In the photo: A sculpture in the small Turkish town of Shogut captured the face of Batu Khan for centuries. His appearance completely resembles a European man, although the color of his eyes and skin cannot be determined by sculpture.
Batu's HIKE to Russia is described in such a huge number of research, popular science and literary works that practically it is extremely difficult to count them. According to the established point of view, Batu began his winter campaign in December 1237 and ended in April 1238. During this time - five months of continuous battles and assaults - his army destroyed all the cities of the Ryazan principality and almost all the cities of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir.
The adversary did not reach Veliky Novgorod, only a little over two hundred kilometers. With fire and sword, he passed Poland, Hungary and ended his campaign on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. As in the song: and returned home with a victory. But not to Mongolia, but to the Volga and Don steppes. Russia lay in ruins, no one thought about resistance. The gloomy darkness of the Mongol-Tatar yoke descended on Russia …
At first glance, it seems that everything was so. Countless crowds of Asians are advancing in a black irresistible cloud and, regardless of losses, defeat Russia by numerical superiority. Suppose that was the case.
But life experience tells a normal person, unless, of course, he has spent his entire life at a desk, but led an active lifestyle and spent a significant part of his time outdoors, which in the conditions of the Russian winter is extremely difficult for people to survive in an open field. All the more so for the large mass.
So, the Tatars took Ryazan in a week of siege (December 1237), burned it and moved to Kolomna. This means that they spent seven whole days in the cold! How did they protect themselves from frostbite? In addition, large numbers of people and horses require food and fodder. I fully understand those researchers who admire the Mongolian horse, hoof pulling out frozen grass from under the snow, but this is in the "wide steppe" and when the herd of these horses is widely dispersed. We are told that there were 400 thousand Tatar riders and each had at least two horses. Consequently, about a million heads! How much forage is required?..
The "mungals" were walking along the beds of the frozen rivers, as our wise academic scientists declare. Forgive me, but yourself, have you ever seen these "frozen rivers"? Snow sweeps them up, the snow cover is made up to the waist. In addition, rivers flow even in severe frost, and the ice has the most disgusting habit - to crack, due to the current in the ice cover of the rivers gullies are formed.
And along the forest glades, the advancement of "countless countless multitudes of godless" is the realm of science fiction on military themes. Our glades … What are they like? Clearing and uprooting five meters along the front - at best with drainage ditches on both sides. Skeptics can themselves go to the nearby forest and see modern forest clearings with their own eyes. Now imagine a crowd of 100,000 moving along a forest clearing in the 13th century …
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Fortunately, we have such a "science" - tactical calculations. Those who wish can always produce them. The first and last ranks are counted, plus the intervals. The arrival of this contingent at the final point of deployment is the time of arrival of the head of the column and the last line. Those who wish can carry out these elementary calculations themselves. I draw your attention to the fact that when moving along the clearings, this mass of people was extremely vulnerable to the aborigines - to attack both from the front and from the flanks of the column.
The attackers would always have the advantage. First of all, the surprise of the attack, the complete impossibility for the enemy to use numerical superiority. In selected areas of attack, the attackers always have a numerical superiority and, using the knowledge of the terrain, they easily evade pursuit of the enemy. By the way, this is how the Lithuanians successfully fought against the Russians, Poles and Order Germans.
In the case of Batu, nothing of the kind happens. With the exception of the actions of the unit Evpatiy Kolovrat. According to legend, this hero with his squad attacked the rearguard or vanguard of Batu. He patted him in the most terrible way. As a result, allegedly Batu unleashed vices (stone-throwing tools. - Ed.) And began to hammer Evpatiy's army from afar with stones, which could only be lifted by "four strong men." And the range of the shot was two "shooting" from a bow.
