Khan

From the history of the Mongol Empire (for the history of Genghis Khan’s creation of his empire and his young years under the real name of Temujin, see the film “Genghis Khan”), it is known that out of the army of 129 thousand people available at the time of Genghis Khan’s death, according to his will, 101 thousand soldiers were transferred to the disposal of his son Tuluya, including the guards thousand warriors, the son of Jochi (father of Batu) received 4 thousand people, the sons of Chegotai and Ogedei - 12 thousand each.

The campaign to the West was led by Jochi's eldest son Batu Khan. The army set out on a campaign in the spring of 1236 from the upper reaches of the Irtysh from Western Altai. Actually, only a small part of Batu’s huge army was Mongols. These are the 4 thousand bequeathed to his father Jochi. Basically, the army consisted of the conquered peoples of the Turkic group who joined the conquerors.

As indicated in the official history, in June 1236 the army was already on the Volga, where the Tatars conquered Volga Bulgaria. Batu Khan with his main forces conquered the lands of the Polovtsians, Burtases, Mordovians and Circassians, taking possession of the entire steppe space from the Caspian to the Black Sea and to the southern borders of what was then Rus' by 1237. Batu Khan's army spent almost the entire year 1237 in these steppes. By the beginning of winter, the Tatars invaded the Ryazan principality, defeated the Ryazan squads and took Pronsk and Ryazan. After this, Batu went to Kolomna, and then after 4 days of siege he took a well-fortified Vladimir. On the City River, the remnants of the troops of the northeastern principalities of Rus', led by the Vladimir prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, were defeated and almost completely destroyed by the Burundai corps on March 4, 1238. Then Torzhok and Tver fell. Batu strove for Veliky Novgorod, but the onset of thaws and swampy terrain forced him to retreat to the south. After the conquest of northeastern Rus', he took up issues of state building and building relationships with Russian princes.

The trip to Europe continues

In 1240, Batu's army, after a short siege, took Kyiv, took possession of the Galician principalities and entered the foothills of the Carpathians. A military council of the Mongols took place there, where the issue of the direction of further conquests in Europe was decided. Baydar's detachment on the right flank of the army headed to Poland, Silesia and Moravia, defeated the Poles, captured Krakow and crossed the Oder. After the battle of April 9, 1241 near Legnica (Silesia), where the flower of German and Polish knighthood died, Poland and its ally the Teutonic Order could no longer resist the Tatar-Mongols.

The left flank moved to Transylvania. In Hungary, Hungarian-Croatian troops were defeated and the capital Pest was taken. Pursuing King Bella IV, Cadogan's detachment reached the shores of the Adriatic Sea, captured Serbian coastal cities, devastated part of Bosnia and, through Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria, went to join the main forces of the Tatar-Mongols. One of the detachments of the main forces invaded Austria as far as the city of Neustadt and only a little short of reaching Vienna, which managed to avoid the invasion. After this, the entire army, by the end of winter 1242, crossed the Danube and went south to Bulgaria. In the Balkans, Batu Khan received news of the death of Emperor Ogedei. Batu was supposed to participate in the kurultai to select the new emperor, and the entire army went back to the Desht-i-Kipchak steppes, leaving Nagai’s detachment in the Balkans to control Moldova and Bulgaria. In 1248, Serbia also recognized Nagai’s power.

Was there a Mongol-Tatar yoke? (Version by A. Bushkov)

From the book “The Russia That Never Was”

We are told that a horde of rather savage nomads emerged from the desert steppes of Central Asia, conquered the Russian principalities, invaded Western Europe and left behind sacked cities and states.

But after 300 years of dominance in Rus', the Mongol Empire left virtually no written monuments in the Mongolian language. However, letters and agreements of the Grand Dukes, spiritual letters, church documents of that time remained, but only in Russian. This means that the Russian language remained the official language in Rus' during the Tatar-Mongol yoke. Not only Mongolian written, but also material monuments from the times of the Golden Horde Khanate have not been preserved.

Academician Nikolai Gromov says that if the Mongols had really conquered and plundered Rus' and Europe, then material values, customs, culture, and writing would have remained. But these conquests and the personality of Genghis Khan himself became known to modern Mongols from Russian and Western sources. There is nothing like this in the history of Mongolia. And our school textbooks still contain information about the Tatar-Mongol yoke, based only on medieval chronicles. But many other documents have survived that contradict what children are taught in school today. They testify that the Tatars were not conquerors of Rus', but warriors in the service of the Russian Tsar.

From the chronicles

Here is a quote from the book of the Habsburg ambassador to Russia, Baron Sigismund Herberstein, “Notes on Muscovite Affairs,” written by him in the 15th century: “In 1527, they (the Muscovites) again fought with the Tatars, as a result of which the famous Battle of Hanika took place.”

And in the German chronicle of 1533 it is said about Ivan the Terrible that “he and his Tatars took Kazan and Astrakhan under their kingdom.” In the minds of Europeans, the Tatars are not conquerors, but warriors of the Russian Tsar.

