According to the official point of view, it took the Mongols six years to conquer Russia, another twenty years to bring its population into tributary dependence. But why was it necessary to invade the lands lying several thousand kilometers from the capital of the empire?
Discussion questions
There are several explanations for the western conquest of the Mongols, during which the Horde managed not only to devastate the Russian lands, but also to reach the territories of Poland and Hungary. According to one of the views, by subjugating the Russian principalities, the Mongols ensured the safety of the western wing of their empire. Another version emphasizes the pursuit by the Mongols of one of their most formidable opponents - the Polovtsians, who took refuge in Hungarian lands.
There are many questions about the selective conquest of Russian cities by the Mongols. For example, why did Batu in 1238 need to take quite insignificant in the strategic plan Kozelsk, spending almost 2 months on its siege, while bypassing the neighboring Krom, Mtsensk, Domagoshch, Kursk, Smolensk. Lev Gumilev explains this with revenge on the grandson of the Chernigov prince Mstislav, who then ruled in Kozelsk, for the murder of ambassadors on the Kalka River in 1223. However, the Smolensk prince Mstislav Stary, also implicated in this murder, somehow escaped the Horde's wrath.
Some researchers who adhere to an alternative interpretation of the events that took place in medieval Russia generally reject such a phenomenon as the “Tatar-Mongol yoke”. Lev Gumilev, for example, believed that Russia and the Horde were two states that coexisted side by side for several centuries and alternately prevailed over each other.
Other researchers went further, arguing that Russia and the Horde are one and the same state. In their opinion, the "Tatar-Mongol yoke" is just a specific period in the history of the Russian state, when the entire population of the country was divided into two parts: civilians ruled by princes and a permanent regular army-Horde led by military leaders.
One way or another, any of the versions recognizes that during the XIII-XV centuries, Russia went through a difficult period of civil strife, ruin, desolation and the collection of lands, which prepared the formation of the Russian state under the leadership of a new political center - Moscow. However, in order to explain why this happened, let us turn to the facts confirmed by official history.
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Leader
At the end of the 12th century, a new leader appeared in Mongolia - Temujin, who very quickly subjugated the scattered nomadic tribes to his influence. Temujin perfectly mastered the tactics of the steppe war, winning victory after victory. He offered defeated enemies a choice: either join him or die. The majority took the side of the commander, gradually increasing the size of his army.
By 1206, Temujin under a new name - Genghis Khan - had become the most powerful ruler north of the Great Wall of China. The rigid centralization of state and military power and the requirements for the strict execution of decrees allowed him to control the multimillion population of the nomadic empire.
Genghis Khan forced the temniks to keep armed detachments on the outskirts of their possessions, ready at any moment to defend the lands of the Mongols from attack or to launch another punitive campaign. Soon Genghis Khan had no enemies left among the Mongol nomads, and he began to prepare for wars of conquest.
Expanding the boundaries
One of the main reasons for Mongolian expansion lies in the type of statehood of the Mongols. Structurally, the Mongol Empire is a united group of nomadic pastoralist tribes that constantly needed new grazing lands. In this regard, the Don and Volga steppes were much more attractive than the Central Asian semi-deserts.
However, the Horde is not only nomadic, but also settled zones. So, under Khan Berke, the Horde laid a large number of settlements on the banks of the Volga and Don. Here there was a trade in spices, fabrics, perfumes that came from the East, and furs, honey, and wax from the Russian lands. The craft also developed.
Both components of the Horde economy - the nomadic steppe and the settled zone - supported each other and contributed to the growth of the economic potential of the state. However, none of them could do without an army, which, seizing new territories, levying tribute on the conquered population and ensuring control over the caravan routes, created the power of the Chingizid empire.
Army
The driving force behind the successful military campaigns led by the nomads led by Genghis Khan was a horde of many thousands. The maximum number of Mongolian troops is named by the Italian Franciscan Paolo Carpini who visited the empire of Genghis Khan - 600 thousand people. Modern historians, however, consider this figure to be clearly overstated. So in the campaign against Russia, in their opinion, from 120 to 150 thousand soldiers could take part.
Genghis Khan's army was distinguished by a clear organization and iron discipline. The great khan appointed his sons and representatives of the tribal nobility to the highest command posts from among those military leaders who proved their loyalty and displayed military prowess.
One of the key roles in the victories of the Horde was played by the "despicable bow", well known to the nomadic peoples of Central Asia, but underestimated by Europeans, including Russians. Although the Mongolian bow was inferior in length to the famous English longbow bow, it was twice as powerful and had a longer flight range - up to 320 meters versus 228. The Western European knights were amazed that the Mongol arrow pierced the armored man through and through if he was not covered with a shield …
The Horde's victories were well served by the stocky Mongolian horses, extremely hardy and unpretentious in food, which showed themselves well in the harsh conditions of the Russian thaw and northern winters. Each warrior had 5 horses with him, which gave serious advantages to the Mongols on long campaigns.
With the generally accepted strategy of close combat, light Mongolian cavalry simply did not allow the enemy to approach, showering him with a hail of arrows. The Russian pedestrian militia, more often armed with spears and axes than swords and spears, had little chance of success in the battle with this formidable enemy.
The wooden fortress cities, which, under the onslaught of a wide arsenal of siege weapons used by the Horde, sooner or later capitulated, could not help much in the defense of Rus. As a rule, the matter was completed by fire, which quickly turned the recently flourishing settlements into ashes.
Under the pressure of the Horde
A kind of reconnaissance before the large-scale invasion of Russia was the campaign of the thirty thousandth army of Subedei and Jebe in Transcaucasia and South-Eastern Europe in 1222–1224, during which the famous victory of the Horde over the united Russian-Polovtsian army at Kalka in 1223 took place. During the reconnaissance, the Mongols studied the future arena of hostilities well, got acquainted with the capabilities of the Russian army, fortifications, and received information about the relationship between the Russian principalities.
The discussion of the next campaign of the Horde army always took place at the kurultai. The generals carefully chose the time of year and the routes for the invasion. So the attack on Russia was planned for the winter of 1237-1238: it was taken into account that the frozen rivers would greatly facilitate the movement of the Mongolian cavalry and serve as ideal transport routes.
In a few months of the first campaign, the Horde army conquered the lands of Ryazan and North-Eastern Russia, only 100 miles before reaching Novgorod, two years later the Chernigov, Kiev and Galicia-Volyn principality fell. However, the Horde commanders did not destroy everything, it was more important for them to subjugate the Russian princes and build a system of tributary dependence.
The main reason for the seizure of almost the entire territory of Russia, historians call the disunity of the Russian principalities. Prolonged civil strife could not but affect the ability of the owners of estates to unite at a decisive moment. Historian Ruslan Skrynnikov believes that a strong squad of Novgorod prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich could have resisted the Mongol army, but he did not want to join the defenders of the fatherland.
The low population density of Russia became a great help for the successful advance of the Mongol army. For example, one of the largest cities of the ancient Russian state Ryazan, according to the historian Vladislav Darkevich, had a maximum of 8 thousand inhabitants., About 12 thousand more could live in the vicinity of the city. Even having gathered all the forces of the principality, Ryazan could not resist the many times superior army of the Horde.