Everything except the last one has every chance of being reliable. But it happened in the forest! If Batu had such monsters as part of his marching column, they would have reduced his already low movement speed as much as possible. Yes, and getting from such a monster into a single person was beyond the capabilities of this type of weapon, and its shells did not have a high-explosive fragmentation effect. Even after the first volley of the enemy, it was quite enough for the army of Evpatiy to go deep into the forest to be out of the reach of enemy fire …
EVERY DAY, spent by the army of the "godless" Batu in the field outside the outskirts or in the forest, could not but mow down his army - inevitably a large number of frozen and frostbitten ones had to appear. Those interested can find a book - an encyclopedic publication "The Experience of Soviet Medicine in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945." (MedGiz, 1951) and read the section "Frostbite". Moreover, the section describes the events of our "enlightened and advanced time", when the troops were supplied centrally.
The chapters of the first volume of the aforementioned work are arranged according to the principle that doctors most often had to deal with during the war. So, the second section is devoted to FROSTBITTENS! The third section is for burns. The statistics of the loss of troops from this "eternal weapon" is very indicative. Frostbite comes second after injuries! In third place are burns.
During the counter-offensive near Moscow from December 1941 to January 7, 1942, the losses of the Red Army from frostbite accounted for 20 percent of all losses. And according to the data for 1913-1945, the decline in cavalry personnel from frostbite of the genitals in combat conditions was 80 percent of all losses!
Judging by the experience of the Great Patriotic War, the adversary, in order not to freeze, must protect not just every house, but any barn, shed, any room where you can somehow shelter from the cold and warm up. The Mongols in the XIII century, as we are assured, burned everything in their path and rushed along the impassable road - and the cold and hunger they do not care.
The MAIN issue for any "myriad army" is food. The adversaries could not fight and endure the cold when hungry. If with Batu there were at most two or three thousand warriors without a convoy, then it seems quite possible to feed them in Russia, with all the difficulties. But if he had at least ten thousand … Collecting food for such a crowd in a sparsely populated country is practically impossible.
According to the confessions of domestic historians, the entire population of Ryazan - not a principality, but the capital - was then 8 thousand people. According to the census for 1900 (!), 18,305 people lived in Vladimir on the Klyazma, and 130,000 in the entire Vladimir province. Obviously, as of the time of the invasion, Batu could no longer live in those parts.
By the way, according to the standards of the end of the Middle Ages, one knight - "on a horse in full armor, and on a long trip about two horses" was exhibited from 300 farmers. So the Vladimir principality could only put up a few hundred knights to repel the enemy.
But Batu could not have had a large army either. A contingent of armed people numbering under one hundred thousand people is already a mass army, and the time has not yet come for mass armies to act in winter conditions …
There are many QUESTIONS regarding Batu's invasion. The heroes Subudai and Jebe, who defeated the combined Russian-Polovtsian army in the battle on Kalka, could not even take a field fortification of a light type - a wagon fortress (wagenburg) of Mstislav of Kiev. And the warriors of Batu, 14 years later, took fortified Russian cities almost on the move, spending from three days to a week on preparatory work and assault. With the exception of Torzhok, for which Batu's army fought for three weeks …
Let us also recall the capture of Ryazan. Ryazan Rus was then an independent "state", where the Olgovich dynasty ruled, allied to the Chernigov princes. She was with the Vladimir principality in a state of feudal war, or the same peace. In 1208, Vsevolod the Big Nest took Ryazan “on the shield”, brought out all the inhabitants and burned Ryazan as a “robber's nest”. Batu, in December 1238, allegedly also burned Ryazan along with all the inhabitants.
Modern archaeological research confirms that Ryazan really burned down, but science cannot determine exactly when it happened - under Vsevolod Georgievich or under Batu. Therefore, hypothetically, the burning of Ryazan could be only one …
Having defeated Ryazan, the "godless" went to Kolomna, the Ryazan possession and a rather powerful fortification at that time. There they gave a "stubborn" battle and from Kolomna they should have gone to Vladimir.
So they had to act according to all concepts - and not even military art, but just common sense: a formidable force from Kolomna would have to go to Vladimir along the shortest path. But for some reason the Tatars went to Moscow, at that time a small town. Taking it, Batu's army goes to Vladimir, that is, makes a huge detour!
The most primitive calculation of distances: in a straight line from Moscow to Vladimir 190 km, to Ryazan - 196 km! A total of 386 running kilometers. But this is in a straight line. If the legendary crossing went along the ice of frozen rivers - along the Oka to Ryazan, from Ryazan to Kolomna, from Kolomna along the Moscow river to Moscow, across Moscow to the Klyazma, along the Klyazma to Vladimir, then there will be an amendment almost twice.