In 1252, from Constantinople to the headquarters of Khan Batu, the ambassador of King Louis IX, William Rubrukus (court monk Guillaume de Rubruk), traveled with his retinue, who wrote in his travel notes: “Settlements of Rus are scattered everywhere among the Tatars, who mixed with the Tatars and adopted them clothing and lifestyle. All routes of travel in a huge country are maintained by Russians, and at river crossings there are Russians everywhere.”

But Rubruk traveled through Rus' only 15 years after the beginning of the “Tatar-Mongol yoke”. Something happened too quickly: the way of life of Russians was mixed with the wild Mongols. He further writes: “The wives of the Rus, like ours, wear jewelry on their heads and trim the hem of their dresses with stripes of ermine and other fur. Men wear short clothes - kaftans, chekmenis and lambskin hats. Women decorate their heads with headdresses similar to the headdresses of French women. Men wear outerwear similar to German ones.” It turns out that Mongolian clothing in Rus' in those days was no different from Western European clothing. This radically changes our understanding of the wild nomadic barbarians from the distant Mongolian steppes.

And here is what the Arab chronicler and traveler Ibn-Batuta wrote about the Golden Horde in his travel notes in 1333: “There were many Russians in Sarai-Berke. The bulk of the armed, service and labor forces of the Golden Horde were Russian people.”

It is impossible to imagine that the victorious Mongols for some reason armed Russian slaves and they constituted the bulk of their troops without offering armed resistance.

And foreign travelers visiting Rus', enslaved by the Tatar-Mongols, idyllically depict Russian people walking around in Tatar costumes, which are no different from European ones, and armed Russian warriors calmly serve the Khan’s horde, without offering any resistance. There is a lot of evidence that the internal life of the northeastern principalities of Rus' at that time developed as if there had been no invasion; they, as before, assembled veche, chose princes for themselves and kicked them out.

Were there any Mongols among the invaders, black-haired, with slanted eyes people whom anthropologists classify as the Mongoloid race? Not a single contemporary mentions this appearance of the conquerors. The Russian chronicler, among the peoples who came in the horde of Batu Khan, puts in first place the “Cumans,” i.e., the Kipchak-Polovtsians (Caucasians), who from time immemorial lived sedentary lives next to the Russians.

The Arab historian Elomari wrote: “In ancient times, this state (the Golden Horde of the 14th century) was the country of the Kipchaks, but when the Tatars took possession of it, the Kipchaks became their subjects. Then they, that is, the Tatars, mixed and became related to them, and they all definitely became Kipchaks, as if they were of the same family.”

Here is another interesting document about the composition of the army of Khan Batu. A letter from the Hungarian king Bella IV to the Pope, written in 1241, says: “When the state of Hungary, from the Mongol invasion, was turned into a desert for the most part, like a plague, and like a sheepfold was surrounded by various tribes of infidels, namely Russians, wanderers from the east , Bulgarians and other heretics from the south...” It turns out that in the horde of the legendary Mongol Khan Batu it is mainly Slavs who fight, but where are the Mongols or at least the Tatars?

Genetic studies by biochemist scientists at Kazan University of the bones of mass graves of the Tatar-Mongols showed that 90% of them were representatives of the Slavic ethnic group. A similar Caucasian type prevails even in the genotype of the modern indigenous Tatar population of Tatarstan. And there are practically no Mongolian words in the Russian language. Tatar (Bulgar) - as many as you like. It seems that there were no Mongols in Rus' at all.

Other doubts about the real existence of the Mongol Empire and the Tatar-Mongol yoke can be summarized as follows:

1. There are remains of the allegedly Golden Horde cities of Sarai-Batu and Sarai-Berke on the Volga in the Akhtuba region. There is a mention of the existence of the capital of Batu on the Don, but its location is not known. The famous Russian archaeologist V.V. Grigoriev noted in a scientific article in the 19th century that “there are practically no traces of the existence of the Khanate. Its once thriving cities lie in ruins. And about its capital, the famous Sarai, we don’t even know which ruins can be associated with its famous name.”

Modern Mongols do not know about the existence of the Mongol Empire in the 13th–15th centuries and learned about Genghis Khan only from Russian sources.

In Mongolia there are no traces of the former capital of the empire of the mythical city of Karakorum, and if there was one, reports in chronicles about the trips of some Russian princes to Karakorum for labels twice a year are fantastic due to their significant duration due to the great distance (about 5000 km one way).

There are no traces of the colossal treasures allegedly looted by the Tatar-Mongols in different countries.

Russian culture, writing and the welfare of the Russian principalities flourished during Tatar yoke. This is evidenced by the abundance of coin treasures found on the territory of Russia. Only in medieval Rus' at that time were the golden gates cast in Vladimir and Kyiv. Only in Rus' were the domes and roofs of churches covered with gold, not only in the capital, but also in provincial cities. The abundance of gold in Rus' until the 17th century, according to N. Karamzin, “confirms the amazing wealth of the Russian princes during the Tatar-Mongol yoke.”

