Beijing. First half of the XIV century. The Chinese emperor inspects his troops. Pedestrian and horse regiments pass in straight rows in front of the platform. But what is it? Following the next regiment, consisting of yellow-faced narrow-eyed Asians, there are tall stocky fair-headed warriors, obvious Europeans! The emperor smiles graciously: this is one of his trusted regiments, and the glorious olos (the so-called Russians in China) serve in it - the bravest of the brave, the hope and support of his throne, the Russian guard of the Chinese emperor.
Fairy tale, fiction? Don't jump to conclusions.
The terrible legacy of the Horde - "blood tax"
The Tatar-Mongol invasion of 1237-1240 became a terrible disaster for the Russian principalities. Having passed through the Russian lands with fire and sword, the Basurman hordes went back to their endless steppes, leaving Russia with a terrible legacy - the annual payment of tribute. Every year, the prince's people collected a ransom on the lands subject to the prince, which bought the tranquility of cities and settlements. But not only furs, honey, wax, cattle were sent by Russia to the Horde.
Among other things, the Russian land had to pay the most terrible tax - the "blood tax". Amid lamentations and lamentations, chasers and goldsmiths, skilled stonemasons and embroiderers, gunsmiths and blacksmiths went to the distant Horde. Among others, young youths said goodbye to their home and relatives forever. Perhaps the most bitter destiny awaited them - to replenish the ranks of the Mongol army.
Foreign recruits in the Mongol army
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No matter how strong the Mongol army was, its campaigns of conquest were by no means a pleasure trip. The Khorezm Empire, Volga Bulgaria, the Naiman Khanate, the Karakitai Khanate, the Abbasid Caliphate, destroyed by the Mongols, fell after stubborn resistance. During its numerous campaigns in the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia and China, the Mongolian army suffered huge human losses.
No matter how huge the Mongol army was, no matter how skillful its khans were in military affairs, not a single city assault, not a single battle, even won, was complete without casualties. If only the Mongols were under the command of Genghis Khan, his army would have melted in the very first campaigns. Therefore, both Genghis Khan and his descendants, the Chingizids, constantly replenished their army with recruits from the conquered peoples. The Russian lands were no exception.
Russians to China
The first "recruitment" the Mongols carried out in 1238, and it was not the last. Subsequently, the collection of tribute was entrusted to the Russian princes. How, by what principle they recruited recruits for the Mongolian army, we do not know. Of course, first of all, troublemakers were sent to the Horde, it is possible that there were volunteers as well. But the main role, most likely, was played by the village gathering, deciding who would pay with his fate the terrible tax for the community.
The recruits obeyed the Mongol discipline, which was based on collective responsibility (for one who fled from the battlefield, ten were executed, for a dozen who escaped, a hundred) and were sent into battle first. The Mongols never sent fighters recruited from the conquered peoples to fight against their fellow tribesmen, but sent them to opposite ends of their empire, so that their opponents were peoples unfamiliar to them with an alien culture and an incomprehensible language. The great distance from their homeland also reduced the risk of rebellion and desertion. This is how young men from Russian principalities ended up in distant China, conquered by the Mongols.
In a foreign land
In the Chinese History of the Yuan Dynasty, we find information about the Russian regiment of the Beijing Guard dating back to 1330. Back in 1260, Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai took the title of Chinese emperor and founded the Yuan Dynasty. His grandson Tug-Timur formed the Russian regiment and included it in the Peking Guard. The regiment was one of the elite units controlled by the Supreme Military Council. The regiment's employees lived on the lands granted to them north of Peking as military settlers.
In 1331, the regiment became one of the "closest khan regiments" and was awarded a silver seal. In the same year, the regiment received a replenishment from Russia - 600 new recruits, the next - another 2500, of which more than 100 were teenagers who were to learn to be real soldiers.
In an effort not to create additional reasons for rebellions, the Mongols showed an amazing tolerance, they did not prevent the non-Mongols living in the territory of their empire from adhering to their religion and customs. P
The Franciscan monk Gilm Rubruk, who settled Mongolia in 1253-1255, wrote that there are many Christians in the capital of the Mongols, the city of Karakorum: Hungarians, Alans, Armenians, Georgians and others. There were Orthodox churches, Buddhist temples and Muslim mosques in the city.
Further destiny
In 1368, the Mongols were expelled from China. Together with the Mongols, the Russians, Ossetians, baptized Polovtsians and many others who had served them, who had been brought here by the Mongols from the countries they had conquered, also left Beijing. All of them were far from their homeland. Some of them shared the fate of the Mongols, and went with them to Karakorum, some disappeared among the local population, some settled on the outskirts of the Celestial Empire. In the middle of the XIV century, the Portuguese traveler Mendes Pitu wrote that he met the descendants of Russian warriors in Shanxi (northeastern province of China).
Russia paid a dear price to stay on the world map. While her sons fought as part of the Mongol troops in South China, Burma and Java, in the distant Russian land left by them, the monk wrote in the chronicle: “… and there was a great silence for 40 years, and the filthy people stopped fighting the Russian land, and rested Christians from great languor and violence ….
Author: Klim Podkova