But the matter did not take place on ice as smooth as a cleared skating rink, but on a surface covered with snow. There is such a term: the depth of the snow cover. As they say, natural factors complicating the march.
For a medieval army, 386 km is a huge distance. One modern historian added to the fact that the "godless" walked 80 km a day and slept in saddles. At the same time, he did not think that the horses could not sleep on the move, and the "godless" themselves had to not only eat and drink, but also, I beg your pardon, send their natural needs.
AND WHO WINNED objectively from the invasion of Batu? The younger brother of Grand Duke Yuri is Yaroslav, Prince of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky and Grand Duke of Kiev. Russian historian S. M. Solovyov writes: "The Tatars, by the extermination of the Yuriev family, cleared Yaroslav the great reign and vast volosts for distribution to their sons …"
Our help. The Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich died in a battle on the City River in March 1238, a month earlier, during the capture of the capital city of Vladimir by Batu's troops, all three of the prince's sons (Vsevolod, Mstislav and Vladimir), wife Agafia (daughter of Vsevolod Svyatoslavich Chermny, Prince of Chernigov and Kiev) and daughter Theodora. Only the daughter of Dobrava survived, who had been married since 1226 to Vasilko Romanovich, Prince of Volynsky. But along her line, Yuri's family soon faded away.
For the sake of justice, we note: it is difficult for us to judge how the sons of Prince Yuri would have ruled, had they come to an agreement with Batu, as Yaroslav Vsevolodovich did. Solovyov believes that the sons of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (he, as the next eldest son of Vsevolod the Big Nest, took the Vladimir Grand Duke's table in 1238) responded to their position as the heirs of the Grand Duke.
We read from Solovyov: “At the same time, it should be noted that the sons of Yaroslavov, by their personal character, were at the level of their position, could only spread and strengthen their father's inheritance, and not waste it. Alexander was named Nevsky …"
In 1243, according to the official version of Russian history, Yaroslav Vsevolodovich was the first of the Russian princes to be summoned to the Horde to Batu, where he was approved in the Vladimir reign. He was recognized as "old by all the prince in the Russian language."
Raising the difficult question of the Batu invasion, we must free ourselves from pathos and prejudice and, first of all, remember that we are talking about the peak of the Middle Ages, about relations not national, but FEUDAL! If our contemporaries view the events of the Middle Ages through the prism of the New and Modern times, the time of established statehood, then they will simply waste their time.
To understand all the complexity of what was happening then, it is necessary to remember who Batu actually was, and then it will become clear how he ended up in distant lands - in a wooded and swampy theater of military operations, inaccessible mainly to the actions of large masses of cavalry.
Much has been written about Genghis Khan, the famous genius of Eurasia, he was heroic with his "dogs of war" mainly in China, Afghanistan, Central Asia, went to the borders of India. His eldest son is Jochi. This son was in the long term the direct heir to the "crown and dominions", but he died around 1226-1227 - while his parent was still alive.
The laws and concepts of that time - from the steppes of Central Mongolia to the limits of the medieval ecumene, to foggy Albion - were the same. So in Russian law it is written: "If the prince will become an orphan." The son of the eldest son, who died during the life of a parent, dropped out of the family accounts and had no right to claim the crown and the parent's possession. He became an outcast.
Batu's position was even more difficult, he was not the eldest son of the untimely deceased eldest son of the great khan. He, the second son, like all the other children of the same failed heirs to the throne, had two ways: to wait for mercy from "relatives, dear uncles" or to act as Gamburet, Parzifal's father, did: "to go with your sword to earn your bread." Which he did brilliantly.
Batu, obviously, got on his side the majority of the Russian nobility - the same Yaroslavovichs. Therefore, he was able to make up for the natural and combat loss of his army during the winter campaign in Central Russia. I would venture to express a version: the grandson of Genghis Khan was not the conqueror of our expanses as such. "Godless" organically fit into the dynastic war, which was a normal state of Russia at that time.