Most of the monasteries were built in Russia during the yoke, and Orthodox Church for some reason she did not call on the people to fight the invaders. During the Tatar yoke, no appeals were made by the Orthodox Church to the forced Russian people. Moreover, from the first days of the enslavement of Rus', the church provided all possible support to the pagan Mongols.

And historians tell us that temples and churches were robbed, desecrated and destroyed.

N.M. Karamzin wrote about this in “History of the Russian State” that “one of the consequences of Tatar rule was the rise of our clergy, the proliferation of monks and church estates. Church estates, free from Horde and princely taxes, prospered. Very few of the current monasteries were founded before or after the Tatars. All others serve as a monument to this time.”

Official history claims that the Tatar-Mongol yoke, in addition to plundering the country, destroying its historical and religious monuments and plunging the enslaved people into ignorance and illiteracy, stopped the development of culture in Rus' for 300 years. But N. Karamzin believed that “during this period from the 13th to the 15th centuries, the Russian language acquired more purity and correctness. Instead of the uneducated Russian dialect, the writers carefully adhered to the grammar of church books or ancient Serbian, not only in grammar, but also in pronunciation.”

As paradoxical as it sounds, we have to admit that the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke was the era of the heyday of Russian culture.
7. In ancient engravings, the Tatars cannot be distinguished from Russian warriors.

They have the same armor and weapons, the same faces and the same banners with Orthodox crosses and saints.

The exposition of the art museum of the city of Yaroslavl displays a large wooden Orthodox icon of the 17th century with the life of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The lower part of the icon depicts the legendary Kulikovo battle of the Russian prince Dmitry Donskoy with Khan Mamai. But Russians and Tatars cannot be distinguished on this icon either. Both of them are wearing the same gilded armor and helmets. Moreover, both Tatars and Russians fight under the same military banners depicting the face of the Savior Not Made by Hands. It is impossible to imagine that the Tatar horde of Khan Mamai went into battle with the Russian squad under banners depicting the face of Jesus Christ. But this is not nonsense. And it is unlikely that the Orthodox Church could afford such a gross oversight on a famous, revered icon.

In all Russian medieval miniatures depicting Tatar-Mongol raids, the Mongol khans are for some reason depicted in royal crowns and the chroniclers call them not khans, but kings. (“The godless Tsar Batu took the city of Suzdal with his sword”) And in the 14th-century miniature “Batu’s Invasion of Russian Cities,” Batu Khan is fair-haired with Slavic facial features and has a princely crown on his head. His two bodyguards are typical Zaporozhye Cossacks with forelocks on their shaved heads, and the rest of his warriors are no different from the Russian squad.

And here is what medieval historians wrote about Mamai - the authors of the handwritten chronicles “Zadonshchina” and “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamai”:

“And King Mamai came with 10 hordes and 70 princes. Apparently the Russian princes treated you well; there are no princes or governors with you. And immediately the filthy Mamai ran, crying, bitterly saying: We, brothers, will no longer be in our land and will no longer see our squad, neither the princes nor the boyars. Why are you, filthy Mamai, coveting Russian soil? After all, the Zalessk horde has now beaten you. The Mamaevs and the princes, the esauls and the boyars beat Tokhtamysha with their foreheads.”

It turns out that Mamai’s horde was called a squad in which princes, boyars and governors fought, and the army of Dmitry Donskoy was called the Zalesskaya horde, and he himself was called Tokhtamysh.

1. Historical documents give serious reasons to assume that the Mongol khans Batu and Mamai are doubles of the Russian princes, since the actions of the Tatar khans surprisingly coincide with the intentions and plans of Yaroslav the Wise, Alexander Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy to establish central power in Rus'.

There is a Chinese engraving that depicts Batu Khan with the easy-to-read inscription "Yaroslav". Then there is a chronicle miniature, which again depicts a bearded man with gray hair wearing a crown (probably a grand ducal crown) on a white horse (like a winner). The caption reads “Khan Batu enters Suzdal.” But Suzdal is the hometown of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. It turns out that he enters his own city, for example, after the suppression of a rebellion. In the image we read not “Batu”, but “Father”, as A. Fomenko assumed was the name of the head of the army, then the word “Svyatoslav”, and on the crown the word “Maskvich” is read, with an “A”. The fact is that on some ancient maps of Moscow it was written “Maskova”. (From the word “mask”, this is what icons were called before the adoption of Christianity, and the word “icon” is Greek. “Maskova” is a cult river and a city where there are images of gods). Thus, he is a Muscovite, and this is in the order of things, because it was a single Vladimir-Suzdal principality, which included Moscow. But the most interesting thing is that “Emir of Rus'” is written on his belt.

1. The tribute that Russian cities paid to the Golden Horde was the usual tax (tithe) that existed in Rus' at that time for the maintenance of the army - the horde, as well as the recruitment of young people into the army, from where the Cossack warriors, as a rule, did not return home, devoting themselves to military service . This military recruitment was called "tagma", a tribute in blood that the Russians allegedly paid to the Tatars. For refusal to pay tribute or evasion from recruiting recruits, the military administration of the Horde unconditionally punished the population with punitive expeditions in the offending areas. Naturally, such pacification operations were accompanied by bloody excesses, violence and executions. In addition, internecine disputes constantly occurred between individual appanage princes, with armed clashes between princely squads and the capture of cities of warring parties. These actions are now presented by historians as supposedly Tatar raids on Russian territories.

