Surely to most readers, the title of this article may seem paradoxical. What mysteries can there be in the Battle of Kulikovo? After all, for a long time everything has been clearly and clearly described in textbooks, in solid monographs on the history of military art, where even battle maps are given.
Alas, in fact, only one thing is known for certain - on September 8, 1380, the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich won a military victory. And that's all. Almost everything written about the famous battle, historians say, goes back to three primary sources: the short "Chronicle Tale", the poetic "Zadonshchina" and "The Legend of the Mamayev Massacre."
So, the first riddle: Mamai goes to Russia. But is his army large? Academician B. Rybakov claimed that there were 300 thousand horsemen. Another patriarch of history, M. Tikhomirov, believed that about 100-150 thousand. Historians Skrynnikov and Kuchkin limit themselves to 40-60 thousand.
Now the second question: what is the purpose of the campaign? The overwhelming majority of researchers answer unequivocally - Mamai wanted to become the second Batu, to punish the Grand Duke Dmitry for many years of non-payment of tribute, to exterminate the Russian princes and replace them with Tatar Baskaks. But where did Mamai get the strength for such a grand event, which neither Berke, nor Tokhta, nor Uzbek, nor other rulers of the Golden Horde dared to take? But Mamai in 1380 controlled at best only half of this feudal state, while the other half was owned by his opponent Tokhtamysh, a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. Mamai was a simple temnik, an impostor who seized the throne. Elementary logic dictates that in such a situation Mamai should first get rid of rivals in the Horde, and only then start a campaign against Russia.
And Prince Dmitry stopped paying tribute not because he became very strong, but precisely because of the "jam in the Horde", when it was simply unclear who to pay. The rebellious temnik would have gained the upper hand in the Horde civil strife, and in a few weeks he would have received everything that was due from Moscow. By the way, this happened immediately after the Battle of Kulikovo, only Dmitry paid off in full in gold and silver with Tokhtamysh.
Some historians claim that he intended de Mamaia in Russia to feed his army, endow it with booty, hire new fighters for the plundered goods, in order to then strike at Tokhtamysh. But the Temnik was an experienced military leader and, of course, was well aware of the crushing defeat that the Horde army suffered in the Battle of Vozh in August 1378. The success of the campaign was by no means guaranteed to him, even with the involvement of all available forces.
Incomprehensible enemy
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Everything is relatively clear with the army of the Moscow prince. He managed to gather not only his army, but also the soldiers of the allied princes - Rostov, Yaroslavl, Belozersk and Starodub. The Lithuanian princes, Andrey and Dmitry Olgerdovichi, also came to him with their squads.
Who was the enemy of the Moscow prince is still unknown. The Russian chronicler asserted that Mamai moved to Russia “with all the Tatar and Polovtsian strength, and in addition, he understood the ratios of the Germans, Armenians, and Fryaz, Cherkasy, Yases and Butases."
The historian A. Yegorov comments on this in the following way: “It is difficult to say who in this list is understood by the desermen, because in the annals this term refers to all Muslims in general. It is possible that we are talking about Muslim detachments recruited in Azerbaijan, whose ties with the Golden Horde had an ancient character. The same detachment of mercenaries was invited from Armenia. Among the Armenian feudal lords, mercenarism was quite widespread, which confirms the presence of a mercenary army from the Armenians among the Seljuks.
From book to book the “black Genoese infantry” wanders, marching in a thick phalanx along the Kulikovo field. However, in 1380 the Genoese colonies in the Black Sea region were at war with Mamai. Theoretically, Venetians could have ended up on the Kulikovo field. But only a few hundred of them lived in the city of Tana-Azana (Azov), along with their wives and children.
In turn, Armenian scientists have long stated: since no documents have been found on the recruitment of fighters for Mamai in Armenia, our ancestors did not fight on the Kulikovo field. But… if any of them ended up on the Don, then they were “from the Armenian community in Bulgar”.
Yuri Loshchits, the author of the book about Dmitry Donskoy, writes: “The battle on September 8, 1380 was not a battle of nations. It was the battle of the sons of the Russian people with that cosmopolitan servile or hired rabble, which had no right to speak on behalf of any of the peoples - neighbors of Russia."
Of course, this is a very convenient formulation, but isn't there too much "rabble" accumulated in the steppes between the Don and Volga? After all, at the most, it could form a large gang, for the sake of the destruction of which it was hardly necessary to collect forces from all over Russia.
Where should the prince be?
A very strange role of Dmitry Moskovsky in the Battle of Kulikovo. In "The Tale of the Mamaev Battle" the main role in the battle is assigned not to Dmitry, but to his cousin Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky. But something else is not clear - according to all three sources, the Grand Duke actually refused to command the troops!
Allegedly, even before the battle, Dmitry "dragged the tsars off themselves" and put them on the beloved boyar Mikhail Andreevich Brenko, to whom he also handed over his snow-white horse Buyan. And he commanded, in addition, his red (cherry) banner "to carry over Brenk."
Not a single Russian prince ever behaved this way. On the contrary, the authority of the princely power in the 9th-15th centuries in Russia was so great that often the warriors did not want to go to war without the prince. Therefore, if there was no adult prince, the prince was taken on the campaign. So, the 3-year-old prince Svyatoslav Igorevich was put on a horse and ordered to throw a small spear. The weapon fell at the feet of the horse, and this was the signal for the beginning of the battle.
Let's try to imagine the technique of changing the face of the prince. The expensive and durable armor was perfectly tailored to the warrior's figure. Putting on someone else's armor without appropriate alteration was both inconvenient and risky. Finally, the prince's horse was worth a fortune. For years he carried the prince, obeyed only him and helped out in battles. It was possible to mount someone else's horse, so that in case of defeat, to escape from the battlefield, but to fight on someone else's horse was simply dangerous.