This is how Russian history was falsified

Russian scientist Lev Gumilyov (1912–1992) argues that the Tatar-Mongol yoke is a myth. He believes that at that time there was a unification of the Russian principalities with the Horde under the primacy of the Horde (according to the principle “a bad world is better”), and Rus' was, as it were, considered a separate ulus that joined the Horde by agreement. They were a single state with their own internal strife and struggle for centralized power. L. Gumilyov believed that the theory of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Rus' was created only in the 18th century by German historians Gottlieb Bayer, August Schlozer, Gerhard Miller under the influence of the idea of ​​​​the allegedly slave origin of the Russian people, according to a certain social order ruling house The Romanovs, who wanted to look like the saviors of Russia from the yoke.

An additional argument in favor of the fact that the “invasion” is completely fictitious is that the imaginary “invasion” did not introduce anything new into Russian life.

Everything that happened under the “Tatars” existed before in one form or another.

There is not the slightest trace of the presence of a foreign ethnic group, other customs, other rules, laws, regulations. And examples of particularly disgusting “Tatar atrocities”, upon closer examination, turn out to be fictitious.

A foreign invasion of a particular country (if it was not simply a predatory raid) was always characterized by the establishment of new orders, new laws, and changes in the conquered country. ruling dynasties, changing the structure of the administration, provincial boundaries, fighting old customs, introducing a new faith and even changing the name of the country. None of this happened in Rus' under the Tatar-Mongol yoke.

In the Laurentian Chronicle, which Karamzin considered the most ancient and complete, three pages that told about Batu’s invasion were cut out and replaced with some literary cliches about the events of the 11th–12th centuries. L. Gumilev wrote about this with reference to G. Prokhorov. What was so terrible that they resorted to forgery? Probably something that could give food for thought about the strangeness of the Mongol invasion.

In the West, for more than 200 years, they were convinced of the existence in the East of a huge kingdom of a certain Christian ruler, “Presbyter John,” whose descendants in Europe were considered the khans of the “Mongol Empire.” Many European chroniclers “for some reason” identified Presbyter John with Genghis Khan, who was also called “King David.” A certain Philip, a priest of the Dominican order, wrote that “Christianity dominates everywhere in the Mongolian east.” This “Mongolian east” was Christian Rus'. The conviction about the existence of the kingdom of Prester John lasted for a long time and began to be everywhere displayed on geographical maps of that time. According to European authors, Prester John maintained warm and trusting relations with Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, the only European monarch who did not feel fear at the news of the “Tatar” invasion of Europe and corresponded with the “Tatars.” He knew who they really were.
A logical conclusion can be drawn.

There was never any Mongol-Tatar yoke in Rus'

There was a specific period of the internal process of unification of Russian lands and strengthening of the Tsar's power in the country. The entire population of Rus' was divided into civilians, ruled by princes, and a permanent regular army, called a horde, under the command of governors, who could be Russians, Tatars, Turks or other nationalities. At the head of the horde army was a khan or king, who owned supreme power in the country.

At the same time, A. Bushkov in conclusion admits that an external enemy in the person of the Tatars, Polovtsians and other steppe tribes living in the Volga region (but, of course, not the Mongols from the borders of China) was invading Rus' at that time and these raids were used by the Russian princes in their struggle for power.
After the collapse of the Golden Horde, several states existed on its former territory at different times, the most significant of which are: the Kazan Khanate, the Crimean Khanate, the Siberian Khanate, the Nogai Horde, the Astrakhan Khanate, the Uzbek Khanate, the Kazakh Khanate.

As for the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, many chroniclers wrote (and rewrote) about it, both in Rus' and in Western Europe. There are up to 40 duplicate descriptions of this very large event, different from each other, since they were created by multilingual chroniclers from different countries. Some Western chronicles described the same battle as a battle on European territory, and later historians puzzled over where it happened. Comparison of different chronicles leads to the idea that this is a description of the same event.

Near Tula, on the Kulikovo Field near the Nepryadva River, no evidence of a great battle has yet been found, despite repeated attempts. There are no mass graves or significant weapons finds.

Now we already know that in Rus' the words “Tatars” and “Cossacks”, “army” and “horde” meant the same thing. Therefore, Mamai brought to the Kulikovo field not the foreign Mongol-Tatar horde, but Russian Cossack regiments, and the Battle of Kulikovo itself, in all likelihood, was an episode of internecine war.

According to Fomenko, the so-called Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 was not a battle between Tatars and Russians, but a major episode of civil war between Russians, possibly on a religious basis. Indirect confirmation of this is the reflection of this event in numerous church sources.

Hypothetical options for “Muscovy Pospolita” or “Russian Caliphate”

Bushkov examines in detail the possibility of adopting Catholicism in the Russian principalities, uniting with Catholic Poland and Lithuania (then in a single state “Rzeczpospolita”), creating on this basis a powerful Slavic “Muscovy Pospolita” and its influence on European and world processes. There were reasons for this. In 1572, the last king of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Sigmund II Augustus, died. The gentry insisted on electing a new king, and one of the candidates was the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible. He was Rurikovich and a descendant of the Glinsky princes, that is, close relative Jagiellonians (whose founder was Jagiello, also three-quarters Rurikovich).

In this case, Rus' would most likely become Catholic, uniting with Poland and Lithuania into a single powerful Slavic state in eastern Europe, whose history could have gone differently.
A. Bushkov also tries to imagine what could change in world development if Russia accepted Islam and became Muslim. There were reasons for this too. Islam in its fundamental basis does not carry negative character. Here, for example, was the order of Caliph Omar (Umar ibn al-Khattab (581–644, second caliph of the Islamic Caliphate) to his soldiers: “You must not be treacherous, dishonest or intemperate, you must not maim prisoners, kill children and old people, or burn palms or fruit trees, kill cows, sheep or camels. Do not touch those who devote themselves to prayer in their cell.”

Instead of baptizing Rus', Prince Vladimir could well have circumcised her. And later there was a possibility of becoming Islamic state and by someone else's will. If the Golden Horde had existed a little longer, the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates could have strengthened and conquered the Russian principalities that were fragmented at that time, just as they themselves were later conquered by united Russia. And then the Russians could be converted to Islam voluntarily or by force, and now we would all worship Allah and diligently study the Koran in school.

There was no Mongol-Tatar yoke. (Version by A. Maksimov)

From the book “The Rus' That Was”

Yaroslavl researcher Albert Maksimov in the book “The Rus' That Was” offers his version of the history of the Tatar-Mongol invasion, mainly confirming the main conclusion that there was never any Mongol-Tatar yoke in Rus', but there was a struggle between Russian princes for the unification of Russian lands under single power. His version differs somewhat from A. Bushkov’s version only in terms of the origin of the “Mongols” and which of the Russian princes acted as Genghis Khan and Batu.
Albert Maksimov's book makes a strong impression with scrupulous evidence of its conclusions. In this book, the author examined in detail many, if not most, issues related to the falsification of historical science.

His book consists of a number of chapters devoted to individual episodes of history, in which he contrasts the traditional version of history (TV) with his alternative version (AV) and proves it with specific facts. Therefore, I propose to consider its contents in detail.
In the preface, A. Maksimov reveals facts of deliberate falsification of history and how historians interpreted what did not fit into the traditional version (TV). For brevity, we will simply list the groups of problems, and those who want to know the details will read for themselves:

1. About tensions and contradictions in traditional history according to the famous Russian historian Ilovaisky (1832–1920).

About the chronological chain of certain historical events, taken as the basis to which all historical documents were strictly tied. Those that contradicted it were declared false and were not considered further.

About the discovered traces of editing, erasure and other late changes to the text in chronicles and other historical documents, both domestic and foreign.

About many ancient historians, imaginary eyewitnesses of historical events, whose opinions are unconditionally accepted by modern historians, but who, to put it mildly, were people with imagination.

About a very small percentage of all books written in those days that have survived to this day.

About the parameters by which a written source is recognized as authentic.

About the unsatisfactory situation with historical science in the West.

The fact that initially there was only one Roman Empire - with its capital in Constantinople, and the Roman Empire was invented later.

About conflicting data about the origin of the Goths and events related to them after their appearance in Eastern Europe.

About the vicious methods of studying history by our academic scientists.

About doubtful moments in the works of Jordan.

The fact that Chinese chronicles are nothing more than translations of Western chronicles into Chinese characters with the substitution of Byzantium for China.

About the falsification of the traditional history of China, and about the actual beginning of Chinese civilization in the 17th century AD. e.

About the deliberate distortion of history on the part of E. F. Shmurlo, a pre-revolutionary historian recognized in our time as a classic.

On attempts to raise questions about dating changes and radical revisions ancient history American physicist Robert Newton, N. A. Morozov, Immanuel Velikovsky, Sergei Valyansky and Dmitry Kalyuzhny.

About the new chronology of A. Fomenko, his opinion about the Tatar-Mongol yoke and the principle of simplicity.
Part one. Where was Mongolia located? Mongolian problem.

On this topic, over the past decade, several popular science works by Nosovsky, Fomenko, Bushkov, Valyansky, Kalyuzhny and some others have been presented to readers with a significant amount of evidence that no Mongols came to Rus', and with this A. Maximov completely agree. But he does not agree with the version of Nosovsky and Fomenko, which is as follows: medieval Rus' and the Mongol Horde are one and the same. This Rus' = Horde (plus Turkey = Atamania) was able to conquer Western Europe in the 14th century, and then Asia Minor, Egypt, India, China and even America. Russians settled throughout Europe. However, in the 15th century, Rus' = Horde and Turkey = Atamania quarreled, a split of the single religion into Orthodoxy and Islam occurred, which led to the collapse of the “Mongol” Great Empire. Ultimately, Western Europe imposed its will on its former overlords, placing its proteges, the Romanovs, on the Moscow throne. History has been rewritten everywhere.