So we will have to set aside the version about changing clothes, as well as about the chopped oak tree, under which Dmitry Ivanovich appeared, who did not have a single scratch. Analyzing the sources of the XIV-XV centuries, one can only conclude that Dmitry Donskoy did not directly participate in the battle. And that's why, apparently, we will never know …
Chain of obscurity
No less interesting is the question of where the famous and bloody slaughter took place. According to the drawings (maps) of the 18th-19th centuries, the Kulikovo field was a steppe "glade" stretching 100 km across the entire south of the present Tula region, and 25 km from north to south. The reader will ask, what about the monument to Russian soldiers, which stands on the Kulikovo field? Everything is very simple.
Once upon a time there lived a nobleman Nechaev - director of schools in the Tula province, a freemason, a Decembrist, a member of the Union of Prosperity, a friend of Ryleev. Like all Decembrists, he showed great interest in the struggle of the Russian people against the Horde.
In June 1820, the Tula governor Vasiliev raised the question of building a monument on the land of the wealthy landowner Nechaev. In 1821, in the journal Vestnik Evropy, Nechaev wrote: “According to historical legends, the Kulikovo field was between the rivers Nepryadvoya, Don and Mecheya. Its northern part, adjacent to the confluence of the first two, still retains the ancient name between the inhabitants”. Further, Nechaev points to the toponyms preserved in the "sem fay": the village of Kulikovka, the village of Kulikovo, the Kulikovsky ravine, etc. In these places, according to Nechaev, “they plow the most ancient weapons, reeds, swords, spears, arrows, as well as copper and silver crosses. Before the plow of the farmer tore off human bones. " But the author believed that the “strongest proof” (we note this!) Of his opinion was “the position of the Green Oak Forest, where the ambush was hidden,which decided the bloody battle of Kulikovo. " According to Nechaev, the remains of the oak grove still exist in the dachas of the village of Rozhestvena, or Monastyrshchina, “lying at the very mouth of the Nepryadva”.
Alas, all of Nechaev's arguments do not stand up to elementary criticism. For example, why is “Green Oak Forest” a proper name? And how many such oak forests are there in the vast territory of the Kulikov field?
It should be noted that while repelling the raids of the Crimean Tatars throughout the 16th century, dozens of battles and skirmishes took place in the Kulikov field area. Nevertheless, relatively few weapons were found on the Kulikovo field (in its broadest sense). Moreover, the finds were evenly distributed both geographically and chronologically - from the 11th to the 17th centuries (lead bullets, cast iron cannonballs and flintlock pistols cannot belong to 1380!). The most surprising thing is that no group burials of soldiers were found on the Kulikovo field, both in the narrow and in the broad sense.
In the course of a big battle, which ended with the complete defeat of Mamai's host, there must inevitably be hundreds, thousands of prisoners. In Russian chronicles, since the 10th century, their number is always given, the most noble captives are named by name. But in this case, all our sources of the 14th-15th centuries are silent about them, and modern historians and writers have ignored this curious fact. So where did the Tatar prisoners go ?!
Here the following scheme seems to me the most probable. The army of Prince Dmitry without fighting and without interference passed to the place of battle through the lands of the Ryazan principality. This could only be done with the permission of Prince Oleg of Ryazansky. This means that between Dmitry and Oleg there was some kind of agreement on joint actions against Mamai. And having fulfilled the terms of the agreement on his part, Prince Oleg counted on a part of the military booty. And Dmitry did not want to share, because the cunning Oleg did not participate directly in the battle. Denying Oleg his legal requirements, Dmitry hastily departs for Moscow. He seeks to appear in the city right after the news of the great victory before Moscow learns of the huge losses. And therefore the carts coming from the Kulikovo field have been abandoned to the mercy of fate. And ignored, like a pesky supplicant calling for justice, Oleg.
And Oleg also had to feed his warriors and restore the ruined principality once again. And he ordered to rob the Moscow carts traveling on his land and take away the full taken on the Kulikovo field …
The fact of the robbery of the Russian army is indirectly confirmed by the news of the German chronicles of the late XIV-early XV centuries, which say that the Lithuanians attacked the Russians with strong detachments and took away all the spoils from them. Considering that for the German chroniclers there was no clear division between Russia and Lithuania, under the name "Lithuanians" they could mean both the detachments of Prince Yagailo and Oleg Ryazansky.
So there can be only two options on the issue of prisoners. Either the Tatars on the Kulikovo field did not flee in panic from the battlefield, but retreated in relative order, or the prisoners were repulsed by the Ryazan or Lithuanians, and later sold into slavery to coastal merchants. Both options did not suit either the chroniclers of the 14th-15th centuries, or the historians of the 19th-20th centuries, and they simply omitted the question of prisoners.
By the way, the scheme that has existed for three centuries - Dmitry Donskoy broke the ridge of the Golden Horde, and Oleg Ryazansky - a scoundrel and a traitor - is far from reality. Could a state with a "broken ridge" force Russia to pay tribute exactly for another 100 years? Here's an interesting point. Dmitry Donskoy was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in June 1988, and Oleg Ryazansky began to be venerated as a saint immediately after his death on June 5, 1402. And the canonization of Oleg took place "from below", and not at the direction of the authorities, fortunately, the Ryazan princes in the 15th century were not at all up to him.
This article outlines only a part of the many mysteries of the Kulikov field. To solve them, it will take a lot of work for historians and archaeologists. Although, of course, it will hardly be possible to find reliable answers.
And the last thing. Least of all, the author would like someone to perceive the story of absurdities in the writings of our historians as a blasphemy against our soldiers. Eternal glory to the warriors who fought on the Kulikovo field!
“Interesting newspaper. Special No. 8. A. Shirokorad