Then Albert Maksimov sequentially considers different versions who the “Mongols” were and what the Tatar-Mongol invasion actually was and gives his opinion.

1. He does not agree with A. Bushkov that the Tatars are nomads of the Trans-Volga region, and believes that the Tatar-Mongols were a warlike alliance of various kinds of fortune seekers, mercenary soldiers, simply bandits from various nomadic, and not only nomadic, tribes of the Caucasian steppes, the Caucasus, Turkic tribes of the regions of Central Asia and Western Siberia. Residents of the conquered regions also joined the Tatar troops, therefore, among them were residents of the Volga region (according to the hypothesis of A. Bushkov), but there were especially many Cumans, Khazars and warlike representatives of other tribes of the Great Steppe.

The invasion was truly an internecine struggle among the various Rurikovichs. But Maksimov does not agree with A. Bushkov that Yaroslav the Wise and Alexander Nevsky act under the names of Genghis Khan and Batu, and proves that the role of Genghis Khan is Yuri Andreevich Bogolyubsky, the youngest son of his brother Vladimir Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, who was killed by Vsevolod the Big Nest, after the death of his father who became an outcast (like Temuchin in his youth) and early disappeared from the pages of Russian chronicles.
Let us consider his arguments in more detail.

In Dixon’s “History of Japan” and in Abulgazi’s “Genealogy of the Tatar Khans” one can read that Temujin was the son of Yesukai, one of the princes from the Kyoto Borjigin family, who was expelled by his brothers and their followers to the mainland in the middle of the 12th century. “Icon cases” have a lot in common with the people of Kiev, and then Kyiv was still formally the capital of Rus'. In these authors we see that Temujin was an alien stranger. Again, Temujin’s uncles were found to be responsible for this expulsion. Everything is the same as in the case of Prince Yuri. Strange coincidences.
The homeland of the Mongols is the Karakum.

Historians have long been faced with the question of determining the location of the homeland of the legendary Mongols. Historians had little choice in determining the homeland of the conquering Mongols. They settled on the Khangai region (modern Mongolia), and modern Mongols were declared descendants of the great conquerors, fortunately they maintained a nomadic lifestyle, did not have a written language, and had no idea what “great deeds” their ancestors had accomplished 700–800 years ago. And they themselves did not object to this.

Now re-read point by point all the evidence of A. Bushkov (see previous article), which Maksimov considers a real textbook of evidence against the traditional version of the history of the Mongols.

The homeland of the Mongols is the Karakum. This conclusion can be reached if you carefully study the books of Carpini and Rubruk. Based on a scrupulous study of travel notes and calculations of the speed of movement of Plano Carpini and Guillaume de Rubruck, who visited the capital of the Mongols Karakorum, which in their notes is the “only Mongolian city of Karakaron,” Maksimov convincingly proves that “Mongolia” was located in ... Central Asia in the sands of the Karakum desert.

But there is a message about the discovery of Karakorum in Mongolia in the summer of 1889 by an expedition of the East Siberian Department (Irkutsk) of the Russian Geographical Society under the leadership of the famous Siberian scientist N. M. Yadrintsev. (http://zaimka.ru/kochevie/shilovski7.shtml?print) How to approach this is unclear. Most likely this is a desire to pass off the results of their research as a sensation.

Yuri Andreevich Genghis Khan.

1. According to Maksimov, under the name of the sworn enemies of Genghis Khan, the Jurchens, Georgians are hiding.

Maksimov gives considerations and comes to the conclusion that Yuri Andreevich Bogolyubsky plays the role of Genghis Khan. In the struggle for the Vladimir table, by 1176, Andrei Bogolyubsky’s brother, Prince Vsevolod the Big Nest, won, and after Andrei’s murder, his son Yuri became an outcast. Yuri flees to the steppe, because relatives from his grandmother’s side, the daughter of the famous Polovtsian Khan Aepa, live there and can give him shelter. Here, the matured Yuri puts together a strong army - thirteen thousand people. Soon, Queen Tamara invites him to join her army. Here is what the Georgian chronicles write about this: “When they were looking for a groom for the famous Queen Tamari, Abulazan, the emir of Tiflis, appeared and said: “I know the son of the Russian sovereign, Grand Duke Andrei, to whom 300 kings in those countries obey; Having lost his father at a young age, this prince was expelled by his uncle Savalt (Vsevolod the Big Nest), ran away and is now in the city of Svindi, the king of Kapchak.”

By Kapchaks we mean the Cumans who lived in the Black Sea region, beyond the Don and in the North Caucasus.

A brief history of Georgia during the time of Queen Tamara is described and the reasons that prompted her to take as her husband an exiled prince, who combined courage, talent as a commander and thirst for power, that is, to enter into a marriage clearly of convenience. According to the proposed alternative version, Yuri (who received the name Temujin in the steppes) provides Tamara, along with his hand, with 13 thousand nomadic warriors (traditional history claims that Temujin had so many warriors before the Jurchen captivity), who now, instead of attacking Georgia and especially its allied Shirvan take part in hostilities on the side of Georgia. Naturally, at the conclusion of the marriage, Tamara’s husband is declared not to be some nomad Temuchin, but the Russian Prince George (Yuri), the son of Grand Duke Andrei Bogolyubsky (but, nevertheless, all power remained in the hands of Tamara). It is also not beneficial for Yuri to talk about his nomadic youth. That is why Temujin disappeared from the sight of history for 15 years of his captivity by the Jurchens (on TV), but Prince Yuri appeared precisely during this period of time. And Muslim Shirvan was an ally of Georgia and it was Shirvan along the AB that was attacked by nomads - the so-called Mongols. Then, in the 12th century, they roamed just in the eastern part of the spurs of the North Caucasus, where Yuri-Temuchin could live in the possessions of Queen Tamara's aunt, the Alan princess Rusudana, in the area of ​​the Alan steppes.

1. Ambitious and energetic Yuri, a man with an iron character and the same will to power, of course, could not come to terms with the role of the “husband of the mistress,” the Queen of Georgia. Tamara sends Yuri to Constantinople, but he returns and starts an uprising - half of Georgia comes under his banner! But Tamara’s army is stronger and Yuri is defeated. He flees to the Polovtsian steppes, but returns and, with the help of Agabek Arran, again invades Georgia, here he is again defeated and disappears forever.

And in the Mongolian steppes (on TV), after an almost 15-year break, Temujin appears again, who in an incomprehensible way gets rid of Jurchen captivity.

1. After being defeated by Tamara, Yuri is forced to flee Georgia. Question: where? The Vladimir-Suzdal princes are not allowed into Rus'. It is also impossible to return to the North Caucasian steppes: punitive detachments from Georgia and Shirvan will lead to one thing - execution on a wooden donkey. Everywhere he is superfluous, all the lands are occupied. However, there are almost free territories - the Karakum Desert. By the way, the Turkmen raided Transcaucasia from here. And it was here that Yuri left with 2,600 of his comrades (Alans, Cumans, Georgians, etc.) - all that was left - and became Temujin again, and a few years later he was proclaimed Genghis Khan.

The traditional history of Genghis Khan's life from the moment of birth, the genealogy of his ancestors, the first steps in the formation of the future Mongol power are based on a number of Chinese chronicles and other documents that have survived to this day, which were actually copied in Chinese characters from Arab, European and Central Asian chronicles and are now issued for the originals. It is from them that those who firmly believe in the birth of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan in the steppes of modern Mongolia draw “true information”.

1. Maksimov examines in detail the history of the conquests of Genghis Khan (on TV) before the attack on Rus' and comes to the conclusion that in the traditional version of the forty nations conquered by the Mongols, there are none of their geographical neighbors (if the Mongols were in Mongolia), but according to AV all this points to the Karakum Desert as the place from which the “Mongol” campaigns began.

In 1206, the Yasa was adopted at the Great Kurultai, and Yuri Temuchin, already in adulthood, was proclaimed Genghis Khan - the khan of the entire Great Steppe, which is how, according to scientists, this name is translated. A phrase has been preserved in Russian chronicles that gives a clue to the origin of this name.

“And the King of Books came, made a great war from Kiyata, and after the dying, and the Book of the King sent his daughter Zaholub for Burma.” The text is badly damaged due to a poor translation of the document in the 15th century, which was originally written in Arabic in one of the languages ​​of the peoples of the Golden Horde. Later translators, of course, would have translated it more correctly: “And Genghis came...”. But luckily for us, we didn’t have time to do this, and in the name Chinggis=Knigiz you can clearly see the fundamental principle: the word PRINCE. That is, the name Genghis Khan is nothing more than “Prince Khan” spoiled by the Turks! And Yuri was a prince.

1. And two more interesting facts: many sources called Temujin in his youth Gurguta. Even when the Hungarian monk Julian visited the Mongols in 1235–1236, he, describing the first campaigns of Genghis Khan, called him by the name of Gurguta. And Yuri, as you know, is George (the name Yuri is a derivative of the name George; in the Middle Ages this was one name). Compare: George and Gurguta. In the comments to the “Annals of the Bertin Monastery” Genghis Khan is called Gurgatan. In the steppe, from time immemorial, Saint George was revered, who was considered the patron saint of the steppe people.

Genghis Khan, naturally, harbored hatred both for the Russian usurper princes, through whose fault he became an outcast, and for the Polovtsians, who considered him a stranger and treated him accordingly. The thirteen-thousandth army that Temujin assembled in the North Caucasian steppes consisted of various kinds of “well done”, lovers of military profit, and probably included in its ranks various Turks, Khazars, Alans and other nomads. After the defeat in Georgia, the remnants of this army also consisted of Georgians, Armenians, Shirvans, etc. who joined Yuri in Georgia. Therefore, it is not necessary to talk about the purely Turkic-Polovtsian origin of Genghis Khan’s “guard,” especially since in the steppes adjacent to the Karakum desert many locals joined Genghis Khan tribes, mainly Turkmen. This entire conglomerate in Rus' began to be called Tatars, and in other places Mongols, Mongals, Moguls, etc.

In Abulgazi we read that the Borjigins have blue-green eyes (the Borjigins are the family from which Genghis Khan allegedly came). A number of sources note Genghis Khan's red hair and his lynx pattern, i.e. red-green eyes. Andrei Bogolyubsky (father of Yuri = Temuchin), by the way, was also red-haired.

We know the appearance of modern Mongols, and the appearance of Genghis Khan is noticeably different from them. And the son of Andrei Bogolyubsky Yuri (that is, Genghis Khan) could well stand out with his semi-European (since he himself is a mestizo) features among the mass of Mongoloid nomads.

1. Temujin took revenge on both the Polovtsians and the Georgians for the insults of his youth, but did not have time to deal with Russia, because he died in 1227. But GENGISH KHAN DIED IN 1227 THE GRAND DUKE OF Kyiv. But more on that later.

What language did the Mongols speak?

1. Traditional history is uniform in its statement: in the Mongolian language. But there is not a single surviving text in the Mongolian language, not even charters and labels. There is no real evidence of the linguistic affiliation of the conquerors to the Mongolian group of languages. And negative ones, although indirect, do exist. It was believed that the famous letter of the Great Khan to the Pope was originally written in Mongolian, but in the translation into Persian the first lines, preserved from the original, turned out to be written in Turkic, which gives reason to consider the entire letter to be written in the Turkic language. And this is quite natural. The Naimans, neighbors of the Mongols (on TV), are classified as Mongol-speaking tribes, but recently information has appeared that the Naimans are Turks. It turns out that one of the Kazakh clans was called Naiman. And Kazakhs are Turks. The army of the “Mongols” consisted mainly of Turkic-speaking nomads, and in Rus' at that time the Turkic language was used along with Russian.

Interesting information is provided by D.I. Ilovaisky: “But Jebe and Subudai... sent to tell the Polovtsians that, being their COMPANIONS, they did not want to have them as their enemies.” Ilovaisky understands WHAT he said, so he immediately explains: “Turkic-Tatar detachments made up the majority of the troops sent to the west.”

In conclusion, we may recall that Gumilyov writes that two hundred years after the Mongol invasion, “the history of Asia went as if Genghis Khan and his conquests did not exist.” But there was neither Genghis Khan nor his conquests in Central Asia. Just as scattered and few shepherds grazed their cattle in the 12th century, so everything remained unchanged until the 19th century, and there is no need to look for either the tomb of Genghis Khan or “rich” cities where THEY NEVER HAPPENED.
What were the steppe people like in appearance?

For many hundreds of centuries, Rus' was constantly in contact with steppe tribes. Avars and Hungarians, Huns and Bulgars passed along its southern borders, brutal devastating raids were carried out by the Pechenegs and Cumans, for three centuries Rus' was, according to TV, under the Mongol yoke. And all these steppe inhabitants, some to a greater extent, others to a lesser extent, flowed into Rus', where they were assimilated by the Russians. People settled on Russian lands not only in clans and hordes, but also in entire tribes and peoples. Remember the tribes of Torok and Berendey, who settled entirely in the southern Russian principalities. Descendants from mixed marriages of Russians and Asian nomads should look like mestizos with a clear Asian admixture.

If, suppose, several hundred years ago the proportion of Asians in any nation was 10%, then even now the percentage of Asian genes should remain the same. Take a look at the faces of passers-by in the European part of Russia. There is not even 10% Asian blood in Russian blood. This is clear. Maksimov is sure that 5% is too much. Now remember the conclusion of British and Estonian geneticists published in the American Journal of Human Genetics from Chapter 8.16.

1. Next, Maksimov examines the issue of the relationship between light and brown eyes among different peoples of Russia and comes to the conclusion that Russians will not have even 3–4% Asian blood, despite the fact that dominant genes are responsible for brown eye color, suppressing the regressive genes of light eyes in the offspring eye. And this despite the fact that for centuries in the steppe and forest-steppe places, as well as further to the north of Rus', there was a strong assimilation process between the Slavs and the steppe people, who flowed and flowed into the Russian lands. Maksimov thus confirms the opinion expressed more than once that the majority of the steppe inhabitants were not Asians, but Europeans (remember the Polovtsians and the same modern Tatars, who are practically no different from the Russians). They are all Indo-Europeans.

At the same time, the steppe people who lived in Altai and Mongolia were clearly Asians, Mongoloids, and closer to the Urals they had an almost pure European appearance. In those days, light-eyed blond and brown-haired people lived in the steppes.

1. There were many Mongoloids and mestizos among the steppe people, often entire tribes, but most of the nomads were still Caucasoid, many were light-eyed and fair-haired. That is why, despite the fact that, from century to century, the steppe inhabitants who constantly poured into the territory of Rus' in large numbers were assimilated by the Russians, the latter remained Europeans in appearance. And again, this once again indicates that the Tatar-Mongol invasion could not have begun from the depths of Asia, from the territory of modern Mongolia.

From the book by German Markov. From Hyperborea to Rus'. Unconventional history of the Slavs